This is a quick riff about baseball and Switchfoot, two of my personal favorite things. You’re saying, “Huh?” ?
A well-known baseball exec once said that “good luck is the residue of design,” which I always took to mean that good luck comes when you’re doing what you should, which means doing your homework and going about your business.
In other words, for a music band, work hard, practice and play a lot together, even just messing around, and a song that’s good might come from it.
And one of the signs of a band on top of its game is when it trues something “untraditional,” i.e., out of the ordinary, and it works.
Think of the spoken-word “song” that ends one of the best Christian albums ever, DC Talk’s “Supernatural.”
And also think of “Gone,” by Switchfoot.
I don’t know the band or any of its members, but if I had to guess, the very cool rap by Jon Foreman at the end of the song evolved when they were doing things like working hard in the studio, listening lots to other performers, and practicing.
The ending riff to “Gone,” of course:
“Gone, like Frank Sinatra
Like Elvis and his mom
Like Al Pacino’s cash, nothing lasts in this life
My high school dreams are gone
My childhood sweets are gone
Life is a day that doesn’t last for long.”

(then, things really pick up)

“Life is more than money
Time was never money
Time was never cash,
Life is still more than girls
Life is more than hundred-dollar bills
And oh the town fills
Life more than fame and rock and roll and thrills
All the riches of the kings
And up in wills we got information in the information age
But do we know what life is
Outside of our conveinent Lexus cages
She said he said live like no tomorrow
Every moment that we borrow
Brings us closer to the God who’s not short of cash
Hey, Bono, I’m glad you asked …”

Obviously, a confident band is the only one capable of cooking that one up.
Switchfoot is about to embark on a huge tour with Third Day and Jars of Clay, by the way. Outside of huge festivals, has there ever been a better tripleheader?