Saturday, January 31, 2009
Upper Deck Seating
At his closest, International Space Station Commander and Emsworth native Colonel Mike Fincke will be only 240 miles away from Tampa. But that's 240 miles UP. Check out his playoff shout-out to Steeler Nation, which he sends from Steeler Planetary Orbit.
My Super Bowl Manicure
I don't do silk wraps or acrylics or any of that high-maintenance stuff. Fingernails clicking on computer keyboards are way more annoying than fingernails scraping on blackboards. But I did spring for some custom artwork yesterday.
If I had been going to Raymond James Stadium tomorrow night, I'd have had little red Cardinal heads, with tiny Xs for the eyes, painted on my middle fingers. Go down there and flip some birds, while my team was Flipping Some Birds. Why be polite about it?
If I had been going to Raymond James Stadium tomorrow night, I'd have had little red Cardinal heads, with tiny Xs for the eyes, painted on my middle fingers. Go down there and flip some birds, while my team was Flipping Some Birds. Why be polite about it?
Friday, January 30, 2009
Pop Rocks 2: Covering U2, No Less
Those precocious youngsters have done an encore. This one covers U2's Vertigo. I hope someone tells Bono.
The kids are selling the audio version of their first Steelers cover and YouTube chart-buster Heartbreakers over on their MySpace page, with all the proceeds going to benefit the Free Care Fund at Children's Hospital.
I want to go find all their parents and make sure they are as proud of their children as they ought to be. Of course they are - I'm proud of them, and I don't even know them. Did anyone give these kids a Super Bowl trip? If they aren't on Letterman within two weeks after we win on Sunday, I'll eat my Terrible Towel.
The kids are selling the audio version of their first Steelers cover and YouTube chart-buster Heartbreakers over on their MySpace page, with all the proceeds going to benefit the Free Care Fund at Children's Hospital.
I want to go find all their parents and make sure they are as proud of their children as they ought to be. Of course they are - I'm proud of them, and I don't even know them. Did anyone give these kids a Super Bowl trip? If they aren't on Letterman within two weeks after we win on Sunday, I'll eat my Terrible Towel.
The Original Original Steelers Polka
Time to return to The Source. The Ur-Song. The Great Father River, from which has flowed all the mighty waters of this great Steeler Nation. Drink, children, and pay homage to your ancestors.
The Pittsburgh Steeler Polka 1973 by Jimmy Pol (James Psihoulis)
Birds Of A Feather?
Renegade. Styx. Steelers. Classic.
Classic, classic, classic. There's a Mon-river bargeload's worth of YouTube videos of this. Most are captures taken of the Heinz Field scoreboard's defensive-play montage that they ran at the late-season games. A few others have been made by people who assembled still-photo slideshows with Renegade as the soundtrack.
Here's one from the former category. It's the 12/7/08 game against the Cryboys, which was the second time that the Renegade montage was played. As a Bonus Feature, at the very end of the video you get to see Romo throw a game-losing pick-six to Deshea Townsend. Sweet!
The crowd-yelling and towel-waving is great here, but it's hard to make out much of the actual song. So you can try to sync this streamer up with the video (not easy), or else just mute the movie and listen to the streamer instead.
If you want to buy this track, I know it's at Rhapsody, and I expect it's at iTunes also. Most of my Styx collection is vinyl. I saw them twice in concert back in the day, and Renegade raked. Tommy Shaw and JY Young stompin' on the stage, with Dennis DeYoung behind the keyboards and the Panozzo brothers on bass and drums. I'd still love Renegade even if it wasn't sending the faithful into frenzies at Steeler games.
If you want to see more of YouTube's collection of Renegade videos, click here and it will enter the search query "Steelers Renegade" for you. Then when you're done poking through those, go listen to Crystal Ball, another great Styx track. Make sure to turn it up to 11.
Here's one from the former category. It's the 12/7/08 game against the Cryboys, which was the second time that the Renegade montage was played. As a Bonus Feature, at the very end of the video you get to see Romo throw a game-losing pick-six to Deshea Townsend. Sweet!
The crowd-yelling and towel-waving is great here, but it's hard to make out much of the actual song. So you can try to sync this streamer up with the video (not easy), or else just mute the movie and listen to the streamer instead.
Renegade by Styx
If you want to buy this track, I know it's at Rhapsody, and I expect it's at iTunes also. Most of my Styx collection is vinyl. I saw them twice in concert back in the day, and Renegade raked. Tommy Shaw and JY Young stompin' on the stage, with Dennis DeYoung behind the keyboards and the Panozzo brothers on bass and drums. I'd still love Renegade even if it wasn't sending the faithful into frenzies at Steeler games.
If you want to see more of YouTube's collection of Renegade videos, click here and it will enter the search query "Steelers Renegade" for you. Then when you're done poking through those, go listen to Crystal Ball, another great Styx track. Make sure to turn it up to 11.
The Legacy Of Cope
What else is there to say? Go read this New York Times story.For Terrible Towels, A Wonderful Legacy
by John Branch
There's a great crowd photo on the top of the page. And a picture of Myron's son Danny, even, who was the impetus for Myron's incredible gesture in the first place.
It's times like this when I really miss Mahrn.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
More Guitar: 'Steeler Fan' by Ryan Matthew
This is starting to get spooky.
First I had Guitar Zack blowing my doors off with Dead Birds. Then came Raw Ronnie Ray with Pluck You, and who was nearly my neighbor back in the day, even though I never knew it. Now I've just found another great guitar song by yet another player/singer, and this time he's REALLY my neighbor. Who knew about all of this?
I was informed of the song's existence at lunchtime today when Dogboy called me from work and said, "Hey, I told Larry here about your blog, and he says that his boy Ryan has a Steeler song that he recorded late last summer and put up on the Net, so you need to go find it. Larry says it's pretty good."
Fatherly pride aside, this stuff is just popping out of the woodwork. I expect the next one I find will be written by a guy who I discover to be living in my toolshed out in the backyard.
The song is Steeler Fan, by Ryan Matthew. Larry wasn't lying, either. Ryan's going to send me some links to the iTunes entries for the single and its album, Driving Home. (I admit it, I don't use iTunes. Little earphones give me a headache, and good music deserves to be cranked up to 11 on a room-filling amplifier.) But here are some other listening options. I've also transcribed the lyrics. If you haven't heard this song yet, you need to remedy that situation now.
Digital download of the album Driving Home available at digstation.com
($9.99 for entire album, or 99¢/track)
▪ MySpace: www.myspace.com/ryanmatthewguitar
▪ Website: ryanmatthewmusic.com
▪▪▪ streaming songs from the entire album are at the downloads page
Steeler Fan
words and music by Ryan Matthew
©2008 Ryan Matthew
You need hands real steady and soft
To go over the middle so it's not picked off
We got number seven yeah we call him Big Ben
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Hey I'm a Steeler fan
A Browns fan can't do the things I can
I can live on Primanti's and my IC Light can
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
I got a truck with black and gold flames
Everybody can follow me to the games
Only got one song on my stereo
It's only three words yeah, Here We Go
Hey I'm a Steeler fan
A Ravens fan can't do the things I can
I can show you five rings on my right hand
Well hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
No cheerleaders, no fancy stuff
We'll run it down your throat yeah we'll kick your butt
Hey I'm a Steeler fan
I can do things that a Bengal can't
I can stay out of jail I'm a real good man
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Well hey I'm a Steeler fan
Come into my tailgate, a big deer stand
God Bless Myron Cope he was a Number One fan
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Well hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
This is like having the kids that your kid played T-ball with make it to the big leagues, or at least get drafted. And there's not a piece-a-rap-crap in the lot of this stuff. I don't know but it's starting to restore my faith in humanity, which has gotten a bit bruised over the last, oh, eight years. What I do know is that all these unsolicited coincidences and connections and kindnesses say something very profound and elemental and good about Steeler Nation.
Not that I'm surprised by that.
First I had Guitar Zack blowing my doors off with Dead Birds. Then came Raw Ronnie Ray with Pluck You, and who was nearly my neighbor back in the day, even though I never knew it. Now I've just found another great guitar song by yet another player/singer, and this time he's REALLY my neighbor. Who knew about all of this?
I was informed of the song's existence at lunchtime today when Dogboy called me from work and said, "Hey, I told Larry here about your blog, and he says that his boy Ryan has a Steeler song that he recorded late last summer and put up on the Net, so you need to go find it. Larry says it's pretty good."
Fatherly pride aside, this stuff is just popping out of the woodwork. I expect the next one I find will be written by a guy who I discover to be living in my toolshed out in the backyard.
The song is Steeler Fan, by Ryan Matthew. Larry wasn't lying, either. Ryan's going to send me some links to the iTunes entries for the single and its album, Driving Home. (I admit it, I don't use iTunes. Little earphones give me a headache, and good music deserves to be cranked up to 11 on a room-filling amplifier.) But here are some other listening options. I've also transcribed the lyrics. If you haven't heard this song yet, you need to remedy that situation now.
Steeler Fan by Ryan Matthew
Digital download of the album Driving Home available at digstation.com
($9.99 for entire album, or 99¢/track)
▪ MySpace: www.myspace.com/ryanmatthewguitar
▪ Website: ryanmatthewmusic.com
▪▪▪ streaming songs from the entire album are at the downloads page
Steeler Fan
words and music by Ryan Matthew
©2008 Ryan Matthew
You need hands real steady and soft
To go over the middle so it's not picked off
We got number seven yeah we call him Big Ben
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Hey I'm a Steeler fan
A Browns fan can't do the things I can
I can live on Primanti's and my IC Light can
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
I got a truck with black and gold flames
Everybody can follow me to the games
Only got one song on my stereo
It's only three words yeah, Here We Go
Hey I'm a Steeler fan
A Ravens fan can't do the things I can
I can show you five rings on my right hand
Well hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
No cheerleaders, no fancy stuff
We'll run it down your throat yeah we'll kick your butt
Hey I'm a Steeler fan
I can do things that a Bengal can't
I can stay out of jail I'm a real good man
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Well hey I'm a Steeler fan
Come into my tailgate, a big deer stand
God Bless Myron Cope he was a Number One fan
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Well hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
Hey baby I'm a Steeler fan
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
This is like having the kids that your kid played T-ball with make it to the big leagues, or at least get drafted. And there's not a piece-a-rap-crap in the lot of this stuff. I don't know but it's starting to restore my faith in humanity, which has gotten a bit bruised over the last, oh, eight years. What I do know is that all these unsolicited coincidences and connections and kindnesses say something very profound and elemental and good about Steeler Nation.
Not that I'm surprised by that.
More From The Kids' Menu: Puhlahmahlu
Yes it's silly and it's old, dating back to our fifth Super Bowl season in 2005, but it always cracks me up. My monkeyboys go ape-doody every time they see or hear it. I remember going ape-doody myself when the original Mahna-Mahna song first came out on the Ed Sullivan Show. I also remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but let's not get into that. (I WAS ONLY FOUR!)
Mr. Devious, the Burgh band that did this cover three years ago, has an updated audio version for 2008. As far as I can tell, though, nobody has re-dubbed the new song over the old Muppets video. If you want to hear this year's mumbled lyrics, you can stream the song at the band's MySpace page, or buy it for 99¢ on their website's purchase page.
Mr. Devious, the Burgh band that did this cover three years ago, has an updated audio version for 2008. As far as I can tell, though, nobody has re-dubbed the new song over the old Muppets video. If you want to hear this year's mumbled lyrics, you can stream the song at the band's MySpace page, or buy it for 99¢ on their website's purchase page.
More Good Shirt
These images asked me to be posted together, so I obliged them. I don't think the likeness of Myron is very accurate, but it does the job.
There was a fourth one I could have posted as well, captioned DOPE.
Addendum, Saturday 1/31... since posting HOPE and COPE and then adding NOPE in afterwards, I've since seen, in addition to DOPE (you know Who): MOPE (Hillary Clinton), GROPE (Bill Clinton), POPE (Benedict XLIII... oops wrong number), ROPE (Saddam Hussein), ROPE-A-DOPE (Ali), another HOPE (Bob)... and if you're really twisted, SLOPE (Sonny Bono) and HOP (Heather Mills McCartney)... for shame!
I should also credit Shepard Fairey, who designed the now-iconic Obama poster in the first place.
Further Addendum, Thursday 2/5... And Mannie Garcia, who took the photo that Fairey cadged to make the poster. Garcia is a free-lancer who was working on assignment for AP, and now AP is suing Fairey. Geez.
And if you want to play with your own Obama poster, check out Obamicon.me. Too kewl. There's a ton of oh-so-funny ones there. "WMD" is a killer.
There was a fourth one I could have posted as well, captioned DOPE.
Addendum, Saturday 1/31... since posting HOPE and COPE and then adding NOPE in afterwards, I've since seen, in addition to DOPE (you know Who): MOPE (Hillary Clinton), GROPE (Bill Clinton), POPE (Benedict XLIII... oops wrong number), ROPE (Saddam Hussein), ROPE-A-DOPE (Ali), another HOPE (Bob)... and if you're really twisted, SLOPE (Sonny Bono) and HOP (Heather Mills McCartney)... for shame!
I should also credit Shepard Fairey, who designed the now-iconic Obama poster in the first place.
Further Addendum, Thursday 2/5... And Mannie Garcia, who took the photo that Fairey cadged to make the poster. Garcia is a free-lancer who was working on assignment for AP, and now AP is suing Fairey. Geez.
And if you want to play with your own Obama poster, check out Obamicon.me. Too kewl. There's a ton of oh-so-funny ones there. "WMD" is a killer.
Good Shirt: Kill 2 Birds For 1 Stone
This is one Grade A Prime piece-o-shirt. Those two slain birds slay me.
Go see the specs at the Avete Osservato Shirts, or their online storefront at madeyoulook.spreadshirt.com. There are other colors and styles of this design to choose from. They also have other designs, many of them every bit as cool as this. I spit coffee out my nose when I saw the "I Came For The Pierogi Race" design. Only Pirate fans will get that joke. All 14 of us.
'The Pluck You Song' by Ronnie Ray Jenkins
Ronnie Ray lives in British Columbia now, but he grew up not twenty miles from my front door. I never heard of him at all till tonight when I ran across this video. I emailed him to ask him for the lyrics, and within five minutes we were talking about a friend we have in common, with whom he went through all twelve years of public school. As immense and extraterrestrial as Steeler Nation might be, it's still a very small planet we live on.
You may want to cut down your audio volume a bit, to take the sting out of some of the distortion. While Ronnie Ray's production tech is low-fi, his message is High Definition.
Pluck You
words and music by Ronnie Ray Jenkins
The Steelers plucked the Ravens
A much bigger bird
Now it’s time for the Cardinals'
Lesson to be learned
It'll be a plucking party
Of that you can be sure
When the Steelers finish plucking you
Tail feathers will be sore
The feathers will be flying
On Tampa’s sunny beach
When Troy Polamalu
Knocks the worms out of your beaks
You’ll wish you never migrated
To the sunny south
When the Steelers' plucking defense
Lines up to knock you out
So pluck you
Pluck you
'Cause that’s just what the Steelers
Are gonna do
You’ll be holding your tail feathers
With tears in your eyes
When you feel the wrath of Pittsburgh
You’ll be plucked and hung to dry
I ain't one for placing bets
I’m not that plucking kind
But 24 to 10
Is what I have in mind
When Ward streaks down the field
And Big Ben throws a strike
All you plucking Cardinals
We'll turn off all your mikes
'Cause we don’t want to hear you birds
Crying to the masses
That the Steelers plucked the feathers
From those Cardinals' plucking
Asssk me and I’ll tell you
And tell you once again
When it’s all over
It’s 24 to 10
So pluck you
Pluck you
That’s just what the Steelers
Are gonna do
You’ll be holding your tail feathers
With tears in your eyes
When you feel the wrath of Pittsburgh
You'll be plucked and hung to dry
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
For extra sing-along fun, replace all the "pl"s in the lyrics with "f"s!
Ronnie Ray's website has a selection of songs and personal commentaries covering an interesting diversity of topics. Some are song videos like Pluck You, others are spoken anecdotes with slideshows, and some are written essays on the page. Don't miss Women Selling Eggs To Pay Debts or The Ballad Of Caribou Barbie, just to name two.
www.ronnierayjenkins.com
www.youtube.com/user/ronnierayjenkins
You may want to cut down your audio volume a bit, to take the sting out of some of the distortion. While Ronnie Ray's production tech is low-fi, his message is High Definition.
Pluck You
words and music by Ronnie Ray Jenkins
The Steelers plucked the Ravens
A much bigger bird
Now it’s time for the Cardinals'
Lesson to be learned
It'll be a plucking party
Of that you can be sure
When the Steelers finish plucking you
Tail feathers will be sore
The feathers will be flying
On Tampa’s sunny beach
When Troy Polamalu
Knocks the worms out of your beaks
You’ll wish you never migrated
To the sunny south
When the Steelers' plucking defense
Lines up to knock you out
So pluck you
Pluck you
'Cause that’s just what the Steelers
Are gonna do
You’ll be holding your tail feathers
With tears in your eyes
When you feel the wrath of Pittsburgh
You’ll be plucked and hung to dry
I ain't one for placing bets
I’m not that plucking kind
But 24 to 10
Is what I have in mind
When Ward streaks down the field
And Big Ben throws a strike
All you plucking Cardinals
We'll turn off all your mikes
'Cause we don’t want to hear you birds
Crying to the masses
That the Steelers plucked the feathers
From those Cardinals' plucking
Asssk me and I’ll tell you
And tell you once again
When it’s all over
It’s 24 to 10
So pluck you
Pluck you
That’s just what the Steelers
Are gonna do
You’ll be holding your tail feathers
With tears in your eyes
When you feel the wrath of Pittsburgh
You'll be plucked and hung to dry
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
For extra sing-along fun, replace all the "pl"s in the lyrics with "f"s!
Ronnie Ray's website has a selection of songs and personal commentaries covering an interesting diversity of topics. Some are song videos like Pluck You, others are spoken anecdotes with slideshows, and some are written essays on the page. Don't miss Women Selling Eggs To Pay Debts or The Ballad Of Caribou Barbie, just to name two.
www.ronnierayjenkins.com
www.youtube.com/user/ronnierayjenkins
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Flipping Birds: Questions About Arizona
Originally posted at 1:08am, 1/27/09. More bits added 3:48pm, 1/28. Scroll down to items 3 and 4 if you haven't seen them yet. I can't keep up with this material.
Stuff I've been wondering about. Help me out, people.
1. How does the level of creativity and musical talent shown by Cardinal fans compare with the Steeler-fan examples that I've been posting here for the last few days? Could anyone else's fans be as good at doing team songs as Pittsburgh fans are?
On second thought, I'm not even going to go here. Let's just say that we've answered this one.
2. Cardinal players aside, are there any people living in Arizona who are not qualified to join AARP? Don't they ride around on electric carts in gated golf-club subdivisions, nursing their knee replacements? Won't they have to fight over who gets to abuse the handicapped parking spaces at Raymond James Stadium?
3. Exhibit A, your honor. Did this guy forget to take his Aricept? Which team is he rooting for? Hell if he knows.
Extra Bonus Question: If you were born after World War II, do you know which two guys he's imitating?
4. Noting the same production credit for all these Cardinal videos, do you think that the people who run this MyStudio outfit, located in a kiosk across from Brookstone's in the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall, are relocated Yinzers doing undercover work for the Nation? How in the hell else do you explain this?
5. Didn't they all move to Arizona from somewhere else? Doesn't that make the Cardinal equivalent of Steeler Nation both a demographic and geographic impossibility? Their coaching staff may be Pittsburgh West, but their fan base is an inversion of ours. They're a bunch of bandwagon-jumpers who grew up rooting for some other team first.
6. Is Senator John McCain (another Arizona second-placer) going to be in attendance at the game? If so, did he get an extra ticket for Sarah Palin? And who's footing the bill for her game jersey?
7. Is what follows below really Arizona's idea of fan support at a home playoff game, when the conference title and a Super Bowl berth are on the line? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?
[Excerpted, with original text enhancements, from a post at phoenix.fanster.com, located here.]
People, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
8. Doesn't the Rooney-Obama friendship give you one more reason to THANK GOD THAT BARACK OBAMA WON THE ELECTION? Even if he says that the Bears top his list, our young, intelligent, respected, literate, well-spoken, AFC-title-game-ball-owning new President is clearly ONE OF US.
And SO IS GOD. We've got the song that proves it.
Stuff I've been wondering about. Help me out, people.
1. How does the level of creativity and musical talent shown by Cardinal fans compare with the Steeler-fan examples that I've been posting here for the last few days? Could anyone else's fans be as good at doing team songs as Pittsburgh fans are?
On second thought, I'm not even going to go here. Let's just say that we've answered this one.
2. Cardinal players aside, are there any people living in Arizona who are not qualified to join AARP? Don't they ride around on electric carts in gated golf-club subdivisions, nursing their knee replacements? Won't they have to fight over who gets to abuse the handicapped parking spaces at Raymond James Stadium?
3. Exhibit A, your honor. Did this guy forget to take his Aricept? Which team is he rooting for? Hell if he knows.
Extra Bonus Question: If you were born after World War II, do you know which two guys he's imitating?
4. Noting the same production credit for all these Cardinal videos, do you think that the people who run this MyStudio outfit, located in a kiosk across from Brookstone's in the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall, are relocated Yinzers doing undercover work for the Nation? How in the hell else do you explain this?
5. Didn't they all move to Arizona from somewhere else? Doesn't that make the Cardinal equivalent of Steeler Nation both a demographic and geographic impossibility? Their coaching staff may be Pittsburgh West, but their fan base is an inversion of ours. They're a bunch of bandwagon-jumpers who grew up rooting for some other team first.
6. Is Senator John McCain (another Arizona second-placer) going to be in attendance at the game? If so, did he get an extra ticket for Sarah Palin? And who's footing the bill for her game jersey?
7. Is what follows below really Arizona's idea of fan support at a home playoff game, when the conference title and a Super Bowl berth are on the line? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?
[Excerpted, with original text enhancements, from a post at phoenix.fanster.com, located here.]
Cardinals Fans Do “The Bird!” Arizona Is Playing in the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 18!Mr. PhxSoul and MILLIONS of Arizona Cardinals fans have been waitin’ for this moment for years and years and years!!
Mr. PhxSoul is campaigning to have “The Bird” by Morris Day and The Time as the OFFICIAL ARIZONA CARDINALS FAN THEME SONG for this magical playoff run! Can you imagine an entire stadium of fans doin’ “The Bird” as the Cardinals run out on the field during their NFC Championship game in Glendale?! That would be off tha chain!!
People, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
And SO IS GOD. We've got the song that proves it.
Dead Birds Part II: The Video
My previous post has the lyrics for this amazing song. Zack just minted the video this morning and let me know when it was up at YouTube, so here it is for yinz all, sizzling hot off the presses.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Dead Birds: Not A Cardinals Love Song
Hard and vicious, with little Zappa for sparkle. An original creation (and boy is it), by West Mifflin-raised but now Left Coastal musician, 'Guitar Zack' Wiesinger. Keep an eye on this young man, you'll be hearing from him. Quite an impressive resumé he has already, at age 21.
Zack gave me the timeline for the song's creation. Get a load of this:
Saturday evening the 24th (roughly 48 hours ago as I type this), Zack and his father co-wrote the lyrics over the telephone. Four hours after Dad hangs up, Zack has the vocal and instrumental tracks all recorded and assembled. That's all Zack on there. Sunday was a day of rest, and perhaps a little tweaking. Monday morning the 26th (which was still today, as I haven't been to bed yet) he uploads the song to his servers, and drops a copy in email to WDVE. An hour later, his sister calls to tell him that she just heard it on the radio. I found it on his blog that same Monday night, which was about three hours ago. Now it's here and so are you. Boys and girls, you can't beat that with a STICK.
Dead Birds
born-on date 24 January 2009
words by Zack and Kenny Wiesinger, music by Zack Wiesinger
We got that Dick LeBeau magic (yes we do)
Our Steelers defense is tragic (yes it is)
When that defense clips the Cardinals' wings (snip snip)
There'll be no place to wear a ring (oh no)
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
The Wild Card Cardinals ain't ready for the Bowl (not at all)
They're gonna hike the ball
They're gonna lose control
'Cause they're
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
I hope you're ready to party (woo hoo)
We're gonna win the Vince Lombardi Trophy
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
Zack is also an animator, and has one of the coolest Flashy websites I've seen in Internet-dog-years. And, of course, he has a MySpace page. Oh these wacky kids these days.
Zack gave me the timeline for the song's creation. Get a load of this:
Saturday evening the 24th (roughly 48 hours ago as I type this), Zack and his father co-wrote the lyrics over the telephone. Four hours after Dad hangs up, Zack has the vocal and instrumental tracks all recorded and assembled. That's all Zack on there. Sunday was a day of rest, and perhaps a little tweaking. Monday morning the 26th (which was still today, as I haven't been to bed yet) he uploads the song to his servers, and drops a copy in email to WDVE. An hour later, his sister calls to tell him that she just heard it on the radio. I found it on his blog that same Monday night, which was about three hours ago. Now it's here and so are you. Boys and girls, you can't beat that with a STICK.
Dead Birds by Zack Wiesinger
Dead Birds
born-on date 24 January 2009
words by Zack and Kenny Wiesinger, music by Zack Wiesinger
We got that Dick LeBeau magic (yes we do)
Our Steelers defense is tragic (yes it is)
When that defense clips the Cardinals' wings (snip snip)
There'll be no place to wear a ring (oh no)
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
The Wild Card Cardinals ain't ready for the Bowl (not at all)
They're gonna hike the ball
They're gonna lose control
'Cause they're
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
I hope you're ready to party (woo hoo)
We're gonna win the Vince Lombardi Trophy
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
My favorite kind of animal
Dead Birds, Dead Birds
The Wild Card Cardinals
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Zack is also an animator, and has one of the coolest Flashy websites I've seen in Internet-dog-years. And, of course, he has a MySpace page. Oh these wacky kids these days.
M&M Munchies For My SBXLIII Party
Did I really just spend two hundred dollars on M&Ms? Maybe if I pretend they're from Godiva, it won't feel so outrageous.
Press release
Ordering can be done at http://www.mymms.com/nfl
All Steelers (and Cardinals) M&Ms will be discounted 15% until Jan. 30 by entering the promo code BIGGAME. All 32 NFL teams are available.
♦ 7-ounce bag costs $12.99 (minimum order 3 bags)
♦ candy dispenser with team logo, including 3 7-oz bags, costs $59.99
♦ 5-lb bulk box costs $140.00
♦ shipping additional
♦ $20 expedited shipping surcharge
DAMN they're kewl. What a Sucker.I.Am. But wait till my cousin sees them - the party's at his house in Monroeville. He'll have another heart attack. (He's 43. Don't ask.) He got a Steeler-logo tattoo after SBXL, and so did one of his brothers. I don't wanna know what they're planning for an encore.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Pop Rocks: Steelers Music from the Kids' Menu
I can't very well post Zep and AC/DC covers (see previous entry) without giving equal time to a cover of Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker, especially when it's done live on video and is PERFORMED BY CHILDREN.
"We're the Raven Haters, Ring Takers, Shame Makers, Don't You Mess With Steeler D"
"We're the Raven Haters, Ring Takers, Shame Makers, Don't You Mess With Steeler D"
Way to GO, kiddos. And kudos to Marian Davis and Maggie Cobal for the lyrics.
No Twanging: 'Stairway To Seven' & 'Steelers D'
I knew I could find some new rock-and-roll Steeler tunes if I poked around enough.
These are both by Rich Banks, and all I know about him so far is that he's a professional singer, musician, and voice-over artist from Newbury Park, CA. Is he a Yinzer, or just a member of the Nation? I'm guessing the former, because he sings about the Parkway West like he's spent a lot of time not moving on it.
Stairway To Seven - covers Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven. (Like I need to tell you that?) Warning: If you're a Flying Rat fan who has misguidedly stumbled upon this blog, you do not want to click on this button. The lyrics were written right before the AFC title game, so you should just turn around and go home now. THREE TIMES IN ONE YEAR, you lame wannabees.
Steelers D - covers AC/DC's T.N.T. Rakes big-time on the Cardinals. "Edge James needs a hospital rooooom..."
Both of these songs feature overdubbed bits from Cope-and-Hillgrove radio broadcasts. In the AC/DC tune, the use of Myron's "yoi"s in place of the original "oi"s is so freakin' perfect it should be taught as an example at Harvard Parody School. Banks' ability to mimic style is also very impressive - perhaps not a surprise, since being a musical chameleon appears to be his day job.
On Banks' website, he has posted the tunes as garden-variety downloadable mp3 files, so I don't think he should mind if I borrow his links. [Addendum, 2/4/09 - he has password-protected the page with the files on it, so don't bother to go there.] He's got some other (non-Steeler) streaming samples, short but very nice, on his MySpace page.
These are both by Rich Banks, and all I know about him so far is that he's a professional singer, musician, and voice-over artist from Newbury Park, CA. Is he a Yinzer, or just a member of the Nation? I'm guessing the former, because he sings about the Parkway West like he's spent a lot of time not moving on it.
Stairway To Seven - covers Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven. (Like I need to tell you that?) Warning: If you're a Flying Rat fan who has misguidedly stumbled upon this blog, you do not want to click on this button. The lyrics were written right before the AFC title game, so you should just turn around and go home now. THREE TIMES IN ONE YEAR, you lame wannabees.Steelers D - covers AC/DC's T.N.T. Rakes big-time on the Cardinals. "Edge James needs a hospital rooooom..."Both of these songs feature overdubbed bits from Cope-and-Hillgrove radio broadcasts. In the AC/DC tune, the use of Myron's "yoi"s in place of the original "oi"s is so freakin' perfect it should be taught as an example at Harvard Parody School. Banks' ability to mimic style is also very impressive - perhaps not a surprise, since being a musical chameleon appears to be his day job.
On Banks' website, he has posted the tunes as garden-variety downloadable mp3 files, so I don't think he should mind if I borrow his links. [Addendum, 2/4/09 - he has password-protected the page with the files on it, so don't bother to go there.] He's got some other (non-Steeler) streaming samples, short but very nice, on his MySpace page.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Steeler Nation: 23-min documentary from Dec2006
What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a-goin' on here? How in heck did I miss seeing this video for more than two whole years?
You might want to have your Terrible Towel handy for Kleenex duty when you watch this, especially if you're an Exile or the offspring of one.
From the film, here's interviewee Scott Paulsen (from WDVE) taking issue with the way network announcers tend to declaim the Travelability of Steeler fans (and this is a point I've been yelling back at the TV for decades):
From the film, here's interviewee Scott Paulsen (from WDVE) taking issue with the way network announcers tend to declaim the Travelability of Steeler fans (and this is a point I've been yelling back at the TV for decades):
"It's amazing to us, the people that still live here, when we watch a national broadcast where there's probably 10,000 or 12,000 Steeler fans. You'll hear the announcer say, 'Well this Steeler team, they travel well'. And that's not the case at all - we're already there."
The Black Knight Always Triumphs!
Once in a while you get some real-time feedback that lets you know you're raising the little monkeys right.
I got into a discussion the other day with Monkeyboy J9. Somehow the subject of pretend-horseback-riding arose. With 9-year-olds, you never know what you're going to get so you better be prepared for anything. To illustrate whatever point I was making, I fired up my DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We watched the first couple of scenes with the banging coconuts, then I skipped around to show him a few other bits that I thought he'd enjoy without being stymied by the wordplay. The Black Knight was a big hit, and he loved Gilliam's animations.
This afternoon, J9 barrels into the house with his brother K7 in tow, announcing "We want to watch the show about the knights and God." Which they proceed to do, from titles to credits, rolling around on the couch like howling fools whenever fake blood was in play. K7 nearly split a gut when the Killer Rabbit attacked.
I expect that a fair bit of the dialog went past them but it didn't reduce their enjoyment in the least, and I could tell that they got the point of all the silliness. I am so proud of my boys, it's hard to put into words. Monty Python is the acid test for me - if you don't laugh at the Argument Clinic, or at Brian Cohen telling his followers to think for themselves, you simply cannot be my friend. My last trip to New York was to see Spamalot. I used my 2001 Economic Stimulus Plan check to buy the boxed set of Flying Circus episodes.
I'll have my monkeys doing the Gumbys before too much longer. It's going to be soooo much fun.
I got into a discussion the other day with Monkeyboy J9. Somehow the subject of pretend-horseback-riding arose. With 9-year-olds, you never know what you're going to get so you better be prepared for anything. To illustrate whatever point I was making, I fired up my DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We watched the first couple of scenes with the banging coconuts, then I skipped around to show him a few other bits that I thought he'd enjoy without being stymied by the wordplay. The Black Knight was a big hit, and he loved Gilliam's animations.
This afternoon, J9 barrels into the house with his brother K7 in tow, announcing "We want to watch the show about the knights and God." Which they proceed to do, from titles to credits, rolling around on the couch like howling fools whenever fake blood was in play. K7 nearly split a gut when the Killer Rabbit attacked.
I expect that a fair bit of the dialog went past them but it didn't reduce their enjoyment in the least, and I could tell that they got the point of all the silliness. I am so proud of my boys, it's hard to put into words. Monty Python is the acid test for me - if you don't laugh at the Argument Clinic, or at Brian Cohen telling his followers to think for themselves, you simply cannot be my friend. My last trip to New York was to see Spamalot. I used my 2001 Economic Stimulus Plan check to buy the boxed set of Flying Circus episodes.
I'll have my monkeys doing the Gumbys before too much longer. It's going to be soooo much fun.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The 12th Man Steelers Song: Listen, Lyrics, & Purchase
LISTEN:
LYRICS: The words to The 12th Man can be found in this post.
PURCHASE:
Option 1
If you have iTunes software already on your computer, you can download the single for 99¢ (with DRM). If you want to install iTunes, the program is free from Apple. Windows XP and Mac OS X versions are available.
Option 2
If you don't have iTunes, or if you'd rather buy the single on a CD and rip your own DRM-less mp3, you can get it through Froggyland/Keymarket Radio, via PayPal (includes a charge-card option, and you can do it with or without a PayPal account), for $3.99 + $2.00 shipping.
▪ Website: www.dustydrake.com
▪ MySpace: www.myspace.com/dustydrake
▪ Rhapsody: www.rhapsody.com/dusty-drake
▪▪▪ www.rhapsody.com/dusty-drake/dusty-drake-the-rhapsody-interview
There you go, folks. Happy to be of service. I hope that benefits accrue to Mr. Drake as a result of this little pro bono digital-resource-aggregation project. Dusty and Steve deserve lots of good karma (and a nice check) for having paid Steeler Nation this musical tribute. Speaking for myself as a Country Music Avoider, this is high praise. And watching the temporary spike in my site traffic will provide me with an amusing distraction while I wait for The Game to commence next Sunday. GOOOOOOO STILLERS!
The 12th Man by Dusty Drake
LYRICS: The words to The 12th Man can be found in this post.
PURCHASE:
Option 1If you have iTunes software already on your computer, you can download the single for 99¢ (with DRM). If you want to install iTunes, the program is free from Apple. Windows XP and Mac OS X versions are available.
Option 2If you don't have iTunes, or if you'd rather buy the single on a CD and rip your own DRM-less mp3, you can get it through Froggyland/Keymarket Radio, via PayPal (includes a charge-card option, and you can do it with or without a PayPal account), for $3.99 + $2.00 shipping.
▪ Website: www.dustydrake.com
▪ MySpace: www.myspace.com/dustydrake
▪ Rhapsody: www.rhapsody.com/dusty-drake
▪▪▪ www.rhapsody.com/dusty-drake/dusty-drake-the-rhapsody-interview
There you go, folks. Happy to be of service. I hope that benefits accrue to Mr. Drake as a result of this little pro bono digital-resource-aggregation project. Dusty and Steve deserve lots of good karma (and a nice check) for having paid Steeler Nation this musical tribute. Speaking for myself as a Country Music Avoider, this is high praise. And watching the temporary spike in my site traffic will provide me with an amusing distraction while I wait for The Game to commence next Sunday. GOOOOOOO STILLERS!
Friday, January 23, 2009
LYRICS to 'The 12th Man' by Dusty Drake
I'm getting a ton of hits from people typing queries about this song into Google. (Hi, yinz.) Everyone seems to want the lyrics. As a public service to the Nation, I've done a transcription.
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
The 12th Man
sung by Dusty Drake
words by Steve Yurjevich and Dusty Drake, music by Kevin Fowler
©2008/09 - presumably owned by the guys named above
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
He sent Big Ben to the promised land
He stands so tall behind the offensive line
Any guy that throws like that well he's a good friend of mine
We're baptized in beer and here to testify
Willie Parker's wearin' wings, just look at him fly
And Jeff Reed is on the Master's plan
'Cause you know the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Well I ain't a preachin' man but I need you to listen
There's a couple things that the whole league's missin'
A solid running game and a big strong D
That's the only sure way to get a victory
I know the truth hurts but it needs to be said
Hines Ward can catch a pass and take it upside your head
So don't yinz worry, goin' to Super Bowl heaven
They're gonna get a Six and then we'll shoot for Number Seven
'Cause
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
He sent Troy Polamalu to the promised land
He plays behind the best defensive line
Any man that hits like that well he's a good friend of mine
We're baptized in beer and here to testify
Every quarterback better run for dear life
Or Harrison and Woodley gonna hit you again
'Cause you know the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Now if you hate on the Steelers you're livin' your life all wrong
Lightning's gonna strike you down before too long
If you're looking for a savior and your team needs delivered
We can cleanse you in the waters of the mighty Three Rivers
The Steeler history's clear, just look at their past
They hit you in the mouth and knock you right on your --well--
We bleed Black and Gold with Keisel, Smith, and Hampton,
They eat up running backs like a big Primanti sandwich
And
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
Nobody travels better all across this land
No cheerleaders, we've got the Terrible Towel
Myron Cope would sure be proud
We're all baptized in beer and here to testify
Our city's made of steel and American pride
Everybody knows that we got the 12th man
'Cause the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Yeah
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
Nobody travels better all across this land
No cheerleaders, we've got the Terrible Towel
Myron Cope would sure be proud
We're all baptized in beer and here to testify
Our city's made of steel and American pride
Everybody knows that we got the 12th man
'Cause the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Yeah
The Lord loves
You know He does!
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
And since I was totally unfamiliar with the original song that this one is based on ("The Lord Loves A Drinkin' Man", by Kevin Fowler), I went and found the original lyrics and a video of Mark Chesnutt performing it. Then I saw that Kevin Fowler had done a version of his own. Well, sports fans, I may know nothing about country music, but to this pair of ears, Dusty's raucous and rowdy up-tempo version beats both Chesnutt's and Fowler's all the way to Honkytonk Hell and back again. For that matter, so does Dusty himself, but that's a different topic.
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The 12th Man
sung by Dusty Drake
words by Steve Yurjevich and Dusty Drake, music by Kevin Fowler
©2008/09 - presumably owned by the guys named above
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
He sent Big Ben to the promised land
He stands so tall behind the offensive line
Any guy that throws like that well he's a good friend of mine
We're baptized in beer and here to testify
Willie Parker's wearin' wings, just look at him fly
And Jeff Reed is on the Master's plan
'Cause you know the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Well I ain't a preachin' man but I need you to listen
There's a couple things that the whole league's missin'
A solid running game and a big strong D
That's the only sure way to get a victory
I know the truth hurts but it needs to be said
Hines Ward can catch a pass and take it upside your head
So don't yinz worry, goin' to Super Bowl heaven
They're gonna get a Six and then we'll shoot for Number Seven
'Cause
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
He sent Troy Polamalu to the promised land
He plays behind the best defensive line
Any man that hits like that well he's a good friend of mine
We're baptized in beer and here to testify
Every quarterback better run for dear life
Or Harrison and Woodley gonna hit you again
'Cause you know the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Now if you hate on the Steelers you're livin' your life all wrong
Lightning's gonna strike you down before too long
If you're looking for a savior and your team needs delivered
We can cleanse you in the waters of the mighty Three Rivers
The Steeler history's clear, just look at their past
They hit you in the mouth and knock you right on your --well--
We bleed Black and Gold with Keisel, Smith, and Hampton,
They eat up running backs like a big Primanti sandwich
And
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
Nobody travels better all across this land
No cheerleaders, we've got the Terrible Towel
Myron Cope would sure be proud
We're all baptized in beer and here to testify
Our city's made of steel and American pride
Everybody knows that we got the 12th man
'Cause the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Yeah
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
Nobody travels better all across this land
No cheerleaders, we've got the Terrible Towel
Myron Cope would sure be proud
We're all baptized in beer and here to testify
Our city's made of steel and American pride
Everybody knows that we got the 12th man
'Cause the Lord loves the Steeler fans
Yeah
The Lord loves
You know He does!
The Lord loves the Steeler fans
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
And since I was totally unfamiliar with the original song that this one is based on ("The Lord Loves A Drinkin' Man", by Kevin Fowler), I went and found the original lyrics and a video of Mark Chesnutt performing it. Then I saw that Kevin Fowler had done a version of his own. Well, sports fans, I may know nothing about country music, but to this pair of ears, Dusty's raucous and rowdy up-tempo version beats both Chesnutt's and Fowler's all the way to Honkytonk Hell and back again. For that matter, so does Dusty himself, but that's a different topic.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The 12th Man Song, and Outing Yinzers
The 12th Man, a very twangy country ditty about this year's Steelers, their fans, and God (that's Him in the title), is getting major airplay on all of the Froggy country-FM stations in and around the Burgh. Not exactly my genre of choice, but my 7-year-old monkeyboy can't get enough of it. Click on over to this MySpace page, and the song will start playing. (Or you can click on the player on this page, which I've added to the top of the right sidebar. Scroll all the way up if you need to.) At the moment your only purchase options appear to be a 99¢ DRM'd download at iTunes, or on the Froggyland website where you can buy it as a CD single for $5.99 (including shipping). Don't look for a free mp3 file anywhere, just buy the darn thing if you like it. What are you, some kinda cheapskate?
A little bit of web-poking has revealed that the singer, a honkytonk crooner going by the name of Dusty Drake, is originally from Monaca. Aha. And this guy (who doesn't post his name) hails from Coraopolis, is a friend of Drake's, and wrote the lyrics. Double Aha. I knew there wasn't a chance in hell that those words were penned by a non-native. Steeler Nation may be a planetary phenomenon, but there ain't no Primanti's in Nashville. I was right, just like I was right when I told Dogboy that Billy Mays, the Pitchman From Hell, had to be a Yinzer. Turns out he's from McKees Rocks - just listen to him talk, it's so obvious.
Anyhow, Dusty Drake is going to be back home to sing his song (dare we call it an Anthem?) at the big Heinz Field Super Bowl XLIII pep rally tomorrow night. Yeeee haw!
--addendum, Thursday night 11:00pm-- More web-poking. This is excerpted from John Hayes' 1/13 article in the Post-Gazette:
A little bit of web-poking has revealed that the singer, a honkytonk crooner going by the name of Dusty Drake, is originally from Monaca. Aha. And this guy (who doesn't post his name) hails from Coraopolis, is a friend of Drake's, and wrote the lyrics. Double Aha. I knew there wasn't a chance in hell that those words were penned by a non-native. Steeler Nation may be a planetary phenomenon, but there ain't no Primanti's in Nashville. I was right, just like I was right when I told Dogboy that Billy Mays, the Pitchman From Hell, had to be a Yinzer. Turns out he's from McKees Rocks - just listen to him talk, it's so obvious.
Anyhow, Dusty Drake is going to be back home to sing his song (dare we call it an Anthem?) at the big Heinz Field Super Bowl XLIII pep rally tomorrow night. Yeeee haw!
--addendum, Thursday night 11:00pm-- More web-poking. This is excerpted from John Hayes' 1/13 article in the Post-Gazette:
Dino Buffalini? Yikes. No offense, Dino/Dusty, it's a Yinzer name to be proud of, but I agree that it's not quite the thing for the marquee at the Opry. And now we know the name of the lyricist: Steve Yurjevich. I also admit that I didn't know it was a cover/parody of another song, but as I said, this ain't my genre. Now when is somebody gonna write cool Steeler lyrics to some Floyd? I've already posted previously about what I consider to be the best (and most obscure) fan song I've ever heard. Hold the twang, please.Nashville country singer Dusty Drake is better known back home in Monaca as Dino Buffalini, former front man for the Pittsburgh country cover band Silverado. Mr. Drake moved South and changed his name a decade ago. He touched the country music charts a few years ago, but over the past few weeks he's had the top-requested song on Pittsburgh's Froggy radio stations with "The 12th Man," a tribute to Steelers fans worldwide. The song parody was co-written by Mr. Drake and Moon's Steve Yurjevich over the lyrics to Kevin Fowler's "The Lord Loves a Drinkin' Man," a hit for Mark Chesnutt.
"Unless you're a Steelers fan, you don't get it," said Mr. Drake. "This kind of passion for a sports team -- how do you put it into words? I live in Nashville now and there are thousands of Steelers fans down here and they're not all from Pittsburgh. There's just something about that team that brings it out."
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Best Big Ben Song Ever
Late in the 2004 season, Roethlisberger's rookie year, I posted here about a fabulous Big Ben song that I had heard one single time, by chance, on WDVE. It was around Christmastime, before we lost that year's AFC title game to New England (but I won't dwell on that). This wasn't your typical Yinzer-bar version of Here We Go, this was ROCKIN', and it was GOOD. After a lot of trouble and angst and with some kind help, I had found the mp3's location online, and I put up a post that linked to it on WDVE's server. That was my first mistake, because later on they pulled the file, or moved it, and so if you go to that old post now, the song link doesn't work. WDVE still has some other Steeler songs posted on their site, but not this one. Gone.
I still don't know the name of the song, nor who sang it, and I've never seen it nor heard it on any of the numerous Steeler-song collections I've run across. Half the time I wondered if it was just a figment of my imagination.
Then right after we beat the Flying Rats I thought of the song again, and I wondered if it really had disappeared. I usually save a local copy of anything neato that I run across. It wasn't anywhere on my laptop (which I hadn't owned back then anyway), nor was it in my backed-up CD-archive of music files. But I have several old hard drives from a dead desktop computer, and I just discovered a very handy gadget which promised to get me back into those drives.
Said gadget arrived today from Amazon. Works like a champ. I fired up one of those old IDE drives, and EUREKA, there it was. Happy Leeeny!
And so, sports fans, here's the song again, no longer an imaginary figment. The lyrics are somewhat dated now (catch the references to Bubby, Randle El, and Jay Riemersma), but it's still just as good. If anyone knows its real title or the band who sang it, or anything else about it, I'd still like to know so that I can post credit where it's due.
If you want to download the mp3 to keep and treasure for yourself, then RIGHT-click on the image of Rookie Ben below (the photo was taken following his very first Steeler touchdown ever), and save the file to your hard drive.
I still don't know the name of the song, nor who sang it, and I've never seen it nor heard it on any of the numerous Steeler-song collections I've run across. Half the time I wondered if it was just a figment of my imagination.
Then right after we beat the Flying Rats I thought of the song again, and I wondered if it really had disappeared. I usually save a local copy of anything neato that I run across. It wasn't anywhere on my laptop (which I hadn't owned back then anyway), nor was it in my backed-up CD-archive of music files. But I have several old hard drives from a dead desktop computer, and I just discovered a very handy gadget which promised to get me back into those drives.
Said gadget arrived today from Amazon. Works like a champ. I fired up one of those old IDE drives, and EUREKA, there it was. Happy Leeeny!
And so, sports fans, here's the song again, no longer an imaginary figment. The lyrics are somewhat dated now (catch the references to Bubby, Randle El, and Jay Riemersma), but it's still just as good. If anyone knows its real title or the band who sang it, or anything else about it, I'd still like to know so that I can post credit where it's due.
The Good Big Ben Song by Leeeny-Doesn't-Know-Who
If you want to download the mp3 to keep and treasure for yourself, then RIGHT-click on the image of Rookie Ben below (the photo was taken following his very first Steeler touchdown ever), and save the file to your hard drive.
"Thank God we didn't draft Philip Rivers..."
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
THE END OF AN ERROR
I just had to post live as the Presidential Inauguration is being broadcast on my television. I tend to revert to CNN for major news events... blame it on Gulf War #1.
As soon as the Oath of Office has been given, I will cry like a baby as I hang my Stars and Stripes outside my front door, for the first time since this happened.
Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we're free at last!
As soon as the Oath of Office has been given, I will cry like a baby as I hang my Stars and Stripes outside my front door, for the first time since this happened.
Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we're free at last!
