It Takes a Nation of Millions to Poll Our Tracks

Will anyone go for 'Cold Lampin' with Flavor'?

this is kind of impossible, dude

this is impossible so i went with my instinctive reaction which is, weirdly enough, "she watch channel zero"

ditto, only "Night of the Living Baseheads"

"Bring The Noise"

Hard to choose between "Bring the Noise," "Black Steel" and "Party for Your Right to Fight." (Yeah, you heard me on that last one.)

this is an amazing album. nothing jumps out at me as being a standout song. i just love to play these tracks one after the other and over and over.

I just listened to this two days ago, so it's fresh for me. But it needn't be: "Show 'Em Whatcha Got" has been one of my favorite and most-listened songs since this album came out. That opening horn blast is still enough for me to feel like I can do anything. Who is the speaker on it?

These reasons are obviously personal and if I were trying to take a more objective stance then I'd go with "Louder Than A Bomb": I love the whispered chorus (and the guy saying "louder") and Flav's intro, and...fuck objectivity, my daily speech is filled with lines from this song ("milquetoast" e.g.); but yeah impossible b/c my daily speech is filled with lines from like every song ("before the judge on some nonsense"); like this album is a map of the structure of my mind.

Semi off-topic: I don't like pun-poll titles normally, but this one is great.

"Baseheads"

ARRRGH! Too difficult. As an album I find this a bit hard going - it might have been mindblowing at the time, but gets a bit samey, especially since many of the tracks are around the 6 minute mark. Still, there are very very few duds on here and taken individually the material is all completely awesome. Think I'm gonna go for She Watch Channel Zero.

"Baseheads"

― hey hey hey, smoke persians every day (Whiney G. Weingarten), Donnerstag, 10. September 2009 17:52 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

"Party For Your Right to Fight" still sounds great so I don't think it's a crazy choice at all. I would seriously love to vote for "Cold Lampin'" but I'm gonna have to leave that to my socks cos I'm gonna vote for "Louder Than a Bomb" right now.

god what an album.

just amazing.

i might go for black steel, but can't decide

reaaaaallly hard. probably either "noise" or "hype," which has to be among the greatest 1-2 A-side punches ever. (ok, technically it's a 2-3 punch, but "countdown" is really more of an overture than a song.)

Black Steel, but just because it was my first instinct.

I'd be fronting if I said anything other than "rebel without a pause"

that 12" dropped a year before the album came out and completely changed how I thought about rap music

I don't think I ever got over it

incredibly weird that this should come up today. I seriously woke up thinking about starting a "nation of millions" poll.

"rebel without a pause" was the first PE song I ever heard, I bought the 12" and the acapella was just mindblowing to me. the 2nd one I bought was "don't believe the hype" and I think that's my choice here - so much its own thing.

really have no idea; black steel has such an amazing video though and totally blew my mind when i was a kid

yeah, that "don't believe the hype"/"prophets of rage" 12" was a killer follow-up

one of the greatest things about this album was the preceding singles set the bar so freaking high for it, and then it effortlessly hopped over that bar once it was out

xp to j0hn

Louder Than A Bomb!

Though I loved the part about the "senseless songs for the mindless" in "Caught Can I Get a witness" when I first heard it. It really blew my mind that someone would declare total war on love songs like that. Just flat out saying we're not doing what came before in any way shape or form. And the music was saying the same thing. At least that how I heard it.

It feels so weird to think that I got into Public Enemy because of Anthrax. I mean, jeez, I haven't listened to Anthrax in years, and Public Enemy is still in heavy rotation.

I'm not even sure how I'll vote—about the only critical distance I can manage is saying that I think the first half is a lot stronger than the second half, but I'm not even knocking the second half, y'know?

I remember seeing an interview with flavor flav on mtv prior to the album's release, bragging about how groundbreaking the record was going to be

it's very rare for that kind of hype & hyperbole to be true

but it was

"Rebel" was originally on the B-Side of the "You're Gonna Get Yours" 12-inch, which was my first PE. TBH it almost, almost, felt played by the time I got Nation of Millions.

"YGGY" is every bit the equal of this album btw.

what's YGGY? Yo Bum Rush The Show is definitely really close to as good as this.

I'm guessing it's "You're Gonna Get Yours", aka the 12" mentioned in the previous post

Yeah, I reckon it's the standout on Bum Rush.

I dunno, my fave track on "public enemy no. 1"

obv I like PE when they're most annoying

(my fave track on bum rush is)

When I first heard this it would have been Channel Zero easily.

But for its crimes in assisting the genesis of Nu Metal forget that and give me Bring The Noise. A song I still catch myself muttering the words to when I'm doing the grocery shopping. Or queuing up in the bank.

Their best album and opening salvo in an unbeatable trilogy.

What song has been sampled by My Bloody Valentine and Madonna?

"Security Of The First World"

so much greatness but really how could it not be BLACK STEEL IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

show show show em watcha got eihiehehehe

the rhythem, the rebel

going with rebel without a pause. that drum programming is the shit.

i think i voted "don't believe the hype," probably not the "best" track but the one i was into the most when i first got into this album and the one where i still remember all the words

black steel has such an amazing video though and totally blew my mind when i was a kid

This is how I feel about "Night of the Living Baseheads".

Rebel for being the song that I 1st heard and caused me to drop my jaw from 87-90, but in hindsight, I'm going with Hype.

i missed out on the initial burst, but was first hit by "Rebel Without A Pause" at a party where the DJ played it & looped the "Radio, suckers never play me" line repeatedly before letting it go & turning the bass to eleven. to this day i hear it like that in my head.

Y'all wanna hear that beat, right? BRING THAT BEAT BACK!

rebel, but really its all good

when I saw them do this live last year, Flav hadn't made it onto the plane out of the northern hemisphere

wouldn't have voted Cold Lampin' anyway but

What song has been sampled by My Bloody Valentine and Madonna?

"Security Of The First World"
― *⁂((✪⥎✪))⁂* (Steve Shasta), Saturday, September 12, 2009 12:59 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark
^ that is my favorite mbv song incidentally... I have it on some radio promo 12", was it ever reissued on CD?

No, it was a freebie single with "Is Anything"

To da Pokonos, we call da hide-a-ways
A pack of franks and a big bag of Frito Lays

One of the hardest polls ever. I chose "Black Steel...", but that could have gone any number of different ways. What an amazing album. (Great thread title too).

"Night of..." by a large margin.

going with rebel without a pause. that drum programming is the shit.

― ojo, Wednesday, September 16, 2009 8:11 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

there was a tape op interview with hank shocklee a couple years ago where he mentions the drum track was played live using pads

here's that mbv jam

http://www.box.net/shared/static/wtzaogjk0g.mp3

i missed out on the initial burst, but was first hit by "Rebel Without A Pause" at a party where the DJ played it & looped the "Radio, suckers never play me" line repeatedly before letting it go & turning the bass to eleven. to this day i hear it like that in my head.

― myndbloom, Thursday, September 17, 2009 7:00 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

woah you were at that party with jeremy piven where campbell scott was DJing????

Went with my kneejerk reaction which was Louder Than A Bomb.

'Bring the Noise'? This is really hard.

Bring the Noise

I wonder if I still have my cassettes of this and Fear...

there was a tape op interview with hank shocklee a couple years ago where he mentions the drum track was played live using pads

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Thursday, September 17, 2009 10:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

by Flav!

Unimaginative choice as it may be, I really can't go with anything but "Bring the Noise". I was primed to hear it upon reading John Leland's pre-release rave in "Spin" [helpfully reproduced thanks to Stormy Davis on the thread below]. Believed the hype, bought the album and was convinced, by the expected noise and the unexpected swing

NYU conference on "It Takes a Nation of Millions"

The heart of the album is probably Baseheads but Bring the Noise turned my music taste on its axis, so that.

"Black Steel", though "Show 'Em" is a very close second. This, and "Millions" are amongst the very few albums where I have a pin-sharp recollection of when and where I heard them for the first time, and how I felt. For a couple of years, they made every record I'd ever heard seem just obsolete.

Baseheads, in honor of the four teens I saw in DC, sometime in spring 1989, who got on the Metro & took seats like everyone else except they were singing this word for word & when they reached the end of the song they just started over, like the song was part of them, like they were human boomboxes, the most total communion of fan and song I've ever seen.

This stuff
Is really bad.

Baffled that anyone could say that. I meant this and "Black Planet", of course.

Baseheads, in honor of the four teens I saw in DC, sometime in spring 1989, who got on the Metro & took seats like everyone else except they were singing this word for word & when they reached the end of the song they just started over, like the song was part of them, like they were human boomboxes, the most total communion of fan and song I've ever seen.

This story makes me happy.

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

its kind of cool opening up a poll and knowing beforehand that no matter what wins, youll be happy with the result

only 3 voted for show em watcha got! i guess i shouldn't be too surprised as it's not a "real" song or anything, but hearing it for the first time was my big OK NOW I AM IN LOVE WITH PUBLIC ENEMY moment.

this album has really cool song names. black steel in the hour of chaos oh man.

This stuff
Is really bad.

double-you-oh-tee

I believe it's a line from "Night of the Living Baseheads," Young Scott Young.

nice turn out for the poll

shewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatchshewatch

Hmm, I did vote "Cold lampin" but it didn;t register.

(I don't know the album at all, save a couple of singles, just being nice re post 2)

Best poll thread title ever.

oh man I have never actually realised he's saying "bad" under that tchock sound

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120201455.html

oh ffs nevermind

Heard this tonight played LOUD and it sounded great... only 2 votes in the poll tho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MAa_kPB7jo

that's definitely one of the best 2 or 3 on the album. love it when Chuck whispers the title. "Bring the Noise" okay fair enough but boring boring choice

I am listening to this album for the first time ever right now. Why is the mix so fucking QUIET? Alexa’s at volume five ffs.

“No you can’t have it back, silly rabbit” made by LOL

made me LOL I mean

yeah, you gotta blast this one to get the full experience.

really curious to know more about why this is your first listen — how well did you know pe going in?

(also totally envious — wish i could hear it for the first time again)

Yeah, you definitely have to crank it, but the original CD definitely needed better EQ. NOT compression, there's nothing wrong with "quiet," that's what the volume control's for, but I would've toned the top end down a notch and restored the bottom end, especially the bass cloud.

I never found this one particularly quiet but Black Planet on the other hand...