Welcome to bracketology’s second-round pregame thread. Today and tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday), I’ll focus on the first round results and the field of 64. On Wednesday, I’ll post the first-round stats for individual voters. (You guys, of course, should feel free to post about anything you like.

I was going to start just by posting a list of the field of 64, but the subject of different eras already came up in the results thread, so why don’t we start with that…

Let me start by providing a little perspective. For comparison’s sake, here’s a breakdown, not of the songs that actually advanced, but of the songs originally seeded #1-64 in the first round (this was before the July 31 update):

1930s: 0
1940s: 0
1950s: 8
1960s: 30
1970s: 13
1980s: 5
1990s: 5
2000s: 3

And here’s the decade-by-decade total for the songs that actually advanced:

1930s: 1
1940s: 0
1950s: 3
1960s: 33
1970s: 14
1980s: 5
1990s: 6
2000s: 2

As you can see, most decades hit their marks, advancing about the same number of songs they were “expected” to. The two exceptions are the 1960s, which overperformed by three songs, accounting for just over half of the songs in the second round…and the 1950s, which underperformed badly, with only three songs winning despite having eight in the original top 64.

Here’s a final look back (a wistful one for some, I’m sure) at the ten highest-seeded songs that were eliminated in the first round:

HIGHEST-SEEDED SONGS TO BE ELIMINATED
11. Sex Pistols, “Anarchy in the U.K.”
14. Elvis Presley, “Heartbreak Hotel”
16. The Who, “My Generation”
18. Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
22. Ike and Tina Turner, “River Deep Mountain High”
24. John Lennon, “Imagine”
25. The Beatles, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
26. The Righteous Brothers, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”
28. Little Richard, “Tutti Frutti”
29. Ray Charles, “What’d I Say”

On the flip side, here are the ten LOWEST-seeded songs which did advance to the second round.

LOWEST-SEEDED SONGS TO ADVANCE
232. The Beach Boys, “I Get Around”
226. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”
207. The Band, “The Weight”
205. Simon and Garfunkel, “The Sound of Silence”
187. Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”
185. The Rolling Stones, “Paint It, Black”
182. The Smiths, “How Soon Is Now?
156. David Bowie, “Changes”
150. The Beatles, “Penny Lane”
146. The Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter”

Strangely enough, if I had to pick between either of the 2 groups of 10, I'd pick the second one (advancing ones).

I'm with Pomtidom. Out of those eliminated high-seeds, I can honestly say that I only enjoy, well, two of them - both Lennon songs. Compared to the bottom group of 10 - of which I like seven.

Good riddance, I say.

schleuse - love the stats! Keep 'em coming!

Surprisingly, I agree with both of you
I prefer the second list
I'm pained nevertheless by the loss of LIttle Richard, and most of all, What'd I say

OK, without more ado, here are the 64 songs that advanced to the second round, arranged by artist:

The Band, “The Weight”
The Beach Boys, “I Get Around”
The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows”
The Beach Boys, “Good Vibrations”
The Beatles, “She Loves You”
The Beatles, “Strawberry Fields Forever”
The Beatles, “Penny Lane”
The Beatles, “A Day in the Life”
The Beatles, “Hey Jude”
The Bee Gees, “Stayin’ Alive”
Chuck Berry, “Johnny B. Goode”
David Bowie, “Changes”
David Bowie, “Ziggy Stardust”
David Bowie, “Heroes”
The Clash, “London Calling”
Eddie Cochran, “Summertime Blues”
Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son”
The Doors, “Light My Fire”
Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”
Aretha Franklin, “Respect”
Marvin Gaye, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
Marvin Gaye, “What’s Goin’ On”
Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, “The Message”
Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together”
Guns ‘n’ Roses, “Sweet Child ‘O’ Mine”
Bill Haley and His Comets, “Rock Around the Clock”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Purple Haze”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”
Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”
Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean”
Ben E. King, “Stand By Me”
The Kingsmen, “Louie Louie”
The Kinks, “You Really Got Me”
The Kinks, “Waterloo Sunset”
Led Zeppelin, “Whole Lotta Love”
Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven”
The Mamas and the Papas, “California Dreamin’”
Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Sinéad O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”
Roy Orbison, “Oh, Pretty Woman”
OutKast, “Hey Ya!”
Wilson Pickett, “In the Midnight Hour”
Prince and the Revolution, “When Doves Cry”
Pulp, “Common People”
Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
R.E.M., “Losing My Religion”
Otis Redding, “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”
Lou Reed, “Walk on the Wild Side”
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, “The Tracks of My Tears”
The Rolling Stones, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
The Rolling Stones, “Paint It, Black”
The Rolling Stones, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil”
The Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter”
The Ronettes, “Be My Baby”
Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen”
Simon and Garfunkel, “The Sound of Silence”
The Smiths, “How Soon Is Now?”
Bruce Springsteen, “Born to Run”
U2, “One”
The Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony”
The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
Stevie Wonder, “Superstition”

There should be a rule that until you get into THE final 16 for example The Stones or the Beatles should not be competing against there own songs. Just a suggestion.

No way. We'd get a sweet sixteen that was half Beatles and Stones.

I agree, it wouldn't be fair. And besides, my 3 favorite artists only have 1 track in there, so..

This tournament is already biased enough without us having to rig it. Let's just let the cards fall where they may, and we'll see which Beatles song ends up winning, k?

(Ok, that was a joke. Sorry, I'm a psychology major. Maybe I should leave the bias talk until after the tournament ends.)

Nice list for Round 2, although it seems to be a man's world (3 female singers and 1 female band only?)

Well, happy to see that my favourite song of all time has advanced as well, and it's neither a Beatles nor a Stones song

Looking forward to Round 2, can't wait to give some votes ...

As it happens, neither the Beatles nor the Stones, nor anybody else, will have songs competing head-to-head until the Sweet 16 (if then).

They do that in the champions league in football until the final 16. It's like Man United competing against Chelsea in the group stage. Do you think A Day in the Life should be competing against Strawberry Fields Forever so early in the rounds if that happens.

Welcome aboard, DrDre.

I make it 4 1/2 "female" acts in the top 64--Aretha, Ronettes, Sinead, Billie Holiday, and two out of four of the Mamas and the Papas.

I was also surprised by that at first, until I took a look at the female singers in the original top 64. There were only four: Aretha, Ronettes, Tina (& Ike) Turner, and Martha & the Vandellas.

Maybe there is a bias against female artists, but if so, bracketology is in line with the critics there.

(And personally, I would take Sinead & Billie over Tina & Martha any day.)

Pulp is 1/5 female, so maybe you could say the list is 4 and 6/10 female.

But then Jarvis Cocker really is the only member of Pulp who counts so knock it back down to 4 and 1/2.

Two things popped out at me while looking at our 64 songs:

1) I really like it as an overall list, which is slightly surprising given I had a pretty low batting average in terms of favourites making it through.

2) Only one Dylan song? I'm not objective when it comes to Bob (he's a perpetual favourite of mine), but that seems like an enormous gap between his influence on music and his presence here. No doubt there are many others who are underrepresented woefully, but Dylan is one of the big three (along with those other two - the ones who managed to get 5 songs each in), so his is the most noticeable to me.

I hate to break the news but Dylan's influence was in 60's not really that much these days he is not in the same league of those other two you won't mention. Great song list and great site though.

Scuze me? You talkin about Dylan? Only influential in the 60's? HAHAHAHAHAHA! Dylan'll never die.

Anyways, welcome to the site.

Dylan is certainly in the same league as the other 2 -George Harrison was quoted as saying that in 500 years time,Bob Dylan will stand out as the key figure,not the Beatles

When its all said and done, I would not be shocked if the only song left was one by Bob Dylan. As the top seed it is definitely a favorite going in to the round of 64.

Which gives me two sports-related ideas: Now that we have the same number of "teams" as the real NCAA, it would be cool to see the whole bracket so that we could try to predict the winners (just like I fail to do every March).

My other idea is to put "There She Goes" into a Tuesday night "play-in game" against the lowest current seed.

'Unfortunately' for Dylan he has so many great songs that most critics put only a few of them in their lists and thus he only has a few songs in the top 256. That being said, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' (at least) should have won. Too bad it was up against the definition of the Wall of Sound.

Ah well, as long as 'Like A Rolling Stone' wins..

Taylor - Dylan's not influential? I guess you've got me there, because I don't know how to respond to that. I occasionally have mixed it up with people who said that Dylan can't sing (hah! to that), but I don't think I've never had anyone try to tell me that Dylan doesn't matter.

Anyway, he's important to me, and I'm pulling for him to take the tournament.

OK, this one’s kind of obvious, but I still think it’s fun: geography. I had to make a few judgment calls about where acts were “from,” but I’ll stand by this list on the whole.

The 64 songs, broken down by the artist’s country of origin:

USA: 36
England: 24
Ireland: 2
Australia: 1 (decided to put the Bee Gees here)
Canada: 1

Now the USA, by state:

California: 8 (7 from LA County)
Michigan: 5 (all Detroit)
Georgia: 4 (I put Gnarls Barkley in Atlanta)
New York: 4 (all NYC)
Washington: 3
D.C.: 2 (both Marvin Gaye)
Minnesota: 2
Arkansas: 1
Indiana: 1 (Michael Jackson’s from Gary, which is really a Chicago suburb)
Maryland: 1
Missouri: 1
North Carolina: 1
New Jersey: 1 (I’m sure you know who this is)
Oregon: 1
Texas: 1 (Roy O.)

And, since regional differences are at least as important in the UK as in the US, here’s England by city:

London: 16
Liverpool: 5 (go on, have a guess)
Manchester: 1 (Smiths)
Sheffield: 1 (Pulp)
Wigan: 1 (Verve)

One interesting thing I notice about the stats for England…with the exception of the Beatles, I have all of their acts originating in London in the 1960s and 1970s, but the three acts from the 80s and 90s are all from elsewhere. Somebody wiser than me can probably explain what that means…

Good ideas, Loophole. I'll be honest--I'm resistant to matching up "There She Goes" and "I Get Around" in a play-in game--I really want to start this thing on Friday.

However, I did consider posting the brackets for the entire field; the only reason I can think of not to do it is if people like the alleged suspense of waiting. So, I'll tell you what, unless I get strong objections, I'll post all 16 brackets some time tomorrow. Anyone not like that idea?

I kinda like the suspense, I'd prefer just getting 4 brackets a week. It's only 4 weeks, should be able to wait that long.

One of the most interesting aspects of the first round was the extent to which our collective tastes agreed with the rankings. Here are the final results for how many winning songs were ranked first, second, third, and fourth in their brackets:

1st: 39 (61%)
2nd: 14 (22%)
3rd: 7 (11%)
4th: 4 (6%)

Looking at the results, the low-seeded songs which elbowed their way in tended to come from highly-ranked artists (Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Bowie, Hendrix), and tended to come from between 1965 and 1972. Of the 11 songs ranked third or fourth which are still with us, nine are from that eight-year period (the exceptions are "Strange Fruit" and "How Soon Is Now?").

Songs that were prone to being upset tended be earlier songs--six of the ten highest-ranked songs that are gone are from 1965 or earlier.

I can't really find any other patterns--musical style and lyrical content don't seem to enter into it.

I never said Dylan was not influential but he is not that dominant of influence in rock music today compared to the Beatles. Want facts rock music today is a rock group, write your own songs and album orientated music who do you think established that the Beatles. Before the Beatles the prototype was solo act or singer who was the focal point with a backup group, Elvis, Chuck Berry and even Buddy Buddy Holly was the focal point. The majority of artists were not writing there own songs even thought some were, but it was hardly established. The album was not the medium of choice it was the single. The American artists had a stranglehold on rock music not anymore. The Beatles you can have the leaderless rock group make it. The Beatles accomplished all this while Dylan was still a folk artist. Dylan will be a footnote the Beatles will always be remembered because you can't teach someone to make the melodies they created just look at the amount cover versions the Beatles have compared to anyone else in music. One more Dylan was influenced to mix electric with folk in large part becuase of the Beatles what did he say the Beatles were leading the direction of where music is heading. Enough said.

Hmmm, I’m actually pleased by those results – the percentages are more or less exactly where they should be.

Any higher (ie. #1’s in the high 70s/80th percentile), and I’d have reason to believe that songs are being ranked #1 partially on the basis of their spot. Any lower, and then we’ve got votes being given just for the sake of being different (ie. “I’m not going to pick the obvious.”)

Bob Dylan was a big influence on the Beatles but let's be truthful Dylan was a solo artist who could not sing and was not that experimental.
The Beatles established or allowed artists like the Stones to Led Zeppeln to everyone else to accomplish the things they achieved not Dylan.

I'd be harder pressed to defend Dylan if his talent and influence weren't so obvious.

schleuse - do you have any stats regarding the songs that received the highest average point total? And for that matter, largest percentage of first place votes received?

What's that bullshit about Bob Dylan not being able to sing? He might not have the greatest of voices, but he's certainly a great singer. Also, not 'experimental'? Listen to the Royal Albert Hall concert and tell me he took the easy way. Like Mike McGonigal said, "A classic case of not giving the audience what they want but what they need".

He's right up there with The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, in my opinion right above them. It might be because I wasn't born in that period to see the rise of the Beatles, but I don't understand most of the acclaim The Beatles get. I can see their influence in the last 40 years, and I know they're one of the most influential bands of all time, but sometimes I wonder why. Jonmarck's comment on Elvis Presley regarding his luck about being there in the right place at the right time certainly goes for the Beatles I think. Dylan didn't go down the road people expected him to but instead made some fantastic music. The Beatles were right there to take his place as the heroes of the people, and the people loved them for it. But was their music really that great? Again, I don't think so. They did something new, but they didn't really do a great job. The people they influenced did a better job in most cases.

And about Dylan not being influential today, who wrote and performed the first 'rap' song again? Oh.. right.

Just my 2 cents, English isn't my native language so I find I'm having a hard time explaining it at times, sorry about that. :)

Mm, just saw two other people posted before me, guess you have a point there jonmarck, I shouldn't have posted perhaps but they got a little on my nerves. My apologies.

Damn, I really need an edit button. Seems like the post turned out more of a rant on The Beatles than defending Bob Dylan.. ah well, new discussion material!

Neopetemulas I hope I have name your name right the reason why other people were influenced by the Beatles becuase they were talented and were not doing watered down rock music of the 50's. The Beatles at the right place at the right time dumb statement considering they led to so many directions in rock music.

How many artists from different genres have covered the Beatles music that is certainly not luck. The Byrds changed the direction of there music becuase of the Beatles that is one of many examples I can give you. Tomorrow Never Knows , Strawberry Fields Forever and A Day in the Life is far ahead of anything Dylan did musically. Yeh Dylan lyrically but that's it sorry I have offended anyone.

So explain to me what's so special about Strawberry Fields Forever that makes it better than.. pretty much any Dylan song? I don't see it.

Aw, I'm really disappointed I didn't find this forum in time to post in the 1st round of this, hopefully it'll be ok for me to join now? Great idea btw.

Of course, anyone is welcome.

It's just unbelievable that things like 'Anarchy In The UK','Love Will Tear Us Apart','Layla' aren't into the second round...

I'm sure everyone has that feeling about a few songs, I personally miss My Generation, Blowin' in the Wind, Subterranean Homesick Blues, House of the Rising Sun, Waiting for the Man and Hound Dog.. but hey, the competition was strong.

Neoptolemus you wanted me to explain why I think Strawberry Fields Forever is great. The song is a great mix avant garde with psychedelic pop both hardly estabilsihed in rock music at that time. It was one of the strangest songs ever to break the top ten in America and in many countries.

It popularized the mellotron, I loved the use of backward drum loops on the song, and I liked the use of the avant garde type strings. This song floored Brian Wilson when in came out, Pete Townsend was another one who though it was great. Also I grew up with Nirvana so I am to young to really appreaciate that time period but I think it's great music. I am moving on to a different topic. You can have your opinion but remember the Beatles were around for only seven years yet they are the number one artist on this site that's amazing to me.

MightyMadMax, please jump in, and welcome!

Anthony, let me run some quick stats here for you--

The highest average point total would have to be "Good Vibrations," with an average of 4.0 points, since everyone picked it first (which also answers your other question. The highest net point total was "Purple Haze," with 102. Of course, it would be better to look at percentages, since the number of voters each week varied considerably.

Here are the songs which earned the highest percentage of first-place votes:

“Good Vibrations” (100.0)
“Billie Jean” (93.3)
“Like a Rolling Stone” (86.4)
“A Day in the Life” (77.8)
“Superstition” (77.3)
“London Calling” (77.3)
“Paint It, Black” (76.2)
“Purple Haze” (71.4)
“Let’s Stay Together” (68.2)
“Johnny B. Goode” (66.7)
“Satisfaction” (66.7)

And the lowest (among winning songs):
“The Weight” (25.0)
“The Tracks of My Tears” (25.0)

I also figured the songs with the highest percentage of possible points--you got 100% if you're a unanimous winner, 25% if everybody picked you last (which never happened):

“Good Vibrations” (100.0)
“Billie Jean” (98.3)
“Like a Rolling Stone” (92.0)
“A Day in the Life” (91.7)
“Purple Haze” (91.1)
“London Calling” (90.9)
“Johnny B. Goode” (89.3)
“Satisfaction” (88.5)
“Paint It, Black” (88.1)
“You Really Got Me” (87.5)
“Let’s Stay Together” (87.5)

And the lowest (again, among winning songs):
“The Weight” (65.2)

By the way, although there are obviously some serious heavyweights on these lists, I'm not at all certain how well these stats predict what's going to happen next. First-round performance was not very predictive in the BNIT, for one thing. More importantly, these stats don't take into account the strength of the opponents in the first round. Some of these songs ("Like a Rolling Stone") were in very tough brackets, but others ("Satisfaction") were not.

While we're tearing our hair out over first round results, I'd say that my biggest disappointments were the shutout of Little Richard and the losses of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "What'd I Say." I guess I also would have liked to see one Public Enemy song get in.

For whatever it's worth, had I not foolishly dropped off the boards for a few weeks, I probably would hvae stopped Good Vibrations from being a unanimous #1. I think I would have chosen "Only the Lonely" over "Good Vibrations."

And my biggest disappointments of the second round:

- No Sly and the Family Stone?

- No James Brown??

- "Voodoo Chile" beating “Waiting for the Man,” “I Want You Back,” and “Good Times”???

- Ae needed more from the 90's and 00's to go through. I would have loved to see "Cannonball," "Loser," and "Seven Nation Army" go through... and "Ms. Jackson" instead of "Hey Ya"

- And the only reason that "Billie Jean" did so well is because that was the single worst bracket of the first round.

My biggest disappointments are "Loser" by Beck (which got the most first place votes in its bracket) and "Subterranean Homesick Blues." It's kind of funny because I've always associated these two songs with each other.

Bob will get his revenge next round....

Thanks for this, schleuse.

It's no secret that my biggest disappointment from the first round was Oasis getting both of its songs knocked out - in the same week no less. I didn't have high hopes for "Wonderwall", but I certainly did think that "Live Forever" (which I still maintain is one of the best rock songs written in the last 15 years) would make it to Round #2.

But.... as much as I am disappointed, I am reassured by the fact that everybody who voted in the first round (the "regulars" at least) seemed to take every song into consideration. Judging from schleuse's earlier statistical breakdown of the percentage of winning songs that were ranked first, second, etc., that snapshot showed (to me anyway) that a lot of thought was put into everyone's choices, and that songs weren't ranked #1 in their respective brackets simply by virtue of being the highest ranked song.

Let's hope this trend continues in the second round. I don't see why it shouldn't; this upcoming round is going to feel like a kick in the pills. Some difficult choices await all of us.

I'm going to miss Subterranean, House of the Rising Sun and Live Forever for sure, but by far I'll miss Tomorrow Never Knows the most. That was a sad week for me.

I'm disappointed by the final 64 but what can you do... Might as well print it up and send it to Rolling Stone because it looks pretty similar to any list they've ever made. I have about 4 or 5 of them that I'm hoping can last at least a couple rounds.

To me it's a great list ... classy
And of course it looks like a RS list : it's taken from the 256 more acclaimed songs, which are an average of the tastes of hundreds of critics
What do you expect John ? It is a consensus
They are the best most well known songs
Of course every hidden gem chosen by this or that critic has disappeard from the final result, either because it wasn't shared by the others, or because it wasn't know to everybody

Yeah I know. That's why I said what can you do. There are still a handful of good songs that I hope can pull off some upsets.

OK, it’s time to get down to brass tacks and reveal the stats for individual voters in the first round. I pushed and shoved the numbers around, and concluded that the best system for ranking voters, in terms of being both simple and reasonably fair, is just to go with total number of “correct” picks.

The format shows ranking, name, and number of correct picks, followed in parentheses by (weeks with an eligible ballot, and percentage of brackets picked correctly). If I was able to, I broke ties by percentage of correct picks.

1. jonmarck: 42 (weeks 1-16; 65.6%)
2. Harold Wexler: 40 (weeks 1-16; 62.5)
3. Rocky Raccoon: 37 (weeks 1-15; 61.7)
4. Neoptolemos: 37 (weeks 1-16; 57.8)
5. Midaso: 36 (weeks 1, 2, 4-16; 60.0)
6. Mo: 36 (weeks 1-16; 56.3)
7. Honorio: 33 (weeks 1-16; 51.6)
7. Loophole: 33 (weeks 1-16; 51.6)
9. Henrik: 32 (weeks 1-16; 50.0)
10. schleuse: 30 (weeks 1-16; 46.9)
11. twister: 29 (weeks 1-10, 12-14; 55.8)
12. Slush: 26 (weeks 1-12, 15; 50.0)
13. marc: 25 (weeks 1-11; 56.8)
14. Anthony: 25 (weeks 5-16; 52.1)
15. nicolas: 23 (weeks 5-16; 47.9)
16. Jonah: 22 (weeks 1-5, 7-10, 12, 13; 50.0)
17. John: 18 (weeks 4, 6-10, 12-16; 40.9)
18. damosuzuki: 18 (weeks 4-16; 34.6)
19. Schwah: 17 (weeks 5-12, 16; 47.2)
20. otisredding: 17 (weeks 2-8, 11, 12, 15; 42.5)
21. sweedishchef: 15 (weeks 1-6; 62.5)
22. Moonbeam: 13 (weeks 1-3, 5-7, 9, 10; 40.6)
23. FormerlyEducated: 12 (weeks 8-10, 12, 16; 60.0)
24. Netjade: 10 (weeks 3, 7-11; 41.7)
25. Greg Rumpff: 10 (weeks 2, 3, 8-12, 15; 31.3)
26. jp: 9 (weeks 5-8; 56.3)
27. spcurtis: 8 (weeks 4, 5, 8; 66.7)
28. David A.: 8 (weeks 3, 6, 7, 11; 50.0)
28. tfguenther: 8 (weeks 1, 2, 4, 5; 50.0)
30. Rune: 8 (weeks 5-9; 40.0)
31. nathaniel: 7 (weeks 4, 5, 8, 9, 12; 35.0)
32. Vgrd: 6 (weeks 1, 2, 9; 50.0)
33. Bonds: 4 (weeks 9-11; 33.3)
34. imcleod: 3 (week 8; 75.0)
34. JR: 3 (week 11; 75.0)
36. Harpo: 3 (weeks 7-9; 25.0)
37. AJackson: 2 (week 5; 50.0)
37. JK: 2 (week 3; 50.0)
37. Richard: 2 (week 1; 50.0)
40. L. Bangs: 2 (weeks 1, 2; 25.0)
41. Helm: 1 (week 7; 25.0)
41. Keith: 1 (week 11; 25.0)
41. Slick: 1 (week 2; 25.0)

I’ll be honest: I’m a little bit nervous about posting this list. For one thing, I don’t want to discourage voters with low totals or low percentages from participating. I know it can be frustrating to see one’s own picks knocked out week after week. As I’ve said before, I take perverse pride in my own inability to crack 50%, and my own presence (barely) in the top ten is only because I voted every week.

More importantly, I want people to rank songs based on merit, not on an attempt to score well individually. I don’t really think anyone’s going to do that, but, frankly, as many of you have noted, the choices get much more difficult from here until the Final Four. So I hope nobody cops out by making hard decisions on the basis of what song one thinks is going to win (if that makes sense).

(On a related matter, I’m not going to run a separate competition for picking which songs are going to win, for the same reason that the NCAA doesn’t let basketball players bet on the tournament.)

I’ll update this list again after every round, although—heh heh heh—since the choices in the later rounds are going to be much more difficult, “correct” choices in the second round will count TWICE as much as “correct” choices in the first. This will give ample opportunity for voters who came in late to catch up (Anthony, Nicolas, John, damosuzuki, Schwah, FormerlyEducated), for new voters to rack up some good totals (DrDre, MightyMadMax, Beckham?), and for those who have missed some weeks to make up for lost time (twister, marc, Jonah, otisredding, sweedishchef, Moonbeam).

Two other things:

First, a personal note to Henrik: as you suggested, I tried to run the numbers on whose votes were most closely in line with the AM rankings, but:
a) it was a a time-consuming, brain-melting operation for which I had neither the time nor the brain, and
b) it would have looked pretty similar to the list above. Sorry about that.

Second: Those of you who finished in the top 20, I’ll have a surprise reward for you tomorrow.

37 huh? I thought I did a lot worse, I saw a lot of favorites get voted away. Shiny.

“Brass tacks” – love it. Sounds like my Grade 10 math teacher.

schleuse - nice snapshot of individual voter results, btw. Any chance we’ll see the round #2 brackets today, or did Neopopadopalous veto that?

No disrespect intended. I just like Pomtidom more.

Math teacher? I got "brass tacks" from an old Doonesbury cartoon.

Here's what I've decided about previewing the round 2 brackets: I'm not actually going to post them ahead of time, but if you want to know what they are...

***SPOILER ALERT FOR NEOPTOLEMOS!!! (and anyone else who doesn't want to know!)***




...the winners of each week in round one will form a bracket. The week 1 winners will be bracket A, the week 2 winners will be bracket B, and so on. You can figure it out from there, if you care to.

(And you all thought there was some arcane system to all this...)

I would have had to give the game away tomorrow, anyway. (What does that mean? Stay tuned...)

None taken. I'm the only one who voted on the matter so I dunno if that means I veto'd it. I don't really care either way, but if I had to choose I'd prefer a little suspense.

Beat me to it schleuse, I'm gonna avoid this topic from now on.

Well, I don’t know about “arcane”, but perhaps “intuitive”.

I figured you would re-seed the songs so that 1 (“Like A Rolling Stone”) would be grouped with 232 (“I Get Around”), plus the middle two songs, 49 and 51 (“Sympathy for the Devil” and “Tracks of My Tears”, respectively.) Much like how round #1 was seeded.

Just curious - why the change?

schleuse, I barely remember asking for no. of votes in line with the critics. I'm glad you don't do all the ridiculous things we ask for.

Anthony: well, it's not really a "change"...I never intended to re-seed.

To be honest, yeah, I thought about it, but my model in all of this is still the NCAA tournament, which doesn't re-seed after each round.

(Nor do tennis tournaments, nor the World Cup, nor the baseball playoffs.)

(...and, by the way: Red Sox over Angels, Yankees over Indians, Cubs over Diamondbacks, Rockies over Phillies. Very few of you care, but I wanted to establish that now. I'm sure I'll regret it in a week.)

The rationale, I guess, is that once a song proves that it's strong enough to win a bracket over three other acclaimed songs, the seeds kind of go out the window.

And, admit it: it's more fun to know that a few dark horses are going to get into the Sweet 16.

The reason I asked was because in your explanation of seeding in Week 5, you mentioned that, logically, higher-ranked songs should get easier opponents. So I was assuming this rationale would be followed in round #2.

But your explanation of why you're choosing not to re-seed makes sense. Thanks for validating my nerdy curiosity.

Hey, I was wondering if I could start voting in the second round, or is it too late for newcomers?

Anyone can vote. The amount of voters has been declining over the last week, so your votes will be very welcome. I'm sure schleuse will mention this, but motivation is required, so you can start thinking about it already (since brackets are already known).

Umm...yes!--what Neoptolemos said!

Welcome, Rendle. You're joining in at a great time!

34.6% for me.



Ah, well...I've made my peace with the fact that almost nobody in the world likes what I like. At this point, I'm prepared to wear that percentage like a badge of honour.

Very good song list, I would take away She Loves You and add Tomorrow Never Knows. The Rolling Stones songs are solid and the Kinks Waterloo Sunset show me that some Brits are on this site because this is one great song I never understood why it did not make it big the states.

Well, I would have finished in a tie for second had I had time to vote in week 16.