The World Cup…and the Statesmen?
OK, back to opinions this time around. Some people aren’t going to like what I say no matter what, so why should I be shy about something a little bit more provocative?
For the past couple of weeks, we in America have been inundated with coverage of soccer’s premier event…the World Cup. It’s only every four years, but to listen to some of the hyperbole surrounding the event, one would think that it was like the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Indy 500, and the Stanley Cup playoffs all rolled into one mega-event. And since soccer is arguably the world’s most popular spectator sport, one would expect the United States…the leading country in the civilized world, to give it comparable support to the rest of the world.
But you see, we never have warmed up to soccer in the same way we thrill to NFL football, or major league baseball, or even NASCAR racing. And it’s doubtful we ever will. The sensibilities of soccer are such that Americans just don’t have the interest in soccer the same way the rest of the world does…and likely never will.
But there’s a certain sort of sports fan in America who insists that we adopt soccer and hail the World Cup in the same way we do our other more indigenous sports. This sort of fan is ashamed of our seeming willful ignorance of the “sublime beauty” of the game of soccer, and even goes so far as to equate our relative distaste for soccer to our failures as a society, especially when compared to the more “civilized”(?)Europe.
But as great a game as soccer is, as I said, it just doesn’t touch us in the same way our other sports do. The event of the World Cup series that seems to have attracted the most attention in the U.S. is the headbutting by the star French player of an unsuspecting Italian opponent.
To get to my point here, it’s OK not to think soccer is the world’s greatest game. And it’s OK to think that it IS…but it’s unfair to think of American fans who let out a collective yawn when a soccer match comes on as “culturally challenged”, or more disparaging descriptions. Hey, we’re just different, that’s all.
What does all that have to do with the Statesmen, you ask?
There is a certain sort of classic gospel quartet fan whose main philosophical tenet is…the Statesmen were the greatest gospel quartet of all time, no doubt about it. Despite the fact that there have been more talented gospel singers who weren’t Statesmen than who were, this kind of fan will assert boldly and passionately that Jake Hess was undoubtedly the greatest lead singer of all time, Rosie Rozell the greatest and most “soulful” tenor, Doy Ott the smoothest baritone, and Jim “Big Chief” Wetherington simply the best bass singer one could hope to imagine…and of course, Hovie Lister was an unrivalled pianist and MC.
These statments are delivered in a tone well beyond that of mere opinion, and asserted with the same sort of certainty one would have if one were asserting that the sun was hot, or water was wet. How can anyone challenge the obvious preeminence of the Statesmen?
Well, obviously there were other great gospel quartets, too…and they had their fans who thought they were among the best. But it’s not enough for those kinds of Statesmen fans to think their quartet was the best, if you’re a legitimate gospel quartet fan, or if you “really know music” , you have no choice but to agree with them.
Uh, no.
I think the Statesmen are among the greatest quartets ever to sing as well…I can’t say though, that everything they did was better than what groups like the Blackwood Brothers, or the Couriers, or the Rebels, or the Plainsmen, or the Imperials did as well. Get my point?
It’s OK to think that the Statesmen were the very best…but it’s also OK if one thinks that they might not have been.
This is why the Baskin-Robbins folks made 31 kinds of ice cream, because they understood that there is something different for everyone. And you don’t see ice cream lovers having the same silly conversations as some soccer fans..or some Statesmen fans.
Posted on Jul 10, 2006 - 09:06 PM | [0]
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