Name: Keno
E-Mail: keno@fairpoint.net
Subject: Poll Post for the week starting Monday, March 18
Date: Sunday, March 17, 2024
Time: 10:19:08 PM
Remote Address: 216.245.78.27
Message ID: 321656
Parent ID: 0
Thread ID: 321656

Poll Post for the week starting Monday, March 18

It’s Poll Post time, which means it’s time to look at this week’s new polls that we’ll be voting on. For this new week we return to voting in 3 polls; 2 new polls for the Stones and one for Beatles.

So yes, another week with a couple of Stones polls to run (more than likely for next week, the same thing will happen, too), and once again, it's thanks to the band's newest album, Hackney Diamonds. Yet as it is, with my messed up health it's becoming hard enough for me to keep up with the remaining 2 weekly polls anymore, since, well, you heard it before, the poll's admin is a mess, and I have to deal with its upkeep every day. But after asking everybody to rate the overall new LP 2 weeks ago, well we saw a big increase in voter turnout, as the many lurkers who show up here once a week to only read the Poll Post, many of them actually took part in the voting that week. So, as I have done with all of the Stones' other studio LPs, in asking for you for your favorite and least favorite songs on each LP, well, I just feel I got to ask it for this one, too. In fact, I want to ask it, guess I just don't want to run it, but you can't have one without the other. After the polls end, I’ll add the results to the list page where all of the other favorite album songs results are located (“http://www.keno.org/rolling_stones/stones_fans_top_picks_1.htm ). So with that, I guess I can live with the extra work involved for the next 2 weeks, since it will be cool to see what songs are most liked on the new album.

Now, just like 2 weeks ago, the first poll will be our usual song rating poll and then the album question will follow that for Poll 2. So, for week 1,283 of the Stones Poll, at the first poll we enter week 174 of rating all of the band’s songs. Here’s the song that we’ll rate this week: Rate the Stones song “Cool, Calm & Collected”, from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest) (Poll 1).

“Cool, Calm & Collected” Tom and Jerry know what that means

“Cool, Calm & Collected” was recorded between August 3 and 11, 1966, and then released on Between the Buttons in February of 1967. I always loved the lyrics to this one, simple but to the point, about a rich gal who got it made, one who's better than you - and both she and you know it! So, she is very well respected, indeed, unless one doesn’t care for such a girl. But Mick Jagger, who wrote the lyrics, seems to dig her a lot.

This tune is more so really a Ragtime song, than a Rock number. Its music came from Brian Jones (uncredited, of course), who plays all of the unusual instruments (for a Rock song) heard on the number, with the other band members playing their usual parts on guitar, bass and drums, while MJ sings all the lyrics, along with one of the earliest visits from Nicky Hopkins, who’s lending a hand to the band. Here's the studio lineup for this ditty: Mick Jagger: Vocal; Brian Jones: Dulcimer, Banjo, Kazoo, Harmonica, Percussion; Keith Richards: Electric Guitar; Bill Wyman: Bass Guitar; Charlie Watts: Drums; with the Ragtime Piano played by Nicky Hopkins? Both Brian and Ian Stewart played piano in some sessions for the song, and to my ears, it sounds totally like Stu's playing to me, as both Nicky and Brian played a more classical style when on piano (it was how they were both trained to play), and most Stones fans can tell the difference whenever Stu played piano - in his own totally different style and matter. But officially, Nicky is credited in the session logs for playing on the finial take used for the song. So who knows for sure?

Okay, to rate this song – just click on the following link to get to the voting page: Stones Weekly Poll. When you get to the page, choose Poll 1.

For our second Stones poll of the week, we’ll answer this: What's your favorite song on the Stones album Hackney Diamonds? (Poll 2)

Hackney Diamonds Picture Disc Check out HERE how the Disc looks when it’s playing on a turntable

So, you know how this works, just like in the past, pick the song that’s your favorite one on the LP. There are 12 songs on this album, and most of them are excellent, IMO. I know which one I dig most, but which one will you go with? Here’s the list of the album's songs to choose from: "Angry", "Get Close", "Depending On You", "Bite My Head Off", "Whole Wide World", "Dreamy Skies", "Mess It Up", "Live By the Sword", "Driving Me Too Hard", "Tell Me Straight", "Sweet Sounds of Heaven", and "Rolling Stone Blues". Remember, you get just one song to choose from. To vote, when you get to the voting page, choose poll 2 for this poll. Plus, do note, I just listed the album’s songs here in the order of how they play on the release. In the voting booth however, choices are shown alphabetically (as that's how the poll's admin automatically lists them, so don’t get confused by that). Okay, to rate this song – just click on the following link to get to the voting page: Stones Weekly Poll.

Time now to look at last week’s voting at the Stones Poll, where we answered this: Rate the Stones song “Anybody Seen My Baby”, from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest) (Poll 1).

“Anybody Seen My Baby”One of the single’s front covers

With 42.9% of the vote, “Anybody Seen My Baby” saw a top rating of a 9. To see where this song’s rating ended up in the song standings, just follow this link: Stones Song Ratings & Standings - List Page 5. Plus… to view the full, finial results from this poll, just click here: Stone Poll, week 1,282.

Now it’s time to take a look at this week’s Beatles Poll, where we enter week 672 of voting, and week 106 of rating their songs. Here’s this week’s new question and song to rate: Rate the Beatles song, “You're Going to Lose That Girl”, from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest)

“You're Going to Lose That Girl” From the movie Help!, The Fabs recording the song

Written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney, "You're Going to Lose That Girl" was recorded between 19 February, and 30 March 1965, and then released on 6 August 1965 (in the UK), and on August 13,1965 (in the U.S.) on the Beatles Help! album.

The song is notable for its key change, a rare occurrence in a Beatles’ songs. During the bridge the song shifts from E major to G major. The song’s vocals are as usual, very impressive, with John’s lead lines receiving a call-and-response pattern to Paul McCartney and George Harrison’s backing vocals. The lyrics are clearly shown to have been written by John, with his warning to another guy - the gal's boyfriend, of his predatory, punk like intentions towards the dude’s female lover. Very much a Stones like song looking at the song in that light. Not only is he warning the dude to watch out, he flat out tells him that he's lurking in the shadows, ready to steal her away for his own.

Here's the studio lineup for this one: John Lennon – Lead and Backing Vocals, Acoustic Rhythm Guitar; Paul McCartney – Backing Vocal, Piano, Bass Guitar; George Harrison – Backing Vocal, Lead Guitar; Ringo Starr – Drums, Bongos; with the Producer being George Martin.

To vote in this week’s Beatle poll, just click on: Beatles Weekly Poll.

Looking at last week’s Beatles poll results. The question asked was: Rate the Beatles song, “When I'm Sixty-Four”, from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest)

“When I'm Sixty-Four” Drawing made in the late ‘60s. Sadly, only two of them lived to see the age of 64

A runaway 10 score for this one, taking in 76.5% of the first place votes To see where in the standings this song landed, click on the following link: The Beatles Song Ratings and Standings Page . Or, to take a look at the full, finial poll numbers, just go here: Beatles Poll, week 671.

So that does it for this week’s polls. I thank all of you who took the time to vote in our polls last week!

Now for week’s Mumble Jumbo Poll Post Blog, and it’s a bit on the long side this week:

I recall about 20 years ago, back when I was about 50 or so, I was back in New York visiting my mother (my very last visit there), who was still living on her own. She was in her 80s by then and in the last 10 years of her life. My dad was gone about 5 years by this time, but with his dementia, he was really gone about 15 years. The two of us were having an interesting talk about growing old, as my mom looked down on the floor at her great grandson Cooper (my grandson) who was playing with his toy cars; he was 5 at time, and I was mainly raising him alone. But mom said to me "Your boy Cooper, he's so beautiful and peaceful, just like you were as a boy". Then she added, "He's just so young!". Then mom asked me "Do you still have the energy to raise another child at your age, son?". "Mom, I'm only in my early 50s and I'm in great shape, that's not too old to raise another kid.... if I have to", was my reply (not that I had a choice, as his mother, my daughter Jackie, was fighting cancer; and my ex, Sue, Jackie's mom, who sometimes still lived with us, was slowly dying of COPD. So, it was up to me to care for my grandson, even if both of them were still around us some of the time, helping me out with the boy, too). Mom's reply to what I had to say was simple: "Oh, but in less than ten years, you're be a senior yourself".

Damn! I of course knew I'd be in my 60s in less than 10 years, but never looked at it in that way, on how old age would be upon me so soon - and now when that time was to come around, I would have a teenager to deal with by then. I just never looked at becoming a senior at all before mom said to me what she did. Hell, I still at that time didn't even have a will written up yet! But since I was able to retire very early in life (at just 41 years old, from working; I had a marketing firm I owned, that I sold for a lot of $$), I and Sue didn't mind at that time helping Jackie back then with her two oldest sons, since she was breaking up with their dad at that time. But I didn’t think it would then happen a second time to me, about 10 years after that.

But I recall something that mom said to me on that day, during that talk: "It's funny, when I turned 65 and became a senior, I was thinking, I still feel the same way I felt when I was in my 20s. I didn't feel like I was old in my mind, but when I look in the mirror, I see that I am". Yeah, now today, I get what she was saying. Just this past week, I was reading an online article about old people and they quoted an elderly person, who was saying the very same thing that my mother said to me on what became the last time I would see her alive. So now today, as a senior of 70, do I feel the same way my mom felt? Nope, not at all, since I do feel old, but yet I totally get what she was saying! I may feel old today, and I am old, but deep down, in my mind, I'm still the young rebel that I was in my teens. That old saying that as you age, you become more conservative - well, not I. I'm more a liberal today than I was in my 20s, even if I'm also just an old hippie. Yep, that old, early 1980s country-rock song by the Bellamy Brothers “Old Hippie", was as if it was written about me (other than the one part about going to war).

My mom lived to be 92, and at 70, she was in great shape. Hell, she was in great shape at 87, 88! It wasn't until she hit 90 that she started to decline, mainly because all of her siblings and friends were all gone, as she pretty much outlived all of them, and while her 4 children and many grandkids loved her very much, she felt alone for the first time in her life. She suddenly wanted to die. Yes, at 90 she wanted to go see and be with her maker up in Heaven, along with her parents and everybody who she knew back in her younger years. I said to her on the phone one nite, in regard to all that: "But mom, grandpa (her dad) was an atheist, and going by your god, he won't be up there". But she won’t listen to me, "Oh, he'll be there son, and when your time is up, so will you" (I took after my grandpa, as I'm also an atheist). So, I said to her, "Going by what you believe, I'll be in Hell hanging out with gramps and most of my friends... and in time my kids would join me down there" (I actually don't believe that at all, as I don't believe in an afterlife, or that kind of evil). Then mom said something that I never knew about her. "You won't ever be in Hell, son, since Hell doesn't exist". I had to ask her to say that again, since I never knew she felt that way. "My God is a good God and he never would send his people who he created, to a place like Hell, even if it did exist.... but it doesn't". That comment surprised me, to say the least! I'm not sure when my mother started to think in that way, but I guess as she aged, she realized that her Christian religion at least got some of what she was told, wrong. Her father was - no question - a great man, and there wasn't any way he would be headed there, nor would 3 of her 4 children, who also were non-believers. After she told me that, well, I was thinking, at least she wasn't totally lost like most people in this world who believe in all of these many different false gods, do. Good for her!

Just like last week's Mumbo Jumbo, I wasn't planning to write out what I just did. Last week I had no clue what I was gonna write, I just started typing and wrote what came to mind. But this week I wanted to talk about being old and what comes with all of that, and I guess in a way I still did that to a point, but I just didn't take the path I wanted to talk about at all. I did want to start off with what my mom had said about growing old, but the rest wasn't what I was planning to write. Hell, I feel like I'm 103 with all of the different things wrong with me today. I don’t feel young at all, even in my mind like mom did, and no, I'm not young, I'm old! Why hide the truth? My lungs are totally shot, I'm becoming forgetful way too often, my heart is messed up, and that's just for starters. I don't expect to live to see 92 like mother did, nor do I want to, not in the shape I'm in today. Hell, I don't expect to see 80 at this stage - and like most seniors, I'm not at all worried about dying. Everybody dies, and whatever comes around for us after this life ends, well, why worry about it? Heaven sounds like a nice, fun place to spend eternity, right? Or how about coming back to life as another person, or as a bird? But if the Hindu’s are correct, we could also come back as a rat, or a pig. Or maybe we'll all end up on another planet over a thousand light years from Earth? The bottom line is, none of us knows for sure who's right on this. That's one of the reasons why we have religions. Or why many of us have no religions. The only thing I believe is that we will all end up at the same place - or at no place. Oblivion is what makes sense to me, and no, it doesn't scare me, either. So goes life and death. We all know what life is, but nobody really knows what death is, and that's a fact! I can be 100% right on this, or I might be 100% wrong, too! But so what, it doesn’t matter in the end, so why worry about it? Why should us humans worry about something so ridiculous and that we have no control over? Regardless if we are good people, or bad assholes, death will happen, and if our pets and all wild animals don’t worry about it, why should we? If anything, I'm looking forward to no longer being in pain 7 days a week. This is no way to live, not being able to breath on my own, relying on a damn oxygen machine to keep breathing. I'm just happy that I made it to the finish line, and when my time is up, well, like that old Blood, Sweat and Tears song says - "there be one child born in this world to carry on!".

So yes, let's carry on my friends, but let's also stop worrying about what comes next! Being here with your loved ones, and being a good person, is all that matters in the end. In the meanwhile, I hope everybody has a great week ahead, and let's all try to make sure we show up here next week for yet more polls to vote in, and another blog at the end of the Poll Post from me to mumble jumbo away in!

Keno

• Poll Post for the week starting Monday, March 18 by Keno on 3/17/2024 10:19:08 PM <-- You Are Here
• Poll Post for the week starting Monday, March 18 by gomper on 3/27/2024 6:46:20 PM

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