For part one, click here.
Variety Chronicles Frank Sinatra’s Failed Biker Movie, Part 2
For part one, click here.
Category Archives: Tuneage
Variety Chronicles Frank Sinatra’s Failed Biker Movie, Part 1
I had an old Uncle Morty who used to be in show biz. He represented small-time acts–dog tricks, plate spinners, head thumpers, that sort of thing. Oh, the stories he could tell!
When Uncle Morty passed away, he left me about 40 years worth of copies of Variety (along with a bunch of bills and unsettled paternity suits, but that’s a whole other story). His will stipulated I could not recycle them or throw them out, so I flip through them now and then.
Earlier this week, I came across a fascinating story about a biker movie Frank Sinatra tried to make in 1966/67 that eventually fell apart. Here’s the article from when the deal was first announced. I’ll post subsequent articles as soon as I can scan them.
Warm Thoughts for a Cold Winter: El Gran Combo
Pitchers and catchers are a mere five weeks away, and it can’t come soon enough for me (even after last night’s hideous Carlos Beltran news). I am done with winter this year, at a record pace, and I’m normally a cold-weather guy. Or at least more of a cold-weather guy than a hot-weather guy. The sun is not my friend.
So from now until players report, I will have a daily bit of baseball-iana to get you through the rest of the winter. The inaugural submission comes to me courtesy of WFMU’s Beware of the Blog, via Give the Drummer Some. Yesterday, he put up his weekly post of mp3s, and it included a beisbol-centric jam by Puerto Rican musical legends El Gran Combo.
They’ve been around for almost 50 years and are probably the most famous salsa group in the world. This tune, entitled “El Caballero Pelotero”, is about exactly what its title states: a horse who plays baseball.
My Spanish isn’t good enough to translate all the lyrics to this song. Or even most of them. In fact, all I can really catch are the lines “jugaba a beisbol” and “los Yanquis”. But apparently, this horse was quite the hitter.
Still, it puts me in the baseballing mood, and I hope it does the same for you. In addition to the original audio below, you can also see/hear El Gran Combo playing the song with another salsa legend, Hector Lavoe, on YouTube (which I would have included here, except the sound is sub-bootleg quality).
Download here.