Perhaps, the title of this post should have been, "The Five Bands That Will Make You Wish You Were Dead." You see, it's my contention that there is a group of five bands that you can't go more than 15 minutes without hearing on any classic rock radio station.
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| The Eagles - I actually like The Eagles. My problem with them is that the radio only plays about five of their songs, skipping over the rest of their catalogue. And in full disclosure, I have to say that I can listen to Take It To The Limit or Seven Bridges Road anytime. |
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| Bob Frikkin' Seger - The above picture pretty much sums up everything I hate about ol' Bob. I even hate the way his name is written there. The funny thing about Bob is, everyone says, "he's only got like two songs," but when you really start counting them, he has many different melodies to offend your ears. |
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| Fleetwood Mac - Oh, Fleetwood Mac. Like The Eagles, I don't really hate your music. I just hate the fact that they only play a few of your songs over and over. The only thing more irritating than hearing a Fleetwood Mac song every hour is when I have to suffer a Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty duet. |
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Cue the stoner. There is some of Tom's music that I like, but he's become a bit ubiquitous on the radio as of late. He didn't used to be on this list, but they've been playing so much of him lately, I end up thinking it might be a retrospective because he died. No doubt died of relaxation. I mean seriously, the best anti-drug message I've seen in a while is Mr. Petty trying to form thoughts on the Sound City documentary. |
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| Steve Miller Band - My roommate in college really loved Mr. Miller. For a while I seemed to be playing along, but at some point I developed a real dislike for his music. About the only one I can stand anymore is Take the Money and Run. But play Abracadabra or Fly Like an Eagle and I want to shove a screwdriver in my ear. |
And it's not just a theory of mine; it's substantiated with statistical data. According to their website, 97.1 The River played the following tonight:
- 6:27 pm Tom Petty - Runnin' Down A Dream
- 6:35 pm Steve Miller Band - The Joker
- 7:08 pm The James Gang (Eagles' Joe Walsh) - Walk Away
- 7:31 pm Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
- 7:55 pm Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way
- 8:27 pm Steve Miller Band - Swingtown
- 9:14 pm The Eagles - The Long Run
- 9:37 pm Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
- 10:34 pm Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle
In any two hour period of the music on 97.1 The River, they play approximately 22 to 25 songs. When 6 of those 25 songs come from the five bands I've listed you start to see what I'm talking about. I mean, during the 6:27 to 8:27 block, those five bands accounted for 25% of what was played on the radio. AND THAT WAS WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING ANY BOB SEGER!
So why do I keep turning on the radio, you ask? I'm either a glutton for punishment, or a glutton for being right. Probably the latter since I not only hate spending so much time listening to the aforementioned bands, I've devoted about two hours to writing this post about them.
What, no Black Betty by Ram Jam? I'm pretty sure they're contractually obligated to play that once an hour.
ReplyDeleteActually, we studied programming in school and there's a coldly scientific reason for why they do their playlists this way, but that doesn't make it any more palatable for those who keep the radio on for over an hour.
I just assumed it was part of the deal that the licensing companies sell the radio stations. You know, we'll give you these songs at this rate, but you have to play these artists at least ____ times a day.
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