CRAZY RESULTS

Time for the results to my last ‘Crazy’ BATTLE OF THE BANDS.

Poor Neil Young didn’t fare too well. One of you hated his version. One of you thought he should be arrested by the music police for this song. One of you even said you had never heard of him. YIKES!

Two of you were rebellious enough to vote for Patsy Cline even though she was not really a contestant and poor Willie didn’t garner a single vote. (Don’t worry Willie, it’s simply because your fans are not the ‘outlaw’ type and they would never think of breaking the rules. Ha!)

I’m gonna cast my vote for Neil Young. Let me explain – I don’t particularly like Leann Rimes. Probably what I don’t like most about her version of ‘Crazy’ is the fact that she does a pretty good imitation of Patsy. What did I hear in the comments during this BOTB? ‘Imitation if the sincerest form of plagiarism.’ I couldn’t agree more, and I don’t like plagiarism. Heck, I don't even like imitation.

Maybe I set poor little Leann up by pitting her against Neil in this BATTLE, I don’t know for sure. I really wanted to have a male and a female, but all along it kind of irked me that she worked so hard to copy Patsy. Anyway, that’s just me.

When it comes to Neil, well he never really is melodious, is he? But he does have a certain style and it came through here. I really like Bish Denham’s comment about Neil.

She said; ‘I’m going with Neil because Leann sounds too much like Patsy. I like that Neil isn’t afraid. Even as an old man, to do different things. I saw him on TV when he went into the recording box. Takes some guts/humility to do something like that live. Just him his guitar and his creeky old voice. Love it!”

In the end the voting looked like this:

        Leann Rimes               10 votes

        Neil Young                    4 votes including mine

        Patsy Cline                   2 votes

        Willie Nelson                 0 votes

Just so you know, had Willie actually been in the running he would have had my vote, hands down. Also, I do agree that Patsy owns this song.

Come back on the 1^st of September, when I have one more bit of ‘Craziness’ for you. Be sure to check out the other participants to see how their BATTLES turned out.

STILL CRAZY AFTER TWO WEEKS - BATTLE OF THE BANDS XXVI

BATTLE OF THE BANDS XXV and I’m still ‘Crazy’. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Continuing on with my theme of ‘Crazy’ let’s talk about a little tune that was number 2 on the Country Charts in 1962. Wait a minute let’s take it back a year to 1961, when the then journeyman singer-songwriter Willie Nelson (with the help of a friend named Oliver English) wrote the song ‘Crazy’ for country singer Billy Walker. Walker turned it down as being ‘too girly’.

Wacky-watchee describes the song as a ‘jazz-pop ballad with country overtones and a complex melody. The lyrics describe the singer’s state of bemusement at the singer’s own helpless love for the object of his/her affection.’  OK then.

‘Crazy’ went on to be the number 2 song the Country Charts in 1962 performed by none other than the darling of the Country Circuit Patsy Cline. Nelson later recorded several version of the song himself, including a trio version with Elvis Costello and Diana Krall.

Now I bet you’re figuring I’m gonna pit Mr. Nelson against Miss Cline, but not so. I want you to think/listen a little harder than that, BUT I will give you a snippet of each in the video which includes a brief interview between Willie and Charlie Dick (Patsy’s husband).

Now the BATTLE for today. Let’s put Miss LeAnn Rimes, who recorded this song in the style of Patsy Cline. At the time of the original recording LeAnn was only seventeen years old (too bad she grew up).

Next, in keeping with another theme going on in the current BOTB (over at Tossing It Out – Arlee Bird is running a ‘Girls against Boys’ BATTLE) – here is Neil Young covering the same song. Neil, like Willie, weren’t afraid of no ‘girly’ songs.

While this video might not be the best quality (it's that recording box thing) it's Neil's version I want you to hear.

OK, now you know what to do and how to do it. Leave me your vote in the comment box with your reason WHY. Then head on over to the brand spanking new blog space of the ‘sexiest man on the planet’ Mr. Stephen T. McCarthy and see what he has cooked up for ya his is BOTB. You can find Mr. McCarthy HERE. STMcC has a lot more computer cents than me, so he will give you a link to the other participants in BATTLE OF THE BANDS. It appears that this time out we have added another new participant bringing the total up to 9, count ‘em 9 participants. Whoever woulda thunk there would be that many people that ‘Crazy’.

I’ll be back on the 21^st with my vote and the final tally. See ya then.

A FEW DAYS LATE AND MORE THAN A FEW $$$ SHORT, BUT ALL THE SAME HERE ARE THE RESULTS

My apologies to one and all for being so late. The normal plan is to post the results from BATTLE OF THE BANDS on the 7^th and 21^st of each month (about 1 week after the BATTLE).  Thursday, (the 7th) I just plain forgot. Friday,I was down in Reno all day, and when I got home, I was pooped. Then I had an out of town guest and the weekend just kinda got away from me. I hate when that happens, don’t you?

Ah, well, enough with the excuses. I hope some of you will still be looking for my results on this ‘Crazy’ BATTLE.

I had intended to talk a little bit about the artists in this BATTLE, but that pretty much got covered in the comment section. If you missed it, click HERE. In the end, that was probably a good thing, so I can get right to the final tally and my vote in this post.

I love Ray LaMontagne. He’s got that rough, throaty, gravelly, voice that I enjoy. His music leans to the folksy side. STMcC compared him to Gordon Lightfoot (whom I like a lot) and although I never thought of that myself, I would have to agree. Wiki/wacky compares him t Van ‘the man’ Morrison (whom I really like A LOT) and that may be the reason I enjoy Ray so much.

BUT, alas, even with my vote Ray was beat out by Gnarles Barkley (now you know his mother did not really name him that) by more than two to one.

The final Tally is:

                        Gnarles      13 votes

                        Ray           5 votes

This was a stellar BATTLE OF THE BANDS for me. Not only did I truly enjoy both versions that I published here for you, BUT we had eight (8), count ‘em eight (8) participants, this time out. There are even a few more folks considering joining up with this fun little venture in the future.

Also, I had seventeen votes counted up. Some of the old familiar faces were missing from this vote, but there were several newcomers, which really makes me happy. I appreciate all of your votes and support.

Come back on the 15^th for a little more ‘Craziness’ here at FAR AWAY SERIES.