The nominees for Best Modern Al Song are, in alphabetical order:
Accident On Third Street (RAA) -- It begins with Al mourning a friend killed by a drunken driver ("The kind of guy that even Joan Baez would not feel non-violent towards"), but soon evolves into a quirky, fatalistic, and vaguely irreverent essay about trying to make sense of senselessness. If ignorance is truly bliss, thinks Al, then there are an awful lot of happy people walking around.
Antarctica (LDOTC) -- Steely Dan had Aja, Toto had Africa, but Al's geographic metaphor for life and love is our frozen southernmost continent. A concert favorite with Dave Camp leading the way on flute. Tell that reviewer from St. Louis that this song is not titled "Snowblind". (PS - Yes, I know Aja refers to a woman's name, but YOU think up another song named after a continent.)
Fields Of France (LDOTC) -- A gentle ballad about a doomed French biplane pilot during the latter days of World War I. His faithful lover awaits his return patiently, but she receives only a "letter...bordered in black." Superb musical arrangement featuring another great Dave Camp flute solo.
Trains (FLW) -- A Modern Al song clearly rooted in the Essential Al years. A beautiful seven-minute-long paean on 20th century rail travel from a boy who obviously never outgrew his love for trains. Most notable are the poignant middle verses in which Al expresses dismay at seeing trains used for the most repulsive purposes -- carrying victims of the Holocaust and Stalin's post-WWII purges to their deaths.
Where Are They Now (LDOTC) -- Love, like war, is often hell, and Al uses the war metaphor to describe another in a long line of tumultuous but rewarding relationships. It's interesting to compare this song with the ones from ORANGE -- it's clear that sometime over the two intervening decades Al decided to stop moping and fight back.
Where Are They Now sends its crack divisions through the early morning mists to capture its second straight Best Modern Al Song award. Beware of Trains in the '96 poll, though -- it finished a strong second despite more than a few voters never having heard it.
1994 ASML "BEST OF AL" POLL -- TOP TEN MODERN AL SONGS
-------VOTES------- ----POINTS----
# SONG ALBUM T20 T10 T3 #1 WST POS NEG TOT
1. Where Are They Now LDOTC 15 10 5 1 1 141 -3 138
2. Trains FLW 16 8 2 1 0 112 0 112
3. Fields Of France LDOTC 14 10 2 0 1 114 -3 111
4. Antarctica LDOTC 17 8 1 0 0 104 0 104
5. Accident On 3rd Street RAA 9 7 2 0 2 87 -10 77
6. Last Days Of...Century LDOTC 9 6 1 1 0 70 0 70
7. Josephine Baker LDOTC 15 6 1 0 1 72 -3 69
8. Charlotte Corday FLW 7 4 1 0 0 54 0 54
9. Genie On A Tabletop FLW 10 4 0 0 0 49 0 49
10. Cafe Society RAA 7 3 1 1 0 49 0 49
(ties are broken by positive points followed by Top 20 votes.)
Pollster's notes: The best finisher among INDIAN SUMMER studio songs was 'The World Goes To Riyadh' with 39-1/2 points. Songs from FAMOUS LAST WORDS were at a disadvantage as several ASML'ers, especially the overseas contingent, have yet to hear the album. 'Josephine Baker' was the queen of the Honorable Mentions, and with a different scoring scale it may have placed much higher. As for the winner, we at Al Poll Central are frankly at a loss to understand its popularity. I mean, it's not a bad little tune, but 138 points!? Oh well, what do we know? We voted Princess Olivia fifth.
