The rounds keep flying by. Here we are, closing out the Round of 32. The Sweet Sixteen awaits, a weekend away. Without further ado, here are the songs of M, N, O and P (except for Let It Be and Golden Slumbers Medley). Vote by commenting below or emailing LTDdotorg@gmail.com by 8pm Sunday. I’ve been too busy at work to do a path to the Round of 32 for the songs below, but we’ll make sure to provide that info before the Sweet Sixteen. And yes, this is a picture of President Gerald Ford with George Harrison and Billy Preston, the Fifth Beatle during the Let It Be sessions.
Division M Championship: #1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) vs. #2 Let It Be (Beatles)– The only two artists left with a shot at multiple songs in the Sweet 16.
Division N Championship: #6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) vs. #11 Zombie (Cranberries)– Zombie has taken out many a guitar hero- Lennon and McCartney switch up the tempo.
Division O Championship: #6 Fortunate Son (CCR) vs. #8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) –Last stands for two of the more successful artists of the tournament.
Division P Championship: #1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) vs. #3 I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)– Super weird, listen to the first three seconds of each song- pretty much the same. That’s where the similarities end.
Living the Dream 
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 9 vs. #2 Let It Be (Beatles) 6
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 5 vs. #11 Zombie (Cranberries) 6
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 4 vs. #8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 9
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 4 vs. #3 I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor) 6
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 9
#2 Let It Be (Beatles)7.5
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 10
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 6
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 8
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 6
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 9
#3 I Will Survive 6
I have a feeling, I am going to be generally underwhelmed by the Final 16. I mean no U2? And if I hear one more Beatles song….
Fortunate Son:
Kate: 7
Arnie: 6.5
Johnny Cash:
Kate 9
Arnie: 7.5
Under Pressure:
Like G-mo I tend to be a contextual voter and the events of this week have probably led up to me giving Under Pressure a perfect 10
Kate: 10
Arnie: 6
Arnie and I had a brief argument about his score. But it is a democratic country…uh, I mean, office.
Let it Be
Please let the Beatles be, I am tired of listening to them…
Kate: 3
Arnie: 5.5
Zombie
Kate: 6
Arnie: 8
Golden Slumbers- Really? Another Beatles song?
Kate: 2
Arnie: 5.5
Piano Man:
Kate: 6
Arnie: 5
I will Survive:
Kate: 9
Arnie: 7
Ah, but Kate, that’s what the tournament’s all about- we once had around seven or eight U2 songs (I’m a pretty big fan), but many got knocked out in the first and second rounds.
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) [7.75]
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) [9.5]
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) [9]
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) [7]
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) [8.25]
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) [6.75]
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) [9]
#3 I Will Survive [7.8]
Even though I’ve talked to my little sister about voting for months, it is only now on a road trip to Ohio to see our little brother that she’s agreed to. Mostly because she’s on first drive shift and I’m on tunes. Scores are Guillermo/Maegan:
Under Pressure 8.7/7.2
Let It Be 8.1/5.5
Maegan: “I mean they’re both good songs. I’m just more likely to listen to the entirety of Under Pressure than Let It Be.”
Golden Slumbers Medley 7/7
Zombie 7/5.8
Fortunate Son 6.2/6.5
Ring of Fire 8.1/7.5
Piano Man 4.5/4
I Will Survive 6/5
In the mountains outside of Cumberland, Md driving through a thunderstorm, Billy Joel was not a winner.
Maegan: “Eh, I mean, I’m a girl. In the right mood, I Will Survive? 10. But I don’t really need that right now, I’m not making a break-up mix. But Piano Man would never make it onto any mix. I really never want to listen to that whole song.”
Thank you Maegan. That has been precisely my beef with I Will Survive since the beginning.
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 7.2
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) 8
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 4.3
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 9.5
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 6.5
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 8.3
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 9
#3 I Will Survive 4.5
Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) ~ 9
Let It Be (Beatles) ~ 7.8
Under Pressure is an awesome song. Let It Be is great. I’ll go with awesome.
Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) ~ 5
Zombie (Cranberries) ~ 8.9
Golden Slumbers is too disjointed for me. Their breakdowns have definitely contributed to Beatles fatigue. Zombie still gets me pumped.
Fortunate Son (CCR) ~ 11
Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) ~ 2
Fortunate Son is so much more passionate, so much more relevant, and just so fantastic it doesn’t deserve to go down to Johnny’s ode to Venereal Disease. I’m pulling out my 11 for this one. Creedence deserves to move on.
Piano Man (Billy Joel) ~ 7.3
I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor) ~ 8.6
Billy is solid, depending on my mood this could go either way. Gotta go with soul though…
I am visiting Riverside in the next year and I demand a Springsteen vs CCR, 8 best vs 8 best, 1 on 1 safety meeting music tournament.
You’re on.
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 7
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) 9.5
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 10
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 6.5
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 9
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 4.5
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 8
#3 I Will Survive 3
I think there will be a lot more close scores and upsets this round…
Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 9.5
Let It Be (Beatles) 5
Let it Be sounded better than it usually does (and it usually sounds pleasant), but Under Pressure just sounded excellent. It’s such a strangely constructed song. It’s amazing that it works, and works so well.
Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 5
Zombie (Cranberries) 8
I just have a hard time getting behind a “medley” to move on, because it’s inherently a mishmash. It has some great parts, but a great song should be a coherent whole with a satisfying arc. Zombie achieves that.
Fortunate Son (CCR) 2
Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 8
I, too, thought that Ring of Fire was about herpes, but it turns out this is incorrect. I think this has been posted before, but the real story, as explained by Sarah Vowel in Act 3 (around 47 minutes in) of this episode of This American Life, makes it this a hard song to vote against. As for Fortunate Song, I am being generous with my scoring because I feel it’s average, and at this point average should really equal a 1.
Piano Man (Billy Joel) 6
I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor) 5
Well the 8 minute extended version, and the fact that I haven’t been recently dumped, didn’t help Gloria, but I wasn’t feeling Piano Man like I sometimes do. It has fantastic lyrics, though, so that gave it the edge.
Pretty cool story about ring of fire…
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 7.9
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) 7.5
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 7
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 5 [got me down today, not uplifting]
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 5.5
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 5
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 6.5
#3 I Will Survive 2
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 7.9
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) 7.5
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 7.5
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 5 [got me down today, not uplifting]
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 5.5
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 5
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 6.5
#3 I Will Survive 2
fixed the GSM to 7.5 in this one. Ignore my last post.
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 7.6
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) 7.3
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 4
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 6.5
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 7
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 8
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 7
#3 I Will Survive 5
under pressure – 3.5
let it be – 6.5
i guess queen makes good music, i just have a really hard time taking them seriously. under pressure is fun, but i really don’t think it’s anything that special. i was feeling let it be more than usual today.
golden slumbers medley – 2
zombie – 7
ok, i will admit that i just never got into the beatles. i certainly respect them and enjoy much of their music, but i just never went through that beatles phase nor was exposed to them growing up nor really sought out their music on my own accord. that being said, i’ve never even listened to abbey road in its entirety. i’m pretty sure gsm is something special in the context of the full album. but not knowing the album and listening to it on its own, it does absolutely nothing for me. it’s not that i dislike it, but at this point in the game, it’s nothing more than “average” to me. i think it’s awesome that the cranberries are still in it. i also have a hard time taking zombie seriously, but it’s pretty, it rocks, it’s unique, and it makes me bop my head & feel good.
fortunate son – 9
ring of fire – 8
i never knew how great fortunate son is before this tournament. i love you, cash, but you just don’t rock as hard on that one.
piano man – 5
i will survive – 4.5
Ogden/Astrid
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 8.5/7.2
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) 10/10
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 9.5/8.2
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 4/5.6
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 8.5/4
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 9.5/10
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 1/2.1
#3 I Will Survive 10/9.3
Under pressure (8)
Let it be (7)
Golden slumbers medley (7)
Zombie (5)
Fortunate son (7.5)
Ring of fire (7)
Piano man (6)
I will survive (7)
Me and my bro Al
#1 Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) 8.3 / 8.5
#2 Let It Be (Beatles) 8 / 7
#6 Golden Slumbers Medley (Beatles) 8 / 8
#11 Zombie (Cranberries) 5 / 6.5
#6 Fortunate Son (CCR) 7 / 9
#8 Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) 8 / 6
#1 Piano Man (Billy Joel) 9 / 9.5
#3 I Will Survive 5.5 / 5