This started as an idea for a random post about the 10 most perfect songs ever but I got stuck on 11 and decided to improvise and make it into a series to cover my butt.
The game is simple: you must vote one of these songs off the list and say why. Whatever choice you make will of course be wrong, but c’est la vie.
Next week someone else can have a turn and be laughed at . Post 3, 4 or 15 if you like. But one has to go because I said so.
Nice playlist, though don’t think any of them would make my 11 most perfect songs of all time. I’m voting out Koko Taylor, coz it didn’t do much for me. Tempted to go for Black Box Recorder, on the grounds that, good as that one is, they have more perfect songs (I’m thinking particularly of “Goodnight Kiss”, which is perfect.
I remember you posting “No Mermaid” some time back – really, really lovely song.
Have to be BBR. One of those voices that can sometimes be great & sometimes grates. This one is option 2 – plus it doesn’t really work with the vibe of the others.
Good idea to retool the challenge – the usual version is a tad redundant given recent events.
Tempted as I am to kick The Yardbirds out for their poor grammar, or Neil Young for his wibbly whine of a voice, I’ll be consistent in my prejudice and vote to remove A & The J’s. Not only for the reason stated elsewhere but I also find the piano-banging rather naff and I’m not particularly interested in songs about gender assignment issues (although I feel compelled to say, before anyone gets the wrong idea, that I thoroughly enjoyed Sean Bean’s portrayal of a transvestite on TV last night).
I just posted a fairly long justification for my choice, the gremlins ate it, not doing all that again, what the hell, Willie and Koko have to go but it’s not fair.
It came back, here ’tis.
A thing I don’t like about the Olympics is that for the three that get all the glory there’s dozens, almost equally talented, who get sent home with nothing, there’s something similar about this, or there would be if we were knocking it down to a top three or whatever. Is that what we’re doing? Generally speaking I think it’s a great list and I couldn’t justify deleting any of them but rules is rules so I’m with Barbryn, Willie and Koko have to go. If it gets vicious there’s a couple more I could name but there’s some that if you start messin’ with you’ll have me to deal with.
Lovely idea for a series – even if it may be a bit much to expect peeps to listen through a full 11 songs on a regular basis. Especially when the first one at least (which I’m listening to now – gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous) is pushing 7 minutes.
Several minutes later… I think it might be Gil Scott-Heron for me, which strikes me as an important message and an interesting lo-fi groove but not much of a song. Call me old-fashioned but I’m a sucker for a tune…
The more i think about it, the more fun it sounds. Can i claim next week? Will give me an excuse to start listening to more music too.
If i were to do this next week, what would people think about leaving out artist / title initially, and just going by track number to eliminate any possible unintended prejudice?
Do it, Amy – and leaving out artists/song titles fine by me (although it makes it a little more difficult for those reading others’ opinions to work out what song they’re talking about – without referring back anyway!).
Bish -
Yeah i was thinking that it might be more annoying than it’s worth, to pick your song by number as opposed to artist / track. I’ll definitely sign up for next week then if it’s ok with everyone. Also feeling slightly guilty as i still haven’t been convinced to sign up for a volunteer guru stint on the mothership. Guess the last time was just too brusing.
I feel a bit bad about being a “naysayer and whinger” or whatever someone on the mothership called people who’s initial reaction to the news was not positive but, much as I love RR, we can only do what we can commit to, so don’t feel bad, amylee.
Beth -
That’s the other problem. My turn on the rota could very possibly come up on a very bad week in the forseeable future. Another problem was that the time i did my earlier stint, i found that i couldn’t listen to music for a few weeks afterwards, all i wanted to hear was silence.
I didn’t like KIm Taylor, hated her voice, and I really can’t get on with Antony and the Johnsons at all, never heard anything of theirs I wanted to hear a second time. Black Box Recorder was nothing special either, it was a kind of Poundshop Mazzy Star without the psychedelia, atmosphere and sultriness.
The U2 track is one of theirs that I don’t mind. I used to rather like them right up until Achtung Baby, which was the beginning of them being shite.
surprisingly number 2 would be off my list, found her voice really twee and irritating. An interesting listen, but as barbryn said earlier none would make my top ten, despite their quality.
yeah, i missed that part about the most perfect songs ever. None of them would be mine either. But i do like the idea of a random 11 songs of your chioce, and eliminating one you like the least for a playlist.
Great comments so far! Yes of course you can go next week amy.
Like I said, post 3, 4 or 15 if you like.
If it gets vicious there’s a couple more I could name but there’s some that if you start messin’ with you’ll have me to deal with. is my smile of the week. tx GF
loved the willie dixon talking blues .. reminds me of a robert cray thing about kings & queens. nice songs & mood
rainy sunday black & white movie .. was there really a busby berkely dancing extravaganza version of brother can you spare a dime
after bill bailey’s technical breakdown at a U2 gig skit, they always sound slightly silly, having always looked bloody silly
so would vote off U2 .. out of habit
(alfie)
perfect songs without the stones .. blimey .. hi amy
if you did a list and someone tried to vote the stones off .. would there be trouble ?
nah, i’d expect the stones to be voted off first. we’ll have to see if a stones tune makes my list next week.
At the risk of being shouted off the island I don’t think any of these would make my list of perfect songs ( not sure there are any). Pretty good for all that but if I have to chuck one out It would have to be Gil Scott-Heron. Everything good he did got rubbed out in the end as he turned into another junkie grifter. Sorry if that offends but I saw an interview of him and it might as well have been with his crack pipe for all the wisdom came out of it. true waste.
Oh heck. Echoing myself. Sorry that was so short. It took me 3 goes yesterday to do the clean install on my laptop! I was on a pretty short fuse by the end of the day! There were some nice songs on there. My main criticism, Tin, is that you didn’t do a quick song list to aid the extremely short sighted who had the screen up to their noses trying to read the things they were unfamiliar with, Other than that, flippin’ good idea and some fine songs. I wonder if we know you a little better now! *Shudders* )
I’m with fintan in that I wouldn’t say any of these tracks would make my top 10/11. The first to go would be GSH. Having said that, I think picking 8, 10, or even 15 pieces of music as a top selection would always a) take weeks of umming and arring to trim down, b) would be totally subjective, and c) would probably cause all sorts of argument and derision among fellow ‘spillers.
I wonder what we would end up with if we had a “take one out, vote one in” scenario ?
Now that could be fun……………………
That sounds like a fun idea, but it would be a bit boring listening to a playlist that’s 10/11 the same every week.
However – turning the idea of Tin’s game on its head, admittedly – we could change the game so that we vote to keep just one IN. The person who does the playlist the following week includes that song, plus their own choices.
You mean we pick a song the next person has to build a playlist around topically or musically??
Well, I didn’t necessarily mean that – just that it would be a game of “winner stays on”. But yes, it could make a good jumping off point for the next playlist.
We could do it that way next week if you all want. My tastes are not as refined as Tinny’s, i think people might find a lot of songs they wanted to leave off, but they might find one maybe that they’d leave on!
Right, so that;s you volunteered for next the week after Amylee
Ah ah ah.. you’re protesting when you should be working on your playlist.
I meant to say, the Abbey Lincoln blew me away. I’d always kind of assumed I knew the song, as the title’s so familiar, but I don’t think I’d actually ever heard it. Anyway – great song, absolutely flawless version.
That and Springsteen were the closest to perfection for me (I’m a Brooce agnostic, but I love that one).
The Abbey Lincoln really is breathtaking, isn’t it? Or any other adjective you want to use.
What really blows me away about it, to use your term, is that you know what’s coming because you’re familiar with the song. But when what you expect comes it is so far better than anything you could have imagined.
Your ‘absolutely flawless’ is probably as close as we’ll come
As I lie abed this morn I found myself thinking more about this. It came down to this.
In a series of ‘playoffs’ we delete eight, yeah I know, that means a lot of listening and then when we’re down to three we’d vote for the ‘bronze’, then the ‘silver’ and finally the ‘gold’. Simple, then we’d know what the greatest pop song in the world is! I realise this might take a while but that’s what we’re here for, right?
Tinny’s good at logistics and he probably has a calculator so he could do all the hard work and Chris could allocate points for spelling etc and I’ll volunteer to be treasurer.
Re. reality, Abbey stays, could somebody negate those GSH votes even if you have to vote twice, I can live without U2, and Bruce can leave quietly also.
And as mentioned above, Tinny, could you get a couple of the lads to take Finny and BP out back and convince them of the error of their ways? Don’t break anything unless you have to.
So how’s it working? Each week, winner stays on and the next person adds however many new tracks to that one that they see fit? And then the following week, the first two weeks’ winners remain? And gradually we do build up a group list of the greatest songs of all time? Is that too many questions?
Yikes, I quite honestly hadn’t thought it through fully, but what a stroke of genius!. It might take us a year, mind
Not sure about a previous week’s ‘winner’ being ringfenced. Some songs may need to be brought back for reconsideration and some will be displaced.
I like the idea of spending a long time trying – because, lets face it, we’re all losers and have to kill time some way – to come up with the ultimate Top 10 though. What we could do is have a way of welding a song to the list so we don’t end up in an endless debate..
Oh the fun of watching people argue over that last one
Not true, there’s millions of us, ask any woman. My spectrum is Abbey Lincoln last and Black Box Recorder first, Genuinely intrigued to see what happens next, this should outlive us all.
Me too. It’s one of those either sheer genius or “meh, not so much” ideas.
Poop happens
And so it goes
I can’t say I’m mad about any of these songs but the instant run across the room to move on is Black Box Recorder. It’s that irritating little girly voice.
This started as an idea for a random post about the 10 most perfect songs ever but I got stuck on 11 and decided to improvise and make it into a series to cover my butt.
. Post 3, 4 or 15 if you like. But one has to go because I said so.
10. Because I’ve never been able to like them.
Nice playlist, though don’t think any of them would make my 11 most perfect songs of all time. I’m voting out Koko Taylor, coz it didn’t do much for me. Tempted to go for Black Box Recorder, on the grounds that, good as that one is, they have more perfect songs (I’m thinking particularly of “Goodnight Kiss”, which is perfect.
I remember you posting “No Mermaid” some time back – really, really lovely song.
Have to be BBR. One of those voices that can sometimes be great & sometimes grates. This one is option 2 – plus it doesn’t really work with the vibe of the others.
Good idea to retool the challenge – the usual version is a tad redundant given recent events.
Tempted as I am to kick The Yardbirds out for their poor grammar, or Neil Young for his wibbly whine of a voice, I’ll be consistent in my prejudice and vote to remove A & The J’s. Not only for the reason stated elsewhere but I also find the piano-banging rather naff and I’m not particularly interested in songs about gender assignment issues (although I feel compelled to say, before anyone gets the wrong idea, that I thoroughly enjoyed Sean Bean’s portrayal of a transvestite on TV last night).
LMAO @ the poor grammar. You know, I’d never noticed before.
What’s wrong with their grammar? ” Better man than I [am] ” is correct.
I just posted a fairly long justification for my choice, the gremlins ate it, not doing all that again, what the hell, Willie and Koko have to go but it’s not fair.
It came back, here ’tis.
A thing I don’t like about the Olympics is that for the three that get all the glory there’s dozens, almost equally talented, who get sent home with nothing, there’s something similar about this, or there would be if we were knocking it down to a top three or whatever. Is that what we’re doing? Generally speaking I think it’s a great list and I couldn’t justify deleting any of them but rules is rules so I’m with Barbryn, Willie and Koko have to go. If it gets vicious there’s a couple more I could name but there’s some that if you start messin’ with you’ll have me to deal with.
I’m going to suppository that your last line of defense would be the Abbey Lincoln.
Lovely idea for a series – even if it may be a bit much to expect peeps to listen through a full 11 songs on a regular basis. Especially when the first one at least (which I’m listening to now – gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous) is pushing 7 minutes.
Several minutes later… I think it might be Gil Scott-Heron for me, which strikes me as an important message and an interesting lo-fi groove but not much of a song. Call me old-fashioned but I’m a sucker for a tune…
Great, great selection of songs though.
Has to be Black Box Recorder, that was fucking painful. They lost me at hello.
( I loved Koko and Willie.)
btw Tinny, nice challenge idea. I could be tempted to do one of these too.
The more i think about it, the more fun it sounds. Can i claim next week? Will give me an excuse to start listening to more music too.
If i were to do this next week, what would people think about leaving out artist / title initially, and just going by track number to eliminate any possible unintended prejudice?
Do it, Amy – and leaving out artists/song titles fine by me (although it makes it a little more difficult for those reading others’ opinions to work out what song they’re talking about – without referring back anyway!).
Bish -
Yeah i was thinking that it might be more annoying than it’s worth, to pick your song by number as opposed to artist / track. I’ll definitely sign up for next week then if it’s ok with everyone. Also feeling slightly guilty as i still haven’t been convinced to sign up for a volunteer guru stint on the mothership. Guess the last time was just too brusing.
I feel a bit bad about being a “naysayer and whinger” or whatever someone on the mothership called people who’s initial reaction to the news was not positive but, much as I love RR, we can only do what we can commit to, so don’t feel bad, amylee.
Beth -
That’s the other problem. My turn on the rota could very possibly come up on a very bad week in the forseeable future. Another problem was that the time i did my earlier stint, i found that i couldn’t listen to music for a few weeks afterwards, all i wanted to hear was silence.
I didn’t like KIm Taylor, hated her voice, and I really can’t get on with Antony and the Johnsons at all, never heard anything of theirs I wanted to hear a second time. Black Box Recorder was nothing special either, it was a kind of Poundshop Mazzy Star without the psychedelia, atmosphere and sultriness.
The U2 track is one of theirs that I don’t mind. I used to rather like them right up until Achtung Baby, which was the beginning of them being shite.
For my money, Rattle and Hum was the beginning of them being shite; Achtung Baby was (in parts) a temporary reprieve!
I might have picked that song too, i love old U2 but that’s not a fave. But I cn still listen to it, it’s not torturous to me like BBR was.
surprisingly number 2 would be off my list, found her voice really twee and irritating. An interesting listen, but as barbryn said earlier none would make my top ten, despite their quality.
yeah, i missed that part about the most perfect songs ever. None of them would be mine either. But i do like the idea of a random 11 songs of your chioce, and eliminating one you like the least for a playlist.
Great comments so far! Yes of course you can go next week amy.
Like I said, post 3, 4 or 15 if you like.
If it gets vicious there’s a couple more I could name but there’s some that if you start messin’ with you’ll have me to deal with. is my smile of the week. tx GF
loved the willie dixon talking blues .. reminds me of a robert cray thing about kings & queens. nice songs & mood
rainy sunday black & white movie .. was there really a busby berkely dancing extravaganza version of brother can you spare a dime
after bill bailey’s technical breakdown at a U2 gig skit, they always sound slightly silly, having always looked bloody silly
so would vote off U2 .. out of habit
(alfie)
Hi Alfie!
perfect songs without the stones .. blimey .. hi amy
if you did a list and someone tried to vote the stones off .. would there be trouble ?
nah, i’d expect the stones to be voted off first. we’ll have to see if a stones tune makes my list next week.
At the risk of being shouted off the island I don’t think any of these would make my list of perfect songs ( not sure there are any). Pretty good for all that but if I have to chuck one out It would have to be Gil Scott-Heron. Everything good he did got rubbed out in the end as he turned into another junkie grifter. Sorry if that offends but I saw an interview of him and it might as well have been with his crack pipe for all the wisdom came out of it. true waste.
AOR-tastic Tin! Not my bag but it’s three horse race between BBR, Yardbirds & U2.
Oh goodee, someone called alfie negated my vote
BBR, Got on my last nerve. Great idea, Tin.
That was me, SR
That was me. SR
Oh heck. Echoing myself. Sorry that was so short. It took me 3 goes yesterday to do the clean install on my laptop! I was on a pretty short fuse by the end of the day! There were some nice songs on there. My main criticism, Tin, is that you didn’t do a quick song list to aid the extremely short sighted who had the screen up to their noses trying to read the things they were unfamiliar with, Other than that, flippin’ good idea and some fine songs.
I wonder if we know you a little better now! *Shudders* 
)
Contrariwise, I liked not knowing what they were…other than the ones I knew already, obv.
Fair point. Keep mouth shut, then!
Not at all! Just different opinions.
ooo, you might because there’s obviously going to be a personal connect of some kind when you put songs like that up there
Happy to hear the theory – in private, please
– but it wasn’t meant to be a baring my soul.
You’re right that it does in a way because it wouldn’t be any good otherwise so a Spill point to you for that.
I’m with fintan in that I wouldn’t say any of these tracks would make my top 10/11. The first to go would be GSH. Having said that, I think picking 8, 10, or even 15 pieces of music as a top selection would always a) take weeks of umming and arring to trim down, b) would be totally subjective, and c) would probably cause all sorts of argument and derision among fellow ‘spillers.
I wonder what we would end up with if we had a “take one out, vote one in” scenario ?
Now that could be fun……………………
That sounds like a fun idea, but it would be a bit boring listening to a playlist that’s 10/11 the same every week.
However – turning the idea of Tin’s game on its head, admittedly – we could change the game so that we vote to keep just one IN. The person who does the playlist the following week includes that song, plus their own choices.
Now that’s an interesting idea.
You mean we pick a song the next person has to build a playlist around topically or musically??
Well, I didn’t necessarily mean that – just that it would be a game of “winner stays on”. But yes, it could make a good jumping off point for the next playlist.
We could do it that way next week if you all want. My tastes are not as refined as Tinny’s, i think people might find a lot of songs they wanted to leave off, but they might find one maybe that they’d leave on!
Right, so that;s you volunteered for next the week after Amylee
Ah ah ah.. you’re protesting when you should be working on your playlist.
Hmmm? No, shh shh shh. To work young man.
Of this lot, I would save the Koko & Willie Dixon track, but they have both done a lot better. Sorry, but the rest didn’t grab me at all.
I meant to say, the Abbey Lincoln blew me away. I’d always kind of assumed I knew the song, as the title’s so familiar, but I don’t think I’d actually ever heard it. Anyway – great song, absolutely flawless version.
That and Springsteen were the closest to perfection for me (I’m a Brooce agnostic, but I love that one).
I’m a Brooocenogstict to. That scene with the girl sitting on the porch at her Daddy’s house kills me.
Brroooceagnostic. Cripes
The Abbey Lincoln really is breathtaking, isn’t it? Or any other adjective you want to use.
What really blows me away about it, to use your term, is that you know what’s coming because you’re familiar with the song. But when what you expect comes it is so far better than anything you could have imagined.
Your ‘absolutely flawless’ is probably as close as we’ll come
As I lie abed this morn I found myself thinking more about this. It came down to this.
In a series of ‘playoffs’ we delete eight, yeah I know, that means a lot of listening and then when we’re down to three we’d vote for the ‘bronze’, then the ‘silver’ and finally the ‘gold’. Simple, then we’d know what the greatest pop song in the world is! I realise this might take a while but that’s what we’re here for, right?
Tinny’s good at logistics and he probably has a calculator so he could do all the hard work and Chris could allocate points for spelling etc and I’ll volunteer to be treasurer.
Re. reality, Abbey stays, could somebody negate those GSH votes even if you have to vote twice, I can live without U2, and Bruce can leave quietly also.
And as mentioned above, Tinny, could you get a couple of the lads to take Finny and BP out back and convince them of the error of their ways? Don’t break anything unless you have to.
*voce De Niro* Are you talkin’ ta me? Hey, nice little blog ya got here. Shame somethin’ was ta happen to it. Maybe a visit from the Toronto Tiger would give ya somethin’ to contemplate.
Voce?
ooo, ooo aren’t we the fancy pants,and blazer with elbow patches one now
I’m afraid I was another one for whom GSH didn’t do a great deal. I’m afraid he’s down the pop dumper this week. That’s democracy for ya…
But you’re right about Abbey – looking like the winner so far to me…
love Neil and Bruce, but not much else…..that last one (Track 11) was really really bad though, can I vote that out? or are we voting in?
Finny: I tried the Tiger link, got only Google asking me to join something, does he lurk there?
GF – Yes it’s a link to the pic you sent me. (thanks btw) Pops up in some kind of google viewer so it might not work for everyone.
Oh & he is a right lurker!
So how’s it working? Each week, winner stays on and the next person adds however many new tracks to that one that they see fit? And then the following week, the first two weeks’ winners remain? And gradually we do build up a group list of the greatest songs of all time? Is that too many questions?
Dunno, but i have no intention of trying to attempt the greatest songs of all time next week!
And there’s no way we could all even agree on the best song of this week’ list.
Yikes, I quite honestly hadn’t thought it through fully, but what a stroke of genius!. It might take us a year, mind
Not sure about a previous week’s ‘winner’ being ringfenced. Some songs may need to be brought back for reconsideration and some will be displaced.
I like the idea of spending a long time trying – because, lets face it, we’re all losers and have to kill time some way – to come up with the ultimate Top 10 though. What we could do is have a way of welding a song to the list so we don’t end up in an endless debate..
Oh the fun of watching people argue over that last one
Mornington Crescent!
And there’s always one odd man out
Not true, there’s millions of us, ask any woman. My spectrum is Abbey Lincoln last and Black Box Recorder first, Genuinely intrigued to see what happens next, this should outlive us all.
Me too. It’s one of those either sheer genius or “meh, not so much” ideas.
Poop happens
And so it goes
I can’t say I’m mad about any of these songs but the instant run across the room to move on is Black Box Recorder. It’s that irritating little girly voice.
the instant run across the room to move on
I’m going to steal that line, thank you very much
The only ones I really like are Neil Young, Antony & the J’s, U2 (one of the few I do like of their’s) and the lovely Abbey Lincoln one.
I would certainly go with the consensus about the voice on that BBR track though. That’s the one I would discard (followed closely by Brooce).
I might write him a letter and tell on you