It’s a “prepared in advance” theme week here on WIS to allow my minor hand operation time to heal before reaching for the laptop again. Enjoy!
First Word
As a lifelong listener to what my great friend (and former broadcaster) Ken Macdonald still refers to affectionately as “the wireless”, I’ve decided to go with a theme of songs about radio this week. It’s a deep pool that shallows a bit if you apply the constraint that the word ‘radio’ needs to be in the title. I’ve selfishly chosen what I think are my six favourite tunes that meet this criteria, which of course means there is nothing from the last 30 years included on the playlist. Oh well, never mind…
Radio, Radio – Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1978)
Very surprisingly, EC is making only his third appearance on the blog as I lead off with what I consider to be the best ever song about radio. It eventually appeared in October 1978 as a stand-alone single, but the aforementioned Mr Macdonald and I had heard him play it live in Glasgow’s Satellite City in April that year, as he and the Attractions were gigging his astounding second album This Year’s Model. The song actually began life in 1974 as a pastiche of early Springsteen with lyrics in thrall to the power of radio. But it got flipped into a vitriolic blast against commercialisation and corporate control in the limited late 70s listening environment. The “I wanna bite the hand that feeds me” line suggests he knew what he was doing and wasn’t looking to be best buddies with Dave Lee Travis and Noel Edmunds. Famously, in December 1977, the band were booked as replacements for the visa-less Sex Pistols on Saturday Night Live in the US and were scheduled to play EC’s first single Less than Zero. This short clip shows EC stopping the band a couple of lines into the song and telling them to kick off the media-baiting Radio Radio instead, much to the anger of the SNL production team who had rehearsed all their camera shots based on the other tune. It got him banned from the show but he did return for the SNL 25th anniversary show in 1999 where he parodied the incident by interrupting the Beastie Boys performing Sabotage and leading them in a storming version of Radio Radio. Marvellous radio, indeed.
Mohammed’s Radio – Warren Zevon (1976)
As I noted when writing about Warren Zevon in WIS 8Sep23, I was a late convert to his music. Before that Saul to Paul moment, I had read good things about him but I recall seeing a clip of him playing Mohammed’s Radio live on some show and not being that impressed. However, with time and a better understanding of his style of writing and performing, I’ve come to really like this song, which has been covered by Linda Rondstadt. Set against the backdrop of Zevon’s typical dark subject matter of people leading difficult lives and facing adversity, Mohammed’s Radio actually appears to be a rare optimistic song. While the verses talk of tough times (“Everybody’s desperate trying to make ends meet/Work all day, still can’t pay the price of gasoline”), the chorus tells of the redemptive power of the “sweet and soulful” music being broadcast on what is presumably a pirate radio station run by Mohammed. Apparently Zevon chose this name as he liked how it sounded with the word ‘radio’. With Lynsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks doing the backing vocals on the recording, it has a laid back, heartfelt feel to it with some intricate instrumentation, unusually incorporating both lap steel guitar and saxophone parts. In the end, Zevon just can’t help himself and, in the last bridge section, he plants an ominous authoritarian twist: “You’ve been up all night listening for his drum/Hoping that the righteous might just, might just come/But I heard the General whisper to his aide-de-camp/’Be watchful for Mohammed’s lamp’ “. Dark stuff indeed.
Radio Song – R.E.M. (1991)
R.E.M. were no strangers to songs with radio in the title. Their first single released on Hib-Tone Records in 1981 was Radio Free Europe which came complete with their trademark unintelligible lyrics by Michael Stipe and jangly guitar by Peter Buck. It was re-recorded for their debut LP Murmur in 1983 with no more clarity in the words but the chorus is great. As the decade progressed, the band began to break out from cult status and the pop sheen they gave to their sixth (and first major label) album Green in 1988 took them into the top thirty on both sides of the Atlantic. Things were going to get bigger when they returned in 1991 with Out Of Time which topped both the US and UK charts and sold bucketloads across the world. Radio Song was side 1 track 1 and features rapper KRS-One on backing vocals at Stipe’s provocative invitation. It starts with what I assume to be him saying “Hey – can’t find nothing on the radio/Uh, yo, turn to that station” before Buck’s guitar arpeggios begin and Stipe sings “The world is collapsing around our ears/I turned up the radio, but I can’t hear it”. So far, so R.E.M. But then it drops into an uncharacteristic almost funky rhythm with Stipe singing and KRS-One injecting vocal riffs behind him. The short rap at the end was created by the band to fox the long-term fans and get them wondering what the hell was going on. And then the needle moves on to track 2 and the radio-friendly monster hit Losing My Religion kicks in.
On The Radio – The Selecter (1979)
In terms of the 2 Tone bands, The Selecter were probably considered fourth behind The Specials, Madness and The Beat in terms of their influence and success. But they actually recorded more records for the label than Madness and The Beat who managed just one single each before heading off to Stiff and Go-Feet Records respectively. The Selecter appeared on the first 2-Tone release which was a “split single” with The Specials’ Gangsters on one side and The Selecter’s dreamy self-titled ska instrumental on the other. They went on to release three more singles of their own on the label and also released their Too Much Pressure LP in February 1980. At the time of the 2-Tone split single, the ‘band’ was only guitarist Neol Davies and trombone player Barry Jones helped by Specials drummer John Bradbury. By the time of their first stand-alone single, vocalists Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson and Pauline Black had been added to the line-up. Recorded for £1,000 in Horizon Studios in Coventry and released on 5 October 1979, On My Radio was a big success, following Gangsters and The Prince by Madness into the UK top ten. As can be seen on this short live clip, the addition of the infectiously energetic Black to the band proved to be a masterstroke as she engaged a whole host of rude-girls, bringing them into the ska-revival scene. At this time, all three bands went out on the legendary 2-Tone tour and my mate Mark and I saw them on a cold November night in a very hot and sweaty Tiffany’s on Sauchiehall St in Glasgow. Happy days!
Border Radio – Dave Alvin (1986)
Not for the first time I am playlisting a song which I first heard thanks to Roy Carr, the compiler of a series of NME tapes in the 80s. Having had my interest in country music charged by EC’s Almost Blue LP in 1981, I was more than ready for the classic contemporary country of Neon West (NME016), released in 1984. Three years later came The Tape With No Name (NME034) which offered the hard core of ‘New Country’. Towards the end of side one, lay this great tune written and performed by Dave Alvin. He had founded The Blasters with his brother Phil in California back in 1979 and they developed their cowpunk sound in Los Angeles. They recorded Border Radio on their self-titled second album in 1981, giving the song a mid-tempo, bluesy almost rockabilly treatment, complete with honky-tonk piano break. That LP also included Dave Alvin’s Marie Marie, which was covered by the Welsh Elvis, Shakin’ Stevens, getting him into the UK top twenty for the first time in 1980. Sibling tensions led to The Blasters splitting in 1986 and Dave went on to have a successful solo career. He re-recorded Border Radio for his first solo LP Romeo’s Escape in 1987, slowing it right down and deploying some lovely guitar and pedal steel licks. The new arrangement allows this song of lost love to really shine: “She calls toll-free and requests an old song/Something they used to know/She prays to herself that wherever he is/He’s listening to the Border Radio.” The power of the airwaves.
Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio – Ramones (1980)
My parents worked hard to bring me and my sister up and there was never a great deal of money around. Gifts at Christmas and on birthdays were modest but there is one Christmas present that I will never forget. Seeing my growing interest in pop music at the age of 11 in 1971, they got me my own small square transistor radio which connected me to the world anywhere I could get a signal. I loved that wee red radio and had it playing in my room every day and every night, clamped to my ear desperately trying to find Radio Luxemburg on 208MW or the very much more difficult to find Radio Caroline, fading in and out somewhere around 259MW. By the end of the decade, I had graduated to a bigger radio set and my night time listening was more John Peel related. Having released their quite turgid cover of the Ronnettes’ Baby I love You as a single in January 1980, the Ramones followed this a month later by their fifth album End Of The Century. It was their tilt at commercial success, bringing in Phil Spector and softening their sound and thereby challenging their core fanbase. Side 1 track 1 opened with the sound of someone scrolling through a radio dial before the drums pound in and Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio kicks off. Unlike the museum piece that was Baby I Love You, this is a glorious melodic love letter to the late 50s/early 60s songs that the band grew up listening to. It was lushly orchestrated by Spector and references radio icons such as DJs Murray the K and Alan Freed and even gives a nod to John Lennon. But it was Joey’s words in the bridge that got me thinking of that wee red radio: “Do you remember lying in bed/With the covers pulled up over your head/Radio playin’ so no one can hear?” I certainly do, Joey.
Last Word
I expect there will be many readers wondering what happened to their favourite song with the word radio in the title but the editor’s decision is final, as the old newspaper competition small print used to say. I’m still wondering how the hell Capital Radio by The Clash didn’t make the list!? Maybe the theme will return another day. Who knows…?
Despite my hand being restricted, the radio tracks have been slid into the master playlist for posterity. The sacrifices I make for this blog!
AR
Week In Sound 
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