Monday, August 29, 2011

Hot August Night 2!

...I was just kidding about sequelizing that last post, but after the WILDEST Sunday nite at work I've had in a LONG time, mayB it'll help 2 write it out.
Bsides, the musical accompaniment was pretty good. Gotta hand it 2 the Seattle-area radio stations: In recent days they have stepped it up a notch or 2. Gotta give radio a B+ 4 the soundtrack they provided this weekend. Most nites they get a C-.
It was BUSY again Sun nite, the weather continues 2 B gorgeous. I tuned-in the radio a little after 6, & immediately they opened-up with the Back-Up Plan's theme song, Chicago's "Old Days." They followed-up with the following Good Stuff:

Todd Rundgren: "Hello, It's Me."
Doobie Bros.: "Listen to the Music."
Blues Image: "Ride Captain Ride."
Boz Scaggs: "Lido Shuffle."
Sara Bareilles: "I'm Not Gonna Write You a Love Song." (I like the choruses.)
Stampeders: "Sweet City Woman."
Beatles: "Something," "Oh! Darling," "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End," "Glass Onion."
Friends of Distinction: "Love or Let Me Be Lonely." (Love the choruses -- they're so silly.)
Frank Sinatra: "That's Life." (When's the last time you heard The Chairman Of The Board on your local radio?)
Van Morrison: "Moondance." (This followed Frank; somebody at KMCQ knows what they're doing....)
Wallflowers: "6th Avenue Heartache."
Bangles: "Walk Like an Egyptian."
"I Love You Always Forever" -- can never remember her name....
Manfred Mann: "Do Wah Diddy Diddy."
Bruce: "Born to Run." (It's only recently that I've started noticing how David Sancious's sparkling keyboards R really the secret weapon in this song....) Oh, & "Born in the USA"....
(Avoided Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Faire." Twice. & Elton's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," 2wice.)
Train: "Drops of Jupiter."
Zep: "Fool in the Rain." (Still love that drum&bugle-corps midsection.)
Coldplay: "Death and All His Friends," x2.
Who: "Eminence Front" & "Slip Kid." ("Slip Kid" was a nice suprise. NEbody else think "Eminence Front" is just a bit 2 ... mechanical?)
Pink Floyd: "Comfortably Numb."
Rod Stewart: "You Wear it Well."
BTO: "Roll on Down the Highway" & "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet."

...Was distracted at this point when a guy who had ridden up on a bicycle tried 2 pass out in the store -- 2wice. He got something 2 drink & a snack & I got him a step-ladder 2 sit down on -- he was obviously flushed & said he'd biked all the way from Tacoma -- 25 miles, & it was still pretty warm outside.
He seemed OK, then a minute or 2 later he started sliding off the stool. He said: "I'm blacking out!" He drank more water & said he probly just got dehydrated.
He sat 4 awhile & drank & munched, & an hr later he was gone. "Sorry if I've been any trouble," he said while shaking my hand. He wasn't NE trouble -- but I told him while he was sitting that if he passed out on me I was gonna havta call an ambulance....

Beatles: "Help!"
Blondie: "Heart of Glass."
Grand Funk: "We're an American Band."
KC & the Sunshine Band: "That's the Way I Like It."

Little Steven's Underground Garage continued this run of Good Stuff, opening with Bob Dylan's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" But I missed most of that Bcos 1 of R Regulars came in 2 tell me that her husband, another Regular, had died last Weds -- a nite when he'd bn in the store!
I'd bn used 2 seeing this guy or his wife just about every nite 4 the past 5 years. He was short & a little scruffy & maybe just a touch grumpy, & I don't think he treated his wife 2 well -- but I was shocked & didn't know what 2 say. She said he'd bn on his way home from WalMart when a heart attack got him. He was only 46.
"I keep thinking he'll come home sooner or later," she said. I didn't know what 2 say. I held her hand 4 a couple mins & told her 2 hang in there & just keep going, & gave her a hug when she left. I shook my head & thot about my old girlfriend & how life's 2 short ... & then I went back 2 work.

Little Steven's Sun show was the "Summer Soupy Shuffle," a sort of collection of highlights from their previous 490 shows. Among the classics they played were: "He's So Fine," "Long Tall Sally," "Satisfaction," "Money (That's What I Want)" (Beatles), "Psychotic Reaction," "I Can't Explain," "Twistin' the Night Away" (Sam Cooke), & Honey Cone's "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show."
Ah, but the suprises!:

Ramones: "Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?"
Butch Walker & the Black Widows: "Summer of '89."
Spinal Tap: "Give Me Some Money." Hilarious!
Spanking Charlene: "Dismissed With a Kiss" -- Xcellent heavy rocker with hilarious up-to-date lyrics, '60s garage-rock 4 the new millennium!
The Laundrettes: "Red River." The Laundrettes R from Oslo, Norway, & "Red River" features a marvelous deadpan English-female vocal -- it's great, but I wish the choruses were stronger, tho I do love the way they sing "Your dancin' shoes ... have lost THEIR shine...."
Traffic: "Medicated Goo." Nice guitar (by Dave Mason?) & great sax from Chris Wood, funny choruses 2. That's funny, I thot I pretty much hated Traffic. Weren't they boring & meandering & tedious? Not this....
J. Geils Band: "First I Look at the Purse." Hilarious! "If the purse is fat, that's where it's at."
Rod Stewart: "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down." Had never heard this B4, offa his very 1st album in '69. Sounds a little like a run-thru 4 "Every Picture Tells a Story"....

In the midst of all this I was dealing with customers -- actually pissed off a couple who's minds I couldn't read & otherwise couldn't help. Also hadta deal with such weirdnesses as the grizzled old guy who wiped his ass & then stuffed the dirty TP in the garbage can instead of flushing it! That was a new low. Overall, Sun nite's craziness made up 4 how smooth the rest of the wknd had bn.... & it's not even a Full Moon....

Thruout this recent overview of local radio, I've not bothered 2 mention summa the more wretched stuff local stations play -- Dserved-2-B-4gotten hits by Olivia Newton-John, Whitney Houston, Tom Jones, Bobby Sherman, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" & "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" every 5 mins....
Bottom line: Seattle-area radio, at least in recent days, ain't that bad. It ain't GREAT, but even 2 a picky SOB like me, it could B a lot worse....

1 comment:

R S Crabb said...

Hey TAD, interesting day at your end of the fence I see. Yep The Elton and Kiki Dee song wore out its welcome about 20 years ago and Someone Saved My Life Tonight, not one of his better hits (Sugar bear indeed).

Traffic has improved over time, Heaven Is In Your Mind (aka Mr Fantasy) and the S/T album remains their best, but John Barleycorn Must Die is overrated and On The Road a boring exercise of a live album just like side two of Last Exit (Traffic may have been one of the more pointless jam bands of the 70s). Low Spark and Shoot Out I can listen to but not When The Eagle Flies. They can rock when they want to but when Steve Chris and Jim decide to mellow it out, they tend to put everybody to sleep.