There were some deliberate no brainers thrown into the mix in this quiz, and the responses sometimes reflect this.  A healthy majority of you picked Joni Mitchell at no. 11, and understandably so since her ouevre is much more considerable, her songwriting skill better, her fame wider, her creativity more obvious, on top of which she was a darn good artist as well.  Having said all that, Judy Collins had a far superior voice than middle period Joni of heavy duty quaver tone and vibrato fame (see her Both Sides Now lp).  Judy Collins could bring you to tears in a instant with her Amazing Grace or her version of Joni’s Both Sides Now.  I once heard her in D.C. and it was epiphanic, like going to an early period Joan Baez concert.  The voice was thrilling.  On the other hand, I heard Joni for the first time at Cameron Indoor just after her Blue lp came out…. and she was magical and mystical, and this brings up an important point.   In rock or folk rock the race does not always go to the best voices.  Gino Vanelli could attest to that.  Its the whole package or combination of factors, and on that score it has to be Joni.

In regard to no. 12,   I was surprised how many of you picked Blood, Sweat and Tears, chiefly on the basis of their one Grammy winning lp and perhaps because of David Clayton Thomas’ wonderful and soulful voice.   Chicago of course had much more longevity and went through a whole series of metamorphoses from real jazz rock (early) to more straight rock with horns, to power ballads and anthems, and with these changes were lots of notable personnel changes. Many of you mentioned a love of the early Chicago which was the Terry Kath guitar leader and singer Chicago.  But the lost of Peter Cetera was big as well.  I have seen them in several of these incarnations, and enjoyed them, and their recent tours with the remnants of Earth Wind and Fire have been good, and re-energized them.  They still write excellent tunes, whereas Blood Sweat and Tears did a significant amount of cover tunes and did not have the array of singers Chicago has had.  Chicago rightly won this category.

No. 13 is in fact our most overwhelming result yet—- the Byrds in a landslide.  This is both interesting and amazing in various ways, but clearly the Byrds had more scope and influence and popularity both in their Crosby psychedelic Dylan playing days and in their later Crosby-less more country days.   Sometime you should check out the Byrds doing a whole lp of Dylan songs with those harmonies and 12 string electrics. Interesting. 

Poco, however is under-rated here, especially the Poco of Richie Furay and  Jim Messina and George Grantham and Timothy B. Schmidt and others.  Those boys were fabulous live performers (listen to their live in Boston lp) and that second album with the big California orange on it was incredible— gave rock life to pedal steel guitar playing.  They were a ‘Good Feeling to Know’, and still are.

  Boston was given a slight edge over Kansas, and this one was deliberately a tough call, especially if you were to leave out of account that Boston only had one great lp—their first one.  You would also have to discount that Boston was not much of an outside the studio band either but they certainly had a great singer and guitar player and wrote some tunes you can’t get out of your brain, try as you may (it must be because its ‘More than a Feeling’).  Kansas on the other hand were just as innovative in various ways, (remember all that fiddle playing) and they should not be reduced to the silly notion they were a two hit wonder (Dust in the Wind and Carry On….). Their albums were often grandiose and ambitious and had long pieces that were more like symphony movements, and they could definitely bring it live.  These two bands are two that I missed, and wish I hadn’t but they never came near where I was.

As for no. 15, two of you get the ‘twisted mister’ award for choosing Kiss over Aerosmith!   Sorry but other than Gene Simmons surgically altered tongue and his parody of himself in a Dr. Pepper commercial of late, that band pales into insignificance in the comparison. They can’t even play their way out of the parking lot into the arena compared to yet another Boston band— Aerosmith!   Never mind that Kiss couldn’t write more than two decent rock songs ever, which they played ad nauseum.  The range of Aerosmith’s catalog was impressive and huge even if some would say they never had a landmark album (Dream On… perhaps). The difference was like listening to a frat party band and going to a real rock concert, unless of course you are in it for the pyrotechnics and glad rags.

Many of you commented on how tough the next one was to decide— Billy Joel or Elton John, with a slight edge to Elton John given. This was a deliberately tough choice, and its interesting to see these two competitors touring together recently.  Both of these boys were good composers, good pianists (both with some classical training— see Joel’s latter day classical lp!), both excellent live in their prime, and both produced landmark albums, with John having more hits, but Joel having more stem to stern excellent albums. After the Your Song and Goodbye Yellowbrick Road lps, there were some forgettable Elton albums, but even late in his career Joel cranked out some wonderful whole albums— e.g. the River of Dreams album and the Allentown album.  Elton was more of the Brit glam rock showman, Joel more of the blue collar N.Y. guy drawing on the city culture he loved in his lyrics. I love them both, but on that island and all by himself I’d rather hear Billy.

As for no. 17,  sorry you don’t get a two for one deal.  By Phil Collins I mean his solo lps, not the Genesis stuff.  The comparison was made because in his solo stuff he indulged in a lot of remakes of Motown soul (remember ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’) and Hall and Oates were the quintessential blue eyed soul from Philly folks.  There must have been ‘Something in the Air’ when this choice was made preferring Phil by a considerable margin, because clearly Hall and Oates win this one in live performance, in better albums, in more No.1 singles, in longevity etc. Its not close.  Try out even their recent albums– for example ‘Do it for Love’.  Methinks some of you have just been listening to Greatest Hits  Cds instead of whole albums.

I honestly thought we might have a unanimous vote at no. 18, but boy was I wrong. Dylan clearly won, but Bruce got a lot of votes.  The irony is that Bruce is on record that even he would vote for Dylan over himself if we are comparing the whole catalog and each one singing and playing at their very best. 

Dylan was the game changer for both folk and electric and country rock (remember Nashville Skyline— where did that voice come from???), and no one could write songs like Bobby Zimmerman, the most covered artist next to the Beatles in the whole era.  Now I love Bruce as well, and he has had some tremendous albums— I never thought he had a Ballad of Tom Joad or a Devils and Dust in him until he produced them, and recent outtake collections show just how prolific and gifted a song writer he has been for over thirty years, but then compared to Bob’s 40 plus years….. he still has a way to go. 

I once saw a concert in Charlotte when Bob was touring with the Band—- the Band opened and then backed up Bob. I still have the picture of the concert on
my wall.  It was mind blowing…. blowing in the wind, an idiot wind, a hurricane….. wish I could see it again.   If North America ever experiences an apocalypse, I hope someone puts about 20 of Bob’s albums in the Library of Congress time capsule— oh wait,  they already did that!!

As for those of you that thought if you get the Police you also get the Sting catalog as well,  you clearly didn’t go to the Police concert tour two years ago— all Police all the time.  And anyway,  the Police were initially a punk rock band  (Roxanne), a sort of upscale version of the Clash which later morphed into something more MOR in the Every Breath You Take phase of things.  Me personally, I would much rather hear Sting and all his wonderful solo jazz influenced stuff…. which leads me to a story. 

Whilst living in Durham England there was this English teacher up the road in Newcastle named Gordon Sumner who played jazz bass in clubs for fun. He was found by a drummer with ambitions and the Police were born. Sting still has one of the great great tenor voices in all of rock music, and he will be a pleasure to hear on our lost island even if he only has his acoustic guitar and himself.

Weighing in at no. 20,  a slight majority of you picked Cream over Toto, and I would be willing to bet the younger ones mostly picked the 70s-80s band, and the older ones picked the 60s only band.  Toto has a longer track record and a more diverse body of work, but it is hard to argue with Disraeli Gears and the other Cream albums if we are talking influential 3 or 4 member bands with killer singer, drummer, bass player, and of course guitarist.  Of late I listen to Toto a lot more frequently ( and I commend Steve Lukather’s wonderful new solo lp– Ever Changing Times, proving rock still has a pulse). 

We’re two thirds of the way through here…. and the quirky award goes to the blogger who said he did not known either Cream or Toto and so voted for Leo Sayers in the last category!!!   All I can say is you must be trippin’ and dancin’ the night away.