Bang "Summertime"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Welcome to the Summertime season . . .

Sometime in my teenage years, I called up WBCN and requested this song, which had been a hit the previous summer.  The DJ reacted with a little bit of surprise.  A tone that suggested that I had asked for something that interested him.  He played it.  I felt like I had done something right.


Hear the song on Youtube.

John Prine "Sam Stone"

The first instinct for a music blogger on Memorial Day, would be to post a song about a soldier that died.  That's the point of Memorial Day, right?  To think about the soldiers who gave their lives?

Maybe a more appropriate approach to the day, would be to think about the soldiers who gave their lives, but are still alive.  Some who have gone to war, came back, but were never the same.

We can visit graves and march in parades and fly flags and feel patriotic, but would we think about sending soldiers to war, if we, as a society, were on the hook for looking the Sam Stones of the world in the eye, and spending the day working to properly honor what they gave and what they lost?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Living Colour "Memories Can't Wait"

Here's another Weekend Post:

I'm pulling out "memory" songs ahead of Memorial Day.

I knew a few Talking Heads songs, but hadn't fully explored the band, when I bought the first Living Colour record, and was surprised to find that this hard rock band, was into David Byrne's lyrics.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

George Harrison "Taxman"

Especially if you've been doing radio for a long time . . . there can a be a resistance to trying to program for the holidays.

We talk about this often, around Martin Luther King Jr Day.  Sure, we can play "Pride (In The Name Of Love) and versions "We Shall Overcome," and whatever.  But doing that year in and year out seems a little boring.  On the other hand, there are only so many King-associated songs in existence (and believe me, we've used them all).

The same can be said for 4th of July songs.  Labor Day (work) songs.  Memorial Day songs.  Etc. Etc.  After a while, it feels like you are doing the same thing, year in and year out.

If you've been a DJ for 20 years, you may just feel like completely forgoing the process of musically acknowledging the holiday at all.  It's not like you're required to play songs for Thanksgiving ("Cold Turkey" by John Lennon, again, anyone?).

That being said, I never get tired of hearing this one as April 15th approaches.

So as you head into the weekend, freaking out because you haven't started your taxes yet, please enjoy some George Harrison!



Hear the song on Youtube.

Scott Miller "Dear Sarah"

I spent a lot of the weekend rolling thoughts around in my head about what I might write for Memorial Day.

Back on Veteran's Day last year, I was scrolling through Facebook, and lots of friends had posted a status about their thoughts on Veteran's Day. Some, as you might expect, expressed straightforward thanks. Others used their line to make a pro-America statement. And some wrote of their discomfort with the glorification of war and of their distaste for jingoism.

None of the statements fully reflected how I felt. But you can't expect a lot of complexity from the limited number of characters in a Facebook status line.

For me, my thoughts and feelings about Memorial Day, War and Veterans are complex at best, incommunicable at worst.

How to you wrap up the idea that War is bad, but maybe necessary; that I am against killing, but that defense (and sometime offense) is not indefensible; that sacrifice is noble, but blind sacrifice may not be.

Is there a song that I could post that could tackle these big issues?

No. There isn't.

So I went in the other direction. Small.

When thinking about songs and Veterans and how to memorialize them, I kept coming back to a couple of songs by Scott Miller. They seemed appropriate because they were songs set during The Civil War---and Memorial Day was originally a day to specifically remember Civil War losses (it wasn't until after World War I that the holiday was in honor of all war losses).

"Dear Sarah" was a song that Scott wrote after reading some of the letters that an ancestor of his, had written to his wife, while on the front lines of the Civil War.

And on the album "And Thus Always To Tyrants," "Dear Sarah" is followed immediately by "Highland County Boy," sung from the perspective of a youngest son who is left to tend the farm while his brothers go off to fight and die in that War.

Today there will be big speeches and ceremonies and parades and salutes and thanks (and many, many people who pay no attention of any of this while they barbeque). But Memorial Day is strangely devoid of bitterness.

I posted these song today, because, in a very non-political, under-the-surface way, these two songs (especially the latter), talk about the human cost of War---the loss of loved ones, the separation of families, the hard, hard physical toll---and the bitterness it leaves behind.

So today others will ask you to think Big, maybe about Patriotism, or Pacifism, or Service. I'm asking you to listen to these songs, and to think about Memorial Day in terms of just a single person, and see where that leads you.

The songs in the videos are recorded live, but you can go to Scott's site to stream the full album versions. Check out the lyrics here and here.


See the video on Youtube.


See the video on Youtube.

Rolling Stones "Salt Of The Earth"

If you check out the main page of mvyradio, every day you see a different "Lyric Of The Day."

Usually, I'm the one who put it there. It's been my semi-official job for years now. Other folks do it, when inspired, but most days, I'm searching for a great line to post on our page.

Often, the lyric relates to something else we have going on---a line from the Monday Free CD or Album Of The Week or from an artist who's coming into the studio that day.

And sometimes I try to find a line that's appropriate for the particular day.

In the past, on Memorial Day, I've posted lyrics from "memory" songs like "Memories Can't Wait" and "I Will Remember You."

But it was nice to be reminded this week of "Salt Of The Earth" (via a Bettye Lavette cover, that I'll save for another post), and to be reminded of how appropriate this song can be, for this holiday.

I love it when Keith Richards sings. Or tries to sing. He may be straining, but I've always found his efforts charming. I love that Keith, despite being one of the biggest rock stars of all-time, comes off as salt of the Earth, himself, and how that plays off Mick Jagger's more removed perspective.

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

When Mick sings this line, he smartly puts himself not as another "Salt," but as someone of a different class, who wants to make sure that the "lowly of birth" are recognized, honored, remembered.

So if you ARE a "common footsoldier" you can feel celebrated. And if you are, like so many of the rest of us, safe and warm and content, thanks to the folks who toil in the trenches, you are invited to sing along and celebrate.

This weekend, I hope think about who you are, and celebrate accordingly.