The Library and Archives Canada and the Dawson City Museum in Yukon, Canada has made available newly discovered film of the famous 1919 World Series. As featured in Eight Men Out (1988), many of the White Sox players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, were banned from baseball for allegedly throwing the series to the Cincinnati Reds.
The more than four minutes of baseball footage is probably the best quality video of the most infamous World Series in baseball history. British Canadian Pathé News filmed the scenes, and the film was stored in an old swimming pool-hockey rink before being found again in the Canadian archive in January.
The segment includes scenes from the first and third games of the series (starting with some clips of the third game). Among the scenes, at around the 3:06 mark there is a short clip of what legend reports as a bungled double-play ball by Swede Risberg after Eddie Cicotte made a great play in stopping the ball. For more descriptions of what is on the film, check out the story from the Society for American Baseball Research. To watch the film, check it out below.
Thanks to Sonja for telling me about the fascinating video.
Do you think the White Sox players should have been banned forever? Leave your two cents in the comments.
CollegeHumor has released a video of tryouts for the Cantina Band from Star Wars. The segment takes place on the actual Star Wars cantina set thanks to Disney and Lucasfilm.
The video features Chris Daughtry, Ben Folds, Liz Phair, Reggie Watts, Mark McGrath, Jordin Sparks, Rick Springfield, Weird Al Yankovic, Lisa Loeb, and mc chris. And everyone’s favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett makes an appearance too. Make sure to look closely at Lisa Loeb’s famous glasses. Check it out.
If the video leaves you wanting more, CollegeHumor has some bonus footage on its website. Who would you like to see in the Star Wars Cantina Band? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Chimesfreedom has discussed country singer Marty Brown’s 1990’s career and post-success struggles, and we have been following his new successes aided by his appearances on America’s Got Talent. Most recent interviews have focused on his new music and new career, but Marty Brown recently took the opportunity to reflect on his early struggles as a young artist.
In this video, he sits on a brick wall in an alley in Nashville. And he explains how when he went to Nashville from Kentucky as a young man, he used to sleep in that alley next to the wall. Near the end (around the 9:30 mark) he sings a little of his song, “I’m From the Country.” Check it out.
While we have written a lot about Brown’s vast and under-appreciated talents, his stories in the video provide some insight into how hard he has worked to get to where he is today.
For this month’s fortieth anniversary of the U.S. release of the single “Band on the Run” by Paul McCartney and Wings, McCartney has released a new video for the song. The video, directed and produced by visual artist Ben Ib, creatively uses the lyrics of the video to create images from the song. Check it out.
The album Band On The Run was recorded during August-October 1973 in EMI Studios, Lagos and AIR Studios, London. It went on to become the most successful album from Wings.
What is your favorite song from Band on the Run? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In what has become an annual tradition on Chimesfreedom, we wish a happy birthday this week to Willie Nelson, who was born in Abbott, Texas late at night on April 29, 1933. Due to the late hour, the birth was not officially recorded until the next day and his birthday is sometimes reported as April 30. So, Nelson celebrates his birthday on both dates. One of his recordings I love is his wonderful interpretation of Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting For a Train.”
The song “Desperados Waiting For a Train” combines themes of memory, aging, history, and mortality. The singer recounts being friend with an old man when he was a boy.
The singer reports how the old man told him about his youthful days as a drifter working on oil wells. And the young man watches the old man get older. Anyone who as a child has been close to an elderly person or a grandparent may recognize the relationship and admiration. The singer sums it up, “Well to me he was a hero of this country.”
One of the reasons the lyrics ring so true is that Clark based the story on someone he knew. As he explained in a 2011 interview, “It’s a true song about someone in my life – I mean, you couldn’t have made that up. . . . It was about a guy who was like my grandfather.” Clark also recounted how he knew he would write about the man almost as soon as he started writing songs.
Versions of “Desperados Waiting For a Train”
There are several excellent recordings of “Desperados Waiting For a Train.” Guy Clark made a beautiful recording of it, including some live versions. Jerry Jeff Walker released the first recording of the song on his 1973 album Viva Terlingua. Actor Slim Pickens released his own version, where he reads the lyrics like poem over the music.
Willie Nelson took part in an earlier version recorded with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson as the Highwaymen. Their version that appeared on the super group’s album Highwayman was a top 20 hit when released as a single in 1985.
The more recent version by Nelson alone appeared on a wonderful Guy Clark tribute album, This One’s For Him (2010). At the time, Nelson, like the old man in the song, was “pushin’ eighty.” This version of the singer as an older man looking back on his youthful encounter with old age and death adds a deeper layer to the classic song. Check it out.
For some additional Willie, the Larry King Now website features a recent episode where Larry King interviewed Nelson about music, marijuana, politics, and aging.
Happy birthday Willie, and thanks for the presents to us.
What Willie Nelson song are you playing for his birthday? Leave your two cents in the comments.
was recorded during August-October 1973 in EMI Studios, Lagos and AIR Studios, London. It went on to become the most successful album from Wings.
. Actor Slim Pickens released 
was a top 20 hit when released as a single in 1985.