Search - Sf Seals :: Baseball Trilogy

Neopsychedelic Nostalgia Trip for the Hardcore Horsehide Fan

Matthew Wall | Monterey, CA USA | 09/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This fantastic little concept EP from Barbara Manning (Go Luckys, et alia) and the SF Seals has to be heard to be truly appreciated. "Joltin' Joe" is a faithful cover of the original song, written contemporary to Joe's hitting streak and performed by Les Brown and His Band of Reknown, with the appropriate pride of local fans. (For those unfamiliar with Joe's pre-Yanke history, he set a record hitting streak of 61 games in the PCL for the old San Francisco Seals).



"Denny McClain" is a downbeat original sort of mini-opera about the crookedest ex-baseballer this side of Pete Rose, the once-great Tiger who fell into a life of crime after baseball.



To complete the trilogy of weird feats, we get the utterly fantastic and trippy "Dock Ellis", one of the greatest baseball songs every written. Dock pitched a no-hitter on acid for the Pirates in the early 1970s, and this song pulls every neo-psychedelic musical trick in the bag out of its size 7 5/8 New Era cap to tell the tale.



The two SF Seals abums are excellent, but this low-concept EP is as cohesive a look at middle period Barbara Manning as you'd want, and it's a must-have for collectors of baseball songs."