Heart of Rock and Soul Poll: the 1001 Greatest Singles Part 16: 601-625

Everly's, Elvis, Gregory Abbott, The Band, Temps, Barbara Lynn, and Betty Everett. But I'm voting for the Three Degrees, which is a sweet girl group single done right by Gamble & Huff.

I'm voting the Three Degrees too, but there were a bunch I could have easily given it to: Everlys, Wailers, Soul Survivors, Stones, Elvis, the Band.

Voting Soul Survivors; lots of great runners up.

Cool that he picked that Rocky Fellers song, though. Philipino family band (a dad and his four sons); song hit #16 in 1963. Guess you'd classify it as proto garage soul, maybe? Or maybe not. Anyway, I had never heard of it before I picked up my copy of the 45 for 50 cents at a flea market a couple decades ago, but a song called "Killer Joe" by a band called the Rocky Fellers sounded too promising to pass up.

Also cool that he picked Gregory Abbot's great '80s Spinners homage (at least that's how I heard it), which was quickly forgotten, seems to me.

Also cool that he picked a house music song.

Why did he like Crowded House so much, though? I don't get that.

Tough one. I almost voted for Thunderclap Newman but listened to the Stones song again and it's so good. Plus the Springsteen song is the only one by him that I actually enjoy listening to, rather than just admire.

voting crowded house again for the fuck of it, y'all

Voted for the highest ranking song.

Blue Moon of Kentucky

1. Everlys, 2. Thunderclap Newman (which I'm surprised to see--seems like the kind of thing Marsh might consider hokey), then two or three great songs I'm tired of. Then the rest.

"Hungry Heart" over the Band and the Everlys.

The Farley "Jackmaster" Funk is an eye-rolling token 1980s/house choice. But I'm voting for it on the basis of this fabulous performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-L1aoHiRN0

I adore how he lets you know that the "girl" in the song ain't no girl. And didn't PE sample his falsetto @ 2:44?

Are you telling me there's no other house to come? No "Can You Feel It"?! No "I Can't Get No Sleep"?! No even Jamie Principle?!

King me.

xpost

Not that I can recall. But are you really shocked by that?

The Farley "Jackmaster" Funk is an eye-rolling token 1980s/house choice.

God forbid Dave Marsh isn't John fuckin' Leland, eh?

anyway, I'll be really hip and progressive here and vote for "Blue Moon of Kentucky."

Now now let's not get loud. It's more like "God forbid Marsh isn't a critic who could POSSIBLY IMAGINE that a single from the 1980s could be the greatest of all-time and then assume the choice signifies genuine pleasure rather than cynicism." It has nothing whatsoever to do with being hip (or even really progressive).

Not trying to start a fight here, Kevin, but you've been making similar points throughout these threads, and sorry, they're starting to sound like tossed-off assumptions, based on... I don't know what exactly?

Don't understand your point about "pleasure" and "cynicism" but I'm guessing it doesn't match my own reading of Marsh at all. I might in fact join you in charging the guy with understating the role "genuine pleasure" plays in the way he communicates about music at times, but "cynicism" seems way off. He definitely has a tendency to let politics cloud his aesthetic judgments, but I don't read cynicism into that at all -- maybe just the opposite (i.e., a naively unswerving belief in pop music as an agent of change?). But again, I'm merely grasping at what you're suggesting.

Marsh is a '60s creature, no doubt about it. There isn't nearly enough 70s or 80s in the book for my liking, but it's his book, and it's not that surprising that he heavily favours the sounds he grew up with. He still leaves most of his Creem-era colleagues in the dust when it comes to keeping abreast of new sounds (and as someone mentioned in another thread, his updated list apparently included loads of '90s hip-hop). Were I -- or you, I bet -- to write a similar tome, I'd have lots of token choices from various genres, not to fulfill a quota but because there are some genres I don't care much for overall but love dipping my toes into occasionally. Is that any different from anything virtually any other music critic would do?

Well, of course. But that's not my point which was murky because I was maintaining the "God forbid" construction. I thought I had beaten this to death but the cynicism thang was not about Marsh's writing. Rather, it was the perception of cynicism on the part of Spin placing "It Takes Two" at number one on their greatest singles list: "Given its commonplace cynicism, probably thought it was just making a statement about ephemerality, but it hs chosen too well for that." (606)

Also, "(it) was a move critic David Hinckley accurately described as the equivalent of a three-year-old shooting his mother with a squirt gun to get her attention." (606)

Ah, okay, well scrap about 650 words out of my rant. I dunno. I suddenly feel really opinionless about all this.

But you're right; I've been broken recordy about this. It's obviously a massive sore point with me. But I'll be good from now on. :)

Kevin, I've obviously been just as broken-recordy in my response to you about the Leland vs Marsh wars, but one thing you could maybe do is continue to disagree with what he says in #606 (which I sort of agree with, as you know, but so what), but stop acting like what he says there impacts greatly on the rest of his book. Which it clearly doesn't.

BTW, just to be clear, the completely rhythmically-insane "Blue Moon of Kentucky" really is my choice here, but to my ears this is one of the weaker (and/or deader) groupings of songs to my ears, maybe the least of the lists thus far.

[just so you know that it's my ears I'm talking about and not your or anyone else's ears.]

xp Though then again, to be fair, Kevin, I do know that it was Scott who brought Leland up this time, not you. (And I also know all the contradictions inherent in me distrusting the Spin list, when so many stupid people have mistrusted lists I've made over the years. Actually, I trust the "It Takes Two" choice more if that's been established specifically as a Leland list -- one man's personal taste -- than the grandstanding staff-pick "Editorial We" move I've always, maybe wrong-headedly, taken it as.) (Also know most people reading this are going "What the hell are they talking about?" Sorry.)

What the hell are they talking about?

stop acting like what he says there impacts greatly on the rest of his book. Which it clearly doesn't.

Well, it clearly does but I'll zip it. But yes, all of the lists and blurbs in that Spin issue were unsigned.

forget it, Jake, its a "rock critic" thang.

xp

(btw, i've always mostly agreed with Marsh on that particular point. but i'm old and never really took Spin all that seriously.)

(and yeah, i'll get around to reading yr paper one of these days, kjb--started it a while ago, actually...) *ducks*

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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