I commend KDHX "Musical Merry-Go-Round" substitute host Stacy for clarifying her intentions before starting a music set today. Before playing Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science," she admitted, "I'd rather bedazzle you with science, not blind you with it."
That shows admirable consideration for listeners, just before segueing Dolby's quirky hit with multiple songs about bugs.
Just a small bit of an air check of me on KCOU's "Kruzin' Music" in the early '90s was enough to cement Melanie's "What Have They Done To My Song, Ma" in my mind.
I wonder how many artists have conveyed those exact sentiments to family members when the recording industry changed their music in ways they found objectionable.
One of my go-to tracks for picking up the tempo on KCOU was "1976," a 1990 track by Redd Kross. When you have a great guitar hook, it's advisable to milk it for all its worth. The band does this, right from the first note, and keeps the energy up for the entire tune. Another plus: The keyboard riff that begins two minutes and four seconds in wouldn't be out of place in a Squeeze song. I have no strong feelings about the lyrics, but that doesn't detract from my positive impression of the song. When a song is this full of life and joy, DJs are wise to play it when the opportunity arises.
Just looking at the CD on the shelf a few minutes ago took me back. I remember waiting for a song I'd played before it to end so I could start the CD player at precisely the right moment--and hope that listeners would grab their air guitars and play along.
Yesterday, the iTunes shuffle mode came up with a segue that wouldn't have occurred to me. While hearing the Mason Williams tune, "Classical Gas," I thought, "This is an ideal pop instrumental for light Classical fans. How will iTunes match or not match its energy? iTunes responded with the fifth movement, Fandango Asturiano, of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Cappriccio Espagnol." The Philadelphia Orchestra, under Eugene Ormandy's baton, rose to the occasion, grabbing my attention with a short, brassy intro and an appealing melody for woodwinds. It's as if iTunes was saying, "Now that you're revved up from the energy of a cross-categorical pop/semi-Classical piece, let's give you a taste of the real thing."
An exchange heard on the radio in the early 2000s:
DJ: So, you'd let (a specified contestant on a reality TV show) into your house?
TV critic: Well, I'll let anyone into my house...
My reaction upon hearing the TV critic's response: Some people do that? I guess they do. They're far more trusting than I am.
Once, I heard a DJ say on-air after playing Henry Mancini's "Mr. Lucky," "I guess you could say I feel like Mr. Lucky today." Casual listeners wouldn't have heard any subtext in that, but I did. I knew that the next DJ hadn't shown up yet and the DJ's unspoken message was, "Hey, next DJ, get here ASAP. I need to go to my other job, and I can't do that until you arrive."
A little later, I heard the next DJ admit on-air, "I didn't realize I was supposed to work today."
A segue I wouldn't have considered if iTunes hadn't selected it randomly: Carole King's "It's Too Late" with Joey Alexander's "We Here." What do you play after a well-written, sincerely sung tune about a deteriorating relationship? One option is to segue it with a more optimistic-sounding piano instrumental that dovetails well with King's piano outro on "It's Too Late." It's a good way to take the edge off of "It's Too Late"'s lyrics.
After listening to some sports talk radio excerpts from 1985, I have the uneasy feeling I could turn on the radio right now and still hear some of those very same callers proposing to the host that the Cardinals should trade so-and-so for so-and-so, despite the fact that it's a wildly imbalanced trade that one team's management would never approve.
The players' names would be different, and the talk show host would probably be different, as well. The caller's lack of realistic perspective, however, would likely be unchanged.
Often, we tend to assume that a person of authority knows what (s)he's talking about. This isn't always the case, however, as a baseball radio announcer pointed out tonight. The announcer mentioned that in a previous inning, the umpire got the count on a batter wrong. The play-by-play man was surprised that no one seemed to notice or do anything about it.
As his announcing partner noted, this was about as rare of an instance as the infamous "fifth down" Mizzou football game.
It's interesting, then, that only the announcers in the booth seemed to notice this.
Two of my middle and high school orchestra director's sons played in his orchestra at different times. I always thought it was unfair to them that, by Mr. D.'s own admission, "I grade them harder than I grade the rest of you."
I saw that double standard in action one day when one of his sons finished a playing test. I expected Mr. D. to mark down an A in the grade book, as his playing sounded just as good as the student before him, who received an A. Instead, however, Mr. D.'s son received a B+. His reasoning is being tougher on his sons was that they had him available as a resource at home while the rest of us didn't.
I suppose there's a case to be made for that. The stronger case, however, would be, "If a student plays well enough to earn an A, that student should receive an A."
I just heard a radio commercial for a bank that said choosing it is "the easiest decision in the history of decisions."
How confident--and presumptuous.
It was our high school orchestra director's first day back after being in a car accident, and one of his arms was in a sling. We had no idea what kind of a mood he'd be in, but one section of the orchestra soon found out. I don't remember if multiple players played the wrong note or didn't execute a dynamic in the score. I remember Mr. D. saying to them, however, "Does it say in the music to do (such-and-such?) " After they nodded and responded, "Yes," he snapped, "Then, do it, dammit."
He then mentioned the effect his pain medication was having on him, and I suspect everyone realized, "We'd better pay attention and play this piece to the best of our ability."
Five intriguing tunes heard today:
KDHX 88.1 FM
WSIE 88.7 FM
KPNT 105.7 FM
A declarative keyboard outro often flows well into another declarative keyboard intro. During a recent random play session, iTunes segued Russell Malone's cover of a Carpenters hit, "We've Only Just Begun," with "O Come All Ye Faithful" by Chill Out Angels.
Malone ups the tempo on the famous Carpenters song and turns it into a glossy guitar breeze. The beginning and ending keyboard pattern makes the listener sit up and pay attention. That outro meshes well with the intro of "...Faithful," and both artists pull off successful modernized versions of their respective melodies.
The Christmas in July segue-a-thon continues...
How do you follow the upbeat exuberance of Warren Wolf's vibraphone on "Sleigh Ride?" In shuffle mode, recently, iTunes chose to segue it with "Just A Job To Do" by Genesis.
In a warped way, the energy of both tracks is compatible. The scenes each song conjure up--of a pleasant romp through the snow on or close to Christmas vs. a hit man's dogged determination to eliminate his target--are not.
Yesterday, I listened to a radio station that was having a Throwback Thursday. I heard "I Feel Free" by Cream followed by Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill."
Just for a moment, I thought, "Throwbacks? Why, I remember hearing both of these songs for the first time only, um, well, 40 years ago...when they were still throwbacks--more recent throwbacks, then, though."
Admittedly, there's no disputing in 2021 that songs released in 1966 and 1977, respectively, are throwbacks.
Of all the products I've heard advertised, the Murphy's Oil Soap jingle does an especially strong job justifying its product's existence. "Now the dirt is finished, but the finish is fine" sums up the need for the oil soap--and locks itself into the mind along with a person's name, address, and date of birth. When an actress in a commercial broke into an operatic style during the verse, "You'll be using Murphy's all the time...," I didn't question it.
After all, what other oil soap elicits that reaction?
It's the title track of a 1968 Stanley Turrentine album, but it doesn't usually get played on the radio today. I've praised various iterations of "The Look Of Love" before. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 recorded one of the better vocal versions, as did Diana Krall. In Turrentine's version, however, his tenor sax carries the melody, and it's a natural fit.
For listeners desiring a Christmas in July fix, check out Buddy Emmons's version of "Sleigh Ride." It's a smooth steel guitar rendition with just enough of a twang. If you feel adventurous, segue it with the more raucous "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" by The Sweetback Sisters.
A DJ, returning to his former station after working at another station, remarked to another DJ that the station's previous regime didn't like it when he talked on-air about his kids.
"Phooey on 'em," the DJ said on the air. "People like that."
I've rarely heard anyone say, "Phooey," in any context. Good for him, though. He related to the audience as a human being and showed admirable restraint in not saying something more blunt on the air.
Six standout selections heard today:
KWMU 90.7 FM
KSHE 94.7 FM
Six standout tunes heard today:
KDHX 88.1 FM
WSIE 88.7 FM
KCLC 89.1 FM
WFUN 96.3 FM
Kudos to iTunes for a smooth shuffle mode segue: My former ending theme on WEW, "Closing Time" by Tom Waits, flowed into Roseanna Vitro's "Tell Me You'll Wait For Me."
Talk about a classy piano outro blending seamlessly with a classy piano intro...
Ten highlights heard today:
KBCU (North Newton, KS)
KPND (Deer Park, WA)
KSUT (Ignacio, CO)
WDZZ (Flint, MI)
WHRO (Norfolk, VA)
Recently, my brother played an excerpt of a cover tune he'd heard at an outdoor concert. Thus, I heard Sadie Hawkins Day String Band's impressive rendering of Woody Guthrie's "Union Maid." It's so memorable, in fact, that it hasn't left my mind for three days. It's pure Americana in its vocals, instrumentation, and hook, "I'm stickin' to the union."
My brother's cat, Lily, assured me she's stickin' to the union; after all, if any animal is going to stand up for its rights on the job, you'd expect it to be a cat. My cat, Collette, had been stickin' to the union, as well--until she got miffed by the increased union dues and bit the shop steward's feet.
I'd warned her about that. Luckily, she still has her job as a watchcat.
When the owner of a radio station where I worked couldn't reach the program director, he'd call the request line. When I answered, he'd say, "If you would ask her to give me a jingle..."
"Alright," I thought. "You'd like her to call you, then." Even in the '90s, it was unusual to hear anyone refer to a phone call as "a jingle." No one I know has used that terminology around me since then. I wonder if that general manager ever said, "The phone's jingling," when it rang.
Something about hearing so much patriotic music and seeing fireworks yesterday makes me superimpose Aaron Copland's "Fanfare For The Common Man" over anything I see outside today--even ordinary scenes I've taken taken in hundreds of times.
Somehow, taking out the trash has never felt so heroic.
Two contrasting Independence Day-related tunes have been alternating in my mind today. The more sobering of the two is "Mama, Look Sharp" from the "1776" soundtrack. It reminds the listener of the human cost of war. The more uplifting earworm is Bob Dorough's "The Shot Heard 'Round The World," from the animated "Schoolhouse Rock" series. It acknowledges the tribulations of the Revolutionary War briefly but mostly keeps the focus on the soldiers' bravery and ultimate victory.
It's appropriate to have both perspectives in mind on America's 245th birthday.
Yesterday, I was trying to synchronize video footage I'd taken of fireworks displays in past years with patriotic music. I'd think, "This excerpt of fireworks is shorter than the others, and it isn't the finale, so that requires a short track, such as Pete Seeger's version of 'America The Beautiful.' This highlight covers a longer section, so I should be able to play Simon & Garfunkel's live version of Paul Simon's 'American Tune' under it. This segment shows a lot of brightly colored, explosive fireworks, so perhaps 'Liberty Fanfare' by John Williams, which sounds majestic and conjures up images of soaring eagles, would be appropriate. And, during this stretch, some uptempo music would help plug the gaps between fireworks; 'American Music' by The Pointer Sisters works there..."
Then, I thought, "I'm not coordinating a community production here. I'm only doing this for myself. I should just sit back, enjoy the fireworks, play American-themed music semi-randomly, and just take this in."
I took my own advice--to some extent. I mean, as much as I like Beegie Adair's subtle rendition of "God Bless America" on the piano, it's under three minutes long and this excerpt of fireworks is nearly three-and-a-half minutes. There would be no music for nearly 30 seconds, and that, of course, would just be madness. Well, maybe not. After all, I enjoyed all these fireworks displays in person without music, originally.
Perhaps Paul Simon was onto something when he wrote "Think Too Much."
As I listened to Ferrante & Techier's "Spirit Of '76 Medley" today, I'd forgotten about the explosive percussion near the end. During "Stars And Stripes Forever," my cat, Collette, perked up her ears and looked at me, somewhat concerned. As she climbed onto my lap, I assured her that she was only hearing percussion, not thunder.
She took my word for it. Crisis averted.
If you're looking for patriotic music that's unusually frenetic, try William Schuman's "American Festival Overture." Even if it isn't your cup of tea, one has to respect the precise timing required from the winds, brass, and strings. When I played it with a youth ensemble, I thought, "I don't usually hear this type of frantic call-and-response from three sections of the orchestra. I also don't usually hear cellists replicating the sound of locomotives gaining traction. In this context, however, it works."
After what we've all gone through during the pandemic, this kind of energetic release feels appropriate.