Deserving Subjects Poll

Here's a list of a dozen artists who reside on the edge of TP's traditional area of coverage. None currently have TP entries (although one of them did in the past, and the main creative force in another has an entry of his own), but a strong case could be made for any of them.

Vote for three. The results of this poll are non-binding, and there's no guarantee that the highest vote getters will ever have a TP entry, but you never know. User board demand recently got Mott the Hoople included. But mainly, this is just an exercise in curiosity.

[www.yourfreepoll.com]

(Sorry - I don't know how to do the cool VOTE button graphic like Paganizer did when he used to post these polls. Maybe someday I'll figure it out.)



Post Edited (02-02-08 08:57)

All but Tom Petty and Van Morrisson. They are just too main stream to be a part of it. A case can be made for VM but Petty not. T. Rex is most deserving unless Marc is in the category of the Stones. His influence on Bowie, the NY Dolls, Mott The Hoople, The Damned, Morrissey and many other TP'ers plus his material success might just boost him into Beatles and Stones territory (even though his success was shorter lived.)

Top 40 hits aside, I've always thought of Van the Man as outside the mainstream - way outside. I can't think of another artist so unconcerned with what anybody else thinks of him.

Petty is as mainstream as it comes, sure, but remember, when he first emerged in the late 70s he was considered part of the New Wave (back before that term solidifed into an actual style of music) that was revitalizing rock & roll. Maybe an overview of his work in the context of how the mainstream absorbed him would work. And hell, if Madonna can have a TP entry, then certainly Petty deserves one.

Voting for three was tough, by the way. I didn't necessarily think everyone on the list deserves a TP entry, but certainly more than three do.

This took much longer than I originally thought it would. Except for TP, who is a mainstream artist, just like Springsteen, I came up with a pretty good case for all of the rest, even The Raspberries. Nice to see Nesmith in there -- he never gets credit for being the alt-country pioneer that he was.

I included Petty on the list because he did indeed have his own entry in the first couple of editions of the TP guide, then was dropped in later editions.

With the artists included on this list we seem to be opening up to including more of the 1960s psychedelic music that TP has up to this point avoided. Not that it isn't appropriate to do so but if you include bands such as Love, 13th Floor Elevators and the Pretty things why not include The Seeds, Moby Grape, The Byrds, The Move, Amen Corner, Chocolate Watchband, etc. In principle I agree with this as I feel all these old bands fall in the scope of what TP seeks to cover. It just may be a bigger job than you want to tackle at this point.

I thought about that as well. It seems to me that Love, the Seeds and the Elevators would be appropriate as their artistic driving forces not only continued on (as did Roy Wood, Roger McGuinn, etc.) but did so within the context of the punk, postpunk and alternative rock that TP analyzes and celebrates. Roky Erickson and Sky Saxon have entries for good reason.

Of course, I suppose you could carry that so far as to claim McGuinn and the Byrds' place as well, since McGuinn ended up making an album with Elvis Costello's participation. But a line has to be drawn somewhere.



Post Edited (02-04-08 09:08)

I would have no trouble with The Byrds being considered an alternative band -- esp. after Sweetheart of the Rodeo, when McGuinn and the others took the alt-country route about as far as they could without going completely country. The Ballad of Easy Rider is a very underrated, underheard album. And, again, it was great to see Nesmith's name on there.

Questions like this (as with most discussions on this board) are subjective in nature but guidelines for inclusion were set out in the preface of my TP print copy circa 1989 (assuming they're still applicable). To paraphrase:

"Although there is certainly no unanimity of style guiding the selection process of what artists are included in this edition, there is still an essential standard that underlies the decision-making. Bands and artists that favor experimentation, innovation and self-expression are, for the most part, the ones who are included. Generally speaking, musicians who can't be said to have added anything original, fresh or exceptionally entertaining to the culture are ignored here."

T. Rex, Van Morrison and Love would seem to fall within the scope outlined above. I would also add the Hollywood Brats who weren't included in the poll.



Post Edited (02-02-08 23:35)