MUSICA & SPORT L’omaggio di James Taylor al baseball e ai Boston Red Sox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K1qZi6Z0e4&index=2&list=RDTfwf14gIsNk

E’ appena uscito il nuovo album di James Taylor, Before this world, a tredici anni da October road che era stato il suo ultimo lavoro di brani inediti, seguito poi da un paio di cd di cover, un album di brani natalizi, il live con Carole King dal Troubador e il lavoro dal vivo One man band.
In Before this world c’è una canzone dedicata al baseball, o meglio ai Red Sox di Boston. Il brano si intitola gli Angeli di Fenway, Angels of Fenway, ed è un inno alla squadra di baseball di Boston, che  rimase per la bellezza di 86 anni senza vincere le World Series. Sortilegio che si infranse nel 2004. E proprio rivivendo la sua esperienza di tifoso, James Taylor ha deciso di comporre la sua ode alla squadra. Ha confessato di aver impiegato un’eternità a scriverne il testo, dieci anni addirittura, ma alla fine il brano è andato in porto e fa parte del nuovo cd. 

As Taylor explained in a press box interview
conducted alongside the song’s debut, which took place at Boston’s
Fenway Park prior to the Sox’s game against the New York Yankees
yesterday, he was inspired to write “Angels of Fenway” after the team
won the World Series in 2004, snapping an 86-year title drought.
Joyous as that occasion may have been for Taylor, the song didn’t
come together quickly; in fact, he admits that it took him a decade to
finish the lyrics, and he was only able to complete the verses after
deciding to “sequester” himself on a series of week-long retreats. As he
puts it, “It took me a long time to get back into the saddle of writing
lyrics again.”
“Angels of Fenway” will doubtless come as a soothing dose of Taylor cheer for Red Sox fans, but as Deadspin
notes, those painstakingly compiled lyrics present a rather inaccurate
picture of the team’s rivalry with the Yankees, including a line about
how the “Damn Yankees … outspending everybody two-to-one” that neglects to mention the Sox outspent everyone but the Yankees.
Quibbles aside, “Angels of Fenway” is very much a James Taylor song,
which augurs well for fans who’ve been patiently waiting more than a
dozen years for an album of new material. Check out Before This World‘s first single, “Today Today Today,” below.

Read More: James Taylor Debuts New Red Sox-Inspired Song, ‘Angels of Fenway’ | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/james-taylor-angels-of-fenway/?trackback=tsmclip

 

“Nel 2004 quella stagione miracolosa fu una cosa davvero incredibile. So cosa ha significato per i tifosi dei Red Sox, per la città di Boston e per tutto il New England. Mi colpì profondamente e mi sono reso conto che avevo voglia di scriverne”, ha raccontato James Taylor. Il pezzo è anche un video, che ripropone alcuni tra i momenti storici della squadra, incluso il calzettone insaguinato di Curt Schilling. Il 6 agosto James Taylor terrà un concerto, con Bonnie Ratt, proprio al Fenway Park.

All’incredibile successo nelle World Serie del 2004 è dedicato anche il film dei fratelli Farrelly, Fever pitch (Amore in gioco), partito come remake (molto liberamente ispirato in realtà) del film Febbre a 90°, tratto dal romanzo di Nick Nornby tifoso dell’Arsenal. Il finale del film, che ha avuto lo stesso scrittore inglese come sceneggiatore e che aveva tra gli interpreti Drew Barrymore (anche produttrice) e Jimmy Fallom, è stato girato il 27 ottobre del 2004 allo stadio di St.Louis, alla fine della partita delle finali di World Series tra i St.Louis Cardinal e i Boston Red Sox  La rimonta dei Red Sox nella finale di American League fu assolutamente inaspettata e indusse gli sceneggiatori a cambiare il finale del film, che divenne una celebrazione in tempo reale di un risultato sportivo sorprendente 


La maledizione del Bambino

La Maledizione di Bambino («The Curse of the Bambino» in lingua inglese) fu una superstizione addotta come motivazione per il fallimento della squadra di baseball dei Boston Red Sox, che non vinse la World Series per un periodo di 86 anni e cioè dal 1918 fino al 2004. Alcuni tifosi presero seriamente la “maledizione”, ma i più ne parlarono in modo ironico.

La superstizione nacque quando la squadra dei Red Sox vendette Babe Ruth (chiamato appunto “il Bambino“, in italiano) ai New York Yankees.
Prima di questo quella dei Red Sox era stata una squadra che aveva
collezionato varie vittorie tra le quali il primo campionato annuale del
baseball professionista nel 1903
(World Series) e cinque titoli mondiali. Dopo la cessione del campione
la squadra non vinse un titolo per decenni mentre quella dei New York
Yankees divenne una delle più forti e vincenti degli USA. Questa maledizione divenne, quindi, il punto focale della storica rivalità fra gli Yankees e i Red Sox negli anni a venire.

La maledizione si alimentò di anno in anno fino al 2004, quando i Red
Sox riuscirono a rimontare da uno svantaggio di 3 partite nelle
American League Championship Series del 2004 proprio contro gli Yankees,
per poi andare a vincere le World Series contro i St. Louis Cardinals.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maledizione_del_Bambino 

IL TESTO di James Taylor

Angels Of Fenway 

86 summers gone by
Bambino put a hex on the Bean
We were living on a tear and a sigh
In the shadow of the Bronx machine

Man, you could feel it smoulder
The whole town had an attitude
Then you’d get a little chip on your shoulder
Say something that’s downright rude

Oh, damn them Yankees
Outspending everybody two to one
Picking up on the cream of the crop
Stealing everyone’s favorite son

Angels of Fenway
Hear our prayer
We have been chastened
We have been patient

Grandmama was a Fenway fan
Even after Grandad died
I still remember her holding my hand
Taking me along for the ride

She was born in 1918
Last year that the Red Sox won
Back then when they sold the Babe
Something that they never should’ve ever have done

Hey Nanna can I have another Coke?
Here comes the hot dog man
Look at that, his bat just broke
Gee, that’s got to kill his hand

Riding home on the Green Line
Watching the town go by
Nanna made another Red Sox fan
‘Til the day I die

That was back in ’65
It doesn’t seem like a long time ago
Grandmama keeping hope alive
Watched them win in ‘004

Oh my God, it was beyond belief
Down three, needing four in a row
Holding on by the skin of our teeth
Like a hungry dog on a bone

Angels of Fenway
Give them peace
They have been patient
Red Sox Nation

The whole world held its breath
People got down on their knees
Ready for the sudden death
Praying to heaven for hell to freeze

Nanna watched from her hospital bed
She was there ’til the end of the race
I couldn’t hear the last words she said
But she was lying there with a smile on her face
Just a little smile on her face

It doesn’t feel like a long time ago…

La discografia di James Taylor

Studio

Live

Raccolte

James Taylor continues the slow buildup to the June 16 release of his new Before This World LP with the debut of the album track “Angels of Fenway.”
As Taylor explained in a press box interview
conducted alongside the song’s debut, which took place at Boston’s
Fenway Park prior to the Sox’s game against the New York Yankees
yesterday, he was inspired to write “Angels of Fenway” after the team
won the World Series in 2004, snapping an 86-year title drought.
Joyous as that occasion may have been for Taylor, the song didn’t
come together quickly; in fact, he admits that it took him a decade to
finish the lyrics, and he was only able to complete the verses after
deciding to “sequester” himself on a series of week-long retreats. As he
puts it, “It took me a long time to get back into the saddle of writing
lyrics again.”
“Angels of Fenway” will doubtless come as a soothing dose of Taylor cheer for Red Sox fans, but as Deadspin
notes, those painstakingly compiled lyrics present a rather inaccurate
picture of the team’s rivalry with the Yankees, including a line about
how the “Damn Yankees … outspending everybody two-to-one” that neglects to mention the Sox outspent everyone but the Yankees.
Quibbles aside, “Angels of Fenway” is very much a James Taylor song,
which augurs well for fans who’ve been patiently waiting more than a
dozen years for an album of new material. Check out Before This World‘s first single, “Today Today Today,” below.

Read More: James Taylor Debuts New Red Sox-Inspired Song, ‘Angels of Fenway’ | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/james-taylor-angels-of-fenway/?trackback=tsmclip

Leandro De Sanctis

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