My wife grew up in New Jersey as a Mets fan whose only ballpark experiences took place at the airport known as Shea Stadium. The first time I took her to Fenway, she walked out of the tunnel, looked around and said, "Where's the rest of it?"
Ken and CJ got it just right. I was a senior in high school when this was released. My best friend & I dug CCR and were exposed to Centerfield through MTV. I bought the cassette and it was in heavy rotation in our homes. There was some interviews broadcast on MTV which gave the album some context. IIRC the songs were written and composed over a period of 10 years. Fogerty working in a small home studio surrounded by equipment with around ten feet of free space for him.
I don’t associate Centerfield the song with baseball too much. I enjoy it as an obvious metaphor for Fogerty’s absence from the airwaves for an extended period and the joy & enthusiasm for his return to the public earwaves. Fogerty’s allusion to centerfield is primarily via the notion that a team’s best fielder should play the position. It requires accomplished speed & versatility. He said as much during interviews. ‘Put me in coach/I’m ready to play’ feels exuberant and celebratory in the way that Spring Training might feel for a die hard baseball fan. A fresh start, clean slate for every team and accompanying optimism; even for the previous season’s worst team. A time of renewal under the warmth of the sun.
Vantz Can’t Dance is indeed the clunker on this album. Automatic Fast Forward on the cassette upon hearing the opening bars.
Fun fact: "Vantz Can't Dance" was originally released as "Zanz Can't Dance"; but a condition of the legal actions Saul Zaentz imposed was that the title be changed. It even got to MTV in its first form for a brief moment.
CCR was some fun stuff, in its day, but Fogerty's resurgence in the 1980s was a pure product of the Nostalgia Industrial Complex; and it felt ersatz and generic, with studio guys behind John that had nothing of the greasy rumble Tom, Doug, and Stu brought to CCR. "The Old Man Down The Road", instead of blurring the difference, underlines that in its packaged, perfunctory feel; "Centerfield" is just a thin plastic jingle. Hopefully, the checks it brought were good; that's all I can say for it.
"Vantz Can't Dance" IS a clunker but I still listen to it every time. It makes me chuckle. This album was solid but I'm not surprised it was exiled. It's not THAT solid.
Mitch - did your mama drop you on your head? Anything sounding remotely like CCR is classic, and this album does sound phenomenal. Leave all the other BS out. To blend a baseball mix to it is just that more amazing, even if current baseball sucks. Fogerty is American as apple pie. Nice selection, Ken, CJ.
That feeling of first walking out of the tunnel and into an arena is absolute magic.
My wife grew up in New Jersey as a Mets fan whose only ballpark experiences took place at the airport known as Shea Stadium. The first time I took her to Fenway, she walked out of the tunnel, looked around and said, "Where's the rest of it?"
Lol. Tough crowd.
Ken and CJ got it just right. I was a senior in high school when this was released. My best friend & I dug CCR and were exposed to Centerfield through MTV. I bought the cassette and it was in heavy rotation in our homes. There was some interviews broadcast on MTV which gave the album some context. IIRC the songs were written and composed over a period of 10 years. Fogerty working in a small home studio surrounded by equipment with around ten feet of free space for him.
I don’t associate Centerfield the song with baseball too much. I enjoy it as an obvious metaphor for Fogerty’s absence from the airwaves for an extended period and the joy & enthusiasm for his return to the public earwaves. Fogerty’s allusion to centerfield is primarily via the notion that a team’s best fielder should play the position. It requires accomplished speed & versatility. He said as much during interviews. ‘Put me in coach/I’m ready to play’ feels exuberant and celebratory in the way that Spring Training might feel for a die hard baseball fan. A fresh start, clean slate for every team and accompanying optimism; even for the previous season’s worst team. A time of renewal under the warmth of the sun.
Vantz Can’t Dance is indeed the clunker on this album. Automatic Fast Forward on the cassette upon hearing the opening bars.
Fun fact: "Vantz Can't Dance" was originally released as "Zanz Can't Dance"; but a condition of the legal actions Saul Zaentz imposed was that the title be changed. It even got to MTV in its first form for a brief moment.
CCR was some fun stuff, in its day, but Fogerty's resurgence in the 1980s was a pure product of the Nostalgia Industrial Complex; and it felt ersatz and generic, with studio guys behind John that had nothing of the greasy rumble Tom, Doug, and Stu brought to CCR. "The Old Man Down The Road", instead of blurring the difference, underlines that in its packaged, perfunctory feel; "Centerfield" is just a thin plastic jingle. Hopefully, the checks it brought were good; that's all I can say for it.
"Vantz Can't Dance" IS a clunker but I still listen to it every time. It makes me chuckle. This album was solid but I'm not surprised it was exiled. It's not THAT solid.
Mitch - did your mama drop you on your head? Anything sounding remotely like CCR is classic, and this album does sound phenomenal. Leave all the other BS out. To blend a baseball mix to it is just that more amazing, even if current baseball sucks. Fogerty is American as apple pie. Nice selection, Ken, CJ.