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Where it began, I can't begin to know whenSusan Orlean, author of “The Orchid Thief” the book on which Adaptation was based, put her sleuthing skills to a Fenway mystery this morning on NPR’s Morning Edition. With so many things originating from the Boston Stations we don’t expect to hear a Boston-centric piece from a staff writer of the New Yorker. But in her last two years in Boston Susan's found a number of things curious about the ethos. She investigated and reported this morning on the eighth inning at Fenway. Not just the eighth inning, but the Fenway rendition of Sweet Caroline.
But then I know it's growing strong
Hands, touching hands, reaching outBostonist had a little fling with Neil Diamond this summer, but in her investigation Susan didn’t ask us. After interviewing fans, tour guides and the current Fenway DJ, Megan Kaiser, Bostonist was sure we’d heard the truth to the origins of the Sweet Caroline rendition at Fenway. Alas, we were wrong. The theories about JFK’s daughter, daughters of Fenway Park DJ’s past, and existential explanations the truth came from the originator. Amy, the Fenway DJ before Megan Kaiser took over, put on Sweet Caroline 8 years ago at a game. The crowd loved it. That's it, Amy liked it and Red Sox Nation just happen to like it too. Now Megan plays it every game, eighth inning, and all Bostonist can say is:
Touching me, touching you
sweet Caroline, good times never seem so good (so good, so good, so good...)
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man, i've got a soft spot for neil. and the sox, of course. i'd be at fenway in a sec if neil was to play there.
but please, don't tell anyone. i can't risk losing my street cred, ok?
Susan Orlean is actually a long-time Boston expert. She used to live around here and write for the phoenix and had a column in the Boston Globe in the eighties. She even published a compilation of stuff called "Red Sox and Bluefish and other things that make New England New England" in '87. It's out of print, though, and if you can find a copy for under fifty dollars I'll give you my firstborn...
Caught the story and it sounded like a re-tread of the Globe story from back in May. Not quite news. I thought Orleans was famous for her research. If I were Stephanie Vosk, I'd be wicked pissed off.
I've always been amazed that nobody's made the connection between the song's popularity and the popularity of
Beautiful Girls, which came out two years before they started playing it at Fenway and was in heavy rotation on cable right around 1998 when "Sweet Caroline" made it into the starting lineup.
Also, while I'm in rant mode, can we drop "God Bless America" from the seventh inning stretch? It's not a good song. It's not our national anthem. You don't have to take your cap off. What is it for? Is it for 9/11? Is it for the War on Terrorism? Is it for the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism? Why? Why? Why? This is a bigger mystery to me. Write about that Susan Orleans.
Ms. Lime, good catch and update. I did miss that Globe Sunday story back in May. I think Stephanie Vosk has every right to be pissed off after I read her story. (btw: your link is bad, I looked it up on lexisnexis).
Last couple of times I was at Fenway they didn't do God Bless America, it was all root-root-root-for the Red Sox in a rendition of take me out to the ballgame.