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by Ron Harlow
The Chicago Cubs have a long list of lasts. Wins and losses aside, they were the last major league baseball team to install lights in their home ballpark. This year, they became the last to install a video replay board. This season also features a subtler addition to the list – the Cubs are the last big league team to fully allow their players to use a walk-up song.
A walk-up song is what’s played over the ballpark’s loudspeakers as the batter walks up to the plate. The home team lets each individual player choose whichever song he wants to hear just before facing a 90-mile-per-hour projectile. It can be any song and for any reason. Over the summer, the walk-up song becomes a part of a player’s identity.
The Cubs experimented with walk-up songs in 2010, but decided to stick with traditional organ music. Today, ownership is intent on modernizing Wrigley Field. The walk-up song is a modern quirk in a sport that’s reluctant to change, and creating a playlist is much less expensive and time-consuming than constructing a video board.
Here are my top five 2015 Cubs walk-up songs:
Kyle Schwarber was three years old when this R&B classic was released. Ever since the rookie sensation was called up from the minors in June, I’ve developed a Pavlovian response to “No Diggity.” Schwarber is a phenomenal hitter, so hearing his walk-up song signals my brain that something good is about to happen.
Last June Eddie Sayago cited some great songs that feature the king of profanities. Here are five more…
The punk-rock band from California chose its name from the very terrifying clown in Stephen King’s novel It. They were one of the many punk bands that arose from the SoCal punk scene of the 1990s, along with Sublime, Green Day, The Offspring, and blink-182. Since they never were signed to a major label, this song could a big f-you to the suits who controlled what kids bought and listened it before the age of illegal downloading, YouTube, and social media.
[Editor’s Note: For our purposes, the F Word in question will be replaced by a series of creative alternatives in order to prevent the word from losing its powerful allure. And also to not get you in trouble when you read this in the office. That being said, be warned that the videos are MOST DEFINITELY NSFW!]
The word “fock” is a loaded word, no matter how it is used. It is often used to denote disdain towards something or someone, and if placed in the right hands, can become a work of poetic art (i.e. the works of Armando Iannucci such as “The State of It” and “Veep”).
The most popular song with the word “feck” in the title is the Cee-Lo Green song from 2010, which was edited for radio play as the 3rd level cornball “Forget You.” Playing both songs back to back shows how neutered the “clean” radio version has become once “frog” is taken out like it is something to be ashamed of, like a dog or child urinating where they are not supposed to.
Well, freak that. These are songs that are out and proud with their titles, and they don’t give a foch if you like it or not.
Though Cee-Lo Green’s “Forget You” is the most commercially popular song with “funk” in the title (unless you are listening to it on the radio), the most influential “filler word” song is this track from the landmark album Straight Outta Compton. Written and performed as a protest towards the LAPD, this song has been banned in numerous markets, caused the FBI to condemn them, and the phrase has been chanted during rallies and protests in Ferguson and Baltimore; further proofing that these three words have become bullets for the oppressed.
by Eddie Sayago
One of the most exciting parts of attending a concert is the possibility that the band you are seeing and hopefully enjoying performing does a cover of a different band or artist’s song. Sometimes this is expected. Some bands even make their mark or earn their first or biggest hit thanks to a cover version of another song. Then there are times when a band will perform a cover that appears to be out of nowhere, but they make it work.
Yo La Tengo is obviously a band that enjoys performing and recording covers. (See their 2006 album Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics, which includes 30 covers from all kinds of musicians and genres). From a lengthy list of outstanding contenders, here are their top five covers, all available to download and stream.
The first cover that came to mind was this Cat Stevens number, which is from 1990’s Fakebook. Originally performed by the artist formerly as Cat Stevens, this song is often the highlight to the soundtrack to Wes Anderson’s Rushmore.