Tournament play to determine—once and for all—Rock’s Greatest Backing Band continues with the Classic Conference, composed of backing bands for some of rock’s most classic Classic Rock bands. Please use this space to argue for your favorite backing band in each contest, using any or all of the following criteria, including criteria not listed here:
- Ability to support the bandleader’s musical agenda/vision
- Additional musical contribution to the bandleader’s sound/vision
- Look and other supporting “rock superhero powers”
- Catchiness of backing band’s name
You may log your vote on each contestant in the Round 1 games through the polls on the following page. Please make sure to register your support and votes for the other conferences at their respective threads:
Round 1, Classic Conference: E-Street Band (1) vs The Pips (16)
- E-Street Band (ie, Bruce and His...) (77%, 24 Votes)
- The Pips (Gladys Knight and...) (23%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 31
Loading ...Round 1, Classic Conference: Wings (8) vs The Gang (9)
- Wings (Linda McCartney's backing band) (66%, 21 Votes)
- The Gang (Kool and...) (34%, 11 Votes)
Total Voters: 32
Loading ...Round 1, Classic Conference: The Heartbreakers (5) vs The Dominos (12)
- The Heartbreakers (Tom Petty and...) (72%, 23 Votes)
- The Dominos (Derek and...) (28%, 9 Votes)
Total Voters: 32
Loading ...Round 1, Classic Conference: Crazy Horse (4) vs Mahogany Rush (13)
- Crazy Horse (Neil Young) (97%, 30 Votes)
- Mahogany Rush (Frank Marino) (3%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 31
Loading ...Round 1, Classic Conference: Group (6) vs Big Brother and the Holding Company (11)
- Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis Joplin) (60%, 18 Votes)
- Group (ie, Edgar Winter...) (40%, 12 Votes)
Total Voters: 30
Loading ...Round 1, Classic Conference: The Spiders From Mars (3) vs The Glitter Band (14)
- The Spiders From Mars (Bowie) (97%, 31 Votes)
- The Glitter Band (Gary Glitter) (3%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 32
Loading ...Round 1, Classic Conference: The Asbury Jukes (7) vs The Blackhearts (10)
- The Blackhearts (Joan Jett) (52%, 16 Votes)
- The Asbury Jukes (Southside Johnny) (48%, 15 Votes)
Total Voters: 31
Loading ...Round 1, Classic Conference: The Silver Bullet Band (2) vs The Messengers (15)
- The Silver Bullet Band (Seger, of course) (59%, 19 Votes)
- The Messengers (Paul Kelly and...) (41%, 13 Votes)
Total Voters: 32
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The Pips are making an early bid for shocker of the tournament.
I say right now that the Spiders take out the Silver Bullet Band in the Seeg 16. I’ll go even further and say the Heartbreakers upset E-Street in that round (but I could be wrong here, as I don’t yet have a full read on some newer Townspeople) as well, giving us a Seeg-leet 8 showdown of the Heartbreakers vs. The Spiders From Mars.
No matter what happens, I think the Silver Bullet Band has shown a ton of hubris with those “Classic Conference Champions” t-shirts you can order on their web site right now. No doubt many children in third world countries will be receiving boxes of them for the holidays.
Hell, man, Seger’s maraca player is putting out more than any backing band combined in this tournament:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOYppTlU42U
I hate to have to make a case for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes with The Boss and The Big Man on stage, but check out how they hold their own among their special guests – and check out the loyalties of dual-citizen Miami Steve!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5slGrDFi11A
I’m slightly disappointed that the Gang isn’t able to give Wings more of a battle. Perhaps they’ve leaned too heavily on their late-’70s/early-’80s hits at the expense of their original claims to fame, when no one could get enough of their funky stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6N_ateEWvk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l-GuraLUNA
I wonder if Kool & The Gang would be faring even worse if they were facing McCartney’s late ’80s/early ’90s band instead of Wings. If that was the case, the Hamish Stuart-powered Live Fantastic Band would have around 70 votes by now.
It goes without saying that the Hamish Stuart-led band, had it qualified, might have run the table.
I know this is off-topic, but I love, love, LOVE the fact that Bob Seger has totally (and presumably willfully) lost all his rock star mojo. He looks like my dad up there — and acts like him, too. I think it’s awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZqlY2FqYBQ&feature=related
It’s wiseasses like you who are driving the Sege to an early retirement. He don’t need this crap!
Your dad wears a headband?
As I said in the earlier thread, The Dominoes are gonna get screwed here. I voted for them; they’ve made 1 tremendous (double) album and Duane Allman and Bobby Whitlock made large contributions. As for the Heartbreakers, I like Petty just as much with them as solo.
Crazy Horse for the Cinderella team coming out of this bracket!
Good point about the Dominos.
I really want to hear about the so-far singular Mahogany Rush vote.
I have to say they’re the only ones I’ve voted against in this round, since I don’t consider them to be a band. I’m not dissing doo wop or anything like that, but the Cholly Atkins cohort thing isn’t enough for me.
There’s a lot of WTF going on in the votes in this category. I voted Dominoes all the way here — any band that can make a shoe-gazing, pity-party Eric Clapton album good has got to be one HELL of a backing band.
And the Asbury Jukes were an *awesome* backing band — I still go to the mat for their “Touch the Sky” live double LP. In fact, I think they’re a better band than the E Streeters!
Southside Johnny is a hack. I can’t help faulting his band for abetting that.
The Dominoes got hosed in the seeding for sure, they must have had a terrible strength of schedule.
Well, half the guys from the Heartbreakers are on his solo albums. It’s really about avoiding Stan Lynch on and those, since he’s an okay bass player himself when he needs to be.
For the record – and making no claim that I know the proper spelling of the plural of “domino” – on the album sleeve the band name is spelled Dominos. I don’t fault any of you for probably spelling it right, but I do feel a need to assure you that the spelling used in the bracket is not incorrect. Thank you.
Voting continues through midnight tonight. The Jukes-Blackhearts battle is clearly going down to the wire. I’m really surprised it’s running so close!
Support for the Messengers has picked up. I’m surprised 11 Townspeople even know who they are! Seger’s maraca player expects to figure heavily in future rounds.
Fair or not, I consider the Dominos to basically be a subset of Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Sure there’s no Bobby Whitlock or Duane Allman in MD&EM, but their absence is more than compensated by the addition of Jim Keltner, Leon Russell, et al. It’s a shame for them not to make it past the first round while other less worthy groups advance but the Heartbreakers could be the Ultimate Rock Backing Band. And besides, the bigger travesty is that while half of the Dominos advance to the second round (albeit in another band) all of Paul Kelly’s Messengers are being eliminated by a band who is praised around these parts for their diligent mediocrity.
It’s a long shot but I’m reposting some Paul Kelly and the Messengers links in an effort to get out the vote!
From a few days ago”
“Here’s three clips (Two are mislabled as Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls. They did use that rather unfortunate name but long before the songs in the clip were released)
Dumb Things:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWhj4sVeVD0
Before too Long:
http://youtu.be/3ZN60AWvUHU
Careless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq7X_6PlilE“
I voted for Mahogany Rush because their name has always sounded like the most vulgar, flithy, yet somehow classy backing band name of all time to me.