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Tricycle Lyric Reflections, courtesy of Brenda Sauter:

The music for DODGER BLUE was all ready to go when Wild Carnation had our first rehearsal in April, 1992, and I had listened to Rich’s demo of the song before that. I went with it and did the obvious: write a song about baseball and find the inspiration for a new melody.

The lyrics are loosely based on the selling of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. I can’t claim to have done much research on the topic but figured certain events would have taken place and at least some of the players would have felt this way (“we were taken from our town, the crowds went home, the walls came down”, “the velvety green was just a dream with no guarantee”).

When the reviews starting appearing after Tricycle’s release, there was one which compared DODGER BLUE to the departure of The Feelies (which turned out to be a 17 year hiatus when we started playing again in 2008). The song, to this particular writer, could have been equal parts baseball to the struggles of a rock band.

For a more in-depth history of DODGER BLUE, Michael Imperioli would need to be included, as he was briefly a member of the group of artists who (after its participants moved on or settled in) became Wild Carnation. Imperioli wrote lyrics (which Rich and Chris couldn’t hear well enough to understand during rehearsals), but his lyric book departed with him; and so just the title remained. And of course, the original music.

www.riverfronttimes.com/music/the-sopranos-michael-imperioli-once-played-in-a-feelies-related-indie-rock-band-2651002

lyrics

How was I, how was I to know
when all the words got in the way
Would we still be here next year? No guarantee.
How could I, how could I refuse
and would we ever really shed our blues
Those people forced their views on me,
but did they really see?
We were taken from our town
the crowds went home, the walls came down
We were sent far from our home with no guarantee.
How could I, how could I refuse
and would we ever really shed our blues
Those people forced their views on me,
but did they really see?
How the sun got in my eyes when I went chasing after flies
How many gloves lay in the grass, it was hard to see.
This isn’t the way I had it planned,
somebody took it from my hands
Cleanse the stains, wipe my eyes,
tell me please that the good survive.
Would someone tell me so I’ll understand
why you have to take it like a man?
The velvety green was just a dream with no guarantee.
What makes words cry out loud?
Yet there’s nothing really more to say
The media told the story, but did they really see?
Fragments of pictures tell the tale,
a stumbling team put up for sale
We would pass from history, how could it be?
I had hoped to never see the day
when all the fans would turn away
but we were sold for a fee with no guarantee.
Too many losses and so few wins,
all the jeers and all the din
The terrible shouting in my ears, we wouldn’t last the year.
People will lie and act out schemes,
nothing is actually as it seems
I will remember that field of green and all its dreams.

credits

from tricycle (remastered / expanded edition), released April 28, 2023

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Delmore Recording Society Nashville, Tennessee

Delmore Recording Society exists to expose singular artists that don’t quite fit in to the world. The pursuit and discovery of lost tapes is another side of that mission.

We strive to bring something of value into the world…music that might enhance our appreciation of an artist that was under recorded, or whose recordings were never released due to some vagary of the business.
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