Jock Rock, Volume 1: How does the Jock series hold up today?

ESPN’s Jock series lived fast, died young and left a solid, influential legacy. To those first two points, 2019 witnesses both the 25th anniversary of the series’ start and the 20-year mark of its ending.

From 1994 to 1999, ESPN produced at least one compilation of established or suggested sports sound-system staples. Concomitant with Jock Rock 2000, Fox Sports held the rights to Jock Jams, Volume 5 to close that hot streak in 1999.

For the next eight weeks, we will review all eight albums from that span.

Apart from 2001’s All Star Jock Jams and 2003’s Stadium Anthems, the niche genre subsequently faded from mainstream discography. But canned music at games was on the rise leading up to the icebreaker that was Jock Rock, Volume 1. We have long since learned it is not going anywhere as a practice.

Besides the steady turn of the tide from predominantly organ to primarily taped music, 1994’s New York sports scene created a timely atmosphere for this series. Madison Square Garden’s two chief tenants, the Rangers and Knicks, had each gone to their respective playoff finals. If not for an NHL lockout, the Blueshirts’ banner night would have happened in October, the same month Jock Rock, Volume 1 hit the shelves.

Come what may, early in his protracted tenure as MSG’s music director, Ray Castoldi was embracing the change in sports music. He was instrumental in the album’s production, selecting the borrowed tracks and contributing some organ interstitials.

Six weeks after the compilation’s release, he told the New York Times’ Douglas Martin, “If you catch the moment with the right music, it can pump up the energy level of the entire team. And the right music can be confusing and disorienting to opponents.”

Added Monica Lynch, president of the partnering record company Tommy Boy, in the same report, “It’s so simple, Neanderthal really. Basically, you’ve got a captive audience of people who really enjoy being whipped into a frenzy.”

The frenzies would only get more fevered and acquire a greater breadth of enabling tracks in the years ahead. Lynch’s word choice of “Neanderthal” is striking given how primitive Jock Rock, Volume 1 looks today.

Of course, that is inevitable, and it reflects the early evolution of public-address disc-jockeying at arenas. The first Jock Rock, like most high-profile sporting playlists of its time, was short and stocked with older songs. There are only a few surprising omissions, such as the Troggs’ “Wild Thing,” which this author can clearly recall hearing during multiple TV timeouts at one November 1994 Providence Bruins game.

Come what may, after a snippet of the late Rangers vocalist John Amirante’s Star-Spangled Banner, an abrupt buzzer signals it’s game time for Jock Rock. Here is what ensues, and how it has fit into the sporting scene, then and now.

 

 

“We Will Rock You”

You don’t even need the lyrics to kindle a crowd with this Queen classic. A half-minute of the stomp-stomp-clap rhythm can usually fill a brief break in the action on its own.

But with or without vocals, “We Will Rock You” has sustained its effect long after losing its regal position on sporting playlists. It rightly leads off the full-length tracks of Jock Rock, Volume 1 because it was an unavoidable staple in the early days of canned music.

Adding to its athletic connotations, the song was just coming off inclusion in 1992’s The Mighty Ducks and 1994’s D2. The latter’s release preceded Jock Rock by seven months. Also in October 1994, the IHL’s Chicago Wolves began operation, and would use “We Will Rock You” as their opening faceoff song for years to come.

With or without reinforced interest in the band via biopics, this song is still welcome in today’s crowded cue. The only difference a quarter-century later is a one-shift limit per game.

“Blitzkrieg Bop”

Another straightforward hook makes the rest of this Ramones song optional. With written cues on the big screen, “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” can easily be customized as “Hey! Ho! Go (Team)!” with any monosyllabic squad name or shorthand version of the name. I.e. “Hey! Ho! Go Caps!” for the Washington Capitals.

As another testament to its staying power, “Blitzkrieg Bop” came back in 2003 as part of Stadium Anthems. In fact, ESPN’s one-off attempt at reviving its musical compilations recycled each of Jock Rock, Volume 1’s first three tracks. Although the third has long been ruined for reasons the next capsule will explain.

“Rock and Roll (Part 2)”

As a universal goal or victory song, this instrumental riff with a few “Hey!” chants in the chorus was right there with “We Will Rock You” in canned music’s primordial period. It sustained its widespread, straightforward status for more than a decade after the Jock series.

But after artist Gary Glitter’s conviction on horrendous sex crimes, this has no place at the stadium or arena today. Not in a canned cue, not on an organist or pep band’s music sheet, maybe not even in cover form. That is all there is to say at this point.

“Mony Mony”

The presence of “Bang the Drum All Day” proves that Jock Rock had no rule against featuring songs produced after 1980. With that in mind, it is strange that Billy Idol’s cover of “Mony Mony” does not make the cut.

Instead, the far less energized Tommy James and the Shondells original bats cleanup on the track list. Those who went to enough games at enough different venues in the latter half of the 1990s probably heard it at least once. But for self-explanatory reasons, both then and now, you are more likely to hear Idol’s take.

 

 

“Shotgun”

This Junior Walker & The All Stars tune is the only full-fledged Jock Rock, Volume 1 track without its own Wikipedia page. As another testament to its legacy, it saw far less (but some) PA action than its Jock cohabitants even when the series was hot.

“I Got You (I Feel Good)”

Those who arranged the track order on this album knew what they were doing when they made it follow “He Shoots, He Scores!” Using the tie-ins with Madison Square Garden, that interstitial simply consists of the Rangers’ distinctive goal horn.

Overall, the better-known Brown got less play than Glitter with this easy choice of response to a score or victory. With that said, there was a time leading up to this compilation’s release when some arenas still found ways to use it more than once per game.

In those days, it made ample sense especially because of the song’s frequent use in advertising. But today’s crowded, contemporized in-game presentation landscape has all but drowned Brown’s voice out. It should, however, get priority any time a team wants to have a Retro Night.

“Tequila”

This is an oldie young millennials likely first learned through another loose association with sports movies. In a rather revolting scene from The Sandlot, this quick instrumental tune (with only the title twice exclaimed as the lyrics) runs its rapid course. The 1993 film preceded this album by 18 months.

It is also worth noting that Kurt Browning, who figure skated for the host country at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, made this a staple in his performances. And that was when canned music was barely emerging as a practice for team sporting events.

With all that said, this 1958 Champs single is more than twice as old now as it was then. Most, if not all, mainstream arenas have long swept it the way of the Sandlot kids’ vomit.

 

“Dance to the Music”

Like “Shotgun,” this product of Sly and the Family Stone was always less prominent on playlists across the sporting universe. But it was not absent everywhere, and the titular command at the start was an easy to get kids grooving in the stands.

These days, the song’s best bet for in-game inclusion is a Jumbotron presentation of Shrek’s karaoke party.

“Born to the Wild”

Long synonymous with motorcycle adventures, Steppenwolf’s magnum opus sustained respectable legs in a sporting context. It has one of the more pulsating rhythms of all the Jock Rock, Volume 1 tracks and a catchy titular hook.

Beyond the original artist’s version, this song also has a place in the Mighty Ducks trilogy. The third and final movie, released in 1996, has the Eden Hall Academy pep band playing it during Dean Portman’s striptease.

“What I Like About You”

After a “Dee-fense!” interstitial, the Romantics set a solid tone for Side 2 of the cassette. A borderline ’80s song (it was released as a single in 1979, but the full album emerged in 1980), this is, not surprisingly, more energized than most of its Jock Rock teammates.

One can cue up this song’s beginning at a stoppage of play and keep it going for as long as the break lasts. Since 2007, the same has held true for a cover version by Poison.

 

 

“Shout”

For a variety of reasons, this Isley Brothers original is not as memorable as the Otis Day cover from Animal House. But those who needed to use what they had did just that when it came to playing “Shout” at a game.

“Takin’ Care of Business”

Depending on what a given ’90s kid was exposed to first, Jock Rock made one think of Office Depot or vice versa.

Given Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Canadian roots, this song found a natural home alongside “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” and “Roll on Down the Highway” at the Great White North’s amateur hockey venues. In major junior, it is a long-standing standard for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.

Below the 49th parallel, it has enjoyed protracted associations with baseball’s New York Mets and basketball’s Charlotte Hornets. And in minor pro hockey, back when canned selections were sparse and someone wanted to be be different, it was not unheard for a DJ to use this as a goal song.

“Bang the Drum All Day”

Curiously known as an NFL touchdown song, particularly for the Green Bay Packers, this 1983 Todd Rundgren product is the baby track on Jock Rock, Volume 1.

More broadly, like the majority of its teammates, “Bang the Drum All Day” has been inevitably lost in an ever-rising crowd of sound-system tracks. But during its heyday late in the last century, it was one of the better fits. It had just enough oomph and speed to meet the mood, and still could during nostalgia-themed promotional events.

“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye”

This Steam song will hit its golden anniversary come November, which means it was approaching silver at the time of Jock Rock. And for nearly two decades before that, it already had athletic attributes thanks to Chicago White Sox organist Nancy Faust.

When all in-game music at professional venues still came from the organ, Faust slyly cued this up when the visitors made a pitching change. After the original version hit ESPN’s compilation, DJs played it for that occasion or for game misconducts to an opposing player. In addition, college fans are especially known to chant the hook, infusing “Hey (opponent’s name), goodbye!”in the waning moments of a sure victory.

Context counts, so for an otherwise boring-sounding track, partial credit is due. And for this somewhat short list of oldies to start the Jock series, this was an okay segueway to the final-buzzer interstitial and the Sportscenter theme.