DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL

David Marsh

by

Spiders & Snakes All Over the Air

Boston, April 6

I am beginning to understand why most of the people I encounter can't stand AM radio. I have always lived in places where at least something interesting was going on on that side of the dial: CKLW in Detroit, with its remarkable mix of soul and pop programming; WNBC in NY with Imus and Wolfman Jack, when I was there. But Boston doesn't have either an outstanding jock — Arnie Ginsburg does an oldies show on weekends, but that's not really what I'm after — or an outstanding playlist.

Aretha Franklin's "Until You Come Back To Me," for instance, sold over 1,000,000 copies before it made the Top 40 stations here. At a time when almost all of the most interesting singles are black ones, that means Boston is a disaster area for AM radio. In fact, it is easier to hear soul on WBCN, the progressive FM station, than on the AM powerhouses, WRKO and WMEX. Boston and Cambridge are possibly the most visibly segregated major cities I have ever seen — you almost never see black people in Harvard Square, for instance — and it carries right over onto the playlists. There isn't a good soul station here, either, which just makes things worse.

As a consequence, I tend to grab and cherish whatever good records I'm hearing, however occasionally, on the rado. "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone seems about the best thing out right now; it's No. 5 in Billboard this week, but I only hear it maybe once a day. Redbone are a weird group, one whose albums I don't think I've ever played (until the new one, with this single) but whose singles I have always enjoyed. "Come and Get" is a knockout, though, like a brief return to hard-nosed 60s soul.

The other big deal is "TSOP" by MFSB, which is the best instrumental since, I don't know, maybe "Shaft," if that was an instrumental. I also like either "Eres Tu" by Mocedades or "Tubular Bells," by Mike Oldfield, but since djs here are far too hip (or dense?) to ever announce a song after it is played, I don't really know which it is. Maybe I like them both, but I think the eerie little piece I get a kick out of is "Bells."

Both of Charlie Rich's current Singles, "A Very Special Love Song," and "There Won't Be Anymore," are in Billboard's Top 20. "There Won't Be" is vastly superior, but I don't need to mention which one gets all the airplay in Collegeville. And everyone here is ape over the ugga-bugga boys, Blue Swede, with their obnoxious, "Hooked On A Feeling." I like a joke about as well as the next guy, but jokes shouldn't make No. 1, not when they're as hokey as this one. I must prefer Nelson Briles" non-hit "Hey Hank," which my friend Herfry Armetta has added to his in-house playlist. But it's not about him, of course, it's about Hank Aaron. "Hey Hank, don't hit it off of me." He didn't, of course, because Nelson got traded to K.C., in the A.L., and then got put on the disabled list. Unfortunately, the single didn't hit, either. Too bad, it's real awful, coulda got right up there with "Seasons in the Suri," and "Spiders and Snakes."

Among the other songs Boston radio doesn't play enough of are Lamont Dozier's "Trying to Hold On To My Woman," and Glady's Knight's splendid, "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me." Gladys is finally a big, big star, able to churn out hits consistently, which seems to be the idea. Of course, you're much more likely to hear "Bennie and the Jets" or "Mockingbird" here in Beanburg, but what can / do about that?

"Boogie Down" and "Jungle Boogie" are both big hits, everywhere, but I don't like them. They are, indeed, great dance records, but if you dance in traffic, you get dents, if you don't get dead. Too long to listen (as opposed to dance) to, the vocals aren't enough of a pleasure to carry them through. Still better than Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis." Maria is God in Boston, but I think she makes it more on the sam^trapless attributes Linda Ronstadt does than on real talent. Though there are so many old folkies here, who knows? Maybe, they really like this stuff?

Elvis has one of his best in a long while, "I've Got a Thing About You Baby," a Tony Joe White tune into which he pumps almost as much excitement as he did into "Burnin" Love." Another perennial fave of ours, Grand Funk, is now trying to make dance music. "Locomotion" isn't very swell, though, primarily because Todd Rundgren forgot the simple fact that Mark Farner's voice is not one of the world's best. It's a laugh, but everything on radio that you don't like is a laugh, the first few times. This is a better joke than most, but enough's enough.

Things could improve when it gets warm. Aretha Franklin is starting out with "I'm in Love," and Stevie is on with "Don't You Worry About A Thing." A1 Green's wonderful "Let's Get Married," absolutely the best thing he's done in a year — which is pretty good — isn't having the kind of luck those two are, probably because it's better.

And No. 100 on this week's charming chart is Frank Sinatra with "Bad Bad Leroy Brown." Written by Jim Croce, who, need I remind you, is the world's ultimate proof of an old Top 40 maxim: Ars longa, vita brevis.

Me, too, I bet. Better luck next month.