This is a fantastic song, but it raises the grim specter of a question: if this is not the greatest song in the world, then what is? It is a question of spiritual significance.
Rolling Stone says that the greatest song is “Like A Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. That is bullshit. 1) That’s a really limp, boring song. 2) They just picked it because it says “Rolling Stone” in it.
Rolling Stone’s choice for number two is “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. But that is not even the best song by the Rolling Stones (that would be “Paint It, Black” hands down, no contest). Plus, again, Rolling Stone is just picking something that says “Rolling Stone” in it. How typically lame. Rolling Stone is full of shit.
So which song actually is the greatest song in the world? I can think of three contenders: “I Walk The Line” by Johnny Cash, “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, and “All Along The Watchtower” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Also possibly “Let It Be” byt the Beatles and “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos. But I think it needs serious discussion and consideration.
Sailing to Byzantium 
Impossible to quantify; for instance, I’m not convinced that Stairway to Heaven is even Zeppelin’s best song, let alone the best (rock) song in the world (I might well drop the nickel on Kashmir, Black Dog or Immigrant Song over Stairway).
And what about Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma? Unbelievable.
I disagree on all counts. You’re just shying away from weighing in on what may be one of the most important questions of human existence.
And your classification of Led Zeppelin songs is objectively wrong. All of those songs are good songs, but all of them are less-good than Starway to Heaven. The gods of Rock have decreed it.
O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that.
Coward.
The Greatest Song Ever is definitely O Fortuna from the Carmina Burana:
The Second Greatest Song Ever is definitely “Give It Away” as performed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers AND the P-Funk Allstars wearing only diapers during the 1993 Grammys show. The government has suppressed all known videos of this performance because (1) it is so awesome, and (2) it contains secret coded messages that the government does not want you hear.
The Third Greatest Song Ever is Atomic Dog by George Clinton.
The Fourth Greatest Song Ever is “Remind Us” by Over the Rhine:
http://popup.lala.com/popup/577023723769177837
The gods of Rock have decreed it
LOL… But Jack Black agrees with me, dude. You’re pwned. 😉
Immigrant Song it is – the greatest rock song in the known universe.
Oh man, I think I have no comeback to that.
Immigrant song is almost certainly in the Top 10. Especially as it was performed back in the day on The Gong Show:
(seriously, listen to the screams from the audience in the background!!!)
Just to be clear: nobody here is saying that Immigrant Song is not one of the most awesome songs ever recorded.
AAaaaaAAAAaaaAAAAAAA!!
Overthinking It:
Of the songs you list, clearly “I Walk The Line” is the best. However, I don’t know about “greatest”. As others have noted, “Immigrant Song” is certainly in the running (and I agree with Jack Black and executivepagan that it is above “Stairway To Heaven”).
Some others to consider include “Worlock” by Skinny Puppy, “Horses” by Patti Smith, or “Through Being Cool” by DEVO. A friend of mine has argued persuasively that the most perfect rock song (by which he means that it most perfectly encapsulates what makes rock great, not that it is the best possible song) is “Whole Lotta Rosie” by AC/DC. “Don’t Fear The Reaper”, in either the original Blue Öyster Cult version or one of the covers by H.I.M. or Unto Ashes, should definitely be considered, and I am very partial to BÖC’s “Astronomy”. Coming back to Johnny Cash, I’m not entirely sure that you’ve chosen his best, as “Folsom Prison Blues” is pretty high on the scale, but I could see arguments either way (or for “Ring Of Fire”).
If I were to dictate the result without regard for the tastes of others, I would probably choose either “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash, “Don’t Fear The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult, “Swimming Horses” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Lex Talionis” by Sol Invictus, or “Celebrate” by Fields of the Nephilim, but I realize that I have somewhat idiosyncratic tastes.
@Chris:
I can see your dilemma re: Johnny Cash… “Folsom Prison Blues” may well be his most iconic song, but my personal inclination is to rate “I Walk the Line” as his actual “best” (that is, my favorite 🙂 ). “Ring of Fire” is pretty damn good as well, though… I would be REALLY hard-pressed to choose between those two.
Also, I don’t think anyone has mentioned his cover of NIN’s “Hurt”, where he just took the song away from Trent Reznor and made it his own. That has to be on the list somewhere.
If we’re talking covers that JC has done, the best of those has to be “The Mercy Seat”. I hardly even think of that song as being by Nick Cave anymore. And “Thirteen” is at least as good as “Hurt”.
See, I have a hard time choosing between those three (“Ring of Fire”, “I Walk the Line”, and “Folsom Prison Blues”). I might even add “Cocaine Blues” to the list (it’s perfectly manic, like cocaine). I do like the murder ballads. (As an aside, did you ever listen to the trilogy? Love, God, and Murder, what more could you want from him? Of course, to me, God was the weakest of the three, but there you go.)
The problem, of course, is that Johnny Cash is almost too good for these sorts of exercises. He’d done too much that can be considered “great”, in one sense or another.
Oh, and going back to the original list, the reason that no one agrees that a Beatles song is the greatest is largely because they were very good, but never showed the real brilliance that can be found in less perfect musicians (also because the best choice from them would have to be “A Day in the Life”). No one is agreeing with “Layla” because Eric Clapton should have died young (yeah, I said it, but everyone is thinking it).
“Folsom Prison Blues” and “Ring of Fire” are great songs, but they are not the greatest song in the world, or even in the running.
“Walk The Line” is simple and brutal. Johnny Cash wields his guitar like a rifle, and every note hits you right between the eyes. It is low and intense, and full of the kind of looming passion and darkness that is at the very heart of rock music. Every note, every word in that song is perfect.
The Beatles actually have several truly great songs. The entire second side of Abbey Road is one of the greatest works of art in the history of Western Civilization. And Day In The Life ain’t too shoddy, either.
Now, after thinking it over, I realize that my original list has to be completely scrapped.
#1 is Water No Get Enemy by Fela Kuti
#2 is Divided Sky by Phish
#3 is the entire second side of Abbey Road
#4 is Everlong by the Foo Fighters
#5 is Waterfalls by TLC
It’s looking like the consensus is pretty much settling on “I Walk The Line”.
apuleius platonicus: Phish? At least I had the sense to be properly abashed when I proposed something ridiculous. 😉
Upon further consideration, I agree that Don’t Fear The Reaper must at least be in the running.
The original, absolutely! While I do like the Unto Ashes downtempo cover as a bit of creative interpretation, it’s not at all in the same category…
Some more obscurities for (not necessarily serious) consideration. Some are personal idiosyncrasies, others should be better-known than they are, and the rest only need the influence of time, or are ones we simply forgot before:
SWANS – “God Damn The Sun”
Nine Inch Nails – “Closer” (I would prefer “Reptile”, but I bow to the clearly wider preference for this one.)
Curiosity – “Play With Us”
Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (or, for those of us who are fond of Syd Barrett-era Floyd, “Astronomy Domine”), or maybe “Learning To Fly”
COIL – “The Anal Staircase”
Fear Of Dolls – “Bless This Broken Body” or “St. Dymphna”
Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Jimi Hendrix – “All Along The Watchtower”
Rado, Ragni, and MacDermott – “The Flesh Failures”
And:
Big Brother and the Holding Company – “Piece Of My Heart”
Pink Floyd – Echoes. Their single greatest song.
Dark Side of the Moon, *as a whole*, is obviously their finest work, but the effect is largely cumulative – there’s no single track that can stand up against Echoes.
I have to disagree with executivepagan and side with Chris: Pink Floyd’s finest single song is without question “Wish You Were Here.”
Also, “Love Will Tear Us apart” is fantastic.
Other than that, I think you guys are mentioning a lot of good songs, but are missing the premise: What song did JB and Kyle spontaneously play to defeat the devil? What song is the greatest song in the world?
We’re not just talking about good songs. We’re talking about a rock and roll song so powerful it can defeat supernatural evil and change the universe. I stil think it’s probbaly Stairway to Heaven. And I think that calling Stairway cliched is actually a hell of a lot more cliched than the song actually is.
executivepagan: “Echoes” is tremendously good, but I stand by “Wish You Were Here”, which has an emotional resonance that exceeds anything else they’ve done, and is artistically on the same level as both “Echoes” and “Astronomy Domine”.
Going back for a moment to psychedelic jam bands (and not just psychedelic bands): of those I think that Hawkwind is the obviously superior choice, if for no other reason than Lemmy and songs written by Michael Moorcock, and I’d choose “Master of the Universe” as their best. Not that I think that a psychedelic jam band should be seriously considered for this.
And, speaking of Lemmy, we’ve all forgotten Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades”, which surely deserves a mention at the very least. There is very little about that song that is wrong, if indeed anything at all is.
Kullervo: I know what the ultimate goal is (but you are wrong, wrong, wrong about “Stairway” – what about “Kashmir”? Or, obviously, “Immigrant Song”?), but it behooves us to at least consider some other options. By noting them, then seeing that they don’t stand up, we have then thought it through instead of just going with the intuitively obvious (and that thought does seem, so far, to lead to “I Walk The Line”, with a strong possibility of “Don’t Fear the Reaper”).
Speaking of “Reaper”, may I point out that Sifl and Olly did a short cover of that song, ending it with the single word, “RAWK”? If Tenacious D can start this discussion, Sifl and Olly, I submit, can serve as evidence in it. 😀
As a diehard Moorcock fan, I realize it is a tragedy that I have still never listened to Hawkwind.
“Ace of Spades” is a fucking fantastic song, but is it better than other comparable hard rock/metal songs of its time? AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell?” Judas Priest’s “Breaking The Law?”
and what about “Holy Diver” by Dio? I sort of feel like if Robert Plant does not sing the greatest song in the world, it may have to be sung by Ronnie James Dio… Because he is a rock and roll god.
Also, Chris, I stand firm on Stairway to Heaven. I’m definitely a Zeppelin fan, and they had no shortage of mind-blowing music, but Stairway to Heaven is a mystical experience like no other. I accuse you of discarding it prematurely merely as a reaction to its enduring popularity.
“Ace of Spades” is clearly better than “Highway to Hell” (though the latter is certainly good, it is too much of a pander to its audience to really be great). On the other hand, you may have me with “Breaking the Law”. I have a hard time saying which of the two is the better song. Pansy Division’s beautifully irreverent cover of Priest’s iconic song gives it some added cachet, as well. Especially considering notable developments in Judas Priest’s history.
However, “Ace” is a song which takes a lot of rock and roll ideas (“live fast, die young”, for instance) and distills them into a pure liquor. I think I’d still choose Motörhead.
Ronnie James Dio does not get to play in this, due to his tenure with Black Sabbath, which should not generally be mentioned except at a time, like this, when one must point out the obvious (or when one is playing “Mob Rules”, the only decent track to come out of that desert era).
Why haven’t we mentioned Joan Jett? Probably because, though she is one of the greats, I can’t think of a single track that would really stand out as the Greatest Song In The World. “Bad Reputation”, maybe? I know it’s a weak choice.
Now I know that you are a raving madman. Ronnie James Dio’s Sabbath albums are fucking awesome all the way through, every single track. Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules are both triumphs of metal genius and I absolutely defy you for saying otherwise.
Sabbath wandered through the desert, I grant you (the last two or three Ozzy albums? Ian Gillian? Tony Martin? Just an endless waste of suck), but the Dio era was a lush oasis of paradise in the middle of that desert.
Tony Iommi’s guitar playing on those albums is in finest form, and RJD is not only a phenomenal vocalist but also a fantastic lyricist.
I think someone’s too stuck in his ways to accept that Ozzy was never the be-all end-all of Black Sabbath.
No, I don’t discard it on that basis. As I said earlier, I think that “Immigrant Song” is much better. “Stairway” (like “Kashmir”, come to think of it) is just too long. That’s not a “short attention span” thing, either (I did propose “Reaper” and a couple of other epics). Some songs just go on longer than they really have the mojo for, and they start to resemble jams too much, if not actually becoming them. How could a jam be the Greatest Song In The World?
No way is Stairway to Heaven a jam song. It builds to the crescendo/solo at the end in a perfectly measured, perfectly timed way.
You make a compelling case. I will give them another listen. I haven’t listened to those in years (other than, as I said, “Mob Rules”).
I’ve made my case, you’ve made yours, now we should wait for others to weigh in on “Stairway”.
If you go in expecting Paranoid or Master of Reality, you’re going to be completely baffled. If you go in fresh without expectations you will be like “holy fuck those are good albums.”
I like Ozzy, don;t get me wrong: early Sab is essential, and Ozzy’s Blizzard of Ozz is one of my favorite albums of all time, but Ronnie James Dio is just flat-out a million times the singer, songwriter, and performer that Ozzy ever was. Not to mention the fact that Ozzy is just a complete douche, whereas RJD is affable, personable and funny.
Ronnie James Dio is completely underrated as a rock god (at least outside of the metal scene, where he properly gets his due).
I agree that Ozzy is a prick. I just don’t remember the Dio years in Sabbath as being all that good. As I said, time to give them a second chance.
I do submit that there are no Black Sabbath songs which could be seriously considered for Greatest Song In The World (though “Paranoid” is at least on a par with “Paint It, Black”, and is a song I listened to obsessively when I was in my teen years, neither one belongs on the list).
So, the short list looks like:
Johnny Cash – “I Walk The Line”
Led Zeppelin – “Immigrant Song” or “Stairway To Heaven”
Blue Öyster Cult – “Don’t Fear The Reaper”
Should we add “Wish You Were Here”, “Ace Of Spades”, and maybe “Love Will Tear Us Apart”? We still have, I suppose, to properly consider “Holy Diver”, though I still don’t think that it’s on the same plane as “Ace Of Spades”.
Shall we consider the Pogues? “Fairytale Of New York”, perhaps, or “Fiesta”?
Why haven’t any songs by the Velvet Underground come up? I’d imagine that if it were one of theirs, it would be one of “Heroin”, “Venus In Furs”, “Rock And Roll”, or “Sweet Jane”.
Have we failed to properly consider The Doors or The Who?
Eek! We haven’t.
The Doors – “Light My Fire” or “Break On Through”. “The End” does have its appearance in Apocalypse Now going for it, but it is too much of a tone poem, I think, to really qualify.
The Who – This is tougher. “My Generation”? Probably not, unless they’d all died in 1978. “Won’t Get Fooled Again”? That’s more reasonable. I don’t think that they have anything, though, that can compare to the current shortlist.
@Chris,
I like “Wish You Were Here” very much, but I still think “Echoes” is better. Here’s my reasoning, at least in part… “Wish”, like most rock songs, stays at the same basic musical and emotional level throughout; whereas “Echoes” takes you on a journey and brings you out the other end emotionally changed (if only for a short time). The cathartic release that *always* comes when they sing “And so I throw the windows wide/ And call to you across the sky”, after the long Underworld journey, just ain’t there in “Wish You Were Here”. So, objectively, I maintain that “Echoes” is a better song, both technically and musically.
@Kullervo,
One small problem with Ronnie’s status as a rock god – Elf (aka The Elves, The Electric Elves). Listen to “Amber Velvet” and tell me that’s the work of a rock god. I certainly agree he’s got more chops than Ozzy, though.
But getting back to the original question – in all of this, I have not yet seen *anyone* contradict my assertion that “Immigrant Song” is the most likely candidate for the song that beat the Devil. Given that Jack Black himself stated that a movie about rock music would not be complete without it – and begged publicly for it, in front of a thousand strangers – it must therefore be the single greatest song.
I could go with “Break On Through” as the best Doors song (although “Crystal Ship” is my personal favorite)…
The Who is tougher. “The Song is Over” has the best chorus hands down (how can you beat, “I’ll sing my song to the wide open spaces/ I’ll sing my heart out to the infinite sea”?!), but the verses aren’t as inspirational… “Behind Blue Eyes” has to be a strong contender; sure it’s overplayed, but that’s because it’s great… “Baba O’Riley” has a chance as well, but overall I agree that while they are a vitally important force in rock history, no single song rises to the challenge.
Erik, come on–you can’t make him wear Elf around his neck like an albatross forever.
executivepagan: I guess we’ll just have to disagree on that one. It’s not like it is an important disagreement, though, as it occurs to me that none of us is taking any Floyd song seriously as the Devil-conquering one. (It would be ironic, though, if it were “Lucifer Sam”! It’s a little twee for the Greatest Song In The World, though.)
I do think that a strong case can be (and has been) made for “Immigrant Song”. I’m still wavering between that, Johnny Cash, and “Don’t Fear The Reaper”, myself.
Erik, I like that every Who song you mentioned is on Who’s Next, because that is an abso-fukcing-lutely amazing album. One of the best albums ever. But I think that the Who lacks any single track that is so awesome it destroys all who stand before it.
As far as the Doors go, I really like “The End” on a powerful, spiritual level, but I can see Chris’s argument that it just doesn’t fit the conventions of “a song.” Setting The End aside, I think L. A. Woman is my favorite Doors song, and i think it holds up in the hallowed company we’re trying to keep here (as does Break On Through), but ultimately does not emerge victorious.
I dissent on the Led Zeppelin issue, but I think we have definitely narrowed it down to a few powerful contenders. I do think we have all forgotten “All Along The Watchtower” far too quickly.
What about Metallica’s “One?” Maybe the best heavy metal song ever, but probably not the best song ever.
Damn, you’re right! And I’m the one who proposed it!
I keep thinking that there should be a Nirvana song and a White Stripes song in consideration, as well. For Nirvana, almost everyone would say “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, I suppose, but I think that “On A Plain” and “Breed” are better.
The White Stripes did a lot of good stuff, perhaps “The Hardest Button To Button”? “Fell In Love With A Girl”? “Seven Nation Army”? “Blue Orchid” (which is even on an album of appropriate title)?
forgotten “All Along the Watchtower”
You’re right, we have.
I see the current shortlist this way (in no particular order) :
Immigrant Song
Don’t Fear the Reaper
I Walk the Line
All Along the Watchtower
Am I leaving out anything vitally important?
Oh, and here’s another entry in the “irony sweepstakes” – Friend of the Devil. I can’t believe we haven’t even *mentioned* the Grateful Dead (although I don’t think they have a shot, they at least deserve to me noted).
I was about to disagree with you and refer you to my original blog post, but then I looked at it and read that I said “I can think of three contenders: “I Walk The Line” by Johnny Cash, “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin.”
What’s the third? It was supposed to be Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower.” I think I might actually stand by it as the greatest, ever.
No, I think we’re getting pretty close to it now.
Also I’m glad nobody has tried to suggest that Watchtower is properly a Dylan song and that his is better. Because that would be complete bullshit.
The fact that Watchtower figured significantly in Battlestar Galactica gives it a major edge. When I realized that’s what the final four were hearing during the Baltar trial, it actually made my head explode with awesomeness.
I’m glad nobody has tried to suggest that Watchtower is properly a Dylan song
F*ck that noise. Hendrix owns it now.
No need to edit your swears on my blog.
Yeah, yeah. Dylan wrote it. Hendrix presented it, and properly.
I’m going to step away for at least a few hours and let this percolate in my brainmeats. Those are four seriously difficult songs to choose from. Immigrant Song, Don’t Fear The Reaper, I Walk The Line, and All Along The Watchtower. Of course, no one said that this would be easy.
Also, tomorrow morning, I’m going to use my account on blip.fm to present this discussion as a series of songs and short comments (if you’re on blip, try the hashtag #GSITW). With luck, by tomorrow morning, we’ll have a definitive, unscientific, subjective answer. If not, I’ll leave it to my listeners.
Gentlemen, to your corners! Meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning.
Don’t neglect this: each song needs to be listened to quite a bit in the meantime.
Absolutely. I keep getting sidetracked into other songs, though. Right now, I’m listening to “Burnin’ For You”.
I am 15 minutes through Thick As A Brick…
Best. Prog rock. Parody. Ever.
But also genuinely awesome in its own right.
Yeah, I’m in the middle of The Decemberists’ “The Crane Wife” right now… of which, I might add, the title tracks themselves deserve consideration as truly great songs. Not close to our list, obviously, but great nonetheless.
Agreed: that whole album is pretty much fantastic.
Huh. I just thought of a possible dark horse: Beach boys “Good Vibrations.” It’s almost a perfect song.
Free Bird? Remember I’m from the South so I like it for real, not just ironically.
The best use of “Free Bird” was at the end of The Devil’s Rejects.
“Good Vibrations” is a good, even great, song, but I don’t think that it is in the same category as what we have here.
If you’re gonna bring Southern rock into it, Freebird – while good – doesn’t really hold a candle to Flirting With Disaster, or Jessica. (Or Skynyrd’s own best, Gimme Three Steps and Sweet Home Alabama… but I’m afraid that even at their best they’re too minor to scale the heights.)
Do you remember the George Hatcher Band? They were based in Charlotte, and opened for Sabbath in ’82 on the Heaven and Hell tour, along with Molly Hatchet. Try to find their Vietnam song, “Coming Home” – it’s freaking fantastic.
Hmm. I also really like CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” Something about the way Fogherty’s voice sounds when he yells out “I know…” just brings tears to my eyes. And the guitar part is simple butperfectly executed, calling to mind all at once the entire root system of the tree of rock and roll.
Creedence Clearwater Revival is someone we had sadly overlooked. However, though they have many good songs (“Proud Mary”, “Run Through The Jungle”, “Bad Moon Rising”, and so on, and so on), I don’t know if any of their songs reach the heights we are looking at.
That said, the band itself should get a special mention, just for the sheer quantity of really good tracks. The same could probably be said about Bob Dylan, actually.
Yeah, if you look at overall catalogs rather than individual songs, the landscape shifts pretty dramatically… but that’s a WHOLE other discussion. 😀
Yeah. The thing is, in that discussion, the Beatles really come into their own, what with at least three to five perfect albums*, and there may not be anyone (or at least, there won’t be many**) who can even begin to hold a candle to them.
*Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles (the “White Album”), and possibly Revolver and Let It Be. Magical Mystery Tour is marred by several problem tracks.
**Maybe the Doors, ABBA, the Velvet Underground, CCR, who else? Not to say that any of these would topple the Beatles. I might more seriously put forward Throbbing Gristle, SWANS, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Skinny Puppy, Fields of the Nephilim, and COIL in that discussion, but I wouldn’t do it with any real hope.
I’d throw the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the Who’s Who’s Next into that arena any day.
If we’re talking about “perfect” albums – which I define as albums with no bad, lame or truly unnecessary or out-of-place tracks, a rare feat indeed – then I have a couple of beauties to offer. Note that these albums may or may not epitomize the best of all rock music, or even all the best work of the acts in question – but that the album, as a whole, is internally consistent and of consistent high quality, forming an organic whole. My gold standard for this is if I’m NEVER tempted to skip over a track while listening.
I’m also leaving out a couple of concept albums (Tales of Mystery and Imagination, for instance) because I’m not sure it’s fair to include albums where the INTENT was to form an organic whole.)
Dark Side of the Moon, obviously (yeah, I know it’s kind of a concept album, but I’d have to give back my rock fan membership card and decoder ring if I left it out…)
Workingman’s Dead
Who’s Next – again, obviously
Breakfast in America
Paris 1919 (John Cale)
Heavy Horses
Zeppelin IV
The Grand Illusion
The Royal Scam
A Night at the Opera
Moving Pictures
I am now prepared to render judgment… 😀
After sitting with these four songs on a loop for the last two hours or so, I have to come down for…
All Along the Watchtower
(Sorry, Jack)
And let me say that it’s a testament to the quality of our choices that after 2+ hours of nothing but these four songs, I’m not tired of any of them. In fact, I like “I Walk the Line” more now than I did before… but I believe that Watchtower has emerged as the clear winner.
Though I maintain a personal preference for “Don’t Fear The Reaper”, after a long period of listening to these four, I will agree that “All Along The Watchtower”, as performed by Jimi Hendrix (and this is important), is the best song, and may be the best song possible. Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl, indeed!
However, that said, I think that the song which can be played by other people (specifically, Tenacious D) and still be the Greatest Song In The World, defeating any conceivable Devil, is “Immigrant Song”. To say otherwise is to say that Bob Dylan’s original version of “Watchtower” is also the Greatest Song In The World, and I don’t think any of us can live with that.
(As an aside, I had to put off the blip.fm thing until later today, as I had migraine halo this morning, and couldn’t see my monitor.)
Yes, those are important distinctions… and I agree with both of them. In the context of the original question, Immigrant Song is clearly the choice both of ourselves and (more importantly) of at least half of Tenacious D. In the real world, Hendrix’ “Watchtower”.
It’s been a pleasure to finally settle this vital question once and for all!