69 Love Songs poll

"All My Little Words"

I haven't listened to every song, but I'm voting "The Luckiest Guy On the Lower East Side"

"The Sun Goes Down And The World Goes Dancing", after a short struggle

Totally "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan"

That was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Besides vote for Laughing Stock over Spirit of Eden.

Book of Love

"I Can't Touch You Anymore" has always been my favorite off this one.

There's really only 4 or 5 options here.

way too hard.

"Papa Was a Rodeo"
ps Mama was a rock 'n' roll band

So many good songs.. unfair!

I, however, voted Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side, because he has wheels and I want to go for a ride..

The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side

the held note at the end is my favorite moment on the entire album

"Sweet-Lovin' Man" - Because he may never have written it. Only he would have written it because, well, he did write it.

"Busby Berkeley Dreams," with "Book of Love" as the only real competition. While all the moods of the Magnetic Fields are good, heartbroken Magnetic Fields is the very best, which is why "Busby Berkeley Dreams," "All the Umbrellas in London," and "Plant White Roses" are so classic.

Yeah! Oh Yeah!

2oi3jwehn mi boi ywaslk78d down ath syt4reasty

wtf?!

When My Boy Walks Down The Street.

Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits

favorite song on album and ever.

This poll is stupid, better to start a POV or POX thread to gather concensus on the meat of the material.

Having said that, I'll pick "I Don't Wanna Get Over You".

Too many good ones to chose from. Voted for "Love In The Shadows," which I have always loved, cause nobody else will. Probably.

"Book of Love" or "Sweet Lovin' Man."

Come back from San Francisco

"Yeah, Oh Yeah" is close, but I voted "Bitter Tears"

Disc two is mostly useless, though, huh?

"Epitaph for my Heart", with "When my Boy Walks down the Street" and "(Crazy for you but) not that Crazy" close behind.

The 33 1/3 book has the Top 10 as voted for by the stephinsongs.com mailing list:

April 2006
1. Book of Love
2. I Don't Want To Get Over You
3. Luckiest Guy on the LES
4. Papa Was a Rodeo
5. All My Little Words
6. Busby Berkeley Dreams
7. Long Forgotten Fairytales
8. Yeah! Oh Yeah!
9. Come Back from SF
10. I Think I Need a New Heart/Nothing Matters When We're Dancing (tie)

September 1999
1. Papa Was a Rodeo
2. Book of Love
3. Busby Berkeley Dreams
4. Absolutely Cuckoo
5. Yeah! Oh Yeah!
6. I Don't Want To Get Over You
7. All My Little Words
8. No On Will Ever Love You
9. I Think I Need a New Heart
10. Luckiest Guy on the LES/I Don't Believe In The Sun (tie)

And a Bottom Ten from April 2006
1. Punk Love
2. Love is Like Jazz
3. Love in the Shadows
4. Experimental Music Love
5. Xylophone Track
6. Zebra
7. I Shatter
8. How Fucking Romantic
9. Fido Your Leash Is Too Long
10. Bitter Tears

i went book of love

Queen Of The Savages

Bottom 10 list OTM

but just wait until Fido makes the top spot

Yeah, "Fido" is the one WTF on the bottom 10, one of SM's best earworms.

"Bitter Tears" in the bottom 10? Blasphemy!!! Come on!

Yeah, Bitter Tears is great. I also have a degree of fondness for Love is Like Jazz.

where is the wuv for "Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget"?

just chose no one will ever love you

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I suspect I'm the only one voting for A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off

"Fido Your Leash Is To Long" so doesn't belong in the bottom 10.

I voted for "Long-Forgotten Fairytale"

"Fido..." is the perfect George Jones song. I had a friend who played it non-stop after his best friend fucked his girlfriend.

papa was a rodeo

i voted reno dakota cause it doesnt have that terrible man singing on it

Fuck you this is impossible.

"All My Little Words"

the way you say good-night, but it could have easily been busby berkeley dreams, papa was a rodeo or grand canyon

I've always wondered how different Merritt/Magnetic Field's career would be if 69 Love Songs had been collapsed into 1 disc. It's easily conceivable to make a 25-track album where I'd love every single song. That said, I'm happy to shut up and love it as-is.

Harder question: list all MF songs which are better than all 69 love songs. I've got "Plant White Roses," "100,000 Fireflies," "Kings," "Take Ecstasy with Me," and "Born on a Train." Maybe "Save a Secret for the Moon" and "All the Umbrellas in London," though these I think are particularly "69 Love Songs-like" and thus harder to weigh against the actual 69 Love Songs songs.

Someone needs to a do a worst song on 69LS poll once this one has finished.

Heck, why wait?

Ah, the WORST song on "69 Love Songs" why don't you?

Hardest poll imaginable, there's at least 62 wonderful songs on this (HE SPEAKS TO ME MAN etc), at leadt 30 picks for fav, went with "My Only Friend" cos it was in my head the other day

Ferdinand

long-forgotten fairytale!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow. More songs got votes than didn't!

Didn't vote but would have picked All My Little Words so am happy with the winner. Not mad about some of the ones that ran it close though. The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure is OK but the whole concept is a bit annoying; Papa Was A Rodeo and The Book Of Love I've always admired more than loved, their dirgey qualities getting in the way a bit; I can never remember which one Long Forgotten Fairytale is; Busby Berkeley Dreams has a weak chorus and Sweet-Lovin' Man is just horrendous.

disc 1: 36 votes
disc 2: 27 votes
disc 3: 20 votes

i listen to disc 1 way more than the other 2, i'm not sure if it's actually because it's better or if i just like it better because i've listened to it more and am more familiar with the songs

Harder question: list all MF songs which are better than all 69 love songs. I've got "Plant White Roses," "100,000 Fireflies," "Kings," "Take Ecstasy with Me," and "Born on a Train." Maybe "Save a Secret for the Moon" and "All the Umbrellas in London," though these I think are particularly "69 Love Songs-like" and thus harder to weigh against the actual 69 Love Songs songs.

typically enough for me i think overall 69LS is some of his weakest work up to that point - give me the first two albums and 'highway strip' over 69LS any day

Had I known no one was voting for "Washington D.C.," I would have.

I haven't listened through this album enough to make up my mind about one particular favourite, in fact I still have trouble deciding from song to song. So I didn't vote in this poll, but it must have been one of those synthpop-tinged songs on the 2nd or 3rd CD.

Um, isn't that all of them?

it was probably "Promises of Eternity"

Harder question: list all MF songs which are better than all 69 love songs

add "Strange Powers" and "Two Characters in Search of a Country Song".

I probably would have picked "I Don't Want to Get Over You." Don't think I've listened to the whole thing tho.

Add to the list - "Long Vermont Roads." Cosign re: "Take Ecstasy With Me," especially the Susan Amway version.

Really great songs that had no votes:

Grand Canyon
The Night You Can't Remember
Two Kinds Of People
I Don't Believe In The Sun
Acoustic Guitar
Kiss Me Like You Mean It
The Things We Did And Didn't Do
Boa Constrictor
Parades Go By

Parades Go By

!

Is that ! at it being good, or ! at it getting no votes?

First and second place in this poll are weak.

Was the Susan Amway version of Take Ecstasy With Me released, or do I need to mickey-acquire it?

xpost both of those things.

Hey y'all. I don't have my copy of 69 Love Songs with me and internetting is not helping. Can someone tell me what Aphex Twin song Merritt called one of the greatest compositions of the 20th century (or something to that effect....he does say this in the liners, does he not)? Thanx!!!

The version I have makes no obvious mention of Aphex Twin, alas.

Kevin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIeA2ct5Sew

That bit from the booklet is quoted here.

Oooh awesome! Thanx on the roof (and odd - I was looking at that blog when googling this...).

reno dakota

7 votes for the death of ferdinand de saussure and only 1 for abigail, belle of kilroan? this needs to be polled again.

15 years old, ayo

Don't do that, all I need to do is look at my kids, or my CD racks, and time flashes by.

Couldn't do this poll now.

7 votes for the death of ferdinand de saussure and only 1 for abigail, belle of kilroan? this needs to be polled again.

Ha, I'm pretty sure I was that one vote.

I don't think I have listened to this in 12 years.

I remember when £5 would get you 69 poll options, with enough left over for a side poll. Now you daren't leave the house.

i listened to this a bit recently after a long layoff, really the thing that had changed most was that it was harder to have affection for the shittiness of the sound/arrangements

something i have never cared about.

how music sounds, you never cared about that

production, no. It's Stephin making music in his apartment, whaddya want?

check any ILE film poll for ppl who don't care how movies look

The next ILX covers project?

Maybe not...

You're My Only Home 0

def the best song that didn't get a vote.

like Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin and Grand Canyon more.

Of the zero voteds:

"Fido, your leash is too long" is scarily like a song I wrote called "Rover, come back to me this minute" when I was 12, and had forgotten until I heard that one.

Also, "Not that crazy" is great, and I'm amazed that "Parades go by" got zero as its one of the best tracks.

decided to pull this out during an insomniac fit - listening to the whole thing as a piece makes me appreciate it more and im glad i successfully fought off the temptation to skip some of the filler songs like 'experimental love' or 'roses'

taken as a whole i think its really beautiful and impressive in a particular way it reminds me of watching the coolest boy i knew lighting a cigarette in one fluid single-handed motion this performance thats both studied and nonchalant. like how the smallest things are best equipped to bear the burden of grace because theyre secure in their own inconsequence

Underwear is underrated. Both in life and in song.

There is no filler on this for me. I can't imagine the sequencing arguments but they nailed it.

this is one of my favorite albums but i think most of the "filler" is unlistenable after the third or fourth rundown. the imperfections make me like the album better... flawless albums are almost suspicious to me. albums don't need to be "total works" and in some cases it's better if they're not.

my controversial opinion on this thing is that busby berkeley dreams > the book of love

punk love fucking rules

busby berkeley dreams > the book of love

I can see why you might feel that way. There's an unmistakable sense of pathos and longing in BBD whereas BOL can be seen as tongue-in-cheek. Frankly I think Peter Gabriel did more justice to BOL by finding it's true emotional heart.

Abigail belle of kilroan might be the best

What a shame so few votes. I want a recount and I vote for "I Don't Want To Get Over You"

abigail belle of kilronan and papa was a rodeo are both based on very theatrical conceits -- he is singing from an assumed standpoint, and a kind of hackneyed one -- but also among the most heartbreaking songs on the album.

Abigail has always been my answer

Busby Berkeley, instinctively. I've not listened to the whole thing in over 10 years.

What a shame so few votes. I want a recount and I vote for "I Don't Want To Get Over You"

you're crazy if you think you'd get more than 83 ppl voting in 2018

So many standout tracks!

Could the 50 year one stand anywhere close on that score?

Underwear is underrated. Both in life and in song.

― Jeff, Thursday, October 9, 2014 6:32 AM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think I’m changing my mind on this.

About life or the song?

I remember carefully ranking the 69 love songs for a list, and after that brain-rack someone just said the list could have been in any other order, and I had to admit that's quite apt.
Also had a brief "should we shouldn't we" romantic month with a girl abroad during an exchange, and after playing some songs from 69LS to her and despite this being long ago, ever since she's told me she plays them from time to time, and I think the power of nostalgia is very much in the songs (not me).
I know I pretty much haven't gone back to the band at all, neither for 69LS or the first two that were my true favorites.
No clue what song I could have elected.

Rather surprised "Nothing matter when we're dancing" finds itself without a vote.

Will mention: I don't want to get over you, Sweet-Loving Man, The Luckiest Guy, The Sun goes down... I really need to listen to it again

I don't like it when he sings in the higher register

I was just listening to this this morning and thinking about how I never listen to discs 2 or 3.

Amen re: "Abigail," definitely in my top 1 or maybe 2. I've always loved how disorienting it sounds on headphones. Also so many keepers among the 0 vote getters, "Grand Canyon" is a particular fave.

Could the 50 year one stand anywhere close on that score?

I'd say yes. Every song is musically striking and serves the project, and most are very good! Though I suppose the highs aren't as high.

did the same thing as above, and marveled at the 0 vote-getters.
Has Merritt ever had a more devastating song than "The Things We Did And Didn't Do"?

lol just saw this thread I had How Fucking Romantic stuck in my head this morning while making coffee and started singing it to myself, snaps included

For a few years, “how fucking romantic” was the only magnetic fields song I knew. A friend put it on a mix for me. I like it well enough, but I wish he would have chosen one of maybe 30-40 other songs off the album instead, because i wasn’t really motivated to investigate then any further at the time

I don't like it when he sings in the higher register

There’s another male singer, right? It’s kind of weird because on some songs it seems the other guy sings higher and it’s easier to tell them apart, and on others he sings as low as Merritt and it’s confusing. Either that or Merritt is the only male singer and I’m confused.

There are five singers on 69 Love Songs.

(and I'm startled that anyone could have been listening to the album for 18 years and never noticed.)

(Merritt is the lead singer on 41 of them, each of the four duets has a different partner)

it's not that startling. ld beghtol and dudley klute sound kind of like him, especially because all three singers slightly change their diction according to genre conventions.

I for one am startled, especially because I listen to it every day

ld beghtol and dudley klute sound kind of like him

wow, racist

does rip van wanko hate the higher, warbling voice he used on the first two albums?

would love to do a single disc poll for each. pretty sure it's format-wise, but even after the vinyl reissue i've always looked at each disc separately.

Could the 50 year one stand anywhere close on that score?

I'd say yes. Every song is musically striking and serves the project, and most are very good! Though I suppose the highs aren't as high.

― geoffreyess, Sunday, September 30, 2018 4:53 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thanks, see that's the thing...

CD 2 was the one where I remember playing it going "mmm yeah OK" until "Papa was a rodeo" at which point I went wo. Subsequent plays I love those other songs too, but the 50 collection needs highlights too, it helps when slogging through the set for the first time.

There's so much great stuff on this set, I think if I narrow it down to my three most favourites, they all come from CD2:
-Epitaph For My Heart (dramatic and pessimistic over-the-top lyrics over a warm cheerful melody, so fun that it somehow ends up being almost heartwarming)
-Asleep And Dreaming ("I don't know if you're beautiful, because I love you too much." - how can such soberness still be so adoring?)
-You're My Only Home (a very powerful piece - perhaps more than any other song on this set a 'song about love' with the casual appearance of a 'love song')

enjoying listening to 69LS again. Surprised some one like Kacey Musgraves hasn't turned 'Sweet-Lovin' Man' into a hit.
That melody...

I retroactively change my hypothetical vote to Epitaph For My Heart, forgot how great it was. And another argument for Stephin never not singing in that basso

Who’ll take it’s ashes and singing fling
Them from the top of the Brill building?

Asleep and dreaming makes me cry xps

Surprised some one like Kacey Musgraves hasn't turned 'Sweet-Lovin' Man' into a hit.

Ha, I said something like that on the Musgraves thread. "Lonely Weekend" was giving me "Sweet-Lovin' Man" vibes.

see that's the thing...

Yeah, but 69 Love Songs is like the apotheosis of standout-tracks-ness. Forgot to say that 50 Song Memoir has a pretty similar ratio of excerptible tracks. My big five: A Cat Called Dionysus, No, Foxx & I, Dreaming In Tetris, Have You Seen It in the Snow? Shall we poll it?

I'd vote in that poll but I'm kind of wondering how many other people have even listened to the whole thing. There's some really good stuff on there and I think it's the closest we're ever going to get to another 69 Love Songs, BUT the highs aren't as high and there are fewer of them IMO. If anyone hasn't checked it out, I'd recommend listening to it once all the way through and then listening to it on shuffle. Definitely took me back to my heavy 69LS-listening days for a bit.

I like what I've heard. Charming stuff but it's somewhat a case of been there done that.

we should poll this one by disc

see that's the thing...

You are probably right..

I was tempted to go Spotify, but I'm just gonna have to get one and do as before, really, aren't I?

is there a Wasps' Nests poll

I put "69" on my Spotify, just got through it.

It's funny, the highlights are all the ones I remember, but a whole chunk I didn't remember at all.

"Blue You" I'd have said was Nick Cave.

Saturday is the 20th anniversary

gather ye rosebuds

Agggghh 20 years! Finally the anniversaries coincide with some actually good memories. I’ve been waiting for this.

I saw them perform the entire set over two nights. One of my all-time favorite gigs.

So did I … three times.

https://www.talkhouse.com/stephin-merritt-the-magnetic-fields-talks-with-daniel-handler-lemony-snicket-for-the-talkhouse-podcast/

we should poll this one by disc

― nba jungboy (voodoo chili), Tuesday, October 2, 2018

I tried!

I'd swap "Chicken" and "Parades" but yeah.

Busby Berkeley?

Listening to this in the first time in years after transferring "just the good ones" to my music player. Thought these would amount to 20-25 songs but I ended up with 40 (including a few I almost left off tbf).

with his choice of voices that didn’t automatically code “gay”

Idk, Flare bear's voice doesn't code "gay" enough on its own?

Who'll take its ashes and
Singing, fling them from the top of the Brill Building

I did the same thing a couple years ago, around the time 50 Song Memoir came out. Pared out the 19 most annoying or cringey tracks, leaving a playlist of 50. I play it all on shuffle once every few months. Until setting that up, I don't think I had listened to more than an hour's worth over the previous 15 years or so.

seeing the 25th anniversary show for this album on wednesday. looks like in boston he played the whole album in order over two nights, split right down the middle at "promises of eternity"/"world love." i only have tix for wednesday, which i guess means the first half? i think most of my faves are in the first half, but i'll miss "papa was a rodeo," "ferdinand de saussure," "asleep and dreaming," "yeah! oh yeah!," etc.

the only one i would've been genuinely devastated about missing is "luckiest guy" and it looks like i'll catch that one

I would be far more into this if it was a Mag Fields/6ths/GAs/FBHs greatest hits revue, and not to say I don't like 69 Love Songs it's just I'm a bigger fan of SM's larger body of work than this isolated project.

quite enjoyed part 1 of this in new york (and i'll be back for part 2 tonight), especially dudley klute, who sat in an easy chair at the back of the stage for the entire show, occasionally looking like he might be napping, getting up three or four times to saunter over to a microphone about 10 paces to his left whenever one of his songs came up, and then back to his easy chair to wait for the next one.

everybody was in great voice, especially shirley and claudia.

yes it was a lovely show. i will probably get tickets for next thursday to see the rest of the 69.

it was really fun hearing the little moments the crowd got excited for: "it makes me drink beeeeer!"; how fucking romantic; crazy for you but not that crazy; and obviously dudley's epic held note at the end of luckiest guy

in general tho, it was a very polite crowd and i felt weird singing along to "absolutely cuckoo" among everyone else enjoying in silence, so i was pretty quiet for most of the rest of the show. maybe it was different in the balcony? i was in the orchestra

.. playing the cor anglais ...