Band Face Off - Round 9

[trackaghost]

Round 8 was a toughie but the Man In Black just managed to squeeze past The King and the Big O, to take the crown. Johnny Cash won by 16 votes, to Elvis' 15 and Roy Orbison's five votes.

Round 9 sees two of the ultimate pop acts up against each other in a bloody battle to the death!!!! Or something like that. Who will you choose?



The results so far:
Round 1: Petty defeats Springsteen - 35 to 17
Round 2: Led Zeppelin defeats The Who - 22 to 18
Round 3: Madonna defeats Sheryl Crow/Kate Bush - 24 to 12/10
Round 4: The Beatles defeat Rolling Stones/U2 - 22 to 15/13
Round 5: Guns N Roses defeat Bon Jovi/Metallica - 16 to 13/12
Round 6: Heart defeat Blondie/The Pretenders - 22 to 14/6
Round 7: The Beach Boys defeat The Kinks/The Byrds - 21 to 10/9
Round 8: Johnny Cash defeats Elvis/Roy Orbison - 16 to 15/5

The polls are still open, vote now!

[GypsySorcerer]

I voted for the Carpenters. :o I just think Karen had one of the most beautiful voices ever.

[ontheEdgeof17]

Why do birds suddenly appear...every time you are near?


The soundtrack of my life....The Carpenters

[ryan8472]

Sharon, your polls keep getting tougher. ;)

I'll go with ABBA. For the hell of it. :laugh:

[trackaghost]

Amber gave me the idea for this one. I was wondering who to put Abba up against and she suggested The Carpenters for a Face Off, and I thought perfect!

[Serrart]

Abba, without question. For the cinematographic element in their music. :D

Romy

[Beachwood Mac]

Where's the neither button! I have nightmares of Junior High dances to "We've Only Just Begun!" So, by default it will be ABBA.

Terry

[trackaghost]

I voted for The Carpenters, just because Superstar is one of the darkest, most brilliant pop songs ever!

[Beachwood Mac]

Round 8 was a toughie but the Man In Black just managed to squeeze past The King and the Big O, to take the crown.

If you'd labeled him as the Big O in the beginning he would have won! :D

[CreepingDeath]

I voted for the Carpenters. :o I just think Karen had one of the most beautiful voices ever.

I agree. She was singing all these little love songs, but her pain still came through. Her voice was just steller.

[shackin'up]

take-a-chance-take-a-chance-take-a-take-a-take-a chance.

If you change your mind I'm the first in line... :D

[amber]

ABBA dabba doo!!!

er...that's not really a defense of my choice, i just wanted to say that. :D
I've never even really considered liking the Carpenters. It was always way to cheesy shmaltzy to even be noted.
But - to be fair, she did have a pretty voice, and I don't know a ton of their material, just some.

But ABBA - oh, man, it doesn't get any better than that! And they all have pretty voices, too....

[trackaghost]

If you'd labeled him as the Big O in the beginning he would have won! :D

Hehe :D
But there's no shame in being beaten by Elvis and Cash. I still love Roy, he had one of the best most moving voices ever.

[trackaghost]

take-a-chance-take-a-chance-take-a-take-a-take-a chance.

If you change your mind I'm the first in line... :D

Gerald, I know everyone secretly loves Abba and The Carpenters! Admit it!!!

[shackin'up]

Gerald, I know everyone secretly loves Abba and The Carpenters! Admit it!!!

I'm ashamed of nothing dear, but I never liked them. Of course there are a zillion songs by them that keep popping up in my head, but hey, so does achy-breaky heart and little lies. Bleergghhhh.

[shackin'up]

sharon...next round some black artists please. We're such a redneck society over here, we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground... ;)

[trackaghost]

sharon...next round some black artists please. We're such a redneck society over here, we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground... ;)

I do have some on my list, so there :p

[Neal]

Abba all the way baby!!! :nod:

I'm gonna go put on 'Voulez-Vous' right now...

[Dreammms]

I love ABBA!!!

[markolas]

The Carpenters (even though they're far from favorites of mine). I just can't stand Abba.

[LiquidBlue5000]

Not that I don't love these band face-offs or anything, but do you think maybe you could do more faceoffs with newer bands and/or solo artists? :shrug:

[Richard B]

ABBA. No contest for me. Those two singers, Frida and Agnetha, sing like bells. Must play 'Name Of The Game' or 'Winner Takes It All' right now.

[ontheEdgeof17]

Not that I don't love these band face-offs or anything, but do you think maybe you could do more faceoffs with newer bands and/or solo artists? :shrug:

Like Kelly Clarkson?

Because of you I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty!

[Dreammms]

ABBA. No contest for me. Those two singers, Frida and Agnetha, sing like bells. Must play 'Name Of The Game' or 'Winner Takes It All' right now.

Winner Takes It All is the best song ever! :nod:

[estranged4life]

but I voted for Abba since I remember hearing their music moreso than the Carpenters

[Miss Vicky]

Umm... none of the above? :shrug:

The both make me want to vomit. :eek:

I'm going to be really rude and vote for The Carpenters because there's no chance of them ever reuniting.

[ontheEdgeof17]

I don't really like the Carpenters, but c'mon...Abba???? Like, gag me with a spoon, totally!

Like for real! :twirls hair:

All the cool people voted for The C's. We are so the shiz.

[Mari]

Blergh! I don't like either of them. So I'm just going to vote Eurocentric :p
Abba it is.

[skcin]

ABBA. Duh. :thumbsup:

Waterloo & Take a Chance on Me is reason enough.

[face of glass]

Both are bands that I will always dearly love.

But let's start with their 'bad' stuff. Come on, they did put out either way too sacchariney moments (The Carpenters) or way too embarrassing pop schlock (ABBA). Even though Karen Carpenter was an amazingly emotional singer, it is hard for me to enjoy things like "Bless The Beasts And The Children" or "Top Of The World" (way too damn slick without any clever twists in it), and the list goes on and on. Karen can't save songs like those from falling into the traps of corniness and banality.

As for ABBA, most of the weaker stuff they put out was in the early years (unlike the Carpenters, who had flashes of brilliance alongside moments of embarrassment all through their career). Can someone honestly enjoy songs like "Nina, Pretty Ballerina" or "Me And Bobby And Bobby's Brother"? Or something like "King Kong Song"? For the love of God, you'd need to drink a good amount of lager before you start to tolerate these schlagers. And even "Two For The Price Of One", released on their last studio album, isn't all that far from their early stuff. Geez, where did all the maturity come from all of a sudden?

But none of the above matters really. The Carpenters may have been the target of hatred for all the "serious" rock music listeners in the '70s, but they sure as hell wouldn't have outlasted all the muck that surrounded them on the charts had they not been talented and unique. Richard Carpenter's arrangement skills were pure genius, he was able to turn a Burt Bacharach-written semi-obscure b-side into an evocative pop masterpiece ("Close To You") and this was true of other of their hits as well. But of course that wouldn't have mattered much had not one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time sung those songs. Karen was capable of singing saccharine material like "We've Only Just Begun" or "Yesterday Once More" and make you feel her personal pain in every note she let out of her mouth. When they got a great song and Richard created a great arrangement for it all that was needed was a great Karen vocal, and boy, did she ever deliver. "Rainy Days And Mondays" is the ultimate example of this for me.
The Carpenters might have had their schtick, but they were capable of inserting some diversity into the proceedings later in their career as well. Check out Passage from 1977, it has mild country rock ("Sweet Sweet Smile"), their traditional ballads ("I Just Fall In Love Again", "Two Sides"), a jazzy send-up ("Bwana She No Home") and a prog-rock cover to top things off ("Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft", listen to this one and you might get rid of your prejudices against The Carpenters).

However, I did choose ABBA. The Carpenters didn't write much of their songs, not that I think it barely matters but in their reliance to the corporate songwriters they didn't always receive such good stuff. However, once Björn and Benny had gotten rid of their early banal Scandinavian schlager creations, they started putting out hits at the speed of lightning. There's no need for me to describe how amazing arrangements on songs like "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen", "The Eagle", "Gimme Gimme Gimme" or "One Of Us" are, it's all been done by people who can describe these things far more adequately than I can. Needless to say, those dazzling harmonies and Benny's gift to constantly come up with new melodic ideas on his various keyboards contributed a lot to the overall sound. They also had a far stronger run of albums than The Carpenters, everything released by our favourite American duo from the end of the '60s to the beginning of the '80s was patchy (with their self-titled album from 1971 and Passage being the highlights for me). Abba on the other hand released near-perfect material from 1975 to 1981, and you shouldn't just stick with the hits, check out the strong album tracks too, such as "When I Kissed The Teacher", "My Love My Life", "The Eagle", "On And On And On", "When All Is Said And Done", etc. Plus I think that at the tail end of their career they reached out to the same sense of vulnerability that Karen Carpenter did (check out "The Winner Takes It All" and "The Day Before You Came"), Agnetha Fältskog's vocals played an important part there (Frida had more range and vocal talent in technical terms but she couldn't have done what Agnetha did in those songs).

Good face-off this one. :nod:

[Gypsy-Rhiannon]

This is most unfair! I don't know if I can choose between Abba and The Carpenters!!

Pip

[gldstwmn]

Diabolical! :laugh: I love Abba. I still listen to them a lot. I like Benny (or was it Bjorn's?) piano playing.
I need to get some Carpenters on the itunes.

[shackin'up]

Both are bands (....the whole post....)
Good face-off this one. :nod:

I broke my spine laughing in awe how much you know about these-okay i'll pay respect- "bands". Me would be so embarrassed the expression Face-Off would have a more literal meaning.

Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of trivia in popmusic for the pain underneath or the highly crafty songbuilding (Cockney Rebel, the Sweet, Mud, etc) but in my book it's unbelievable to give these bands REAL serious place artisticly....although they were great in aiming at and appealing to the masses.