What, to you, was the song that changed everything?

[Bossy Monkey]

People of a certain age are supposed to say "I Want To Hold Your Hand." People slightly younger are supposed to say "Like A Rolling Stone," while if you're somewhat younger than that, it would be either "Kashmir" or "Born To Run," depending toward which side of the Atlantic you're oriented. Similarly, people my age are supposed to say either something by the Ramones or by the Pistols. Thus, it is inevitable that none of those songs are going to be mentioned below, certainly not by me as I'm going with "Cross-eyed and Painless" by Talking Heads. And you?

[Arugula Latte]

1. I don't know if it changed everything, but "How Soon Is Now" by the Smiths

certainly rocked my world when it came out.

[Forkboy]

2. Stars and Stripes of Corruption by the Dead Kennedys had an impact.

And while it's dated somewhat since the mid-80's, a lot of it still holds true. Especially the last verse. This song really hit me, and is one of the few that I can say truly changed how I think.

Finally got to Washington in the middle of the night
I couldn't wait
I headed straight for the Capital Mall
My heart began to pound
Yahoo! It really exists
The American International Pictures logo

I looked up at that Capitol Building
Couldn't help but wonder why
I felt like saying "Hello, old friend"

Walked up the hill to touch it
Then I unzipped my pants
And pissed on it when nobody was looking

Like a great eternal Klansman
With his two flashing red eyes
Turn around he's always watching
The Washington Monument pricks the sky
Flags for pubic hair ringed 'round the bottom

The symbols of our heritage
Lit up proudly in the night
Somehow fits to see the homeless people
Passed out on the lawn

So this is where it happens
The power games and the bribes
All lobbying for a piece of ass
Of the stars and stripes of corruption

Makes me feel so ashamed
To be an American
When we're too stuck up to learn from our mistakes
Trying to start another Viet Nam
While fiddling while Rome burns at home
The Boss says, "You're laid off. Blame the Japanese"
"America's back," alright
At the game it plays the worst
Strip mining the world like a slave plantation

No wonder others hate us
And the Hitlers we handpick
To bleed their people dry
For our evil empire

The drug we're fed to make us like it
Is God and country with a bang

People we know who should know better
Howl, "America rules. Let's go to war!"
Business scams are what's worth dying for

But are the Soviets our worst enemy?
We're destroying ourselves instead
Who cares about our civil rights
As long as I get paid?

The blind Me-Generation
Doesn't care if life's a lie
so easily used, so proud to enforce
The stars and stripes of corruption

Let's bring it all down!

Tell me who's the real patriots
The Archie Bunker slobs waving flags?
Or the people with the guts to work
For some real change
Rednecks and bombs don't make us strong
We loot the world, yet we can't even feed ourselves
Our real test of strength is caring
Not the war toys we sell the world

Just carry on, thankful to be farmed like worms
Old glory for a blanket
As you suck on your thumbs
Real freedom scares you
'Cos it means responsibility

So you chicken out and threaten me

Saying, "Love it or leave it"
I'll get beat up if I criticize it
You say you'll fight to the death
To save your worthless flag
If you want a banana republic that bad
Why don't you go move to one

But what can just one of us do?
Against all that money and power
Trying to crush us into roaches?

We won't destroy society in a day
Until we change ourselves first
From the inside out

We can start by not lying so much
And treating other people like dirt
It's easy not to base our lives
On how much we can scam

And you know
It feels good to lift that monkey off our backs

I'm thankful I live in a place
Where I can say the things I do
Without being taken out and shot
So I'm on guard against the goons
Trying to take my rights away
We've got to rise above the need for cops and laws

Let kids learn communication
Instead of schools pushing competition
How about more art and theater instead of sports?

People will always do drugs
Let's legalize them
Crime drops when the mob can't price them
Budget's in the red?
Let's tax religion

No one will do it for us
We'll just have to fix ourselves
Honesty ain't all that hard
Just put Rambo back inside your pants
Causing trouble for the system is much more fun

So thank you for the toilet paper
But your flag is meaningless to me
Look around, we're all people
Who needs countries anyway?

Our land, I love it too
I think I love it more than you
I care enough to fight
The stars and stripes of corruption

Let's bring it all down!

If we don't try
If we just lie
If we can't find a way to do it better than this
Who will?

[mitchum]

3. "Quicksand" by David Bowie

[liberaltrucker]

4. Showing my age here

"For What it's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.
Written by a VERY young Stephen Stills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIoKr9VDg3A

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

[csziggy]

14. Yeah - that one got to me before I was out of high school

Made me cynical about government - even more so than anything that had gone on before.

[UTUSN]

5. Not a "song" per se, Overture to BIZET's Carmen

Hotel CA was astounding for a long time.


Lately, the oldies Lady in Red, Baby I'm Amazed, I Don't Know Much.

[begin_within]

11. along those lines, Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was a turning point in American music

[RadicalTexan]

6. Day in the Life

And I'm only 31.

:D

[Doc_Technical]

7. Spirit- Mechanical World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfmZfPwCXbg

[pokerfan]

8. Mah Nà Mah Nà

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiZ60RqLnmE

[rrneck]

9. Jackson Brown, The Pretender nt

[begin_within]

10. "American Pie," "Imagine," "Valley Girl," "Orinoco Flow," and the 1997 "Candle in the Wind"

"American Pie" was like the ending of the 60s and beginning of the 70s.
"Imagine" seemed to stop the world for a minute or two.
"Valley Girl" was like the ending of the 70s and beginning of the 80s.
"Orinoco Flow" was like the ending of the 80s and beginning of the 90s.
Elton John's reworking of the lyrics to "Candle in the Wind" for Princess Diana's funeral seemed sort of like the end of a long era of popular culture.

[Initech]

12. For me it was the first time I listened to Frank Zappa's Freak Out.

"Hungry Freaks Daddy" completely changed everything I think a song could or should be - and the album is still my all time favorite.

[Tikki]

13. "Down On The Boulevard'...The POP!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8YKJDCLmWc

1977 and the family and I had gone to Santa Barbara to shop. The center was all torn up
with construction so I just about didn't go into the indie record shop
like usual...but, I heard this song playing out into the open air and I was drawn in
and so I climbed over the rubble and begged the guy at the register to play the
song again.
He told me about the New scene in the L A Clubs and how I could go see bands
like The POP! in small clubs and hear all kinds of great music.
Mr. Tikki and I were hooked...so in our late twenties we started a whole
new experience and the grand music that went with it.

That song means the World to me.


Tikki

[WinkyDink]

15. And I for sure AM saying "I Want to Hold Your Hand"! This song changed our SOCIETY.

[Bossy Monkey]

16. Rebel.

:)

[WinkyDink]

27. From the day I vas born, I vas trouble......... ;-)

[MissMillie]

17. "I've had it" by Aimee Mann

pretty much about appreciating the journey, rather than worrying about whether or not you ever get to the destination.

[Faygo Kid]

18. "For What It's Worth," Buffalo Springfield, and "Purple Haze," Jimi Hendrix

Many others too, including - yes - "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

Old enough to appreciate them all.

[old mark]

19. I go back pretty far - it would be "Johnny Be Goode" by Chuck Berry,

which MADE me get a guitar. I have about 8 of them now. I started playing in bar bands in the early 1960's at age 15.

I still love to play in that style.

mark

[Paladin]

20. "Teach Your Children"

The day I heard it being played on a main-line country-western station---not a rock station, but a country-western station---in Austin, TX all those years ago, I knew something fundamental had changed.

(Edited to add "Like A Rolling Stone" as a close runner-up.....)

[Brother Buzz]

21. For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield.

For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down


What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

[Bennyboy]

22. "BE strong" SPEARHEAD...

When i heard this it blew my mind. Finally someone is speaking about stuff that is real. Really changed my life..

[Lindsey]

23. A Day in the Life and Help. n/t

[mwdem]

24. The Beatles "She Loves You"

I was all of 12, and they were so different from the rock and roll from my older brother. I. Was. In. Love.

[Iggo]

25. 'Everybody walks right by like they're safe or something'

This one did it for me.

Down On The Boulevard -- Jackson Browne

Down on the boulevard they take it hard
They look at life with such disregard
They say it can't be won
The way the game is run
But if you choose to stay
You end up playing anyway
It's okay--
The kid's in shock up and down the block
The folks are home playing beat the clock
Down at the golden cup
They set the young ones up
Under the neon light
Selling day for night
It's alright--
Nobody rides for free
Nobody gets it like they want it to be
Nobody hands you any guarantee
Nobody
The hearts are hard and the times are tough
Down on the boulevard the night's enough
And time passes slow
Between the store front shadows and the street lights glow
Everybody walks right by like they're safe or something
They don't know--
Nobody knows you
Nobody owes you nothin
Nobody shows you what they're thinking
Nobody baby
Hey, hey, baby
You got to watch the street, keep your feet
And be on guard
Make it pay baby
It's only time on the boulevard

[cbdo2007]

26. "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N Roses

I was 10 years old and they played it live on the MTV Video Music Awards. I had to go out and buy the tape immediately and my love of music had finally begun. Before that it was Michael Jackson and Bryan Adams but GnR helped me to move on to more interesting things and more interesting ideas.

[Mad_Dem_X]

28. Janis Ian - "At Seventeen"

The first song I ever heard that really spoke to me, that could have been written about my life at the time. I can't even listen to it now, too heartbreaking.

[gratuitous]

29. I'm torn

Not sure if I should say "The Streak" by Ray Stevens or "Wildwood Weed" by Jim Stafford. Can I have two?

[tigereye]

30. Sid Vicious' version of My Way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIXg9KUiy00


Still can picture my buddy and I going, OMG, what the hell is this???!!!!

[hamsterjill]

31. Fortunate Son

Credence Clearwater Revival taught me a lot!