As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Favorite Musical Artists: Bruce Springsteen


I guess in some ways it’s appropriate that I post this just a few days after The Boss announced the upcoming release of his 19th studio album, and dropped its first “single”, “Hello Sunshine”. I like the song, but it’s not nearly as upbeat as the title might suggest. Rich Russo played it on his syndicated radio show this weekend, immediately followed by the Beatles’ “Good Day Sunshine”, and the contrast was pretty striking. (What it REALLY reminds me of is Danny O’Keefe’s 1972 hit “Goodtime Charlie’s Got The Blues.”)
 
Although I do own all 18 of Bruce’s previous studio recordings, plus some (but not all) of his live and/or previously-unreleased stuff (yes, I have the four-disc Tracks set), I’ve been a relative slacker compared to the true diehards in terms of seeing him live, with a modest total of five shows to my credit:
 
October 20, 1974 – Dickinson College (Carlisle PA)
November 11, 2007 – Verizon Center
September 14, 2012 – Nationals Park
April 20, 2016 – Royal Farms Arena (Baltimore)
September 1, 2016 – Nationals Park
 
I decided to see if I could find out a little more about Jon Landau’s legendary “rock and roll future” comment. A slightly longer excerpt is below; you can find the entire (lengthy) column from which it was taken here.
 
But tonight there is someone I can write of the way I used to write, without reservations of any kind. Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theatre, I saw my rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.
 
Favorite songs:
 
Jungleland
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Hungry Heart
The Price You Pay
 
My City Of Ruins
Jersey Girl
4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
Dancing In The Dark
Darkness On The Edge Of Town
 
Blinded By The Light
Stolen Car
Born To Run
Pink Cadillac
Shut Out The Light
 
Kitty's Back
The Promised Land
Spirit In The Night
Wrecking Ball
One Step Up
 
And of course there’s his classic cover of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town
 

Monday, April 29, 2019

April 28, 2019 – Nats 7, Padres 6 (11 innings) – Nationals Park

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/padres-vs-nationals/2019/04/28/565908#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=wrap,game=565908
 
Weather: 70 degrees, Sunny.
Wind: 6 mph, Out To CF.
Umpires: HP--West, 1B--Cooper, 2B--Fletcher, 3B--Little.
Time: 4:03
Attendance: 30,186
 
To put it kindly, things did not start out well for the home team this afternoon.
 
Noted San Diego “slugger” Greg Garcia homered off Nats starter Jeremy Hellickson in the top of the first, and the visitors pushed across another run an inning later. Things really went south in the 3rd: infield single, error, RBI single, 3-run 1-out homer by Eric Hosmer.
 
With a 6-0 deficit and an overworked bullpen, the initial plan seemed to be to let Hellickson absorb a few more innings, so he was allowed to hit for himself to lead off the bottom of the 3rd. After Robles beat out an infield single (the Nats successfully challenged the initial “out” call) and Dozier singled, Juan Soto changed the course of the game with a 3-run shot to center. Washington pushed across another run and loaded the bases with 2 out, leading Davey to pinch-hit Adam Eaton (who struck out) for Hellickson the second time around.
 
With Hellickson now gone after just three innings, the Nats turned to Erick Fedde, who had been called up earlier in the day for just this sort of emergency. He more than rose to the occasion, pitching four scoreless frames while facing only one batter over the minimum.
 
Meanwhile, Washington completed its comeback on solo HRs by Robles in the 4th and the recently-promoted Carter Kieboom in the 5th, making MLB history along with Soto as the only trio of teammates under 22 years old to all homer in the same game.
 
With men on first and second and one out in the bottom of the 7th, Martinez rolled the dice by pinch-hitting for Fedde, who had thrown only 49 pitches, far fewer than the 88 he tossed in his minor-league start 5 days earlier. Unfortunately, Yan Gomes and Robles fanned to end the inning, meaning that the Nats weary (and largely ineffective) bullpen guys would have to cover the rest of the game.
 
Kyle Barraclough, Joe Ross, and Tony Sipp kept the visitors off the board for the next 3 innings, although Ross had to retire Manny Machado with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Washington missed a great scoring chance in the bottom of the 10th, when their first two batters reached base and the Padres were forced into a makeshift defensive alignment after shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. had to exit due to injury. San Diego reliever Matt Wisler, however, retired the next 3 Washington batters to keep the game going into the 11th.
 
Fortunately, there would be a happy ending, as Justin Miller retired the side in the top of the inning, and Matt Adams led off with a massive homer to right field to send what remained of the crowd home happy.
 
A cluster of dark clouds passed ominously over the field in the middle innings, but there was no rain, and much more sun that we had expected. For the last several innings, the wind was blowing hard from left to right, knocking down several fly balls hit to left and almost blowing Adams’ game-winning shot into foul territory.