You may or may not know this, but at Orioles games, during the seventh inning stretch, after playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, they play “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver.
The thing is, more than in any other song I ever hear in public, people are clapping on the wrong beat.
I might be able to suss it out if I ever heard the song OUTSIDE the stadium, but I don’t. Sometimes it seems like there’s a clapping noise on the wrong beat, so maybe that tricks people. Or maybe his voice comes in strong on the 1. I don’t know what it is. But maybe 1/3 of the people clapping start off wrong. Most of them just stop clapping when it dawns on them that they’re clapping when most people are silent.
Could a musician break that tune down a little.
Is it 4/4 time?
Is there some sort of stress on the 1 & 3 that makes people clap there?
Does it “swing” a little? Does that cause confusion?
And, no credit for the answer “1/3 of all people will clap on the wrong beat and you’re just noticing it because you’re in public.” It’s definitely more pronounced during this song than others I hear in public (typically rock, jazz & blues), and sometimes I even find myself drawn to the off-beat, but I’m not sure why.
Addendum:
I was at a game once where John Denver was actually there. When they played Country Boy he got on the dugout and stomped and clapped. . .in time. This was before he died.
I’ll answer your question about the clapping if you (or anyone) can explain why they’re playing “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” at a ballgame. They’ve been doing this for the last few years at Devil Rays games and in fact I just had a discussion about it with my friend when they played it the other night.
As to your question, I’ve never noticed that before so I had to kind of, ya know, reenact it here at my desk. It’s been years since I was in band, but I think the song is played in half time (?). I stomp on the first beat and clap on the second.
Is that right?
Oh, and thank you so very much for planting that song in my head :dubious:
Could it be that people don’t hear the same part of the song at the exact same time? They say that when you sing at a stadium, you eventually begin hearing parts of the song that you sang earlier. This probably has something to do with the acoustics of the stadium and the speed of sound.
There is indeed a live version of “Thank God, I’m a Country Boy” but I don’t recall if the clapping is on the right or wrong beat.
Without looking for the official notation, the song is either in 4/4 time or 2/2 time. This I determined by singing the song to myself while conducting like a concert maestro. Nobody was watching.
In my estimation, the clap should be on what would be the quarter note if we make use of 4/4 time. To wit:
“Well, (1)life on a (2)farm is (3)kinda laid (4)back.”
“Ain’t (1)nothing like a (2)country boy, (3)me can’t (4)hack”
etc.
Try it yourself and you’ll see. For full effect one should clap and do that hillbilly leg stomp at the same time. May not be safe for work.
As to why it is being played in Baltimore, I’ll take that any day to “God Bless America” which some stadiums have now adopted as their 7th Inning Stretch Musical Interlude.™
I came in to comment on the oxymoronic title but I see the OP did not provide a funny, funny riddle, probably because it doesn’t exist for anybody older than 8.
I dunno for sure, but they’ve been playing it here since Hector was a pup, it’s a tradition. We cherish our traditions here in Charm City. A few years back they tried to replace it with “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and there was a riot. The current dual song stretch was the response.
The thread was titled “A funny funny riddle” so literal ol’ I expected to find a riddle the poster thought was funny. Using a line from the song is like a riddle, more clever than funny.
Had I realized the OP planned to discuss a brainworm of a John Denver song I wouldn’t have opened the thread, but by then the damage would be done, anyway, and I’d still spend the day working that damned song out of my head.
Not wishing to be a dickhead and all but how is “funny riddle” an oxymoron, how are the two words incongruent? A google search of the phrase returns 1,680,000 references. I checked some and they seemed at least amusing.
Oh and I agree, the thread title is very clever. It completely whooshed me and then the light bulb lit up much later. I only came back to compliment Trunk when I spotted your post.
It sounds like they’re clapping in 4/4 time(?), er, well it sounds like they’re missig some beats.
I have no idea if we got the idea from Baltimore. Heck, I had no idea they did it anywhere else until I read this thread. Still doesn’t explain why it would be played in Maryland or Florida, but it does have a good beat and it’s easy to clap to (for some people that is).
“Ain’t nothin a country boy like me can’t hack” would be correct. Not sure how that affects all this beat business.
As a white chick without rhythm I just had to learn to clap correctly in gospel choir by following others’ examples. I have not doubt that I would clap incorrectly on just about any piece.
