Song · Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
“Rattlesnakes” by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
From the album Rattlesnakes (1984)
“Rattlesnakes” by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions appears on 5 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 1991 and 2022. It was first released in 1984 on the album Rattlesnakes. Its best result is #190 on the Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,892 alternative song of all time.
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The title track of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' 1984 debut album Rattlesnakes began as a gift from the unconscious: guitarist Neil Clark woke in the night with the riff in his head, got it down on a portastudio at 3am and brought it to rehearsal the next day. Cole answered it with a counter-melody of his own and wrote the words, and Paul Hardiman produced.
It's bookish pop at its most seductive. Cole borrowed the heroine of Joan Didion's A Book of Common Prayer and set her loose in the world of Didion's earlier novel Play It as It Lays, so the song unfolds like a short story with a restless groove underneath. When it came out as the album's final single, NME's Cath Carroll found it irresistible.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 759 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) | 1002 |
| 1999 | 676 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
| 2002 | 190 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 658 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2022 | 350 | X96 | X96 Top 500 Alternative Songs of All Time | 500 |
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