Here are the results from the Sweet 16. Looks like the Elite 8 will be a war!
Hacienda Bracket
#1 Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song vs. #5 Prince – I would Die 4 U
Well, the kid may have put up a good fight against his dad and Morris Day & the Time, but this time, he was no match for the Thunder brought down by Plant & Page.
Winner: Led Zeppelin
#2 The Beatles – A Day In The Life vs. #3 Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run
At the tip, the Boss took a quick lead and looked like he was going to cruise to victory. However, at half time, Bruce was visited by an awkward dancing Courtney Cox and ruined any sort of mojo he had. McLennon & company then began getting better by fixing a hole where the rain was coming in by raining some long distance bombs of their own.
Winner: The Beatles
CBGB Bracket
#1 The Clash – Debaser vs. #4 Pixies – Debaser
This was a tough one. I will just say that the votes did not reflect how difficult this one was because almost everyone who voted for it mentioned how difficult it was. After the game, both teams met at half court to shake hands and praise each other for their rockin’ efforts.
Winner: The Clash
#2 The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop vs. #6 Pink Floyd – Fearless
One of two #6 seeds in the sweet 16, Pink Floyd put up decent fight, but just could not match the 3 minute 3 chord power of the Ramones.
Winner: The Ramones
100 Club Bracket
#1 Rolling Stones – She’s A Rainbow vs. #4 Black Sabbath – War Pigs
This was the Villanova Pitt game of this round. A back and forth matchup turned in some of the most clutch performances of the tournament. When the Stones started off slow, Mick brought them back with his range. When Sabbath trailed, Ozzy put the team on his shoulders slayed the dragon of doubt. In the end, Ozzy’s frontcourt dominance and baby breaking skyhook sent the Stones home and the Pigs of War to the Elite 8.
Winner: Sabbath
#2 Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone vs. #3 The Animals – We Gotta Get Out of this Place
No contest here. Dylan and his harmonica blew out the animals. They didn’t have to go home, but they gotta get out of this tournament.
Winner: Dylan
Whiskey-a-Go-Go Bracket
#1 The Who – My Generation vs. #5 Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
David Byrne and company started this game off hot. They felt there were right were they wanted to be because The Who benched Keith Moon because he failed to show up at a mandatory work out and a pre-game meeting. Moon was then allowed to get into the game after the half and he brought the Who back from a double-digit deficit to take the lead for good.
Winner: The Who
#2 David Bowie – Space Oddity vs. #6 Elvis – Suspicious Minds
One of the most hyped matchups of the tourney put the King up against the Starman. Well, it looks like the king took the chameleon of rock for granted, because Ziggy knocked the King off his throne, and he did it convincingly.
some very close matchups and of course some blowouts as well.
#1 Rolling Stones – She’s A Rainbow vs. #9 Echo & The Bunnymen – Killing Moon
Echo came running out of the locker room and took a quick and convincing lead. Mick and the boys were a bit shocked by this, then they all started to drink the “vitamin water” that Keith brought with him and then the game quickly turned around.
Winner: The Stones
#4 Black Sabbath – War Pigs vs. #5 Joy Division – Love Will Tear You Apart
Ozzy and company came into this tournament riding a solid winning streak and were picked to be one of the biggest sleepers in this tourney, but Joy Division gave them a run for their money. In what ended by some tough defense put up by Luke’s Wall, Sabbath prevails.
Winner: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath!
#3 The Animals – We Gotta Get Out of this Place vs. Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945
All I have to say is now I know who the cool kids are and who the VH1 fans are.
I can’t write about this matchup.
Winner: the animals.
#2 Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone vs. #7 Blondie – Heart of Glass
Not the biggest blowout of the tournament, but one of them. Sorry Debbie, but Dylan’s got your number.
Winner: Bob Dylan
CBGB Bracket
#1 The Clash – London Calling vs. The Jam – A Town Called Malice
Now I love me some Paul Weller and the Jam, but sorry, as my boy Tekachi said in Revenge of the Nerds, “they stand no chance now.”
This was the biggest blowout by far in the tournament.
Winner: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon & Toppe Headon – The Clash
#4 Pixies – Debaser vs. The Kinks – You Really Got Me
Well, Black Francis really had Ray Davies here, because not only did the pixies get the kinks, they destroyed them.
Winner: Pixies
#3 Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody vs. Pink Floyd – Fearless
David Gilmour really stuck it to Freddy Mercury in the 2nd half of this game. NO, not like that you sickos. Let me clear this up, David Gilmour did not, I repeat, did not fuck Freddy Mercury. His song did come from behind to claim victory though.
Winner: Pink Floyd
#2 The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop vs. #7 Guns N’ Roses – Welcome to the Jungle
OK, no doubt about it, this may have been one of the toughest matchups in the tourney. Not the closest, because people still know right from wrong, but definitely one of the more difficult choices. In the end, Joey Ramone kicks Axl’s dick and Slash asks for a trade.
#1 The Who – My Generation vs. #8 The Smiths – How Soon is Now?
Before tip-off, Johnny Marr & Pete Townsend shared some heated words, which turned into pure fuel for Keith Moon. Morrissey scored a quick basket and then followed with a foul for making fun of a girlfriend in a coma in the front row. Keith Moon then became the boy with the thorn in his side by banging the boards and taking over with his pure rock star drumming. At half-time Morrissey refused to come out of the locker room and the Smith’s had to forfeit.
Winner: The Who
#5 Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody) vs. #4 Nirvana – Drain You
In what turned out to be the first double overtime game of the tournament, New York withstood the seesaw matchup from the grunge rock gods from Seattle.
Winner: Talking Heads
#6 Elvis – Suspicious Minds vs. #14 Van Halen – Hot For Teacher
The underdog Van Halen brothers brought the thunder in the beginning of this matchup with some of the toughest drumming & guitar openings in rock n’ roll history, but as they said in Highlander, there can be only one (king of rock and roll). Elvis proves to be too much in the end, drawing tears from DLR and causing Michael Anthony to join Sammy Hagar in Cabo.
Winner: The King
#2 David Bowie – Space Oddity vs. #10 Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
This is Bowie to Canada, the French Part: FUCK OFF!! No contest. Actually, Canada abandoned the monarchy after this. Oh well.
Winner: Major Tom
The Hacienda Bracket - Round 2
#1 Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song vs. #8 Radiohead – The Bends
They came from the land of the ice and snow to melt the faces of their art rock foes. Another #1 seed blows out their competition and straightens out Thom Yorke’s eyes.
Winner: Led Motherfucking Zeppelin
#4 Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen vs. #5 Prince – I Would Die 4 U
These 4/5 matchups are really turning into being the best of the tourney. Johnny Rotten and company got off to an early lead, but as always, the boys from London got distracted and Sid Vicious starting shooting up syringes instead of 3’s. The Purple Blouses put on one hell of a show in the 2nd half and cruise to victory.
Winner: Prince
#3 Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run vs. #6 Elvis Costello – (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love & Understanding
This was another difficult choice for me because Elvis Costello rules, but Born to Run is absolutely mega. It is one of the songs that you hear and can just loose your shit. In a good way, not in a “Depends” way. Bruce keeps moving on in this runaway American Dream.
Winner: The Boss
#2 The Beatles – A Day in the Life vs. #7 Rod Stewart – Maggie May
I really thought this would be a lot closer matchup then the end result showed, but I guess a tiny man from Scotland is no match for a god from Liverpool.
Since we have been doing 8 matchups per voting period, I say we continue doing to that to speed up the process. I've been terribly busy lately, so let's say, just get these into me by Sunday Night. I am sure the actual NCAA Tournament will take away from some people's free time this weekend too.
Here are the second round matchups for the games in the Whiskey-A-Go-Go and Hacienda brackets.
#1 The Clash – London Calling vs. #16 B-52’s – Rock Lobster
This thing was over before Joe Strummer hit the first notes on this tele. All this rock from Joe Strummer and company almost turned Fred Schneider straight.
Winner – The Clash
#2 The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop vs. #15 Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Happy
This was a personal conflict for me because there are very few songs that have had a greater impact in my life than this Ned’s song. I can remember the first time I heard it and to this day, it changed the way I listen to music. That being said, it was still no match for the 3-chord brilliance of the Ramones.
Winner – The Ramones
#3 Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody vs. #14 Beck – Girl
This may not be Queen’s best song, but is probably their most recognizable. This song goes through a variety of flavors and ends up with the most common in this tournament, the rock! Brian May’s solo melted Beck’s face. It was not restored.
Winner – Queen
#4 Pixies – Debaser vs. The Doors – L.A. Woman
Say what you want about Jim Morrison, but he was an overrated songwriter and turned into an even fatter prick. This song may rock and is my favorite Doors song, but it doesn’t stand up against Black Francis.
Winner – The Pixies
#5 The Kinks – You Really Got Me vs. #12 The Police – Roxanne
This was the closest match in this bracket, but in the end, the better songwriter came out on top. I am certain that if Sting didn’t break this band up and didn’t turn into a complete douche, this song might have been rated higher, but since he did, Ray Davies owned him in this matchup.
Winner – The Kinks
#6 Pink Floyd – Fearless vs. #11 The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog
In one of the strangest matchups of the tournament, straightforward raw rock and roll met beautiful psychedlia. Turns out beauty overwhelmed brute force.
Winner – Pink Floyd
#7 Guns n’ Roses – Welcome to the Jungle vs. Kings of Leon – Slow Night So Long
This was possibly the most rockin matchup of the tournament. In what started out as a close game, Slash took over in the 2nd half and completely killed the kings with his massive solo and pure shredding. If you could compare guitar work with the basketball, Slash got a triple double in this game.
Winner – G n Fucking R
#8 The Jam – Town Called Malice vs. #9 Elton John – Tiny Dancer
Up until right now, I didn’t realize how many gay musicians were in this bracket. Despite sexual orientation and the use of Kate Hudson to sing this song, Elton could not handle the pure brilliance of Paul Weller and the Jam. One of the more forgotten British Rock groups, The Jam came back from an early deficit in this game to really stick it to Elton.
#1 Rolling Stones – She’s A Rainbow vs. #16 Peter Bjorn & John – Young Folks
Not the biggest blowout of the bracket, but definitely one of them. The Swedes were no match for the Stones. Looks like people prefer pianos to whistling.
Winner – Rolling Stones
#2 Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone vs. #15 The Libertines – Death on the Stairs.
Rolling stone voted this Dylan song to be the greatest song of all time. I wonder if it had anything to do with the title of the magazine. Well, these drugged out modern punkers didn’t stand a chance in this one.
Winner – Dylan
#3 The Animals – We Gotta Get Out of this Place vs. #14 Psychedelic Furs – Love My Way
Psych furs started this game with an early lead, but costly turnovers and a couple of broken xylophone mallets resulted in a 2nd half rout by Eric Burdon and the Animals.
Winner – The Animals
#4 Black Sabbath – War Pigs vs. #13 Blur – Parklife
Two good songs, but two very different styles. The moves that the boys from London learned in the mid 90s were outdone by the pure rock and roll of Ozzy and company. After the game, all faces were restored to their normal status after the onslaught of the face melting guitar solos.
Winner – WAR PIGS!
#5 Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart vs. #12 Beirut – Postcards from Italy
These interesting Balkan sounds were no matchup for the post-punk gods of Ian Curtis and company.
Winner: Joy Division
#6 Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945 vs. #11 Elliott Smith – Son of Sam
In the interesting matchup of Anne Frank vs. David Berkowitz, the diary spoke louder than the neighbor’s dog.
Winner – Neutral Milk Hotel
#7 Blondie – Heart of Glass vs. #10 Stone Roses – I Wanna Be Adored
OK, this one kind of pissed me off a bit. For as much as I like and appreciate all of the blow and good songs Debbie Harry did, in my opinion the higher seed winning was an upset. I wanna be adored, opened up the doors for a whole new genre of great British music in the late 80’s and 90’s and now they have gone down to Blondie. This was truly a matchup between brackets because both bands helped put CBGBs and the Hacienda on the map.
Winner – Blondie
#8 The Cure – Pictures of You vs. #9 Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
In the West Sussex vs. Liverpool game, Echo fell behind early but then turned up the full-court press and ended the game on a 16-2 run. Some may think this is the biggest upset of this bracket, but I think people may be trying to tell Robert Smith to either stop eating and get Ian McCulloch to start writing again.
Please get me your votes by email or in the comment section by Friday Night. I would like to have the winners and the final opening round bracket posted on Saturday.
#1 Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song vs. #16 Pearl Jam – Porch
This wasn’t even a contest. Like a commenter said, Vikings kick the shit out of flannel wearing vegans. Enough said.
Winner: Led Zeppelin
#2 The Beatles – A Day in the Life vs. #15 Broken Social Scene – Anthems for a 17-Year Old Girl.
Another blowout. Kevin Drew and company could just not compete with Lennon. In fact in the 2nd half of this game, the Beatles benched Ringo and John and George played with only their left hands.
Winner: The Beatles
#3 Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run vs. #14 Ride – Twisterella
Despite Twisterella being a personal favorite of mine, this thing was over with the countdown done by the Boss. This was nothing but a death trap, a suicide wrap for the kids from Brixton.
Winner: The Fucking BOSS!!!
#4 Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen vs. #13 The Strokes – You Only Live Once
You can say what you wish about the pistols and how they couldn’t play their instruments, but the bottom line is outside of the clash, there are very few punk bands that have mattered as much as these guys. No future for the Strokes, Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious destroyed the rich boys from New York
Winner: Sex Pistols
#5 Prince – I Would Die 4 U vs. #12 Sonic Youth – Teenage Riot
For as much as I like Teenage Riot, it just could not handle the genius that comes from the man from up north wearing the purple blouse. Close game, but Prince pulled away in the 2nd Half.
Winner: Prince
#6 Elvis Costello – (What’s so funny ‘bout) Peace Love & Understanding vs. #11 Doves – There Goes The Fear
I think this matchup showed how much of an influence that Elvis Costello had on the voters because this thing turned into a blow out early. Like a republican running for office on the west side of the city, the Doves had no chance.
Winner: Elvis Costello
#7 Rod Stewart – Maggie May vs. NIN – Wish
In what turned out to be one of the closest matches in the tournament, Rod Stewart dropped a half court shot at the buzzer to send Trent Reznor packing up his equipment and heading back to Ohio. Rumor has it, Rod called up Ron Wood at half time to talk about strategy and a Faces reunion.
Winner: Rod Stewart
#8 Radiohead – The Bends vs. Oasis – Supersonic
This turned out to be the love / hate battle of the opening round. With exception of a few people, I think the majority voted for the one they hated less. I can see that coming from people about oasis, but I was surprised to see that on Radiohead. In a match that will be remembered for all of the turnovers and poor shooting percentage, the art rockers beat out the slags.
After several days of intense competition, the opening round of the Whiskey-A-Go-Go bracket was filled with some blowouts and some buzzer beaters.
In the opening game, the number 1 seed, My Generation destroyed the Stereophonics. The same thing happened in the match up of Bowie vs. Canadian Rock Stars, the New Pornographers. The News, were no match up for the Star Man.
Our first upset came in the 3 vs. 14 match up, where the lower seed Van Halen, came out of the gate in the 2nd half running with the devil. The massive shredding of Eddie Van Halen’s Axe and DLR’s yelling really put Brian Wilson and the boys in their place.
Nirvana, the #4 seed thought they were going to have a tough matchup against Oklahoma’s own Flaming Lips, but there was too much rock coming out Kurt Cobain during this game. Nirvana took this one easily.
Now this Match-Up was one of the two in this bracket that I had a hard time doing myself. These are two of my favorite songs of all-time and it showed that you are big fans too, because this was a close one. This was our first overtime matchup of the tournament, because it was not decided until the last couple of votes came in. After the final votes were counted, the Talking Heads emerged on top over a worthy opponent in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
In the 6 vs. 7 game, Elvis fought back and eventually defeated the Metal Gods of Metallica. This match up was close, but in the end Elvis showed that he is still the King.
Now I know this one will piss some people off, but hey this why we play the games because anything can happen. #7 AC/DC lost a tight match up to the French Canadian Arcade Fire. It was close, but in the end Tunnels was the one that rocked.
This was the one that was difficult on me and I am assuming it was a tough one for everyone else too. The 8 vs. 9 games are always the tough ones, but in the end, New Order was no match up for the Smiths. Johnny Marr and Morrissey destroyed Peter Hook’s crew. I thought this one would have been a lot closer.
Recap #1 The Who – My Generation defeats #16 Stereophonics –Dakota #2 David Bowie – Space Oddity defeats #15 New Pornographers – Sing Me Spanish Techno #14 Van Halen – Hot For Teacher defeats #3 Beach Boys – Sloop John B #4 Nirvana – Drain You – Defeats Flaming Lips – Race for the Prize #5 Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place defeats #12 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Y Control #6 Elvis – Suspicious Minds defeats #11 Metallica – Creeping Death #10 Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) defeats #7 AC/DC – Long Way to the top (If you wanna rock n’ roll) #8 The Smiths – How Soon is Now? defeats #9 New Order – Perfect Kiss
The results for the play-in game are in and the winner by just 2 votes is Athens, GA own B-52’s with Rock Lobster. After that close one, they will now face off against the Clash in the CBGBs bracket later in the week.
Now that our brackets are set up, I will be posting them up 1 round at a time for several days to make sure that as many people can vote as possible.
In this post, there will be 8 match-ups, which equal all of the first round contests in the Whiskey-A-Go-Go bracket. I will keep these open until first thing Saturday morning. That gives everyone until late Friday night to submit his or her selections. To vote for these, you can just email me or post in the comments page, your winners for each match up.
After a lot of anticipation, I bring you the full 65 songs that have made the inaugural Great Rock n Roll Tournament.
We will start off today with the play-in game, which features the lowest vote getter against a random song submitted by you, the voter.
B-52’s – Rock Lobster
vs.
Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock
Tomorrow, I will have the first bracket set up and we will be voting on all of the first round songs in that specific bracket. So that means, there will be 8 match-ups to vote on. I will keep each round of voting open for 3 days because I know how busy we all are these days. Feel free to either put your votes in the comment section or just email them to me.
Once again, thank you to all that submitted their rankings and helped me name the brackets. I think this will be a lot of fun and without further ado, here are the songs and their brackets.
CBGBs Bracket
1. The Clash – London Calling 2. The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop 3. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody 4. Pixies – Debaser 5. The Kinks – You Really Got Me 6. Pink Floyd – Fearless 7. Guns N’ Roses – Welcome to the Jungle 8. The Jam – Town Called Malice 9. Elton John – Tiny Dancer 10. Kings of Leon – Slow Night, So Long 11. The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog 12. The Police – Roxanne 13. The Doors – L.A. Woman 14. Beck – Girl 15. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Happy 16. PLAY IN GAME – (B-52’s Rock Lobster vs. Smashing Pumpkins, Cherub Rock)
The 100 Club Bracket
1. Rolling Stones – She’s A Rainbow 2. Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone 3. The Animals – We Gotta Get Out of This Place 4. Black Sabbath – War Pigs 5. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart 6. Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945 7. Blondie – Heart of Glass 8. The Cure – Pictures of You 9. Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon 10. Stone Roses – I Wanna Be Adored 11. Elliott Smith – Son of Sam 12. Beirut – Postcards from Italy 13. Blur – Parklife 14. The Psychedelic Furs – Love My Way 15. The Libertines – Death on the Stairs 16. Peter Bjorn & John – Young Folks
The Hacienda Bracket
1. Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song 2. The Beatles – A Day In The Life 3. Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run 4. Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen 5. Prince – I Would Die 4 U 6. Elvis Costello – (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding 7. Rod Stewart – Maggie May 8. Radiohead – The Bends 9. Oasis – Supersonic 10. Nine Inch Nails – Wish 11. Doves – There Goes The Fear 12. Sonic Youth – Teenage Riot 13. The Strokes – You Only Live Once 14. Ride – Twisterella 15. Broken Social Scene – Anthems for a 17-Year Old Girl 16. Pearl Jam – Porch
Whiskey-A-Go-Go Bracket
1. The Who – My Generation 2. David Bowie – Space Oddity 3. The Beach Boys – Sloop John B 4. Nirvana – Drain You 5. Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody) 6. Elvis – Suspicious Minds 7. AC/DC – Long Way To The Top (If you wanna Rock n’ Roll) 8. The Smiths – How Soon is Now? 9. New Order – Perfect Kiss 10. Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) 11. Metallica – Creeping Death 12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Y Control 13. Flaming Lips – Race for the Prize 14. Van Halen – Hot for Teacher 15. The New Pornographers – Sing Me Spanish Techno 16. Stereophonics - Dakota
