QUOTE OF THE NOW

"Our life evokes our character. You find out more about yourself as you go on. That's why it's good to be able to put yourself in situations that will evoke your higher nature rather than your lower. 'Lead us not into temptation.'" Joseph Campbell

Thursday, March 21, 2013

These foolish games (that the radio plays)

I mentioned yesterday that I keep having to hear the same playlist at work, and it's the only station we can pick up out front.

One song I hear sometimes is "Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded he plane, touched down in the land of the Delta blues in the middle of the pouring rain." That fucking "Walking in Memphis" song that was on over-constant-super-kill-me-now rotation when I was a student painter. My coworkers never put on any station other than the rock one. Plus I had to listen to their shitty golden oldies hour. When I quit that job I spent the rest of the summer listening to classical music stations.

When I first worked at the large format bookstore, when we were still putting the store together, there was this satellite thing with a million channels, yet somehow every day we were stuck on a Top 40. "You were always the mysterious one with dark eyes and careless hair you were fashionably sensitive yet to cooool to caaare" was the one that almost drove me to swan dive off the second floor.

At work right now there isn't one song giving me suicidal tendencies, but "Someone Like You" is getting there. At first it would just make me sad, but now I'm approaching the point where one draws a shotgun on the stereo system. Or one ends up down at the station with a "your playlist or your life" stand off.

But here's the weirdest thing: This station often plays 80s music, but it's always the same songs. I don't get it. You have 10 years worth of hit music to choose from, why the same 10 songs? Maybe my brother, who used to be in radio, can explain it to me.

Luckily a few of those songs are by Prince, so I literally get a Prince fix every day. But I could like without Corey Hart's "Never Surrender" and Bryan Adams' "Heaven." This week "Heaven" came on and I finally had to vent my feelings at the people I was serving. "Why? Why do I have to hear the same 80s songs every week??"

Oh well. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Here's Bryan Adams, and I welcome learning of your top Overplayed Song.



7 comments:

Skye said...

Pretty much anything by Boston, because Classic Rock stations pretty much only play the same three songs, the names of which I am currently repressing. Boston was an okay 70s band, but they really did have more than three songs.

Judy,Judy,Judy. said...

I'm going to be unpopular for saying this but currently it's anything Adele.

widdershins said...

CBC Radio 2 website is like that too. It's good they have so many channels to choose from. I can cycle through them all and by the time I get back to the first one they've changed a few songs or pieces.

Anonymous said...

This is not a station hate but an upstairs neighbour hate. I love Maroon 5 but within six weeks of its release had developed an intense hate on for "Daylight" because they played it over and over and over full blast and sang along to it EVERY night. Sigh. Had to move.

London Mabel said...

@Skye - "More than a feeliiiing" (Actually I had to look that up, cause Boston is so mediocre I couldn't remember what they've done.)

@JJJ - Totally sick of Adele.

@widders - Sound method you have there.

@nwzhnd - Noooooo! Neighbor music can be deadly. Why do neighbors always find one song they blast over and over??

lora96 said...

I'm with you on Daylight. I thought they eviscerated Payphone long enough that I'd never like M5 again then I like Daylight for thirty seconds before they just played the living shit out of it everywhere all day all the time every second.

PS I saw M5 in concert like seven years ago and I sincerely hope they got better sound equipment because those people sounded but nothing like they did on cd/radio at the time. The concert bit.

London Mabel said...

Bleh! That's disappointing.

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