Okay, first, I just flat out didn't feel like blogging over the holiday. I hope those of you that visited at least clicked over to one of the blogs on the sidebar in my boozy absence.

Second, and in criticism of Rolling Stone's nomination of John Lennon's lame-ass "Imagine" to 3rd greatest rock song ever (from Volokhs):

Even in my George McGovern days, I knew that abolishing "possessions" was a recipe for totalitarianism, tyranny, poverty, and death. Just the collectivization of agriculture alone is modestly estimated to have killed 50 million people in the 20th century. And abolishing countries sounded like a nice idea until you thought about what that one world society was likely to be in practice. Imagine a world with the morals of the United Nations and the economics of Africa and the Middle East, run by the all-powerful Kofi. After all, in the early 1970s a large portion of the world's population already lived in one world/country--China--and they weren't faring too well, despite having taken extreme steps to "Imagine [that there were] no possessions."

Ha.
I haven't given the rest of the list more than a cursory glance (busy morning here at the information factory), but already I see some pretty loose shit.

14 Blowin' in the Wind Bob Dylan 1963

This song sucks.

35 Light My Fire The Doors 1967

36 One U2 1991

The Doors suck. Hard. Admit it. And U2 is just plain old, but "One" is an ok song, as far as U2 songs go. Which is a bit like saying that mononucleosis is ok, as far as communicable diseases go in that I've had it once, and really don't want anything to do with it anymore.

And Jeebus help us all if fucking "My Girl" is anywhere on this list.


UPDATE: Annie, in the comments, rightly points out that Rolling Stone's inclusion of "Imagine" on their list is bullshit boomer nostalgia. That reminded me that I should own up that the criticism linked to above is not, as noted, of the inclusion of the song, but rather of its lyrics. I suppose that criticism of a song's lyrics could be so devastating (or the lyrics themselves so terrible) as to render it unfit for inclusion on the list, but I'll be honest and say that that's not what I meant when I posted; and in any case, Rolling Stone obviously thought the lyrics of sufficient quality to rate the song #3 of all time. Which is obviously bullshit.