Inappropriate Walk Up Music: 03.29.09

santo-shea.jpgFor previous Inappropriate Walk Up Music posts, click here.

Every day until Opening Day, Scratchbomb presents three tunes that are completely, unequivocally inappropriate for use as major league walk-up
music.

These are not necessarily bad songs–although that
certainly helps. They are merely songs that don’t evoke the fear and dread one traditionally associates with the walk-up song. In fact, they evoke the exact opposite.

Imagine yourself in the on-deck circle. Bottom of the 9th. Down by one. Man on second, two out. You hear the PA system blare, The centerfielder, number 20… The crowd roars at the sound of your name. And as you stroll to the batter’s box, you are greeted with the strains of one of these songs:

* “I’m a Boy”, The Who
A good slice of Mod-era Who, but the subject matter obviously puts it in the Inappropriate ledger. I’m surprised they were allowed to release this song way back in the 60s. Not too many songs about crossdressers back then, even in England (except “Arnold Layne”, that’s about it). And as far as I know, not any others about kids forced to crossdress because their mothers wish they were girls.

* “Octopus”, Syd Barrett
Mentioning an early Pink Floyd track in today’s first selection made me think of this Syd Barrett tune from The Madcap Laughs. That entire album is like listening to someone desperately cling to sanity, and it’s sad and terrifying to know that he never truly succeeded. I find this cut from it particularly awesome/disturbing.

* “To Be With You”, Mr. Big
It’s no better or worse than any other crappy 80s Power Ballad, but it’s inspired far too many dudes with acoustic guitars to film themselves playing it, then post it to YouTube. And no, I’m not going to link to any of those videos, because that’s an almost textbook definition of shooting fish in a barrel.

Inappropriate Walk Up Music: 03.28.09

santo-shea.jpgFor previous Inappropriate Walk Up Music posts, click here.

Every day until Opening Day, Scratchbomb presents three tunes that are completely, unequivocally inappropriate for use as major league walk-up
music.

These are not necessarily bad songs–although that
certainly helps. They are merely songs that don’t evoke the fear and dread one traditionally associates with the walk-up song. In fact, they evoke the exact opposite.

Imagine yourself in the on-deck circle. Bottom of the 9th. Down by one. Man on second, two out. You hear the PA system blare, The centerfielder, number 20… The crowd roars at the sound of your name. And as you stroll to the batter’s box, you are greeted with the strains of one of these songs:

*”Girl Afraid”, The Smiths
I wanted to include a Smiths song in this list, but nearly all of them would be inappropriate in this context, so it was hard to pick just one. Then, I heard this song pop up on iTunes shuffle, and the lightbulb went off.

* “We’re Having a Baby”, The Make-Up
Not to be confused with “She’s Having My Baby”, which is just as inappropriate. I can think of some Make-Up tunes that would work as walk-up music (“Untouchable Sound” for one), but this ain’t one of them.

* “Wo Ist Du Haus, Mama”, Johnny Cash
They used to play this track often on WFMU, and I could never figure out if it was hilarious or bone-chilling. Just like The Beatles, The Man in Black cut a bunch of tracks in German early in his career. As much as Johnny Cash in English is bad-ass, that’s how much Johnny Cash in German is fucking terrifying. All of the Deutsch versions are weird in this “video”, but fast-forward to 6:24 to hear the especially bizarre tune “Wo Ist Du Haus, Mama”.

We Built this Citi on a Former Ash Field

citifield3.jpgI’ll be traveling to CitiField for the first time this weekend, to watch St. John’s take on Georgetown. That would be a great matchup, if it were a basketball game. And it was still 1987.

Obviously, my main objective in this outing is to grab a sneak peek of the Mets’ new ballpark. Lotsa web sites have been posting pics and previews lately, so I’m ultra excited. I may even live-TwitPic the event. The Wife might, too. We shall keep you posted.

But if there’s anything you wanna know, any item you want to see a photo of, or any questions you want answered, comment here and I will endeavor to answer them on Sunday.

Huge-ass photo-packed post to follow on Monday. Unless it sucks. In which case, huge-ass profanity-laced post to follow on Monday.