Culture

This Week From the Radio Free Athens Crew: September 25, 2020


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In the before times, Radio Free Athens’ volunteer DJs filled the WOUB AM airwaves most Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 8p.m. EDT. We’ll be back at it in time, but for now we are supplying weekly playlists and accompanying memes.

RFA

From Michael T. 

Isolation 25: Sunshine Pop – Exactly what 2020 needs

It is only natural that folks look back on the music of their youth as the best, no matter when that was. It is likely related to being shielded from the burdens of adulthood and the availability of free time.  I’m certain there were cave people who preferred the sound of babbling brooks and chirping birds over the banging on hollowed out logs that their kids were into. The generation that grew up on Benny Goodman and Sinatra couldn’t stand the Beatles and Stones, and an uncomfortable segment of my generation will ignorantly assert that synthpop, hip-hop, or free jazz are “not even music”.

I am in an ongoing debate with my peers where I steadfastly maintain that 1967 was the zenith of Western popular music.  While that is subjective, you’ll still be hard-pressed to find another era when even the bad songs were this good. Genres are almost always defined after-the-fact, and they don’t ever fit neatly into calendar years. Not coincidentally, these are real musicians playing real instruments, writing sometimes simple or sometimes incredibly intricate compositions. This is the music I return to when the darkness is overwhelming. Screw off, 2020 – not even you can eliminate the sheer joy contained in these songs.  Bring on the pop, turn on the sunshine. And thanks as always for listening.

From R@T

When I started working on this week’s playlist I intended to make one that was happy and upbeat. I feel like so many of my playlists have been too focused on the doom and gloom that has been with us since we have been off the air. However, this week more gasoline was thrown on the dumpster fire that is our country in 2020. That quickly changed the direction of it.  I don’t know about you but I am tired of it all.  Tired of the lying, the hypocrisy, the division, the it is our way or no way, the people in government who don’t give a damn what happens at home. Mr. Rogers must be rolling over in his grave wondering why people don’t listen.  Warning: this playlist contains some graphic language and might make you or some of those around you uncomfortable. I hope it does. I hope that it stimulates conversations, that it makes you think, and that it helps to bring about change and that it makes you want to get out and vote.  It is also great music.  Please be good to each other.

The Newsroom (video)- Why America is not the Greatest Country in the World, Anymore
Billie Holiday- Strange Fruit
Counterfeit Madison- Old Towne Beast
Leonard Cohen- Democracy is Coming to the U.S.A.
Network (video)- I’m Mad as Hell and I am not Going to Take it Anymore
Gil Scott Heron- The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Steve Earle- The Revolution Starts Now
Fishbone- Slow Bus Moving (Howard Beach Party)
The Isley Brothers- Fight the Power
Public Enemy- Fight the Power
Fishbone- Subliminal Facism
Body Count- No Lives Matter
From DJ Grumpy Grandma 
9-2-5 only comes but once a year, and this year, at least it’s on a Friday.