For me Boston has a special place in my heart. I have been in Boston for two tour starts. I have been to every single Stones show in Boston over the past years. Club show, Foxboro, The Green Monster, rehearsals, stalking Stones, taking the "Stones train" and so on... I can walk red lights in Boston and the cars stop, like they do back home. I just love Boston.

When the terror hit Boston Marathon I was chocked. I am both a Boston fan, a runner, I do run 10k and 20k km, and I am a human who love peace and hate violence. When they had to lock down Boston the other day I felt really sad. It must have been a nightmare for everyone in Boston. But finally they got their freedom.

I am really looking forward to be back up to Boston! And I hope they play Memory Motel!

Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-21 18:51 by bv.

The Red Sox fans always sing "Sweet Caroline" on the 7th Inning Strech!! A great encouragement to the Brave!!

Come on Mick dont be Greedy !!

The Quincy, Mass. Band is selling t-shirts to benefit victims of Monday's bombing in the New England city. [www.hollywoodreporter.com]

The Dropkick Murphys know how to show their Boston pride.

The Celtic punk band from the Boston suburb of Quincy tweeted they have raised nearly $100,000 to benefit the victims of Monday's Boston Marathon bombing.


The band’s “For Boston” t-shirts, which can be purchased here, are being shipped to Ireland, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, the band said in a tweet Thursday. The shirts will begin shipping on April 30.

On Friday, the band played in Los Vegas and tweeted it couldn’t wait to get home to New England. We assume their good deed is enough to earn its member’s a heroes’ welcome, but if that’s not enough, Dropkick Murphys say on their website they have more fundraising plans in store.

Cool.

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-21 08:24 by Gibson668.

Totally agree BV...I have seen the majority of my shows in Boston as its the closest major center to east coast of Canada where I live and I also love it there. Will be attending both shows there in June and cannot wait...memory motel was great there on the second leg of BB. Crazy week for the people of Beantown...they are survivors!

Boston: they have a mind of their own and they use it well.

I'd say Boston gets an A+++ for handling the whole situation so well.

What happened in Boston is a terrible tragedy and there is no justification for it whatsoever. However check the reaction in Boston after the IRA bombing in Warrington on Feb 23rd 1993, where there was cheering in the bars & over $1 million dollars raised for the IRA after two young British boys were killed. Let's deplore all terrorism everywhere not only when it knocks on our own door.

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Gibson668
What happened in Boston is a terrible tragedy and there is no justification for it whatsoever. However check the reaction in Boston after the IRA bombing in Warrington on Feb 23rd 1993, where there was cheering in the bars & over $1 million dollars raised for the IRA after two young British boys were killed. Let's deplore all terrorism everywhere not only when it knocks on our own door.

"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Like New Yorkers, Bostonians are resilient and will bounce back from this tragedy.

"Lyin' awake in a cold, cold sweat. Am I overdrawn, am I going in debt?
It gets worse, the older that you get. No escape from the state of confusion I'm in.

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Gibson668
What happened in Boston is a terrible tragedy and there is no justification for it whatsoever. However check the reaction in Boston after the IRA bombing in Warrington on Feb 23rd 1993, where there was cheering in the bars & over $1 million dollars raised for the IRA after two young British boys were killed. Let's deplore all terrorism everywhere not only when it knocks on our own door.

I had never heard of that reaction (which doesn't mean it didn't happen), and I did try to check it out as you suggested, and I'm not finding anything. The only story I can find at all that ties Warrington and Boston is a story about the father of one of the Warrington victims giving his support to the families of the Boston victims.

Father of Warrington bombing victim Colin Parry pays tribute to families involved in Boston Marathon bombing

The only other stores I found that mentions the two in the same breath were Boston Globe stories deploring the attack, and a few articles talking about how the British government in the past has exaggerated American support and contributions to the IRA. I'd say that to the majority Americans an IRA is a retirement plan, and not an army.

Besides, you can't blame all of Boston for what some IRA (which I'm assuming could come from anywhere an ex-Irishman may live) supporters did, I'm sure most people there do deplore all terrorism, even when it's not knocking on their door. You're using a supposedly 20 year old incident as a backhanded insult to the people of a city that was attacked last week. And it was a backhanded insult, as you're insinuating that they only care about such things when it happens to them and that the city itself supports terrorism. I doubt that 8 year old boy ever gave the IRA any money, or if there were celebrations in Boston 12 years before his birth, he probably didn't participate.

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Chris Fountain
The Red Sox fans always sing "Sweet Caroline" on the 7th Inning Strech!! A great encouragement to the Brave!!

Can someone please explain to me what significance this song has to the good people of Boston? Do they think it has something to do with Caroline Kennedy?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-21 22:35 by tatters.

Here's your answer, Tatters:

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Good Times Never Seemed So Good For Red Sox Fans

Neil Diamond and the Boston Red Sox are two American institutions with a very loyal following. And since the late ‘90s these two pop culture icons have been linked together through one of the more odd traditions at Fenway Park.

At every Red Sox home game, Diamond’s classic Sweet Caroline is played on the ballpark’s speakers before the bottom of the 8th inning. The sing-along song has become such a Fenway staple that it was even included in the 2005 movie Fever Pitch.

Most Sox fans, and moviegoers, are aware that Sweet Caroline is played as often at Fenway Park as The Star-Spangled Banner. But very few people know the reason why.

"I'm not sure how it started, but we're very pleased that it happened," Diamond's press agent, Sherrie Levy, said.

The song itself was born out of humble beginnings, written in less than an hour by Diamond in a Memphis hotel room the day before a recording session. It debuted as a single on June 28, 1969.

Sweet Caroline eventually reached #4 on the Billboard chart and over two million copies of the song were sold. But how did it become the 8th inning anthem at Fenway Park, where annual attendance easily tops two million folks?

Legend has it that former Red Sox public address announcer Ed Brickley requested the song to be played as a tribute to the appropriately named newborn daughter of Billy Fitzpatrick, who worked in the Fenway Park control room for 20 years.

In reality, the song got its start at Fenway Park thanks to Amy Tobey, who was the ballpark’s music director from 1998 to 2004. She was responsible for choosing the music to be played between innings and picked Sweet Caroline simply because she had heard it played at other sporting events.

At first, Tobey played the song at random games sometime between the seventh and ninth innings, and only if the Red Sox were ahead. Tobey considered the song a good luck charm and it soon became something the fans anticipated.

But it wasn’t until 2002, when John Henry’s group bought the Red Sox, that Sweet Caroline become an official Fenway tradition. That’s when the new ownership requested that Tobey play the song during the eighth inning of every game.

Today Megan Kaiser is the person who chooses the between innings songs at Fenway Park, with the 8th inning exception.

Kaiser did add a slightly new touch to the playback of Diamond’s tune, as she turns off the sound during the most popular parts of the song. Red Sox fans know the words by heart now so they don’t need much help with the lyrics, and the song has become an important part of the ballpark atmosphere.

“Singing Sweet Caroline. That's cool,” said Red Sox third basemen Mike Lowell when asked about the vibe at Fenway Park.

How the song became so popular in the first place is another story, and no less than the songwriter himself is mystified at the success of Sweet Caroline. “No way to explain it. That's one of the mysteries of songwriting,” says Diamond, who has written and recorded 38 Top 40 hits in his career.

As hard as it is to explain, Neil Diamond’s catchy song has found a place as part of Red Sox Nation lore, and by mixing Sweet Caroline with the Fenway faithful good times have never seemed so good.

I see. I always liked that song. Bought the 45 when I was a kid. Only Neil Diamond record I've ever owned. They used to play it at Penn State football games, too, but discontinued the practice after someone noticed just how creepy some of the lyrics now seem in light of the football program's recent sex scandal.

"Hands .... touchin' hands .... reachin' out .... touchin' me .... TOUCHIN' YOU!!!"



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-22 05:50 by tatters.

They also played it in Yankee Stadium after the bombings to show support for the great people of Boston.

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tatters
I see. I always liked that song. Bought the 45 when I was a kid. Only Neil Diamond record I've ever owned. They used to play it at Penn State football games, too, but discontinued the practice after someone noticed just how creepy some of the lyrics now seemed in light of the football program's recent sex scandal.

"Hands .... reachin' out .... touchin' me .... TOUCHIN' YOU!"

That's actually funny...sick, but funny...

I'll give "Sweet Caroline" this much: it's better than "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver, which the Baltimore Orioles play during the seventh inning stretch.

I went to college in Boston. Made some great friends that I lost touch with, but reconnected in recent years thanks to Facebook.
Life takes weird turns. One of this friends, who now lives in NYC, ended up recording Keith's Life Audio Book along side with Johnny Depp and Keith. They won audio book of the year. So I'm very glad that my friend Joe Hurley is having some good recognitions and doing fine.

With all the mess of the recent events in Boston, I tried to send an inbox message in FB to another good friend that still lives in Boston. But he no longer appeared in my list of FB friends. So I decided to google him, to found out the sad news that he passed away. I found out through a community service website as he was very involved in community work and organized kids sports, and so on.

I used to watch the Boston marathon there every year with this friend. So anyway, lots of mix emotions.

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ChefGuevara
I tried to send an inbox message in FB to another good friend that still lives in Boston. But he no longer appeared in my list of FB friends. So I decided to google him, to found out the sad news that he passed away.

Man that sucks, I've had that happened once. I was sitting around watching TV and I had some old memory pop in my head about me and this guy I used to party with in high school but had fallen out of touch with and hadn't seen in a decade. So I tried looking him up, and that feeling when you're going "I wonder what old so-and-so is up to these days... oh, he died 5 years ago" is a terrible feeling. Plus I felt horrible, not only about not going to his funeral, or not visiting him while he was in the hospital with his illness, but not even knowing he had died until 5 years later. That's actually why I registered with Facebook, I was sort of in a "I wanna reconnect with these people before they're all dead" mindset, plus the whole thing reminded me just how far apart I had drifted from my childhood friends where one of them could die and I don't find out about it for 5 years, and only then because I looked it up myself.

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NoCode0680

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ChefGuevara
I tried to send an inbox message in FB to another good friend that still lives in Boston. But he no longer appeared in my list of FB friends. So I decided to google him, to found out the sad news that he passed away.

Man that sucks, I've had that happened once. I was sitting around watching TV and I had some old memory pop in my head about me and this guy I used to party with in high school but had fallen out of touch with and hadn't seen in a decade. So I tried looking him up, and that feeling when you're going "I wonder what old so-and-so is up to these days... oh, he died 5 years ago" is a terrible feeling. Plus I felt horrible, not only about not going to his funeral, or not visiting him while he was in the hospital with his illness, but not even knowing he had died until 5 years later. That's actually why I registered with Facebook, I was sort of in a "I wanna reconnect with these people before they're all dead" mindset, plus the whole thing reminded me just how far apart I had drifted from my childhood friends where one of them could die and I don't find out about it for 5 years, and only then because I looked it up myself.

Getting off topic here from BV's very good intentioned thread, but both of your posts remind me of something about FB I've wondered for a while. What happens to people's accounts after they die? My mother passed away two years ago last February and her FB account is still there. It doesn't really bother me, although it did make me very sad to see it there at first. I wonder how many people are on there still that are no longer living - do there accounts just go on forever? We have no idea how to close my mother's account, not knowing her login information. The whole thing seems kind of weird...

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NoCode0680

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ChefGuevara
I tried to send an inbox message in FB to another good friend that still lives in Boston. But he no longer appeared in my list of FB friends. So I decided to google him, to found out the sad news that he passed away.

Man that sucks, I've had that happened once. I was sitting around watching TV and I had some old memory pop in my head about me and this guy I used to party with in high school but had fallen out of touch with and hadn't seen in a decade. So I tried looking him up, and that feeling when you're going "I wonder what old so-and-so is up to these days... oh, he died 5 years ago" is a terrible feeling. Plus I felt horrible, not only about not going to his funeral, or not visiting him while he was in the hospital with his illness, but not even knowing he had died until 5 years later. That's actually why I registered with Facebook, I was sort of in a "I wanna reconnect with these people before they're all dead" mindset, plus the whole thing reminded me just how far apart I had drifted from my childhood friends where one of them could die and I don't find out about it for 5 years, and only then because I looked it up myself.

I'm not really into FB, but it has been great to reconnect with old friends.
But yes. It was a very strange feeling finding out this way.

On the opposite side of feelings, my friend Joe who recorded Life audio book had posted pics of him with Keith, Johnny Depp, Ron Wood on a different ocasion. So is great to see this guy who used to play Stones songs in my flat in Boston and was always out of cash, now standing aside celebrities.

I love Fenway Park
I love Boston
Boston is strong and will get over this tragedy!!

>And I hope they play Memory Motel!

Haven't they suffered enough?

See Tribute to Boston at Trouble-Free London Marathon at nyt.com

Re fd2005's post...isn't this something you'd consider deleting?

[www.facebook.com]

Boston is my home town and the above quote says it all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-22 03:33 by chris girard.