Do you have a favorite rock/pop song that you think is perfect?
 

By perfect I mean the song is complete, no filler, no calculated sounding hooks to make it pop, but a song which is beyond scrutiny and kicks royal ass!

I will start off with one song from the 80's by Donnie Iris called Ah Leah.

Ask any musician and they will tell you it is the apex of simplicity, but imo the composition and the feeling behind this tune is flawless. What makes it more interesting is for the solo he opts for an unusual vocal passage instead of the typical guitar lead masturbation, and at the end of the song he is literally repeating two notes which are far more effective than once again ending with the guitar masturbation lead to fade out.
Btw, this original release video is so fucking geeky its ridiculous. Yes that is Donnie Iris in the yellow polyester suit!

heres another 80's tune, danny elfman post oingo boingo although several of the oingo boing tribe play on it.
Gratitude is one of those perfectly composed tunes that let elfman stretch his vocal talents and also features a killer guitar lead from Steve Bartok. The video is pretty hilarious as well, done in absurdist boingo style. why elfman ditched weird music for doing soundtracks i'll never know.
oh right, tons o money.

Damn!!!

I loved that song, but the video (which I thankfully never saw before) sucked big time! :helpme

Okay, so here are some of my favorites (skewer away)...





The last concert I went to in the US prior to going to Japan for five years when I was 17 years old (after mostly living in Hawaii for the previous 6 years), was a concert featuring the double bill of Jeff Beck and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.





Upon arriving in Japan, in my first few days I ventured out and saw the movie "Emmanuelle" in French with Japanese subtitles, neither of which I could understand - it was mind-blowing on my impressionable young mind nonetheless:



The King Crimson song "Lark's Tongue In Aspic" song was also embedded in my head from that time on...



Some of my favorite guitarists ever in this thread. :)

ADG

alot of great songs from Radiohead, but Paranoid Android still amazes me. They throw some interesting musical twists in the composition which still makes me scratch my head, but it all works, theres no "attempts" its all right on the mark. one of the best all around groups both in themes and technical prowess playing today. i wish they would get back to more of this type of syncopated melodic/dissonant psychotic sound.

yep, i'd have to agree with all of these, wicked games is a pop masterpiece because is transcends pop, and king crimson is one of my all time favs.
i saw them once live in new orleans with both fripp and belew, fantastic sound.
king crimson self titled? album court of the crimson king was one of the first alt records i ever heard and it definitely helped shape my musical tastes, playing.
are you familair with fripp's Exposure album? i had a signed 33 edition which i somehow lost but i have to get that one again, fucking amazing. he manages to converge rock,jazz,punk,electronica and melodic balads on one album, and sometimes several genres in one tune. that one has bowie,daryll hall and a few other people doing some killer session work.