This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl is simply too large a concept to be neatly contained within a mere three-hour weekly time slot. Hence these occasional fake TIRnRR playlists, detailing shows we're never really going to do...but could.
There is a song for every circumstance. For many of us, the importance of music in our lives means there are some songs--a lot of songs--that conjure a specific memory each time we hear them, no matter how many times we hear them. The music is more than mere soundtrack; it's as much a part of our experience as the loves, hates, friendships, parties, betrayals, desires, affirmations, and, y'know, make out opportunities that the songs accompany in our recollections.
Today's exercise in imaginary playlists assembles music that's attached in my mind to specific memories. These are songs that, whenever I hear them, automatically jog something particular in my memory bank, usually as an immediate reaction. I've avoided selections where the connection is to the real-life This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio itself. I've also avoided tracks where the connection is too much of a shared mass experience, like songs the general public associates with a movie or TV show; that's why I didn't include the Drifters' "On Broadway" and its connection to a TV commercial for Radio Free Europe. I did include TV appearances by Suzi Quatro and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, because those appearances meant enough to me to still linger in my conscious mind whenever I hear "I May Be Too Young" or "I Need To Know."
Beyond that, though, each of these tracks is linked to a more personal memory. Places I remember. People and things that went before. The connection can be as prosaic as my random (but oddly persistent) memory of hearing Fastball's "The Way" on the sound system at a restaurant, or "Lido Shuffle" by Boz Scaggs blarin' from an outdoor speaker at Syracuse's Ferragosto in the summer of '77, right before I shipped off for my freshman year at college, or the Traveling Wilburys playing in a souvenir shop in Key West. Some are concert memories, and some are just vivid memories of hearing the song for the first time.
But some--most?--are intertwined with moments in my own life, moments that might not otherwise be musical. Softly cooing the Beatles' "All My Loving" to my newborn daughter when she was placed into my arms for the first time; reciting the lyrics to the Kinks' "Days" at my father's funeral; listening to Deep Purple cassettes with my cousin; blastin' the Flamin' Groovies' "First Plane Home" right before leaving for the airport the morning of my first-ever flight to England; a Carpenters song playing on the radio the evening after one of my best pals killed himself. Family. Friends. And, in some cases, girls who were more than friends, if only for a little while...
...or until death us do part. That story continues. True love ways. I believe when I fall in love it will be forever.
This is me, or at least some parts of me, rendered song by song. I've linked a few of the selections to things I've previously written about the specific memories they conjure (though sometimes the link is to a piece about a different song, or something by a seemingly unrelated artist, because that's just the way the story goes). Others may have stories I'll offer at some future point. Some contain details I may prefer to retain as mine and mine alone. And some have stories not worth telling, things that may only matter to me.
The Beatles' "In My Life" is not among this playlist's selections. But its lyrics serve as an introduction: There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed.
The memories don't change. In my life, I've loved them...well, maybe not all. Some memories are better than others.
But I have a song for each of them.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl--y'know, the real one--airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.
Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: CD or download
https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment