Music from the Show

By Gary Waleik | Saturday, November 27th, 2010

Mr. Touchdown, U.S.A. by the University of Michigan Marching Band (from 41 Great College Victory Songs, Vanguard, 1987)

Funny…there are no UNC fight songs on any of my college fight song discs. And now, with the football program sinking like a stone, THERE NEVER WILL BE! Mwahahhahhahhahhahahaaaaaaa!!!

Distractions by Paul McCartney (from Flowers in the Dirt, Capitol, 1989)

Paul should know from distractions, having been distracted from releasing a great record since, oh, Band on the Run, which hit the shelves in 1973. Unfair? Maybe…maybe not.

Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes (45rpm single b/w Sweet L’il Woman, Island Records, 1982)

“The unforgettable romantic ballad featuring the man who learned love…and Top 40 success…at the hands of Jennifer Warnes.”

Made famous as a result of its inclusion on the An Officer and a Gentleman soundtrack. It would have been fun had John Belushi lived long enough to parody this song, rather than A Little Help from My Friends. Then Jennifer Warnes would be angry at him, too.

Ping Pong by Dolly Parton (from The Winning Hand, Monument, 1982)

The plethora of Ping Pong music further supports Roger Bennett and Eli Horowitz’s assertion that the Mighty Table Tennis pervades society. Maybe it’s time for the genre to explode in popularity like surf music did in the 60’s.

Tags: music blog

Other stories from this broadcast

Maya Hasegawa

What is the name of the tune that gets played each week with the letters/comments segment? My husband and I listen for it almost every week as we listen on WBUR
PCL

The “Ping Pong” song by Dolly Pardon drew me toward the radio speaker the way wet varnish attracts some bugs. I loved the march-like rhythm of the piano in the background and the “live” sound of the recording (probably resulting form the use of echo chambers rather than the studio acoustics). I guessed that it was something Petula Clark or Lulu had recorded in the early ’60s, but just had to know for sure. The answer was a surprise, but not that surprising; DP was always at her best when walking the fine line between country and pop.

PS: It may just be that the public is too distracted to notice anything great from Paul McCartney since 1973. Sure, he’s put out a lot of crap during the last 37 years, but I heard something he recorded recently and was amazed by how good it sounded. Of course, I was too distracted to remember what it was. Peter Wolfe and Keith Richards have also recently released surprisingly good recordings that will probably go more-or-less unnoticed.
Gary Waleik

Maya-
That’s our letters theme, which is Workaday World by Jack Beaver, from Scamp Records’ 1997 collection titled Music for TV Dinners. Thanks for listening to Only A Game!
Gary
Gary Waleik

PCL-
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard was supposed to be very good, although I have not yet heard it. I read an interview with producer Nigel Godrich a few years ago in which he talked about challenging Macca not to default to silly pop tunes. At first, McCartney fumed and fretted, then he “got it”. I must hear that record.
Gary
Jean-Jacques Jingo Hypershwhatever

Oh no, here it comes again-no, not Only A Game Music ‘Stump The Chumps’ night schooler…I must not make that noise..but:
-Nicaragua’s nat’l baseball team has been known to use grapefruits and other natives (fruits) for baseball equipment…does this mean their marching band waves sugar canes for brass and bass drums made from subwoofers the U.S Army left next door when they rousted out Noriega with Van Halen tunes at 120db?!
-Since the WMLN front web page declares this the month of indigestion awareness, pls. note that Sir Mc.(show some respect) undoubtedly took a great step in his old back up band’s quality (Beatles) once he lost his wife (and back up vocalist-not). Why, oh why, must one cut and paste Distractions’”like butterflies dancing in my head” onto your show, then state ambivalence…take ANY song off of Tug Of War (except that Little Uncle Ray Junior Ivory song) and you have heart wrenching tracks of wrath lamenting Lennon’s past, etc. That one is worth the other 10 albums of Linda conspired Musac shtick!
-Joe Cocker, Mad Dog And Englishman, sued Belushi long after the latter’s initial parody (in Nat’l Lampoon’s Lemmings Woodstock album fiasco), and recorded w. Warnes only by his producers’prodding-terrible what these production staff people can do! Fear not, for if the Big Belu lived to see any NPR trashing of Neil Young’s producer (Jack Nietzche) vitalizing ‘Up Where We Belong’to academy status, he’d get Phil Spector over to the BUR’ board to 6-gun it down!
-Dollywood has a brain too..witness her “Imagination Library” which sends ‘one book a month to children from the time of their birth until they enter kindergarten”. I may be illiterate compared to Gary’s choice (of ‘Ping’..)
but seems to me walking the line bet. rock and country is like the generation of Dolly’s kids in 25 years, but I ask, WHAT LINE?!?! Is it…’eating’ books from 0-3 until they can decipher being read to, losing the material goods when they go through public schools, which are places lucky today in our southern woods to have any books, and then having to digest the savage wilds post-school, aka this economy..”Pong”…how unstable! Birth, school, work, death..country, rock..they’re never going to walk a fine line (respects to Cash).
Rumors that the Chinese are going to open a Dollywood ping-pong park are greatly over-inflated (oops, sorry)!

P.S., What Dolly really says in the orphanage..”ok, little cuties, can you say Only A Ga…” O.K, just, just one syllable, yo’re gettun’ it! Frustrated at babies drooling, picks up suddenly available Martin D-28 (3rd ever made)and sings “Rock by country, you’re drooling like Chanukas, when you get rich you won’t need changin’poopkas, bubbies! IF you’re all poor though the team sports is fuuun, then tune in to Only A Game reruns!” No royalties, just rockin-sports country time!