FanPost

We Are Off To See The Wizards?- A Musical Post


The Washington Wizards; what marketing review group came up with that pathetic alliteration? By comparison, the New Orleans Pelicans name is an act of genius. I have in my music collection exactly one song with Wizard in the title and NO DOROTHY, I'm not going to post it! So much for continuing the theme of song posts centered around team names. I will stretch the name just enough to include this mystical tune:

The Wizards have convinced themselves that they are playoff material this season- being in the Eastern Conference certainly makes this much more likely than having to engage in the trench warfare that is the result of competing out West. I'm not convinced that a core of Wall, Beal, and Nene is enough even in the East, but there is the Maynor effect which could change everything! A bench of Gortat, Seraphin, Ariza, Webster, and (soon to be back in Europe)Jan Vesely is even more unintimidating than our reserves.

I know that there are some negative connotations to the original name of the franchise when it moved from Maryland to D.C., but at least the Bullets had one NBA championship to their credit. 35 years ago Wes Unseld (whom KLove's unbelievable passing has been compared to) led Hayes, Kupchak, Dandridge and Henderson to the only title ever for the team. The Bullets team name does naturally led to a song that is a perfect fit:

As I was searching for Washington music, I came across a song that is really difficult to describe fully or even partially describe. Given my utter lack of any skill in interpreting Italian beyond ciao or arrivederci, this tune will likely remain a lyrical mystery. Visually it is even a bit beyond a mystery. Fell free to provide whatever enlightenment you can to the enigma that is Lucio Dalla's" Washington".

I'm going to take some liberty with this format, as I almost always do. I prefer to think of it as interpreting guidelines rather than following rules ;) There is a record label in good old Hollywood, California that goes by the name of Capitol Records. Occasionally they do concerts outside the studio/office building. A recent such concert featured a group singing a song about Orpheus and while I'm not a huge fan of the band, I do like that tune quite a bit:

A concert on this same location some 40 years earlier is even more compelling to me. A band that had been touring with Sly Stone was abruptly kicked off the bus in Las Vegas and left to find their way back to their island home. Some reports were that Sly was infuriated that they were WAY more popular than he and the Family Stone, but whatever the reason, this group got the chance to play at Capitol in October of 1973 and some history resulted:

Unfortunately much of the footage from that concert has the black bar inserted to cover the timeclock of the video recorder, but the full footage is available without the timebar at this site.

There are two wonderful musicians whose last name happens to be Washington. Dinah Washington is one of the great R&B singers and easily the equal of Sarah Vaughn, Ella, and Pearl. Here is one of my favorites of her great catalog of music:

The other Washington that comes to mind is based in New Orleans and has done work with many of the greats from that region. He is a great artist in his own right though and I'll just post a song from his "Wolftracks" album. Walter "Wolfman" Washington is still active at age 69 and I would certainly put it on my calendar to see him if he comes to town.

That's all I've got this morning, what have you people got that you want to share before the Washington game? By the way, we will kick some Wizards arse on Tuesday night. Go Wolves!