STMcC’s Vote On '2018, September 1st: Battle Of The Bands (BOTB)' (Or, 'Golden Earring Versus Tom Petty') And The Final Tally:
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The BOTB Car Radio Road Race between Golden Earring, with Brenda Lee in the passenger seat ('Radar Love'), and Tom Petty, with Del Shannon in his passenger seat ('Runnin' Down A Dream'), took place HERE. It's now kind of humorous that I went into this Battle a wee bit concerned about it ending in a tie. When Golden Earring came flying out of the Batcave with a 5-1 lead, I could see this contest was already pretty much over.
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First, I THANK EACH OF YOU who took the time to vote! It was a good turnout and the comment section was full of fun exchanges! I think I can honestly say that the back-and-forth dialogue in the comment sections has become my favorite thing about BOTB. The music match-ups seem secondary to me now.
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Almost everyone seemed to be in agreement that both songs are terrific. I concur! I love 'em both and hate to have to vote against one of them. Although I framed the Battle in a "Driving" theme, and pointed out that each song featured a different 1960s singer on the car radios, the fundamental question remained the same. Simply this: Which song do you like better? However, some voters focused on the "driveability" of the songs, and others even took into consideration the songs playing on the car radios in order to help them decide. It'z all good!
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Personally, I think they're both A-list songs in general, as well as E-Ticket songs for driving to. But either way, I slightly favor Golden Earring's 'Radar Love'. Tom Petty made a plucky underdog effort to rally from behind (Rocket J. Squirrel would be proud of him) but the final tally looked like this:
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Golden Earring = "(Up To) Eleven" votes
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Tom Petty = 7 votes
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In The Battle Within The Battle, The Magic 8-Ball. (7-4) got run over by and The Amazing Sixwell. (8-3).
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You know what my September 15th Battle Of The Bands is going to be? ...Yeah, me neither. But I hope you'll return here for it.
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Let me leave you with this:
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I'm not sure how many of you watched some or all of the skateboarder going down Geiger Grade from Virginia City towards Reno in my last post, but here's a chance to do so, and to play some great hard-drivin' road Rock as his background musical accompaniment.
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If you click THIS LINK HERE, it will open the Skateboarding Video in a new window on your computer. Then you can click the "Play" button on the Music Videos below and see which song you feel makes the best musical background for the skateboarder. I haven't decided which one I think is the best match yet (they're all great), but I'll post my preference in the comment section as soon as I've made up my mind.
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Runnin' Down A Dream -- Tom Petty :
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Born To Be Wild -- Steppenwolf :
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Highway Star -- Deep Purple :
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Thanks again for playing, and we'll yak again on my next Battle on September 15th.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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This outcome seemed pretty predictable to me from the outset. But now as I listen more, that Petty song is really starting to stick with me. I'm thinking it's more appropriate to my age, my sentiments, and me in general.
ReplyDeleteSo put up in context of the three videos shown in this post I prefer "Running Down a Dream" to back the skateboard video. The other choices are very good as well, but Petty's song is damn good.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LEE, 'Runnin' Down A Dream' is not just an E-Ticket song for driving to, but it's also an anthem to light the fire and inspire people to "Damn The Torpedoes" and go full speed ahead in the direction of their dreams. Because those dreams ain't gonna come to you. You gotta pursue and overtake them!
DeleteTom had some similarly themed songs ('I Won't Back Down' comes immediately to mind), and hopefully you know that 'Damn The Torpedoes' was the title of one of his very best albums.
There are lots of Tom Petty songs I identify with on a very personal level ('Even The Losers'), and that's why it caused me physical pain to vote against him in this BOTB.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Oh...poor Tom but oh well, another battle soon will come. Yes, I watched that batshit crazy dude skateboard down the “hill”. Oops hope you don’t mind my lumberjack talk but he is nuts!
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked that Tom Petty came so close. If two people who voted for Golden Earing (I was tempted to vote against them just for the weirdo name) voted for Tom Petty there would have been a tie. If Tom Petty won, I'd leave the country. I'd lose all faith in the entire history and all the people of the United States of America and move to Canada or Italy - one of their few cities without immigrants, next door to George Clooney - if I can afford it.
ReplyDeleteI knew there was a big gap just didn't know how much, did research. Radar Love was 1973. Golden Earing's (again, what kind of name is that) Twilight Zone hit in 1982. Twilight Zone gets my vote as the best song of their career. A biased 80's guy.
I "owned" - listened to fully two Tom Petty albums. Hard Promises - some cool trivia that the record company wanted to charge $1 more for the album because Tom Petty was popular and Tom Petty said, "no." Golden Earing, I've only heard two of their songs, and their greatest hits album would be "Radar Love And Twilight Zone: The Best Of Golden Earing." The other Petty album was Long After Dark" I "owned."
I swear Tom Petty's song "American Girl" is in the Fast Times At Ridgemont High" movie.
McBROTHER G DOGG ~
DeleteI've been a fan of Tom Petty's music since Day 1 (that was some day which came and went in 1976). But my favorite of his albums has always been 'HARD PROMISES'. (Heck, I'd have even been willing to pay the extra $1.00 for that!)
I hadn't really thought about this until very recently, but I think I'd go so far as saying that Tom Petty's music included everything that has always been good about Rock 'N' Roll, and he avoided all the rotten excesses of Rock music.
Indeed Golden Earring is a pretty bad name for a band. But relatively speaking -- in comparison to bands that came later -- it's really not so bad at all. I mean, bands named...
Panic! At The Disco
Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
Spock's Beard
The Butthole Surfers
Names like those prove that any dipshit in the world can become a so-called popular "musician", and I think they're enough to justify public executions! They're also enough to make one want to re-evaluate the name "Golden Earring", eh?
Actually, IMO, Golden Earring is responsible for one of the very best mostly-unknown Rock albums from the Classic Rock era: 'GRAB IT FOR A SECOND' (1978).
I remember reading a review of it that year in some Rock music magazine. The writer said something like: The songs are mostly fast-paced and the lyrics are indecipherable.
That was enough to sell me on it. I went right out and plunked down my $5.00 for a copy. And today, in 2018, it's one of only a handful of Rock albums from that era that I still really dig and own on CD.
Judas Priest
Uriah Heep
Led Zeppelin
The Sex Pistols
The Clash
AC/DC
Jimi Hendrix
Rainbow
Aerosmith...
All of that crap has long been purged from my music collection. But against all odds, 'Grab It For A Second', Eddie & The Hot Rods' 'Teenage Depression', and the first two albums by The Babys are still standing (upgraded to compact disc).
I read somewhere long ago that even Golden Earring didn't like their album 'Grab It For A Second'. But then whaddaya expect from a band dumb enough to name themselves "Golden Earring"?!
TEMPTING
U-TURN TIME
MOVIN' DOWN LIFE
[Link> GRAB IT FOR A SECOND
All these years later, those songs still make me want to kick down doors and punch my accelerator! (And 40 years later, I've still only deciphered about 20% of the lyrics! Gotta love it! That's an album with "staying power"!)
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
McBro,
DeleteThe Golden Earring album is pretty darn good. It got better as it played on, an acquired taste where things - to this listener - fall into place. Good choruses.. almost minimalist? instruments loud. And I'll be a monkey's uncle if the song "Grab It For A Second" doesn't have some Chic-esque (Bernard Edwards and Niles Rodgers) bassline and guitar. Also the woman on the cover loks like Kylie Minogue. I'm not saying Golden Earring is derivative - because they did it 10 years earlier. Kudos.
I would throw into the 1978 mix:
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model.. then I grew up and don't listen so much to his "angry young man" era.
The Cars first album... as I looked up what year - 1978 - also saw it only reached #18 on the album charts. What? I thought it would have been #1 or top 5 at least. Then The Cars tried to get more pop… I was going to note Joe Jackson's Look Sharp lp but see it's 1979. The late 70's are a blur.. and I didn't even do drugs then.
Groups with bad names that I never had to throw their albums out because I never had them in the first place:
Circle Jerks
Bon Jovi
McBRUHTHUH G DOGG ~
DeleteI think your descriptive word "Minimalist" is pretty spot-on! I have always thought of the album as almost "Punk-like" (for what is really a "Hard Rock" band). "Minimalist" is saying the same thing but with a real word. Other than a place or two where I can detect a small wash of keyboards, this is just straight-ahead drums, bass, and very loud electric guitar (i.e., Punk-like, or Minimalist). Good call, Brother!
Twinkie, one of the "Soul Crusaders", owned the 'Look Sharp' LP and played it often in our Bay Street house.
I bought Costello's debut album the year it came out, having heard 'Alison' on the radio (probably KROQ - the avant-garde station in L.A. at the time). Although I no longer own it in any form, I still dig some of those songs, such as 'Alison', 'Less Than Zero', and especially 'I'm Not Angry' and 'Waiting For The End Of The World'.
I bought 'This Year's Model' the following year but never got into it as much as the first LP. I think I'd already moved on from that style. And that was the last Costello album I ever owned.
I bought the first Cars album, too, and dug it, but I never bought another LP by them. I think I moved through styles at a pretty fast pace back then. However, their second album, 'Candy-O', was another one that Twinkie owned and played quite often in the Bay Street house.
I would still crank up 'Just What I Needed', 'Good Times Roll', and 'My Best Friend's Girl', any time I happened to hear them on a radio.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Yeah, OlderMcBro, we can agree on the middle ground - that too many good Americans have gotten bourgeois. You "purged all that crap" (that's the most Stalin-esque phrase.. hahahha) and
DeleteThe Sex Pistols
The Clash
The Clash were eclectic. They even had two good rap songs.
The Sex Pistols had two or three good songs... I can't remember the third one right now. I think you had mentioned Malcolm McLaren before.. who was known as the Svengali before.. as the manager of The New York Dolls rock group who wore makeup and put a Chinese flag behind them to make it important. McClaren as the fashion designer as The New York Dolls walked down the runway... The Pistols did their own thing - and again made two or three good songs.. the third song I can't remember - Pretty Vacant, that's it. Their doppelgänger "mainstream" aka not suicidal The Clash had at least a few good ones. Johnny Rotten was Irish. Frankly I think the Irish don't give The Clash their due.
Signed,
Your Anglophile Bro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHupeh7dFkE
BROTHER McDOGG ~
DeleteI actually owned 4 Clash albums, and got suckered into 2 Sex Pistols albums, back in the day.
Today... I would say that 'SUBMISSION' is the only Pistols song I still kind of like.
And I do think The Clash became better musicians as they went along, but the only songs that have stayed with me are 'ROCK THE CASBAH' and 'SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?'
And I would also say that even a blind clock finds a broken squirrel twice a day, so...
Not sure where I was going with this but... what else is new?
When all was said and done, I guess I was always more of a Carpenters and Beach Boys kind o' guy.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
I listenededed to all three of these songs along with the skateboarder dude, and don't like Highway Star at all, but Petty goes really really well (as we knew) and Born To Be Wild is excellent paired with this vid also.
ReplyDeleteOf all the songs presented here and in the BOTB, Petty's is my favorite... but as you know, I voted for Radar Love because to me the point of the deal-eo was best driving song. Heh, heh.
But I think my favorite PAIRING wid the flyin' dude is Born To Be Wild! "Racing with the wind..." and "born to be wild..." Those are two things this guy is doing. I'll tell you, you got this guy more views than he dreamed of. I've watched him sail down Geiger Grade at least 12 times already myself!
In fact, I tried playing a couple of other songs along with it. Sticking with Steppenwolf, their "Magic Carpet Ride" works pretty well, though not up to Radar Love, Running..Dream, and BTBWild.
I also tried Ed Sheeran's "Castle on the Hill" and loved that playing with the skateboarder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqlTrBCNRiY
I tried a couple of classical pieces also, and Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" works really well too.
Cool! McITHCHYFINGER, it sounds like you got into this as much as I did. As soon as I have a chance, I will give the skateboarder a ride with 'Castle On The Hill' and see what I think of that one. (Not sure I've ever heard the song.) I'll try 'Ride Of The Valkyries' also. (Now THAT one I've heard a number of times.)
DeleteI actually DO dig him riding down Geiger Grade to 'Highway Star', but like you, I think the Petty tune and Steppenwolf song work better.
In fact, also similar to you, I think 'BORN TO BE WILD' is my favorite pairing with the skateboarder. For the reasons you mentioned, and just the beat / rhythm marriage. But 'Runnin' Down A Dream' is really close. Only the slightest edge to '...Wild'.
Ha! Maybe 'The Great Musical Divide' can be bridged when visuals are included(?!?!) Notes and melody we don't hear ear-to-ear, but rhythm and images we hear ear-to-eye.
I really appreciate you playing along, McBrother Itchyfinger. I think this is a fun game, and the next time I go up and down Geiger Grade (probably next Sunday and Monday), I'll be thinking about that skateboarder both ways.
I hope things are working out for you regarding that 'Murphy's Law' encounter you just had. Son-the-pitch! What a weekend downturn that turned out to be, eh?
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
I'm okay with the results even though I voted with Tom Petty. Now that trio of songs you ended your blog with was smoking! "Highway Star" is great!
ReplyDeleteThanks, MIKE! I'm glad you voted for Petty in that Battle, as he needed all the help he could get.
DeleteI don't like most of the "Classic Rock" I dug back when it was "Contemporary" (before it got labeled "Classic"), but the Deep Purple album 'Machine Head" really holds up well, IMO.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends