After taking the week to finish digitizing my disc collection, I’m back with more food for thought… I did learn that roughly 3700 CD’s when the duplicate songs are weeded out can fill just about 1.2 Terabytes of information. On the upside I don’t have to knock over piles of discs to get to my desk, and on the downside…no more album sleeves or CD cases to read. You see, I’m a child of vinyl. To me there was nothing like buying a record and poring over the artwork and reading all [yes all] of the liner notes. It’s no wonder I didn’t date until later in my existence… It was what fueled my desire to find out who was on it that started the “Six Degrees” concept in my mind. And audiophiles still lament the demise of the warmth of an analog record…but that’s for another time…
I would actually take a chance on a record I hadn’t heard before if I knew who the producer was, because I would have some idea as to what it sounded like by what else was produced before. I could take a chance on a record if I saw who engineered it, because even if the record was crap at least it was good sounding crap. If Alan Parsons, or James “Jimbo” Barton engineered the record, you knew it would sound good. The same goes for Parson’s production. If Bruce Fairbairn [R.I.P], Mike Stone [R.I.P], Kevin Elson, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, or Bob Rock produced it, I had a good idea how it would sound. [And if you’re into modern melodic hard rock anything with Dennis Ward producing is going to sound killer…] Sad but true, but it allowed me to take chances on new artists. Some were good, some were bad, and some were just God-awful, but for $7.99 [the going rate for an album when I was younger] it wasn’t a big risk. But now it’s just tiny words in a tiny booklet and sometimes there’s not even that…sad.. Moving on…
So who is Steve Miller? The point is actually just a jumping point but for the record he is the guitarist and lead vocalist of his self named band. They had a string of hits from 1969-1978 and hit the charts again in 1982 with “Abracadabra”. The Greatest Hits 1974-78 has sold over 13 million copies. Past members of the Steve Miller Band include Boz Scaggs on guitar [solo with Lowdown, Lido Shuffle], Les Dudek [Allman Brothers, Dave Mason, Stevie Nicks], Ross Valory [Journey], Jim Keltner [Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon], and roughly 37 others over a series of years. So…why am I picking on Steve Miller and his band…I’m not really. They are just an example of oversaturation accompanied by the limited playlists of the classic rock stations.
As the radio stations were bought up by conglomerates and the consolidation of the stations continued…the playlists began to shrink. This is not just on classic rock radio but for radio in general. And it’s gotten so endemic that you can turn on any station [that’s not strictly pop/top 40] every few hours and hear the same songs. What’s sad is when a station promotes it’s “No Repeat Workday” like it’s something special…I can listen to my collection for example for 82 DAYS without duplication [that’s roughly 1968 hours…but I am by no means normal…]. So my question is…why can’t they play more from the artists catalogue? Why do we have to hear “More Than A Feeling” over and over and over until we want to push a knitting needle through our brains [I digress..that’s just me…] You see…I LOVE the band Boston. I LOVE the song More Than A Feeling. I Love the whole first Boston record [and it was the first record I ever owned when I was 8 years old in 1976…]. However, I just can’t listen to it unless I stop hearing it for a while.
Rush has created 19 studio albums…and yet we hear “Tom Sawyer” over and over. Kansas has 13 studio albums and all we hear is “Carry On Wayward Son” on the rock stations and “Dust In The Wind” on the AC stations. Prince has produced a multitude of records with varying names and degrees of success…and we hear “Little Red Corvette” or “Let’s Go Crazy” like he made only 2 records. I know they produced more music. I know that they produced more great music..but it’s getting lost in the shrinking playlists and the shrinking minds of the radio programmers who think we’re a] stupid or b] lazy and would never venture out of our comfort zone in an effort to hear something more. I know you’re out there, and I know you’re smarter than that. In fact I don’t know anyone who listens strictly to the radio, or doesn’t have a favorite band that they will never hear on the radio. But then again...I’m not sure I should be the measuring stick for anything normal here…
But since we don’t control the playlists of our favorite radio stations [if you’re not already connecting your iPod to your car stereo or have invested in satellite because you’re too fed up] I recommend a moratorium on some of these songs or maybe, just maybe…go deeper into the album cuts. Early FM radio was about playing the whole record, not just the singles. Maybe modern radio can take note and improve…[Let’s wait for it…Nope…can’t play it…not enough time between commercials…and we still haven’t had a cold snap in Hell or been successful in making pigs fly…] So maybe since we can’t change the world…we can change the station…or shut it off…or hum…or whistle…or turn on conservative talk radio, get enraged, scream at the radio and punch the dashboard a lot [I don’t recommend that…but it will entertain the guy next to you at the stoplight…] Either way…it sets up our next segment…and I’d like you all to play along at home…
For my next segment, let’s call it… “10 Artists That Went Away…And I Didn’t Miss Them…”
Feel free to compile your own list either on paper or in your head of bands that you’ve heard so much, so often, that if they went away you would feel a sense of relief, a Zen moment, and a lifting of your spirits. Maybe it’s just that you want to hear a different song every once in a while…This is by no means a reflection of the talent, style, or anything else to do with the band. It’s just like video killed the radio star…except radio killed the radio star…over and over again… pencils up…start writing…
1] Boston [Anything from the first 2 albums] - Love the band, love the songs…grabbing my knitting needle every time I hear Foreplay/Long Time on the radio [and out here in OK, that’s a lot!!]
2] Rolling Stones [pretty much anything] - So many records, so many songs…and I get to hear “Beast Of Burden” over and over on the radio…why can’t I hear One Hit To The Body every once in a while…
3] Van Halen – why Van Halen?…because I can’t hear Runnin’ With The Devil ever again…Might as well Jump…
4] ZZ Top – The Eliminator album killed them for me…they were blues, then they were pop, now they’re blues again…And I get to hear “Legs”…and that she knows how to use them…
5] Queen – All I want to hear is Radio Ga Ga…or Keep Yourself Alive…How about One Vision every once in a while…but NOOOOO… I see a silhouette of a man….scaramouche scaracmouche…will you do the fandango… MAMA MIA MAMA MIA LET ME GO…
6] Kiss – On a retro weekend we might get “I Was Made For Lovin’ You..” but for the rest of the time it’s Rock & Roll All Nite…” and I’m old…and I can’t do that anymore…I’ll die…how about a little blatant innuendo courtesy of “Love Gun” or “Shout It Out Loud”…
7] Guns ‘N’ Roses – If I could have one wish for Christmas is to never here Sweet Child O’ Mine ever again…thanks Santa…
8] Sheryl Crow – Can she sing? Yes…can she write songs? Yes.. Can she please go away now…I’ve had enough…maybe she never should have left Las Vegas where she could have had some fun [since that was all she really wanted to do anyway…] and I wouldn’t hear her anymore…especially Picture…blaahhh…..
9] Elton John – Give me Funeral For A Friend…Give me Levon, give me anything off Live In Australia…But don’t make me feel the love tonight…Hold me closer Tony Danza…
10] Any 80’s retro pop metal one hit [ok..maybe2…] wonder [for the sake of radio play…] [and I say this as a HUGE fan of commercial hard rock and pop metal]… this is including, but not limited to “Unskinny Bop” by Poison, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard, “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister, “Round And Round” by Ratt, and “Heaven” by Warrant… Great the first 3 million times…time to cash the royalty checks and check into that retirement home in Palm Springs…
Well folks…that’s all for today… always remember to try the veal and tip your waiter….
And the answer to last week’s “Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon”?... you were asked to connect 70’s funk artists Sly & The Family Stone with Greek power metal band Firewind…How did you do?… Mine goes like this…
The saxophonist for Sly & The Family Stone is a gentleman named Jerry Martini. After S&FS he started a band called Rubicon in the San Francisco Bay area with a group of musicians including Jake Blades on bass and Brad Gillis on guitar [They would go on to form Night Ranger…but we’re not going there…] Brad Gillis was chosen as the replacement for guitarist Randy Rhoads in Ozzy Osbourne’s band after his tragic death in a plane crash. Gillis played the MTV concert in his place. Ozzy has just this year released a CD titled Scream featuring guitarist Gus G. [whose real name is Kostas Karamitroudis] and Gus G.’s band when he’s not playing with Ozzy is…you guessed it…Firewind…
So it goes like this… Sly & The Family Stone>Rubicon>Ozzy Osbourne>Firewind.. in 4 moves!!…how did you do…?
Thanks for coming along for the ride…See you soon…
J.
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