Water Cooler Jazz Weekend

Hope everybody gets a chance to check out the D.C. Jazz Festival this Labor Day Weekend.

I'd been thinking of a theme song for Washington Commanders Head Football Coach Dan Quinn his first go round in D.C. Of course there's the obvious: The Mighty Quinn.

But hey. This is Jazzfest weekend in D.C. And for DQ I figure Pick up the Pieces is just about perfect seeing as how that's exactly what he's doing here. 

I don't know if you noticed but Riggo posted over on his YouTube Channel MegaRiggins. Sounds like he's going to do some posting on the Commanders' season. I recently ran his Steve Sabol interview in the which he mentioned his acting exploits making note of his "emotional preparation". Sounds like Sanford Meisner. The best acting philosophy I ever came across was David Mamet's. His simple direct economy of motion principles would fit Riggo well. 

Somebody should have had Riggo in a Western. I could see him playing Captain Call in Lonesome Dove. Of course, I'd have to cast Joey T as Gus and Chris Cooley as Newt. Doc has to play Ranger Walker.

Kevin Sheehan and Thom Loverro were over on their podcast talking about Dan Quinn's "secret sauce". I expect that sauce is the NFL wanting to get Washington back into the swing of things. If the NFL wants D.C. back in the playoffs for economical reasons, they will be back in the playoffs.

Not that they would ever cheat. But if the League wants something it usually gets it.

As regards the final roster debate, there is no FINAL 53 Man Roster. Guys come and go the whole year. Some say the Washington Commanders Roster "blows". They have unknowns at receiver and offensive line. The secondary is a mystery. Disaster looms.

I expect their answer to secondary questions is Joe Whitt. Questions about the O-Line and receivers get answered with Jayden Daniels, the tight ends, and the running backs. I expect Kingsbury to involve the tight ends way more than we have seen in recent years. They won't be just chipping and fullbacking. They are going to actually score in the red zone this year. 

Jayden gets rid of the ball quick taking pressure off the O-Line and his run-pass psychological leverage on the defense is going to spring those no-name receivers free. He's also going to declutter the running game. That's why people are picking B-Rob in their fantasy leagues figuring he might have an Alfred Morris type season.

Even with Jayden compensating for the personnel weaknesses, it is going to be hard getting over .500. The defense so far has been weak against the pass. But the starters have been out most of preseason. What they have on defense won't be known until Kliff Kingsbury student Baker Mayfield looks it over week one.

I think there'll be a lot of shootout type ball games. That could mean a slide at the end of the year. And one and done in the playoffs, if any.

Still, I think one and done in the playoffs would be seen as a win for Dan Quinn and Adam Peters in their first year.

Eddie Lockjaw Davis

Brother Jack MacDuff Quartet

War -- Gypsy Man 

Musical Spheres of the Championship Years and 1991

Arguably the best overall team in the history of professional football in Washington, the 1991 Washington Redskins went 14-2 and won Super Bowl 26 beating Buffalo 37-24. 

The Year was a typical war and famine cavalcade. The Gulf War and the dissolution of the former Soviet Union were big headliners. 

The Mount Fuji Jazz Festival of 1991, the Frankfurt Jazz Festival, and the Bern Jazz Festival were among the year's Jazz Festivalia. Don't forget D.C.'s own Jazz Festival. When's the happening? August 28 thru September 1st. 

Here's Paul Carr and Sharon Clark two of the participants in this year's festival.

Some interesting hits from other genres:

Crazy by Seal

Urban Dance Squad --Deeper Shade of Soul

Silent Lucidity by Queensrÿche

Knockin on Heaven's Door by Guns N' Roses

Metallica Enter Sandman 

Some of the Flicks at the Movies then were:

The Doors

Silence of the Lambs 

Scenes from a Mall

La Femme Nikita 

Defending Your Life 

Truly Madly Deeply

City Slickers 

The Naked Gun 2.5: The Smell of Fear

Musical Spheres of the Championship Years and 1987

The year 1987 was a strike shortened year in the NFL. The big thing in Washington was The Replacements. Derisively called scabs. Magnificently, they defeated the mostly Real Cowboy Dallas Cowboys.

This all culminated in the out-of-this-world Super Bowl 22 Championship.

Some music hits of the year:

Bad by Michael Jackson

Here I go Again on My Own Whitesnake

Shakedown, Bob Seger's theme song to Beverly Hills Cop II.

La Bamba by Los Lobos

I think We're Alone Now by Tiffany

Sweet Chid of Mine Guns and Roses

Father Figure by George Michael

It's the End of the World as We Know It by R.E.M.

In Da Movies Ahno fought a being from another world. He-Man fought Skeletor. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover do their first Lethal Weapon. Steve Martin did a take on Cyrano. A Great White Shark returns to eliminate vacationing humanity.

James Bond and Bigfoot were also back.

The Redskins too were back. Winning their second Super Bowl.

Musical Spheres of the Championship Years and 1982

It is fitting the first real commentary from Joe Theismann on the 2024 Commanders came this week as we look at music from that incredible Super Bowl year of 1982. 

Game Highlights. Tale of Two Seasons.

Billie Jean.

Theismann said Jayden Daniels ought to skip the preseason, or so I heard. Some people revolted against the notion. But I hold Joey T to be a heckuva lot wiser than most of today's commentators. 

I mean, rookies struggle with the length of the NFL Season. It is such a malignant force, said length, that your best metric for who will win in the playoffs is who is the healthiest. The NFL has not tempered its greed by expanding rosters which would allow for mitigation of wear and tear. 

The Message

So much for the League's commitment to quality. Expanded rosters would allow for better performances as playing time gets more evenly distributed. Playing time makes players better. That's why they are called "players". If you don't play, you are not a player. If you don't play, how do you know where your game is at? If everybody plays, everybody is more likely to be happy and happy football teams make better decisions on field and off. 

It sounds like I'm making the argument against Theismann's position. But no. I'm saying I'd like Jayden to be available for the playoffs. I'll entertain any such notions as would incline fate to cheat in that direction. The most games he's ever played is 14. The late bye might give him and the other rooks a boost. If the Commanders get a playoff game, he's looking at, minimum, 21 games. With that much wear and tear, I don't think we make the Super Bowl. 

Tough

We'll be out of gas. I mean, vets will be OK. Rooks will have jet lag. Lightening the load would be good, as Joe Theismann as in Wise Man has pointed out. How to Be A Champion Every Day.

Led Zeppelin

Scorpions 

The North Sea Jazz Festival

Willie Nelson 

Bobby Sue

Dolly Parton 

Here are some of the flicks that year:

Blade Runner

Fast Times at Ridemont High. Rockin tune from that movie.

Creepshow

Eye of the Tiger Man 

Conan Da Bahbarian 

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Khan 

Musical Spheres of the Championship Years and 1972

The year 1972 was a great year in music and a great year for Washington NFL Football. 

The Washington Redskins won the NFC Championship beating their arch nemesis the Dallas Cowboys 26-3 before losing the Super Bowl to the undefeated Miami Dolphins. 

Like people say, whenever the Skins beat the Cowboys in the NFC Championship game, the Super Bowl always seemed like an afterthought.

The Watergate Scandal was born in 1972. Only Nixon could go to China. Fischer defeats Spassky. Here's Nixon schmoozing with George Allen parts 1 and 2. This is the game Tricky Dickie and Coach were apparently talking about.

My favorite song from 1972 is Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now. If you hadn't known the background of Nash, you'd swear you could hear a dash of Reggae in the tune. Good ear. The Covers out there unfortunately seem to subtract the Reggae elements. Jimmy Cliff did a great rendition. It is time for an Orchestral Reggae treatment. Maybe one's already been done.

Some all-time great records were getting airplay in 1972. The reissued Nights in White Satin and November of '71's Stairway to Heaven.

You probably don't remember Mouth and MacNeal. They made a catchy little tune called How Do You Do which made Number 8 on Billboard. 

Man of La Mancha, the film version, came out in 1972. Johnny Mathis did a wonderful medley from the musical.

Morning Has Broken charted in '72, making number one Easy Listening. It was not a Cat Stevens original. Here's more on that story.

If you went to the movies in 1972, you could see Jeremiah Johnson, Superfly, Boxcar Bertha, the Poseidon Adventure, and my personal favorite, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Rated G.

Musical Spheres of the Championship Years and 1942

December 14th, 1942.

With the memory of 73-0 deeply fixed in their minds, the Washington Redskins captured the 1942 NFL Title, defeating the Monsters of the Midway, 14-6.

Smash hits musically at the time:

Every Night About this Time by The Ink Spots

Travlin Light by Billie Holiday and Paul Whiteman

Tangerine by Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Eberly, Helen O'Connell

A glimpse of some '42 hits by Hot Sounds.

Forty-two was Ray Flaherty's last year in D.C. When you say Washington's Hall of Fame Coach, people think Joe Gibbs. No, we had another one. Ray Flaherty. He gave George Preston Marshall what for. It was the braggart Marshall who was responsible for lighting a fire under those "crybaby" 1940 Chicago Bears goading George Halas and the Bears into knocking hell out the Redskins. When Marshall poked his nose into team business, Flaherty would bust his chops. Threaten to walk.

One wonders what Flaherty would have done to Dan Snyder.

Some flicks people went to: The Black Swan, Pride of the Yankees, and something called Casablanca. See Operation Torch.

Yes, it seems Casablanca was a propaganda film. To drum up fervor for service. It is probably the best propaganda film. Though Mrs. Miniver would give it a run for the money. Mrs. Miniver was also 1942.

Nineteen Forty-Two was a time for choosing. A few months after the release of Casablanca and the detonation of Operation Torch, Ray Flaherty chose to leave the Washington Redskins for the war. 

Welcome back to the fight, Ray.

It was the first real punch America threw at the Bully, 1942 was.

Musical Spheres of the Championship Years

The year 1937 was the first championship season of the Washington NFL Franchise.

What music did the guys hear on the radio back then?

Tunes like Hellhound on My Trail,  Pennies from Heaven, Ole Guapa, Carelessly, Wake Up and Live.

Robert Johnson, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Malando and His Orchestra.

The 78 Prof has a comprehensive list of 1937 tunes. Radio was having its coronation. 

Here are highlights of that 37 contest.