Cage Match Continued
Just to follow up on my radio cage match post from yesterday. I asked folks, just for fun, to name which song they would pick from between Kashmir, Hey Jude, Shine On, You Crazy Diamond and Stairway To Heaven as the ultimate Cage Match champion.
Here's how the Q107 listeners voted:
In the semi-final Kashmir vs. Shine On, You Crazy Diamond match, Shine On, You Crazy Diamond won.
In the semi-final Hey Jude vs. Stairway To Heaven match, Stairway To Heaven won.
In the final Shine On, You Crazy Diamond vs. Stairway To Heaven match, the ultimate champion was:
Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin
For those saying "Of course!" it's interesting to note that in the five years Q107 has been running the Cage Match this is the first time that "Stairway To Heaven" or Led Zeppelin has won. The other four vitories over the years were split between two of the other songs in that top four, with two victories going to "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond" and two victories going to "Hey Jude". It was suggested that Led Zeppelin was helped a lot this year by the very recent and popular release of a CD of new recordings. And the fact that "Stairway To Heaven" is just a cool song.
For that's the song I would have voted for, too, as it's my favorite of the four listed. Like most of us growing up in the 70's, "Stairway To Heaven" was the anthem of a generation. It was the final song at all the dances, it was one of the first complex instrumentals I learned to play on guitar, it had rumoured Tolkien references in it. It's beautiful and hypnotic, runs the gambit from stately and epic to out and out rock and roll. The lyrics are exasperating, compelling and poetic. Perhaps it's been played to death, especially by fledgling guitarists (that "Stairway... denied!" scene in 'Wayne's World' is classic), but I don't think it's over-rated. It truly is a classic rock song.
And as much as I really like the music of both The Beatles and Pink Floyd, neither "Hey Jude" nor "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond" would be among my top song picks from those two bands.
"Kashmir" is pretty cool- I only heard it for the first time when John and I started listening to Q107 regularly after getting our van. Being that I only heard it for the first time a year or two ago it always reminds me of Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff's "Persian Rose"- it has the same kind of feel. Q loves to play Zeppelin. A few years back I was pretty knowledgeable in 60's classic rock music, but not so much so with the major 70's bands. My sisters used to listen to bands like Heart, Supertramp, Boston, Fleetwood Mac in the 70's, so I had a passing familiarity with them, while in my teens I was heavy into folk music and 60's rock. John's been amused and pleased as I've grown to know and like bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, thirty years after the fact. He still teases me, though, when I mix the groups up, which I do all the time. Still, my knowledge of 70's super bands is a lot better now than it was three years ago :).
Here's how the Q107 listeners voted:
In the semi-final Kashmir vs. Shine On, You Crazy Diamond match, Shine On, You Crazy Diamond won.
In the semi-final Hey Jude vs. Stairway To Heaven match, Stairway To Heaven won.
In the final Shine On, You Crazy Diamond vs. Stairway To Heaven match, the ultimate champion was:
Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin
For those saying "Of course!" it's interesting to note that in the five years Q107 has been running the Cage Match this is the first time that "Stairway To Heaven" or Led Zeppelin has won. The other four vitories over the years were split between two of the other songs in that top four, with two victories going to "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond" and two victories going to "Hey Jude". It was suggested that Led Zeppelin was helped a lot this year by the very recent and popular release of a CD of new recordings. And the fact that "Stairway To Heaven" is just a cool song.
For that's the song I would have voted for, too, as it's my favorite of the four listed. Like most of us growing up in the 70's, "Stairway To Heaven" was the anthem of a generation. It was the final song at all the dances, it was one of the first complex instrumentals I learned to play on guitar, it had rumoured Tolkien references in it. It's beautiful and hypnotic, runs the gambit from stately and epic to out and out rock and roll. The lyrics are exasperating, compelling and poetic. Perhaps it's been played to death, especially by fledgling guitarists (that "Stairway... denied!" scene in 'Wayne's World' is classic), but I don't think it's over-rated. It truly is a classic rock song.
And as much as I really like the music of both The Beatles and Pink Floyd, neither "Hey Jude" nor "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond" would be among my top song picks from those two bands.
"Kashmir" is pretty cool- I only heard it for the first time when John and I started listening to Q107 regularly after getting our van. Being that I only heard it for the first time a year or two ago it always reminds me of Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff's "Persian Rose"- it has the same kind of feel. Q loves to play Zeppelin. A few years back I was pretty knowledgeable in 60's classic rock music, but not so much so with the major 70's bands. My sisters used to listen to bands like Heart, Supertramp, Boston, Fleetwood Mac in the 70's, so I had a passing familiarity with them, while in my teens I was heavy into folk music and 60's rock. John's been amused and pleased as I've grown to know and like bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, thirty years after the fact. He still teases me, though, when I mix the groups up, which I do all the time. Still, my knowledge of 70's super bands is a lot better now than it was three years ago :).