Return of the Battle of the Bands

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Last night, Dr. John's Record Shelf returned to the KDWG airwaves after a holiday hiatus of several weeks. Among the highlights of the program was the start of Round Two in our ongoing Battle of the Bands competition to determine the greatest American rock and roll group of the period from 1954-1974. Round One, involving 64 groups divided and seeded in regional brackets took us the entire fall to complete; the remainder of the competition ought to be completed by May. In Round One, we played random matchups each week, but this time, we're going to play two contests each week from a single bracket, the winners of which will be matched against each other in Round Three. So this week, in the Northwest Bracket, we had no. 1 seed Creedence Clearwater Revival up against no. 9 Big Brother and the Holding Company, and no. 12 Electric Prunes squaring off against no. 13 Country Joe and the Fish.

Country Joe and the Fish

Both contests ended up being unanimous decisions (thanks to guest judge Sara Rosiek who joined Art Vandalay and myself in casting votes). Creedence performed "Bad Moon Rising" which overwhelmed "Down on Me" by Big Brother; Country Joe won with "Flying High" over "Get Me to the World on Time" by the Prunes. One rule of the contest is that for each round bands must be represented by a different song than in used previously, which put some early upset winners in a tough spot moving ahead. So, in Round Three, Creedence will face Country Joe, with each compelled to dip deeper into their catalogs (care t guess which will be at a greater disadvantage in that regard?).

I'll be posting updates here through the coming weeks. Feel free to leave comments on how the whole thing unfolds.