7. Ruby Tuesday
Artist: The Rolling Stones Album: Between the Buttons (Decca) I loved this song when I didnt like anything else by the Stones. That is, when I was 10. But then I grew up and came to appreciate the raunchy irony of the Rolling Stones. They were (are) over-the-top, but they wrote some of the greatest songs in rock and, really, had the greatest attitude. They popularized the early 1960s blues-rock of other groups like The Yardbirds (see below for their entry) and pushed the envelope when compared to The Beatles. Their first few post-Brian Jones albums created a rocking, wistful, and profligate atmosphere that all of us on the outside imagine the rock lifestyle to be. And I dare anyone to find a better breakup song than Dead Flowers. But then there was the late 1960s. While the Beatles injected some psychedelia into their cheekiness, the Velvet Underground exposed the seedier side of the 1960s, and the Doors pushed our listening experience as far as it would go, the Stones made a series of records that felt like they were trying too hard to fit in. Others have successfully defended much of the Stones output in this era, so I wont condemn all of it, but come on, Ruby Tuesday? The vaguely abstract terminology and teenage-angst lines (Yesterday dont matter if its gone) make me reach for the next button whenever this song comes up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYx_NfnoHL8