Before The Flood

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is a poll about John Peel's Festive Fifty, 1976. Just tick all the songs you like from the list of 50 (counting down from #50 to #1, as it happens). I've put it up because i) I'm curious about the results, ii) I'm probably writing a pitchfork column about the F50.

[Poll #1137239]

And some more general questions I'd like to think about - they're quite big questions though:

- What does rock do better now? What does it do worse?
- How does the stuff that won respect and adoration on this poll differ from the stuff that critics and fans enjoy now (a VERY broad formulation, I know)?
- Where's the modern equivalent of the audience suggested here - Pazz and Jop? the Pitchfork Readers Poll?
- What were Poco and can we eat them?

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh I do like that. Her voice seems oddly inappropriate for the music? She has this stately high priestess thing going on while the music is dank and earthy and menacing. I'd like it to be a little less static, maybe.

[koganbot]

The Airplane generally played faster music than this; also, their bass player, Jack Casady, was genuinely unique, would play these improvisatory licks from a basis of funk and soul, but since it didn't come with the label "funk and soul" (of the San Francisco bands, Big Brother & The Holding Company were the ones who had the funk 'n' blues 'n' soul rep [unless you count Sly & The Family Stone as "San Francisco," who of course were obviously funk and soul; but they were East Bay rather than SF; however, when Sly was still a DJ he produced the first single by Grace's previous band, The Great Society]), no one quite noticed this aspect, though it explains why the Airplane stuff was danceable.

Here's my favorite Airplane song (the YouTube guy did a weak rip unfortunately, so turn it up). Listen to what happens after a couple of stanzas when the bass comes in:

The Jefferson Airplane "If You Feel"

And here's more Grace:

The Jefferson Airplane "Grace"

More Grace

[koganbot]

Er, that song I called "Grace" is actually called "Lather."

More Grace (but not more "Lather"):

Jefferson Airplane "Greasy Heart"

Jefferson Airplane on American Bandstand "White Rabbit" (again) and "Somebody To Love"

Jefferson Airplane "Hey Frederick"

Jefferson Airplane "Eskimo Blue Day"

Great Society "White Rabbit" circa 1965 (Grace's previous band, though the vid confuses things by showing clips of the Airplane in 1969)

Couldn't find a couple of my favorites, "Rejoyce" and "Sunrise" (the latter by Jefferson Starship, but the versions on YouTube are with someone other than Grace singing)

I can definitely hear a lot of Jefferson Airplane in Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman" and the live version of "Rhiannon" that I keep linking.