The first thing that comes to mind is John Fahey's Sligo River Blues. Simple, but diamond-like perfection, irreducable...

Morrissey - November spawned a monster
Morrissey & Siouxsie - Interlude

The Beach Boys - Surf's up

perfect songs... um.

Unwound "Look A Ghost" is one of many perfect songs by that band. "Terminus" also.
Fugazi Life & Limb
JOMF- Your cells are in motion
Drive Like Jehu- Do You Compute?, bunch of SY songs, couple Nirvana songs, and more songs than I can write down or care to.

Color Me Badd by Land of Talk

FUCK YEAH

Nefeli is on a roll! you've picked some good choices there, especially Herb Diamante, The Orb and Babes songs.

perfect songs
 

Youve got it right. Perfect-Perfect runner-runner meaning there are 2 and only 2 cards and you need both is a 989-to-1 draw. I believe thats what your calculation would come out to if you inverted the decimal.

ive been obsessed with this morricone piece recently. the movie is also pretty good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsfBSs5bDbE

Quick Canal by Atlas Sound.

Instrumental but whatever:
John Coltrane - After the rain

Roy Montgomery - 2LB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzzPJk3aBjc

I think it was this piece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH5jmi0A-aw

Incredible!

yeah, that is what i had posted!
and murmer, that is an amazing fahey piece.

Laura Palmer's Theme - Angelo Badalamenti

queued to my favorite part...

http://youtu.be/khMlcTE7lw8?t=1m28s

Brainiac - Vincent come on down

mott the hoople-thunderbuck ram

This has got me thinking of all the different ways in which a song can be perfect. I see a lot of votes for lengthy, epic, cinematic songs (A Day in the Life, various Pink Floyd, etc) so that seems to be a predictor of "probability of perfection." Also, songs that seen or feel definitive in some way, which explains the Smiths and Joy Division (and "Good Morning Captain," "Marquee Moon," etc.) and then there are the oddball entries like Braniac, Pavement, Boris, etc. which all seem to represent more of the individual, while those landmark songs often feel like they represent the individual's idea of what s/he might think is an "appropriate" or expected answer.

I really enjoy reading these replies straight through, without stopping to glance over at who said what. This is kind of like porn for me.
But are we answering subjectively or objectively? Speaking just for ourselves, based on our life experiences, or are we providing answers that we feel will be shared/agreed with/common? Either type of "perfect" would be able to carry a thread by itself. The "objective" perfect tells you about culture (e.g., "A Day in the Life," which is probably the first thing that pops into the heads of an entire generation when asked this question. But the subjective kind of perfect is where the real story is.

For instance, why in the hell would anyone call the Cure's "Plainsong" perfect? It's essentially nothing more than a lead in... an intro... To an album that is so full of notoriously "perfect" ( type O) songs that "Plainsong" might as well not even be on the album as far as the legacy of Disintegration is concerned. I mean, who calls "Providence" a perfect song? Or "revolution #9"?

Well, I do. "Plainsong" is perfect. More so than any other Cure song. And without it, Disintegration would lose about 30% of its eerie atmospheric beauty. So why the hell is that song so powerful to me, when most people probably skip over it?

That's what I like about this thread.

Well put, but I would like to think that the stories behind why people choose the songs they choose actually are unique, even if the reasoning behind the decision to place the label, and the song itself, are not.

Using Sonic Youth's music as an example: i don't think anyone would look or think twice at someone calling "Teenage Riot," "Expressway to yr "skull" or "Diamond Sea" perfect (though I'm sure there are still plenty of interesting and unique stories behind these choices). But what if someone chose "Winner's Blues" or "Junkie's Promise" or "Society is a Hole?" What about "No Queen Blues," "Or," or "Heather angel?" Great fucking songs, all. But definitely less obvious and less universal choices. There have got to be some interesting stories behind these picks.

(Btw, I happen to think all of those songs are perfect, and I've certainly got my reasons... Not that they're interesting, necessarily, but I'm sure you get the idea: It's the meaning the songs hold for the person, which is likely based on experiences that are unique, even if they're not earth shatteringly exciting.)

Dark Day - Nudes in the Forest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDBvynPmcNYthe

I have chosen this song because it's perfect.

Donna Summer - I Feel Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN6Ph8OkmDA

I think SHELLAC's Copper is their most perfect song. Less than 2 and a half minutes of increasing tension and skronk and RAWK. Love that fucking song. saw them play it live in Houston several years ago. my nuts burst

Will you stop saying skronk!

the clean - point that thing somewhere else
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NiESshnj6A

suicide - cheree
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpdwNDXeh_U

my bloody valentine - I only said (although this could apply to most songs from creation onwards)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyLZki_qcmU

cleaners from venus - only a shadow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4xeT7phuog

stereolab & nurse with wound - trippin' with the birds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myRDU7UdLrs

Neu-Fuer Immer

A song that lasts 11 minutes and is essentially based around one beat shouldn't be this good. Just perfect.

sunn o))) - bathory erszebet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH6Re2fazVc
black one is a perfect album too, a genuinely horrifying piece of work.

totally agree on black one when high, it's as if you fall between the drones and just totally lose any sense of direction or time.

I can never decide between ØØ void, monoliths or black one. they are just such a prodigious group, their understanding of tone is so far beyond any other, save perhaps lamonte young. the reason I say monoliths is on par with black one is that the amount of detail on that record is just fucking astounding, especially on aghartha.

also love that boris series, much more brutal than sunn o))), more physical and less psychologically destructive.

"Dragon Lady" by The Geraldine Fibbers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJZUXuD16s

Dude.

skronk is my favorite musical trait! Most of the bands and music I love is heavily skronk! SKRONK!

Sunn O))) and Earth just make me fall asleep.

everytime I put their albums on, I get very sleepy and doze off. I ama huge fan of white noise to help sleep. I love that static fuzzdrone....
because of this I can not be objective about sunno))) and Earth albums, and I still don;t know if I like them.

head down by soundgarden.

Hands All Over by Soundgarden.

I once fell asleep to black one and had like a fucking fever dream, it was brilliant/horrifying, take your pick.

this might sound ridiculous, but ever since I was young I've always enjoyed drones in any capacity, especially fridges, because I've lived on a highway and I love hearing that, beneath all that cacophony there is always this constant buzz. so hearing sunn was sort of like a dream come true, I didn't have to listen to fucking VCRs and shit any more.

but then as I got older I came to realise the complexity of it, and they served as a gateway for me back into metal and simultaneously into the realm of avant-garde composition (conrad, young, dumitrescu etc.), so in that they are of considerable significance in terms of shaping my taste(s).

so yeah, one would by no means expect everyone to enjoy it, not because 'drone is so arty, brah' but rather as a consequence of the very concept of two robed men deploying merely bowel-rattling chords. to each their own etc.

I find it soothing I guess. it puts me to sleep like hypnosis, not like boredom.

hehehe....same. Silence can be a bit overwhelming for me sometimes. I need to click a pen or drag my shoes or SOMETHING to keep a constant sound. I've lived next to railroad tracks all my life(still do kind of..but I can't hear it anymore :/ ) worked in my dad's warehouse with loud fans/machinery almost constantly giong off....I come here and I'm currently listening to Merzbow and Richard Pinhas(Shibuya Aks!)....hehe

So yeh...white noise and anything droney is super soothing.

This should interest you then

I''ve been tothe quietest place on earth.

Ah yes. I read about that room. Super interesting too. I remember hearing about cages 4'33" and he had some commentary similar to what I read here about being able to hear blood running through yer veins...creepy :D....

i wanna go to that room. i hear you go INSANE from hallucinations because it is sooooo quiet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWP07YgUWig

wild wild life by Talking Heads.

A fantastic song off an album that is complete shit. Radiohead is ok.

That song is classic, but the album is no bueno. I know what you mean.
"spending all of my money and time, from too much wild wild life.."