¤ milky moon ¤

I hope no-one minds, but here it is again, the fifth edition of the Joanna Newsom Song Tournament.

This year’s tournament will see the inclusion of a batch of new, official Joanna songs, as the new album Divers is due out on 23rd October! With this release coming rather late in the year, and my wish that the JNST should be held each year, I’ve decided to launch the First Round now, so that by the time we’ve all have a couple of weeks to familiarise ourselves with the new material, we’ve whittled down more obscure pieces and are ready to start in earnest in early November.

I would like to offer some assistance to regular MilkyMooners who might not be familiar with some or all of the non-canonical songs. If you’ve been a member for a while, and are interested enough in the JNST to have voted before, or at least made some postings on here in the past (or can otherwise make a good case) please send me a PM and I’ll try to help.

On that topic, does anyone have audio files of the songs performed with Philip Glass & Tim Fain that they would be prepared to send me, please? (That is: France, The Orchard, The French Lieutenant's Dreams). Also, any Joanna material that’s on the ‘director’s cut’ of Family Jams, but not on the new DVD, that I have ordered but not yet seen.

RULES

1. The tournament is intended to find (in a fun way) the best-loved Joanna Newsom song (whether she appears as a solo artist or as a part – no matter how small – of a collaboration, and including songs that she did not write herself). It is driven by the votes of readers of this MilkyMoon site. The tournament is thus between the songs and not between the people who are involved in it as voters.

2. Each SONG that Joanna has performed is one entry. This means that songs that have been recorded more than once count as a single entrant, and voters are asked to consider their personal favourite version when casting their votes. As well as the songs on Joanna's four official albums [including ‘Divers’], her two early self-released EPs, and her handful of official singles, the tournament is also open to any song (or other scripted or lyrical piece, poem, etc) that she has ever performed, either solo or in collaboration with another artist or a group, so long as it is known to exist by the tournament organiser. (This, by default, is me, but it doesn't mean I have to have heard the song, but just that I have to know it has been performed; it can include songs only performed "live" as well as officially released songs). Where the same song is known by more than one title, it is still only entered once, and will be known by the most official title, or (if none, or more than one) by the title chosen by the organiser; all versions can however be considered by the voters. (eg: if you want to vote for En Gallop!, you can do so by selecting "En Gallop").

3. The organiser will draw the songs into a series of Groups or pairs, to be posted in this thread. MilkyMoon users are then invited to vote for their favourite song (or songs - see instructions posted at the time of the draw) in each Group, within a specified time limit. At the expiry of that time period, the votes will be counted up, and the most popular song in each group will progress to the next round, whereupon the process described in paragraph 3 will be repeated. The following provisions will also apply:
a) The draw will include an element of 'seeding', based on the song's performance in previous JNSTs, or in previous rounds of this JNST, to try to ensure that the most popular songs do not clash at earlier stages of the tournament.
b) If voters are asked to cast more than one vote per group, these can be ordered according to instructions posted at the time of each specific draw - for example, if two songs are to be chosen, these may be allocated 2 points for a first choice, and 1 point for a second choice. If your vote is ambiguous, I'll do my best to resolve it privately, but if this proves impossible I'll have to make a sensible decision on how to treat it.
c) If a voter is unable to choose between more than one song, their vote(s) will be regarded as shared equally between the songs involved, unless he or she makes it clear that they do not like any of the songs in a particular group, in which case no vote will be counted for that voter for that group.
d) The organiser will endeavour to make the draws as neutral as possible, for example by scrambling the order of groups and the order in which songs are presented within each group.
e) Depending on the exact number of songs entered in the initial draw, it is possible that wild-card places in a subsequent round may be allocated to the "best losers" (however defined) from the previous round, with the proviso that no song can receive two such wild-cards during the course of the same tournament.

4. The final stage may follow the same pattern, or may be constituted as a series of "head to head" pairings on a round-robin basis involving 12 songs. An element in ordering the songs in the Final may be a brought forward 'bonus score' derived from voting in earlier rounds, but this will form only a minor part of the total weighting. (The final stages will decide the positions of the songs which reach that stage, and the lower positions will be determined by analysis of the results of the earlier rounds, possibly with a subsidiary vote for some of the positions).

For those that aren't interested in the mechanics - don't worry: all I invite you to do is to do is cast your votes for each group in the period stated. Please only post them in this thread, and if you change your mind (within the time limit) please do so by making a NEW post, and not by editing your initial one, as I could miss this if I've done an intermediate count and look only for later postings. The key things to remember are:
Don't rush your Qualifying Round votes ... take your time to consider, seek out, and listen again to these less familiar songs: PM me if you’re a regular LacticLunarian who would like some help in doing so.
ALL versions of a song count towards a single entry. For example, if you're asked to consider Cosmia, cast your vote on the basis of the version you like the best, whether it's one of the officially released versions on Ys or the Colleen EP, or one of any number of unreleased, bootlegged, unofficial, live, YouTube etc versions.
Please try to vote before the deadline that I state. I won't close a round before that date / time, but as soon as the deadline has elapsed, I am liable to close it at any time. I will, however, include votes cast between the announced deadline and the actual close of the round. All times / dates referred to are based on UK time (that's Greenwich Mean Time until 25 October, and then BST - British Summer Time - which is one hour ahead of GMT - ie GMT+1).

Where an asterisk * appears after a song title, it indicates that the song has already received one wild-card / repechage passage (best runner-up), and cannot do so again.

Collaborations are indicated in square brackets, [...], and are abbreviated as follows:
BC = Bill Callaghan (also known as Smog, qv)
CD = Clive Deamer
CG = Clive Greenwood
DB = Devendra Banhart
DG = Danny Goffey
E = Espers
GC = Gaz Coombes
GS = Golden Shoulders
HS = Hard Skin
JG = Jonny Greenwood
KB = Kervin Barker
LI = The Lonely Island
LM = Lili De La Mora
M = The Muppets
MB = The Moore Brothers
NC = Nervous Cop
P = The Pleased
PG = Philip Glass
RF = Ryan Francesconi
RH = Roy Harper
RP = Robin Pecknold
S = Smog (also known as Bill Callaghan, qv)
SN = Stacy Nuner
TF = Tim Fain
TG = Thao & The Get Down Stay Down (Thao is Thao Nguyen)
V = Vetiver
VB = Vashti Bunyan
WW = Weird War
JN = Joanna Newsom, including Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band - not shown unless her name appears as part of the credited artists.

ENTRIES

Below is a list of songs to be included in the tournament, in approximate chronological order of release - or where no official release is available - of (earliest known) performance date. (The actual song tournament, however, is not about individual recordings, but about the songs - so although En Gallop!, for instance, is listed under Walnut Whales, you will be encouraged to vote in accordance with whichever version you like the best, be it the early Walnut Whales version, the professional Milk-Eyed Mender one, or any of the live bootlegs you may have heard. Entries without numbers and in italics are included for reference only: I've excluded compilations which do not add to the sum total of JN songs.
The eighty songs preceded by an “F” progress straight through to the final stages of JNST5, by virtue of being one of the 73 best performing songs in previous JNSTs, and/or one of the 11 new songs on ‘Divers’ [four songs fit both criteria]. The remaining fifty songs preceded by a “Q” will contest the qualifying stages of JNST4.

WALNUT WHALES (2002)
F 001. Erin
F 002. Cassiopeia
F 003. Peach, Plum, Pear
F 004. Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie
F 005. Flying A Kite
F 006. The Fray
F 007. En Gallop! [later re-recorded as “En Gallop”]
F 008. The Book Of Right-On

NEVER COMPLETE (Apr 2002) – The Please
All six songs included on this release were included on “One Piece From The Middle” (by which time the band had added a ‘d’ to its name) and, since this is a somewhat easier place to find them, they appear under that heading (as numbers 021, 013, 016, 020, 018 & 014 respectively) rather than here.

ONE PIECE FROM THE MIDDLE (Aug 2002) – The Pleased
Q 009. One Horse
Q 010. Swift Nude
Q 011. If You Can Afford It
Q 012. Untitled
Q 013. No Style
Q 014. Another Disaster
Q 015. Let Go
Q 016. The Conversation
Q 017. Intermission [later reissued as I The Province]
Q 018. About Me
Q 019. I'm Already Gone [later reissued as Already Gone]
Q 020. Orange Peter
Q 021. Secret
Q 022. R.U. In
F 023. Exit [later reissued as Orderly Manor]

LET MY BURDEN BE (Oct 2002) – Golden Shoulders
F 024. Do You Know Who You Are?
F 025. Bring Me Down
F 026. The Honey, The Power, The Light
F 027. Sympathy

YARN AND GLUE (Nov 2003)
F 028. Sprout And The Bean
F 029. This Side Of The Blue
F 030. Yarn And Glue
F 031. What We Have Known
F 032. Bridges And Balloons

DON’T MAKE THINGS (Nov 2003) – The Pleased
Already Gone [renamed and re-recorded version of #019, I’m Already Gone]
Q 033. We Are The Doctor
No Style [previously released as #013]
If You Can Afford It [previously released as #011]
Q 034. Wake Up Instead
F 035. Never Come Home
I The Province [renamed and re-recorded version of #017, Intermission]
About Me [previously released as #018]
One Horse [previously released as #009]
Another Disaster [previously released as #014]
Q 036. Oh Canada
Q 037. Don't Make Things
Orange Peter [previously released as #020]
Orderly Manor [renamed and re-recorded version of #023, Exit]

NRVSCP (Nov 2003) – Nervous Cop
Q 038. Setting the Bushes On Fire
Q 039. Rice Precipitation
Q 040. Nonrum Nonproblem
Q 041. Get Wolf Boy And Get In Context
Q 042. Ill Pearls
Q 043. Franks Vs Frank
Q 044. Colorchains Of Inner Space
Q 045. Nuflesh, Old Thirst
Q 046. Pow Strikes Pow Implosion
Q 047. Hawk Feeds You To Feed Itself

THE MILK-EYED MENDER (Mar 2004)
Bridges And Balloons
Sprout And The Bean
The Book Of Right-On
F 048. Sadie
F 049. Inflammatory Writ
This Side Of The Blue
"En Gallop" [new version of 007, En Gallop!]
Cassiopeia
Peach, Plum, Pear
F 050. Swansea
F 051. Three Little Babes
Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie

VETIVER (May 2004) – Vetiver
Q 052. Amerilie

Unreleased (2004) – Vetiver, Joanna Newson, Andy Cabic, Devendra Banhart
F 053. Amour Fou

Unreleased Demo (Oct 2004) – The Pleased
Q 054. Hear Me Marching

Unreleased (Nov 2004)
F 055. Man’s Road

SPROUT AND THE BEAN (Nov 2004)
Sprout And The Bean
What We Have Known

Unreleased (Dec 2004) – Joanna Newsom, Smog & Weird War
F 056. Ring The Living Bell

Unreleased (Jan 2005)
F 057. Angel
F 058. Little Wing

A RIVER AIN’T TOO MUCH TO LOVE (May 2005) - Smog
F 059. Rock Bottom Riser

LOOKAFTERING (Oct 2005) – Vashti Bunyan
F 060. Against The Sky
F 061. If I Were

Unreleased (Sep 2006) - Smog
F 062. Our Anniversary

Unreleased (Nov 2006)
F 063. Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes

YS (Nov 2006)
F 064. Emily
F 065. Monkey & Bear
F 066. Sawdust & Diamonds
F 067. Only Skin
F 068. Cosmia

COLLEEN (Apr 2007) – Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band
F 069. Colleen
Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Cosmia

WOKE ON A WHALEHEART (Apr 2007) - Bill Callaghan
Q 070. The Wheel

Unreleased (Apr 2007) – Bill Callaghan
F 071. Sycamore
f 072. River Guard

ELEVEN CONTINENTS (Jul 2007) – RF & Lili De La Mora
F 073. Through The Trees
Q 074. Eleven Continents
F 075. Lifetime

Unreleased (Jan 2008) – Kevin Barker, Joanna Newsom
Same Old Man – now included as #127

INCREDIBAD (Feb 2009) – The Lonely Island
Q 076. Ras Trent

APTOS (Mar 2009) – The Moore Brothers
F 077. Good Heart, Money And Rain

GET REASONABLE (May 2009) – Golden Shoulders
Q 078. Mountain

YOU & ME (Jan 2010) – Kevin Barker
Q 079. Little Picture Of You
But Joanna is not credited for this track on the album ... did she guest on a live or unreleased version??
However, she IS credited on two other tracks –
Q 080. You & Me
Q 081. Mountain & Bear

HAVE ONE ON ME (Feb 2010)
F 082. Easy
F 083. Have One On Me
F 084. ’81
F 085. Good Intentions Paving Company
F 086. No Provenance
F 087. Baby Birch
F 088. On A Good Day
F 089. You and Me, Bess
F 090. In California
F 091. Jackrabbits
F 092. Go Long
F 093. Occident
F 094. Soft As Chalk
F 095. Esme
F 096. Autumn
F 097. Ribbon Bows
F 098. Kingfisher
F 099. Does Not Suffice

Unreleased (Aug 2010) – Robin Pecknold, Joanna Newsom
Q 100. Picture

THE FAMILY JAMS (Apr 2011, recorded Jun 2004?) – Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Vetiver
Q 101. Dreams [only in the ‘Director’s Cut, not in the released version of this film]
Q 102. Shame featured twice in the movie, first as a 7 second clip where Joanna performs with Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Stacy Nuner and Joan Brinkworth and then a full version where her co-performers are Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Zach Cowie, Colm O'Ciosoig and Georgeson
Q 103. Roots
F 104. Untitled Harp Music (previously circulated as Prepared Harp. Improv.), Cosmia Proper [instrumental], and other released songs also appear

Unreleased (2011)
Q 105. This Is Just To Say

WHAT WE HAVE KNOWN (Jul 2011)
What We Have Known

Unreleased (Nov 2011) – Roy Harper, Joanna Newsom
F 106. Another Day

THE MUPPETS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (Nov 2011) – The Muppets Entire Cast
Q 107. The Muppet Show Theme
Q 108. Life’s A Happy Song Finale

Unreleased PORTLANDIA (Feb 2012)
F 109. Tom Bombadil

HARPFELT CONNECTIONS (Mar 2012, recorded 1999?)
F 110. Instrumental 1999

Unreleased (June 2012) – Philip Glass, Joanna Newsom, Tim Fain
Q 111. France
Q 112. The Orchard
Q 113. The French Lieutenant Dreams {Joanna Newsom, Tim Fain}
The Diver’s Wife [aka Diver] {Joanna Newsom} now listed as #126 Divers

Unreleased (Oct 2012)
Look And Despair now listed as #121 Sapokanikan

WE THE COMMON (Feb 2013) – Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
F 114. Kindness Be Conceived

Unreleased (Mar 2013)
F 115. The North Star Grassman And The Ravens

WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY APPEAR (Mar 2013, though dated 2012) – Hard Skin feat. Joanna Newsom
F 116. The Man Who Ran The Town

THE WACK ALBUM (Jun 2013) – The Lonely Island
Q 117. We Are A Crowd

Unreleased Jul 2013)
new harp song ["Hay and a clean stall"] and new piano song ["...space of half a day"] now respectively listed as #122 Leaving The City and #125 The Things I Say

Unreleased (Mar 2014)
new Americana-style piano song – this will be included in Round One. However, it is assumed to be one of the new songs on Divers, and so it has not been given a number here.
If it IS on Divers, it will be included again in Round 2, under its correct name, regardless of performance in Round One (on the basis that almost no-one has heard it at this stage).
If it is NOT on Divers, it will retrospectively be issued with a number, and its Round One scores will determine if it progresses.

INHERENT VICE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK (Jan 2015) – (Various Artists - Inherent Vice Cast)
Q 118. Spooks {JG, GC, DG, JN}
Q 119. Under The Paving Stones, The Beach! {JG, CG, CD, JN}

DIVERS (Oct 2015)
F 120. Anecdotes
F 121. Sapokanikan
F 122. Leaving the City
F 123. Goose Eggs
F 124. Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne
F 125. The Things I Say
F 126. Divers
F 127. Same Old Man
F 128. You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
F 129. A Pin-Light Bent
F 130. Time, As a Symptom

Two items are excluded, as they appear to be merely doctored samples, with no (new) Joanna Newsom involvement other than some snippets of interviews in the former:
Milk Eyed Gangster (Jay-Z, JN), also known as The L.O.C. Mixtape, and divided into seven segments, each corresponding to a JN song; and Right On (The Roots, JN, STS). If you wish to vote for one of these (or one of the individual segments, please treat them as being variants of the original songs that they sample, namely The Book Of Right-On for Right On, and the following for Milk Eyed Gangster: The Book Of Right-On, Sadie, “En Gallop”, Three Little Babes, Sprout And The Bean, Bridges And Balloons, Peach Plum Pear.

There are fifty songs in Round One, and I will soon post the draw, in which they will be divided into ten groups of five, with the winner of each group progressing to Round Two. You'll have plenty of time to vote in Round One, as I'll wait until the new album is out, so please try to familiarise yourself with these songs before voting: if you need help with this, please PM me!

EDIT:
I have gone through all my postings on this forum, and made a few corrections to the titles of songs on the Nervous Cop album 'NRVSCP'. I copied some titles straight from Lina's original discography, because they are so hard to read on the original album cover (at least they are on my CD version). However, armed with a backlight and a magnifying glass, I now realise the following are the correct titles:

Franks Vs Frank - previously incorrectly listed as Frank Vs Frank
Colorchains Of Inner Space - previously incorrectly listed as [The] Colorchains Of Outer Space
Pow Strikes Pow Implosion - previously incorrectly listed as Pow Strikes Pos Implosion [the second 'Pow' looks very like 'Cow', but under magbification it's evident that it is 'Pow']
Hawk Feeds You To Feed Itself - previously incorrectly listed as The Hawk Feeds You To Feed Itself
(The second of these correctoipns has been made sporadically in earlier posts, and the extraneous 'The' in the last one has appeared and disappeared over time. The first and third errors only showed up with careful inspection).

ROUND ONE

Here are the groupings for the first stage of the 2015 JNST. The better known songs, as well as all the songs from the new album, Divers, are exempted until Round Two, so this list contains only the songs that performed less well in previous JNSTs, plus the two pieces from the Inherent Vice soundtrack cd.

For each group, please place the songs in your order of preference (favourite at the top, or marked with the number '1', down to the least favourite at the bottom and marked with the highest sequential number). Some groups have 5 songs, and others have 6, but please ignore any songs you don't know. I will award 0 points for any song not listed / not numbered, 1 point for the lowest listed / highest numbered song, and so on upwards (thus, if you score all 6 songs in a 6 song group, your top pick will receive 5 points, but if you only score three songs, then your top pick gets only 2 points).

If you would like to find out more about some of the less well-known songs, please send me a PM and I will try to assist.

There are 9 groups, and there are 10 places available in the next round, so the nine group winners will progress, along with the best/closest runner-up.

There is no rush to vote, and plenty of time to get familiar with these songs, as Round One will not be closing until just before midnight, 23:59 GMT, on Saturday 7th November 2015. That way, we will have had a couple of weeks to familiarise ourselves with Divers before voting starts in Round Two.

Have fun, and don't forget you can have in mind any version (live or studio) of the song when you vote.

GROUP 1
Colorchains Of Inner Space [NC]
About Me [P]
Franks Vs Frank [NC]
The Wheel [BC]
Let Go [P]

GROUP 2
Rice Precipitation [NC]
Roots [DB/V/JN/E/SN]
One Horse [P]
Mountain & Bear [KB]
If You Can Afford It [P]
The French Lieutenant Dreams [JN/TF]

GROUP 3
No Style [P]
Wake Up Instead [P]
Orange Peter [P]
Get Wolf Boy And Get In Context [NC]
France [PG/JN/TF]
Amerilie [V]

GROUP 4
Hawk Feeds You To Feed Itself [NC]
Mountain [GS]
The Orchard [PG/JN/TF]
R.U. In [P]
Under The Paving Stones, The Beach! [JG, CG, CD, JN]
Oh Canada [P]

GROUP 5
The Muppet Show Theme [M]
You & Me [KB]
Dreams [DB/JN/V]
Ill Pearls [NC]
Ras Trent [LI]
Swift Nude [P]

GROUP 6
Nuflesh, Old Thirst [NC]
Spooks [JG, GC, DG, JN]
Eleven Continents [RF/LM]
7 Minutes In Heaven [MOB/JN]
Don't Make Things [P]
Hear Me Marching [P]

GROUP 7
untitled (from One Piece From The Middle) [P]
Nonrum Nonproblem [NC]
I'm Already Gone (aka Already Gone) [P]
Shame [DB/V/JN+friends]
Setting The Bushes On Fire [NC]
Secret [P]

GROUP 8
We Are The Doctor [P]
We Are A Crowd [LI]
Intermission (aka I The Province) [P]
The Conversation [P]
This Is Just To Say

GROUP 9
Life's A Happy Song Finale [M]
new Americana-style piano song
Picture [RP/JN]
Another Disaster [P]
Pow Strikes Pow Implosion [NC]
Little Picture Of You [KB]

JNST5

Round 1 – My votes
GROUP 1
Colorchains Of Inner Space [NC]
The Wheel [BC]
About Me [P]
Let Go [P]
Frank Vs Frank [NC]


GROUP 2
One Horse [P]
If You Can Afford It [P]
Roots [DB/V/JN/E/SN]
Mountain & Bear [KB]
The French Lieutenant Dreams [JN/TF]
Rice Precipitation [NC]


GROUP 3
No Style [P]
Amerilie [V]
Wake Up Instead [P]
Orange Peter [P]
France [PG/JN/TF]
Get Wolf Boy And Get In Context [NC]


GROUP 4
Under The Paving Stones, The Beach! [JG, CG, CD, JN]
Mountain [GS]
Oh Canada [P]
R.U. In [P]
The Orchard [PG/JN/TF]
The Hawk Feeds You To Feed Itself [NC]


GROUP 5
You & Me [KB]
Swift Nude [P]
The Muppet Show Theme [M]
Dreams [DB/JN/V]
Ras Trent [LI]
Ill Pearls [NC]


GROUP 6
Spooks [JG, GC, DG, JN]
Eleven Continents [RF/LM]
Don't Make Things [P]
Hear Me Marching [P]
7 Minutes In Heaven [MOB/JN]
Nuflesh, Old Thirst [NC]


GROUP 7
Shame [DB/V/JN+friends]
untitled (from One Piece From The Middle) [P]
Secret [P]
I'm Already Gone (aka Already Gone) [P]
Setting The Bushes On Fire [NC]
Nonrum Nonproblem [NC]


GROUP 8
We Are The Doctor [P]
Intermission (aka I The Province) [P]
The Conversation [P]
This Is Just To Say
We Are A Crowd [LI]


GROUP 9
Picture [RP/JN]
Another Disaster [P]
Pow Strikes Pow Implosion [NC]
Life's A Happy Song (Finale) [M]
Little Picture Of You [KB]
new Americana-style piano song

The 'americana-style piano song' is 'Anecdotes,' and it's not that Americana.

Thank you. The information is very useful for my stats!

Steve, have you thought about advertising the tournament on the Facebook page?

Hi Alex. The thought did occur to me, but I would be guided by others' judgement to a degree. I don't have Facebook myself, so would need someone who does to put the word out there. But there have also been some worrying stories of undesirable types on there, and I wouldn't want our tournament to be corrupted by frivolous / malicious posters either. I suppose some sort of weighting could be employed, so that newly registered MM members' votes carried less sway than those of the regulars here ... or am I just being paranoid and old-fashioned?
I guess I'm asking for advice: what do others think?

I don't know whether it would be likely that people only become MMMembers to mess up the tournament? Personally I wouldn't think so, but I'm not on Facebook either, perhaps I'm naive...

By the way, I think the tournament is going to be (because for me it hasn't properly started yet, I will skip voting in the preliminary round if you don't mind) really hard this time around! For instance, I'm totally in love with the 2 minutes I heard of "Time, As A Symptom", but will I think it's a better song than "Only Skin"? Only Time may say (what Anecdotes cannot do)!

There aren't really 'troublemakers' on the Facebook group afaik, mostly just earnest weirdos. Admin can handle it. Go ahead. Not like I've got anything better to do (except write my dissertation).

Open The Door And Let 'Em In

Leave it open: "We let the weirdness in"!

I don't see any reason not to, anyone can surely join the forum if they like, and it's already been linked to and mentioned on the fb page several times so it's not like milkymoon is some secret hidden base :')
I'd think it would be more interesting to get some fresh blood to spice up tournament, haha. I don't know how older members feel, is anyone else likely to join in? I'm definitely participating for the fun of it, so thanks for running, Steve! :>

Thank you for your support and confidence, solfatara. I intend to launch the next round no earlier than late on Sat 7 November, or maybe the next morning depending on where work ( ) takes me that day. I usually apply some kind of seeding to the draw, but will use a random process to allocate the new Divers material across the groups.

I predict a lot of ties from me!

V JOANNA NEWSOM SONG TOURNAMENT 2015

Voting for Round One is now closed.

Unfortunately, there was only one voter, and that was me! So rather than repeat the same list, the detailed results of this round are the same as my votes cast further up this thread on 16 October. The winning song in each of the nine groups qualifies to enter Round Two, along with the exempted songs (including all those on 'Divers'). One qualifying space was reserved for the best-performing runner-up, and, although it's a bit unsatisfactory, as I was the only voter, I will make a choice between the nine runners-up to take this place (this song being marked with a '*', precluding it from qualifying as best runner-up again later in the Tournament). Even that wasn't an especially easy task: The Wheel and Mountain jaunt along quite pleasantly, If You Can Afford It is oddly U2ish, and there's a delightful harp figure in Amerilie, Eleven Continents is grounded on Joanna's harp underpinning Lili's breathy voice, and Intermission is delightfully spooky (though Joanna's contribution is harder to pick out). The same comment could apply to Another Disaster, but this rockier piece (closer in feel to The Man Who Ran The Town) is the one I opted for. All rather academic I suspect!

UPDATE: I changed my mind and went for Amerilie after all! Organiser's prerogative to ignore the deadline! Note the early use of birdsong at the end!

The ten qualifiers are thus:

1 - Colorchains Of Inner Space [NC]
2 - One Horse [P]
3 - No Style [P]
* - Amerilie [V]
4 - Under The Paving Stones, The Beach! [JG, CG, CD, JN]
5 - You & Me [KB]
6 - Spooks [JG, GC, DG, JN]
7 - Shame [DB/V/JN+friends]
8 - We Are The Doctor [P]
9 - Picture [RP/JN]

DRAW FOR ROUND TWO - NOTES
For clarity, I will post he thirty groups of three in full in a new post in a moment. But here, I would like to explain how it was compiled:
The 30 best performing songs across JNST I-IV were each placed in their own group. They were then initially paired with the next thirty, but in reverse order (so #1 is matched with #60, #2 with #59 etc). The 'top 30' included one song (Divers, previously listed as 'Look and despair'), which I left in its existing position, but the three appearing in the next 30 positions were removed as I felt they were salse, and therefore included numbers 61, 62 & 63 in this cycle. That left 10 more songs which had been exempted from Round One, reduced to 9 because Same Old Man was among them, and these were randomly drawn into the groups containing no's 11-20. The 10 qualifiers from Round 1 were likewise drawn into those containing no's 1-10. Then the 10 remaining songs from 'Divers' were drawn into those containing no's 21-30. Finally, I made a few adjustments, minimising the changes as far as possible, to ensure that as far as possible, groups did not contain songs from the same album or corroboration, and that old and new were well mixed. Having done this, the order of the groups, and the presentation of the songs within them were scrambled.

THE YEAR ZERO
Joanna's Wikipedia article is at present stated that she corroborated with a band of this name. I suspect this is incorrect, and is a garbled reference to a book which mentions her.

NOTE ABOUT ALTERNATIVE TITLES
Several songs have appeared or been referred to under various titles over the years, and of course the version I use (shown in bold below) is the confirmed official title once it becomes available. The exception to this is the piece listed as Untitled Harp Music in 'The Family Jams', but given the rather more helpful title Prepared Harp Improv. on bootlegs. However, as a cross-reference, here are the alternative names under which the Round 2 songs have previously appeared. For completeness, I've added some other unofficial titles to other songs.
In several cases, official releases of the same song have appeared under differing titles. Where this relates only to punctuation, I have chosen between the forms arbitrarily, but where there is a whole new title, I have left both in the name that I use.
Simple mis-readings and typos are ignored for the purposes of this note.
Also please note that Same Old Man is now treated as a Joanna Newsom song, and has shed its [KB/JN] tag: remember you should base your vote for every song upon the version you prefer. All such artist identifiers [in square brackets] were listed in the opening post of this thread.

Barbara = Ribbon Bows
Be A Woman = Only Skin
Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie = Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Diver = Divers
The Diver’s Wife = Divers
"En Gallop" = En Gallop!
Exit [P] = Orderly Manor [P]
I'm Already Gone [P] = Already Gone [P]
Intermission [P] = I The Province [P]
Look And Despair = Sapokanikan
new Americana-style piano song = Anecdotes
new harp song: Hay and a clean stall = Leaving The City
new piano song: ...space of half a day = The Things I Say
Prepared Harp Improv. = Untitled Harp Music

DRAW & INSTRUCTIONS FOR ROUND TWO

Ninety songs are included in the draw. They are divided into thirty groups of three. Please consider your favourite version of each song, and then list them in descending oreder of preference within each group. By default, I will assign 3 points for your first listed (favourite) song, 2 points for the next one, and one point for the third one. However, you are invited to assign 4 points to any song in a group you especially like, by noting this fact beside your first choice. You are allowed to have two songs tied (for 1st & 2nd place in a group, or for 2nd & 3rd), or all three songs tied.
(If you have a tie for 1st & 2nd, both songs will receive 2½ points, or 3 points if you mark either or both of them with a '4', these values being the average of the default {3,2} or the enhanced {4.2} possible scores.
If you have a tie for 2nd & 3rd, both songs will receive 1½ points, ie the average of the default {2,1} score.
If you have a tie for all three positions, each song will receive the average mark for a default group which is 2 points. Sorry, but you can't enhance such a vote by including a 4, mainly because each song would have to receive 7/3 points and my keyboard does not support he character for 1/3!
Any song you do not list will automatically receive 0 (zero) points.

I have colour-coded the songs to indicate on which album you can find a 'definitive' version (though please remember the third sentence of this posting):
The Milk-Eyed Mender - all 12 songs
Ys - all 5 songs
Have One On Me - all 18 songs
Divers - all 11 songs
unreleased, early EPs, miscellaneous solo releases, and collaborations - respectively 6+4+3+31= 44 songs

GROUP 1
Picture [RP/JN]
Baby Birch
Tom Bombadil
GROUP 2
’81
Erin
Goose Eggs
GROUP 3
Only Skin
Under The Paving Stones, The Beach! [JG, CG, CD, JN]
Good Heart, Money And Rain [MB]
GROUP 4
One Horse [P]
Monkey & Bear
Man’s Road
GROUP 5
The North Star Grassman And The Ravens
Easy
Sympathy [GS]
GROUP 6
Same Old Man
Ribbon Bows
Flying A Kite
GROUP 7
Does Not Suffice
Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne
Cassiopeia
GROUP 8
You And Me, Bess
Inflammatory Writ
Anecdotes
GROUP 9
You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
What We Have Known
Esme
GROUP 10
Sadie
Never Come Home [P]
The Man Who Ran The Town [HS/JN]
GROUP 11
The Honey, The Power, The Light [GS]
Three Little Babes
Colleen
GROUP 12
Time, As a Symptom
Jackrabbits
Bridges And Balloons
GROUP 13
You & Me [KB]
Emily
Against The Sky [VB]
GROUP 14
The Things I Say
On A Good Day
Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes
GROUP 15
Prepared Harp Improv.
In California
Colorchains Of Inner Space [NC]
GROUP 16
Leaving The City
Autumn
Sprout And The Bean
GROUP 17
Go Long
Our Anniversary [S]
Spooks [JG, GC, DG, JN]
GROUP 18
Shame [DB/V/JN+friends]
Kingfisher
Ring The Living Bell [JN/S/WW]
GROUP 19
Another Day [RH/JN]
"En Gallop" (aka En Gallop!)
Lifetime [RF/LM]
GROUP 20
Bring Me Down [GS]
Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Little Wing
GROUP 21
Through The Trees [RF/LM]
Soft As Chalk
Instrumental 1999
GROUP 22
Have One On Me
No Style [P]
Kindness Be Conceived [TG]
GROUP 23
Swansea
Amour Fou [V]
The Fray
GROUP 24
Good Intentions Paving Company
Rock Bottom Riser [S]
Angel
GROUP 25
River Guard [BC]
Peach, Plum, Pear
Yarn And Glue
GROUP 26
This Side Of The Blue
No Provenance
A Pin-Light Bent
GROUP 27
Divers
The Book Of Right-On
Occident
GROUP 28
Sapokanikan
If I Were [VB]
Exit (aka Orderly Manor) [P]
GROUP 29
We Are The Doctor [P]
Sawdust & Diamonds
Sycamore [BC]
GROUP 30
Do You Know Who You Are? [GS]
Cosmia
Amerilie [V]*

Have fun! I expect to close the voting in just under two weeks, at the end of Saturday 21st November 2015 (UK time).

Thank you, as always, for organizing this! If only I had half of your organizational skills my career would be bounds ahead of where it is now...

GROUP 1
1. Baby Birch
2. Tom Bombadil

GROUP 2
1. ’81
2. Goose Eggs

GROUP 3
1. Only Skin

GROUP 4
1. Monkey & Bear

GROUP 5
1. Easy

GROUP 6
1. Same Old Man
2. Ribbon Bows

GROUP 7
1. Does Not Suffice
2. Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne
3. Cassiopeia

GROUP 8
1. Anecdotes
2. Inflammatory Writ

GROUP 9
1. You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
2. Esme
3. What We Have Known

GROUP 10
1. Sadie
2. The Man Who Ran The Town [HS/JN]

GROUP 11
1. Colleen

GROUP 12
1. Jackrabbits
2. Time, As a Symptom
3. Bridges And Balloons

GROUP 13
1. Emily

GROUP 14
1. On A Good Day
2. Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes
3. The Things I Say

GROUP 15
1. In California
2. Prepared Harp Improv.

GROUP 16 (tough one!!)
1. Autumn
2. Sprout And The Bean
3. Leaving The City

GROUP 17
1. Go Long

GROUP 18
1. Kingfisher

GROUP 19
1."En Gallop" (aka En Gallop!)

GROUP 20
1. Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie

GROUP 21
1. Soft As Chalk
2. Instrumental 1999

GROUP 22
1. Have One On Me

GROUP 23
1. Swansea

GROUP 24
1. Good Intentions Paving Company

GROUP 25
1. Peach, Plum, Pear
2. Yarn And Glue

GROUP 26
1. A Pin-Light Bent
2. No Provenance
3. This Side Of The Blue

GROUP 27
1. Occident
2. The Book Of Right-On
3. Divers

GROUP 28
1. Sapokanikan
2. If I Were [VB]

GROUP 29
1. Sawdust & Diamonds

GROUP 30
1. Cosmia

Madpawn! Thank you for being our first voter, and for your kind comments.

GROUP 1
1. Baby Birch

GROUP 2
1. Goose Eggs
2. '81
3. Erin

GROUP 3
1. Only Skin

GROUP 4
1. Monkey & Bear

GROUP 5
1. Easy

GROUP 6
1. Ribbon Bows
2. Same Old Man
3. Flying A Kite

GROUP 7
1. Does Not Suffice; Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne (4)
2. Cassiopeia

GROUP 8
1. Anecdotes
2. Inflammatory Writ
3. You And Me, Bess

GROUP 9
1. You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
2. Esme
3. What We Have Known

GROUP 10
1. Sadie
2. The Man Who Ran The Town [HS/JN]

GROUP 11
1. Colleen
2. Three Little Babes

GROUP 12
1. Time, As a Symptom
2. Jackrabbits
3. Bridges And Balloons

GROUP 13
1. Emily

GROUP 14
1. The Things I Say
2. Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes
3. On A Good Day

GROUP 15
1. In California

GROUP 16
1. Leaving The City
2. Sprout And The Bean
3. Autumn

GROUP 17
1. Go Long

GROUP 18
1. Kingfisher

GROUP 19
1. "En Gallop" (aka En Gallop!)

GROUP 20
1. Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie

GROUP 21
1. Soft As Chalk

GROUP 22
1. Have One On Me

GROUP 23
1. Swansea
2. The Fray

GROUP 24
1. Good Intentions Paving Company

GROUP 25
1. Peach, Plum, Pear
2. Yarn And Glue

GROUP 26
1. A Pin-Light Bent
2. This Side Of The Blue
3. No Provenance

GROUP 27
1. Divers
2. The Book Of Right-On
3. Occident

GROUP 28
1. Sapokanikan

GROUP 29
1. Sawdust & Diamonds

GROUP 30
1. Cosmia