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The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 1978-1981 – Polls
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— 8 March 2024 Tom

This is the POLL POST for the Black Pop History round in the League Of Tracks. Want to actually hear the songs? (And you frankly should) Go to the Playlist Post.

As usual the rules are simple.

  1. You can vote for UP TO FOUR of these eleven tracks.
  2. You can only vote for tracks you DIDN’T KNOW before the poll.

You are strongly recommended to vote on a desktop if you can – there are issues with the mobile plug-in that makes it crash the post.

[ays_poll id=113]

Latest comments (of 11)

koganbot   last month

Also relevant: Bob Crewe, who co-wrote a bunch of hits for the Four Seasons, including "Let's Hang On" with Linzer and with Denny Randell, was the producer for Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes and […]

rabbitfun   9 months ago

Never realised Linzer produced "Cherchez La Femme" (and the whole first Dr. Buzzard album in fact), but it makes total sense, because "Native New Yorker" sounds like it was made under the assumption […]

koganbot   9 months ago

Ranking Joe "Tribute to John Lennon": "Good thing John Lennon never killed by a black man" jumps out as dead-on social commentary in the midst of what otherwise is verbalized as Lennon's popularity […]

koganbot   9 months ago

The Romantic Noise "I Fell In Love With A Baby": Hard Rocking Shit from the early Seventies that somehow has ended up in a late Seventies/early Eighties Black history poll – Hard Rocking Shit being […]

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 7. BLACK POP HISTORY 78-81 – Playlists
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— 8 March 2024 Tom

The penultimate round of the League Of Tracks is a companion to the excellent poll we’ve just been going through on the main site, exploring the work of Black musicians between 1978 and 1981, from the zenith of disco through the birth of rap on record to the first stirrings of house and techno.

256 awesome tracks is, it turns out, simply not enough, so here are 11 more. When you’re done listening, go vote in the poll post!

As usual there’s a Spotify and a YouTube playlist. Annoyingly, this time BOTH are missing songs, but they’re different ones. If you listen to the YouTube playlist you’ll get everything except Francis Bebey’s “Libreville”. I’ve moved “Libreville” to the beginning of the Spotify playlist to make it easier to catch up.

But Spotify is missing three tracks which ARE on the YouTube list, from The Romantic Noise, J Walter Negro, and Ranking Joe. So you will need both, sorry (or if you’re not on Spotify, another way to hear “Libreville”).

Spotify playlist:

And the relevant YouTube section:

Here’s what we’re listening to this time. In a League Of Tracks FIRST, we have two nominations from the same artist!

  1. FRANCIS BEBEY – “Libreville”. From 1981’s Bia So Nika. Spotify only.
  2. MELBA MOORE – “Pick Me Up, I’ll Dance”. From 1978’s Melba.
  3. BENNIE MAUPIN – “Anua”. From 1978’s Moonscapes.
  4. THE ROMANTIC NOISE – “I Fell In Love With A Baby”. A self-released 1978 single. YouTube only.
  5. PAULINHO DA COSTA – “Deja Vu”. A 1979 single on Pablo.
  6. ODYSSEY – “Use It Up And Wear It Out”. From 1980’s Hang Together.
  7. GODMOMA – “Godmoma Here”. From 1981’s Here.
  8. RANKING JOE – “Tribute To John Lennon”. From 1981’s Tribute To John Lennon. YouTube only.
  9. JIMMY ROSS – “Fall Into A Trance”. From 1981’s First Time Love Affair.
  10. J WALTER NEGRO & THE LOOSE JOINTZ – “Shoot The Pump”. A 1981 single on Zoo York Rekordz.
  11. GODMOMA – “Hands Up (Punk Funk)”. From 1981’s Here

Latest comments (of 2)

koganbot   9 months ago

That's actually good! Would've loved being on that dancefloor, surrounded by all those colors.

Andrew F   9 months ago

I'm delighted by the tip into the existential despair at the end of the Odyssey chorus. The difference between 'left' and 'else' is miles of empty space. I also thought "Wait, I know, this, but I […]

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 6. NOT THAT ONE! – Results
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— 8 March 2024 Tom

Better late than never (well, I hope it is) – here are some results for the “Not That One!” round of the League, a high concept selection where the sole criteria was sharing a title with a more famous tune. So it’s indirect congratulations to Beck, Beyonce, Bobby “Boris” Pickett and The Rolling Stones for making the inclusion of our Top 4 tracks possible in the first place.

This was a woefully undervoted round – which is partly down to the poll plugin having an absolute sod of a time on mobile. For the remaining two rounds, if you can, vote via the desktop site!

Still, thanks hugely to all those who DID vote and of course to our eleven players, who came up with a wonderfully varied selection. Bronze is shared this week between the Plasticenes’ “Loser” and Sarah Webster Fabio’s “Work It Out”. Kate Davis’ not-a-graveyard smash “Monster Mash” takes silver, but the clear winner this week was “Play With Fire” by 70s soul duo Barbara & Ernie. That means that nominator MONDOSALVO gets his second third win in a row and moves into first place on the leaderboard, but only 3 points ahead of Joe Kay.

The seventh round is Black Pop History 78-81, tying in to the poll that’s been running over on Twitter. And then we have our final round and one final brief for the nominators – Unlikely Cover Versions. Good luck!

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 6. NOT THAT ONE! – Poll
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— 16 January 2024 Tom

It’s Week 6 of our second season and the theme this week is “NOT THAT ONE!” – you know these titles, but not these songs… Well, probably not.

Listen to the tracks over at the playlist post. Then vote below for UP TO FOUR favourites. But remember – you can only vote for tracks you didn’t know before the poll!

[ays_poll id=112]

Latest comments (of 17)

koganbot   11 months ago

Lovebites "Stand And Deliver." Instruments promise a dark ride, but the vocals are surprisingly up and glam. Lil Kim "Fuck You." After a while she just sounds mean, but the guitar finds more, […]

koganbot   11 months ago

Barbara & Ernie "Play With Fire," makes me feel sudden nostalgia for my teen FM listening, but does so in six different ways at least, the ambitiousness of funk horns, meanwhile a bass and keyb […]

koganbot   11 months ago

The best League Poll yet. Wouldn't mind any one of these winning. I love "Sometimes" from the get-go; feels very nineties in its dance versatility despite (or because of) a melody that harks back to […]

healingandy   11 months ago

Another indication of how basic my tastes are (or in tune with the PPP masses, hem hem): I voted for the tracks that were then revealed as the top 4.

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 6. NOT THAT ONE! – Playlists
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— 16 January 2024 Tom

We’re back with another round – 11 songs chosen by our players, and you get to listen and vote for your favourites. This is the playlist post – once you’ve played the tracks go check out the POLL POST.

The theme this time is a very fun one – “NOT THAT ONE!” – songs which have famous titles you might associate with a different track. But it’s not that track, and it’s nothing to do with that track. What is it? That’s why you’re listening!

You’re strongly advised to use the YouTube playlist this week – tracks 2, 3 and 11 on it aren’t on the Spotify one.

There is a Spotify one though!

Here’s our parade of doppelgangers.

  1. MACHINEHEART ft VANIC – “Circles”: A single on Columbia (2015)
  2. LIL KIM – “Fuck You”: From the Ms. G.O.A.T. mixtape (2008)
  3. TUB-THUMPER – “Kick Out The Jams”: A single on Alaska (1974)
  4. ERICK THE ARCHITECT ft LOYLE CARNER & FARR – “Let It Go”: From the Future Proof EP (2021)
  5. PLASTISCINES – “Loser”: From LP1 (2014)
  6. KATE DAVIS – “Monster Mash”: From Fish Bowl (2023)
  7. FATBACK BAND – “Night Fever”: From Night Fever (1976)
  8. BARBARA & ERNIE – “Play With Fire”: From Prelude To… (1971)
  9. LES RYTHMES DIGITALES – “Sometimes”: From Darkdancer (1999)
  10. LOVEBITES – “Stand And Deliver”: From Judgement Day (2023)
  11. SARAH WEBSTER FABIO – “Work It Out”: From Boss Soul (1972)

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks II: 5. 21st CENTURY CHRISTMAS – Results!
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— 13 January 2024 Tom

We’re back! I was ill over December and into January with a bunch of viral and post-viral maladies which left me bedridden for quite a while and forced me to pare back all organised fun (and writing) to the minimum – basically getting up poll matches before returning to my fainting couch. The League was a sad casualty of this malaise.

But I am – touch wood – a good deal better, so we can restart and get stuck into the final 3 rounds of this season. Which is FINELY POISED, as you’ll see from the results below.

Not that the results of Round 5 were finely poised – far from it. THE SUPERIMPOSERS’ “Chasing Christmas” and Mighty Mark’s “What I Want For CHRISTMAS” were bunched up with the pack but still did enough to get bronze and silver respectively. But NICOLE ATKINS was way out in front with “Every Single Christmas”, a second dominant win in a row for player Mondosalvo!

The results shake up the leaderboard a bit – Joe Kay is now sole leader, but only by a single point ahead of Mondosalvo. Ed Still slips from 1st to 3rd but again, only by one point. Exciting stuff as we get stuck into Round 6, “NOT THAT ONE” (famous titles which aren’t the famous songs).

Round 7 will be a lead in to the Black Pop History Month 1978-1981 poll on Twitter – nominations for which are tomorrow (Sunday 14th) – our players will find 11 more new discoveries from the era for you…

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