State Songs 080715: Idaho

(Original images here & here.)

I subbed a fun show on WRFL called "State Songs," it's on Friday mornings from 8 to 9am, & host Ben explores a different state every week.  He couldn't do the show yesterday, & he knows how fond I am of potatoes, so he asked me if I could do a show about Idaho.  Idaho!  I found lots of songs about Idaho.  There might be more songs about Idaho than there are people in Idaho.  Maybe.

The show is available in Idaho as well as everywhere else now at the Self Help Radio website.  You know about the dumb password protection stuff, right?  The passwords are on the front page.  You can find them.  The Idaho songs are listed below.

Esto perpetua!

"The 50 States Song" Sufjan Stevens _The 50 States_
"Here We Have Idaho" Rick Pickren _The State Songs, Vol. 3_
"Idaho" Alvino Rey & His Orchestra _Dance With Me_
"Beautiful Coeur D'Alene" Arkie Shibley & The Mountain Dew Boys _Hot Rod Race_

"Idaho State Fair" Vaughn Monroe _Lady Love_
"Way Out In Idaho" Rosalie Sorrels _Classic Railroad Songs_
"Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day" Iris DeMent _My Life_
"Moscow Idaho" Rod Picott _Summerbirds_

"Idaho" Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons _The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette_
"Private Idaho" The B-52s _Wild Planet_
"Idaho" The Divine Comedy _Absent Friends_
"Miss Idaho" Ox _Intercontinental Pop Exchange No. 6_

"Chain Gang" Boise Cover Band _Unoriginal Artists_
"Idaho" The BoDeans _KGSR Broadcasts, Vol. 5_

Self Help Radio 080415: Captains

Boy, that's a shabby image I made right there.  Sorry.  I didn't want to spend too much time on it.  The images were taken from Google, I didn't save where I found them all.  Sorry!

Anyhoo - I did a radio show this week about captains, & it's the reason I'd be thrown to the sharks.  There are plenty of songs about real-life captains, fake-life captains, captains in general, & captains specific.  There's a report from Marge Most about trouble in the world of riverboat captains on the Ohio, there's a call from Mark Miller about famous captains of television & film, & there's an interview with David Fruchter, a cruise ship captain.  I don't know if you're the sort to suffer from what the French call mal de mer, but I have it on terrible authority that this show will give you your sea legs.  Ahoy!

The show can listened to on land but preferably at sea now if you download it from the Self Help Radio website.  Unlike when you're sailing the great oceans, there is a username & a password you'll need to use.  That information is located on the website & not, as you might expect, with the other treasures down in Davy Jones' Locker.  The songs that I play are listed below - the show is two hours long & in two hour-long parts.

Listen or I'll make you walk the plank!

(part one)

"Captain, Won't You Let Me Go Home" Tom Darby & Jimmy Tarlton _Bloody War Songs 1924-1939_
"Captain Kidd" Ella Mae Morse _The Very Best Of Ella Mae Morse_
"Jolly Captain Huddlestead" Jimmie Dolan _Juke Box Boogie_

"Be The Captain" The Beagles _We're The Banana Splits/Here Come The Beagles_
"Captain Of Your Ship" Paper Dolls _Paper Dolls House_
"Capt. Kangaroo" The Suburban 9 To 5 _Sunshine Becomes You_
"Captain Man Pt. 1" Tropical Fish _Syde Trips, Vol. 6_
"Captain Equinox" The Firesign Theatre _Pink Hotel Burns Down_
"Where's Captain Kirk?" Spizz Energi _Where's Captain Kirk?_

"Take A Message To The Captain" Fanny _First Time In A Long Time: The Reprise Recordings_
"Captain Zero" Mixtures _Captain Zero_
"Dancing With The Captain" Paul Nicholas _Jackie: The Album_
"Captain Domino" Promise _Promise_
"Captain's Dead" Guided By Voices _Human Amusements At Hourly Rates - The Best Of Guided By Voices_

"The Ballad Of Laverne & Captain Flint" Guy Clark _Texas Cookin'_
"Captain Kennedy" Neil Young _Hawks & Doves_
"Captain Kidd" Ed McCurdy _Bad Men & Heroes_

(part two)

"The Captain" Leonard Cohen _Various Positions_
"Captain Hook" Shel Silverstein _Where The Sidewalk Ends_
"Captain Courageous (On Disko Island)" John Wesley Harding _The Sound Of His Own Voice_

"Wot" Captain Sensible _Women & Captains First_
"Captain Fantasy" Ween _The Pod_
"Captain Dry" Robyn Hitchcock _While Thatcher Mauled Britain_
"Captain Hampton & The Midget Pirates" The Aquabats _The Fury Of The Aquabats!_

"Captain Pasty" Frank Black _Bluefinger_
"Captain Love" Mock Orange _Captain Love_
"Captain To Captain" I Heart Hiroshima _Tuff Teef_
"Captain" Tarwater _Not Given Lightly: A Tribute To The Giant Golden Book Of New Zealand's Alternative Music_

"Cavalry Captain" The Decemberists _What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World_
"Dream Captain" Deerhunter _Monomania_
"Captain Nemo's Library" The Ethnobabes _Stargazer_

Whither Captains?

(I found this picture here.)

As a child of the 1970s, & someone who didn't apparently know how to have fun, I often spent Saturday nights watching The Love Boat & Fantasy Island.  I remember being a little confused about The Love Boat at first, because the captain was Murray from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Murray was hardly a person you'd put in command of anything.  But eventually I was won over by the paternal captain & his sweet, witty crew.  & was only really frightened when Charo was on board.

(Although I would have been horrified to find out where Captain Stubing ended up.)

Of course, the greatest captain of my childhood was Captain James Tiberius Kirk.  The only rival he might have had is Han Solo.  In the science fiction captain of space vessels class.  But Kirk was much more put-together than Han was.  (I feel weird saying "Solo" - the same way I'd never refer to Kirk as "James" or "Jim"). Anyway, Captain Kirk was way cooler to me than Captain America.  & characters like Captain Nemo didn't capture my attention the same way as sci-fi stars did.  What a nerd I was.  & am.

You can pretend this show is a tribute to the captains of my childhood, but I can't really remember why I wanted to do a show about captains in the first place.  I just know I'm going to.  Just like I know I'll never be in charge of a vessel.  Hell, if I were in Starfleet, I'd be an enlisted man.  Maybe work my way up to Chief Petty Officer.  Until I earned my red shirt & am killed right away on an away mission.

Hey!  Self Help Radio is on today from 4 to 6pm on 88.1 WRFL Lexington.  It should be streaming simultaneously on wrfl dot fm.  If the weather's good & we don't sail into a perfect storm, I'll archive the show on the Self Help Radio website tomorrow.  But you'll want to hear it live.

That's an order, sailor!

Preface To Captains: Rank

There was a time when I was obsessed with rank.  Maybe it had to do with comic books - SERGEANT Fury had his Howlin' Commandos during the second World War but when he took over S.H.I.E.L.D., he became COLONEL Fury.  Obviously a field promotion.

Or maybe it was because of Star Trek - Captain, Commander, Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant, Crewman.  I liked to know stuff like the ship's counselor on the Enterprise (under Captain Picard) had a rank of Lieutenant Commander but took the Bridge Officer's test to get the rank of full Commander so she could helm the ship.

Who knows?  When I meet folks who were in the military, I often ask them their rank.  I always liked the difference between enlisted & officer, & between non-commissioned officers & the commissioned kind.  Sometimes the people I talk to are a little sensitive - I understand.  The military, like any enforced hierarchy, breeds resentment & rivalry.

Maybe because the world has always admired heroes in wartime, the comic book world is filled with ranked super-heroes.  Especially captains.  Captain America.  Captain Atom.  Captain Marvel.  Captain Universe.  (Someone listed their ten favorites here.  Some of these fought or were created during World War II - I think we're supposed to believe that Captain America, at least, really holds that rank.  I wonder if anyone's written about the connection between ranks & superheroes.  It's almost as common as colors & super heroes (Green Lantern, Black Panther, Blue Beetle, etc.).

Why captains, though?  Perhaps I'll talk about that tomorrow.

I Can't Stop Thinking About Kings Island

Sorry if this is boring coming from a man nearing his fifties.  But I can't stop thinking about our trip to the amusement park - & the wife keeps talking about getting a platinum membership.

This is a ride we didn't get to ride while we were there:



There was a forty-five minute wait.  We were tired & hungry.

We did ride this one, the Diamondback.  I think I enjoyed it the most, primarily because it scared the hell out of me:



Anyway.  I'll talk about radio tomorrow.  Or not.  Who knows? Who cares?