Heard it on the radio…

Since being over here I’ve mentioned to a few people that while there are a ton of things I like about Copenhagen, there is one thing that is just plain bad.  Danish radio.  I’m sure if I dug deep enough I could turn up the reasons for it. Perhaps it has something to do with licensing fees or the government requiring a certain amount of local content but make no mistake, it’s not very good.  Still we listen to it at the house because it’s like watching Huell Howser…kinda cheesy but it’s what you do.

One of the upsides of such bad music choices is that it forces you to revisit songs you’ve heard maybe hundreds of times before.  I suppose you could go the other way, shut it down and just seek out the best new “indie” stuff but I tried it with Grizzly Bear and, well, they pretty much blew. So I wanted to share a few “classic” (or at least well-worn) songs that showed up on the radio here in Denmark and made me sit up and listen again…even though I’ve heard them a thousand times.  Click on the “play” arrows to give a listen and see if you agree with what I’m saying.

Stevie Wonder – Living for the City

Ultimate r&b precursor to rap…stunningly powerful. Try and listen on speakers or headphones if you can. What do you call a dude that comes up with a song like that…uh, genius? If this song doesn’t give you chills, you are cold-blooded.

The Knack – My Sharona

Heard this the other day on local radio sandwiched between two lame pop songs… I think one was by “Ke$ha” but I’m not really sure.  The song just knocks you out of your seat. I remember when it came out.  I was in my Foreigner phase then – which thankfully didn’t last too long – but I remember what a huge hit this was and the “Nuke the Knack” backlash. What the hell was that about anyway?  Check out this live performance from 1979.  All the components…skinny ties and just a ridiculous guitar solo, killer bass and a kick-ass drummer. Not to mention the pervy theatrics.  I have a feeling that any band in 2010 would kill to come up with a song like this.

Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools

Two R&B/Soul artists on this list?  Funny since my tastes mostly tend to run in a slightly different direction. (think: politically charged lyrics and loud guitars.) But this list is about songs you’ve heard a lot before and maybe never really appreciated, not stuff you always listen to. So this definitely meets the test.  Maybe this entire theory applies to Aretha Franklin though.  I know she is  a legend and all, and no dis r-e-s-p-e-c-t, but just not my thing. Then this classic popped up on our little kitchen radio the other day and – BOOM!

Jeff Buckley – Lover You Should Have Come Over

OK…this song didn’t come on the radio here and you may not have heard it 1,000 times. But hopefully you’ve heard it a few times. I was at this bookstore in Copenhagen this month and they had a box of used CD’s for sale. Even though I already have it on my iTunes I bought the CD Grace for 10 kroners…exactly $1.90.  I saw Jeff Buckley and his band perform in 1995 at the Tower Records in Westwood . They played at the top of a staircase, and unlike what you may think when you listen to this song it was one of the loudest rock and roll shows I’ve ever heard. People might think of him as a “sensitive guy” but he was a serious ass-kicker.  Anyways, if you’re not as familiar with him this was his only album, and he died a year or two after I saw him in LA.  He fell into the Mississippi River and drowned at the age of 30.

Jacob Golden – Cry Baby Cry

Ok, threw you a curve ball here.  Jacob Golden?  Well, another way to re-appreciate a song you’ve heard over and over again is to hear it re-imagined by new artists.  When I’m not suffering through the Danish pop radio blitz I like to throw on a great all-covers internet radio show from SF-based somaFM. I don’t know who this guy is but I heard him do this tune from the White Album and it just reminds me what amazing songwriters the Beatles were.  But maybe that’s the point of this here post…sometimes it’s best to appreciate what you already have.

AN AFTERWORD…

I came back to this post just this week and realized how much of an old fart I sound like. The part about Danish radio is absolutely true, but these songs probably sound even better due to equal parts nostalgia and a small dose of home-sickness. Plus, let’s face it…radio sucks everywhere. So instead of just listening to a bunch of old stuff I’ve loaded up on new music and some more other things I may have missed when it first came ’round.  MGMT is crazy. Still trying to get my head around it, but those dudes are heavy.

LCD Soundsystem has a new Disc coming out that I really want to check out.  In the meantime, I can’t get enough of Sound of Silver. Just great, great songs.