Missing You, “Stan, The Man…”

Named “Stanley Morris Owen, Junior” by my parents, I obviously received my name, “Stan” from my father. However, like many other “Stans,” they and I owe our occasionally ascribed moniker, “Stan the Man”  to the  “Stan, the Man,”  Stanley Frank Musial, who left us on January 19, 2013.

While I lived in St. Louis (1995-1998), in the same city as the great man, I conceived the idea to arrange a photo of us shaking left hands (I, like him, am a lefty). However, that dream, like so many others, came to an end with his passing in January.

Through Mr. Musial’s long public life, he consistently treated everyone with such honesty, kindness, respect, and humility — that there are no recorded negative stories or remembrances of him.

Alesis Ion Synthesizer

During his baseball-playing days, Stan the Man learned to play the harmonica. He is reported to have occasionally whipped-out a harmonica from his pocket to lead teammates in rousing renditions of Take Me Out To The Ballgame during the seventh-inning-stretch. When I learned this, I decided to arrange, perform, and record this tune.

My arrangement features synthesized imitations of two harmonicas, tuba, snare and bass drum, bells, and a quasi-electric-piano. As a challenge for myself, I decided to program all of the instrumental sounds using my smallest, most modest instrument, my Alesis Ion (pictured).

Like most of my audio-video projects, I produced the video to accompany the music (rather, than vice-versa). The images are ones I found online. Seemingly, I have been flying below the radar w.r.t. “fair use” of such images. I hope you enjoy my tribute to “The Stan, the Man.”