JOANNA NEWSOM SONG TOURNAMENT
Introduction
I thought this was a great idea for a bit of fun, proposed by Lawns Of Dawns [and loving the Nico nod, btw] and seconded by Jesse, in the thread “Favourite JN Songs”. So good, in fact, that – in the absence of any movement elsewhere, I decided to launch it myself. So apologies firstly to Lawns and Jesse .. please don’t think of it as stealing your idea, just as implementing your proposal. And apologies to anyone who detests the idea of ‘competition’ between such things – perhaps you can just just see it as a new way of stimulating conversation and interest.
Picking up on the idea of ‘seeding numbers’, I did a quick scan of the above mentioned thread, plus “That One Song” – also in “Right On” in the new forum. I wanted to revisit the old forum too, but it seems to have disappeared now . Anyway, I have used this rough-and-ready technique to rank the songs in forum users’ opinions, and therefore to prevent the more popular ones from being drawn together too early.
For the First Round, I have divided the songs into thirty-two Groups – each consisting of either two or three songs – and invite Forum users to select ONE song from each group to progress to the next round. I’ve included pretty much every Joanna Newsom song or collaboration I could think of, a few of which I’ve never heard myself, but some of you may have, and in this way it is as comprehensive as possible. If I have forgotten any, please bring them to my attention, and these will be slotted into the next stage of the tournament. Notwithstanding the ‘seedings’, the choice of whether a group has 2 or 3 songs is entirely random (except for the slight complication concerning ‘{I’m} Already Gone’ mentioned below, leading to a group with 2½ songs!) Also, the ordering of the groups is random, and so is the order in which the songs are listed within each group, where they are shown separated by a slash ‘ / ’.
Each song is only listed once, even though there are many different versions of several circulating. Please interpret this as meaning your personal favourite version of each song, whether it’s the MEM / Ys / HOOM album version, the “B”-side from Sprout And The Bean, an Ys Street Band EP version, the version on one of the early EPs, or one of the many live versions that can be found on JNTV, YouTube, or elsewhere. In a few cases, there is no choice but to fall back on a live version: I am thinking here of ‘Angel’, ‘Little Wing’, ‘Man’s Road’, ‘Prepared Harp Improv.’, and ‘Ring The Living Bell’.
Where there may be some confusion about a song, I have added a code in square brackets:
[GS] = song by Golden Shoulders
[KB] = song by Kevin Barker
[MB] = song by Moore Brothers
[NC] = song by Nervous Cop
[P] = song by The Pleased
[RL] = song by RF (=Ryan Francesconi) & Lili De La Mora
[S] = song by Smog
[V] = song by Vetiver
[VB] = song by Vashti Bunyan.
I am unsure whether The Pleased’s ‘I’m Already Gone’ and ‘Already Gone’ (from “One Piece From The Middle” [2002] and “Don’t Make Things” [2003] respectively) are the same song or not, so I have included both but put them in the same group: any additional information would be welcome.
The only things I have deliberately excluded are:
(1) mash-ups and songs where Joanna is sampled, such as ‘Right On’ by The Roots, and the recent ‘Milk Eyed Gangsta’ piece;
(2) “working titles” such as ‘Barbara’, ‘Be A Woman’, ‘Heart To Task’, ‘Opening Suite’, and ‘Sweet Esame’ that were drafts of songs subsequently released as official songs with proper titles: if one of these versions is your favourite, please consider it as under the final title ... but by all means explain yourself in the posting; and
(3) cover versions that don’t feature JN in some capacity or other.
If someone who knows more about such things than me would care to set up a similar tournament for these, please feel free, and then perhaps we can conclude with some form of “play off” between the respective winners!
In a couple of weeks’ time, I will review all the votes, and post the draw for the Second Round, which will be a straight knock-out between pairs of songs. I intend, however, to maintain an element of ‘seeding’ for a few more rounds yet – but your comments and advice would be welcome on this. Any seeding will be based on the previously expressed opinions of MilkyMoon users, rather than on my own preferences.
Please can I request that you vote only once per round. If you change your mind, make it clear in the text what you have changed, so that it’s easier for me to collate the responses.
In order to vote, please put a posting in this thread, listing each Group Number and the song selected from that group. The First Round will probably be largely a formality – to see off all the obscurities – but please vote anyway, and also use the opportunity to say if you think this is a horrid idea ... if that’s the majority view, I’ll discontinue it!
The First Round Draw will be posted in a few moments.