The CHANT POLL is a somewhat-annual event that takes place on the Black Cat List, wherein for major shows like
Red Rocks and New Years Eve, list members chant their voices out hoping to
hear a certain long-unplayed song. The Poll is what decides what this
song should be. Started by Rick Duro in 1996, the Poll has a 4-0 record,
with successes in getting Onslaught, As We Wonder, Shotgun Shell, and I
Have My Moments played, as well as a surprise return of All in the Groove,
that we like to think had a direct influence as well. CHANT POLL founder
Rick Duro tells the story as such:
.....where have we been, how did we get there...why do we bother?
Gee, this has the makings of one of those silly corporate get
together/morale building/strategy sessions on how we can make change in
the coming year. I look @ those things as just another day off, free
food, and a chance to get outta the office.
Back to the task @ hand.
Back in the Summer of 1996, several Listers noticed that ONSLAUGHT had not
been played in many many moons, being a song we loved we decided to try
and do something about it. I thought the best thing would be to have
several listers run nude through shows with ONSLAUGHT written on their
bodies, but, as it's a long word, and we didn't know Bubba, or Lil Popper
yet, we were short on size. All we could fit on millner was the "O".
So, I figured the next best thing would be to CHANT for the tune. With the
help of Jake Hafner we got everyone into it, and on the Fall 1996 Tour, @
the various stops on that tour, the faint cry of "ONSLAUGHT!!" could be
heard. The stops with the larger congregations of netters, like Chicago,
the louder the CHANT. The band had fun with it, as Popper can be heard on
a few tapes saying: "What's that? Ocelot?! Anwar Sadat?". They knew what
we were up to, as we all know, there have always been, and always will be
'spies' in our midst....We gathered en masse on MSG for the 12/31/96, and
before we could, from our 2nd-3rd row mail order seats, rain the band with
"ONSLAUGHT ONSLAUGHT!!" we were beaten to the punch, as our evil plot had
been unmasked, the band OPENED with the song! Not only was it great that
they played the tune, and did a fine job @ that (The song hadn't been
played since the summer of 1992), but it felt so good to know that the
our concerns, thoughts, desires, ideas, actually MATTERED to the band,
they cared about what we thought...or maybe they just wanted us to shut up
and go away ;) we cheered wildly and all the effort was worth it.
The next go 'round I decided that a VOTE was in order, as, maybe not
everyone was all that enthused about ONSLAUGHT, maybe there were OTHER
old, forgotten songs that they wanted the band to play....
So, I listed all the songs that hadn't been played in @ least 2 years...
and the winner, in a close race, was AS WE WONDER, which the band not only
broke out on NYE 1997, but also played again @ their return to the fabled
Wetlands on 1/27/98.
What would be next??
We voted again, this time, in the closest race yet, SHOTGUN SHELL won over
I HAVE MY MOMENTS, it came down to a few votes, less than 3. Well, when we
got to RR's and heard the band sound checking it, we knew we were in for
something special. Scott "call me Bubba" Nichols even made up some really
super cool refrigerator magnets for the occasion, and some found their
way to the band, and even onstage I think. Well, on 7/4/98, Popper
exclaimed.."we've been seeing all these refrigerator magnets asking that
we play an old tune...well, here it is..." and they launched into ALL IN
THE GROOVE. Totally toying with us, this just goes to show what I have
believed all along, that the band has a lot of fun with this CHANT
thing...there we were sitting on the edge of our seats, awaiting
SHOTGUNSHELL, and we were duped!! hahaha!!! I laughed my ass off.....as
can be heard on my tapes, I totally forgot how low we had the mics. oops.
Well, toward the end of Set 2, we got the song we had been asking for, and
they ripped into a MEAN ass version, in my opinion the best played of all
the CHANT POLL tunes.
Fall tour came around, and, as I HAVE MY MOMENTS came so close to winning,
many netters decided to gather en masse to see if they would play it, and
lo and behold, and ironically @ a show w/ NO tapers, they whipped it out
as an encore @ Clarion in October.
So, you see, the band gets into this, I doubt they see it as a cumbersome
task, if anything, I think that they are flattered that a large contingent
of their fans would go outta their way to make that much noise for one of
their 'ol tunes.
BT has SO many tunes that haven't seen the light of day in so many years,
just check out the post coming up, look @ the dates next to some of those
tunes. It's only then that you realize how DEEP BT's catalog of music is.
I have noticed some changes since we started doing this, though it's
probably just coincidental, there are some songs that have been 'brought
back' and played 1-3 times a year over the last few years, songs like:
Corn Mash Blues
Slow Change
Warner Days
Defense and Desire
Trina Magna
Gunfighter
Ivory Tusk
To be honest, that's all I could ask, play some of these tunes 1-3 times a
year. For me live shows are ALL about spontaneity, the journey and
POSSIBILITY. The chance that an old, 'forgotten' tune like Shotgun Shell,
Bagheera or Spinning Spiraling Machine is what keeps me going to shows.
Not just for BT, but for bands like WSP, Mule, MM&W, etc. That's what it's
all about for me.
I will list the songs, rules, dates, etc in the next post later today.
By all means, vote for WHATEVER song you want, if YOU feel that Mts Win
Again, or Hook is the song you wish to cheer for, that's your choice.
Come what may......
Once again, Mr. Duro provides the answer:
Ok, below you will find a list of songs that have not been played in 2
years or more. There were some tunes I did not include, but feel free to
vote for them anyway-it's 'all up to you'.
1. songs that have already won the CHANT POLL
Onslaught
As We Wonder
Shotgun Shell
IHMM's
2. Popper solo tunes
3. Novelty one/two time only covers:
Louie Louie
Gilligans Island
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Midnight Hour
This is the way it works.
Everyone gets ONE BALLOT.
You can choose 3 songs.
Your FIRST choice gets 3pts
SECOND choice gets 2pts
THIRD choice gets 1pt
Thus, your TOP choice would get a total of 3 points.
Please list THREE different songs, a song cannot be listed 3 times.
Like so:
Conquer me-3pts
Conquer me-2pts
Conquer me-1pt
3 choices-3 different songs.
Now, as I always say, individually we may not be able to make that much
noise, but together we can make tons of noise. So, VOTE. If you don't
vote, don't complain about the winning choice. Every vote counts, as you
saw with the tight race 'tween Shotgunshell and IHMM's last year. So GET
OUT AND VOTE!!!
Voting starts TODAY(4/30/99) and ends 5/27/99.
The winning song will be announced 6/1/99.
For those of you that have never heard of this CHANT POLL thingy before,
the band has NOTHING to do with it, it's strictly a FAN run thang. Just
figured I'd throw in that disclaimer.
Without further doo-doo, or ado, whichever you prefer, here are the songs,
with the date they were last played. As I said in the first post, vote for
whatever BT songs you want to, it doesn't have to be a choice off of this
list. But, as we have seen in the past, the point of this CHANT has been
to try and get the band to play a song we have not heard in a very long
time, a forgotten gem, an ol' diamond in the rough per say.......Have Fun!
ALL UP TO YOU-9/12/90
AMERICAN WAY-6/16/92
ANYTHING GOES-10/3/91
BAD TO THE BONE-2/13/91
BAGHEERA-3/31/95
BEST BE ON MY WAY-5/21/94
BULLSHITTER'S LAMENT-12/31/95
BY MY 12 SWORDS-3/13/91
CARRY ME HOME-5/2/90
CIRCLE (OF THE RINGS)-11/24/96
CLEOPATRA'S CAT-11/15/95
CONQUER ME-11/19/96
CRACKS IN THE STONE-8/5/92
DINER-12/29/96
FAITH IN YOU-7/10/95
GLORY GLORY-1/6/91
HARD TO EXIST-7/29/91
HEY JOE-10/13/95
HIT THE ROAD JACK-7/29/91
I WANNA TAKE YOU HIGHER-10/27/95
LETTER FROM A FRIEND-10/26/95
MONSTER-8/17/96
PUT YOUR LOLLIPOP AWAY-11/12/96
ROLAND D. RHODES-2/3/90
SEVERE INFATUATION-1/6/91
SOME THINGS I WILL NOT PRETEND-5/15/92
SPINNING SPIRALING MACHINE-11/24/96
SUPERSTITION-11/23/96
VIEW-2/21/94
WELCOME HOME-11/16/96
WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?-10/3/95
WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME-6/8/93
(side note: Popper did it solo @ 9/11/97)
WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS-5/7/94
WHO DO YOU LOVE-4/27/94
WOULDN'T IT MAKE YOU MAD?-8/27/90
Well there you have it. If the 'powers' that be wish to vote, you know who
you are, please by all means jump in, I'll keep it hush hush.
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!
