Tuesday, October 16, 2007

On the Radio....Whoooaaa


Today I heard a great lineup on the radio. Really, songs that I never hear. Here are some I remember:

1. Man Eater by Hall & Oates
2. Eye of the Tiger
3. Surrender by Cheap Trick
4. Red, Red Wine
5. Case of the Ex (old, hilarious, ridiculous mid-90's song, does anyone remember it? I think it was Monique or something, ha)
6. MacArthur Park by Donna Summer
7. Lady in Red
8. Straight Up by Paula Abdul
9. Oh What a Night
10. That it's tricky song (Run DMC?)

It's the simple pleasures that get me through the day. One of them is listening to the radio, which is something not a lot of people my age do. Why waste time with commercials and songs you hate when you can listen to your favorite music whenever you want on a sleek, pricey gadget? Everybody wants their own personal, private music library at their beck and call 24/7.

It can be annoying to drive with your finger glued to the seek button because there's "nothing on the radio." But honestly, sometimes I don't even mind hearing songs I hate because it gives me something to make fun of and reminds me of what I value in music. And I've developed a love/hate relationship with many commercials. Some of them have been around forever and remind me of my childhood. Others are funny, and some are just horrendous. In any case, suffering through all the talking and advertisement and awful music makes finding a good song so worthwhile.

All of my favorite songs would lose their meaning if I could just click or drag my finger and hear them whenever I wanted. I like the uncertainty of listening to the radio. You never know what will come on next. It could be a total dud or Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser live. It could be polka or some evangelist or NPR. It could be anything, and anyone could hear it - it's not, "oh, I have a better music library than you" or headphones on a single listener. There is nothing more delightful than suddenly hearing the opening notes of a song you haven't heard in ages, and knowing that you are in the right place at the right time at the perfect broadcast location to hear that song. It was meant to be. It is a gift. If you really listen to the radio, it will very often give you just what you needed.

Aaaaand a picture of the golf cart. The old, quality golf cart that probably had functioning brakes and good acceleration.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

we have had this argument before. i love the radio, but i also love my ipod. it has this nifty feature called "shuffle" where it randomly plays EVERYTHING in my "superior music library," this giving the effect of "gifts from the radio."

MLA said...

Agree to disagree. But you know your life wouldn't be complete without the "baseball, hot dogs, Applegate and Chevrolet" ad.

Anonymous said...

my life would be more that complete, becaue I KNOW that ancient Mr. Appelgate.

Matt said...

I just drove from Palm Springs to San Francisco via Joshua Tree and had no CDs or iPod due to poor planning on my part. All I had was the radio. At the beginning of the trip I had the option of church stations (not playing music), polka-inspired Mexican music, country, and regular Mexican. I chose silence.

MLA said...

I totally would have listened to the Mexican polka.

amk said...

i didn't like country until the summer after my junior year in high school. I did lanscaping, and wasn't rich enough to own a DiscMan or iPod, so i used my dad's walkman. i worked in a "valley" i guess (not a valley, just a low area of Fenton) and the ONLY station that came in was Flint's B95. after that summer, I was hooked on Tim Mcgaw, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, and many more!