I know that some of you just had a musical stroke while reading the subject line.
Today’s Cage Match was inspired by a conversation that I was having with my co-worker and sometimes Cage Match co-conspirator Michael.
I was telling him some of my ideas for future Cage Matches, including some that would pit two songs by the same artist against each other, and conversation then turned to song names that are shared by multiple artists.
“Like Magic by Olivia Newton-John, and Magic by Pilot,” Michael says to me.
I’m laughing now, because I’ve just recently had a conversation about Pilot with Kurt’s Krap proprietor and namesake Kurt Torster.
Only in my world, does this happen. I haven’t had a conversation about Pilot in my 34 years on this planet, and after today, I probably won’t have a Pilot-related conversation for another 34 years or more.
Only time will tell if the Scottish lads from Pilot (pieced together from parts of the Bay City Rollers) have the goods to deliver the smackdown to Michael’s 80s/90s/today pinup otherwise known as Olivia Newton-John.
What says you, Vinyl citizens….will it be Olivia, or Pilot? Make your choice using the handy comment box below.
For me, it’s the former Bay City guys in Pilot who had the much stronger song. I always liked the harmony vocals in Pilot’s stuff.
Gotta go with Marko. Pilot far over OMJ
Gotta go with Olivia on this one.
These cage matches are fun!
Yeah Pilot with the win though that’s probably ONJ’s best song next to A Little More Love.
Pilot.
ANJ has a GIRL MULLET.
Pilot. ON-J’s song is flat out junk. And while I usually go with the hottie over the geeks, the headband is a deal killer. Bonus points to Pilot for the little yellow disk in the 45 hole.
Musically, No contest!
Of course Pilot were so much more than a couple of renegades from the Rollers. They came up with 4 great albums and 4 hit singles, plus the career path thru’ Alan Parson’s Project.
Pilot influenced some great bands of the 90’s I still love today, like the Wondermints and JellyFish.
Livy was a pretty face and her first hit single, her cover of a Bob Dylan’s song (backed with a George Harrison one) was her finest moment.
I imagine she invaded a couple of wet dreams and influenced some impressionable teens of the time to dress up in full black leather spray on suits, though sadly I don’t ever remember seeing any around here!
This is the toughest battle yet for me, as I love, love, love Pilot’s “Magic”. Perfect little pop song. But as Matt alluded, I can not turn my back on ONJ (and you can take that any way I meant it). She is the Tyra Banks to my Brady Green. (Don’t get nervous, I don’t have the money to go visit Koala Blue). When one of my friends and I went to see “Grease” as kids, we almost trashed our pants when ONJ showed up onscreen at the end in her painted on top, tight black spandex, and stripper heels. I remember my friend saying “We’ll wait until she’s 80 and wrinked and no one else wants her”. Well my friends, we’ll almost there. By the way, Kurt’s Krap is right that her best song is “A Little More Love”. I defy anyone to YouTube ONJ’s “Soul Kiss” video and not feel a longing to lay one on her at the very end of the clip. And if you don’t, then my odds of doing so just increased. Sorry Pilot, ONJ’s overly-produced “Magic” for the win.
Olivia’s secret power is her Wink of Infinite Pleasurable Voidness, showcased during the climatic skating sequence at the finale of Xanadu. No power in the universe can withstand it.
Bridget, Xanadu is on my list of supreme guilty pleasures.
this round goest to Pilot, but if Olivia had come with “Xanadu” (granted, she would’ve had to tag-team with Jeff Lynne), it would’ve been no contest….