Ray Charles "Night Time Is The Right Time"

I was reading this article in the AV Club about sitcoms in the 80s, which posits that The Cosby Show was one of the most important sitcoms of its era, if not of all time.

And it got me thinking: The Cosby Show was a strange paradox.

On the one hand, the sitcom couldn't have been more mild-mannered and tame. Plots revolved around peer pressure and homework and never approached a tone harsher than good-natured geniality. It was no more profound or adventurous than scores of shows that came before it, or after it.

And yet on the other hand, The Cosby Show has this enormous cultural legacy. It brought a version of the African-American experience (perfectly normal, largely apolitical and upper middle class) to a viewing audience that hadn't seen a minority family on television without overt and often stereotypical allusions to race. (Not everyone thinks this is a good thing, including two of my favorite UMass Professors)

For me, not surprisingly, the cultural impact was more musical than social.

For me, and for my teenage friends, The Cosby Show was our first experience with more than a couple of significant African-American and Latino musicians.

I know this is hard for folks who are, say, over 55 to believe, but my first exposure to people like Tito Puente and Dizzy Gillespie was through Cosby. (I remember Lena Horne being on there too, but I already knew who she was, from Sesame Street)

I'm sure I knew "Hit The Road Jack" by that age, but I can't say that I knew much about Ray Charles. And I'm fairly certain I'd not heard "Night Time Is The Right Time" at that point in my life.

But when the memorable scene in the video below aired, it motivated me to head to the stereo cabinet, and find Dad's banged up LP copy of "Ray Charles Greatest Hits." It didn't have "Night Time Is The Right Time," on it, but that only encouraged me to explore more.

So thanks, Cosby Show, for both a better understand of race, perhaps also a worse understanding of race and certainly a better understanding of Ray.

John Mellencamp "Cherry Bomb"

We all exchanged wordless looks across the Pizza Hut table, a mix of mild amusement and mild annoyance.

The restaurant's Jukebox (remember Jukeboxes?) was skipping. And skipping. And skipping.

John Mellencamp's "Cherry Bomb," stuck, forever repeating the line, "We were young~~We were young~~We were young~~We were young~~We were young . . ."

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In adulthood, you become friends with people because of the things you have in common.

But in middle school and high school, it seemed like many of the people I aligned myself with were guys who could make up for my deficiencies. They were outgoing when I was shy. Bold when I was cautious. Fun when I was responsible.

I'm sure it worked both ways. I'm sure I brought things to their lives that they felt was lacking within themselves. That's how it works.

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So there I was. In Pizza Hut. Bemused, but becoming increasingly annoyed at the skipping John Mellencamp disc.

I just sat there, waiting for the Pizza Hut people to do something.

Waiting. Waiting.

The same thoughts, I'm sure, were going through Tip's head, across the table.

But he was my flip side, and Waiting, Waiting, was anathema to him.

He quickly stood up from the table, crossed the room to the jukebox and fished his hand behind the machine.

Here is what we heard over the Pizza Hut PA system. (Listen to the full 30 seconds)

Part of me feels like if Tip wasn't there to pull the plug, I might've just sat through the noise for my entire meal. I think that I literally didn't know what to do.

But I had Tip, who could do the things I couldn't, and who, in that moment taught me a little bit more about how to be a complete person.

REO Speedwagon "Take It On The Run"

I was on this championship Little League baseball team in the early 80s. I brought a baseball to our final game and asked all my teammates to sign it.

One kid, instead of writing his name, drew the REO Speedwagon logo on the ball.

Even though he was supposedly one of the "Cool" kids, from that point forward, I thought he was kind of a tool.

Little Feat "Cold Cold Cold"

The good thing about working for an independent radio station is that there is no corporate overlord who is telling me how to program the station, or what songs we should be playing.

Corporate, mainstream stations have lots of rules about what they will play and won't play, and on some level, it's understandable. If you need to capture a mass audience to make it in the Big City, you can't take chances, you can't make choices that might alienate the "political" center of your listenership and you can't be to niche-y.

So if a great song has some kind of cosmetic problem, that's just too effin' bad. It's not going to get played on the Big City station, even the cool Triple A Format stations that are similar to mvyradio (but corporate owned and in large markets). If it's too slow and could drag down the station's tempo, it's out. If it's too folky or too country or too urban, no way. And God forbid that it's too long.

Even stone cold classics like the 6 minute "Tangled Up In Blue" aren't likely to make the daytime playlist of a Big City station. There is science and statistics behind this choice---if you have pushed the attention span of your audience too far, you're going to lose them to the channel-changing button. So you find what the median threshold is, and you make sure you don't cross it.

You're unlikely to hear a song ramble past the 4 1/2 minute mark, on a Big City station.

But we have the good fortune to be in a small market, where, if our ratings change two 10ths of a percent, we will not lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. We're a niche radio station that only appeals to a single digit percentage of the local audience, but because we're streaming on the web, we can actually program to that very small niche of folks, in every city in the world.

It provides a lot of freedom.

The freedom to occasionally play Little Feat's "Cold Cold Cold/Tripe Face Boogie" which is nearly 10 minutes long.

I only play this song a couple of times a year, but I LOVE to do it, because it always garners a couple of reactions.

When I play it, without fail someone calls the request line, freaking out. "I can't believe you're playing this! I haven't heard it on the radio in 20 years!" We can actually take advantage of the adventurousness-less of corporate stations, and make ourselves stand out.

The flip side, of course, is that the corporate stations are not entirely wrong.

Because also, without fail someone calls the request line, distraught: "What are you playing!?! Uggghhhh . . ."

There is a large percentage of the audience that just isn't going to stick with a song that's 10 minutes long.

I'd say, "Who needs em!!!" but that would be cold, cold, cold.

Dire Straits "Twisting By The Pool"

I'm thinking of starting a new weekend feature on the blog called "Random Ridiculous Songs That Have No Business Being Played In Public Again But I Heard In The Grocery Store Today."

I'm not really sure how songs make it onto the playlist of one of those satellite stations they pump into businesses. But lately, the grocery store I go to has been playing really obscure tunes, and I can't imagine who picked them or why.

Given the over-the-top winter weather we've been having, it just seems perverse that this one was rocking the cereal aisle today.

Supergrass "Alright"

Here's another Weekend Post:

In the 90s, there was a rumor that Steven Spielberg was going to work with Supergrass to make a new "Monkees"-type TV show. Never happened. I was disappointed. I loved "The Monkees." I'm going to have to write about that soon.



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.

The White Stripes "Icky Thump"

Let me be the last blogger on Earth to tell you that The White Stripes announced their break up this week.

Sad news, but I was heartened to read this, posted on their website:

"The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you now and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to. Thank you for sharing this experience. Your involvement will never be lost on us and we are truly grateful.”

So there you go. Here is the rare person (people) that truly knows when to exit the stage gracefully. It's nice to actually see it. Class act, Jack and Meg.

Sting "If You Love Someone Set Them Free"

Let me ask you a question . . . when you were in that final English class in college (or High School), and you had that big paper to write . . . what did you write about?

Can you remember the subject?

Could you quote a line?

Could you recite any of it from memory?

I think about this when I think about artists who've been around for a long, long time. The Rolling Stones, Lucinda Williams and R.E.M. have been sufficiently mocked for not remembering the lyrics to their songs, mocked for using lyric sheets on stage.

But shit, can you do your monologue from that play you were in 20 years ago?

It is maybe too tall an expectation to have from an artist, who, believe it or not, is only human.

Then again, it is kind of fun to pick on them, and be a little shocked at how they could lose touch with the art that made them famous.

I saw this documentary a couple of weeks back, and in one scene, Sting has been convinced to sing a Kinks song on camera, with the interviewer.

The song is "Set Me Free" and when they have finished, after repeating the songs refrain a number of times, Sting gets a kind of foggy look on his face and says something like, "I think I stole some of that tune for my song, uh . . ."

He then struggles to name the song, his song, "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free."

He free associates the words he half-remembers, "Set You Free, Someone Set Them Free, If You Set Someone Free . . ." before finally pulling the title out.

So feel free to mock him. And just be glad that you aren't being asked to recite that poem you wrote for English Lit.

Ben Folds "Fred Jones Part 2"

I wonder if Hosni Mubarak listens to Ben Folds?

I've been watching the developments in Egypt, heard translations of some of the signs being carried and slogans being chanted, and I thought of "Fred Jones Part 2."

Let me lay down the disclaimer here that I don't know a thing about Egyptian politics and I won't act like I do (unlike so many of the talking heads I've been hearing jabber on the coverage). I don't know if Mubarak's exit from power would ultimately be a good thing, or a bad thing.

Here's what I do know: It is a rare person that truly knows when to exit the stage gracefully.

In this song, Fred Jones is a newspaper man of 25 years who is let go and escorted from the building. The world has changed and he has not changed with it, and the newspaper and the world have moved on without him.

A leader of 30 years clings to power, but has the world around him changed so irrevocably that he cannot possibly move forward with it? And is anyone in that position---Mubarak, the aging Rock Star, the bookstore owner who will not sell an eBook---ever willing to admit that their time is drawing to a close?

Or are they always surprised, angry and disappointed, when they hear:

"I'm sorry Mr. Jones, it's time."

Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"

Jess Phaneuf did a Hot Seat last night, featuring songs with a Winter feel. Not necessarily songs about Winter, but songs that have that kind of cold, melancholy spirit.

My thoughts turned to "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes, and really, to pretty much everything I'd heard from that band.

The go-to comparative point, whenever you read about this band, is Crosby Still & Nash. And for sure, you can draw a straight line between the Melodies, Harmonies and Chemistry** of the two bands.

But the one thing I hadn't really felt from Fleet Foxes was the Joy.

CSN could be grave, and even over-self-serious. But they also excelled at making songs like "Our House" and "Southern Cross" that were gorgeous and fun.

I hadn't felt that way about Fleet Foxes.

Until now.

Shortly after I left Jess behind to work on her show, I got word that Fleet Foxes has a new songs up for free download.

And yes, it's joyous. A little missing piece for me, that makes a great band, beloved.





** Can't "Chemistrys" be a word? Or "Chemistries"? Blogger spellcheck is not allowing it.