"What's your price for flight?"
Every morning, I take a little transistor radio into the bathroom with me, because god forbid I should be left alone with my thoughts for ten or fifteen minutes. But it's been frustrating lately because I usually listen to NPR and it's their annual pledge drive, so it's virtually content-free. And to make matters worse, my backup station, WXPN, a music station which is also public radio, always overlaps their pledge drive with the local NPR station's. We must be approaching a point in technology where they'll be able to switch off the pledge drive on a listener by listener basis as soon as they make their annual pledge. I think they'd clean up.
So, this morning, I spun the dial into the heady realms of commercial radio, where I was lucky enough to hear "Sister Christian" by Night Rider. Now "Sister Christian" isn't one of the greatest songs ever or anything, but it is undoubtedly epic, a big overblown, melodramatic power ballad that I'm likely to hear only once every year or two, and each time I hear it, I think to myself "Well, this is your annual dose of Sister Christian. You better enjoy the hell out of it." And I do.
I remember one time in the mid 90s, I was over at a friend's apartment for the first time and he told me to put some music on. I was stunned to find out he had like five or six Night Ranger albums! First of all, who knew they had made all that music! And second, despite being an avid CD collector, the notion of actually buying a Night Ranger album had never even occurred to me. So, of course I had to find and play that one song--probably to my Night Ranger-loving friend's chagrin, as he cursed himself for letting me play DJ.
In fact, the only time I remember failing to enjoy the song was when I saw Boogie Nights, but only because I'd been tricked. In the trailer, you saw one of the characters interrupt a plot-important conversation during the big build up of Three Dog Night's version of "Mama Told Me Not To Come," saying "I love this part." That moment really connected with me, both because it's one of my favorite songs and because I've been known to make people stop talking during my favorite songs. So I was way disappointed when, in the actual movie, the song he was interrupting was "Sister Christian" instead. The bait-and-switch of it threw me out of the moment and prevented me from enjoying my annual Sister Christan pilgrimage.
Incidentally, Wikipedia tells me that the song was written by the band's drummer, Kelly Keagy, which he was alarmed to find out his little sister, Christy, had taken up "motoring" (i.e. cruising down the main drag in your car for potential romantic partners) and reminds me that a nun in Pushing Daisies referred to it as "nothing but a heavy-petting power ballad." Awesome.
Also: this picture just seemed too perfect for today's post...
So, this morning, I spun the dial into the heady realms of commercial radio, where I was lucky enough to hear "Sister Christian" by Night Rider. Now "Sister Christian" isn't one of the greatest songs ever or anything, but it is undoubtedly epic, a big overblown, melodramatic power ballad that I'm likely to hear only once every year or two, and each time I hear it, I think to myself "Well, this is your annual dose of Sister Christian. You better enjoy the hell out of it." And I do.
I remember one time in the mid 90s, I was over at a friend's apartment for the first time and he told me to put some music on. I was stunned to find out he had like five or six Night Ranger albums! First of all, who knew they had made all that music! And second, despite being an avid CD collector, the notion of actually buying a Night Ranger album had never even occurred to me. So, of course I had to find and play that one song--probably to my Night Ranger-loving friend's chagrin, as he cursed himself for letting me play DJ.
In fact, the only time I remember failing to enjoy the song was when I saw Boogie Nights, but only because I'd been tricked. In the trailer, you saw one of the characters interrupt a plot-important conversation during the big build up of Three Dog Night's version of "Mama Told Me Not To Come," saying "I love this part." That moment really connected with me, both because it's one of my favorite songs and because I've been known to make people stop talking during my favorite songs. So I was way disappointed when, in the actual movie, the song he was interrupting was "Sister Christian" instead. The bait-and-switch of it threw me out of the moment and prevented me from enjoying my annual Sister Christan pilgrimage.
Incidentally, Wikipedia tells me that the song was written by the band's drummer, Kelly Keagy, which he was alarmed to find out his little sister, Christy, had taken up "motoring" (i.e. cruising down the main drag in your car for potential romantic partners) and reminds me that a nun in Pushing Daisies referred to it as "nothing but a heavy-petting power ballad." Awesome.
Also: this picture just seemed too perfect for today's post...