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