Trading guitar licks on the slow boat home:

12. Prince (53)
11. Jimi Hendrix (50)

Made the top ten: R.E.M. (39), Radiohead (34), The Who (33), The Beach Boys (29), Neil Young (28).

We’re now in the home stretch, and we’ll be eliminating only one artist per week from now until we have a winner.

The top ten:

The Beach Boys, The Beatles, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, R.E.M., The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Who, Neil Young.

And now: Week 27.

Close call for you there schleuse.

1. (5p) Neil Young - All the remaining artists are musicians I like, or at least sort of like. Neil Young is the one I know the least about, and also like the least. His voice is challenging.

2. (4p) Radiohead - One magnificent album (that's OK Computer), one God of Thunder-like hit (that's Creep), and too much weird noices.

3. (3p) R.E.M. - A great band, especially early in their career (that goes for every band, I guess). They can be a little boring now and then, though.

4. (2p) The Beach Boys - Ouch! This doesn't give me a good feeling. When The Beach Boys were good, they were the absolute best. Pet Sounds is a masterpiece, which I listen to quite a lot. I'm not voting for Pet Sounds here, I'm voting for Kokomo.

5. (1p) David Bowie - A great singer and showman. I can't really come up with something bad to say, other than that there's a little too many songs I haven't really catched. The ones I have catched, though, are supreme.

Out of the blue:
1) Radiohead
2) The Beatles
3) David Bowie

Into the black:
4) Neil Young - Getting into the top 10 (my #9). I never used to like Neil Young, I believe I even had him somewhere around the 20th spot last time we rearranged the top 20 artists, but I've really come to love him over the last few months. Hey hey, my my, Neil Young will never die!
5) The Beach Boys - They used to be #6 in my ranking but after some tinkering they dropped 2 spots to #8. Their career doesn't have as many highlights as the other remaining artists, but the highlights they do have are so high they're out of reach.

Bye Bye Jimi...
2 geniuses on the boat home, 2 musicians that played both black and white music
Now the island is white only

1. REM 5 pts : Problem with me is the vocal melodies : too flat.
2. Radiohead
3. Velvet Underground
4. Beach Boys
5. Bowie : Ouch ! One of the greatest. And still... Maybe he's paying for his coldness. He's a maker, an excellent one.

5 pts - Radiohead
4 pts – David Bowie
3 pts - The Velvet Underground
2 pts - R.E.M. - For the most part, I've liked each album a little less than the one before (but they started VERY high with Chronic Town, Murmuer, & Reckoning).
1 pt - The Rolling Stones - They have a lot of great tunes and a lot of junk. I never developed the same affection for them as for others left on the island (including the two I have ranked immediately above them). I'm marking them down in part for not knowing how to walk away gracefully.

Murmur

I just realized that this week, each ballot contains exactly half of the remaining artists. Feels like we’re really putting our cards on the table now…

1. RADIOHEAD
2. THE BEACH BOYS
3. THE WHO
4. NEIL YOUNG. I don’t know if RR will be reading this, but here’s my test case for musical genius. Critically acclaimed for his entire career, but not hugely commercially successful or influential (except by example). Just damned good—he just makes great music and waits for you to follow him. He’s stepped wrong now and then (mismaiome, you really should either re-post or link to your guide to listening to Neil), but he’s also the only sixties artist I can think of besides Dylan who’s made credible music in the last twenty years.
5. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND. The Velvets are not always easy or beautiful (though they can be), but their music transports. The other artists on our island bent and warped rock music until rock music sounded more like them. But VU broke rock and roll and rearranged the fragments into something strange and wonderful. And they almost created the kind of music (smart punk) which turned me into a music nerd.

No more Prince? What a cruel world.

Returners:

1. R.E.M
2. The Beach Boys

3. Neil Young
4. The Velvet Underground

Just so eveyone understands: R.E.M. and Beach Boys are on the outer edges of the top-fifty for me. Young and VU and the next group are in my top-25.

New vote:

5. The Who -- Major heroes of my childhood. Aside from the Beatles, it was the Who (with the possible exception of Paul Simon, for different reasons) that captured my early-teenage attention. I thought Tommy was a work of sheer genius, which not even that mess of a Ken Russell film could break. I thrilled at seeing their '89 reunion tour at Giant Stadium, and studied clips of the Who at Monterey like it was the Zapruder film. If you told me that I would be voting off the Who before the cheesy Rolling Stones or the ludicrous Prince at that time, I'd have told you you're crazy.

I retain a huge admiration for the Who's work through Tommy. (Although I think _Sell Out_ is a tad overrated.) Their collected singles in the 60's were matched only by the Beatles, probably Bob Dylan (although catch me on the worng day and I might dispute that), James Brown, Otis Redding, and Sly and the Family Stone. Even my beloved Ray Davies was fairly well behind Pete Townshend, pound for pound, on the songwriting scale in the 60's. And Townshend matched or surpassed Davies' peculiarity... "Pictures of Lily" (!), "I'm a Boy" (!!).

My issue is what the Who became in the 70's: a good, only intermittently better than good, never great rock outfit. Here's what I wrote during Bracketology in giving "Won't Get Fooled Again" a third place vote:

"I watched a documentary on the Who last night. It crystalized my problems with this song, and this album. Pete Townshend stated that with Roger Daltry's assumption of the Tommy character while touring after the rock opera came out, Roger came into his own as a co-equal in the band with Pete, Keith and John. The angry, stuttering Daltry of the early singles opened up and became a more emotionally expansive and (Townshend believes) powerful singer. This made me realize why the 70's Who sucked compared to the 60's Who... Roger Daltry. He's an average blues belter. His limitations were less pronounced when he was properly playing third fiddle to Townshend's songwriting and the incredible rhythm section. He rose above those limitations when he sang with a mod snear (My Generation), or when he didn't try to do too much and let the song be the star (I Can See for Miles, Pictures of Lily). Tommy, which I love, is at its worst when Daltry tries too hard and wavers out of tune slightly. While Roger does better than those moments here on "Won't Get Fooled Again", his heightened prominence in this song makes it only good, and not great like their earlier singles."

Now I was being a little unfair. Daltry is a better than average belter. However, expanding on that to explain why I now rate the Stones higher: take my favorite Who song "I Can See for Miles." The song itself is as delightfully creepy as any of the creepy Stones hits: "Under My Thumb," "Paint It Black," "Sympathy for the Devil." Musically, it surpasses them with those delirious harmonies, and the raging Keith Moon drums, and the incredibly well constructed arrangement. As I said, Daltry doesn't try too hard and lets the song be the star. But neither does he have the ability to sell the lyrics emotionally and theatrically. Certainly not to the extent that Jagger (the greatest frontman of all time) did on the Stones' hits. The 70's Daltry would have strangled that song to death with his "rage."

All that said, I still have a huge spot in my heart for all of the Who's work. But my critical ear tempers (but does not remove) what my heart feels.

1. The Beatles
2. Radiohead
3. The Velvet Underground
4. Bob Dylan
5. The Who

Sad to see my favorite artist (alongside Dylan, yes he ha climbed that much) depart. We’ll miss you Jimi.

Ok:

5 pts - Neil Young: I don’t know how he get in the top 10, I must admit that I missing something here. I guess have to listen to him with more attention.
4 pts – Rolling Stones
3 pts – Beach Boys
2 pts – The Who

New:
1 pts - REM: Currently #12 in my personal list. Automatic is a great album, Murmur is also good. The other ones haven’t catch me so much. And they music hasn’t varied so much.



Now that we are in the top 10 I’ll root for Dylan from now on. Go !!

Sad to see Jimi has left the island, he was my top choice for winning after my favourite band were kicked off weeks ago.

1. Bob Dylan
2. R.E.M.
3. The Beach Boys
4. Radiohead
Prince is gone, so once again I have a new fifth place:
5. The Who - a great band, of course. But the remaining names are greater, in my opinion.


And because I've just spent a long while sorting the remaining few into a final "bubbling under" list, I'll include it here:
The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, David Bowie, The Beatles, The Velvet Underground

Repeats:
5 Points - The Beatles
4 Points - The Rolling Stones
3 Points - R.E.M.
New:
2 Points - The Who
The only band left in the top 10 that I could never really get into, maybe it's just the style.

1 Point - The Beach Boys
Other then Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile can't say much for them.

1. The Who
2. R.E.M. (my #75)
3. The Beach Boys (my #51)
4. The Velvet Underground (my #38)

5. Bob Dylan (my #23) - I'm a bit surprised that Dylan hasn't showed up on my list until now, as I always think of him as not a personal favorite, although I respect him a lot and love some of his material. But it's only a small percentage of his catalog that I go back to now and then. Highway 61 is particularly revisited.

5 points- The Who
4 points- Neil Young
3 points- Rolling Stones
2 points- REM: I'm a huge fan of the IRS years and I like a lot of the stuff after. But, none of the great albums stack up with the great albums from the artists who are left.
1 point- Bob Dylan: I don't like any albums after '76 but I'm not going to hold that against him considering how many great albums he has. He's just the next in line.

Repeats:

1. David Bowie
2. Neil Young
3. Bob Dylan

New:

4. The Velvet Underground - This is a band that I truly appreciate more than I like. They really just shattered all prior conceptions about what a rock band should be. Of course, that's also why I'm voting for them now. "White Light/White Heat" is completely unlistenable to me, especially with "Sister Ray." The VU were better off when they were doing "pretty" songs or at least somewhat normal things. So actually, this is just a vote against "White Light/White Heat."
5. R.E.M. - "Automatic for the People" is great and so is "Murmur," but their best works aren't as good as the best works of the five other bands remaining.

I also don't understand all of the Who hate here. I think that they did a little bit of everything so that there would always be something that someone would like in their catalog from "The Who Sell Out" to "Tommy," "Who's Next," and "Quadrophenia."

In the top 10 and still dry:
5 pts - The Who
4 pts - The Velvet Underground (my #29 artist)
3 pts - The Beach Boys (#26)

Damn Survivor game! What cruelty to have to vote off these artists:

2 pts - David Bowie (#12)

It might sound strange, but I did not use to be a big fan of Bowie initially. But that opinion appeared to be born out of ignorance of his works from the 70's. After having heard his masterpieces in more detail over the last 10 to 15 years, he has been climbing up my list slowly but surely. Ziggy Stardust is his highest acclaimed, and a great album indeed, but Hunky Dory still remains my favorite Bowie album.

1 pt - Radiohead (#9)

Usually I have a preference for debut albums, because artists are then eager to show their new and fresh sound. And usually the second and third album are critical for the artists further 'career', and in most cases it ends up being more of the same ...

How different it went with Radiohead. Born as a hype with Creep, their debut album was somewhat disappointed. Yet another British hype band, nothing special. Their next two albums, however, are just classics and both belong to my all-time favorites. In my opinion, all later albums are still good to very good (4 or 4.5 stars), but are missing something of what Bends and OK Computer have to offer. In Rainbows is currently my favorite 2007 album, so still too early to talk about a classic there.

1)R.E.M.
2)The Who
3)The Velvet Underground
4)The Beatles
5)Neil Young

I also don't understand all of the Who hate here.

Penguin, I do not recognize any statements of hatred about the Who in this thread. I can understand that you don't like all these Who votes and want to see them higher up, but they did make it to the top 10, that's quite positive ...

Yep, maybe "hate" was a bit too strong of a word to use there.

Oh, I hate The Who a lot. But I get the feeling I may be alone on that. Henrik?

I don't hate The Who. But I don't like the musical move they made after The Who Sell Out. They are not in my personal top artist list, but that only goes to #100.

OK, now I do recognize any statements of hatred about the Who in this thread.

I agree Henrik. That was a turn for the worse. You couldn't expect them to keep putting out records like My Generation or Sell Out but they at least could have stayed away from the pretentiousness of Tommy. Then you kind of wish that a talented songwriter like Townshend could have found a way to completely turn the rock world on it's head instead of making a straight up arena rock album. It's one of the best arena rock albums ever, but The Who could have done better than going down that path. I just think it's a waste of all that potential that they made a couple rock operas and essentially became an arena rock band.

LZ, are you the artist formerly known as H61R?

****

I agree with the consensus here about the Who...although I don't take off points for the "arena rock" of Who's Next. After all, didn't that album kind of invent arena rock?

(Does anybody want to stand up for Tommy or Quadrophenia?)

I'm now talking out of both sides of my mouth here but, John, to dismiss the Who's musical turn after Tommy as mere "arena rock" misses the point that in 1970 and 1971, there was no such thing as "arena rock." I realize that we're not actually talking about the location at which concerts are held, but rather about the over-grandiosity of the rock being performed. I have already expressed my reservations about that turn in the Who's music, but it is wrong to dismiss it as some sort of easy, commercial move that is a piece of everything else that was out there.

So when you say to Townshend that he could have turned the rock world on its head, I'd answer that it is my understanding (not having been alive at the time) that _Tommy_ did, to a certain extent, turn the rock world on its head: #1 by directly attacking the prevailing communitarian, hippie ethos, and #2, in the Tommy tour, embracing the grandiosity and theatricality.

I am not surprised by the dislike for Tommy, but I happen to really like it. Some of the numbers are right up there with Townshend's best writing. As a way station between what the Who were and what they would become, it points somewhat in the wrong direction, but still contains enough quirk and supple meloies to shine.

The Stones and Zeppelin were the fathers of arena rock. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Who's Next or even Tommy... they just don't sound like albums a band who made My Generation and Sell Out should have made. They're pretty good albums but when I hear those two albums I expect something bigger and that is not the case.

@Henrik - Nice Dylan play on words.

@Schwah - Nice write up. I think I disagree about Townshend versus Davies on songwriting, but it's close. Do you think Ray and Pete could have been in a band together? They're both really high on my list of musical heroes.

@John - Sorry, but The Beatles invented arena rock.

Wow...Not a bad top 10 at all. This is gunna get tough really fast.

5pts - The Who - The only band in here that really doesnt deserve top 10 talk.

4pts - David Bowie - Great artist with a very good track record. Sorry Bowie, I just havent enjoyed your latest stuff. Maybe you should join TV ON THE RADIO as an official member.

3pts - The Beach Boys - Great Great band. Pet Sounds easily one of my favourites. But more of a singles band then anything else. Not that its a bad thing, but Pet Sounds was more of a Brian Wilson show.

2pts - R.E.M. - They can still make great music, as we learned a month ago. Automatic for the people is one of the greatest of all time. They also have a crap load of 4 .5/5 albums. Sorry R.E.M., Your great but not top 5 great.

1pts - The rolling Stones - This kills me!!! Exile on Main St., Sticky Fingers, Bagger's Banquet, Let it Bleed are all in my top 60 of all time. Moonlight Mile was my wedding song. Your great, your later stuff screwed you.

schleuse: Yes

5 points - The Who
4 points - The Beach Boys
3 points - Radiohead
2 points - The Beatles
1 point - Bob Dylan

mankillseverything : you've gotta explain your choices or they won't be taken into account

5p The Who
4p The Beach Boys
3p Radiohead
2p The Velvet Underground
1p The Beatles

That's quite a top ten...

1) [5pts] Neil Young
2) [4pts] The Who
3) [3pts] The Beach Boys
2) [2pts] The Velvet Underground. VU&Nico holds a mystical stature in the 21st century, which I sometimes think the musical substance (minus context, background, foresight, influence, etc.) can struggle to meet. 'White Light/White Heat' and 'Loaded' are patchy, whilst 'The Velvet Underground' is probably my preferred album of theirs. It's still a pretty awesome track record, but they ain't gonna win this, so it's time to get them out of the way.
1) [1pt] David Bowie. I think this is a first time vote from me for Bowie. It's seems puerile to split the split ends, but this boils down to Bowie spending less time in the formative years of my musical exposure, and as such resonates marginally less. I love 'Hunky Dory', and 'Ziggy Stardust' even more so. The Eno/Berlin trilogy is hall-of-fame bound too. Just to prove how difficult this is, I originally had Bowie and VU the other way around, but in writing this, and the further contemplation it entailed, I had no option but to sway them. And then back. And back again.

Argh. Not sway, swap.

5 points: Neil Young

4 points: David Bowie

3 points: The Beatles

2 points: Radiohead - Much like the Beatles, I think this is a band I respect more than I enjoy. I truly get the genius of The Bends and OK Computer and I'm coming around on Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows, but I just don't think they're the most fun group to listen to.

1 point: The Velvet Underground - I might be in the minority here, but I think Loaded is the Underground's best album. Well, at least it's the most fun to listen to. It's hard to believe that this is the album that strained them to breaking up (of course we don't include the catastrofuck that occurred after Lou Reed was gone). And of course the Nico album is great (I don't have a whole lot more to add). I really don't have much to say that's bad about the group, I just like the one's above them more.

I mourn the loss of Prince, but I'm actually a bit surprised that he made the top 12. Still, his departure means that there are only 2 artists remaining that I actively like!

1. The Who- the most baffling entry in the top 10 to me.
2. The Beatles
3. Bob Dylan
4. The Beach Boys
5. Radiohead

5 pts: R.E.M. (holdover)
4 pts: Neil Young (holdover)
3 pts: The Velvet Underground (holdover)
2 pts: David Bowie (holdover)
1 pt: The Who - Nostalgia could only grip me for so long, and even though I think many here aren't giving them their due, they just can no longer hold up under the weight of the rest.

Nostalgia goes a reeeeally long way in this business.

(It's the only thing keeping The Who off my list.)

"Nostalgia goes a reeeeally long way in this business."

You're not wrong, Paul--and that's my least favorite thing about rock criticism (nostalgia, by the way, is NOT the same thing as historical appreciation).

Ah well--this is the kind of situation Michael Corleone was talking about when he said, "This is the business we have chosen." Well, roughly, anyway.

****

I mentioned this already on the Philly preview thread, but in a few hours, I'll be leaving for a long holiday weekend, so the thread for Week 28 will be delayed until late Monday, U.S. central time.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

U2

5 points R.E.M.
4 The Kinks
3 Velvet Underground

New

2 The Who
1 Beach Boys

Love both these artists, love the other five much more though.

Mitchell,

Sadly The Kinks have already been banished from music island.