recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 0:29:49 GMT -5
RS Comment:
Coming up next is Sitting on Top of the World which shows blues influence on early country music. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant." Notable versions include Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Bill Monroe, the Grateful Dead and Jack White.
My Comment: I get the blues, but the story feels a bit taking itself for granted. gates' bump at the beginning basically prevented this from reaching the very bottom, but it was destined to finish in the 90s.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 0:33:52 GMT -5
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 0:37:55 GMT -5
RS Comment:
The last bottom 5 song is another Cajun song. Cajun folklorist Barry Jean Ancelet has called this the most played and recorded Cajun song ever, selling over 500,000 copies in 1962 alone. Menard said he modeled it on Hank Williams's "Honky Tonk Blues", and that he composed it in less than an hour while working at a gas station in Erath.
My comment: I like this Cajun song slightly better because it sounds more lively.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 0:38:44 GMT -5
Unfortunately I don't have enough time to continue revealing. You will see 95-91 later.
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bboat11
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Post by bboat11 on Jul 13, 2021 0:46:59 GMT -5
This is off to a great start imo! I know yodeling in any form isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea, but I do tend to enjoy "Lovesick Blues" more than most people. That being said, this original version was quite awful! The dated production and the thin nasally vocals were huge points against this one. Hank Williams' version is just as bad for the same reason, lol. I also hated how he used "mama" and "daddy" in the lyrics to refer to his lover Most modern covers have been pretty good to me though! To me the best version is easily George Strait's, which should come as no surprise I guess. "Jole Blon" was one of the most awful songs I have ever heard in my life, so I am SO glad to see it leave in the bottom 2!!! Once again, the thin nasally vocals absolutely ruined it. "The Christian Life" isn't good, but I definitely didn't think it was as bad as some people must have! Mostly because the vocals aren't horrible and the harmonies are actually really nice in the chorus. There are still songs left with god-awful vocals, so hopefully they go soon. Speaking of, "Sitting On Top Of The World" is one of those god-awful songs! The vocals aren't bad for how dated it is, but the instrumental arrangement leaves a ton to be desired as the primary feature is just a fiddle that is basically playing the melody alongside the vocalist
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razorshark
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Post by razorshark on Jul 13, 2021 0:55:10 GMT -5
I figured with some of my low ranks I was just "Uncultured" or something but nice to see 4 of the first 5 reveals being my bottom 10. I'm doing better than I usually do in Rankdowns, that's for sure.
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bboat11
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Post by bboat11 on Jul 13, 2021 0:55:47 GMT -5
Oh good. The thing I hated most about "The Back Door" is that D.L. Menard has got to have the worst voice I have ever heard in my life! I know the dated production tends to make people sound less resonant than they did in real life, but this is next-level thin and nasally, lmao.
I have always felt like modern artists are generally much stronger vocalists than older artists were, and this bottom 5 is a prime example as to why. Even mediocre modern vocalists like Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett sing like angels in comparison to people like D.L. Menard and Harry Choates...
Edit: Note I'm not saying that modern artists automatically make better music. Just that they generally have to be better vocalists than people in the past had to be. The bar to become a recording artist is certainly much higher than it used to be.
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zack97
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Post by zack97 on Jul 13, 2021 3:50:14 GMT -5
Yep, can't say I'm surprised by the eliminations thus far. Even for as much as I love studying country music history, when it comes to my pure personal enjoyment of certain older tunes, well, it's hit or miss with me. I get why these songs were included based on historical significance, but talk about a weird time with the ranking process ...
And honestly, my rankings from, like, the late 60s/70s onward are a bunch of "whatevers," lol.
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fearlessarrow
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Post by fearlessarrow on Jul 13, 2021 5:14:17 GMT -5
Well this is off to a great start! The bottom 5 were 5 out of my bottom 6. bboat11's comment about the vocals being better today actually has me thinking: part of it is probably better recording technology but I wonder if preferred vocal styles were different back then? Obviously I don't know the answer to this but it's just a thought I had when comparing vocal abilities from different generations of music.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 5:22:59 GMT -5
Well this is off to a great start! The bottom 5 were 5 out of my bottom 6. bboat11 's comment about the vocals being better today actually has me thinking: part of it is probably better recording technology but I wonder if preferred vocal styles were different back then? Obviously I don't know the answer to this but it's just a thought I had when comparing vocal abilities from different generations of music. And I don't think they had access to vocal coaches back then.
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bboat11
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Post by bboat11 on Jul 13, 2021 6:21:17 GMT -5
Well this is off to a great start! The bottom 5 were 5 out of my bottom 6. bboat11 's comment about the vocals being better today actually has me thinking: part of it is probably better recording technology but I wonder if preferred vocal styles were different back then? Obviously I don't know the answer to this but it's just a thought I had when comparing vocal abilities from different generations of music. Oh yes, better recording technology and shifting stylistic preferences undoubtedly factor into it! Different genres blending together and evolving over time probably factors in as well. I would also argue that one of the biggest factors is that melodic structures are getting more complicated over time. I know there are exceptions to this sentiment, but in general country music from the '40s/'50s/'60s has really simple and repetitive melodies, and then somewhere in the '70s/'80s we start to see things shift in the direction of being a bit more complicated. The older, more basic melodies didn't require perfect voices. The way melodies were designed back then, artists could sound nasally, pitchy, unpolished, scratchy, or whatever and it wouldn't really take anything away from the song. In fact, that was a big part of the charm of country music because the artists' flaws gave them character! Singers like Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings were far from pitch-perfect singers, but their voices had a lot of character despite their flaws and that's where their popularity came from. George Jones is widely considered one of the greatest country vocalists of all time, and he was frequently pitchy af, lmao. Hell, Loretta Lynn has sounded like an 80-year-old woman for her entire career! By about the '90s, there started to be a noticeable shift towards pefectionism and country music started to see vocalists who could go toe-to-toe with the greatest voices of all time in other genres. That isn't to say that country music didn't have "great" vocalists before! Like, Loretta Lynn is definitely a great vocalist...but that doesn't mean she could have ever been realistically compared to Aretha Franklin in the same ways that Martina and Faith have been compared to the likes of Celine and Whitney and Mariah, or Carrie Underwood could be compared to Kelly Clarkson, etc. Anyway, I feel like I started rambling, but my point is that the singers have pretty much HAD to get better because melodies became more complicated over time. There's a reason why literally anybody with a tongue and a throat can sing a cover of "Jackson" or "Golden Ring", lmao. But to sing a song like "Blue Clear Sky" and have it be something people would pay to listen to, you legitimately have to be a great vocalist. Whether the singers got better because the melodies got more complicated or whether the melodies got more complicated because the singers got better might be kind of a chicken/egg conversation, lmao. But I do feel like there is more at play than just shifting stylistic preferences, because from what I have heard from him there is NO WAY that Hank Williams could sing a song like George's "I Saw God Today" and have it be an engaging listen in the same way that George could take Hank's "Lovesick Blues" and make it an engaging listen. And Loretta Lynn could never tackle a song like "Independence Day" even while Martina does a perfectly fine job on her "You Ain't Woman Enough".
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bboat11
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Post by bboat11 on Jul 13, 2021 6:51:35 GMT -5
I just wanted to add a comment about the different ability levels of artists within each decade. Obviously not everybody in the '90s was a Martina/Faith level vocalist. There were people like Patty Loveless right there alongside them finding success without pitch perfect voices and huge ranges, without being compared to the pop stars like Celine/Mariah/Whitney! There are people with higher and lower voices within both genders. Like obviously it wouldn't be realistic to expect Hank Williams to sing a Josh Turner song for example.
But there is still a noticeable difference between the melodies of the modern songs and the songs from the olden days. Modern songs tend to use more of an artist's range, falsetto is used more, mixed voice is used more, notes are sustained for longer, more melisma is used, artists are expected to alternate between belting and singing softly more frequently over the course of individual songs, and everything is expected to be smooth and consistent...
It just feels like there is more of an emphasis placed on vocal abilities in the past 35 years than there ever was before. Even artists who are known more for their ability to sing with personality and character rather than their show-stopping range, like Miranda Lambert and Shania Twain and Terri Clark, have smooth voices that can carry complicated melodies while maintaining consistent breath support, pitch, resonance, and vibrato. Which definitely wasn't a requirement back when Willie Nelson became famous, lmao.
To go back to the Josh Turner example, Johnny Cash and George Jones could both go just as low as Josh whenever they wanted to, but there is no room for debate that out of the 3 Josh is more consistent with breath support, less pitchy, more comfortable with falsetto, more comfortable belting, etc. It doesn't mean he's the "best" of the three, just that he is a product of the modern country industry! George and Johnny both probably had more character when they sang, which is why they were both so popular! Whoever is "best" kinda depends on what you individually connect with as a listener.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 6:56:08 GMT -5
I somehow don't think so, the reason being when the melodies are more basic, I will eventually look for more interesting attributes from the songs, like the lyrics, production, or vocals. In fact, most Patsy Cline songs are considered classics because of her emotionally rich vocals. Regarding the common criticism that is old-people-sounding vocals at that time, I'd say it allows more consistency when these artists grow old. They can sing their song pretty easily when they are 80 years old just as when they are 20 years old. The vocalists nowadays are more external. You can quote the highlights from belting, range, inflections pretty easily, but imo, subtlety is an underrated virtue and no singing contest shows fans will ever understand this. (And I can imagine Loretta Lynn singing Independence Day pretty well, but jnot the anthemic version that bboat11 probably has in mind)
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 7:00:56 GMT -5
It just feels like there is more of an emphasis placed on vocal abilities in the past 35 years than there ever was before. Even artists who are known more for their ability to sing with personality and character rather than their show-stopping range, like Miranda Lambert and Shania Twain and Terri Clark, have smooth voices that can carry complicated melodies while maintaining consistent breath support, pitch, resonance, and vibrato. Which definitely wasn't a requirement back when Willie Nelson became famous, lmao. Willie Nelson's vocals being drastically different from what the mainstream Nashville is offering is one of the reasons he gathered fans. (And Willie's vocals are definitely not bad.)
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bboat11
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Post by bboat11 on Jul 13, 2021 7:32:27 GMT -5
I somehow don't think so, the reason being when the melodies are more basic, I will eventually look for more interesting attributes from the songs, like the lyrics, production, or vocals. In fact, most Patsy Cline songs are considered classics because of her emotionally rich vocals. I will say that while Patsy Cline's songs are iconic because of their emotionally rich vocals, I do wish her career had been a bit longer so we could see how she evolved as an artist over time! While she was great at her own songs, I have trouble imagining her nailing all the diverse styles of someone like Dolly Parton or Reba McEntire. She really only got the chance to show us basically one style over and over again, lol.
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HeyHeyHey
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Post by HeyHeyHey on Jul 13, 2021 9:39:30 GMT -5
For some reason I expected the really old tunes to be kinda sweet, simple songs but they are just kinda more bizarre than anything.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 9:58:59 GMT -5
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:02:58 GMT -5
RS Comment:
My comment: My 100 finally is eliminated with this reveal. In terms of time capsules, this is probably one of the weirdest. I don't think the idea is bad, it's just you have to live through that era to fully get the background and the essence of the novelty, and I definitely didn't. This has some ranks close to top 50, but could not close the distance between it and #94 as #94 is 80 points ahead.
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razorshark
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Post by razorshark on Jul 13, 2021 10:05:39 GMT -5
Convoy is a song I totally understand being on this list. It's iconic tbh, but not for good reasons.
Background vocalists kill it for me. I think the verses, despite being gibberish have a lot of charm to them.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:11:26 GMT -5
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:15:33 GMT -5
RS Comment:
My Comment: This song is historically important, but is heavily limited by recording quality and musical style which are too obsolete. I like the jazz influence though. I am surprised it was not in bottom 10 until the last few lists. zack and gates lost a top half ranking.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:17:02 GMT -5
Up next, a first female song loss! Any guess?
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🌺CountryLineDancer
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Post by 🌺CountryLineDancer on Jul 13, 2021 10:26:44 GMT -5
Bobbie Gentry's song? That was a little outlier for me...
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:27:13 GMT -5
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🌺CountryLineDancer
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Post by 🌺CountryLineDancer on Jul 13, 2021 10:32:10 GMT -5
Oh this is the first reveal that is actually kinda disappointing to me. The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A. song might not have the best lyrics, but has this sort of catchiness/positive vibe that I do enjoy in some of the classic materials. I don't think this deserves the bottom 10 in this list.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:33:55 GMT -5
RS Comment:
The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A. is the debut single of Donna Fargo from the debut album of the same name. Notable covers include Tammy Wynette, Nancy Sinatra, Tanya Tucker and Lana Del Rey.
My Comment: This is not distinctive enough to be here imo. Bland lyrics and too simple country pop music from that time. But I thought correctly that country forum posters will boost this up. It still can't leave bottom 10 because there are almost half of participants putting this song in their bottom 10.
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zack97
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Post by zack97 on Jul 13, 2021 10:35:20 GMT -5
Lol, my rankings are all over the place with these last three. Will say that I'm genuinely disappointed to see "Convoy" tap out so early, even if I get why it did.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:39:09 GMT -5
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:44:27 GMT -5
RS Comment:
My Comment: I was almost annoyed that I could not find any audio of this song online because the album is not on streaming, and I don't want to use the live version, but at least I found one with acceptable quality now. There are some artists that Eric Church loves but I don't. Ray Wylie Hubbard is one of them. It kind of feels like a niche song, and features his overly-long modifiers, but musically it's just kinda there. This song is mostly in the 90s range except once.
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recordyear
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Post by recordyear on Jul 13, 2021 10:49:43 GMT -5
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