Monday, January 23, 2006

Bring It To Jerome



Ok. I've waited long enough. The (written) subject of this post my not be to everyone's taste, but you can scroll down and grab some swell tunes by an American Master.

I grew up the 70's, long bout the southern Ohio/West Virginia border. My pappy was born and raised in backwoods Pennsylvania coal mining country. One of my only memories of my father was Sundays on the couch, watching the Pittsburgh Steelers, me trying to understand what the hell was going on, him trying his best to explain. Some of the best days of my life. 4 Super Bowls. It was an impressionable age.

Sports can be a pretty obnoxious endeavor, there's much to despise in the current sports frenzy. It can represent all that is wrong with society: greed, ego, spectacle. But sports can also work to forge identity and sense of community. A favorite team doesn't just play for itself, it represents a city, a state, a country (look at football(soccer to us ignant 'mericans) furor around the world). When your team wins, you win. Ask Red/White Sox fans about that.

One of the nicest guys in sports is headed back to his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, for the spectacle that is the Super Bowl. While sports figures are getting arrested, concocting ridiculous end zone dances, and destroying their teams from within, Jerome Bettis has quietly represented all that is good in sports, taking salary cuts to remain with the same team, founding charity after charity, and conducting himself with dignity and grace on and off the field.

Here's hoping.

Bo Diddley may be the true King of Rock'n'Roll (heresy!). Who knows? He's one of the favorites here at the Mountain, that's for darn tootin'. [edit: Diddley's real name is not Jerome...that's his "maracca-man". Thanks to "anonymous" and vivamonk for pointing out my egregious and embarassing error. Diddley's real name is Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel. I'm going to lose my license to post muscic if I keep this up. I'm still sticking with the sentiment and the song, though.]. Bring it to Jerome indeed.

Bo Diddley: Bring It to Jerome (mp3)

Bo Diddley: Dancing Girl (mp3)

Thanks for your patience.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello!

Diddley's real name is Jerome Green.

Ellas MacDaniel. Jerome was the maracca-man. Great post though!

vivamonk said...

Bo Diddley's real name is Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel.

Allmusic Bio:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4791BD849A87320D29B2945C4BB7DF929D64CEE831F29461BDFBA3C548C017AEC49E6809EFDFB6AB67AB0FD2EA45C43D2CAE453FED664352DFC93&sql=11:xrb8b5c4tsqf

Happy In Bag said...

The problem with listening to Bo Diddley is that his overwhelming brilliance spoils all other music for the rest of the day.

Anonymous said...

"Bring It to Jerome" is my favorite Bo Diddley song of all time. -- jonhope

The DoorKeeper said...

"Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel"

There is a great quiz question ...

"what was Bo Diddley's middle name" lol

Great tracks, Sir.

Anonymous said...

Another reason to like Bettis is he's also a big fan of bowling - Gotta like a guy who likes bowling.
I'll be rooting for the Steelers. Being a Packer fan, it's hard to root for Holmgren. He's like the Dad who has left the family for a new and "better" family. Part of you still likes him, but part of you wants to see him fail.

John (from Milw)

teaii said...

brian, me boy -

been wondering how long you could hold off mentioning the black and gold. glad to see you haven't lost touch living in the land of the bears and cubs and sox.

now if i can just keep the cincy fans from yapping about how it should have been them for the next two weeks....
Æ