AM/FM

1. H.A.P.P.Y. Radio (fragmento) Edwin Starr
2. Why Modern Radio is AOK with Me. Roman Candle
3. Radio Song. Felice Brothers
4. Left of the Dial. Replacements.
5. Radio Radio. Elvis Costello
6. Radio Clash. The Clash
7. Dance to the Radio. Jimmy Webb
8. Video Killed the Radio Star. The Presidents of the United States of America
9. Heartbeat Radio. Sondre Lerche
10. Radio Silents. Young Marble Giants.
11. Radio Song. REM
12. How to Kill A Radio Consultant. Public Enemy.
13. Satellite Radio. Steve Earle.
14. Mexican Radio. Wall of Voodoo
15. Border Radio. Dave Alvin
16. Radio Retaliation. Thievery corporation
17. Golden Age of Radio. Josh Ritter (incompleta)
18. On your radio. Joe Jackson
19. Radio Sweetheart. Elvis Costello
20. Roadrunner. Jonathan Richman

1. H.A.P.P.Y. Radio. Edwin Starr (fragmento)

2. Why Modern Radio is A-OK. Roman Candle
I was down at my favorite watering hole
with a buddy of mine that was out on parole
and we were flipping through the jukebox,
talking how we’d been and how we are.

He’d got a library card and he’d pierced his tongue
and a buddy in prison had turned him onto Neil Young
and he thought that it’d be best to play some for the entire bar.

Now he didn’t know, but while he was in jail,
I’d had my heart broken by a woman to wondrous to tell
and we‘d fallen in love to half the songs that jukebox played.

So when he flattened his dollar on the side of the machine
and I saw “Comes a Time” come on the karaoke screen
I knew there was a couple things I had forgot to say:

Don’t play Neil Young
Don’t play Van Morrison
Just let some high school emo band start versing and chorusing
Because there’s no way it will break my heart as far as I can see
and that’s why modern radio is A OK with me.

He said a pop song used to be a powerful thing,
you could turn on the a.m. and John Lennon would sing
or Frank Sinatra would be talking to all of the girls.

And you could think like a hawk or think like a dove
or think of a winter afternoon when you fell in love
and ten songs on a record sounded like a string of pearls.

Now my buddy rattled on till an hour'd gone by
and I thought to spit a mouthful of beam in his eye,
maybe leave him for dead, but a friend is a friend to stay.

So I listened to him talk about Johnny and June
And how "I don't know where I stand" is a true love tune
I bought another round just in time to hear him say:

They don’t play Sam Cooke
They don’t play Merle Watson
They just trade some Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham for a broke-down Datsun.
And there’s no way it'll break my heart as far as I can see –
And that’s why modern radio is a sack of monkeys to me.

He said it makes me so mad I want to get up and shout it
and I smiled and said I hadn’t thought that much about it
We walked out the street and parted ways.

I might‘ve gone to a movie, but my money was spent
so I went straight home, and Lord knows where he went
but I wrote myself a letter to all modern dj’s:

Don’t play Bob Dylan
Don’t play "Loose Ends"
Don’t play anybody that’s ever read Sir Patrick Spens
Because there’s no way it'll break my heart as far as I can see –
And that’s why modern radio is a-ok with me.

3. Radio Song. Felice Brothers.

4. Left of the Dial. The Replacements. A la izquierda del dial, lo más alejado del centro, ahí se escondía la música college, lo que luego se conocería como alternativo para morir en la orilla, hoy convertido en indie.

(En la foto The Replacements circa 1980. Paul Westerberger canta, Tommy Stintson, aún lejos de Guns N' Roses y del Estadio Centenario, salta con su guitarra)

5. Radio Radio. Elvis Costello. Cuando decía cosas como "I wanna bite the hand that feeds me" ("quiero morder la mano que me da de comer"), Elvis Costello estaba lejos de ser el músico respetable que no se queda en ningún género: era el rebelde muchacho gafoso que aprendimos a querer.

Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio.

6.This is Radio Clash. The Clash

7. Dance to the Radio. Jimmy Webb. Casi nada: Jimmy Webb es el tipo que escribió By the Time I Get To Phoenix, aquella que hizo Nick Cave en Kicking Against the Pricks. Webb es uno de los grandes compositores estadounidenses. Esta canción está incluida en su disco El Mirage de 1977.

8. Video Killed The Radio Star. The Presidents of the United States of America. La canción original (de los Buggles) habrá sido muy visionaria pero se puso vieja y fea. Incluso esta versión, incluida en la película The Wedding Singer y de una banda con bastante poca gracia, la mejora bastante.

9. Heartbeat Radio. Sondre Lerche. Lerche es noruego, así que si el se queja de que "la FM se volvió automática" que deja para la monónota sucesión de las mismas voces, las mismas canciones, la misma nostalgia de la frecuencia modulada nacional. También se pregunta si el "disc-jockey se ahogó en un mar de reverb y compresión", lo que es una buena pregunta. El tema, igual, refiere a asuntos más cercanos a una historia de amor.

We laugh and cry but don't ask why
My poor heart still beats for you
Oh my heartbeat radio
My darling waves can be replaced
But I will remember youI'd sell my soul
And you'll adore
Still I'm not receiving you
On my heartbeat radio

10. Radio Silents. Young Marble Giants. Hermetismo y minimalismo, las razones por las que YMG fueron todo lo grandes que pudieron llegar a ser.

Be polite/Tonight/Just for one time/Be polite/Tonight/You know a smile when you see one/Just for once/Tonight/You say it's better if we don't write/Radio silents/Tonight/Be polite.

11. Radio Song. REM

12. How to Kill A Radio Consultant. Public Enemy. Esto estaba en Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Back. "The afternoon is FM in the PM", dicen y se permiten hacerle sugerencias para la playlist del disc-jockey (al que acaban de espetarle "Only one black radio station in the city/Programmed by a sucker in a suit)

Can I kick it
Who the hell is on the radio
Or who's behind
Do you really think they'll mind
To play the funky jams
That everybody wit'
Some Def Jef or Ice T
Show they rollin' wit' the syndicate
Or can dey get funky
Wit' the underground
Master ace get a taste
Bomb squad gettin' hard
Marley marl makin' hipper
Trax for Jack The Ripper
Pumpin' Eric B or Papa San
Still rollin' wit' run
Did you think that ever
In fact you thought that never
Control of your soul
Is by a suit and tie
Then U wonder why why U never hear a rhyme
I say we do 'im
Till it's done

13. Satellite radio. Steve Earle. Debe saber de qué está hablando porque Earle, el más bolche de los country men, trabaja en Sirius Satellite Radio, la misma que aloja al programa de rock de garage de Little Steven. El nombre del show de Earle, lo define bien: Hardcore Troubadour.

14. Mexican Radio. Wall of Voodoo. Stan Ridgway y Marc Moreland escribieron y Richard Mazda produjo esta canción sobre las AM de la frontera. Tienen el extraño honor de que el video apareciera en un capítulo de Beavis and Butthead. Es la razón por la que la gente anda diciendo que WOV es un one hit wonder. ¿Cómo alguien puede llegar a pensar eso?

(En la foto, Wall of Voodo en Los Angeles en 1979. De izq. a der. Chas T. Gray, Marc Moreland, Joe Nanini, Bruce Moreland y en trance frontman, Stan Ridgway)

15. Border Radio. Dave Alvin. Originalmente incluida en el primer disco de The Blasters, su banda, Dave Alvin la recicló seis años después, en 1987 para su primer trabajo en solitario, Every Night About This Time. Habla de una mujer que llama a una especie de Aquí está su disco fronterizo para pedir una canción que la acompañe en sus noches de mujer abandonada.

She calls toll-free and requests an old song

Something they used to know

She prays to herself that wherever he is,

He's listening to the Border Radio

16. Radio Retaliation. Thievery Corporation.

17. Golden Age of Radio. Josh Ritter. ¿Para qué sirve una radio si no es para convocar al fantasma de Patsy Cline?

Oh when I've got a worried mind I know

I hear the ghost of Patsy Cline

On the Grand Old Opry Show

18. On your radio. Joe Jackson. Una oda al rencor y la revancha personal. Jackson convoca a todos (ex amigos, ex amantes, enemigos, jefes injustos, maestros y a los compañeros que lo prepoteaban en el patio escolar) a que escuchen su canción en la radio. La venganza es un plato que se come frío.

Don’t you know you can’t get near me/You can only hope to hear me on your radio.

19. Radio Sweetheart. Elvis Costello.

(Elvis y sus atracciones en 1977)

20. Roadrunner. Jonathan Richman. ¿Cómo no quererlo cuando dice cosas así?

Well now/Roadrunner, roadrunner/Going faster miles an hour/Gonna drive to the Stop 'n' Shop/With the radio on at night/And me in love with modern moonlight/Me in love with modern rock & roll/Modern girls and modern rock & roll/Don't feel so alone, got the radio on/Like the roadrunner/O.K., now you sing Modern Lovers.