#20. On the Dark Side.
You, sir. Are a fiend.

Each one on it's own page. LAME.

His only noteworthy contribution to popular culture since the 80s has been the "No I'm Dean Koontz" bit on 'Family Guy' and now he wants to parade the fact that he hasn't listened to a record album or "Compact Disc" in the last 20 years to EW listeners.

SockMonkeyHolocaust

How about the Dark Tower series he only just finished in 2004 which is being re-released in graphic novel form as we speak, or The Mist movie that's in theaters right now.

Seriously, hearing you say he hasn't contributed to culture lately is like hearing a first grader lament on how quantum mechanics hasn't improved his life recently. Read first, then speak.

//Someone who read The Stand/Dark Tower please back me up here.

RedDyeNumber4: hearing you say he hasn't contributed to culture lately is like hearing a first grader lament on how quantum mechanics hasn't improved his life recently. Read first, then speak.

//Someone who read The Stand/Dark Tower please back me up here.

I'll back you up on Dark Tower.

/Quantum Mechanics?
//I'm still waiting for my damn jet pack!

FTA: The quintessential AC/DC hook...played over...and over...and over.

Sounds like the recipe for AC/DC's entire career.

RedDyeNumber4: SockMonkeyHolocaust

How about the Dark Tower series he only just finished in 2004 which is being re-released in graphic novel form as we speak, or The Mist movie that's in theaters right now.

Seriously, hearing you say he hasn't contributed to culture lately is like hearing a first grader lament on how quantum mechanics hasn't improved his life recently. Read first, then speak.

//Someone who read The Stand/Dark Tower please back me up here.

Apparently some people don't consider books to be pop culture.
The Shawshank Redemption alone should've dissuaded the lack of contribution argument, though.

3 Elvis songs and only 1 Beatle song, what the? No Roy Orbison? No Bill Haley & The Comets? Oh well, it's (the list) is by a freakin' horror writer.

Didn't he do this same thing a month or so ago?

I have to give Subby props on the "Talisman" reference.


/best King book of all

Needles and Pins sucks, Beaver Brown blows donkeys, who the hell are The Lyres?, "She Loves You" is sickening, Bruce Springsteen = overrated, but other that, the most interesting "best of" list I've seen on the internet in years. Any list including a Bon Scott AC/DC song has to have some merit.

Rev. Skarekroe: Didn't he do this same thing a month or so ago?

Pretty sure this was repeated not only a month ago, but the previous month before that. I'm bookmarking this to submit in near future.

Blue Oyster Cult: Burnin' For You.

Bumpity bumpity buuuuuump!

GurneyHalleck: Needles and Pins sucks, Beaver Brown blows donkeys, who the hell are The Lyres?, "She Loves You" is sickening, Bruce Springsteen = overrated, but other that, the most interesting "best of" list I've seen on the internet in years. Any list including a Bon Scott AC/DC song has to have some merit.

I abhor bruce. I've never understood why people like him so much. Every time I hear that he "saved" rock I want to smash a puppy with my war hammer.

/has a war hammer
//it is covered in the crusty dried blood of puppies
///don't mean to thread jack

Just some thoughts....no particular order,

Subterranean Homesick Blues
Have a Cigar
Black Magic Woman
All Along the Watchtower
Free Bird
Like a Rolling Stone
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Sweet Child of Mine
Purple Haze
When the Levee Breaks
Kashmir
Layla
Prison Sex
Back in Black
Stranglehold
Alive
Comfortably Numb
Paranoid
Young Lust
Lithium
Hey Joe
Hey Jude
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Aerials
Ball and a Biscuit

Hey,

Steve truly loves rock and roll. If you read his older books, every chapter generally has a quote from a classic tune.

Christine and it were great for that.

He may not be a pulitzer winner, but his stuff up until the 80s made for a good read.

He is brilliant at capturing the feel of americana.

I really like the white stripes, and I enjoy the song ball and biscuit. What I don't understand is why this song is touted as one of the greatest rock songs of all time. yes it has good guitar work, but so do a lot of songs. The level of play that jack White demonstrates on that song is amazing in comparison to the current music scene, but when it is compared to the rock music genera in general it doesn’t measure up. I suppose it is a testament to the lack luster musicianship of today’s pop musicians.

Hey, he's honest. He admitted before that he liked an Avril Lavigne song. I'd rather have someone say "yeah, I like what I like so fark you" than have the snob rockers say "oh, you like THAT, ick."

RedDyeNumber4: Seriously, hearing you say he hasn't contributed to culture lately is like hearing a first grader lament on how quantum mechanics hasn't improved his life recently. Read first, then speak.

The last Dark Tower books were terrible and rather noted for how terrible they are. If he wasn't STEPHEN KING it never would have gone that far. Those last books were popular on his name only.

The Mist was based on a story he wrote over 20 years ago and would have never stood on its own without the massive re-writes that occurred.

I think this same exact link was posted a few months ago when it was running in the magazine. I mean I distinctly remember this same exact discussion especially comments about his inclusion of the Beaver Brown Band on the list.

also repagination helps, it's a firefox application. Well worth it for those awful multi-paged lists.

fark slideshow lists. Srsly.

Anyone have the list so those of us who are too lazy to click through every page can read it?

Hey, nobody has ever come into the New Zealand record store I work at and asked for any of this, so it must be awful, tired, and sad.

RedDyeNumber4: Seriously, hearing you say he hasn't contributed to culture lately is like hearing a first grader lament on how quantum mechanics hasn't improved his life recently. Read first, then speak.

Read what he puts out now? No thanks. Stephen King was good up until he dropped the cocaine use and got hit by a truck. After he wrote that farking 'On Writing' book he's been a constant disappointment who's more concerned about his own fame rather than his writing and has rested on his laurels.

Very little I recognize on his list, let alone like.

I wonder what he thinks of the album "Touched By the Crimson King" by Demons & Wizards..

RedDyeNumber4: Seriously, hearing you say he hasn't contributed to culture lately is like hearing a first grader lament on how quantum mechanics hasn't improved his life recently. Read first, then speak.

//Someone who read The Stand/Dark Tower please back me up here.

I haven't seen anyone really talk shiat about King's writing style, but plenty of us have been disappointed with his work lately. The Dark Tower? The first 4 books were good, but the last 3 (with the possible exception of Song of Susannah) were significantly worse. How on Earth a kickass series like The Dark Tower could end with the lamest possible ending (Think: "...it was all a dream." for those who haven't read the book) is beyond me. And that was all he had the whole time? WTF?

The Stand was good, but over-rated. I've only read the uncut version, though. So I don't know how it compares to the original.

raiden23 I have to give Subby props on the "Talisman" reference.


/best King book of all

The reference is actually from The Stand (Tom Cullen), but The Talisman was pretty cool. The sequel Black House was also good, but to a lesser extent.

And of course, The Dark Tower series kicked much ass.

/link farked DNRTFA

different seasons was a great read.
The last dark tower books kinda sucked.
some of his short stories are underrated though:
the mist was actually pretty good
Dolan's cadillac was great...and there are afew others.

Who cares what he thinks about music?

Pet Semetary---great book/premise. The Mist---great story, the movie followed it very closely, most disturbing ending I've ever seen. But yeah, in the "what have you done for me lately" category, Stephen has lost it

Any list that is this dated and doesn't include tunes by Badfinger or the Raspberries is bogus in the only book not written by Stephen King - Mine.

busy chillin': Just some thoughts....no particular order...

I'm not sure Ball and a Biscuit is one of the best songs in history, but probably the best blues song in a decade

meh.

SockMonkeyHolocaust: His only noteworthy contribution to popular culture since the 80s has been the "No I'm Dean Koontz" bit on 'Family Guy' and now he wants to parade the fact that he hasn't listened to a record album or "Compact Disc" in the last 20 years to EW listeners.

While I disagree with nearly all of King's choices, there really hasn't been too much recorded in even the last 25 years that deserves to be on a list like this.

Maybe this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ePYhrT3ec

M-O-O-N spells King is God :P

RedDyeNumber4: SockMonkeyHolocaust

How about the Dark Tower series he only just finished in 2004 which is being re-released in graphic novel form as we speak, or The Mist movie that's in theaters right now.

Seriously, hearing you say he hasn't contributed to culture lately is like hearing a first grader lament on how quantum mechanics hasn't improved his life recently. Read first, then speak.

//Someone who read The Stand/Dark Tower please back me up here.

Read The Stand & all of the Dark Tower books & now I'm awaiting the graphic novel (from our local library). I generally don't read graphic novels, but the Dark Tower one interests me, so I'm willing to give it a try. I'm also looking forward to seeing The Mist once it hits DVD. Not only because it's one of my favorite Stephen King novellas, but it's directed by Frank Darabont, who did a wonderful job with Shawshank Redemption & The Green Mile. Of his short stories, my favorite is Dolan's Cadillac. Of his books, Salem's Lot has always been my favorite.

RedDyeNumber4: SockMonkeyHolocaust


//Someone who read The Stand/Dark Tower please back me up here.


Right there with you. "Dark Tower" series was epic in scope and tremendous in execution. When I read the books I was in Roland's world.

"The Stand" scared me so much it took me almost 10 years to read it completely.

What? No Pink Floyd??

I am a huge SK fan but have not bought his more recent releases like the book Cell, Blaze, Lisey's Story, for some reason they just don't appeal to me.

My fav's
The Stand (watched part of the miniseries and had to turn it off it was so bad)

Desperation- this book really creeped me out. Refused to watch the televised abomination of this one too.

The Talisman- hope they never make a movie of this one

The Dark Tower- only way I would watch this as a movie/show would be if it was animated. Thought this even before the graphic novels came out.

long story made short (too late I know)
His books are really good. I always feel like I get to know the characters so well that I would know them if i bumped into them on the street. However this rarely translates into the crap movies they constantly try to make out of his books. They forget character development and go for the shock and scare. VERY few movie adaptions are good. Misery, Shawshank, Stand By Me are the stand outs. Why? Watch them again and think aobut what I just said and you will know.

I dunno, I like Lisey's Story (Which I thought was a very sweet love story.), and From a Buick 8 (Which I found to be a "classic" King horror novel.). However, Cell needs to go into a corner, never to be heard from again. I couldn't get past page 25, I think.

King's always had up and down periods. I can't stand half his shiat from the late 80s/early 90s. And, while I thought that the later DT books weren't as good as the first ones, they weren't bad.

/Doesn't like Koontz.
//Except for the Odd Thomas books.

I think it was a great list, a bunch of classics, some I had to look up but I recognized them when I heard them. I expected some Ramones just cause I heard he said they were his fav...hence pet cemetery. Good list, not the best of all time, just his favs. I was glad to NOT see free bird, stairway and the like on there...refreshing.

/refreshed by some oldies

duke of earl
blue moon
summertime blues, cochran
great balls of fire
miss. queen; mountain
stone cold fever ; the pie
gimme shelter
rumble
pictures of lily
anything by the ramones

at least he got 1 right; RAMROD

I just finished reading the Talisman and I thought it was pretty bad. The mid-section with Wolf and Sunshine Gardner was insufferable. The Blasted Lands sequence was the only saving grace of the second 1/2 of the book.

/Not really on-topic, but whatev.

For those wanting to check out the graphic novels for the Dark Tower, my suggestion is to avoid them. This is my opinion after reading the books and the first few issues of the "Gunslinger Born" graphic novel adaptations. It's as if they just took the major plot points, wrapped them up in as few (visually remarkable) cells as possible and crammed it out the door. It just loses all of the weight of the characters and the story. The sparse dialogue and summarizing narration give it more of a Cliff Notes feel rather than another window into that world. However, I think the art is actually pretty good and somewhat unique. If you're looking for visual cues to help with reading the books, you could do worse. Anyway, that's just my two cents.

And as for the person claiming the ending was too much like a cheesy "it was just a dream" ending, I don't think we read the same books. I honestly thought that that was a most appropriate ending for the books. But that's all I'll say so as not to ruin it for anyone who wasn't interested in findings spoilers in this thread.

Great list.

Wow, apparently someone stopped listening to popular music about twenty years ago. Shame he missed out on this Link (new window)