The 11th P&J Singles Poll!

Holy shit--"Fight the Power". hands down.

"Fight the Power" for me. Also, I was playing "Batdance" a few months ago, and it's cool to think now that such a weird (and instrumental) track could get such play in the mainstream. Yes, I realize it was Prince and it had the Batman franchise association aspect favoring its widespread exposure, but on musical grounds it still was a seriously eccentric track, IMO.

Looking at this, it's kind of cool to remember that there actually was some degree of variability back then (since the late 80s is when I consider mainstream pop really starting to tank).

"Like A Prayer" - Madonna's apex.

M.I.A.:

Paula Abdul: "Cold Hearted" (Virgin 1989) - GOBS better than the chintzy "Straight Up." But here I'm talking the video version which I have NEVER been able to find except on freakin' cassingle. Not a fancy remix; just a strong single edit. P.S. Two boys love on each other in the video.
Black Box: “Ride on Time” (Deconstruction 1989)
Technotronic: "Pump Up The Jam" (SBK 1989)
Front 242: "Headhunter"/"Welcome To Paradise" (Wax Trax 1989)
Gregory Peck: "Oversized Mumpie" (Steely & Cleevie 1989)
Donna Summer: "This Time I Know It's For Real" (Atlantic 1989)

And am I the only one who MUCH prefers Soul II Soul's "Back To Life" to their "Keep On Movin'?" So much swifter, so much quirkier, so much more intense. I love how the vocals split the difference between soul and hip-hop. And that orgasm in the middle! "Keep On Movin'" doesn't have one of those.

Wow! That's quite a list.

"Fight the Power" seems like the obvious choice, but I find "Good Life" very tempting.

As much as I love the Young, Costello, 'Mats, XTC, and Pixies tracks, have to go with "Fight The Power". Thrilling and visceral, it was the first time I woke up to hip-hop potentially being as powerful as other genres of music.

I'll fight the power and choose "Like A Prayer," even though, wow, I can't find a single thing wrong with the Top Ten (I also prefer "Back To Life"), even with the Stones song.

I wanted to fight the power, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. "Like a Prayer" is definitely my 2nd choice, though.

(Alfred, how could you tolerate "Mick's Emotions"? ugh!!!)

It's still my favorite post-Dirty Work Stones single and not at all as formulaic as you remember it.

Well maybe, but I still find it a stone bore. (much prefer the A Bigger Bang singles myself.)

That's a better album; Steel Wheels is mostly dire.

Technotronic: "Pump Up The Jam" (SBK 1989)

What the fuck?? FUNKY COLD MEDINA, and no Pump Up the Jam??!!?!?
totally would have gotten my #1 vote.

>>>The B-52s: "Love Shack" (Warner Bros.)
Tom Petty: "Free Fallin'" (MCA)
Rolling Stones: "Mixed Emotions" (Rolling Stones)
Aerosmith: "Janie's Got a Gun" (Geffen)
Neil Young: "Rockin' in the Free World" (Reprise)
XTC: "The Mayor of Simpleton" (Geffen)
Prince: "Batdance" (Warner Bros.)<<<

This whole stretch of songs is easily the dregs of this poll, I think. The most listenable thing in there is probably the Stones! (Though I admit I can't recall what the XTC sounds like.)

I dunno, I guess I'm a glass-half-empty kind of guy when it comes to these things--I really wanted to like this list more than I actually do. There's good stuff, for sure, just not as much as I would've figured.

There are also four or five other songs (aside from what I've listed, I mean), I either never cared for or which don't hold up for me at all (the latter would definitely be Fine Young Cannibals).

That's a fantastic list. I went for "She Drives Me Crazy", but could have easily gone for "Straight Up" or "Wild Thing".

I understand the love for "Fight The Power" but even at the time I thought it was a parody of what they'd done on It Takes A Nation of Millions. In particular the chorus seemed so obvious compared to say "Party For Your Right To Fight" (I didn't get the reference to the Isley Brothers at the time, and that doesn't help much now).

Yeah, it's my least favorite PE single. "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" sounds so much more frightening and relentless.

voted "I'll Be You" -- always been one of my very favorite Replacements songs

On 'Fear Of...' it does come across as an afterthought (not only because it's the last track on the album), so I wouldn't go there myself, but I never heard it in the context of a standalone single.

Watch the opening of Do the Right Thing and you will know why it owned the summer of 1989.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. But at the time I was really young (must have been around 12), my friend and I first heard Public Enemy, and it was completely shocking because my only other exposure to rap was Vanilla Ice. But in that context, 911 is a Joke was the real harbinger that sticks in my mind.

Aside from stuff created with samplers and computers, pretty dismal. Of all the white-guys-with-guitars songs, "Free Fallin'" is the only one I ever liked. And I've heard it plenty now, thank you.

"Fight The Power" for me too - even tho I never heard it on any radio station until long after the fact.

How the hell did "The Mayor of Simpleton" make so many ballots – were they riding on the Skylarking good will?

I'm really tempted to be perverse and vote for "Straight Up."

Yeah, 26 votes out of 255 for "The Mayor of Simpleton." Good grief, that's slightly more than 10% of the total.

xp

"Funky Cold Medina" very narrowly over "Fight the Power," but that's one hell of a list.

Great Xgau top 20, too:

Technotronic Featuring Felly: "Pump Up the Jam" (SBK)
Tone-Loc: "Funky Cold Medina" (Delicious Vinyl)
Fine Young Cannibals: "She Drives Me Crazy" (I.R.S.)
Digital Underground: "Doowutchyalike" (Tommy Boy)
Inner City: "Good Life" (Virgin)
Public Enemy: "Fight the Power" (Motown)
Madonna: "Like a Prayer" (Sire)
Public Enemy: "Welcome to the Terrordome" (Def Jam)
Ten City: "That's the Way Love Is" (Atlantic)
Aerosmith: "Janie's Got a Gun" (Geffen)
Maurice: "This Is Acid" (Vendetta)
Neneh Cherry: "Buffalo Stance" (Virgin)
Kool G. Rap & D.J. Polo: "Road to the Riches" (Cold Chillin')
Def Jef: "Give It Here" (Delicious Vinyl)
Soul II Soul: "Keep On Movin'" (Virgin)
A Tribe Called Quest: "Description of a Fool" (Jive)
The Stop the Violence Movement: "Self-Destruction" (Jive)
Front 242: "Welcome to Paradise" (Wax Trax)
2 Live Crew: "Me So Horny" (Luke Skyywalker)
Denise Lopez: "Sayin' Sorry (Don't Make It Right)" (Vendetta)

The Pixies song is the weakest Doolittle single too.

I've never heard the Maurice and Front 242 records.

xp

Pretty good list, but I've seen better.

I went with "Bust a Move" myself, though yeah, "Fight The Power" is pretty great as P&J winners go.

Dullest song on the list: "I'll Be You," edging out "Mayor of Simpleton," "Veronica." and "Batdance" (and maybe "Self Destruction" and "Mixed Emotions"; totally forget how those go.) ( I've always thought "Love Shack" and "Cult of Personality" and "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Money Gone To Heaven" were more irritating than entertaining, too, but at least I wouldn't call them useless.)

My own singles list that i compiled that year, apparently:

SINGLES
1. frankie knuckles presents Satoshi Tomiie - tears
2. bon jovi - i'll be there for you
3. n.w.a. - gangsta gangsta
4. new order - round and round
5. kix - don't close your eyes
6. cinderella - coming home
7. karyn whiite - superwoman
8. rhythm is rhythm - it is what it is
9. edelweiss - bring me edelweiss
10. white lion - little fighter
11. wee papa girl rappers - heat it up
12. young mc - bust a move
13. bobby brown - every litte step
14. metallica - one
15. guy - teddy's jam
16. jody watley featuring rakim - friends
17. rob base and dj ez rock - get on the dance floor
18. jungle brothers (i think) - on the run/i'll house you
19. neneh cherry - buffalo stance
20. guns n roses - patience
21. beastie boys - hey ladies/shake your rump
22. pet shop boys - left to my own devices/atom splitting
23. don henley - the end of the innocence
24. daddy freddy - ragamuffin hip-hop
25. queen latifah - inside out/dance for me
26. john mellencamp - jackie brown
27. takin my business (i think they were called) - just got laid
28. lil louis - french kiss
29. tiffany - radio romance
30. bellamy brothers - hillbilly hell
31. ??? - useless
32. mark iv - its's a mean world
32. kon kan - i beg your pardon
33. marcia griffiths - electric boogie
34. sa-fire - let me be the one/thinking of you
35. a guy called gerald - voodoo ray
36. liza minelli (i think) - losing my mind
37. prince (i think) - batdance (batmix)/200 balloons
38. ??? - dance hall
39, reese and santonio EP (carryover from '88)
40. inner city - good life/big fun
41. shinehead -- reggae christmas medley
42. madonna - like a prayer
43. ??? - baby hold on
44. spoonie gee (i think) - you ain't just a fool (you's an old fool)

lil louis - french kiss

Is this on CD anywhere? God this was great.

I never liked the single or album mix/edit of "Fight the Power" nearly as much as the soundtrack mix, which puts the guitar and Take 6 sample slightly more up top, and would be my No. 1. So "Bust a Move" for me, narrowly over "Like a Prayer."

I also loved "Heat It Up," first British rap I ever bought.

"Self Destruction" wasn't great, but it was better than just about any other group-cause single from the '80s, "D.C. Don't Stand for Dodge City," "Sun City," "We Are the World," etc. It was fun to see everybody's style next to each other.

A lot of these seem like mediocre singles from great artists. I chose "Like a Prayer" because it's a great single from Madonna's peak. 1989-1990 was a good period for her following the blah-ness of "La Isla Bonita." (However, Like a Prayer narrowly beat out Veronica, which I've had love for since it was the first Elvis Costello song I'd heard).

This is pretty impossible, but "Back To Life" wins.

On 'Fear Of...' it does come across as an afterthought (not only because it's the last track on the album),

I don't understand this because to me, Fear of a Black Planet is all about arriving at "Fight the Power". The whole album builds toward this monumental statement. You can't put the song anywhere else on the album or else it suffers from Stankonia Syndrome where half the album is completely irrelevant because it follows one of the most mind-blowing songs ever made.

Oh, I voted for "Fight the Power", if that wasn't clear enough.

A while back I decided, for some reason, to listen to the top ten of this poll and rank them. 'Tis what I came up with.

1. "Fight the Power"
2. "Bust a Move"
3. "Like a Prayer"
4. "Keep on Moving'"
5. "Love Shack"
6. "Buffalo Stance"
7. "Wild Thing"
8. "Free Fallin'"
9. "She Drives Me Crazy"
10. "Mixed Emotions"

I prefer the other Soul II Soul & Tone Loc songs. Those two and "Doowatchyalike" are the best songs outside of the top ten.

Aha! A "Mixed Emotions" fan.

I was thinking of 'Party for Your Right to Fight' actually, but I fucked up. :(

DU just over PE, though catching Do the Right Thing the day it opened is an indelible memory.

Aha! A "Mixed Emotions" fan.

Uh, no. The "10" ranking indicates that it's my least favorite of those songs. It's unlistenable garbage of the lowest order.

I'd probably vote for Patience GNR actually if it was on.

"Veronica".

Even though another single written by the same two people and released the same year was even better.

It's unlistenable garbage of the lowest order.

If you thought it was unlistenable garbage, it wouldn't have made your list, no? Why include shit you don't like, even if you're ranking the top ten?

I was ranking the top ten from best to worst. Stop being obtuse.

maybe the most shocking thing about this thread so far is that not one person has argued in favor of "Buffalo Stance," which on ILM a few years ago would have been unthinkable.

It would have made my top three, easily -- the album version, that is.

I'm surprised no one hates "Love Shack." I would've subbed "Roam."

As I said, I do sort of hate "Love Shack" (and I like "Roam" a lot.)

And "La Isla Bonita" definitely >>> "Like A Prayer".

"Buffalo Stance" would be in my top five, I'm sure (and I voted for the album two days ago.)

"Love Shack" has joined "Celebration" and "I Will Survive" levels of disgust and dismay in my pantheon, especially when a cousin wants me to dance at a wedding.

And "La Isla Bonita" definitely >>> "Like A Prayer".

Oh hells no. That has got to be the silliest thing I've ever seen you write.

What do you hear in "La Isla Bonita?" I hear a wussy beat that couldn't crack a communion wafer and rote heteronormativty and orientalism in the lyrics. For me, it's easily the worst song on The Immaculate Collection.

I hear, almost, Latin freestyle. Or at least Miami Sound Machine. An easy Afro-Caribeen dance rhythm, either way. Not to mention a line that sounds something like "young girl with eyes like potatoes." Which I much prefer Madonna doing than high-concept "important" prog bullshit (though, as high-concept "important" prog bullshit goes, "Like A Prayer" isn't bad. At least it has an okay melody. Plus, I grew up Catholic which sort of helps -- with the video, anyway. But the song's always hit me as fairly ponderous.) Actually, I'd have to go back and check to make sure, but I'm pretty sure I might have put "La Isla Bonita" in my all-time top 100 songs list I did for Radio On back in the early '90s. Wouldn't list it that way now, but it's definitely one of my favorite Madonna hits, still -- it sounds like something she could have done before she convinced herself she was a great artist-- cool. (She is a great artist, but her arty mode isn't the reason why. She still peaked with her debut.) Favorite track on Like A Prayer is "Keep It Together," though I prefer its 12" mix.

And on a purely sonic level, "La Isla Bonita" is just plain prettier than "Like A Prayer" (which, unlike say "I Want To Know What Love Is," gets weighted down by its gospel part and everything else.) Of the two, I definitely prefer when "La Isla Bonita" comes on in the grocery store, no question. I respect "Like A Prayer," sure -- but it's just very clearly Madonna in eat-your-peas mode.

(It does have momentum, though, I'll give it that. And it's put together well. Like I said, I don't hate it. Sounds like a lot of thought when into it!)

"went into it."

For purely nostalgic reasons, I'm going with Neneh Cherry. I still enjoy the record (and BS especially). It just completely ruled my world and I definitely looked up to her at the time (a crossroads of punk, hip hop, pop,...). That said for chauvinistic reasons I'd probably vote for Technotronic (ft FELLY? isn't it Ya Kid K????).

Technotronic: "Pump Up The Jam" (SBK 1989)
Front 242: "Headhunter"/"Welcome To Paradise" (Wax Trax 1989)

Man, I'm proud to be Belgian.

Anyway, 1989 was a great year. No doubt.

Paula Abdul: "Cold Hearted" (Virgin 1989) - GOBS better than the chintzy "Straight Up

Definitely disagree with this too, by the way. (I may even prefer Scrawl's version of "Cold Hearted Snake" to Paula's, but don't quote me on that.)

Black Box: “Ride on Time” (Deconstruction 1989)

Never really got the appeal of this, either, though I haven't heard it in forever, and maybe I'd like it more now. At the time, it just seemed like a real step back for Italo-dance music, like this great mysterious genre full of bubbly beautiful ski-slope robot melodies suddenly retreated into sub-Chicago house-after-house-stopped-being-weird with a generic soul-diva vocal. I probably underrated it, though (and my memory of how it sounded could be way off, and if nothing else, I assume it's one of the tracks that got there first, which at least in theory would put it above all the subsequent hits over the next few years that sounded more or less the same.)

I love the backing track for "Ride on Time" (the "Evil Woman" piano house riff, especially) though the vocal's a bit much (I'm assuming people who love the song love it precisely for that reason, though). I prefer subsequent Black Box records like "Everybody Everybody."

If it came out in '89 (and I assume it did), my favourite single of this year might be Technotronic's "Get Up (Before the Night is Over)," which I always liked more than "Pump Up the Jam"--it was definitely my most-played record that year.

Another contender at the time would've been "Good Life," but I've also come to like its follow-up better, "Big Fun." I guess I just have a thing for follow-ups (the good ones tend to do the same thing as the debuts, but less obviously? also, you just tend to get less sick of them).

I loved "Like a Prayer" when it first came out, got tired of it, but have to admit now that it sounds pretty great to me--I'd say its pretensions definitely work in its favour.

Disliked "Love Shack" then, despise it now. "Roam" should be on there, for sure.

I don't remember "Buffalo Stance" making much of an impression on me at the time, and I just re-listened last night. I don't get the appeal. It seems like a big mess, but then I suspect the messiness of it is part of the appeal.

I hear, almost, Latin freestyle. Or at least Miami Sound Machine. An easy Afro-Caribeen dance rhythm, either way.

It's secondhand and tired! Miami Sound Machine did this so much better ("Rhythm is Gonna Get You," "Betcha Say That"). Obviously Madonna agrees with you, chuck, since she's played on every goddamn tour since 1986.

I love the backing track for "Ride on Time" (the "Evil Woman" piano house riff, especially) though the vocal's a bit much (I'm assuming people who love the song love it precisely for that reason, though)

That's pretty much it. This song basically invented screaming-diva gay house, and it's probably why it's one of the few songs of its ilk I'm still not tired of.

To return to Neneh Cherry for a moment, there's a really great 12" mix of her second hit "Kisses On The Wind" that's almost as great as "Buffalo Stance."

That said for chauvinistic reasons I'd probably vote for Technotronic (ft FELLY? isn't it Ya Kid K????).

If I recall correctly, Ya Kid K was the actual vocalist, though Felly, a model, who didn't sing a word, was put upfront initially as the singer (and whose face is at least one or two of those 12" singles, and I think is in the "Pump Up the Jam" video, too). I think this was even a mild "controversy" at the time--pre-Milli Vanilli, though obviously not as big a deal. I could have some of this wrong...

Anyway, I think by the time of Technotronic's third or fourth single, they did the right thing and credited Ya Kid K herself.

Also, didn't the same Felly scenario as above happen with Black Box too? That people thought this young model-ish type (who is on the cover of the "Ride on Time" 12") was the actual singer, when in fact it was Martha Wash sampled from "Love Sensation"? (Or maybe it wasn't actually sampled--I've always been a bit confused about that.) I'm sure there were lawsuits about both or either of these cases.

This song basically invented screaming-diva gay house

Er, wouldn't that have happened in Chicago a few years earlier? Honestly, to me, by the time "Black Box" came out, I was already bored with the screaming-diva gay house thing (which I wasn't that big a fan of to begin with -- as early house music goes, it was one of the least interesting sub-styles available.)

As for "La Isla Bonita," I probably prefer it to "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" or "Betcha Say That"—in my head, anyway, it just plain sounds sweeter. Though I probably don't prefer it to "Dr. Beat" or "Words Get In the Way" or "Can't Stay Away From You". (Against "Conga," it's a tossup. And I need to go back and listen again to "Oye Mi Canto" sometime.)

"Ride On Time" BY Black Box, I mean obviously. (Didn't Lydia Lunch or somebody have a song called "Black Box" once, though? I'm not go check,)

I just remember "Ride On Time" being much LOUDER than any Chicago house I'd previously heard.

I would guess that a lot of people who liked "Ride on Time" had never even heard any Chicago house--screaming-diva-disco or any other kind. It was a pretty early house-pop crossover.

I think La Isla Bonita has the deceptively easy and light-sounding groove of a lot of latin music that those miami sound machine songs lack.
I will vote for Buffalo Stance because it would probably be the song I would be most excited to hear while dancing. Followed by Back to Life.

I'm still trying to figure out how "La Isla Bonita" is an example of "orientalism". But I think Xhuxk is right - it is a better song than "Like a Prayer". That bittersweet feeling gets to me, whereas "Like A Prayer" just sounds like a good song to do aerobics to.

what's wrong with aerobics?

actually, i don't think "like a prayer" is very aerobics-friendly at all! way too many stops and starts, not nearly fast enough, etc.

the remix on The Immaculate Collection is Jane Fonda worthy.

There's nothing wrong with aerobics - but it's just that song sounds a bit generic to me. Like you could substitute any other song with a similar upbeat chorus and BPM and it would work about as well.

Of these songs, I'm kind of torn between "Doowutchyalike" and "Free Fallin'".

O! Nate you are so wrong. Stop and think for a moment.

Re: the orientalism of "La Isla Bonita," check out this lyric:

"When its time for siesta you can watch them go by
Beautiful faces, no cares in this world"

Madonna's failure to define "them" coupled with the fact that "they" have no cares is orientalism 101. The idea that these "beautiful faces" have no troubles just makes it easier for "them" to provide a simple, agrarian backdrop to her jet-setting heterosexual romance.

But hey - I'll buy that lyric in a song that isn't, to quote Alfred, secondhand and tired. Xhuxk, I appreciate all that you wrote about it above. But its light sweetness just flits away from my ear. She tripped just as much in pop tart mode as she did (does?) in pretentious mode and "La Isla Bonita" is a perfect example of the former. Give or take "Rescue Me," it's hands down the worst song on The Immaculate Collection. Too bad "Causing a Commotion" or "Dress You Up" or "Where's The Party" couldn't have been wedged in instead.

or "Angel"!

I think I hate "La Isla Bonita" so much because in Miami it was played ALL THE TIME around the time that "Rhythm is Gonna Get You" was a hit. Programmers heard superficial sonic similarities.

Us gay guys don't get to go to church on Sunday morning.* So we worship on the dancefloor every Saturday night. One of our goddesses, Our Lady Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, knew this and deigned to offer us a hymn that would simultaneously disco on 'til the break of dawn and simulate that church on Sunday morning. It wasn't exactly a prayer. But it was like a prayer. And to heighten our religious fervor, she wrote it as a hymn to what us gay guys do so well: suck dick.** Thus, in the year of Our Lady Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone 1989, she bestowed upon us our most treasured entry in The Crisco Disco Hymnal. Hail Madonna, full of grease.***

* Yes, I know gay guys go to church on Sunday. Chill.
** Read the lyrics.
*** Yes, yes, you don't have to be gay to love the song. I said, chill!

I didn't know that "orientalism" had become the general term for any projection of fantasies onto an ethnographic "other". But in any case, even if that's what's going on in that lyric, it's understandable as being how things would appear to a visitor/tourist who fetishizes the tropical-paradise aspects of a place that they only see when they are vacationing. So maybe it wouldn't hold water as a piece of serious anthropology, but it conveys an emotion, which is what a good song lyric should do.

But it's not merely a projection of fantasy; it's a epistemological one-way street. And THAT is definitely what Edward Said was getting at in Orientalism.

Yeah, but in that book, wasn't Edward Said indicting the serious, respected anthropologists of those times - so-called experts who promulgated these half-baked fantasies as scientific truths? This is a pop-song lyric, as narrated from the perspective of a hopeless romantic who makes no pretensions to objective scientific validity. It's clearly a reverie - a daydream, if you will.

But even as a reverie -- I'm with o. nate on that part -- it's vapid. The song fails to build on its great opening line ("Last night I dreamt of San Pedro").

On Black Box: "Ride On Time"

I love the backing track for "Ride on Time" (the "Evil Woman" piano house riff, especially)

Argh! I can't find my copy of "Evil Woman." Is it a direct sample or is it replayed? Or did you mean it just reminded you of "Evil Woman?"

P.S. The great John Leland detected that the beat comes from S'Express' "Theme From S'Express" though lord know where S'Express got it from.

Also, didn't the same Felly scenario as above happen with Black Box too? That people thought this young model-ish type (who is on the cover of the "Ride on Time" 12") was the actual singer, when in fact it was Martha Wash sampled from "Love Sensation"?

First, does Ya Kid K sing that "get your booty on the floor tonight" portion of the song? It sounds like a different singer which may have been Felly although maybe her role never extended beyond album cover glamour puss.

Katrin Quinol was Black Box's Felly. She was rumored to be transsexual, fwiw.

Second, the vocal of "Ride On Time" is taken from Loleatta Holloway's "Love Sensation." But Martha Wash sang all the other songs on the Dreamland album which btw is excellent. I'd take "I Don't Know Anybody Else" and "Strike It Up" over "Everybody Everybody" any day. And it includes a great cover of EW&F's "Fantasy."

This song basically invented screaming-diva gay house

Well, maybe house. Maybe. But certainly not disco. The Black Box magii merely recombined Holloway's vocal which means that "Love Sensation" is already screaming-diva and gay gay gay.

As for why I love "Ride On Time" so much, that's pretty much been covered already here. It's just so OTT and GAY! For the gay/screaming black diva matrix, y'all should definitely read Walter Hughes' brilliant essay "In The Empire of the Beat: Discipline and Disco." It's quite possibly the greatest single piece ever written on disco. I have a pdf of it if anyone wants to read it. A different version appeared in one of the Voice's Rock 'n' Roll Quarterly issues.

But I also love "Ride On Time" because it apotheosized all the theories (and realities) of postmodernism that I was obsessed with at the time (still am, to a lesser extent). It may be the gayest AND most postmodern song of all-time. Get the smelling salts!

(Didn't Lydia Lunch or somebody have a song called "Black Box" once, though?

Lydia Lunch was in a short Beth B and Scott B film called Black Box (1979) where she beats up a very pretty guy named Bob Mason and mewls "black box" over and over. Don't know if there was ever a song , though.

wasn't Edward Said indicting the serious, respected anthropologists of those times

He didn't relegate his analysis to anthropology. He discusses a great deal of fiction too, for instance. And I'm sure he would have had no problem extending orientalism to the present/a pop song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I can't find my copy of "Evil Woman." Is it a direct sample or is it replayed? Or did you mean it just reminded you of "Evil Woman?"

Merely reminds me of it. But then, the ELO riff probably just sounds like a lot of generic piano house riffs (and I mean 'generic' in the best possible way).

I love "La Isla Bonita". Dreaminess is the key. It's like a Latino Fleetwood Mac song, with those disembodied background vocals bringing its Dreams-i-ness to the forefront.

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

Shocking.

lil louis - french kiss

Is this on CD anywhere?

Well, it's definitely on his first album, which is on CD (I know, because there's a copy on my shelf.)

fills in the blanks:

31. KIM MAZELLE - useless
38. SLY AND ROBBIE - dance hall
43. ??? - baby hold on

Sly and Robbie I'm not 100 % sure, but pretty darn close; they definitely had a single with that title in 1989, and I was liking them around that time. "Baby Hold On" is still stumping me; it definitely doesn't seem to be any of these; hmmm...:

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:105425

It's KYM Mazelle.

Is this another P&J Poll sabotaged? I know 4 or 5 people said they'd vote for "Fight The Power." But the weight seems a bit heavy. Is Lucinda Williams a huge Chuck D fan?

P. S. This is not to slight "Fight The Power." I love it. Robert Walser wrote a great musicological analysis of it which I have on pdf if anyone's interested.

Is this another P&J Poll sabotaged? I know 4 or 5 people said they'd vote for "Fight The Power." But the weight seems a bit heavy.

It seems about right to me, Kevin. But then I was half expecting "Mick's Emotions" or XTC for the win after the previous poll's results.

Robert Walser wrote a great musicological analysis of it which I have on pdf if anyone's interested.

Yes, please.

Here's Robert Walser: "Rhythm, Rhyme, and Rhetoric in the Music of Public Enemy"

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=33B475FE5B7448AA

Pazz & Jop should be (should have been?) called Pazz, Blooze & Jop so we could call it the PB&J Poll.

I would guess that a lot of people who liked "Ride on Time" had never even heard any Chicago house--screaming-diva-disco or any other kind. It was a pretty early house-pop crossover.

-- sw00ds, Thursday, August 9, 2007 3:37 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Link

'good life', 'big fun', 'jack your body'...?

Well, "Jack Your Body" never crossed over. And those Inner City aren't screaming-diva-disco. BUT. I'm not sure how crossed over "Ride On Time" was either. "Everybody Everybody" was the big crossover hit.

Those Inner City HITS, that is.

Oops, just saw that "Jack Your Body" went to number one in the UK. Sorry to be all American imperialist on your ass.