Magic Jewball

I know, can you believe it, this feature is back! If you missed it (and you’re the only one) think of how much I miss the DJ’s of my youth playing this music. You probably already know this because long ago, back in the early days of this year, you read (or skipped) this post. Amongst the DJ’s I mentioned was Larry the Duck, and believe me, I truly remember his voice. Then a funny thing happened, XM, which I used to listen to on my computer at work, merged with Sirius, the only other satellite radio company, in a Great Big Monopoly. At first I was dejected. My quirky-fun station, Fred, had disappeared. Fred with its funny promos like the take-off of the Smiths’ “Is it Really So Strange?” that went, “Fred left the North. He traveled south. He found a tiny house and he can’t help the way he feels.” That made me laugh every single time. Because I’m a sap.

Anyway, Fred went away and its place was Sirius’ mundanely named “First Wave.” Bleah. I gave it a chance for a few days because I pay for this thing and if I hate it, I’m getting rid of it. The first thing I noticed was that it had DJ’s and after listening to rarely interrupted Fred, it was disconcerting. So at the same time, to hedge my bets, I gave Pandora a try and I must say, my four stations, alternately “Wannabe Fred,” “New Alternative,” “Hard Alternative,” and “Power Pop in the vein of Neil Finn and Matthew Sweet” (catchy, right?), have not really been floating my boat. It’s too clear the music wasn’t chosen by a human. A band will play three songs after it was previously played. Too much of one artist, only the most popular songs by another. I really have tried to tweak them with “OK, how about let’s add in this band?” and “never play this song again” and sorry, it just ain’t happening. A computer can’t seem to get 80’s new wave the way a real human in his/her mid-30’s who got dressed to impress in high school to it would. The other stations were OK but since I wasn’t trying to get in the breadth of a certain decade and actual radio stations, it wasn’t as hard.

Then, on a forum (I’m all about forums) where I am named for a new wave song, I heard that Larry the Duck is on First Wave. Really? Larry the Duck is alive and well and DJ’ing the music I love? Swoon! Because so far all I’ve heard is the screechy and irritating Madison and Richard Blade who I suppose is OK if you are nostalgic for KROQ (my grandparents lived in LA; I do remember KROQ in the 80’s) but I’m lukewarm on. Finally, after weeks of listening attentively for My Youth relived on the radio, I went to check the Sirius website and there he was, 6-9 am. Sadly, since I live in New York City, there is no such thing as “drive time.” I turn the thing on when I reach work at ten. And I watch Pat Kiernan while I get dressed; I can’t give that up. So that was depressing. But he’s also on Saturday afternoons and evenings where I am listening to him push satellite radio for Christmas right now as I type this. (Yes, it’s written in advance). I think the first time he said “Duck with you…” little tears pricked at the back of my eyes. Maybe what’s forgotten in the “who needs radio, I’ll just put my 90 GB iPod on shuffle” are the people who framed the music for you and made you smile. A co-worker of mine was able to tour the Sirius studios (it was professionally, *cough*) and got to meet several DJ’s. People, this is going to be my new year’s resolution. I am going to Sirius (or, uh, SiriusXM) and hug Larry the Duck. Wish me luck!

OK, onto the song. This is the first time I’m repeating a band. Who could it be? One of the bands I mention all the time like Depeche Mode or The Cure or Joy Division? Why no! I picked this song specially, not because it’s my favorite song ever but because I totally forgot about its existence until this week. Most of the songs I have featured on here are ones I’ve been listening to for years and years and of which I have never lost track. But not this one. And yet, when it came on (forgive me, I couldn’t tell you whether it was Pandora or First Wave or any of the other things I tried), the bursting-with-energy opening bars cut through years and years and suddenly the first line came tumbling out of my mouth unbidden, “I couldn’t sleep a wink last night… I, I love to hold on!”

I downloaded it from Amazon about ten seconds later, where I discovered I actually owned this album on LP. Good times! I have nothing really to say about this song except what I said about their other song that appeared on iSotW which is, my, they were a fine band before they became “one hit wonders” through the Breakfast Club. That was too bad because, as this song demonstrates, they were way better when they stuck to writing their own songs. Listen to how Jim Kerr sings it like he means it here and how driving and pounding the music is versus a lame-ass song like “Don’t You (Forget About Me).”

It’s funny, because in early 1983, my two favorite songs outside of Duran Duran were by bands I discovered from those songs: Depeche Mode’s “Love In Itself” and Simple Minds’ “Promised You A Miracle.” Either could have ended up my favorite group of all time, especially because I liked the next song I heard by Simple Minds, “New Gold Dream” even better. But, well, you know how that went.

The other thing about hearing a song that you haven’t heard in decades is that it is still uniquely tied to time and place. This one takes me way back, back to one of my two HS BFF’s homes, so much so that I did a tour of her neighborhood on Google street look and while wondering whatever happened to her. Damn people with common names with whom you lost touch in 1989! She’s not even on Facebook. Maybe I just imagined the 80’s. Or, maybe, like Larry the Duck, she’s alive and well and waiting to be rediscovered….

So, give satellite radio for the holidays. Or Simple Minds’ Sparkle in the Rain (I think it’s still available as an import). Or send your high school BFF on Facebook an “80’s Gift” and think of me.

Napster:
Simple Minds – Speed Your Love To Me

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

I briefly mentioned that I had been in Albany last week for the beginning of the Sukkot holiday but I didn’t say why, mostly because I didn’t have the time to explain. See, I had a few things to tell the governor about the ridiculous tax New Yorkers have to pay on Internet purchases and… oh, I kid! Despite the fact that I hate that tax mightily and think it’s incredibly stupid, I had other fish to fry. And that fish was my BFF from HS, Christine. Christine didn’t actually go to my high school but rather lived one town over and went to public school anyway. It should seem obvious that she didn’t go to Yeshiva by her name except that that isn’t really her name. And I didn’t invent that just to disguise her on my blog but rather, that was always what I called her. It’s a long story and this isn’t going to be a long post so there we are.

Anyway, Christine and her delightful family live up in Albany now and she is a professor at SUNY (I’ve always had really smart friends; it’s a curse, I tell you). I actually sat in on one of her classes, silently regretting all the times I sat through my own college classes eating, giggling with my friends, or just reading a book (the woman right next to me was doing that last one and we were in the front row!). Just another thing to add to my “when they invent time machines” list.

Christine and I share many 80’s earworms: Squeeze, Depeche Mode, Yaz…. but this is the song that I used to sing at her all the time (I usually sing at people as they beg me to stop) and still makes me think of her, even though I don’t see her very often these days. Siousxsie & the Banshees are known for their darker, grimmer, more Gothic numbers but this one is like a puff of 60’s-pop-tinged whipped cream. It’s light, it’s melodic, and the lyrics about the strawberry girl/banana-split lady always make me want to eat sweets. Kind of like my friend, Christine.

Napster:
Siouxsie & the Banshees – Christine

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

I really wrote this in my head last Sunday as I was descending into LaGuardia from Denver. Because this was the song I was listening to and it wasn’t random. Alas, the M60 bus which was the whole reason I had chosen LGA (Airtrains from the other airports cost money, the public bus is free on my unlimited Metrocard) was way late in coming and so there was no time to write this then. So I had to wait a whole other week, so sad.

Anyway, this song is worth the wait. It comes from the soundtrack to Until the End of the World, a movie I didn’t understand at all and practically fell asleep during. But it had an awesome soundtrack and this was one of the best songs out of that stellar line-up. When I would take the train home from college, this is the song I would listen to on my walkman as I glimpsed New York for the first time. There’s a line about New York and then one about “going home, back where I belong,to staaaay” in it but that’s only partly why. It’s something about the music. It starts slow and all along the way it has a kind of wondering, a feeling of discovery at something odd but beautiful. Which is kind of how I feel when I approach New York after being away: what a weird and beautiful place. So good to be back.

I’m off upstate for a few days but luckily I’ll be back to staaaay.

Napster:
Talking Heads – Sax and Violins

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

As I said, I’ve had this song in my head for about four weeks now (well, not literally, that would have driven me crazy, but I’ve had it in my mind for this post). Sometimes when you put these kinds of things off, you realize the track just wasn’t as good as you remembered. But no, this one is. It’s one of those dark, gothy numbers, the sort of early 90’s swirly guitar, low-in-the-mix vocals songs that somehow depressed you even when you had no idea what they were about. I’ve been told this is about a car but who cares, it’s long and drawn out, a journey of a song, and it’s thick-sounded and full of guitar texture.

Sing it with me! “It’s the color of your skin… your skin is black metallic……”

Napster:
Catherine Wheel – Black Metallic

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

Last week was a sad week over here but I’m ready to start fresh now. It’s August, the US Open will be this month, and, most importantly, my least favorite season will be coming to an end. Phew.

So let’s have a light, airy, carefree number by… The Clash. I know, how weird is that? But this is one of those songs that just makes you la la la in your head and feel delightful. It’s always fun to remember how you looked at things when you were a child and how mysterious and confusing the world seemed. See, Brother1 had this on a 45 (that was a a single, youngsters, on vinyl, not on mp3). This was actually the flip side and I can’t even remember what the A-Side was. No matter. But even as a child, I knew the lead singer of the Clash (well, there were a few) was a man. And the person singing this was a woman. Try as I might, I could never wrap my mind around the idea that if you already had a lead singer, why on earth you’d have someone not even in the band sing the vocals on your song.

Brother1 told me sometimes it just sounded better, plus the woman was the lead singer’s girlfriend. I still didn’t get it. Nowadays, it’s mostly hard to understand how this pop gem could end up on an album called Sandinista! amongst such political tunes as The Call Up and Washington Bullets. But the music and production are straight out of Motown and it has nostalgic lyrics about what the music industry used to be like. Apparently, it used to be like this:

No expense accounts, or lunch discounts
Or hyping up the charts,
The band went in, ‘n’ knocked ’em dead, in 2 min. 59

Wow, those were the days. But, here’s something I did not know. It turns out, the chick in the song is the same one from Paradise By the Dashboard Light! Who knew? (The Internet, that’s who). Also, she appeared on Night Court for twenty episodes. Rock and roll!

Napster:
The Clash – Hitsville U.K

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.