Freddie
Back in early April as the first tournament was drawing to a close, Janos and I did some brainstorming and came up with a response to the criticism of “where’s that song”- a tournament within which we would each nominate our own songs. We coined the term “People’s Choice Tournament” and just like that, an idea was born. Now, as we stand at the cusp of deciding just who this champion will be I can only laud all voters and participants for coming the whole way with us.
Florence
The beauty of this final is that it is a response in a way to early concerns of pop domination. By that I mean music is nostalgia no matter how you spin it, and artists like Queen, Gladys Knight, Fleetwood Mac, and Bruce Springsteen always have a bit of a leg up on more recent bands. However, our voting has been true and resulted in the most compelling of championships- a battle of today versus yesterday.
For some perspective on how we’ve done with voter numbers, check out last tournament compared to this one to date:
At every interval the People’s Choice Tournament has been drawing a larger turn-out than the LTDMT. But I’m not (at least I don’t think I am) throwing a 49 vote deep party on the roof of Red Derby in Petworth this weekend- thus, if we want to beat our record from last tourney, VOTE WITH FRIENDS! If everyone that voted in the Final Four gets two of their friends that have never voted before to participate, we can crush that record of 81.
Ok, enough ado about things. Let’s figure out a champion. Queen looking for its first gold medal after taking home silver and bronze last time. F+TM looking to shove it in the face of the classics and shine a new path forward for awesome music. We’ll be taking votes until 10 pm on Saturday, September 3rd- which is also the 1 year birthday of LivingTheDream.org. Think hard about this vote, and may the best song win.
Living the Dream 
I love that these songs haven’t been wearing on me…
Queen/Somebody to Love (Live, Montreal)-10
Florence and the Machine/Dog Days are Over-7
If anyone has a significant other that doesn’t usually vote, make it happen!
A final reminder that the New York City listening party will be at Duke’s on 9th and C (129 Ave. C). We’ll be there feasting on bartender Ziggy’s Living the Dream cocktails from 9pm on. Voting will be at 10pm sharp, so if you’re gonna be late, be safe and vote online beforehand.
Sorry, on Saturday night, that is.
Queen/Somebody to Love (Live, Montreal)-9
Florence and the Machine/Dog Days are Over-8
Kim walked in when I was listening to these songs and the following conversation ensued:
Kim: What are you doing?
Adam: Voting in the finals of Janos’ music tournament.
Kim: [puzzled look]
Adam: It’s the people’s choice tournament.
Kim: [more bewilderment]
Adam: It’s Somebody to Love vs Dog Days Are Over
Kim: This isn’t helping. What’s a music tournament?
Adam: Just vote for the songs.
Kim: Fine. Queen.
Adam: You have to listen to them first!
<>
Adam: What are your votes?
Kim: I can’t make important decisions in the morning.
So no vote from Kim, sorry.
Somebody to love: 9.5
Dog days are over: 7.5
Somebody to love – 8
Dog Days are Over – 7
I’m super nostalgic about Queen, but kinda dig Florence and the Machine. But then there’s that embarrassing Eat, Pray, Love factor. So, Queen it is!
Somebody to love – 6.5
Dog Days are Over – 9
Somebody to love – 9.5
Dog Days are Over – 8.5
Somebody to love – 7.5
Dog Days are Over – 7.3
Higher & Higher – 10
OK, I hate to be that guy who doesn’t vote for about 5 rounds and then comes in and complains about the finalists, but I will just say that I’m a little surprised these songs reached the finals.
Somebody to Love is a great song, and I love Queen. That being said, I don’t see this live version as being particularly special, or at least any more special than every other classic FMercury live performance. I’d also probably put 4 or 5 other Queen songs ahead of this, but hey, the people have spoken (and I wasn’t really one of them, so I’ll shut up soon).
When Dog Days Are Over first came out, I flat out did NOT like that song. I knew it was a “good” song, but it wasn’t my thing. It’s still not, but it’s somehow managed to grow on me a bit. Despite this recent upswing, I find itvery unfulfilling even though it may be one of the more inspirational songs written in the last few years. Florence’s yelling / chanting just annoys me, frankly.
OK, now that I’ve lost a lot of friends, here are my votes:
Queen/Somebody to Love (Live, Montreal)- 6.5
Florence and the Machine/Dog Days are Over- 4
Somebody to Love – 9
Florence – 5
Queen/Somebody to Love (Live, Montreal)- 10
Florence and the Machine/Dog Days are Over- 6.5
Somebody To Love–10
Dog Days Are Over–5
Somebody to Love – 7.5
Dog Days are Over – 8.0
My significant other has already spoken.
Somebody to Love – 10.0 As i have voted consistently thru the tourney. Just great music and great entertainment.
Dog Days Are Over – 6.0 Yes, they are. Labor Day is here.
Somebody to Love: 10
Dog Days: 7
Sorry for voting solo, but that’s how I roll. DJ ROOMBA TURN IT UP.
Working late and off early for a wedding where i’ll have no internet access 😦 Wish I could’ve brought more in. If somebody has internet out there i’ll try to get a few more votes.
Somebody to Love: 10
Dog Days: 5
STL has been slowly pushing it’s way up from a 9 to a 10 for the last few rounds for me. I also just spent 3 hours learning a required dance for a wedding this weekend that is to a Beyonce song. There are few songs out there that could have hit the reset button from that. Dogs Days on the other hand has been steadily losing steam for me. I always start out hearing the sparkly beginning and think 7.5 or so, but then once she starts belting it loses all it’s magic at this point. This was sadly a no brainer for me.
somebody to love – 5
dog days – 7
Earls Family Votes:
Lori/Casey/Lindsay
Queen/Somebody to Love (Live, Montreal)- 6/3/8
Florence and the Machine/Dog Days are Over- 8.5/5/9
Somebody to Love (Live, Montreal)-5
Dog Days are Over-10
I’m in the minority, but I won’t choose to listen to queen except at a bar, but they are great bar music.
Voting party in Montreal with 3 other friends about to hit the town: Ben/Sruly/Dani/Adam
Somebody to Love: 7.4/7/6.3/5
Dog Days: 8.4/4/5.1/7.3
voting from madison! our votes are in:
anna / selena / pete / jay / tom bomba
queen – 8.5 / 8.2 / 8.8 / 8.1 / 7.8
florence – 8 / 7.8 / 9.3 / 8.6 / 8.4
speaking as myself, florence grew on me over the course of this tournament, but for a song to represent “modern” music i would not have chosen this one!! we also didn’t dig this version of queen most of all, and it lost a couple points there. great tourney still, good work to all! may the best song win. rock on.
Queen/Somebody to Love (Live, Montreal) – 6.5
Florence and the Machine/Dog Days are Over – 9.5
Florence is my nomination but it looks like it’s taking a pounding so far in this final round 😦
I’ve talked a lot about it throughout so I won’t repeat any of that but will just say that I’m super happy people have carried it through to the final. For a newer song and one which people are less familiar with, I think that’s pretty cool. Clearly Queen is a legendary band but Dog Days is so high-energy and fun, obviously packing an energetic punch that draws people to it. That’s pretty awesome. Listen again, enjoy it and have a boogie round your living room while you’re at it.
I won’t get all defensive but I will say that I feel a bit weird judging a live recording against a studio recording. Good song though, from a great band.
Scores for me and for Meghan
Queen 8.5/ 5.5
Flo and the Machine 6.1/ 8
Votes from Chicago!
Maureen / Carolyn / Chris B. / Janelle / Dan / J.Michael / Steve
Find me Somebody to Love – 8.5 / 10 / 10 / 7 / 10 / 10 / 6.5
Dog Days are Over – 9.9 / 9.5 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 7 / 9.8
Well, this looks pretty well decided, and like a lot of the tournament the decisions seems bent for the less innovative and interesting. But good art was never decided by committee, right?
I’m feeling strange because I just up from a nap (I’ve been under the weather) where I had a really intense dream about seeing Florence live, and part of her show was a complex acrobatic show. There were very few people in the audience, but they group was relentlessly energetic. At a certain point she climbed up into the stands, over me and to one of her group. I was filming with my phone, as she climbed over me I had the thought, “This stunt is not going to go well, and I am going to film her death.” And as she swung towards the stage I could see she and her partner in the trick were not confident, and she missed her mark, and slammed to the ground, and died. There was lot of panic and sobbing and people trying to figure out what happened and rewatching the videos. And then the dream changed to something else that involved these horrid parasites that hatched out of moths, so there were all these shells of moths all over the ground while slimy white little maggot bugs crawled out of their bodies. Anyway. It was altogether kind of upsetting, and maybe prescient? I hadn’t looked at the scores til now.
I ADORE Queen but I don’t feel this is one of their best songs at all, and this live performance isn’t as good as the album track. I’m pretty surprised it’s here, frankly.
Freddy – 5
Florence -10
No party. No Derby. Just me and heli. And she’s a dog so can’t communicate her scores to me.
Queen 4.8
Florence 10
This version of STL hit my limit of self-aggrandizement rounds ago. Flo is the future. It seems a done deal at this point, but let history see my score.
I called this score into Guillermo from a bar last night. Listening party was fun. As can be expected in New York, a lot of people showed up after the deadline, so only 15 formal votes, plus a 16th write in vote for “Safety Dance” and a 17th vote that simply read “7”.
My vote: 9.7-7.1 for StL.
Listening party: 121.6-105.1 for StL. Several 10s on both sides of the aisle. May get to posting more individual votes later.