Throwback Tracks -- Oct 12, 2017
David R. Smith
Guys. It's October. Do you know what that means? Baseball playoffs are here! Now, as of my writing this, my beloved Red Sox have already lost their series to the Astros, and have fired their manager. (A move I'm not devastated about.)
Despite the woes of my team winning 1 playoff game over the past 2 series they've played, I am still beyond happy that baseball playoffs are here. October might be the best month for sports. The NFL is well under way, the NHL has started, Basketball is dumb, and baseball playoffs are in full (heh) swing.
So as a way of celebrating this glorious month, I'm putting up 5 songs that are either about baseball, or have baseball references. So here we go!
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new (*cough*) and different retro music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website (if possible...which is totally hit and miss with oldies), so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen
I remember once listening to the radio and they were talking about Bruce Springsteen and his band. They said that Bruce and the E Streets (I assume that's the shorthand?) always did this thing where they would both sing into the same mic as part of their act. 1:28 into this video they start doing that. It's so ridiculous. I don't know why they do that. I'm sure he's not the only one who does it, and I think it was definitely a sign of the time, but it's weird.
That said, it's a great song. Definitely not Bruce's best but good enough, for sure. It's hard when you're such a prolific songwriter. Eventually you're going to have to write a song about baseball. And let me just say; I'm glad Bruce did. We need more songs about baseball*
*There are more, just lots of them were written post-2000 and I'm not allowed to use them. Stupid Shaun.
Centrefield - John Fogerty
John Fogerty must love him some baseball. He's ready to play! If only the coach would put him in.
The opening of this song sounds like it could be any number of songs. It kind of has a Bay City Rollers' Saturday Night feel to it. It also has a surfer type feel when the guitar kicks in. But then it's just a song about baseball.
There's not much more I can write about this. It's just a good song. About baseball.
Mrs Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel
I'm pretty sure this is the first Simon and Garfunkel song to appear on TBT. Weird. I love these guys. They're easily some of my favourite artists. My all-time favourite song is sung by them. And yet they don't have an appearance on here.
And then the first song is from the Graduate. It's really not at all about baseball but they mention Joe DiMaggio and, when it comes down to it, he was part of baseball so we're calling it a win.
This song is pretty decent. I wouldn't rank it as one of my favourites by Simon and Garfunkel, but that said, when the song comes on, I'm always happy and always sing along to it. So that tells me that it's got the makings of a pretty decent song!
We Didn't Start The Fire - Billy Joel
Speaking of favourite artists... this fella is one of my favourites too. Many of the best songs ever written are Billy Joel songs, in my opinion.
This was probably the first song of his I ever had heard. I would have been 6 when this song came out and it would have been getting a lot of airtime. To this day, I still don't know ALL the words, because the guy just flies through them. But he references baseball, and all things considered, it's a fun walk through history!
Knock It Out The Park - Sam and Dave
Speaking of favourite artists...
Kidding. I don't know much of these guys, In fact, I'd never heard this song before tonight. But the title is Knock it Out the Park, so if nothing else, it's got a baseball theme to it.
It's good, though, isn't it?? Who doesn't love a bit of funk?
So it's still been a bit of a cluster-cuss of a month and my time has been sparse. I don't have it ready for you but I'll try to get the September playlist up soon. To tide you over, here are all the rest of the playlists for you to enjoy. Maybe next week when I have the extra day (having lost a day due to Thanksgiving, I feel rather behind this week) I'll be able to try and generate that playlist. It's just been a bit lower on the priority list, considering I have lectures to write... Anyway, here are the other ones!
August 2017 TBT Playlist (and the August Spotify list), July 2017 TBT Playlist (and the July Spotify List), June 2017 TBT Playlist (and the June Spotify List), May 2017 TBT Playlist, April 2017 TBT Playlist, March 2017 TBT Playlist , February 2017 TBT Playlist
2016
Throwback Playlist for Dec 16/Jan 17, October 2016 Throwback Playlist, September 2016 Throwback Playlist, August 2016 Throwback Playlist, July 2016 Throwback Playlist, June 2016 Throwback Playlist, May 2016 Throwback Playlist, April 2016 Throwback Playlist
-D (@davidronn)