Rawk the Puck! Final, Judges' votes

So it's down to this: Classic vs. Indie, and the first Rawk the Puck! is settled the old fashioned way. With a vote.

Still got a bobblehead and a CD available if your name is selected from the voters, so give your thoughts on who which tune you're picking down in the comments section. Results to be announced early next week, then I promise, no more.

Dick Darrell/Toronto Star

Springsteen: Live at Seneca College in '75.

To recap, here's the matchup (and for links to videos of the final tunes - Thanks, Alanah! - go here, and here) and if you want links to previous rounds, the last post setting this one up gives you all you need.

RAWK the PUCK! CUP FINAL HOOTENANNY

ATLANTIC CITY (Live), Bruce Springsteen (Classic Rawk Conference Champion *New Jersey Devils* b-w Sympathy for the DEVIL, Rolling Stones; Handsome DEVIL, the Smiths; and DEVIL to Pay, Johnny Cash)

vs.

Black Hole SUN, Soundgarden (Indie Rawk Conference Champion *Dallas Stars* b-w Black STAR, Radiohead; STARman, David Bowie; and STAR Sign, Teenage Fanclub)

MARK FREEDMAN. Soundgarden over the Boss. Soundgarden is the best of the grunge bands. Pearl Jam has been around the longest, Nirvana the most popular, but Soundgarden, the best. And Black Hole Sun is their anthem. Damn fine song. Go Clips!

BASKETBALL JONES. Tas Melas: The NHL is a young man's league. The aged can't learn and play the new system the way the young guns can. However, the veterans can provide the experience and leadership that is lacked by the youth. The Indie Rawk Champions are exemplary of the perfect balance of both old and new. Indie Rawk 4, Classic Rawk 0. J.E. Skeets: That Black Hole Sun music video always gave me the creeps. I'm giving the cup to Bruce, but the MVP trophy goes to Johnny.

ACID QUEEN. Soundgarden.

JABS: Kind of a blah matchup. I'm picking Bruce. Good tune, good guy, good bench, and while one of the greatest live acts I’ve ever seen, I haven’t listened to him with any, er, intensity, in 20 years. Soundgarden thing is okay, but pretty overripe and definitely overplayed. Jersey rules, the Boss in 6, but like many finals, the journey was more thrilling than the arrival.

MIKE CHEN: The Boss, in six games. This is like a battle between two of my old college roommates -- Soundgarden was the favorite band of one guy while Springsteen was the other guy's favorite (a third roommate's favorite band was the Scorpions. For real. No joke. Not in a kitschy cheesy way.) I'm going with Bruce on this one because, well, I really dig his songwriting abilities. And even though Soundgarden's Chris Cornell did an astounding job as Bridget Fonda's Anonymous Neighbor #2 in Cameron Crowe's Singles (fantastic flick), it's not enough to push this overblown song over the hump. Besides, Bruce is from Jersey, and at least they have an NHL team there.

Alanah at VANCOUVER CANUCKS OP ED. Awarding the Cup - SO MUCH PRESSURE! Black Hole Sun was popular for good reason - it's well orchestrated and Chris Cornell vocalizes it dramatically. BUT. I did get very sick of that song back in the 1990s, and time hasn't helped much. It still gets on my nerves pretty fast. But Bruce, he never gets on my nerves. I still love Atlantic City (the song, not the city). The Boss can be maudlin without EVER sounding like a drama queen. And since drama queens should never be able to win the Stanley Cup, I'll give it to Bruce in 5 games.

CARLA MacDONALD. *sigh* Never been a Springsteen fan. Just a little too middle-of-the-road for my tastes and memories of the overhyped and overplayed Born in the USA still stick in my craw (and that is as uncomfortable as it sounds, yes). But that Soundgarden song was played to death on the radio station I listened to in Salt Lake. I mean, I generally liked the type of music they played but their playlist was both short and narrow and if I heard that song once, I musta heard it three hundred times. As a result, I am up-to-here with Black Hole Sun. Besides, I can't figure out what the damned thing means, anyway - it's all so overwrought. 'In my eyes, indisposed, in disguise as no one knows, hides the face, lies the snake, the sun in my disgrace'. WTH does that mean?? Moon, june, swoon. Barf. At least I can figure out what Bruce's song is about -Bruce is gonna take all his money outta the credit union and go try his luck at the casinos. What Ontarian can't understand that? Still, I don't like that one any better.

Comments

[Jlo]

Bruce rules. So do the Oilers, but anyway...

If the Leafs had made it, would we have see Rheo's Ballad of Wendel Clark? Did that get mentioned already? I haven't been paying attention for a while.

[Ken]

I have to say, I think the Boss wins this one quite easily.