I’ve been listening to radio more than I’ve been watching TV, since I can’t see the TV if I’m online, nor hear it well.
Seems like the radio stations that are playing music have redone their playlists in an awful hurry. I’ve heard the new Enya song with soundbites mixed into it a few times already. They had something I hadn’t heard before. Guy says, “What? Why are you pulling us out of here?” Other voice says, “Because the tower is leaning. The tower is leaning.”
So many songs have a deeper meaning now. I’ve heard “Imagine” more frequently than since just before Y2K. “I Won’t Back Down”. “Bad Moon Rising”. Anything by Springsteen, practically. “Tubthumping”, which I’d never thought could be relevant, but “I get knocked down/But I get up again/You’re never gonna keep me down” suddenly has depth. Every version of SSB, God Bless America, and so on that can be dug up: Hendrix, Kate Smith, Whitney Houston, and I think Marvin Gaye. “Sail Away” by Randy Newman. “American Tune” by Simon and Garfunkel.
And yes, I know some of these songs, like “Born in the USA”, aren’t strictly pro-America. Right now, I’m not analyzing lyrics.
I woke up this morning with a song in my head that probably won’t get on LA radio.
“Fair moon, to thee I sing, bright regent of the heavens
Say, why is everything either at sixes or at sevens?”
I was listening to a local rock station yesterday and the DJ played “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton and said that he had hundreds of requests for that song in the last couple of days. I have a hard time listening to that song as it is because it reminds me of Clapton’s little boy, but now hearing it used for the WTC victims has made it impossible for me to listen to the song without crying.
Somebody else mentioned this already, but I’ve been hearing a lot of Bruce Springsteen, especially “Born in the U.S.A.”
I think those kinds of “medleys,” with sound bites from the news mixed in are real tacky, especially when I started hearing them 5 or 6 hours after this all happened.
My compassion is broken, my will is eroded…
You’ve left me no choice but to go inside and rebuild what’s broken.
Too much, too far, too late to lie down now.
I must arm myself to fight you, by making weapons out of my own imperfections.
It’s all I have left, there’s no other choice.
I’ve noticed radio changes as well… even our local metal station has played ‘Dust in the Wind’ no less than four times these past days. Not that this is a bad thing, but I listen to that particular station to feel a little rage, not to weep like a schoolgirl with a skinned knee.
And in agreement with Dignan, those soundbyte medleys strike me as: tacky, trite, insincere, and forced. I don’t think America needs such blatant propaganda to pull our emotions. And I’m sickened at the thought of the inevitable “WTC Memorial Medlycrap Compilation Compact Disc Set”; no matter what percentage of proceeds go to good-will organizations, I know some soulless moneymonger will line his pockets with our grief’s need to spend. Then again, I even thought “We are the World” and Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind” for Princess Di were incredibly hokey.
Today’s WSJ had an article about the return to music.
About KIIS:
“…Later in the day, the station begin programming regular music, but consciously steered their choices to lower-key acts such as Enya.”
“At Saga Communications…programmers put together a list of suggested songs for various formats. Among them: “We Shall Be Free,” by Garth Brooks; “Turn, Turn. Turn,” by the Byrds; REM’s “Everybody Hurts,” and Eric Clapton’s “Tears In Heaven.””
I have thankfully not heard Soul Coughing’s “Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago” which opens with these lines:
Nor have I heard Godspeed You Black Emperor!'s “Dead Flag Blues”, which would be horribly appropriate, given it’s somber nature and this monologue (read by Lee Marvin!):
I gotta give credit to Opie and Anthony on 102.7 in NYC. Since the tragedy they have been doing commercial-free, music-free radio in which they just open up the phone lines and talk with the listeners. Hearing everyone’s stories and reactions has been informative, heartbreaking and inspiring all at once.
I have only heard them play one song in that time - at the end of today’s broadcast, in honor of the volunteers and medical personnel and police officers and firefighters and everyone else who’s doing something to help, they played Foo Fighters’ My Hero. I could have cried.
There goes my hero, watch him as he goes
There goes my hero, he’s ordinary
I was never able to take this song seriously before. It was the theme to an extremely crappy movie, but it’s finally found relevance.
This bloody road remains a mystery
This sudden darkness fills the air
What are we waiting for?
Won’t anybody help us?
What are we waiting for?
We can’t afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
This shattered dream you cannot justify
We’re gonna scream until we’re satisified
What are we running for?
We’ve got the right to be angry
What are we running for?
When there’s no where we can run to anymore
We can’t afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
And with the power of conviction
There is no sacrifice
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
Won’t anybody help us?
What are we running for?
When there’s no where, no where we can run to anymore
We can’t afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
And with the power of conviction
There is no sacrifice
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible