The greatest rock and roll songs ever written, according to Stephen King: “It’s a three-way tie”
When he’s not busy adding to his ever-expanding bibliography or watching one of his works become the latest to be snapped up and brought to film or television, Stephen King can usually be found listening to rock and roll in his spare time.
It’s always been his musical genre of choice, although there are exceptions. That said, he’s probably too scared to play Lou Bega’s ‘Mambo No 5’ at home ever again, since his wife threatened to leave him if she ever heard the infectious earworm played in her vicinity, such was her husband’s obsession with it.
His favourite band has always been AC/DC, and he got to indulge in a bit of fanboy wish-fulfilment when he enlisted them to record the soundtrack for his ill-fated directorial debut, Maximum Overdrive, and their contributions are about the only thing from the terrible, terrible movie that’s worth remembering.
King also calls Bruce Springsteen a close personal friend, so it’s no secret that he’s a fan of ‘The Boss’, while some of the other artists he couldn’t live without include Metallica, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Ozzy Osbourne, to name a few. However, none of those legends are responsible for any of the three tracks he called the greatest in rock and roll history.
Naturally, he shared it when ranting about how much he hates Celine Dion. “What I’m not interested in is ear candy,” he wrote in Entertainment Weekly. “There’s a place where you can put that, and it’s not in your ear. I think that stuff should crawl right out of the radio speaker and get in your face.”
A fair assessment, and that’s why he said he has “no interest whatsoever in Celine Dion,” before rounding on her fans for good measure. “If you like Celine Dion, you should write or email the editors of this magazine and tell them that on no account should they hire Steve King to write commentaries, because Steve King thinks ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ is better than all the songs Ms Dion has recorded, put together.
Harsh, but it’s his opinion, and he’s evidently not going to have ‘My Heart Will Go On’ blasting on repeat. There won’t be a single second of Dion’s discography being played in the King household, then, but as far as he’s concerned, a triumvirate of tracks are constantly competing to be named as rock’s ultimate standard.
“Ask me to name the greatest rock and roll song of all time, and I have to say it’s a three-way tie,” he revealed, with a trio of eclectic numbers at the head of the pack. “Between Slobberbone’s ‘Gimme Back my Dog’, Count Five’s ‘Psychotic Reaction’, and Elvis Costello’s ‘(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love, and Understanding.'”
The 2000 track from the alt-country band that disbanded as a full-time act five years later, the influential first single from the garage rock pioneers in 1966, and Costello’s 1978 cover of the Nick Lowe original that was released as a B-side to the latter’s ‘American Squirm’ don’t have much in the way of connective tissue, apart from being united by King as the three finest rock and roll tracks that have ever been laid down.
