ILM POLLS THE 20TH CENTURY'S BEST TRACKS (Nominations Thread - Ends at Midnight on Friday, November 12 EST)

We've taken on years. We've taken on decades. We've even taken on entire genres. The next logical step is to take on a century. Ambitious, right? Yes. Stupid too? Probably. But I think it could be pretty fun. JJ Cale to JJ Fad, Sister Rosetta Tharpe to The Sisters of Mercy, The Jackson 5 to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, etc. etc. Viva variety!

*You can nominate 20 (twenty) tracks of your choosing. Singles or non-singles.
*You can do this until midnight est on Friday, November 12th. That's two weeks from right now.
*You can't veto anyone else's nomination except in cases where it's not a recording from the 20th century.

If 20 seems like too few nominations, suck it up. Someone else will probably take care of most of the songs you can't nominate yourself.

Please format your nominations like this: Artist - Track. If its reversed, it's your problem. I'm not going to count it.

I mean if we're doing mostly popular music/rock/electronic/blues/shit isn't this more or less "Best tracks OF ALL TIME"?

Sure, but I didn't name it OF ALL TIME because then the premise would be false.

Jesus fuck, I returned to ILM at exactly the right time!

too hard.

George Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue
George Formby - Little Stick of Blackpool Rock
Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightning
Cole Porter - Anything Goes
Billie Holliday - Strange Fruit
Frank Loesser - Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat
Charles Mingus - Haitian Fight Song
Elvis Presley - Hound Dog
The Beatles - She Loves You
The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Get Up, Stand Up
Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
The Clash - I Fought The Law
Blondie - Atomic
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax
Michael Jackson - Beat It
Dr Dre - Nothin' But A G Thang
The Prodigy - Charly
Wu-Tang Clan - Triumph

aaliyah - one in a million

Eep - I don't even know how to nom for this.

eddie murphy - boogie in your butt

I guess that's one way.

what the hell:

Louis Armstrong - West End Blues
Richard "Rabbit" Brown - James Alley Blues
Clarance Ashley - The Coo Coo Bird
Sex Pistols - Holidays in the Sun
Geto Boys - Mind Playing Tricks on Me
Richard and Linda Thompson - The Great Valerio
Tricky - Aftermath
Charlie Parker - Parker's Mood
Public Enemy - Welcome to the Terrordome
Clash - Complete Control
James Brown - King Heroin
Hank Williams - Alone and Forsaken
Sly and the Family Stone - Spaced Cowboy
Miles Davis - He Loved Him Madly
Thelonious Monk - Epistrophy
Elvis Presley - Baby, Let's Play House
Chuck Berry - Let It Rock
Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force - Zulu Nation Throwdown

Yes, good nominations!

Is this a ridiculous idea? I mean, I still think it could work if people participate, but I also know that ideas I have late at night sometimes don't seem that great the next day.

The Specials - Ghost Town
David Bowie - Life on Mars?
The Prodigy - Out of Space
The Beatles - You Never Give Me Your Money
Bjork - Hyperballad
Led Zeppelin - Thank You

I don't think I'll be voting in this, it's too hard.

Ravel - Bolero
Judy Garland - Somewhere Over the Rainbow
The Beatles - A Day in the Life
Pharoah Sanders - The Creator Has a Master Plan
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
David Bowie - "Heroes"

A whole century is too broad imho.

Curtis Mayfield - Little Child Running Wild

Metallica - One

Curtis Mayfield - Little Child Running Wild

― A brownish area with points (chap), Saturday, 30 October 2010 18:05 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

omg <3 u.

i guess i'll just nominate things as they occur to me

steve reich - come out
solomon linda - mbube (aka the lion sleeps tonight)
john coltrane - a love supreme
juan tizol/duke ellington - caravan
scott joplin - the entertainer
stan getz/astrud gilberto - girl from ipanema
hamza el din - escalay
salt-n-pepa - push it
the grateful dead - uncle john's band
prince - kiss
carl orff - o fortuna
arvo part - te deum

i'm going to jump in with 20 tracks before i lose track of what's been nominated:

Charles Mingus - Trio and Group Dancers
The Fall - The Classical
The Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso
The Rolling Stones - Sway
Scott Walker - The Seventh Seal
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
The Clash - Spanish Bombs
Serge Gainsbourg - Melody
The Replacements - Unsatisfied
Miles Davis - Shhh/Peaceful
Nick Drake - Things Behind the Sun
Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell
Neil Young - Ambulance Blues
Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)
Pere Ubu - Non-Alignment Pact
The Cure - All Cats Are Grey
Pet Shop Boys -West End Girls
Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man

Tom Waits - Take it With Me

The only way I can get my head around this is by nominating songs I think are awesome rather than thinking about century-defining artworks. So in that spirit:

Les Rita Mitsouko - Marcia Baila
Arthur Russell - In the Light of the Miracle
Dinosaur - Kiss Me Again
Albert Ayler - Truth is Marching In
Beach Boys - Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)
The Beatles - Helter Skelter
Jorge Ben - Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu
Sly and the Family Stone - Sing a Simple Song
Planxty - The Blacksmith
Roxy Music -In Every Dream Home a Heartache
Taana Gardner - Heartbeat
Richard Youngs - Soon it will be Fire
Al Green - Belle
Bob Dylan - If You See Her, Say Hello
Herbie Hancock - Rain Dance
Jimi Hendrix - Machine Gun
Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need a Change of Mind

I'll come up with three more in a while.

I do think that with a poll this broad the top 100 could easily all be standard canonical works by big-name artists (plus something off Space Jam OST), though even then it should be interesting to see who gets in and who doesn't.

when nomming i didn't go to lengths to zone in on my personal favourites. i just thought of 20 great songs (admittedly in rather ad-hoc fashion), which should at the very least deserve to be considered.

jerry lee lewis - great balls of fire
cheap trick - surrender
nina simone - sinnerman
stevie wonder - superstition
bruce springsteen - i'm on fire
outkast - hey ya
the stooges - 1970
boredoms - 7→(Boriginal)

hey, that's 20. now what the fuck 5000 other songs am i leaving off?

how about a 1900-1950 poll

yeah, only 4 of my 20 are from before mid-century

and hey wait! hey fucking ya is from 2004 or something. fucking duh. scratch that. gotta think some more...

leadbelly - take a whiff on me

that was fast

Nina Simone - Love Me Or Leave Me

Warren G - Regulate

"Songs I think are awesome" != "Songs I love" (I'm not going to nominate "Fish Heads"), but working out whether a given song is better than all but 19 other songs of the 20th century is mind-exploding while working out whether a given song is A+ quality is a bit easier (unless you're grading on a curve, I guess).

just went for favorite tracks by favorite artists (one a piece only) myself--plus a number of incontestable "singles" by non-faves, i suppose.

Original Dixieland Jazz Band - Tiger Rag
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Dippermouth Blues
Bix Beiderbecke - Riverboat Shuffle
Bix Beiderbecke - In a Mist (Bixology)
Bix Beiderbecke - Rhythm King
Louis Armstrong - Cake Walking Babies from Home
Louis Armstrong - Heebie Jeebies
Louis Armstrong - Weather Bird
Louis Armstrong - Tight Like That
Louis Armstrong - I Can't Give You Anything But Love
Louis Armstrong - Black and Blue
Louis Armstrong - Ain't Misbehavin'
Jimmie Rodgers & Louis Armstrong - Stnadin' on the Corner
Duke Ellington - East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
Duke Ellington - Black and Tan Fantasy
Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues
Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O'Lee
Bing Crosby - Stardust
Cab Calloway - St. James Infirmary
Cab Calloway - Minnie the Moocher

*Jimmie Rodgers & Louis Armstrong - Standin' on the Corner*

glad somebody nominated st. james infirmary

Louis Armstrong wouldn't be thanking u for the vote-splitting

Well, I don't think Louis Armstrong would really give a shit one way or another, but I didn't want to see Armstrong's legacy reduced to just West End Blues. And I've been listening to Armstrong rather obsessively in the last two months, and discriminating between the various levels of greatness in the above songs is kind of beyond me at the moment.

no "Potato Head Blues." :-(

Smiths- There is a Light That Never Goes Out

Here's what's in so far:

Aaliyah One in a Million
Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force Zulu Nation Throwdown
Al Green Belle
Albert Ayler Truth Is Marching In
Arthur Russell In the Light of the Miracle
Arvo Pärt Te Deum
Billie Holliday Strange Fruit
Bing Crosby Stardust
Bix Beiderbecke Riverboat Shuffle
Bix Beiderbecke In a Mist (Bixology)
Bix Beiderbecke Rhythm King
Björk Hyperballad
Blondie Atomic
Bob Dylan Ballad of a Thin Man
Bob Dylan If You See Her, Say Hello
Bob Marley and The Wailers Get Up, Stand Up
Boredoms 7→(Boriginal)
Bruce Springsteen I'm on Fire
Cab Calloway St. James Infirmary
Cab Calloway Minnie the Moocher
Carl Orff O Fortuna (Carmina Burana)
Charles Mingus Haitian Fight Song
Charles Mingus Trio and Group Dancers
Charlie Parker Parker's Mood
Cheap Trick Surrender
Chuck Berry Let it Rock
Chuck Berry You Never Can Tell
Clarence Ashley The Coo Coo Bird
Cole Porter Anything Goes
Curtis Mayfield Little Child Running Wild
David Bowie Life on Mars?
David Bowie Heroes
Dinosaur Kiss Me Again
Dr. Dre Nothin' But a G Thang
Duke Ellington East St. Louis Toodle-oo
Duke Ellington Black and Tan Fantasy
Eddie Kendricks Girl You Need a Change of Mind
Eddie Murphy Boogie in Your Butt
Elvis Presley Hound Dog
Elvis Presley Baby Let's Play House
Fleetwood Mac Rhiannon
Frank Loesser Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat
Frankie Goes to Hollywood Relax
George Formby Little Stick of Blackpool Rock
George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Geto Boys Mind Playing Tricks on Me
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
Grateful Dead Uncle John's Band
Hamza el Din Escalay
Hank Williams Alone and Forsaken
Herbie Hancock Rain Dance
Howlin' Wolf Smokestack Lightning
James Brown King Heroin
Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire
Jimi Hendrix Machine Gun
Jimmie Rodgers & Louis Armstrong Standin' on the Corner
John Coltrane A Love Surpreme
Jorge Ben Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu
Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington Caravan
Judy Garland Somewhere Over the Rainbow
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band Dippermouth Blues
Leadbelly Take a Whiff on Me
Led Zeppelin When the Levee Breaks
Led Zeppelin Thank You
Led Zeppelin Kashmir
Les Rita Mitsouko Marcia Baïla
Louis Armstrong West End Blues
Louis Armstrong Cake Walking Babies from Home
Louis Armstrong Heebie Jeebies
Louis Armstrong Weather Bird
Louis Armstrong Tight Like That
Louis Armstrong I Can't Give You Anything But Love
Louis Armstrong Black and Blue
Louis Armstrong Ain't Misbehavin'
Maurice Ravel Boléro
Metallica One
Michael Jackson Beat It
Miles Davis He Loved Him Madly
Miles Davis Shhh/Peaceful
Mississippi John Hurt Avalon Blues
Mississippi John Hurt Stack O'Lee
Neil Young Ambulance Blues
Nick Drake Things Behind the Sun
Nina Simone Sinnerman
Nina Simone Love Me or Leave Me
Original Dixieland Jazz Band Tiger Rag
Paul Simon 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
Pere Ubu Non-Alignment Pact
Pet Shop Boys West End Girls
Pharoah Sanders The Creator Has a Master Plan
Pink Floyd Astronomy Domine
Planxty The Blacksmith
Prince and The Revolution Kiss
Public Enemy Welcome to the Terrordome
Richard "Rabbit" Brown James Alley Blues
Richard and Linda Thompson The Great Valerio
Richard Youngs Soon it Will Be Fire
Roxy Music In Every Dream Home a Heartache
Salt N Pepa Push It
Scott Joplin The Entertainer
Scott Walker The Seventh Seal
Serge Gainsbourg Melody
Sex Pistols Holidays in the Sun
Simple Minds Don't You (Forget About Me)
Sly and The Family Stone Spaced Cowboy
Sly and The Family Stone Sing a Simple Song
Solomon Linda Mbube (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)
Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto Girl From Ipanema
Steve Reich Come Out
Stevie Wonder Superstition
Taana Gardner Heartbeat
The Beach Boys Good Vibrations
The Beach Boys Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
The Beatles She Loves You
The Beatles You Never Give Me Your Money
The Beatles A Day in the Life
The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever
The Beatles Helter Skelter
The Clash I Fought the Law
The Clash Complete Control
The Clash Spanish Bombs
The Cure All Cats Are Grey
The Fall The Classical
The Modern Lovers Pablo Picasso
The Prodigy Charly
The Prodigy Out of Space
The Replacements Unsatisfied
The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter
The Rolling Stones Sway
The Smiths There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
The Specials Ghost Town
The Stooges 1970
Thelonious Monk Epistrophy
Tom Waits Take it With Me
Tricky Aftermath
Warren G Regulate
Wu Tang Clan Triumph

Herbert Howells - "Take Him, Earth, For Cherishing"

where are we drawing the line between originals bs recordings? ie gould playing bach or slave songs or whatever?

vs lol

where are we drawing the line between originals bs recordings? ie gould playing bach or slave songs or whatever?

I guess it's for recordings, so something written in the 18th century and recorded in the 20th would technically be eligible, but that's not really in the spirit of the poll.

Billie Holiday & Lester Young - When You're Smiling
Bo Diddley - Hey Bo Diddley
Bob Dylan - most of the time
Can - Future Days
Claude Debussy - Suite Bergamasque: Clair de Lune
The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket
David Bowie - Letter to Hermione
Jackson C. Frank - Blues Run the Game
Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made of Sand
Jorge Ben - Take it Easy my Brother Charles
Louis Armstrong - Hello Dolly!
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Some velvet morning
Nick Drake - pink moon
Nina Simone - My baby just cares for me
Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
Tom Waits - Alice
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
Young Marble Giants - Final Day

20 nominees is not enough :(

But I think i did good.

Basically, you would split your ballot in two with a dividing symbol (a line with "*" or something) and everything below the divide would be treated as unweighted and assigned equal portions of however many points you have left.

LOL my shortlist is 133 tracks... this is going to be hard to narrow down.

xps That sounds okay to me, as long as every full ballot (all 100) totals the 10,100 points and ballots with some other number of votes are proportional, which I'm not sure yet how to determine.

Say someone submits a ballot with 64 votes, the top 15 of which are weighted and the remaining 49 are unweighted. It wouldn't be fair to allot those 49 unweighted selections enough points each to bring the total ballot to 10,100 points.

Brecht/Weill - Moritat
Brecht/Weill - Bilbao Song

Say someone submits a ballot with 64 votes, the top 15 of which are weighted and the remaining 49 are unweighted. It wouldn't be fair to allot those 49 unweighted selections enough points each to bring the total ballot to 10,100 points.

So if you have 15 weighted votes, the remaining total is 10,100 - 2,790 = 7,310 and each remaining unweighted vote is worth 7,310/85 = 86, no matter how many of those votes are actually used; this is analogous to an unweighted ballot with just one track still giving just 101 points to that track.

Okay, that's cool.

I like green day and pearl jam a lot, but honestly are any of their songs worth inclusion in the greatest songs of the 20th century? Unless the list is expanded to a top 500 I think not.
Well, it's a pretty subjective list. I bet you could come up with a song or 2 by either of those bands that had at least as much 'impact' (or whatever) as, say, "Bust a Move" or "Sister Havana".

Kind of kicking myself for not putting a little more effort into coming up with noms til the last minute - my wife and I came up with a bunch Friday night but I missed the cutoff. Mostly lamenting the exclusion of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and nothing at all by Steve Earle. An on a totally personal note, altho it probably wouldn't get any votes besides mine, I'd have loved to have got John Prine's "Lake Marie" on the list.

Also, no Neil Diamond?

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

considered this but couldn't find space for it, not that that helps

minor admin point, johnny - don't put the noms list in the first post on the voting thread, nodody'd ever notice the xpost warning that way

Oh, I won't be.

I'll bump this again as it's way upthread now. There's a collaborative spotify playlist with the noms, 453 tracks so far http://open.spotify.com/user/unterwasser/playlist/72R1ZIWPdR2sxP5xXfPBko

There's some amazing stuff on it, much of which is new to me. I'll now probably vote for Aphrodite's Child and the Art Ensemble of Chicago noms now, which I hadn't heard before yesterday. Any spotify user can help fill in the gaps, and people should check that the correct track is on the playlist, especially with the jazz and classical tracks.

Thanks for doing that, even though I can't listen to it from where I am. (I tried using a proxy to keep spotify going, but I soon discovered it was way too much work.)

I think there's a bit of a problem with Arvo Pärt's Fratres being on the list, as Pärt has written several different versions of it for different instruments, some of which sound quite different from each other. I think whoever nominated it should specify which version he meant.

how and when do we have to send our lists?

I'm starting that thread tomorrow.

Was just taking the weekend to sort out voting ideas and collect corrections to the list.

will that be the thread where we try to convince people to vote for a song or more?

That's usually how it works, but please use restraint about embedding youtube videos. I know threads that are nothing but youtube embeds KILL my computer to the point of a forced reboot.

I like the idea upthread that people can only post one youtube from their list.

That Spotify list is great! I threw on a few tracks there.

xp - would it be a good idea to split off the Youtube thread from the official voting instructions thread?

I love the quasi-ranked ballot idea btw

Ban youtubes for the first fifty posts, that might keep the thread getting too sluggish

I'll now probably vote for Aphrodite's Child and the Art Ensemble of Chicago noms now

Yes! If nothing else, I will be satisfied with this.

Fratres I thought was tough, which is why I didn't put it on the spotify playlist - there's a bunch of Part which has been recorded multiple ways.

If you like a particular version of Fratres enough to vote it, do that. You can specify later if it makes the countdown.

Oh hey just noticed no King Crimson. Would have likely voted for 21st Century Schizoid Man, Ladies on the Road or something off of Red.

King Crimson — 21st Century Schizoid Man
King Crimson — Exiles
King Crimson — I Talk to the Wind
King Crimson — One More Red Nightmare
King Crimson — Sleepless
King Crimson — Starless

You must not be looking at the actual nominations list, those are all on there.

xpost: Oops! That makes sense. Sorry, I put myself in personal essentials mode when making my first draft of the list and I think I ignored them on the first glance. I'm trying to make some sort of historical revisions to see if I'm not missing anything and KC came to mind when thinking about symphonic rock. Voting on this one is extremely hard. Thanks for taking it up to 100, would have been impossible to limit myself to 50.

Ok managed to finally take my ballot down to 110. I think it's pretty much ready, I'll try to take an anti-popist approach and rep for less well known acts which means no such thing as Beatles or Beach Boys for me either (none of my personal favorites by them were there anyway). I refuse to take 'fake plastic trees' off my list tho so I apologize beforehand to the Radiohead haters if it end ups making the countdown (tho I think more people will take 'Paranoid Android' as the better one).

I'm including Part but undecided between Fratres and Spiegel Im Spiegel. Which piece is the most loved over here?

'te deum' haha

I refuse to take 'fake plastic trees' off my list tho so I apologize beforehand to the Radiohead haters if it end ups making the countdown

IF I were going to vote for a Radiohead track (and I might), it would be that one.

as long as it's not high and dry

which if we had a 'worst song ever' poll would possibly be my #1

Yeah, that's the only thing which keeps The Bends from being perfect.

without that song there would be so much harm undone

'Te Deum'? Mmm not for me.... might be challops but I rank his orchestral and instrumental works higher over his choral works. I was thinking Fratres if only for running length but Alina was the first Arvo Part I ever heard and it holds sentimental value. Same thing goes for the Can nominees... I think I'll end up taking the longest ones (future days and yoo doo right?).

people who act like there's a huge difference or gulf of quality between those 2 songs are hilarious to me (xpost)

Arvo Pärt - Te Deum - 30 points

moka it's in my email, you're not escaping this one :P

Oh I don't know acoulethic. I want a second opinion.

just that 'mmm not for me' is weird given you gave it like 2nd place in yr alt-90s ballot

acole i have bumped a Karate thread cuz i want you to hear em sometime

I'm not saying it's not for me. I love Te Deum alright. It's just that I love Fratres and Spiegel Im Spiegel a little bit more ;)

'Te Deum' was the only Arvo Part nom on the 90s poll iirc, had to make sure it got represented somehow.

um there was a no-nominations system

ah yes. no wonder I couldnt find a noms thread :P well, then I can't remember why I chose Te Deum... I guess I was listening to it a lot at the time. Alright, I'll rep for Te Deum... but I dont want to leave the others out :(

Mmm Johnny can we get 101 votes with 100 points instead of 100 with 101?

No. haha.

boo well I think I got my 100 noms ready. When are you opening the thread?

Within the hour.

Here's the voting thread: ILM POLLS THE 20TH CENTURY'S BEST TRACKS (Voting Thread - Ends at Midnight on Friday, November 26 EST)

hey, i nominated te deum two weeks ago, at the top of the thread. wasn't it in there all along?

oops, yr talking abt final vote points. ne'er mind.