Monday, 29 October 2018

KSHE Klassics Show, Oct. 28th, 2018




Quotation du jour: P.J. O'Rourke ~ My working hypothesis is that stupidity in popular culture is a constant. Popular culture cannot get more stupid.

[As you may or may not know, i live in Canada, and for some reason KSHE doesn't stream their audio to here. I have to connect via a VPN to spoof a non-Canadian address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/, i was listening from Fǿrde, Norway, a town of some 13,000 souls in the southwestern part of the country. Wow, neat, i've never been there before.]

Well, i was certainly glad to be in Fǿrde this morning for this week's excellent program. I almost wasn't. You may not be aware of it, but this blog isn't my only source of income – i also, for my sins, work in a restaurant kitchen. Like probably most restaurants these days, mine is desperately short-staffed, and also desperately short of good staff. Partly as a result of this, i almost had to work this morning. They were reluctant to ask me (i need special permission from the Archbishop Of Canterbury to work Sundays, which is difficult to get at short notice) and i was reluctant to accept; i agreed to do it if no possible alternative could be found. Fortunately, one was. I'm very glad.

This installment definitely scored an A. Five out of five stars. Lots of music that i love and that is a part of my own album collection, and one song – Renaissance's "Midas Man" -- that had me almost weeping with joy, it's so beautiful. (Big boys don't cry, of course.) (Why did my cat just snort derisively?) On top of that, though, everything was good, nothing that made me want to throw up. I was a bit surprised to hear Huey Lewis & The News as i didn't think that KSHE ever played them and i'm not a fan, but there was certainly nothing wrong with the song. And Ted Nugent, well, i don't like him as a person or as a musician, but his song was listenable enough, although probably the worst song of the morning.

(Speaking of Chicago, though – as we weren't – is there anything on their debut album, when they were still called Chicago Transit Authority (until the real C.T.A. stepped in with a writ), apart from the lengthy instrumental wank that took up over half of side 3 of the original vinyl, that isn't magic?)

As usual, though, the end of the show took me by surprise – i could have sworn we still had an hour to go, but, wrong again, it was all over. Absotively and posilutely the highlight of my week.

Incidentally, this week's was a much easier blogging experience than last week's. My regular reader will recall that, last Sunday, KSHE's home page's "What's Playing Now" feature wasn't operative. If i didn't know what a song was i had to go scrambling around AllMusic [dot] com trying to find the title, or Googling the lyrics, or checking the KSHE app on my phone (which sometimes shows what's playing, not always). It was a little too much like work and of course it distracted me from my enjoyment of the music. There was no such trouble this week. "What's Playing Now" was on the job.

The photo down there (ↆ) shows the town of Fǿrde. The first song today was "Seven Bridges Road." The photo shows two bridges. The other five must be out of shot ...



Ian Matthews – Seven Bridges Road
The Michael Stanley Band – Let's Get The Show On The Road
Novo Combo – Tattoo
Yes – Heart Of The Sunrise (live)
Zebra – Who's Behind The Door?
Cat Stevens – Bitterblue
The Atlanta Rhythm Section – Angel (What In The World's Come Over Us)
Robin Trower – Bridge Of Sighs
Huey Lewis And The News – Walkin' On A Thin Line
April Wine – I Like To Rock
Genesis – Firth Of Fifth
Breathless – Takin' It Back
Status Quo – Is There A Better Way
Rod Stewart – Handbags And Gladrags
Strawbs – Keep On Trying
Them – Gloria
Cream – Tales Of Brave Ulysses
The Marshall Tucker Band – Last Of The Singing Cowboys
Billy Joel – Rootbeer Rag
Charlie – She Loves To Be In Love
Kerry Livgren – Mask Of The Great Deceiver
Ambrosia – Time Waits For No One
Couchois – Do It In Darkness
Detective – Recognition
John Kay – Easy Evil
Santana – I'll Be Waiting
John Miles – Do It All Again
Renaissance – Midas Man
The Pure Prairie League – Two Lane Highway
Chicago – Beginnings
Jefferson Starship – Girl With The Hungry Eyes
Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes – Great White Buffalo
Bruce Springsteen – Cadillac Ranch
The Grateful Dead – I Need A Miracle
America – Don't Cross The River

These are the CDs we played at home this week, to help ease the intellectual angst and / or just because we like 'em:

Planxty – One Night in Bremen
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells III
Saga – So Far So Good: Live At Rock Of Ages
Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet – Landfall
The Albion Dance Band – The Prospect Before Us
Marc Bonilla – American Matador
Florence + The Machine – High As Hope
The Beat – I Just Can't Stop It
Quintessence – In Blissful Company
Colin James – Miles To Go
Happy Rhodes – Ectotrophia
Blues Traveler – Four
The Beatles – Beatles For Sale
John Lennon – The John Lennon Collection
King Crimson – Beat
Jefferson Airplane – The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane
The Band From Rockall – The Band From Rockall
James Taylor – James Taylor
John Hiatt – Anthology
Yes – The Yes Album
Poco – Pickin' Up The Pieces
Al Stewart – The Best Of Al Stewart
Alphaville – Forever Young
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Nocturne
Kathryn Tickell – The Gathering
Annie Haslam – Annie Haslam
The Tragically Hip – In Violet Light
Roxy Music – The Early Years
Afrocelt Sound System – Vol. 3: Further In Time
The Albion Band – Lark Rise To Candleford


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