(antiMusic) Baseball fans are more than likely familiar with the Bon Jovi song "I Love This Town," from the overexposure it has received on behalf of the nation's pastime. But Boston musician Bart Steele says that Bon Jovi stole the tune from him and he's not happy about it. He tells us, "I got raped...my baseball anthem became the baseball promo song for the
world...except I got cut out of the deal!" Boston Magazine recently ran a rather detailed feature story on the controversy, below are a few excepts hitting a few of the key points, followed by a link to read the full article. Before we get to that, listen and decide for yourself.Bon Jovi's song "I Love This Town" - Bart Steele's song "Man, I Really Love This Team".
Excerpts from the Boston Magazine feature: Bart Steele, struggling musician, former stockbroker, lifelong Red Sox fan, wanted a universal tune, one that reached well beyond Fenway Park. So, early in that September of 2004, he decided to distinguish his ditty from every other Sox tribute by giving it a Nashville sensibility and thus, he figured, even broader appeal.
When the Sox headed to St. Louis for the World Series, Channel 7 invited the duo (Bart and friend Peter Bellomo) to perform live. DJs at Boston Beer Works and the Cask 'n Flagon began encouraging regular "Man, I Really Love This Team" sing-alongs. Just after the Sox swept the Cardinals, Steele says, he found a clip on Major League Baseball's website of two polluted coeds slurring his chorus in the shadow of the Green Monster. Over at FenwayNation.com, where the song was available for free download, traffic had kicked up threefold to 180,000 daily visits. Like his Red Sox, Steele had made history.
But three seasons later, as the Sox muscled past the Angels and Indians to face the Rockies in the 2007 World Series, Steele couldn't bring himself to watch a single game. Instead, he stewed in his condo, plotting revenge against, of all people, Jon Bon Jovi. Unbelievably, blatantlycruellythe pretty rocker from Jersey had taken his song and repackaged it as his own. Steele was sure of it. Now he just had to get the world to see things his way. - get the full story, it gets a lot deeper than this
