instructions

 

Dear Radio Dodo Listener,

It's late, late at night on Radio Dodo.  So late it is early; and speaking of early, speaking of what comes before, I have your song of the night:  Piece of My Heart.  

Now, you may know this version already; or you may be hearing in ignorance, for years, decades, a lifetime- hearing the wrenching (too wrenching?  Stagey, hammed, rococo, even?) Janis Joplin version.  It's a real anthem for the female half of heterosexual relationships and I love this song, in any version, but I want to set my own self and the record (pun intended) straight:  this song was written by *two (dead) white guys, and first recorded by Erma Franklin, and I am embarrassed to say, I had never heard her name before.  I don't think I need to explain to you why not knowing Ms. Franklin is a pity and a structural racism thing, but I do need to make one thing very clear:  There is no Janis Joplin version without the instructions on how to sing it that Erma Franklin gives.  

I might even, I might just, make an argument that the restraint, the processional feel of this version builds to an even deeper contrast in the pitched chorus- but the thing is, I don't want to fight you, I just want you to hear this great song, and I know you already know this story, the story of what the hell is there of White music if you subtract Black music from it.  

*Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy.  These two children of Jewish immigrants wrote some absolutely essential songs, and they both went in for pseudonyms.

Nota bene:  There are, according to Second Hand Songs, 153 recorded versions of Piece of My Heart.  I think that listening to Franklin and Joplin's versions back to back is a worthwhile thing to do.  But, you have the internet, too, so you do what you like; I am only here/hear to tell you that a Black woman sang it first.

PS  Oh, yeah, and if you have ever heard this, you should know the instructions for singing it can be found, here, filed under Irma Thomas (music by Norman Meade/Jerry Ragovoy, additional lyrics by Jimmy Norman).  If you want firsts, you get Kai Winding With Vocal Group (the Gospelaires (the who?  Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, and Cissy Houston)).  And I'll bet you've never heard that, either!  

.

 

missed this?!

 

Dear Every One,

I have missed a total gem of a song!  Of course, we miss lots of things, because there is much more than we can have; more than we can read, more than we can see, more than we can ever hear.  However, this is such a perfect song, and to think I could have been listening to it for the last FORTY years??  Well, I'm all in a tizzy over it.  My DJ played it a little after midnight on Sunday, and I give it you at the same time today:  New York Grief '86, by Princess Demeny.  Have the '89 version, too.

more hyperphantasia

 

Dear September,

I have more for you!  Another pile of unrelated tunes any one of which might be your song for today!  There is so much not to say, and plenty of time to say it in.  May today bring us one day closer to an end to fascism!

God Moving Over the Waters 

Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) 

Cartable    

Unimvwesha Shuga  

Gravity

north of here

 

furrowed sky

 

a little tune

 

Dear Dodos,

Today's song is for watching and listening:

overplus

 

Francis Bacon in his studio.

Dear Someone,

I am having a little crisis of overwhelm on my computer!  82 tabs.  57 tabs.  The 78 tabs I lost in a shipwrecking storm of button clicking (sniff, teary drips, sadness).  I MUST do some cleaning up on this aging pc.  So, this is kinda like a digital garage sale- here are a bunch of tabs I have been saving to give to you in a more lengthy form, a more thoughtful explication.  Please, take them!  I have too many!  On the other hand, if you have too many also, well, maybe you can give them to someone who has no tabs open?  Is there anyone like that?

You Make Me Feel

Invisible Wounds 

Je n'oubelierai jamais

Once I had a love; had a dress of glass.

Nothing Can Stop Us

Sophie von La Roche

Lux (Rosalía)

Bernadette Mayer's excellent list.

Going Down Fast

Avian Memory

Claire-Louse Bennett's excellent list.

About a Boy

The Greatest list.

Comfort Me

PS  Apologies, as they say, for the hyperphantasic trauma dump!

59

 

Dear Siblings,

Your song for today is 4th and Vine, because my parents just had their 59th wedding anniversary.  This event is notable for its age (just like the things in museums), of course, but a strange cause for celebration, as 'married' can be defined as: two difficult people living in the same house.  I got married when I was older than they, and if I had had any sense or courage, or any combination of the two, I'd have just had a family without the wedding.  But not, I think, without the marriage.  I still like the idea of becoming a we in some official capacity.  I have mentioned the kind of alliances and compromises having a wedding can demand- it's a commitment to extended family that isn't necessary and once you feed the wild animal of Extended Family like that, it becomes voracious and will eat you right out of your wedded bliss.  

It's really something else!

 

     

         

Dear People,

I just finished making and eating dinner, and I then ran to the computer to tell you this:  If you try nothing else here, in the 13 years we have been meeting, let it be Ham El-Waylly's tomato sandwich!  It is so good!  May the beneficence of the season provide you with tomatoes that are worthy of this sandwich!

PS  Like the man says, do whatever the hell you want, but I made this sandwich too, and it is also SO good!  

I bought my baby a red radio

Image from the Museum of Radio & Technology.

 

Dear Radio-istes,

Here is a song, ooh, so good!  Turn it up!  Play it over and over!  I had forgotten it, but the big bad corporate corporation subscriptiion transmission confliction radio played it the other day, in my big bad new(ish) car- and hearing it once is worth plenty of months of lousy Duran Duran hits.  Ah, but, you don't have to pay anything today, because it is your song of the day!

PS  It is also a very typical tale of girls meets boy, unrequited love, and a very sad story, but only if you happen to be an oyster.

PPS

And while we are on the radio, let's have some other ab fab radio songs and one gem from the jukebox:

Roadrunner 

On the Radio

Radio Radio

Mr. Radio

Mr. Radio

Border Radio

Radio Clash

Turn on Your Radio

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

Transmission

Listen to the Radio  

Radio Sweetheart 

Video Killed the Radio Star

Mohammed's Radio

You Turn me On, I'm a Radio

Oh Yeah

Hey Mister, That's Me Up on the Jukebox

Notes:  You already know how I feel about Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers: J.M. is the nicest man you'll ever see in concert.  Donna Summer is SO underrated.  Never can decide what I think about Harry Nilsson: unrecognized genius or just another pretty song face?  Indeep is also underrated.  Nanci Giffith IS America's Sweetheart.  Video Killed the Radio Star is absolute genius- listen for all the little details they put in to remind you of old radio sounds.  I refuse to live without the poetry of Mohammed's Radio.  Warren Zevon looks like every man I can remember seeing in the mid to late 1970's.  Everything Joni Mitchell does is genius.  I can't live without Roxy Music, either.  James Taylor- what to do with him?  He's uncool, he's often annoying; this song IS fantastic.