the Sonic Youth poll for songs with Lee Ranaldo on lead vox

can I just say that I always thought the "it's 1963, it's 1964, it's 1957, it's 1962" part of Hey Joni reminded me of the Richard Mguire comic in one of the Raw books where the date keeps jumping forward and backward, the one that was a big influence on Chris Ware's "Lamp"

it's funny when they do it live and he throws out a completely different set of random years, tho

Joni Mitchell's so old that there's no record of a birth certificate, remember.

gonna wait till the day before and see which of my faves doesn't have an outspoken supporter

i really like his delivery of the phrase "new york city ghosts ... and ... flow ers ..."

i'm aware it might be seen as a bit cornball

lee's "bad Beat poetry" is better than anyone else in the band's "bad Beat poetry"

― thomp, Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:37 AM (20 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Well, no: Moore sticks to slogans-plus, while Kim filters Germaine Greer through back issues of Artforum.

― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:39 AM (20 hours ago) Bookmark

i actually wrote a post kvetching about how "Beat poetry" is sort of grabbed at as a descriptor for er 'wide-eyed and/or sweary spoken word possibly mentioning sex and/or drugs'. i wouldn't want to deny that he has bad poetry moments, but he seems like to 've read, you know, probably all of the new american poetry, and not just part iv

taking skip tracer, cuz i voted for it:

"the girl started out in red patent leather / very I'm-in-a-band"
"borrowed and never returned : emotions, books, outlooks on life"

- these are

i) not particularly good as poetry
ii) not particularly Beat, i think, as poetry
iii) pretty good, actually, as spoken word song things

haha 'skip tracer' is a burroughs reference isn't it n/m

Ranaldo writing lyrics based on Bishop or Merrill poems would probably meet my standards

(xpost)

i'll take ranaldo over beck or whatever else was on the alt-rock charts during the 90s.

As far as lyrics go (for Lee and for Thurston) I really want someone to expand on the Kim Fowley influence, 'cause to my ears there are just *huge* similarities between 70's Fowley and teh SY. Xgau drops the reference to Fowley being a big influence like it's common knowledge, but damned if I've ever read anyone flesh that out.

Anyway, Hey Joni's spoken bits end up reminding me an awful lot of the spoken part of the otherwise dissimilar "Love Is A Game" by the evil Mr. F.

Xgau didn't mean that musically, though. He meant that they both ripoff the consumer with bad music and/or bullshit repackagings.

I always thought that, but the way Fowley's lyrics read is actually crazy similar to SY's.

hey, I love "Bubblegum"!

I love all of Outrageous.

The ones I love are Sunset Boulevard and International Heroes. Anyway, lyrics to Fowley's "Blow Up" (for example) are totally SY compatible. They could cover it and nobody would know it wasn't an original.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

felt like throwing "Skip Tracer" a vote today

good song!

"Kick it!" (Hey Joni)

"Mote" now and forever. (It's actually my favorite SY song, period.)

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

Am surprised that Genetic finished so unloved.

i think most of us who are nuts about it probably had their fill of repping for it by the time the Dirty reissue came out

i can dig these results

i dig them too, except for Wish Fulfillment finishing below Kingdom #19, that's just crazy

would've voted "In The Kingdom #19" because of the screaming when thurston lights off firecrackers in the studio

though this whole list of songs is going to make a killer comp -- i love LEEEEEEE

― tylerw, Tuesday, July 14, 2009

probably would've voted "hey joni" but "what we know" deserves something

The fact that "Wish Fulfillment" got only 3 votes is kinda sad

low "wish fulfillment" tally is surprising and none for "Saucer Like"?! thanks for the

sweet, thx barnaby, never got around to doing that cop myself.

and enjoy the show tonight! they were awesome when i saw 'em a few months ago.

tx for the tape, barnaby. looking forward to revisiting some of the post-thousand leaves tracks that i either wasn't crazy about at the time or never heard at all. remember "NYC ghosts and flowers," for instance, being horrid, but maybe i wasn't listening right, i dunno.

anyway, i'm bummed to have missed this poll/discussion, SY being one of my favorite bands, lee being my plastic jesus. would have voted for "mote" (raggett OTM), "rain king" or "i dreamed i dream." god, but "pipeline," but "hoarfrost," but "skip tracer"...

Thanks Barnaby.

Downloaded it. Thanks!

used to think he was the best songwriter evah or something

'it sounds crazy' but by hit-rate there can't be (m)any better

^ OTM

tho tobin sprout hit a similar average on those early GBV records

(faultless 2nd bananas poll)

seems like spiral stairs would fit in there, but he is far from faultless

I would jump off a building and hoped I landed on Spiral Stairs.

i dont even know which songs he wrote

generally speaking, the ones he sang ... two state, hit the plane down etc.

well he wrote pavement songs so i'm not sure he's going to be challenging schubert and arthur lee

unexpected tag team

the Lennon-McCartney of art-suck?

are schubert and arthur lee faultless second bananas?

art suck could be your life

arthur LEE, not arthur SUCK...! God, clean out yr ~ears~

thanks for that comp!!! lee is the best!!!

i def wouldve chosen 'hey joni' on this poll cuz its my favorite SY song

karen I & II are so perfect, beautiful and sad

i made a Lee mix a few years ago, cool to see someone else's and some small ways the sequencing is similar (especially opening with Mote/Hoarfrost): http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2006/08/sonic-youth-notorious-rockin-lee.html#comments