Jon Bon Jovi "R2-D2, We Wish You A Merry Christmas"

Somewhere out there, there is a TV commercial of me modeling some blue jeans.

It's the kind of slightly embarrassing, slightly degrading thing you end up doing early in your career, because you're just trying to get in the game.

In my case, I had just been hired as a producer at a small NBC affiliate, in the creative services division which produced commercials and promos. On my first day on the job I was to shadow the other producer, to get a feel for what we did.

That day they were shooting a commercial for a local department store. They'd hired a few folks to model various sweaters and boots, but when it came time to shoot the young mens jeans, well, they were short on young men.

"Can you put a pair of these on, PJ, and go stand in that field?"

Wanting to seem like a team player, I said Yes (while thinking GOD NO!), and somewhere on videotape in the bowels of an NBC affiliate, is my butt, hawking blue jeans.

I guess this would be the audio version of that.

Young Jon, itching to get his recording career started, scored an opportunity to sing on a record called "Christmas In The Stars: A Star Wars Christmas." And he leapt at the chance.

To his credit, in the "60 Minutes" piece, he only seems slightly sheepish, not embarrassed and degraded. Then again if my butt were on YouTube, I'd probably have to find a way to live with it, too.





Bonus!!! From the same album: "What Do You Get A Wookie For Christmas"

Dan Fogelberg "Run For The Roses"

I have a philosophy on music that might strike you as counter-intuitive.

I am resolutely a non-snob.

If you think about what my job is, as a music director, it is actually the epitome of snobbery in one respect, in that I listen to piles of songs, and deem a mere few worthy of regular airplay.

So, yes, I am discerning. I like what I like, and am fully-committed when I decide to champion a song.

But the most important part of being a programmer is being fully aware that I am programming for others, not for myself.

If a chef at a restaurant only cooked food to his specific taste, only a narrow clientele would want to eat there. A good chef plans a varied menu, and, even if they like food reaaaally spicy, they only season the food to the average customer's palate.

People like what they like, and that's okay.

I don't get hyped up when someone hears Gram Parsons and asks, "What is this shit?"

I think it's fully appropriate for a teenage girl to love that "I Whip My Hair Back And Forth" song.

And if Mom wants to listen to classical radio because she enjoys it, she should.

But I didn't always feel that way.

I was seeing this girl. She was the friend of a friend and we'd been paired up on a night on the town. There was some chemistry there, so we agreed so see each other again.

You can cruise on chemistry in the early early going, but at some point, you're going to have to get to know someone.

She'd dropped the hint a couple of times that she'd recently ended a long term relationship, so I felt obligated to ask, felt like she wanted me to ask: "So why did you guys break up?"

"Well, it's like that Dan Fogelberg song . . ."

I can tell you that I have no idea how that sentence ended, or anything she said from that moment on, because my mind immediately switched to concocting an escape plan.

If this girl could explain any aspect of her life through the sappy pap of Dan Fogelberg, then she and I would absolutely never, ever, ever, have anything to talk about.

I was an unrepentant snob, and I got out of there as fast as I could. I'm sure she had no idea why I left in such haste.

Years later, I think about that guy (me), "What a jerk." I still don't like that Dan Fogelberg song. But if you do, I'll still be your friend.

Various Artists "Let It Be"

I learned the term Schadenfreude from my friend Martin.

We've known each other a good 20-plus years at this point, and I think it's safe to say that he is one of the smartest, most well-read, incisive people I know.

Whether it's introducing me to the German word which refers taking pleasure in another's misfortune, or taking me to the Museum Of Modern Art so we could take a drink from Duchamp's "Fountain" or handing me the book that would force me to look at my self-absorbed past but then become the touchstone of my early thirties, Martin has been a reliable gadfly in my life.

So when he sends me a link to this video and called it "The awesomest Beatles song video ever" I know he's teasing me. He hates the Beatles. And he knows I like them.

And if you hate The Beatles, how could you not feel a little Schadenfreude, when viewing this video?

(And thanks to Martin himself, for letting me know the original video was taken down. Here it is again)

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Florence And The Machine "Dog Days Are Over"

Okay, so I'm probably the last blogger on earth to post about this band and song, but I did have some thoughts on it.

It's another tune that's been kicking around for quite some time. It really belongs more to the world of Alternative Radio than to stations that sound like mvyradio. But there are some of our format-cousins who are playing this track. It would probably be a stretch for us, but I was starting to think maybe we could do it.

"Dog Days" had gotten in my head, and that's a good sign. If a tune sticks with you, long after you've taken off the headphones, it's got staying power. And it's the end of the year, which is a good time to take a flying leap and play something that IS a bit of a stretch.

I was thinking we'd have to give this track serious consideration when Monday rolled around (Monday is the day we officially add songs to rotation).

Then I saw them on Saturday Night Live.

Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed.

A "good song" is certainly the highest criteria for a song getting added to rotation, but there are lots of other questions to ask and answer. For instance, while the song is good, Is the band any good? Are they more than one song? Are they good enough that they'll be around for awhile? Are they authentic?

The live, TV performance didn't sell me on any of these counts and come Monday, we didn't even talk about the song.

I dunno, does someone want to straighten me out on this one?

The Lemonheads "Kitchen"

I grew up in the 70s, where drug humor was a HUGE part of comedy and satire.

I said, "I grew up in the 70s." Not, "I came of age in the 70s."

In other words, I was really a little too young to appreciate the humor in any first-person way. For better and worse, my idea of a person who used drugs was that of a sitcom buffoon. I entirely missed both the negative, unpleasant side of drug users, and the "Easy Rider" point of freedom, rebellion or mind-expansion.

I just thought people who smoked dope were, innately, hilarious.

I couldn't wait to hang out with folks like Johnny Fever and laugh at their hysterical hijinx.

And while I'd like to tell you that my first experience with real stoners was no such thing, every time I hear this Lemonheads song, I remember the roommate who smoked dope, listen to the album (a huge favorite our mine, and my generation, in its day) and have a total paranoid panic attack every time that police siren sound effect came in (around the 1:25 mark on the album cut). Always a "phone cops" moment.





Classic WKRP "Phone Cops" episode

John Prine "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"

Instead of the usual Weekend Post, on weekends in December, I think I'll post some fun, weird holiday tunes.

I was previewing this song in the studio the other day, and Jess, from across the hall, yelled, "Are you listening to creepy Christmas music over there?"

Is this one more or less creepy that Prine's "Christmas In Prison"?

Paul Simon & Steve Martin "Silver Bells"

Instead of the usual Weekend Post, on weekends in December, I think I'll post some fun, weird holiday tunes.

I'll default to the wonderful folks at the AV Club, for the story behind this one:

The origin of this semi-legendary bootleg is a bit of a mystery. Most sources claim that it’s an outtake from an episode of Saturday Night Live, but Martin and Simon were never on the same show at the same time. Further complicating things, Billy Joel—in a magazine interview from 2001—claims that it’s him playing the piano, and that it wasn’t for television at all, but merely the three of them, lubricated on wine, goofing around in a recording studio. Whatever the case, it’s hands-down the funniest version ever made of this classic carol.

Morphine "Thursday" & Cold Water Flat "Magnetic North Pole"

When you’re a DJ, sometimes the closest thing to heaven is a great segue.

These days, with digital songs and equipment, the segue is a little less of an art than the old days.

But the DJs who remember fading one song into the next on a pair of turntables know the joy of the smooth segue, and the gut-punch feeling of a car-wreck.

And if you’re a real nerd about it, you might even have a favorite segue . . .

Yes, I’m a real nerd about it.

My favorite songs to play back to back come from my old Alternative specialty show, from my first radio gig:

Morphine’s “Thursday” into Cold Water Flat’s “Magnetic North Pole.”

(Hear the segue)

The swirling horns and mounting feedback of “Thursday” that build and build into a rush of noise until there is an abrupt end and for a hair-split-second time seems to stop---in la petite mort fashion---before the machine-gun-fire opening drum blast of “Magnetic North Pole” is just . . . well, uh . . . let's call it climactic.

The Civil Wars "Poison & Wine"

This song has been kicking around for a good year, but it landed in my Inbox last week, and it's certainly one of the most interesting and arresting tracks in my Shuffle.

Joy Williams had some success as a Christian music act, but in recent years was working in a more behind-the-scenes fashion as a songwriter, furnishing tracks for pop "talents" like Brian Littrell, Mandisa and David Archuleta. John Paul White, another Nashville songwriter doing the same thing, was introduced to Williams as a potential songwriting partner, and the chemistry (of the artistic, not romantic kind, despite what the video suggest) proved so potent, that they formed their own band, keeping the songs for themselves.

This track made an appearance on Grey's Anatomy over a year ago, but the first album by their group The Civil Wars doesn't come out until early 2011.

It's great to see the talent behind the "talent" be the ones to make a splash.

Son Volt "Afterglow 61"

There are two camps of thought, on the voice of Jay Farrar.

There is one camp, that notes that Farrar's voice is huge. It fills his songs. It's beautiful. The tone of his voice is really a gorgeous, remarkable thing. It manages to both be crystal clear, and have this wonderful rounded quality at the same time.

Then is the other camp . . . which has a problem with his voice.

In one of the most memorable lines of a record review I've ever read, the critic complained that it was really hard to tell, from one song to another, if Farrar was happy, sad, angry or something else. Trying to discern what he was emoting about from one song to the next, was "like trying to tell squirrels apart."

I have to say, I'm setting up a tent in both camps on this one.