3. 4’33” - John Cage: Cage’s piece, for the unfamiliar, consists of four minutes and thirty three seconds of no music at all—not to be confused with complete silence, since Cage intended his audience to focus on the concert hall’s ambient sound. It’s a groundbreaking work in avant-garde music, and one Cage called his most important. But that’s not why it’s listed here.
This would require a whole lot of fan participation. If everyone—every fan, every vender, every usher, every bathroom attendant—could remain silent while the pitcher walked in from the bullpen and threw his warm-ups, well, that’d be about as badass an entrance as I could imagine. Is it too much to ask? Hardly. We already keep mum for the Star-Spangled Banner.
Think about how completely overwhelming it would be to an opponent watching the fireballer in question get ready, the only noise in the entire stadium the sound of fastballs smacking the catcher’s mitt. Could the outlook be any more bleak?
The obvious downside to this choice, of course, would be when it started going wrong. Just a few boos would echo throughout the stadium if the loyalists remained silent, so Cage’s work should be reserved for a true shutdown guy.
Repoz
Posted: January 06, 2009 at 05:54 PM |
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1. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory) Posted: January 06, 2009 at 06:07 PM (#3044487)I can't think of anything nihilistically shocking enough that I'd also want to share, though, for reasons of taste.
1812 Overture. Debating whether to go with real cannons or not.
Todd Jones's ERA.
EDIT: Oh wait, he's toast.
He isn't even a pitcher!
I don't know what the name of the song is, but the music that plays when the Orcs are assembling in "Lord of the Rings" would be kinda cool. Or Darth Vader's theme music (surely some closer has used that?)
As for rap for closers, what about "Jesus Walks" by Kanye? Or "List of Demands" by Saul Williams? Pretty cool songs, and I don't care for rap that much.
That could inspire laughter, though.
As for rap for closers
Bring the noise.
4'33" is one of those "first thing you think of when you're trying to be funny" suggestions that isn't funny and doesn't even make any sense. A stadium is never going to be completely silent. It wouldn't be "silence as closer music", it would just be what happened in every game in the history of baseball before they started playing music so much.
Nope, the opponents would think "if Jesus can walk, so can I" and work the count. Especially if one of them is named Jesus.
I've been thinking for a while now that a brilliant closer entrance would involve Blue Oyster Cult's "In the Presence of Another World", with a pyro display timed for the pick-up from slow and somber to quick and rocking.
Along with the wrestling axis, mixed martial arts guys have about the selections you'd expect, but someone in baseball really needs to pick up DMX's "Intro" a la Chuck Liddell.
This may be the greatest piece of baseball irony ever.
If you have a team with a lights-out closer, but horrible setup and middle relief, I think The Hallelujiah Chorus would be perfect. That is, if a save situation ever arose.
But the point remains.
A stadium is never going to be completely silent. It wouldn't be "silence as closer music"
Well, the entire purpose of 4'33" is not the joke of "hah, there's no music in this piece", not nihilism, not bleakness, but actually that there's no such thing as absolute silence, and so paying attention to the extraneous noise is the whole point. Now, if the participatory experience was so awesome that everyone in the stadium and on the field forgot there was a game going on, yes, I can see the point.
Or Joe Borowski.
It was a long time ago, but see Wilhelm, Hoyt.
Obviously not one that requires a lot of thought, Mike Myers using "Theme from Halloween" was always pretty good.
Seriously, only LaRussa having one helluva man crush can explain standing by Eck during some of those stretches in 1993-5 when he had absolutely nothing day after day.
"Made You Look", "Simon Says", Method Man", "Shook Ones Pt.II" or any one of a dozen DMX songs would be pretty good. I would come out to "What's the Scenario" if I were a closer.
I've been at this performance. A Pirates-Padres game on a chilly September night in 1995. Maybe 200 people were in the stands, none of them animated in the more than 2 1/2 hours it took to play the game.
That said, the Pirates' real debt to Cage was in their use of his cut-and-paste technique. It works better with tape editing than roster construction.
Knoblauch used "South Bronx" as his AB music one season.
Tolstoy wrote a short story about this piece inspiring a murder.
Other considerations:
-The "confutatis" from Verdi's Requiem
-Parts of the 1st movement of the Brahms violin concerto
-Just about anything by Mussorgsky, but "Night on Bald Mountain" would be the most familiar
-Something by Leos Janacek, whose music always makes me feel like I'm standing at the edge of the world staring into the abyss
If I was a closer, I think I'd opt for Chariots of Fire...and then I'd do a slow motion run in from the bullpen. Either that or Hail to the Chief....just because no one else is going to play it for me ever and it would be a pretty good WTF moment.
-The mechanical music from Delibes's "Coppelia"
-The Ciaconne from Bach's second violin partita (possibly the greatest solo piece every written in any era)
-The opening of the first movement of the Sibelius violin concerto--dark, creepy, and with an air of mystery to it
-Back to ballet, how 'bout the finale from Swan Lake? Cliched, yes, but still awesome
-We're this far and no one has mentioned Mahler yet?
-This discussion needs some Richard Strauss, as all discussions do, but I can't think of what would be most appropriate of his stuff
I spent most of the 9th inning at Nationals' games complaining they didn't play this for Cordero, who was even nicknamed "The Chief" before they moved to DC.
That was the first thing I thought about, one of the awesome brass fanfares or timpani moments from any number of his symphonies, but you can't really pinpoint them without simply noting a time code in his long movements, they are kind of hard to pin down and separate. I'd go for something in the 2nd, 8th, or 9th. The first movement of the 2nd has a lot of dramatic moments as well, including the portion just before the close where the cellists are whacking their bows on the bridge of the instrument.
(As a side note, the Verdi "Confutatis" is a somewhat subdued bass/baritone solo, do you mean the antiphonal "Confutatis/Voca Me" from the Mozart Requiem, or am I just being judgmental?)
If I was a closer, I think I'd opt for Chariots of Fire...and then I'd do a slow motion run in from the bullpen.
Awesome.
I totally wish stadiums would take a cue from Wilbur Snapp and play some derogatory music.
I think they've gotten in trouble in the past for doing this. I seem to remember a team getting in trouble for playing "Three Blind Mice" when the umps were announced and the Brewers got in trouble for playing "She's only 17" when Luis Polonia hit.
They (I think it was the White Sox) played the song that Tawney Kitaen was in the video for when Finley pitched there at the end of his career. I think Gammons said who ever was responsible for it was fired.
"Nowadays everybody wanna talk, like they got something to say, but nothing comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish, melon farmers act like they forgot about Gagne"
Won't Get Fooled Again
Seven Nation Army
Black Math
Icky Thump
Blue Orchid
This is probably the only reason I will ever remember the Shelley Duncan era.
I'd use "Shoot Out the Lights" by Richard Thompson, the live version from More Guitar - the opening chords are about the most ominous in rock.
Or the Finale of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" - the slow buildup, then a fast section, and finally one of the most majestic melodies I've ever heard...
I've considered this, but there's only a brief chorus at the beginning and end. You would have to loop it or something.
"Sabotage" by Beastie Boys when the Mets bullpen comes in
"Born to Slow" by Crystal Method when a particularly portly player bats
"Don't Believe the Hype" by Public Enemy when a prospect is up
I think that was Frank Thomas's favorite song when he was a youngster. He used it as a personal admonition to never be complacent.
I'm thinking of something from Verdi, though possibly a different part. It's been a while since I sat down to listen to it, and it's not in my rotation for work music.
Thanks to the movie, I'm not likely to confuse the Mozart version of that for anything else.
Any good Mahler recording recommendations? I only have one CD (1st and 3rd symphonies), and it somehow got scratched up to the point where it made wild screeching noises in my car's player this morning.
There was a minor league organist who got ejected for playing the theme from the Mickey Mouse club, as a way of questioning an umpire's call. And I can't find the details, but I remember someone getting in trouble for playing a song ("Whole Lot of Shaking Going On", maybe?) that made fun of Jim Eisenreich for having Tourette's.
Anthrax is all white, right? He could get away with it if he wanted.
I would think a marginal major league pitcher might not want to use a song that inclludes the line "I'm going to Wichita"
Nihilism may not be the point, but it is a legitimate path of criticism.
WELL, I'm a singer so I'm drawn to the 2nd and the 8th. I'm not sure which of those two in your set you prefer, but I'll guess it's the Bernstein as those are usually paired. If you're partial to the 1st, Columbia has a pretty great recording of Walter's (who studied briefly under Mahler) recording of the 1st and 2nd. The remastering is very very good:
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphonies-Lieder-fahrenden-Gesellen/dp/B000002A7H
As far as the 2nd in a single modern recording, Blomstedt and the best symphony chorus in the country in San Francisco are amazing:
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-2-Resurrection/dp/B00000423M
For the 8th, one of the best recordings is also one of the cheapest, on NAXOS, of the Warsaw Symphony:
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-Thousand/dp/B000EQHS14
Some of Lenny's recordings have a tendency to fall out of favor, but in the instrumental symphonies, his 6th and 7th are seen as definitive: (I'm still guessing that this one comes from the same cycle as your 1 and 3, but even if not, well worth it. Also, these are imports listed in Amazon, I simply like the original artwork in the release but you can find cheaper reissues with some minimal searching.)
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphonie-No-7/dp/B000001G7H
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphonie-No-6-Kindertotenlieder/dp/B000001GBD/ref=pd_sim_m_1
Many consider the 9th to be Mahler's masterpiece, and one of Tilson-Thomas's best recordings of his work. I'm not as familiar with this symphony, and haven't really had time to compare it to others, but it is pretty good. The San Francisco Symphony does incredible work (I'll be buying his 8th in this cycle when he does it. Amazon loves his 2nd, I've never heard it, but personally I think it's difficult to go wrong with Tilson-Thomas):
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-Hybrid-SACD/dp/B0007YMUFC
I'm thinking Dan might not be a Mahler guy, but he might have some opinions if he is.
Hope that helps, and sorry to bore the rest of you.
*Tom Waits - "Goin' Out West"
*Laibach - "God is God"
*Peter Tosh - "Stepping Razor"
*Primal Scream - "Accelerator"
*Public Image Ltd. - "The Order of Death"
*Basil Poledouris - "Anvil of Crom"
And as popular as Kill Bill was, I'm flat-out shocked that nobody is using Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Love Or Humanity".
Gustav Mahler: Shortish career and output, very high in VORC, great peak, early departure due to health.
Closest comp seems to be Koufax.
Man, what a bummer.
After they complete the save, the closer can scream, "RICKROLLED!"
"I've got two big hands a heart pumping blood and a 1967 colt 45 with a busted safety catch"
I think this is the one (this computer doesn't have a sound card).
-Biggie, "Kick in the Door" or "Who Shot Ya?"
-Wu-Tang Clan, "Bring da Ruckus"
-M.O.P., "Firing Squad"
-Eric B. & Rakim, "I Ain't No Joke"
-Dr. Dre, "What's the Difference"
-Blackalicious, "Sky is Falling"
Or "Ante Up"
-Wu-Tang Clan, "Bring da Ruckus"
This would call for a customized version.
"If you got beef then bring the ruckus
Valverde ain't nothing to #### with"
Why not just the Jets motif from "West Side Story"? It'd be cool to have 40,000 fans simultaneously snap their fingers...
Well, it's either that.. or playing "Kill the Wabbit"
Anyways, someone should use "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" by Weezer in 2009.
My current ringtone.
Baba O'Riley
Back in Black
Col. Bogey
Symphony no.9
Imperial March
SCTV fans remember it as "Vikings and Beekeepers"
While that is a funny comment it also makes me look up White's career. Talk about on-and-off.
His ERA+s went from 106 to 267 to 85 to 145 to 103 to 63 at one point. Over that same span the ERAs went from 4.43 to 2.26 to 6.25 to 2.98 to 4.05 to 6.94.
Yikes.
That may be the first Mahler joke I've ever heard.
Thank you for the recommendations. I'm somewhat deficient in my knowledge of stuff that does not include a solo violin, but I've been attempting to broaden my horizons lately.
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