Jon's Top Ten Songs
As part of The Rock Radio All Time Top 500 Jon Kirkman has written his top 10 favourite songs list.
What are Jon's favourite songs of all time?
1) Derek and the Dominoes: Layla
2) The Who: Love Reign O’er Me
3) Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter
4) Yes: Wondrous Stories
5) Genesis: Blood On The Rooftops
6) AC/DC: Down Payment Blues
7) Kansas: Carry On My Wayward Son
8) Styx: Renegade
9) Aerosmith: Janie’s Got A Gun
10) Whitesnake: Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
Here's why the songs are on Jon's list, in the words of the man himself:
Any top ten favourite Rock songs is likely to change probably on a daily and possibly an hourly basis. So for now here are my choices.
Any top ten would always include a Who track. Just one of my favourite bands and Love Reign O’er Me from the Quadrophenia album is probably one of Pete Townshend’s best songs.
I have included three American bands, Aerosmith, Styx and Kansas in my choice of top ten and all three bands came through in the same early to mid seventies period. Styx and Kansas were considered “Pomp Rock” and both were hugely successful and the two tracks I have chosen were hugely successful singles drawn from equally successful albums, Leftoverture (Kansas) and Pieces of Eight (Styx). Aerosmith were dubbed the American Rolling Stones and you can see the similarities to be honest but Janie’s Got a Gun is one of the bands finest from the Pump album.
Speaking of the Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter is just one of the spookiest songs in rock ever, a great track from a great album, Let It Bleed. A fine way to end the sixties... I have included a great track from Genesis co-written by Steve Hackett and Phil Collins, Blood On The Rooftops, probably from their last real proggy album Wind and Wuthering, the second album to feature Phil Collins as vocalist.
I had to include the Whitesnake song because it is one of my favourites from when I first saw Whitesnake at Rafters club in Manchester when Whitesnake first formed in 1978. It still does the business for me and it is still in the set.
I have chosen the AC/DC track because I think Bon Scott was amazing as a front man and I love the Powerage album. I can also relate to the lyrics in Down Payment Blues as can many others at this moment in time. Classic!
Finally sat at number one is my favourite rock single of all time. Layla. This track was mainly overlooked on its original release in 1970 and wasn’t a hit until 1972. The emotion in this track is phenomenal and knowing the story behind the writing of the song it is almost chilling. Although there is another unplugged version for me this version (The original) is the definitive version.
Well that is my top ten. What is yours?