2013 Travers Special - Feeling Lucky

Every year we look forward to the end of August as The Travers is run up in Saratoga and we are going 11+ years without missing one. It happens this Saturday and it is a great day to hang out with friends and family, actually all week there are events in town for everyone. In looking at this years race we like the closer Orb a bunch, but there is still a lot of handicapping to get done...

The last few years we have written some of our favorite (and most popular) posts regarding the event. Last year we talked about Songs for Gambling on Horses, the year before we took the money out of it and just talked about Songs for Horses. This year we are addressing something that we can't see but we can certainly feel, Luck.

Sure there is a skill to this, you can track horses, jockey's, trainers, practice times and track condition's all you want but when it comes down to it you need luck on your side. These are gorgeous majestic animals, but they are still animals; if something spooks a 2-1 Favorite, next thing you know your money is lagging in last place down the stretch. My favorite player of the ponies is my own MaDukes, who knows her horses and stats, but is never afraid to play a fun name, a whim or a Gray horse, because you never know.  

To bad the show Luck didn't have any luck, because we loved it, but horses and the world surrounding it isn't for everyone. Always sad when shows get canceled especially those of that quality but we talk more about music here so lets jump into some lucky tunes....Click that Read More to get started



We started this on a classic note with Frank Sinatra doing his signature tune "Lucky Be A Lady" written by Frank Loesser.. Luck is a great topic for songs, the ever changing positive and negative connotations make for great uses of the word.

It can be ironic, as John Lennon and Yoko spell out quite plainly and painfully here with "Luck Of The Irish":

It can be earnest as the great Marvin Gaye reminds us here with "Lucky, Lucky Me" 

It can be the basis of a put down especially the way Tom Petty sings it on "You Got Lucky"

and it can mean "getting lucky" in a whole different sense of the term as Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams groove on about in one of 2013's songs of the summer, "Get Lucky".



That one will surely be bumping all night post Travers but we got a few more lucky bits to point out before we head to the track.

Gotta love the fifties swing and ironic lyrics from Ruth Brown about having those Lucky Lips...hmmm I think there is more then meets the eye with this classic:

The blues are a great place to sing about the downside of luck, even the great city of New Orleans can be down on their luck as Earl King points out in this classic NOLA blues cut, "Mr Bad Luck"

On the flipside of that you got the optimism and sunshiny frozen cocktail smile of Jimmy Buffett with "Love and Luck" 

That was for our resident Parrot Head Ed, but Luck can get swampy, funky and mysterious too, anyone feeling superstitious? Here is a cool video with an alternate studio take of the Stevie Wonder's classic "Superstiotion"?


We want to wrap up this luck at luck by directing you to one of our idols, Bob Dylan's take on the subject, but not a song, something cooler. A few years back Bob created a throw back Theme Time Radio Hour on XM where he would take a topic and chat about it in humorous fashion and play songs related to it. Luck was his topic on his 38th episode which aired originally on Jan 28th 2007. You can download the hour long program directly here.

The setlist is below and as you can see none are repeated so feel free to listen to the Bard's take on Luck, and remember the most important thing, Stay Lucky!

1. Happy-Go-Lucky-Me — Paul Evans (1960)
2. Bad Luck Blues — Blind Lemon Jefferson (1926)
3. Bad Luck Soul — B.B. King (1960)
4. Bad Luck Come My Way — Eddie Dugosh & The Ah-Ha Playboys (1956)
5. Lucky Seven — The Skatalites (1965)
6. Alright, Okay, You Win ! — Buddy & Ella Johnson (1955)
7. The Same Thing Could Happen To You — Lazy Lester (1965)
8. I’m Just A Lucky So And So — Annie Ross & Zoot Sims (1959)
9. You Can’t Be Lucky All The Time — Roosevelt Sykes (195 ?)
10. Take It Away Lucky — Eddie Noack (195 ?)
11. Bad Luck Blues — Guitar Slim (1953)
12. Wheel Of Fortune — Kay Starr (1952)
13. If I Lose — The Stanley Brothers (1958)
14. Mr. Hard Luck — The Orbits (1957)
15. You Win, I Lose — Little Johnny Taylor (196 ?)
16. Three Cheers For The Loser – Wynn Stewart (1962)
17. Here’s To The Losers — Frank Sinatra (1961)