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

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)