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Happy Birthday Dave Frishberg


Nate Dorward

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March 23rd was Dave Frishberg's 72nd birthday. Suffice it to say that his discs rarely are too far away from the CD changer here. As it happens, there was some discussion on the (private) SABR discussion list of his classic song "Van Lingle Mungo" (a list song that virtuosically fits countless odd-sounding old-time baseball players' names into a catchy bossa tune). Dave himself weighed in on the list, & I asked his permission to repost his comments (which he kindly granted). I've pasted them in below. --N

*

I noticed that my song "Van Lingle Mungo" came up in a message regarding

the recent death of  Danny Gardella.

For  SABR Mungologists who might be keeping track, now that Gardella has

passed on, there are five survivors left from the list of names in the

Mungo song, which I wrote in 1969. I confirmed the dates of demise on a

website called The Baseball Almanac, wherein  biographical and statistical

data claims to be updated as of March 1, 2005.

Of the original thirty-eight names, the surviving Mungolians are:  Joost,

Brecheen, Sain, Pesky, and  Basinski.

  I'm positive Eddie Basinski is still alive and well, because he lives

here in Portland and enjoys considerable celebrity and adulation as a

Portland Beaver immortal.  I had occasion to meet him once, and I excitedly

told him how I used to watch him with the St Paul Saints in 1946. Then I

told him, "You're in my song, you know. "

  "Your song?"

"Yes, have you ever heard my song 'Van Lingle Mungo'?"

  Basinski stepped back, stared at me as if I were from Mars, excused

himself, and walked off to chat with someone else.

The only other guy from the song  I ever met was Mungo himself, who arrived

from Pageland,  South Carolina, to be on the Dick Cavett show and listen to

me sing the song.  This was 1969,  when Cavett had a nightly show in New

York.  Backstage, Mungo asked me when he would see some remuneration for

the song.  When he heard my explanation about how there was unlikely to be

any remuneration for anyone connected with the song, least of all him, he

was genuinely downcast.  "But it's my name," he said.  I told him, "The

only way you can get even is to go home and write a song called 'Dave

Frishberg'. "  He laughed, and when we said goodbye he said , "I'm gonna do

it! I'm gonna do it!"

  If he did it, The Baseball Almanac doesn't mention it.

Dave Frishberg

*****

to Richard Zitrin and others on SABR-L

I notice that you joined in the recent Mungo flurry on the SABR-L.  The

guy who started the thread, Doug Lyons,  wrote me off-list and I thought

you might be interested in my reply.

************************************************************

Dear Dave Frishberg:

.... I had the recent posting on SABR-L about my late pal, Danny Gardella.

(I met him once or twice, so I am using "pal" liberally.) I love Van Lingle

Mungo, and Danny sang a few  bars for me. I will never forget it. ...I have

a reference to the song in my second book, CURVE BALLS AND SCREWBALLS. The

question is, Who is the only non-player mentioned in the song?  Art

Pasarella, no?

Doug Lyons

********************************************

To Doug Lyons--

Yes.  But to complicate matters, one must consider that umpire Art

Pasarella was not included in the original (1969) recording  of V L Mungo.

I  edited the lyrics in subsequent years and, in my opinion, improved the

song. I took out certain names from the original lyric, which was written

in a hurry,  and replaced them with names from an earlier (wartime) era so

that the nostalgic focus would be sharper.  The version with the revised

lyric (on the  Concord CD "Dave Frishberg Classics") is now the one which

is most often heard and referred to.

The replacement of Roy Campanella's conveniently rhyming name was necessary

because he was too recent. So I changed it to Art Pasarella, and that

seemed to do the job: Gardella, Pasarella, and Estalella.  Kucks and his

rhymemate  Trucks had to go, too, and were replaced by Boudreau and Passeau.

Imagine my dismay when I subsequently learned  that Estalella's name didn't

rhyme in the first place,  because it was pronounced as in  Spanish: Esta-

leya.  So you see, the whole rhyme scheme should have been scrapped,

starting with " Danny Gardella", and now I stand facing humiliation in

Baseball Songland.  What did I know? I never heard his name uttered, only

saw it in print.  Same goes for Johnny Gee, whose name I mangled with a

soft "g".  There may be other names I'm mispronouncing, but at this stage

further corrections would only confuse me.

In the search for names that scanned,  John Antonelli was an unfortunate

choice, and it's annoying that he's in the song, because there turned out

to be two John Antonellis whose major league careers nearly overlapped.  I

was thinking of the third baseman  Antonelli who was up briefly with the

Cardinals and Braves during the war. I had seen him with Columbus. I wasn't

even aware of the more famous Johnny Antonelli--the left hander for the

Giants.  By the time  Antonelli #2 came along I had traded Duke Snider for

Duke Ellington.

By the way,  I had written two complete sets of lyrics  for that melody

before the baseball idea came to me.  Titles were "Don't Look Behind

You",  and "Dear Mister Nixon."  I was reading the McMillan Baseball

Encyclopedia when Mungo's name jumped off the page.

Dave Frishberg

****

Lastly here's a bit from the email Frishberg sent me--I'd said "I was actually unaware that there were two versions of the song--the only version I know is the later one, on Concord (I think it's a doubled-up reissue of a couple LPs from a different label)." Frishberg's reponse was:

Nat[e], you're the second message I've received today concerning this.  I better listen to the Concord version of VLM.... OK, I listened to that track just now, and you're right-- There's Campanella's name.  How embarrassing.  Well, the only answer I have is that apparently I  had not finished tinkering with the lyric.  This makes me wonder if I have ever really recorded an accurate version (the Pasarella version)  of the song.  I just checked my discography, and I have recorded VLM twice -- once in 1969 for CTI with a small band, and then in 1981 for Omnisound with a trio. Both of those records went quickly out of print.  Much of the Omnisound material was re-released in 1991 on Concord, including VLM.  That CD, called "Classics", is still in print.

The song  is published in sheet music form by Hal Leonard in a collection of my songs called "Listen Here."    And that print version represents the song as I finally intended it to be.  How confusing.

And you wonder why I wake up screaming in the night.

....

Best regards,

Dave Frishberg

Talk about "dedication to one's craft"!

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My first time going to the Blue Note to see the Ray Brown Trio, Frishberg opened for them. I'd never heard of him and didn't know what to expect, but I enjoyed myself quite a bit, particularly "My Attorney Bernie" and "Can't Take You Nowhere" and went out and bought the album of the same name. Never went any deeper into his catalog, although I think I have a couple of swing CDs where he's in the rhythm section, but I do have fond memories of that evening.

Happy birthday.

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I only have two discs of his under his own name, Classics (a condensed version of his two Omnisound discs) & Live at Vine Street. Both are terrific (fans of "Van Lingle Mungo" should check out "The Sports Page" & "The Dear Departed Past" on Vine Street, too). The most recent ones I've heard on the radio have been just fine but not quite as fresh as the earlier discs (& of course his voice is a bit frailer now). He's also on a Rebecca Kilgore album I recall.

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