OST-Bang the Drum Slowly

DSCN3904This was $3 or so at a record show.  It is probably my favorite sports movie, at least baseball, for sure.  I am not sure that translates to a good soundtrack but I wanted to give this film some press.MPW-14868

Bang the Drum Slowly was released in 1973.  I first saw it in 7th or 8th grade.  It looks like a made for school movie in some regards.  The more I saw it, the more I like it.  The movie stars Mike Moriarty as star picture Henry Wiggen and a little known actor at the time named Bobby De Niro, who plays plumb dumb catcher, Bruce Pearson.

bang-the-drum-slowlyPearson becomes sick with Hodgkin’s disease as Wiggen sticks by him and his team , the New York Mammoths, make a shot for the World Series. Vincent Gardenia, who plays the team manager, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting actor.

IMDB Page

There are a lot of good scenes in the movie.  Most of them deal with getting along and going easy on people.  I think that and teamwork were the messages Junior High was trying to get across when playing this movie in school.  I still get a lot of mileage out of the “Give is Give. Take is Take” line.  The fly speech by the manager was one of my favorite ones to use until I saw the lollygag speech in Bull Durham.

In terms of a soundtrack, it is ok.  Nota lot to write home about.  I was quite disappointed that they did not have the song from the Singing Mammoths on the album.

 

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For a sample, I post the song where the title comes from, “The Streets of Laredo”.  In the song, the wild child catcher, Piney Woods is playing guitar during a rain delay.  He sings this song to his teammates for better of for worse.

 

bang_the_drumMeh on the soundtrack but one of the top sports movies in my book.  If you pay attention, then yes, despite wearing Pin Stripes, that is Shea Stadium in the movie.

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