Early Baseball: The Glory of Their Times

Early Baseball After Ty Cobb died on July 17, 1961 in Georgia, Lawrence Ritter realized that the full story of early twentieth century baseball was dying with the people involved in the game during that era. So, he came up with the idea to document that era of baseball and began a trip across the United States interviewing many of the legends of the sport.

Ritter published the first edition of The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It in 1966. The book included interviews with men like Sam Crawford, Joe Wood, Fred Snodgrass, Chief Myers, and others. Other players, like Ty Cobb, were not around to be interviewed but they are brought back to life through the stories of the men who knew them.

I discovered Ritter’s work when I was a child and happened to catch a documentary he made of The Glory of Their Times, which was produced by him and Bud Greenspan in 1977. The documentary used audio from Ritter’s interviews, accompanied by photographs and film. I loved the movie. I even recorded it with my childhood hand-held tape recorder and listened to the cassette over and over again.

I have not seen the documentary since I was a child, and it does not appear to be available on video (and I have since lost the cassette). But in 1966, Ritter did release a record that included audio of many of the interviews that he used in his book and that appeared in the documentary. Fortunately, it is available through YouTube. It is a fascinating look at another era. Check it out.

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    Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen “Shout” In Their Third Performance Together

    Shout Springsteen Seger

    Bob Seger recently joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on stage in Detroit during Springsteen’s current The River tour, which is promoting the release of The Ties That Bind: The River Collection. After playing some joyous tambourine on “10th Avenue Freeze-Out,” Seger also joined in on a performance of The Isley Brothers’ “Shout.” Although Seger-Springsteen collaborations are rare, it was not the first time Seger and Springsteen have performed together.

    Seger had first performed with Springsteen during the opening night of the original The River tour back in 1980, when Seger helped out on “Thunder Road.” Below is the audio of that performance.

    Although Rolling Stone reports that the two are good friends, after the 1980 concert Seger and Springsteen did not appear onstage together until December 2011 when Springsteen joined Seger’s concert for Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll.” Check it out.

    That brings us to the most recent collaboration on April 14, 2016. From the energy of the performance this week, it was worth the four-and-a-half-year wait to see the two together on “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and “Shout.” Hopefully we will see them together again soon.

    Although Bob Seger’s Ride Out Tour with the Silver Bullet Band ended in March 2015, Springsteen still has work to do. The current U.S. leg of The River tour ends April 25 in Brooklyn before heading overseas to Europe for the summer.

    What song would you like Seger and Springsteen to do together? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Back From That Soul Vacation: The Meaning Behind “Drops of Jupiter”

    Pat Monahan wrote Train’s hit song “Drops of Jupiter” after an inspiration came to him in a dream following his mother’s death.

    Drops of Jupiter Meaning Like most people, I loved Train’s song “Drops of Jupiter” when it came out in 2001. I ran out and bought the CD of the same name, playing the CD over and over again, but especially repeating the title track. And then, like most people, I got a little tired of hearing it played everywhere.

    But recently, I heard an interview with Train’s Pat Monahan, explaining how he came to write the song. It may have been that I had missed his earlier interviews about the meaning of the song. Or maybe I had heard the explanation but had not connected with the explanation as I did now around a time when I had lost two people very close to me. But hearing his explanation made the song make a lot of sense to me.

    Now that she’s back in the atmosphere,
    With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey, hey.

    Monahan wrote “Drops of Jupiter” soon after his mom had passed away following a battle with cancer. In the song, he imagines that after dying his mom’s spirit could go anywhere, and so a person would be likely to go explore the universe.

    As Monahan explained in a Buzzfeed News interview, “It’s a story about my mother coming back after like swimming through the planets and finding her way through the universe, and coming back to tell me that heaven was overrated and [to] love this life, you know?”

    She acts like summer and walks like rain
    Reminds me that there’s a time to change, hey, hey, hey

    Thus, his mother returned to visit him with “drops of Jupiter” in her hair. Pretty cool.

    Monahan wrote the song in less than an hour. The song came to him in a dream, and after he woke up, the song was in his head. When he woke up, he took about thirty minutes to write it down and sing the words into a Dictaphone. The next night before bed he finished it up, and the song that was a conversation with his late mom was complete.

    And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
    Was it everything you wanted to find?
    And did you miss me
    While you were looking for yourself out there?

    After the song was recorded, it propelled the band’s popularity into the universe. “Drops of Jupiter” went on to win the Grammy for Best Rock Song. Monahan thanked his mom when he accepted the award.

    Of course, the great thing about songs is that you can always interpret them in your own way to find something for your own life. So if you hear something else or another thing in the song, that is cool too. But it is also great to know the story behind the song. (For a short video about the story, check out this video on YouTube.)

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Sturgill Simpson Covers Nirvana’s “In Bloom”

    A Sailor's Guide to Earth Sturgill Simpson’s upcoming album A Sailor’s Guide To Earth has been receiving positive reviews even before the CD has been released. As he did earlier for When in Rome’s “The Promise,” Simpson once again surprises listeners with a unique cover song, this time covering Nirvana’s “In Bloom” on the new album.

    Simpson found inspiration for the album A Sailor’s Guide To Earth from two sources, his grandfather’s letters from the South Pacific during World War II and the birth of Simpson’s own son. While Simpson struggled with watching his own son grow up fast while he was on tour, he turned to creating this album, which Mojo describes in a 4-star review as ruminating “on the transformative powers of parenthood, the weight and ecstasy of love.”

    Considering the conceptual context of Simpson’s new album, it may at first appear an odd selection to include a cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom.’ The song was the fourth and final single from the band’s 1991 album Nevermind (1991) and was the band’s message to those who did not understand their music: “And he likes to sing along / And he likes to shoot his gun / But he knows not what it means.”

    But in the context of the album, “In Bloom” does seem to fit as part of a parent’s message to a child as perhaps a warning against ignorance. Similarly, Simpson closes the album with “Call to Arms,” a diatribe against authority and in particular the military. “Bullshit on the TV/ Bullshit on the radio/ Hollywood telling me how to be/ Bullshit’s got to go.”

    In this context, Simpson takes a great Nirvana song and explores the hidden love behind the song as not so much a message to the ignorant but as a warning to the ones we love. Check it out.

    A Sailor’s Guide To Earth hits stores and the Internet on April 15, 2016.

    What is your favorite cover of a Nirvana song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Johnny Cash Imitating Elvis

    Cash Presley

    In this video, Johnny Cash shows that he could have had another career as an Elvis impersonator. The clip is apparently from 1959 when Cash was 27 years old and touring as an opening act for Elvis Presley.

    Before his performance of “Heartbreak Hotel,” Cash clarifies that he is not impersonating Elvis directly. He explains it is “an impersonation of a rock and roll singer impersonating Elvis is what this really is.”

    Perhaps he wanted to add the extra layer of making fun of an impersonator rather than Elvis to somewhat insulate himself from making fun of his former colleague at Sun Records. In fact, the two men admired each other, and Elvis Presley even introduced Cash’s future wife June Carter to the wonder of Johnny Cash’s music.

    Who is your favorite Elvis impersonator? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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