Monday, August 14, 2017

Battle of the Bands: Goes Political

I heard it said somewhere "everything is political." I read all the comments on my blog. I don't reply back to most of them. However, I do quote some of them or give a shout out here and there. Sometimes they inspire my Battle of the Bands battles. I wing out the posts on my blog anyway so ideas are always welcomed.

A strange comment I received was "Unfortunately BOTB is all about politics, with is why it was no fun for me."

So in response my song this go around is "Apolitical Blues" by Little Feat...

Contestant One : Little Feat




Contestant Two: Van Halen


Contestant Three: Phish


Forget the rules! Vote for the one you like the best. You can vote for the original one. Wasn't my plan to have three but to keep it fair. I wanted to keep at least two studio versions. Phish was live, but it was the only fairly big name I could find.

So you have Little Feat, Van Halen and Phish. Enjoy and shake out who else is participating. The master list can be found here.


9 comments:

Arlee Bird said...

I guess in some ways everything can be construed as being political to some degree--especially in our day. Music has always expressed certain divisions among classes and generations. But strange to avoid BOTB because of the political nature of it. Maybe whoever wrote that comment had seen one of my BOTB posts that related to politics. Well, whatever. I think what it likely comes down to is an unwillingness to invest the time and thought involved in listening to songs and passing a personal judgement on them. What we see as fun I guess some people see as something else.

No difficulty in my vote in this contest. I definitely prefer the loping bluesy almost Stones-like sound of Little Feat. Their version has the authentic Blues feel that the song deserves. This was a new song for me--I enjoyed hearing it. But if I were going to listen again I'd go back to the Little Feat version. In fact, I did exactly that. Little Feat rules this song!

Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out

Debbie D. said...

"BOTB is all about politics" ??! Geez, I thought it was all about music. ~rolling eyes~ Anyway, cool response! ☺ The original by Little Feat sounded a bit thin and tinny. Sammy Hagar's vocals and the Van Halen arrangement was much better! That said, the Phish version was also good. Decisions, decisions...After listening to each a couple more times, I think the heavier blues sound of Van Halen appeals the most. Please give my vote to them.

Mary B said...

All three were good, but I'm going to give my vote to Van Halen. I had no idea the battles were political. I must be living under a rock.

John Holton said...

You can't beat the vibe of a live performance, and Trey Anastasio is a remarkable player. I'll go with Phish.

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

MIKE ~
I don't even care that TED NUGENT isn't a participant in this BOTB installment. I'm voting for him anyway, just because I love his politics!!!

Ha!-Ha!

I am certain that it was my anti-Springsteen / anti-Communism comment which set that "Anonymous" person off. (And it was probably someone who had never voted on BOTB before, either, but just wanted to sound off against my political rant and blame you for it.) Pretty funny. I always enjoy it when I get under someone's skin like that.

And I also liked the way you responded to it all with THIS particular BOTB contest. That's like something I too would have done. Nice. Kudos!

Alright, my vote was definitely between Little Feet and Phish. And based largely on the guitar playing, I'm gonna say...


GO PHISH!!

~ D-FensDogG
[Link:) STMcC Presents 'Battle Of The Bands'

Cathy Kennedy said...

Mike,

Why do people always complain about this or that when someone says this or that on social media, instead of glossing over it if they don't like it or just be laid back looking for the fun?

Stephen cracks me up! But, he's probably right. Some just can't take opposition and are grumpy bears all day, every day for the rest of their lives. Nuff enough of that now. It's time to get to your battle. BTW, I don't have a showdown this go around and I won't be back to blogging full stream until mid-September's round.

I easily narrowed my vote to the heavier blues sound of Van Halen and Phish. Stephen made a good point, the guitar playing is awesome in the Phish version but my ear is telling me I like Van Halen better and I must go with that.

Good battle!

Birgit said...

Stephen cracks me up and he loves to poke the rattle snake with a stick...wait i did that once...but I had a rake and it was some big dark brown snake...my ex said it was a rat snake...anyway when he struck at the rake, I ran like a girl into the house. Oh wait BOTB....all 3 are so good for their own reasons but I have to give it to Phish for the fun they put into the song and the amazing guitar playing.

Michele at Angels Bark said...

BOTB has gone political? Really? What did I miss? That's an interesting comment. I don't get it, but it's interesting...

This is a great song! I never heard it before so thanks for featuring it! Geez, this is a tough one. I'm torn between the two studio versions of Little Feat and Van Halen. Both are really good. I'm going to go with Little Feat on this one. But I could've easily gone with Van Halen, it's that close, in my opinion, between the two.

excellent battle!

Michele at Angels Bark

Cherdo said...

I'm late to the game, so I'll be short and sweet: LITTLE FEAT!

Pretty good line up, by the way. :-)