9 Sept 2014: it's... 1970!!

[CapnJack]

M*A*S*H ---> James Brown "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine (Parts 1&2)"

[RGMike]

M*A*S*H "we are the pros from Dover!" -- JB "Sex machine"

[Here'sToYa!]

All we need now is "Rubber Duckie"! 

Ten Years After

[RGMike]

another looooooong version!  can we hit it and quit!   Looking forward to the replay already.

[RGMike]

All we need now is "Rubber Duckie"! 

Ten Years After

next time for sure!

[RGMike]

AL sez: Curtis BOS; runners-up Zep and Bread. Some well-balanced voting there.

[RGMike]

It appears the Bread, Curtis M and Mark Lindsay tunes were all bustouts; "Sex Machine" only appeared once before  in the AL era -- five years ago! -- and (oddly) never from Dave, who certainly played his share of JB stuff.

"Tangerine" also has only one previous appearance -- played by Renee, in what has to be one of her 2 or 3 best-ever year-based shows (she did some fine work with theme sets).  From Oct 2013, this fine RR 1970 excursion:

1. Morning Morgantown - Joni Mitchell
2. When You Dance I can Really Love - Neil Young
3. John Barleycorn - Traffic
(News: Women's Lib)
4. For You Blue - Beatles
(Commercial: Play-Doh)
5. Apeman - Kinks
6. Tangerine - Led Zep
7. Hey Tonight - CCR
8. Closer to Home - Grand Funk Railroad
(News: Jimi Hendrix dead)
9. Little Wing - Derek & the Dominoes
10. Hard Headed Woman - Cat Stevens

[dischead]

While today's set is better than average, I still have to give it mixed marks.  In the beginning
I thought we might finally be getting more of a rock set, but it quickly swerved back into pop
territory and never looked back.  However we did get three good bust-outs, and just about
everything else was a relative rarity on 10@10 -- a very low LNQ.  And if it seems that I Think
I  Love You has worn out its welcome, it's probably because all but one of its ten appearances
have been post-Morey.

There's so much stuff happening in 1970 that it would be possible to have great 10@10 sets
from each of many genres:  pop, soul, funk, ten different kinds of rock... so it's frustrating that
'60s sets have been notably pop-heavy.  It's also disappointing because there are bands like
Jethro Tull, Chicago, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, etc., whose later material gets regular play on
KFOG, but their early work -- the releases that established them as big artists -- is all but ignored,
even on a specialty show like 10@10.  I just don't understand that.  It seems like KFOG has
become afraid of rock music in the past few years.

[RGMike]

It seems like KFOG has become afraid of rock music in the past few years.

DING DING DING!

Triple-A has been, essentially a mellow-rock-leaning version of Hot A/C for some time now, and I think that, in Cumulus' corporate mind, KFOG's job is to share as few songs with The Bone as possible. So while they may play a lot of the same artists, we get the "mellow" side of those artists on KFOG (see: Zep's "Tangerine" or "Going to California"). This new PD seems to understand the importance of pop cheeze in the context of 10@10 -- it makes for great "oh wow" songs -- better than DC did, and I salute him for that  (but then, I *like* pop cheeze). But yeah, there could be more deep rock and prog tracks, esp in '70s sets. My other request yesterday was Ten Years After "Love Like a Man" -- I'll have to keep flogging that one.

There's also the '60s and '70s For Dummies factor: People in the younger demos are probably more familiar with stuff they heard on Oldies stations growing up (the "classics") than with obscure LP tracks that guys like us remember fondly.

[RGMike]

All we need now is "Rubber Duckie"! 

Ten Years After

next time for sure!

TANC: WLNG just played "Rubber Duckie". They're probably the only oldies station in America that does.

[ggould]

9/9/14 Tuesday!!  Move On Up in 1970!!
   
   1.  The Who- The Seeker
   2.  The Doors- Roadhouse Blues
(Movie: Five Easy Pieces)
   3.  Bread- Make It With You
   4.  Led Zeppelin- Tangerine
(News: Middle East agreement)
   5.  Norman Greenbaum- Spirit in the Sky
(News: Women's liberation movement)
   6.  Curtis Mayfield- Move On Up (B.O.S!)
(News: The "Pill" protests)
   7.  Rare Earth- Get Ready
   8.  Mark Lindsay- Arizona
(TV: The Courtship Of Eddie's Father)
   9.  Partridge Family- I Think I Love You
(Movie: M*A*S*H)
 10.  James Brown- Get Up (I Feel Like Being) a Sex Machine

[dischead]

It seems like KFOG has become afraid of rock music in the past few years.

DING DING DING!

There's also the '60s and '70s For Dummies factor: People in the younger demos are probably more familiar with stuff they heard on Oldies stations growing up (the "classics") than with obscure LP tracks that guys like us remember fondly.

These are not obscure LP tracks... if someone made a 10@10 set with tracks like Theme
For An Imaginary Western and To Cry You A Song in 1970, we'd all be saying they were LN
because we heard them on the radio all the time.  The only reason they are obscure today is an
artificial and unfortunate contraction in what is considered for airplay.  It's one thing to do that for
regular programming, but I see no point in doing so for a specialty show like 10@10.  I have not
heard Acoustic Sunrise very often, but whenever I do, I hear new (to me) material.  It would seem
that show is not similarly restricted.

[CapnJack]

It seems like KFOG has become afraid of rock music in the past few years.

DING DING DING!

There's also the '60s and '70s For Dummies factor: People in the younger demos are probably more familiar with stuff they heard on Oldies stations growing up (the "classics") than with obscure LP tracks that guys like us remember fondly.

These are not obscure LP tracks... if someone made a 10@10 set with tracks like Theme
For An Imaginary Western and To Cry You A Song in 1970, we'd all be saying they were LN
because we heard them on the radio all the time.  The only reason they are obscure today is an
artificial and unfortunate contraction in what is considered for airplay.  It's one thing to do that for
regular programming, but I see no point in doing so for a specialty show like 10@10. 

To the contrary, nobody would be doing a 10@10 1970 set in 1970 (a 10-year minimum, give or take a year or two, from the present year is required).  Would anyone care to hear a 2014 10@10 set now?  Just saying... 

Now if it were 1980 and someone did a 1970 set with those tracks, I'm not sure -- where on the radio would you hear those in 1980?  I'm guessing AOR stations most likely.

[dischead]

It seems like KFOG has become afraid of rock music in the past few years.

DING DING DING!

There's also the '60s and '70s For Dummies factor: People in the younger demos are probably more familiar with stuff they heard on Oldies stations growing up (the "classics") than with obscure LP tracks that guys like us remember fondly.

These are not obscure LP tracks... if someone made a 10@10 set with tracks like Theme
For An Imaginary Western and To Cry You A Song in 1970, we'd all be saying they were LN
because we heard them on the radio all the time.  The only reason they are obscure today is an
artificial and unfortunate contraction in what is considered for airplay.  It's one thing to do that for
regular programming, but I see no point in doing so for a specialty show like 10@10. 

To the contrary, nobody would be doing a 10@10 1970 set in 1970 (a 10-year minimum, give or take a year or two, from the present year is required).  Would anyone care to hear a 2014 10@10 set now?  Just saying... 

Oh, stop muddling up my argument with facts!  Anyway, my point stands -- a lot of the tracks I
have in mind got plenty of airplay in their day, and for that alone have a place on 10@10.  But
we're all skirting the central existential question here; see below.

Now if it were 1980 and someone did a 1970 set with those tracks, I'm not sure -- where on the radio would you hear those in 1980?  I'm guessing AOR stations most likely.

Dunno where one would hear 1970 tracks in 1980... my radio-listening experience drops off
precipitously in the late '70s.  I would hope the same place I heard them in 1970, but I suspect
that progressive FM radio was essentially gone by then.

The important question is:  what is 10@10?

Is it 10 great songs from all recorded music of one great year?  All recorded music in specific
genres?  (If so, which ones?)  Is it 10 great songs that some radio station, somewhere played
at least once?  10 great songs that most [genre] radio stations played?  Perhaps is it just songs
that KFOG would have played, had it been that kind of station in that year?  Or is it only songs
that would fit in KFOG's current musical format?

Put another way, what is the domain of 10@10?

[RGMike]

The important question is:  what is 10@10?

Is it 10 great songs from all recorded music of one great year?  All recorded music in specific
genres?  (If so, which ones?)  Is it 10 great songs that some radio station, somewhere played
at least once?  10 great songs that most [genre] radio stations played?  Perhaps is it just songs
that KFOG would have played, had it been that kind of station in that year?  Or is it only songs
that would fit in KFOG's current musical format?

Put another way, what is the domain of 10@10?

I'd say the answer changes every time KFOG changes PDs.  When Dave had complete creative control, it was indeed "10 great songs from all recorded music of one great year", or as close to that as his personal taste allowed. He would often play songs *he* remembered from growing up in Detroit and could frequently be heard to say "am I the only one who remembers that one?" -- which to most of us was exactly what we liked about Dave's sets. But to a consultant, that's anathema.