My sincere thanks to everyone who participated in my special 4th of July Battle Of The Bands contest which took place HERE. The songs were '4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)' by Bruce Springsteen & 'Whose Cadillac Is That?' by War. The music theme was related to The League Of Soul Crusaders sneaking into a big L.A. Fourth of July parade in 1983.
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I really enjoyed reminiscing in the blog bit & comment section. The voting, however, was as one-sided as I'd anticipated. (The fake "working man" who, according to multiple sources never had even one real job in his entire life, took a beating!)
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FINAL TALLY:
Bruce Springsteen = 2 votes
War = 11 votes (including my own)
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| Miller & Mickie Darlin' - The League's "official" dog, who was even crazier than The League members were! |
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| "Filly-Waggit" ready for installation. |
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| Cranium, Napoleon & Torch on the roof of the Bay Street house. ("Filly-Waggit" is in the chimney.) |
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| STMcC (73.6% hungover) in line for Springsteen concert tickets, 1984. |
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| Torch & Lynthy-Pooh - June, 2024 |
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THE LEAGUE OF SOUL CRUSADERS
Chapter 18: Eye Of The Storm
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It is my wish to take this opportunity to shed a new light on the individuals who comprised what had become known as The League. I want to reveal a new dimension that will add more insight into our personalities and counterbalance our wild, barbaric exploits with something of a more civilized nature. And therefore, I go on record as stating that in all honesty there were indeed hours, even days, when not one vulgar word or noise (of mentionable volume) was emitted from the house on Bay Street. There were days when not so much as a sip of alcohol passed the lips of a single League member. There existed times when a great amount of intelligence was displayed, a concern for fellow human beings and, yes, even an astonishing sense of maturity. It is equally true, however, that these times were fairly rare.... which accounts for the brevity of this chapter.
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Thanks again to everyone who "boted" in this Battle! I intend to return with a new Battle Of The Booze installment on July 15th, so y'all come back now, y'hear?
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
The battles this time around have been severely tipped to side. Thanks for reporting the news, my friend. Have a bandtastic week!
ReplyDeleteHiYa, CAThy!
DeleteMy Sis-in-Christ, thanks for coming by to see how this Battle (slaughter) went down. I haven't yet gotten around to all the Results posts, but I will or my name isn't Mary Poppins!
~ Mary "D'DogG" Poppins
Another one-sided battle! Seems to be a common theme this week. You know, that 'fake working man' accusation was also levelled at John Lennon (re. his song 'Working Class Hero'), but I love him, anyway. Springsteen's music never grabbed me to any great extent, but I don't get why there's so much hate directed at him. (Kind of like my recent post about Nickelback, who was also much-hated for a while, but is popular again.)
ReplyDeleteGOL about 'Filly-Waggit'! ☺ Where did you find him, and what's the story behind the name? Torch and Lynthy-Pooh look good for a couple of 'old' guys!
DEBBIE D'DOGLADY ~
DeleteThanks for coming by to check on ye olde Results! I know of the song 'Working Class Hero' by John Lennon. According to Wackypedia, he said this about the song: "I think it's a revolutionary song – it's really just revolutionary. I just think its concept is revolutionary. I hope it's for workers and not for tarts and fags."
To be blunt, I detested Lennon for multiple strong reasons (his beating on women is only one of the reasons) however, my feeling about him has nut'n at all to do with his 'Working Class Hero' song.
Paul Simon wrote and sang 'American Tune', and although he wasn't remotely close to being "the common working man", the song includes these lyrics: "Tomorrow's gonna be another working day, and I'm trying to get some rest. That's all, I'm trying to get some rest." I have always liked that song.
A major difference between Simon & Springsteen is that the latter created an entire career pretending to understand and speak for the common American working man. Despite his numerous (lying) lyrics, the guy had *no idea* what it was like to punch a time clock and answer to "the man". His entire career (not just one or two songs) was founded upon outright deception. When many of us common working men learned this, we wuz *not* happy at all with Springsteen!
Plus, "The Boss" has admitted to cheating on his first wife, and never denied the allegation that he also cheated on his second wife. So, I think a lot of people lost respect for him over that as well.
I will definitely check out your Nickelback post felly soon-uh.
>>... GOL about 'Filly-Waggit'! ☺ Where did you find him, and what's the story behind the name?
Well, we did not find him; we built him from scratch. At the start of every Summer (to signify the beginning of the Beachy Season), we would put Filly-Waggit in the chimney. One year, we were a little bit late in getting him installed. But on the day we finally got to working on the tradition, a little old lady - whom none of us recalled having seen before - came walking down the sidewalk, she looked up at us on the roof and said, "I've been wondering when you were going to get him put up there again." That really made our day! We didn't know there was even one little old lady out there who appreciated our nuttiness. She would have been welcome (and very safe) partying with The League!
A number of things have been lost in history. For example: The use of the "OK" hand sign came from the Laurel & Hardy movie 'Our Relations'. (As did our Shakespeare-Longfellow routine.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfT9rxGSxP4
But how the exclamation "BEEE!" became a thing, in conjunction with the "OK" sign, no one can remember. It just suddenly shows up on page 97 of my book, where I mention that "Beee! was a salutation that was slowly replacing Woo-Woo-Woo!"
I'm really not sure that any of us can remember with certainty how Filly-Waggit got his name. But my best guess is this: It probably started as Filly-Saggot (reverse the first letters of each word for the hidden meaning) but eventually was transformed into Filly-Waggit. However, I'm trying to recall something from 43 years ago, and my brain ain't what it used to be (and it never was).
~ Moody(-Boy)
Thanks for the enlightenment! I tend to separate the artistry from the person. Meaning, even if said person is a lowlife, it won't affect how I feel about their music, art, movie, etc. I know Springsteen left his first wife for a band member, but, you know, a lot of people fall in love with someone else and aren't tarred and feathered for it. Just sayin'. LIfe happens! As for the 'working man' thing, according to this, he never said he worked in a factory. But, to each their own.
DeleteYou guys sure had some great imaginations, making that pair of legs to fit in the chimney! Silly fun! 😉
P.S. I agree, John Lennon was not what you'd call a nice person, but, IMO, he was an artistic genius.
Part 1 Of 2:
DeleteDEBBIE D'DOGLADY ~
By and large, I too am able to separate the artistry from the person. There are plenty of artists of many mediums with whom I disagree regarding myriad subjects and I wouldn't maintain a personal relationship with them, yet still I can appreciate their art.
However, there are some cases in which I find a person's actions SO DESPICABLE that it turns me off even from their art. In other words, to me, there are situations when somebody is simply too much of a "lowlife" for me to support them in any way, shape, or form. Here's one example:
"John Lennon used to pee out of the hotel window onto pedestrians."
~ Brenda Lee
'Little Miss Dynamite' - chapter 11, page 167
That, along with Lennon's history of hitting women is more than enough for me to detest him. (Although there are even more reasons available to me.)
As for Springsteen, it's not a question of whether or not he worked in a "factory". It's the fact that he never had any real job of any kind whatsoever (apparently not even a newspaper route when he was a boy) and yet he portrayed himself as having a real understanding of working men and supposedly representing them in his songs. It's that which annoys so many of us. We view it as misrepresentation & deception. (I think Bolton's analogy was flawed and he was grasping at straws to defend one of his big heroes.)
And with Springsteen, it's not a question of "falling in love with someone else"; it's a question of committing "adultery" against his wives. Then there was also that DUI arrest, where he apparently failed the field sobriety tests. I don't pretend to know all of the facts pertaining to that arrest, but you said that you "don't get why there's so much hate directed at him", and I'm only relating to you some of the reasons I'm aware of. You may not agree that these should cause people to dislike Springsteen, but those are reasons that many do. (Incidentally, you might be surprised to learn that even in my League years I was strongly opposed to drunken driving and I did not engage in it.)
Continued below...
Part 2 Of 2:
DeleteOn a (somewhat) more positive note, I'll close with a brief description of a League story that I alluded to earlier. You may appreciate it:
One night a guy & his girlfriend arrived at the Bay Street house to party with The League. The gal we knew, but we had never met the guy before. At some point a person informed me that the guy had hit his girlfriend while in our house. I immediately tracked the guy down - finding him drinking a beer in the kitchen - and I informed him that he was required to leave the house immediately. When he started to protest this decision, Nappy (The League's enforcer) entered the kitchen and went ballistic! Nobody struck the dude, but while about 4 guys were holding Nappy back, the punk became so affrighted* that he fell backwards onto the floor, and then literally *crawled* on all fours out of our back kitchen door.
He went to his car which was parked right in front of our house and on his car-phone, he called the police and reported that he had been assaulted in our house. (Yes, this was a time when only celebrities and rich blokes had car-phones, and it seems this guy made so much money selling cocaine that he could afford one.) We were watching out the living room window when the police rolled up, and after several minutes, the police searched the guy, cuffed him, and hauled his arse off to jail. (The police had been able to view baggies of cocaine in the guy's automobile.)
The cops never even bothered to knock on our door to speak with any of us about the incident. They were probably thinking: Well, if the guys who live in this house threw him out, he's really got to be some special kind of dirtbag! GOL!
So, anyway, that was a case of instant karmic justice being dispensed, and it also serves as a good story to illustrate that The League wasn't just a bunch of party animals without any sort of moral code. Nobody was going to hit females in our house and then proceed to party like nothing despicable had occurred.
[*"affrighted" is a word that comes from the King James Version of The Bible. I find some of the translations so silly that sometimes I can't help but "mocketh" for mine own amusement.]
~ D-FensDogG
Interesting - I never heard that Lennon peeing story before, but there are many stories of him behaving badly when drunk - apparently he couldn't hold his liquor. I did read that his first wife accused him of hitting her, but whether it's true or not, who can say? She sold a lot of books. As for Springsteen, millions of men AND women commit adultery every day and many people get caught drinking and driving. Those are human failings and we are all human. I'm not religious, but doesn't the bible say 'Let those without sin cast the first stone", or something to that effect? Anyway, I appreciate the ongoing dialogue.
DeleteGlad you turfed that lowlife from your house! 'Affrighted' is an archaic word, so I'm not surprised it was in the Bible ☺. I love the irony of him being arrested after he called the cops on you!
HiYa, DEBBIE ~
Delete>>... doesn't the bible say 'Let those without sin cast the first stone", or something to that effect?
Well, that's kinda-sorta close, but a more accurate English translation would render it as...
Let he who hath no sheep cast not his stones' seed unto the ground.
-- Book Of Onanism, chapter 38, verse 9
:^D I just jest! Sometimes I simply can't he'p making me laugh. (That was pretty funny, if I do say so muhself!)
However, truth be told, that statement - spoken by Jesus - is one of the most misunderstood verses in The Bible. In actuality, it pertained to condemning a person to death for transgressions they have committed. (In that particular incident, it was adultery.) And this is not something I myself would ever do, as I am adamantly opposed to capital punishment!
Similarly, and sadly, another equally misunderstood Bible verse (even misunderstood by a quite a number of Christians, as well) is "Judge not, that ye be not judged". It appears to lose its authentic meaning when it is divorced from the rest of Scripture and just stated as some sort of stand-alone singular rule or law.
Regarding John Lennon's tendency to strike women, it is not at all in question, as he publicly confessed to it just before his death, in an interview with Playboy magazine (available on the Internet). Lennon stated:
All that 'I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved' was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically... any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women.
However, I am pleased to state that I am quite certain that John will be given an opportunity to do mo' better in the future, and I sincerely hope he will. I hope we will all improve as we move through this School of Hard Knocks on our way toward graduation.
I enjoyed this yakversation. Thanks!
Bless & Be Blessed, my friend!!
~ D'DogG
And Stephen...
ReplyDeleteQuite an ass-whupin for the Boss. I suppose the songs being so different in tempo contributed and I noticed that right away. Also when you show a chopped top Caddy it's bound to go the way it did.
The lovely Veronica and I took road trip to SF for the 4th and I listened to a live performance of Bruce on the satellite radio. Yup he's a sell out but his music is also the soundtrack to many of my formative years as well as links to many memories with the League of Soul Crusaders. I recall us putting nearly every ounce of energy we had into singing some of those songs. I recall Nap's gyrations to the Price You Pay when it got to the part about tearing down the sign and throwing it away.
Hard to believe that was over 40 years ago now. And the Bruce Goose Winebago we took to the LA Sports Arena (long torn down now) for the concert, was it the RIver tour or Darkness? I also recall not understanding you wanting to be mostly sober for the concert. My friend I do now as my memory of those concerts is as fuzzy as my liver. We change, we grow, we forget but the energy of the Bay Street days remains embedded in my soul and the image of Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a dodge drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain will remain. Even stronger will be the image of drinking beer with you in that chopped top Cadillac and those endless summer night when we belly laughed while setting the world on fire.
JW,
Lynthy Pooh!
[3rd time's a charm]
Delete...AND, GENERAL POOHREGARD, THAT'S NOT ALL!...
That, sir, was one terrific E-Ticket comment! And I loved how you slipped those song lyrics into it. Thanks for coming by with that, muh Bruhthuh!
Yeah, a ballad against a funky, uptempo song wasn't really a fair match-up but... it had to be done. Plus, the lyrics in 'Whose Cadillac Is That?' made it almost seem like War had heard of us and our sneaky July 4th ways!
>>... Yup he's a sell out but his music is also the soundtrack to many of my formative years as well as links to many memories with the League of Soul Crusaders.
As big a disappointment as the guy turned out to be for me, I still own his first two albums. Funny that back in "The Bay Street Days" my favorite Bruce LP was 'Born To Run', but his first two stood the test of time better for me. (He was so obviously emulating Bob Dylan on those first two recordings, but I loves me some Zimmerman.) As you said so well, so many of his songs are embedded in my memories from when I was young, full of energy, and diggin' life to the carpe diem max!
>>... I recall Nap's gyrations to the Price You Pay when it got to the part about tearing down the sign and throwing it away.
Man! I loved that song and the ending of it. I thought Brucey really understood us common blokes. Of course, it was all a put-on - he was faking it all along - but I WILL give him due credit for the acting performances, which wuz pretty phenomenal! To learn years later that he'd never had even a single job, never had a "boss" he had to answer to, never had to work "all night" at something he *didn't* want to do, well... I tip my Stetson to one of the best acting roles I've ever seen! I'm not sure that James Dean could have done it any better.
I'll always remember this line from the song 'Bobby Jean': We told each other that we were the wildest, the wildest things we'd ever seen.
And you know what? It was true. It REALLY was true!
>>... And the Bruce Goose Winebago we took to the LA Sports Arena (long torn down now) for the concert, was it the River tour or Darkness?
Actually, it was the Born In The USA tour. Definitely 1984. And these were the dates he played at the L.A. Sports Arena that year:
1984 - OCTOBER 25, 26, 28, 29 & 31
NOVEMBER 2, 4
(from http://brucebase.wikidot.com/1984)
I don't know which of those shows The League attended. In retrospect, I wish I had saved my ticket stubs from all the concerts I've attended. The only 2 I have now are from Rickie Lee Jones & Booker T. (BUT!... I've still got my 1988 World Series, Game 1 ticket stub!)
>>... I also recall not understanding you wanting to be mostly sober for the concert. My friend I do now as my memory of those concerts is as fuzzy as my liver.
Don't feel bad about that because, although I may have remained relatively non-"laminated" for that show, I probably don't remember it now any better'n you do! There's been a lot of Jim Beam under the bridge - *Sigh*.
>>... the energy of the Bay Street days remains embedded in my soul
McBrother, it really *is* a soul thing! And we will always be indebted to Bruce for the "Soul Crusaders" portion of our name! We stole it from him, just like he stole his musical persona from guys like us.
Love Ya, Pooh
(JOHN WAYNE! JOHN WAYNE!)
~ Moody-DogG
Still a good battle and great fun, Stephen. Thanks for the stories - and the pics - nice!
ReplyDeleteAww shucks. Twarnt nut'n.
DeleteGlad you enjoyed it and I appreciate you stopping by to see how the mismatch turned out. I enjoyed the entire installment and wasn't at all disappointed by the results, as they were *precisely* what I had expected from the time I conceived of this contest.
~ D-FensDogG
Wowie. That was quite the slaughter!
ReplyDeleteIndeed it was. But, having been at BOTB for nearly 11 years now, I've developed a pert-dern accurate ability to predict my Battles' outcomes, and this one went as expected. To paraphrase from the movie 'Airplane': I bought my ticket; I knew what I was getting into.
DeleteIn fact, two of my regular voters whom I anticipated would vote for Springsteen accounted for the only two votes he did manage to receive. If only I could predict lottery numbers like this!
I don't mind a blowout, so long as I saw it coming in advance. Despite the mismatch, these were definitely the two best songs that corresponded to my theme.
My next Battle on July 15th should be a bit more interesting and may include some surprises.
~ D-FensDogG