Gawkers & Pedestrians 1/19/01

Mass Media Unmasked

w/ your high definition host Frank Incensed

 

Tonight on Gawkers & Pedestrians it's the revolt of the home appliances, specifically, radio vs. tellusavison (television)

Songs extolling the virtues of radio. In this high tech world, the lowly radio is all but forgotten, but there you find the likes of us battling for the freedom of the air waves. With a radio, you can sit in a dark room, and still be enlightened, just by listening.

The Clash-This is Radio Clash ( still and forever the theme song for G & P)
Rage Against the Machine- Guerilla Radio
Sister Machine Gun- Smash Your Radio
Break-(tonights background music is by Pharaoh Sanders)

This next group of songs is about the heyday of a.m. radio. For my money there was no hipper radio station than WIXY 1260 out of Cleveland in 1965. It is there that young Frank Incensed first head Bob Dylan sing Like a Rolling Stone, and my life was changed forever. Several of the jocks went on to form a "underground" station called WMMS in 1968, the legendary Billy Bass, among them.
Elvis Costello- Radio, Radio (live 1977 SNL)
Lou Reed-Rock and Roll
Ramones- Rock and Roll Radio
Everclear- AM Radio
Ravyns-Raised on the Radio (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack)

Break- Back in the early 60's a guy by the name of Wolfman Jack had access to a radio station just south of the border, that could be heard by the entire continental U.S. after midnight. He began pumping out a mix of r&b and blues, to white teenage ears who had never heard such stuff. The next group of songs honors those purveyors of late night radio, of which I am but one.
David Grey- Late Night Radio
Wall of Voodoo- Mexican Radio
Monty Python- I Bet They Won't Play This Song on the Radio
NOFX- Please Play This Song on the Radio (lots of "dirty"words on this one gang)

Break- In which we again plead for you to sneak into mom & dads room whilst they sleep, quietly reach into their wallet & purse, and grab a handful of that green, wrinkly pieces of paper with the pictures of dead white men on them, and send them to Radio Free Canton, so we can UPGRADE our SHITTY equipment!

Yet even more songs about the radio
John Hartford- Turn Your Radio On (extolling the virtues of the Masters radio)
Joni Mitchell- You Turn Me On ( I'm a Radio)
Keepsake- She Hums Like a Radio
Radiohead-Video Killed the Radio (which acts as a clever segue to our next topic, T.V. A decidedly more evil appliance than the lowly radio.)

There are a lot of dangerous drugs out there. Tonight as a public service, Gawkers & Pedestrians is sending a warning to our naive listeners about the most dangerous drug in America...your television set. How do I know?...alas I am one of the addicted. So quickly & quietly sneak up behind it... UNPLUG IT NOW
while you still can...before it's to late.
JFK assassination as broadcast on T.V.
Be Bop Deluxe- Drastic Plastic (lethal appliances)
Bad Religion-Television
Frank Zappa- I am the Slime ( live on SNL 1976)
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy- Television, Drug of a Nation
Ned's Atomic Dustbin- Kill Your Television
The Bob's- Kill Your Television
John Prine- Spanish Pipedream (Blow up yer t.v., throw away your papers, eat a lot of peaches, build you a home as the lyrics say)
Tom Blowchow w/ a special news report
Mothers of Invention- Trouble Comin Everyday (take your TV tube and eat it, as the lyrics say)
Man or Astroman- Television Fission

Break-With T.V. you sit in a dark room, filled w/ the ghostly glow emanating from the t.v. screen, but it leaves you still "in the dark". Say if your not watching t.v. next Fri. night (1-26-01) come on down for Beat Friday Night. Free poetry, and no extra charge for the enlightenment.

Mansun-Live Television
MXPX- Another Song About Television
Profits- Television
Promise Ring- Strictly Television
Rob Swift- The Age of Television
Baxter- Television

Break
Black Flag- T.V.Party (featuring a young Henry Rollins)
Watching My T.V
Bruce Springsteen-57 Channels & Nothing On
Noice- Television
Samiam Samiam- Television
Depche Mode- Television Screen
Jerky Boys- Television
Trans Am-Television Eye
The Stooges- T.V.Eye
Sunny Day Real Estate- Television
George Carlin- Ed Sullivan Self Taught-(behind a fractured version of the Jeopardy theme by The Brave Combo) Dwight Reily was supposed to play a television addict here, but he missed his cue)

 

No show next week, see you on two two zero one