Thursday, February 18, 2010

Hello, my dears



The whispering songs list is up...

whispering songs

And the new topic seems to be Falling. Could mean anything, but I like it!!

17 comments:

steenbeck said...

I've thought of a few songs, but I guess I'll wait and see what he means.

I do feel oddly fond of Tom Petty's Free Falling, though.

Makinavaja said...

I'd dond that Steen! I have some ideas and can actually take part tonight, so here's hoping the techies don't screw up!!

ejaydee said...

Finally! My A and B list drought of 2010 is over, and like buses, you wait 2 months for one, and two come along at once.

Makinavaja said...

Oh Ejay - don't whine!!! I've had a drought since I started and it's getting on for two years now! Am I really that out of touch? Do I really have such awful taste? On seconds, maybe I'd rather you didn't answer. Congratulations, mon ami.

tincanman said...

You're going to confuse people with that Steen. Free Falling was released in the UK as Free Autumning.

ejaydee said...

You're right Maki, I had managed to stay silent until now after all!

Makinavaja said...

Thanks for taking it the way it was meant Ejay!!! I just got my first ever first post on RR - hope DsD will forgive me!

Carole said...

Even though I don't do RR any more, I usually check out the A and B lists each Friday.

I was surprised to see Spirit's cover of Like A Rolling Stone A-listed because the original was zedded ages ago (I know, because it was one of my few successes).

Surely, if a song is zedded, it is zedded for good?

Mnemonic said...

I shared your surprise, Carol, because I thought what a fantastic version Spirit had done and that it was a shame it couldn't make the A-list. It's back to my point last week that PaulMac is changing the rules without bothering to tell us, so the boycott continues.

Carole said...

I've weakened my boycott today, Mnemonic, just to make a vain nomination for a song that won't get listed. I am making a childish point, I expect, nominating an off topic song that has the word "fallen" in the title.

I doubt I'll be playing RR again in the future though.

For me, Paul Mac has spoilt the thing. A real shame because it used to be so much fun.

steenbeck said...

I'm sorry, but I don't agree at all. I think Paul Mac is doing a fine job. Yes, it has changed - it used to get 100s of comments for subjects as broad as songs about dancing, or enduring love, now it gets thousands of comments for very obscure topics. It's nearly impossible to listen to all the songs that I find interesting each week, let alone every song suggested. Picking 10 out of all the comments must be a monumentally difficult job, given the time it requires and the amount of emotion we all attach to our suggestions (which seems to be increasing all the time as well). No list anybody could make will please everybody, it just couldn't. But I think Paul brings wit and...I don't know the word for it - I've always admired the way he responds to complaints with humor, he seems to genuinely care about the songs that he picks; I enjoy reading about his reasons for picking them (especially the B list for some reason). I don't know what I'm trying to say...I think it is a massive, at times thankless job. I'm not saying people shouldn't voice specific complaints about technical problems, but I think if we complain about this too much, the whole thing will just end. And that would make me very sad (and I don't think I'm the only one.)

Mnemonic said...

Steen, I've never complained that he doesn't pick my nominations,nor will I ever do so. I don't care about what PaulMac picks so long as he sticks to the guidelines in The Guardian, and, if he wants to change those, also changes the FAQs, so that we know what the "rules" are. I, for one, would like to see different versions of a song available for A-listing because they can sometimes be so different (or better) than the original.

Carole said...

I was pretty much resigned to not getting songs zedded. I only ever got about half a dozen or so As and Bs combined. My musical tastes are just not what most people like or want to listen to. I can cope with that.

What really made me stop wanting to take part was the nature of some of Paul's early topics, particularly the Solos one, especially as the solos chosen were pretty predictable, except Dark Star which to me isn't even about the solos at all.

It all started getting too vague and too widely interpreted and then, as a result I think, too big.

I don't want RR to end, lots of people love it, I just got tired of wading through huge numbers of posts, half of them nominating songs that were already zedded or songs wildly off topic.

steenbeck said...

I think you're right, Mnemonic - that no covers rule seems to be a hard one to follow, I think all the gurus have broken it at one time or another. It seems like they've fixed the technical difficulties, however (if we can judge by one week.) I hope you'll come back, Mnemonic. You're one of the people whose suggestions I try to listen to whenever I can, because they're always so varied and interesting and generally good.

But I see your point, and Carole's as well. If it isn't fun any more I suppose it makes sense to take some time off.

Shoegazer said...

RR not being as much fun anymore is my main reason for taking a break - seems a better solution than moaning & spoiling the fun for everyone else. A number of points, have been touched on, but here's my take.

Respect: The lack of respect shown by The Guardian to our community by not posting the blog on time & sprinkling the pieces of rr all over their website, loosely connected by links that usually don't work. We are popular enough to have our own home page on the main music page. How cool would it be for the A-list to show cover art for the picks, brief artist bio's or even links to the artists own site? The problem is that because RR has become more populist, we would usually be promoting artists that are doing/did fine on their own & don't/didn't need any extra publicity.

Populism: Agree with Mnemonic that the original intent of finding lost classics or uncovering obscure gems have been buried under an avalanche of shouts for the bleeding obvious. The Guru should be free to pick what they want - they have the unenvious task of writing the article. But when you get too many A-list picks from the same old artists (no matter how good they are) it just makes the whole thing a bit dull.

Sprawl. Is it just me that misses the old Monday cut-off? RR these days just goes on & on & on. It's too much! Maybe if we saved the donding until after the deadline it would help. But it's almost impossible for me to find the time to trawl through the whole thing anymore.

ejaydee said...

I agree with Shoey on the respect point, but I don't think it's going to happen. The only guru who would could do it I think, is Dorian. Because he was there from the beginning, and had been at this longer than the other gurus, I think he cared more about the rules, primarily to make his life easier and keep it fun for him. His regular "moans" about the amount of dodgy nominations were healthy. I think if Paul sticks around for another couple of years, he won't launch say, a solos theme, without any restrictions. Remember the 1 to 10 theme? "THis is gonna be HUGE" I thought, and then he we were only allowed 10 songs each. I like Paul, and I think he's doing a great job, but maybe he's having "too much" fun at the helm of RR at the moment!

nilpferd said...

In Paul's favour I'd say he seems to have much less of an agenda than Dorian did; DL did seem to have a preconceived idea of at least some of the songs he was hoping for, though was always open for new things, Maddy's stated aim was to get more female artists A-listed, and fair enough too.
But I like the way Paul seems to wing it much more, in terms of stating his tastes he's much more of an undeclared quantity, which I think is essential for threads of this size.
But I've already said it so many times- it's the exchange with other posters I value most on RR, and the opportunity to take a randomly selected look at my own collection through fresh eyes each week.