Saturday, November 16, 2013

Unofficial Music Club Hall of Fame Inaugural Induction


Congratulations Elvis Costello! 
After a surprisingly easy series of debates and votes (at least in comparison to our second inductee (more on that later)), Elvis Costello is officially the first inductee to the Unofficial Music Club Hall of Fame  (UMCHoF). 

Eligibility was determined for these first couple of inductions not by how long they have been making music, how many recordings they made, whether they had anything to do with the birth of rock, or even whether they were any good. Eligibility was based solely on being a selection for a Music Club playlist, regardless of theme, more than once.

The names of all eligible artists were then placed roughly into a hat to be  drunkenly drawn two at a time by a present Music Club member (all members not present were not permitted to draw). The member then chose which of the two artists would be a nominee and the other artist was roughly and drunkenly discarded. The hat was passed from member to member until 16 nominees were selected.

Nominees then faced off, with MC members voting for who should progress to the next round. Losers of each face off were discarded less roughly than before, but no less drunkenly.

Mr. Costello had seemingly little trouble in his initial face-offs with Aimee Mann and Whiskeytown. In the semi-finals Radiohead gave a moment of pause, but again Costello handily defeated his opponent. Madonna met Elvis in the finals. For some members this was an easy choice to make. For other members this was an easy wrong choice to make. With very little serious debate, Mr Costello became our first inductee. Much fan was fared (or perhaps much fare was fanned).

Elvis Costello was submitted under duress to our Desert Island Disc theme by Greg with the song “Allison”. “American Without Tears No 2” was submitted to our Summer Song meeting by Pat. Deb brought “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” to our Colors theme, and I entered “No Action” as part of last night’s Friday Night Pre-Func theme. As I recall, Gina made late submissions of “Veronica” and “God Give Me Strength” as part of our Collaborations theme. Well represented and a worthy victor in these proceedings. 

Our second inductee was also selected last night, mostly because the first was so much fun. I will post about the more heated debate regarding that inductee later. In the meantime, welcome Elvis Costello to the UMCHoF. Long live the King of America.




10 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Mr. Costello!
    Dammit, I'm flying in for this next time!! (And ONLY picking Tina Turner songs for every theme next year.)

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  2. I don't want to be negative, but whoever came up with nomination rules is bad at it.

    You're saying that because an artist was chosen more than once they are worthy of nomination. You realize one of the themes was One Hit Wonders, right? So they are half way to a nomination for having only one memorable song. The O'Jays, Gossip, and Band of Horses were picked in the Triple shot theme, but nowhere else. Also, it creates the situation where The Coup is eligible, but not Bob Dylan. The Divinyls, but not Al Green. Jo Strummer & The Mescaleros and Steven Malkmus & The Jicks are both eligible, but not The Clash or Pavement? That's just silly.

    Also, I would rather hear ELO cover REM songs than vice versa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If someone is a one hit wonder can they have another song selected?

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    2. Marcy chose the Divinyl's "I Touch Myself" for One-Hit-Wonders. Jim chose "Siren" for the Bridge.

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  3. My top 10:

    1) Trust
    2) Taking Liberties
    3) My Aim is True
    4) Imperial Bedroom
    5) Get Happy!!
    6) The Delivery Man
    7) Armed Forces
    8) Punch the Clock
    9) This Years Model
    10) Blood and Chocolate

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1) Imperial Bedroom
      2) Armed Forces
      3) King of America
      4) My Aim is True
      5) Blood and Chocolate
      6) Get Happy!!
      7) This Year's Model
      8) Punch the Clock
      9) Spike
      10) Trust

      Oh and I embarrassingly didn't know that Elvis sang the background vocals on verse 2 of "Tempted" (both the low "The people keep on crowding" and the falsetto "I'm wishing I was well") until recently. And of course, it totally sounds like Elvis Costello.

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    2. Never occurred to me that he sang those vocals either, but they definitely are his, huh?

      1) Imperial Bedroom
      2) This Year's Model
      3) Taking Liberties
      4) Trust
      5) My Aim is True
      6) Armed Forces
      7) Blood and Chocolate
      8) Get Happy!!
      9) Punch the Clock
      10) King Of America

      1) Nebraska
      2) The River
      3) Born To Run
      4) Darkness On The Edge Of Definitely The First Two
      5) Born In The Maybe?
      6) Greetings From Only Heard A Couple Of These Songs, N.J.
      7) The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Maybe Heard This Album Once.
      8) Tunnel Of Not Like I know A Lot Of Johnny Cash Albums
      9) But I Do Have 5 Or 6 Stevie Wonder Albums
      10) And I've Heard A Bunch Of Madonna Singles

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    3. It is? I thought the low for sure was Difford and figured the falsetto was too.

      Darkness On The Edge of This Is my Number One.

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    4. Huh. Looks like Wikipedia agrees. Learn something every day.

      Squeeze:

      1) Cool for Cats
      2) East Side Story
      3) Argybargy
      4) Squeeze (I remember this being on pink vinyl)
      5) Sweets From a Stranger

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    5. Huh. Looks like Wikipedia agrees. Learn something every day.

      Squeeze:

      1) Cool for Cats
      2) East Side Story
      3) Argybargy
      4) Squeeze (I remember this being on pink vinyl)
      5) Sweets From a Stranger

      Delete