STMcC’s Vote On '2018, October 15th: Battle Of The Bands' (BOTB) Or, Antonio Carlos Jobim Versus Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 Versus Frankie Babee Sinatra And The Final Tally:
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| This album includes 'WAVE' by Antonio Carlos Jobim |
Good Morning, BOTBers & Non-BOTBers ~
(Well, as I type these words, it's still mornin' - barely - where I am, anyway.)
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I hope the day will be a lighter highway
For friends are found on every road
Can you ever think of any better way
For the lost and weary travelers to go?
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The Battle took place HERE, and it was the first 3-Way BOTB I've done in awhile. The song was the Bossa-Nova classic 'WAVE', and our competitors were the original artist Antonio Carlos Jobim, along with Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, and Frank Sinatra.
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Thanks for coming by and tossing your $0.02 into the BOTB kitty, my friends! As usual, the comment section was a zoo full o' fun.
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I mentioned in my BOTB blog bit that the song I used had really etched itself into my heart and mind earlier this year while I was on a quest (like brave, brave Sir Robin) to find
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When I constructed this contest, I expected one of the two vocal covers would probably win, with the instrumental original by Mr. Jobim getting some votes but coming in 3rd. Instead, it was really a two-way Battle all along, between Jobim's original and Sinatra's cover. After 10 votes were recorded, they each had 5. Sergio & Brasil '66 (whom I initially thought might win this) were getting shut-out until the 14th vote came in. And then Sergio received the final 4 votes recorded -- including mine -- but it was too little too late. BOTB - the mystery continues!
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I think the tune itself is truly beautiful -- I dig me some Bossa-Nova and Antonio! Normally, I'm just kind of "Eh" about Frank Sinatra, but in my opinion, all 3 versions were top-notch, including Sinatra's. And this made for a very good Battle.
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Why did I vote for Sergio & Brasil '66 when I so love Jobim's original instrumental? Because there's just SO MUCH going on in it. Sergio took a simple, very pretty melody and constructed a complex song out of it. I love the way he changed the tempos while incorporating all those voices. (I'm really a sucker for Group Vocals, as y'all know.) And then at the very, very end of Sergio's recording, there's that instrument that keeps scratching away in the left speaker. Didja notice that? I'm not even sure what that instrument is, but I find it fascinating how it continues to play while all the other instruments and voices are barely audible. I don't know why, but I love that! Go back and check it out [link> HERE, if you've a mind to.
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Antonio Carlos Jobim = 8 votes
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Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 = 4 votes
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Frank Sinatra = 5 votes
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I'm pleased to report that in The Battle Within The Battle, both The Magic 8-Ball (9-5) and The Amazing Sixwell (10-4) predicted the outcome correctly. Man, that really IS a Battle between them!
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Meanwhile, back at the moose . . .
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My quest to find the Top Three 'Morning Music With Joe' (MMWJ) albums continues. This has been ongoing for most of this year and I believe, I think, I feel, I suspect... that I have established my Top Two albums (Win and Place). But I still need to find that final horse who will come in the money (Show) in this race. I'm getting close, but I still have some compact discs to try. In fact, just this morning, I spun something I only recently considered as a potential competitor and it worked fabulously! This *might* be one of the horses in the $. But there's really a good amount of stiff competition.
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What I know FOR SURE is that none of these albums below are gonna be on my final list. (Didn't even need to test 'em out!)
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| Bad photo! BAD photo!! |
Thanks again for participatin' (y'all get a "Participation Trophy"). I hope to see ya here again for my November 1st BOTB competition on... uh... well... November 1st. In the meantime, remember to use your God-given talents for Niceness and not Meanness, and don't be an NPC! Search for the "true facts" (as the trivia game in that Prescott bar used to say) and think fer yerself!
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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I vote (or bote) for NICENESS! Is this a character battle? I want a character battle! Good versus evil!
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a really good BOTB idea, DOC MacSIS. And there's lots of possibilities in there.
DeleteFind a good character theme and put it up against a bad character theme. 'James Bond' versus the shark from 'Jaws'? Ha! I dunno. It wuz YER idea, Doc. Get to work!
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteI'm here! Whew, I don't have my results posted yet. I hope to do that tomorrow with an explanation for the delay but my 3-way battle was was between just two of the artists. I went with the losing horse...I mean artist in this showdown. I'm very much eager to see what you come up with your next BoTB. Have a bandtastic day, my friend!
No worries, CATHY, my friend!
DeleteI'll be watching for your BOTB Results post.
I'm not really sure yet what my November 1st Battle will be. I'm leaning toward a new installment of the 'Battle For Los Angeles' series, but that could change with my next cup of coffee.
I hope you have a terrific week!
I have a busy day ahead of me, including a visit to the dentist and another visit to my auto insurance company. Does it get much more fun than THAT?!
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
You had a good roster of combatants in this Battle, but I'll stick with my choice though the others are very good. Don't know what the scratchy instrument you are talking about is--my left speaker is not hooked up so I often get vastly unbalanced delivery of some songs. That's why I prefer mono recordings. I need to fix that speaker situation which has been ongoing ever since I set up my current computer several years ago.
ReplyDeleteActually, about that morning music, for me it depends on which morning and how I'm feeling. I rarely play music anymore, but just the other morning I got up and played a Queensryche album--far from soothing and relaxing, but it seemed to fit my mood on that particular day.
Most days for me--if I were going to listen to morning music--I'd likely go classical. Something like Debussy perhaps.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LEE ~
DeleteIn my ongoing quest to find the perfect Morning Music With Coffee, I do have a couple discs of Classical or Neo-Classical that have made it into the Finals. This project will take more time before I can definitively decide the outcome.
I'm pretty much in the same sort o' mood in the mornings (my Morning Moods don't change much from day to day), so my music choices will be consistent.
Queensryche -- I've heard of them -- isn't that Hard Rock or Heavy Metal? If so, there is no chance in Hell (well, maybe a chance literally in Hell) that I'd want to hear that first thing in the morning.
Right now, as I type these words, I'm trying out a CD with my coffee that I'd not done a test run on before and it's working beautifully: It's a Russian guy named Vadim whose music is all instrumental guitar in Bossa-Nova and gentle Flamenco styles. Great stuffs, and better still for morning hours and coffee. This one's going to advance in the Finals!
I bought this disc many years ago from Vadim himself, who was playing on the Venice Beach boardwalk while I was having breakfast at The Sidewalk Cafe. As soon as I paid my bill, I walked over to the guy and purchased his CD. I've played it countless times, and it's never sounded better than it does right now, with joe.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
I guess you'd call Queensryche heavy metal, but a clean sometimes melodic version. They're pretty good actually. This was one of my late brother's CDs and I was just in a mood and thinking about him. I've been surprised at how much I've actually liked some of his music that I didn't think I'd like, though I do have a couple of Queensryche albums that I had purchased years ago on my own so I knew that I liked them.
DeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out
So, I went to YouTube and searched the name Queensryche and listened to the first song that came up associated with them, which happened to be titled 'Eyes Of A Stranger'.
DeleteNo personal offense meant, Lee, but I've heard that song a million times. Not always by Queensryche, and not always going by that same song title, but the same shtick.
The end is near, because human beings have completely run out of musical ideas. God will be stepping in very soon to show us a new Way. You can count on it.
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
LEE, I came across the following video the other day and I think you may also find it interesting.
DeleteI, of course, disagree with the idea that 'Sgt Pepper's...' was some groundbreaking masterpiece. It's a fact that all the Beatles did with that album was meld Brian Wilson's instrumental musical ideas with the Beatles' own "poor man's version" of Bob Dylan's abstract lyric writing and - voila! - 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. It was just the innovative ideas of two other great Pop artists (Wilson and Dylan) mashed together.
However, the rest of this video I found very interesting and it confirmed what I've felt for a long time about today's "music", and why, for the most part, it can't hold a candle to the Rock and Pop that you and I grew up listening to. Yeah, I know I sound like an old man, but the truth is... I ain't a spring unicorn anymore.
[Link> The TRUTH Why Modern Music Is Awful
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
I wouldn't mind having those songwriters sales records for song I'd written. Maybe I should stop trying to sound intelligent in my writing.
DeleteI think a lot of people just listen to songs for the aural effect more than lyrical content. It might have a lot to do with an increasing trend to value feelings and thrills more than thought and intellectual content. It's probably similar to what is being taught at a lot of universities these days.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
This guy makes some interesting points. Some are obvious while there are some that are debatable. I can think of several songs or artists that I didn't like at first and they took time to grow on me. Nothing to do with brainwashing, but a matter of gaining an appreciation for one reason or another. For example I never liked Van Morrison until the eighties after I listened to Poetic Champions Compose and then suddenly I was scouring records stores for his entire back catalog.
DeleteThere is still some modern music that I enjoy probably for the sentient effects that are produced in me while other songs (most rap for example) that grate on me to the extent that I don't know that I'd ever be able to appreciate listening to them.
Good video though.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
>>... I think a lot of people just listen to songs for the aural effect more than lyrical content.
DeleteYeah, I agree. Which actually makes sense because I don't believe there are really very many truly talented lyricists. There weren't a whole lot even back in "our day", and even many fewer today, because we are definitely living in a post-literate generation.
For me, some songs I like mostly because of the music and just overall aural presentation. Some I like more for the lyrics. It's pretty rare when I find a song that I think is really impressive both lyrically AND musically.
Because I feel that God has given me a certain talent with words (not a major gift, but a modest gift nonetheless), I'm not easily impressed by most lyricists. I usually feel I could do as well or better and fairly effortlessly.
But that's why when I DO come across song lyrics that impress me, they REALLY impress me BIG TIME. 'Last Chance Texaco' by Rickie Lee Jones; 'Desperado' by The Eagles; a good number of Warren Zevon songs; and too many to mention by Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. Those are some heavyweights, in my opinion; some genuinely impressive song lyrics and talented songwriters.
>>... I can think of several songs or artists that I didn't like at first and they took time to grow on me.
Yeah, I agree with that, too. Not so much with artists, but certainly with songs. But I can think of only ONE time in my life where I strongly disliked a song the first couple times I heard it, and later I grew to love it.
All the other times when a song really grew on me, I didn't dislike it at first. I just felt merely so-so about it, and with repeated listening I began to pick up on what the artist was really doing.
A lot of times, I don't really hear a very distinct melody until after I've heard the song a few times. Naturally, there are also songs where the melody is so obvious that I can't fail to miss it the first time.
Good examples of songs that I initially felt so-so about but gradually came to love them are Maria Muldaur's 'LONG HARD CLIMB' and The Beach Boys' 'LONG PROMISED ROAD'. (Funny they both have the word "long" in them.)
Even now, I can still remember where I was when each of those songs suddenly "clicked" for me. Previously, they were just there. And then suddenly it was like "BANG!" Whoa! I LOVE that song!
Maria's really grabs me by the heart, and The Beach Boys' one is what I'd describe as "my fight song".
However, the vast majority of the time when I hear a song for the first time and feel "eh" about it, it remains "eh" forever, no matter how many times I later hear it.
Music is so interesting to me because it's so mysterious.
~ D-FensDogG
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
McBro, I had no prediction as to who would win. The polling had 32% Sinatra, 23% Jobim, 18% Sergio, and 27% independent?! You figure independent voters will swing to Sinatra. The mainstream media put such numbers out to discourage Jobim and Sergio voters. Jobim "the red tsunami" for the win! Another good battle, good one.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment and for crunching the numbers for me.
DeleteYes, for quite a long time I'd been very suspicious of polling numbers and how they may have been used to influence voters.
I became convinced that my suspicions were well founded in 2016. You may be able to guess why that was the watershed year when it comes to this subject.
~ D-FensDogG
'Loyal American Underground'
I lithened to the linked YouTube video you thowed to Lee. It'th interethting, but t'th thomwhat hard to take him theriouthly. I wath dithracted. Thadly, he thounds like a combination of Juliuth Thaethar and Bigguth Dickuth.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx_G2a2hL6U
Ha!-Ha!
DeleteTHEBOYGANBOY THIX ~
It was impossible not to notice that bloke's heavy English accent, but I must confess that until you called it to my attention, it had not occurred to me that he was Bigguth Dickuth in dithguise.
But, yes, how foolish of me not to have theen that on my own. Hilarious!
I recently watched that movie and The Holy Grail within a week or two of each other in order to determine, finally, once and for all, which of the two I like better. I came down on the side of 'MP&THG', but not by much. (I think the "Holy Hand Grenade" scene was ultimately the determining factor. They had that "King James Biblese" lingo down perfect!)
~ D-FensDogG
'Loyal American Underground'