No 'Sweet Caroline' at Penn State games, no public allowed in most athletic facilities

CNN ^

[matt04]

Penn State football fans will no longer be singing "Sweet Caroline" while cheering on their Nittany Lions, according to university officials.

Neil Diamond's classic song, often sung at sporting events and particularly at Boston Red Sox baseball games, has been rotated out of the playlist for Beaver Stadium this year.

[matt04]

Sweet Caroline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLPiYZrwAzU

[TigerClaws]

Will the Penn State centers still bend over?

[matt04]

Warm, touching warm, reaching out, touching me, touching you

Sure, nothing to do with Sandusky.

[ladyjane]

This is a joke, right?

[Vigilanteman]

I'll suggest revival of the old 1920's song Collegiate which was actually written and performed at Penn State by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.

It is quite the catchy tune.

There is, however, one stanza which uses the word "Knickers" and sounds an awfully lot like the n***** word. Just to make the PC crowd go bonkers.

[matt04]

Nope.

[wolfpat]

I read somewhere that when they were marching Sandusky into prison, the prisoners were singing Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” to him, with special emphasis on the part that shouts, “HEY! TEACHER! Leave them kids alone.”

[ladyjane]

Will the Penn State centers still bend over?

LOL Not in the shower.

[dfwgator]

Guess this also means no more halftime tributes to Michael Jackson by the Penn State band.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

The song, said to be written about Caroline Kennedy, contains the lyrics: "Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you."

If this song really was written about Caroline Kennedy, that means the song (released in 1969) was written about a ten or eleven year old girl and, in addition to the lyrics cited above, contains references to filling up a lonely night with that girl.

As such, I think we should be at least as worried about Neil Diamond's predilections as Sandusky's.

[MAexile]

I don't know about other venues, but the funny thing is when they play it at Fenway the only words people know is the chorus. Otherwise the mumble in tune, and make fools of themselves.

[Fiji Hill]

I'll suggest revival of the old 1920's song Collegiate which was actually written and performed at Penn State by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.

My father, a music teacher and church choir director, and my mother attended two music workshops conducted by Fred Waring at Penn State--the last one concluded about two days before he passed away.

Collegiate--Waring's Pennsylvanians (1925)

[stormer]

[txrefugee]

This is just plain silly. Instead of the Nitany Lions, Penn State’s mascot should be a doofus.

[Fiji Hill]

A few more suggestions:

• We Love the College Girls--The California Ramblers (1927)

• Collegiana--The Broadway Broadcasters (1928)
  Waring's Pennsylvanians also did a great version of this tune.

• Doin' the Raccoon--Rudy Vallee & His Yale Collegians (1928)

• The Varsity Drag--George Olsen & His Music (1927)

• A Hot Dog, a Blanket and YOu--Gene Kardos (1931)

[Vigilanteman]

Way cool. As you probably know, Fred Waring is considered a national treasure here. In the same league as Aaron Copeland, Louis Armstrong and Art Feidler.

Maybe even a cut above Lawrence Welk. LW was a superb performer, but I don't recall him coming up with a lot of original stuff like the other three did, almost until the day they died.

[jessduntno]

“Will the Penn State centers still bend over?”

Yes, but only when there are guards present.

[ntnychik]

Good times never seemed so good.

This current crop of officials seems as absorbed in public image as the last, discredited bunch.

[matt04]

I would say that is partially due to the strategic muting of parts of the song during the chorus.

[Fiji Hill]

One of the first songs I learned to sing as a small child was "Them Bones", aka "Dry Bones," a 1947 release in which Fred Waring and the boys subject the Delta Rhythm Boys' 1943 hit to a Spike Jones treatment, with lots of sound effects.

My parents told me that Waring would drive around State College, Pa. in a mid-1950's Cadillac.