Name: Keno
E-Mail: keno@fairpoint.net
Subject: Poll Post for the week starting Monday, April 12
Date: Sunday, April 11, 2021
Time: 10:57:55 PM
Remote Address: 8.41.160.9
Message ID: 320908
Parent ID: 0
Thread ID: 320908

Poll Post for the week starting Monday, April 12

With this week’s new Poll Post for our 4 weekly polls, I start off talking about the Stones Poll, as we enter week 1,132 of voting, and where we will continue to rate the band’s songs. This week’s question asks: Rate the Rolling Stones release of the song “Gomper” from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest)

“Gomper”. While Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics, the music was written by Brian Jones

If you like Eastern or World music, you love this song, if not, you might dislike it. Seems that Stones fans are all over the place with this one (I think, let's see for sure after we vote on it!).... Either way, the lyrics, written entirely by Mick Jagger, are slim and there’s almost nothing to them, so very brief and hippy like. Perhaps they shouldn't ever been used and instead the Stones should had just made this one an instrumental. That's really what it is anyway after the 1:45 marker of the song, as that's it for the lyrics. Brian Jones wrote the music. He seems to go crazy on the slide dulcimer on this one, the main instrument he played on here, but he played up to 9 different instruments in the different sessions held for the song (but not all of them were used on the final take). But if you've ever heard the unreleased 9-minute instrumental version of this song, you more than likely will agree that the lyrics weren't needed. It's clearly the better take and should have been what was released instead of the shorter version. That long version is also now (finally) back up at YouTube, so check it out if you like, here (from the Satanic sessions) ASAP, as the Stones office more than likely will have it taken down again if they find out it's back up again (To the Stones office, since I know you still read what's left of this old Stones board, I ask:... Why don't you just release this great and better take of this song instead of hiding it from us fans?).

But anyway, this song was released on Their Satanic Majesties Request in 1967 and was totally underrated and underappreciated. I've heard some Stones fans totally put it down, but clearly to me, they aren't paying attention to what their hearing. Perhaps the song is too much over their heads? It's been called a psychedelic song by some and that I can understand (in part because it's on TSMR), but no, that isn't what it really is. But it's for sure not rock n roll music, but what it really was at the time - was one of the very first World Music songs ever made, thanks mainly to Jones, who again, wrote most of the music (and of course wasn't credited), and who died before the World Music genre took off and became popular a few years after his 1969 passing. But it was Brian getting into Moroccan music that first got him into this new but still - really old sound. The lineup for this one was: Lead Vocal: Mick Jagger; Tamboura, Slide Dulcimer, Sarod, Sitar, Flute, Organ, Bass, Tabla & other Percussion: Brian Jones; Acoustic 12 String Guitar & Backing Vocal: Keith Richards; Percussion (including main Tabla): Charlie Watts; Bass: Bill Wyman (?). A few notes, the sitar can't be heard on the released version, and in the sessions for this song, both Brian and Bill played bass guitar, but there's little bass on the released take (with just bit more bass on the 9-minute take, clearly heard early on), so I'm not sure if Bill is on the released cut or not.... I have yet another session version of this song linked to at the song's lyric page on this site that's only something like 2 plus minutes long, and there's for sure no bass on that one. It's just Brian and Charlie only, playing on this version. Also, while I didn't note it yet, but as you just read, while the percussion's a lead instrument on this song, there's no drum kit played on here. So it's one of the few Stones songs not to feature drums (but Charlie is still on here, playing one of the main instruments on this song).

So, what will your rating be? To vote in this poll, just click on the following link: Stones Weekly Poll. Plus, please remember, the video that is linked to the song at the voting page is there only so you can hear the song before you vote, but it should have no bearing on how you rate the tune, as the song itself is all that matters when we rate only the songs for this poll.

Last week at the Stones poll we answered this question: Rate the Rolling Stones release of the song “ Too Much Blood”, from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest)

“Too Much Blood”, photo from the video cover, which we aren’t rating this week

Us Stones fans very much don’t care for this one at all. It saw the lowest ratings ever for this poll, with its 4 top picks being: 2 (16.5%), 3 (16.2% ), Zero (16% ), and a 1 (15.9%). What was its highest score? Did anybody vote it a 10? To find the rest of that stuff out, click on the link that follows this sentence to check out the full results from this poll: Stones Weekly Poll - week 1,131. Or, to check out the Stones song updated rating standings for this ongoing series, all of that can be viewed at the Stones List Page 5, which you can get to from here: Stones Top Picks - Page 3, list page 5.

One last note on last week’s Stones Poll… Could you Stones fans be taking a clue from Beatle fans and avoiding voting in polls that you feel is asking a negative question about the Stones, like the Beatle fans do here all of the time at their poll? But that song was just a turn off, I know. Yet I’ve never seen that happen with Stones fans, at least until last week. Stones fans show up to vote usually every week, yet last week, the Stones poll not only was the least voted on poll, the other 3 polls all saw near record numbers in their polls while the Stones poll saw its lowest vote tally of the year! But we will still vote on all of their songs in this series, and while most of us love most of their songs, there’s always an exception or two to that – even for Stones fans, and more than likely this could be the lowest rating any of their songs even seen. But then again, we do hate disco, and there’s still a few more disco Stones songs to rate – but I promise, not for a very long time, as I know last week will be enough disco for us Stones fans for at least a very long time.

Okay, now let’s take a look at this week’s Classic Rock Poll, where we enter week 772 of voting, and for this one, as usual, we will vote in 2 different Rock Polls in the week. This week’s first question asks: What is the best Rock song about freedom (Part 1 of 3)

We vote on Songs about freedom for this week

Free Birds?

Damn, I messed up this afternoon while building this poll. I went and published Part 2 of this question instead of Part 1! But the truth of the matter is, it don't matter at all which of the 2 lists that I have for this 3 part poll that I go with first. I'm just glad I caught my mistake when I did, so all I had to do was reverse what I had, so now part 2 is part 1 and well, you get it, right?....

Now, to make the song list, a tune has to be about freedom, or the song has to deal with the fact that living free is the main point of one's life (and the song). So for example, a song like Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" would count and makes the list, while a another Skynyrd song, like "Tuesday's Gone", while about a free soul named Tuesday, won't make the cut since the songs isn't totally about that fact, but more so it's a song, about a breakup and a guy who's running away from his home because Tuesday doesn't wish to be around him anymore. Since I'm talking about a gal named "Tuesday", I'm still not sure if I'll list the Stones "Ruby Tuesday" (who some fans claim is the same Tuesday as in the Skynyrd song) next week, since that song while about another free spirit also named Tuesday, it’s more a border line song, it could go either way, but for now I don't plan to list it, but still might. What do you think, should it be listed? Most of the songs listed are about freedom itself, and not so much one person, but then again, some are. The Stones’ Tuesday for sure wanted to be free, that's why they are saying goodbye to her (Linda Keith, who co-writer of the song Keith Richards claims the song was about, was both his and Jones’ girlfriend (at different times) and she was about to leave Keith for Jimi Hendrix when the song was made. But the other co-writer of the song, Jones, said it was about several female groupies all rolled into one, and Brian was the one who wrote the opening lyrics to the song, with Richards then writing most of the rest of the lyrics along with Jones (I know you heard these stories before).

But getting back to this poll, we will have 26 songs listed this week and either 25 or 26 next week, and as you all know, in Part 3 we voted on the top 10 picks each from Parts 1 and 2 all over again to pick a top 10 list from that final list. But which song will you go with in Part 1? To see the full list of songs and vote in this week’s first Rock Poll, just click on here: Classic Rock Poll, and when you get to this page, choose “Poll 1” to vote in this poll.

For our second Rock Poll this week, we will ask this VS question: “Wooden Ships” - Crosby, Stills & Nash vs “1999” by Prince vs “London Calling” - The Clash. Which song about the end of the word is better?”

“Wooden-Ships” , from CSN, London Calling, The Clash, 1999, by Prince

First, and in a nutshell: A very important thing to point out about this week's poll is - that yes, the Rock Video polls are now over with (until next fall) and the videos that I'm still linking to at the voting page will have nothing to do with your vote this week!... We are now back to our old VS Rock polls (where all 3 of the domain's VS polls first started out, by accident I'll add, as I had no idea when I ran the first one just how popular they would become). But for this series, we vote only on the songs that each week go up against each other - and yes, I provide links to those songs so you can hear them before you vote - but again (and normally I place this at the end of any VS poll, but since this is the first week of the return of this series, I'm noting it first) - the videos mean nothing at all for this poll, only the music from the songs counts when you vote in our Rock VS polls.

Now, also normally when we do a Rock VS poll, we only put a couple of songs up against each other, but to kick off this season's VS polls, we'll go with 3 songs, in part since these are the 3 best known songs about this subject matter, even if only one is a true Classic Rock song. That of course is the CSN song (which was also released at the same time by the band, The Jefferson Airplane – well, their version of this same song, I'll explain more on why, later) and is about the aftermath of a nuclear war and the few who survived it; While The Clash's song is more of a "I don't care what happens", pure Punk attitude towards the chance of such a thing happening kind of song, but deep down he is worried, since he lives by the river; and then the Prince song is a bit the same as the Clash's take, but his attitude is to just have a good time and party like it's 1999 (the tune was written in 1982) even if it the end of the world is just on down the road and about to happen.... But let's just look at one song at a time in a bit more detail...

For the song "Wooden Ships", its music was written by David Crosby, and perhaps was the greatest written music that he ever came up with. The lyrics were at first written by both Crosby and the Jefferson Airplane co-leader, Paul Kantner (that's why the Airplane also recorded the song). Crosby's bandmate Stephen Stills, wrote the second half of the song after Crosby needed help in finishing off the song that Kanter had left him with to finish. Crosby noted that he was in the studio with this new song and he just couldn’t get it finished, so Stills told him to "take a break, leave the studio for an hour or 2 and go smoke a fat one", and he would see what he (Stills) could come up with while alone in the studio. So, he (Crosby) left and what Stills came up with was the rest of the song, and they recorded it the next day. The Airplane's other original version of the song is a much longer take of it and was also recorded soon after.

Basically, the tune is about the few who survived after a nuclear holocaust by leaving the land before the attack, on wooden boats (that won't absorb the radiation from the bombs) and the few on the ships watched those on the land die, from their boats. After it's all over, they meet one person from the "other side" (who was a male in the CSN song and female in the Airplane song) and they all get along with one another while finding a way to stay alive by eating and sharing berries. The lineup for the CSN song was: David Crosby – Co–lead vocals, Rhythm guitar; Stephen Stills – Co–lead vocals, Lead and bass guitar, keyboards; Graham Nash – Harmony vocals; Dallas Taylor – Drums.

For the song "1999", the title song from his 1982 hit LP, Prince had most of his backing band (The Revolution) singing on this one, including 3 of them singing the lead at different times. As noted above, it's a “I don't care song, let's party it up since we are gonna die real soon and let’s pretend it's 1999, since nobody will live to see the year 2000”. A simple, happy song written by Prince about people who will likely die soon in a war. Perhaps not the first time such a happy song's been written about something bad, but still different for sure. The line-up for this one was: Prince: Co-lead vocals and all instruments heard on the studio cut including: Lead, rhythm and bass guitars, all keyboards, and drums; Dez Dickerson - Co-lead vocals, and Rhythm guitar in the video and when the song was played live on stage; Lisa Coleman and Jill Jones (aka JJ): Co-lead vocals, and also Organ in the video, while Coleman also played the organ on the song when it was played live onstage; Matt Fink - Keyboards and backing vocals in video and when the song was played live; Bobby Z. on Drums in the video and when the song was played live.

Then for the Clash's "London Calling". This was the title cut from the Clash's 1979 LP, written by the band's leaders, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. The title is a reference to the BBC World Service's station identification: "This is London calling ...", which was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to occupied countries. This song isn't only about a war that could end most life on earth, but other bad life threating events that were going on in '79 when it was written, like the nuclear accident and almost nuclear meltdown of the reactor at Three Mile Island in the States, which occurred earlier that year and is referred to in the song as "a nuclear error". Then the line "London is drowning and I live by the river" was yet about another, more local concern made by officials there who were worried that if the River Thames ever flooded, most who lived in central London would drown. That lead in time (in 1982) to the construction of the Thames Barrier, a retractable barrier system which is now in place that is designed to prevent the floodplain of most of London from being flooded from such an event. The lineup for this one was: Joe Strummer – Lead vocals, Rhythm guitar; Mick Jones – Backing vocals, Lead guitar; Paul Simonon – Backing vocals, Bass guitar, Topper Headon – Drums.

To vote in the return of the Rock VS poll, just click on this link: Classic Rock VS Poll, and when you get to this page, choose “Poll 2” to vote on this question.

Last week in the first Rock Poll we asked this question What is the best rock song dealing with race problems and/or prejudice?

Black and white water fountains. Yes, they were a fact in the southern U.S. States until the mid-1960s when they were finally out lawed by the federal government

As I noted above, sans the Stones poll last week which saw a big drop in voters, the 3 other polls all did really well, with this one seeing it’s third highest vote count ever. But how did all of these many votes all add up you ask? Well, the top 3 picks were all great choices indeed with “Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder coming in first with 4.3% of the votes. Then placing and seeing the same percentage of votes as the Wonder song saw – but one less vote, was the tune I voted for, “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone. In third was another good one, that being “Black and White” by Three Dog Night, with 4.1% of the votes.

You can check out the full, final results from this poll by clicking on the following link: Classic Rock Poll, week 771, Poll 1 Or, to see the Top 10 list from this poll, click on: Top 10 List Page, Page 16, and go to the bottom of the page.

Last week we ran our last Rock Video poll for the season, and we asked this: Rate Rod Stewart's video for 'Maggie May' (Click here for the video), from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest)

“Maggie May” , from TOPT, L to R Ron Wood, Ian McLagan, Rod Stewart, and John Peel

Yep, you guessed it, a 10 was the top pick. I do love the video polls and they are fun to watch, but the only downer is you pretty much know early on how well a video will do, so the results are a bit boring to report as I sound like a broken record each week telling you the same thig. But that won’t be the case for the VS poll results.

You can click on the following link to see the full, final results from this last video poll here: Classic Rock Poll, week 771, Video Poll. Or, to see the updated Video standings, just go here: Rock Video Standings list page. The standings can be found at the very top of the page.

Time to close out our Poll Post, with this week’s Beatles Poll, where we enter week 523 of polling, and we’ll answer this question: Which is the most underrated song on the Beatles UK Revolver album?

Revolver

Week 2 of this new Beatles series where we are looking for the most underrated song on the Beatles 8 last released albums. This week is many Beatle's fan favorite album, but not mine, as to me, 1966's Revolver, was their most overrated album ever made - their only overrated album ever made (IMO, of course). My problem with it was that my favorite Beatle, John Lennon, came up short after setting him on the previous Fab LP, Rubber Soul, being totally on fire with some of his best songs that he had ever written. That isn't to say Lennon's songs are no good on this one, as I still rated them high, but just not as high as I rate Paul's songs, as this was Paul’s great LP. The one song mainly written by Lennon that I rate the highest, is mainly disliked by most Beatle fans, that being the Ringo Starr sang "Yellow Submarine". Yet it's one of my favorite songs on the album, and most fans didn't grow to dislike it until it got a second release 3 years later as the title song to the Fabs most - and only disliked LP (since half of the album wasn't the Beatles playing on it). But we'll get to that LP in 3 weeks, meanwhile for this week, it's Revolver's turn.

Paul wrote 5.5 of the songs on this one, with John writing another 5.5 songs, and George Harrison wrote the remaining 3. I plan to vote for one of George's 3 songs this week, the one that's on side 2, as this week’s the pick is easy indeed (for me anyway).

Now something you could consider for the most underrated song on this LP, would be the songs that weren't included on the U.S. release of this LP, those songs were: "I'm Only Sleeping", "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Doctor Robert”, were the tracks omitted from Capitol's version of this one, and all 3 were written by Lennon. So George had more of his songs released on the U.S. LP than John did!

Remember, all 14 songs from this LP must be considered before you pick one to vote for the most underrated. To make your pick, just click on this following link: Beatles Weekly Poll.

Looking back at last week’s Beatles poll, we voted on this question Which is the most underrated song on the Beatles UK Rubber Soul album?

Rubber Soul

Paul’s “I'm Looking Through You” was the top pick, and hey, that’s what I voted for, too. To see the poll’s full results, just go here: Beatles Weekly Poll – week 522. Or you can look at this list page at my Lennon site for the results there: Beatle Albums Page list page.

So that will do it for this week’s Poll Post. I had one busy week last week, and I’m hoping things will calm down a bit for me for this week. I finally got my first vaccine shot on Tuesday (most my age got theirs weeks ago, but I wanted to first see how my fellow seniors did with it, as I tested out enough drugs in my youth. I guess for that matter, so did my fellow Boomers, too). Yet I did fine with it, other than a sore arm for a few days, yet my 20-year-old grandson got his first shot with me - and he got sick the next day. Kids! So now I just have to wait another 3 weeks for the last shot, but I tell you, after I got home from taking the shot, I felt like a part of me was set free! Soon I can go out again and see my old friends, plus me and Coop will finally be able to see his mother again, who has cancer and won’t let us or anybody other than her doctor and hubby near her. Haven’t seen her since February 2020, and just talking on the phone to her isn’t good enough. So I can’t wait until May 4 gets here for my second shot!

I do hope you all have a good week ahead, and yes, get your vaccine if you can ASAP, that is, if you can. The more who get the shot the sooner we can all get back to normal!

Keno

• Poll Post for the week starting Monday, April 12 by Keno on 4/11/2021 10:57:55 PM <-- You Are Here
• Poll Post for the week starting Monday, April 12 by gomper on 4/13/2021 9:46:57 PM
• RE: Easy Sleazy video link by Keno on 4/14/2021 1:09:45 AM
• RE: "Gomper" reply by Keno on 4/14/2021 1:54:54 AM
• RE: RE: "Gomper" reply by gomper on 4/19/2021 5:57:04 PM

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