70s Cup Grand Final Match 1 *Loki 19- Griff 19*

[echolalia]

That Gene Clark song completely sends me somewhere altogether else.

B

[Hightea]

B

[sloopjohnc]

A

[fange]

Like B, love A.

A

[WG Kaspar]

B

[Nick Danger]

A

[Rayge]

a - I was a big fan of Ziggy, but first harboured doubts that my infatuation with Bowie and the Spiders would last with this this album, while Pin-Ups and the next one killed it stone dead. And then he went to America and turned into a cocaine dickhead and the worst 'soul'/R&B singer of all time.
This sounds different than I remembered. I thought it was up-tempo, rockier, more impassioned, but it's not really. The band are still pretty good, particularly the, ahem, rhythm section, but the song really isn't all that, the lyrics are naff, the 'tune' forgettable (if there was one in the first place - I can't remember) and the vocals - well, not very good is the politest way I can put it. Still, I can be generous and give it 5 / 10 for Ronno, Woody and Trev's efforts, because
b - is taken from one of the decade's dozen or so really good albums, up there with Horses, Even Serpents Shine, Rock and Roll with the Modern Lovers, Gypsy Blood, For Your Pleasure, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, Hejira, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Court and Spark and For the Roses. I say this not so much for Clarke, although his voice and songwriting are fine here and were before and after, but because as a fully-paid-up kitchen-sink arrangement/wild production maven/aficionado I immediately swooned to TJK's finest hour (it probably helped that the first time I heard it was a few years after it was released, tripped out of my mind in a flat overlooking Cardigan Bay). I like every track on it, and wile I marginally prefer a couple of the others, I'm always happy to wallow in this track, it's melancholy and yearning and wheedling sentiments.
I know it's slow and long, two things that usually fail to appeal, but this also has a lovely ethereal quality, especially behind the chorus, and an arrangement full of colour and texture – I particularly like the decorative splashes of piano and the slide (or lap steel, can't really tell) guitar that turns up five minutes in, and wheedles away in conversation with Gene for the rest of the track, as well the majestic ebb and flow, build and sigh, of the song itself. Vies with City Slang as the best track of the final - 7.5 / 10

B

[Rayge]

It still retains the glam era guitars, but those drums, that inspired soul backing vocal, it absolutely soars away from its roots and becomes this much more nimble entity. I like the fact that Bowie seems disassociated from any genre here, he's almost narrating the track, there's no rock overbearance, and no attempt at blue-eyed soul crooning.

Nice writing!

Yes

But very, very wrong

[Rayge]

Both great, but PiD, with its voodoo howling and EXCITING riff has been a big fave for a long time

Blimey, you're easily excited
I'll see what I can do about recording Scrap's response next time next door gets his muscle car out and starts throbbing

[naughty boy]

RAY!

[Penk!]

Two humdingers to start things off.

Picking peak Bowie is, of course, cheating a bit, but Gene Clark hasn't really been plucked from the depths of obscurity either.

I'm a big No Other fan, like it more than Aladdin Sane, and this is one of my favourite songs on there, stately and handsome. But 'Panic in Detroit' is a monster, really.

A

[T. Willy Rye]

B

[algroth]

I've never been much of a fan of Aladdin Sane or this track, and where most here are praising the blend of styles and whatnot, to me the resultant is more an overstuffed, busy mess of inharmonious elements rather than an actual fusion of these same. B wins this one easily for me, though as a match it's a disappointingly predictable start to the finals.

[harvey k-tel]

A

[GoogaMooga]

Tough choice, but I think I like the idea of PiD more than the actual song. Strip it of its admittedly great instrumentation, and it pales next to Gene Clark's. B

[Neige]

Both these tracks should have come up against some disco sludge.

I love both dearly, and will go for... B

[Belle Lettre]

A just

[mantochanga]

B

[pcqgod]

B

[Count Machuki]

A