Cradle To Grave, Episode Twenty-Two

This is a post-mortem.

Normally I post a recording of the radio show I do on Fridays, Cradle To Grave, on the Self Help Radio website on Saturdays.  I don't expect anyone will listen, but it's part of my ritual.  I put SHR up on Wednesdays, CTG on Saturdays.

But there's no recording of the show on the website right now.  That's because I only did half the show.  If you listened, you'd know why.

When I do my radio shows, I usually bring up CDs.  I have stuff on vinyl, but I usually digitize it before I bring it up.  What that means is that some of the CDs I have are home-burned.  I buy mp3s, I download stuff, etc.  & you know what?  Some CD players don't like home-burned CDs.

During the show, in the last quarter-hour, one CD player started skipping during on song.  I interrupted, I played another song - hey, I have more than enough stuff for the rest of the show, I have birthdays & deathdays I don't get to.  But when I used the CD player again, it skipped again, with a different CD.

Okay.  This CD player - which worked fine for me the last two shows I did - in the same room! - was rejecting now my burned CDs.  I thought about doing a total John Peel & trying to do the show entirely from one player - I'd have to talk while I was changing out CDs.  But then!  The second CD player started skipping.  It was the end of the hour.  I decided not to suffer through an entire hour with the uncertainty of the CD players rejecting my CDs.

At WRFL, I would have had a backup - I bring stuff on a flash drive - but I don't know if I can play songs at LXU from the computer that has the automation on it.  So I just said "uncle."  I apologize for that.

Here's what the second hour would have looked like:

"Piccolo Pete (Parker Gibbs, vocals)" Ted Weems & His Orchestra _Marvellous!_ (ASV)
"Happy Days Are Here Again (vocals by The Rollickers)" Ben Selvin & His Orchestra _Sony Music 100 Years: Soundtrack For A Century_
"Don't Let The Rhythm Go To Your Head (Let The Rhythm Go To Your Feet) (Chu Berry, vocals)" Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra _Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra_
"Waterworks" Kai Winding Sextet _Early Bones_
"Mountain Greenery" Barney Kessel _Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By_

Death commemorated here were Ted Weems, songwriter Milton Ager, saxophonist Franz Jackson, Kai Winding, & Barney Kessel.

"Lili Marlene" Marlene Dietrich _Marlene Dietrich_ (Habana)
Venus" Dickie Valentine _The Joe Meek Story, Vol. 5: The Early Years_
"I'll Be Home" Flamingos _The Complete Chess Masters_
"Daddy Rollin' Stone" Otis Blackwell _Chicken Shack Boogie, Vol. 3_
"Sweetback" Viola Wills _Sister Funk_

Death commemorated this set were Marlene Dietrich, Dickie Valentine, Paul Wilson of the Flamingos, Otis Blackwell, & Viola Wills.

"The Road Is So Long" Carey & Lurrie Bell _Second Nature_
"Can I Get A Witness" The Steampacket _The In Crowd: UK Mod R&B-Beat, 1964-1967_
"Blowin' In The Wind" Stevie Wonder _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966_
"Emma" Hot Chocolate _Super Hits Of The 70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 14_

Deaths commemorated here were Carey Bell, Mickey Waller of the Steampacket, Clarence Paul singing with Stevie Wonder, & Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate.

The last song I was going to play was in remembrance of one of my heroes, Grant McClennan, who died ten years ago, May 6, 2006.  I would've played "Cattle & Cane" by the Go-Betweens.

Next week I'm out of town but I don't know what I'm going to do in two weeks.  I have resisted bringing up a laptop - that has its own problems.  Right now I'm going to concentrate on the next Self Help Radio.  Otherwise I'm get frustrated all over again.

Self Help Radio 050316: Bees

(Original image here.)

Since I've started inviting my funny friends on my show, I've had not-so-much time to occasionally be serious about things that matter to me, & one of those thing is of course the decline of the bee population.  There isn't quite a consensus about the cause - some say climate change, some say pesticides, & there are other theories.  What seems clear is that humans are responsible in a very clear way, & that's sad indeed.

Since I couldn't say this on the show - no time! - I have said it here.  Sometimes dumb radio programs are where people find out important things.  However dumb the show was, though, I hope it was entertaining where it couldn't be thought-provoking.

You can listen now at the Self Help Radio website.  Pay attention to the password stuff, it's on the front page.  I played a bunch of songs, they're listed below, in the section of the show where you can find them.

Here's hoping you enjoy!

(part one)

"Why Does A Bee Buzz?" Marais & Miranda _More Nature Songs_
"Busy Bee Boogie" Hal Serra & Carol Marks _Animal Hootenanny_
"Buzz Buzz Buzz" Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers _Back In Your Life_
"New Bumble Bee" Memphis Minnie _Queen Of The Country Blues: All The Published Sides 1929-1937_

"Flight Of The Bumble Bee" Harry James & His Orchestra _Swingin' The Classics_
"Queen Bee" John Lee Hooker _The Classic Early Years 1948-1951_
"Bee Sting Stings" Tullycraft _City Of Subarus_
"Humble Bee" John Wesley Harding _The Confessions Of St. Ace_

"Happy Yellow Bumblebee" Of Montreal _The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy_
"Honeybee" Girlfriendo _One_
"Like A Honey Bee (Honey Bee)" The Carousel _abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_
"A Sleepin' Bee (from House Of Flowers)" Diahann Carroll _American Musical Theatre: Shows, Songs, & Stars, Vol. 3_

"Beehive" Boss Hog _Boss Hog_
"Taster Of The Honey (Not The Keeper Of The Bee)" The Jones Girls _The Music Merchant Story_

(part two)

"Beestung" Kristin Hersh _Hips & Makers_
"The Bees (The Bees)" His Name Is Alive _Stars On ESP_
"Honey Bee" Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon _The Golden Torch Story (A Collection Of 18 Classic Northern Soul Shakers)_

"Honey Bee" Jon & Robin _Elastic Event_
"The L.S. Bumble Bee" Peter Cook & Dudley Moore _We Can Fly, Vol. 1_
"Beeswing" Richard Thompson _Mirror Blue_

"Ohio Town Saved From Killer Bees by Hungry Vampire Bats" Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo _Strange But True_
"I'll Be The Bee" Ruth & Al _Crescent City Soul: The Sound Of New Orleans 1947-1974_
"Tumble Bee" Karl Blau _Shell Collection_
"See Sea, Bee, & Me" Guitar _Sunkissed_

"Muscle Belt" Bearsuit _Muscle Belt_
"Leisure Bees" Tacocat _Lost Time_

Whither Bees?

(This image is from the Wikipedia bee page.)

This is a bit embarrassing - I am not entirely sure why I am doing a show about bees.  Sometimes someone will call the show & suggest a theme, & occasionally someone will email & ask for us to explore a theme, but more often than not, it's just some dumb observation I make that leads to a theme.  Although I am noticing some memory slippage as time goes by, & my drinking probably destroys more brain cells than television, I cannot for the life of me remember why I thought about doing a show about bees.

Don't get me wrong - they're super cool animals.  There are a bunch of songs about "the birds & the bees," the old euphemism parents once used to cover the embarrassment of talking to their children about human sexuality, but I avoided those songs for this show, since they're not really about bees themselves.  What those songs reminded me of was the sixth grade - when our science class covered actual birds & bees.  I remember my twelve-year-old self wondering if this was what was meant by "the birds & the bees."  Or if I should be digging deeper?

Look at that!  I can remember impressions I made when I was a child, but I can't think about what might have happened in the last few weeks that said to me, "Hey! Do a radio show about bees!"

Oh well.  All I know is that there are great songs, I have good, funny interviews, & best of all the show can't sting you!  Listen from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington & you can listen online everywhere at the WRFL web site.

How different is this show from a show I did three years ago with the theme "buzz"
?  Oh no, I recognize two songs from that show I may play today!

Preface To Bees: EpiPens

In a couple of the fake interviews for this week's shows - these are parts I might have edited out, because I tend to edit out my own contributions, whittling them down to more or less pertinent questions for my funny friends/guests - I mentioned that I was allergic to bees.  But I have a confession to make: I don't know if I am.  I have never been stung by a bee.

Why would I say, & actually believe, that I am allergic to bees?  Because once my mother told me I was.  That was it!  I'm sure she was telling me that I had a dangerous allergy because she wanted me to be safe, & not to fuck around with bees, creatures that might sting me if I stupidly put my hand into their hive or something.  My mother is pretty much afraid of everything, & that fear was quite easily passed down into all her children.

& you know what, it worked!  It worked so well that I have never been stung by a bee.  I remember watching in awe as a middle-school friend not only got stung by a bee (I was so freaked out I almost cried) but calmly took the stinger out of his skin.  He looked briefly at it as if it were as threatening as a splinter & tossed it away.

As threatening as a splinter!  My mother once told me I absolutely had to get splinters out of my skin as soon as possible because otherwise they'd continue traveling downward, get into the blood vessels, & make their way to your heart, where one tiny splinter could stab & stab & stab you until you fucking died.

If she felt that way about a splinter, imagine what horrors a bee sting could inflict!  Honestly, I don't even know if my mother knew about allergic reactions or going into anaphylactic shock or any of that shit.  She just erred on the side of being terrified of the entire world & made sure to burden us with her suspect wisdom at every opportunity.

The weird thing is how long it took me - well into adulthood - to figure out how bogus it was.  Take, for example, fire ants.  Fire ants would bite you until you died, said my mother, & that's why you should be careful walking around them.  Only, my little brother once stood in a fire ant hill, got bitten all over his legs, was in a lot of pain, was covered in calamine lotion for a night, & didn't die.

It's a testimony to how much a child relies upon the parent that I didn't call my mother out after my brother lived.  Because when I saw those ants crawling all over him, I thought he was going to die.

Anyway, bees.  I'm still afraid of bees, & actually most insects that are larger than a dime.  & who knows?  Maybe I should carry an EpiPen with me.  For all the hell I know, out of the thousands, if not millions of things my mother told me that turned out to be hysterically wrong, she might be right about this.

New Intro Time Again Again Again Again!

With the exception of 2004 - who the hell knows what was going on then - there has been a new Self Help Radio intro each year at some arbitrary time - usually when the station begins a new schedule.  But since the show premiered in October, the first intros probably happened then.  I have no idea when they moved to May.  Probably when KOOP started a new schedule at the beginning of May.  Anyway.

The WRFL Summer Schedule starts - when?  Oh yeah, May 8.  That felt weird to me, having a new intro being the second week of the month.  So I made this year's intro today.  Hope you don't mind!

This Tuesday, around 4pm, you will hear this:

The Self Help Radio 2016-2017 Intro!

Whee!  Hooray!  Huzzah!  Good lord!  Oh no!

& in case you care, here are the intros from shows of self help past:

You can listen to the 2002 intro (my first!) here.

You can listen to the 2003 intro here.

You can listen to the 2005 intro here.

You can listen to the 2006 intro here.

You can listen to the 2007 intro here.

You can listen to the 2008 intro here.

You can listen to the 2009 intro here.

You can listen to the 2010 intro here.

You can listen to the 2011 intro here.

You can listen to the 2012 intro here.

You can listen to the 2013 intro here.

You can listen to the 2014 intro here.

Finally, even if you're sick of it, here's the intro I've been using for the past year.


Strangely, I have no idea if anyone listens to these or enjoys them or pays any attention.  But if you do, I hope this year's intro pleases you.  You're going to be hearing it for fifty-two or so weeks!

Cradle To Grave, Episode Twenty-One

From Duke Ellington to Jerry Seinfeld, from a blues great who died young to a synthesizer freak who lived a long life.  That's this week's Cradle, & that's this week's Grave.

Perhaps I should say something about Mick Ronson.  Of all the folks whom I played this week, he's probably the one I've listened to - really listened to - the longest.  My friend Russell made me a Bowie tape when I was thirteen, & even though I don't think "Moonage Daydream" was on it, there were definitely tracks from four of the five albums Ronson played guitar on for Bowie.  So even though I know Ronson had a solo career, & worked with many others (including Dylan), I can't separate him from the life-altering guitar work he did with Bowie.

Why do I feel the need to explain my choices?  I don't know.  But though I think the flow of this show is a bit clunky, I like the music I played.  I hope you like it too.

The show sits, sighs, & waits for you at the Self Help Radio website.  The births are in the first hour, the deaths in the second hour.  The songs played on the show are below.

(birthdays)

"Tourist Point Of View" Duke Ellington & His Orchestra _Duke Ellington's Far East Suite_
"Do It Again" April Stevens _Ultra Lounge, Vol. 6: Rhapsodesia_
"Autrefois" Pink Martini _Hang On Little Tomato_
"Baby Don'tcha Worry" Tammi Terrell _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol 6: 1966_

"K&H Boogie" Big Jay McNeely _The Hoy Hoy Collection: Rock Before Elvis_
"I Can't Quit You Baby" Otis Rush _The Essential Otis Rush: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-1958_
"Lost John" Lonnie Donegan _The Collection_
"A New Way To Cry" Willie Nelson _Willie Nelson 1961_
"Punchy Wunchy Wickey Wackey Woo" Hasil Adkins _The Wild Man_

"Crimson & Clover" Tommy James & The Shondells _The Complete Singles Collection_
"Dizzy Dizzy" Can _Anthology - 25 Years_
"A Girl In Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing)" Romeo Void _Instincts_
"The King Of Joy" Bill Drummond _Creation Soup Volume Four_
"Men & Women" Jerry Seinfeld _I'm Telling You For The Last Time_

(death anniversaries)

"When The Sun Goes Down" Leroy Carr _When The Sun Goes Down, Vol. 3: That's Chicago's South Side_
"Mississippi Road" J.B. Lenoir _Folk Music In America, Vol. 7: Songs Of Complaint & Protest_
"Choo Choo Ch'boogie" Kenny Roberts _Rockabilly & Hillbilly Hell Raisers_
"Pastures Of Plenty" Cisco Houston _Cisco Houston Sings The Songs Of Woody Guthrie_
"The Home Of The Blues" Sammy Lawhorn _Rockin' Rhythm & Blues From Memphis_

"You Took Advantage Of Me" Miff Mole & His Little Molers _Echoes Of The 20s & 30s_
"Muddy Miss" Jimmy Jones Big Eight _Jimmy Jones 1946-1947_
"The Strut" James Moody _Wail Moody, Wail_
"Yellow Dog Blues" Cat Anderson _Plays W.C Handy_

"Dune Buggy" The Surfaris _Fun City, U.S.A._
"Penny Lane" The Beatles _1967 - 1970_
"Love Heals" Colours _Love Heals_
"Moonage Daydream" David Bowie _The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars_

"Relay Circuit" The Copper Plated Integrated Circuit _Plugged In Pop_

Self Help Radio 042616: Indiepop A To Z # 50

(I got all the album/single cover images from discogs.com.)

Here's a confession about this show, my fiftieth (!) entry in my indiepop a to z series: I fucked up twice.  In my first airbreak, a WRFL member just came sauntering into the deejay room - even though the "on air" light was bright red outside - as if it were the most natural thing in the world - & did whatever she was doing in there.  Then she left.  It totally threw me off my game.  I lost my train of thought, I got irate, & I just went straight to reading a PSA.  That is preserved in the airbreak of the show.  Sigh.

What isn't preserved is the end of the next-to-the-last airbreak wherein I forget which CD was in which player, & accidentally didn't play the Lightning Seeds song that was supposed to be next.  I very clumsily stopped the song I played instead, & stumbled on-air trying to figure out where the errant CD was, & got lucky on the second try.  But you know what?  I edited that out of the show now on the website.  Because I can do that!

Because sounding terribly unprofessional is something I should really only do once a show, especially since I sound awful unprofessional most of the rest of the time.

In any event - here it is, the second episode of indiepop L, now at the Self Help Radio website, in two delicious parts, in for real alphabetical order.  You know about the password, right?  It's on the front page.  You know what songs I played, right?  Well, they're right below this.

Be twee.

(part one)

"Love & Understanding" Legendary Hearts _In A World Like This..._
"Bigfoot" The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group _Sniff_
"Nothing To Be Done" The Legends _Up Against The Legends_

"Maple Leaves (7" Version)" Jens Lekman _Maple Leaves_
"Nemo's Land" Lemon Curd _Nemo's Land EP_
"I Wonder If I'll Ever See You Again" The Leopards _I Wonder If I'll Ever See You Again_
"Any Day Now" Leslies _Moshi Moshi (Pop International Style)_
"Pop Love" Let's Be Honeys _Popsongs For My Poor Self_

"Three Limbs" Let's Go Naked _Three Limbs_
"All Happy Endings" Let's Whisper _The Shortest Days_
"We Are The Men You'll Grow To Love Soon" Let's Wrestle _In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's_
"Rotten Love" Levy _Rotten Love_
"Kitchen At Parties" Jona Lewie _On The Other Hand There's A Fist_

"Don't React" Liberty Ship _The Matinée Summer Splash!_
"Kind" The Liddles _Welcome To The Wetherbeat Scene 1988 - 1991_

(part two)

"Postcard" Liechtenstein _Survival Strategies In A Modern World_
"Inside Out" Life Studies _Homeward 7"_
"The Leanover" Life Without Buildings _Any Other City_

"Yard Sale" Lifestyle _At The Risk Of Sounding Pretentious_
"Big Shoe Boy" Ligament Blub Brothers _Big Shoe Boy 7"_
"Yuri's Hair Salon" The Legendary Len Liggins _Yuri's Hair Salon_
"Springtime" The Lighthouse Keepers _The Exploding Lighthouse Keepers_
"Everyone I Know" Lightning Love _November Birthday_

"Pure" The Lightning Seeds _Cloudcuckooland_
"He's Not A Boy" The Like _Release Me_
"New York" Like Honey _Leaves_
"Office Rock" The Lil' Hospital _Heavy Metal_
"I Went To The Dance" The Lilac Time _& Love For All_

"My Heart Bleeds" Lilac Trumpets _The Sound Of Leamington Spa, Vol. 6_
"Any Place I've Lived" Lilys _A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns_

Whither Indiepop A To Z # 50?

Holy springtime, there will soon be fifty of these?  & we're still in the letter L?  By that calculation, I'll finally be done when...  let me see...  carry the seven...  pie are square...  ah!  When there are no more radios & global warming will have changed us all into happy blob creatures living in nutrient-rich saunas.  So - 2032?

Yes, it's the continuation today of the ridiculous indiepop a to z series.  We started the letter L last time, & will begin with the Scottish band Legendary Hearts.  Where will it end?  You'll have to listen to find out.  Fans of lists, alphabetization, & indiepop may enjoy themselves.

Today, from 4-6pm, on 88.1 fm WRFL, & simultaneously online at wrfl dot fm.  Lots of great music from musicians you may have never heard before.  That's one of the things radio is good for!

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 50: Show Math

Here's something I was thinking about when it hit me that I have done almost fifty episodes of this weird "indiepop a to z" series: what percentage of the total shows I have done are these episodes?

At one time I tried to keep a count of the number of Self Help Radio shows I've done.  That was something I was usually too lazy to update, but once I added a "table of contents" (really, a list of the shows) to my website, it became easier for me.  Using a line counting function in BBEdit, I have a rough number: 716 shows.

Please understand, these are not 716 different themes - I have repeated themes, like Christmas & Halloween shows, & I re-visit a theme on the show's anniversary.  But it does mean around 716 different episodes of Self Help Radio.

Is that number correct?  Probably not, but it's a decent ballpark estimate.  In the thirteen & half years I've done Self Help Radio, it makes sense that I would've done around 700 shows.  I imagine I've done around forty-eight shows a year, counting time off.  Some years more, some less.  Sometimes I've had to take breaks because I've changed stations or cities.  That happens.

The math gets easier, then: fifty indiepop a to z shows out of seven hundred shows equals about seven percent of Self Help Radio shows.  Probably less, but it's a nice number.

Should I do more?  Maybe every three months instead of four?  Because, you know, at this rate, I'll never finish.

Heck, tomorrow I won't finish the letter L!

Who Here Knows The Best Way To Get Illegal Drugs In This Town?

Once upon a time, there was a dealer.  The dealer was not only a distributor of illegal drugs, he was also a user of same.  This dealer however just sold marijuana, in a state where the drug was illegal.  He was a nice enough sort, easygoing in the clichéd manner that people imagine potheads are.  In fact, when they thought about it, most of his customers would swear they had never seen him angry.

But a select few of his clientele had seen him angry.  In fact, those few, after witnessing his blow-ups, realized that his constant, uninterrupted use of marijuana probably had an unintended purpose: yes, it was getting & keeping him really high, but it also appeared to keep a magnificent lid on a terrifying anger problem.

Why did the dealer get mad with only these few of his customers?  It was because of one word.

Notice that he was referred to in the first paragraph above as a "distributor of illegal drugs."  He would not refer to himself in that way.  It's because he did not think of marijuana as a drug.

But if marijuana were not a drug, what was it?  He had a ready answer for that: "It's natural," he would say.  "It's found in nature."

If you were to casually refer to him as a "drug dealer," the drug dealer would flip out. "It's not a drug!" he would scream.

Most folks - because they wanted their drug in the form of the marijuana being sold - would simply recoil, unaware they'd made a faux pas, though used to the legendary sensitivity of drug dealers, & say, "Sorry, man, I didn't mean it!"

But one time, a younger man, a new customer, perhaps, one who had actually grown up with an older brother with a bad temper, & the mother he inherited it from, this person didn't react in the same way.  He saw it for what it was: a weird, irrational, defensive freak-out.  After the dealer had screamed his piece, his eyes bulging out, his mouth open, his face an unusual shade of red, this customer calmly took out his phone, punched something into it, & then read out loud, "The marijuana plant contains the mind-altering chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is a drug."

The dealer, unused to being gainsaid or challenged in any way, said, "That - that doesn't make it a drug, a chemical name."

The customer punched some more things into his phone & said, "Drug, noun.  A medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body."

The dealer just stood there, looking quite confused.

The customer turned to go.

"Wh-where are you going?" the dealer said.

"I know what you're going to say," the customer said.  "I grew up with people who fly off the handle.  You're just going to tell me to get the fuck out."

"But," said the dealer somewhat plaintively, "don't you want your pot?"

Cradle To Grave, Episode Twenty

From Kentucky to India.  That's the path this week's Cradle To Grave took.  I don't know if that's good or not.  I was chatting with a very opinionated someone about college radio in general last week, & he told me there were two defining characteristics of that media: the inability to read & the lack of flow.  He said, "Whenever college students have to read something on the radio, they make you wonder how they got into college at all."  He later complained that every college deejay thinks it's funny to, say, play a pretty classical music piece, & then follow it with a black metal song.  "I wish," he said, "it could be put into their brains how many people change the station in disgust."

Naturally, I have begun to worry about this show.  Since I have no control over who was born or who died on a particular day, I have to work with the material fate gives me.  One solution might be for me to do what the late, great John Peel did, & chat briefly in-between every song, but I think I speak for the universe when I say nobody wants that.

How bad could it be?  As an example, in the last set of the show, I played a rock & roll tune from the 1960s & followed it with a folky song.  I don't think it flowed all that well.  But I wanted to play both songs before the end of the show.  & I thought, "Well, they're both women singers, so..."

Please, hypothetical listener, don't change the station in disgust!

The show, which is about April 22, even though it's no longer April 22, is now at Self Help Radio's website.  It's in two parts, birthdays & death anniversaries, & what I played is below, although sometimes the musician being celebrated or commemorated is not the main artist - so you might want to listen to find out who it is!

"Trademark On What I Found" Bob Gallion _MGM Hillbilly, Vol. 2_
"Way In The Hee Hi Hoo" Lemon Nash _Papa Lemon: New Orleans Ukulele Maestro & Tent Show Troubadour_
"Wichita Lineman" Glen Campbell _Wichita Lineman_
"Black Diamond Bay" Bob Dylan _Desire_

"Better Get Hit In Yo' Soul" Charles Mingus _Mingus Ah Um_
"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" Mel Carter _The Best Of Mel Carter_
"Sweet Jamaica" Laurel Aitken _You Got Me Rockin' (The Blue Beat Years 1960-1964)_
"Boogie'n With George" George Smith _Now You Can Talk About Me_
"Nosey Joe" Bull Moose Jackson _Badman Jackson That's Me_

"Zulu King" Cannibal & The Headhunters _Land Of 1000 Dances_
"I Can Fly" The Herd _The Complete Herd_
"Tempted" Squeeze _Spot The Difference_
"The SAS & The Glam That Goes With It" Earl Brutus _Tonight You Are The Special One_
"Confusion" New Order _Palatine, Vol. 2: Life's A Beach_

(death anniversaries)

"Hoola Boola Dance" Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools _The Rise & Fall Of Paramount Records, Vol. 1: 1917-1927_
"A Monday Date" Earl Hines _Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines 1928: The Smithsonian Collection_
"Boy! What Love Has Done To Me!" Jane Froman with Al Goodman & His Orchestra_ Those Wonderful Girls Of Stage, Screen & Radio: Original Records Of The 30s_
"Love Can Change The Stars" Victor Marchese & Jane Powell _Reaching For The Moon_
"All I Have To Do Is Dream" The Everly Brothers _Classic Everly Brothers_

"Calling Jesus" Rev. Louis Overstreet _His Guitar, His Four Sons, & The Congregation Of St. Luke Powerhouse Church Of God In Christ_
"Witches Brew" Marilyn Cooper, Leslie Uggams, Barbara Sharma _Hallelujah, Baby! (Original Broadway Cast Recording)_
"Moon Over Rio" Robert Farnon _Betty Page Jungle Girl Exotique Music_
"I Only Have Eyes For You" Jimmy Bee _Los Angeles Soul: Kent-Modern's Black Music Legacy_

"Joycie Girl" Don Pullen feat. Sam Rivers _Capricorn Rising_
"High Flying Bird" Richie Havens _Mixed Bag_
"Is There Anything I Can Do" The Ashes _The Peanut Butter Conspiracy: Spreading From The Ashes_
"The Rebel Girl" Hazel Dickens _Don't Mourn - Organize! Songs Of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill_

"Bhajan In Raga Pilu" Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman _Violin_

Self Help Radio 041916: Everything's Fine

(Original image here.)

No.  No.  Everything is not fine.  How dare a radio show tell me that things are fine when they so obviously are not.  The gall!  The cheek!  The chutzpah!  The impudence!  The insolence!  The effrontery!  How brazen!  How ballsy!  How arrogant!  How impudent!  How presumptuous!

Unless.  Unless I misunderstand the nature of media.  Maybe media is not by definition in opposition to me.  Maybe media is just a viewpoint that exists, as so many do, that doesn't threaten mine at all.  Maybe taking things like radio, television, films personally belies my own insecurity.  Am I so unassured, do I have such a lack of confidence, that something with which I disagree needs to be silenced instead of accepted in a society that values the free exchange of ideas?

But wait!  People on the radio have a different platform than most of us.  I can say "Everything's not okay!" but the only people listening are my cats & someone who might be driving by with the windows down!  A person on the radio can reach more people!  Therefore my opinion doesn't have the exposure theirs does!  Their ego is by definition more successful than my ego!

This is unfair & should be stopped!

Oh hi!  That above is an excerpt from an unfinished one-act play I wrote because I disagreed this one time with something Roger Ebert wrote.  He was only a good writer, you know, when he & I liked the same things.  Otherwise he just made me mad.

Why did I share it with you?  Who knows!  I might have cat scratch fever.  Meanwhile, this week's show, with the theme, "Everything's Fine," is now available for listening at the Self Help Radio website.  The show is not an endorsement of everything, nor is it an actual description of "everything," which, as we all know, is demonstrably not fine.  It is simply another in a long line of exercises in futility which, you may have guessed, is the only real exercise I get.

Still - let's hope everything's fine for as long as you listen.

(part one)

"Everything's Fine" The Saints _Wild About You: The Complete Saints 1976 - 1978_
"Everything's Just Fine" The Waltones _Deepest_
"Everything's Just Fine" Earwig _La-Di-Da...  So Far..._

"Everything's Just Fine" Ronderlin _Wave Another Day Goodbye_
"Everything Is Fine" Numbers _Now You Are This_
"Everything's Fine" Minks _Tides End_
"Everything Is Fine" Teen Suicide _DC Snuff Film_

"All Is Fine" Tall Dwarfs _Fork Songs_
"Fine" James _Pleased To Meet You_
"Fa-Fa-Fa-Fine" Julian Cope _Jehovahkill_
"Feeling Fine" Class _First_

"I Feel Fine" The Beatle Barkers _The Beatle Barkers_
"Feel So Fine (with Patsy Todd)" Derrick Morgan _Moon Hop (Best Of The Early Years 1960-1969)_

(part two)

"Guess I'm Doing Fine" Bob Dylan _The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9)_
"Tonight Will Be Fine" Leonard Cohen _Songs From A Room_
"That's Fine" The Legendary Bang _Big Bluff_

"You Know I'm Fine" The Orchids _Unholy Soul_
"Seems Fine" The Concretes _The Concretes_
"Closer To Fine" The Smittens _Love Record Breaker_
"Fine" Burnt Palms _Back On My Wall_

"It's A Fine Day" Jane _Scared To Get Happy: Story of Indie Pop 1980-1989_
"One Fine Day" David Byrne & Brian Eno _Everything That Happens Will Happen Today_
"One Fine Day" Madness _The Liberty Of Norton Folgate_
"It's Gonna Work Out Fine" Cherokees _It's Gonna Work Out Fine_

"It's The End Of The World As We Know It (& I Feel Fine)" R.E.M. _Document_
"Doin' Fine" Groovie Ghoulies _Short Music For Short People_
"Thursday Feels Fine" Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes _Cabinet Of Curiosities_

Whither Everything's Fine?

(I'm sorry, I have no idea where I found this image.)

Irony lovers take note!  This week's show has the theme "everything's fine."  But it turns out that today took a turn toward the awful, & although technically everything is okay now, it could've gone much, much worse.

A little backstory: I put the show together on my computer.  I edit my dumb "comedy" bits, I rip CDs into digital files, I digitize vinyl when I need to, I have some stuff on mp3 or mp4 or whatever.  It's more convenient to have them in a few places than carrying a bunch of records & CDs up to the station every week, like I used to do (like so many deejays, bless their souls, still do).  I am not saying my way is better, but since I am in front of a computer all day long anyway, it's just easier for me to work this way.  & I spend Tuesday mornings listening over everything, making notes in my head how I should organize the show, etc.

This morning, around 10am, the power went out.  The neighbors were milling around outside looking confused, so it was obviously an area-wide event.  One neighbor claimed to see a transformer blow.  Eventually, calls to the power company informed us that like "4,000 families are affected" or something.  Everything was, in fact, not fine.  At all.

Remember: most of my show is on a computer.  I panicked.  I despaired.  I decided that I would scrap the show, & just play music miserably (including miserable music), & I realized it would be the first time I had skipped a theme in favor of a freeform show because of circumstances beyond my control.  I despaired more.  I self-hated.  I was grumpy with the wife on the morning dogwalk.  I was rude to my poor dogs.

At the end of the walk, as we came back around to the house, however, the traffic lights in our neighborhood were back on, & everything was returning to fine.  My blood pressure would take a little longer to level out.

& now, as I write this, I am scrambling to get the show done.  I am ridiculously backing up everything every few minutes.  I am lugging out CDs & vinyl in case I have to take them up to the station.  So - you know - everything is not fine in my head.  I am preparing for something that already happened, assuming it will happen again & again.  I get that from my mom.

Will everything be fine?  Find out today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm.  & blame the weirdos in Lexington who turn their A/C on when it's a paltry 80 degrees outside.  In Texas, we call that "early spring."

Preface To Everything's Fine: Alarming Information About Fines

This is a haiku about fines:

My library fines
Don't make me feel very fine
Unlike fine wine

Here is a haiku about taxes:

Choose: taxes or fines -
One's down, the other rises!
Shh! That's a secret!

Here is a haiku about parking tickets:

I used to daydream
I'd love a fair meter maid -
Dumb parking ticket!

Here is a haiku about haiku:

Too many people
Call what they write a 'haiku'
Without counting syllables

Here is a haiku about the previous haiku:

That's not a haiku!
You did what you pointed out!
Oh, now I get it.

Here is an apology for all the haiku:

Sorry about all the haikus I wrote.

Here is a link which will tell you that the plural of haiku  can be either haiku or haikus.

Here is a final haiku to people who don't like that I add an 's' to the end of haiku to make it plural.

A living language
(Like English is) also lets
Foreign words evolve.

Me & My Backyard

On the show's Twitter account today - which really should be about the show, but since the show doesn't always have a lot to say, & usually only has something to say from four to six pm on Tuesdays, so I will often fill it with my mundane thoughts & embarrassingly obvious observations - I tweeted about my backyard.

Damn do we have a big backyard.  I didn't really want the house we live in, actually.  It's too big for us, even when us is two humans, four dogs, & four cats.  But my wife wanted the house, & she wanted it much more than I didn't want it.  Honestly, I guess I didn't care.  But I wish, when I was thinking about this house,  I had thought about mowing.

Mowing the backyard - this is just the backyard - takes me about ninety minutes.  That's a hell of a time commitment.  Plus, I don't apparently get better at mowing - I don't appear to be able to learn new mowing strategies that can shave minutes off my average mowing time.  If there were some "mowing skills plateau," I reached it pretty quickly.  It takes an hour & a half for me to mow my backyard.

It takes me longer to mow the front, but that's the wife's responsibility, since she also wants to do insane shit like blow excess grass off the sidewalks & edge.

If there's a reason why I'm not good at mowing, it may be because I lived in apartments for the first twenty years of my life.  The only time I mowed was when I was paid for it by my older siblings & it was their yard(s).  & I worked cheap.  Probably did a terrible job too.

When I rented houses or duplexes in Austin, the owners paid to have the yards done "professionally." I had to buy a lawn mower only when we bought our first house, in 2005.

It's been downhill from then.

& yet.  I don't think I would be comfortable with a "riding mower."  You know who uses a riding mower?  The seventy-something-year-old man next door.  He looks so happy on it.  & perhaps that's one of the reasons I resist: who wants to be happy mowing a lawn?

Would I feel better about mowing the backyard if I had grown up being required to take care of our own back yard?  It's hard to say.  My mother never made me & my little brother do chores when we were kids - I doubt she would've made us mow a lawn.  More than likely, she would have done it.  The reasons why are more complicated than I have time to go into.  But infantilizing her sons has made it difficult for them to move away from her, which is why most of them live within a few miles of her to this day.

Okay, I went into it some.

Anyway, that's why I was talking about my backyard today.  I should probably mow it once a week, but I said that last year.  & the year before that.

Through it all, my backyard, mowed or unmowed, wet or dry, green or brown, it mocks me.  All day long.

Let me check.  Yes.  All night long, too.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Nineteen

Oh, the first "live" episode of Cradle To Grave was a mess.  Inside the building (which is a high school) which houses Lexington's community radio station is actually two stations: WLXL & WLXU.  WLXU just went on the air.  I misunderstood a communication with the station that I would remain on WLXL when I moved, when obviously space had opened up during the week on the new station.  So I chatted amiably with station staff until I noticed the show on WLXL was not ending - at which point, I asked - a bit too late - if I were still on the schedule.

That's why you'll hear me correct myself, saying WLXL instead of WLXU a couple of times.

Then there's the whole issue of getting used to a new station.  One radio control board looks about the same as the other, & works the same (I've used about five different ones at four different stations), but you still have to get used to how the channels are marked, where things in the deejay booth are located, all that.  For example: I usually stand when I do my shows.  The deejay booth at WLXU is designed for the deejay to sit, not to stand, in.  There's a different vibe one gets when one is sitting when one is on the air.  I've found.

At one point, while I was talking, my mind wandered, & I read the facts about one artist I was featuring incorrectly.  So embarrassing.  I complain that I was tired on the air, but the truth is, I was a little baffled.  I was nervous, confused, befuddled, & lost.  It gets a little better, I think, in the second hour - I hope, I haven't listened to the show - but it's still quite a mess.

The music is great, though!  Lots of births to celebrate & deaths to commemorate for Tax Day!  You can listen to the show (if you want to after that introduction) at the Self Help Radio website.  You can see the songs I play below.  You can hope I get used to do this show live, so it becomes actually listenable!

(birthdays)

"St. Louis Blues" Bessie Smith _Louis Armstrong & The Blues Singers_
"Washboard Blues" Casper Reardon & His Group _The Big Broadcast, Vol. 8: Jazz & Popular Music Of The 1920s & 1930s_
"The Swing Session Is Called To Order" Mezz Mezzrow & His Orchestra _Mezz Mezzrow 1936-1939_
"The Friar & Dr. Goulding" Herb Pomeroy & His Orchestra _Band In Boston_
"Bourbon Street Parade" Young Tuxedo Brass Band _Jazz Begins_

"Gonna Make You Mine" Frank Frost _Harmonica Blues Benders_
"Winehead Baby" Little Sonny James _Mardi Gras Blues_
"Red Hot" Bob Luman _Rockin' Bones: 1950's Punk & Rockabilly_
"Twelfth Street Rag" Roy Clark _The Lightning Fingers Of Roy Clark_
"Ramona" The Blue Diamonds _ Always... The Blue Diamonds_

"Banana Boy" Eden Ahbez _Eden's Island_
"Sweet Dreams (Of You)" Mighty Sam McClain _The Amy Records Sessions (1966-1969)_
"Sweet Thing" Van Morrison _Astral Weeks_
"Medicine Man" Barclay James Harvest _Barclay James Harvest & Other Short Stories_
"Girls Talk" Dave Edmunds _The Best Of Dave Edmunds_

(death anniversaries)

"The Boogie Woogie" Cleo Brown _Boogie Woogie_
"My Blue Heaven" Kid Thomas & His Algiers Stompers _Best Of Jazz Crusade_
"Tanga (Part 1)" Machito & His Afro-Cuban Orchestra _The Roots Of Funk 1947-1962_
"Wild, Wild Young Men" Rose Maddox _Whistle Bait!_
"Just A Dream I Got On My Mind" Dewey Corley & Walter Miller _The George Mitchell Collection_

"Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" The Ramones _Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology_
"Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)" John Fred & His Playboy Band _Judy In Disguise With Glasses_
"Dirty Robber" The Wailers _The Fabulous Wailers_
"My L.A." Tacey Robbins & The Vendells _Girls In The Garage, Vol. 6_
"The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack" The Nice "The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack_

"My Pal Foot Foot" The Shaggs _The Shaggs_
"Peanuts" Little Joe Cook & The Thrillers _Peanuts_
"Mellow Chick Swing" Sean Costello _Cuttin' In_
"I'm Qualified" Jimmy Hughes _The Birth Of Soul, Vol. 1_
"Woman Of The Ghetto" Phyllis Dillon _Funky Kingston: Reggae Dancefloor Grooves 1968-1974_

"The Real Sheila" Game Theory _Lolita Nation_

Self Help Radio 041216: Laws

(Original image here.)

A funny thing.  I mentioned a couple of days ago that I saw a car speed through a red light right in front of a cop, who didn't bother to follow said car to write him a ticket.  I have had enough experiences in Lexington with the city's awful drivers to believe that that's the norm - in fact, & this is absolutely true, the only people I've met in Lexington who've been stopped by the police for traffic offenses have been people of color.  But I digress.

The radio station, WRFL, is located on campus, & to get to the station, you have to come into campus a particular way & drive down a one-way street.  Not surprisingly, I very often see people going the wrong way down that street, & have never seen a cop stop them, & have only heard of one person being ticketed for doing so.  But as I walked to the station yesterday - I was walking from the other side, so walking the other way up the one-way street - I saw a campus police officer standing at the parking lot at the end of the one-way street writing tickets for people traveling the wrong way up the street.  & to the cop's credit, the dumb person I saw getting the ticket was not a person of color.  Or rather, the color of that person was white.

Wouldn't it be a weird turn of events if Lexington was the city where the campus cops were better police than the city cops?  Or to put it in the idiom of the show, if they enforced the law better than the city cops?  Undoubtedly both get paid terribly; but surely campus cops (I have to resist calling them kampus kops) get paid less.

Oh!  I just thought of something!  At the University of Texas, parking tickets were giving out like crazy because the campus police were funded in part by the moneys brought in by parking fines.  Maybe that's the case at UK too.  Ah well.

Not a funny thing, then.  & speaking of not funny things, this week's show about laws has been place under arrest & forcibly imprisoned at the Self Help Radio Maximum Security Website.  You'll need a password to get in!  It broke so many laws this week - in fact, I list them below.

You can't visit, either.  Naturally, the show's in solitary confinement.

(part one)

"The Law" John Maus _A Collection Of Rarities & Previously Unreleased Material_
"The Law Of Things" The Bats _The Law Of Things_
"The Law" Leonard Cohen _Various Positions_

"I'm Just A Bill" Jack Sheldon _Schoolhouse Rock: America Rock_
"There Oughta Be A Law" Mickey & Sylvia _Love Is Strange_
"There Oughta Be A Law ('Bout The Stuff I Saw)" The Newbeats _Bread & Butter_
"I Am The Law" Momus _Reproductions: Songs Of The Human League_

"Advice On Arrest" Desperate Bicycles _Another Commercial Venture_
"Against The Law" Billy Bragg _'Til We Outnumber 'Em (The Songs Of Woody Guthrie)_
"I Fought The Law (live)" The Clash _On Broadway_
"All Of The Law" The Psychedelic Furs _Midnight To Midnight_

"This Side Of The Law" Johnny Cash _I Walk The Line_
"Knock Out The Lights (& Call The Law)" Jack Hart _MGM Hillbilly, Vol. 2_
"Where's The Law" Dee-Dee Gaudet _Hot Boppin' Girls, Vol. 4_

(part two)

"It Is The Law" The Envelopes _Demon_
"Breaking The Law" The Meteors _These Evil Things_
"Breakin' The Law" The Babies _The Babies_

"The Whole Of The Law" The Only Ones _The Only Ones_
"One Law For Them" The 4 Skins _The Good, The Bad, & The 4 Skins_
"Law & Order" John Mulaney _The Top Part_
"Law" Mighty Mighty _A Band From Birmingham_

"It's A Law" Natural History _Beat Beat Heartbeat_
"New Law" Gloria Cycles _Campsite Discotheque_
"Laws Of Physics" Charming Hostess _Eat_
"Law Of The Jungle" Richard Barone _Clouds Over Eden_

"Wheel Of The Law" Kendra Smith _The Guild Of Temporal Adventurers_
"Squid Law" The Fall _Seminal Live_

Whither Laws?

(I found that image here.)

In the middle of the week, I go shopping for food for the cooking I'll do over the next seven days.  I don't go to just one place - it's usually three, maybe four.  It takes me a couple of hours, & my wife slowly found other things to do (like "work") so she doesn't have to accompany me, which is fine - she dawdles.  Plus, she doesn't know where anything is in these stores whose layouts I have mastered.  Since I'm alone, I need to find something to listen to as I drive around town, & if it's not something new I'm obsessing about, I grab a random CD from my collection that I haven't listened to in ages.

A few weeks back, I lazily grabbed a fine collection of singles by the band Mighty Mighty.  The first song I ever heard from them was from a discounted double LP of British independent singles from 1987 or so.  (It found its way to Austin, Texas, probably thanks to an enterprising employee of Waterloo Records, but, no one showing interest in it, its $21.99 mark-up was reduced to a delightful $3.99, almost as if just for me.)  The song was the lovely "Built Like A Car", which is still one of the catchiest songs ever recorded.

As I drove, I was reminded of how great a band they were, & especially I was reminded of the song that ended up on the legendary C-86 collection, "Law."  It made me wonder, as I listened to it more than once, how many songs there were out there about laws.  & not just laws that humans made for cops to enforce, but what about laws of physics, or heck, even religious laws.  That was the genesis of this show.  So, thanks Mighty Mighty!

Now you have some background as to why, from 4-6 pm today, on 88.1 fm WRFL, wrfl dot fm, there'll be a show about laws airing.  I'm not going to say it's illegal to listen, but why take the chance?  See you there!

Preface To Laws: Breaking The Law All The Time

This probably won't shock you, but everyone breaks the law all the time.  It's not just the petty shit, like running a red light, which apparently isn't even a law you can break in Lexington, since just last week I was sitting at an intersection & a n SUV zoomed through a red light right in front of a police car, & the officer inside didn't seem to notice, or to care.  No, people steal & cheat pretty much all the time.  I think it's actually part of our economy.

Not that I'm an economist or anything, & not that I have any more information than some (actually quite dated) anecdotes.  Come to think of it, all of these stories I am going to tell involve convenience stores, so maybe I should have said at the outset that everyone breaks the law all the time in convenience stores.  But I've seen it happen many times, even outside of convenience stores, & I am such a pessimist, that I'm convinced it happens pretty much all over the place, despite the industry.  Anyway, the Panama Papers seem to suggest that the very rich have made their habit of cheating into a damned art form.

So, three stories:

1) When I was a boy, my mother worked in a convenience store.  Not only would she let us (her family members) take anything they wanted for free (when the boss wasn't there) (this included junk food, comic books, candy, & sodas), which meant she was stealing from the place she worked, but she told me later that her boss, at the end of the day, would take one hundred dollars out of whatever money they made, & put it aside, & not claim it.  This basically meant he made $36,500 every year tax-free.  That's in 1970s dollars.  & sure, he pocketed it, but also maybe that helped pay for all the things his employees stole.  Because surely he knew they stole!

2) & you know what?  I have a sneaking suspicion he did know, because in 1989, I had a job at a Seven-Eleven in Austin, Texas, & I was told by the manager, whose last name was Bailey so everyone called him "Beetle" (true story), that he basically wrote off a hundred dollars a day of the store's earnings as a loss due to theft.  This wasn't about the employees - it was the company's policy to do so, just because it assumed that people were constantly stealing from the store.  I myself caught a lot of folks stealing, actually, since I worked the 11pm-7am shift.  That was when people tried to steal beer & very cheap wine.  But you've probably seen people shoplift before.  I see it at my local convenience store weekly, sometimes in front of employees, who often don't say or do anything about it.  As someone at Seven-Eleven once said, which is kind of a mantra for folks doing retail work, "They don't pay me enough to care."

3) Speaking of Seven-Eleven, Beetle also made sure I watched the Oak Farms vendors like a hawk.  Oak Farms was the dairy that supplied the store with the milk, ice cream, butter, etc.  It seemed strange to me that we were to be suspicious of a company which had a pretty exclusive relationship with our store, but I soon found out that many of these people would try to "short" the store (ie, give less than what they claimed on the orders) so they could take the leftovers to independent convenience stores & sell them for cash.  This was such a common practice that, although I never caught him cheating my store, the Oak Farms guy I worked with for my first couple of months was fired for theft abruptly during my time at the store.

Does this prove anything?  No.  Are there honest people?  Sure.  I feel less inclined to take advantage of such situations these days because I am able to afford stuff.  Recently, for example, at the self-check-out at Kroger, I missed a couple of things in my basket, & noticed them when I got to the car, & I went back inside to buy them.  (The person overseeing the self-check-out area didn't notice me leaving without paying for stuff in the basket, not did he notice me bring stuff from outside, run it through the self-check-out minutes after buying stuff, & leaving again.  Probably not paid enough to care.)  I wouldn't have done that when I was in college.  I would have felt a little guilty, but the cool feeling of naughtiness would have balanced the scales somewhat.  Also, I was poor.

But is it fair to take these personal narratives & somehow, by analogy, claim the entire country, if not the entire world, is like this?  Probably not, but as I said, I'm not an economist.  But if you, like me, have a sneaking suspicion that capitalism fundamentally depends (& encourages) on a certain level of dishonesty if not outright theft, then having these experiences in my memory banks has not suggested any more integrity-rich alternatives.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Eighteen

Hey!  This one actually aired!

As I said yesterday, this will be the last prerecorded Cradle To Grave, as the show moves to a new timeslot & gets the - advantage, maybe? - of being live.  You may not believe this, but I don't really like my voice all that much, & more than that, I usually hate to hear what comes out of my mouth.  So doing the show at home was problematic for the reason that I would be tempted to edit most everything I said.  & I succumbed to that temptation a lot.  This will not be the case for this Friday's live version of Cradle To Grave, so it could be more terrible than even these prerecorded versions - so bad I'll wish I could edit it.  Honestly, if it weren't for the convenience, I'd prefer to be able to cut my ramblings down to spare the world from them.

Also, on this week's show, I celebrate the life of a producer, Martin Hannett.  I don't know if I've done this before.  I've focused on songwriters, but not the people behind the recordings.  That probably won't be a common thing, but Hannett produced a lot of my favorite music, so it would've been difficult for me to exclude him.  I promise to draw the line at "executive producers"!

The show is resting, as in a cradle or a grave, at the Self Help Radio website where else?  The show, of course, is in two parts: birthdays in the first hour, death anniversaries in the second.  You can see what songs I played in each part below.

(birthdays)

"Franklin Street Blues" Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight _Breaking Out Of New Orleans_
"Look What You've Missed" Sharkey Bonano _The Good Time Jazz Story_
"Barnyard Blues" Eddie Edwards & His Original Dixieland Jazz Band _Eddie Edwards & His Original Dixieland Jazz Band with Tony Sbarbaro_
"Coolin' With Dash" Julian Dash _Chicken Shack Boogie, Vol. 4_
"Sho' Nuff Melon" Reuben Wilson _Blue Break Beats, Vol. 3_

"Water Boy" Paul Robeson _Folk Song America: A 20th Century Revival_
"Texas Blues" Mance Lipscomb _Songster_
"Matchbox" Carl Perkins _The Sun Records Collection_
"Put It On" Count Rockin' Sidney with the Dukes _Southern Funkin': Louisiana Funk & Soul 1967-1970_
"Mutual Admiration Society" Virginia Gibson & Ethel Merman _Happy Hunting (Original Broadway Cast Recording)_

"Forever & A Day" Terry Knight & The Pack _Reflections_
"The Night Chicago Died" Paper Lace _Super Hits Of The '70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 13_
"Tiger Feet" Mud _Jackie The Album_
"We Will All Go Together When We Go" Tom Lehrer _The Remains Of Tom Lehrer_
"Maybe You'll Appreciate Me Someday" Kay Adams _Killers Three OST_

(death anniversaries)

"At The Jazz Band Ball" The Original Dixieland Jass Band _Remastered_
"Royal Garden Blues" The Mezzrow-Ladnier Quintet _Mezz Mezzrow: 1936-1939_
"Blues Negres" Cleoma Falcon _Hot Women: Women Singers From The Torrid Regions Of The World_
"Hobo Blues" James Yank Rachell _Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1938-1941)_

"You Got Me Hummin'" Sam & Dave _The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968_
"La-La (Means I Love You)" The Delfonics _La-La Means I Love You: The Definitive Collection_
"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" Brook Benton _Home Style_
"Kulu Sé Mama" John Coltrane _Kulu Sé Mama_

"Changes (Live)" Phil Ochs _Farewells & Fantasies_
"Live Like A Lady" The Remo Four _Smile!_
"She's Lost Control" Joy Division _Unknown Pleasures_

"Negativland" Neu! _Neu!_