STMcC’s Vote On '2019, August 15th: Battle Of The Bands' (BOTB) - Or, Tompall Glaser Versus Lynyrd Skynyrd - And The Final Tally:
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It was a pretty low voter turnout this time, but it's probably just as well. Nevertheless, I very sincerely thank each and every one of you who took the time to visit, listen 'n' vote.
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UHP! I'M AN IDIOT!!
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| "Idiot" and his Sister. |
Yeah, I never seem to learn. Even when I know my lessons, I have trouble abiding by them. I'm gonna try to keep this post fairly short because this Battle just wasn't worth yakking much about.
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The 3 cardinal rules of BOTB:
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1) Don't use a Top 40 hit against a cover of the same song.
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2) Don't use a famous musical artist against a relatively unknown musical artist.
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3) Don't use a ballad against an uptempo song.
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In fact, it was I who wrote the following in my last BOTB Results post:
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"I'm not too surprised that The Partridges topped The Monkees in this Battle, because uptempo usually trumps ballads in BOTB."
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Yeah, very rarely is it a good idea to transgress any of those 3 BOTB cardinal rules. So, what did I do in this most recent BOTB installment? Dogged if I didn't break TWO of the Three Cardinal Rules (#2 & #3). And what happened? The predictable is what happened. (Except, of course, that Carnac The Magnificent predicted the outcome incorrectly, which any one of us could have predicted that he would!)
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The vast majority of the BOTBers boted the opposite of how I expected they would. Oddly enough, Tompall Glaser got 4 of the first 5 votes, and I thought: Yip! Here comes the thing I expected!
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Well, here are the vote totals, counting my vote for Tompall:
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Tompall Glaser = 5 votes
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Lynyrd Skynyrd = 9 votes
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I realize that over the last 6+ years I have said this ad nauseam, but I'm gonna say it yet again: I don't think I personally know ANYONE whose taste in music changed over the decades more drastically than mine did.
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Yes, in the BOTB post HERE, I told you about a road trip my friend Pooh and I made in 1986, and how the Lynyrd Skynyrd song 'T For Texas' became a sing-along memory for us while driving on the old Route 66.
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But that was then and this is now. Today, I still think that song sounds pretty good while going 70 mph on the open road, but that's about the only time I want to hear it. When I was a teenager in the era of "Licorice Pizza" (or "LP" - "Long Playing" record albums), I owned FIVE Lynyrd Skynyrd albums. Today, I don't own ANY of their albums, thank you very much!
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IMO, unless you're hearing Skynyrd's 'T For Texas' while the wind is blowing your hair back, it just sounds like typical Skynyrd music to me: Heavy-handed 'n' ham-fisted, with a bunch of indecipherable vocals growled while too many electric guitars are screeching too many pointless notes with nuttin' particularly interesting happening. Again, just in my solo opinion, Lynyrd Skynyrd sounds like a bunch of stupid, artless Rednecks. (...Oh, wait! What's this?)
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Anyway, that's just my own opinion, and everyone is entitled to their own. I don't mean to criticize anyone for how they voted. Variety is the spice of life. I'm merely trying to express how I felt about this match-up. And me, I love the Tompall Glaser version of 'T For Texas'. You can hear every word he's singing, and it's sung in a way that seems more organic to the sentiment of the lyrics. Not to mention its "much greater musical subtlety" - pun intended. ("Subtlety" - a word that Lynyrd Skynyrd didn't understand and none of the band members could have correctly spelled even if their lives depended on it.) It's trite but true: Very often, less is more.
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Well... I'll be back again (I think) with another BOTB installment on September 1st. Be here or... be somewhere else.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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In my Battle I didn't even come close to breaking any of your cardinal rules, but I do agree with your observation about this.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked Lynyrd Skynyrd and still do, but I've never owned any of their albums and still don't. I guess I figured I could hear their music with enough frequency on the radio. Being in Tennessee during my prime years of rock music development I got Southern Rock ingrained in my system because that's mostly what my friends played when we would gather in a setting where music was being played. I enjoy the style, perhaps not as much as other music (like Rush maybe--or Bruce Hornsby).
Not surprised with the outcome of your Battle. And though you might have been a bit taken aback by my vote for Tompall I'm still so haunted by that Glaser Bros song I can't remember that Tompall always catches my attention when I run across something by him. And incidentally in regard to album ownership, I do own a Tompall Glaser cassette that I bought in the eighties in hopes that the elusive song would be on it, but, alas, it was not.
Maybe I was just hearing things back when I thought I heard the song. Or maybe it's just a song that I don't recognize now. A weird musical memory like a vaguely remembered dream.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LEE ~
Delete>>... And though you might have been a bit taken aback by my vote for Tompall
No, actually, I had anticipated you would vote for Tompall. I also thought Sheboyganboy (aka Sixgun) would be voting for Tompall. I was thinking this would be one of the rarest things that ever occurs in BOTB: All 3 of us would be in agreement and vote alike. But, of course, Brother Sixgun had to go and wreck that expectation.
Other than the fact that it didn't at all resemble what I imagined it would look like, this really wasn't a bad Battle. I mean, it was just a 4-vote margin of victory for the Rednecks Rockers, and that's no blowout.
~ D-FensDogG
'Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...'
Sounding a tetch ornery, Stephen! 😄 I'm sorry your guy lost, but some of us do prefer rock and always will. And, there can NEVER be too many electric guitars! 🎸🎸🎸😉
ReplyDeleteDEBBIE ~
DeleteHa! You and Lee are two of the few who voted like I expected. And in your case, I knew it would be the guitar-drivin' approach by Skynyrd that would sway you.
The older I get, the less I love a lot of electric guitar sounds. I am in the process of becoming my Ma & Pa. :-D
And, yes, I suppose I am a tetch. ;^D The pendulum seems to have swung back again and things ain't goin' so terrifically these days. But, although I may be [Link> On'ry and Lonesome, I still ain't Mean. (I'm damn sure tired, though.)
~ D-FensDogG
'Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...'
So sorry things aren't going well, Stephen. Here's hoping they improve for you, soon and that you get some rest! Thanks for the song. Funny, but the older I get, the more I appreciate hard-edged, loud, dramatic music. Regressing, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteThanks, DEBBIE. I have faith that things will turn around and go in the right direction again before long.
DeleteI think I'd prefer your way: I'd rather regress than age. (Maybe I need to go back to drinking Boone's Farm wine and Southern Comfort in Coke. I was very young then. ;^D )
~ D-FensDogG
'Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...'
Usually, you would have pulled a vote for Lynyrd Skynyrd from yours truly. For some reason, that just snagged a neuron that day. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteMy battle was a dismal washout, lol. I need to stop thinking too much on these match ups. When I just fly by the seat of my pants, it's 100% better.
Then again, I did break rule #3 in a new way...I battle a ballad against even more depressing songs. Is that rule number 4 now?
DOC ~
DeleteI do understand. A current mood has a whole lot to do with what sounds best at certain times. Sometimes I'll put on some music I dearly love, and 2 or 3 songs in, I'll be thinking: No, no, no! This is not at all what I want to hear right now. (And then I go looking for something that seems like a better match for what I'm feeling.)
Hey, we've all had our BOTB failures. It's a natural part of the process. But you did avoid the dreaded shutout, so it wasn't a *total* bust.
~ D-FensDogG
'Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...'
McBroMan,
ReplyDelete<>
May I suggest your next battle be one-guitarists Van Halen vs Poison. I'm guessing you don't like either band so no matter who loses you'll be happy :)
If the Poison track is "Fallen Angel" you can predict I'll vote for them. They're not just hair metal, they're happy metal. I honestly love that song, so L.A.
(Poetic license) I heard Van Halen were initially called Roth. Their new manager Jim Shwarsky - that's right, the guy who told "Marie and Donnie" to change their name to "Donnie and Marie" - "Switch it!," he said - bingo, superstars.
Cheers,
G-Dogg
McBRUHTHUH G DOGG ~
Delete>>... I'm guessing you don't like either band so no matter who loses you'll be happy
It never ceases to amaze me how right you are! ;^)
Fun Fact: When Van Halen's first album came out in 1978, I was 18, and it blew me away! But eventually, I got over it. Back then, I thought Eddie was the greatest guitarist in the world - and he WAS very inventive. But today, my favorite song on that debut album is also probably the mellowest: 'Little Dreamer'.
OK, just came from YT where I watched / listened to the official 'Fallen Angel' video, and I have to ask you: How many different people do you have living in there with you? Ha! I mean, aren't you the guy who hates guitar solos? The guy who digs synthesizers and Pop music one can dance to?
Now, suddenly, you're touting Lynyrd Skynyrd and boys with big hair who look like girls and play loud guitar stuffs. Look! Who are you really, and just how crowded is it in there?!?!
Kiddin', kiddin'.
Heck, I'm the Jazz guy, but I still got Johnny Mathis in my collection, along with a CD that includes 'The Hustle', 'Boogie Fever', and 'Disco Inferno' (although, full disclosure: I actually bought the CD for Vickie Sue Robinson's 'Turn The Beat Around', because I "love to hear percussion".)
~ D-FensDogG
'Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...'
McBroMan,
DeleteAs Charlie Sheen (in)famously said, "You borrow my brain for five seconds and be like 'Dude unplug this bastard, can't handle it'". Ahahah.
"Little Dreamer" is mellow for Van Halen. My favorite is "I'm The One" where Eddie Van Halen's guitar leads into and out of the barbershop quartet part.
I'm glad you mentioned Eddie's inventiveness... technically, two guys in high school learned to play "Eruption" note for note.
Roth, "I've been to the edge and there I stood and looked down, you know I lost of friends there, I got no time to mess around." A reporter asked him in a philosophical way what that meant. Roth replied, "The Edge is a bar in L.A."
I think I noted before I lived near L.A. (Arcadia and Monrovia) for a few years. It was during the hair metal years' apex. In the air.
Poison and looking back Van Halen were respectively pop and popular. I know the disco songs you note... which were also pop(ular).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIZN4mxB2VM
Cheers,
G Dogg
McBROTHER DOGG ~
Delete>>... As Charlie Sheen (in)famously said, "You borrow my brain for five seconds and be like 'Dude unplug this bastard, can't handle it'"
Yeah, no doubt. Considering what an influence Martin Sheen had on it in its early years.
Yeah, I too dig that Barbershop Quartet bit in 'I'm The One'. Of course, The Beach Boys always did it on a much more professional and supreme level, but The Boys didn't have Eddie in the band.
Eddie was definitely a great guitarist, but Danny Gatton was light years ahead of him... and also ahead of every other guitarist who ever lived:
THE HUMBLER - Trailer (Revised Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F833dyRcqPo
THE HUMBLER - Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiDRYlHSjw0
I have run across that same David Lee Roth quote before, and it made me laugh then, too. I honestly don't remember a bar in Los Angeles called 'The Edge', but then again, *even I* was unable to visit every bar in L.A. :^D
The one L.A. bar I most regret failing to have a drink in was 'The Firefly'. I do actually (vaguely) recall driving past it in Hollyweird a number of times, as its neon sign is still dimly lit in the recesses of my memory. But I was never in there.
'A Rock For The Forgotten'
by David & David
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSVU-kQxluo
That, McFriend, is one of my all-time personal theme songs. I may have seen The Firefly yet never been in it. Nevertheless, somehow the song seems to be about me to some extent.
~ Stephen
McBroMan,
ReplyDeleteAha, for some reason your Martin Sheen note reminds of the old adage:
Guy 1: What's up. When your mom died you had no problem and you loved her so much. Now your dad died and you're devastated.
Guy 2: My hatred toward my dad has driven my whole life.
Ahahaha. My pa did take me to hockey practice... and he said he pulled me out of a summer camp led by some Buffalo Sabres who put their 6'1" or so frames in my (and others') face... He said "It was worse than Quantico" where he did his time. I know I finished the camp though because they gave me and each kid "a report card." Who plays hockey to be graded like it's school? Jeesh. After that it was basketball camp..
"Rosebud."
I don't know if Van Halen did the quartet on a lark, but yeah, The Beach Boys knew how to explore the space. And of course influenced The Beatles from before and into including their gosh darn Too influential White Album.
"Don't you hear what they're saying?"
- "Shut the f*** up Manson."
Good videos on Gatton... Fantastic guitar player, integrity, too good for popularity... I wish he hadn't gone out at all even if perhaps now known for martyrdom.
If you say there is no The Edge bar that's 100 proof positive there isn't. :)
For lack of my musical knowledge and words.. oeuvre: "A Rock For the Forgotten" is coolest jazz "the midnight quiet storm"... and ought to be used in/inspire a new David Lynch movie (that's a compliment)... and he's singing about a badda**. Solid.
Cheers,
G Dogg
McBruhthuh DogG ~
Delete>>... He said "It was worse than Quantico" where he did his time. I know I finished the camp though...
Ahh... For me it was the L.A. Sheriff's Academy for Police Explorers. I never felt that much stress in my life before, and I hated every single second of it! I was 14 years old and the Academy was 16 consecutive Saturday's, from before sunup until nearly sundown. (Literally, it was tougher than what military personnel go through today in the modern American bootcamp. Literally.)
My first weekly Notebook grade (Feb. 9, 1974) was 32%.
By Notebook #8 - April 6, 1974 (20 years later, to the very day, I became a genuine Christian) - I'd scored a 100% which, as far as I know, was the first 100% anyone had ever scored on a Notebook in any previous Academy Class (my Academy Class was #12).
I scored 4 more 100% Notebook grades (including the Big Bad Final Notebook on June 15, 1974).
As much as I hated every single second of the Academy, and as much as it stressed my 14-year-old mind out nearly to the breaking point, today, I consider it one of the truly pivotal events of my entire life. It did so much to form me into the person I am today. (Not to mention that just a week or two after learning how to apply a tourniquet to a wound, I literally saved my Brother's life by applying a tourniquet to his arm when he went through a window and severed his artery while trying to chase down and catch a fly ball that was hit by his best friend.)
LIFE IS SO STRANGE!!
"Rosebud", "Rosebud", "Rosebud".
(Brother, I think yer a genius.)
Yeah, 'A Rock For The Forgotten' and that ENTIRE (one & only) 'David & David' album (title: 'Boomtown')... man... if The Beach Boys were the sunny side of L.A., David & David were the dark underbelly of L.A. in the mid-1980s. Quite possibly the most underrated Rock album of all time, which also served as my personal (life) soundtrack for several years.
'Boomtown' - Bruhthuh, *THAT* was the L.A. I experienced internally in the mid to late 1980s (and quite often experienced it externally, as well).
[Link> 'WELCOME TO THE BOOMTOWN' - David & David
~ McStephen
McBroMan,
ReplyDeleteAha, your time in the Sheriff's Academy connects some of the dots.. between your childhood cowboy styles and you noted in your Reno job you had a gun. 32% to 100%s is a great learning curve... one bad grade and you decided emphatically to step it up.
Your brother's 100% baseball style and your dedication seem to go hand in hand.
Good references, I checked 'em out... the whole album of David and David... great music noir.
And checked both the voting and results vs RHCP pages. I would have voted for RHCP on both the song and video which was a nationwide hit. Yet so L.A.
A number of years after Under The Bridge was released, I read Kiedis' autobiography. Did he have a ghost writer. Don't all celebrities. The book is rather repetitive: Start... relapse...relapse...relapse... relapse... clean. From (Jack Webb voice, "H, horse ,tar, junk if you think marijuana mary jane weed leaf tea should be legalized that's what it will lead to"). At the end of the book he's clean and hopefully still is. He illustrated with words that going to the ghettos to score was as exciting as the drug itself.
And his song writing got better after he was clean.
Cheers,
G Dogg
McBruhthuh DogG ~
DeleteI was at my peak in the Academy. I strove for perfection in every aspect of it and I was in pretty amazing shape. But it drove me somewhat bonkers. It probably wasn't really a healthy mindset, but I don't think I've ever been that all-around good since then. I peaked early in life and it's been a downhill slide since age 14.
>>... I would have voted for RHCP on ... the ... video
Man, don't say that! Not even in jest. Someone might not realize you're joking and take you seriously.
Yeah, drugs be bad. But the 1966 'Batman' under the influence of a hallucinogenic is the funniest thing in the world. Or so I've been told.
~ D-FensDogG
'Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...'