A couple thoughts related to radio that have nothing to do with Casey Kasem.*
(I’m still listening to the American Top 40 replays, although for some reason there wasn’t one last weekend. Just haven’t had any good stories from one for awhile.)
First, three times in the last week I’ve heard songs and thought, “Is that U2?” The answer was always yes* but what made it weird is that this is the first time since 1984, I guess, that I haven’t bought a U2 album as soon as it was released. I didn’t like the last album, wasn’t impressed by any of the advance tracks I heard this time, so I’ve taken a pass on <em>No Line On The Horizon.</em> I’ve had a couple people tell me it’s not bad, but I’m really not interested.
(Although I did think one of the songs sounded as much like Coldplay as U2. So that’s what U2 has become: a band that sounds like the band that desperately wants to be them.)
Second, I don’t listen to the radio very much. Usually only when driving and when the kids are with me and they’ve tired of their CDs. And then, I’m constantly switching stations looking for a good song. All that adds up to very little time dedicated to a given station, reducing the chances I will hear a given song, right? Yet, somehow, I hear Heart’s “Magic Man” at least once a week.
As I asked a couple friends via e-mail, is it just a much more awesome song than I ever realized, and thus is in constant rotation on retro and classic rock stations? Or did a whole generation of DJs grow up watching Swingers and play it as an homage to the great mobile home scene?