GL Playoffs : Championship

[RM]

This is it. The Championship.

The two combatants have each survived three searing skirmishes in the SmallTalk Forum, and now take the main stage to determine who will be crowned the '2009 Least Liked Lightfoot Tune Tournament' champion.

This tournament has had it all : overtimes, upsets, nail-biters, routs, buzzer-beaters, and, yes, even a conspiracy. It has been administered in a democratic and sportsman-like fashion. (if we were to start over, the results might be completely different. But what is....is)

There is no room for fence sitters in this one.

Let the game begin.....

Poll closes in 5 days.

Good Luck.

ps :

(to show I harbor no ill will toward those who plotted against Canary Yellow Canoe, I offer this fun little video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_YrJABjYBE )

[charlene]

Easy peasy to pick this one..


That's a sublime little home video of Prine at the kitchen table..loved it!

John Prine puts on a damn fine show. I remember him telling the story aabout "The Happy Enchilada" when I saw him at Ontario Place several years ago..also on the bill that night were Lyle Lovett and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

The folks at Hugh's Room (Jason Fowler and Jory Nash amongst several others) have the "Prine Shrine" coming up again. I attended a few years ago and it was a wonderful evening of Prine music and stories.
http://www.google.com/calendar/event...zFKa3GxLGkCz3A

[jj]

fun vid, thanks...he looks best in that era, i'd say...and then i was tagged to many other nice listens including duets with patty griffin, iris dement and our man, mac wiseman! take a drive down the backroads while listening to his Gord cover song cassette for a hoot...just keep the 6 pack low, lol

well, what will our Massey 09 t-shirt theme be?...the old GL newsgroup one almost foreshadowed this outcome...the Duke of Fowles is already probably working on a follow up to the jessie jo buttons (polar bear on my right...)

[RM]

Originally Posted by charlene

John Prine puts on a damn fine show. I remember him telling the story aabout "The Happy Enchilada" when I saw him at Ontario Place several years ago..

Indeed. I think he tells, and embellishes, that story in ever changing ways. When I saw him a couple of years ago, the person requesting it was the ex-wife of a saxophone player he was friends with. As he was denying ever writing a song about a "happy enchililada", he threw in "Maybe you're thinking of Jimmy Buffet. He wrote some songs about food."

Fun stuff.

[Borderstone]

Had to vote for May I for least,I happen to like Canary Yellow Canoe.

[joveski]

i also love Canary... it shows a different side to him

[KHester]

CRC is so unusual it makes you think maybe somebody else's song was mixed up and labeled as a Gordon tune. I do kind of like it. May I is just very different. I'm voting for May I.

Kevin

[JohnStinson]

To me...this is such an unusual top 2. Oh well ...we'll see what happens in the 'off season' Maybe the next season of competitions will result in a better representation of the best of the least category.

So we will have to present the 2009 Gordon Globe award to one of these two fine jingles.

I voted for CYC. ..against my feeling that CYC does not qualify as an 'official' tune.

One other reason, that I have not mentioned before, is, May I was written when Gord was a young man and perhaps not as savy in tune smithing. Writing CYC after working and writing for so many years proves it to be the lesser of the two.

But I say again.... its GL tunes..love them all.

[JohnStinson]

Oh one more thing... and maybe this is an 'oops'. I have no clue when Gord wrote CYC...could have been his first song.

oh well ..i never said i was an investigative 'tune' historian.

have a wonderful day...its snowing again in Toronto
" and the streets are brown and gritty"

[jj]

Originally Posted by JohnStinson

Oh one more thing... and maybe this is an 'oops'. I have no clue when Gord wrote CYC...could have been his first song.

hi John, CYC was noted as an out take from the 1981 Shadows recordings

in case some don't have the wee font-ed Songbook liner notes (or need a new spectacles presciption, lol) here's some gordspeak (when will this term finally be included in Websters?):



" I actually had a canary-yellow canoe, a Royalex. I wrapped it around a rock. It was there about 14 hours, and we never could free it. In the song I listed a whole bunch of places I have been canoeing, but there may be one or two I haven't been yet. I haven't been across to Resolute, on Victoria Island. Some of the places in the song are rivers and some of them are towns, like Ross River. Ross River is a little town in the Yukon Territories, right in the middle of the northern Rockies. You have to drive up the Alaska Highway and turn right and drive 150 miles to get there."


...even in sports, some make it into the Finals even if they didn't have a good 'record'...many examples, how about the Cards in the shooper bowl this past year?


the problem with the March Madness (horizontal pyramid) format is some potential finalists are pitted head to head in the early or semi rounds...rm, did well in avoiding this to a large degree


if Couchiching didnt have sentimental value ('i will sing my final number by lake couchiching'...probably true) and have that intersting chorus cadence, then i'd have to agree: that as standard releases go and your prior poll indicated, it's takes the Razzie award for fairly lame composition and verse lyrics...if you pop it on after a few coolies, you gotta admit that the bass line and congo-like percussion set a pretty catchy groove


sorry for the diversion...let's get back to deep analysis of pin the tail on the donkey, and my elephant too


ps) glad to hear Tim's making the Legiondary gig...exciting stuff, guys!

[RM]

Just thought I would give this one more 'bounce' to the top. Poll closes tomorrow.

Voter apathy seems to be at an all time high. I guess everyone is making their plans for the "Tea Party".....whatever that is.

[jj]

Originally Posted by RM

Just thought I would give this one more 'bounce' to the top. Poll closes tomorrow.

Voter apathy seems to be at an all time high. I guess everyone is making their plans for the "Tea Party".....whatever that is.

sounds about as exciting as Green tea (which everyone seems to be into)

i think the confidential vote leads makes it like a silent auction (or ebay bidding) and you end up with a lot of potential participants waiting til the last minute to commit

remember, there are many,many corfid members but only about 20 seem to own a mouse

[JohnStinson]

wow...CYC was a Shadow outtake... ??

well it must have been the easiest of decisions. unbelieveable!!

One more thought...

i know we really dis CYC...but ... Is there any arrangement were this is could actually have been reasonable..

Just a thought..

[jj]

Originally Posted by JohnStinson

i know we really dis CYC...but ... Is there any arrangement were this is could actually have been reasonable..

one vote for 'no'...it's a pity, the lyrics are quite moving

[RM]

Well.... let me present the ''2009 Least Liked Lightfoot Tune Tournament' champion :


May I

Originally Posted by jj

i think the confidential vote leads makes it like a silent auction (or ebay bidding) and you end up with a lot of potential participants waiting til the last minute to commit

Right.....and there's a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy to boot. This competition had conspiracy written all over it.

Alas, the graceful and elegant ceremony planned for CYC can no longer take place. I leave you with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKThn4hD9bE

[vlmagee]

Too bad, really. I guess everybody who voted for May I as the worst song never heard the Skip Weshner party tape, where Skip's daughter (who sounds about 5) keeps begging Gord to sing it. And Gord says something like, "The kids all love that song". I actually think it was a clever little song that kids would relate to, and that's why he wrote it. No, it's not brilliant songwriting, but an example of putting together a lot of (children's) nonsense phrases and making a song out of it. Later he wrote The Pony Man, which became his song for children, but May I was the first one. At least that's my take on it.

I won't comment on Canary Yellow Canoe, but you know how I voted.

[charlene]

I voted for May I.
and I've been drinking green tea for years..

[Nightingale]

Well shoot!
I didn't vote because I was too busy having a tea party with relatives.
I can't help but feel that May I became the least liked song because I wasn't here to vote for CYC.

Oh well, my least favorite G.L. song is still "Knotty Pine"....lol.

[fezo]

Oh, so it's your fault?

I was a May I. Some of that because all things being equal that would have gotten my vote anyway but I add in the fact that it was a regular release - just sitting there with other songs that belong there while it is out of place.

CYC was an out take. My experience with such things is that invariably when artists release "previously unreleased" material from ald collections you find out there was a perfectly good reason they were unreleased - they sren't as good as the stuff that made the cut.

[RM]

Originally Posted by fezo

I was a May I. Some of that because all things being equal that would have gotten my vote anyway but I add in the fact that it was a regular release - just sitting there with other songs that belong there while it is out of place.

Oh good, another poster to add to my "ignore list". Unfortunately, one cannot ignore the moderator. Believe me....I tried.

Just kidding about all of the above.......

[charlene]

Why I oughtta....

[RM]

Originally Posted by mayi

what makes you say that?

Oh, let's see......over the course of 4.75 days, 15 votes had been cast. The score at that time......CYC (8), May I (7), and it had not changed for 2 days. Victory was assured, because I had not cast my vote yet.

Within the last 6 hours, May I not only tied it up, but took a 1 vote lead. Determined to send it to overtime, I then cast my vote.

That lasted for approximately 45 minutes, and then ANOTHER vote was cast for May I. I was out of ammo. There was nothing else I could do.

Welcome to the "Tea Party"........

[jj]

Originally Posted by fezo

g there with other songs that belong there while it is out of place.

CYC was an out take. My experience with such things is that invariably when artists release "previously unreleased" material from ald collections you find out there was a perfectly good reason they were unreleased - they sren't as good as the stuff that made the cut.

maybe the May I track should have been saved for release with the Pony Man booklet...you know, a bonus 45 included with the literature...not a representative sample but my kid shrugged in indifference to both tracks whereas he screetched at me to "TURN IT DOWN!" when i play the CYC track...it's interesting which GL tracks turn his crank...perhaps a separate thread or poll for those with kids still nesting or who can recall kid faves from earlier days

if CYC hadnt made the cut of the Rarities selections, just think what could have been it it's place...hopefully something less spewing and a bit more groovy... something that sits in the pocket like Always on the Bright Side genre

as for final tally sabotage, i believe we had more or less another tie and this basically already was an head to head overtime...i'd like to know what rm had in mind for ultimate tiebreaker...no shootout, no pinata...but i woudl have suggested a tug of war...even though May I had the horsepower of a donkey, well, CYC had the strength of an elephant...meaning it truly is the ultimate stinker!

[jj]

Originally Posted by RM

Oh, let's see......over the course of 4.75 days, 15 votes had been cast. The score at that time......CYC (8), May I (7), and it had not changed for 2 days. Victory was assured

what this award's presentation is missing is Price Waterhouse representation

[RM]

Originally Posted by jj

i'd like to know what rm had in mind for ultimate tiebreaker.

Knowing what I do now, it would have been extremely complex.

You would align your choice with say, a sporting team or person. For example, if Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament, CYC would get a vote. If the Leafs make it to the playoffs, May I would get a vote......that sort of thing.