Good subject matter, it gives members a chance to express themselves a tad further than the one liners we tend to blurt out on forums, (myself included
).
For me, it also raises another question: (Are we talking songs or recordings?) I was intrigued how some of the replies focused on composition and lyrics, while some other replies seem to focus on recordings of songs by certain artists and the performances.
Because of my jazz leanings, and all the covers of standards that are involved, I tend to look at songs as transposable things that can be performed in many different ways, by many different artists. ("Covering" tunes goes on in all forms of music but is most prolific in jazz) On the other hand I did grow up through rock, soul, pop, etc. so I also look at it from the recording and performance perspective.
For a pure song aspect I look to the jazz standards, soul, and some classic rock. The tunes that challenge me and force me to grow musically are where it's at for me, Antonio Carlos Jobim does this to me with every song I butcher
.
As for recordings and performances(of a song), then I go for the players that express the songs potential the most in these recordings we enjoy so much. A simple example is Rush's Tom Sawyer, *as overplayed as it is*, (and I never truly connected with Getty Lee's voice
), the drum performance and arrangement is so stellar that it still kicks so much azz to this day that I'm still in awe of Neil Peart and the "song"/recording.