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Today’s Tuneage: Hatfield

|| By FITSNEWS || When our founding editor was matriculating at the University of South Carolina in the mid-1990s, Widespread Panic was all the rage.  The Athens, Georgia-based jam band even played the school in early 1996 – with our founding editor sneaking into the Carolina Coliseum to watch bassist…

|| By FITSNEWS || When our founding editor was matriculating at the University of South Carolina in the mid-1990s, Widespread Panic was all the rage.  The Athens, Georgia-based jam band even played the school in early 1996 – with our founding editor sneaking into the Carolina Coliseum to watch bassist David Schools perform during the band’s sound check.

“Hatfield” – the second song off the band’s third studio album, 1993’s Everyday – has always been one of our favorite Panic tracks.

The song tells the story of Charles Hatfield, a self-described “moisture accelerator” who was hired by the San Diego city council to fill the Morena reservoir during a severe drought.  Using a secret concoction of twenty-three chemicals, Hatfield and his brother, Paul, did the job – and then some.

Beginning in January 1916, the rain began – and it didn’t stop for days on end. By January 26, the Morena reservoir was overflowing – and the incessant downpour had destroyed roads, bridges and dams and killed more than fifty people.  The flooding caused, well, widespread panic.

Anyway, Widespread singer/ guitarist John Bell wrote the song after reading a story about Hatfield in a Farmers’ Almanac.

Enjoy (especially Schools’ bass solo) …

(Click to play)

(Vid: Via)

***

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5 comments

Toyota Kawaski April 9, 2015 at 8:58 am

Fish are swimming closer inside Lake Morena…. Cant wait till next Tue and Wed night in the Capitol City. 53 years young for JB next Tuesday Night.

Reply
moss April 9, 2015 at 9:06 am

hail yes

Reply
Jeff Spicoli April 9, 2015 at 9:28 am

wow…Buz, you got the crack pipe out?

Reply
GrandTango April 9, 2015 at 11:33 am

“Widespread Panic” What a GREAT description of FITS and the liberals…LMAO…

You NEVER have any F*#king answers. You only exacerbate problems – which is what any Dumb@$$ can do…then you panic like hand-wringing little sissies, you are, when your handiwork manifests in failure (like it always does)….

Reply
Indians they don' like us much April 10, 2015 at 7:19 am

Well, I’ll miss Tuesday, but hope to make Wednesday. And then Wanee for two nights.

I’ve never been a huge fan of JB. Schools and the rest are fine; Herring is a genius.

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