what dedicated listening thread should we do next (the poll)

I suspect her catalog would be nigh impossible to navigate)

is what that last option should say

if metallica wins i volunteer to run it

voted for ewf though

Joni Mitchell, Sly Stone and Serge Gainsbourg aren't particularly critically well-regarded?!?!? Out of that list, it's basically all the rock acts that aren't particularly critically well-regarded. I don't want to have to listen to Rush though.

It's a long way from the Eagles, that's all I'll say.

I refer you to my OP:

Personally I think some of the options don't fit - Joni and Sly and MJ and various others are *very* well covered territory, critically-speaking

ILXors in not following thread intention shockah

xp

Gainsbourg is too but in his case I think he doesn't fit the popularity metric - at least not in English speaking countries.

Well, he's all critical regard and not much else.

also he's terrible

(j/k but only kinda - I like Histoire de Melody Nelson alright)

Loads of great Serge from earlier days people aren't that aware of, Gainsbourg Percussions, some great early jazz stuff, way more than just Melody Nelson, even the 80s stuff is interesting to talk about.

Voted EW&F, but would be happy with Metallica, and would hate-read a Queen thread.

Voted Queen, seems to fit the original concept best.

Write in vote for Sun Ra

I voted for Rush (as I did in the OG thread), b/c they're a band who falls outside my usual "taste profile," but I've been intrigued by bits & pieces that I've heard. I've wanted an incentive to explore their catalog, but feel like I would benefit from running commentary by others who fall more into that wheelhouse. (Also, it just seems like it would be "fun" to churn thru their albums, even/especially the wacky stuff.)

xp we have a listening thread for Sun Ra already!

Metallica so I can proselytize on behalf of St. Anger

i take it back

Write in vote for Sun Ra

tried
Sun Ra in Chronological Order: An Arkestra Listening Thread + Related Solar Sounds

I am willing to be swayed

BOC

fwiw BOC played here the other day and everyone I know that was there said they were incredible live

they're all in their 70s right?

yes, iirc

I'm all for a Sun Ra listening thread but as noted it doesn't fit the criteria at all (he is neither popular nor critically ignored) and plus we already had one

also his discography is a complete nightmare to organize

yup

sorta more interested in EWF but voting for MJ as the only eagles-elton-joel level of artist... where I really feel the gulf between their worldwide unstoppable megastardom and how little i know of the catalog. let's do queen after we do some non-white people and some women? and then garth brooks.

tbh I'd be interested in revisiting Invincible

and then garth brooks.

― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, October 30, 2018 10:56 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

excellent suggestion

mj is a weird choice to me but i know those records front to back. but maybe the dedicated listening could include the jacksons and motown solo michael?

^^^ which i'd be super down for

my antipathy towards MJ is well-established and if that's the result can't say I'll participate but whatever.

garth brooks I know nothing about

I'd be more interested in some country women (which is why I included Dolly) but not sure who else would really qualify? Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette maybe. Shania Twain lol

and then garth brooks.

Great away of ensuring an Americans-only thread

Ditto Rufus/Chaka Khan, Blue Oyster Cult tbh

... though to a lesser extent.

if non-americans sit out on a rufus thread, their total fucking loss

Maybe, they're not highly popular outside the US. Mind you, Serge Gainsbourg isn't highly popular outside France.

Garth Brooks is a step too far though.

i don't see how he's a step beyond billy joel

I don't now, I've never heard a Garth Brooks song.

but maybe the dedicated listening could include the jacksons and motown solo michael?

I nominated MJ and what I meant was definitely to include any solo Michael Jackson albums released during his lifetime - so no Jackson 5 but all of the Motown solo albums. I haven't listened to any of the pre-Off the Wall MJ solo albums. Whether or not we include the two posthumous albums (which I also haven't listened to) was more up in the air.

Voted for Metallica, though.

now's your chance to hear them all! xp

Woohoo!!

I forgot to nominate Vangelis.

Fwiw, based on Wikipedia, GB has two gold and one silver album in the UK, two platinum and one gold album in Australia, one gold album in New Zealand, and six multi-platinum albums in Canada. I probably wouldn't listen to them all either, though.

O Canada

This thread needs more new age: Mike Oldfield, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Michael Hedges, etc.

Mike Oldfield is a good suggestion.

none of those people are anywhere near the commercial success league of previous thread subjects

Neither are Blue Oyster Cult.

Hot Chocolate for the global audience.

I can't imagine myself listening to Christmas Together by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

try closing your eyes

the only problem with a garth brooks listening thread: impossible to stream!!

^^ good point imo

I nominated Love / Arthur Lee but it ain't there

not huge and also not critically dismissed

Arthur's got a shitload of records that are critically dismissed, but usually for good reason

sure, but Arthur himself not so much

I voted for Rush (as I did in the OG thread), b/c they're a band who falls outside my usual "taste profile," but I've been intrigued by bits & pieces that I've heard. I've wanted an incentive to explore their catalog, but feel like I would benefit from running commentary by others who fall more into that wheelhouse. (Also, it just seems like it would be "fun" to churn thru their albums, even/especially the wacky stuff.)

― greta van vliet (morrisp), Tuesday, October 30, 2018 12:47 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is me exactly. The only Rush music I've heard I heard from watching their documentary. Some of the song snipets from the doc sounded awesome, some brought the lolz.

This thread needs more ridiculous pop: Cher, Celine Dion.

agreed. honestly I nominate Nickelback for the same reason

ha Nickelback is kinda perfect tbh

all these white guy artists do kind of beg the question - just how many mega-popular non-white/non-male acts are there that critics tend to shit on/not care about?

don't you all get tired of talking about and listening to classic rock and AOR or if not that then groups of straight white american voc-lead-rhythm-drums groups in whatever genre? because i honestly have no idea where you all manage to muster up the enthusiasm for revisiting that stuff yet again. not trying to have a go at anyone, this is probably going to be something i will never get.

well the whole point of the Eagles + Billy Joel + Elton John threads was that outside of the hits most of those guys' catalogs were unfamiliar territory for most of the listeners (including me, and god what hideous territory it was)

but if you think that "groups of straight white american voc-lead-rhythm-drums groups in whatever genre" comprise the majority of what anyone around here listens to I dunno what to tell you

Cher is a great idea.

I listened to the first five Nickelback albums a few years ago (I worked for their label). They're a lot like the Eagles in the sense that the singles were the singles for a reason - they don't have a single good album cut in their catalog as far as I could tell.

xxp I don't! But guess it boils down to that i'm not sold on looking into these guys music for hidden gems when there's so much else out there

now envisioning a Nickelback cover of the Disco Strangler so thx a lot

xp

Cher is a great idea.

Is it? I dove into some 70s Cher albums a couple weeks ago just to expand my knowledge and hoo boy once was more than enough.

I think the only Cher I ever tried to slog through was her Phil Spector singles and even those I couldn't take

About the same misery index as The Eagles.

Nickelback, Rush, and Queen are not American tbf. (Queen not all straight either.)

Guardian had a list of "Cher's 30 greatest songs" last week, I listened to the top 10, I liked I think three? And even those not much.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/18/chers-30-greatest-songs-ranked

xp Rush & Queen are classic rock though. Let's not talk about Nickleback.

Not all white either.

Also, yeah, the missus and I spent a day listening to a bunch of Nickelback albums and live performances. We might have gained some insights but no, not many gems there. 2xp

Anyway, if Cher is the alternative, I'd sooner dig through every 38 Special and Grand Funk album. Am up for Celine Dion, though.

I'd make a "no more white boy AOR" exception for Skynyrd, fwiw.

Given the voting options, it's toss up between Sly and The Bee Gees.

They're both too good though.

So many fantastic options in the original thread (Legendary Pink Dots! Maze! Boredoms! Yellow Magic Orchestra!!!) and somehow you managed to ignore them all for this poll...

Voted Joni.

they gotta be pretty huge in terms of raw units sold in order to qualify, I mean I like those bands more as well but they don't really fit the thread theme

also it would take approx. 3 months of continuous listening to get through the LPD catalog

what sleeve said

the comodores please

commodores*

just the 9 studio albums w/ lionel would be super fun

Looking forward to everyone's unpacking of 'Lemon Incest' in January or thereabouts.

The Chopin scholars among us will come out of hiding at last.

well the whole point of the Eagles + Billy Joel + Elton John threads was that outside of the hits most of those guys' catalogs were unfamiliar territory for most of the listeners (including me, and god what hideous territory it was)

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 30, 2018 10:15 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For some reason I woke up this morning thinking about this

https://www.bingeclock.com/memes/simpsons___all_those_police_academy_movies.jpg

Kenny Rogers!

That’s... not a bad idea? Def a lot of strange stuff. Pretty big discography tho

Did this poll close while the site was down? I don't see a system post.

must have!

huh weird.

well EWF it is I guess. idgaf about EWF so someone else can run that.

Nice showing by the Bee Gees tho, I would be down to do that after!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrle0x_DHBM

so... is someone gonna run with an EWF thread?

The first four are more or less exactly in the wrong order regarding my taste. EWaF have never done anything for me though (or probably because) I grew up in their heyday. Together with Abba and Boney M. for me they incarnated what was wrong about popular music in the late seventies.

Wrong wrong wrong. But then I even like Boney M.

There were several EWF boosters in the previous thread, one should surely step forward (I will happily listen along, and will also volunteer to do a Serge Gainsbourg one in a year or two for the other five voters)

Every time I see EWF I read it as EMF.

I was the person who originally nominated EW&F, so I guess I could run the thread if nobody else wants to. One track per day?

yeah, that's how the other ones went

Keep Your Head To The Sky: The EARTH, WIND & FIRE Track-By-Track Listening Thread

so that thread sorta petered out, who's up for some Bee Gees!

I can't decide where to start (Aussie-only releases? first international releases?) or end (1989?) I do feel that it should be restricted strictly to tracks released under the group name.

so this happened: DON'T FORGET TO REMEMBER: The Official ILM Track-By-Track BEE GEES 1968-1981 Listening Thread

if someone wants to have a go at one of these other options, have at it (or we could re-poll some new options idk)

I was generally a little bummed that the Bee Gees thread basically turned into my personal BEEGEESSONGS blog but I do really enjoy these deep-dive, one-track-a-day surveys of widely varied catalogs. I'm not particularly excited about the next tier of winners in the original poll, as most of them don't split the difference quality-wise that made the Elton John, Billy Joel and (to a much lesser extent imo, since it was just an endless tranwreck of awfulness) the Eagles threads the gold standard for this type of thing.

I don't want to run a thread, and I only took up the Bee Gees because it's a catalog I know and love inside out, but I would be bummed if we couldn't come up with another one to do...

when I cut off the TMBG poll at their first 21 years, I suggested a listening thread for the subsequent 15 once it was done / They were on hiatus from recording and releasing a new song every week. at one track per day, that'd take up two years, but I'd crunch down jingles & sub-1-minute songs to work through it faster.

yr on yr own with that one

i’d do the böc one

I don't know their catalog at all outside of Godzilla and Don't Fear the Reaper

I'd happily participate in a boc one

i just did a pretty thorough discography run but stopped short of heaven forbid and curse of the hidden mirror, so there’d even be new stuff for me. hm

idk when should i start a thread? i worry i’ll get bogged down in other work and forget to do it for days/weeks on end but i also can really see myself enjoying the process

I would contribute to a böc thread!

covering '72 - '88 looks like a decent run

xp

approx 100 songs give or take. seems like a fun thing to do every day for 100 days lol

having trouble picking a lyric/title

DEATH COMES SWEEPING THROUGH THE HALLWAY LIKE A LADY'S DRESS: the official ilm track-by-track blue öyster cult deep listening thread, 1972-1988

Time To Play BOC-Sides

lmao

If we do BOC, we probably should start with the Stalk-Forrest Group album.

my idea was to start with the first böc album and then get to the stalk-forrest group/soft white underbelly to fill in a few days of context before tyranny and mutation unless i hear dramatic objections. not everyone's gonna be immediately enamored with deadhead böc, and it's also stretching it a little to refer to st. cecilia as an album

also chronology is overrated

but i was thinking of starting this on monday

(to my point above, i'm also trying to avoid the redundancy of covering "i'm on the lamb"/"red and the black" three separate times)

Sticking to chronology would mean a bunch of stuff before arriving at the debut, which as you say might not be the best way to start and keep people interested (in addition to St. Cecilia, there's also some audition demos recorded afterwards that were added as bonus tracks to the reissue of the S/T, all in all making for about two weeks of listening before getting to the real albums).

Actually less than two weeks--Those CBS demos are almost all already covered on St. Cecilia.

yeah i think i'll introduce the stalk-forrest group during "i'm on the lamb" and then expand further after the s/t's done

cool, can't wait to do this, i'm already writing up the first few tracks

psyched

wgaf about demos, stick to official releases

(full disclosure: I know nothing about the BOC catalog)

I own a couple of BOC records I've neglected so this would be kewl

wgaf about demos, stick to official releases

they're the only songs credited to the soft white underbelly. regardless i will not be spending four days on them. maybe one

on a weekend

XP To Shakey: I confused matters by bringing up the CBS demos. The band--when they were the Stalk-Forrest Group--had recorded an album's worth of material (known as St. Cecilia) for Elektra Records in '69-'70. The label dropped them after a failed single, and the rest of the material stayed in the vault for 30 years until Rhino Handmade put it out.

Most of those songs also didn't resurface in BÖC's repertoire.

so

who's up for Kenny Rogers

I'd do Rush or Sly & the Family Stone. Not really in the mood for any of the others tbh.

Sly catalog is pretty small, really.

True. I'd still be down, but that's just me.

Sly, defintely.

well that's three of us... is that enough for a quorum? I'd be happy to run it. I guess we'd have to decide whether to include Sly productions/side projects like the Stone Flower records stuff etc.

lot of great early stuff worth checking out imo

doesn’t need to be comprehensive, but it would be fun to hear some of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whZ0SCHcb2A

maybe we should compile a list first

I'd never heard of that Stewart Bros track before, for ex., that predates what I thought were his earliest releases

sounds good, i’ll put a list together

Thanks!

I know all the Sly & Family Stone + Stone Flower stuff, but his pre-Family Stone stuff is all over the place

so i think this should be sufficient:

stewart four - walking in jesus name 78 (1952)
stewart brothers - the rat 45 (1959 **conflicting info here, may not be sly**)

v/a - “sly stone: the doo wop years” (covers most of the rest of the early releases, be sure to OMIT tracks 15-19)

demonstrators - sunset violets 45 (1964)
sly stewart - i just learned how to swim 45 (1964)
sly - buttermilk 45 (1965)
sly - temptation walk 45 (1965)

v/a - “listen to the voices: sly stone in the studio 1965-1970” (i’ll let you decide what’s worth including here: demos, rarities, some non-stone flower productions, the french fries 7” is essential imo)

sprinkle in stone flower releases as you see fit and i think we have a party

n.b. this isn’t a comprehensive list, or even anything close. just stuff i’ve either enjoyed or always wanted to check out, and think would make a good prelude to the family stone stuff.

that looks like a solid starting point to me - I'm inclined not to include productions, albeit mostly because including the Beau Brummels doesn't seem apropos lol

OK so we're doing this, yeah?

Sure, I'm in.

budo, what is this:

demonstrators - sunset violets 45 (1964)

I don't have the liner notes to "listen to the voices" does anyone know what years the following tracks are from?

Freddie and the Stone Souls Something About You
Freddie and the Stone Souls Superfunk
Sly and the Family Stone Man Does Not Live
Sly and the Family Stone Take My Advice

sorry that should say “sweet violets” and on second thought i think we can skip that track, demonstrators was a group sly apparently played in

i have no idea about the years on that comp as i just have the files, sorry :/

I think the two Freddie Stone tracks are 1965, not sure about the other two. whatever, I'll just throw them in there ahead of the first proper album. I think I have a relatively full list together, about 170 tracks. Will start tomorrow