Best. Songs. Ever.

I decided to try something tonight, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. In fact, I've made weak attempts at the same in the past, but each has failed miserably. My goal was to create a playlist in iTunes of the best songs ever written. What a feat that would be! I think the mere power and glory of such a marvelous playlist would result in the skies opening and my laptop being carried up into Heaven amidst the singing of angels and shouts of "Hosanna!"

Obviously, there are limitations on such a project. Limitation #1 - the playlist has to come from my iTunes library, thus, must come from music I own. Limitation #2 - I chose not to include any music from the rap, heavy metal, classical, or country (see limitation #1) genres. Obviously, there are numerous songs from each of these genres that deserve consideration, I felt that moderation was the key, so I chose to pick from a library of music that I think most people could enjoy. My goal, after all, was to create a list with staying power.

The list was begun easily with the addition of The Band's "The Weight" and The Eagles' "Hotel California". As I moved on to more contemporary musicians, I added Mason Williams' "Distance Between the Fireflies", Jeff Buckley's "Mojo Pin" and "Grace", and a whopping 5 songs by Sufjan Stevens (the most heavily represented artist in my final selection, followed by Radiohead with 4 songs). At this point, I was feeling good, but I could already see the major problem with my endeavour - selectivity.

In my mind, the first two songs, "The Weight" and "Hotel California" are EASILY two of the best songs ever written. Could I possibly fill up a playlist with songs of this caliber? Not really. There are thousands of great songs out there - where do I draw the line between a great song and a song worthy of the "best songs ever written" moniker? To use a bit of rhetoric that I normally loathe, it's a long slippery slope if I've ever seen one. Once you relax the criteria a bit to allow yourself some wiggle room, you suddenly find yourself wanting to include the likes of The Raconteurs' "Rich Kid Blues", Modest Mouse's "Float On", and the Meat Puppets' "Plateau" - songs that are undoubtably great, but don't really belong with the best songs ever written.

So here I am, listening to a playlist of great songs calling themselves the "best songs ever written", wondering where it all went wrong. No skies opening up, no choirs of angels - but now I've got a 45 song playlist that's extremely easy on the ears and will make a great study companion. Maybe that's enough.

I think for my next post I'll try to discuss in my not so eloquent way what makes a song great. Feel free to give me suggestions for your "best songs ever written" playlist.