Thursday, March 13, 2008

Nats' Music

The Nationals are letting fans pick the music to be played after home runs, the seventh inning stretch, and at the end of games. Dan Steinberg at the D.C. Sports Bog runs down the choices:
Home Runs: Because We Can (Fatboy Slim), Bustin Loose (Chuck Brown), Kernkraft 400 (Zombie Nation), Off We Go--Air Force Theme (Robert Crawford), Song 2-Woo Hoo (Blur).

7th Inning Stretch: Build Me Up Buttercup (The Foundations), Rock Me Gently (Andy Kim), September (Earth Wind & Fire), Shout (Otis Day and the Knights), The Gambler (Kenny Rogers), Twist And Shout (the Beatles), YMCA (Village People), You Gotta Have Heart (Damn Yankees The Musical).

Post-game Victories: Beautiful Day (U2), Celebration (Kool and the Gang), Dancing In The Streets (Martha Reeves and the Vandelas), How Do You Like Me Now (Toby Keith), Rock and Roll Part 2 (Gary Glitter).

I suppose some nice traditional organ music is out of the question.

If I have to go with that list I'd take the Air Force Theme, You Gotta Have Heart, and Beautiful Day, though I'm probably least happy with that last one, and most of the other options for that matter. My reasoning: pop music in the ballpark -- especially played-out 1960s and 70s pop music -- has just never worked for me, probably because to make it palatable to 40,000 people teams always feel the need to go with the most middlebrow stuff possible.

Personally, I'd love to hear some salsa or hip hop music at some time other than when a Latin or African American player is coming to bat, but you never will because teams probably think it would alienate their wealthy white season ticket holders. I agree with Steinberg that in D.C. it would be awesome to hear some Bad Brains, Minor Threat, or some go-go funk -- hey, local culture! -- but you know that's not happening.

Short of that, I'd probably be most happy with show tunes, Dixieland, organ music, or anything else weird, nerdy, antiquated or quirky, which isn't the worst description of a day at the ballpark when you think about it. If I want to hear "Build Me Up Buttercup" I'll go to the supermarket.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

APBA Guy-

Welll it could be worse. Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) is from Springfield, Va, right outside DC where 95 and the Beltway intersect. Imagine "Come As You Are" after a homerun....

Craig Calcaterra said...

Good point. I'd have no problem with Nirvana, but the Foo Fighters stuff would probably bug me pretty quickly.

Anonymous said...

You say go-go funk, but you choose the Air Force theme over Chuck Brown?

Craig Calcaterra said...

D'oh. Can I plead 6am posting? I didn't even see that there, probably because I was too worked up over Blur.

Thinking about it a bit more, I think I'd prefer the Chuck Brown and go-go to be in between innings music and general mood setters, opening up the home run to the corny but endearing Air Force.

Don Evans said...

jock jams rock and roll part two .. oh yeah

Anonymous said...

Well, if Fugazi was good enough for a Fox World Series bumper, why not at games.

Unknown said...

Best intro music ever was when Manny Ramirez used "Because I Got High" by Afroman. C'mon, we all know he was smoking bowl behind the scoreboard, not taking a piss.

Diesel said...

If Elijah Dukes' intro music was Minor Threat's "Bottled Violence," I would immediately move to D.C. and become a season ticket holder.

I'm not kidding.

Anonymous said...

shyster- aka - d.c. hardcore kid from 80's ?
gotta say you made my day when i did my daily shyster-check and i see a bad brains cover! next week let's have a touch&go cover OR north carolina 90's bands - superchunk or archers will do :)

Craig Calcaterra said...

Sorry to burst your bubble, Brian, but I was only into DC hardcore in the most passive of ways. Many friends owned BB and MT tapes (and they were tapes then), but I didn't. I had some Black Flag and Misfits stuff -- and had a somewhat unhealthy affinity for the Dead Kennedys for a time -- but I was a hardcore amateur.

I couldn't even really skate.