Category: music

Melody, harmony, fidelity.

I can hear music

First of all, Maura passes along this awesome link from ESPN.com’s Page 3, in which they list the at-bat songs for many MLB players. (Page 3? How many numbered pages does ESPN.com have now, anyway?)

And to fulfill a request by Cushie, here are the songs on the “baseball” playlist on my iPod, conveniently in one list. Levi and hangers-on, don’t click on the link if you want to be surprised in the car, although many of the songs have been named on this blog in the past, in several different entries that I don’t feel like going back and looking up.

Original comments…

Cushie: Awesome!

Luke, hanger-on: Here are some songs on the BRPA 2004 playlist I’ve been assembling since becoming a hanger-on (most of which you have already, and some of which have relationships to baseball and roadtrips that are tenuous at best):

Catfish, Bob Dylan
Two Bass Hit, Dizzy Gillespie
Bang the Drum Slowly, Emmylou Harris
Mrs. Robinson, Simon & Garfunkel
Pirate Jenny, Nina Simone
Yanqui Go Home, Camper Van Beethoven
I Could Drive Forever, Smog
On the Road Again, Bob Dylan
On the Road Again, Willie Nelson
This is Not a Song About a Train, Andrew Bird

Plus a CD’s worth of Bob Edwards-Red Barber chats and Barber highlights that I’ve been saving for the trip.

Jim, you have iPodRip, right?

Jim: I don’t have iPodRip or anything similar, mainly because I’ve never had a need to get music from my iPod onto my computer. Although if iPodRip can export playlists into HTML or XML, and it looks like it can, it probably would have come in handy when I was creating the song list!

thatbob: If you’re doing spoken word pieces, you really need to find the famous Lee Elia rant against Cub fans. And if you can find Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly singing “O’Brien to Ryan to Goldberg” then… then… then that’ll be awesome!

Dan: And if you need the Lee Elia rant, lemme know, I’ve got it in MP3.

Filling up one of the iPods

Another eBay purchase arrived today: the S.F. Seals “Baseball Trilogy” EP, purchased for a mere $2.00 plus shipping. Add this to some heretofore undiscovered baseball-related songs that I recently purchased from the iTunes Music Store, and we’re going to have quite the “baseball music” playlist. Among those songs: a 1948 Pittsburgh-centered version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” a song about Ozzie Smith called “The Wizard of Oz” (of course), Belle & Sebastian’s “Piazza, New York Catcher” (finally), and Christine Lavin’s “Ballad of a Ballgame” (which is technically about softball, but it’s an amusing enough song that I’ll give it a pass).

Original comments…

Cushie: I don’t know if you’ve seen Belle and Sebastian since the album with Piazza, New York Catcher came out. I saw them a few weeks ago and it turns out that song now has a call and response section.

This was in London, so you can’t really assume that the crowd knew all about Piazza, but when the line “Mike Piazza, New York Catcher, are you straight or are you gay?” rang out, the synchonized response, in time to the music was “Gay!” I was highly amused.

Cushie: PS. Can you post your baseball playlist? Could either do an iTunes Mix or export it from iTunes so we can see what you’ve found.

Dan: Jim — it’s a capella, but Jonathan Richman has a lovely little thing about Walter Johnson (called.. “Walter Johnson”) on, I think, “You Must Ask the Heart”

“All through baseball, he was loved and respected. Was there bitterness in Walter Johnson? Well, it was never expected”)

Jim: I’ve got that Jonathan Richman song already. I can’t turn down the request of someone named Cushie, so I’ll post the full baseball playlist in a bit. (I can’t do an iMix, because not all the items are on the iTunes Music Store.)

I’ll admit that I assumed it was lame.

A week or two ago, watching Houston fall to the Padres, I finally saw Trevor Hoffman’s grand entrance. As you all probably know, when Hoffman enters a game, the stadium PA plays AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells.” At the Padres’ new ballpark, the song is accompanied by devilish flames licking Hoffman’s name on the big screen in left field.

And I have to admit that it was pretty cool. Sure, it’s overblown, and AC/DC is so . . . obvious? Cliched? But the crowd was into it, and as Hoffman walked through the outfield, he did seem tougher.

This got me to thinking about the music that’s played when hitters come to the plate at most ballparks these days. I used to agree with Luke (and probably most of the readers of this blog, who tend, it seems, towards traditionalism) that such displays had no place in the ballpark.

Then Magglio Ordonez happened. When Magglio–one of the best hitters ever to play in semi-obscurity–comes to the plate, the PA runs the marching chant of the Wicked Witch of the West’s palace guards, the Winkies: “Oh-Ee-Oh.” The crowd finishes the line, “Magg-lio.” It’s a low, rumbling sound, it makes wonderfully creative use of Magglio’s name, and if I were a pitcher, I’d be getting ready to back up third. At the Sox game a couple of weeks ago, the scoreboard announced that Ordonez had that morning been activated from the Disabled List, and the PA–with Magglio nowhere in sight–played his music. The crowd went wild.

So my coworker, Peter, and I started having a silly discussion about what we might have played when we came to bat, were we major league players. Peter hit upon what I think is the best possible idea: Dr. Octagon’s “I’m Destructive!” I kept dithering between the intro to Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and the intro to Cornershop’s “Sleep on the Left Side.” Or the horn intro to Gloria Jones’s “Tainted Love,” or Tom Wait’s “Black Wings,” or the Beastie Boys doing “Johnny Ryall.”

I also thought about a part of a live version of “Cypress Avenue” where Van Morrison shouts”Baby!” forty-five times in a row. If that won’t wear a pitcher out, I’ve got no hope. But I suppose if I were to be honest about my abilities, I’d probably play another Stevie Wonder song, “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.”

And what for you?

Original comments…

Steve: The Magglio chant is pretty cool if a little overblown but it brings up an interesting issue. My boss, and no slouch in the trivia department, insists that the chant actually has words and they are… “All we owe…we owe…her.”

I keep telling him to put up or shutup with an internet link or Wizard of Oz fan site. So far he “has better things to do.” Still, if he’s right it ads an interesting dimension.

Steve: Shit. I forgot my song to enter the game. ZZ Top, “Just got Paid” if I was a batter and if a reliever, Willie Nelson’s “Time of the Preacher”

Jim: “Jimmy Mack,” by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, despite the fact that I don’t go by Jimmy and my last name doesn’t start with Mc or Mac. Actually, if I were making the major-league minimum, I might go with They Might Be Giants’ “Minimum Wage.”

Jim: Better yet: Jim Croce’s “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.” (Lyrics not linked because, after a quick search, I can’t find a page that doesn’t open a million pop-up ads and has the correct “its” instead of “it’s” in the first two lines of the song.)

Becky: I’m tempted by Psycho Killer by Talking Heads for batting (because I’d be a big slugger). For relieving I’d go for Right Now by Van Halen, and There She Goes by the La’s when I get pulled three pitches later (do we get to pick the music for when we get pulled?).

Toby: For Levi (who I’ve always called Leviticus), how about The Theme from Exodus or anything by Genesis.

If I was coming to the plate, I think “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” (with the crowd changing the chant to “Bad, Bad Toby Brown” would be cool. But, since I would only want to play for my favorite team, the Pirates, there’s probably little chance of any crowd participation (unless we traveled back in time to about 1979).

Levi: Hell, Toby, if we’re making ourselves into big-league ballplayers, we might as well throw some time travel in, too.

I’m going back to October 1985 and rescuing Vince Coleman from that tarp-rolling machine.

Jason: Batting music: Opening intro to “Money” by Pink Floyd

Pitching Relief music: “Funeral Pyre” by The Jam

Dan: Walking in from bullpen: The intro track off Dr. Dre’s The Chronic (the one with Snoop talking over the sample vamp — “If that bitch can’t swim, she’s bound to driz-zown.”)

Batting: Handel’s “Messiah”

stacey: it’d be pretty awesome if i were in the majors. i’d have to go with P.U.N.K Girl by Heavenly . . . i’d be such a punk hitter. also, i am a girl.

Toby: I’ve met Stacey and I think “Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar would be a better choice…. Levi, you lucky S.O.B. ….

Luke: I’d do the first few measures of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, but only if the stadium had enough bass to loosen people’s fillings. It’d be such a low rumble that the crowd wouldn’t even notice that music were being played, except for the screws coming out of their seats.

thatbob: If I was a pitcher, I’d probably be some kind of knuckle ball/submarine closer. So a little Theremin music would be cool – maybe from the Bernard Herrmann score for The Day The Earth Stood Still? Batting, maybe the exuberant opening riffs from Les Paul & Mary Ford’s “Tiger Rag”? Or would I need to be a Tiger for that?

We could be sleeping in the flowers

I now know what I’m going to be doing the night before leaving on this trip: seeing They Might Be Giants at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. I only wish this had more to do with baseball; unless I’m forgetting a track, I don’t think they’ve got a baseball-related song as a group. With his solo side project Mono Puff, John Flansburgh has a song called “What Bothers the Spaceman?” about Bill “Spaceman” Lee, which I may or may not have mentioned here. (Yes, it’s in the baseball song collection on my iPod.)

By the way, Jason Kaifesh suggests that some kind of “farewell dinner” get-together should be held in Chicago before the trip, on the evening of Friday, August 20th. Sounds like a good idea to me, especially if I don’t have to plan it from afar. What do you think, Levi (or others)?

Original comments:

Jim: Thought of a semi-baseball-related lyric, from “Purple Toupee,” off the “Lincoln” album: “I shouted out, ‘Free the Expo 67!'” The Montreal Expos were named after Expo 67. I can already predict that they are not going to play that song at the House of Blues.

thatbob: Are you taking odds?

Now ensconced on the iPod

This is only tangentially baseball-related because of the “Peanuts” connection, and because it has the potential to be played on the trip: thanks to Cartoon Network kicking off the summer season by showing “Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown” this morning, I now have the two songs from the movie on my iPod. Yes, one of those is the theme song, in which Larry Finlayson sings the profound observations written by Ed Bogas that “the sunshine is brought to you absolutely free” and that “when the sun sets down, it is gone, Charlie Brown.” It’s almost as good of a summer song as “Kokomo”! As far as I can tell, Larry Finlayson never did anything else in his life.

By the way, the All-Movie Guide description of “Race for Your Life” (sorry, I can’t link to it directly) lists some things that aren’t actually in the movie, but were in other “Peanuts” animated shows (and the strip, of course), most notably “Charlie Brown gets a ‘go away and leave me alone’ bunkmate.” Also, they claim it was made for TV (as opposed to a theatrical release), list Larry Finlayson as a songwriter (as opposed to a singer), and misspell Charles Schulz’s name. So, in conclusion, do not trust the All-Movie Guide, not even if you’re trying to look for additional credits for Larry Finlayson.

Original comments…

Levi: For my birthday, Stacey crocheted me a very nice red iPod cozy with a Cardinal on it. I’m willing to bet I’m the only person on earth with one of these.

Jim: A picture of the iPod cozy needs to be submitted to the iPod Lounge. Since I’m already a member of that site, I can do it if you e-mail me a picture.

Much more music every morning

Apple allowed me to redownload “The Ballad of John Rocker” this morning, after, no doubt, everyone on the Cupertino campus shared a laugh about the bizarre assortment of downloads in that one particular batch of songs.

Unfortunately, none of the songs that have been mentioned in the comments to my May 3 post about baseball music are available in the iTunes Music Store. They do have some Dan Bern albums, but not the one containing “Gamblin’ With My Love (Pete Rose).”

Original comments…

Jon Solomon: Here are some more links:

http://www.dancingaboutarc.com/lists/baseballlist.html

http://www.nwfolk.com/songlists/baseball.html

http://chicoescuela1.tripod.com/Index.htm

Jon

Always with more music

Thanks to Sandy for sending me an iTunes Music Store gift certificate. The baseball songs purchased with it: “Opening Day” by the Folk Implosion, “Baseball” by Michael Franks, and two tracks by John McCutcheon, “Baseball on the Block” and “World Series ’57.” I also bought “The Ballad of John Rocker” by Tim Wilson, but there was an error while it was downloading, and the Check for Purchased Music option isn’t finding it…so let’s just say that it’s kind of embarrassing to be sending an e-mail regarding a song about John Rocker to Apple customer support.

Other than the previously discussed “Piazza New York Catcher” situation, the only other potential baseball song remaining on my list is now “Night Game” by Paul Simon. I’m thinking I may see if I can find a used copy of the album it appears on, “Still Crazy After All This Years,” as long as I’m going to be looking for “Dear Catastrophe Waitress.” It might not be a big loss if I can’t find it, since “Night Game” may be the most depressing baseball song ever.

This still leaves me with some money remaining on my iTunes account, so please use the comments function or e-mail me directly if you have any suggestions for baseball songs I haven’t already mentioned in this blog and that aren’t on either volume of Rhino Records’ “Baseball’s Greatest Hits,” which I already have. (Note: The songs on this CD are not baseball songs.)

Yes, I do know about the “Diamond Cuts” compilations, the track listings of which I have already been through to see what was available on the iTunes Music Store. Not a lot, it turns out, although a few of them duplicate content from “Baseball’s Greatest Hits,” and a few others are different artists’ renditions of songs on “BGH.”

Original comments…

Levi: There’s that Kenny Rogers song from about four years ago that he played at Wrigley Field, about a boy tossing up a ball to hit it, but missing it again and again.

Don’t buy it.

sandor: I don’t know what your threshhold is for what makes one a baseball song. If it’s pretty extremely low, you should take a listen to Steve Poltz’s “Silver Lining,” which has these pleasant little lines in it:

I used to rely on luck
to earn an honest buck.
I didn’t feel so stuck.
I didn’t limp around like John Kruk.

References to baseball and testicular cancer in one line. Pretty amazing.

Jon Solomon: “line drive to the forehead” – Blunderbuss.

There’s also a SF Seals 45 with “doc ellis” and two other baseball songs.

“my black ass” by Shellac is about shadowball.

I’m sure more will come to me.

Jon

Levi: And there’s a great Dan Bern song, “Gambling with My Love” about Pete Rose and Bart Giammatti meeting in a hotel room for a night of drinking, wherein Giammatti tries all night to get Rose to just be honest and ‘fess up.

Steve: You can’t forget Steve Goodman’s “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request“. The same album (Affordable Art) has Steve’s mandolin-y version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

Jim: “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” is on “Baseball’s Greatest Hits,” volume 1, so I’ve already got it. One of the best baseball songs ever.

Jon Solomon: “Baseball Bat” by Courtney Love (the band, not the person) came to me while driving back from Philadelphia tonight.

Jon

maura: do you have the baseball songs by barbara manning? they’re not on itunes, but a friend of mine has them on mp3.

thatbob: I’m really surprised and a little disappointed that Jon Solomon can’t come up with any baseball-related Christmas songs.

Jon Solomon: This was the best I could do:
http://www.amiright.com/parody/misc/traditional5.shtml

One more musical note

A while back, Stacey had suggested the song “Piazza New York Catcher” by Belle & Sebastian to me. I almost got it with the code she gave me, but I instead decided to purchase the entire “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” album at some point in the future. I’m sure I’ll make it to Amoeba Music at least once before the trip, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a used copy or two (of course, the problem with going to Amoeba Music is that I can’t get out of there without spending at least $40 on used CDs).

Original comments…

Levi: If you’re feeling sinister . . . we have the disc and I could make sure the song is on my iPod . . . and yours.

More ice cream, more songs

After that last rant, let’s just say it’s a good thing the other book of old Charles Schulz cartoons that just came out, “Li’l Beginnings,” did fit into the package lockers.

Now, then: Stacey also pledged to vote at Ben & Jerry’s, and also got a free song from iTunes, and passed the code along to me. I already have three different versions of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but figured one more couldn’t hurt, so I downloaded a 2003 version by someone named Kathleen Holeman, who is not listed in the All-Music Guide. Turns out it’s a neat rendition, including an additional verse with some ranting against the current state of Major League Baseball.

The three versions I already had were a 37-second-long instrumental version of the chorus only, a version credited to “Bruce Springstone” parodying a certain New Jersey-based singer (both from the “Baseball’s Greatest Hits” CD), and a 1909 version by a singer named Edward Meeker that I downloaded from the “public domain 78s” collection on mp3.com a few years ago.

By the way, if anybody feels like opening up iTunes and rating an iMix or two, why not try this one or perhaps this one? Sorry, no “Mix American Style” yet…that’s going to be a big job, to try to substitute songs according to what’s available in the iTunes Music Store. Actually, someone else has already done an iMix containing songs related to all 50 states, but they’ve got them in the order each state entered the union (a neat idea), and their first two songs are suspect because they’re about a river that shares a name with a state (“Down Across the Delaware,” James McMurtry) and a phone number in New York City that happens to have the name of a state in it (“Pennsylvania 6-5000”).

Original comments…

thatbob: Along that vein, Oregon Hill is set in the deep south, Virginia is merely the girl’s name, and of course Kansas City is in Missouri. But who am I to judge? My playlist “I Love to Count!” couldn’t get past twelve.

Kathleen Holeman: Thanks for listening. I don’t know if it told you when you downloaded it, but I wrote the commentary at the end of the song. The front part was the original verse. I am a jazz artist in the Kansas City MO area. My husband and I have started collecting pictures of us with various minor league (or less-than)mascots. Fun! Write back to me if you want to. http://www.kathleenholeman.com

Yet another song

Of course Levi and Steve should coach Little League. It would be the only team with assigned reading every week!

I got another free iTunes song for going to the Ben & Jerry’s web site on Tuesday and pledging to vote in November, so I downloaded “Joe DiMaggio Done It Again” by Billy Bragg and Wilco. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to pledge to eat Ben & Jerry’s, since I tend to stick with ice cream with company names ending in “reyers.”

By the way, the new “radio charts” feature in the iTunes Music Store is surprisingly cool, although they unfortunately don’t list what’s being played on Carmi’s very own WROY. (They don’t seem to list any oldies stations or “standards” stations…and since they also don’t list any satellite format playlists, they only list a handful of AM stations nationwide.)

Original comments…

stacey: jim, did you know that “dreyer’s” is known as “edy’s” east of the rockies? this is akin the “hellman’s” & “best foods” mayonnaise phenomenon.

Jim: Yes, especially since I grew up way east of the Rockies. In fact, I don’t think they had Edy’s in Tampa until, like, the late ’80s or maybe even the early ’90s. By the way, I’m still a little mad at them for discontinuing my favorite flavor ever, Banana Cream Pie, which was banana ice cream with chunks of vanilla wafers. Breyers makes a banana ice cream with chocolate chunks in it, which is okay, but I could do without the chocolate. I like banana ice cream.