Timothy Birdnow

[linj=https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/09/exiling-sweet-caroline/]Here is an essay in American Thinker complaining about the singing of "Sweet Caroline" at sporting events.

After going on a rant about loud speakers and the filling of sporting events with an endless drone of music and speech designed to gin up the crowd, the author zeroes in on the singing of Sweet Caroline, which he sees as antiquated, insipid, and an affront.

He wants something new.

How well would that work out? What rap music or techno-poo or Taylor Swift stule pop will they replace it with?

While I do not know why Sweet Caroline caught on as a sports anthem, I do know it was largely spontaneous and it's apparently something the public cherishes.

And the reason for that I believe is tradition. Think Fiddler on the Roof "TRADITION!" Sweet Caroline IS a simple song - and an old one. Old men can sing along with the young girls with it. It's old enough to breach the generation gap, but young enough to not be past it's expiration date (imagine doing a Cole Porter song at a sporting event now.) But more importantly is it appeals to times past, making the sport have a kind of continuity. Rules change in sports, and so do players and coaches. But some things remain firm, and this helps keep the sport grounded in the past. Continuity. We are admitting we share things in common, for the three hours or so of a football game we aren't at each-other's throats so much (well, we are with fans from the other side, but even then THEY are singing along too). It's an acknowledgement of the fact that the game is bigger than are we, that it is something that passed down from those who came before us. It gives gravitas to what is essentially a kid's game.

So while I'm not saying this may be the best choice of songs (it lacks the glory, the pride and determination of a good fight song, certainly) it's a song the public came to demand. A reminder of a simpler age.

So I don't really get the guy's complaint, except that he doesn't like it, thinks it's a sappy song. He misses the big picture.

I wish America would do more things to remember our past. The new and improved is generally a rehash of failed bad ideas and usually simply trash. Take Rap music; they started it in the early seventies and nobody listened to it because it wasn't really music at all. But the record companies pushed and pushed and eventually young kids started listening to it. I remember the first time I realized it was catching on; I was in a park and some white teenager drove through with rap blaring on his jeep stereo. My buddies and I were stunned; you sometimes heard that from black kids but never from whites.

At any rate Rap has thankfully slunk back into the swamp from which it emerged to a degree (although it's still out there) but it's just old enough now that I can see them replacing Sweet Caroline with something from, say, Nellie (and I don't mean "wait till the sun shines Nellie...) I'm sure they play some of that crap at games now, but it's not something the public really wants. And that might even be better than some of the ridiculous music being promoted these days.

This also bespeaks of a civilization in decline. As a society we cannot make decent music any longer, nor any great art. It's nothing but insipid pop, be it in painting, in sculpture, in poetry or literature or music, we are making crap these days and everyone rather knows it. There is no ccreativity anymore. Movies are nothing but remakes or reimaginings. Robert Maplethorpe is our version of Rembrant. Shouting "bitch" and "ho" is our idea of Strauss. We've gone from Paradise Lost to free verse poetry about going to gay bathhouses. We are in a terrible cultural vacuum.

So Neil Diamond may be a simple and even a bit saccharine, but he's at least honest and somewhat creative. We certainly could do far worse.

I am surprised they didn't swap out Caroline for Eric Clapton's Lola, frankly, given the modern sentiments.

Be careful what you wish for - you might get it.

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