It's Only Rock-n-Roll

IT’S ABOUT THE MUSIC, STUPID! So CBS FM is back. After 25 months of being held in captivity by Jack, the station that played “the greatest hits of all time,” was set free Thursday, July 12. As Jack got the heave ho, in a mock Sopranos’ takeoff, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” segued into Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind”, an obvious kiss up for the unseemly exit two years ago; and, after a montage of songs and moments going back to 1964, the first official song, the Beach Boys’ “Do It Again” was played at (now get the pun?) 1:01 P.M. From the minions of grateful oldies fans, a gigantic “Thank you, God” could be heard across the tri -state region. Jack had left the building; what was once new was now old again; the enemy had been vanquished and all was right with the world. Perfect! But hold onto your jukeboxes, sock hoppers. This isn ’t your daddy’s CBS FM. For one thing, rock-n-roll seems to have begun in 1964, not 1955. I wonder what Bill Haley and Alan Freed would have to say about tha...

HIT THE ROAD JACK! Faced with ratings that continued to spiral downward and unable to defend a format that more closely resembled an iPod than a radio station, Infinity Broadcasting cries “uncle” and brings back the format that memories were made of. It was Friday, June 3, 2005, 3:57 in the afternoon and long-time DJ Bill Brown was doing his usual sign off for WCBS FM, but something was missing. It was customary for the exiting DJ at CBS to announce the next DJ, in this case Bob Shannon. But Shannon never got a chance to sign on that afternoon. Instead he and the rest of the CBS crew were called into a conference room at 4:00 P.M. and told that they would no longer be employed at the station. WCBS owner Infinity Broadcasting had decided to change formats from oldies to “adult contemporary” and, under the new call letters JACK, would no longer need disc jockeys. At 4:30 that afternoon, while CBS was issuing its pink slips, Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind” was winding down. No one at the...

Three Glasses: One half filled, one half empty, the other bone dry. Can anyone get me a drink of water, please?! Patti Smith: Twelve (Sony, 2007). What often gets ignored when talking about Smith’s career is that long before her ground-breaking debut, Horses , she was a rock critic at Creem , working alongside Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau. And, like so many critics, she developed her own biases and partialities – yes, folks we ain’t the altruistic bearers of wisdom and insight we think we are. And those subjective truths would come to permeate her music in the years and later decades to come. So it shouldn’t be a total surprise that in doing an album of purely covers that she would lean towards her contemporaries, like Young, the Stones, Beatles, Dylan, Simon and Hendrix, in her time legends all. What is a surprise, and a pleasant one at that, is how well done the album is. These aren’t just rehashes of some favorite song list she had stashed away. Smith makes each song her own....

TURN UP YOUR STEREO, NOW! The Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder (Yep Roc, 2007). “Uh oh uh oh, uh oh uh oh, turn up your ster-e-o-o, uh oh uh oh, uh oh uh oh, I feel electric when the meter starts to glow,” Robert Schneider belts out in “Can You Feel It,” the opening track on this, his latest a nd best Beatles-like album. After a five-year layoff he’s finally nailed it. I disagree with the ELO connection though; I’m thinking more Housemartins minus the political overtones. I’ve always suspected Schneider for a Paul Heaton fan anyway. As for the rest of the album, the tone, as in earlier efforts, defies categorization. Not quite indie, but definitely not pop; I’d call them bubble gum punk, which I guess is as close as anyone is likely to come. Whatever your preference, there’s no denying the charm of the lyrics and the vocals, among the best of the year. The one sad note, the departure of Hilarie Sidney, who wrote and sang "Sunndal Song" and “Sunday Sounds,” two of the be...

Get Your Country Comfort Where You Find It! Two entries by two women steeped in country tradition; one very good and one encouraging, sort of. Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Sony/BMG Nashville, 2007). My disdain for country music goes back almost twenty-five years, and with good reason. With the exception of Rosanne Cash, John Anderson, Willie Nelson and a couple of Rosie Flores albums, the genre simply hasn’t lived up to its historical traditions. Somewhere, I suspect, Hank Williams is turning over in his grave at what has happened to this once proud and rich music. While this latest entry by this self-proclaimed Garth Brooks fan is unlikely to repair the damage of the last three decades, it does, if nothing else, offer up an olive branch. Lambert is no stranger to success; her debut Kerosene made her the darling of the country charts in 2005. This album builds off of that and with an edge that is very reminiscent of Flores, circa 1992, which means it’s also part Dwight Yoaka...