Thursday, January 24, 2008

R.E.M. AND BASEBALL SONGS!

Yeah, it was an egregious headline, because the instigator is Steve Wynn (late of Dream Syndicate), along with Peter Buck from R.E.M. and Seattle Superstar Scott McCaughey (and Linda Pitmon from Golden Smog.) McCaughey is the kind of guy who has such an encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll that it doesn’t surprise me he’d be a baseball geek. (He’s the guy that Peter Buck follows onstage when they’re up there playing Dylan covers with Robyn Hitchcock.)

A baseball record! Why?

I’ve wanted to do this record for years. I’m a big baseball fan — and former sportswriter — and always thought the game and the colorful characters throughout history would make an interesting platform for spinning yarns and making statements and metaphors for bigger things in life — assuming, of course, that there are bigger things. I kept putting off the project until I got into a long conversation with Scott McCaughey at the party before R.E.M.’s induction to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Turns out he was as big a baseball geek as me, and we immediately decided to do the record as soon as possible.

The fabulous (and much missed) KEXP has an interview with Wynn and a preview of one of the new songs, titled “Pasttime”.

Of course, none of this will change the fact that every ballpark in America will keep playing “The Final Countdown” and that ilk at every opportunity possible, no matter whether there might be more suitable music at hand.

*sigh*

p.s. If anyone has a copy of the Bob Dylan Radio Hour baseball segment, PLEASE WRITE. So I don’t have to spend $50 to buy it on ebay or somewhere now that I know it exists. *sigh* again.