Category: Music

Common People

A couple of years ago I became quite taken with the song “Common People,” by a British band called Pulp. I had never heard it until my sister Marianne gave me a CD for Christmas that included a surprisingly effective remake by the unlikely pair of William Shatner and Joe Jackson. Hearing that made me want to seek out the original.

Although my upbringing was decidedly middle class, not working class, I can definitely relate to having a girlfriend in college who made me feel as though she was slumming just by going out with me.

Who Am I?

WHO R U

A friend where I work needed a favor. She had an idea for a presentation that required the old Who song “Who Are You” — but it couldn’t have the swear words in it.

I was in the radio business when the song came out, and there was a short, cleaned-up single version.  Not having the single handy, I made one of my own. Although the question should be asked, who am I to touch a Who song?

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/OCT06/SongEdit.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/OCT06/SongOriginal.mp3]

On the audio player is my edit, followed by the original. This was transferred from the vinyl LP I bought the week that the album was released in 1978. I don’t think the album is all that great, actually, so I never bought the CD.

Can you tell where the four edits are? The deletion at 4:38 was the trickiest.  It’s at 5:34 in the unedited cut.

The Killer, Still Kickin’

jerry lee

Previously I mentioned that my friend Morris had given me a copy of Jerry Lee Lewis’ new CD, Last Man Standing.  NPR has started a weekend series on this year’s picks for the National Recording Registry, selected by the Library of Congress, starting with Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” 

Click here to go to the NPR feature.  The picture is of Lewis with his third wife, Myra.  What was with the pencil?  And those sunglasses!

When Swing was King


Artie Shaw died a couple of years ago, at a ripe old age, as sharp, cantankerous and opinionated as ever. For no reason other than my eclectic buddy Denro sent me a CD with a couple of Artie Shaw tunes from 1939, let’s listen to both of those tunes. One of them swings, the other does not, but they’re equally good. If you don’t know who that is Artie was sitting with, please get a clue!

New York Radio — Scott Muni

Original card provided by Dennis Rogers.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/GrasshopperJump.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/WABCBeatles.mp3]

The audio player has two sound clips:  Muni’s theme song, an odd instrumental from 1961 called “Grasshopper Jump,” and Muni’s promo for the WABC Beatles Fan Club.

I don’t remember Scott Muni as well as some of the other WABC disk jockeys, because he left the station in 1965.  Muni is better known as a pioneer of Rock music on FM radio, but he was memorable on AM as a presence during the initial, wild rush of American Beatlemania.

Scott Muni on WABC
Scott Muni on WABC, 1965