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Battle of the Decades 2

Your choices:

40s Charlie Barnet - Things Ain't What They Used to Be	0 votes
50s Louis Prima - Just a Gigolo-I Ain't Got Nobody	2 votes
60s Canned Heat - On the Road Again	2 votes
70s Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin'	9 votes
80s Madonna - Papa Don't Preach	1 votes
90s Amber - This Is Your Night	0 votes

TheOldMole Mar 27 2008 09:45 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Mar 27 2008 09:54 PM

Well, I'm sitting in my office, killing time, waiting for a scheduled poetry reading later this evening, and for all those reasons plus not quite wanting to accept that Rick Astley is my family's reigning champion (this group much less of an embarrassment, with The Rascals), here's another:

TheOldMole Mar 27 2008 09:52 PM

Amber...Eurotrash. Eurodisco trash. The Autobahn doesn't get any more fun for being updated to the 90s. However, if you must... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOaqgrtoMGo Charlie Barnet -- he keeps popping up, doesn't he? Second time in the last three Battles (first one before I started posting them here). Must be his family's millions -- Barnet was one of the few successful musicians to have been born a millionaire. And once again, without Bunny Briggs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX74gt6CcRs). That's the one that'll get my vote. After that it gets tough. I loved Canned Heat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm4MXwrXXgo). They were so 60s, with their psychedelicized Blind Lemon Jefferson. They had a sound. But if you want a sound, what about Stevie Wonder (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njIaaTsOP7c)? He's so good it hurts to listen to him, What a consummate musician! And Madonna...was (and is) Madonna. As pure a pop artist as there ever was.I hardly need to put up the video for this one -- everybody knows it, and it's a New York classic, with Danny Aiello and that one tantalizing nipple -- who knew how much more of her we'd soon be seeing? But here it is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY1RNuzT4XU). So with all that great stuff, how could I vote for Louis Prima? I guess that old black magic has me in its spell. A contemporary jazz great -- Miles Davis alumnus -- was over at my house once, for an after-concert woiree, and I had some Louis Armstong on. He asked, "Is that Louis Armstong?" Yes, it was. "He's great -- sounds sort of like Louis Prima." Well, great musicians hav their own ears, and I wouldn't put Louis Prima up with Satch (I wouldn't out anyone up with Satch), but it's not the worst comparison. And not the biggest surprise, either. That came when one of the greats of the blues leaned over and asked his wife, during a conversation with me, "What's the name of that singer I like so much?" and she replied "Michael Bolton, dear." Well, if one of the greatest blues musicians of all time can like Michael Bolton, I guess the Richards girls can like Rick Astley. I, of course, never have to apologize for my taste. Except I'm changing my mind at the last minute. No one is more fun than Louis Prima, but no one who cares about music could vote for anyone except Stevie Wonder.

AG/DC Mar 27 2008 10:25 PM

Can't find Burnett. Here's Louie Prima, Big Jazz Guy. The Heat were the original blues traveller, with the overweight harp player and the nasaly vocalist, except they were the same guy in BT --- and he didn't sound so much like Kermit the Frog. Stevie Wonder should have had the Grammies retired in his name in the seventies. Were Madonna's yabs ever this big before or since? Is that Brooklyn or Rockaway where Danny Aiello's raising her? I don't know who Amber is, but this track is right out of the running with myself.

Centerfield Mar 28 2008 09:07 AM

I think you turn old the minute you start identifying with Danny Aeillo instead of the greasy haired boyfriend.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 28 2008 09:21 AM

Clear victory for Stevie here, IMO. He gets that whole shirt-and-tie audience funky by the time he reaches the first chorus.

Fman99 Mar 28 2008 09:53 AM

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Clear victory for Stevie here, IMO. He gets that whole shirt-and-tie audience funky by the time he reaches the first chorus. I concur, with all due respect to the Heat in a Can.

RealityChuck Mar 28 2008 12:08 PM

Canned Heat edges Louis Prima. Not one of Wonder's best -- OK, but if he had done Superstition or Living for the City, then he would have gotten my vote.

TheOldMole Mar 28 2008 05:51 PM

That was what I thought at first -- and I was going for the Prima/Heat choice too -- but then I listened to Stevie again, and even at his second best, he was just so good. [url=http://www.swingmusic.net/Barnet_Charlie.html]Charlie Barnet[/url]'s signature song was "Cherokee," which became Charlie Parker's "Ko-Ko." He had a lot of significant jazzmen pass through his band. On YouTube, he's best represented by this bit of schtick featuring tap great Bunny Briggs bringing him a singing telegram. Hokey, not free from the racial stereotyping of its era (although Barnet was a leader in integrating his band), but irresistible. I'd vote for either of these in a second.

TheOldMole Mar 28 2008 05:55 PM

Can you do a YouTube embed in an email?

AG/DC Mar 28 2008 10:14 PM

If you have html e-mail editor that lets you paste into the source code. Else just copy the url and paste that in there.

TheOldMole Mar 29 2008 03:34 AM

Outlook Express. I can copy and paste the URL easily enough, but don't actually seem to be able to embed an image...if I CP the embed coding and send it to myself, all I get is the embed coding.

sharpie Mar 29 2008 07:29 AM

Stevie. Love that Canned Heat song but it isn't even close.

Rockin' Doc Mar 29 2008 11:14 AM

Second tier Stevie Wonder is as good or better than the best that most bands can produce. Not Stevie's best, but I'll give him the nod in a close contest with Canned Heat.

MFS62 Mar 29 2008 04:26 PM

I voted for Papa Don't Preach because my wife and I are friends of someone who's father played the kindly old man on the train in that video. Later