Tag: Howard Stern

New York Playlist

New York Playlist

 

The most important part of any travel for business or pleasure is planning out the proper soundtrack for your trip. With the 2018 International Franchise Expo starting this week, I wanted to share my playlist of my favorite songs by New York artists, recorded in New York, or about New York.

  1. Love Supreme – John Coltrane
  2. Take The A-Train – Duke Ellington
  3. Blue Monk – Thelonius Monk Trio

I can’t decide on which classic jazz song should lead off. I settled on all three of these.

 

  1. Pennies from Heaven – Louis Prima

Face it, when you set foot in New York, you feel as excited and sugared-up as Buddy in Elf.

 

  1. New York, New York – Frank Sinatra

I don’t really like this particular song, but I feel like I must include it.

 

  1. Piano Man – Billy Joel

This song always painted such a perfect a picture of an old piano bar in the city. I can smell the beer on the microphone.

 

  1. Personality Crisis – The New York Dolls
  2. Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
  3. I Wanna Be Seated – The Ramones
  4. One Way or Another – Blondie

If I could go back in time, I would go straight to 1977 at CBGB.

 

  1. Shattered – Rolling Stones

Bite the Big Apple…

 

  1. New York Groove – Ace Frehley

Great tune! That is all.

 

  1. Angela – Bob James

Soft jazz song that you will recognize as the theme to the gritty NY sitcom Taxi.

 

  1. In The City – Joe Walsh

More theme music – this time from the cult classic film The Warriors!

 

  1. Double Fantasy – John Lennon

I can’t choose just one song from this album that defines New York City for me.

 

  1. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues with Kristy MacColl

Yes, it’s a Christmas song. But it also paints an amazing picture of New York City. It’s beautiful & ugly as well as sad & happy all at the same time.

 

  1. Unplugged in New York – Nirvana

Recorded in New York but not really a NY record. It’s the best live album ever, so I just look for any reason to put it on any list.

 

  1. New York Minute – Don Henley

Layers and layers of good stuff here.

 

  1. The Great American Nightmare – Rob Zombie

It’s been the theme to The Howard Stern Show for 20 years. That’s pretty New York.

 

  1. New York State of Mind (Live) – Billy Joel

Two Billy Joel songs on this list? Yep.

And, go for the live broadcast version from the post-911 televised Tribute to Heroes concert.

 

 

And for those wondering where Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen are … I’m sorry, I just can’t.

 

 

The Loop, 1977-2018

 

The Loop FM98

 

The Loop. WLUP-FM. FM98. Later, 97.9 FM.

As of this week, The Loop is gone from our radio dials. I rarely feel sad for dead celebrities, but I am a bit heartbroken over the passing of The Loop. For those of you not in the Chicago area, it was the greatest rock station in the universe. More on that debate later.

Sure, The Loop hasn’t really been “The Loop” for a decade or two. I’ve lost track of the ownership changes and lately it’s been programmed by some automated robot, or even worse, a Millennial who wouldn’t know the difference between Bon Scott and Brian Johnson.

There’s no Steve Dahl, Johnny B, or breaking cool Tom Petty records anymore. It’s pretty much full of 30-year-old Def Leppard songs lately like every other lame classic rock station owned by a failing conglomerate in America. I haven’t bothered to tune in for many years. And you haven’t tuned in either; if we had, The Loop may have survived. It’s just another underperforming media property being sold and dismantled.

 

Influence on My Life

The Loop was the most influential radio station in the universe from ’79 until about ’84. Well, in my universe anyway! My biggest influencers from the world of radio in my childhood were:

  1. The iconic one: WLS
  2. The fictional one: WKRP
  3. The real one: The Loop

The Loop influenced me in many ways from adolescence through adulthood. It was my friend in times when I had no friends. The Loop was a factor in my wanting to work in (and my obsession with) radio. Without The Loop, I would not have wanted to be a rock jock, and therefore would never have met my wife and therefore we would not have our daughter! Wow!

Without The Loop, there would be no Steve Dahl. Without Dahl, there would be no Howard Stern. Without Stern, there would be no Social Geek Radio. Okay, that last one is a stretch, but throw me a bone.

 

The Best?

Many people in Chicago will tell you that WXRT was much more influential and far superior to The Loop. Don’t get me wrong – someday when XRT inevitably folds, I’ll be writing about that brilliantly-programmed entity too.

As far as the availability of the Loop’s or XRT’s music, a few channels on Sirius XM currently fill that void for most of us Gen Xers who are not dead or have not relocated to Texas or Florida.

The Loop hadn’t been cool for many years and wasn’t yet old enough to be retro chic. But now that it’s officially gone, perhaps it will be cool to wear The Loop t-shirt again. I just hope it still fits.