Name: Keno
E-Mail: keno@fairpoint.net
Subject: Poll Post for the week starting Monday, January 20
Date: Monday, January 20, 2020
Time: 12:32:52 AM
Remote Address: 97.107.69.29
Message ID: 320436
Parent ID: 0
Thread ID: 320436

Poll Post for the week starting Monday, January 20

Its Poll Post time for our 4 weekly polls, and as usual we start off with the Stones poll, where we enter week 1,069, and for this week we continue to ask about the Stones supporting cast, but for this week’s question, we are running a tiebreaker poll, so here we go: "Melody” VS "Shine a Light”. Which song that Billy Preston played on with the Stones, was Billy's better performance?

Billy Preston playing the keys

Yep, a rare tiebreaker poll question this week asking for Billy Preston's best work with the Stones. We voted on Billy’s best work with the Stones about 2 weeks ago and "Melody" and "Shine a Light" tied for first place. So let's break that tie with this showdown poll... But first, let me talk just a bit about both songs...

"Shine a Light" came along before "Melody", so we will look at it first.... Before "Shine a Light" was released on Exile on Main Street in 1972, there was a boot song titled "Get a Line in You", that some hardnosed Stones fans like myself had copies of. It was recorded in 1968 with Brian Jones on slide guitar and Leon Russel playing piano. Most of the music used for the song (and in time, used on "Shine a Light") came from Russel (and yes, you guessed it, while he wrote the music, he wasn't credited of course by the Glimmers when the song's final take was recorded and released). Both songs (really the same song with slightly different lyrics) were written about Brian by Mick Jagger, but I don't know if BJ knew it was written about him or not. Yet with the lyrics being about a guy who wore Berber jewelry, and this being 1968, when just a few men were starting to wear jewelry, thanks to Brian - the first straight male to do so, well, I think that was the clue as to whom the song was about. The original song's lyrics weren't too kind to Brian, with lyrics like "Just seen too many flies on you". Some of the lyrics were changed after Brian died and weren’t as rude any longer (yet the flies were still there). The new lyrics for the now titled "Shine a Light", reflected that Brian was now gone, with angels calling him to "come on up now". Those lyrics were found in the second half of the song, and it was in that part of the song were the lyrics and other things were most different, changing the tone and direction of the song around very much from the gospel like ending it once had, now the song kept the same flow and beat that it had at it’s opening part, while the lyrics are wishing that "the good lord" would shine a light on Brian... Billy on this cut replaced the piano part performed on the song by Russell, while he also added in his organ that fit in perfectly, his playing on here is outstanding indeed, and while Mick Taylor plays a nice guitar (Keith Richards is AWOL on this number), it's Billy who's playing the 2 lead instruments on this song…. Billy today is of course now wherever it is that Brian is at, and I hope the 2 of them have a light shining on them.

"Melody" was a song that Billy mainly wrote and sadly as was the case with the leaders of the Stones, once Jagger/Richards got their hands on it, it was no longer his, and no, he wasn't credited for writing the song when it was recorded and released on Black n Blue in 1976 (I hate to have to keep bringing that up, but The Glimmers just did that to so many people, and I think it needs to be noted, too). Billy did sing the vocal harmony with Mick on the track and he also played the piano, organ, and some percussion, too. It was really Billy who even made this now Stones song sound so good, period. Mick sings the main lead to this song and kinda ruins it since instead of singing in his normal voice; he tried way too hard to sound like a black man, which wasn't his forte, so in turn his vocals sound phony on this one. So when listening to this song (there's links to both songs in the voting booth), forget about Mick's subpar vocals and instead just listen to Billy on this one. Billy made this song sound good since he wasn't faking anything. It was a shame the Glimmers stole this one from him, as more than likely it would have been remembered as one of his better songs, up there with his other top solo hits. Yet today it's known only as a Stones song that was "inspired" by Billy. Now really?.. But that was how the Stones credited him on the LP, and he didn’t make a dime on the song for his writing the song.

Anyway, it's now time to vote for one of these 2 songs. Which one will you got with? To vote, just click here: Stones Weekly Poll.

Looking back at the results for our Stones poll last week, the question asked: What was Jack Nitzsche's Best Work heard on a Stones song?

Jack Nitzsche in the 1980s

Well the results from this question were very different than what we have seen when we asked this question about others who worked with the band. Just 2 songs were ever in the running and they took in 67.6% of all the votes – out of the 19 songs listed! The song that finished second, Jack didn’t even play on, but he was 100% the reason the London Bach Choir sang on “You Can't Always Get What You Want”, as that was all his doing; he made it happen. For the top pick last week , fans feel Jack played his best piano with the Stones on the same song that I voted for, that being “Let's Spend the Night Together”, taking in 35.6% of the votes.

To see the full results from this poll, just click here: Stones Weekly Poll - week 1,068. Or you can check out the top pick listed on the Stones Fans’ Top Picks List, Page 2. Just click on “Individual Stones” at the top of the page when you get there and look in the section under Jack’s name.

Now let’s move on over to this week’s Classic Rock Poll, where we enter week 709 of voting, and we will do what we always do here - vote on 2 different Rock Poll questions for this one. The first poll’s question asks this: Of the artists just announced to be inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame for 2020, which one shouldn't have gotten in?

Rock Hall Class of 2020

As just announced last week, 6 new artists or bands will join the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame this spring. I was thinking that I asked this question here every spring and this year I would instead ask it now, just after the announcement of who got in was made, and not when they get in come May. Makes more sense to ask now than later, but then I noticed when I took a look back in the poll archives, that I actually haven't asked this question for 3 years now. This isn't a question that makes it on to any Top 10 lists on the domain, since it's mainly just relevant now and most fans won't care years from now about this, so maybe that's why I stopped asking it? Yet the site's Top 10 lists if anything are getting too long these days with more than 16 pages, so we don't really need to add anything but the best questions to the lists nowadays, anyway. Yet this still makes a good weekly poll question, too, I feel. I guess the vote count by week's end will show if that's a fact or not.

There will be 7 choices for you to choose from when you vote, the 6 acts that are getting in this year, plus a 7th choice that simply reads: "They all deserved to get in", as I know that at least some will want to vote in that matter. Of the 6 who made the cut this year, only 2 were Classic Rock acts, that being T. Rex, and The Doobie Brothers. I haven't read who the Hall has decided in these bands will get in, as both bands had several members at different times. With T. Rex, it was the original lineup that made them big and famous and sold all the records for them, as the second coming of T. Rex (after 1974) did little. But really, without leader Marc Bolan, T. Rex would have been nothing to begin with, it was 90% he who made the band and the duo that came before the band, Tyrannosaurus Rex, great.

The Doobie Brothers were also really 2 different bands with 2 different lead singers. Unlike T. Rex (in the U.S. anyway), they are very much well known and I don't think I need to say any more about them. Both bands deserved to finally get in!

The other 4 artists, well shit, are you kidding me? I can see why Whitney Houston got in, and yes, I guess she has a large enough following and had many hit records, but is she really Rock n Roll? The fact she died is why I think she's getting in so fast and on her first try…. if she had lived, I don't think she would be getting in so fast.

Then we got the other 3 acts. Biggie Smalls might have had one the coolest names of a Rapper, or of any Rocker for that matter, but was he (or any) Rapper, Rock Hall material? I guess after 2Pac got in last year, they had to let Biggie in this year or it might look like the Hall was taking sides in the Rapper gang wars.

The last 2 artists to get in are the New Wave like group Depeche Mode, and electronic rock band Nine Inch Nails. Yuck is all I can say about Depeche Mode, I hated New Wave back when it was popular in the early '80s, and do we really need that crappy music to live on today with this subpar band? Please! Then there's Nine Inch Nails, although I guess Nine Inch Nails wasn't even really a true band but the solo act of Trent Reznor. The band is different with every album they release (for the most part), other than lead singer Reznor. At least I can listen to the noise they make, to a point. My teenage grandson plays them sometimes, so I know them a bit, and yes, I've heard worst. But are they Rock Hall material? No way Jose! But with that noted, remember, that isn't the question this week. What we are looking for here is the one (and only one) artist that shouldn’t have gotten in, and not the 4 that never should have gotten in this year. So yes, only the worst of the bunch is what we are after here.

To cast your vote in this week’s first Rock poll, just click here: Classic Rock Poll, and when you get to this page, choose “Poll 1” to vote on this question.

For our second Rock question of the week, we have the video polls, and will ask this: Rate T. Rex's live performance video of “Get it On (aka Bang a Gong)”

T. Rex, from the original "Get it On" Video, which we aren't rating this week

In celebration of the best pick and the best choice of the 6 artists to be selected in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame for 2020, this week I will ask a question about the band T. Rex and their live video for "Get it On" (aka "Bang a Gong" in the U.S. because of stupid U.S. censors, and not for the incorrect reason given at the almost always wrong Wiki site). Released in 1971, this UK #1 tune was T-Rex's only hit in the U.S., making it into the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard chart. Of course, this British band, lead by lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Marc Bolan, was a major success in the UK, and as a big fan of them myself, it was too bad most of my fellow countryman had no clue how great a band they were. I'm happy to see that the Hall realize how big and deserving they were and there's no question they should be in there after they had been left out in the past.

Bolan was a gypsy/hippie dude and a true woman's man, and the young female Boomers of the UK were mad about him, as were many ladies here in the U.S. and elsewhere. He in turn, and like so many other Rockers, took full of advantage of that fact. Marc started out T. Rex in 1967 as "Tyrannosaurus Rex", which at the time wasn't a band, but a folk-rock duo, with Bolan the lead singer, while also playing all the guitars, bass, and keyboards, along with drummer Steve Peregrin Took, who besides drumming, played other percussion parts and sang backing vocals. After putting out 4 hit albums in 4 years, Bolan changed things around in 1970, replacing Took with Drummer Mickey Finn (both Finn and Took played on the 4th album), and then shorten the group's name to "T. Rex" and started to play much harder rock. "Ride a White Swan", a song Bolan wrote about an acid trip he experienced, is called by some the birth of Glitter Rock (it wasn't, as the band Alice Cooper was about 6 months ahead of them in this genre). Shortly after that song's release, Bolan actually turned the successful duo into a true and successful hard rock band, adding bassist Steve Currie, and also a new drummer, Bill Legend, with Finn becoming the band's percussionist. Then with the new lineup, they released the 1971 chart-topping LP Electric Warrior. It is considered to this day T. Rex's best album, and a Hard Rock masterpiece, indeed! Included on this album was the song "Get it On", yet another #1 hit single for the group in the UK, and also their only hit in the U.S. where the LP was also a big hit. As noted above, they were forced to change the song's title in the States to "Bang a Gong". But anyway, the song was a worldwide hit and it also featured Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman on backing vocals (Kaylan was the former lead singer of The Turtles, and also Flo and Eddie, with Volman his sidekick).

Now about this live video that we are rating this week, this is not the original video made for the song "Get it On" - or should I say, it wasn't the "film promo" (what videos were called back then) that the band made for the song. That one, where the photo above comes from, while not bad at all, is out there on YouTube if you never seen it before and want to, but instead of that clip, I'm going with and we will rate, a better known clip of the band playing this song live, and which was shown regularly on MTV in the stations early days, with the original video, for the most part, totally forgotten. This better known clip features a very young and still only slightly famous Elton John on piano (pre-superstar Elton, for sure), and was first aired on the 1971 Christmas edition of the UK TV show, Top of the Pops. The band did play live here, but as usually was the case around this time on TV shows, the studio music from the song was dubbed in later, and only the vocals remained live by the time the show aired. But no, you can't blame the band for that, it wasn't their choice. "Get it On" was T.Rex's last big hit, although “Metal Guru”, that was on their next album, did well too. But things in the band slowly started to change after ’72. By 1977 when they disbanded, after Bolan's tragic death, he was the only member left from when Electric Warrior was released.

Just as sad, shortly after Bolan was killed, all of the other classic T. Rex members (but one) would also soon be dead, as would be Took from Tyrannosaurus Rex, too, as they all died at young ages, other than Legend, who is still alive today at 75, and who was only in the band for 3 years (from 1970-73).

Bolan was killed late one night in '77, in an accident when the car he was riding in as a passenger, hit a tree, killing him instantly. His wife Gloria (who was also the new keyboardist for the new look T. Rex) was driving the car at the time. She and the couple's young son were unhurt in the crash.

In closing this out, I must say, I was very surprised - and very pleased to see that T. Rex finally make it into the Hall. At least they got 2 choices right this year!... To vote in this week’s video poll and check out the video, click here: Classic Rock Poll, and when you get to this page, choose “Poll 2” to vote on this question.

Last week in our first Rock Poll, the question was: What's the worst Number 1 Rock/Pop song ever made?

Nope, not 25, but 32!

Well I was happy to hear that some of you really enjoyed this question last week. There really were some bad #1s out there throughout the years, and I feel after looking at the final results that our voters knew for sure what the worst ones were. The Top 5 songs picked took in 70% of all the votes! The Top pick was “Disco Duck” by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots, at 14.6%. Second pick was “(You’re) Having My Baby”, by Paul Anka, at 14%, and in third was the biggest rip-off song from another artist to ever to go to #1 (and what I voted for), that being “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice, it was hated by 13.9% of the voters.

To see the full, final results from this poll, just go here: Classic Rock Poll, week 708, Poll 1. Or you can check out the result from this one, here: Top Ten Lists, Page, 16. The results can be found at the bottom of the page.

Last week in the Rock Video Poll we answered this one: Rate Simon & Garfunkel's live performance video of “The Sound of Silence”

The Sound of Silence – 45 single’s sleeve

No question about it, so many people just love Simon & Garfunkel, and last week this song and its live performance, not only scored a “10” rating, but with 50% of the vote, that is the second highest percent total ever in this video poll by almost 4%! But I have a feeling that John Lennon’s ‘Imagine”, which scored a record high of 69.2% of the vote when it was rated, will never be beat. But still, what a great song and wonderful performance by the greatest duo ever.

To see the full, final results from this one, just go here: Classic Rock Poll, week 708, Poll 2. Or to view the video standings and see where this one fits in on that list page (well, I already told ya), you can do so by clicking here: Top Ten Lists, Page, 16. The standings are located near the top of the page.

We finish up this week’s Poll Post as usual talking about the Beatles Poll. Entering week 460 of polling, and we’ll in the middle of answering questions about how much we like or dislike the Beatles albums covers, so here’s the new question: Rate the artwork for the front cover of the Beatles LP, Help! (U.S. release)

Help! U.S. cover

Week 2 of rating the Beatles Help! album cover, this time we will look at the U.S. cover, which had close to what was on the UK cover, but with just a bit more text and color added in, and the Beatles photo moved around a bit. The LP itself, unlike the British release which was 100% Beatle music, was a true soundtrack from the Beatles movie of the same name – which was actually not a great thing, since that meant non rock music was included on it. Most U.S. Rock and Beatle fans didn’t care for too much for the film's orchestral score that was included and mixed in with the Beatle songs. Anyway, the music on this LP means nothing at all when you go to vote. What we are rating here is the album’s front cover only. If you wish to know more about this cover (like the hand signals and what they really spelled out, etc,), just read last week’s Poll Post where I talked about all of that. To cast your vote in this week’s Beatle Poll, just click on this following link : Beatles Weekly Poll.

In last week’s Beatle poll….the question was: Rate the artwork for the front cover of the Beatles LP, Help! (UK release)

Help! (UK release album cover)

This UK cover did pretty well in the voting, with the top choice, a “10”, taking in 30.4% of the vote. To see the poll’s full result, just go here: Beatles Weekly Poll – week 459. Or to see the final results on the Beatles List Page, click on: Favorite Beatles Album Covers List Page for the top pick, found up on the top of the page.

Well that will do it for this week’s Poll Post! Monday is a US holiday, Martin Luther King day, so if you live in the U.S., you more than likely are getting a day off from work, so enjoy your extra day off! I thank all of you who took the time to vote in our polls both this week and last week, too!

Keno

• Poll Post for the week starting Monday, January 20 by Keno on 1/20/2020 12:32:52 AM <-- You Are Here

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