Battle of the Bands Returns!
BATTLE OF THE BANDS (BOTB), hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. is where you listen to different recordings of the same song and vote for the one you like best. Two “Battles” per month, on the 1st and 15th.
Votes will be tallied and posted the following week. (Please note: Effective July 2017, some of us switched to once a month on the 15th. Others may opt to continue with twice a month.) See below for further details.
I’ve been absent from BOTB since January and have missed you all.
Let’s begin!
HISTORY
Down by the River is a song composed by Canadian musician, Neil Young. It was first released on his 1969 album with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
Young explained the context of the story in the liner notes of his 1977 anthology album Decade, stating that he wrote “Down by the River,” “Cinnamon Girl” and “Cowgirl in the Sand” while delirious in bed with a fever.
The lyrics are apparently about someone who kills his lover by shooting her. The reason he gives for the killing is that she takes him to emotional heights from which he cannot bear to go on.
Young has provided multiple explanations for the lyrics. In an interview in 1970, he claimed that “there’s no real murder in it. It’s about blowing your thing with a chick. It’s a plea, a desperate cry.” – WIKIPEDIA
Background info only. Now, on to the actual contest…
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JOEY GREGORASH
Joey Gregorash is a Canadian vocalist/musician who became the first solo Manitoba act to win a Juno Award in 1972. He recorded his debut album, North Country Funk, in 1971 with the advance single, “Jodie”, issued in March to reach #3 on the Canadian charts.
The second single,“Don’t Let Your Pride Get You Girl”, was “flipped” by radio d.j.’s who favored the intended B-side, Gregorash’s rendition of “Down by the River”, which afforded him a second Canadian Top Ten hit.
It was the only release by Gregorash to attract US attention, reaching #118 on the Singles Chart. Also featured on Gregorash’s second album, Tell the People.
VS
THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH
The Undisputed Truth was a 1970s Motown recording act, assembled by record producer Norman Whitfield as a means for being able to experiment with his psychedelic soul production techniques.
Joe “Pep” Harris served as main lead singer, with Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce Evans on additional leads and background vocals. “Down by the River” is the 2nd track from their 5th studio album, Cosmic Truth, released in 1975.
VOTE NOW!
Please state your preference in comments below and why you chose it.
Voting remains open until 11:59 pm EDT May 21st,
after which I will count the votes, add mine and publish the results.
These are the other BOTB regulars and semi-regulars.
Please cruise on by their sites and, if they have a post up, vote on their selections as well:
[Check back – there’s no set posting time]Angels Bark / Cherdo On The Flipside / Curious as a Cathy / Jingle Jangle Jungle / Mike’s Ramblings / Sound of One Hand Typing / HOST: StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands / Tossing it Out
As always, “Sharing is Caring”. Spread this musical joy all over your social networks.
Hashtags are #BOTB and #dogladysden
Next Battle on this site will be June 15th.
Come back on May 21st for a guest post
by author Guilie Castillo-Oriard!
And later on:
Greek Odyssey – Part IX
Aegean Cruise: Ephesus and Patmos
PLUS MORE…
ROCK ON!
♫♪♫ Rockchick Rapture! ♫♪♫
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Dog Mom and (retired) Canine Innkeeper in suburban Toronto, Canada, known as The Doglady. Former corporate workaholic. Writer, photographer, digital creator. Animal lover, music fanatic, inveterate traveller. Eternal hippie/rockchick. History, literature and cinema buff. Hockey and soccer fan. Dedicated night owl. German/Canadian binational, multilingual. Let me entertain you!
24 thoughts on “DOWN BY THE RIVER | BATTLE OF THE BANDS #BOTB”
Joey Gregor ash is great and I vote Canadian. I like the other one but I really was impressed with Joey’s vocals and style
Hi Birgit; Thanks for coming by to cast your vote. Do you remember Joey’s version? Back in the day, it was getting tons of radio airplay. That’s another one for Joey Gregorash! 🙂
Hi Debbie!
I had heard of The Undisputed Truth but didn’t know they were psychedelic. I had not heard of Joey and will now not forget him 😉 I really like his voice and soothing tempo.
Hi diedre; Joey is not well-known outside of Canada. I’m glad you enjoyed his vocal stylings! 😀 You didn’t say specifically, but I’m assuming that’s a vote for him. Thanks for coming by and have a great weekend!
The psychedelic sound of The Undisputed Truth doesn’t do it for me with this song. I vote for Joey, who seems more true to the Neil Young vibe. I guess I like that which makes me feel comfortable.
Love,
Janie
Hi Janie; Thanks for coming over to vote. Another one for Joey Gregorash!
JOEY GREGORASH gets my vote, the second was too busy.
Thanks for voting. Joey, it is! 🙂
This was a great “get high and jam” song by Neil- back in the day. Joey was really good. I had to admit I was taken aback that the UT did a cover. It would have been another “GHAJ” hit. I’ll take them because they did more with it.
HI Chris; I only discovered the UT cover while setting up this battle. A pleasant surprise! 😀 Thanks for coming over to vote. That’s another one for The Undisputed Truth.
HiYa, DEBBIE. And a big WELCOME BACK to you, too! (I just came from the home of the other Prodigal Daughter, Michele.)
This was a terrific Battle to begin again with, since both recordings are so drastically different.
Reading the descriptions before playing the songs, I thought I’d probably wind up voting for The Undisputed Truth. But in fact, I felt it was just a bit too slow for me and I preferred JOEY GREGORASH. In fact, I liked Joey’s version better’n Neil Young’s original!
I gotta say, though, that the album title and the cover for ‘NORTH COUNTRY FUNK’ amused me in that “incongrutiating” way. I certainly don’t associate anything “North Country” with Funk. And aside from that, in my own personal frame of reference, I would never imagine Funk as cold and snow-covered. In fact, in my (peculiar) mind, Funk is pretty much the opposite: warm and steamy.
‘North Country Funk’ reminds me of when I used to jokingly tell people I was from “the poor part of the Palisades”. (Not only was I not, but there was NO poor part of the Palisades; it was a multi-million dollar community, and I was a poor mutt from Dogtown. Ha!)
Excellent Battle to return with, Debbie!
~ D-FensDogG
STMcC Presents ‘BATTLE OF THE BANDS’
Hi Stephen; Thanks for the welcome back. It’s nice to be here! I’m happy to see Michele back in the fold as well. 🙂
We can “Funk U UP” with the best of them, here in the North Country! 😀 I’m glad you enjoyed the battle. That’s another vote for my homeboy, Joey. Interesting that you like his version better than the original! This is shaping up to be a good battle.
Debbie,
I did not know this song before today nor do I remember either of your cover artists. After listening to both, I believe my ears were in tune to contender #2 psychedelic soul vibes and vocals the best. Give my vote to The Undisputed Truth! Have bandtastic day & when you get a chance check out my battle!
Thanks for voting, Cathy. 🙂 That’s another one for The Undisputed Truth. Have a great weekend!
I like the Joey Gregorash one. I’d never heard of him before – it’s always fun to discover someone new!
I always find it hard to explain why I like one sound and not another. For me, there has been too much production on the sound of the second one. I generally prefer my sounds in a straightforward way. I hope that makes sense! 😀
Hi Clowie; Joey isn’t well-known outside of Canada, but he sure had a big hit over here, with this one! 🙂 I get what you mean about too much production. That’s how I feel about vocals when they add too many affectations. Thanks for voting. That’s another one for Joey Gregorash. Cheers!
Damn Girl! You ARE back! This is an awesome battle! I have always loved this song by Neil Young. I was thrilled to hear the Canadian artist from Manitoba Joey Gregorash doing such a fine job with his cover. I really liked the photo on his North Country Funk album cover (great album name too!). The photo made me not only homesick seeing all that snow but it made me feel nostalgic seeing his coat — all the rage back then. Oh how I miss the 70s…
I’m interested to see how this battle turns out. For me, I had a tough time with my decision. My heart wanted to vote for Joey, not only just because of what his version brought to me, but because he did a great job with the cover.
However, I really dig Undisputed Truth’s version. Their version overtook me: I unconsciously closed my eyes and swayed to the music. Their slower tempo definitely won me over. I cast my vote for Undisputed Truth.
I will for sure be coming back to listen to both covers: they both are fantastic.
So how’s it feel to be back?? I’m right there with ya. I haven’t been gone as long as you have but it still felt like quite a lengthy absence. I did experience FOMO, but not enough to jump back in. Too much going on. Even last week, after posting my first Mondays Music Moves Me post in some time, I found myself shaking my head as the week was coming to an end and I hadn’t even been back to my post to respond to comments, let alone come up with another Monday post for yesterday (which I didn’t manage to accomplish). I must be in a state of overwhelm because I just kept saying “I don’t know how people find time to do all this!…”
At this point I feel like Time will tell if I can keep up… So, we shall see.
But I am thrilled that we’re both making a BOTB comeback on the same day!
Thanks for checking in on me over the last few months. I really appreciate your friendship.
Love ya tons Girl.
Excellent battle today!
Michele at Angels Bark
Hi Michele; Welcome back! 😀 I’m glad you enjoyed the battle. Having a hard time deciding is a good sign it will be a close one. We can get pretty “funky” up here in the north country, LOL. Joey must have had that photo taken in his hometown, nicknamed “Winterpeg” for it’s most brutal season. You would probably like that. 😉
Even though I’m back, more or less, I know what you mean about having a hard time with the follow-ups. Same here! We’ll see how it goes. I always worry when my friends disappear and just have to make sure they’re okay. Call me “Mother Hen” or just plain nosey”. Here’s hoping your recovery is going well and that your Mom is okay, too. Love ya back! Yesterday, I happened to catch a couple of your Grey Zoned videos on Youtube. Such cuties they are! ♥ Your yard looks great, considering. We’re always reseeding over here, because of the pee spots. Thanks for voting. That’s another one for The Undisputed Truth.
Hey Debbie. Happy Friday.
I got a good chuckle out of “Winterpeg”: that’s a good one.
I gotta say I was actually surprised when you mentioned having seen my two Grey Zone videos. Why? Because, being well behind the curve on all things tech and videoing in particular, I finally thought it might be time for me to attempt to take a video and learn how to post it to YouTube. Haha. I take a zillion photos but I rarely take videos for some reason. One main reason is because when I’m outside with the dogs I rarely have my phone as my hands are always full carrying the pooper-scooper, poop bucket and the hose. And in case you don’t already know this, greyhounds are poop machines! They crap so many times a day! Almost every single time we go out, I’m scoopin’.
Round the clock. Anyway, when you said you checked out my YouTube videos I was like “How in the world did she even know I uploaded them?!” Is there some kind of notification or something? I have no clue. Haha.
So, let me say: THANK YOU for checking them out! They were pretty boring since nobody was into running and all they did was sniff grass. ? Hoping to get some fun running videos up soon…
Does the reseeding work for you guys? Next week I’m having the dog run re-sodded. I just did it last spring but a) I used the wrong kind of grass and b) I waaay overwatered it and drowned it so it all died and here we go again. This time I’m using a much better grass variety that is slow growing, drought-tolerant, can handle high traffic and trampling and most important, it’s one of only two grasses that best hold up against the high nitrogen levels in dog urine (Celebration Bermuda is what I’m getting; the other is Zoysia). What kind of grass do you all use up there?
Anyway I have the ‘Don’t Dig Yet’ folks coming out to mark where all the lines are before the prep guys shave and level the ground and prep the soil and then the sod gets laid. Unfortunately it won’t be usable for Memorial Day Weekend but oh well…
Have a great weekend! Hope you’re doing something fun!
Hi again; I did not know Greyhounds were such poop machines. That’ll keep you busy, for sure. 🙂 I’ve actually never had the pleasure of looking after one, but have seen a few around town. It was fun to hear your voice in those videos! You sound Southern. 😀 Since I’m subscribed to your Youtube channel, your videos appear on my subscription page and I also get a Google notification. You’ve done some good research about different grass types. Too bad you have to redo everything. I know that’s not cheap! Our reseeding efforts are kind of hit and miss. This Sept., we’ll be away for the whole month, so we have someone coming in to reseed the entire backyard. With nobody walking or peeing on it, it should grow nicely. Hope all goes well with your resodding! This is our long weekend (Victoria Day aka “May 2-4”) and it’s pouring buckets! Chilly too. 🙁 Not so much fun with dogs in residence. Oh well! Enjoy yours. Cheers!
These are both pretty trippy. Just like I like it. A very tough decision as I like both and they are very different.
I liked drifting along with Undisputed Truth, but Joey Gregorash really taps into something deeper. This is the kind of music I used to listen to a lot.
My vote goes to Joey Gregorash.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
I love “trippy” music, too! 😀 Joey Gregorash had a big hit with this song in Canada and it got plenty of airplay, so I’m not surprised you prefer it. Joey gets on the board! Thanks for voting.
I thought for sure that I hadn’t heard this song before, but after listening, it sure does sound familiar. It’s probably one of those that I never knew the name or artist for (There’s quite a few of those!) Anyway, I really enjoyed both versions, but I think that The Undisputed Truth seemed a bit smoother – so I’m casting my vote for them. Great to have you back!
Hi Mary; This is going way back, so I’m not surprised you aren’t overly familiar with the song. It’s nice to be back! 🙂 First vote goes to The Undisputed Truth. Thanks for coming by!