The Famous Story of Willie O at the Clark Gas Station

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Jeeze, I think I only rode with Willie Overstreet once or twice. I remember
Jim Raab telling me about this, if my memory serves me well. Jeff tells it here
with vim and gusto. I recall the Clark Station as being on Humbolt, say, by
a ledge. I believe it was Willie who introduced me to the idea of doo rag,
 which was useful to me mere weeks ago.

Red sails on the horizon

One of these days I want to take a look at Dylan's latest record, The Tempest. Again he creates from whatever's at hand, including bits and pieces of others' music in time. I like The Tempest. It may not be great across the board. But some numbers are more than great - they are unimaginable without there being a Bob Dylan. But anyway for the Dr Bop Mog Sat Night Fish Fry that is tonight I am gonna look at Red Sails  in the Sunset - an old Tin Pan Alley piece done by Bing, Kate Smith, Fats, Eddie Duchin - ton o people. Dylan's Beyond the Horizon conjures that Red Sails mood.


(Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea)
Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me
(She sailed at the dawning, all day I've been blue)
Red sails in the sunset; I'm trusting in you


http://mog.com/m/track/8155343?ci=20000 Bob Dylan (Beyond the Horizon)

http://mog.com/m/track/39133495 Louis Armstrong

http://mog.com/m/track/7533577 Jimmy McGriff (the cover made this a finalist, to be honest).

http://mog.com/m/track/1091077 Bing Crosby

Posted by Jack Dr Mog Mop Vaughan

Peace in the Valley

Source: bodleian.thejewishmuseum.org via Jack on Pinterest

It will be tame wolves
Assad must take a pregnancy, oh yes
And wild beasts
Must be lit by children
It will not change I, changed from this creature that I am, oh yes.

http://mog.com/m/track/9332049?ci=40000

Web: You can take lyrics of Peace in the Valley, put into Google Translate and change eg. to Arabic, then back again for to see in between and over again.

Bill Monbouquette at Mission Hill Little League Dinner

Last week I was able to attend the annual Mission Hill Little League Trophy Award Ceremony and Dinner. Red Sox pitching great Bill Monbouquette was there as the featured guest speaker. My friend Dennis Pultinas (Marquette, Class of 1974) had asked me to come by to do a little A/V work, featuring "Monbo Time" by the Remains, a tribute to Monbouquette. Bill was a great inspiration speakers. The kids were great as always. I am posting here Dennis's heartfelt introduction to Bill, and a transcription of some notes I took.

Introduction for Bill Monboquette: Mission Hill Little League

October 14, 2012

As an 8 yr old boy growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1961, the Boston Red Sox were very important to me.  The morning paper would have in the bottom corner of the front page what they called “the Scoreboard”.  It listed the scores of all the games played the day or night before.  Checking this out was the first thing I did when I woke up in the morning.  Then I would look at the standings.  The Red Sox were usually in 8^th place.  There were 9 teams in the American league then. 

Waterbury had both Boston and New York fans.  In thinking about why I liked the Red Sox I guess it had to do with the color Red, and the shape of the letters on the home uniforms, and the sounds of the letters in the word ‘Boston’.  The Yankees had pin stripes that looked like jail clothes; their NY logo looked like a dollar sign; and the sound of the word ‘Yankee’ brought to mind screeching traffic noises, concrete and asphalt.

I think I saw Boston’s place low in the standings as something strong; as if it was holding up the other teams like the foundation of a building.  Springing from their place way down below was the spirit of this 1961 team.   At times this lowly creature would blossom into a team of champions and knock off the best teams in baseball.  They were an inspiration!

I would listen to games on my transistor radio as I hung around in the yard outside or rode my bike.  I would check to see who was pitching before the game.  If it was Bill Monboquette,  I knew it was going to be a good day and we had a chance to beat anyone.  To my 8 yr old self the name Bill Monboquette was magic.

He was the ace of the Sox in the 60’s.  He played 8 years for Boston from 1958 to 1965. 

He was a four time All-Star in 1960 (x2), 1962 and 1963

He was a finesse pitcher with excellent control:

-         3 one-hit games

-         a no-hitter on August 9, 1962

-         a 20 game winner in 1963

-         struck out the great Micky Mantle 22 times in the 83 times they faced each other

-          

He also had a strong arm.

-For 5 years he pitched from 10 to 13 complete 9-inning games

- For 4 years he ranked in the top ten pitchers in the league for innings pitched.

- In 1962 he had a 12 inning complete game against Cleveland.

Of importance: He stood up to Boston management about disrespect for minority players in the early years when Blacks and Latinos integrated baseball.

He was elected to the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2000.

After leaving Boston he played for the Tigers in 1966, the Yankees in 1967 where his e.r.a was 2.33 and finally the San Francisco Giants.

He was a pitching coach for the Yankees and Mets, and a minor league coach in the Tigers and Blue Jays farm system. 

It’s a pleasure and a great honor to introduce to you one of the all-time Red Sox greats:  Bill Monboquette! - Dennis Pultinas, 2012

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Notes from Mission Hill Little League dinner, Oct 2012. Featured speaker, Bill Monbouquette.

Bill Monbouquette was a warm, arresting presence at this year’s Mission Hill Little League dinner. He talked about his career, shared comments on some greats he knew,  told the assembled ball players that hard work was necessary to succeed.

“Not many people get to do something that they really love.”

“I had a chance to play with Ted Williams… Carl Yastrzemski…Mickey Mantle… Juan Marichal {others} What did they have in common? All Hall of Famers.” [He especially notes Marichal for this audience, with many Dominicans.]

“I am in the Hall of Fun.” He jokes.

Where he came from, when he did, was different than now.

“There was CYO. We played older guys. That was a stepping stone. You can learn from older guys. Back in those days I had a mentor. Gus (Holmesby?). He’d grown up an orphan. He came from the Home for Little Wanderers (nearby).  He was a milkman for H.P. Hood. He dedicated his life to kids. A milkman’s hours are long. He had to get up very early to work.”

He notes the work George Brennan did over many years with the Mission Hill Little League.

Monbouquette came from Medford. “’Mehd-Fudd’ we call it.”

“One thing I learned a long time ago – you don’t get to the big leagues without working. You are not entitled. You got to go and earn it.”

“And that is a wonderful feeling. It’s like pitching a game and finishing it. If you get taken out in the fifth or sixth inning, it’s a different feeling.”

“You work and you work and you work. Instant success doesn’t happen.”

He reminded the kids that many colleges give scholarships to day for sports.

When he started with the Red Sox, he made$6000. He progressed to $7,000, $11,000, and so on to $14,000. He asked someone what a pitcher with his record would get paid today. Answer: $10 million, $11 million, $12 million.

Here I do believe I saw Bill’s wife almost tearing up slightly.

He tells of sitting on the bench with Johnny Pesky (this sounds slightly apocryphal).

Bill: You know, I’d play this game for nuthin.

Pesky: You stupid numbskull, you did play for nothing.

==

==

In a question and answer period he invites, he’s asked who he roomed with over the years. It’s hard to remember, “bags” he says to laughter. Then he shares some names, including Dennis The Menace McLaine.

More on hard work.

Yaz worked hard. Yaz had one problem. Some times he wouldn’t run to 1^st base on something that was clearly an out. Nevertheless…

“Yaz made himself a player. He was  hard working. He would take extra batting practice after the game.”

Working hard is important.. but “sooner or later somebody takes your job.”

What was his number? # 27 Carlton Fisk took it.

Who were tough teams? Yankees. They don’t call them the Bronx Bombers for nothing.

About the no-hitter”

“The game was in Chicago. It was against Early Wynn. Home base ump was Bill McKinley. We called him jumping Bill. He moved around in the back so much. “

Working for him that day was the toilet seat curve ball. He shows how  it works. Depicts a guy pulling back and dropping his butt down as if sitting on a toilet seat.

On Early (A competitor): “If you tried to bunt, he’d hit you in the ribs.

One play he recalls as “bang-bang” . He was in ondeck circle, saw it well, he thought the Red Sox runner was out.

They go out 1-2-3 in 8^th. The 9^th.

It’s the bottom of the 9^th. He gets the first two guys (one is Nellie Fox). “Last guy is Luis Aparicio”

Curve ball. Strike 1.

Slider. Strike 2.

Slider. Check swing. Ball

(someone in crowd yells: “They shot the wrong McKinley.”

Then he swings and misses. Strike 3.

{Bill was elated) He says: “White guys can jump!”

 Transcribed by Jack Vaughan

Dr Mog Bop Lecture #4567: The bawling blues swamp guitar

There is a style of electric blues guitar. It is one of chords more than stinging single notes. It’s about trembling tremolo, and monotonous vibrato, of really seriously bent major-and-minor blues notes, that really conjure an evocative mood. Mood is a big thing for me.

John Fog-arty did a riff on the tremolo style – a lot of people call it bawling guitar - that came to stand for a sort of swamp sound. Where did it come from? Fog-arty worked in the warehouse of Arhoolie records, I believe. And had access to Roebucks Staples records , and some others, who were creating this music within a music, and Fog-arty was taken by it, and took it out in those days on the Fillmore rock circuit. It was described as a swamp thing.

This style, chord-heavy, is out of the margins of the most classic blues guitar, but quite significant. None was greater on the bawling blues guitar sound than Roebuck Staples, center, leader and progenitor of the Staples Singers. He early on got an electric guitar, and applied it to – of all things- gospel music. So there was a religious quality to this stuff. Staples came from the center circle of Delta Blues, Dockery’s Plantation, and had heard no less than Charlie Patton, so his approach to gospel, was informed by a dervish revelator. As far as I know Charlie Patton never went electric.

So our pocket history of bawling blues guitar ends and begins with Pops Staples doing, first This May Be the Last Time and last Uncloudy Day. In an interview I found he marked the latter as a personal favorite. The interview has some funny parts.

What were you doing with the guitar to give it that sound? 

Nothin’. I was just playin’. 

Did you have a reverb or a tremolo? 

It was a tremolo on it, but they don’t make the tremolos like they did.

It’s different things. 

{He notes he often played a Gibson Les Paul.}

Besides Pops, we got I Promise To Wait My Love by Martha and the Vandellas, on the Gordy label as I remember, and Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin. None other than Joe South on the guitar on that. Then we have Candi Staton again this week on Im Just a Prisoner Of Your Good Lovin and Born on the Bayou by the John Fog-arty and his Creedence Clearwaters. Get out the Kleenex while these guitars roughly weep!

posted Jack Dr Bop Mog Vaughan 

Click to go to list. https://mog.com/m#playlist/2021203 Then click on "Play all tracks" to play.  

Hahvad Stadium Haiku

In October, thinking I have never been to Harvard Stadium, an old concrete bowl by the Charles that Van Morrison made immortal in Brown Eyed Girl making love in the green grass behind the stadium...I head out via subway. 

Old Harvard Square to go. The essential American Fall Saturday event to encounter. Once there I tweet.  I sat next to Cornell band, and that sort of set the tone.

#hahvad This day is my homage to damon runyon author of hold them yale

#hahvad stadium watching football literally. See it arc in the air.

#Hahvad stadium; twenty 11 yearolds ready to receive field goal kick in stands. Scurry. Scatter.Pounce on the ball.

#Hahvad stadium; listen, yo, the glockenspiel

#hahvad stadium: these teams have good sense not to use heads when tackling. Priceless the education.

#hahvad stadium: i think harvard band is playing dreaming is free. That's good thing, right?

#hahvad stadium; cornell band has some moves like old jackson state. High turkey strut kicks as they leave the field.

#hahvad stadium cornell band great on give my regards to broadway

#hahvad stadium Dylan's seen this scene. Wrote about it in Highlands: "All the young men with their/ young women looking so good/Well, I’d trade places with any of them/In a minute, if I could." This is how things look to these old eyes these days.

#hahvad At center of Runyon's tale is a Little Doll without the duckets to see Harvard-Yale. That and the view of someone who has never been to a football game. I sat next to a guy splaining the scoring to a kid from China.

#hahvad Gust of wind at football game. Pass gets away. The Cornell cheerleader pylon sits and waits.

#hahvad Wm Tell Overture. Hi ho Silver! Lawrence of Arabia! The Tijiauna Taxi!Josha fithjdabattle o Jerricho, Cant turn you loose!. Oh, Otis!

#hahvadstadium Harvard beats Cornell 45-13. As game ends Sun is still high. Staving off cold. Its 2012. I love that dirty water.

Col. Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt's legacy has risen and fallen several times since his death in 1919. Be that as it may, his work was great enough to get him a placed on Mount Rushmore along with our greatest presidents - being the only one from the 20th century so enthroned. Even after all these intervening ears, only cousin Franklin Roosevelt has vied with Theodore Roosevelt for confirmation in the pantheon presidential beyond Rushmore. The book at hand here considers a Roosevelt who had to leave the Republican Party that had quickly started to undo progressive measures Roosevelt had enacted after h, following the near equivalent of two terms, left the White House.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) lived a god-awful long time ago, but still is figure of interest. He is of special interest to dyed in the wool history buffs and some politically obsessed others. From wealth but a Progressive at heart, he tried to divert the Republican Party from kowtowing to big capitalist interests. It is the tale of that battle that underlies Colonel Roosevelt, the last volume in Edmund Morris's prodigious three-volume biography of T.R.

At the same time that he brokered progressivism, promoted respect for Black people and more or less helped to invent what is now called ecology, he stridently promoted American imperialism and militarism and the unfair treatment of indigenous people. Maybe more rightfully than the Dos Eckees TV ad guy, he can be called the most interesting fellow who ever lived.

This book finds him in his post presidential years, still pursuing a strenuous life that took its toll on this heart. Historian Morris's work is daring. He concludes that it was more than strenuous living that did Roosevelt in at what would now be a young age. His heart broke as a dear son died in air combat in World War I, a war T.R. vocally urged the U.S. to enter. Is Morris going overboard, contrasting Roosevelt the war lover with Roosevelt the grieving father? In my estimate he has every right to his conjectures at the end of his colossal (2000-plus pages, probably 35-plus years) undertaking. Fact and Story are key to Morris's biography. Legend, here is palpable. Roosevelt, a man of both thought and action, presented here with depth and nuance, will find a new audience through Morris's work. - Jack Vaughan (see this and other reviews on Amazon Reviewer Page.

What price collage?

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Just googling moon traveller images and thought they looked kind of happy together. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what price collage? - Jack Vaughan

The great chain of Link Wray

After promoting Link Wray’s offbeat mountain shack hippie period record last week it is time to sample his core oeuvre with the Wraymen and such. I am gonna hip you to some stuff I found more lately. That is The Wild One, which evokes for me Third Stone From the Sun by Jimi Hendrix (used for a high school film class opus called “Lenny Bruce in Space”),which invokes Telstar by Joe Meek and the Tornados. Threw in Rawhide (Memphis Rockabilly Band used to kill with this – also probably theme for an oldies show or two). Then done first by the English Shadows is Shawnee Link’s Apache, boinging out to Cecelia. Finally, we return to space with Interstellar Overdrive by the Pink Floyds. The moral of the story is that surf music is a space thing. Psychedelic!

https://mog.com/m#playlist/1996537

 posted Jack Dr Bop Mog Vaughan

Click to go to list https://mog.com/m#playlist/1996537 Then click on "Play all tracks" to play.