About this project

Years ago (over 10 years, I'm pretty sure) I was browsing through Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Of course they mean 500 greatest songs, in English, since about 1950.  But that's not a very catchy title.

So I'm browsing through; yeah, Strawberry Fields. Some Motown.  But there were a lot on the list that I didn't recall ever hearing before, and another big chunk of songs that I was aware of, but never thought of them as great.  I thought it would be fun to listen to them all.

Well, I kinda kept it in the back of my mind and decided to take this up in summer 2021.  Turns out, they redid the list.  

The list first came out in 2004 and then was updated in 2021. Over half the songs on the new list weren’t on the 2004 list.  Really? Of the entire history of recorded music, half of the best 500 songs either didn't exist or weren't great enough in 2004?  I was tempted to go to the old list, but in the spirit of discovering new (to me) music, I’m going with the most recent.

The basic format (subject to change as this goes on) will be to write some thoughts before I listen, and then after.  I think it would be interesting to record my bias before I listen.  So here we go.

You can find the list here 

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