Wow, Greg.  A fight over the best version of Gloria?  I had never even heard
the Shadows of Knight version of Gloria until a few years ago.  It was on
one of my compilations.  It was never released here in the L.A. area, I
don't think, because I sure don't remember it (anybody know???).  I loved
Them's version.  The Doors' version is great, too, but it's a lot cruder.
When Them's Gloria was played here back in the '60s, they wouldn't play part
of it, either, though.  I don't think Them's version was even released as a
single, was it?  I don't know why it got so much airplay here then.

Last night on Top Shelf Oldies, the DJ had "rate the record" and he played
all three versions.  I, of course, said "10" for Van and Them, a "2" for
Shadows of Knight" and I gave the Doors an "8"...it's just a matter of
preference, I guess, and we tend to like the version we heard when we were
growing up.  And, it depends upon where you live as to what you heard.  The
east coast people on Top Shelf prefer Shadows of Knight.

By the way...is anybody going to the Derby show tonight?  I'm going to be
there!  Should be fun!

HeyJude (Judy)
www.superoldies.com
www.topshelfoldies.com
for the best in obscure '50s and '60s music


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com>
To: <audities@smoe.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 7:09 AM
Subject: Re: Preferences ...


> Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 10:38:32 -0700
> From: "Judy B" <HeyJude@socal.rr.com>
> To: <audities@smoe.org>
> Subject: Preferences....
> Message-ID: <00a501c44e48$957c0000$628e1c41@homesystem>
>
> kids and very talented.  But, I am still discovering so much obscure older
> material, too.  I am tired of the Top 40 songs from the past and that's
why
> I don't listen much to oldies radio, but I love finding older, more
obscure
> songs that I missed growing up since all I knew was Top 40 material.
There
> is so much out there that we never heard
>
>
> OK. I thought that by "my old music" you meant stuff with which you had
been
> long familiar. Like you, I too love discovering long-lost music from my
> youth. Hence my pleasure at recently discovering that debut album by the
> Bears from the mid-eighties.
>
>
>  (or that some heard but others
> never did depending upon where you lived...we had Gloria by Them here in
the
> L.A. area but others in other parts of the country got the Shadows of
Knight
> version which I didn't even know until the last few years and don't like
> very much).
>
>
> Those would be fighting words here in Chicago -- literally. I'm not
kidding.
> I once saw a fight break out in a bar between someone who insisted that
the
> original version by Van Morrison and Them was the best "Gloria", and
another
> guy who considered that an insult to civic honor (the Shadows of Knight
> being a Chicago band). It's the only music-discussion dustup I've ever
seen
> in my life. It was a truly weird spectacle, akin to the barroom brawl in
the
> softball episode of *The Simpsons* in which Barney Gumbel punches out Wade
> Boggs after they disagree over who was the better British prime minister,
> Lord Gladstone or Pitt the Elder.
>
> I remember commenting to the friend I was with, "It's a good thing that
the
> first guy hadn't said that the version by the Doors was the best "Gloria",
> or else the other guy would've put him in the hospital."
>
>
> Gregory Sager
>