How Many Songs Does It Take?

[Atticus]

a general pondering.

 

I was thinking about how many Wilco songs I'd need to play for someone in order to give him/her an idea of who the band is, musically. Then I thought about the Dead in the same context.

 

then I realized that with, for instance, AC/DC, I could probably accomplish that task with one song.  That's not to diminish AC/DC--they do one thing and they do it really well.

 

Consider a band/solo artist and how many songs you think it would take to convey its/his/her sound to someone.

[remphish1]

A song from each album would give you a general idea I assume?

[Lammycat]

I think with the "right" tune, it could be done in relatively short time (1-2 songs) for most artists. I'm thinking Todd Snider, John Prine, Bob Dylan....

[Winston Legthigh]

1 song:

 

Beatles

Stones

Who

Zeppelin

Ramones

Kiss

Hendrix

Doors

Zappa

Monkees

Mamas & Papas

 

I think most bands could be done with one song.

[Lammycat]

Beatles: "Tomorrow Never Knows"

Stones: "2,000 Light Years from Home"

Who: "Boris the Spider"

[Winston Legthigh]

Those are the songs you'd choose?

[Lammycat]

Of course not.

[Vacant Horizon]

For a newbie I'd play these songs...

 

Box Full Of Letters

Misunderstood

Shot In The Arm

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.

[Winston Legthigh]

Well, of course every band is going to have outliers. I'm not going to play Lady Jane to give someone a sense of what the Stones are about. but of course Lady Jane represents a valid face of the Stones as much as Emotional Rescue does. But neither song is absolutely necessary to understand what the Stones are all about. That could be done with Brown Sugar or Midnight Rambler.

[Shug]

You might argue that the essence of Zeppelin could be encapsulated by one song ( eg Stairway To Heaven) that has the mellow Celtic/folky side as well as the heavy riffage aspect of Zeppelin, but that would still miss the odd time signatures (eg Four Sticks) and the Indo/Arabic influences (eg Black Mountain Side) not too mention the straight up heavy blues (Since I've Been Loving You, You Shook Me, etc)  I suppose you could get a pretty good idea of Zeppelin from two or three songs, but I don't think one song would do it.

[PopTodd]

The Chills: 1 song ("Heavenly Pop Hit")

The Kinks: 3 songs ("You Really Got Me", "Waterloo Sunset", "People Take Pictures of Each Other")

[calvino]

"It's all one song," says Neil Young --- so I guess one can pick any one - my pick would be "Cortez the Killer."

[Lammycat]

Or "Powderfinger"

Or "Cinnamon Girl"

[calvino]

Yeah - that would be a good pick, too.

[Lammycat]

Or  "Like a Hurricane"

Or "After the Gold Rush"

[PopTodd]

Or "This Note's For You"

[Lammycat]

Or "Helpless"

[Winston Legthigh]

Or "Transformer Man"

[Lammycat]

Or "Harvest Moon"

[Winston Legthigh]

Or "Country Home"

[Shug]

To represent what Wilco is all about in just a few songs, I'd say you need one dark, chaos/noise art-rock song (Via Chicago, At Least That's What You Said, Poor Places Misunderstood), one folky sing along (Jesus Etc, What Light) and one catchy roots rocker (Casino Queen, I Got You, Outtasite Outta Mind).  Might also need an alt-country song like Far Far Away, Pick Up The Change or Passenger Side and maybe an ultra depressing-with-just-a-hint-of-a-silver-lining song like Sunken Treasure or Ashes of American Flags

[CortezTheKiller]

Or "Fuckin' Up"

[Mr. Heartbreak]

1 song:

 

Zappa

 

I think most bands could be done with one song.

What Zappa song would you pick?

[Vacant Horizon]

Or "T-Bone"

What Zappa song would you pick?

 

Inca Roads

[mountain bed]

To represent what Wilco is all about in just a few songs, I'd say you need one dark, chaos/noise art-rock song (Via Chicago, At Least That's What You Said, Poor Places Misunderstood), one folky sing along (Jesus Etc, What Light) and one catchy roots rocker (Casino Queen, I Got You, Outtasite Outta Mind).  Might also need an alt-country song like Far Far Away, Pick Up The Change or Passenger Side and maybe an ultra depressing-with-just-a-hint-of-a-silver-lining song like Sunken Treasure or Ashes of American Flags

My favorite thing they ever did live was Poor Places > Spiders. Even though it's just a slice of what makes them so damn good it's a mighty fine 15-20 minutes.