Sam Cooke "Twisting The Night Away"

Like many, many of my peers in the 80s I incessantly listened to one of those albums that seemingly everybody owned:  the soundtrack to "Animal House."

I was well into adulthood before I sorted out that I had spent most of my youth misunderstanding, and mis-singing a line from "Twisting The Night Away."

Here's a man in evenin' clothes
How he got here, I don't know
But man you oughta see him go
Twistin' the night away

He's dancin' with the chick in slacks
She's a movin' up and back
Oh, man there ain't nothin' like
Twistin' the night away

For years, I (and c'mon, admit it, you too) sang:

"He's dancin' with the chicken slacks."

Hey, I assumed that Chicken Slacks were some kind of 50s apparel that had faded out of existence.  It's no more implausible than a "Poodle Skirt."

I got a good laugh a few weeks back, when I happened to be standing in front of Alison Hammond's "Local Music Cafe" CD library, and saw this album on top of a pile:

Well, they get points for humor.

You can hear the band The Chicken Slacks below, and in this episode of The Local Music Cafe.



Hear Sam Cooke on Youtube.


Hear the Chicken Slacks on Youtube.

New Radicals "You Get What You Give"

For the next couple of days, I thought it would be fun to write about a few tunes for a game I'd like to call:

"This is what it means if you hear that song on mvyradio."

There are a handful of songs, that, if I hear them on the station, I can tell you exactly what is going on behind the scenes. In the posts that follow, you'll look behind the curtain with me . . .

Over the weekend, I was posting about songs that mvyradio used to play, but doesn't have in regular rotation any more, because they don't seem to fit the sound anymore.

Barbara often points out, that back in the day, mvy used to play Anita Baker. Can you imagine? Anita Baker next to Death Cab For Cutie? It wouldn't work.

So, while a song might work in its day, some songs don't age with the station.

But if it was in rotation in the last 10 years, its probably accessible in the studio. And, as I often point out, just because we don't play it, doesn't make it a bad song and it doesn't mean we don't (or at least one of us doesn't) like it.

If I'm driving around and I hear the One Hit Wonder song "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals in the middle of the day, I can tell you a few things.

Barbara is on vacation.

Alison is filling in for Barbara on The Lunch Hour.

Nobody sent in an eQuest that day.

Occasionally, Alison, while filling in for Barbara, will get to the end of The Lunch Hour (which is supposed to end by playing an emailed-in request from one of our online listeners) without anything to play. So she'll pick a song herself.

She loves this song, and because it's not in rotation anymore, she doesn't really hear it.

So if you hear this one, know that it's probably Alison playing an eQuest to herself!

Bruce Springsteen "London Calling"

I had a cool experience yesterday. I listened to the radio. That happens more rarely than you might think.

I was off work for the day, taking care of business with the family on the Cape. We were early for an appointment, so we took a swing by Trader Joe's. My wife and daughter went inside. I stayed in the car with the sleeping infant boy.

I flipped on mvyradio and caught Alison, who was filling in for Barbara.

Alison was her usual engaging self, bringing The Lunch Hour to life, and because I'd hadn't been in work-mode at all that day, I really just listened to her and the music, not as a co-worker or boss or Music Director. I just listened and enjoyed and absorbed what I was hearing.

On the What's New For Lunch menu was a new live Bruce Springsteen version of "London Calling," and just the mention of it got me excited.

I love The Clash. I love Bruce Springsteen. It seemed like a great match of song and singer and spirit.

But listening, not through headphones, or the big studio speakers, or as part of my regular going-through-a-stack-of-cds-to-sample-songs-for-broadcast, but just in my own car, in a bustling parking lot, waiting for my wife to come back with pop tarts and avocados, I experienced the song as a fan. And I wasn't won over.

Did my fandom build up too much expectation? Or, is this a case of It-Looks-Good-On-Paper? Either way, on first listen it didn't hook me.

If I had been listening as a programmer, I'd be muting my own reaction, trying to listen to it instead as someone who might really want to hear Bruce Springsteen covering The Clash, wondering whom I'd please if I played the song on my show. Instead, I was the audience, not concerned about anyone's reaction to the song but my own. And that guy, wasn't crazy about the experience.

So I now think I'm in the position of having Real Me exerting a prejudice on Professional Me.

As always, I turn to you. What do you think? Good version? Not quite there? Merits a few plays? Should be in heavy rotation? Joe Strummer is turning over in his grave? Let me know what you think.