Category: music

Melody, harmony, fidelity.

Jingle bells — you know, ho ho ho and mistletoe and presents to pretty girls

A new acquisition for the baseball-related radio station jingle collection: this one, from WBLG in Lexington, Kentucky (which now has different call letters and an ugly web site that hasn’t been updated in months). I don’t think this was a Reds network-wide jingle campaign; I think this particular affiliate had it done on their own. I believe it’s from about 1976 or 1977, which would make the lyric particularly apt.

God Bless Take Me Out to the Ballgame

When I was a kid, I read a good book (the name of which I’ve forgotten) about an American boy growing up in China and going to an English school. He didn’t want to sing “God Save the Queen,” but not doing so got him in trouble. His father pointed out that he could instead sing, quietly, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” which shared a melody with the British anthem.

It will no doubt cheer BRPA2004 readers to learn that, while watching the White Sox win the World Series on Fox, those in attendance at the Rocketship realized that, while “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “God Bless America”–two songs whose relative importance in baseball history Bud Selig seems to have confused–do not traditionally share a melody, there is, it turns out, no reason that they shouldn’t.

That’s right: “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” can be sung–flawlessly–to the tune of “God Bless America.” (And vice-versa, I suppose, but, well, yuck. Why do that to America?)

Try it at home. Try it at your favorite ballpark the next time the PA guy demands a show of religious-themed patriotism rather than a celebration of what you’ve actually chosen to do with your day.

Or wait until I get Jim to sing it and post the MP3.

As the caption to a photo at the Neo-Futurarium of a boy flipping off the camera said, “See–everything in the world’s not made of toilet.”

More baseball audio, just in time for the World Series

Shout! Factory, the imprint of the folks who used to run Rhino, has a new 4-CD box set out called “The Great American Baseball Box.” Looks like only one CD is songs; the other three seem to include play-by-play clips and whatever other audio they could dig up. I’ve got almost all the songs already, so if they sold Discs 2 through 4 separately, I might be tempted.

Also, when the White Sox revealed that their playoff anthem is Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” it didn’t take long for the record company to take advantage. This week, they released a 1981 live version as an iTunes single (maybe elsewhere as well). Actually, some of the iTunes reviewers claim the release is to promote a DVD release of the concert the song is taken from, but we know better — everything comes back to baseball.

I read the articles so you don’t have to

The September issue of Playboy has an article about Jose Canseco’s ex-wife Jessica, to go along with some photographs of her in which she’s wearing ballet shoes but seems to have forgotten to put on her tutu, or her leotard, or anything else a ballerina might wear. Actually, I take that back — she’s wearing leg warmers in a couple of the photos.

Anyway, the article is chock full of fascinating facts. For example, Jose met her at a Hooters in Cleveland, where she was only in her third day on the job — and the very next night, Jose made blooper-reel history with the home-run-bouncing-off-his-head incident. She says he likes his women “meaty,” so he often encouraged her to eat more. Also, she claims to have had sex with him in Fenway Park. And, yes, she reports that there was a lot of steroid-related testicular shrinkage, but since he was also taking human growth hormone, the other part of the frank-‘n’-beans combo was larger than normal. (They did have a daughter together, so everything was apparently working well enough.)

Things went badly once she realized he was cheating on her; she found such items as Jose’s private cell phone (she cracked the voice mail password and found messages from four women) and a little black book in which Jose had made copious notes about physical descriptions of various women so he could remember who was who. Her last-ditch effort to save the relationship was a menage a trois involving her, Jose, and a friend of hers, but it didn’t work.

Elsewhere in this issue of Playboy, we learn that “when you’re Hef, every day is an adventure,” as we have been learning in Playboy for over 50 years now. (I mean the royal “we,” obviously.)

Actually, there was some useful information in this Playboy, although it’s not baseball-related: I learned of the existence of this upcoming Rhino box set, although I’m a little dubious about the August 30th date, since it’s listed on neither Amazon.com nor rhino.com (although rhino.com only lists their releases for the 16th and 23rd).

There are Indians around, it’s Cleveland baseball

If you’re such a big baseballrelated.com fan that you’re excited about the comments, then prepare to lose control of various bodily fluids: I’ve just acquired and uploaded a new baseball-related radio station jingle, this one from WERE in Cleveland, dating back to 1961.

Incidentally, another jingle in this series starts off with the lyrics “In the 25th century, we’ll still be tuned to ‘ERE,” which was wildly optimistic, but unlike a lot of other radio stations that were around in 1961, they actually have made it into the 21st century! (Well, sort of, since they don’t seem to have a web site.) Only 395-1/2 more years to go to prove that jingle correct.

Remember, for your listening pleasure, also available here at baseballrelated.com are jingles mentioning the Giants, the Phillies, the Red Sox, the Orioles, the Yankees, the Tigers, and my favorite of the bunch, the Pirates.

Hospitality

I believe it is every team’s–and every fan’s–duty to make a trip to an out-of-town ballpark to watch his team as the visitors an enjoyable experience. I believe it’s incumbent upon fans not to shower abuse (or beer) in greater quantity than they would shower same on any hometown fan. I believe the correct response to “Is this Aisle 527?” doesn’t involve profanity.

But I don’t believe that hospitality should extend to playing a song the visiting team is familiar with from its home ballpark, so imagine my surprise when “Sweet Caroline” began blasting from the Wrigley Field speakers last night. Now, if the P.A. guy had, right after “Touching warm . . . touching you!” given the turntable a solid kick, sending the needle skittering and screeching across the vinyl, then it would have been okay. But just playing the song, straight, is like the French translating all the road signs just in from the Maginot Line into German.

Original comments…

thatbob: “Blasting from the Wrigley Field speakers…”?

Wrigley Field shouldn’t even have speakers that blast. That would solve your problem right there.

What’s the buzz?

I’ve just gotten back from a They Might Be Giants concert. This time, unlike last August, I don’t have to fly to Chicago tomorrow (this) morning to start a baseball-related trip.

But there is still baseball news to report at this late hour: Bees!

Original comments…

Toby: As in “Say I’m the only bee in your bonnet?”

Jim: Does this post make more sense with the “Bees!” link fixed?

Incidentally, the movie “Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns” is worth at least a rental, if only for one particular extra: They Might Be Giants performing the song Toby quoted from, “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” on “The Tonight Show” in 1990, backed by Johnny Carson’s band (Doc Severinsen, et al.).

levi’s help-mate: nice work, toby! now to break out my tmbg collection for nonstop happiness.