Yr Top Five Sonic Youth Songs
 

1 dripping dream
2 hoarfrost
3 JC
4 the diamond sea
5 incinerate

Honorable mentions..

Schizophrenia punk broke version
The Sprawl
Free City Rhymes

1. Mote
2. Teenage Riot
3. Genetic
4. Pipeline/Kill Time
5. Disappearer


(BTW, these change on the reg)

right now:

1. Moonface
2. (She's In A) Bad Mood
3. Becuz
4. Female Mechanic Now On Duty
5. Beautiful Plateau

I love becuz and mote.. i posted this on the metro cuz jc came on shuffle and i was like, "fuck this is actually one of my all time fave songs" which got me thinking if i had to split the baby what are some others

Man I was just thinking aboht this the other day. I used to have a fairly comprehensive list of my 10-20 Most essential Sonic Youth songs, but it's been a while since I updated it.

As many as I'm sure if forget it I tried to throw a list together off the top of my head, there are certainly a handful that absolutely MUST make the cut.

Brave Men Run
Free City Rhymes
Schizophrenia
Tuff Gnarl
Sympathy For the Strawberry
I'm Insane
Anagrama
Shadow of a Doubt
Hoarfrost
JC

Wow - that's already a heavily (almost sinfully) edited list that is still 2x the requested length. I omitted "Teen Age Riot" and "Diamond Sea" because they seem like such obvious choices, like listing "Day in the Life" in a Beatles song list. But I want to put them BACK!

Also, fuck me, but I'm probably going to be suffering over a 50 song list as a result of this, SFAD. So take my forced, chopped and screwed, totally flawed list and just hope I forget this ever happened.

What a shit list.

Cinderella's Big Score
Theresa's Sound-World
The Diamond Sea
Hoarfrost
I Love You Golden Blue

Washing Machine
Sunday
Shaking Hell
JC
Massage the History

Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog is a cover but also a favourite.

Brother James
Shaking Hell
Halloween
Beauty Lies in the Eye
Ghost Bitch

Hon. Mention

Flower
Intro (BMR)

I adore hoarfrost.

Im glad JC also made so many lists.. i thought real hard about Sunday as it was the first sonic youth song i truly fell in love with

Its called splitting the baby for a reason yo



What i like about this thread is not only reflects the differing tastes of SYG but how versatile Sonic Youth is as a band

As do I. It is my favorite Lee song besides Wish Fulfillment. JC almost made my list also.

cotton crown
genetic
on the strip
cross the breeze
the diamond sea

not in any real order but cotton crown is first

Cross the Breeze almost made my honorable mention list

Shaking Hell (Live)
Early American
Intro/Brave Men Run
Cross the Breeze
Candle

--
Contre de la Sexisme
Stereo Sanctity
Doctor's Orders/Skink/Bone/Quest for the Cup
Mildred Pierce
The Sprawl
Theresa's Soundworld
Hoarfrost

Hoarfrost
White Kross
Brother James
Burning Spear
I Love You Golden Blue

...somethin' like that. "Hyperstation" should probably be in there somewhere.

Ha ha, jokes.

Intro from BMR is another favourite and Brother James is possibly my favourite live SY song. I've heard so many incredible versions of it.

I think Brother James is SY's signature tune

Top 5 KIM songs
CROSS THE BREEZE (this song is best TURNT UP TO 11)
I Dreamed I Dreamed
Shadow of a Doubt
Beauty Lies In The Eye
Drunken Butterfly

Top 5 LEE songs
Mote
Genetic
Hoarfrost
Hey Joni
Pipeline/Kill Time

Top 5 Thurston songs
Teenage Riot
Inhuman
Catholic Block
Disappearer
Silver Rocket

Great post rob.. toilet &bowels.. im glad you at least made it out of the 80s to 1998 but you did realize that sonic youth put out some records in the 2000s and no joke, some of us like them? Or what, did you think after ATL the band was just trolling us?

The music SY released after ATL I still love but it did not move me like the earlier stuff, which, for me, drove me away from the bombast of Heavy Metal and the repetitive nature of hardcore and punk, and took me to a new world of skronk RAWK.

I will force everyone to sit and listen to the full 30 minute version of Diamond Sea at my funeral though.......

just impossible to make up top 5.

I am glad to see Cross The Breeze and Inhuman on the lists.

bollox, I completely forgot to mention one of my all time fav's. Where The Red Fern Grows and Green Light.

What is funny is i am the polar opposite, i had been casually listening to sonic youth since 1992 but i didn't get passionate until ATL and sonic nurse is my favorite record

actually sonic nurse might be my 2nd fave after sister now that i think. it's so sexy.

If I could, I'd list all tracks of BMR. But seeing that this is a thread for standalone songs, here are my current favorites. Preferences may change over time as they have on several occasions in the past.

Intro + Brave Men Run (Gotta mention both of them, they sort of belong together)
Protect Me You
Star Power
Wish Fulfillment
NYC Ghosts & Flowers

Addendum:

Songs that used to be in my ever-changing/rotating top five in the past:

Sunday
Paper Cup Exit
Inhuman (The first time SY really blew my mind)
Green Light
Rats
The Diamond Sea
I Dreamed I Dream


Edit: Hell, I still feel like I'm leaving out so many great songs. This is an incredibly tough choice.

Agreed making and reading this thread made me realize that i adore just about every single Sonic Youth song ever.. really! all day i've been trying to think about making a "yr worst 5" somgs that id always skip past and honestly i couldn't think of any! Not even from the muchmaligned EJSTNS

1. Schizophrenia
2. Dirty Boots
3. Rain On Tine
4. Wildflower Soul
5. Sympathy For The Strawberry

The top 4 are always there but there are so many songs that could be number 5

I think Sonic Nurse equals Sonics in their peak. stunning album. especially live. not my fav. but one of.

It was indeed a masterpiece live

first five songs off the vinyl version of NYC ghost and flowers.

not a bad idea,
and yeah...

Never thought of it before but I think you're right.

Also just dawned on me that the only track I listed not sung by Kim was an instrumental.

While I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, we all know it doesn't hold up to intense scrutiny. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think we can all agree that 'Sleepin' Around' is a puke-fest. We thought it was a puke-fest BEFORE we learned it was autobiographical. BARF!! I don't even have to leave Rather Ripped to submit another...'Lights Out'. Absolutely terrible. Rather Ripped isn't one of their best efforts, but it has some all-time greats like 'Pink Steam', 'Turquoise Boy', and 'Reena'. I think there are approximately 10 songs in SY's entire catalog that are skip-worthy. That's a damn low percentage, for sure...

Posting first, then going back and reading thread...pretty tough to narrow it to just 5, but here's my list

1. Unwind
2. Theresa's Sound World
3. Brother James
4. Stereo Sanctity
5. Hoarfrost

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Read this and had a good chuckle. As morbid as the thought might be, I must admit I have had the very same one. Mine is during the actual lowering of the casket. Could there be any better send-off?

And pretty interesting choices on some of these lists. I always enjoy these threads.

Sleeping Around is their worst song BY FAR

I actually liked sleeping around.. its got a groove

Songs i skip...
Providence
Little trouble girl
My friend goo
I'm Insane
Starfield Road


Interestingly even though i consistently rank EJSTNS as the "worst sonic youth album" i checked it out again and realized i actually like a lot of songs on it

I have seen at least one more person having same idea on this forum (diamond sea/funeral).
Pauly Bee...anyone? haven't heard of him in ages..hope he is alright.