The Eric Hopkins Top 5

Brother EricHop presented me with an idea for a week-long blog series for me and my fellow Friends Recommends bloggers. The assignment to name our top-5 songs of all time and discuss them. Simple, right? Not so simple for me, but I don't have to post until Friday (thanks BrotherHop) so I have a little bit more time to think about it. Apparently TheChristopherMyers and Wardo think about this every morning when they wake up, so they should have no problem. Today we hear from idea originator Eric Hopkins, with his top-5 songs of all time. These are some great songs, and better late than never (my fault!), right?

Exciting note: I've received a Colmus list. It should go up next week after these top-5's conclude. From here on out you're hearing from Eric:

This is a little long. And if I was coming to this blog and saw a post this long, there is a chance I wouldn’t read it. Maybe you should come back each hour and read a paragraph. Here are what I think are my five favorite songs, in no particular order:

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, 1998)



The first time I heard this song was in Matt Davis’s car. He had a tape of the album playing when he picked me up on what, in my memory, was one of the first perfect days of spring. I immediately asked him what the song was. At the time I heard it, it was the song I always wanted to hear, and the title song introduced me to one of my favorite albums. All the instruments belong and contribute to the song. Even though one person wrote the song on guitar, the band parts don’t seem like a second thought created to accompany the song. NMH made me want every song to have a saw in it. To answer Adam’s question, best horn solo ever, man. The lyrics are straight from the soul and it just seems like a song that took as long to write as it takes to play, like it just unfolded out of Jeff Mangum’s mind as he strummed and sung it for the first time.


Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones from Beggars Banquet, 1968)



To me, this song has the same feel as the NMH song, but in a more “jammy” way. I still think of it as a song that was crafted as it was written, but instead of it coming from one person, I think of it more like these guys were sitting around in a room on the drug of their choice and then some dude just starts picking up the bongos. I did see the Goddard movie “Sympathy for the Devil” which I think was half about the Stones recording this song and half about rebels spray painting propaganda on brick walls, but I saw this 9 years ago and only remember Keith Richards lying next to a speaker in the studio listening to a mix of the song and a rebel guy in a military uniform spray painting propaganda (in French?) on a brick wall. I love the guitar solo, Keith Richards played both this solo, and the awesome bass part on the recording, and Mick’s first person lyrics as the devil are great. Apparently Mick was reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Megan recommend!!!) when he wrote the lyrics to this song. I think I might check out this book. Lots of girlfriends helped in the creating of this song. Mick’s girlfriend gave him the book he was reading and apparently Keith Richards’s girlfriend came up with the great Whoo hoo background vocal part.


Only In Dreams (Weezer from Weezer “The Blue Album”, 1994)



This is the perfect rock song. It has everything in it. The best bass line ever, distorted parts and clean parts, loud parts and soft parts, and high background vocals. The best part of the song is that it ends with and amazing build up that starts with bass and minimal guitar, that builds to some great two guitar parts and then the best two guitar solo ever. The lyrics are pretty special as well “You can’t resist her. She’s in your bones. She is your marrow”. It is sad to think that a song this good was on a bands debut album, and instead of continuing to make more songs this good, they end up with “Beverly Hills”. Weezer could have written my favorite and least favorite song.


A Sight for Sore Eyes (Tom Waits from Foreign Affairs, 1977)



Any bloke on this blog, with an opinion of Tom Waits, will tell you that the Island records years and after are his best. I prefer the albums he released on Asylum in the 70’s, which have the best piano bar ballads you will ever hear, A Sight for Sore Eyes is one of these. The song is a tale of s man sitting at a bar talking to an old friend from the neighborhood about what happened to the people from the old gang. If that content doesn’t make for the best piano bar ballad ever, the lyrics also include a toast to baseball greats DiMaggio, Drysdale, Mantle & Whitey Ford. As for the piano, the intro is Auld Lang Syne, and the piano in the rest of song has a lullaby feel. Talk about a great song, a lullaby about the old gang!


Desolation Row (Bob Dylan from Highway 61 Revisited, 1965)



This song is everything I love about Bob Dylan. It is early Dylan at his best, an eleven-minute stream of classic, abstract and poetic Dylan lyrics. And, there is a kick ass harmonica solo. According to the wikipedia entry for the album, the song was recorded with a second guitar player who was flown in to accompany Dylan on the track. Takes 6 and 7 were spliced together and used for the album track. I would assume that it was recorded without any overdubs, because I think Dylan recorded most of his earlier albums live in the studio with the whole band. Man, the song is over 11 minutes and I could listen to it back to back. These long lyrically driven Dylan songs are very relaxing to listen to and I always loved to put them on and forget about everything.