Sunday, September 27, 2009

9/27/09 Blog/Playlist: Never Say Never?

I had very little sleep this weekend because of two awesome concerts. I will have a report on those in my Nashville Blend blog soon. But I knew this would be an interesting show in terms of my functionality here, to say the least...I warned the audience accordingly and I was right. Some interesting pronouncements came out of my mouth.

Segment 1: Never
I was originally going to call this theme set "Never Say Never". But I realized that, here I am with a show called "Never Too Old" and how would it look doing a never say never theme when I'm telling people they're never too old? So maybe that doesn't make sense. I planned a song called "Never Say Never Again" in the last part of my show, so I think that's okay. Thus I'll just take the first word of the show title and make it a "never" theme...and start with a classic from the Association.

Association – Never My Love
Lovin Spoonful – Never Going Back (Joe Butler on lead vocal, written by John Stewart. also the first "glitch of the day" I had in quite some time. I had the wrong track and was bound and determined to have the right one play.)
Gene Pitney – True Love Never Runs Smooth (and neither does a radio show when you've had little sleep...)
Seekers – I'll Never Find Another You
Laura Nyro – I Never Meant To Hurt You

Segment 2: Picking Through the Record Box
I have been searching and searching for a long while for a couple of songs I've always loved that I wanted to play on the show...and finally, I've found them! This first one is a song that came out in 1964 and was a hit on the pop charts right in the middle of the Beatles and the British Invasion. One of those stylistic anomalies (believe it or not, didn't stumble over that word in my zombie-like state!) that turned up as pop hits around that time. It's one that would be an unlikely favorite of mine for that time and would really be considered "square" by a rock and roll kid such as myself. But for some odd reason, it's one that always stayed with me...not sure why I liked it then but I do now. Just like those Lawrence Welk shows I did call square as a 60s kid but occasionally watch now for the pop culture factor. Anyhow, the song I'm talking about to start off with is Love Me With All Your Heart, by the Ray Charles Singers.

Ray Charles Singers – Love Me With All Your Heart
Peter Paul and Mary – If I Had A Hammer (in tribute to the late Mary Travers)
Ruby and the Romantics – My Summer Love
Simon and Garfunkel – Homeward Bound (live version)
Rose Garden – Next Plane To London

In case you haven't heard, WRFN is moving to 107.1 in October! With that move, we will be heard clearly all over Nashville. That will be happening around the weekend of October 24-25, so we'll be off the air during that period to install a new antenna and make station improvements. We do need your help in raising money for all of this. Please go to www.radiofreenashville.org to see about the many ways you can donate. And, if you are in the Nashville area you can also find out there about a benefit classic car and motorcycle show/concert event happening on October 2.

Segment 3: Soul Stew

A couple more "never" songs in the soul set. I'll start with this one by Eddie Floyd:
Eddie Floyd – I've Never Found Me A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)
Temptations – I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)
Dixiebelles – Down At Papa Joe's
Wilson Pickett – Funky Broadway

Segment 4: Non-oldie/Current/New

George Adams - Stronger Than Words
(George is a guest on my show next week. A singer's singer and I've been hoping to get him on the show for a long time. So I'm throwing out the format on this one and having him for the hour.)
Boomer Castleman – Never Say Never Again

Now what did those two songs have in common? A great big triple axel hitting, move in for the kill falsetto note at the end. When Boomer was here on the show a couple of months ago, he hit it live at 8:00 in the morning.

Frequency To The Heart

Well, I've had an hour to think about this whole "never say never" thing. The more that I thought about it, there are some times when you should think "never say never". It could be that goal you think you may never accomplish. Or that job test you thought you'd never pass (true story here!). Even perhaps, that love you thought you'd never have in your life. At those points, you might want to try a "never say never" mindset, open yourself up to encouragement and confidence. It could happen.

And for you all, one more song that I didn't have on CD to play but surely would have if I did: Styx- Never Say Never

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