Rolling Stone's 100 GOAT Country Songs-The Rankdown (End)

[tim]

WHAT?! Y'all did Merle dirty.

[recordyear]

Preview of the next set:
3rd highest SD song, with a #100 (one of the four remaining)
Another female song left the rankdown

[castleoblivion26]

Jul 14, 2021 10:56:27 GMT -5 tim said:

WHAT?! Y'all did Merle dirty.

my thoughts exactly, how is "Okie From Muskogee" out already. Just wow

[.indulgecountry]

"I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" is great in Sara Evans' hands! Sadly, the original is not very good, lol.

[recordyear]

80. O.B. McClinton - Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You (1972)
Written by: Jerry Akines, Johnny Bellmon Victor Drayton, Reginald Turner
RS Rank: 85



Total: 988
Average: 65.86666667
SD: 20.5681523

castleoblivion26 23
.indulgecountry 40
🌺CountryLineDancer 42
ClevelandRox 43
HeyHeyHey 57
zaclord 🌈 63
someguy 68
BB🌕 69
fearlessarrow 69
singingrulebritannia 77
bboat11 78
recordyear 85
razorshark 87
zack97 90
tim 97

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS Comment

After failed attempts at R&B, country pastures were far greener for Osbie Burnett McClinton. Once the Mississippi native became the "Chocolate Cowboy" in the early Seventies, he rolled out a string of charting country hits featuring his rich baritone voice, able backup singers and a wry sense of humor. ("The Other One" corrected anyone mistaking him for Charley Pride.) McClinton's biggest song, off 1972's Obie From Senatobie (via Stax subsidiary Enterprise) was a twangier remake of R&B hit "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You," which notched Number 37 on the country charts. Originally an early Wilson Pickett single, the perspective of an about-to-be-jilted lover trying to spark that old flame resonates in any genre. By Reed Fischer

My comment
Nice production, but the lyrics leave a lot to be desired.
This had a rough start but creeped in top 80 at the end.

[recordyear]

79. Ernest Tubb - Walking the Floor Over You (1941)
Written by: Ernest Tubb
RS Rank: 22



Total: 983
Average: 65.53333333
SD: 18.29705502

castleoblivion26 31
zack97 35
recordyear 40
someguy 51
singingrulebritannia 61
fearlessarrow 62
tim 63
BB🌕 70
bboat11 75
razorshark 76
HeyHeyHey 77
🌺CountryLineDancer 82
zaclord 🌈 83
ClevelandRox 86
.indulgecountry 91

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS comment

Tubb started his career as a Jimmie Rodgers mimic but lost his yodel in 1939 when a doctor took out his tonsils. He soldiered on and became one of pop's first great terrible singers, with a voice so wooden that even he made fun of it. But like basically every successful youth-oriented musician of the last century, he had the keen idea to quicken the pace and firm up the beat, making the song as much about the accompaniment as the lead. "Walking" was an early instance of country music's fascination with the electric guitar, a rude instrument used in places of questionable morality. If anything, Tubb's voice only helped foster the idea that he was authentic – a regular dude who made good on his shortcomings and sold millions. By Mike Powell

My comment
This probably would be loved more if the lofi production didn't exist, because this is definitely a jam.
On the contrary to the previous song, this had a strong start before almost fell out of top 80.

[recordyear]

78. Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys - Blue Moon of Kentucky (1947)
Written by: Bill Monroe
RS Rank: 13



Total: 982
Average: 65.46666667
SD: 20.74886878

zack97 25
recordyear 39
singingrulebritannia 42
tim 42
BB🌕 49
ClevelandRox 60
HeyHeyHey 67
🌺CountryLineDancer 73
someguy 75
bboat11 76
razorshark 78
zaclord 🌈 82
castleoblivion26 88
fearlessarrow 92
.indulgecountry 94

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS comment

As the master builder of bluegrass, Bill Monroe took the fiddle music he learned on the Kentucky farm of his childhood, tricked it out with blues, gospel and swing, then stepped on the gas with his meticulously on-point band the Bluegrass Boys (led by Earl Scruggs). But his signature tune was timeless, beyond genre, a waltz featuring Monroe on mandolin and falsetto testifying, speaking straight to country folk about a blue moon guiding him back home, not bestowing bad luck. As Monroe told NPR in 1983: "It's got Baptists and Holiness and Methodists singing in it and Scotch bagpipe and the old Southern blues… It really touches your heart, and it's a good, clean music." Ironic, then, that Elvis Presley's jacked-up 4/4 version seven years later jet-propelled his taboo-busting career, and by extension, rock & roll itself. By Charles Aaron

My comment
This should have performed better. It's OG bluegrass song with impressive instrumental solo and solid high notes.
This had an even stronger start than Walking the Floor Over You. What a shame that it's only #78 here.

[recordyear]

77. Bobby Bare - Streets of Baltimore (1966)
Written by: Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard
RS Rank: 83



Total: 976
Average: 65.06666667
SD: 19.08041462

🌺CountryLineDancer 18
razorshark 25


BB🌕 56
HeyHeyHey 58
castleoblivion26 64
ClevelandRox 65
singingrulebritannia 69
someguy 71
zaclord 🌈 71
.indulgecountry 72
tim 78
bboat11 80
fearlessarrow 80
zack97 83
recordyear 86

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS Comment

This tragic tale of a man who gave up his entire life to make his woman happy in Baltimore (and who gets subsequently dumped there) was originally recorded by Bobby Bare, a singer most famous for working with a young Kris Kristofferson. But, as Bare told Rolling Stone in 1980, "Most of my hits would have been hits for anybody, I just got to 'em first." So it was with "Streets of Baltimore," penned by Tompall & the Glaser Brothers, who wanted to release the single themselves in September of 1966. Unfortunately for them, Bare got to it first (in June) and scored a hit, reaching the Number Seven spot on the country charts. The joke ended up being on Bare, though: For many, Gram Parsons' 1973 version is widely considered the song's most essential incarnation. By Cady Drell

My comment
I am mid towards the prominent bass sounds in this.

[recordyear]

75. John Anderson - Wild and Blue (1982)
Written by: John Scott Sherrill
RS Rank: 80



Total: 954
Average: 63.6
SD: 13.3056379

.indulgecountry 42
ClevelandRox 48
zaclord 🌈 50
HeyHeyHey 51
fearlessarrow 54
BB🌕 59
singingrulebritannia 60
razorshark 62
bboat11 67
🌺CountryLineDancer 68
castleoblivion26 69
someguy 70
zack97 80
tim 85
recordyear 89

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Streets of Baltimore has my favourite vibe and production as a mid-tempo song.
I'm not a huge fan of talking in a song, but this was minimal + I did enjoy the lyrics.
Not that I've been to Baltimore, so cannot relate to that part though.

[recordyear]

RS Comment

Inspired by a girl who "could party and rock harder than anyone I'd known," John Scott Sherrill wrote this song while separating from his wife. The first country chart-topper for both singer John Anderson and Sherrill, "Wild and Blue" is a hauntingly beautiful account of a cheating woman, told from the POV of her cuckolded man. Anderson's syrupy drawl and mournful wail is intensified by sister Donna's Hill Country harmonizing. Lloyd Green's pedal steel and twin fiddles paint a long, bleak evening of waiting for honey to come home, but in the end the singer's resigned forgiveness is hardly cause for celebration. Big-voiced Sally Timms gave Anderson's 1982 hit a straight, strong reading when British country-punks the Mekons covered it on 1991's Curse of the Mekons. By Richard Gehr

My comment
John Anderson doesn't have my favorite singing style with the dragging syllables. The fiddles in this song are also pretty standard.
FYI John Scott Sherrill is just announced to be inducted to Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame this year.

[recordyear]

73. Flatt and Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown (1949)
Written by: Earl Scruggs
RS Rank: 52



Total: 927
Average: 61.8
SD: 24.86014213

BB🌕 12
🌺CountryLineDancer 29
singingrulebritannia 34
razorshark 42
zack97 42
recordyear 59
ClevelandRox 61
bboat11 63
HeyHeyHey 65
fearlessarrow 73
castleoblivion26 81
tim 83
someguy 91
.indulgecountry 95
zaclord 🌈 97

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS Comment

If sparks flying off metal could sound sophisticated, they'd sound like Earl Scruggs' three-finger, five-string, five-alarm-fire banjo picking on this instrumental classic, which enshrined the banjo as a lead instrument in bluegrass. A stoic virtuoso from the western North Carolina boonies, Scruggs peppered the air with rippling eighth-note ragtime rolls on "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" (a song derived from an earlier track, "Bluegrass Breakdown," that he wrote for Bill Monroe), trading solo breaks with fiddler Benny Sims. Despite its innovative panache, the song only hit the country (and pop) charts after appearing as accompaniment to the car-chase scenes in Arthur Penn's scintillating, taboo-flaunting 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. By Charles Aaron

My comment
Even though it's an instrumental, the tone is quite epic and shows another classic (fast) side of bluegrass.
BB🌕 almost loses a top 10 there.

[recordyear]

74. Stanley Brothers - Man of Constant Sorrow (1951)
Written by: Dick Burnett
RS Rank: 11



Total: 948
Average: 63.2
SD: 22.44162799

singingrulebritannia 24
zaclord 🌈 32
ClevelandRox 37
BB🌕 39
fearlessarrow 44
tim 53
castleoblivion26 62
HeyHeyHey 74
recordyear 75
bboat11 77
.indulgecountry 77
zack97 81
🌺CountryLineDancer 88
razorshark 90
someguy 95

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[razorshark]

"Streets Of Baltimore" was exactly the kind of storytelling song writing I just lose it for. I lost my #1 early on in 81 Alt because "Labelled With Love" by Squeeze hit the same place for me.

[recordyear]

RS comment

With likely origins as a 19th-century Baptist hymn, "Man of Constant Sorrow" was revived by the Stanley Brothers in 1951; covered by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Judy Collins in quick succession a decade later; and launched a full-on Americana revival with its prominent placement in the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? in 2000. Its ambiguous provenance can be attributed to blind Kentucky fiddler Dick Burnett, who published it in 1913 as "Farewell Song" and, when asked its origin, replied, "I think I got the ballad from somebody… I dunno. It may be my song." Ralph Stanley heard his daddy sing a version, which he and brother Carter added words to and transformed into a high, lonesome landmark of post-breakup misery and transient unease. By Richard Gehr

My comment
I wondered how high it will be (or whether this song will appear in the list at all) if the placement in O Brother never happened. This song being higher than the previous revealed bluegrass song like Blue Moon of Kentucky or Foggy Mountain Breakdown is so wrong.

[recordyear]

72. Bellamy Brothers - Old Hippie (1985)
Written by: David Bellamy
RS Rank: 95



Total: 920
Average: 61.33333333
SD: 20.27697106

🌺CountryLineDancer 22
bboat11 30
.indulgecountry 30
razorshark 47
zack97 51
tim 60
someguy 65
zaclord 🌈 66
BB🌕 72
fearlessarrow 72
castleoblivion26 73
recordyear 78
HeyHeyHey 80
singingrulebritannia 87
ClevelandRox 87

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS comment

These irresistibly slick opportunists always had a keen eye for cultural shifts: "If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me" treated country's late-Seventies transition from the honky-tonk to the singles' bar as a forgone conclusion and 1987's "Country Rap" is pretty self-explanatory. "Old Hippie" is the Brothers' astute take on how onetime counterculture rebels, alienated by disco and new wave, turned to country music in the Eighties with an age-worn weariness: "He ain't tryin' to change nobody/He's just tryin' real hard to adjust." Ten years later, "Old Hippie (The Sequel)" brought us into the Clinton era, and in 2007, on "Old Hippie III (Saved)," our hero was born again. Meanwhile, contemporary country is providing a similar escape for many aging Nineties rock fans. Who's going to write "Old Slacker"? By Keith Harris

My comment
Rolling Stone when they made the whole list:

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

I really liked Foggy Mountain Breakdown as a child, as I recall my father somehow had it in his playlist and I heard it a lot.
Glad it didn't do as bad as other instrumentals usually do in many RDs. This is my fav type of instrumentals, where only the sound of raw instruments are enough to create this catchy upbeat melody without relying on any sort of productions. Therefore, for instrumentals, I definitely enjoy the old materials, compared with overly produced contemporary songs. 

[recordyear]

71. Buck Owens and the Buckaroos - Act Naturally (1963)
Written by: Voni Morrison & Johnny Russell
RS Rank: 43



Total: 916
Average: 61.06666667
SD: 12.23909946 (5th lowest)

zack97 38
.indulgecountry 45
🌺CountryLineDancer 47
someguy 49
BB🌕 57
zaclord 🌈 59
singingrulebritannia 59
fearlessarrow 61
bboat11 62
razorshark 66
tim 67
ClevelandRox 69
castleoblivion26 79
recordyear 79
HeyHeyHey 79

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS Comment

According to Owens' autobiography, Buck 'Em!, songwriter Johnny Russell stumbled into "Act Naturally" when a last minute Los Angeles recording session forced him to break a date with his Fresno girlfriend. When she asked what he would be doing, Russell gave her the line that would eventually open the song: "They're gonna put me in the movies, and they're gonna make a big star out of me." Two years and several rejections later, Owens heard Russell's demo and decided to record "Act Naturally" as part of the first sessions that brought his full road band, the Buckaroos, into the studio. Here, the group sounded tight and alive, the promise of that first line making the second – "We'll make a film about a man that's sad and lonely, and all I gotta do is act naturally" – all the more cutting. A Beatles cover helped a younger generation discover his music but Owens recalls a flight during which his neighbor explained to him how she loved the Beatles but hated country music. "As hard as I tried," he said, "I couldn't convince her that 'Act Naturally' was a country song." By Nick Murray

My comment
Both Buck Owens' songs here have interesting lyricism, but the melody is still on the simple side.

[recordyear]

The time has come. A female song with 3rd highest SD and somebody's #100. Any guesses?

SPOILER: Click to show

tim singingrulebritannia zaclord 🌈 ClevelandRox zack97 razorshark HeyHeyHey someguy BB🌕 .indulgecountry fearlessarrow castleoblivion26 🌺CountryLineDancer bboat11

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

I really think Bobbie Gentry should leave, but also Gretchen Wilson is staying longer than I thought, so...

[recordyear]

70. Gretchen Wilson - Redneck Woman (2004)
Written by: Gretchen Wilson & John Rich
RS Rank: 97



Total: 891
Average: 59.4
SD: 33.77533617 (3rd highest)

zaclord 🌈 7
.indulgecountry 10
bboat11 21
HeyHeyHey 26
ClevelandRox 31
someguy 31
🌺CountryLineDancer 52
fearlessarrow 75
castleoblivion26 77
razorshark 86
zack97 91
recordyear 92
tim 93
singingrulebritannia 99
BB🌕 100

Tags
gonecountry
taylor

[recordyear]

RS Comment

Originally a collective of Nashville outcasts and outsiders known for their open-minded open mic night, the MuzikMafia went mainstream with the twin successes of Big & Rich's "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" and Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman." With its upbeat swing and beer-drinking, Walmart-wearing identity politics, "Redneck Woman" quickly rose up the charts. Following a breakthrough performance at the 2004 Country Radio Seminar, "Redneck Woman" became the fastest rising Number One since Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart." Though Wilson herself was never able to repeat its success, the song paved the way for rocking female bad-asses like Miranda Lambert and Kimberly Perry. By Nick Murray

My comment
“Feminism song” type aisde, this song is ruined by the background chanting. zaclord 🌈 becomes the first person to lose a top 10, while BB🌕 finally loses the #100.

[recordyear]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Rankdown Closeness (100-70)}
fearlessarrow 9
ClevelandRox 12.48387097
zaclord 🌈 13.06451613
bboat11 13.19354839
someguy 13.5483871
castleoblivion26 14.51612903
razorshark 14.5483871
tim 15.22580645
HeyHeyHey 15.58064516
recordyear 15.93548387
BB🌕 17.29032258
.indulgecountry 17.93548387
zack97 20.80645161
🌺CountryLineDancer 23.58064516
singingrulebritannia 29.25806452
RS 36.12903226

SPOILER: Click to show

{Perfect Rankings (100-70)}
fearlessarrow 4
tim 2
razorshark 2
bboat11 2
recordyear 1
zaclord 🌈 1
ClevelandRox 1
HeyHeyHey 1
someguy 1
BB🌕 1
.indulgecountry 1
RS 1
singingrulebritannia 0
zack97 0
castleoblivion26 0
🌺CountryLineDancer 0