THE GREATEST SONG EVER.

Of all the questions I can recall hardly ever being asked it's been on my mind for some time to talk about something I think every critic at some point in time needs to cover and since I'm near the end of this thing I figured WHY THE FUCK NOT RIGHT?!?!?!

So since 2011 I've done this series of articles where I try to discuss the greatest song of all time in theory and I guess that's a topic that's more difficult for me to do since I've only done it 4 times with the last one being posted on April Fools Day 2015 and being about Prince and my unironic but comical love of Purple Rain which in retrospect is awkward because he passed on just a little over a year after I'd posted that article and the rest of the world realized I was right.

In preparing for this article like everything I'm doing on here I've been going over some of the older post and looking at what I said back then and comparing it to what my thoughts are now on top of trying to come up with an accurate way to say what is the greatest song ever and before I get into what is the greatest song ever and what made me think this I feel there has to be some precedence laid because with a statement like that as much as every dick head armchair critic is going to take every chance to inform me of how wrong I am there's still a means of taking that away from them by laying some form of groundwork to make it less of an opinion piece and to lend some more weight to my thoughts that's immediately dashed away by my vocabulary but fuck em it's better than nothing.

Alright so if you're going to say that a song in question is the greatest song ever I'd say it has to follow some criteria of being both a critical and commercially successful piece of media because while sales aren't shit in retrospect for critics it's a lot harder for your average Joe listening to music as nothing more than background music to argue these things with you  when you can show them some numbers and figures to help prove a point that the track at the very least has some clout in terms of being worth considering with critics polls serving as one more nail in their uninformed coffin of invalid opinions.

Now with that in mind and looking back at the songs I've covered on top of a cursory Google search to see what comes up when you type in the greatest song ever I came to a realization that the first song I ever covered under this umbrella is in fact still without reservation the greatest song of all time and what song is that?

Billie Jean-Michael Jackson 

#1 for 7 weeks, winner of 2 of the 8 Grammy Awards he won that night, an American Music award, half a billion views on Youtube, certified over 5x platinum as a single, and apart of one of the most watched and talked about television events of the millennium it's safe to say the second single from the top selling album of all time has a pretty good claim in terms of charting success to have the title of the greatest song of all time no doubt about that.

Yeah back in 2011 when I first wrote one of these I said that this was the best song of all time because it was this oddly dark and ominous tune that stepped out of Michael's territory of well crafted light radio friendly dance ready pop tunes and instead went about showcasing his ability to be more that meets the eye while also proving that you can be different and people will still buy it so in some case he opened the floodgates for a host of musically inclined people being able to maintain artistic integrity while also having commercial viability and that's a thing that's really important in the grander scheme of things because we can only have so much sugar coated garbage being shoved down our throats.

Jackson was a genius of sorts because he was a cold and calculated businessman that knew the vast majority of his decisions well in advance and released what was the most meticulously crafted things he could that would leave people talking for a long time and it worked more often than not even at his most over bloated he still did stuff that was of a level of quality that his contemporaries maybe minus Prince could really match and the thing that's always made this song stand out in comparison to everything else was the somewhat simplistic and straightforward nature of it because it's not a happy and upbeat tune it's a very somber and depressive tune that mixes just the right amount of disco production with a kind of funk groove and showcases a more held back side of Jackson he never really chose to do that often and it's this kind of strange direction that leads me to go back to it time and time again and really find myself thinking that it really is the best pop song to ever be made bar none.

It's after repeated listens still maybe one of the most fantastic songs I've ever heard and after all these years of asking myself what is the greatest song ever I think I've come to a point where if you were to ask me I'd probably have to say this song bar none.

Also it was in GTA Vice City which had the best soundtrack ever fight me fuckers!!!!!

Sam's Show Recap 1/28/17

The Midwest Music Foundation decided to throw a show in order to help raise money to help out a group of local Kansas City acts in their attempts to go to South by Southwest and being that this show not only featured two of my favorite bands in this fine city of ours but it happen to be at the new Record Bar which by all accounts is pretty much the cream of the crop in terms of awesome fucking venues to see a show in this city it's pretty fucking obvious that sickness be damned I may have missed one bad ass showcase but I sure as hell was gonna chug that medicine and make this show and god damn it's a good thing I did because the heat was fucking brought tonight mother fuckers.

The bands showcased in this show were Vigils and Thieves, Momma's Boy, Jessica Paige, and the Phantastics which is quite a varied bill in all honesty but with that in mind let's get to the bad pictures and thoughts on these sets.

Vigils and Thieves

These guy's are so fucking great and this show after having a member change recently was a retreading of the waters of sorts and their first show at the new Record Bar and they did quite good if I say so. The first few songs admittedly were a bit rushed with Vicious Ears being a great way to pump up the crowd if not a bit faster than normal and after a few heavier more energetic tunes the songs eventually started getting smoother and things were sounding right and these guy's delivered yet another great set especially Haunting which was pretty fucking spot on vocally Sarah Storm just fucking knocked it out of the park here and gave an incredibly angry and awesome performance of People are Parasites following it somehow being one of the few vocalist I've ever heard actually get better as the set goes on.

If you haven't given their EP Neverland a listen go do so because this band is awesome and their shows even after some line up changes are still solidly fucking good and will most certainly hook you.

Momma's Boy

This time with all members included and well if I were to be blunt people........HOLY FUCKING JESUS CHRIST ALLMIGHTY THEY BROUGHT THE FUCKING FIIIIIIIIIIIIIAR TONIGHT!

For fucking real this set was just one great big ball of fucking awesome from their odd but awesome choice to start with the epic Make Believe to track after track of straight up bad ass fucking surf rock tinged power pop indie rock goodness this band was focused, tight, and firing on all fucking cylinders and delivered a set that just was pure proof that they are the best god damn band in the land and tracks like Sweet Girl, R&R, and Be A Good Boy can't come out soon enough because legit the year plus of working on these songs has become a set of pure non stop great and with an upcoming EP that will most likely be better than anything anyone else is going to put out I get the feeling that 2017 will be the year of the Momma's Boy just you wait.

Fuck it's going to be hard to see a show this god damn good now thanks.

Jessica Paige

So yeah after picking my jaw up and re-adjusting to reality I managed to catch this set kind of in stride and from what I heard she's a very talented vocalist with a lot of charisma on stage that knew how to get the crowd into her blend of kind of Country tinged kind of doo-whop pop tunes and her set was a solid set of tracks with my favorite being a very bad ass Zutons cover.

Upon getting to talk to her for a bit after her set and getting a complimentary copy of her album which you can go download at her bandcamp which is provided in the link above that I was listening to on my drive home I can say that if you got the time and want to listen to something on the lighter side this set of 8 songs is quite a good listen and I'll be keeping her on my radar.

Phantastics

I can't lie I didn't stay for their whole set because I just kind of couldn't do a whole show tonight but I will say these guy's brought the fucking funk like for real their just a non stop whirling ball of energy that had the whole house a moving and really if you were to properly appreciate this very tight group of  musicians I'd advise you get a DD or Uber knock back all the fine beverages and get on that god damn dance floor because they make music to dance to and they know how to make a crowd want to dance.

Tight funky grooves, a stage show just overflowing with charisma, and some very well rounded songs this band did a damn fine job this night and really proved why I keep tabs on when they're next shows are because this night was quite good to them and anyone willing to go out and give them a view that's for damn sure.

So yeah this was yet another excellent time at the wonderful Record Bar with plenty of acts that I hope impress all the important people up there at SXSW and this night was pretty simply one great big pile of fuck yeah.

Look what I found....it's a mother fucking starboy!

Hmmmmm Sounding Similar?

So people as you know I do love me some 1975 and not too recently they dropped a new single in the form of a little jam known as Love Me which they seem to not want to post the full track on Youtube but you can either listen to it on Spotify or just listen to this preview...





Now as dope as that sounds I just kind of feel it necessary that upon a few listens I've come to realize that this song seems to sound like INXS doing their best rendition of Fame by David Bowie and if you don't believe me well here's the classic in motion for you to compare....





Now this could very well just be me overthinking things but you'd have to admit they do sound really familiar now don't they?

5 Years 5 Albums: Day 3

Random Access Memories-Daft Punk (2013)

So I’m not going to lie probably within the last 10 is years or so my love for this band has grown about a quintuplet fold when compared to the joyous memories I remember having when I was a kid and Toonami played that Interstellar movie during some late night rotations and find Alive 2007 to be probably the best piece of electronic music I’ve ever and probably ever will enjoy so whenever they finally got around to releasing their first album in almost 10 years the HYPE WAS FUCKING REAL!  And if you read the review you’ll know this is the only album so far to score the elusive 10 out of 10 and while I’m not one to go back on my word I kind of did whenever it came to that year’s best of list because if you were able to read the wall of text that was this songs entry you’ll know that once I took off the rose colored Glasses I kind of realize this didn’t really feel like a true Daft Punk record and in all honesty it really isn’t even after a year of getting to come to grips with that idea.

BUUUUUT even with that said I refuse to take back my score and even if I’ve kind of found some fault in this album it’s a pretty spectacular effort none-the-less and in all honesty this group really has done something that pretty much no other group can really lay claim to and that’s make a bad album because even if I feel a lack of that feeling of it being a Daft Punk pure record it’s still an amazing piece of work that showcases the continued trend they have of digressing the scene they started back into it’s basics and they’ve managed to make a very surprisingly organic album that’s like the start of it all it’s all the disco, soul, funk, and new wave sounds that inspired the scene they started and it’s quality is comparable to the stuff of their contemporaries and it’s also an album that really was important to me.

Quality Cuts: Instant Crush, Get Lucky, Doin’ it Right

5 Years 5 Albums: Day 1

So this Sunday February 8^th 2015 will mark the 5 year anniversary of Song of the day for me and that’s kind of crazy because 1 5 is my favorite number and 2 that’s 5 fucking years of songs people that’s a crazy idea for me to comprehend that in 5 years I’ve written about all these different songs, artist, genre’s, and articles that I can’t help but try to figure something significant for it considering it’s such an important number to me so I figured I’d be a little classy and rather than writing about individual songs like the websites name suggest I’d actually cover 5 albums that have been really important to me over the course of writing these song of the day’s because in time since starting to write these things up there’s been a lot of great music to come out and I can’t help but feel that these records in particular deserve some praise for really influencing my life as a whole, and with that in mind I figure the best place to start would be with a record that was all the hype in the beginning of this blog so with the first day of 5 years 5 albums I think it’s time to get classy folks…

The Lady Killer-Cee-Lo Green (2010)

Admitedly enough in time Mr. Green’s career kind of didn’t take the path it really needed to and he hasn’t really managed to follow up this record very well which is kind of a shame because this album kind of solidified my budding interest in Rhythm and Blues and Soul music as respectable genres and because of this albums throwback sound I found myself really widening my musical horizons which is kind of amazingly funny considering it all began with one big, “FUCK YOU!”

Yes the surprise hit of the decade in all its bitter heartbroken lyrical glory was the song that sucked me into an album that I’m pretty sure had just about every song on it covered on this little blog of mine and managed to not only crack into 2 different year end best of songs list but also manage to have it’s deluxe reissue have a song that I thought was better than a whole years worth of tunes.

Yeah I praised and rotated this album to death and in time it’s kind of become a lot of things to me but if there’s one thing I can truly credit this album for being it’s that it’s a bad ass collection of smooth retro-grooved rhythm and blues that really should have been bigger than it really was.

Quality Cuts: Wildflower, Crybaby, I want You

Sam's Top 20 of 2014: #4

4. Fitz and the Tantrums-Fools Gold

OK in all honesty this song shouldn’t be on this list considering this album came out last year and they made the list with More than just a dream but like the Arctic Monkeys earlier this list an amazingly bad ass tune that made a decent radio impact this year deserves note and when it’s my favorite song on what was one of last year’s best releases you bet your fucking ass that I’m going to put it on this year’s best of list.

The ultimate amalgamation of the classiest act in alternative music it’s like the greatest most epic lost soul track of yesteryear with its larger than life production, its soaring chorus, and instrumentation that sounds like they threw everything in it to make it the largest most epic sounding fucking song you’ve ever heard you have the most confident performance from Fitz and Noel on top of that and it makes the best god damn song this bands done since Money Grabber and dare I say it is actually BETTER!

Yeah I said that and I’ll stick to my guns until they top it but until then I’m a go every embarrassingly sing along people because this shits just TOO GOOD!!!!

Sam's Top 20 of 2014: #10

10. Michael Jackson-Love Never Felt So Good

OK so this might honestly be the most pop minded tune that’ll appear on this list depending on who you ask and it was also really hard to figure where to place it because I didn’t give this album a listen for a variety of reasons mostly due to my interest in other tunes but when coming up with this list I recalled writing a VERY LENGTHY song of the day on this song and when I listened to it again for the sake of compiling this list something came to mind GOD DAMN he was the fucking king of pop.

SO yeah I’m aware the version of this with Justin Timberlake was the one that managed to make some impact on the radio and was the version I first heard but you know as much as I can respect someone that made the effort to really make something of themselves and exceed all expectations you’re not Michael FUCKING Jackson and yes the version compiled out of his original takes is a more disco tinged off the wall throwback of a track the mother fucker just bleed pop music and this song is just pure proof of that.

It’s not by any means a Billie Jean, hell I wouldn’t really relegate it as something more than a later single to wrap up promotions for Off The Wall but even saying that this is still the most well written, produced, and polished example of how you do a pop song people and even if it’s mediocre when compared to his past works it’s still legitimately better then every other top 40 single I heard on pop radio and deservingly so it just had to be top 10 on my list and while yes it’s only number 10 it’s not for any fault of its own it’s just that my personal interest are elsewhere and I found myself enjoying and listening to these other 9 tunes more…

Sam's Top 20 of 2013: #3

3 “Get Lucky,” Daft Punk

OK now if you read this blog or know me personally it should come as an absolute no brainer that this song was going to make this list let alone the top 3 but if you’re curious as to just how a band that I’m so incredibly high up on could only manage to land at number 3 I’ll explain that to you shortly but before then I’m going to take the time to yet again type out just how awesomely amazing this funky little jam is.

OK after almost 10 years DAFT PUNK ARE BACK BABY!!!!!! And the resulting album’s worth of material is the most spectacular thing to of been done in quite some time, because these have managed to make that transition they started with their albums, what Homework was the future and now modern day direction of music to come each album following was a slow decline into what shaped it all with Discovery being just that for me and this wonderful collection of larger then life joyful pop songs that where the shape of how electronic music was starting to find a voice and Human after all being the beginning of it all, the starting of a genre it leaves you to wonder just where these guys’ could possibly go.

Well they decided to go back in this kind of funk fueled rocket to the moon where they channeled their inner La Chic and P-Funk and George Funk in making the most disco-influenced organic collection of songs that are all about getting the groove of the music just losing yourself to dance and the rhythm of the beat and this song’s the exact personification of Random Access Memories, it’s this funk fueled throwback that’s the perfect Disco song. It’s a danceable jam just begging to be danced to, and with Pharell Williams it’s a change of pace because rather than hearing the familiar hypnotically robotic vocals you’d expect to hear from a Daft Punk record instead where getting actual singing something that hasn’t been heard since Face to Face and it’s amazing.

So to look back and realize that this was that massive hit this band so honestly deserved and that you just could not escape it was just AMAZING it was the most vindicating feeling to know that everyone was finally giving the most influential group of musicians their praise was fucking wonderful, but of course aside from an overload of hearing this jam there was one glaring problem I have with it and Random Access Memories as an album that I can’t help but point out that is the exact reason why what’s probably the most explained song on this list is only at number 3 and it’s that this just doesn’t feel like a Daft Punk song.

Now I guess that statement has you scratching your head a bit so let me kind of shed some light on that, you see this is in fact a Guy Manuel and Christopher Bangalter composition there’s no denying that it’s just that this song and album is more hey let’s collaborate with a bunch of really talented folks that more often than not end up making the songs feel like their tunes just with Daft Punk composing them and it’s something that’s always bothered me rather lightly to be honest but when I heard Pentatonixs do their little melody and it got to the get lucky parts it just stood out like a sore thumb just how little it really meshes with everything they did before it and it really does pain me to not really feel like this isn’t really a Daft Punk song but sadly that’s just kind of how it feels to me and while this honestly is just an amazing piece of work that deserved every bit of success it had it’s just not a Daft Punk song.