The river to the ocean goes, a fortune for the undertow:

10. R.E.M. (47)

And I was having such a good weekend…(no, I’m kidding, they did about what I expected)

Still lurking: The Who (46), Neil Young (40), The Beach Boys (35), Radiohead (33), The Velvet Underground (32).

I hope all stateside voters are having a great Memorial Day.

The top ten:

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

And Week 28 is now (belatedly) underway.

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

Been a while since I didn't have to change anything. I'm sad to see R.E.M., my #7, go, but that's the game.

1) Radiohead
2) The Beatles
3) David Bowie
4) Neil Young
5) The Beach Boys

Oh, and it's the top 9 now. ;)

Please let this be the week that The Who take a hike!

1. The Who
2. The Beatles
3. Bob Dylan
4. The Beach Boys
5. Radiohead

5 points- The Who
4 points- Neil Young
3 points- Rolling Stones
2 points- Bob Dylan
1 point- The Beach Boys: I really only love one album by them: Pet Sounds. Smiley Smile is ok, everything after is terrible and the early stuff is all singles instead of full albums. But, I'm nitpicking they have a great catalog even if only one album is classic.

A rush, and a push, and we can get The Beatles out!

1) The Beatles

In their early days blander than their inspirations like The Crickets, and in their later just full of gimmicks, like vocals, instruments and melody and all that nonsense.

2) Radiohead

Awful pub-rock sing-along songs about divorce.

3) Bob Dylan

Non-sequiturs do not poetic brilliance make. On the contrary, it's the other way around.

4) David Bowie

More kitschy than a teenager.

5) The Rolling Stones

Endlessly derivative.

Change in the order (Listened to "After the Gold Rush" again, it's much better than it used to be, but Neil Young's still on the ballot).

Repeats:

1. David Bowie
2. Bob Dylan
3. Neil Young
4. The Velvet Underground

New:

5. The Beach Boys - Really only not on my ballot solely because of "Pet Sounds." I love that album that much. The rest of the albums and songs are ok, but nothing even touches "Pet Sounds" and "God Only Knows." It's sad that they don't have much more, so I have to vote them off.

The Rest:

The Beatles, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, The Who

5 pts – Neil Young: I still don’t get it
4 pts – Rolling Stones
3 pts – Beach Boys
2 pts – The Who

new

1 pts – Velvet Underground: VU & Nico is one of my all-time favorites. Songs like "Heroin" and "Venus in Furs" are amazing. Sadly the other albums haven’t captivated me so much.

Chevi:

As for The Beach Boys, c'mon. They have Pet Sounds, SMiLe, the ridiculously underrated Today (far better than, say, The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, and much more varied too), the beautiful Wild Honey, one amazing half of Sunflower with songs as good as anything on Pet Sounds, and yet another amazing half of Surf's Up, and wonderful singles like In My Room, Don't Worry Baby and I Get Around.

As for The Velvet Underground, don't forget about their wealth of outtakes, like Ocean and Stephanie Says and Hey Mr. Rain - as good as anything they released.

5points - The Who
4points - David Bowie
3points - The Beach Boys
2points - Neil Young
1point - Rolling stone

Mismaiome - agree with you on the Beatles and the Beach Boys. At the moment,the B-Boys are probably my #1(of the remaining 9)

1.The Who
2.The Beatles
3.Velvet Underground
4.Neil Young
5.Radiohead: OK Computer is one of my all-time favourites and also The Bends and Kid A. I could never really get into much of their post-Kid A stuff even though it was still solid. Not nearly as iconic as the other artists left,but their quality can't be denied...

I hope you realize I was being facetious about The Beatles and they're still my favorite band...

(That said, count my ballot anyway - I'm betting they don't go out of the game; just want to play with fire a bit. )

Damn it - why are they everyone's favourite bloody band
Why why why? Are they really that good? No I don't think they are...

5 pts - Radiohead
4 pts – David Bowie
3 pts - The Velvet Underground
2 pts - The Rolling Stones
1 pt - The Who - A great songwriter, a great bassist, a great drummer, and a great attitude, but not enough great records.

They aren't that good, but they just don't have any real competition. Name anything great that someone else did, and I can think of something better that The Beatles did. It's driven me nuts too.

Hopefully, The Gentlebugs, descendants to The Beatles as The Beatles were to The Crickets, will come around soon, and sweep The Beatles from their throne.

Midaso:

Paul, I doubt you're going to convince the man by reminding him of their worst song.

Just trying to be funny.

The blue creatures almost redeem the song though.

Radiohead 5 pts
Velvet Underground 4pts
Beach Boys 3 pts
Bowie 2pts
Who 1 pt : I love that band, although they are not in my top favorites. Who's Next is in my top 40, and I like Tommy very much, but what I prefer is their performance in the Woodstock movie. They are miles aways from the hippies, they are aggressive, there is that pre-punk energy. Just have a look

Yellow submarine is a great song
I love their funny and choldish songs, that's one of their multiple signature sounds.
Rocky Raccoon and Piggies are among my Beatles' top 15

1. (5p) Neil Young - He's got to go soon. I'm running out of reasons to vote him off.

2. (4p) Radiohead - I don't care about them. To me they're no better than any other hyped British band.

3. (3p) The Beach Boys - They've made some amazing music, but the lows of their career is so astonishingly low, that I see no other way that giving them three points.

4. (2p) David Bowie - Not as low lows as The Beach Boys, but his heights aren't at their level either.

5. (1p) The Who - I love The Who. Went to see them last summer, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. They rocked harder than people half their age. They get my last vote here because of the themes to CSI.

No changes:

5 pts - The Who
4 pts - The Velvet Underground (my #29 artist)
3 pts - The Beach Boys (#26)
2 pts - David Bowie (#12)
1 pt - Radiohead (#9)

1. Bob Dylan

With R.E.M. gone, the rest move up a place
2. The Beach Boys
3. Radiohead
4. The Who
And here's my new fifth place act:
5. The Rolling Stones - A great band of course, but they should have stopped about 25 years ago. 25 years of excessive continuing is too much.

Bubbling under:
Neil Young, David Bowie, The Beatles, The Velvet Underground

No change for me this week:

1. RADIOHEAD
2. THE BEACH BOYS
3. THE WHO
4. NEIL YOUNG
5. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

Harpo, “excessive continuing” is a great phrase. However, the Stones are up next for me, and I think their problem isn’t so much touring (I understand they’re still good live, and I think I’m gonna go see the new Scorsese doc on them this week) as the idea that they have to record a new album to tour. There have been a LOT of bands who refined their performing chops over the years, becoming better and better in concert, at the same time that they had more and more trouble writing decent songs. See also: the Who, R.E.M., X, Talking Heads.

But, on the other hand, it is disturbing to see live rock being performed by people old enough to be grandparents. Maybe the statute of limitations should run out once a musician is old enough to need an annual rectal exam.

1. The Who
2. The Beach Boys (my #51)
3. The Velvet Underground (my #38)
4. Bob Dylan (my #23)

5. The Rolling Stones (my #21)
My view on the Stones and Dylan is very similar - a string of great albums followed by a lot of albums I don't really care for. But in the late '60s and early '70s, the Rolling Stones were indeed "the greatest rock&roll band in the world".

Repeats:
5 Points - The Beatles
4 Points - The Rolling Stones
3 Points - The Who
2 Points - The Beach Boys
New:
1 Point - Bob Dylan
My favorite lyricist, but I got to let him go looking back on that born again period

No Mismaiome - every year except maybe 1969(even then you could argue 'Let It Bleed') someone released something better than the Beatles

1963:Live At The Apollo,Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
1964:The Rolling Stones-The Rolling Stones
1965:Highway 61 + several others
1966:Pet Sounds
1967:Are You Experienced,VU & Nico + several others
1968:Astral Weeks,Beggar's Banquet,several more
1969:OK maybe they can have that year(just)
1970:Just about every acclaimed album

Well, time to say goodbye to The Who. They had a good run; they weren't going to win anyway.

As for the Velvet Underground, I find it interesting that the outtakes are often my favorites. An album of their best outtakes to me would be better than any of the official albums they put out.

Crazy busy at work. This will have to be a short one:

1) The Beach Boys
2) Neil Young
3) The Velvet Underground
4) The Who

New:

5) Radiohead - Probably the most musically inventive group left on the list. Underrated for their abilty to deliver a supple groove. I vote for them now because Yorke loses control of his voice on occasion (and not always in a good way). More importantly, they do not have much of a sense of fun. They assuredly have a sense of play, but not a sense of fun. I love them. But I simply like more fun in my music. (See my higher placed 90's and 00's artists: Pavement, Beck, Bjork.)

Midaso, even if that were so, it's equal to saying that everyone who has a song ranked higher than The Beatles' highest is better than them, for instance Aretha Franklin with "Respect" at #5 as opposed to "Strawberry Fields Forever" at #16. You're pinning The Beatles against the combined world, which is not the point.

(Even so, I'd argue The Beatles win for 1968, and their whole 1967 output - "Penny Lane" et al. - would win too if considered also.)

The point was not that, comparing The Beatles with the whole of the rest of music, they'd still come out on top (which would be reaaaaally absurd), but that, compared with any one other artist, they would.

Well, I finally prepped my list for the Top 100 Artists poll which leads to a few shake ups:

5 points - Neil Young (#113)

4 points - David Bowie (#48)

3 points - The Beach Boys (#26)

2 points - The Beatles (#25)

1 point - Radiohead (#22)

...and my #10 departed last week

Nah I still don't think they do...

I know, and The Beatles are really dull at times. I just can't think of anyone who beats them. Dylan is closer than anyone, if we ignore his awful albums, but even having such a long career falls barely by the wayside for me. And the Stones' early stuff is definitely better than The Beatles', but their big albums are sort of anti-climactic.

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

5 points - The Beach Boys
4 points - Bob Dylan
3 - Neil Young
2 - The Rolling Stones
1 - The Velvet Underground

I just realized that I didn't get my votes in last week!

Oh well, I voted for R.E.M. last time anyways.

Here are my votes for this week:

5 – The Velvet Underground
4 – David Bowie
3 – Neil Young

NEW:
2 - The Who - I'm really at the point where I can't say anything bad about the remaining artists. I just prefer some more than others, and The Who comes in 6th. My favourite Who songs: "Baba O'Riley," "Behind Blue Eyes," "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Squeeze Box," "Pictures of Lily," "Happy Jack," "Boris the Spider"

1 - The Beach Boys - "Pet Sounds" is one of my all-time favourite albums, and the group has had an awesome repertoire of songs ("Sounds of Summer" is a must-have). My favourite Beach Boys songs: "In My Room," "Sloop John B," "Good Vibrations," "God Only Knows," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "I Know There's an Answer," "Here Today," "Pet Sounds"

mismaiome:

Nice video, really! I became interested in Neil’s music after seeing the documental "Year of the Horse", but his albums haven't moved me so much.

About The Beach Boys, I wasn’t impressed by their other albums; aside form some singles.
As for Velvet, I admit I haven’t heard the outtakes. Gotta check it out !

5 points Velvet Underground
4 The Who
3 Beach Boys

New

2 Neil Young
1 The Rolling Stones

Both artists hit by a lack of consistency after the 1970's. Neil Young has slightly better work than The Stones since, Bowie better than both (hence he isn't on the list)