Baker's Dozen

With electricity we were wired into a new world, for electricity brought the radio… – Theodore H. White

Upon hearing Bob Dylan’s wonderful “Theme Time Radio Hour” on Sirius I imagined what it must have been like to listen to the radio back in the “old days” when it actually meant something. Sure, there are still some solid college/independent stations dotting the dial, but most of it’s filled with the same commercials and the same songs played over and over and over again. I’m not old enough to have lived through the “Golden Age of Radio,” but I do remember tuning in to Casey Kasem’s Top-40 countdown every weekend so I could hear the latest hits and long distance dedications. Those days are gone now. For me it’s all iPod all the time. In honor of my renewed appreciation for classic radio (spurred on by Dylan’s aforementioned program), I present a Baker’s Dozen of great tracks about the dying medium.

“Mohammed’s Radio”

Warren Zevon

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Zevon sings about how something as simple as listening to the radio can bring solace to a trying life. Likely referencing a third-world community, the song is not only highly relevant, but also applicable to a variety of circumstances: “Everybody’s desperate trying to make ends meet/Work all day, still can’t pay the price of gasoline and meat/Alas, their lives are incomplete/Don’t it make you want to rock and roll/All night long Mohammed’s Radio/I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful/On the radio, Mohammed’s Radio.”

“On the Radio”

Crash Crew

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An early hip-hop groove from 1983, Crash Crew lets everybody know that when they’re not rockin’ you in the flesh, they’ll be rockin’ you on the radio. The brainchild of Reggie Reg, the Crash Crew got its name because they were constantly using the sound effect of a car crashing in their mix tapes. Makes sense.

“Transmission”

Joy Division

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Only Ian Curtis can make a line like “dance dance dance to the radio” sound so serious and brooding. It’s no secret that Curtis was unhappy, and while “Transmission” firmly supports this fact, it’s heartening to know that the radio at least provided temporary solace to the tortured soul: “Well I could call out when the going gets tough/The things that weve learnt are no longer enough/No language, just sound, thats all we need know, to synchronise/Love to the beat of the show.”

“Radio, Radio”

Elvis Costello and the Attractions

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Costello made waves when on Saturday Night Live in 1977 he famously interrupted his own version of “Less Than Zero” and blasted into a frenetic version of “Radio, Radio,” which bemoans the commercialization of radio broadcasts and the power wielded by record companies over what’s on the airwaves. It features Costello’s razor sharp lyrics, including the classic line: “You either shut up or get cut up, they don’t wanna hear about it/It’s only inches on the reel-to-reel/And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools/Tryin’ to anaesthetise the way that you feel.”

“The Spirit of Radio”

Rush

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Picking up where Elvis left off above, Rush’s epic song initially celebrates the wonders of radio, but soon comes to recognize the commercialism poisoning the medium. Drummer/lyricist Neil Peart references Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” in his attack: “For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall, concert hall/And echoes with the sounds of salesmen.”

“You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio”

Joni Mitchell

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Apparently Joni wrote this song because her manager told her to write a hit and she thought radio stations would likely play a tune about the radio. Of course, in this song the radio is simply a metaphor as she sings out to her significant other (which rumor has it, was James Taylor) letting him know that she’s available with a bountiful of love but that it requires reciprocity: “But if you’ve got too many doubts/If there’s no good reception for me/Then tune me out, ’cause honey/Who needs the static/It hurts the head.”

“Radio”

The Avalanches

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“Sending those signals, sending those signals, sending those signals, those digital signals.” Like the rest of The Avalanches dizzying debut, “Radio” features a heady mix of sampled beats and dialogue tracks from obscure films and TV shows. The track’s repetitive whir of “sending those signals” built on top of Mandrill’s ultra-funky “Fat City Strut” manages to be both mesmerizing and dance-inducing at the same time. Fun fact: Since I Left You, the album from which “Radio” is taken, boasts an astonishing 3,500 samples.

“Rock and Roll”

The Velvet Underground

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The humdrum of a suburban childhood is jolted by the thrill of hearing rock and roll on the radio in this strutting track by the Velvet Underground circa 1970. It was the last gasp of the Lou Reed-fronted Velvets, but the simple purity of lines like “…she couldn’t believe what she heard at all; she started shaking to that fine, fine music: her life was saved by rock and roll.” was a refreshing final breath by one of the coolest bands on the planet.

“She Turns My Radio On”

Jim Ford

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Ford was a talented country-soul singer from Kentucky who made a killer record in 1969 called Harlan County. Like Joni Mitchell’s song above, this track also uses the radio as a metaphor, comparing the joy of music to the love of a woman. Ford also recorded a gospel version called “He Turns My Radio On.” And no, he’s not bi-sexual. The “He,” in this case, is God.

“Comme à la Radio”

Brigitte Fontaine with the Art Ensemble of Chicago

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Anthony Carew beautifully describes the inspired collaboration between Brigitte Fontaine and the Art Ensemble of Chicago: “Four decades on, and Comme à la Radio still sounds magical: an alchemical experiment of fusing songform with avant-gardism that manages to sound both effortless and studied; a cross-cultural, cross-genre marriage that manages to transcend its naked ambitions and birth a new musical form with, seemingly, every single spin.”

“Static on the Radio”

Jim White with Aimee Mann

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Sometimes static on the radio perfectly encapsulates the dazed feeling inside your head. This evocative track by Jim White, with the help of Aimee Mann, does justice to the state of haziness that follows a doomed romance. “Midnight rendezvous with a pretty girl/Wearing a torn and tear-stained gown/Like a ghost ship she appeared from nowhere.”

“Radio Clash”

The Clash

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It was a tough decision whether to go with the dub-reggae funk track or the more punk-fueled “Capital Radio Two.” I chose “Radio Clash” because it’s a political charger that moves you…literally. Inspired by New York old school hip-hop artists like the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash, “This is Radio Clash” is a dancefloor anthem for the ages, calling out tyranny and calling for action: “This sound does not subscribe to the international plan/In the psycho shadow of the white right hand/Then that see ghettology as an urban Viet Nam/Giving deadly exhibitions of murder by napalm…This is Radio Clash using audio ammunition/This is Radio Clash can we get that world to listen?”

“Radio Gnome Invisible”

Gong

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Let’s finish things off with Daevid Allen’s merry band and the batshit loony lyrics of “Radio Gnome Invisible.” David, take it away! “What’s that in the sky now?/Teapots that can fly now/Voices in your head/Tell me what they said/Banana, nirvana, manana (you know)/Banana, nirvana, manana (I know)/Banana, nirvana, manana (we know).” Well put.

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