A Bad Dream
2007
Rice-Oxley built it from Yeats's poem about an Irish airman, a pilot too high up to hear the guns below.
★ 1.7
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
21 Guns
2009 · From 21st Century Breakdown
A chorus close enough to All the Young Dudes that Bowie got a writing credit, and Butch Vig produced.
★ 3.3
Holiday (Green Day)
2005 · From American Idiot
Armstrong spent two months doubting the lyrics until Cavallo pushed him; it went to number one on modern rock radio.
★ 4.9
Yellow Ledbetter
1991
McCready's riff was a Ten outtake, and Vedder improvised a lyric he has been rewriting onstage ever since.
★ 5.9
Oliver's ArmyElvis Costello
Oliver's Army
1979 · From Armed Forces
Steve Nieve's piano lifts its shimmer from "Dancing Queen," and Costello's biggest UK hit smuggles Belfast into a singalong.
★ 6.2
Scarborough Fair
1966
Simon learned it from Martin Carthy in London; Garfunkel wound an anti-war lyric through the ballad as counterpoint.
★ 7.0
Immigrant Song
1970 · From Led Zeppelin III
Zeppelin played Reykjavik in 1970, and Plant came back with Vikings, Valhalla, and that double-tracked wail.
★ 7.8
War PigsBlack Sabbath
War Pigs
1970 · From Paranoid
Called Walpurgis until the label balked at the witchcraft, and Butler aimed the lyric at politicians who start wars.
★ 8.1
Sympathy for the DevilThe Rolling Stones
Sympathy for the Devil
1968 · From Beggars Banquet
Faithfull handed Jagger Bulgakov, Richards turned the folk sketch into samba and played both bass and the solo.
★ 8.9
Blowin' in the Wind
1963 · From The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Nine questions, no answers, and the song the civil rights movement adopted whole and never gave back.
★ 9.2
Gimme ShelterThe Rolling Stones
Gimme Shelter
1969 · From Let It Bleed
Merry Clayton's voice cracking on "murder" is the sound of the sixties ending, mid-take, in one syllable.
★ 9.4