Greatest Song Evah 8/30/24

Programming Note

I’m going to enjoy the long weekend along with everyone else, so I will not send out a newsletter on Monday morning. Next week I’ll publish on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. Please adjust your plans accordingly.

Use Ta Be My Girl

Use Ta Be My Girl was the last top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for the O’Jays. How great was this song? It was released several years after the era of classic Gamble/Huff Philly Soul had run its course. This was still a massive hit even though it had a throwback feel to it. Talk about being timeless.

The theme of the song is a simple one; you don’t appreciate what you’ve had until you’ve lost it. The narrator sings about how great his ex-girlfriend is, and he makes it clear that he took her for granted when they were together. Now, if he had the chance he’d take her back as a matter of fact. (The woman in question could not be reached for comment.)

Depending on whether or not you choose to classify The Spinners (originally from Detroit) as a Philly Soul band, the O’Jays were likely the premier examples of that subgenre. Blessed with 2 great lead singers in Walter Williams and Eddie Levert, their harmonies were also impeccable and they knocked out a series of classic bangers in the 1970’s.

Remembering The Goodwill Games

It’s an exaggeration to say that the Olympic Movement was teetering in 1984, but it was clearly suffering in the wake of the American led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games and the Soviet led boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games. It was around this time that Ted Turner felt there was a void to be filled. Thus, he created the Goodwill Games, a quadrennial multi-sport international competition to be staged in the even-numbered years between Olympiads. (This was when the summer & winter games were still held in the same year.) As a show of yes, goodwill, hosting duties were to alternate between cities in the United States and the Soviet Union. It should also be noted that these games provided content for Turner’s cable holdings.

The first edition was held in Moscow in 1986. I didn’t see much of this one. I grew up in Queens & went to college in The Bronx, and the majority of the outer boroughs were not wired for cable TV until later in the decade. So I only had access to weekend highlights shown on regular TV, which wasn’t enough to draw me in. It was the second edition, Seattle 1990, that really introduced me to the competition, and I liked what I saw.

The Goodwill Games were slightly smaller in scale; a large percentage of Olympic sports (including winter sports figure skating & ice hockey) were included in the program, but with a smaller number of athletes. One of the attractions was that for the most part every event was a final. Rather than hold a series of heats to set up a final for the 100m dash, the Goodwill Games would simply invite the world’s top 8 sprinters and run the one race to determine the world’s fastest man and fastest woman.

It was around this time that the Olympics tweaked the schedule. Beginning with Lillehammer in 1994, the Winter Olympics moved to a different cycle. As of that year rather than a winter games in February followed by the summer games a few months later; with a 3 1/2 year wait for the next one there would now be an Olympics held in every even numbered year. No one ever said that this was done to mortally wound the Goodwill Games, but…

The move did not have an immediate detrimental effect on the third Goodwill Games, which were held in St. Petersburg in 1994, but the event was now living on borrowed time. The other death blow came when Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting in 1996. The Time Warner overlords did not have the personal attachment to the Goodwill Games that Ted Turner did, so they didn’t give it much love, even with the 1998 edition held in New York City. I can verify that there was almost no indication that a major sporting event was being held in my town. Most of the events took place on Long Island, but I didn’t even notice an increase in traffic. The official mascot of the event might as well have been a tumbleweed.

A winter Goodwill Games were quietly staged in 2000 in Lake Placid, and the fifth and final edition of the summer Goodwills took place in Brisbane (the only one not held in the United States or USSR/Russia) the following year with an even smaller amount of attention. Organizers believed that moving the event to odd-numbered years, aka non-Olympic years was the secret to survival, but there wasn’t a large enough audience for another one of these type of massive sporting events. The planned 2025 editions - Calgary and Phoenix - never took place.

In one sense, it’s a shame that the Goodwill Games ultimately failed. The biggest challenge that comes with the Olympics is figuring out a way to keep the athletes and the sports in the forefront of fan’s minds in non-Olympic years and this event was a great way to do so. Unfortunately there’s only so much mental capacity among potential audiences for that. As intensely as I follow the Olympics, paying a similar amount of attention to the Goodwill Games on top of that was too much even for me. In the end, winning Olympic gold ensures that the accomplishment will be in the first paragraph of each athlete’s obituary. Goodwill Games gold wouldn’t even warrant a mention. It was a nice attempt, but ultimately little more than a historical footnote.

The Palate Cleanse We All Need

Wednesday was Shohei Ohtani Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium. Ohtani’s dog Decoy had the honor of participating in the ceremonial first pitch and it produced one of the most wholesome moments imaginable.

Big Racing Weekend

Sunday evening in Darlington will be the final race in NASCAR’s regular season before the playoff field is officially set. The Olympic break this season necessitated a slight change to the usual schedule. Normally the summer Daytona race ends the regular season with Darlington leading off the playoffs, but this year Daytona was the penultimate regular season race. That change effected the scramble to the playoffs.

Daytona as the regular season finale adds tremendous drama to the proceedings. Daytona brings a unique level of chaos and carnage along with the potential for a surprise winner, both of which bring the potential to drastically shake up the playoff field. That’s exactly what happened this year. Harrison Burton, who was last in the standings among full-time drivers going into the race, won, stole a playoff berth, and shifted the playoff cut line.

Unlike Daytona, Darlington is a track that seldom produces surprise winners, which means that the drivers currently outside of playoff position have their work cut out for them. 13 drivers are locked in, so there are 3 spots still up for grabs. Martin Truex Jr. has a large enough cushion that he is in barring disaster. Ty Gibbs isn’t in as comfortable of a position, but he’s in solid standing. That leaves current bubble sitter Chris Buescher, along with Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain who are the only 2 drivers outside of a spot who still have a mathematical chance of advancing on points. Even those 2 are far enough behind that they need to hope for a terrible result from Buescher to make up the deficit. Any other driver can only advance with a victory, but as I mentioned a surprise winner at Darlington is unlikely. To put it another way, any driver who would need the speed to win this weekend would have likely already won a race by this point. So, it’s likely to be a race without much tension. A regular season at Daytona is a classic “get your popcorn ready” race. Darlington? It’s almost always an exciting race, but as far the big picture in regards to the playoff chase goes, popcorn isn’t needed. Perhaps a small bag of Lay’s chips. Plain.

The finale of the IndyCar season is also rapidly approaching. There are only 3 remaining races, and 2 of those are this weekend, as there will be a doubleheader at the historic Milwaukee Mile. Unlike NASCAR, IndyCar has no playoff,; whoever has accumulated the most points at the end of the year is the cup winner. Right now reigning series champ Alex Palou has a solid enough lead that he could all but wrap things up with 2 great results this weekend. There are other drivers with slim chances, but the only ones who realistically still have a chance at overtaking Palou are Will Power and Colton Herta. The season ends in Nashville September 15.

They Are Not Looking Back In Anger

In a move that few saw coming, the official announcement came out earlier this week that Oasis will reunite for a UK tour next summer. I mentioned this when they appeared on this year’s Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame ballot, but they perfectly sit in the middle of a Venn Diagram of factors that create a volatile atmosphere in rock bands. They have two alphas, a primary songwriter who is not the lead singer, and a pair of brothers in the band. There’s also the additional factor that the Gallagher brothers are, let me think of a generous term, outspoken. Google Noel Gallagher/Michael Hutchence. It’s unpleasant. It’s no wonder that relationships within the band were often contentious, and the final breakup was particularly acrimonious.

And yet here we are. Observers have noted that Noel Gallagher is going through a divorce which will likely lead to some hefty alimony payments, so not only is he in need of cash but he has every incentive to grit his teeth and play nice. Because their commercial heyday in the US was relatively brief, I’m not sure how many Americans are fully aware of what a big deal this reunion is. Oasis remained a humongous draw in Britain, easily able to headline the Glastonbury Festival, for years after their American visibility waned. I’m not sure if the “shut up and take my money” meme resonates as much on that side of the pond, but this reunion is certain to rake in gobs of cash.

50 Years Ago - That’s My Mama

That’s My Mama could easily be classified as an “oh yeah I vaguely remember that show” series, but this show demonstrates the odd way in which my mind operates. It only ran for 2 seasons, beginning in 1974. There is no reason for me to remember it all these years later. And yet… there is so much important stuff that I’ve forgotten over the course of my life. Why do I still have such clear memories of Ted Lange’s catchphrase? He portrayed Junior, the local gossip. He would barge in with the latest bit of news to share, saying “I got it, I got it, and I got to report it!” I can’t remember anything I ever learned in an economics class, but somehow I remember this.

That’s My Mama starred Clifton Davis as the owner of a barbershop whose mother - a stereotype of an older sassy Black woman - was constantly on his case to find a good woman. The barbershop was the main setting of the show; I was only 8 years old in 1974 so I certainly was not aware of the central role that a barbershop often plays in an African-American neighborhood. Was that well known among white people of the time?

The reason I ask that question is that even though the show had an almost entirely black cast, the show’s creators and producers were all white. Because of that when I think back to how broadly the characters were drawn, it sure feels uncomfortable. I used to watch this show when it was on, but not in the half century since. I’ll go out on a limb and state that it has likely not aged well. (It streams on Tubi if anyone is interested.)

Closing Laughs

Hope you all have relaxing holiday weekends. As always thanks for being part of the Tending the Herd family, and be sure to tell your friends about this small corner of The Internets. See you all again on Tuesday.