The Song that Best Represents a Band/Artist

[epilogue]

Norwegian Wood is the answer for The Beatles

That's a good one too.

[epilogue]

I'm feeling Tango till they're sore for Tom Waits. Jazzy/blues vibes from his earlier albums with the weirdness from the eighties and onward while showcasing his voice.

This is a good choice, yeah

That is a good pick.

[Chris_H_2]

While My Guitar Gently Weeps?

[washing machine]

I love KD and I love Washing Machine, but I just really don't think he's given pre-Geffen SY a fair enough shake on the board over the years for that to be a balanced take.

Hey, I like all eras of SY! I obviously haven't been listening as long as you have (you helped guide me through my initial discovery of the band, after all), but I'm pretty familiar with all the albums at this point. If I had to pick I might even say "Shadow of a Doubt" is my favorite SY song period.

But most importanly, and this is obviously subjective to no end, but Schizophrenia to me just sounds more like a SY song. It's slightly out of tune, it's unsettling but somehow ear candy too, it is full of texture, and when I close my eyes I can see dark NYC alleyways, clear as day.

I am not sure I really relate to this criteria with SY -- I don't think there are any SY songs where they don't sound completely and utterly like themselves. I would say this about my pick, though: I like "Schizophrenia," and Sister, a lot. But as someone who really enjoys longform instrumental music, that side of SY's musical personality has been super important to my experience with the band. And even though "Schizophrenia" gives an elemental taste of what that side of their personality is like (or would be like in a longer-form piece), and certainly does so in a way that is right for that song, it's not the same; to me, music that unfolds over a long period of time creates an experience that is not sufficiently conveyed or represented by being reduced to a "capsule" version. If someone were to tell me that the definitive, most representative Miles Davis track was, say, something off Birth of the Cool (where all the songs are 2-3 minutes long, limited by the 10-inch 78 rpm format), right off the bat I would be skeptical, because that experience of hearing his music unfold over a longer period of time, of following his musical trains of thought (and those of his sidemen) over the course of 9-10 minutes, is something definitive to my experience with his music that can't be conveyed simply by showing me something that adheres to a similar aesthetic value, only in a more consolidated format. That just isn't how it works for me.

For some bands, a mere representation of this type of element in a song that might be a contender for an exercise like this may be the best you're going to get, but for SY it isn't. Even if "Diamond Sea" ended after 5 minutes, it would still be a first-rate SY song, but it also presents an indulgent side of their personality (which, in my opinion, is a big part of what they were about) in a way that lets you actually indulge in it.

You could also argue that their pre-Geffen years comprised 9 years of their career, where the Geffen years and beyond comprised 21, so something that is from that later period and sounds like it is more "representative" of the band than something from their pre-Geffen period.

While fully accepting that I am a SY neophyte compared to Reid, Trag, Spenno, and probably most everyone else here (not many people got into SY for the first time in 2011), that's my argument and I'm sticking to it!

I follow your reasoning on this, but I don't fully buy into it selling a newcomer on SY. Then again, you are a relative newcomer by your own admission and this is the song you're choosing, so I'll eat crow.

Given your criteria, it's easy to hear why The Diamond Sea would be a good representative intro versus something like "Karen, Revisited" off of Murray Street, but I still think that neither song is as representative of SY as a whole like Schizophrenia is. The Diamond Sea is the perfect example of how beautiful and ethereal the band can sound, which I think we'd both agree is a big part of who they were for a solid run from WM thru Murray Street, but I've always seen that as a tendency of the band and not the whole picture. For the record, that is my favorite SY era. Hell, my username is washing machine for a reason. Still, I'm not fully on board but definitely get what you're saying.

Want to split the difference and call Expressway to yr. Skull the representative SY track?

[Norah]

a lot of words in this thread

[washing machine]

a lot of words in this thread

KD baited me into it!

It's funny and fitting that the argument for The Diamond Sea is lengthy while the argument for Schizophrenia is more compact, I guess. Some subconscious proclivities there, I suppose.

[washing machine]

Let's continue to talk SY, but I also want to revisit my Malkmus opinion.

I kind of want to declare Lariat the most representative Malkmus song solely on the basis that a line like "...we lived on Tennyson and venison and The Grateful Dead." is the most Malkmusian thing I've ever heard.

[tragabigzanda]

[Kevin Davis]

Want to split the difference and call Expressway to yr. Skull the representative SY track?

Sure, though I can certainly defer to "Schizophrenia" -- I'm way more interested in the long-winded discussion than the eventual consensus anyway!

Thanks for not tl;dr-ing my reply!

[washing machine]

While My Guitar Gently Weeps?

Disqualified because of the Clapton solo!

What about Don't Let Me Down, featuring Billy Preston?

[washing machine]

Want to split the difference and call Expressway to yr. Skull the representative SY track?

Sure, though I can certainly defer to "Schizophrenia" -- I'm way more interested in the long-winded discussion than the eventual consensus anyway!

Thanks for not tl;dr-ing my reply!

This is what posting is all about.

It's also why I sometimes ask an easily googleable question on RM and get baffled when someone (mickey mostly) posts that stupid LMGTFY link gimmick.

[epilogue]

Want to split the difference and call Expressway to yr. Skull the representative SY track?

Sure, though I can certainly defer to "Schizophrenia" -- I'm way more interested in the long-winded discussion than the eventual consensus anyway!

Thanks for not tl;dr-ing my reply!

This is what posting is all about.

It's also why I sometimes ask an easily googleable question on RM and get baffled when someone (mickey mostly) posts that stupid LMGTFY link gimmick.

I just don't understand how we aren't good friends.

[spike]

a lot of words in this thread

content, we call it content.

[Bammer]

a lot of words in this thread

content, we call it content.

Chris, look what you've done!!!!

[tree_]

britney spears - baby one more time

[washing machine]

Want to split the difference and call Expressway to yr. Skull the representative SY track?

Sure, though I can certainly defer to "Schizophrenia" -- I'm way more interested in the long-winded discussion than the eventual consensus anyway!

Thanks for not tl;dr-ing my reply!

This is what posting is all about.

It's also why I sometimes ask an easily googleable question on RM and get baffled when someone (mickey mostly) posts that stupid LMGTFY link gimmick.

I just don't understand how we aren't good friends.

That's always been on you, buddy boy. Let's take it to PM and hash it out.

[Bammer]

OK if we're talking about Creed, I guess I'll go with "One"

[Chris_H_2]

Madonna

[E.H. Ruddock]

Madonna

If you had said "I Love NY" I would have foe'd you immediately

[epilogue]

Want to split the difference and call Expressway to yr. Skull the representative SY track?

Sure, though I can certainly defer to "Schizophrenia" -- I'm way more interested in the long-winded discussion than the eventual consensus anyway!

Thanks for not tl;dr-ing my reply!

This is what posting is all about.

It's also why I sometimes ask an easily googleable question on RM and get baffled when someone (mickey mostly) posts that stupid LMGTFY link gimmick.

I just don't understand how we aren't good friends.

That's always been on you, buddy boy. Let's take it to PM and hash it out.

Well that simply isn't true. But I do apologize for making you feel that way.