Well parried, old man. Can't say I agree re She Loves You (OK, I already did say that), but I do get your point. "Paradigm shift", you asshole. For the record, my Beatles top five would be (never really thought of this before): "She Said She Said"; "For No One"; "A Day in the Life"; "And Your Bird Can Sing"; and "Norwegian Wood"...and "Hey Jude" and "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" and "Hard Day's Night" and "If I Fell". OK top ten.

Re Heroin, well, I love the Stranglers tune too, but I don't think it compares as a piece of art. It's a beautiful song, without a doubt. But "Heroin' is so uncompromisingly ambivalent and chilling, and sonically wild. Imagine Sonic Youth without this song...I can't, honestly. To add critical weight to my argument....here's what All Music says about it - if I could do fancy links this would look much more impressive.

(Note to myself, not sure if All Music is considered "critical weight" or not, but they got this one bang on)
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Song Review
by Mark Deming
In 1966, when the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" and Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" were generating no small controversy for daring to flirt with the subject of recreation drug use, the Velvet Underground crossed a then-unthinkable threshold and began performing a song called "Heroin." Actually, Lou Reed had written the song in 1964 while still a songwriter for hire for Pickwick Records, but his employers were understandably wary about allowing him to record it, and it wasn't until the Velvet Underground began performing in late 1965 that the song made its public debut. While "Heroin" hardly endorses drug use, it doesn't clearly condemn it, either, which made it all the more troubling in the eyes of many listeners; at a time when marijuana was still legally classified as a narcotic, the notion of a rock & roll song discussing a dangerous drug without openly condemning it was practically the same thing as a ringing endorsement. Musically, "Heroin" was every bit as challenging as it was thematically; few rock songs of the period made better or more intelligent use of dynamics, and the slow build through the verses into the manic frenzy of the song's conclusion sounded like nothing else in rock music at the time. In addition, John Cale's screeching, atonal viola helped introduce the use of serious dissonance to pop music; along with Roger McGuinn's guitar breaks in "Eight Miles High," it was one of the first examples of the lessons of free jazz or the avant-garde finding a willing student in rock music. While Lou Reed's solo recording of the song on the live album Rock n Roll Animal smoothed out a few of the rough edges, even in its meekest recorded version the song remained a dark and troubling masterpiece.
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Nice. I particularly like the incidental affirmation it adds to my Eight Miles High choice. Those guys at All Music are geniuses!

On a less smug note, I've just visited the CBC website and can confirm four of the 70's nominations - "Imagine", "Hotel Calafornia", and apparently (this from Derek and not the site), "God Save the Queen" and "Take A Walk on the Wild Side". Interesting. Their supposed to have eight songs by tomorrow (10:30 - 10:45 on CBC One)...so I've missed a couple at least. They choose five on Saturday at 11:00. So it looks like each of us has one in the running for the big all-alcohol prize. "Take a Walk on the Wild Side", nah.

Stuart, for Christ's sake. Hello?

The 80's should be good.