Hudson's Rich Conaty, who hosts ?The Big Broadcast? every Sunday night on Fordham University?s WFUV. Photo provided.
There?s no way of knowing, of course -- not even with super cell phones or the latest magical hi-tech deviceW -- whether Francis Scott Key is smiling from his grave.
After all, it?s been a while since Key sat in front of his Baltimore keyboard and knocked off ?The Star Spangled Banner.? How would Sir Francis ever dream that his terrific tune would be the biggest hit in baseball?
The year was 1814 and the diamond game was we know it wasn?t even invented. Yet what became our National Anthem is far and away the most played tune coast-to-coast at athletic events with no runner-up in sight.
It wasn?t always this way.
Way, back when, football, basketball, hockey and baseball games would open without any special musical fanfare. But that all changed in 1939 with the advent of World War II. After America?s entry into the conflict following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor an intense feeling of patriotism spread from sea to shining sea.
There was serious talk of shutting down the National Pastime for the duration, but President Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that continuation of the seasons -- as it happened from 1942 through 1945 -- would be good for the nation?s morale; and it was. As part of the patriotic fervor, it was agreed that every ballgame would be preceded by playing the attention-getting ?Star Spangled Banner.? And it has been that way ever since.
Now, I believe, the time has come for a slight -- very slight -- change; so here?s my brainstorm:
No offense to Francis Scott Key -- or our revered anthem -- but it has dawned on me that some pre-game, patriotic musical variety in order. After all, there?s nothing sinful about opening a contest at Yankee Stadium with a rendition of ?God Bless America.? That?s what the Flyers do before National Hockey League games in Philadelphia.
Prior to almost every game, the vocalist Lauren Hart warbles ?God Bless America,? occasionally accompanied by the classic rendition by Kate Smith on the video board and nobody seems to mind.
Certainly not the estate of composer Irving Berlin, who originally penned the classic in 1917 and then decided it wasn?t worth selling. So, Berlin stuck it in his desk drawer and conveniently forgot about his composition until he got a phone call in 1939 from the then extremely popular singer Kate Smith. Continued...
?Irving,? urged Kate, ?we?re getting close to war. Can you write a tune that?ll unite our people in case war does come??
?Hold on,? said Berlin, who opened his drawer, pulled out ?God Bless America? and told Smith that her request would be in the afternoon mail. And that?s how one super-duper patriotic hit was born. And, incidentally, to this day ?God Bless America? is considered our alter-national anthem.
Much as I love both ?The Star Spangled Banner? and ?God Bless America,? I?d like to go to Yankee Stadium or CitiField or Madison Square Garden one night and have the game open with some other patriotic tune. Ah, but which one?
For the answer, I needed a supreme musicologist, so I went to my all-time favorite, Rich Conaty of Hudson.
Conaty hosts ?The Big Broadcast? every Sunday night from 8 to Midnight on Fordham University?s splendid WFUV (90.7 on your FM dial) radio station. As a matter of wonderful fact, Rich ends every show with a couple of inspiring lines of his own concluding with ?God Bless America.? This guy knows about genuine patriotism from the heart.
I asked Rich which tune he?d pick to launch a major sporting event and he told me that his choice would be composer-performer George M. Cohan?s ?You?re a Grand Old Flag? and I second the motion.
Written for his 1906 musical, ?George Washington, Jr.,? the tune has some nifty lines such as: ?You?re a grand old flag, you?re a high-flying flag and forever in peace may you wave. You?re the emblem of the land I love; the home of the free and the brave.?
?I like this one,? Conaty explains, ?because it has a solid, positive message.?
A couple of years earlier, Cohan penned another hit that would be an excellent opener for any Bombers home game. Its proper title is ?The Yankee Doodle Boy? from the Broadway production, ?Little Johnny Jones? and was featured by James Cagney in the legendary Warner Brothers flick, ?Yankee Doodle Dandy.?
Conaty remembers Cagney doing a one-of-a-kind song-and dance routine and while Rich allows that ?Yankee Doodle Dandy? would be good for a ballgame opener, he adds, ?But it needs to be danced as well as sung.? Continued...
A few other of my musical candidates include the following. (See if you agree.)
??America The Beautiful,? written in 1895 and remembered, among other things, for the line about ?amber waves of grain.?
??Columbia The Gem Of the Ocean? which goes back to 1843. Thomas Becket composed it at the request of David T. Shaw for a theatrical benefit. I remember it as the theme song of radio?s ?Don Winslow of the Navy.? During World War !!, we sang it regularly at P.S. 54 in Williamsburg with home room teacher, Mrs. Morton at the piano. It?s as stirring as any patriotic tune I?ve ever heard.
??America I Love You.? Edgar Leslie wrote the words while Archie Gottler did the music in 1915. The opening chorus almost brings tears to my eyes. (America I love you; you?re just like a sweetheart of mine.)
??The Stars and Stripes Forever.? Granted it?s a John Philip Sousa march, but it?s as America as any music can get. I can see the Yankees streaming out of the dugout to take their positions with this one being played in the background. As a matter of fact, I once covered the George Steinbrenner when he was a guest conductor for the New York Philharmonic at a benefit. His tune was ?The Stars and Stripes Forever? and after the concert he told me it was one of his all-time favorites; and that was good enough for me.
There you have it and I hope nobody in the audience is offended. My preference would be to have ?The Star Spangled Banner? played at three out of every four games with one of the other patriotic songs fitted in for the sake of variety and just plain enjoyment.
If you have any other suggestions, send them to me -- just don?t include ?My Country Tis Of Thee,? otherwise known as ?America.? (In England as ?God Save The Queen.?)
?It?s a bit sleepy,? concludes Rich Conaty.
When I think of that, I rub my eyes and second Conaty?s motion.
TRIVIA CORNER: WHICH PRE-JACKIE ROBINSON AFRICAN-AMERICAN BASEBALL PLAYER STARRED AT EVERY POSITION? Continued...
Martin Dihigo.
According to many observers who saw him play in the 1920s and 1930s for the Cuban Stars and Homestead Grays, Dihigo was one of the most accomplished ballplayers of all-time, Major Leaguers included.
In a 1935 East-West All-Star Game, Dihigo started in center field and batted third for the East. In the late innings he was called upon to pitch in relief. Buck Leonard, himself a star with the Grays, and others called Dihigo the best ballplayer they ever saw.
He was used at every position by the Cubans and Grays and in 1929 he batted .386 in the American Negro League. Post World War II, when the Negro National League folded and African-Americans began to enter the Major Leagues, Dihigo was too old to make it to the bigs. He played out his career during the 1950s in Mexico.
Author-columnist-commentator Stan ?The Maven? Fischler resides in Boiceville and New York City. His column appears each week in the Sunday Freeman
Source: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2013/07/07/sports/doc51d8aa78cd6e5872747233.txt
ira glass swain match day nene dark shadows trailer nate mcmillan clooney arrested
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.