“One of
the great break-up songs in soul music” was one comment I found for this one online, and it
sums things up pretty well. This was the group’s last big hit before leaving
Motown records, and it’s a high point both for the group and for songwriter Jim
Weatherly, who’s also responsible for their post-Motown classics “Midnight
Train To Georgia” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me”.
Friday, August 8, 2014
#36 The Impossible Dream -- The Temptations (1967)
I liked
the Temptations and the other Motown acts when I was growing up in the sixties,
but until Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder really took charge of their own careers
with classic albums such as What’s Going
On and Innervisions, I didn’t
really buy Motown LPs. (In my defense, as was the custom of the time, most of
them contained a couple of hits and a lot of filler.) I probably just bought
the Temptations In A Mellow Mood
album on a whim; it’s certainly not as though it had any hits on it. It’s
extremely well done though, with great soulful arrangements of show tunes and
some other standards that I wouldn’t necessarily have cared for in versions by
other artists. “The Impossible Dream” is the best of the bunch – it brings a lump
to my throat whenever I hear it.
August 6, 2014 – Nationals 7, Mets 1 – Nationals Park
Umpires:
HP: Larry Vanover. 1B: Dan Iassogna. 2B: Vic Carapazza. 3B: Paul Nauert.
Weather:
80 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 3
mph, L to R.
T: 2:31.
Att:
26,701.
Long-time
Orioles manager Earl Weaver always preferred long ball to small ball, so he
certainly would have been impressed with this Nats victory. Washington gave
starter and winner Doug Fister a nice lead in the bottom of the first on a
Rendon double, a run-scoring single by Werth, and a two-run homer by the
suddenly-hot Adam LaRoche. The Nats doubled their lead in the sixth, as Danny
Espinosa continued his success against lefty pitchers with a three-run shot off
Jon Niese, following a Desmond single and steal, and a walk to Bryce Harper.
LaRoche finished the Nats scoring with an eighth-inning homer off Carlos
Torres.
Meanwhile,
Fister turned in another fine outing, shutting down the Mets with his usual
alacrity, being charged with only one (unearned) run which scored after he was
taken out in the middle of the eighth. (We joked about the Nats possibly
putting in a “Fister season ticket plan” for 2015, designed for fans who enjoy
quick, crisply-played games.)
Caught a
ride down and back with the Pierce clan, and actually was home before 11:00 –
first time in recent memory that’s happened for a night game. Was thinking of
getting something from Taste of the Majors, but due to the line decided to
settle for a couple of Nats dogs.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
August 3, 2014 – Nationals 4, Phillies 0 – Nationals Park
Umpires:
HP: Eric Cooper. 1B: Tom Hallion. 2B: Hal Gibson III. 3B: Chris Guccione.
Weather:
82 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 7
mph, In from CF.
T: 2:47.
Att:
30,038.
If you
came to this game expecting a pitcher’s duel between Cole Hamels and Stephen
Strasburg, you didn’t go home disappointed.
Each
starting pitcher retired the first 7 batters he faced. The third inning was
really the key to the game. With one out, each team’s #8 hitter reached first
base and was sacrificed to second by the pitcher. In the top of the inning,
Phillies leadoff man Ben Revere was unable to plate the run, while in the
bottom of the frame Denard Span singled to center to score Jose Lobaton for an
unearned run and a 1-0 Nats lead.
Hamels and
Strasburg continued their dominance through the next 4 innings, with neither
team mounting a major threat to score. With Strasburg having thrown 99 pitches,
the Nats replaced him with Tyler Clippard in the top of the eighth, and the
Phillies, still down by a run with time running short, were forced to pinch-hit
for Hamels. Unfortunately for them, the Nats were able to plate three runs in
an ugly bottom of the 8th for the visitors, which gave Soriano
plenty of breathing room as he completed the shutout in the 9th. The
Phils were shut out for the second straight game, managing only three hits and
one walk while whiffing 13 times.
Traffic
was uneventful, and the afternoon was much sunnier than I had expected, with
the thunderstorms holding off until the evening. The Taqueria continues to
produce excellent pork tacos (although very slowly), and my eCash card again
proved useful to avoid the long regular line for ice cream.
Mary Chapin Carpenter with the National Symphony Orchestra, Wolf Trap Filene Center, 8/1/2014
On the
first Tuesday of this year, Mary Chapin Carpenter released her latest CD, Songs From The Movie, featuring orchestral
versions of 10 songs chosen from her previous albums. Friday evening’s Wolf
Trap performance, with Vince Mendoza (who was the arranger and conductor for
the album) conducting the National Symphony Orchestra, was the on-tour version
of the album. The orchestra was augmented by Matt Rollings on keyboards,
drummer Peter Erskine, and bass player Edwin Livingston, who are traveling with
Carpenter for this tour.
The
evening’s performance began with Elmer Bernstein’s suite from To Kill a
Mockingbird, after with Carpenter and her band mates came on stage to a warm
welcome from the crowd. (Nice size, but definitely not a sellout.) The
remainder of the set closely paralleled the album, albeit with a few minor
changes in order. “Where Time Stands Still” was the only song from the CD that
was omitted, replaced near the end of the show with “Stones in the Road” and “10,000
Miles”.
The arrangements
and performances were very professional, and Carpenter clearly enjoyed the
opportunity to present some of her slower songs in this setting. Personally, I
would have enjoyed them more in non-orchestral versions that were closer to the
original recordings. I didn’t think that old favorites such as “I Am A Town”, “Come
On Come On,” and “Stones in the Road” benefited from the added instrumentation.
And, although it was clearly by design, the predominance of Carpenter’s more
contemplative material led to a certain lack of energy and sameness in tempo,
which was finally remedied by the encore version of “The Hard Way”, which
elicited the most enthusiastic audience response of the evening. Prior to that,
my clear favorite was “10,000 Miles”, since it had originally featured an
orchestral arrangement on the Party Doll
compilation and in the movie Fly Away
Home.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Shuffle #21 (August 3, 2014)
I Met Him
On A Sunday – Laura Nyro
Once In A
While – The Chimes
Wicked
Game – Chris Isaak
Dance
Across The Floor – Jimmy Bo Horne
Don’t Hang
Up Your Dancing Shoes – Ian Matthews
Fool’s
Paradise – Sam Cooke
Check Out
Your Mind – The Impressions
Someday
Soon – Gin Blossoms
Don’t Cry
Baby – Madeleine Peyroux
The Sweet
Escape – Gwen Stefani
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)