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1. I knew that Tull had to be here somewhere. I didn’t know that I might have to vote against them in favor of The Band or Dire Straits.

2. Long live the great poet Gerald Bostock.

3. Jeez, four very good bands here, including Waits, who somehow is still alive. So here it becomes a question of who I still listen to. At first I wasn’t going to go with the Band, in part because it has imprinted so well. Some seminal rock, but some horrible stuff too. And they suffer (perhaps unfairly) from that ridiculous movie, which can never again be taken seriously after Spinal Tap. Ditto Tull and Dire Straights–some marvelous stuff, but a fair amount of unlistenable stuff as well–especially Aqualung. Boy, did I ever get sick of that. Waits is great, and certainly has had influence, but it’s really one-dimensional. Very cool, but still. So I was all set to go with with Dire Straights. Knopfler got a bit full of himself after a while (although nothing compared to Robertson), but there was some fine music there–especially Making Movies, which I still listen to regularly–and he’s one of the only two guitar players I’ve seen who can actually make Clapton play interesting licks (Duane being the other). And then I remember The Basement Tapes. And Blonde and Blonde. And Levon Helm continuing to make some great music. They were never as great as critics thought they were–but they were still damn good. I’m voting for Queensryche.

   • wufnik: You’re never going to let that one go, are you? What if I promise that in the next round they face someone that’s going to be really, really hard to take down?

4. I’d suggest you introduce this tournament at Gitmo. But it might just be considered torture.

   • This tournament was designed to torment people. And the more you know about music, the more it should hurt.

5. Knopfler! Finally someone I really like 🙂

6. Speaking of Spinal Tap, when do they appear? They were pretty big in Japan, I hear. If we’re giving credit to rock that was big in Europe, we should take Japan into consideration, too.

   I haven’t made a decision just yet. This one is a toughie.

7. I promise not to bring it up again until the next round.

8. For my money, The Band may be talented, but I can’t stand their music. Ugh. The Weight, Cripple Creek, Dixie Down, all hurt my ears. Robbie Robertson did release a great solo album however.

   Regarding Tom Waits, I had a friend in college say “This guy really sucks, but I kinda like him.” Is that the mark of a true artist? Discuss.

   The next four rank pretty high with me (as does Waits) and this is going to be a tough one. I’m leaning towards Kansas because they have the greatest number of songs I can name off the top of my head. Then I think the Buzzcocks because they broke new ground. It’s probably going to be one of those two.

   I don’t know, I think of Knopler’s tasty licks and I lean back his way. Good grief.

   • Retro: before you pull that level, go back and listen to “Down to the Waterline.” Just saying….

9. Sam wrote: “This tournament was designed to torment people. And the more you know about music, the more it should hurt.”

   I know A LOT about music – and this pod HURTS. There are FIVE artists here who legitimately deserve to move on were they in many of the other pods.

   Still we’re supposed to be choosing the greatest of all time – and there is one band here that deserves to move on based on that criterion – The Band.

10. I know a ton of people love him but I never understood the Tom Waits love, I physically can’t listen to him . I got a chance to listen to Mark Knopfler record for a few weeks while I was interning in Nashville. I felt cool because I got to set up his gear. With all the shit country that came through there on a daily basis this was the best few weeks I ever had being in a studio. I also got to hear him work on a song with Emmylou Harris in the lounge, later they would team up and do an album. The sheer amount of studio musicians that were in and out of there that week, and the praise I heard from them was unmatched. It was funny seeing all the studio guys get giddy when he was coming to record. No other artist received that reaction the few years I spent in Nashville. It may be unfair to the other bands, because I was never in the same situation personally with them, but It’s safe to say that Knopfler is one of the most respected and influential rock artists in the biz. Also he was really cool, so he gets my vote.

11. Dr. Slammy, trying to influence the vote, eh? I have that album but haven’t listened to it in a long time. I’ll go dig it out tonight. Nothing like a whiff of vinyl to get me excited. Well, maybe a few other things…

12. Hate to vote against Tom Waits, but the Band is one of my top five favorite bands of all time.

    Note to Retro Hound: Your musical taste — I’m not saying it’s bad — suggests you have multiple personality disorder. It’s like there are three entirely different people inside you fighting it out.

13. I envy Retro Hound. I’d love to get my musical multiple personality count down to three.

14. I was going to say I’d be relieved if it was only 3 personalities. When someone asks what my favorite music is or my favorite band, they get a 20 minute monologue with as much name-dropping as I can manage.

15. There you go, starting another fight in my household. Grrr.

16. Gotta be Jethro Tull. Madman Ian Anderson and his one-legged stance fluting acid-rock riffs off my easily-impressionable mind. Those were the days! Don’t much care for Robbie & Co. Got kicked out of Shangri-La one New Year’s day while their second engineer was recording me putting a few tunes to tape. Knopfler great, but how influential? Same with Waits. Kansas confused with Stix & Supertramp. Organ vs. Synth vs. Rhodes — all the same. Buzzcocks? Ramones!

17. So who does Jennifer like?

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