Monday, June 8, 2015

North Regional

THE SO CALLED “ ALL-TIME GREATEST ALBUMS” TOURNAMENT
Rolling Stone magazine compiled a list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was ranked first. Is this correct? I don’t know, let’s find out.
I’ve taken the top 66 albums on the list (excluding compilations) and set up a head to head tournament --NCAA Basketball style. The albums are seeded by their rank on Rolling Stone’s list, and are split into four regionals. There is also a “play-in” round consisting of the last four albums (63 to 66). Albums will advance based on votes received during a matchup. Rolling Stone gets one vote - the equivalent of saying the top seed is already ahead 1 to 0. I’ll be voting under my “joeseddit” moniker.  joeseddit gets 1.5 votes. That’s not fair but I have my reason: This site gets a fair amount of page views, but no one comments as much as I’d hoped (except for Larry to whom I’m grateful for doing so). So I figure I’ll be the only one voting in most cases. And if I disagree with Rolling Stone’s ranking, many of these matchups will result in a tie. So basically the half vote is a tie breaker.
If you’d like to place a vote, do so in the comment section by mentioning both albums in a matchup and which album you’re voting for. Votes will be confirmed as counted and recorded in the brackets by joetopic. There’s no way I can verify, but I ask that you PLEASE don’t vote on a matchup in which you haven’t heard both albums, no matter how unbeatable you feel your favorite album is. joeseddit will do the same (There are several I haven’t heard ; I plan to listen to some as the tournament progresses but I won’t be able to get to all of them). Obviously you will be able to identify joeseddit’s choice by the “half-vote” in the score, and will be able see that joeseddit didn’t vote if there is no “half-vote”.
The rounds are scheduled to afford time for me and anyone else who wants to play along to listen to some of the albums (I’ve attached “full album” links some cases). The earlier rounds will have a longer voting period because there are more albums to consider. joeseddit will break a tie if such an instance should occur. Of course this can only happen in a matchup that joeseddit didn’t vote on due not having heard both albums. So I’ll need a bit of time to listen to the album (or albums) to break the tie.

ROUND 1 ENDED 6-22                ROUND 2 ENDED 7-3           ROUND 3 ENDED 7-8             ROUND 4 ENDED 7-12

2 Pet Sounds                2
                                      63 Physical Graffiti  2.5
63 Physical Graffiti     2.5
                                                                        63 Physical Graffiti     0
34 Hotel California       0
                                      31 Music From Big Pink 2
31 Music From Big Pink 3
                                                                                                                15 Blood on the Tracks      1
18 Astral Weeks       3.5
                                      18 Astral Weeks       0
47 Meet the Beatles     1
                                                                        15 Blood on the Tracks 4.5
50 Songs in the Key of Life 1
                                      15 Blood on the Tracks 4.5
15 Blood on the Tracks 3.5
                                                                                                                                                                 55 Sticky Fingers           
10 The Beatles             2
                                      55 Sticky Fingers  2.5
55 Sticky Fingers       2.5
                                                                        55 Sticky Fingers     2.5
42 A Love Supreme      0
                                      23 Rumours             2
23 Rumours                  3
                                                                                                                55 Sticky Fingers            3.5
26 Led Zeppelin           2
                                      39 Dark Side of the Moon 0
39 Dark Side of the Moon 2.5
                                                                        7 Exile on Main Street  2
58 Off the Wall             0
                                      7 Exile on Main Street  4.5
7 Exile on Main Street  3

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