Greatest Song Evah 3/21/25

Have A Little Faith In Me

John Hiatt’s Have a Little Faith In Me is an exceptionally beautiful song, and it is even more moving when the circumstances of the recording are taken into account. Hiatt’s recording career began in the mid-70’s, and like all male singer-songwriters of the time he was contractually obligated to be branded as a New Dylan. Over the first decade or so of his career things did not take off for him personally, as he often experimented with different genres but some of his songs such as Riding With the King and Across the Borderline were frequently covered.

He rejuvenated his career after he went into rehab to deal with his severe alcohol problem. With a new lease on life and a renewed sense of purpose he recruited an all-star backing band (Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner) and the great Bring the Family album was the result. Have a Little Faith In Me was the standout track but they were having difficulty in nailing the best arrangement for this song. It was at this time that he learned his estranged wife had just committed suicide. He soon settled on a sparse piano recording, and the emotions in his voice are so raw.

John Hiatt has gone on to have an outstanding career. He never became a platinum selling artist, but he is much respected in that Austin/Nashville/Americana corridor and Bonnie Raitt and Jeff Healey have both had major hits with compositions of his. Not to mention the numerous cover versions of Have a Little Faith In Me. He is a true underappreciated great in the American music scene.

Meet The Nominees - Oasis

Nominated for the second consecutive year, my suspicion is that the nominating committee chose to strike while the iron is hot. Oasis’s visibility is quite high right now as they conduct their reunion tour, so there is a real now or never vibe surrounding their Hall candidacy.

Oasis gained a lot of worldwide attention with their debut album, which made some inroads into the US market as well. Their popularity exploded upon release of the followup, and the additional American success made them if not THE most popular band in the world, very close to it. And the Gallagher brothers were perfect celebrities, a volatile pair never shy when it came to providing a pithy quote.

They were more than just guys who knew how to play the international press like a fiddle; their music backed it up. Observers lazily made Beatles comparisons, and to be fair Liam Gallagher has a slightly more nasal Lennon-esque tone to his vocals. Noel Gallagher at his peak was an exceptional songwriter, and the band had a knack for augmenting the songs with wonderfully complex arrangements.

It‘s also worth noting that for a time they were among the main characters in pop culture, and that means something. They were the poster children for the concept of band volatility. They embodied virtually every classic factor that creates a great intraband feud. A band with two alphas? Check. A band in which the lead singer is not the primary songwriter? Check. A band featuring brothers and the sibling rivalry which inevitably comes with that? Check.

Their commercial success in the United States did not last very long, but their massive European success continued well after their American fortunes faded. They were still able to headline Glastonbury, and their reunion tour has proven to be a hot ticket. I am interested to see how a potential Oasis induction will affect future ballots. There are several other bands who fall under the vaguely defined Britpop category who are deserving of consideration, none more so than Blur. There has always been a Beatles/Stones vibe about Oasis & Blur. If one gets in, the other is absolutely deserving of a spot in the line.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit: Wonderwall

My personal favorite: Wonderwall

If elected, would they perform at the ceremony? : It’s so adorable that you would ask that. It’s pretty clear from every public statement that they have made that they consider the Hall to be nothing but a load of bollocks, although Liam had once indicated that he would show up to make the evening a farce. It’s all moot anyway, because their reunion tour - assuming they haven’t murdered each other by then - has dates scheduled in South Korea, Japan, and Australia around the time the ceremony is likely to take place. Sorry for anyone who loves a good train wreck, an Oasis appearance at the induction ain’t happening.

The Future Of International Sports

I largely try to steer clear of politics in these parts, but there are occasions in which the ramifications of outside events bleed into the topics I like to discuss. In recent days Germany, Canada, and now the U.K. have all issued travel warnings about the US, a notion that would have seemed inconceivable before now. That is ominous because the two biggest international sporting events are scheduled to take place here in the next two years. Will spectators feel safe coming here?

I’ll get to that in a second, but there is also this. Among the countries listed on the proposed complete travel ban are Venezuela and Cuba. Look at any MLB roster, that’s a big deal. I’m not saying that there could be an ICE raid in a major league clubhouse, but it’s not out of the question that family members of players could be inadvertently caught up in a sweep. This bears watching.

And as I mentioned the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics will both be held in the US. The World Cup is actually going to be co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico. Awkward! Things have a way of changing rapidly; I don’t think even the most pessimistic among us could have possibly imagined that the state of things would have degenerated as quickly as it did. I have no idea what the situation will look like next month, let alone next year. But, in addition to international travelers likely hesitant to risk coming here, what about athletes? It would shock me if competitors would choose to miss out on the World Cup or Olympics, but how many would encourage their family to stay home? What about support staff?

There are also nuclear options that could be on the table. The rest of the civilized world is furious at us as it is, but if we actually follow through on any of his threats to annex or attack a sovereign nation, we would be an international pariah. It’s difficult to imagine FIFA or the IOC pulling either event, particularly since at this late stage it would be tough for an alternate host to take over on short notice, but it’s not completely out of the question either.

In addition, tennis fans are well aware that players from Russia and Belarus do not have flags next to their names. Sports organizations have banned both nations; in the Olympics for example participants from those 2 countries compete as independent athletes. No national flags, no national anthems if they win. Oh, and it’s individual athletes only, no teams. If our actions result in a similar ultimate punishment, that would spare the US the embarrassment of yet another humiliating loss in a relay race caused by a dropped baton. But it would also bring an end to the great dynastic gold medal runs in men’s and women’s basketball.

Once again, these last two months have been very dizzying. The future is unclear, but the present is frightening. May sanity and compassion prevail.

Olympic Updates

Staying in the international sports realm, Kirsty Coventry has been elected as the new president of the International Olympic Committee. Coventry, a former gold medal winning swimmer, will take over from the departing Thomas Bach as the 10th president in IOC history. Her election is a historic one; not only is she the first female IOC president, but as a native of Zimbabwe she is also the first IOC president from Africa. (I couldn’t help but notice that among the candidates she defeated was Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the long time former IOC president of the same name.) I should also note that the IOC is as corrupt of an organization as FIFA is, so even though this sounds like a wonderful step forward in inclusion, it is the IOC we’re talking about so let’s not strain a muscle patting ourselves on the back.

One additional note from the recent IOC meeting is that Bach has indicated that boxing will likely remain on the Olympic program after all - it had been tentatively left off of the Los Angeles schedule until now. Boxing has had issues for decades, from terrible officiating decisions to, repeat after me, a history of corruption within the sport’s governing body. You may recall that the International Boxing Association had provisionally suspended two female boxers for vague reasons, which led to a series of bad faith hot takes alleging that the two women are transgender, when in fact both were indisputably born as women, they simply have muscular builds. (No one stopped to think that one of the falsely accused women is from Algeria, and there is no chance that Algeria would permit a transgender athlete to represent their country.) Boxing in the Olympics will now be run by World Boxing; whether this governing body will be able to solve the systemic issues in the sport is TBD.

TV Of the 21st Century - The Office (BBC Version)

The difference between the British & American models of television is perfectly illustrated by the two different versions of The Office. The American remake ran for 9 seasons and almost 200 episodes. The British original, by comparison, ran for 2 series of 6 episodes each along with a 2 part special that wrapped up the story. The pilot episode of the American version was rather infamously a virtual scene by scene, line by line remake of the British debut episode including everything from Michael pranking Pam into believing she was about to be laid off to Jim placing Dwight’s stapler in a jello mold. That couldn’t last; American audiences would have never accepted a lead character as odious as David Brent on a weekly basis. He was bearable for 12 episodes, much more than that and he would have been intolerable regardless of how funny his brand of cringe comedy was.

The basic structure in each version was the same; a documentary crew follows a local branch of a struggling paper company, Slough in this instance. The central story of the documentary was how a relatively small company in a fading industry is able to survive, especially if the branch in question is run by a terrible boss. Ricky Gervais’s David Brent is crude, obnoxious, offensive, and so self absorbed that he cannot recognize that his employees laugh at his jokes not because they’re buddies and think he’s a funny guy, but because they understand that he’s the boss and it would behoove them to feign friendship.

For reference, here are the parallels among the core 4 characters: David=Michael, Tim=Jim, Gareth=Dwight, and Dawn=Pam. Of the 4, the American one who strayed furthest from the established roots was Dwight. God bless Rainn Wilson, he created a perfectly odd human, but Gareth was hilariously believable. Anyone who has ever worked in an office can relate to having to deal with someone like him - the classic brown noser, and also the guy who insists on making and taking his calls on speakerphone with no regards for whatever distractions it would cause.

The chief benefit of the shorter run is that it made the documentary structure plausible. Most long running American sitcoms which have used that framing device (Parks & Rec or Modern Family) eventually stopped pretending that there was an actual doc being shot, yet all those years later The Office still stuck with the ongoing plotline that there was actually a documentary crew following them around for years and years. The time frame in the British version was a realistic one. They shot their footage for a couple of years until they had the footage that they needed.

Without getting too spoilerly, the final special did a great job of wrapping things up. Of course, David would become the sort of faux celebrity who would do everything he could to stretch out his 15 minutes of fame as long as possible, no matter how pathetic. Ricky Gervais has unfortunately become one of those old crank comedians as he has aged; he has stopped writing jokes and instead resorts to making shocking statements disguised as jokes and when there is pushback he responds with “oh, you can’t handle my honesty!” But there’s a reason why he became such a big deal in the first place; this show was brilliant. Which of the 2 versions was the better one? Hard to say, it’s such an apples to oranges comparison. Both were great in their own way.

Originally aired on: BBC America

Currently streaming on: Hulu & Peacock

Closing Laughs

Welcome back to Earth, Suni & Butch. I presume that while you were in space you didn’t have much time to keep up with Tending The Herd. Feel free to catch up on what you missed. Have a great weekend everyone, and I will see you again on Monday.