Ralphie's Red Ryders - They Traded Bullfrog

 

  A new band today, they're called Ralphie's Red Ryders (https://www.facebook.com/ralphiesredryders/), they're from Holman, Indiana and they feature a line up of Ralphie, Flick and Schwartz. They write songs about bullies, BB guns, school, the Bumpus hounds, major awards, and everyday life in Holman. A bit of digging reveals they take their name from the bb gun which Ralphie wanted in the 1983 family movie A Christmas Story. The movie is set in 1940 in the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana and the gun was named for the comic strip cowboy character Red Ryder who was created in 1938 and appeared in numerous films and on tv in the 40's and 50's. The comic strip was cancelled in 1963 but the gun is still in production. If you're familiar with the movie you may recognise Ralphie, Flick and Schartz as characters from it, more likely than that though, you'll listen to the song below and think, "damn, that sounds like Vista Blue!"

  So are the reports of Vista Blue's demise true? According to frontman Mike Patton, there's new material from them coming soon so happily it would appear not. Also on the way is a full length cd from Ralphie's Red Ryder, it'll be released by Outloud! Records in November. In the meantime there's a couple of tracks name your price on Bandcamp : https://ralphiesredryders.bandcamp.com/releases

  This song is one of Mike's baseball songs (sort of!). "Four Eyes" Shottenhoffer is a fictional baseball player mentioned in A Christmas Story by Old Man Parker (played by Darren McGavin aka Kolchak: The Night Stalker) when he tells his wife that the Sox (probably Chicago White Sox) traded "Bullfrog" for the utility infielder. The entirety of the dialog about the two players is reproduced below:
Old Man Parker: "They traded Bullfrog. I don't believe it."
Mrs. Parker: "What's that?"
Old Man Parker: "Well, for Christ's sake, the Sox traded Bullfrog... the only player they've got, for Shottenhoffer. "Four Eyes" Shottenhoffer, a utility infielder. Got a whole goddamned team of utility infielders."
Mrs. Parker: "That's nice."

  This is They Traded Bullfrog...