Listosaurus Rex

A couple weeks ago I posted about Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists.  But what good is discussion of artists without discussion of art?

Guitar World magazine put together a list of the one hundred greatest guitar solos by polling readers of their favorites and ranking the results.   Although I don’t have a copy of the issue, I managed to find the list online at about.com.  I doubt any connoisseurs of classic rock will be surprised the see some of the selections at the top.

Without further ado, the songs featuring the top ten guitar solos, the guitarists of each one, and the artist of the song featuring the solo.

1. Stairway to Heaven - Jimmy Page - Led Zeppelin
2. Eruption - Eddie Van Halen - Van Halen
3. Freebird - Allen Collins, Gary Rossington - Lynyrd Skynyrd
4. Comfortably Numb - David Gilmour - Pink Floyd
5. All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix - Jimi Hendrix Experience
6. November Rain - Slash - Guns ‘n’ Roses
7. One - Kirk Hammet - Metallica
8. Hotel California - Don Felder, Joe Walsh - The Eagles
9. Crazy Train - Randy Rhoads - Ozzy Osbourne
10. Crossroads - Eric Clapton - Cream

I think this is an excellent top ten list.  I love every one of those guitar solos and have no problem calling them some of the best I’ve ever heard.  I was especially impressed to see Hotel California, perhaps my favorite, making the top ten.

A stickler might point out that two of the songs in the top ten, along with several others in the complete one hundred, are by two guitarists and thus not solos.  However, if you listen to them, I think you will realize that they match the spirit of guitar solos; they are each improvisation-style guitar licks, usually within the context of a song (though “Eruption” and “Star-Spangled Banner,” which also made the list, are guitar solos on their own, separate from other songs).

It’s interesting how only three of Rolling Stone’s top ten guitarists, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, landed songs in the top ten.  However, since this is a reader poll, it makes sense that songs by guitarists with less mainstream appeal and who don’t focus as much on acrobatic solos, such as Robert Johnson and B.B. King, would be less likely to earn votes from the general public.

My favorite part of this list is probably the few oddball songs scattered throughout, such as “Surfing With the Alien” at #30 and “Cult of Personality” at #80.  I don’t listen to much classic rock radio, so I might never have listened to these songs if I hadn’t stumbled across this list.  By the way, the guitar solos in both of them are mind-blowing.  Look them up on YouTube.

I don’t really have many complaints with this list.  I would have put Layla higher and would have ditched every non-”Teen Spirit” Nirvana solo.  It is impressive that I can find so little to nitpick with on such a huge list, though.  Definitely check it out.

Pretty much every major video game site or blog put together big “best-of” lists for the last major console as the next generation of games started to come out.  The most interesting of these was the Gamecube lists, for a few reasons.  First of all, it had the fewest cross-platform games, making the lists the most insular.  Next, the Gamecube games continue to live on because of the backward compatibility and ‘Cube controller compatibility of the Wii.  Finally, Nintendo has always had the most obsessive, hardcore fans, the type of fans who will compulsively rank and debate their favorites because they love them so much.

I found a few lists I liked across the net and decided to assemble them into one ultimate, comprehensive top ten list.  There was a suprising amount of consitency, though nearly every list had its unique picks not seen on the other lists.  With some number crunching and weighting in a spreadsheet, I was able to come upon a final order for the games.

Without further ado, the lists, and my tabulation of the concensus Top 10 Greatest Gamecube games.

List #1:  IGN

1. Metroid Prime
2. Resident Evil 4
3. Super Smash Bros. Melee
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
5. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
6. Pikmin 2
7. F Zero GX
8. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
9. Super Mario Sunshine
10. Wave Race: Blue Storm

I love IGN’s writing and I think their picks are pretty solid.  Few argue with the greatness of the first five, and they put up good cases for the greatness of the second five.  I think number ten is a little bit of a surprise, especially since Double Dash didn’t make the top ten.  Overall, though, this is excellently done and quite enjoyable.  I recommend you give it a read and see what games they picked for numbers 11-25, as it’s a Top 25 list in actuality.

List #2: Gamespot

1. Metroid Prime
2. Resident Evil 4
3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
4. Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
6. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
7. Pikmin 2
8. Viewtiful Joe
9. Freedom Fighters
10. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4

Gamespot is great because they provide a wealth of information for each game.  Unlike IGN’s list, it’s a systematic organization of highest review scores.  From what I’ve read, other games were more memorable and left a more lasting impact than Tony Hawk 4 or Freedom Fighters.  Still, the list is comprehensive and provides a gateway to more information.  The list also goes on and ranks every game released for the ‘Cube, certainly a useful resource for Wii and Cube owners looking good games they might have missed.

List #3: metacritic

1. Metroid Prime
2. Resident Evil 4
3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
5. The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition
6.  Madden NFL 2004
7. Soul Calibur II
8. Viewtiful Joe
9. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
10. SSX 3

The site metacritic.com doesn’t write its own reivews.  Rather, it culls reviews from various other sites and given a score out of 100.  As much as I love most of these picks, I think simple critical praise at the time of release shouldn’t be the barometer for how great a game is.  Some games are great at the time, but are quickly topped.  Others simply fade from memory.

The best and most memorable games stick with you and leave a longer-lasting impact.  That’s something that can’t completely be judged during the first few days you play it.  Case in point: Madden 2004 being in the top ten of best reviewed games.  Most agree it’s good, but few people argue that it’s one of the system’s ten best games (though I did enjoy it thoroughly, personally).  However, metacritic’s still an interesting list to look at, and points you in the direction of various reviews from across the net.

List #4: GameSpy

1. Resident Evil 4
2. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
3. Metroid Prime
4. Super Smash Bros. Melee
5. Soul Calibur II
6. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
7. Beyond Good and Evil
8. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
9. Viewtiful Joe
10. Super Mario Sunshine

GameSpy’s list is my favorite out of the lists I looked at, not just because I like the picks the best, but because the writing is so effective.  If you look at any of these lists, look at this one.

List #5: Kombo

1. Metroid Prime
2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
4. Super Smash Bros. Melee
5. Resident Evil 4
6. Super Mario Sunshine
7. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
8. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
9. Pikmin 2
10. Viewtiful Joe

Kombo is not as established and respected as some of the other sites on this list, but this is one of my favorites of the lists I’ve looked at.  The picks are good, the writing is concise, effusive, and informative, and the site looks great.  A very pleasant read.

List #6: About.com

1. Beyond Good and Evil
2. Tales of Symphonia
3. Resident Evil 4
4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Colletor’s Disc
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
6. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
7. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
8. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
9. Animal Crossing
10. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

I’m generally not a big fan of the mega-blog About.com, but since it’s so widely read and recognized I decided to include it in this tally.  The writing is too brief, and some of the picks are a bit oddball, but I’m digging the inclusion of Animal Crossing and Tales of Symphonia.  Not digging the omission of Double Dash, Metroid Prime 1, and Melee.

THE CONCENSUS:

After tallying the results, assigning number values to different spots on different lists, doing some number crunching, and some swapping based on average placement and frequency of selection, I present to you the comprehensive Top 10 Greatest Gamecube Games according to the Internet.

1. Metroid Prime

2. Resident Evil 4
3. Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
4. Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
5. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
6. Super Smash Bros. Melee
7. Pikmin 2
8. Viewtiful Joe
9. Super Mario Sunshine
10. Beyond Good and Evil

I weighted About.com’s list less than the others, so Metroid Prime edged out RE4.  Since it seemed like only half of the lists had considered Twilight Priness, as it was such a late addition, I doubled it’s value, and it placed neatly behind Wind Waker, giving them number three and four.   Super Smash did not place in all of the lists, but placed very highly in the ones it did.  Eternal Darkness only barely beat it in my number crunching.   Next came Pikmin 2, followed by a toss-up for eighth, ninth, and tenth.  I decided to rank the three contenders — Mario Sunshine, Viewtiful Joe, and Beyond Good and Evil — by how many top ten lists they had made.

There you go!  What were your favorite games for the Gamecube?  Leave a comment and share!

Here’s a review of everything I looked at in handy table format:

Roger Ebert is absolutely my favorite movie critic. I don’t always agree with him (for example: he gave The Usual Suspects only one and a half stars) but I always like the thoughtful analysis. “Roger Ebert loves movies more, and better, than almost any critic” says famous director Martin Scorsese, and from my limited observation of movie criticism, I’d have to agree. He has a warm heart and an open mind towards movies, never afraid to learn something new from them or about them, never afraid to be pleasantly surprised or unfortunately disappointed. He gives a lot of four star reviews, but I think that such an esteemed critic, such an experienced viewer, is able to see beauty in so many movies is a great thing. Most people lose appreciation for an art when it becomes a career, when they spend too much time with it, when they develop familiarity. Not Roger. He remains passionate and joyous towards the art of cinema.

It’s just a little bit overdue, as he released it a few weeks ago, but here is his list of his top ten favorite movies from 2007:

1. Juno
2. No Country For Old Men
3. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
4. Atonement
5. The Kite Runner
6. Away From Her
7. Across The Universe
8. La Vie En Rose
9. The Great Debaters
10. Into the Wild

Of these I have sadly only seen three. I’m working on it, though. A few are coming to the cheap local theater I usher at, so I’ll get to see them for free.

Movies are an art, and as such, Ebert tends to go with the movies that move him the most, as opposed to those that have the tightest scripts, highest technical achievement, and the most critical praise. We see some of this with Juno, a romantic dramedy, at number one, and oft-maligned Kite Runner and Across the Universe earning spots on the list.

He provides solid reasoning for each of his picks. I think the list is worth a look.

What movies did you enjoy in 2007?

What inventions have most swayed human history, are “most consequential to who we are today?”  A columnist for the MSN Encarta encyclopedia named Tamim Ansary has compiled a list of his ten picks, backed with some pretty solid reasoning.  Of course, you’ll probably disagree with him, he notes, but isn’t that the point of any top ten list?  To start a good argument?

Here are his picks:

1. The mechanical clock
2. The toilet and modern plumbing
3. The printing press
4. Immunization and antibiotics
5. The telephone
6. The electrical grid
7. The automobile
8. The television
9. The computer
10. Something new

By “something new” he means some invention whose effects are only starting to be understood and ripple through society.  He tosses out birth control, the Internet, and virtual reality as possible picks here.

I agree, with exceptions.  I would have tossed television out and included the gun.  Meanwhile, I would have placed the electrical grid higher, as our instant, easy access to electricity drives so much of how we spend our time nowadays.  However, the list is arranged generally chronologically, so I’m not sure he means for the ten to be ranked.

Overall, his reasoning is pretty solid, though.  It really makes you think how different our lives are from the people who lived a thousand years ago.  Can you imagine not having any of these things?

Check out his original list if you want to read more.

The site LimerickDB is very much like the site bash.org, except it’s for limericks. Users can give each entry a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Thumbs up give the limerick a point, thumbs down subtract a point.

The site has a running list of the limericks with the most points. Nearly all of them at the top are very clever, but my favorite has the be the one currently sixth on the list:

If you catch a Chinchilla in Chile
And cut off its beard, willy-nilly
You can honestly say
That you have just made
A Chilean Chinchilla’s chin chilly

Ah, such wit and wordplay.

Anyways, if you have a soft spot for silly limericks, I recommend you check out some of the limericks topping the list.  Click the plus sign next to the ones you like and the minus sign next to the ones you don’t.  If you’re ambitious, you can even submit your own.