Creedence reissues

Okay, prepare yourselves for a non-football post!

Just last week, I read somewhere online that the first six Creedence Clearwater Revival albums will be reissued on September 30 in deluxe packages with bonus tracks. These reissues will include liner notes by such rock critic luminaries as Robert Christgau and Ben Fong-Torres. I was ecstatic upon hearing the news.

I love Creedence. I grew up listening to Creedence. Some of my earliest hazy childhood memories are of me in the living room of my parents little apartment in Holt, Michigan in about 1972, with my dad playing Green River or Cosmo's Factory on the old Motorola console stereo. Of course, at the time I had no idea what the name of the albums were or even the name of the performer. To this day, though, I can remember being really scared by the long instense instrumental in the middle of "Ramble Tamble."

As a junior high and high schooler, other (generally much crappier) music took prominence for me. By the time I got to college, Creedence was definitely not cool. I was getting into "college rock" such as the Smiths, R.E.M., the Replacements, etc. As far as classic rock, everyone in college listened to such bands as Led Zeppelin, the Beatles--nobody I knew listened to Creedence. It wasn't until I was 22, when I absconded with my parent's three Creedence albums (along with several other choice ones that were collecting dust in a closet) that I rediscovered how good those guys were.

Besides the fact that John Fogerty was one of the best songwriters of the sixties, and the band rocked as hard as any band before or since, there's a definite underdog charm to CCR. Even in their own time, they weren't really considered cool. Heck, even in the San Francisco Bay area where they were from, they weren't considered nearly as hip as Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead. They really looked like four regular, blue collar guys from the neighborhood. Fogerty wore the exact same plaid shirt on all their album photos (if you don't believe me, check for yourself), and Stu, Doug, and Tom definitely cared not a hoot about fashion. Also, as has been mentioned many times before, Creedence defiantly played tightly arranged, 3-minute songs at a time when stretching out and jamming was the cool thing to do. However, if you compare Creedence's music to contemporaries like the Airplane or the Dead, CCR's music has aged much better.

Suffice it to say that I'm pretty giddy about these reissues, particularly since CCR has to have about the most neglected and abused back catalog of any sixties band. I definitely intend on snagging "Green River," and will have a hard time resisting "Willy and the Poor Boys" or "Cosmos' Factory."

Michigan State 42, Indiana 29: Postgame thoughts

Just finished watching the Spartans wear down the Hoosiers and get out of Bloomington with a win. Not pretty by any stretch, but I'll take it. Very nice to start off the Big Ten season at 1-0. MSU's next opponent is Iowa on Homecoming in East Lansing. The Hawkeyes lost at home to Northwestern, so next week's game for the Spartans is definitely winnable. (Having said that, Northwestern looks like they will be a tough team to contend with this year. They are still undefeated. With the parity in college football, which became particularly evident this weekend, that's saying something regardless of the competition the Wildcats have faced).

Back to MSU/Indiana: First of all, I could not believe the number of empty seats at Memorial Stadium. Is Indiana that indifferent towards football? (The answer must be a resounding "yes." I suppose the Hoosier faithful are too busy counting down the days until basketball season). If I didn't have responsibilities at home (or have to take my son to his soccer game this morning) I'd have hopped in the car bright and early, driven down to Bloomington, and bought a ticket at the stadium. (These are the kinds of things I wish I'd done when I was young and single with virtually no responsibilities and lots of time on my hands).

As far as the actual game goes, it was way more of a nail-biter than I'd have liked. Years of following Spartan football have made me uncomfortable with any lead that is less than two touchdowns. I thought Indiana hung in there pretty well, but dropped passes, too many penalties, and a little too much Javon Ringer was just enough to keep them from making this a closer ball game.

Some random thoughts:

Extremely rough game for Otis Wiley, but he redeemed himself somewhat by falling on that fumble.

Another good game for Ringer, but I sure wish the play calling was a bit more imaginative. I worry about what will happen when State plays better competition.

Our backup tailbacks have got to get more touches. Ringer is not going to be able to carry the load the entire season.

That's all I have for now. Gotta catch some of that Michigan/Wisconsin game now.

Michigan State 23, Notre Dame 7: Postgame thoughts

As I write this post, I am relishing my "victory beer," a very smooth Indian Pale Ale from the Michigan Brewing Company. It's tasting pretty darned good right now.

Nice, solid win for the Spartans today. I knew that Dantonio would have the boys ready today, and MSU as a team were about as good as I have seen them in quite some time. I felt that for any Heisman talk regarding Javon Ringer to be truly justified, he'd have to bring it against big-name competition. Yes, I know Notre Dame is not a great team, but they have improved from last year and they are still NOTRE DAME. That name is nationally recognized and if you can light them up, you can guarantee that the national pundits will take a shine to you.

Having said that, the long Big Ten season is still in front of us, and the test for the Spartans will be if they can stay healthy enough to finish with a winning record. I am still maintaining relatively low expectations until proven otherwise.

I know that many of the MSU sports chat rooms and blogs will rip Brian Hoyer from here to Grand Rapids for this performance today, but he really was not that bad. Sure, he wasn't great, but he didn't make any mistakes that hurt the team. In fairness to Hoyer, there were some dropped passes that should have been caught. I was happy that when he didn't have an open receiver, he threw the ball away. Jimmy Clausen, who has a great arm and will be a solid quarterback for the Irish, made some mistakes that really hurt his team (particularly the throw into double coverage that Otis Wiley picked off in the endzone). The bottom line with Hoyer is that he's what you'd call a solid "program player," a little like former Spartan quarterbacks Bill Burke and Dan Enos. Some people expect him to be Tim Tebow, and that's just not going to happen. I still believe that Hoyer can have a solid year (have I used the word "solid" too much?). Let's not forget that, although he did have a bad game against Boston College in last year's Champs Sports Bowl, he did play a brilliant second half in last year's comeback win against Penn State.

After giving love to Hoyer, I have to admit that if anything bad happens to Ringer, MSU's football season is in serious jeopardy.

During the game, I was thinking that this may have been the best performance by an MSU defense since the Nick Saban era. Otis Wiley is a stud (and if he continues to play as well as he has--will be a high NFL draft pick) , Adam Decker is one tough hombre at linebacker (although does seem to be a bit of a hothead--he needs to temper some of that aggression), and Greg Jones will be playing on Sundays. Fortener had one of the game's most important plays breaking up a sure touchdown pass late in the game.

Overall, a good, tough, hard-hitting game (as would be expected in this rivalry) and a great win for the Spartans. I continue to be impressed with the way Dantonio consistently has this team ready to play, ever since his first game on the job. Bring on Indiana!

(By the way, I changed the settings on this blog so it should be easier for anyone who wants to post a comment. Please bear with me, I'm still getting the hang of this blog thing!).

What, another football post?!

I am still awake when I should be sleeping, but hey, it's Friday night (actually Saturday morning) and I don't feel like going to bed.

Now, let me gab for awhile about an important issue: college football. Later today, at 3:30 PM, Michigan State and Notre Dame will kickoff at Spartan Stadium. I have never seen as much confidence in a Spartan blowout as I have seen on various MSU sports chat rooms and blogs. Why so much confidence? How long have these people been State fans, I wonder? Yes, it's true that Notre Dame struggled against a weak San Diego State team and Michigan virtually gift wrapped last week's Irish victory (and, at least for now, Michigan is not a good team) but what exactly has Michigan State done? The Spartans lost to a decent, but not great, Cal team on the road, manhandled the predictably woeful Eastern Michigan Eagles, and then escaped the drizzly, rainy slopfest last week against Florida Atlantic. The bottom line is that it's way too early to judge how good any of these teams are, MSU and Notre Dame included. Add to that my reluctance to predict a Michigan State drubbing of the Irish based on my 30+ years of getting my hopes and dreams dashed by the Spartans. I've just gotten too cynical and pessimistic to get the least bit cocky about any Michigan State football game.

We will get a much clearer picture of how good Michigan State and Notre Dame are after today's game. I know that isn't a particularly original statement, but it's true. My hope is that Mark Dantonio's toughminded approach will have the Spartans ready to play, and hopefully come away with a solid victory. So far, I like what I've seen of Dantonio as a coach. He consistently has had MSU ready to play every game since he took over the job, that's a hell of a lot more than I can say for his immediate predecessors, John L. Smith and Bobby Williams.

I'm not a Michigan fan, but as one who has lived in this state his entire life I can't help but to have followed U of M football to a certain extent. Michigan football is pretty much ubiquitous around these parts--you can't really avoid it even if you try. Reports of Michigan's football demise seem a little premature to me--I'll believe it when I see it. It seems to me that Rich Rodriguez's new offensive schemes will make more sense to their players as the season goes on, and their offense will improve. (It is certainly strange to see Michigan running a spread offense, though. To me, Michigan is all about the power running game with the occasional long bomb to one of their long line of great receivers: Anthony Carter, Desmond Howard, Amani Toomer, Braylon Edwards, Steve Breaston, etc. I also recall Bo Schembechler running the option on virtually every play back in the late '70s. I have wondered about why a team that gets such a bumper crop of 5-star recruits year after year needs to implement a spread offense. I generally associate that type of offense with teams that need to use trickery to compete with the big boys, like Purdue, Northwestern and Michigan State in the John L. era. Am I off-base here?).

Here's another thing I don't understand. If Michigan gets a top-5 national recruiting class every year and is allegedly stocked with great athletes, why have I heard endless whining about RichRod not having the right players to run his system? This is Michigan football, folks! The winged-helmet, the Big House, and Hail to the Victors! Shouldn't the Wolverines have a stable of blue-chippers to run the spread? A veritable cornucopia of gridiron studs to run the new scheme like a fine-oiled machine? Not to drag MSU into this, but I don't recall John L. Smith saying he didn't have the right players to run the spread back in his first year at MSU. Yes, it is true that John L. inherited a senior quarterback in 2003, but it's not as if Jeff Smoker was the ideal spread quarterback. Still, John L. had his most successful year in '03: 8-5 record and Big Ten Coach of the Year. (Wow, I actually wrote something nice about John L. Smith!).

I don't profess to be a football expert, although I am a big fan of the game. If anyone thinks I'm off-base with these opinions and wishes to set me straight, please comment.

I know that no living humans are reading this blog, so for my pretend make-believe readers out there who are depairing of all the football talk, I assure you that I will at some point write extensively and intelligently about subjects other than football.

Football, Sarah Palin, Tina Fey (and other thoughts)

Michigan State knocked off Florida Atlantic in a virtual monsoon at Spartan Stadium on Saturday. I still don't think we know anything about this Spartan team until they take on Notre Dame this coming Saturday. I will continue to maintain low expectations for this year unless proven otherwise.

I wasn't able to stay up to watch Saturday Night Live, but frankly I wasn't particularly interested in the "Michael Phelps as guest star" angle (and, in fact, have seen nothing of Phelps' performance or ever heard how he did). However, through the wonders of You Tube (by the way, I love You Tube) I caught Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. Oh my, was she good! She has the voice and mannerisms down perfectly, and she looks almost exacly like her. The only bright spot of a McCain victory would be that we'd be able to watch Tina Fey impersonate Palin on SNL for (hopefully no more than) four years.

Every so often, I'll dig through my musical archives and find a CD that I haven't played in awhile. When I'm driving to and from work, if I'm not interested in listening to NPR or our local sports talk radio (essentially the only two radio stations I listen to) I rely on music to occupy me. On Friday, I dug out The Velvet Underground and Nico, an album I hadn't listened to in at least a year. (Back when I was in college, when we wanted to act all arty and sophisticated--or so we thought-- we'd listen to the VU). Anyway, perhaps this is stating the obvious, but what a great album (and I do realize that I'm giving away my age by referring to "albums"). You have the lilting melody but completely paranoid lyrics of "Sunday Morning," the stateliness of "All Tomorrow's Parties" (maybe Nico's best performance), and Lou Reed channeling Dylan via Warhol's factory scene in "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Heroin." I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the contribution of John Cale, who's viola and avant garde musical inclinations are all over this record.

That's all for now, I need to attend to my other daily responsibilities!

No Drew Sharp article today

I was surprised to see, when I checked the Detroit Free Press online this morning, that Drew Sharp in fact did not write an article about the Lions--in fact, it appears that Mr. Sharp did not have an article about anything in today's Freep. He must be sharpening his pencils as we speak.

Same old Lions

Once again, the Detroit Lions have given fans a glimmer of hope only to fall flat on their faces. Sound familiar? Real shocker, eh! The Lions went undefeated in the pre-season only to begin the real season by laying a tremendous turkey egg against the Falcons at the Georgia Dome . If we ever needed a reminder that the pre-season is meaningless, today's woeful performance is surely it. Although it appears the Lions will be able to score some points this year, their defense is completely non-existent. I have never seen so many missed tackles in my life. I can hardly wait to read Drew Sharp's (Detroit Free Press sportswriter, for those not in the know, and a guy who pretty much lives on writing scathing, sarcastic articles about local sports teams) sure-to-be-scathing article tomorrow. His article should at least be more entertaining that today's game.