Bob Marley "3 Little Birds"

There are a number of artists that we go really deep on.

In regular rotation on MVY, you can find upwards of 20 songs by The Allman Brothers, The Band, Talking Heads and U2.  And more than 30 by The Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones and a handful of others.

Because we cover these artists really well, it's not uncommon to take some of the most famous songs by these artists, like "Casey Jones" or "Ramblin' Man" and put them in a very, very low rotation.

On the surface, that might be counter-intuitive.  The most popular songs should be played the most, right?

But these are also the songs that you are likely to hear elsewhere.  Classic Rock stations have been grinding these tunes for years, so just occasional play on MVY goes a long way because you are likely to hear these songs elsewhere.

It's pretty rare that something about the MVY library surprises me.

I've been Program Director/Music Director since 2005.  And I've been doing work with our song library database for over a decade.

But last week, something really surprised me.

I was out somewhere and I heard "3 Little Birds" by Bob Marley.  And I thought, "Gee, I haven't heard this on MVY in a while.  Did I take it out of rotation and 'Rest' it?"

I'll do that sometimes.  "Rest" a song, by pulling it from rotation for a few months, or a year.  The idea is that when it returns to rotation, the listener may not have realized it was gone over the course of the year, but hears it and says, "Oh, I haven't heard this in a while."

So was "3 Little Birds" resting?

I went to the database.  No "3 Little Birds."

The database was created in 1999.  So any song that has ever been in regular rotation at any point since then, is in the database.  Songs that maybe we have the CD for, and might play but request but are otherwise not in regular rotation are not there.

"3 Little Birds" not being there means we haven't played it as a regular part of rotation for at least 15 years.

I realized there might be some other Marley songs missing from rotation.  So I went to iTunes to see his most popular songs.

I was shocked to see that there is a whole list of Marley tunes, not in regular rotation on MVY:

"One Love"
"Could You Be Loved"
"Buffalo Soldier"
"Redemption Song"
"Rock My Boat"

These are all songs that you can hear any day of the week on your local classic rock station, or at a party, or out in public somewhere.

So it's not that I hadn't heard any of these songs since 1999.  I was hearing them.  And I was hearing them enough that I hadn't even noticed that MVY wasn't one of the sources.

I don't know if our listeners have noticed.  But I will remedy this by getting all these songs into rotation.  Albeit a low, low rotation.

If I can go 15 years without noticing they are missing, they probably only need an occasional spotlight.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Eagles "Ol 55"

Let's face it.  People have strong feelings about The Eagles.

Really strong feelings.

That makes them a bit of a quandary for MVY.  And I had to do some thinking on the subject, due to a recent note from a listener.

He wanted to know why we played The Eagles version of "Ol 55."  He pointed out that the songwriter, Tom Waits, has said he doesn't like that version himself.

Sometimes I think that when people write the station, they really just want a one word response, like "Okay."

But sometimes, I feel the urge to explain myself, in probably too much details.

So, The Eagles . . .

On the one hand, The Eagles fit pretty sonically well with MVY.  Polished acoustics, well-crafted songwriting, the occasional blazing guitar lead, harmonies that directly descend from CSNY.  All that works.

On the other hand, The Eagles represent the antithesis of an MVY artist, in the sense that if it's a hit somewhere else, we're likely to leave it alone.  We'd rather play the road less traveled.  The critically-acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful.  We'll play the deep album cut, over the mass appeal hit.

This distinction is not really something the audience ever thinks about.

So the folks who live On The One Hand, request The Eagles, with some frequency.

Trying to skate the line, we do something with The Eagles, that we don't do with too many other artists.  We only play part of their catalogue.

Normally, a band is either IN with us, or they are OUT with us.  If we've decided to play them, like The Allman Brothers, we play most everything, even the hits.  If we've decided that they are already well-covered by Classic Rock, like The Doors, we don't play anything, even the obscurities.

With The Eagles, there is no sense of MVY playing "Hotel California" or "Heartache Tonight" or "Tequila Sunrise."  Because you can hear those songs right now, by just spinning the dial.  They're burnt out, and unnecessary for us.

But we do want to represent The Eagles, so we play songs like "The Last Resort."  That's one you are less likely to hear on a Classic Rock station.

For the same reason, we played "Ol 55."  It's a pretty deep cut.

But I have to admit, the listener who wrote in is right.

The cover tune doesn't do much for me, either.  The Tom Waits original is much better.

So yes, I pulled The Eagles version of "Ol 55" from the playlist.  And I kept the Tom Waits version in (we've been rotating the two, for years).

Someday, I'll probably grow a pair, and decided to weed out the last few Eagles cuts from the entire playlist.

But until then, I'll just enjoy waiting to receive the wrath of Eagles Haters, in the Inbox.

Read the article:  "Woman Allegedly Attacked Roommate For Listening To The Eagles"


Hear the song on Youtube.

Wilson Pickett "Hey Jude"

We tend to define famous folks by their most famous achievements (or escapades).  But in doing so, the Legend can eclipse important, vital parts of the story.

If I say "Duane Allman," you say "Layla," "Live At Fillmore East" and "motorcycle accident."

The two sentence story is about his ground-breaking and influential work in his two years with the Allman Brothers, his tenure with Derek And The Dominos and his untimely death.

But the two sentence story misses so much great work.

Thankfully, there is a new, comprehensive boxed set, coming out via Concord Records, which tells the story much better, and much more thoroughly than two sentences ever could.

While a 7 disc boxed set undoubtedly has tracks that are more curios that anything else, "Skydog" also has some amazing, mind-blowing tracks that should come out of the museum. 

I can't tell you the last time I heard the Wilson Pickett version of "Hey Jude" and I don't know if I knew that Duane Allman was the sessions guitarist on it.  But hell, let's bring this one back.

Ditto to his work with Aretha Franklin, Boz Scaggs and John Hammond.

It's a much better story when you tell the whole thing.


mvyradio is giving away copies of a "Skydog" sampler today, and one lucky winner will get an upgrade, to the full "Skydog" set.

Below, hear the Wilson Pickett version of "Hey Jude," see a trailer for the boxed set that flashes through all the track names, and see a totally random video.  When Dave Einstein from Concord Records asked if we wanted to do this give-away, he meant to send a link to the trailer, but accidentally sent this link on how to open a wine bottle with a shoe.  Random, but helpful!


Hear the song on Youtube.


See the trailer for the "Skydog" set on Youtube.


Learn how to open a bottle of wine with a shoe, on Youtube.

Allman Brothers Band "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed"

I always think of Grampa Tim when I hear this song.

Famously, Dickie Betts of the Allman Brothers wrote this instrumental in a Macon, Georgia graveyard that he liked to hang out in.

The fact that the songs is an instrumental leaves Elizabeth Reed's story untold, and lets us wonder.

Grampa Tim has spent many an hour, I'm sure, pondering such unknowable questions.

On top of being a carpenter, shop keeper, bartender, reluctant soldier, sketcher, clam digger, bird house builder, art installer, roofer, and handyman, he is also a stone carver.

He's been hired to carve massive sinks and fireplaces for luxury homes.

And he'll do simple marker carving, like the slate-address-marker we have at our front door.

A few years ago, he was hired by the Brewster Cemetery Association to fix and restore over 300 gravestones in town.  (Read about it in a Cape Codder article)

That job lasted ages, and gave Tim a lot of time to ponder just who those people were, what their life might have been like, and what their story had been.

But, despite his many talents, I don't think he wrote a song about it.


Throughout the holiday season, I'm writing stories about some of the family and friends who are making and selling art and such.  When you think about dropping $50 at Amazon or Walmart, consider how much farther that money will go, how much better for the broader economy it would be, if you spent your cash with a small business owner.

While I don't know that your Mom would appreciate a Gravestone as a Christmas present, and you may not be interested in a massive, marble carved fireplace, take a look a Tim's site.  There may be some more modest carving or stone bench or piece of rustic furniture or abstract art that would appeal to you.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Allman Brothers "Hot 'Lanta"

"How was Hot 'Lanta?"

Words on the page can't really express the emotional complexities and layers of meaning that were infused into the reading of this line when it was spoken to me.  On the page, you can't hear the melody and counter-melody running through it.

Some background . . .

I had moved to Virginia at the end of summer, 1993, to take a job at an NBC affiliate in their creative services (that is, commercial making) department.

This was a blind move---I did it for the job.  I didn't know a soul.  So I was working hard to insert myself into whatever social scene was available.

I'd grown up in Massachusetts, had spent four years at a very liberal University (UMass) and had lived in Florida---not as liberal, but not as reserved either---for the previous two years.

Now I was living in The South, which was a new cultural landscape for me.  It wasn't the head-snapping, cultural 180 that I think some people who've never spent time in The South expect it to be.  But there were things that were different.  Social mores that I was ignorant to.

I'd gone to The Lemonheads show in Atlanta with a couple of girls my age.  We crashed overnight at a friend's place in the city.

This is something I wouldn't think twice about.  In my collegiate world, there was no difference between hanging out with guy friends and hanging out with girl friends.  No one in my college orbit would have thought so.

But for some of my in-The-South co-workers an overnight trip with female co-workers?  That was risque.  Perhaps scandalous.  At least something to raise an eyebrow at.

Especially for the girls' father.

Who happened to also be my co-worker.

Yes, her Dad was my daily partner.  A talented cameraman, photographer and all around creative mind, he brought to life whatever creative vision I had for, you know, the local car dealer or beauty school.

He was a very cool guy.  Smart, multi-talented, creative and down to earth.  A big and gruff self-described "redneck" on the outside, but a sensitive artist lurked below.

But he was also a Dad.  A dad who lived in a world where you protected your daughter from things like (gasp!) single guys.

Just to be clear, the daughter was a friend, not a romantic interest.  But in this world I was living in, for many, men and women (boys and girls), did not mix without the specter of sexuality hanging heavy over the proceedings.

I was not really aware of this when I went away for the overnight to the concert.  But on the first morning back to work, someone pointed out to me that the Dad was a little weirded-out that his daughter was out overnight with this new-young-dude-in-town.

And now we were about to be in the van together for a long haul.

We had a commercial shoot that morning, which meant we'd be riding a long stretch in the production truck, just the two of us together.

We rode in silence for the first few miles, but I think we both felt the awkward tension that someone was going to have to alleviate.  He addressed it head on.

"How was Hot 'Lanta?"

Here is what was infused within those four words.

"I'm trying to be cool about this, but I'm not really sure what your intention is with my daughter, because I think you are a nice guy and I like you but if you so much as touch her I am ready to kick your little Yankee ass up and down State Street because who goes off on an overnight with a young girl to a big wild city like Atlanta without sexual intentions, so just tell me I've got nothing to worry about and let fucking drop this subject so I don't have to think about it anymore."

I was nervous, I rambled, but I tossed out a quick run-down of what a fun, wholesome time we had and about how the friend we stayed with had comfortable sleeping accommodations with separate rooms for boys and girls, and that the band was good (he asked if they were "New Wave"?) and the city looked fun but that after the show we didn't party it up because it had been a long drive so we just retired early after the show.  Oh, and there was no drinking.

That seemed to suffice.

His four words were all he cared to say or think about the subject. And we never talked about it again.

Don't let it escape your attention this song, that invokes the memory of today's post, this song you are about to hear while you imagine Dad and I are driving off through the southwest Virginia countryside not talking, is an instrumental.



Hear the song on Youtube.

Janie Grey "Memories"

I tapped the shoulder of the guy in front of us.

"Who would you compare these guys to?"

He thought about it for a second and said, "Maybe . . . The Allmans?"

I was in my favorite local bar, about to watch my favorite local band.

Admittedly, both the bar and the band were a little dank, dirty and down-and-out for a date, but this new girl I was dating seemed game.

When she asked what the band sounded like, I said that their main reference was probably The Band. But she didn't know The Band.

"Take a load off, Annie, Take a load for free . . ." I sang, trying to rattle a memory that clearly wasn't there for her. "No, doesn't ring a bell?"

Nope.

So I asked the guy in front of me, and he suggested The Allmans, which was a reasonable second suggestion.

She nodded, approvingly.

True to form, Janie Grey came out and threw down a great bar-shaking set. And yes, in the model of The Band, three different guys in the band took shots at lead singing, some of the songs extended out, out, out in jam fashion, and they even did staples The Band were known for doing, like "Down South In New Orleans" and "Mystery Train."

She seemed to have a good time, trying groove along with the proceedings.

In the car on the way home, I asked her what she thought of the band.

"Oh, they were good I guess. Not what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?"

"Well, based on that guy's description, I guess I was you know, expecting the white suits and the dance moves and stuff."

"Dance moves?"

Wait a minute.

"Are you confusing The Allman Brothers with The Osmond Brothers?"

"Oh! Yeah, I guess I am!" she said, cheerily.

(The post script, unsurprisingly, is that this relationship did not work out . . .)


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Allman Brothers Band “Pony Boy”

Craig Sherman used to drive me nuts.

He was the mvyradio overnight DJ, in the early 2000s. He was (and still is) a good friend. And he was/is very creative/silly/uninhibited.

He’d get off the air at 5:20am, and turn things over to me. In those days, I was the morning DJ.

But every morning at 5:20am, he’d end his shift with the “PJ Finn Fact Of The Day.” Which was always entirely made up.

He’d say things like:

PJ’s nickname in college was “Pony Boy.”

Or "PJ won Winnepesaukee's Best Dancer three years in a row between 1997 and 99, and had tried for the millennium but lost to some kid from Keene."

Craig and I were at a party once, and a woman, hearing that I was PJ from mvy, approached me.

“I hear you love macrame! So do I!”

I just turned to him and said, “Thanks, Craig.”


Here's Craig, in one of his own Youtube videos:







(All Youtube music videos should be this awesome)