Dobber's Take

At the start of 1998, at the turn of the New Year, I had moved to London and returned to school. This time it was college. Some close friends and family were in this city so it was an easy transition. My mind and heart were still reeling from the breakup that was a good 14 months prior. In London things were much better, because instead of being alone and depressed with no close friends around and few acquaintances, I had plenty around. Plus I made more, including a couple of good ones in college and a couple of good ones who lived next door (one of whom eventually became my brother-in-law). But all this meant was that I had a different friend or group of friends to hit the bar with every night. Three or four times a week, in fact.

I went to school for marketing, but in the summer I found a job as a retail manager and stopped going to class. I showed up for exams and got the credits, because I found it easy. But then I focused on making money, still unsure about what I wanted to do. Only that I wanted to make money and be comfortable. I was heavily in debt ($40 thousand) and thanks to returning to school, it reset the clock as to how quickly I had to pay it back.

In the retail stores we played music, so I was still on top of the latest songs. Not many great ones came out in 1998, though plenty of “not bad” ones. Perhaps it was the rough couple of years I was going through. I did love Fly Away though. It brought me straight back to being a huge Kravitz fan. I thought Uninvited and You Should Come Over were both very underrated songs (and both from Canadian artists). And Pearl Jam Yield came out and the best song on that CD was a song they never released – No Way. The song Money City Maniacs (another Canadian band) will always remind me of GT’s.

In the summer of ’98 I remember being on a rooftop patio when we caught word that the Hip was the ‘secret band’ that would perform in London the next night. We all got up, went home and gathered our things, and we got in line, staying up all night. We got the tickets and I watched the Hip for my second and final time.

The Tragically Hip’s album that summer, Phantom Menace, was the first of what would be a steady string of weak albums for what was an elite band. And Poets was the last of their truly great songs. Everyone loves Bobcaygeon – love love loves it – but it never caught on with me. I bought the Hip’s Live Between Us album after that one, but that would be it for me and buying albums from this band.

Unlike most rankings, I haven’t been simply tossing these up in a numerical order. Because we can all agree that on some days, certain songs kick more ass than other songs – yet other days they do not. It all depends on mood and situation. A song that is ranked 14th today could very well rank 1st tomorrow – if it suddenly comes on the radio during the perfect moment and I start singing along. So I group them instead of presenting a hard-and-fast order:

Awesome
Great
Pretty Good
Not Bad
…with some inter-group splitting.

1963  1964  1965  1966  1967  1968  1969

1960s          1970s          1980s          1990s

Still reviewing and cataloging all music, I was curious about certain groups and artists and how I feel about their music today. I decided to rank the songs of some of the greats and after kicking things off with the Beatles, it’s time to dive all the way into rock ‘n roll with another elite supergroup. Possibly my favorite band of all time and in fact I had considered Led Zeppelin as just that for many, many years. Now that I’m into my 40s though, the “modern” bands that I didn’t at the time think qualified…suddenly do. Pearl Jam is no longer “new”, but are actual Hall-of-Famers with 25 years under their belt. But Zeppelin will always be legends and their songs will always hold up.

From my own yearly classifications, 12 of their songs ranked as “awesome” (that’s more than I had for the Beatles, at eight) with an additional 10 garnering the “great” moniker. Zeppelin ended up with 44 songs on my year-by-year lists, and that’s an amazing accomplishment considering they only recorded 108 songs. Nearly half got on my list of favorites.

In putting this together, I decided to do away with the classifications and give my own hard ranking. With the understanding that, depending on mood, any of these songs can slide up or down 20 spots pretty easily. It was definitely not an easy task. And of course, I shouldn’t have to explain that the 40th song ranked here is not their worst song – remember they have 108 songs recorded, so the 40th song actually tops 68 others.

The four songs that made my year-by-year list but did not crack the Top 40 are: No Quarter (1973), I’m Gonna Crawl (1979), For Your Life (1976) and Baby Come on Home (1982).

Still reviewing and cataloging all music, I was curious about certain groups and artists and how I feel about their music today. I decided to rank the songs of some of the greats and who better to kick things off than with the Beatles. Just a ridiculous amount of great songs that still hold up. From my own yearly classifications, eight of their songs ranked as “awesome” with an additional 23 garnering the “great” moniker. In all, The Beatles recorded 242 original compositions plus 69 covers. Fifty-three of them made my lists.

In putting this together, I decided to do away with the classifications and give my own hard ranking. With the understanding that, depending on mood, any of these songs can slide up or down 20 spots pretty easily. It was definitely not an easy task. And of course, I shouldn’t have to explain that the 50th song ranked here is not their worst song – remember they have 311 songs recorded, so that song actually tops 261 others.

The three songs that made my lists but didn’t crack the Top 50: Lady Madonna, The Fool on the Hill, The Long and Winding Road

By popular demand, I have added 1964 and now 1963 (originally the rankings started for 1965). Not as many songs to review so I was able to do it quickly. So much has changed in music over the years. Getting a record deal and gaining traction in 1963 is a lot different from doing the same in 2018. While just 200 to 300 songs were released in ’63, there are over 1700 songs to review in 2017 (as an example).

The Beatles hit mainstream music in this year, with two albums. And of course they dominate the handful of songs that made this list. This is the only year I’ve reviewed in which I didn’t choose a single song for my “Awesome” rating.

Unlike most rankings, I haven’t been simply tossing these up in a numerical order. Because we can all agree that on some days, certain songs kick more ass than other songs – yet other days they do not. It all depends on mood and situation. A song that is ranked 14th today could very well rank 1st tomorrow – if it suddenly comes on the radio during the perfect moment and I start singing along. So I group them instead of presenting a hard-and-fast order:

Awesome
Great
Pretty Good
Not Bad
…with some inter-group splitting.

1963  1964  1965  1966  1967  1968  1969

1960s          1970s          1980s          1990s

By popular demand, I have added 1964 (originally the rankings started for 1965). Not as many songs to review so I was able to do it quickly.

The House of the Rising Sun was probably the best song of the entire decade, so including the year 1964 when it was released seems only right. And with the Beatles putting out their first two albums in 1963, reviewing that year is a must. So my journey through years of music backtracks two more years and will now begin for 1963.

Unlike most rankings, I haven’t been simply tossing these up in a numerical order. Because we can all agree that on some days, certain songs kick more ass than other songs – yet other days they do not. It all depends on mood and situation. A song that is ranked 14th today could very well rank 1st tomorrow – if it suddenly comes on the radio during the perfect moment and I start singing along. So I group them instead of presenting a hard-and-fast order:

Awesome
Great
Pretty Good
Not Bad
…with some inter-group splitting.

1963  1964  1965  1966  1967  1968  1969

1960s          1970s          1980s          1990s

In 1997 I moved into a townhouse with strangers, my two-and-a-half year relationship well and truly over. I stayed in that townhouse, in Guelph, throughout the summer even though I had graduated. I wasn’t sure what I would do with my life. This particular summer may have been the low point of my adult life. In fact, it absolutely was. Miserable over the loss of the girl (regardless of how well it turned out for me), living in a townhouse in a city where all of my close friends had left except for one, and holding a Degree in Stats while not finding a job in that field and instead working two near-minimum wage paying jobs. Delivery driver, and counter guy in the music section at Zellers. I was a delivery driver in a ratty-old pickup truck that I could hardly afford to fill up with gas. In fact, I don’t think I ever “filled up”.

The Zellers job was horrible. I felt so demeaned. I felt as though I was treated poorly and that all of the students in that job were 18 or 19 whereas I was 23. But at least I was in the Entertainment area and got to pick the music. The delivery job was fun in the sense that I heard nothing but music for six hours every Friday and I think Tuesday was the other day. But the pay was shit – worked out to just a tad less than minimum wage, and by the time you paid for gas it was barely two-thirds minimum wage. And I’m including tips with that statement. This is why I always tip delivery drivers handsomely, even if there is a “delivery fee” charged.

On those delivery nights, I remember listening to the Edge. Our Lady Peace came out with an album and Clumsy and Superman’s Dead got a lot of play, as did The Offspring’s new one (Gone Away), and Tea Party’s Temptation. Song 2 and Drinking in LA also reminds me of those nights. My trips to London to hang out with my friends and family, I have memories of Bitter Sweet Symphony, and anything by Third Eye Blind, as well as All For You (Sister Hazel) and of course Tubthumping.

In the end, in December, I made the decision to return to school. I had to get out of the tailspin and going back to school would give me two things. First, it would give me money because I could get back into student loans (yay more debt!). Second, it would give me my friends – because I would go to school in London. I rushed everything together and moved to London at the start of January, 1998. Another interesting year in music for me because – well, that’s coming up next time…

Unlike most rankings, I haven’t been simply tossing these up in a numerical order. Because we can all agree that on some days, certain songs kick more ass than other songs – yet other days they do not. It all depends on mood and situation. A song that is ranked 14th today could very well rank 1st tomorrow – if it suddenly comes on the radio during the perfect moment and I start singing along. So I group them instead of presenting a hard-and-fast order:

Awesome
Great
Pretty Good
Not Bad
…with some inter-group splitting.

1990       1991      1992      1993     1994     1995     1996     1997

1960s          1970s          1980s          1990s

In 1996 I moved in with my girlfriend in May. At the end of October we broke up – and it was a pretty rocky summer leading up to that. So in the early months, the music was during happy times. In the middle months, we had combined our CD collections to make this one massive collection – and so again, music was a big part. Predominantly alternative. By the end of the year I was a wreck. A Long December really put the cap on this year – and on my rough breakup.

I bought myself a shitty pickup truck (all I could afford) so I wouldn’t be stranded, since she had the vehicle all this time. I couldn’t focus on my final year in University, but still got by. I did lots of traveling home – and back then road trips always meant music. A lot of the songs that came out in the second half of ’96 got plenty of play in Guelph’s The Trashateria when I frequented there in 1997 (I still think of ‘The Trash’ every time Pepper plays). They also got lots of play during my stint as a delivery driver (with my shitty old/new truck). These songs remind me of sitting in my truck waiting for my next call, listening to The Edge. I really fell in love with the MTV Unplugged album by Alice in Chains. Ahead By a Century quickly became one of my favorites from the Hip. And I still think of my ex whenever Santa Monica plays – and my time living in that tiny apartment.

Unlike most rankings, I haven’t been simply tossing these up in a numerical order. Because we can all agree that on some days, certain songs kick more ass than other songs – yet other days they do not. It all depends on mood and situation. A song that is ranked 14th today could very well rank 1st tomorrow – if it suddenly comes on the radio during the perfect moment and I start singing along. So I group them instead of presenting a hard-and-fast order:

Awesome
Great
Pretty Good
Not Bad
…with some inter-group splitting.

1990       1991      1992      1993     1994     1995     1996

1960s          1970s          1980s          1990s