F50 45-41

[Keith Hawley]

it's a strange one, this poll......
a funny mix of very peel type stuff (fall, pjh, buckley, damned) and
so-called "classics" from the 60s and 70s* (beach boys, beatles).
like any of these charts, it only really tells you something about what
cross-section of people voted! and john peel himself has already expressed
some bafflement and disappointment in the choices made.

now we've seen a bit of the chart,
anyone care to bet on the number one?
"what difference does it make"? "anarchy in the uk"? "gigantic"? "blue
monday"?
or will everyone have gone for "teenage kicks" after being repeatedly told
by peel that this is the best song ever...?

*it's this concept of the Classic that i think many of us find distasteful....
i'm digging my own grave here, but i REALLY honestly think Yesterday,
Bohemian Rhapsody, Waterloo Sunset, Imagine, Space Oddity ARE good
songs/recordings.
[i have no time for beach boys or rolling stones, but i'm sure people could
suggest Classics from them too....]
BUT
my point is that - although none of these songs come even close to being my
favourites ever - they are the kind of songs that suggest themselves to
people automatically. we are brainwashed into believing that the beatles
were the best ever etc....
and not putting effort into thinking hard about which songs mean something
to ourselves.
i suppose it comes down to a kind of laziness, really........
perhaps..

the lack of electronic/dance songs in this chart - why is that? is it
because these are not tinged by the curse of the Classic?

and also the ones that float to the top in polls like this because they
have reached such a huge population. (how many people will vote for an
obscure Pavement b-side, no matter how amazing it is?) - the interesting
choices will only get one vote each, so disappear into oblivion.......
["ha! you're wasting your vote mate!" people used to say to me when i voted
for the green party in some election....] so the System encourages people
to go for non-wasted votes, ie to conform....
no?

somebody was asking how many votes the songs in lower reaches were getting.
i would be interested to know how many people voted in total...

i share stuart's feeling that the Beatles have been strangely (and
undeservedly) immortalised in history as something MUCH more special than
they actually are. MOST of their stuff is bloody AWFUL, and they are
nowhere near as original/groundbreaking as people believe; but there are a
few great songs in there too, honestly.....
well, whatever...

however -  i AM finding it highly entertaining!



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--    keith@...      --
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