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I don’t know how easily available the information is, but just as Tom and the crew here teach with the info of songwriters, session players, etc., we should also get into the makers of the videos. Whose idea, writers, directors. Especially at this virtual time. Interesting topic would be if a song like “Physical” would have been Number 1 and for 10 weeks if not for the video.? Did this video and Foreigners pretty basic one keep them from reaching the top spot?
Thanks to everyone for all the caring. You realize how important it is to have good memories to reflect on, especially in these days where it is almost impossible to make new ones. All will be well.
“Stars On 45”......those days I had my daytime radio gig and three nights a week doing club work. A couple of weeks in, one of the bartenders bought me a nice big mug, saying now I don’t have to run over every 15 minutes for one of their 3 ounce cokes. She was gorgeous and she absolutely loved “Stars on 45”. I would play it and look over, watching her beautifully boppin’ behind the bar, giving me a thumbs up. She was so far out of my league, but somehow we clicked. Went to a lot of movies, saw a lot of concerts. Kept trying to get her to have some photos taken to send to modeling agencies. Lots of laughing. A little more than a year later, I tore my leg up in a car accident. She was right there for me, cooking, helping me get around with a massive hip to toe cast, always encouraging. Then complications set in, and I had to fly back home for more work and therapy. We kept in touch by phone and a couple of weeks later she sent me a bunch of professional photos she finally had taken. Within two weeks, she had multiple offers from different agencies. We went through them all, and she went with one of the majors. In no time, she was on her way to L.A. The calls got more infrequent, we both moved around and eventually lost touch. 10 years later, I was just stunned to see her smiling face staring back at me in a full page sunglasses ad in Entertainment Weekly. My heart just swelled up knowing not only was she successful, but she has had that rare long career. Now we get to the Internet Age, where you can look up anyone. I always felt that was a pretty creepy, stalker kind of thing. But a couple of years back, I relented and looked her up. On the search auto-fill hits me with ‘model’ and ‘Europe’. Seems she did a whole lot of work overseas. Lots of pics and portfolios. Just so happy for her success. Went back last year, and auto-fill hits me with ‘model’ and ‘Facebook’. So I go to her Facebook page.and there she is, just as gorgeous as ever after all these years. It looked like a pretty new page, not much content. But this really eases that creepy stalker feeling, now it’s just a matter of working up the courage and wondering what to say. Finally manned up and went back a couple of months ago to find the Facebook page. Auto-fill hits me with ‘death’ and ‘obituary’. I don’t remember much after that, slipping into that place everyone knows about, but no one talks about. It took a couple of weeks to go back. She had moved back to her hometown. She wasn’t answering her moms call, so mom went over to check on her and found her. She never married and lived alone. They say it was natural causes. She was 57. I can only hope and pray that she was happy. I can only hope and pray that she is happy. So now these days, probably more than I should, I just put on my headphones and play the long version of ‘Stars on 45’. I close my eyes, look to the side and see her swaying and smiling behind the bar, giving me a thumbs up. F*** auto-fill.
If that’s not a cause for imbleachment, I don’t know what is.
“Paradise Theatre” - Almost 40 years old, and manages to have two songs that fit right in on any Quarantine Playlist - “Best Of Times” and “Too Much Time On My Hands”. Actually, I have to go and listen to it. If I’m remembering right, the whole LP May be a precognitive precursor for what’s to come.
“Hey Nineteen” was another one of those numerous Steely Dan songs where you’re Pretty sure some bad has or will happen, but can’t be quite sure what.
I don’t know where it came from, but I always thought the singer was standing at a gravesite during the song. Also RIP Kenny, and a big shoutout to his Roasted Chicken restaurants, one of the Top 3 on my eating faves list.
I remember the first time I played “The Breaks” at the roller rink. One of the regulars came up to the booth and complained that you can’t skate to this song. And this is the same guy who requests “Freebird” ten times a night.
Freshman year in college, my roommate would sit down at his desk, pull out a box of Fruit Loops, put his headphones on, and chew along to “Songs In The Key Of Life”. I don’t know what was more disturbing - the fact that he did this or that I could tell by the chewing what song was playing.
“This weekend I put in a skylight........the people upstairs are furious.”
At their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Geddy stood in for Chris Squire on “Roundabout”. My first try putting a video here, sure hope this works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjm10iXTon4
Took the gang from the roller rink to see “Friday The 13th”. (I was the ‘over 17 guardian’...hahaha). It was scary, yet funny. You could talk to the screen, laugh while cringing. A couple of weeks later, they wanted to see “The Shining”. Ok, no problem. The most crowded movie I’ve ever been in. People actually sitting on the floor in the aisles by the time it started. First time I ever heard screams of terror in a theater. No laughing here. Should have been rated “C” - for “change of pants required”. Total silence as I dropped them at their houses. I thought I was doomed. But all was well. We talked about it all weekend. There was a lot going on there. Some even saw it a couple of more times and kept finding things. Weird but great bonding experience,
I use an app called Crystal on my iPad. It’s an ad blocker for Safari you can get in the App Store. Working great these past 3 years. My freeze up problems come when there are too many embedded videos.
Gotta wonder though if having it on your playlist in school will get you arrested these days.
Gotta wash your hands Scrub your hands And don’t touch your face. Ya gotta wash those hands Scrub those hands And stay in your place. Buh....Buh....Buh....Bye Corona.
I believe this was also the first Gold 12” single, somehow beating out “Rappers Delight”.
Holy Cow.....I would do the same mix. Will spend the next two hours looking for my Pop Muzik 12 inch.
1......Move out of the basement. 2.......Find a therapist.
I remember GH at the time playing in every dorm lounge every day. If I recall correctly, most kids wondered why Laura’s husband didn’t beat the crap out of Luke. Oh, Laura was a married 16 or 17 year old at the time. Boy, between the Knack, people pushing a rape soundtrack to Number One, and Micheal Jackson trading in Bubbles the Chimp for the kid from Webster, its no wonder the aliens haven’t shown themselves.
I could watch Stevie twirl a baton for hours. Someone needs to make a loop or whatever the heck you young’uns call it these days.
And there’s also the fact that for an uncomfortably long period of time, his significant other was a monkey.
Especially like the James Brown bit at the end where they try to put a cape on him.
I played “Rainbow Connection“ for grins on a couples skate. Was amazed at the reaction. Just so much love for this song. It became a regular play from then on.
Never saw that “Come To Me” video before. Those are some hypnotizing hips.
But.....wait....so the girl on the 45 sleeve is the actual Sharona?!?!? How did this fact elude me for the last 41 years? And I’m sure somewhere, someone should be able to drop a “Toot toot....hey....beep beep” someplace in “My Sharona” And I was always partial to “She’s So Selfish”.
And at the roller rink, Good Times was the first song I played where people actually ran to the floor. From the snack bar, the game room, the bathroom. A real spectacle since....A) They were wearing roller skates. B) Half didn’t know what they were doing. But it always worked out without incident, unlike the YMCA debacle. And it was truly 8 minutes of pure joy just watching them out there. I believe the 2nd rink running song is coming up next week.
I know most considered it a sin not to play the Hot Stuff/Bad Girls LP track at the clubs, but on its own Bad Girls was one of my favorites to play with. You could mix it with anything from Ring My Bell to Supertramp to Pop Muzik to almost all of Prince’s Dirty Mind. As far as recent takes on disco backlash, between the radio station, roller rink, and clubs, I never really saw it. Different songs always bought smiles from different people. The Bee Gees was a different story. Lots of vitriol, and on the radio side, pure hatred. But you could never get a solid reason why, aside from overplaying. I have long suspected that the falsettos acted as a type of silent dog whistle to parts of some people’s brains. Just drove them mad.
I’ll be man enough to admit that when I first started hearing about MAGA hats, I thought it was a new Italian restaurant chain.
Now I’ll have Bawwwwwwnnn To Be Alive in my head all week.
Man, I played the crap out of that first Cars album. Gotta be one of the best LP openings ever. Good Times Roll into My Best Friends Girl into Just What I Needed. WOW! And it was tight, coming in a a bit over 30 minutes. I absolutely broke format a few times and just let Side 1 play on. “Let me brush your rock and roll hair”.
Boy...Harry Chapin. He would come to town every year and we would do a food drive at the college station. We collected tons of food for his world hunger fund. He was legit so grateful and sincere. Amazingly, every year, he would remember most of our names. That alone put him at the top of my book. He always made sure we were at front or backstage at his show, with a heartfelt in show shoutout. Nicest and most down to earth “star” I ever met. Heard about his passing about two hours before airtime that day. Was the only show I ever missed.
And let us give thanks that vinyl is no longer deceased. Once bereft of life, it has ceased to Rest In Peace.
I remember “Knock on Wood” along with “Ring My Bell” being the songs that just bounced off every wall of the roller rink. Making you feel like you were actually in the song. Amazing effect. Still trying to process the unexpected mid-column diss of Steely Dan on Monday. I always found them intriguing for an odd reason. Listening to them, I would feel there was something underlyingly bad happening in each song, but could never put my finger on it. There sure seemed to be a lot going on unsung in those songs.
Devastated to just hear of the passing of Monty Python’s Terry Jones due to dementia at 77. How horrifying! Nominated for a BAFTA music award for “Every Sperm is Sacred”. (A song which will NEVER appear in this column.) Will try to continue once the tears stop.
Gracious Greetings all. Ended up here through a link in a link in a link a few months ago. Just pure enjoyment. Things I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Decided to dive in. At this virtual time, I had been program director at my college radio station for a few months, while doing a few on air shows per week, and weekends spinning at the local roller rink. So hopefully, I’ll have some productive information and humorous anecdotes to share. I remember at this time, with all the promo singles and albums I would get, the one that grabbed me was “Lionheart” by Kate Bush. Knew there weren’t any “hits” on it, but it was so different everyone I ended up playing it for wanted a copy. Don’t think she ends up here. That’s a shame. For “I Will Survive”, a true Hall of Fame write up a song that will survive. I’d like to see Billie Eilish do a horror version of it, leaving it to your imagination what happens to “that guy”.