70s Cup Grand Final Match 6 *Ranking Ted 21- Griff 14*

[never/ever]

A

Shuggie Otis - Aht Uh Mi Hed





B

The Beach Boys - Long Promised Road

[Dayodead]

A

[Diamond Dog]

The Shuggie Otis track is pleasant, without ever really doing much to retain interest. I mean, it's okay but it's been done many times better.

The Beach Boys past Pet Sounds always seem to be trying to reach for something new, but retain what made that album such a landmark. I never heard them get close again, I'm afraid. However - I like this song. I particularly like that weird fanfare on the back of the guitar solo... sounds like kazoos...

I'm going with B.. which will cheer Griff up.

[Purgatory Brite]

B

[The Modernist]

After a couple of underwhelming ties, the quality shoots up with this tie.
Both are great. The Shuggie Otis is flirty and fragile with a wonderful light Spring day feel. LPR is Carl at his most affecting. The middle eight is to die for, although the chorus is slightly clunky ( The BB's always struggled at rocking out).

I don't want to vote against either but... A

[Loki]

Nice arrangement on

[Darkness_Fish]

I love the echoey synth drum on A, though I think it's just because it reminds me of Eyeless in Gaza. There's a strange atmosphere/mood to this Shuggie track, it's a restless, uncertain thing. A strange beast indeed, warm, almost chamber-pop, but with a lot going on arrangement-wise, but not in the usual saccharine-seventies way, more playful, like he's discovered a bunch of toys and wants to give them all a go.

B's actually not in too dissimilar territory for periods, but it seems much more obvious in its application of AOR pop attack. The use of the grand-kazoo takes something away from the catchiness of chorus, there's a great rhythm to the words, but the music keeps it weighted at ground level. It's much better than I expected from The Beach Boys, to be fair. It's like there's a great song attempting to burst free from behind an average one.

Good tie. But A nicks it.

[naughty boy]

A

[Polishgirl]

That's more like it. Difficult to choose but

A

[toomanyhatz]

I like B just fine, though I don't quite get the logic of purposely seeking out a non-Brian track when there are plenty of good 70s ones with him.

No matter, though, as A is absolutely brilliant - an oddball track the likes of which I wish we'd had more of the whole time, and my favorite track I've ever heard from an album I now really want to own. Really great stuff full of twists and turns. Best thing in the final so far by a longshot.

[sloopjohnc]

A

[The Modernist]

I like B just fine, though I don't quite get the logic of purposely seeking out a non-Brian track when there are plenty of good 70s ones with him.
.

Because by the late sixties and early seventies, the others - Dennis and Carl in particular- were making songwriting contributions every bit as good as Brian. It's a shame you've bought into the 'genius of Brian Wilson' to such a degree that you see loving a non-Brian song as a perverse choice when, in fact, this period is littered with great non- Brian songs.

[C]

To my old ears, completely one-sided.

A beautiful track, full of music, from a great album

-+B+-





.

[WG Kaspar]

A

[Ranking Ted]

Two big favourites of mine - A is a summery, feather weight delight, B is a real highlight of post PS BBs for me, endlessly enable. Gah.

A

[Rayge]

a - I'm not that warmly disposed to Shuggie (largely because of his dad, to be honest), so this comes as a pleasant surprise – at the beginning, at least. Quite the synth-pop sound going on, nice little production swooshes, no sign of cowbell, wah-wah or percussive horns - or indeed horns at all. The total lack of laundry implements in favour of synthesized percussion is a bonus, too. Yeah, that was nice 6 / 10
b - I actually own Surf's Up, but have no memory of this track from the title alone...come to think of it, can't remember anything about it apart from the title track and those ridiculous words by VDP - 'columnated ruins domino' indeed. Hearing it rings no bells, either. If I didn't know it was the Beach Boys, I'd never have guessed: nice lead vocal (Carl?) but lighter on harmonies and heavier on kazoos than I would have expected. Rather dull, I thought, but then again, most of my favourite BB tracks (apart from Heroes and Villains and Good Vibrations) predate Pet Sounds: while I am sure that that was their 'best' album (as an album), it marked the beginning of the end for the band as contenders because that was the point they started releasing 'singles off of albums' rather than albums to cash in on hit singles. 4 / 10

A

[Rayge]

The BB's always struggled at rocking out

Don't be silly. They were rock & rollers at heart. What made them struggle was post-drug portentousness

[The Modernist]

That's rock n' roll, which isn't what I meant. I meant 'rocking out' in a sixties context (so the way The Stones or Led Zep rock out for instance)

[echolalia]

That Beach Boys track is going to have to be very good indeed to beat Shuggie.

No!

A

[Rayge]

That's rock n' roll, which isn't what I meant. I meant 'rocking out' in a sixties context (so the way The Stones or Led Zep rock out for instance)

Well, strictly speaking it's not rock and roll, it's based on a Chuck Berry R&B number, and the Stones' 'rockier' stuff is usually rooted in R&B or blues, while I've hardly heard anything from those other tossers, so that's no help.
As an ancillary, can you name any band that 'rocks out' in your definition,who are actually worth listening to?