The Most Important Question Of The Day

[ericcoleman]

[Poll #1389292]

Comments

Sandy Denny

[sexybass.livejournal.com]

One of the founding members of Fairport Convention and truely and amazing voice and songwriter she was lost to the world at a young age. I was also a great fan of Grace who is certainly influential in rock music but could not hold a candle vocally to Sandy in my opinion.

Re: Sandy Denny

[deborah_c]

BBC Radio 2 had a programme about her last weekend, which still should be listenable on their website until tomorrow evening (our time).

[r-and-s-jeff.livejournal.com]

I say Grace Slick but mainly because I'm related to her...

[freeimprov.livejournal.com]

These results are Just. Plain. Wrong.

Sandy Denny was the queen of British folk voices. Alas, all that most Americans have heard is her singing on Led Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore". On top of that, she could party with John Bonham and Keith Moon (which is probably why she's dead now).

I suspect this poll reflects name recognition, not talent. Sandy Denny had more talent in her pinkie than Grace Slick has ever shown.

[ericcoleman]

And this may be the saddest, most unreasoning, gurgling fanboy silliness that has ever been posted in my LJ.

Grace Slick was the most powerful female voice in rock and roll. The two songs she is best known for are still spine tingling examples of the pure intensity that is rock and roll. Listen to White Rabbit ... the way that she builds and builds the energy in that song is brilliant. That final note in Somebody To Love, that she holds and holds and then cracks like a whip. It's one of the most exciting moments in rock and roll ever ... up there with Bop bopa-a-lu a whop bam boo (or the 100o other ways that it's translated) and the guitar intro to Johnny B Goode, and WAY DOWN INSIDE from Zep.

Sandy Denny was a brilliant singer, but, in some frothing at the mouth fanboy silliness to say this about Grace Slick ... it's just sad.

[freeimprov.livejournal.com]

There's only one part of what I said that's arguably unreasoning, and that's the relative weight of their talents. And I still believe, based on decades of listening to both, that Sandy Denny was far more talented than Grace Slick. That's not to say Grace Slick was untalented, but, um, Starship? She did an awful lot of dreck.

But my main point is that the poll results reflect name recognition, not talent. Sandy Denny, for all her importance and talent, is little known in the US. The one recording most American music fans have heard, they don't know is her (cf Led Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore"). But everyone here has heard of Grace Slick.

[ericcoleman]

No, pretty much the entire thing is unreasoning, except for the words "I suspect this".

You start with These results are Just. Plain. Wrong., and your only argument is to try to invalidate the poll. First saying that I suspect this poll reflects name recognition, not talent. ... which also implies that the folks who voted cannot possibly be well informed, since they disagreed with you. And then Sandy Denny had more talent in her pinkie than Grace Slick has ever shown, which is just plain silly. Grace was one of the most important and formidable voices of her generation.

And then in your reply, once again your only way of defending Sandy is to put down Grace That's not to say Grace Slick was untalented, but, um, Starship? She did an awful lot of dreck.

Grace did one of the worst things that an icon can do, she survived and went on to her dreck years. Sandy died in the beginning stages of hers.

You've said very little positive about the singer that you claim to love, and a lot to put down the person who won this poll ... which is what makes this raving fanboy silliness.

Defending someone by putting someone else down is a pretty lazy way to form an argument.

[ka-klick.livejournal.com]

I stayed out of this one, because quite frankly I was kind of busy, but I'd echo some of the things Eric has said in response.

She was also a brilliant, caustic witty songwriter and some of her songs on Volunteers, etc. are among the most wicked fun in rock. ("Hey Fredrick", "Law Man", "Lather", "Milk Train", "Fast Freddie") Even into the early part of JS (not after they dropped the J) she had some great cuts, but never the big singles, which were usually shlockey ballads that Marty Balin wrote/sang.

I will admit to not being deeply familiar w/ SD, but I suspect some of you might be a bit superficial about your knowledge of GS. Then again, I admit the bias: Grace was one of my first rock crushes.

I also don't recall Sandy Denny ever plotting to spike Nixon's tea with LSD (she got to tag along w/ a friend to the white house and they were planning it) forget how that ended up getting stopped - think someone spotted her name on the list and said, um, no...

Of course I know Eric would probably be just as happy slogging in on the SD side of the argument (been there done that) ;-)

[ka-klick.livejournal.com]

OK, followup, just googled the story:

Grace Slick: See, Trish Nixon’s daughter went to Finch College, and it was so small that she invited all of the alumni to a tea at the White House. But my name when I went there was Grace Wing, that doesn’t mean anything right? Now, Grace Slick meant something.
So I get an invitation to the White House and I call up Abbie Hoffman and say [Sing-songy] “Guess what I have….I’ve got an invitation to the White House.” So I put 600 mics of acid under a long fingernail I had for cocaine, and we go and we’re standing in line, and the security guard comes up to me and says, “I’m sorry you can’t go in. You’re a security risk.” And I go, “What?!” And he says, “You’re on the FBI list.” And I go, “What?!?!” And I found out that the members of Jefferson Airplane were on a list because of “suspect lyrics.”
They didn’t know why I was a security threat, but they were right.