Sunday, March 28, 2010

THE PENGUIN AWARDS THAT NEVER WERE: 1988! Part 2 of a continuing specious. For the full skinny, see the first part immediately preceding this post. Now we're going to present the nominees that would've been nominated for a Penguin Award if the Penguin Awards existed in 1988. Remember, leave your votes in the comment section. You may be the one who breaks a tie!
SONG OF THE YEAR:
Under the Milky Way - The Church
Everybody Knows - Leonard Cohen
Better Be Home Soon - Crowded House
Na Laetha Geal Moige - Enya
Like the Way I Do - Melissa Etheridge
I Hate Myself For Loving You - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That (Shep Pettibone remix) - Elton John
Tomorrow People - Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers
One - Metallica
Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
Dixie Flyer - Randy Newman
Bad News From Home - Randy Newman
Wave of Mutilation (U.K. Surf) - The Pixies
Orange Crush - R.E.M.
Handle With Care - Traveling Wilburys
****
ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
WATERMARK - Enya
MELISSA ETHERIDGE - Melissa Etheridge
...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - Metallica
BEACHES (Original Soundtrack) - Bette Midler
LAND OF DREAMS - Randy Newman
GREEN - R.E.M.
RATTLE AND HUM ) U2
STAY AWAKE (Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films) - Various Artists
****
COVER SONG OF THE YEAR:
Give Peace A Chance - Elton John
Lili Marlene - Dolores Keane
Sympathy for the Devil - Laibach
I Think It's Going To Rain Today - Bette Midler
Baby Mine - Bonnie Raitt
Blue Shadows on the Trail - Syd Straw
****
DUET OF THE YEAR:
Tonight / Let's Dance (Live) - Tina Turner & David Bowie
When Love Comes To Town - U2 & B.B. King

5 comments:

Cheeks DaBelly said...

OK since you are going to move forward with this exercise I have to say that I think no matter what the outcome the results are skewed. I don't think I would have voted for the same songs back at the time as I will now so I am going to give you two votes where I think it requires it. And you thought you were going to get off easy doing this, hell no. You opened the box Pandora, you live with it and try and figure out how to give out these awards.

Cheeks DaBelly said...

So here's my votes where there are differences I will clearly mark my 1988 vote to easily tell it from my 2010 vote. Talk about time traveling!

Song of the Year -
I Hate Myself For Loving You (1988 vote)
Wave of Mutilation - Pixies (2010 vote)

Album of the Year
...And Justice For All (1988 vote)
Stay Awake (2010 vote)

Cover of the Year -
Baby Mine - Bonny Raitt

Duet -
Bowie and Tina

Cerpts said...

Certainly the results will be skewed. That's kinda the whole point, innit? However, not in quite the way you think. Case in point: your two picks for song of the year. And this is how it's skewed. Sadly back in 1988 I had not heard the Pixies yet so naturally they couldn't have won or even been nominated. That's the part that's skewed. However, the part that is NOT skewed is that the winners I pick will probably not be different IF I HAD known of all the songs nominated. So in that capacity the winners will be valid.

As I've said many times, my musical tastes do not change; if I loved something in 1972 or 1988 or 1995 I still love it. There is not a single instance where I am "embarrassed" by some music I used to like or where I liked it them but don't like it now. I frankly don't understand this impulse; the music is the same now as it ever was and music that sucked then still sucks now -- I never liked it and still don't. Likewise, music which was good then is good now and my opinion hasn't changed. An excellent example of this is that I stand by all my previous Penguin Award winners for the last 20 years and still listen to them to this day. And love them.

So in a nutbag, that's where the skewed results would be -- not in the fact that I wouldn't have liked something then that I would like now because that's simply not the case. It's simply that I wasn't aware of or hadn't heard all the nominees at that moment in time. But the winners I choose will most definitely be the ones I would've chosen back then IF I had heard them at that point.

Cerpts said...

I might add that all this is probably what's resulting in my having quite a difficult time decided what to award. of course, I already have all the nominees from 1989 back to 1980 picked out before I post them up here. And while some years the choice is fairly easy, many more years are proving to be skullbreakingly difficult simply because of the sheer number of great and deserving music (a dilemna which sadly doesn't exist in the current day when I have a hard time even coming up with nominees). Also, as in the past, I do allow for a TIE in the album category but will stubbornly resist a tie in the song category. So keep those votes coming in you lazy bastards! You could break a tie.

Cerpts said...

Another warning: Some years there will be no winner in the categories of Cover Song or Duet of the Year simply because there aren't enough (or any) nominees.