It's late August and September is nipping at our heels. Heat is still hanging around, making sure we really appreciate the coolness when it comes. School is back in session, and class reunions are being planned and discussed.
Radio was a necessity in our lives back then. What I miss most about those radio days is that we could listen and get such a variety of musical styles then. Now it all seems segmented. If you want a genre, you turn to that on the dial (or however you're listening now) and that's all you get.
Does anyone else miss the musical mixings that used to be so common. I remember listening in one afternoon to songs from the Everly Brothers (Bye Bye Love) and the Platters (The Great Pretenders); Pat Boone (Love Letters in the Sand) and Chuck Berry (Maybellene) or Little Richard (Tutti Frutti).
One moment you could be listening to the Kingston Trio (Tom Dooley), then maybe hear Bobby Darin (Mack the Knife) followed by Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes) with a follow-up from Johnny Cash (Folsom Prison Blues).
People liked humor in their songs then, for sure. Remember David Seville (Witch Doctor) and Sheb Wooley (Purple People Eater)? And of course Del Reeves had a popular song (Girl on the Billboard).
Looking back, I think what I most appreciate about our radio days is the lack of vulgarity. Oh yes, we had suggestive lyrics and aggressive love songs, but the writers knew then they could not get by with graphic semi-porn. They had to rely on talent, and they had to appeal to a sense of humor a bit (okay, maybe not too much, but at least a little) higher than early adolescence. Sure we had the Everly Brothers singing about "Wake Up Little Susie," but at least they put limits on where the story line went. (Sorry about that. Just had a I've Got to Rant moment. But it has now passed.)
Enjoy the rest of summer. Sit back, relax and take a sip of some good sweet iced tea.
No comments:
Post a Comment