Guess I'm Polling in Love: The Lou Reed Memorial Velvet Underground (and solo material) Ballot Poll Thread

shakey yr call completely obv (and if you've got ballots where ppl have two different versions of a song on there in different places i guess there's no work around) but i would suggest for tracks where ppl vote for this live version or that live version or the album version or a demo version that you might only allow one vote for the track but if ppl want to specify a specific version they can and then when you roll out the results you note it when you list the totals for that track. basically what they do for remixes on year end polls or w/ a few other artist polls. that way certain tracks don't have their vote watered down or aren't basically competing against themselves. anyhow stoked for this, i'm sure it'll end up velvets top heavy (it should end up velvets top heavy) but i think there will be some great diversity and maybe FACTIONS will emerge. make the rollout as long as possible imo. i mean elton john got a hundred track rollout, would guess you rank the velvets at least equal to elton john. maybe i'm wrong though.

lol you didn't read the elton rollout thread did you

yr suggestion re: various versions sounds good, was mostly waiting til I see ballots to make that kind of call

I think Sally Can't Dance is actually a really fun, underrated album. I don't actively dislike any of the songs, and I can probably only say that about one other solo Lou LP (Coney Island Baby, my fave). It's a weird record. I like weird touches like the "you can just keep it" thing in "Baby Face." I assume Lou was pretty strung out during the making of that LP.

I dig Lou's "She's My Best Friend," "Love Makes You Feel," and "Oh Jim" more than the VU versions.

first ballot received! featuring a song I've never even heard of in the number one spot lol.

Gun vs the gun

http://images1.mtv.com/shared/media/images/amg_covers/200/drf500/f514/f51483unkw1.jpg?width=300&height=300&enlarge=false&matte=true&matteColor=black&quality=0.85

Sally Can't Dance boasts "Kill Your Sons," "Billy," the title track, and "Animal Language." Four more, I might add, than Rock and Roll Heart (his most forgotten album? will anyone defend it?) and Berlin

Drella counts right? the more i listen to it, the more i think it's one of the best albums ever made and totally a one-off within the history of music.

some genius has uploaded the entire live version which astonishingly is *still* unreleased on DVD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djwtXCzW5BY

grab it fast before it gets taken down again.

(xp) "Animal Language" is terrible though! I would add "Ride Sally Ride", "Ennui" and "Baby Face" to that list of good tracks though. "Rock and Roll Heart" has been discussed on ILM before.

I listened to the entirety of Drella yesterday and a lot of it is solid but it drags on in the middle. and it's on the whole a huge bummer :(. agree that that live performance is the best, I remember seeing that broadcast on PBS as a teen.

Yeah, I was in college, I made my roommates let me have control of the TV so I could watch it. Thought it was great, but haven't seen it since except a few snippets on YouTube.

In other news, I was listening to "I Heard Her Call My Name" on the way to work today AND MY MIND SPLIT OPEN.

I know the results are gonna end up pretty lou reedy because of circumstance

but let us not forget john cale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEpMMMWB3GU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeFYJdW3xDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D47E4CNWmZc

looooove that '85 version of "Dying on the Vine," especially the guitar work.

If I vote in this it will be a cale-heavy ballot for sure

yeah this board has a heavy Cale-bias

as has been borne out in multiple polls already

I would be surprised if a single cale solo song is in the top 10 let alone 20

due to circumstance but also because he doesn't have the same # of agreed-upon hits

Shakes, I know we discussed it already, but this is gonna be an unwieldy poll: Velvets AND solo material?

I know probably nobody wants to change the rules once it's started, but one possible alternative would be two ballots -- 25 Velvet votes, 25 solo. But that would entail more work in the counting and rollout, obviously.

Velvets AND solo material?

this is not what I wanted. this is what everybody else said they wanted.

It's on now..

Still tho.

I got no problem splitting my ballot.

feel free to do that if you like, but each of your number 1s is just gonna get 25 points, and I'm not gonna roll out separate results

somebody can just split up the results afterwards, it's not gonna change things drastically

if anyone has ideas/time to develop graphics for this btw I'm open to suggestions. interested in doing something besides just a bunch of youtube links but I dunno

oh I don't care about point assignment at all; just assign them the usual.

have a lot of ballots come in already?

also, damn "Hedda Gabbler" is awesome! never heard it before today.

I only have 2 so far

i don't closely follow the Timing and Order of ILM Polls thread (or whatever it's called) so i missed the argument about how to conduct the VU (& friendz) poll. but i can't imagine who was arguing that there wouldn't be enough interest in the solo members to warrant their own polls. i'm sure there'd be lots of interest in them! and plus it's your poll, you should do it the way you want it!

anyway, i realize you probably already had the debate and made your decision, and plus you've probably already received some ballots with solo songs on them and don't want to force those people to revote.

yeah it's too late to turn back now. the initial debate was on the Timing and Order thread and there were several people who said they would not vote in a solo careers-only poll, and consensus was that a combined VU+solo poll would attract more voters. I was basically alone in wanting the solo careers-only path (I don't really care about the Velvets' part tbh) but felt I was on the hook to do something, so this is it.

i'll definitely be looking forward to seeing the full ballots of everyone and finding some lesser-known solo gems. enjoying the cale's 1977 Animal Justice EP so much.

I have never heard a John Cale record. I don't really know why, other than when I first got into the Velvets I liked guitars and I liked Lou, and I figured Cale records wouldn't have much of either.

i can't imagine who was arguing that there wouldn't be enough interest in the solo members to warrant their own polls

balls, clemenza, somedude, seandalai, Euler, WilliamC

I'm considering an all Angus Maclise and Willie Loco Alexander ballot in protest.

Jail them (xp)

Wait, I'm totally wrong, I have those Sun Blindness Music records and I love them.

I have never heard a John Cale record. I don't really know why, other than when I first got into the Velvets I liked guitars and I liked Lou, and I figured Cale records wouldn't have much of either.
Wha?! Not even Vintage Violence?!

Yeah, Cale's a fantastic guitarist.

Church of Anthrax? I sincerely hope Church of Anthrax doesn't get buried but I suspect it won't.

Wha?! Not even Vintage Violence?!

― sweat pea (La Lechera), Friday, November 1, 2013 2:37 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(sheepishly)...um...no.

But I love The Marble Index nearly as much as any Velvets record (and more than most Lou records), and Cale's obviously all over that.

then today is your big day! i think you'll like church of anthrax because it's extremely groovy iirc.

yeah it's a totally different john cale! he has a lot of sides. it's one of the things i like about him.

Listening to CoA on youtube now...holy crap, how did I miss this? Groovy indeed, and very Can-ny.

Yaaaay.

I know it's not groundbreaking or anything, but Gideon's Bible is one of my favorite songs of all time and it's just a plain old regular normal song that's special because it's John Cale singing it. (sorry for the embed if we're not supposed to do that)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EF0vSV2-TI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZaykeu_dis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRRtSmzkByE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0eqW7612KU

3 ballots in and so far results are very lol

I would just release the results now, every future ballot just waters down mine