Big Star "Thank You Friends"

When I was a kid, I worked at an ice cream stand.

People loved it.  For many, coming to get an ice cream was a highlight of the day.  Coming to OUR ice cream stand, was a part of their summer experience.  To this day, I'm sure that people who lived or summered in the Newburyport area have warm memories of Haley's Ice Cream.

Compliments at Haley's were easy to come by.  You weren't selling life insurance or bath fixtures.  When you gave them what they had ordered, there was a light in their eyes, and a grateful thank you on their lips.  They might even tell you that they love the ice cream you make.

But that was nothing.

It's been a pretty amazing two months, and so much of it has gone by so fast that it was hard to take in, process and respond to, as it was happening.

Two months ago, mvyradio told its listeners we needed $600,000 to survive.  And the listeners responded.

Now, I didn't have a lot of doubt that we could raise that much money.  I knew people loved our station and were willing to donate $25 or $100 or more, to keep it alive.

But I just can't get over the number of messages that we got from people who didn't just say, "I love your station," or "I want to support you," but went on to tell very personal stories about how much a part of their lives the station had become.

People wrote us about collectively listening to "Alice's Restaurant" as a family, singing while all on the phone together because the family was apart of Thanksgiving.

More than a few folks told us of hitting mental health low points, but being able to turn to the station, hearing a song that lifted them up, or even picking up the phone and having a DJ who wanted to talk to them.

We heard from an ICU nurse who would bring a radio to a patient if the unit was having a particularly loud or chaotic night.  The music was a distraction and a comfort.

And I got a very personal letter from a woman who had discovered the station via her husband and listening became something they shared.  Even years after his death, she would hear a song on MVY and think "That's a tune he would have loved."  She needed the station, because the music was her way of staying connected to her love. "Don't die," she wrote.

We got donations from 3800 listeners.

And among those, we got donations from many musicians.  Not necessarily big names.  But folks we have supported.  Local and regional.

We got donations from Record Label people, Radio promotions people, and even DJs from other stations.  They recognize that MVY is unique, valuable and worth saving.

And, special in our hearts, were the donations we got from our own families.  The Moms and Dads and Brothers and Sisters of the station staff pitched in too, and it was great to see a familiar last name (Dacey, Redington, Phaneuf, Hammond and many more) land in the donation box.

Saturday was the mvyradio Big Chili Contest, and that's where the hugging began.  People we've known from around, or people we've never met before in our lives, gave us hugs, told us that they love us and congratulated us.

It was much more love than I ever got serving ice cream.

The song in my head (and there's always a song in my head) was this Big Star tune.  I'll put the lyrics below, because it really speaks to our story and success.  I love that he sings about things being "so probable."

Thank you, Friends.  Personally, and professionally.

You saved mvyradio.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Thank you, friends
Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you
I'm so grateful for all the things you helped me do

All the ladies and gentlemen
Who made this all so probable

Thank you, friends
I rejoice to the skies
Dear ones like you do the best I do
As far as can see my eyes

Without my friends I got chaos
I'm off in a bead of light
Without my friends I'd be swept up high by the wind

All the ladies and gentlemen (I said all)
Who made this all so probable

Thank you friends (thank you, again)
Dear, dear friends (thank you, again)
And again, and again
Never too late to start

Ray Davies "Thanksgiving Day"

Earlier this week I was loading up the mvyradio Holiday Music Channel, and piling on song after song, by artist after artist, of Christmas tunes.

Then I went to find a song for Thanksgiving.

For a day about filling your table with plenty, the song-cupboard is pretty bare.

There’s the Adam Sandler tune.  “Over The River And Through The Woods To Grandmother’s House We Go” was originally a Thanksgiving song.  Of course, there’s “Alice’s Restaurant.”

But compared to the number of Christmas songs out there?  Pretty meager.

Which is strange, considering the lyrical possibilities.  I mean, it’s a little hard to write a song about, say, the Lenten season.

But Thanksgiving has some pretty clear metaphors, emotional touchstones and simple accessible imagery.

How is it that something like Ray Davies’ “Thanksgiving Day” is so rare?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Wall Of Voodoo "Mexican Radio"

If you want a little mailbox money coming your way every year, you write a Christmas song.

But the Christmas field is crowded.

You could be like Adam Sandler and write a Thanksgiving song. Other than "Alice's Restaurant" there aren't too many songs to play around that holiday.

There are a handful of Martin Luther King Jr. Day songs.

Only a couple of 4th of July tunes.

But there is one special day, that is wide open:

Big Chili Day.

The mvyradio Big Chili Contest is tomorrow (always the last Saturday in January). And every year I go looking for good songs to play.

Isn't it shocking, that there aren't really any good songs about Chili?

Maybe you should write one.

Even if you don't listen to the whole song, at least skip ahead to the 3:30 mark. You know you want to . . .

See the video on Youtube.

Arlo Guthrie "Alice's Restaurant" (Revised)

We always air the original "Alice's Restaurant" at noon.

And we'd hate to break tradition, on-air, by playing an alternate version, so I'm posting it here.

Sometime in the mid-90s, Arlo Guthrie re-recorded the song, with a few updates and a very funny post-script related to Richard Nixon.

Youtube usually only allows 10 minute files, but you'll find the whole thing here.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Arlo Guthrie "Motorcycle Song"

Thursday is Thanksgiving, so of course, we're going to play "Alice's Restaurant," and I got thinking about where I first heard Arlo Guthrie.

And if these details don't lock the story in time . . .

We were in a large, white Econoline van, parked in a driveway.

We listened on 8-Track.

We didn't really know what The Draft was.

We thought "Father Rapers" was perhaps the funniest thing we'd ever heard.

Yeah, it was 1978 and I was about 9 years old. My best 3rd-grade buddy and I would go out to his driveway and sit in his parents van and let that 8-Track play over and over and over.

I can't say that we understood the full implications of Arlo Guthrie's anti-Draft, anti-War epic. But we surely understood the humor.

Hilarious littering, overzealous authority figures, pencil graffiti on benches---those were things a 9 year old could understand.

By 1978, we were post-Vietnam, post-Draft, post-Protest periods. But because were were stuck in the 8-Track age, it meant that we couldn't do what kids before us (with 45s) and kids after us (with CDs and MP3s) could do.

We couldn't just play our favorite song over and over.

So instead, we listened to the whole thing. The whole "Best Of Arlo Guthrie." And that's why, for me, Arlo could never be an artist who's history is a single song. Or even a single pair of songs (because "City Of New Orleans" is at least equally known). And he wasn't an artist I associated with only Thanksgiving, until I started working in radio, decades later.

So enjoy this one today from Arlo. At least give the man TWO days a year . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.