Tonight we bid adieu to two terrific artists that battled through seven game series, and forge ahead into a new round of voting.
Listen to all the new match-ups here, and vote by commenting below before 10pm (EST) on Thursday.
Game 7 Results
Safe European Home (Clash) edges out Sympathy for the Devil (Rolling Stones), 165.8-154.6. Though this was always going to be a close Game 7, you could probably categorize the Clash’s series win over the Rolling Stones as an upset. The Clash will go on to face Bruce Springsteen. Much thanks to Midnight Mike for his Stones coaching. The key stat Mike probably didn’t expect: after scoring above an “8” with four out of the first five voters, Sympathy got an “8” from only one of the remaining seventeen voters.
Helden (David Bowie) took out God Bless The Child (Sam Cooke), 137.7-114.1. Hats off to a great run by Sam and Lindsay. Some people were second-guessing her game 7 pick, but that’s the tricky part of this tournament- you need to play to win without blowing all of your top songs in the first round. Grant and Bowie will be taking on Led Zeppelin starting tonight, and we’ll see how much gas in the tank they have left. Since Bowie has like a dozen hit albums, they should be alright.
Undercard Results
Kodachrome (Paul Simon) built an early lead against Monday Morning (Fleetwood Mac), winning 140.2-128.6. Paul Simon leads the series 1-0.
I Wish (Stevie Wonder) came out blazing, and smoked Arlandria (Foo Fighters) 158.2-115.8, to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Round 2 Match-ups
I Fought The Law (Clash) vs. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) vs. Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin)
Undercard
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) vs. Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon)
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) vs. Hey Love (Stevie Wonder)
Living the Dream 
I Fought The Law (Clash) vs. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
7.5 – 7.5 Two solid picks.
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) vs. Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin)
8.5 – 7
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) vs. Hey Love (Stevie Wonder)
4 – 5.5 Not feeling either of these songs too much. Stevie is perfectly pleasant but nothing special for him; Foo song felt too odd a mix of hoarse, long and acoustic.
Round 2 Match-ups
sorry- big spreads on all of these inadvertent—just ranked the songs on the same scale and this was the result.
I Fought The Law (Clash) 10
Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) 6.5
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) ##
Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) ##
Undercard
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) 7.2 [inexplicably enjoyable. Mostly the synth line. Reminded me of Beach House.]
Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) 2
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) 8.2 [this goes entirely to Dave’s vocal performance. Someone that invested in a song is generally compelling.]
Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) 5
I felt bad giving Simon a 2, so I listened to the song again and let’s bump it up to a 3.2. The music is fine, but I can’t deal the the smaltzy chorus arrangement.
I Fought The Law (Clash) 6 vs. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) 9
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) 6 vs. Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) 6
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) 4 vs. Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) 6
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) X vs. Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) X
I Fought The Law (Clash) 6
Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) 7.5
The depth and quality of The Bruce’s catalogue continues to surprise me, even when up against one of The Clash’s most well-known.
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) 8.5
Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) 4.5
This tournament (i.e. whoever is coach) is doing an amazing job reminding me why I love Bowie so much. This is definitely a Bowie track that gets better and better the more you listen. So good. Didn’t enjoy Communication Breakdown at all, I’m afraid.
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) #
Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) #
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) 8
Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) 5.5
So, I groaned when I noticed the “acoustic” on the end of BoY, largely because I LOVE the original but it’s actually a really good spin on it – nice choice for this tournament 🙂
I Fought the Law (The Clash) 8
Prove it all Night (Bruce Springsteen) 8.5
I love how the Clash can take a song that while has powerful lyrics (to me of course) but sounded anemic, and made it a rager. I love it. Bruce though just edges out rage for sex. Sex wins in my book, almost every time.
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) 7
Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) 9
Four dudes from England take the blues and take it to places nobody conceived. This song is frantic, hyper, frenzied, and somewhat nonsensical, who cares. It rocks. David is so cool. This stuff couldn’t be played on any radio today (but that is a completely different subject) let alone in say 1971, or 72. It’s sparse arrangement is beautiful, though maybe, musically the song is derived from the Beatles, I really don’t care. his talking of about the end of humanity, and the coming of aliens, or (something different) is awesome. Again sex wins.
Undercard
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) 5
Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) 6
I’m not a fan of either of these songs.
The Best of You (Foo Fighters) 7
Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) 9
This version of The Best of You is pretty killer. Dave may be a bit of an enigma for me, but he can scream and put some killer emotion in a song. That said, Stevie Wonder is just amazing. Whatever angst Dave Grohl can summon, Stevie can bring without really trying. Hey Love is full of desire, and heartbreak, yet something beautifully promising, so it gets my win.
Good luck Foo’s you are definitely David facing Goliath in this match up.
I’m usually not a big margins guy, but these match-ups seemed pretty clear to me.
I Fought The Law (Clash) vs. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
8.8 : 5.5
I feel bad that I can’t get into so many tracks off Darkness on the Edge of Town. Especially given what a great album title that is. I even saw Tramps Like Us play this live a few weeks ago and was underwhelmed.
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) vs. Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin)
8.6 : 4.7
One of Bowie’s most fun vs. one of Led Zepp’s least imaginative. I mean, Robert Plant is just phoning this one in.
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) vs. Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon)
6.8 : 8.9
According to legend, Paul Simon was at one of New York’s excellent Cuban-Chinese restaurants when he ordered a chicken-egg foo young. When it arrived in front of him, he realized it was the “mother and child reunion” on his plate.
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) vs. Hey Love (Stevie Wonder)
6.5 : 5.5
Mixed feelings on Best of You- second verse was kind of unpleasant to listen to, but do love the energy. Stevie needs to give me more than this.
I Fought The Law (Clash) vs. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) 7.5 to 6.0
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) vs. Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) 6.0 to 5.0
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) vs. Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) 6.5 to 8.0
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) vs. Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) 5.0 to 8.0
Needed some good heavy foot pounding rhythms to night to offset the funk from one of my infrequent rush hour commutes into Beantown.
I Fought The Law (Clash) vs. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) 7.5 to 5.5
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) vs. Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) 5.0 to 6.5
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) vs. Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) 7.0 to 6.5
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) vs. Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) 4.5 to 5.5
Round 2 Match-ups
I Fought The Law (Clash) #
Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) #
Gosh even though I can’t vote I really want to talk about my nomination, but feel like there’s been a good unspoken rule of not swaying anything about your battles. I think it’s at least ok to say: Nos, I’d give the Darkness On The Edge Of Town record another shot sometime soon, and just listen to Side 2 from start to finish.
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) 6.5
Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) 4.7
In late 2008 I was trying to figure out a classic rock song I only knew by riff and none of the words to, and hummed the beginning to someone. She insisted it was “Communication Breakdown,” so I bought it without checking. Then I was extremely disappointed. Turns out the song I wanted was not “Communication Breakdown,” but in fact “Paranoid” by Black Sabboth (that’s how Sabbath is spelled on this site.) But yeah, never really got over my CB chagrin after that.
Undercard
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) 6.5
Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) 6.5
Tango In The Night is an album I’ve never listened to the whole way through. SW was good enough. So was M&C. Both equally enjoyable, neither a favorite.
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) 8
Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) 6.5
I really, really, really liked this FF nomination. I had completely forgotten about that song. Acoustic made it better. Well played.
I Fought The Law (Clash) 9.25
Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) 8
I liked Prove It All Night more than I thought I would, but I Fought The Law is just fun and it goes really well with the awesome weather we have today in Boston.
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) 5
Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) 7
Undercard
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) 6
Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) 6.75
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) 5.5
Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) 7
I think I prefer the radio version of The Best of You. This one was a little too… screamy I guess for my taste. Hey Love got my toes tapping.
I Fought The Law (Clash) vs. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen) = 9 to 5.5
Another of my more loved Clash songs. Sorry, just a tough match up here.
Oh! You Pretty Things (David Bowie) vs. Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) = 7 to 5
Undercard
Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) vs. Mother and Child Reunion (Paul Simon) = 5 to 5.5
Fleetwood Mac grew on me as I listened to it. I am impressed with the backing band of the Paul Simon tune, then I realize, he surely hired real Jamaican musicians for this track? Pretty cool to hear the juxtaposition of his voice over the legitimate rocksteady grooves.
The Best of You (acoustic) (Foo Fighters) vs. Hey Love (Stevie Wonder) = 5.5 to 9
Pretty interesting to hear an acoustic version from the Foo Fighters, but man, it’s Stevie Wonder. R Kelly’s last record was going in this direction: very romantic straight forward R&B, but he of courses adds some good production and bass, and his humor, and its just killer. The riddim in this song would serve for some excellent samples for a hip hop track or two, if it wasn’t already. Just speed up and loop the first couple of bars and you’d have a hit on your hands.
Anyway, I like the lazy vibe of this track.
This De La Soul track is actually what turned me on to the Stevie Wonder original. I think it’s one of the best tracks on De La Soul Is Dead and definitely one of my favorite samples:
Seven Wonders – 7.5 vs. Mother and Child Reunion – 6.5
The Best of You – 8 vs. Hey Love – 6
I Fought the Law – 5 vs. Prove it All Night – 7
Oh you Pretty Things – 6 vs. Communcation Breakdown – 5