Congratulations to Tony, who just pipped EclecticMusicLover in last week’s First Three Songs #10 quiz, both scoring 19/20.
It’s another tough one this week, although maybe slightly easier and more oriented toward guitar rock. Just like last week, I’ve only heard 6 of these records.
https://www.sporcle.com/games/chief7575/first3songs6
I scored 18/20 – I squandered a few guesses on Blood, Sweat & Tears 3.
I was amazed that it was a #1 album back in the day – I’ve never seen it discussed anywhere and don’t know any of the songs. Wikipedia reports that “Village Voice critic Robert Christgau panned David Clayton-Thomas’s singing as “belching”, while calling “Symphony for the Devil” a “pretty good rock and roll song revealed as a pseudohistorical middlebrow muddle when suite-ened.””
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees for 2023 were just announced. It was a good class of nominees. Even though I probably prefer the list of unlucky candidates, like Joy Division/New Order, Iron Maiden, and Warren Zevon, to the actual inductees, it’s still a good class. I was happy to see Kate Bush finally get the nod – it seemed like her year, after the belated chart success of ‘Running Up That Hill’. Lyricist Bernie Taupin receiving an award for musical excellence seems misguided.
This is an interesting article about the hall’s inner workings here – https://www.vulture.com/2023/04/rock-hall-of-fame-member-resigns.html, although I’m still bemused why Stevie Nicks deserved an induction as a solo artist. I also think that the Hall’s sexism is a by-product of the music industry’s sexism back in the 1960s and 1970s – the gender imbalance should even out somewhat as more recent artists are added.
Can you beat my score? And have you heard 3?
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18/20, 3:13 left.
Great work!
19/20, with 1:20 left. I couldn’t read a few of the album covers, so had to guess. I’m honestly surprised I got 19 correct!
I found the Lynyrd Skynyrd one tricky – I’ve heard that album so I should know what it looks like. But it doesn’t look like a Lynyrd Skynyrd album cover.
16/20 (ran out of wrong guesses at 16 seconds left) About the Hall, I think any time something gets political it spoils it. Not sure what a better way to choose nominees would be, but…
16 is a good effort. The definition of rock and roll is a bit tricky – it was more clearly defined at the start where it was all clearly rock and roll and R&B. But as they move through the years, the cutting edge music is more often hip hop or pop. Should be the popular music hall of fame.
G – you are wasting a lot of your valuable time about the stupid Cleveland, OH RockHOF (a totally invented thing for tourists) – Like the Grammys – and a bunch of other stuff I left behind in my mind.
I didn’t look, but I bet Par Benetar or someone like that is in the HOF. A one-hit wonder who likely didn’t even write the song.
I think Pat Benatar made it in last year. She wasn’t a one-hit wonder though because she had a shitload of hits.
She doesn’t really seem like someone who’s very influential. On the other hand, if someone is looking in 100 years time, she’s pretty representative of mainstream music for her era. Stevie Nicks solo is still my biggest bugbear – she’s an icon, but doesn’t have an amazing solo career.
She was like all mainstream commercial Rock, it was just hit or miss. She could be good at times though and her husband was a good guitar player. Listen to her version of Wuthering Heights . It’s breathtaking.
It’s interesting because it is so messy and flawed. I like the article how the invitation was unprofessional.
What do you mean you don’t know any of the songs on Blood Sweat and Tears 3?? Of course you do. It’s got great songs that you know by Laura Nyro, Carole King James Taylor. And a couple of their hits. The way they do the Stones song is pretty sucky, but the hits are pretty good.
I could have worded that better. I took a peek at the tracklist when I was writing the post and I know the songs but not Blood, Sweat, and Tears’ versions.
17/20. I always screw up something that should be easy. Like Eminem and Snoop Dogg which I got wrong. Sometimes you’ve got to think harder than your first instinct.
Sometimes you can kind of guess by the genre if you just have a few left. I don’t know a whole lof of Eminem, but did recognise “My name is”.
Actually that was my problem. Both Snoop Dogg and Eminem had a song about their name, and I just picked the first one I saw without thinking about it first.
17/20 for me and I got a couple lucky guesses.
Good score!
19/20 with 2:51 left. So close.
Great work – you were winning when you posted, although I think Rich Kamerman has just eclipsed your time.
I knew it wouldn’t last, but at least I had the lead for a short while!! LOL
You did well.
Fair. I only know the one song, thankfully. If you hear any of her other songs today on songs radio, you must be listening to a terrible station – IMO.
They don’t even play her in backwoods Canada, which is saying something.
She’s in, but not the smiths or JD/new order, INXS. I could go on, but it’s a waste of time and brain power.
Anyhow – keep up the good work. Love it all!!
I only ever heard ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ and ‘Love is a Battlefield’. It’s a shame JD/New Order didn’t make it this year – I thought the combined nomination was a good idea.
I was referring to Pat Benetar actually being in the rock hall of fame.
I knew 18 of these immediately then took an unlucky guess and ended up with 19/20, all with 3:34 left on the clock. If only I had recognized the Eminem album cover it would’ve been a perfect score. As for the R&RHoF, I gave up caring (and the institution became mostly irrelevant) a long time ago, but I always look on from a distance with bemusement. When I started working at Atlantic Records in 1988, a few people who organized the HoF induction process used office space in the same area as me. None of them were music people per se. Sure, they worked in the industry, but they weren’t passionate about anything music-related. It made me skeptical of the whole thing. I did, however, end up with programs from some of the early induction ceremonies, including the first one, so those are nice collector’s items.
Great work!
I do think it’s a pretty tricky being a rock and roll hall of fame voter nowadays. Like how many voters are actually familiar with Fela Kuti, Chaka Khan, and Kate Bush to make informed choices between them.
10. A bit better.
Yup, good work!
19/20 with 3:52 left on the clock – felled by not being able to recognise a Lynyrd Skynyrd album cover if it was painted on the side of my house
I’ve heard that album and still struggled with it – it just doesn’t look like i would expect a Lynyrd Skynyrd album cover to look like.
Speaking of bands who will never be in the stupid HOF, my fav five Bright Eyes songs:
1. We are everywhere it’s now (from the big album)
2. Shell games (from the next album with the fire on the cover)
3. The ladder song (same album)
4. Poison oak
5. Lua
Yeah he might struggle to make it. I guess it wouldn’t be very indie for indie to have its own hall of fame.
Maybe I should be a HoF voter, since I consider myself a big fan of all three of those artists, but why would they want someone who’s passionate and knowledgeable about music?
I really don’t know Chaka Khan at all – the only thing I know is that Prince wrote I Feel For You for her. Other two I’m a fan of. But pretty hard to be knowledgeable about every nominee at this point.
We should totally have our modern Rock HOF. It can even be in Rochester – don’t care. But it would likely be in Seattle or Austin.
Then just induct the Smiths, INXS, New Order. No Pat Benetar.
I imagine those three all have a decent chance at some point.
Late to the party. 15/20. Thanks for the reminder of what an asshole Christgau is.
Solid score. He does seem a little grumpy somtimes.
I know a lot of people like him. I find him to be just flat out wrong in his assessments far too many times. He seems too often to be the “well if everybody else likes it I hate it” guy. I can’t respect him. We bloggers do a better job.