World Series Game 1: The Music

So who would they get to do the national anthem in Boston to start the 2007 World Series?

James Taylor? Stephen Tyler? Joey McIntyre?

Tyler, of Aerosmith, sang the first game of the Sox' 2004 series. Taylor will sing at game two tomorrow. McIntyre? The old New Kid on the Block hasn’t exactly had his phone ringing off the hook.

Short of getting the Standells (technically an L.A. band) to do the Sox' adopted garage rock anthem "Dirty Water," or giving the Dropkick Murphys a deserved showcase, who are you going to get to do the honors while showing off the town talent?

Well how about "the most accomplished composer of our time” whose music "helped provide the soundtrack of our lives."

Funny, I checked the short list of soundtrack writers for my life, and it didn’t include John Williams.

But there he was, portly and professorial in his World Series jacket in front of a splinter brass ensemble from the Boston Pops assembled on a blue tarp in center field.

"Maestro John Williams," as he was called, was introduced as both "the pride of Boston and the epitome of our culture."

Such that it is.

If his themes for "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" are the pinnacle of all art in America, maybe we deserve him and his unusual variation of "The Star Spangled Banner," that was  "created just for this occasion."

As such, it sounded a little off, as if the brass had warped like woodwinds in the Fenway rain.

Part of this was intentional, and what he brought to the otherwise straightforward anthem – with odd tonal counter-balances and slowdown in the second verse, the drums getting all revved up at one point and I could swear I could hear somewhere in the countermelodies back there the theme from "Jaws."

As usual, the Fenway crowd roared over the last lines; the flyover by the Green Mountain Boys of the Vermont Air National Guard 158th fighter wing came a beat too late.

Not to worry. Ashanti was on deck to sing "God Bless America" in the seventh inning that would come 3 ½ hours later. It was a stately but unremarkable performance.

Boyz II Men will be on hand to do that number tomorrow and even considering Wednesday's 13-1 blowout, it would still be too early for them to do "The End of the Road" as an encore.

Comments

[Eric McClellan]

I don't BELIEVE all of these comments about "warped" brass, "bad notes" etc. It was just a different harmonic that was slightly dissonant. It was very much in the style which Williams writes, especially his contemporary compositions (non-film score). After the first two stanzas, the arrangement became absolutely heroic with driving percussion and brass flourishes and runs that were reminiscent of his Olympic themes.
One take on what Williams was trying to accomplish might be that the beginning was representative of the struggles our country has faced and the second part was how we triumphantly persevere.
I find the comments alluding that the dissonance was Williams' way of expressing his dislike for the Iraq war appalling. He's much too classy a gentleman to pull something like that.

[Bill Wilson]

Apparently your mother never told you that when you can't think of anything intelligent to say, don't say anything.

[Mark Garcia]

I loved the rendition and the arrangement. I felt he added the odd tonal counterbalance representative of some of the problems we are having now with the war in Iraq etc. It is a great country but these are tough times...a reverant and beautiful rendition of a great composition...thank you Maestro!

[Ed Girard]

> the Green Mountain Boys of the Vermont Air National Guard 158th fighter wing came a beat too late

Yeah, maybe the Vermont Air National Guard could have hovered just behind the Coke bottle on the Green Monster to make a more timely entrance...

What a moronic comment..

[Steven Phillips]

Yes I didn't care for John Williams' rendition of our national anthem. I don't know if the intentional dissonances in the arrangement were some kind of statement about the dissonances in our culture but whatever his intention I found it prettly lousy!

[Ronald Pal]

I'll bet you the Colorado Rockies will come up with better renditions of the National Anthem

[Ronald Pal]

get Ronnie Milsap to do National Anthem or for 7th inning he does America the Beautiful wonderful. Listen to it on the Ronnie Milsap live album,it's the last song.It's the most beautiful rendition of that song I ever heard.There are some other country groups that do the National Anthem the regular way without screwing it up to their own style so much that you hardly recognize the song.