Steve Winwood "Higher Love"

The 80s were not good to the our favorite keyboard players.

I hadn't really thought this through until I heard Steve Winwood mention something in an interview.  He was talking about his early 80s hits, and how some people write them off as too commercial, compared to his work with Traffic or Blind Faith.

He suggests that there really isn't a difference between the songs and the songwriting of those two phases of his career.  The difference is in the production.

I wish I could prove him right, because mvyradio would play more Winwood if we could.

But 1980s production just doesn't hold up, especially in the case of piano/keyboard artists.

Think about it.  What are some of the most reviled works of Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel?  They are the records where these great players lean heavily on terrible-sounding synthesizers.  Couple with the use of drum machines and other synthesized instruments, the music of that era sounds painfully, embarassingly cheesy.

I'm sure I don't really have to convince you of this---the 80s don't exactly have a great reputation.  But it IS instructive to listen to "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" versus "Part Time Lover," "Tiny Dancer" versus "I'm Still Standing," and "She's Always A Woman" versus "Pressure."  (All songs are posted below)

Don't the older songs actually sound more contemporary, or timeless, or, at a minimum, hold up much much better?

What's a little harder to be convinced of---though I think I believe it---is that tunes like Winwood's "Higher Love" and "Roll With It" and "Back In The High Life," if they were stripped of their 80s production, would hold up as equals to Winwood's earlier songwriting and playing.

I had this extended conversation with morning DJ Laurel a few months back.  She'd just gone to see Winwood live, and was enthusing about his playing and his songs.  I started thinking about his presence on the station.  We play 60s and 70s Winwood.  And we play more recent Winwood.  But we pulled the 80s songs out of rotation a good 10 years ago, because they just sounded dated.

I set Laurel on a task---to find some live or re-recorded Winwood material, where he plays those songs without the 80s trappings.  And like an Unplugged record.  Or a solo live performance.  Or a classic-rock-guy-revisits-his-old-songs record like Randy Newman and Loudon Wainwright have done.

But Laurel reported back that she couldn't find anything like that.

So here we wait, for Steve Winwood to prove this theory correct...

In the meantime, get a glimpse of how a synthesizer-less Winwood 80s track might sound, by checking out the James Vincent McMorrow cover of "Higher Love," below.


Hear Steve Winwood on Youtube.



Hear James Vincent McMorrow on Youtube.



Hear 70s Stevie Wonder on Youtube.



Hear Stevie Wonder in the 80s on Youtube.



Hear Elton John in the 70s on Youtube.



Hear Elton John in the 80s on Youtube.



Hear 70s Billy Joel on Youtube.



Hear 80s Billy Joel on Youtube.

Semisonic "FNT"

Here's another Weekend Post:


Here's another under-appreciated Power Pop band from the 90s.


Of course, leader Dan Wilson is much appreciated these days as a songwriter, having won Grammys for his work with The Dixie Chicks and Adele.  Fascinating.


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.
 

Teenage Fanclub "What You Do To Me"

Here's another Weekend Post:

On the subject of roommates who play the same song over and over . . . I had a roommate who hated this song.  I didn't play it over and over, but it IS so repetitive, that I'm sure it felt like I was playing it over and over and over.

On another note, this album, "Bandwagonesque" will forever be the answer to the question:  Who was that band that beat out Nirvana in Spin Magazine's 1991 Best Album Poll?


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.
 

Air Supply "The One That You Love"

A while back, I started an occasional weekend feature called "Random Ridiculous Songs That Have No Business Being Played In Public Again But I Heard In The Grocery Store Today."

This week I considered starting a new one called "Random Ridiculous Songs That I Heard In a Martha's Vineyard Cab."

Those who come and go from the Island know---especially the people who live here year-round---that you live and die by the ferry boats.  Everyone's got a story about rushing to make that boat, the last one off the Island.

Less talked about, is that trip to the ferry boat.  Unless you are taking your car on the ferry, you've got to get a ride down to the Steamship Authority.  There is no place to leave your car near the boat.

Because many folks on the mvy staff conduct business on the mainland (really, we do! Some people are so surprised that the mvyradio signal goes all the way across the water to the Cape!), many of us know that trip well.

Fortunately, the station has forged a nice relationship with "the best cab company on Martha's Vineyard," Adam Cab.

They give us rides from the station to the ferry and back.  We air commercials for them.

So next time you hear one of these hilarious commercials you'll know that one of the mvyradio staff members is getting a ride to the boat.

We get to know the drivers pretty well.  Most are guys who are here on a work Visa.  And the majority of the driver are either from Jamaica or Bulgaria.

Now, I've always imagined that being a cab driver lets you play DJ in one of two ways.  Either, you put on music to make an interesting/pleasant experience for your passengers.  Or, you treat the cab like your office, and you listen to whatever music gets you through the day.

Honestly, most drivers do the latter.

But funny enough, they don't always pick the music you'd expect.

When I get in the cab with one of the Bulgarians, its not uncommon to hear some kind of European dance music.  They've plugged in an iPod and are jamming to the kind of tunes they hope to be hearing when they take all the money they made in the summer, and enjoy it in the Sofia nightclubs.  Or they may be listening to one of the local Pop stations, that play the latest American dance music.

The Jamaicans are pretty likely to be listening to Pop music too.  Or, perhaps not surprisingly, they'll be listening to some reggae.  On a lucky day, one of the drivers, who is also a performer, will play some of his own gritty, authentic, modern reggae music.

And these are the kind of things that you'd expect.

But every once and a while, a driver will be listening to something that defies expectation.

Like the Turkish kid who drove last summer, and seemed to prefer to listen to mainstream Country radio.

Or the crusty old Islander driver, who knew every 80s Pop song that came on the radio.

But the one that really blew my mind, was a ride I took this week.

I just would never expect the 20-something Jamaican kid, with dreads and everything, to be cranking Air Supply on his iPod.

But there we were, barreling down the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, "rocking out" to the most vanilla, smoothed out AC power ballads you'd never expect to be hearing, had you looked in the windows of our Adam Cab.

But as the jingle says, "Adam Cab keeps your secrets . . . "


Hear the song on Youtube.

Calexico "Splitter"

I had mentioned earlier this year, that there was a pretty good chance the two of the biggest records of the year, would be led by the banjo.

Years ago, such a thing would be unthinkable.

Banjos were country music instruments.  And any band that deployed a banjo would be consigned to operating within the country world, regardless of how "country" they truly were.

I think it speaks well of 2012, the time we're in and the people that we are, that we have become so musically accepting of mash-ups and mix-ups and cross-genre sounds.

It makes the success of Calexico's new song possible.

When was the last time you heard a mainstream song with Mariachi horns in it?  Was it "Ring Of Fire" for crying out loud?

Calexico has included Mexican-style horns on their records, and the song "Splitter" is perhaps the most commercially accessible tune they've ever released.

Will "Algiers" break through in the way that The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons are breaking through?  Perhaps not.

But it's pretty amazing just how natural it sounds to have Southwestern-tinged horns tucked neatly into a song that seems to fit mvyradio perfectly.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear a live version on Youtube.

Bonnie Raitt "Takin' My Time"

I had a fun time-machine-like experience while on vacation in August.

We were at my Mother-In-Law's getaway place in Maine.  It's not a cabin.  It's not roughing-it by any means.

But it IS out of cell phone range and internet range and cable and broadcast television range.  So you can be pretty disconnected.

There are a ton of books floating around, so in the quiet moments (when we send the kids outside, that is) there are plenty of things to idly flip though.

When my Mother-In-Law bought the place a couple of years ago, it came as-is.  So we inherited a huge collection of VHS movies and books and such.  Many of them had been there for decades.

And that was my experience when I picked up The Rolling Stone Illustrated History Of Rock & Roll.

It was---as advertised---a comprehensive history of Rock & Roll, published in 1980.  Each section was an essay on either a single important musician/band, a particular movement or a full genre.

Hilariously, it touts that this is the updated edition (the original came out in 1976), so it's more complete than ever.

So it's a view of Rock & Roll that predates Nirvana.  It predates the internet.  It predates Rap music.

Those are obvious.

It also describes a world that has never seen a CD.  A world where all four of The Beatles are still alive and could potentially reunite.  A world where MTV did not yet exist.

Most interestingly, it had really interesting summations of artists who---from today's perspective---were perhaps being analyzed too soon.

Talking Heads had put out a few promising albums, but the piece on them doesn't/couldn't predict their breakthough commercial success or their lasting influence.

Elvis Costello had put out his blistering triptych debut and follow-ups, but gave the reviewer no hint of the many genre exercises and tributaries that he would so ably traverse in the coming years.

My favorite review was on Bonnie Raitt.  In 1980, she was critically beloved, and was an impressive live act.  But she hadn't had a commercial breakthrough yet.  And the reviewer thought her own material was weak, and, more damningly, that her ability to select material was weak (like this track written by Little Feat's Bill Payne).  And thus she'd probably never realize her potential.

Which is hilarious to read here in the future, where Bonnie has won many Grammys, sold millions of records and is widely regarded as important and influential.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Jimmy Cliff "One More"

One of the great benefits of being an independent station, is that we can play songs that more tightly controlled, corporate stations, won't play.

One of the great benefits of being a Triple A Format station, is that we can play songs that less eclectic stations, won't play.

So a lot of times, when we hear a song that is on a periphery of the mvyradio sound---be it soul or alternative or world music---we ask ourselves this question:

If we don't play it, who will?

This comes up whenever a reggae song comes on the radar.  Simply, no Top 40, Urban, Hot AC, Country, Easy Listening, Classical or Folk station is ever going to play a reggae song.  And if they don't play reggae, who will?

Well, mvyradio does play reggae.

We have a nice, but limited reggae library, which mostly consists of classic, roots reggae from Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and the like.  Jimmy Cliff is there too.

But is this Jimmy Cliff song enough of a standout to take up a spot in rotation?  On first few listens, I didn't think so.

But I keep coming back to the question, if mvyradio doesn't play it, who will?

Is that enough of a reason to play this song?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Dolly Parton "9 To 5"

Here's a Labor Day Weekend Post:

Hope you are enjoying a day off from the typing pool!


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.

Jim Carroll "People Who Died"

Here's another Weekend Post:

I remember this track from WBCN when I was a kid.  I also remember playing it on the air as part of my 90s Alternative show, and the song's re-release with the soundtrack to the movie about Jim Carroll, "The Basketball Diaries."


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.

Wayne Kramer "Crack In The Universe"

Here's another Weekend Post:

I was totally obsessed with this song when it came out.  I listened to it for the first time in years, this week, and the lyrics and the slabs of grating guitars still give me chills.

And for a bonus, I used to love to occasionally play the spoken word piece (which had to be heavily edited for broadcast) on the same album "Incident At Stock Island."  Listen to the story with headphones on---it's NSFW!


Hear the song on Youtube.


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.