WRINKLYS' RADIO.
For many years leading to my retirement and beyond, the dream of having a radio programme was paramount, to share a substantial record collection with a group of listeners of similar ilk. A few years ago I was invited to be a guest on our local BBC radio station, something that went pretty well, being treated perfectly by the programme host. We played a few tracks and were rewarded by some excellent 'phone responses. The management, however, could see no way to encourage a local record presenter an opportunity to share the fruits of this considerable collection. It was assumed that the majority of listeners only wish to hear what is being broadcast on all the other stations. Perhaps one needs to have celebrity status, which in most cases has nothing to do with expertise regarding the subject.
My particular collection is tunes of the early to mid 20th. century. Jerome Kern/Irving Berlin/ Rodgers & Hart/Gershwin Bros./Cole Porter/Hoagy Carmichael, the list goes on and on. There was so much creativity in a period of four or five decades that probably will never be matched. Thousands of simple but lasting, memorable songs. Kern invented the style, departing from an Austrian/Hungarian format to something typically American, going on to write the music of the first musical to be based upon a novel. The show is, of course, Show Boat. At the other end of the spectrum is Hoagy Carmichael, who wrote the tune Star Dust, probably the most recorded song of all time. These talented artists and their contemporaries came up with thousands of these gems which I have in my collection, performed by equally capable entertainers. The very essence of this art is the fact that modern technology has given us a lasting memory. What do we get coming from our loudspeakers? Something recorded a few days ago. The crux of all this is, that for some unknown reason, a public service broadcaster indulges all this wall to wall dross for most of the day.
All is not lost, however, as 103 The Eye, a community radio station in Melton Mowbray, gives me the opportunity to let a limited audience hear some of these masterpieces.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH WRINKLY MUSIC?
My particular collection is tunes of the early to mid 20th. century. Jerome Kern/Irving Berlin/ Rodgers & Hart/Gershwin Bros./Cole Porter/Hoagy Carmichael, the list goes on and on. There was so much creativity in a period of four or five decades that probably will never be matched. Thousands of simple but lasting, memorable songs. Kern invented the style, departing from an Austrian/Hungarian format to something typically American, going on to write the music of the first musical to be based upon a novel. The show is, of course, Show Boat. At the other end of the spectrum is Hoagy Carmichael, who wrote the tune Star Dust, probably the most recorded song of all time. These talented artists and their contemporaries came up with thousands of these gems which I have in my collection, performed by equally capable entertainers. The very essence of this art is the fact that modern technology has given us a lasting memory. What do we get coming from our loudspeakers? Something recorded a few days ago. The crux of all this is, that for some unknown reason, a public service broadcaster indulges all this wall to wall dross for most of the day.
All is not lost, however, as 103 The Eye, a community radio station in Melton Mowbray, gives me the opportunity to let a limited audience hear some of these masterpieces.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH WRINKLY MUSIC?
posted by minister | 11:52
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