Thursday, November 8, 2007

American Sing-a-long










(One last post before we’re out of here for the weekend. You will be in the usual good hands of B-Daddy during that time. A good friend from college is coming into town tomorrow afternoon. It’s the Anaheim Ducks on Friday evening, possibly Trojan football Saturday evening and then back down here for Chargers/Colts Sunday evening. Sheesh… whatever happened to the good ol’ days of taking your out-of-town college bros out drinking and to the strip clubs?)





Our inaugural post said that one of the things we wanted to do was post and comment upon American culture. Though we haven’t done that in a while, it is hoped this makes up for it a little and that you all have some fun with it.

A few months back we posted here on what songs would get the most enthusiastic response from U.S. tourists and expats were that song played at a pub, café’, hofbrau, yardhouse, etc. abroad. So in a change of pace from putting up polls on the serious matters of life like football, we want you to grab your passport, take a trip across the pond and settle yourself into a brew house in our ancestral homeland of Germany.

And when the oompah band in a shameless attempt to pander to the Americans in the crowd belts out an American classic, which of the following songs are you most likely to and most enthusiastically sing the chorus along with the rest of your American (and possibly European) table mates? Choices are in poll at right but feel free to browse your selections courtesy YouTube below.

American Pie – Don McLean
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
I wanna rock’n’roll all night (and party every day) – KISS
Country Roads – John Denver

7 comments:

Road Dawg said...

Hockey, are you sh#%ting me? I went to my first hockey (ducks) game the other night. What a ridiculous game. Offense and defense became convoluted about 50% of the game, then, when a fight broke out, (no kidding, I really didn’t get the old joke until I was there) the refs didn’t stop the fight for a while until the crowd was worked up.

So I asked the fan who brung me, “what’s up with that?” “Oh wait until ‘so and so’ gets a hold of him, then there’ll be hell to pay” Turns out; these guys even have “designated brawlers”!!!

This game is one peg away from pro wrestling. I have a hard time getting my mind around the fact that men whose sports intellect I admire, and whose grasp on the finer points of the “games” is beyond me, even attend such a ridiculous spectacle.

Road Dawg said...

I didn’t do the overseas thing. A couple months in Panama in ’79 and ’82, and a couple of months in Canada in ’81 with the grunts probably doesn’t compare. But seeing these dates reminds you of the depressed state of music from which I hail.

At the same time, I look at the choices of the pole? Have I stopped beating my wife? John Denver’s Country Roads, a song I used to sing to my children to put them to sleep. Apples and Oranges to compare to Skynard’s southern anthem, Sweet Home Alabama, that my 17 year old son plays to death on the guitar with passion, also combining generations.

American Pie was fun, but the full version never stood the test of time, although the full intent of the poetry can never be measured by the abbreviated version.

And Kiss????? They were the Brittany Spears of my generation. Wearing a Kiss t-shirt could get you beat up in my day. Dean, who has every right to make fun of the music of my sub-generation (mid to late 70’s) cannot be serious about putting Kiss along side with Denver and Skynard.

We were more into the stupid anthems of Ted Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever, and Free for All. Kansas’s Carry on my Stupid Wayward son, (I can’t believe that I used to like that song) Styx, Come Sail Away, or Foreigner, or Journey. I don’t even look back at this music with nostalgia. It leaves the bitter taste of Levi Panatela Suits, and the precursor of Disco.

Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Clapton, and other real musicians were putting out good music during that time and not getting the play that was deserved. And along came disco, where serendipitously we paid the price.

And I used to like the Sopranos, but now I have to listen to Journey all over again. Why can’t bad tunes and disco just die???? Wack em all, daddio!

Dean said...

'dawg, Just pretend its the Republican field and you HAVE to vote for someone. My g*d, just vote!

Road Dawg said...

Just because I rant, doth not mean I didn't learn my lesson. I voted for Sweet Home Alabama. I vote and rant, how bout that? (I also chew gum and walk) So what's with the hockey? It seems out of character.

Dean said...

ummm.... its called being a gracious host to a guest that is a big hockey fan. Besides, I dig chicks with mullets. Don't over-analyze this.

B-Daddy said...

Free Bird!
How's that for not over analyzing?

Dean said...

"Free Bird" was one of a handful of banned songs back at school (we had piped-in music at the chow hall during meals). Legend has it that years before, a coincidence of "Free Bird" over the loudspeakers and chicken on the dinner plate, led to a liberation, if you will, of the suppertime fare as the air became thick with wings, legs, thighs.... breasts!...