Them vs. Yardbirds Vs. Animals Vs. Troggs Vs. Pretty Things Poll

the fuckin Troggs.

Troggs all the way. Pretty Things a close second

Very tough. Inclined to go with Them for "Gloria" and "I can only give you everything".

The Troggs? What the hell? Either the Yardbirds (who had the highest highs) or the Pretty Things (who had the longest sustained excellence).

S the Troggs threads, I went through a period last year where I grabbed all their albums and there are a LOT of gems in their catalog. such a funny, great band. By contrast I have never been able to get through an entire Yardbirds album - they seem like a cursed band that could never keep it together long enough to create any consistent product. There's some high spots here and there but its really patchy. Pretty Things are great for SF Sorrow (which is easily better than any of the Troggs' full-lengths) but I dunno, the Troggs just have more songs that I like.

Fuckin 'ell! Yardbirds or Pretty Things is my initial thought, but heck, the Animals my edge this for me.

Between Troggs and the Prettys for me. Yardbirds had some incredible singles, though.

Pretty Things pre-psych stuff is awesome, but SF Sorrow & Parachute both leave me cold and bored.

Yardbirds, easy. even if 'Shapes of Things' was the only thing they ever did, they'd win

totally forgotten Troggs songs that are amazing:

I Just Sing
Her Emotion
Jingle Jangle
Cousin Jane
Our Love Will Still Be There
You Can Cry If You Want To
Purple Shades
Girl's In Black

Cousin Jane! <3 <3

but SF Sorrow & Parachute both leave me cold and bored.
boo

Them bitches.

Troggs' mellow bossa nova attempt "Butterflies and Bees" is also pretty sweet

Love this song:

Worth waiting through the intro skit - the song is great, but you just won't believe the backdrop.

All y'all seen this?

These bands were all so fucking great, but the Yardbirds had all this AND they were in BLOW UP

The Troggs sprinkle a little fairy dust over the bastard:

tough poll! never would have even considered Them to be in this league a couple years ago but I found this double-LP best of a while back and it KILLS

http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/330091.jpg

Gloria, Here Comes the Night, I Can Only Give You Everything, One Two Brown Eyes, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, so much great shit on there

and Lester Bangs liner notes! That's the record that made me a Them believer too.

Hearing the first THEM album was a revelation - I'd always hated Van The Man, but it was clear they had set the template for a lot of the garage music I loved.

Yardbirds

Them bitches.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:28 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

word. i'll concede a couple here possibly have higher highs, but I SERIOUSLY doubt I can kick it with a 40+ track career-spanning retrospective (e.g. The Story of Them) of one of the others and not feel the need to skip handfuls of tracks.

I'm glad Them is getting pockets of love in this poll. History has overlooked them in comparison to all these other bands.

I used to have cassettes of Them and Them Again that I bought at a pawn shop for 50¢ each and basically wore them out until they squeaked.

^^I feel that way about them, though^^. "Stormy Monday", "Bad or Good", yawn.xpost
The Prettys, on the other hand, solid until the late 70s. (I am a stan for SF Sorrow and Parachute era Prettys).

don't forget "Mystic Eyes" from the Them hit parade ... used to such awesome effect in The Sopranos

I feel that way about Them, I mean. In fact, I checked a two disc set out from the library years ago and had to skip around a lot, but there are a lot of great songs on it. Nothing as intense as "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago."

The Troggs probably have the smallest number of instantly skippable songs of any of these guys, because they're the only ones who didn't record a boatload of boring 12-bar blues and chuck berry covers.

Are Them, strictly speaking, a 'Brit' band? Belfast is in the UK, but not in Britain......

Anyway, the Prettys for me, though i love all these bands.

because they're the only ones who didn't record a boatload of boring 12-bar blues and chuck berry covers.

I hadn't really thought about it this way but this is oddly true - there are surprisingly few covers in the Troggs catalog (and at least a couple of their covers, like Good Vibrations, are really bizarre). When they weren't trying to write variations of their two succesful formulas (ie, Wild Thing and Love is All Around) they were clumsily trying to ape other people's formulas (psych, bossa nova, etc.)

Not much love for The Animals in here...

Anyway, the Prettys troggs for me, though i love all these bands.

The Animals are allright, a couple classics. Their version of House of the Rising Sun seems like the definitive 60s rock version to me

The Animals have a decent case to be considered the best straight Rn'B band of the bunch. (also, shouldn't Spencer Davis Group be here?)

Plus, Eric Burdon's psyche stuff on MGM, as "Eric Burdon and the (New) Animals"

The Animals definitely have some good ones - Bury My Body, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, We Gotta get Out Of This Place are all amazing, and I have a soft spot for the new Animals later slightly cheesy psych-outs like Sky Pilot and their River Deep Mountain High rave-up... but Burdon kid of bugs me, he just seems like kind of a numbskull. I have a feeling they're not gonna do so well in this poll - looks like a Troggs-Yardbirds race for 1 and 2 with Them and Pretty Things battling for third.

I wonder which of these bands actually sold the most records? Yardbirds?

Oh yeah, and Inside Looking Out is another pretty good Animals jam!

"Pretty Things pre-psych stuff is awesome, but SF Sorrow & Parachute both leave me cold and bored."

jesus, like a dagger in my heart, Ian!

"Sky Pilot" is one of my all-time fave psych tracks

Probably the Animals sold the most recs, in America anyways

xxxpost

xpost.

Just a guess, but i bet the Animals were the best sellers: Rising Sun alone sold loads both sides of the ocean

and further xpost

SF Sorrow is the best album by far of any of these bands.

you know what's awesome too? the post-van years:

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20070311/140095468067.jpg

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20080820/260277151893.jpg

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20080425/330231252306.jpg

so, you know, even more to love...

Who gets your vote here, Scott? Pretty Things?

always thought that was the end of Them once Van left.... are the post-Van years as psychedelic as they look, scott?

I've never heard any of the post-VM stuff, but I'm in the mood right now to check it out.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my heart sez prettys cuz i love them so and they have been really important to me in so many ways, but, jeez, five live yardbirds on the poll too???? that makes life hard. i mean, they did so much for so long. and they are so awe-inspiring in so many ways. so, it's a tough one.

x-post

oh jeez yeah at least check out belfast gypsies! that stuff rules.

Pretty Things > Yardbirds > Them > Animals > Troggs

don't forget "Mystic Eyes" from the Them hit parade ... used to such awesome effect in The Sopranos

― Plunge Protection Team

Same deal w/ "Gloria"

Small Faces - certainly top of the second division, but not really 'Blues- Rock'?
Xpost to Alex

― sonofstan, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 23:33 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Whoa! If you check out "You need love" from the first album and don't think that's blues rock, then neither is "Whole lotta love" Led Zep.

To say the least.

Even that meercat would listen to those two tracks and go "it's exactly the blummen same!"

Mark G. - good call: Faces back in the blues rock demi-pantheon.

What strikes me about all these bands is how their rep. depends so hugely on the state of their catalogues; part of the reason why the Prettys are so relatively revered now is the existence of two canonical albums, with established track listings; in contrast, the Yardbirds discog is a mess.

OTM. I think this applies to the other bands too, to a greater or lesser effect. Certainly, when I was first taking an interest in this stuff, all I could find were Ronco half the hits with filler comps. Management issues?

Yardbirds, although The Pretty Things were damn great.

Early R&B Pretty Things were better than Topham/Clapton-era Yardbirds - more menacing, better sound, more 'personality'. Rosalyn and Don't Bring Me Down rule 1964!

65/66 - Yardbirds....just. Midnight to Six Man vs Heart Full of Soul, Shapes of Things.

I'm not wild about SF Sorrow or Parachutes But wait... there are some cracking later singles : Talking About The Good Times/Defecting Grey/Walking Through My Dreams.
Maybe I should have voted for The Pretty Things after all?

favourites of each :

Them - One, Two, Brown Eyes
Animals - Sky Pilot
Yardbirds - Happenings Ten Years Ago
Troggs - Purple Shades
Pretty Things - Defecting Grey

Voted for Pretty Things

Damn, of course. Small Faces. I'm glad I put that "I'm forgetting something big and obvious" disclaimer in there. Kind of glad I missed them - it's tough enough as is.

Pretty Things by a fucking mile..

Defecting Grey has got to be one of the most amazing singles of that whole era..

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Are Them, strictly speaking, a 'Brit' band? Belfast is in the UK, but not in Britain......

LOL, can of worms

All these are great obv but I like Pretty Things, Them & Troggs better than Yardbirds & Animals in approx that order. Not that I don't love songs by the latter two.

It's the pre-psych Pretty Things stuff I like best tho. The CD with Get The Picture album & related singles is prob top 5 60s for me.

Seems silly voting for the Troggs, they were a silly sort of band in comparison to the other bands here... I'll be voting for them

Are Them, strictly speaking, a 'Brit' band? Belfast is in the UK, but not in Britain......

LOL, can of worms

Thanks for noticing .....: )

I don't hardly know the Troggs at all, and would have put Small Faces and The Creation ahead of them. Am I mistaken?

"Baron Saturday" is my favorite song among this whole lot, so Pretty Things.

Not mistaken about the Small Faces

From an American perspective, looking at this music from a growing up with oldies and rock radio point of view, Animals would have been so much bigger than any of these other bands. Pretty Things and Creation had no impact here at all from a chart/mainstream point of view, and I didn't hear their music until much later than the other bands. Small Faces and Them would be very small hitmakers more interesting for what came later, and Yardbirds would have had a couple of hits and be important to what came later.

The Troggs (my impulsive vote) fit into this great category of psychedelic-lite pop without the attempts at R&B authenticity that would include Donovan's hits and Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park".

Years later, I would put Small Faces in a second tier with the Who and Kinks, and the rest of these bands in a third tier.

In terms of U.S. oldies radio, I think "Brown-Eyed Girl" gets more airplay than the Animals or the other acts.

I really need to get with the program and listen to the Pretty Things -- other than the odd single, I've heard nothing.

But Brown-eyed Girl is solo Van, not Them, so maybe not a great point of comparison. Agree the Animals probably do get the most U.S. oldies play. The only Them you'll ever hear is Gloria, the only Troggs you'll hear are Wild Thing and Love Is All Around. Yardbirds I don't think you'd ever hear - maybe Heartful of Soul once in a blue moon. Pretty Things you will never hear on regular U.S. oldies radio ever.

The only Them you'll ever hear is Gloria

Close. I've heard "My Lonely Sad Eyes" many a time on golden oldies radio.

Don't think I've ever heard that one on the radio, but maybe I am exaggerating a bit. Now that I think of it, they do play "Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes The Night" now and then for sure.

Yardbirds I don't think you'd ever hear - maybe Heartful of Soul once in a blue moon.

are you kidding? "For Your Love" and "I'm A Man" get played all the time.

I wouldn't think the Pretty Things are that well known anymore this side of the Atlantic outside of circles like this either. And we don't really have oldies radio to the same extent, so much of this stuff is perhaps even more forgotten. But the average a little bit interested rock boy would probably know Gloria, House of the Rising Sun and Wild Thing, and so would his parents - or grandparents?.

Where its a bit different is that SF Sorrow, along with Odessey and Oracle and Village Green have become part of the canon of 'Englishness' - referred to by many contemporary bands

put 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake' in there too...

More Troggs gems for which there is, unfortunately, no youtube evidence:

The Raver (jew's harp plus endless fuzz riff!)
Come Now (french girl = dirty!)
Strange Movies (porn = also dirty!)
Everything's Funny ("my my my you know what its like when you're high/my my my everything's funny but you don't know why" lolz)
Feels Like a Woman

"Last Summer" is a heartbreaker.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xi0ws_the-troggs-on-swedish-tv_music

which one is the one produced by Rodger Bain? "Feels Like a Woman", right? that kills

yeah - that's the one. so good.

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

that's a perfect tie if you ask me. and i'm fine with the Them love. they ruled.

yeah, i love that tie too.

yeah these results reflect basically how i feel about the polled -- with the caveats that including small faces would've totally made me rethink everything, and i don't know nearly enough troggs

I think the Small Faces might have walked it.

I don't know, i reckon they were head and shoulders below the rest........

The most common explanations for his dismissal are a clash of personalities with Marriott or a lack of musical talent, though rumours persist he was released at least in part because he compromised the band's integrity of image by being too tall, since the others all stood around 5' 4".

pretty things only did a handful of great songs, imo. them made a couple good albums. i like the Yardbirds and Troggs a lot, too, but the animals made more great music, imo, given these choices. this thread made me go and pickup animals-retrospective for confirmation.
not saying the guy is always right, but on X'gau's essential 60's list the animals are, i believe, the only one of these bands listed, fwiw

(i could probably stand to hear more animals, too)

"not saying the guy is always right, but on X'gau's essential 60's list the animals are, i believe, the only one of these bands listed, fwiw"

yeah, not worth much at all to me, i'm afraid.

should we do a rematch poll w/ small faces vs. the top 3 here?

I'd still vote Them.

If I were to do a poll of top British (and Van...) Rn'B singers of the sixties and were to include Van, Eric Burdon, Stevie Winwood, Steve Marriott and Paul Jones, would I be omitting anyone important?

Be hard for me. I see these bands very much as beat combos, and I wouldn't want (don't want in some cases) to hear the singers come out and do an acoustic solo.

would I be omitting anyone important?

Maybe Rod?
Mick Jagger? Though he's not really a belter like the rest.
Tom Jones?

Leaving Jagger out for the same reason you omitted the Beatles/ Stones/ Who/ Kinks - too big.... if possible i'd like to poll them as singers with their (original) bands, though i guess it's impossible to separate Van and Stevie W. off from their subsequent careers....

Rod? a bit late?
TJ? - too MOR, too Soon?

Yeah, Rod didn't really hit it until the Faces, right? so Post-60's.
And Tom Jones I'd argue was as R&B as anybody here in his day, maybe even more of a straight-up soul singer than the rest - especially in his 60's live show - but he was in a bit of a different world than these guys so I can see how he wouldn't fit.
An argument could be made for Dusty Springfield too as best UK soul singer - but I guess we're talking dudes in bands here.

Using a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" over the openings credits is far from the worst thing about Honey Don't--that'd probably be not allowing Margaret Qualley to smile till the last minute--but what a stupid decision. That it's so close to the original makes it doubly stupid (or stupid + pointless).

One could go out on a limb and not be surprised that with a film about lesbians co-written by a lesbian maybe they felt it would be more potent to have a cover of <that song> in <this cultural climate> that's performed by <a lesbian POC> than dealing with Abkco for the original.

I don't know that I was really surprised, I just thought it was a terrible decision (wasn't thinking about Abkco, but yes, they're infamous when it comes to copyright).

Definitely not more potent (I said close to the original, but when I relistened to the Animals, I was reminded of how great theirs is).