Undercover

This title is one I pinched from the Rolling Stones in their post "Some Girls" phase. It is no secret that many bands do versions of other people's songs...some seem to rely on that as the sole source for their material. These are most often called "Covers".

I am convinced that if Jimi Hendrix had never done a cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower", that song would only be a small footnote in rock and roll history, but his interpretation has jettisoned it into the stratosphere of rock classics, and as a result, a ton of other people have done covers of that tune. His ears picked out things that don't exist in the original version, and has helped create a rock icon. Everyone from U2, to Dave Mason have done versions all leaning towards the Hendrix style of playing that one song. I think Bob Dylan owes Jimi BIG TIME! I sure as hell would not have considered doing a cover version of that song had I only heard the Dylan disc being played on the radio...but let's face it, the Bob Dylan version didn't get a whole lot of radio airplay because it was long and monotonous. Hendrix created a monster, and now some forty years later, it's still huge and assautling everything and everyone with a dynamic that simply did not exist in the original tune. Thanks Jimi, it certainly was worth it!!!

Radio Silence

This title is stolen from an R.E.M early work, which in turn is a term used during wartime for a period when communications are shut down to avoid tipping off the enemy of activity planned against them. More and more I find myself reminisicing about my short radio career. I hate to sound like a braggart, but I was good at my job, and it never ceases to baffle me as to why I was unable to get a gig at another radio station. I was hungry and would have busted my balls to make WLIR regret ever letting me go, but apparently that wasn't enough. There's a new radio station in town and I've been tuning them in more and more, partially because they play some of the stuff I used to dish-out, but also just because there's still a part of me that says, " I should be working there!"

If you are from the tri-state area, the new station is WRXP 101.9...New York's Rock Experience. What gets me even more miffed is: there's a guy working there who also worked at WLIR when I was being phased out. I never met him or heard hisshows,but the word in the hallways was: He was completely un-hip and one of the other workers did a pretty good impression of him that really cracked me up. I was always at the station at odd times, so our paths never crossed but he went on to work at the radio station my mother listened to, which in my way of looking at things, meant...he was in it only as a job, not for the passion of the music. Or maybe he was passionate about a lot of different types of music, it's hard for me to say. He used to announce the records and mispronounce the artists names, referring to David Bowie as David Booey and other similar blunders...he's got a gig at the new station in town and I'm, sitting here with six broken ribs typing and trying to keep myself from coughing up a lung.


We've heard the old expression, " It only hurts when I breathe", well having broken ribs is like that, except it hurts all other times as well. I had a trailer run over my right side, so that is where all my ribs got broken and a small puncture in the right lung. Like most people, I'm right handed so that makes everything a painful effort. Sleeping is the worst because it's something that allows me to escape from the doldrums of my now boring existence. To avoid the pressure on my right lung, I have to sleep with my back perpendicular to the ground, which isn't easy. Complicating matters, my right knee took a nasty shot as well, so I cannot bend it easily and that makes it really tough to find a way to get a restful, comfortable sleep. I have a prescription for pain meds, but they aren't especially effective, long-acting, or plentiful, so I've been taking only half as much as I need to avoid having them won't run out too fast. The drug is Oxycodone, the stuff that the fat slob Rush Limbaugh was hooked on. Why that loudmouth got hooked on this crap is a mystery to me, it isn't at all euphoric, or enjoyable. But one man's poison is another's passion. I'm rambling again, so it's time for me to stuff my beaten tail between my legs and hobble off to my next dosing of meds...I wonder if they make you take a drug test at WRXP?.....