Song of the Week 3/25/05

Supertramp - "Take the Long Way Home"

It's not often that a co-worker points out the Song of the Week to me, but I must credit my next door cube neighbor Doug for saying on Thursday of this week, "Haven't we heard this song every day this week?" He was correct--for some reason, the programming computer at the local NYC classic rocker Q104.3 must have had a glitch. It's not often that you hear the same song four days in the row in the daytime on a classic-based radio station. The computer or the program director or music director should be able to catch that it ran in the same daypart that many days in one week. In the world of classic rock radio programming, that is a no-no.

As if that repeated exposure wasn't enough, I heard "Take the Long Way Home" at a crucial point in a trip upstate on Friday. My friend Heather had the use of a van for a week, so I bribed her to take me up to my aunt's house to pick up a recliner and a bed frame. (I thrive on the hand-me-downs of my aunt--I would be eating on paper plates and using plastic forks without getting her rejects.) Since the van had no working stereo, I brought the Ipod and a little portable speaker system that ran off the headphone output. The trip up turned out ot be hellish, as it took two hours just to get from my abode in Brooklyn to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Somewhere around there "Take the Long Way Home" came up one of of the two lengthy playlists I created for the trip. Oh that song never seemed more appropriate than that moment.

Song of the Week 3/18/05

The Mars Volta - "The Widow"

This track from the group's second album, Frances the Mute, has been played for weeks upon end here in New York on our alt rock station, K-Rock. It was pretty much background noise until the begining of this week, when Cedric Bixler's voice cut through my haze as I was thinking about how crappy the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies would be. (And oh, it was.) Then the next three days I think I heard every single time K-Rock played the song during the day. Finally I broke down and made the single version of this song my first I-Tunes purchase for the I-Pod. Who doesn't like Tex-Mex progressive rock?

Song of the Week 3/11/05

Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

Yet again, VH1 Classic inspires another entry. I saw the video on Monday, heard it on the local Hot AC station on Wednesday, which then inspired me to put Songs From the Big Chair on the new gadget of the house, the 60 gig Ipod. Damn, how did I ever live without this thing?

Song of the Week 3/4/05

Queen - "Somebody to Love"

I'm not even that big a fan of this track (I prefer "Tie Your Mother Down" or "Get Down, Make Love"), but when you hear a classic rock song six times in the same week over one video channel and two different radio stations, you gotta go with what had fate has dealt you. And I must ask, why are Brian May and Roger Taylor touring with Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers? As a colleague of mine said (and I paraphrase here) "Why replace one of the most effiminate frontman with one of the most macho frontman?"