Album poll
David Chalmers
might be time for...would you believe?...a poll! This one will be an
album poll, to find everybody's favourite Dylan studio albums.
Rules: well, the population space is the set of Dylan's 25 or so studio
albums - no live albums, compilations or bootlegs. ("Dylan" and "Pat Garrett"
are included, if anyone wants to vote for them; "Biograph" and "Oh Mercy" are
excluded.) You have to list your favourite ten albums, in order. A lot of
people won't have heard all the albums, so you're welcome to only list a top
five, or even less...however many really qualify as "favourites" (for me it's
at least ten, so what the hell...). Scoring will be on a 10,9,8,... basis.
(For instance, if you only list five, they'll get 10,9,8,7,6.)
While you're at it, give your four *least* favourite albums. To make it
interesting, "Dylan" and "Self-Portrait" will be excluded (they're cheap
shots), and "Pat Garrett" is excluded as not being substantial enough.
Again, you don't have to list four if you don't want to.
So your entry might look like (albums here selected randomly):
Favourites:
1. Saved (most favourite)
2. Planet Waves
3. Highway 61 Revisited
4. Basement Tapes
5. Another Side of
etc.
Least Favourites:
1. Infidels (least favourite)
2. Bob Dylan
3. Blood on the Tracks
4. Down in the Groove.
I know: there are going to have to be some tough choices! Send your
votes to me, da...@cogsci.indiana.edu. Anyone who wants to can also
post to the net - this is even encouraged, to get some discussion
going. I'll post the results when votes stop coming in. Let's have
as many people voting as possible, to get a decent sample space.
Don't be shy. Good luck!
--
Dave Chalmers (da...@cogsci.indiana.edu)
Concepts and Cognition, Indiana University.
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must make it all up."
M. Anthony Kapolka 3
>With things around here just a little on the quiet side, I thought it
>might be time for...would you believe?...a poll! This one will be an
>album poll, to find everybody's favourite Dylan studio albums.
Ok- no live albums, no compilations. Do you consider the Basement Tapes
a "studio" album? What about "Hearts of Fire"?
>interesting, "Dylan" and "Self-Portrait" will be excluded (they're cheap
>shots), and "Pat Garrett" is excluded as not being substantial enough.
Why exclude Self Portrait? I mean, Dylan had control over it, after all, and
I think people just discount it because it is said to be terrible. I'm not
sure it would actually come in first in a vote of worst favorite albums. It
wouldn't even make my list.
I'd also like to see a category: most underrated album and most overrated
album... that is, which albums does popular opinion do an injustice to?
Getting back to Self Portrait, as an example, I think it is the most underrated,
even though I wouldn't put it high on my favorite album list.
--
Anthony Kapolka ant...@vax.cs.pitt.edu
John Howells
>In article <25...@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> da...@cogsci.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:
>>With things around here just a little on the quiet side, I thought it
>>might be time for...would you believe?...a poll! This one will be an
>>album poll, to find everybody's favourite Dylan studio albums.
>
>Ok- no live albums, no compilations. Do you consider the Basement Tapes
>a "studio" album? What about "Hearts of Fire"?
>
I think the only albums that should be considered should be albums that
were intended for release as a "Bob Dylan" album. The album should also
contain new material, unlike live or best-ofs. Actually, Basement Tapes
shouldn't be considered because it was never intended to be released,
and certainly not in the format that it was eventually released. Sound
track albums should be excluded also because they serve a purpose other
than to present new material by the artist.
>>interesting, "Dylan" and "Self-Portrait" will be excluded (they're cheap
>>shots), and "Pat Garrett" is excluded as not being substantial enough.
>
>Why exclude Self Portrait? I mean, Dylan had control over it, after all, and
>I think people just discount it because it is said to be terrible. I'm not
>sure it would actually come in first in a vote of worst favorite albums. It
>wouldn't even make my list.
>
Self Portrait should NOT be excluded. He did it. It was released. It
sucks. Ignoring it won't make it go away.
>I'd also like to see a category: most underrated album and most overrated
>album... that is, which albums does popular opinion do an injustice to?
>Getting back to Self Portrait, as an example, I think it is the most underrated,
Most overrated: Blood on the Tracks
Most underrated: The Times They Are A'Changin'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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David Chalmers
>Ok- no live albums, no compilations. Do you consider the Basement Tapes
>a "studio" album? What about "Hearts of Fire"?
_Basement Tapes_ definitely counts. _Hearts of Fire_ doesn't, as it's
not a Dylan album but just an album with some Dylan songs on it.
>Why exclude Self Portrait? I mean, Dylan had control over it, after all, and
>I think people just discount it because it is said to be terrible. I'm not
>sure it would actually come in first in a vote of worst favorite albums. It
>wouldn't even make my list.
Well, I left SP off because I thought it would be an automatic inclusion on
everyone's list, and thus kind of boring. I wanted to force people to make
some tougher choices... However, you're the second person who has complained
about this...and maybe, just maybe, I'm underestimating SP, so consider the
rules changed: SP is now eligible for inclusion in the "least favourite"
category. (Those who have sent their votes in already might like to send
another message saying just where SP fits on their list, if it's on at all.)
>I'd also like to see a category: most underrated album and most overrated
>album... that is, which albums does popular opinion do an injustice to?
This is an interesting idea...maybe the next poll, or something. We don't
want to do all these polls at once, that would be using up all the potential
fun too quickly! Other possible future polls might include "best live
album" "best album (all categories)" or even something like "favourite
album-cover"...
F...@psuvm.bitnet
------------------
1. Highway 61 Revisited
2. Blonde on Blonde
3. John Wesley Harding
4. Before the Flood
5. Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
6. Bringin' It All Back Home
7. Blood on the Tracks
8. Bob Dylan
9. The Basement Tapes
10. Infidels
Least Favorite Albums
---------------------
1. Nashville Skyline
2. New Morning
3. Desire
4. Knocked Out Loaded
5. Hard Rain
Steve Seitz
Comments:
(1) Since people obviously don't agree on which albums to include
in the album poll, why don't we just include ALL of them?
(2) I think the scoring should go differently than proposed.
I think the first three albums should count MUCH more than
the rest on the "favorite albums" list. Perhaps, the rank
should be as follows:
RANK POINTS
1. 25
2. 20
3. 15
4. 10
5. 9
6. 8
7. 7
8. 6
9. 5
10. 4
This way, people who have 10 favorites don't get that many
more points than those who just have 5 favorites. I, for one,
can't think of 10 albums which I would label "favorites".
David Chalmers
> (1) Since people obviously don't agree on which albums to include
> in the album poll, why don't we just include ALL of them?
Well, since I put _Self Portrait_ in, we seem to be agreed on most things.
Remember, this is explicitly a poll of officially-released *studio* albums.
We can do a poll on other things, like lives and compilations, later.
For information: albums included are Bob Dylan, Freewheelin', Times TAAC,
Another Side Of, Bringing IABH, Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde, Basement
Tapes, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait, New Morning,
Pat Garrett, Planet Waves, Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Street-Legal,
Slow Train, Saved, Shot of Love, Infidels, Empire Burlesque, Knocked Out
Loaded, Down in the Groove. For the "least favourite" category, all of
these except _Dylan_ and _Pat Garrett_.
> (2) I think the scoring should go differently than proposed.
> I think the first three albums should count MUCH more than
> the rest on the "favorite albums" list. Perhaps, the rank
> should be as follows: [nice ranking system deleted].
Well, I thought about systems like this, but in the end I decided a
straight 10,9,8 system was as fair as any. I tell you what, though:
when all the results are in, I'll experiment with different scoring
systems, and maybe post the results of a couple of them, especially
if they give different results. I'll include yours.
> This way, people who have 10 favorites don't get that many
> more points than those who just have 5 favorites. I, for one,
> can't think of 10 albums which I would label "favorites".
Well, at the bottom line, even with a 10,9,8 system, it tends to be the
first five places that decide most of the rankings. It takes a lot of
tenth-place rankings (1) to add up to a first-place ranking (10), and
similarly for less extreme cases. The first five rankings have 40
points between them, the next five only 15. Still, I'll try running
the results just based on Top 5 rankings, and see what the results
look like.
And a reminder to everybody - send your votes in to da...@cogsci.indiana.edu!
We need lots more people voting yet so we have a decent sample. If you
don't want to pick ten, just pick five, or even two or three if that's all
you want. It's a tough job, I know, but that's half the fun...