Joy To The World ....It's Almost Christmas in July!

Today's song we are featuring on our Centennial Class Blog site is "Joy To The World". No, not the Christmas carol, the mega hit by Three Dog Night from the early 1970s.

It's here because Carol Castleberry left a note on our Class Facebook page listing a number of favorite songs she wants included in our Class CD to play on Friday, October 4th during our 40th Class Reunion at the newly renovated Rand Hall on campus. She also listed a song she said she hated when she was in school.

In fact, she seemed to hate it so much she misidentified it as "Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Now the "Jeremiah" reference is understandable. It's the first line and perhaps the most memorable single part of the song. But it was no Creedence hit (by the way, no suggestions so far to include any of that group's many hits on our CD).

"Joy to the World" was a huge smash for Three Dog Night. Less than 2 months after it was released as a single in 1971 it was certified gold.  Overall it has reportedly sold over 5 million copies worldwide, making it one the best-selling singles of all time.  The song was also featured during the credits of the movie  "The Big Chill."

When it made number #1 on the charts, the song's writer, Hoyt Axton became part of the first mother-son duo to have top hits in the rock era. His mom, Mae Axton wrote "Heartbreak Hotel."

Here is "Joy To the World," courtesy of YouTube (sorry, Carol).....

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFypAB7nYGA


In doing research on this song, here's a story I learned about the origin of Three Dog Night's name. It seems to come from an ancient culture that used to sleep with a dog for warmth at night...adding dogs as it got colder. So if it was a below freezing night....it was a "three dog night." By the way, Three Dog Night is still touring and is reportedly scheduled to be in Nashville to perform at the Wildhorse Saloon  on Second Avenue on Friday evening, August 16.

More songs to come soon! The requests are piling up. Thanks and keep 'em coming.

Spinning Wheel!

As we continue our countdown of  suggested songs for our VU Centennial Class 40th Reunion CD to be played at our Friday night party on October 4, the latest suggestion comes from my WRVU buddy, Dan Brown. It's probably one he played while he was the DJ and I was his newsman during an afternoon shift back in the late 60s and early 1970s.

It's "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears. The song, featured on the album above was a monster hit in 1969. Released as a single, it peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained there for three weeks. The song, written by Canadian band member and soloist David Clayton Thomas, also had great cross-over appeal, being #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening Chart for two weeks in August, 1969 and reaching #45 on the U.S. R&B list. The song won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement in 1970, while the album won Album of the Year that same year.

Here it is, courtesy of YouTube......

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK62tfoCmuQ

In closing, I must tell one story about Dan and I on the air on WRVU "back in the day." Or maybe I should say when we accidentially put the station "off the air" temporarily one afternoon.

I has left the newsroom and gone downstairs to get a coke out of our machine on the landing near the production room (and near the balcony in Neely Auditorium). The door leading back upstairs was always left open (and for a good reason). When it closed, it automatically locked!

Sure enough, Dan came bounding downstairs behind me, and somehow the dor slammed shut (and locked) behind us. Until Mary Bristow, the station's business manager, came by the studios after class about an hour later, we had no way to get back upstairs and into the studio or the newsroom. So when Dan's last record ended (it was proably a 45 on a turntable), the station went silent.

Ah, the good ole days....as our Spinnng Wheel at WRVU kept going, round and round.

 

Taxi!

It's Elizabeth O'Shea birthday today (June 24).

Happy Birthday and, in your honor, here's another song you've suggested for our VU Centennial Class 40th Reunion CD.

It's "Taxi" by Harry Chapin, which came out of nowhere in 1972 to rise as high as #24 on the charts.

The song is over 6 minutes long and that probably hurt its airplay on some Top 40 stations who had such tight formats it was hard to work a record that long into the rotation. But it was tailored made in many ways for the stations getting into playing longer album cuts on the air, a format just coming into vogue in the early 1970s, especially for FM stations. I know we got a lot of requests at WRVU for this "old lovers randomly meet again" ballad. It was one of my favorites back in the day too!

Here it is now, courtesy of You Tube....and Happy Birthday, again, Beth....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5dwksSbD34

Here Comes The Sun!

The latest nominee for our VU Centennial Class 40th Reunion CD (courtesy of Carol Castleberry) is the Beatles hit "Here Comes The Sun."

While it's a most appropriate time to nominate this song on the first day of the summer season, it's a rather unusual Beatles tune. It was written by George Harrison, not John Lennon and Paul McCartney. And when it was recorded on July 7, 1969, John Lennon did not participate because, according to Wikipedia, he was recovering from a car crash. The song was released on the group's 1969 album, ABBY ROAD. Here it is, coutesy of YouTube....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6j4TGqVl5g

In his autobiography, George Harrision says he wrote the song in a difficult time in his life, struggling with his work at Apple Records and with the long, cold English winter: "So one day I sagged off Apple and I went to Eric Clapton's house. The relief of not having to go see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric's acoustic guitars and wrote "Here's Comes the Sun."

"Here Comes the Sun" was never relased as a single by the Beatles so it never was eligible in those days to be listed on the charts. I do remember giving it lots of airplay when I was working my shifts at WRVU. The song was also covered by many artists, including the one who got the best chart numbers for it.  That would the late Richie Havens version in 1971  which reached #16 (and which I played often on my DJ shifts at the station).

Happy summer! And keep sending me your song nominations for the CD. Just leave a message on the Class Facebook page.

634-5789

Getting back to our favorite songs to put on our VU Centennial Class of 1973 CD for our 40th Reunion Party on Friday, October 4, here's another suggestion from Beth O'Shea.  It's 634-5789 (Soulsville USA).

Written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper and first recorded by "Wicked" Wilson Pickett on his 1966 Altantic Records album "The Exciting Wilson Pickett," the song was a required standard to be played at the combo dance parties we attended at Vanderbilt. According to Wikipedia, the recording made #1 on the Black singles chart and #13 on the Pop listings. Here it is, courtesy of YouTube....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2apquxKKQ

The song was also later covered by such artists as Tina Turner, Johnny Lang, and by one its authors, Eddie Lang. I am not sure what you get or who you reach when you call this number today (or what area code to add), but it's brought 40 years of entertainment to some members of the Vanderbilt Class of '73. Rock on!

Tick-Tock, Tick Tock The Clock At Kirkland Hall Has Stopped!

After nearly 47 years of continously keeping time on the Vanderbilt campus (1966), the clock on top of Kirkland Hall has stopped running.

The final winddown was first noticed last week and the hands (which can be moved on a separate system) were placed at high noon temporarily while University offficials try to figure how to restore it to working order. The chiming of the hours is also done on a separate system and apparently still works.

The reason the clock stopped? Age. According to Paul Young, the clock's caretaker for the past 37 years. The clock's "heart" he says is its motor and gears. "The clock has what we call a sewing machine motor---it's a little bitty motor attached to a lot of gears. These gears have been turning 24/7 and it's to the point where they've just worn down."

Young says he plans to consult with the Cincinnati firm that installed the clock in the mid-1960s as well as other firms that do this kind of work. However, he adds companies that service clocks like these are increasingly rare as is the equipment involved, such as the gears. In fact, if they can't just be replaced that they may have to have new ones fabricated.

For more information on the clock and its history as well as other work being done around Kirkland Hall, here's the full story as released by Vanderbilt's News & Information Bureau....

http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/06/kirkland-hall-clock/

Wouldn't it be great if the clock could be fully restored by the time we get back to campus for our 40th Reunion October 4-5? But no promises are being made or timetables offered. Paul Young says after nearly 4 decades of looking after the clock, he wants to contunue to show the same kind of patience and care he's given all these years, to make the clock is fully restored to service.

Still On The Road Performing....Over 40 Years Later

There aren't many performers still on the road today who gave concerts at Vanderbilt while we were there. But renowned Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is one.

His "50 Years on the Carefree Highway Tour" was in Nashville last night (June 17) and he performed two sets on stage (over two hours of music) at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Just over 40 years ago, he came to Memorial Gym on campus during our senior year to entertain us. He performed at a time when he was just approaching his peak of popularity on the record charts.

That included "If You Could Read My Mind" that rose to Number #5  in 1970.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta0a3DFUU0Y

Lightfoot turns 75 in November.  Staying on the road these many years hasn't been easy, surviving an attack of Bell's Palsy on his face in 1972, then in the early 2000s, a stroke and an ruptured abdominal aortic aneursym that required four surgeries, a tracheotomy and a six-week coma. Having been present at his latest Nashville concert, I can attest Lightfoot still gives a remarkable performance both vocally and in his musicianship playing the guitar. This folk/rock legend also keeps up quite a concert schedule as you can see from this link at his web site....

http://www.gordonlightfoot.com/Home.asp#dates

As you might expect two of Gordon Lightfoot's biggest hits literally stopped the show with standing ovations last night. One was "Carefree Highway" from 1974. Here's an earlier performance courtesy of YouTube ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa9XVvMtBVk

The other song that brought the audience to its feet at the Schermerhorn was my favorite Gordon Lightfoot recording despite its rather dark and sad subject matter (a maritime disaster). Here's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976) again from YouTube....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0DqPSF2fyo

One of the great things about the music of our time together was what a great mix it remains of folk, hard rock, pop, soul music, you name it. So while you can't really dance to it, I nominate the songs of Gordon Lightfoot for consideration of our Centennial Class 40th Reunion CD.

What are your suggestions? Leave them on the Class Facebook page.

American Pie

When it first hits the air waves and the charts, it was simply a sensation! I can remember being at WRVU and the song being requested over and over again by our listeners.

It was "AMERICAN PIE" by singer/songwriter Don McLean. It became the number one hit for four consecutive weeks in 1972 on both the rock and roll and easy listening rankings.  Requested by Evy Kay Rhodus Washburne for inclusion on our Centennial Class 40th Reunion CD, AMERICAN PIE was partly auobiographical for McLean And it was inspired by the tragic plane crash that killed rock legends Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper). At 8:36 in length, it is the longest song to ever make Number #1 and some stations only played one side of the 45 rpm record at a time (about half the song) to make it better fit a tight format.

Regardless, in 2001, the song was selected Number #5 in a poll of the top 365 Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts (behind "OVER THE RAINBOW", "WHITE CHRISTMAS, "THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND" and "RESPECT").

Here, courtesy of YouTube, here is the full-length version of AMERICAN PIE.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr-BYVeCv6U

I don't remember Don McLean performing at Vanderbilt while we were there. But he did come to Nashville while we were in school. It was March, 1973 when the city hosted the Grammy Awards (I think for the first time) at the old Tennessee Theatre downtown...

All these photos are from THE TENNESSEAN, including this one of McClean performing on the Grammy TV show.....

I doubt any of us were in the audience that night at The Tennessee Theatre. Who could have gotten access to or afforded the tickets at our age, right? Well, maybe Steven Greil. After all, if you can get the Grateful Dead to come to your school for a concert, who knows what else is possible!

No, I suspect that very same night when Nashville hosted the Grammys in March, 1973, almost all of us were in the photo below....Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym....for our last home basketball game as seniors. That's when we smashed Ray Mears and the Big Orange of the University of Tennessee....

 

Actually it was quite a good show we missed at the Grammys. Here's a collage of the country music

royalty in attendance that night, along with Aretha Franklin and Helen Reddy accepting awards....

 

 

 

 

 

A Special Request Moves To The Front Of The Line

Thanks to all of you who are sending me your favorite late 1960s and early '70s songs to be included in our 40th Reunion Centennial Class CD to be played at our Friday night party on October 4.

Please keep sending them in by e-mail or on our Class Facebook page. I am trying to take and post them in the order they are received, except for this exception. When a member of the class who is also married to me (40 years next April 27) suggests a song, that goes to the front of the line! Yeah, I am no fool!

The song requested by my better half, Betty Lee Love Nolan, is "White Rabbit" by the Jefferson Airplane and Grace Slick. According to Wikipedia, the song was written by Slick while she was with another band (The Great Society). It was included in the Airplane's 'Surrealistic Pillow" album, then released as a single. The record peaked at #8 on the Billboard chart in 1967 and is #478 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time. It also appears on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 500 Songs that Shaped Rock & Roll.

Here it is, courtesy of You Tube, from the Airplane's performance at Woodstock in August, 1969....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_raXzIRgsA

Of course, the song is rich in imagery from Louis Carroll's books ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (and the '60s drug culture). But Slick later told the WALL STREET JOURNAL her other inspiration for the song was "the bolero used by Miles Davis and Gil Evans in their 1960 album, "Sketches of Spain." However Wikipedia says that piece is not on that album. Regardless, it's a knockout vocal performance (and song) bySlick and will always be considered one of the standout hits of the 1960s.

It Was Still A Very Special Season!

The heartbreak and disappointment remains from Vanderbilt's upset loss in the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals. But,as the angst begins to ease, it's clear to see what a special year this was for the Black & Gold, especially when you review the team's post-season recognition honors.

 Six Commodores received All-American status on various teams (Tony Kemp, Kevin Ziomek, Tyler Beedee, Conor Harrell, Mike Yazstremski and Brian Miller). That's a school record for a single season. Meanwhile the SEC champion (regular season) Dores tied an overall school record for wins (54) and set an SEC mark for most conference victories in a season with 26.

Vanderbilt's first All-American was our classmate, Jeff Peeples in 1973. It's been 40 years since he threw his last pitch for the Commodores but he still holds the school record for most wins in a career (29) and the lowest earned run average (1.68).  Peeples was also named All-SEC all three years he was eligible for varsity competition (too bad freshman couldn't compete in those days).

Another Class of 1973 baseball player who still holds a school record is John McLean. A pitcher/first baseman, John holds a rather amazing single-game mark which has now stood for 42 seasons. On April 9, 1971, McLean helped the Black & Gold beat the UT Vols 12-1. John garnered 13 total bases in the game. The most likely way to achieve that is to hit 3 home runs plus a single. But the record books don't show McLean hitting three round-trippers out in a game during his career. So it must be some different combination of extra base hits to accomplish this feat. I have not been able to find a break-down of what John did at the bat on that remarkable day.

A final Vanderbilt baseball record held by a member of the Class of 1973 is one that may never be broken. On April 21, 1970, righthanded fireballer Doug Wessell struck out 23 batters in a single game against UT-Chattanooga. Since there are only 27 outs in a nine inning game, you can see how amazing that is and how difficult it would be equal or exceeed that record.
 

So Why Didn't We Have Classes Like This When We Were In School?

When we were on campus in the early 1970s, the most popular music-related course many of us took was a Music Appreciation Class. And I'll admit a lot of us added it to our academic schedules because it had the reputation of being a easy A or B to pad the GPA and get 3 hours credit.

But now according to a news release I found on-line through a Vanderbilt Google search, beginning today (June 13), Warner Music Nashville is teaming up with the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute to run "a month-long boot camp for college students and recent graduates. Students will be posed with real-life issues from today's top local and national companies, and then be challenged to come up with innovative solutions and proposals."

The goal of Instiutute is to help students "develop skills in marketing, sales, finance, corporate strategy annd more...(also) enabling participating companies to tap into the brains of creative and motivated millenials."

You know, even in our day, Nashville was known as Music City U.S.A. It's too bad a course like what the Accelerator Summer Business Insitute is doing hadn't been created back then. But then it dawned on me: One of our Centennial Class of 1973 graduates actually did this while we were at Vanderbilt even if he never got any classroom credit for it!

That's right. It's Steven Greil, the chair of our 40th Class Reunion effort. While he was student, Steven helped bring dozens of top rock and roll performers to campus, including perhaps the greatest concert ever held at Vanderbilt, the Grateful Dead performance on Alumni/Neely Lawn in October, 1972.....

Also don't forget the one-of-a-kind Comics seminar Steven brought to campus our senior year. He continued this kind of creative effort for many years after leaving Vanderbilt in his work heading the Nashville Symphony and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Thanks, Steven! Maybe you ought to petition the University for a special second degree!

A CSNY Double Play For The Centennial CD

Suggestions are continuing to flow into me about songs to include (from the late 1960s and early '70s) for our VU Centennial Class CD to be played at our 40th Reunion Party on Friday, October 4.

In this blog post we feature recordings by one of the first super groups of the late '60s, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It's a quartet which featured members of several top rock groups: The Byrds (Crosby), The Buffalo Springfield (Stills and Young) and the Hollies (Nash).

The result was music magic with one of the group's first performances coming at the legendary Woodstock Festival in mid-August, 1969 (just a few weeks before we came to Vanderbilt)

The first CSNY song we want to feature (requested by Janet Schneider) is SUITE: JUDY BLUE EYES. It was written by Stephen Stills.  According to Wikipedia, it is, on the one hand, a suite of short songs  placed together in the classical mode. But the first part of the song title could also be spelled SWEET, referring to Still's then-girlfriend renowned singer/ songwriter Judy Collins. She was known for her piercing blue eyes. The song also seems to mirror the duo's imminent breakup when the piece was written and recorded in 1969. It reached as high as #21 on the BILLBOARD HOT 100 pop singles chart and is still ranked #426 by ROLLING STONE Magazine on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Here courtesy of You Tube, is a rendition of the song as it was performed at Woodstock and seen later in the feature length movie of the same name....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-azgwfnZu7c

Our second CSNY song for this blog posting also concerns the Woodstock Festival and it is perhaps the song most directly identified with that historic event. It's called WOODSTOCK and it was written by singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell. It outlines what happened at the festival although ironically Mitchell was not there. She had been scheduled to perform but decided instead to appear on THE DICK CAVETT SHOW. According to Wikipedia, she says she wrote the song based on what she heard from her then-boyfriend Graham Nash and from watching news reports while in her New York City hotel room. Recently I heard her say in a public radio interview that there was no way she could have written the song the way she did had she actually been at Woodstock that weekend. Here, courtesy of YouTube is a CSNY tribute performance of WOODSTOCK dedicated to Max B. Yasgur, the man who owned the farm in upstate New York where Woodstock was held.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSmXwgq-8EA

WOODSTOCK was a  significant hit on the charts for CSNY reaching #11 on the BILLBOARD HOT 100 in 1970. It was suggested for inclusion on our Centennial Class CD by Beth O'Shea.

Do you have a favorite '60s and early '70s song you want included/ Send me your suggestions on the Class of '73 Facebook page or at my e-mail address pat.nolan@dvl.com. More to come soon!

It's Our Universal Language

Our Vanderbilt Centennial Class of 1973 was so large....we couldn't... and we didn't all know each other.

But one thing we did all have in common is the music of that era.

So to that end, and to seek suggestions from everyone reading this post so we can put together a special CD compilation to play at our 40th Reunion, what would you suggest we include? Please e-mail me and let me know your favorites from "back in the day" and we will preview some of the suggestions here.

Beth O'Shea has beaten us all to the punch....and has sent me a whole list of the hits she loved while she was at Vanderbilt. It includes the one above....SHE SHOT A HOLE IN MY SOUL by Nashville's Clifford Curry.  Written by Chuck Neese and Mac Gayden, and produced by Buzz Cason, the 1967 hit was recorded in Music City and rose as high as #45 on the R&B charts.  Issued by Elf Records and distributed by Bell Records, it was Curry's biggest hit and according to his biography on Wikipedia his success "spread to the Carolina beaches where the baritone became a prime showman for their musical events and a solid purveyor of Beach music, which is anything you can shag to (dance) and look cool doing it." In fact, Curry was inducted into the Beach Music Hall of Fame in 1995.

Since Curry lived (and still does) in Nashville, this photo (taken in Nashville's Centennial Park during a concert) makes me wonder if he ever played some dates at Vanderbilt (fraternity or sorority houses) nearby while we were in school? Anyone remember?

Whether he did or not, here's the song as requested by Beth. It's from an appearance he made on THE NASHVILLE NETWORK on May 15, 1986 with his introduction (and a brief interview that follows) by, of all people, Ralph Emery. Enjoy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ-xkUGFdUM

By the way, Clifford Curry has a web site about what's he's doing now. While it's look like it's under construction, here's the link if you want to check it out. ...

http://cliffordcurry.com/

Finally, don't forget to send me your suggestions for the best of "our era" music for a compilation CD to play during our 40th Reunion Party (Friday, October 4). Otherwise, you'll just have listen to what Beth and I like (LOL).

How June 6th Has Shaped Our Lives

The 6th day of the sixth month of year has shaped our lives long before we came together at Vanderbilt.

Sixty nine years ago today, June 6, 1944 was the invasion of Normandy, D-Day. It's the event that forever molded our current Western Civilization, ensuring the victorious outcome of the war in Europe for the Allies against Adolph Hilter and the Axis Powers. No doubt many of us had fathers, sons, uncles, cousins, perhaps even older brothers who landed and fought that day or later in the conflict. Some even gave their lives as a part of what has become known as "The Greatest Generation" of Americans.

While none of us in our Class was alive that day, we have learned and remember well what occurred on D-Day.

Courtesy of The History Channel, here's a brief look back.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPU4p7UQOtU

June 6 is also the day that shaped our lives a little more than a year before we came to Vanderbilt. It was early on the morning of June 6, 1968 when Democratic presidential candidate and New York Senator Robert Kennedy, fresh off his victory in the California primary election, was shot down while passing through a hotel kitchen in Los Angeles, CA. Much like the assassination of his brother, President John Kennedy five years earlier, the RFK murder is an event everyone in our generation remembers where they were and what they were doing when they learned about what happened.

As you can remember from watching the video below, 1968 was a year of great upheaval and violence in American politics. It was another end of innocence for our generation, much as the events of September 11, 2001 have been for our children....

http://www.history.com/videos/the-assassination-of-rfk#the-assassination-of-rfk

As members of the 1973 Centennial Class of Vanderbilt University, we have hold many things in common. But before many of us ever met, our lives were changed and shaped forever by the events of the Sixth of June.

Alumni Hall Changes Ahead

When you come back to campus for our 40th Class Reunion this fall (October 4-6), you'll find a beautifully renovated Alumni Hall to visit.

The building, which was used in our day for student government meetings and activities (Board of Presidents, USAB), Alumni & Development offices and student media (HUSTLER, COMMODORE YEARBOOK, VERSUS) was, in some ways our Student Center (although you had to go to Rand Hall or the Divinity School to get anything to eat).

You'll remember the The Sarratt Student Center was built during our junior and senior years (XXX The Fence) and didn't open until the fall AFTER we graduated. Not that anyone is still bitter or anything.

Now Alumni Hall is taking on bold new duties beginning this fall as the location of the Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning.

Read more about it in this release just sent out by the University.....


http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/05/vanderbilt-institute-for-digital-learning/

The times continue to be  a changing on campus ....as Bob Dylan sang back in the day. Now it's all about digital bites and on-line courses. In our day, remember all those punch cards you had to take to our massive Computer Center building on campus? And what if one of the holes you'd punched in your cards was wrong? What if you dropped the cards and got them out of order.

Well, you were mostly out of luck...and all to run a computer program that today wouldn't even compare with routine things we do all the time (just pushing the touch screen) on our smart phones or PCs. 

40 years does change a lot..... 

Regional Champs Again! Dores On To The Supers

They may have been a day late (lost Sunday night).

But the VandyBoys did not come up short, defeating the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 7-1 at Hawkins Field Monday evening to win the Nashville NCAA Baseball Regionals.

It sets up the Black & Gold's fourth trip to the Super Regionals (the second in three years), hosting Louisville in a best 2 out of 3 series beginning Saturday afternoon. The winner goes to the College World Series in Omaha.

Vanderbilt defeated Georgia Tech by getting back on its game of good pitching, great defense, effective "small ball" tactics by bunting to advance runners, and timely hitting. Courtesy of vucommodores.com, here's a recap writeup of the game along with video game highlights from ESPN,  Coach Tim Corbin's emotional talk with the team on the field immediately after the contest, and his comments with the media (along with some star players) following the game)...


http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/060313aab.html

Go Dores!

It Was The Third Of June......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc


While many will always connect this day of the year (June 3rd) with Bobbie Gentry and her 1967 hit "ODE TO BILLIE JOE" (click above for her SMOTHER BROTHERS show appearance courtesy of YouTube), there were several other significant events that occurred on the third day of the sixth month while we at Vanderbilt.

One happened while we were just finishing our high school graduations and getting ready to come to campus. It was June 3, 1969 when NBC made one of the biggest blunder in TV programming history, cancelling STAR TREK and running the 79th and last episode (Turnabout Intruder) on this date. The network blamed continued low ratings for ending the show after three seasons. Others blamed a bad time slot (Friday evenings) for its demise.

But actually, STAR TREK was far from dead. Having just enough episodes for syndication, the program has continued for decades in reruns, as well as spawning 5 other TV series, 12 films (including one in theatres now) along with numerous books, games, toys and devoted fans (Trekkies).

Here courtesy of You Tube, is the now iconic opening of the show....

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI

In the area of rock music while we were at Vanderbilt, June 3, 1972 marks the high water mark on the charts (#9) for Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen and their hit "HOT ROD LINCOLN."  Take a listen and a look back in this YouTube video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9QpDvhshOQ

One last historic note from June 3 during our Vanderbilt years, June 3, 1970 marked the first artificial gene being sythesized. Its an answer we all probably got wrong on a quiz when we came to back to school our sophomore year and took a biology class.

Got a special song from the 1969-1973 era that reminds you of your time at Vanderbilt? Let us know by e-mail (pat.nolan@dvl.com) and we will be happy to post it here along with any history or back story about the song/hit record we can find.

How Far We've Come.....

Vanderbilt baseball has come so far since the school won its first SEC championship our senior year back in 1973. That's shortshop Ted Shipley sliding into third as the fans sit on the hillside down the first base line (including a lot of students).

Old McGugin Field was a great place to see a game and enjoy your favorite beverage as we did 40 years ago...



. But it's nothing like Hawkins Field, the "Fenway Park of the South" where the VandyBoys play today on the same site. Now they are under the lights and on national TV (ESPN) as the SEC regular season champs seek another Regional pennant and hopefully a Super Regional title and a  second berth in the College World Series later this month.

Vandy has won its first two games in the Regional at The Hawk (with one more win to go for the title). Here are the details from VUCommodores.com, as well as a look at the ebb and flow of Vanderbilt's season beginning in the depths of winter, then stretching through the spring and the climaxing with advent of summer......

http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/060113aaa.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqiz_Rxut4o&feature=youtu.be

http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/060213aac.html

Go Vandy!