[Results] The Best Songs of the 1970s

Zorg · Post by **Zorg** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:41 pm

170 points separate London Calling from the next song on our list, either "Heroes" or Born to Run. That's right. One hundred and seventy! The largest jump between any two songs on our list - "Heroes" and Born to Run were far ahead of the competition. So who will take first!?!?!

The lowest vote that "Heroes" got was a 97 from Henry. The lowest that Born to Run got was 138/145 from CharlieDriggs.

But Born to Run had 15 fans, whereas "Heroes" only had 11. So who will win!?!?!?! Find out next time...

Zorg · Post by **Zorg** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:54 am

Finally time to finish it off. In the end it wasn't even close.

[2] David Bowie | "Heroes" | 1879.9 pts
AM rank : 30
AM 1970s rank : 8
AMF 2012 All-Time poll rank : 4
AMF 2010 1970s poll rank : 2
Position in 1977 poll: 1

Fans : Greg (4) Henrik (12) TimmyWing (4) Romain (4) Otisredding (7) Mindrocker (6) Honorio (7) DaveC (14) Dan (4) CharlieDriggs (14) Brad (5) BleuPanda (4)
Haters : Henry (97)

Rob : To say that Bowie was on a roll during the seventies is an understatement (this poll is as good a proof as any) and most would say his crown achievement, at least from a song standpoint, would be Heroes. It’s my second favourite of his in this decade (I’m still blaming you all for the absence of Young Americans), but that says very little. This is a monumental epic set against the backdrop of Berlin Wall, now a piece of history, but that oddly only gives it more of a classic feel. There is a lot to admire here, but above all for me it is a showpiece for Bowie’s voice. How he goes from quiet to almost screaming at the end may not be necessarily original, but it was hardly ever as satisfying. Be warned though, the single version ruins this build-up completely. The album cut is the one to go for.

Honorio : Sometimes fiction surpasses reality. Bowie peeped two lovers dating by the Berlin wall, unaware or the danger (legend says that it was Tony Visconti having an extramarital affair) and created a heroic love tale with "guns shot above our heads." The awesome Eno atmospheres, Fripp guitar and Bowie vocal performance made the rest. Just for one day…

[1] Bruce Springsteen | Born to Run | 1972.8 pts
AM rank : 13
AM 1970s rank : 2
AMF 2012 All-Time poll rank : 16
AMF 2010 1970s poll rank : 1
Position in 1975 poll: 1

Fans : Greg (12) TimmyWing (13) Stone37 (6) Rockyracoon (8) PlasticRam (3) Otisredding (2) Nicolas (6) Mindrocker (4) LiveinPhoenix (8) Honorio (1) Henry (9) Harold (3) Dan (2) Brad (1) BleuPanda (1)
Haters : CharlieDriggs (138/145)

Rob : The runaway song to end all runaway songs. It has become Springsteen’s signature song simply because it captures everything that The Boss is about and what makes him so beloved by many. There is the romanticism of travelling on the road, the life of hardships as a background, the love story, the often intelligible, but equally irresistible singing, the saxophone of Clemonts, the driving guitar sound, the bigness of the music and a feeling of empowerment as both an individual and as a mass. The stuff true classics are made of.

Honorio : Cars and girls. Maybe these backstreet Romeo and Juliet stories of the first Springsteen albums only happened in a parallel universe but introduced an epic tone in rock music almost unheard previously (at least in such heights) and almost unreachable after, even by Springsteen himself. Some things hurt more much more than cars and girls? Really?

See you again soon for the albums! I'll post the spreadsheet soon with some stats.

nicolas · Post by **nicolas** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:01 pm

I just LOVE that final list. Thanks !!!

Post by **Henrik** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:24 pm

Wonderful show, Zorg!!!

The originals of Bohemian Rhapsody and Superstition are great, but these are huge favorites of mine as well.

Live in Phoenix · Post by **Live in Phoenix** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:27 pm

I always love these rollouts. Great job, Zorg

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:23 pm

Well, well, that's some top 20! Zorg, thanks very much for all the work you've put into this and for the impressive presentation!

Henry · Post by **Henry** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:29 pm

Fantastic job Zorg. I am looking forward to the Album countdown.

DocBrown · Post by **DocBrown** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 7:17 pm

Henrik wrote:Wonderful show, Zorg!!!

The originals of Bohemian Rhapsody and Superstition are great, but these are huge favorites of mine as well.

There's also this cover of Bohemian Rhapsody by a fellow who was my son-in-law's best friend growing up.

Zorg · Post by **Zorg** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:31 pm

Henry wrote:Fantastic job Zorg. I am looking forward to the Album countdown.

The list is compiled, so I'll begin that tomorrow. For now, here is the final spreadsheet, and I think after the album countdowns are done, I'll do stats and correlations etc.

P.S. Just realised how many people hated Piano Man. Jesus!

PPS. The file is called FINAL albums list because I'm a dummy. It is the songs list.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Jan 27, 2015 10:21 am

A bit of a late reaction, but still: great work, Zorg. Also, Born to Run is great winner. I knew it was a candidate for the top spot, but wouldn't have guessed it would win this big.

Nassim · Post by **Nassim** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 10:45 am

Well, I hope Zorg is fine, we were promised the albums for last Monday and haven't heard of him since !

Zorg · Post by **Zorg** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 2:30 pm

Everything is fine - work has been a bit hectic over the last couple of days and I was getting frustrated typing in all of the "AM 70s position : " things, so I've done very little over the last couple of days.

But hopefully I will begin in about an hour or so.

Listyguy · Post by **Listyguy** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:38 pm

Zorg wrote:Everything is fine - work has been a bit hectic over the last couple of days and I was getting frustrated typing in all of the "AM 70s position : " things, so I've done very little over the last couple of days.

But hopefully I will begin in about an hour or so.

It's too late to suggest this now, but what I did was I made the presentation "slide" (I don't know what to call them) for each album after the month of their year in the poll. I would fill in as much information as I could then and I filled in what was left once I got the results. I should have mentioned that at some point, it saves you from getting flooded now. Whoever's doing the 60s poll (I forgot who) should keep this in mind.

Zorg · Post by **Zorg** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:53 pm

It's not too bad - though that said, if I have to VLOOKUP or Text to Columns one more time, I think I may collapse

DaveC · Post by **DaveC** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 6:29 pm

Listyguy wrote:
Zorg wrote:Everything is fine - work has been a bit hectic over the last couple of days and I was getting frustrated typing in all of the "AM 70s position : " things, so I've done very little over the last couple of days.

But hopefully I will begin in about an hour or so.
It's too late to suggest this now, but what I did was I made the presentation "slide" (I don't know what to call them) for each album after the month of their year in the poll. I would fill in as much information as I could then and I filled in what was left once I got the results. I should have mentioned that at some point, it saves you from getting flooded now. Whoever's doing the 60s poll (I forgot who) should keep this in mind.

Sound advice. Not sure if I will be that organised, but I will try.

Great work here Zorg.

BleuPanda · Post by **BleuPanda** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:21 am

I wonder how a list like this would look if we divided the votes between people who lived through the 70s and those who only know this music through later exposure. I would say we should consider getting that information for the next poll, but I feel it will be a long time off until we get a fairly significant divide (we'd probably have to cycle all the way back to the 80s).

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