damn yankees & interesting suff over sixty years

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Over sixty years ago today, on May 5, 1955 - The musical Damn Yankees opened in New York City on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mostly hate sports but I love this musical about the game of baseball, which is only slightly less boring than U. S. football. However, I did love it when my dad would take me to the Seals Stadium (affectionately called "The Queen of Concrete") on 16th and Bryant to watch the San Francisco Seals play.   

 

 

 

Seals Stadium

date & photographer unknown

 

Actually, the main reason I loved going to the baseball game was that there were vendors with large metal barrels that had spigots on the bottom strapped to the front of their bodies walking through the bleachers selling the hot soup that was in the barrels. It was usually cold so I always had a cup of soup!!!!   

 

Anyway, I've digressed; what a surprise! So, back to Damn Yankees. I like this musical as it has a lot of fun songs and it has a really interesting plot (who can argue with the Devil?). Fifty-year-old Joe Boyd transforms into 22-year-old Joe Hardy. The song the two Joes sing during the transition, Goodbye Old Girl, puts the play on my all-time favorite list. I wrote about the musical and in particular, the song, over ten years ago with lots of information in it that I won't repeat but you may read if you'd like at the (link below).      

 

In 1960 there was a lovely instrumental jazz quartet rendition of Goodbye recorded by Art Farmer on trumpet with Tommy Williams on bass, Tommy Flanagan on piano and Albert Heath gently backing on drums (link below).    

In 2017 there was a revival of Damn Yahkees with Maggie Gyllenhaal, sister of Jake Gyllenhaal, taking the Gwen Verdon role as the seductress Lola and Whoopi Goldberg as the gender-bent Applegate,       

 

 

Maggie Gyllenhaal

photo by Walter McBride 

 

 

 

Goodby, Old Girl lyrics

 

[JOE BOYD]
Goodbye, old girl
My old girl
When you awaken, I'll be gone
Can't tell you where I go
It isn't fair, I know
But trust in me and carry on

Goodbye old friend
My old friend
There's sometin' I must let you know
I haven't said it much
I guess I've lost my touch
But, my old girl, I love you so

No I know it hasn't all been rosy
We've had squabblin' days when tears were brought about
But in a moment or two
We would bill and coo
And never even knew
What we fought about
And now your Joe has to go
But he'll come back to you again
So sleep your sleep, old girl
Our love will keep, old girl, till then
My old girl
Goodbye

[JOE HARDY]
Hey
Did you...?
I can't beliеve it
Wham

And though your Joe has to go
He may comе back to you again
So sleep your sleep, old girl
Our love will keep, old girl, till then

Goodbye, old girl
My old girl
Goodbye

 

 

Other damn yankees stuff 

Damn Yankees was an American rock supergroup formed in 1989. It included Tommy Shaw of Styx, Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Ted Nugent of The Amboy Dukes and Michael Cartellone a drummer who would later join Lynyrd Skynyrd). That's a pretty good lineup.       

The group is remembered for the songs High Enough and Where You Goin' Now, both of them Top 40 hits in the early 1990s.       

          

Damn Yankees

photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives_Getty Images

Viewfinder links:

          

Damn Yankees & Gwen Verdon        

Art Farmer         

Whoopi Goldberg         

Gwen Verdon         

         

Net links:

       

Jack Blades ~ How I wrote Damn Yankees' High Enough        

        

YouTube links:

Damn Yankees ~ Goodbye, Old Girl 1958 (soundtrack)       

Damn Yankees ~ High Enough         

Damn Yankees ~ Where You Goin' Now                   

Art Farmer ~ Goodbye Old Girl        

         

Styrous® ~ Thursday, May 5, 2022     

        

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