Imagine Dragons
Whatever It Takes
Thunder
vs
Breeders
Divine Hammer
Cannonball
The energy of Imagine Dragons is strong, but it seems to be for very young children; it’s a reassuring, positive energy, and there’s nothing wrong with comforting the child. The line “Wanna be the word on your lip lip” from “Whatever It Takes” is cute. It doesn’t seem strange that “Thunder” (an interesting song) has what sounds like a child singing “Thunder” in its various morphs.
Going back in time—to past trends or literally, childhood, is a major trope in popular song.
The 90s Breeders, unlike the more contemporary Imagine Dragons, sound “more grownup.” The Breeders skip emotional appeals—they cut and paste technically, like a child-like artist—as sophisticated as music usually gets. The appealing girl vocals seal the deal.
Winner Breeders
Jefferson Airplane
White Rabbit
Lather
vs.
Elliott Smith
Miss Misery
Between the Bars
“Between the Bars” by Elliott Smith has an exquisite melody, and “Miss Misery” also intimates a moody, intimate, snake-trying-to-get-out-of-its-skin quiet (but sweet) desperation. But these songs by Smith are more than suicide whispers—they are great tunes. They are expressed sadly—and beautifully—by perhaps the last of the singer-songwriters. Elliott Smith knew he was born in the wrong era, or maybe he liked being wrong—the genius often, to spite everyone, is wrong, and still better than everyone else. One has to lean down and listen quietly to this singer complain—and that’s how it has to be. Elliott Smith seems to have written songs as if he knew he had no public.
The Jefferson Airplane thrived in the era of bands writing to mass audiences and not yet under corporate control. “White Rabbit” churns mystically, but outward—it sounds like something written for a public—not produced for an intimate. A songwriter who knows a large public is listening will be inspired by that fact. “Lather” is a song which broods in a mesmerizing, experimental way; together with “White Rabbit,” Grace Slick (songwriting credits on both) has earned immortality. Not only that, her vocals (a necessary fire hose due to the powerful chordal structure of the song underpinned by half-steps) on “White Rabbit” is a performance for the ages.
Winner Jefferson Airplane
Chuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode
Roll Over Beethoven
vs.
Little Richard
Good Golly Miss Molly
Long Tall Sally
When did Rock N’ Roll begin? The 50s, the 40s? Ike Turner, Fats Domino? Pine Top Smith’s boogie woogie piano in the 1920s? Chuck Berry wrote nifty lyrics, played guitar (like ringing a bell) but Little Richard seemed to really push things ahead with his vocals.
Winner Little Richard
Kinks
Sunny Afternoon
Lola
vs
Peggy Lee
Is That All There Is?
Fever
Peggy Lee grabbed “Is That All There Is?” when Lieber and Stoller were shopping it around in 1969 (Marlene Dietrich and Barbara Streisand turned it down) and though Capitol didn’t want to release it, 48 year old Peggy insisted, and it became a hit and led to her first Grammy. It has a Weimar Germany/Kurt Weill feel; “Is That All There It Is?” arrived on the scene at the same time as Led Zeppelin Two and Abbey Road, signalling an end to a plethora of eras at once.
The Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon” is rakish and nonchalant, and “Lola” is an arena-style rocker which sparkles with night-club passion. No one can write tuneful, slice of life songs quite like Ray Davies.
“Fever” was Peggy Lee’s 1958 cover of the 1956 original by Little Willie John; it was her idea to do the finger snaps and simple bass arrangement—used by almost everyone who has since covered the song, including Elvis and Beyonce.
“Is That All There Is?” sounds like a song Ray Davies could have written—or wished he had written. It has difficult key changes and timing; Peggy Lee brings it off like a great actress.
Winner Peggy Lee
Jefferson Airplane are the only 4th seed to advance—Peggy Lee, the Breeders, and Little Richard have upset their opponents, and they, too, move on to the second round.