Thursday, May 20, 2010

10 OTHER PEARL JAM SONGS THAT WOULD MAKE AWESOME WALKUP MUSIC FOR JASON BAY

In honor of the Pearl Jam shows at Madison Square Garden this week, I consulted with my pal JR, baseball fanatic, Mets fan, and co-founder of the Pearl Jam site TwoFeetThick.com, to come up with a list of 10 other Pearl Jam songs Jason Bay might want to consider using as his walk-up music (because clearly “The Fixer” has no magic powers). Songs were picked on theme and/or strong opening riff potential:

1. Deep
2. Why Go
3. Brain of J
4. Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me
5. Johnny Guitar

6. Spin The Black Circle
7. Once
8. Animal
9. Hail, Hail
10.  Save You

I talk about music a lot on here. I should probably talk about it more than I do, because I have been writing about and thinking about rock and roll for exponentially longer than I have been writing about and thinking about baseball.  I am one of those people for whom rock music actually matters. I know rock history like people know Mets history. I am not objective, I am a total snob, I will judge you by what you listen to and what is and isn’t in your record collection.  I write about what I consider to be the Mets’ musical debacles at Citi Field (or their rare triumphs) and people will say things like “Well it doesn’t matter” or “I think the music is just fine” but these are the people who buy a Coldplay album and think they are cutting edge. You can listen to what you like, we just won’t have anything to talk about and that’s actually okay with me. Does that make sense? It’s like debating the Rolling Stones or R.E.M. or the Replacements or the Clash with someone who’s never actually seen them. Please. It’s supposed to be interesting and alienating and frustrating and inspiring. It’s not background music, and it does, absolutely matter.

This is why I care so much about what gets played at Citi (and more importantly, what doesn’t) and about what does get played at other ballparks. It’s why I take such an interest in what the players are using as walkup music. Thankfully, Ted Berg is one of those people who also cares about music, and he’s been asking the Mets about their walkup music:

It is funny how anticlimactic Ike Davis’ choice turned out to be (in my head, I wanted to think he was some kind of fanatic Stones fan who inherited a stash of 1973 boots he inherited from an uncle or something) and how straightforward Barajas’ choices are (no further backstory needed beyond the fact that he grew up in Southern California). But it’s still fun to know for sure. I miss the days of Cliff Floyd picking David Wright’s walk up music.

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Many thanks to JR for his assistance in putting this article together, because as he will tell you, I stopped paying attention to PJ after Riot Act. He is the co-founder of TwoFeetThick.com, Pearl Jam for the Impassioned Fan, and also a big baseball fan, working America’s pastime into articles such as “What Baseball Players Come To Bat with Pearl Jam Music” and “Eddie Vedder Sings ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game”. Footnote: JR and I met at a tailgate at Continental Airlines Arena in 1998 on the night that Mark McGuire broke the home run record while PJ were singing “Daughter” and Eddie hit a guitar pick into the crowd with a ping pong paddle in honor of the event.