Listening to the Radio
I took a break from the depressing task of doing my taxes tonight by dancing around the apartment a bit to Nanci Griffith's "Listen to the Radio," from her live album Winter Marquee. Always good for a little cheer.
Earlier, walking home listening to the news of Gene Pitney's death on NPR, I wondered why no one mentioned "I Fought the Law" -- another great song it's impossible not to dance around the apartment to (whether the original or the much-later version by the Clash). The reason? Gene Pitney didn't do it, I just discovered; the Bobby Fuller Four did.
Huh. Oh, well, Gene did some pretty good songs too -- "It Hurts to Be in Love," "Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa." He also, it turns out, wrote "He's a Rebel" for the Crystals. Did not know that before tonight.
The only reason I know "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa" -- one of his more obscure songs -- is that when I was on my junior year abroad and feeling homesick, my brother thoughtfully taped a favorite radio show of mine: "The Sunday Night Thing of the Past" on WASH-FM, back when that station had a weekly oldies show. Part of the program that night (January 10, 1982) was devoted to songs with numbers in the titles. They played a snippet of "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa" on Neda Ulaby's obituary of Pitney on NPR tonight.
With the demise of Washington's only oldies station just this week, you're not likely to hear anything as obvious as "Eight Days a Week" or "In the Year 2525" on the radio anymore, let alone "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa" or "98.6" (that's on the tape my brother sent me too, sung by someone named "Keith"). Commercial radio in Washington so sucks. It may be time for satellite.
When I was a preteen and teen in the 1970s, I got into oldies from the '50s and '60s. This was around the time American Graffiti came out and revived all that. In fact, the first concert I ever went to was Sha Na Na at Carter Barron Amphitheatre. The second was the Beach Boys at the Capital Centre.
What saved me from complete anachronistic nerddom (I like to think, anyway) is the fact that I listened just as much to Top 40 and, later in the '70s, the stations that played what was known as "album rock" (e.g., an entire side of Electric Light Orchestra).
Okaaay . . . that part of my blog audience that I didn't lose with the Gene Pitney reference I'm sure I just lost with ELO. Can I please go back to Nanci Griffith and start over?
Oh, right. I was dancing around the apartment back there.
Earlier, walking home listening to the news of Gene Pitney's death on NPR, I wondered why no one mentioned "I Fought the Law" -- another great song it's impossible not to dance around the apartment to (whether the original or the much-later version by the Clash). The reason? Gene Pitney didn't do it, I just discovered; the Bobby Fuller Four did.
Huh. Oh, well, Gene did some pretty good songs too -- "It Hurts to Be in Love," "Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa." He also, it turns out, wrote "He's a Rebel" for the Crystals. Did not know that before tonight.
The only reason I know "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa" -- one of his more obscure songs -- is that when I was on my junior year abroad and feeling homesick, my brother thoughtfully taped a favorite radio show of mine: "The Sunday Night Thing of the Past" on WASH-FM, back when that station had a weekly oldies show. Part of the program that night (January 10, 1982) was devoted to songs with numbers in the titles. They played a snippet of "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa" on Neda Ulaby's obituary of Pitney on NPR tonight.
With the demise of Washington's only oldies station just this week, you're not likely to hear anything as obvious as "Eight Days a Week" or "In the Year 2525" on the radio anymore, let alone "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa" or "98.6" (that's on the tape my brother sent me too, sung by someone named "Keith"). Commercial radio in Washington so sucks. It may be time for satellite.
When I was a preteen and teen in the 1970s, I got into oldies from the '50s and '60s. This was around the time American Graffiti came out and revived all that. In fact, the first concert I ever went to was Sha Na Na at Carter Barron Amphitheatre. The second was the Beach Boys at the Capital Centre.
What saved me from complete anachronistic nerddom (I like to think, anyway) is the fact that I listened just as much to Top 40 and, later in the '70s, the stations that played what was known as "album rock" (e.g., an entire side of Electric Light Orchestra).
Okaaay . . . that part of my blog audience that I didn't lose with the Gene Pitney reference I'm sure I just lost with ELO. Can I please go back to Nanci Griffith and start over?
Oh, right. I was dancing around the apartment back there.
posted by Billy at 10:56 PM
3 Comments:
yay nancy! yay elo. sha na na ha ha ha. he he he.
Okay, I'm substantially older than you.
I enjoyed the memories brought back by your post. I got a kick out of listening to 98.6 on Keith's website. Looking back it wasn't a very good song, but I'm pretty sure I had the 45. I wish I could find all my 45's.
RIP Gene Pitney. The articles didn't mention what caused his early demise. I didn't know he wrote "He's a Rebel" either. You sure have taken me back a long ways this morning. :)
Last I heard, the cause of death was unknown. But he was 65. One report said he gave one of his best shows ever the night before and "apparently died peacefully."
But how in the world could anyone know that for sure? He was alone in a hotel room.
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