Who’s That Again?

Interesting memory test in Rollling Stone’s 10 Singer-Songwriter Albums … You’ve Never Heard.  Forgive me if I abbreviate the ridiculously long title.

Anyway, the 70’s was the heyday of the singer-songwriter, and I remember a lot of it - some good, some angst-ridden cheddar.  But I guess I didn’t notice it all.

I remember Hoyt Axton because I remember Three Dog Night.  I remember Thank You For Being A Friend, but not Andrew Gold.  I remember Tony Joe White because Polk Salad Annie was a fun tune.  Jesse Winchester?  Vaguely remember the name is all.

Elliott Murphy?  Steven Grossman?  Wendy Waldman?  Randall Bramblett?  David Forman?  Rory Block?  I gotta believe my FM station played all these artists, because they were pretty diverse.  But sorry, don’t recall them.   Goes to show our memories make us all smaller over time.

Thanks for the homework, RS.

The 45 Masters

Gibson’s 10 Greatest Singles Bands reminds you why radio used to be do darned good.  Here’s the list:

 1.  The Beatles

 2.  The Rolling Stones

 3.  Creedance Clearwater Revival

 4.  The Smiths

 5.  The Who

 6.  The Eagles

 7.  The Kinks

 8.  Oasis

 9.  The Guess Who

10. The Dave Clark Five

The singles from these bands makes for a pretty good playlist and a decent party.  With the exception of The Dave Clark Five, who understood their market and gracefully retired with the advent of FM radio, all these bands were pretty good on the album front too.  A key point, I think.

The article points out that although 45 RPM singles gave way to albums (then CD’s), in this digital age we’re back to buying singles.

Well, the singles were always there and were always the way to get attention and exposure.  So what sends the bands on this list apart?  For me, it’s a combination of volume and balance.  A multitude of hits to distinguish themselves from the one-hit-wonders, plus the ability to appeal beyond the constraints of the 3 minute pop song.  Each album had a few hits on it, plus some great album rock that proved these bands had depth.  That distinguished them from the pop groups who could churn out singles, but disappeared with the next fad.

The music from the bands on this list will not fade away.

Best of the Spandex and Mullet Era

A while back, Gibson published a Greatest Songs From The 80's list.

Good for them for challenging the Classic Rock radio playlists, which feature almost nothing from the entire decade, except for a handful of tunes they like to call "80's music that doesn't suck."

Double good for Gibson since guitars don't feature too mightily. Here's the Top 10:
1. The Clash, London Calling (1980)
2. Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child o' Mine (1988)
3. Michael Jackson, Billie Jean (1983)
4. Guns N' Roses, Welcome to the Jungle (1987)
5. Public Enemy, Fight the Power (1989)
6. AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night Long (1980)
7. Prince, When Doves Cry (1984)
8. Def Leppard, Pour Some Sugar on Me (1987)
9. Van Halen, Jump (1984)
10. Duran Duran, Hungry Like The Wolf (1982)

Me, I do like guitars, and didn't ever fully embrace the strap on keyboards, silly hair and 18th century costumes, but the dancing wasn't so bad back then.

So I won't criticize the Euro-synth pop inclusions. I'll just say:
- I wish AC/DC was higher
- I would have put Under Pressure (Queen/David Bowie) higher than #11
- I'm pleased to see The Clash @#1
- I'm disappointed not to see Dire Straits, U2, The Stones, The Talking Heads or Springsteen in the top 10

Interesting not to see any Eurythmics on the list (of 50 songs). They did a pretty good job of melding the synth-pop sound with a hint (threat?) of angry guitar. For me, that was better than the bands who seemed to turn their backs on guitars altogether. Sweeter dreams are made of that.

Somebody's Fault, But Whose?

Why is Led Zeppelin's Nobody's Fault But Mine not on classic rock radio's playlist?

It's got it all: a blues base under a hard driving rock tune, vintage Page guitar riffs, an exotic melodic hook that hints at somewhere either south or east of the Mediterranean, pounding syncopation from Bonzo ...

No, the hook isn't as instantly gripping as Whole Lotta Love, the blues isn't as hypnotic as When The Levee Breaks, it isn't as exotic as Kashmir, and the grandeur doesn't sweep as much as Stairway To Heaven. But it's got bits of all that and more.

Another example of how corporate radio narrows our taste and numbs our brains.

Try to save your soul tonight.

Stuck In The Middle With You

The previous post about Top 500 countdowns got me thinking about the predictability of mass culture, how we're all duped, but pretend we're not being duped  ...  about how we're trained to embrace the big ideas like they were actually new and exciting and cool even though at bottom it's just cynical manipulation.

Someone comes up with a radical idea to countdown the top 500 songs of all time, and it works.  So it's copied, becomes commonplace, and just enters the landscape.  Predictable, unnoticable, like so much background noise.

Someone creates a beer commercial with a bunch of fun loving goofs and lots of female eye candy, and now every beer commercial follows the formula.  Every  ...  single  ... one.

And so it goes.  If it works, it gets copied, blitzed, duplicated, replicated and mandated to the point where we're inundated, nauseated and sedated.

The worst, of course, is when we're told the really hip people, those who will not conform, only use such-and-such a product.  And amazingly, we often embrace the message, ignoring the fact that we're all actually conforming.

Funny people, we humans.  We like to conform, but also like to pretend we won't, under any circumstance, um, conform.

When this concept is taken to the marketing of, say, mayonnaise substitute, though, I just dunno.  Kinda makes you feel like maybe we're all being herded into a spot where individualism doesn't count?

By the way, Bohemian Rhapsody finished at number 9 this year.

We Are The Champions

Well, it's the start of the New Years Day weekend, and all the radio stations will be into their "Top 500 Songs Of All Time" countdowns.  Or 300, or 250, or whatever number fits their format and scope.

If you're old enough, you may remember a time when this was a new idea, an exciting idea.

I remember when the local FM Rock station first did this, about 35 years ago, I got totally caught up in the whole thing.  I wrote my letter (no internet, kids), I glued myself to the radio all weekend, I bought a newspaper to get the entire list (for my archives?), I debated the relative placement of various songs with the radio (it didn't respond) and friends (a few might have responded).  It was new, exciting, fun - and somehow important.

Then of course it became a standard feature of long weekends and New Years Days.  And after about the 15th time I saw Stairway To Heaven at #1, followed by Hey Jude and Satisfaction, well the idea had lost its lustre.  The list is the list, and not much is going to change year to year.  So unless you can get excited about whether Smoke On The Water placed 23rd or 24th, it's just the same old list.

Nowadays, when all radio stations follow a top 40 format, and probably dont' have more than 500 or 600 songs in their playlist, there doesn't even seem to be a point to such a countdown.  You know, when the listener request app on the station's website gives you a drop down menu to choose from their predetermined list, well  ...

I suppose the whole thing is a break from the top 40 songs you're going to hear this week, so you get a bit more variety during the countdown.  I mean, being exposed to the master playlist instead of just this week's playlist is pretty good, right?  Even if the master playlist doesn't change from year to year, you're still getting some variety and a bit of fun, right?  Right?

What the hell.  Better go and put the radio on.  Hmmm.  I wonder where Bohemian Rhapsody will finish this year?

When FM Became AM Radio

I remember how excited my friends and I were when CHUM FM switched from classical music to album rock.  Now we could hear not just the commercial stuff, but the trippy songs too.  Now we could hear artists on the fringe.  We could hear experimental music, blues, folk, jazz fusion, hard rock, acid rock, and progressive rock along with pop.

And yes, we could hear more Jimi Hendrix and less Petula Clark.

Looking back, there was stunning variety on the CHUM AM, but at the time the main attraction of stations like CHUM FM was even more variety.

Then over time the formulas crept in, the suits took over, and the genres splintered and formed the base of separate sub-cultures.  The AM stations became all talk and the FM stations became Top 40, but all specialized.

Who decided variety was a four letter word?

A few years ago a radio station in Florida announced it was switching to an all Led Zeppelin format.  I remember thinking, "cool publicity stunt, but stupid."  I mean, what are we talking about, 120 songs?  150 if you count the live stuff?  Ridiculous, right?

Not really.  I read a while ago that the average radio station has a playlist of 36 songs.  Each week, they rotate 4 songs out and 4 new songs in.  So it takes around 9 weeks for the playlist to turn over.  If the Led Zeppelin station has used that process it would take 30 weeks.  Not bad considering you'd get hard rock, blues, folk, prog rock and straight up rock and roll in the process.  You wouldn't get that kind of variety over any 30 week period on any station out there today.  You'd get the same cloned voices shouting "you piss me off" or whining "you're such a loser."  Or you'd get the same song from the same artist you've heard a million times, and wonder, "did he only record this one song?"

With today's 36 song play list, you'll go about 4 hours before the songs start repeating, given commercials and babbling.  Hmmm ...  and if the Led Zeppelin station went straight through the song catalogue you'd go 13 hours.

So there you go, an all Led Zeppelin radio station would give you three times the variety of your average station out there today.