By Gail Reynolds, Rock At Night Columnist
I can’t be the only one thinking about Steve Goodman right now at this incredibly historic time. Steve Goodman, composer of the much covered Americana favorite, “City of New Orleans”! You know we’re talking about a fabulous song to have other brilliant singer-songwriters such as Willie Nelson, Johnnie Cash, Judy Collins, and Arlo Guthrie cover it. Oh, Steve Goodman who died tragically young of leukemia with his sense of humor intact enough to dub himself “Cool Hand Leuk.”
Folk aficionados not familiar with this gifted artist must explore his rich catalog and see why he earned two posthumous Grammys in the ‘80s.
But to paraphrase Arlo, this isn’t why I wanted to talk to you today. As noted earlier, Steve Goodman figures prominently at this historic time. No, not in regards to this unique presidential election. (Although there is a connection in that he and Hillary Clinton were classmates at the same Park Ridge, Illinois high school.) More importantly is the Goodman-Chicago Cubs connection. He wrote three songs in his beloved team’s honor. His “Go, Cubs, Go” is played after every Cubs’ home victory.
But most of all, his gallows and somewhat prophetic “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request” from his 1983 Affordable Art album is significant, as the talking blues wryly notes:
You know the law of averages says
Anything will happen that can
But the last time the Cubs won a National League pennant
Was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan
Let’s mark the beginning of the 2016 World Series and perhaps the breaking of the Billy Goat’s Curse with Steve Goodman singing “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request”:
Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground?
When I was a boy, they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave, the land of the free
And the doormat of the National League.
You can check out Steve Goodman singing in the video below:
Steve Goodman sings “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request”
Go! Cubs! Go!
I love music and I love to write, so Rock at Night is a perfect forum for me.I appreciate all genres from classical to country and am astounded by the number of extraordinarily talented but under-recognizedmusical artists. So my articles often feature such “well known unknown” musicians and composers.
Before email, I would include a record review along with my holiday greetings as an alternative to annual reports of personal achievements and acquisitions. Among these, I wrote of Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man in 1988 and Bruce Cockburn’s Nothing But A Burning Light in 1991, urging my friends and family to listen to these masterpieces.
Now I can continue to express my enthusiasm for various musical artists to a wider audience.
- Album Review: Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel’s ‘Christmas Island’ - December 19, 2019
- Free For All: community supported high quality music - September 29, 2019
- Album Review: John Prine’s ‘The Tree of Forgiveness’ - February 9, 2019
