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Huey Lewis Disses Prerecorded Music At Baseball Games
Huey Lewis may be a big sports fan but he’s hardly an aficionado of prerecorded music played at baseball games. Saying it “doesn’t even sound good” in ballparks, Lewis advises stadium owners to swap those tapes for live music. Are you listening MLB?
Photo: Scott Legato / RockStarProPhotography.com
DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, Mich.
Coming to us from TheTalkHouse.com via Deadspin, Lewis gives several reasons as to why prerecorded music just doesn’t cut it for him when he’s rooting for his favorite teams.
“The delivery system for the music usually consists of a series of big speakers, spaced very far apart, often resulting in a canceling effect, reducing the song to mainly the beat,” the leader of The News wrote.
Lewis also doesn’t care much for players choosing their own music for when they’re announced in the lineup introductions or when they come up to bat, saying it “makes as much sense as having me make the starting lineups.” Then again, Lewis admits he wouldn’t mind a shot at picking the starting nine.
As to live music in ballparks, Lewis said, “it’s a boon to local culture.”
“The San Francisco 49ers used to have an 18-piece jazz band on the sidelines, complete with a cable car bell ringer, to perform between plays. … The Giants used to hire a local Dixieland combo to roam the stands and play.”
Lewis also suggested that Chicago’s Wrigley Field could benefit from having a blues band play in different sections between innings. Something that makes perfect sense when you consider that Cubs fans have been singing the blues since 1870.
So far, Lewis’ essay at TheTalkHouse.com has received one comment. Former Dream Syndicate member Steve Wynn also expressed distaste for prerecorded music at baseball games, saying “ballpark and organ are two words that go together.” Of course, Wynn is something of an expert on the subject, what with him being a member of The Baseball Project, a band that also counts R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey as members as well as Linda Pitmon and Fenway Park organist Josh Kantor.
But what do you think? Do you like hearing prerecorded music at sporting events? Do you enjoy hearing Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” welcoming a slugger to the plate or The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” accompanying a reliever walking to the mound? Or does all that prerecorded musical grandstanding make you long for flesh-and-blood musicians?