Music on Only A Game

Miami Vice Theme (from Television's Greatest Hits: 70s & 80's, TVT, 1990)

It's funny how the latest electronic instruments influence entire generations to overuse them. In the case of this theme, the year was 1984 and the culprit was Jan Hammer, taking the flanger pedal way beyond the max. But was Mr. Hammer (if that really is his name) the only flange fanatic? No. It was even overused by Bob Mould of Husker Du. These things were everywhere.

Brown Eyed Handsome Man by Chuck Berry (from The Definitive Collection, Geffen, 2006)

John Perotti's choice of this song brings validation, for he once chided me in the extreme for bringing up Chuck Berry as one logical candidate for the "King of Rock and Roll" designation (I don’t think it should be Elvis).

The Wild Boar by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann (from The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann, Parlophone, 1967)

Sir George Martin produced.

The Continental by Swinging Hammond Organ (from Jeepers Creepers, Tinsel Town Records, 2011)

Is this Christopher Walken?

Gravity Song (feat. Em C Parker) by Cellphones Kill Dogs (from A Lumberjack and His Mountain Goat, Cellphones Kill Dogs, 2012)

Newton would have approved.

Don's Gone Columbia by Teenage Fan Club (from Thirteeen, Geffen, 1997)

OK, veteran OAGers…recognize this? It was our first theme, hastily edited to :58 seconds the day before our first broadcast on July 24, 1993. This brings me back to a very heady time, when we (meaning Bill Littlefield, original technical director Jennifer Loeb, the incredibly talented David Greene and I) were trying like crazy to get the program off the ground, unsure whether public radio listeners would ever go for a sports program. And here we are, almost two decades later, playing a small part of that soundtrack as we revisit some of our favorite stories. And we're thankful for that.