"How about that requested song...Now, maybe?"

A memory from the '90s: One night, I'd brought in some CDs to listen to while working.  I'd mentioned having a Gordon Lightfoot CD with me, and a co-worker said that he'd like to hear one of his favorite songs, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald."  I was too focused on work, however, to actually play the CD that night.  Each time I walked from my desk to the basket where work to be done was kept, this co-worker would let out a subtle reminder, such as, "Say, does anyone have any Gordon Lightfoot music?" or "Some Gordon Lightfoot music would sound good right about now."  When that didn't work, he started quoting lyrics from "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" each time I walked past.  When his shift ended that night, he said, in a complete deadpan, "What a disappointing evening this has been."  Looking back, I wish certain radio listeners whose requests I couldn't play because they weren't available or had just been played recently had taken the answer, "No," with such good humor.

Online radio sampler highlights XXX

Six of the more interesting selections I've heard this morning:

KZSC (Santa Cruz, CA)

• E Ku'u Morning Dew-Keola Beamer (A subtle Hawaiian slack-key guitar instrumental, fit for greeting the new day; it would segue with the piece I cited on WCBN this morning.)

WBGU (Bowling Green, OH)

• The Listener-John Wojciechowski (A captivating straight-ahead jazz number for saxophone and rhythm section.)

WCBN (Ann Arbor, MI)

• The Air Of Place-Rachel Grimes (A gripping new age orchestral prelude from 2015.  "The Clearing" is an appropriate name for its CD, as it's easy to picture clouds giving way to clear skies at the end of the track.)

WERS (Boston, MA)

• Smoking Gun-Robert Cray Band (Still one of the band's most powerful tracks; with vocals and guitar work like this, it's not surprising this was the first Cray track that received widespread commercial radio airplay.)

WFDU (Teaneck, NJ)

• One Foot In The Blues-Johnny Adams with Dr. Lonnie & Jimmy Ponder (An ideal blues riff--vocals with just the right amount of emoting, backed up by shimmering organ, guitar, and saxophone.)

WPRB (Princeton, NJ)

• Gloria Coates: Perchance To Dream (Susan Allen, harp; Cotton Lytle, bowed vibraphone) (This haunting, ethereal piece would also segue well with "The Air Of Place.")

Persistent earworm alert XVI

While making toast for the last several mornings, I haven't been able to get the oldie, "Bread And Butter," by The Newbeats, out of my mind.  In short, the protagonist likes bread and butter, as well as toast and jam.  He's thankful that his wife (or girlfriend?) remembers this; in fact, his taste for these breakfast foodstuffs looms so large that even when he's betrayed, his reaction is "No more bread and butter.  No more toast and jam."  Not surprisingly, the tune's cheery dance beat plays down the cheating aspect to focus on the food shortage.

I don't remember "Bread And Butter" being played much on oldies radio stations here, but I remember a TV commercial for an oldies compilation that featured it.  Oldies in TV commercials, for some reason, aren't allowed to stand on their own as often as they should; supposedly, people have to dance around to them, often with crazed smiles.  Such was the case with "Bread And Butter."  Classic rock anthems face a similar fate; instead of letting the songs that people have heard hundreds of times speak for themselves, commercials have to show listeners playing air guitar and/or spouting archaic slang as they listen.  Apparently, it isn't enough to just play a well-worn excerpt from a song; at least one listener has to give it the "groovy" or "right on" seal of approval.  Heaven forbid that one should simply listen to "Bread And Butter" and make an independent judgment on its merits.

Turning one's back on a wrong note

When a high school musician flubs a note during a rehearsal, the conductor will usually ask the player's section to correct its intonation.  Sometimes, the conductor will speak to the individual player.  I once saw a conductor try a more unusual tactic, however.  When a bassist played a note out of tune, the conductor stopped the orchestra and said, "I don't want to know who played that note out of tune.  I'm going to turn my back.  While my back is turned, would whoever did that please make a note in his or her music?"  After a short pause, the offending bassist exclaimed, "It was me!"  As the orchestra burst out laughing, the conductor, while starting to chuckle slightly, told him, "I said I didn't want to know!"  To the conductor's credit, his unusual strategy worked.  The bassist played the note in tune from then on.

You might hear a forecast like this...

...when the announcer hasn't had enough sleep.  I've only heard this happen once, but I still remember an announcer saying, "It'll be clouder and coldy today..."

Fireworks music food for thought

Downtown Kirkwood rang in the new year with an enjoyable fireworks display last night, and the music that accompanied it, including The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and "Brick House" by The Commodores, meshed reasonably well.  It would be interesting in the future if someone threw a spanner in the works, though, by choosing a song that would make people think, "Wait...Huh?"  Perhaps, without explanation, the chorus of "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris could be slipped into the middle of the medley.

Positive perspective

"Sometimes, I think about what it's like being in radio," a program director once said to me.  "I don't have some of the things that other people have.  But, you know, I've had a lot of years in this business that have been very good to me."  Combined with this program director's on-air admission, "There are tougher ways to make a living," that's a healthy perspective to have as a new year begins.