ILM POLLS THE 20TH CENTURY'S BEST TRACKS ››› YOUR RESULTS THREAD ‹‹‹

wow, two people are seriously feeling the pressure here (wonder if they also voted for "Pressure Drop"?).

It's all about the Bowie-sung build up part at the end. I still get a chill half the times I listen to it.

At least it's not all "lol predictable canon"...

might as well be the Fripp masturbation.

― gospodin simmel, Monday, 29 November 2010 22:36

srsly go 2 hell :P

― rmad and dangerous (acoleuthic), Monday, November 29, 2010

wonder if he's still checking the results down in hades

didn't vote for it, but i do luv it, tbh.

54. PET SHOP BOYS "West End Girls" (1985) [1,491 points, 14 votes, 1 first place vote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAKk9XhX_GA

yesssss

were there ever more dorky cool people?

and yes I voted for this amazing track.

Another one I cut from my ballot... I did vote for another PSBs song instead but I doubt any others will place higher?

Queen/Bowie was one of my votes though.

Lately, I've been feeling "It's a Sin" more than "West End Girls" as far as golden-age PSB goes. I'm sure it's just a momentary affair, though, because I've been committed to "West End Girls" for 24 years.

i voted. *waves PSB flag*

hard to think of a more cinematic pop hit from this period

Scandal's "The Warrior" was a song looking for a movie, but yeah...I agree.

82. THE SMITHS "How Soon Is Now?" (1985) [1,311 points, 14 votes]
81. MY BLOODY VALENTINE "Soon" (1991) [1,313 points, 11 votes]
79. NEW ORDER "Ceremony" (1981) [1,313 points, 13 votes]
78. KRAFTWERK "Trans Europe Express" (1977) [1,325 points, 14 votes]
77. KRAFTWERK "Autobahn" (1974) [1,331 points, 12 votes]
76. DAVID BOWIE "Life on Mars?" (1973) [1,336 points, 13 votes]
75. BRIAN ENO "St. Elmo's Fire" (1975) [1,339 points, 12 votes]
74. ROXY MUSIC "Virginia Plain" (1972) [1,346 points, 12 votes]
68. JOY DIVISION "Transmission" (1979) [1,379 points, 14 votes]
65. BJÖRK "Hyperballad" (1995) [1,397 points, 13 votes]
64. WIRE "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" (1979) [1,401 points, 14 votes, 1 first place vote]
60. RADIOHEAD "Paranoid Android" (1997) [1,417 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote]
59. KATE BUSH "Cloudbusting" (1985) [1,427 points, 13 votes]
55. QUEEN ft. DAVID BOWIE "Under Pressure" (1981) [1,475 points, 12 votes, 2 first place votes]
54. PET SHOP BOYS "West End Girls" (1985) [1,491 points, 14 votes, 1 first place vote]

find this cluster depressing. same thing i was railing about yesterday, and it's not that i don't like the music. i love most of the bands involved here, especially kaftwerk, bowie, queen and eno. but we're looking in this brief run at fully 15% of the top one hundred, over half the slots between 82 and 54.

i get bummed because this list defines such a narrow aesthetic/stylistic spectrum, and because this spectrum so dominates awareness, interest and discourse on ILX. i suppose you could break it into two complementary spectra, one of distinctly arty, "experimental" pop from the 60s & 70s, predominantly guitar-based, the other of atmospheric (arty, "experimental") pop from the 70s & 80s, typically at least in part electronic, often dance music. these leading into their contemporary descendants with the likes of bjork and radiohead. it's typically genteel music that combines an affect of cerebral artistic seriousness with a penchant for florid emotional intensity and even outright sentimentality. when not sentimental, coldly robotic, with the extremes of this latter tendency represented here only by kraftwerk.

and there's nothing wrong with any of that. but it becomes oppressive, or at least terribly boring, when there's so little room made for anything else. (i'm aware that this post might seem to betray a petty american jingoism. not so. lots of music from the UK made my list. i just wish the UK music on this final list were a little more varied.)

53. CHEAP TRICK "Surrender" (1978) [1,493 points, 15 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqB9lhHqmsE

there's nothing wrong with any of that. but it becomes oppressive, or at least terribly boring, when there's so little room made for anything else.

I get the point you're making, but I honestly think that artists like James Brown and Duke Ellington and Elvis and Sinatra and Hank Williams and a lot of jazz and blues were OVERnominated in the beginning making a consensus on such things so much harder. It's good that The Fall met that fate, but bad that Louis Armstrong did.

Surrender! Had my ballot been ranked, that would've been my #1.

I voted for a different PSB song as well, though it has absolutely no chance of scoring here.

Hey, here's another track I voted for ("Surrender")! I'm really glad this song made it, and the 4 points I gave it by voting it #99 actually impacted its placement.

Emm...Johnny, are you sure you're reading from the corrected results?

I thought the corrections stopped at Iggy! Hang on...

in the spirit of full disclosure, my horses in today's race:

59. TOM TOM CLUB - "Genius of Love"
63. M|A|R|R|S - "Pump Up the Volume"
57. NINA SIMONE - "Sinnerman"
53. CHEAP TRICK "Surrender"

and i'd like to amend the above post to reflect the fact that not "lots" but "some" UK music made my list and that i am, in fact, a petty, jingoistic american iirc.

I get the point you're making, but I honestly think that artists like James Brown and Duke Ellington and Elvis and Sinatra and Hank Williams and a lot of jazz and blues were OVERnominated in the beginning making a consensus on such things so much harder. It's good that The Fall met that fate, but bad that Louis Armstrong did.

Would you really find the list that interesting if it was made up of James Brown, Duke Ellington, Elvis, Sinatra, Hank Williams and Louis Armstrong? I get that a certain type of aesthetic is being over-represented in this list, but you seem to be suggesting we eschew that aesthetic entirely for just another type of (forgive me for using this word) rockism.

Also, the Fall are a million times more interesting than most of the people you've listed.

Boo to The Fall. Yea to Hank and Louie!

Okay, so Cheap Trick is actually #52, and #51 will actually be #53 and what was #52 is now actually #51. Does anyone really care all that much?

That Cheap Trick song is the first from the countdown that I've flat out hated.

i was one of the #1 votes for "Under Pressure," also the person that started this thread: best part of "Under Pressure"

I do! I want to see the results come in properly! Exclamation mark!

xpost to JF

i knew it all along.

xp

don't think "Surrender" is remotely as good as "I Want You To Want Me," tbh. also Cheap Trick was one of the first cool old before-I-was-born singles bands that once I started checking out their albums I realized I don't really like them that much at all.

never thought of you as much of a Bowie man, tho, Al.

That Cheap Trick song is the first from the countdown that I've flat out hated.

Still no real clunkers for me so far, I'm not even sure what songs I hate have a chance of making it in.

Okay then, so pretend I just skipped #53 accidentally and now I'm going to go back to it, making Cheap Trick #52.

Sorry JF, I think this is the last change. What happened is that one track dropped 2 points and 2 places(!) after the correction was made.

I get that a certain type of aesthetic is being over-represented in this list, but you seem to be suggesting we eschew that aesthetic entirely for just another type of (forgive me for using this word) rockism.

― emil.y, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 12:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

not at all! if the list was tilted toward some boring mojo/rolling stone canon, i'd be just as disappointed. well, almost as disappointed, but that's not what i'm bemoaning. i mean, look at my picks so far: hardly anyone's idea of "classic rock" (cheap trick and motorhead excepted). i'm just beefing about the longstanding, ongoing ILX dominance of a specific aesthetic/artistic style, the endless celebration of which often strikes me as incurious and self-satisfied.

the other alternative would be a smattering the most canonical tracks from each different aesthetic, which would be equally boring IMO.

I will never ever understand why someone would prefer some art rock band over Sinatra or Satchmo... The aesthetic Contenderizer speaks about seems to favour distance and coldness over warmth and immediacy, and I guess that's why I can never really get the canon as shown by ILM polls, where this kind of approach to music seems to come off as the most popular.

53. NANCY SINATRA & LEE HAZLEWOOD "Some Velvet Morning" (1967) [1,492 points, 17 votes]

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

Didn't vote for this, but yay!

Well okay, this one I can stand behind! Incredible tune, it's experimental and "psychedelic", but also ageless like some folk tune that's always existed.

The only problem I have with "Some Velvet Morning" is that the time chages make it really hard to dance with someone, and I've tried many times.

In fact, this should've been in my top 20, I'm not sure why I put it in the lower region of my ballot.

xpost I'm so delighted to see the Pet Shop Boys on the list. I didn't vote for West End Girls but it's such a brilliant song it's just I like a few of their others a lot more. There were three Pet Shop Boys songs on my final list, hopefully another one might make it.

I will never ever understand why someone would prefer some art rock band over Sinatra or Satchmo... The aesthetic Contenderizer speaks about seems to favour distance and coldness over warmth and immediacy, and I guess that's why I can never really get the canon as shown by ILM polls, where this kind of approach to music seems to come off as the most popular.

I like coldness and distance, though I would say that a lot of the arty brit stuff here (Roxy Music, Kate Bush) is very immediate too. I can't really put my finger on why but I've never been able to find an 'in' to big band/swing type jazz - I find some of it enjoyable but I don't have a strong emotional connection to the music. Caveat: I've never really listened to Louis Armstrong.

The aesthetic Contenderizer speaks about seems to favour distance and coldness over warmth and immediacy, and I guess that's why I can never really get the canon as shown by ILM polls, where this kind of approach to music seems to come off as the most popular.

...writes the biggest Grace Jones fanboy on ILX.

Nancy yes; Frank no...? slips away muttering somethin' about times not being what they used to be.

and stay off my damn lawn, ya rotten brats!

never thought of you as much of a Bowie man, tho, Al.

― hipity-hopity muzik ftw! (Ioannis), Wednesday, December 1, 2010 3:32 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm really not. i love "Under Pressure" and Ziggy Stardust and assorted other hits (also voted for "Young Americans" in this poll) but I don't really hold Bowie in very high regard compared to his stature (in general and especially his stature on ILM)

I am definitely a Nancy yes, Frank no kind of person, but really this is more of a LEE FUCK YEAH situation.

52. CHEAP TRICK "Surrender" (1978) [1,493 points, 15 votes]

+++++++++++++++++++++

51. DOLLY PARTON "Jolene" (1973) [1,493 points, 17 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_nwAkOGL78

To recap

125. JOHNNY CASH "Folsom Prison Blues" (1955) [1,153 points, 13 votes]
124. FLEETWOOD MAC "Go Your Own Way" (1977) [1,155 points, 10 votes]
123. MOTÖRHEAD "Ace of Spades" (1980) [1,159 points, 13 votes]
122. STAN GETZ & ASTRUD GILBERTO "The Girl From Ipanema" (1964) [1,160 points, 11 votes]
121. PIXIES "Debaser" (1989) [1,161 points, 11 votes]
120. HENRY MANCINI & JOHNNY MERCER "Moon River" (1961) [1,165 points, 9 votes]
119. 10CC "I'm Not in Love" (1975) [1,167 points, 12 votes]
118. LINK WRAY & HIS RAY MEN "Rumble" (1958) [1,170 points, 12 votes]
117. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN "Born to Run" (1975) [1,175 points, 10 votes]
116. PRINCE "Controversy" (1981) [1,176 points, 9 votes]
115. THE BEACH BOYS "Surf's Up" (1971) [1,184 points, 10 votes]
114. THE ROLLING STONES "Paint it Black" (1966) [1,185 points, 12 votes]
113. MILES DAVIS "Shhh/Peaceful" (1969) [1,186 points, 11 votes]
112. N.W.A "Straight Outta Compton" (1988) [1,195 points, 11 votes]
111. JOHN COLTRANE "My Favorite Things" (1961) [1,195 points, 12 votes]
110. STEREOLAB "Jenny Ondioline" (1993) [1,197 points, 11 votes]
109. KATE BUSH "Wuthering Heights" (1978) [1,197 points, 13 votes]
108. NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE "Cortez the Killer" (1975) [1,198 points, 11 votes]
107. BOBBY WOMACK "Across 110th Street" (1972) [1,203 points, 11 votes]
106. KRAFTWERK "Computer Love" (1981) [1,209 points, 10 votes]
105. THE SUPREMES "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (1966) [1,216 points, 13 votes]
104. RON GRAINER & DELIA DERBYSHIRE "Theme From 'Dr. Who'" (1963) [1,219 points, 12 votes]
103. THE KINKS "You Really Got Me" (1964) [1,220 points, 12 votes]
102. TALKING HEADS "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" (1983) [1,221 points, 10 votes]
99. (TIE) THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (1968) [1,223 points, 12 votes]
99. (TIE) KING CRIMSON "21st Century Schizoid Man" (1969) [1,223 points, 12 votes]
99. (TIE) MOTT THE HOOPLE "All the Young Dudes" (1972) [1,223 points, 12 votes]

98. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND "Heroin" (1967) [1,231 points, 11 votes]
97. THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. "Juicy" (1994) [1,266 points, 11 votes]
96. BOB DYLAN "Tangled Up in Blue" (1975) [1,268 points, 11 votes]
94. (TIE) NIRVANA "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991) [1,275 points, 12 votes]
94. (TIE) CAMEO "Word Up" (1986) [1,275 points, 12 votes]
93. CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL "Fortunate Son" (1969) [1,276 points, 14 votes]
92. THE VINCE GUARALDI TRIO "Linus and Lucy" (1964) [1,280 points, 13 votes]
91. TOOTS & THE MAYTALS "Pressure Drop" (1970) [1,282 points, 13 votes]
90. THE CLASH "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" (1978) [1,287 points, 11 votes]
89. THE BEATLES "Penny Lane" (1967) [1,290 points, 11 votes]
88. WIRE "Outdoor Miner" (1978) [1,296 points, 11 votes]
87. ABBA "Dancing Queen" (1976) [1,297 points, 12 votes]
86. AL GREEN "Let's Stay Together" (1971) [1,299 points, 14 votes]
85. MADONNA "Into the Groove" (1985) [1,300 points, 12 votes]
84. CLAUDE DEBUSSY "Clair de Lune" (1905) [1,301 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
83. PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION "Kiss" (1986) [1,308 points, 14 votes]
82. THE SMITHS "How Soon Is Now?" (1985) [1,311 points, 14 votes]
81. MY BLOODY VALENTINE "Soon" (1991) [1,313 points, 11 votes]
79. (TIE) LED ZEPPELIN "When the Levee Breaks" (1971) [1,313 points, 13 votes]
79. (TIE) NEW ORDER "Ceremony" (1981) [1,313 points, 13 votes]
78. KRAFTWERK "Trans Europe Express" (1977) [1,325 points, 14 votes]
77. KRAFTWERK "Autobahn" (1974) [1,331 points, 12 votes]

76. DAVID BOWIE "Life on Mars?" (1973) [1,336 points, 13 votes]
75. BRIAN ENO "St. Elmo's Fire" (1975) [1,339 points, 12 votes]
74. ROXY MUSIC "Virginia Plain" (1972) [1,346 points, 12 votes]
73. IGGY & THE STOOGES "Search and Destroy" (1973) [1,351 points, 15 votes]
72. ELIS REGINA & ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM "Águas de Março" (1974) [1,352 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]
71. THE ZOMBIES "Care of Cell 44" (1968) [1,355 points, 13 votes]
70. BIG STAR "Thirteen" (1972) [1,362 points, 14 votes]
69. TOM TOM CLUB "Genius of Love" (1981) [1,373 points, 16 votes]
68. JOY DIVISION "Transmission" (1979) [1,379 points, 14 votes]
67. YES "Close to the Edge" (1972) [1,386 points, 12 votes]
66. GETO BOYS "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" (1991) [1,395 points, 13 votes]
65. BJÖRK "Hyperballad" (1995) [1,397 points, 13 votes]
64. WIRE "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" (1979) [1,401 points, 14 votes, 1 first place vote]
63. M|A|R|R|S "Pump Up the Volume" (1987) [1,402 points, 15 votes]
62. CURTIS MAYFIELD "Move on Up" (1970) [1,407 points, 14 votes]
61. GIL SCOTT-HERON "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (1971) [1,412 points, 14 votes]
60. RADIOHEAD "Paranoid Android" (1997) [1,417 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote]
59. KATE BUSH "Cloudbusting" (1985) [1,427 points, 13 votes]
57. (TIE) DR. DRE ft. SNOOP DOGG "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" (1992) [1,447 points, 14 votes]
57. (TIE) NINA SIMONE "Sinnerman" (1965) [1,447 points, 14 votes]
56. THE BEACH BOYS "Wouldn't it Be Nice" (1966) [1,460 points, 12 votes]
55. QUEEN ft. DAVID BOWIE "Under Pressure" (1981) [1,475 points, 12 votes, 2 first place votes]
54. PET SHOP BOYS "West End Girls" (1985) [1,491 points, 14 votes, 1 first place vote]
53. NANCY SINATRA & LEE HAZLEWOOD "Some Velvet Morning" (1967) [1,492 points, 17 votes]
52. CHEAP TRICK "Surrender" (1978) [1,493 points, 15 votes]
51. DOLLY PARTON "Jolene" (1973) [1,493 points, 17 votes]

the other alternative would be a smattering the most canonical tracks from each different aesthetic, which would be equally boring IMO.

― skip, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 12:37 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't know that this is true, unless you consider any well known/loved song "canon". honestly, i suspect that the list would only become more loopily eclectic if there were less focus on the icy-handed masters of late 20th century art pop.