Friday random ten: Revisiting the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs list, part 14

Here’s their list.

1. Foxey Lady – Jimi Hendrix (#153)
2. Me and Bobby McGee – Kris Kristofferson (featured cover by Janis Joplin, #148; also a cover by The Modern Barbershop Quartet)
3. Rock Lobster – The B-52’s
4. Purple Rain – Big Daddy (orig. Prince, #144)
5. I Saw Her Standing There – The Beatles (#140)
6. Eleanor Rigby – Ray Charles (orig. The Beatles, #138)
7. Your Song – Rod Stewart (orig. Elton John, #137)
8. Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who (#134)
9. With Or Without You – U2 (#132)
10. Rock And Roll Music – The Beatles (orig. Chuck Berry, #129)

Song that is probably too inappropriate for use in a cruise ship ad: “Lust For Life”, Iggy Pop (#149). Didn’t stop Royal Carribbean from using it, however.
Song I don’t have but probably should, part 1: “I Wanna Be Sedated”, The Ramones (#145). I thought I had it from a collection CD, but I don’t.
Song I don’t have but probably should, part 2: “Kashmir”, Led Zeppelin (#141). I do have “Kashmere”, by the Kashmere Stage Band, so that’s something
Song I can’t believe I don’t have a cover version of: “Who Do You Love?”, Bo Diddley (#133). There’s gotta be a million of ’em out there. I should probably get the George Thorogood one.

It’s Joplin’s iconic cover of “Me and Bobby McGee” that’s on the Rolling Stone list. I have a version by Kristofferson, though not his original – it’s a lovely acoustic version from the “Live at KCBO” series. In my early days with The MOB, when the Rice football team was still not very good, we sometimes played our arrangement of “Rock Lobster” as a concession that the game was lost. I suspect there aren’t many people who remember that. (Why did we do that, you may ask. As Tevye sort of says, “I don’t know. But it was a tradition.”) If you haven’t heard one of Pete Townshend’s more acoustic solo versions of “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, from “Secret Policeman’s Ball” or “Deep End Live” (you have to search YouTube for that), you’re really missing out.

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