Self Help Radio 080318: Everything's Gone Green

This was such a fun show to do!  More than forty people told me their favorite green songs, & I was able to gather around thirty-six plus add a couple of my own picks (as I can't help myself) to make a show.  The show itself was a request by a listener named Anne & I wonder how she'll feel that her show was the result of ideas from over three dozen people?

Some folks are going to be disappointed, though.  Of course some people had the same favorite green song, & in that case, if they asked for more than one song, I picked the one that wasn't requested by another.  Some folks requested instrumentals - alas, I used most of those to talk over, as music beds.  (See below.)  That's going to irk those people.  & lastly, I couldn't accommodate three kind folks.  One requested an entire album that didn't have an obvious green song on it, one requested a cover when the original was more requested, & one asked for a ten-minute-long song which I just didn't have the time to play.  My apologies.

This is something I've never done before, basically letting a bunch of other people program the show (eighteen of which are current or former deejays, naturally).  In at least four cases, they picked songs I never would've played, either because I didn't know about them, or because I generally don't care for the artists.  But you know what?  It didn't matter.  Once I asked, the show stopped being all mine.  & that in itself was super neat!

You can listen now at the Self Help Radio website.  You'll need a username, which is SHR, & a password, which is selfhelp.  The show is about two hours long, & what's on it - including the instrumental beds I spoke over - is listed below.

Thanks to everyone who helped!  I am totally going to do this again!

Self Help Radio 180803: Everything's Gone Green

"Green" Ken Nordine _Colors: A Sensuous Listening Experience_
"Bein' Green" Kermit The Frog _A Sesame Street Celebration Vol. 2_
"Green" Laura Freeman _Color Wheel Cartwheel_
"Optimistic Voices" The Debutantes, The Rhythmettes, & The MGM Studio Orchestra _The Wizard Of Oz: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack_

(bed music) "Blue In Green" Miles Davis _Kind Of Blue_

"Everything's Gone Green" New Order _Substance_
"O Green World" Gorillaz _Demon Days_
"Pretty Green" Mark Ronson & Santogold _Version_
"Green Gucci Suit" Rick Ross _Green Gucci Suit_

(bed music) "Green Onions" Booker T. & The MG's _The Very Best Of Booker T. & The MG's_

"Green Door" Jim Lowe _Songs They Sing Behind The Green Door_
"Green Green" The New Christy Minstrels _Ramblin'_
"Green Eggs & Ham" Marvin Miller _Fox In Socks/Green Eggs & Ham_
"Green Green Grass Of Home" Tom Jones _The Golden Hits_
"Green Tambourine" The Lemon Pipers _The Best Of Bubblegum_
"Little Green Bag" George Baker Selection _Super Hits Of The '70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 2_

(bed music) "Collard Greens" Freddie McCoy _Lonely Avenue_

"Green Is The Colour" Pink Floyd _More_
"Little Green" Joni Mitchell _Blue_
"I'm So Green" Can _Ege Bamyasi_
"Green Earrings" Steely Dan _The Royal Scam_
"Another Green World" Brian Eno _Another Green World_
"Green Shirt" Elvis Costello & The Attractions _Armed Forces_

(bed music) "Son Of Mr. Green Genes" Frank Zappa _Hot Rats_

"Green Fingernails" Gene Marshall _The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood & Brush?_
"Green Children" Kathy & The Lawnmowers _Experiments in Destiny_
"Green" Throwing Muses _Throwing Muses_
"Green Isaac" Prefab Sprout _Swoon_
"Dark Green Energy" Robyn Hitchcock _Greatest Hits_
"Pale Green Things" Mountain Goats _The Sunset Tree_

(bed music) "Greensleeves" Jimmy Smith _Organ Grinder Swing_

"Ladybird (Green Grass)" The Fall _The Infotainment Scan_
"Green Thoughts" The Smithereens _Green Thoughts_
"Green Mind" Dinosaur Jr. _Green Mind_
"Shades of Green" The Mission _Singles A's & B's_

(bed music) "Green Jeans" Grant Green _Matador_

"Green" Drug Boyfriend & Holy Worm _Green_
"Green Grass Of Tunnel" Múm _Finally We Are No One_
"Dye The Water Green" Bibio _The Green EP_

Whither Green?

(An image I get if I type in "Everything's Gone Green" in the google image search, found here.)

You already know why this show is the way it is because I've told you: someone wanted me to explore the theme green.  & I wouldn't have minded exploring the theme green except I started thinking, "Gosh, there are so many songs about the color green, what if I asked for help."  So I did!

Over forty people made suggestions, & I decided, fuck it, I'll try to play them all.  Will I play them all?  All but around four, I reckon, & you'll have to listen to the show to hear why.  The only limit right now is time, & I'm going to forgo the bells & whistles of the show to try to cram as many songs in as possible.  I don't know if they will all fit, so I'm not sure what will be cut.

But it's very exciting - the first Self Help Radio I'm hosting that's mostly not programmed by me.  You must tell me what you think.  Tomorrow at noon, on the website.  Now to work!

Preface To Green: An Interesting Experiment

In case you didn't know, this happened:

1) A listener asked me to do a show with the theme "green."  She specifically mentioned New Order's "Everything's Gone Green" as one of the songs she'd like to hear.

2) I checked.  There were over a trillion songs about the color green for me to listen to.

3) Panic set in.  Would I be able to find time to go through all those songs & make a show?

4) One of those lightbulbs appeared over my head.

5) It actually gave me an idea.

6) (Probably using this word wrong but) I would crowdsource the show!

7) I asked people on the Facebook Self Help Radio page to make requests.

8) Three people did.  Not an inspiring number.

9) What the hell, I thought, ask on my personal Facebook page.

10) So I did.

11) Holy shit, I got like forty requests.  Maybe more.

12) Most of them from deejay friends.  Naturally.

13) Some of my annoying deejay friends made multiple requests.

14) I just took the first one.

15) Seriously there are so fucking many songs about the color green.

16) Some of the requests are not songs I would've picked, & two or three are songs I don't actually like all that much.

17) But you know what?  It stopped being about me when I asked.

18) This will be an interesting show this!

19) Now to put all together!

20) & maybe think about doing it again?

Carol Kaye

This is nice.  I love to discover something I didn't know about music, & this YouTube video taught me about a session musician whose work I have long enjoyed but didn't even know it:



At 83, she's still active.  Visit her website for more.

Golly.  What a life!

Shell

She stood near the front of the school.  Well, it used to be a school.  It still looked like a school, actually still had "high school" carved into the front facade to designate it as a school.  But the windows were all removed & the edifice mostly hollowed out.  The whole campus (could you still call it a campus?) was surrounded by a ten-foot chain-link fence.  Under the pole where the school sign once store - it was long gone - stood a giant sign which read "Modern Townhomes" & had an artist's rendition of what the place would look like once the renovation was done.

She studied that sign.  She hadn't been a student at this school in her high school years.  She hadn't even known this school existed.  She grew up far away from this place.  She had hitched a ride somewhere on I-30 outside of Little Rock & the driver was going south, so he let her off by the side of the highway.  She climbed over a small fence, wandered past scrubby ground & several "no trespassing" signs, heading toward a shelter she had visited the last time she came through.

It was hot, but it was always hot, except when it was cold.  She had even felt hot in California, which was something no one ever claimed.  The shelter was a few blocks away, not a terribly far distance to walk, but the shell of the school beckoned to her, & she walked around the chain-link fence to look for a way to get in.  She had seen some garbage through one of the openings, & it suggested to her that someone had sneaked in & at the very least rested there.  The fact that there were a few Port-A-Potties around the site made it even more attractive.

At a convenience store outside Arkadelphia, the clerk refused to give her a key.  She got the truck driver to get it for her, & it's true, she looked like she was living rough.  She washed her face.  She was a little surprised the trucker was waiting for her.  Her even bought her a sandwich.  She felt comfortable enough to sleep most of the drive.

She found a section of the fence which she could slip through.  She looked around but there was nobody around.  In fact, it looked like work on the renovation had stopped at some point & hadn't resumed.  But who knows, the temperatures had been in the hundreds for weeks now, probably they had to quit work because of someone experiencing heat stroke.  It had happened once to her brother, she remembered.

The sign on the bank off the interstate said it was 103 degrees.  It might feel better in the cool concrete of the stripped school, away from the sun; she could get to the shelter around dinner time.  Anyway, it wasn't going to be any cooler there.

She wandered into the large empty space through what was probably a back door.  She had walked up a few steps & noticed they had removed parts of the second floor, probably for high ceilings or something.  It wasn't appreciably more pleasant inside but it was good to get out of the sun.  She instinctively said, "Hello?" & she was strangely pleased that there was a small echo.  The place smelled of dust & bricks & urine.  She wondered if maybe people came here to camp at night.

It was then she saw the body under what used to be a flight of stairs.  It was a man, very thin & haggard, wearing too many clothes as many homeless people & transients do.  He was supine, his body straight like he was sleeping on a too-small bed.  His mouth was open but his eyes were closed. She immediately thought that he was dead.

He wasn't, his breathing was shallow, & he twitched a little as he slept.  She knew she didn't want to disturb him.  If he were drunk, or worse, on drugs, it could be dangerous for her.  But she sensed he was in distress.  How old was he?  You couldn't tell.  People automatically thought she was much older than she actually was.  He could be forty, though he looked eighty.

She would ask someone at the shelter.  They could call an ambulance, if they thought it was serious.  She did her best to note his features, his clothing, his belongings, so she could describe him to whoever was in charge.

Sighing, she made her way back into the sun, looking around this area that once had had homes, families, enough people with children to fill a high school.  But really there was no one around, no one on the street, no cars.  She could understand why she might want to stop here, but who was going to want to live here?  She probably didn't understand enough about gentrification, although the thought did cross her mind that, should she find her way back this way again, the shelter might not be in the same place.

It might be condos.  Or a brew pub.  Or really anything but a shelter for people like her.