This is a good point, but I guess I've been trying to get away from strategic voting so that we can construct more of a consensus top twenty/thirty (as opposed to a competitive or strategic one).
It might be interesting, however, to go from a top thirty to give the top ten a shoot-out in traditional Survivor format, eliminating songs one-by-one. I'd like to see how different the order is. It will probably seem redundant to many people but that's I suppose what I was getting at with an alternate format.
I could go with going from thirty to ten and then doing a traditional survivor from there out. Maybe it could be thirty to fifteen and then a traditional survivor though?
Does that mean you're coming around on a final thirty instead of twenty?
Haha yeah, if there were a Covers Survivor I expect it would be pretty quick. I'd try to break it down, maybe two or three "era" preliminaries feeding a final round of a top ten.
Yeah, maybe 1987-1993 and 1997-present? Oh, and I'm slightly embarrassed that in my previous post I forgot Dancing Barefoot/Everlasting Love/Unchained Melody in my list of covers.
I thought about that track when making my list but I don't know if it's finished. I don't think it is. I personally gave it the working title Flicker and Fade but that's not exactly caught on. Plus the track's so fucking obscure that I'm not sure people will recall it. I reckon leave it out.
I disagree. You say it doesn't sound finished, and while I understand where you're coming from, 4th Of July doesn't sound all that much more finished to me and it made the album. And when you put this track beside the Boomerangs and Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come, it fits, I think. Plus I like this track
I say include it.
Also, I've stumbled upon "My Time Hasn't Come" from a 1987 soundcheck. Should that be included?
Oh, another track that's sort of floating around is The Ballad of Ronnie Drew. Does it count as a U2 track? I left it out of Best v2 and nobody gave any shits.
I had heard of this track by name but am unfamiliar with it. This is what Wikipedia says:
""The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" is a single by U2, The Dubliners, Kíla, and "A Band of Bowsies".[2] The single was recorded as a charitable project, with proceeds going to the Irish Cancer Society - owing to Ronnie Drew's cancer condition.[3] It was recorded at Windmill Lane on 14 and 15 January 2008. "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" is available as a CD in Ireland only."
and
Writers: Robert Hunter, Bono, The Edge, and Simon Carmody
Artist(s): U2, The Dubliners, Kila, and A Band Of Bowsies
I don't know. If Bono and Edge both have writing credits and the whole band participated in performing it, then it's hard to find a reason not to include it. It's the other people participating with them that make it iffy. We also can't be sure wiki is right. I think there were more artists involved with the track then the four listed, and we don't know if/how much Edge/Adam/Larry were really on it. I'm on the fence. And now that I've just listened to it, my gut says this track is probably better suited for the side-project survivor.
I like this argument, and establishes a clear point of difference between the examples. I reckon the titles are the key, because otherwise we'll spend ages fruitlessly debating whether "I Trip Through Your Wires" (from TV Gaga) is a different enough song to merit inclusion, whether Slow Dancing should appear twice, etc., etc. I also think Saturday Night/Fire fits more under the Native Son/Vertigo relation. They completed the song, it could have been released, but then they went back and gave it a proper re-do.
So, you're saying Trevor and The Silver Lining
shouldn't be included? Because they're still in your list.
Great idea.
I've just about got it done now. I'll PM you the list. One thing I discovered while doing this - I don't know if you're aware, but after listening to The King's New Clothes, it seems that it is to The Dream Is Over as Trevor is Touch and The Silver Lining is to 11OTT. So I'm asking the same question we asked about them, should it be included? BTW, this is one of only two tracks that wasn't on youtube(the other being the untitled instrumental). I downloaded it from the u2hub. If it is decided that it should be included, I'll upload it to youtube myself so that it can be on the list(same for the instrumental).
There is a studio version from 1987. I don't know if it is in wide circulation or not, but I know it is out there in some bootleg trading circles. I haven't been involved in trading for years so I've no idea what shit has leaked into wider circulation nowadays and what's still almost impossible to get your hands on without knowing certain secret handshakes and accidentally coming into possession of massively rare shit.
Yeah, there's certainly no studio version of it on youtube, or on the u2hub(which sometimes has rare non-live stuff), and google searches don't turn up any promising leads. I just can't imagine that someone out there has a physical cd with the track on it and hasn't put it somewhere on the internet. It just doesn't seem likely to me. I believe 100% that it exists, I'm just not sure I believe that it ever got out of the vault. The closest thing I've found is an R&H outtake clip on youtube of U2 playing it at Sun Studios where they recorded it. I mean, shit, this sounds like a studio recording. This has to be close to what it would sound like. I'm including the link with the list I'm sending you.
I have my own revision that I'm curious about your thoughts on. It generates some semi-finals.
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I was then thinking there could be semi finals but have a couple of ideas for how it could be done:
Option 1: two semis. Top sixty songs qualify, thirty in each. Top thirty from across the two semis progress to grand final.
Option 2: Pre-Boy and early eighties feed Semi Final 1; late eighties and nineties feed Semi Final 2; 2000s is split into two rounds (the break comes between THTBA and AYGWF) and feeds Semi Final 3. In each case the semi is the top fifteen songs from across the two qualifying rounds. The top thirty across the three semis proceed to the grand final.
I feel like five preliminary rounds might be a bit much. I think it could be done in four. And I would favor your option number 1. It could be like this:
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Preliminary Quarterfinal #1 - 1978-1983
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Preliminary Quarterfinal #2 - 1984-1989
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Preliminary Quarterfinal #3 - 1990-1998
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Preliminary Quarterfinal #4 - 1999-2011
Figure out the top sixty vote-getters and then proceed to two thirty-song semifinals:
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Preliminary Semifinal #1
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Preliminary Semifinal #2
(for these two semifinals, I'd suggest making a list of the top sixty in alphabetical order and the splitting it in half, because if you put them in order of votes then you're going to have one semifinal with a bunch of very high vote-getters and one with a bunch of less-high vote getters, but if they're in alphabetical order, then they'll be more evenly grouped)
and then have the thirty song final field:
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Preliminary Final
and then you take the top ten or fifteen(whatever we decide on) from that and then start a traditional elimination like you said:
Best Non-Album Song Survivor - Round 1(2,3,etc until you get to Quarterfinal/Semifinal/Grand Final).
As for how the four lists could look:
1978-1983
1. Inside Out
2. Jack In A Box
3. Life On A Distant Planet
4. Alone In The Light
5. False Prophet
6. The Dream Is Over
7. The King's New Clothes
8. Pete The Chop
9. Trevor
10. The Silver Lining
11. Street Mission
12. The Fool
13. Speed Of Life
14. Saturday Night
15. Cartoon World
16. Father Is An Elephant
17. Boy/Girl
18. Another Day
19. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
20. Touch
21. Things To Make And Do
22. Carry Me Home
23. J.Swallo
24. A Celebration
25. Party Girl
26. Treasure(Whatever Happened To Pete The Chop)
27. Endless Deep
28. Be There
29. Angels Too Tied To The Ground
1984-1989
1. The Three Sunrises
2. Love Comes Tumbling
3. Bass Trap
4. Boomerang I
5. Booomerang II
6. Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come
7. Untitled Instrumental
8. Disappearing Act
9. Yoshino Blossom
10. Womanfish
11. Silver And Gold
12. Sweetest Thing
13. Race Against Time
14. Spanish Eyes
15. Deep In The Heart
16. Luminous Times(Hold On To Love)
17. Walk To The Water
18. Beautiful Ghost
19. Wave Of Sorrow
20. Desert Of Our Love
21. Rise Up
22. Drunk Chicken/America
23. My Time Hasn't Come
24. She's A Mystery To Me
25. Wild Irish Rose
26. Hallelujah Here She Comes
27. A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel
1990-1998
1. Alex Descends Into Hell For A Bottle Of Milk/Korova 1
2. Lady With The Spinning Head
3. Salome
4. Where Did It All Go Wrong?
5. Blow Your House Down
6. Heave And Hell
7. Oh Berlin
8. Near The Island
9. Down All The Days
10. Slow Dancing
11. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
12. Viva Davidoff
13. Holy Joe
14. North And South Of The River
15. I'm Not Your Baby
16. Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad
1999-2011
1. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
2. Stateless
3. Always
4. Summer Rain
5. Big Girls Are Best
6. Levitate
7. Flower Child
8. Love You Like Mad
9. We Love You
10. Electrical Storm
11. The Hands That Built America
12. Are You Gonna Wait Forever?
13. Smile
14. Native Son
15. Fast Cars
16. Xanax And Wine
17. Mercy
18. Window In The Skies
19. Winter
20. Soon
21. Every Breaking Wave
22. Glastonbury
23. North Star
24. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
That way you have four fairly balanced polls to start with(ok, except for the 90s, which just simply has less non-album material). And if we eliminate some of the ones we're not sure about(i.e. The King's New Clothes, Trevor, The Silver Lining, Untitled Instrumental, My Time Has Come), the numbers will still be fairly balanced.
Ok, finally done.
We are probably thinking about this waaaayyyy too hard.
Probably, yeah.