This morning "Sweet Home Alabama" came on the radio after I left Home Depot with a $15 drill bit. $15 dollars for a 12" long 1/2" wide piece of steel that happens to have a groove in it. Unreal. Oh well. I used it to drill a hole into the side of my house and with luck, I might need to use it again someday before I lose it.
Anyhow, I turned the song way up and it sounded great. You can count on the Eagles for consistently great music. Maybe it's because only their better stuff gets played on the radio, because I know people would say "What about..." and name off an Eagle song they don't like.
But the music is good. The band members had talent and fun. Take songs like "Boys of Summer" or "All She Wants to Do is Dance" by Don Henley. Those are great songs. They take you back. But, if you think really hard about those songs, they were great when they first came out. It's not nostalgia that makes them great, or even the memories of where you were in life when those songs got regular radio airplay. I'm convinced that they were just great songs, hands down.
But, unfortunately, Don Henley got older and now writes crummy stuff that is too full of politics or too much about his family life. I have a family and I love them. And I have political opinions, too. But why should I pay some entertainer to go on and on about something. Fricking shut up and entertain me already. Don't sucker me by making me think I'm buying entertainment only to find out it's mindless drivel. I don't care about your opinion. Or anyone else's when it comes to politics. That's why I don't watch cable news talk shows. The songs of them that Henley sings now do not make me want to open the sunroof and turn up the stero really loudly.
So my question is this... in today's homogenized world of four gigantic media companies controlling the music catalogs and three or four giant media companies controlling all the radio stations, does good music exist anymore? There are songs here and there that I like, but are there any really good consistent artists left? I'm talking the kind of music that makes you feel good to be alive, but isn't up with people. The kind of music that celebrates a beautiful woman or women but isn't a soft-core porn come on. The kind of music that says "summer" but isn't the window rattling crap our dumbass drug dealing neighbors and their custom.. uh, friends play all day long as they drive by in their low-riders?
And does such a radio station exist that would give airtime to such music? KLOS and Arrow 93 are probably good bets, but they do more to celebrate the Eagles in their better day, with my limited time in the car, I wouldn't know if either even play anything new.
3 comments:
hate to burst your bubble, but Sweet Home Alabama is a Leonard Skynard song. Don't get me started about Leonard Skynard. Best known for their epic Free Bird, pretty much the entire band died ina tragic plane crash a few decades ago. They had guy who used to tour with them who was second drummer and one of the brothers of one of the original leads has, for the past 20 years, been touring as Leonard Skynard. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Good music on radio... have you tried 103.1, the latest incarnation of Indie Rock in Los Angeles? Not sure if it reaches your end of the valley, but it plays a heap of new stuff mixed in with old stuff (they even play Sinatra from time to time in an attempt at being eclectic). And while you don't do a lot of driving between 10pm and 2am anymore, Jim Ladd's shift on KLOS is chock full of songs you don't normally hear on the radio, old and new. And Saturday afternoons on KLOS, DJ Bob "BC" Coburn plays some good stuff. I will concede the rest of KLOS's programing is sadly cliche, but is still miles above the 25 songs played on Arrow 93. Long Beach Public Radio 88.1 plays blues music late afternoons on the weekends.
I'm trying to get a job... any job... at the new 103.1 (it claims to originate from L.A., Santa Monica, and NEWPORT BEACH). Being a mile from Newport, I'll do backflips for a phone answering gig at that place, but my guess is they include it in the station locations merely to attract Orange County listeners.
I never claimed to be all that bright, or all that musically literate. What would Paul Edwards think? Worse yet, what would Todd Ireland think? But it should have tipped me off when the song mentioned the "Southland" and then went on to talk about Alabama. 'tis a shame, I thought for once I had a decent post, only to be marred by such a glaring error.
hate to burst your bubble, but Sweet Home Alabama is a Leonard Skynard song. Don't get me started about Leonard Skynard. Best known for their epic Free Bird, pretty much the entire band died ina tragic plane crash a few decades ago. They had guy who used to tour with them who was second drummer and one of the brothers of one of the original leads has, for the past 20 years, been touring as Leonard Skynard. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Good music on radio... have you tried 103.1, the latest incarnation of Indie Rock in Los Angeles? Not sure if it reaches your end of the valley, but it plays a heap of new stuff mixed in with old stuff (they even play Sinatra from time to time in an attempt at being eclectic). And while you don't do a lot of driving between 10pm and 2am anymore, Jim Ladd's shift on KLOS is chock full of songs you don't normally hear on the radio, old and new. And Saturday afternoons on KLOS, DJ Bob "BC" Coburn plays some good stuff. I will concede the rest of KLOS's programing is sadly cliche, but is still miles above the 25 songs played on Arrow 93. Long Beach Public Radio 88.1 plays blues music late afternoons on the weekends.
I'm trying to get a job... any job... at the new 103.1 (it claims to originate from L.A., Santa Monica, and NEWPORT BEACH). Being a mile from Newport, I'll do backflips for a phone answering gig at that place, but my guess is they include it in the station locations merely to attract Orange County listeners.
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