Those of you that appreciate the art of the musical segue will dig this.
We’re doing a 90s weekend at the radio station, and I had a couple of great ones…..
The first one – got a call from someone requesting “American Music” (video) by Violent Femmes which I threw in before “Trigger Happy Jack” (video) by Poe – one of those “let’s see how this works” kind of segues.
As it happens, “American Music” into “Trigger Happy Jack” works brilliantly.
The second one was a bit more calculated – “Somebody to Shove” by Soul Asylum into “Girlfriend” by Matthew Sweet.
It was one of those segues where you can’t wait for the song to end, to hear if it’s going to be cool, or a trainwreck.
In this case, cool.
90s weekends are fun!
In the 90s, we were definitely musical nerds of the highest variety. Our music director (who was also on the air) would think of a great segue that he thought would be great, yet hadn’t tried. Often, I’d get a phone call – “turn on your radio now, and listen to this!”
You were happy when you pulled off a great segue, and pissed if it wasn’t great, or if you messed it up. My comrade Chris loved to poke fun at how upset I would get, and would make note – “you do realize that you’re the only one that noticed that that was off by a millisecond, don’t you?”
These days, I still have fun recapping “great segues” with my friend Pat, via a phone call, text message, and sometimes a day later, making note of that “killer segue you pulled off with Suede Brothers into Alice in Chains yesterday.”
So the next time that you hear a good one and wonder if they planned that….well yeah, “they” might have……
A few tunes from today that were fun to hear…..
Letters to Cleo – Here and Now
Tonic – Open Up Your Eyes
Lemonheads – It’s A Shame About Ray
One that woulda been fun, but I didn’t have it handy (and still don’t):
God Lives Underwater – “No More Love” (video)
Relevant Links:
An explanation of the term “segue.”
Purchase Tonic’s Lemon Parade from Amazon – CD
Purchase Letters To Cleo’s Aurora Gory Alice – CD
Purchase Pearl Jam’s Ten – CD or MP3
Purchase – God Lives Underwater’s Empty from Amazon – CD or MP3
When I was in Arcadia’s radio station I always encountered new and interesting segues…never thought to take note of them for the future…bummer. What station do you work at?
Back at the time that Chicago’s “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” was a top 40 single, the local station would play the song and follow it up with “Private Eyes” by Hall and Oates. The ending of the Chicago song, with its soft instrumental refrain slowing down and waiting for that final note to come and resolve (on the single edit…the album cut actually plays on) and just when the final note would normally hit, that BAM at the beginning of “Private Eyes”. They did it on a regular basis, and it still gives me chills just thinking about it.