No Hendrix? No Elvis Costello? No Prince? Steve, I hardly knew ye.

Hi Steve,
I keed, I keed. I hear you on all of the above. RE: Hendrix, “Machine Gun” is a good one — if the criteria is sheer balls-out kickassitude, I think I’d have a hard time deciding between that one, “Fire,” “I Don’t Live Today,” and “Crosstown Traffic.”
RE: Costello, “Shipbuilding” is a fantastic piece of songcraft. “Alison” is better. But my choice would be “Pump It Up,” which belongs on anyone’s list of top rock songs.
RE: Prince, when I was growing up, the local (Vancouver) rock radio stations played the shit out of “Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry.” I know things were probably different on the East Coast, but that’s my frame of reference.
Obviously I’d also want Led Zep (“Kashmir,” I think) and The Who (something from Live at Leeds, most likely) in there somewhere. Probably Television’s “See No Evil” if that’s not pushing the format too far. Maybe “I Wanna Be Sedated.” Definitely “Heroes.” Definitely “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.”
From your list, I’d keep Sabbath, Talking Heads, The Clash, Springsteen, Living Color, and Queen for sure (though not necessarily those songs). REM, Yes, ELO, Thin Lizzy, and Public Image Ltd. would be stricken instantly. I admire your inclusion of Romeo Void, Steve Forbert, and Bram Tchaikovsky, though obviously those wouldn’t be on my list.
Other than that, my own personal skew is necessarily late 80’s/early 90’s: “Paradise City,” “Lithium,” and “Black Hole Sun,” for sure. Perhaps “Even Flow” and “Enter Sandman.” A few more from that time, surely.
Also: “Paranoid Android,” clearly.
In a just world I feel I should be able to get away with “Bombs Over Baghdad” on a rock list.

I have a special place in my heart for any man who is committed to listing Cheap Trick on his money shot list. I thought about them, for sure, but wasn’t brave enough to keep them on.
What we share: T Heads, Springsteen, Queen.
Where I strayed: The Who, Pink Floyd, The Police, U2.
Born in the ’60s. Product of the ’80s.

True confession, Darcy and Holly: I’m not especially a Who fan. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t detest them the way I do the Doors—far from it. I just never really warmed up to them. But I can respect anyone who’d include them.
Among the songs cut from my initial, first-draft list were “Comfortably Numb,” “Heroes” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.”
No disrespect to Fats, Chris, but in my personal top 20, no.
And yes, I know, Eric…I’m appalled that I had to cut the Moody Blues, too. That is what you meant, right?

No Steve, that’s not what I meant at all. I’m horrified that you were even considering that song.

Chris, please cue up Romeo Void.
That said, having just one pick out of 20 feature a woman’s voice did in fact bother me a little for a minute. As I mentioned at the end of my piece, Heart’s “Barracuda” (or “Magic Man,” for that matter) stood a chance at making my list. If I’d been asked for a Top 40, it might very likely have included one of those two, plus the Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket,” X’s “The World’s a Mess (It’s in My Kiss).” Maybe — maybe — a Pat Benatar song, too, though that’s a stretch for me. (I’m actually a huge Bangles fan, too — but my sappy favorites among their songs aren’t the ones that rock, even though they’re indisputably a rock band.)
But there’s a point that ought to be made here: Should anyone really be expected to aim for objectivity in compiling a Top 20 list? Are we genuinely aiming to find a common mean, to somehow “prove” though consensus that there are 20 songs incontrovertibly greater than all others?
Not in my viewpoint. Lists like these involve playing favorites, pure and simple.
In my previous comments I admitted to not caring for the Who, and flat-out detesting the Doors. Want more heresy? I’m lukewarm on Grace Slick (though “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” are terrific songs), and I have never, ever, even for a moment been a Janis Joplin fan. I don’t know Sister Rosetta Tharp’s work well enough for it to displace any of my adolescent-fanboy favorites, and I don’t personally hear Roberta Flack and Joni Mitchell — both very great singers — as being “rock” performers per se.
Everything about this exercise deals in personal memory, perception and nostalgia; to suggest otherwise seems misguided. In creating a list like this, there’s nothing in any way embarrassing about proclaiming exactly who and want you love — what it was that truly moved you, what lingered.
Put another way: What so-called “expert” in his or her right mind would objectively select Bram Tchaikovsky’s “Girl of My Dreams,” a power-pop blip by an obscure one-hit wonder?
Looking for objectivity, seeking to achieve some sort of historic ideal, striking some golden formula of parity among all — these are noble goals. But I’d like to see the individual whose personal purview is genuinely so broad that everything for which you’re demanding an accounting is genuinely encompassed in a mere 20 songs out of the thousands that have been sung since Fats and Chuck invented the style.
P.S. Wanda Jackson beats nearly everyone either one of us named above, BTW.

I can’t believe it took me this long to read this post! If the criteria is, “Songs I always always always listen to and bop along to when they come on the iPod or radio,” then my list would include X’s “Los Angeles,” the Go-Gos’ “We Got the Beat,” the B-52s’ “Rock Lobster,” Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone,” the Motels’ “Total Control,” Abba’s “Dancing Queen” (does this count as rock?), David Bowie’s “Suffragette City,” BTO’s “Takin’ Care of Business.”
Too bad I can’t include disco and 70s Philly Sound/Salsoul type things…

And say, Elisabeth, how do we convince you to sign up for Twitter?