All we hear is Radio Gaga.....

[poltr1]

Once again, the incomparable maedbh7 gave me a few more topics to write about here.

Let's face it: modern radio sucks. We hear the same old songs, on the same old short playlists, all out of fear that people will hear a song they don't like, turn the dial, and not come back.

And it's not just radio. It's the music. Everyone's trying to sound like each other. Whatever happened to the days when bands and performers strived to have their own sound? Maybe this is a sign of Old Age, or maybe it's the industry, but a lot of today's music sounds like amplified noise. Yeah, it's danceable, but where's the melody? Where are the intricately woven lyrics? Where is the songwriter's craft? It's all about the image, not the music.

Screw that. I'd rather listen to Kate Bush or Tori Amos than Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera.


There are a lot of obscure hits out there that don't get a lot of airplay. I was an avid listener of American Top 40 way back when, and some of these songs didn't get very high on the charts. Now the only place to hear these tunes now is the background music at local restaurants like Applebee's or Fuddrucker's. The ones I have fond memories of are the ones from the mid-70s to the mid-80s.

Let's go back to the days when "clear channel" referred to a select goup of 50,000-watt AM stations that dominated a radio frequency in various regions of the country, and not a major industry player. Let's go back to the days when MTV was cool, and wasn't overrun by hip-hop, rap, or college kids gone wild.

Let's check the jukebox and see what I have here. Many of these I taped off the radio. (It's still OK to do that for personal use, right?) Some of them are from albums or CDs. These are the ones, in my opinion, that don't get enough airplay on the classic-rock or oldies stations. I'll try to skip some of the more cringeworthy and sappy stuff; I'll save them for another post.

1974-77 (Discovering Top-40 radio)
Styx, "Lady"
Supertramp, "Bloody Well Right"
The Little River Band, "It's A Long Way There"
Gary Wright, "Dream Weaver"
Peter Frampton, "Baby I Love Your Way"

1977-79 (Discovering album rock)
Emerson Lake & Palmer, "Lucky Man" [cool synth solo at the end]
Emerson Lake & Palmer, "From The Beginning"
Emerson Lake & Palmer, "Trilogy"
Rush, "Fly By Night"
Rush, "The Trees"
Rush, "The Spirit Of Radio"
Genesis, "Your Own Special Way"
Genesis, "Follow You, Follow Me"
Supertramp, "Give A Little Bit"
Pat Travers, "Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)"
The Tubes, "White Punks On Dope"
The Outlaws, "Green Grass And High Tides" [Kicks Freebird's ass!]
Gerry Rafferty, "Baker Street"
The Boomtown Rats, "I Don't Like Mondays"
Elvis Costello, "Watching The Detectives"
The Knack, "My Sharona"
The Knack, "Good Girls Don't (But I Do)"
The Clash, "London Calling"
The Police, "Message In A Bottle"
XTC, "Generals And Majors"
XTC, "Senses Working Overtime"

1980-82 (Riding the crest of New Wave; high school)
The Vapors, "Turning Japanese"
Gary Numan, "Cars"
Alice Cooper, "Clones (We Are All)"
The B-52s, "Rock Lobster"
Dan Fogelberg, "Longer"
The Little River Band, "Lady"
The Wall of Voodoo, "Mexican Radio"
The Tubes, "I Don't Want To Wait Anymore"
The Korgis, "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime"
George Duke and Stanley Clarke, "Sweet Baby" [Two jazz heavyweights.]
The Clash, "Rock The Casbah"
Weather Report, "Birdland" [I want to play this with filkers!]
The Manhattan Transfer, "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone"
The Manhattan Transfer, "Coo Coo U"
Al Jarreau, "Spain"
Al Jarreau, "We're In This Love Together"

1983-85 (College; clubbing)
Haircut One Hundred, "Love Plus One"
Marillion, "She Knows You Know"
Saga, "On The Loose"
Saga, "Wind Him Up"
Thomas Dolby, "She Blinded Me With Science"
Herbie Hancock, "Rock It"
Phil Collins, "Against All Odds"
Peter Gabriel, "Walk Through The Fire"
Howard Jones, "What Is Love?"
Nick Kershaw, "Wouldn't It Be Good"
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, "Relax"
The Reflex, "The Politics Of Dancing"
a-ha, "Take On Me" [One of my top 5 all-time favorite videos.]
Jan Hammer, "Theme From 'Miami Vice'"
Level 42, "Something About You"
The Eurythmics, "Love Is A Stranger"
Peter Schilling, "Major Tom Coming Home"
Queen, "Radio Gaga"
Michael Sembello, "Automatic Man"
Madness, "Our House"
Big Country, "In A Big Country" [guitars sounding like bagpipes....gotta love it.]
Duran Duran, "Rio"

1986-88 (Leaving Top 40 for good; discovering CFNY and The Wave)
Kim Mitchell, "Go For Soda"
Boys Don't Cry, "I Wanna Be A Cowboy"
Alexei Sayle, "Didn't You Kill My Brother?"
Gowan, "Strange Animal" [My theme song.]
The Pretenders, "Don't Get Me Wrong"
Big Audio Dynamite, "The Bottom Line"
Sting, "Fortress Around My Heart"
Sting, "Russians"

Comments

[doeadear.livejournal.com]

I remember singing "Come Sail Away" after I'd inhaled helium.

[poltr1]

Heh. And like Cartman, you had to finish it, right?

Earlier this week, They had the guy who does the voice of Spongebob Squarepants on NPR's Fresh Air. And he was singing "Babe" in his Spongebob voice.

Almost as funny as the orc in one of the "making of LotR" movies singing "The Rainbow Connection".

[doeadear.livejournal.com]

I don't watch South Park, and I didn't finish Come Sail Away. I do listen to NPR when I can, but have avoided LOTR since high school, when it was still only a book! :-)