#9

Radio and the endless song.

"Brown Sugar" - The Rolling Stones

Brown Sugar (Remastered) - The...

I've come to terms recently that I like to be rushed when I write. I usually wait till the very last moment to start doing all my writing. Drafts? Pfft. Who needs those? I shoot from the hip. When my iPod plays the five songs that are to be used for an issue I immediately try to tie them all together in some kind of basic theme or idea. Something to make it interesting and make you, the reader, keep reading. For this issue however, a lightning storm went off over my head. I guess it was only a matter of time considering the incessant rain we've been getting here in ole sunny Florida. It's been raining here everyday for the past 17 days and counting. Sunshine State my ass.

A few evenings ago I was stuck driving a car that was not my own. No iPod hookup which meant no way to play my pocket-sized digital jukebox which provides limitless comfort in even the most harrowing of situations. No, nothing but Lorenna McKinnet CDs and a mix CD that my brother made. I wasn't in the mood for Celtic croons or emo-punk balladry. My only option was to then swallow my pride and turn the radio on to find a station. It was a big deal for me bearing in mind that I had swore off the medium nearly a decade ago. The only, and I do mean ONLY time I will turn the radio on is if I don't have my iPod or any CDs to play at my disposal, and even then I only listen to talk radio.

And then it came to me. Why don't I do a 5SIAR with five random songs being played on the radio? One right after another, each time from a different station. Just then a bolt of lightning came down about 20 feet away from the road I was driving on. Coincidence?

I immediately dreaded the usual garbage that exists on the airwaves. I was begging the gods that be to not give me Nickelback, Disturbed, or everyone's radio favorite Third Eye Blind. My silent prayers were answered when the first song that was played was none other than the ever classic head-bobbing, rock/soul/blues anthem dedicated to inter-racial sex, sadomasochism, and heroin use- The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar"

So as the heavens poured down the rain in buckets I cranked the volume and jammed out to Mick, Keith, and the boys. I had been worried only a few minutes prior that I wasn't going to find anything good to listen to. I've always equated the radio with music television stations like MTV and VH1. Yeah, they used to play videos, but now all their programming consists of reality shows. I view radio in the same light. Nothing but overplayed, top 40, run of the mill standards that are meant to be played over and over till you get sick and just can't wait for that needless station to change their format. It's recycled garbage, and not the good kind either.

Yet on the other side of the coin radio does have it's brighter moments peaking through the dark cloud of mediocrity. Every once in a while (like this one) you come across something you either A: haven't heard in a long time and suddenly hear it on the radio and immediately become nostalgic or B: have never heard the song that is playing in your life and you suddenly discover something new. It may be something you like or dislike, but the point is that you're experiencing something new. I used to think radio wasn't good for something like that anymore, but shame on me for being my usual judgmental self.

"I Want You To Want Me" - Cheap Trick

I Want You To Want Me (Live) -...

What is with this song that makes all the girls go crazy over? I mean, c'mon, it's not like Cheap Trick were the ultimate ladies men. Or were they? Were they the Def Leppard of the 70's? I think the only reason girls like it today was because it was in that movie 10 Things I Hate About You. No one even realizes that it was originally Cheap Trick that wrote this song. This annoying, vomit in my mouth a little, yet another played out, but for some reason can't change the station it's on song.

What made it worse was the fact that it was the live version. I don't understand how the live version of this song charted while the original album version did not. Oh, wait, I know. The album version is even more terrible than the live one. I will admit however that the intro to the song sounds like something The Strokes would write. So I guess the music isn't that bad, it's just the whiny & girlish falsetto that turns my stomach. Oh, and Rick Nielsen is kind of a kook too.

To let you know, this was the same station that had just played "Brown Sugar." One of those 70's, 80's, & 90's hits stations. It gives me a good reason to go back to my disownment of radio. I'll hear one song that I can jam to and then the next will be total crap. I like being in control of my music. I don't trust a radio station's computer to be picking the songs I want to hear. Not only is radio dying, but the DJ is as well. There are only a few radio programs left out there that allow their DJs to pick the music. One of them, a personal favorite of mine and one of the only reasons to wake up early on a Sunday, is called Sunday Morning Coming Down, named after the Kris Kristofferson song of the same name. The DJ has a smooth voice and plays nothing but alt-country and folk. Great soundtrack to recover from a hangover while having a cup of coffee and wondering what the hell happened the night before. So if you live in central Florida tune your radio to 104.1 FM on Sunday morning between the hours of 8 and 11. I promise it'll help the constant throbbing in your head from too many shots of Maker's.

"Under The Bridge" - Red Hot Chili Peppers

It was time to change the station. I don't remember what the station was that was playing this classic number. As soon as it came on I pictured myself sitting in front of the TV watching the video and seeing Anthony Kiedis running away from an atomic bomb explosion. Funny how that was the only imagery I remember from it. A shirtless Anthony Kiedis running. It's Gus Van Sant's fault.



Sorry for the ad. YouTube mysteriously doesn't host this video.

The song obviously made the Chili Peppers' career. As I said before, it's timeless. It will withstand the test of time. I think of all the songs released by all the artists in the world - which are in the billions I imagine - only a handful of those songs survive being overplayed. There are one-hit wonders, and then there are hits that continuously travel down a never ending radio road where your origin is the top 40 station and your destination is the classic rock station. It honestly makes me feel old.

All the songs I used to rock out to in high school are no longer played on the major rock stations. They are now considered "classics." It's a right of passage I suppose. Our parents went through it, but did their parents go through it as well? I'm going to say no. Our grandparents didn't have rock 'n roll in their day. They didn't have pop. They didn't have hip hop. They didn't have all the genres that exist today. They didn't listen to the radio like we listen to the radio. Grandma and Grandpa didn't care as much, and frankly, neither do I.

"Rockin' Chair" - Gwen McCrae

Rockin' Chair - Gwen McCrae

If you live in central Florida and are familiar with the radio stations you'll know, or have some idea, that the station Q105 (104.7) has changed their format several times over the past 20 years or so. They went from 70's, 80's to country and then back to 70's, 80's, and added 90's. What will stations say in the future when they add songs from the 2000's?

"The hits you love from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and the zeros!" OK, not that funny, but it made me laugh a little.

I tuned the radio to 104.7 just in time to catch the DJ talking about this song and then playing it. I was an itch away from changing the station until the music started playing. I was compelled to turn the volume up on the radio as loud as it would go and bob my head and do as much dancing as I could allow myself while driving. I'm really glad it was dark out and raining because if I was doing this in daylight I would get some really awkward looks at stop lights.

It was so loud I could even hear it standing outside my car with the door shut as I delivered something back to someone who supposedly needed that something right away but then changed their mind. So indecisive, but I digress.

Just listen to the song. I mean, you can't help but crank the volume up to the "other people are gonna get pissed because it's too loud and obnoxious" level. It's rare times like that that almost make me to not want to swear off radio completely again.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirv...

There's no better way to end an issue about radio songs than with the teenage angst anthem of the 1990's. This song has got to be played more than any other song on the radio right now. We can blame it on the martyrdom of Cobain. Now I know the formula to have a song last centuries.

Rip off Pixies + Punk rock + Millions of kids that worshiped you and your band + Suicide = A song that will end up in some 23rd century VH1 list for songs that will never die along side "Under The Bridge."

I'm telling you, it'll outlive roaches if a nuclear holocaust was to happen.

I wasn't a Kurt or Nirvana lover during their heyday. I was more into Tool and Nine Inch Nails. Still am actually. I'll take "Head Like A Hole" over "Teen Spirit" any day. Nirvana doesn't even show up in my top 5 list of grunge acts from the 90's.

1. Alice In Chains
2. Soundgarden
3. Failure (labeled as space rock, but their debut in my opinion was more grungy than Nevermind)
4. Mudhoney
5. Pearl Jam

Can you even consider Pearl Jam grunge? They were more of the rock/blues from the 70's, yet they got corralled in with grunge label because they were from Seattle.

In any case, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was probably the song that made me want to stop listening to the radio. I couldn't change the station and not hear it being played somewhere. It was around the same time I started listening to Tori Amos. She was never played on the radio so I had no choice but to turn it off and listen to CDs. This evolved into acquiring a very large CD collection so I wouldn't have to turn the radio on ever again.

I don't mean to get too scientific here, but it's interesting to me how our tastes develop and change over time. Like our sense of taste, our taste in music shifts from one direction to another depending on our experiences in life and beyond. I can recall sitting in my room on Sunday mornings listening to Casey Kasem and waiting with my finger on the record button on my tape player to catch some of my favorite songs. "Head Over Heals" from Tears For Fears comes to mind. It was the birth of my obsession with making mixes. Even today I make mixes for people that they never hear, and probably never will. It's a connection to my memories. I believed that was mentioned in an issue before.

I watched that movie Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist the other night for the first time. Sappy as to be expected, though Michael Cera reminded me of myself a little bit. Drowning himself in mix after mix as if it was a catharsis (See issue #8). He felt he would be saved if only his ex heard the songs he listened to that reminded him of her. She turned out being a bitch of course, so lesson learned- only give the mixes that mean something, that will, like the other songs in this issue, outlive us and our children...on the radio.