I was listening to random music on the iPod at the weekend and Beat It by Wacko came on. It is 30 years old next year but it still sounds so fresh and new.
So - given an arbitrary 20 year old cut-off - what old songs still sound like they were written yesterday (production values disregarded).
My top three:
Beat It - Michael Jackson
Sign o' the Times - Prince
Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind
Anything by JLS
Yesterday, Beatles
God is a DJ, Faithless
Clouds, Joni Michell
Ghost Town - The Specials
Good call Muppet - one of my all time faves there.
Ghost Town - The Specials
Big +1 on that one.
Billie Jean
Big Yellow Taxi
West End Girls
If Appetite were released today, it would still sound astonishing.
Rock n Roll Part 2 - Gary Glitter.
You reckon, CFH? Some of it maybe but I listened to a good bit of it at the weekend and thought quite the opposite.
I listened to a good bit of it at the weekend and thought quite the opposite.
I thought it the first time I heard it. 
I meant the opposite of sounding like it had been written yesterday but I have to say, much as some of AFD is brilliant, I would have always said that some tracks were a bit filler-ish.
Beach Boys God Only Knows
The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows
Talk Talk Life's What You Make It 1986)
Beach Boys God Only Knows
Paul McCartney has said that God Only Knows is the most perfect pop song ever recorded, and the one he really wishes he'd written. I find it difficult to argue with that.
Sandy Denny's Who Knows Where The Time Goes is another timeless song, (pun intended), and all the more remarkable considering Sandy was, IIRC, only fourteen when she wrote it. Utterly wonderful song.
House of Pain - Jump Around
Aerosmith/Run DMC - Walk This Way
The Stranglers - Golden Brown
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
The Boys are back in Town - Thin Lizzy
Papa was a Rolling Stone - The Temptations
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Connected - Stereo MC's
EDIT : Removed Placebo as I got my years mixed up and it was too new to be included
As an aside there's some great songs being suggested here! I can see me on iTunes later!
"Could you be loved? (WhoooNowandBeLoved)" Bob Marley
Most of Bob Marley's stuff, in particular One Love, No Woman no Cry....
EDIT
**High Fives Bikebouy!** We were 2 seconds apart there! 
deadlydarcy in not mentioning f'in JLS on a music thread shock.
Ok, some songs. Disagree with nearly all of the above, but each to their own eh? I'm sure you'll disagree with mine (not sure if I agree with them) 
Donna Summer - I Feel Love
New Order - Fine Time
Funkadelic - Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow
Grandmaster Flash - The Message
deadlydarcy in not mentioning f'in JLS on a music thread shock.
FAIL 
Sorry though...I'm working on it.
New Order - Fine Time
+1
Add to that Bizarre Love Triangle & many others from Substance...hard to believe sometimes it was an 80s album.
Maybe one of JLS's mums was making music?
Most of those songs are great songs, but far too good to have been written yesterday!
I just can't imagine any modern band coming out with Golden Brown for example.
*sigh*
*sigh*
Yeah, gramps.
I just can't imagine any modern band coming out with Golden Brown for example.
Fair comment, but there's some superb songs around these days.....
I've just listened to Yuck on Spotify...they sounded pretty good to me
"Rainbow Rising" - erm Rainbow.. hahaha
OR
"Smoke on the Water" - erm Deepest Purple, phah..
OR
"Paranoid" - Black Sabbath (finished with me woman cos' she wouldn't do the washing up) yadda yadda
Ok, so I've been searching for metal tunes on Classic Rock..and??
Agadoo - Black Lace
Fair comment
I really can't go into the 1000s of reasons why it is far from a FAIR COMMENT!
It's like an old bid sitting slumped in the day centre, Vera Lynn on the gramophone... "Ooh, they don't write em like they used to eh, Ethel?"
[warble]We'll meet again, don't know where don't know whennnnnnnnnnnnnn,
But I know we'll meet again some sunny, dayyyyyyyyyyy[/warble]
Molgrips - you missed the point of the thread completely.
There are bands around now equally able to write good music (although Golden Brown IS an amazing song - agreed). The point of the thread is to reflect on older songs that have stood the test of time and still sound as fresh and exciting now as when they were released over 20 years ago.
Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell
New York, New Yawk - Franky Sinatra
La Trav - Verdi
Oh, I see. So basically, classics then?
Fair commentI really can't go into the 1000s of reasons why it is far from a FAIR COMMENT!
Ah, that's not what I meant. I didn't mean that all modern music was rubbish - just that it was different, because of course musical trends vary all the time. The thread title confused me, I thought it was about songs that were before their time or sounded like modern songs.
Most of the tracks mentioned above are "of their time" in that they are similar to/derived from other music being made at that time (Pet Sounds/some Beatles being exceptions). However, I'd argue that both Bohemian Rhapsody and Bat Out of Hell were sufficiently unique at the time that they stand out from their eras and would sound fresh even today.
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