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....