Top 100 Country Songs?

I need to build on Matt's post about this top 100 country songs of all time list. This is arguably the stupidest list I've ever seen. Rather than vent on and on in an endless cycle of really bitchy paragraphs (for that you need to read my dissertation), I will just make a few short points.

1. "Ring of Fire" is not the greatest country song of all time. It's a great song. But it's not even Cash's best song for Christ's sake. This is just opinion I guess, but I'm not sure the people at Pop Matters have any valid reason for placing it there. What I think is that like so many people these days, they are jumping into the Johnny Cash hype head first. These days, young people simply assume that Cash is the greatest country artist of all time. They may have never even heard a Merle Haggard or Hank Williams, but they know that Cash is the best with all the certainty that only a 19 year old male can have.

Evidence for my point extends past "Ring of Fire." Three of the top 20 country songs ever by Cash? His cover of "Orange Blossom Special" as #8? Huh? What kind of special crack did they smoke here? Their justification, "Of the many versions of this fiddler’s classic, anyone can sing along with Johnny Cash’s cover of THE best train song ever." Well, then!

2. The writers of this last betray their ignorance through their pseudo-pithy one sentence explanations of the songs. The only Willie Nelson is "Whiskey River." This is pretty questionable to begin with. Wouldn't "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" be a clear choice? But their justification is off the charts dumb. "How many concerts have you attended that started with TWANG, TWANG, TWANG, TWANG, then these two words? We thought so."How many concerts have you attended that started with TWANG, TWANG, TWANG, TWANG, then these two words? We thought so. So I guess because Willie starts every show with "Whiskey River" it's great? What the hell kind of logic is this?

Not to mention some of it is just stupid. Their description of Brooks & Dunn's "Neon Moon" at #82: A wonderfully written ballad, with that unforgettable refrain, “watch your broken dreams dance in and out of the beams.” Allow to me now vomit.

3. Matt pointed out that he would think one would list a Hank song at #1. Certainly a valid point, though I'm not sure I would necessarily. But having only 3 Hank songs in the entire top 100 is off the charts bat-shit insane.

4. I'm not sure if they even understand the music's history. Listing 2 Conway Twitty songs is fine. I'm a big Conway supporter. But "It's Only Make Believe" isn't even a country song. It was when Conway was a rocker in the late 50s and he had a big hit with a song that sounded exactly like an Elvis song. Why is that on there? Because someone thought it didn't really sound country so it was cool?

5. Probably the biggest factor undermining the list's credibility is the back 50, particularly the 50-80 area. Here they make the mistake of assuming popularity=equality, odd for a supposedly hip music site. They end of the list is full of the dreck of country music from the last 15 years. I don't care how many units Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, etc. moved. They suck. They don't belong on the list, at least if that list doesn't also plan to suck. That doesn't mean it all has to be old stuff. One might include a Dale Watson tune for instance. Keeping alt-country out of the fold was smart since it's really a whole different thing. But that doesn't mean people aren't still making good country music.

6. Any list without "Harper County, U.S.A." has no credibility at all.