Friday, March 7, 2014

YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS ONE - BATTLE OF THE BANDS XV RESULTS






It’s time for the results in BATTLE OF THE BANDS XV and what a BATTLE this one was, despite a prediction that ‘(Mark) Chesnutt was roasting Aerosmith over an open fire’. HA! It just goes to show that in these BATTLES you really can’t ‘call em’ until the final vote is in.

Mr. Bird over at Tossing It Out likes to use some really obscure songs, or at least more obscure artists in his BATTLES, because he thinks that we only vote for the familiar, and don’t really give a ‘unique’ version a fighting chance (or something like that). For of that very reason, I almost didn’t go with this particular BATTLE.  I was pretty sure that most of you would vote for Aerosmith, being that they recorded the more popular version of this song attached to that ‘craptacularly entertaining blockbuster’ Armageddon.

I don’t know what it is about my BOTB posts, but I seem to have a knack for picking artists that garner the most negative responses (think Celine Dion, back in December) and it was no different with Aerosmith. Many of you seemed to cast a vote not so much FOR Mark Chesnutt as AGAINST Aerosmith. Regardless of anything else, I do agree with those of you who commented that Mark’s version of the song was more sentimental and you felt the love.

Normally my taste would lean more toward a Country version vs. a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal version of just about anything, BUT not this time. I cast my vote for Aerosmith. I really like the largeness of the Aerosmith version. That Philharmonic sound in the intro and even Steven Tyler’s screaming/screeching vocal acrobatics seem to lend something to their version that takes it over the top for me. I realize that it’s supposed to be a love song, but maybe it’s because of its attachment to that dramatic disaster, with a Swiss cheese plot, and utterly fantastic storyline, of a movie which somehow manages to be entertaining, notwithstanding some all-out silliness and a whole lot of very bad over-acting, that gives Aerosmith the edge. Or, maybe Mr. Bird is correct. Either way for the VERY FIRST TIME, here in one of my BATTLES we have a tie.

Counting my vote, the final tally was 7 votes each.

 Now that is a true BATTLE OF THE BANDS. These two artists duked it out until the very end with the final ‘outside vote’ coming in on Wednesday (after this BOTB post been covered over by another post). I really enjoy seeing something like this happen. I was encourage when the second voter, Mr. Bird, noted that he was having a hard time deciding, but it quickly seemed to go downhill from there. In the end, it just goes to show that we really can’t see how it will all end until it does.

One last thing.   I warned you to vote for the song and not the video, but I really liked the tricky little music video Aerosmith used for this song. As you may or may not know (spoiler alert – just in case you haven’t seen this flick from 1998) at the end of the movie Bruce Willis (Harry Stamper) stays behind on the asteroid to save the world by hand detonating a nuke. There is an emotional scene where Liv Tyler (Grace Stamper) and her father say goodbye to each other via some sort of space telecommunication like SKYPE. In the music video some of those scenes replace the video footage of Grace/Liv’s movie father Harry/Bruce with her real father Steven Tyler singing to her. I always kind of viewed that as the love song – father to daughter – telling her not to miss a thing and how sorry he was that he had to save the world and miss so much of her life. Corny, YOU BET, but also kind of clever, or maybe it’s just me.
OK, I’m done. Come back on the 15th for BATTLE OF THE BANDS XVI and see if I can come up with another close one for you. Now go check out the results for the other BATTLES that ran this past week.

22 comments:

  1. Another tie.
    Didn't realize there were so many Aerosmith haters. Not my choice of band, but I certainly don't hate them.

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  2. Geez, two BOTB's this time end in a tie? Wow. Shoulda had Laurie vote!

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    1. Ah, all the shoulda, woulda, couldas. Next time have her vote, just remember to also have her leave her own comment, no more double dipping. K!

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  3. I agree with you that the closer the race the better the battle. Congrats on your tie.

    I also like your take on the video. That makes it kind of sweet. Except Steven Tyler wasn't actually saving the world. Other than that, really sweet.

    Thanks for a good one!

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    1. Glad you liked it. I think in the future I'll try to stick with just two choices (unless, of course, I really can't help myself). That way the votes don't get split off.

      Nice to see you also enjoyed my take on the video....excuse me while I recover from a 'full body shiver' at the thought of Steven Tyler saving the world. Ha!

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    2. Full body shiver. hahahaha. Yeah, I know just what you mean!

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  4. Never knew there were that many haters either at my sea. A tie is a real duke it out brawl indeed.

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    1. .Yeah, this one was kind of fun to watch the votes come in. It was down to the wire...well kind of.

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  5. Hokey-Smoke, did your vote ever surprise me, FAE! (I did not see that asteroid coming.)

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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    1. Glad to see I still have some mystery and a few surprises left.

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    2. Did you leave a whole two sentence reply. Yep! I guess you did.

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    3. I did. I'm sorry.

      [Does two two-word sentences beat one four-word sentence?]

      ~ D-FensDogg
      'Loyal American Underground'

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    4. I'm not sure, but all these sentences are starting to add up to one mighty fine comment.

      I was doing some research today and ran across something that reminded me of something else, so you better be nice or Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. is gonna come after you.

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    5. Oh, no, not Charlie T.!
      Any Wilbury but he.

      I can't imagine what you were researching that might include Charlie T, Wilbury Jr., but... this is kinda weird. Last night/very early this morning, I was composing an Email to a mutual friend of ours (I expect to finish and send it tonight) and I was yakking about The Wilbury Connection, NWB. (He'd axed me about the origin of your "real" nickname... not FAE, but the real one. Are we moving back into "Raspberry Beret" territory again?)

      ~ D-FensDogg
      'Loyal American Underground'

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    6. Taking this 'off line', do to speak.

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  6. I can't see people hating Aerosmith. I think they have a good collection of songs in their recording history. And it was a close contest I think so I understand the tie.

    Amazing that we both ended up with 7 to 7 outcomes.

    Now I need to dig out my DVD of Armageddon. I think I have a copy in my collection.

    I'll be digging into the obscurity vault again for my next battle. I've always liked music that wasn't part of the mainstream.

    Lee
    Wrote By Rote
    An A to Z Co-host blog

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    1. As I .told Alex above, it also surprised me all the negative comments about Aerosmith, go figure.

      After all this talk, I wish I had a DVD copy of Armageddon to go and watch. Great flick for an 'airhead' Friday night. Did I just say that?

      I'll be lookin towards another obscure BATTLE at your place.

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  7. I'm not an Aerosmith 'hater' per se. I like the music itself. I just like cleaner vocals. Any band with the "screeching" I'm not a fan of. Still cool to see a tie, though. What happens then? Steven Tyler and Mark Chesnutt in a steel cage, winner takes all match?

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    1. Now, that could be fun. I'll put $20 on Chesnutt to take Tyler down in 10 mins or less.

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  8. I'm definitely a hard rock/metal fan, but it's true sometimes the acoustic-ish versions of songs are more gripping.

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  9. I'd never seen the video. That's sweet that they did that.

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