It’s Super Bowl Sunday. If you’re a Green Bay Packers fan, then you are probably already aware of this song, but just in case …
Pat McCurdy, local Wisconsin celebrity, is a good old friend of mine (he of Give Names, Check In fame). I used to sing with him all the time at his gigs in Chicago, and he wrote a duet for him and me called “You and I Are Just About to Fall In Love” which appears on his album Show Tunes. On occasion, we would clamor into a photo booth together for mayhem and hijinx. Pat has written an anthem for the Packers, and here is the official music video. It has his goofy humor and frankly I can’t get enough of it. The manly manly background singers. The electric guitar section. Pat in lederhosen is an image I won’t get rid of any time soon. And I especially love the ridiculously stupid and satisfying musical change in the very last line when he sings “Green”, as he heads into the big finish.
I got no horse in this race, I’m a Patriots fan, but any time I get to promote my friends I take it.
Yeah, as a former Green Bay Packers employee, I can confirm: the people of Wisconsin sure love their Packers.
I didn’t live and die with the team when I worked for them (though the further they advanced in the playoffs, the larger my postseason bonus … so there was that), and I’m by no means deeply invested in today’s outcome. Some of my best friends will be at the game, from team employees to reporters. The former are no doubt invested in this thing. The latter are bitter that they’ve had to spend a week in Dallas, away from their families (reporters, unlike team employees, do NOT get paid more when the season goes longer … they just work harder). Where was I?
Green Bay is a special place. A town of that size shouldn’t have a major professional sports team, never mind one of the best-run franchises in all of professional sports, but they do. And while there are certainly fans who take it all too seriously, whose personal self worth hangs on wins and losses, I’ve always loved that Packers fans aren’t like Philly fans, who would wait at the Packers team hotel to boo us as we got off the bus. (Fucking freaks, Philly fans are.)
It’s a sweet town (as in kind, not cool). And that organization is full of sweet people (kind and cool). For their sake, I hope the Packers win today.
Jason – I didn’t know you worked for them! Wow! How long did you work for them?
I love Green Bay, too. I love Wisconsin, in general – I’ve had a lot of fun there. Really nice people. Performing at Milwaukee Summer Fest was certainly in my Top 10 Funnest Experiences of all Time. It’s probably #1. Pat is like Bono there! That’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever performed for. I think it was 4,000 people, all screaming his lyrics in unison, and, in one thrilling unforgettable moment, chanting my name. I will never forget it.
As a Red Sox fan, lifelong, I understand how important these things can be … and heartbreak and all that. Don’t ever say “It’s just a game” to me!! :)
But for me it never came out in hatred of the other “side” – that made no sense and also made it completely not fun. I live in New York, so I know what it’s like to have this hatred directed at you. It’s like you’re a spy in enemy territory (although, to be fair, there are a ton of Red Sox fans who live here. We’re everywhere.)
So let’s all sing, “we love the green and gold, in autumn sun and winter’s cold …”
That’s hilarious.
bren – isn’t it so ridiculous? I like the bit with the snowblower.
Two full seasons. Plus some time before and after, and I went back to help cover a draft (the Aaron Rodgers draft, actually). And I’ve been back since to see friends.
They were good years. When your office is inside Lambeau Field, you’re the envy of about everyone in the state. (More than that, my name is on a plaque on the wall of Lambeau Field, as I was on staff when they reopened the refurbished stadium.) I left for all the right reasons, and I don’t regret the decision, but every time I go back I wish the experience had lasted a little longer — like college or something. A special time of my life, to be sure.
Ok, that is total insanity. The lederhosen gets me too. Also, why does he water ski, do you think? Is he at the Dells?
Funny, as many times as I saw Pat in concert (and possibly you too, as we discussed before), I don’t remember him singing anything Packer related. But then those were rough years for the Pack. Favre won the Super Bowl the year after I left Wisconsin, naturally; and those were the days before the refurbished Lambeau that Jason mentions, when they played half their home games in Milwaukee at shitty County Stadium, where the Brewers played baseball, generally poorly. (Those also were the days before the current and awesome Miller Park… Christ, I’m getting old.)
In any case, you brought back some fond Milwaukee memories, their occasional shittiness being part of the charm.
Ann – I don’t know why he water skis. I of course immediately think of the Go Gos and that video of theirs. And ice fishing? Like … Pat? Ice-fishing?
Jason – it all sounds really cool and exciting.
Craig – It’s such a small world. I still am surprised by that. I love that. Is The Celebrity Club still in existence in Milwaukee, I wonder? That was Pat’s main venue in Milwaukee proper. We had a helluva time there after the show at Summer Fest.
I don’t think I ever made it to the Celebrity Club. My hangouts were The Gym (the name of a bar across from Marquette campus), Murphy’s Law, Hagerty’s, occasionally The Safe House when we ventured off-campus. I also have fond memories of drinking wine on a wonderful Bastille Day afternoon without certainty of how I made it home.
I saw Pat a few times. Once at SummerFest. Once at M’quette under a tarp while it rained. Another time at that pub in the basement of the MU Student Union, the name of which escapes me. Probably one or two other times. “Disaster Girl” was my favorite song of his, only too apropos for my undergrad years.
Oh, I love Disaster Girl! “She’s the Hindenberg, the Titanic, Mount St. Helen’s and the Bank Panic, she’s my-y-y … my Disaster Girl!”
I don’t think I ever went to the Marquette gigs. I did crash one of his gigs at a little Christian college south of Milwaukee – to see him playing in that environment, and “keeping it clean” was so hilarious and awesome. They loved him, though! I think he played there once every couple of months and the student union was PACKED!
I know it’s all about me, but I wish MY song was on iTunes. His other albums are there, but that one isn’t, and I take it very very personally.
That song may have his best lyrics: “She’s in the New Testament/and the Old one/She’s two world wars/plus the Cold one/My-y-y-y, my Disaster Girl.” Ha ha ha ha!
For those who don’t know what we’re talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDrdDfGFjQ
hahaha
“On the Poseidon, she’s Ernest Borgnine …”
This is one of my favorites of his new ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ugeKriMNg&feature=related
He reads my site, by the way, so his ego is nice and stroked right now reading all of this. :)
Have you ever posted or linked to your song? If not, ask Pat to send you a digital copy. What the hell, I’ll do it: Pat, let’s hear Sheila’s song!
I know his web guy. Lemme see if he’ll do it.
My favorite part of it is that it’s a duet, and we recorded it in a recording studio in Milwaukee – and it’s a live take – both of us in the studio singing at the same time. We got it on the first take – so I like that, because it’s sort of a captured moment in time.
Craig – web guru came through big. Just posted a link to the duet up at the top!