I finally found a station that streams the Dr. Demento Show. I’ve missed the strange and funny novelty song lineup since the only station carrying it in the L.A. area (WorldClassRock 101.9) was sold to Spanish language broadcasters quite a few years ago. *Shakes head* He’s based in Culver City, ferchrissakes, and not a single L.A. station can carry him? The excuse is that the market is so geared to specific niches that cannot deviate from their formats that he doesn't fit anywhere. The station I did find (the only one in the entire state of CA!) is in Fort Bragg at KOZT.com, which is nice because it’s at least in the the same time zone.
The good doctor’s theme Sunday night was “Alternative Lifestyles,” and the top of the Funny Five was Willy Nelson with “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.” I found it not so much funny as rather poignant; he sings it completely seriously, without a trace of satire. I believe I’d heard it mentioned, but hadn’t actually heard it until now. According to
this article, he recorded it as a way to let someone close to him know “that everything is OK.” Good on ya, Willie, although you lose a few points by only making it available on iTunes and saying you're probably not going to include it at any of your shows.
Continuing with the musical theme, I put a buttload of CDs on the iPod this weekend. Since the kids arrived, our CDs have resided in boxes, because cruisers and toddlers just love to pull that kind of stuff off shelves and break it. Many of them have been sadly neglected - I'd carry around my case of 25, and I didn't change them out very often, unless I got a very strong craving for something. So I've sort of been rediscovering music I haven't listened to in a long time. Also, since there's a function for adding the album art, I've been looking all the artists up on Amazon to get a picture to put with the songs. In the process, I'm finding how behind I am. For instance, I first heard a folky young woman named Dar Williams on the above station (or maybe it's predecessor, KSCA, which had the same format, many of the same DJs and suffered the same fate), and bought her first album,
The Honesty Room. Come to find out that was 10 years ago, and she's done a bunch of albums since.
However, I was sitting here at my desk summarizing squid bycatch for 2005, and trying to figure out why the edited document I just got from La Jolla won't shift past page 28 when there are 49 pages in it, and
When I Was a Boy came up on the playlist. And suddenly I found my eyes full of tears, had to grope for some tissue and turn my back to the aisle lest anyone notice.
( Lyrics )Well, I never rode my bike topless, but I'd forgotten just how much I identified with this song; it
was the whole reason I bought the album after all. I do wear my hair long and have a fondness for jewelry and dangly earrings (the odder the better), but those are about my only nods to femininity. I've never much cared for fashion (I'm wearing a hockey jersey to work right now). As a kid, I was happier playing with Tonka trucks, and scorned the Barbies my mom carefully knitted outfits for - although Bryer horses and other animals were still ok. I never cared for baby dolls, and completely lacked a maternal instinct until I actually had kids. I fidgeted when being made to try on dresses; while I own a few now, I rarely wear them. I still dislike trying stuff on - if I can hold it up to myself and see that there's enough room, I won't bother. And the guy at the end could be my brother or John - he said before we had kids he wanted a boy he could teach to cook and sew and a girl to teach throwing baseballs and fixing cars. Although I'd rather both genders of my offspring did all of the above. ;)
I guess I find it poignant because it seems the woman speaking in the song feels she has to keep her tomboyishness a secret, now that she's an adult. I'm not entirely sure whether "I know things have gotta change" is meant facetiously. Whereas, I know I'm not the most feminine person in the world and the "boy" that I was is still there, not a boy at all really, but just
me. And I refuse to push part of
me away and hide it. And from the song Willie covered above,
Well I believe in my soul that inside every man there's a feminine,
And inside every lady there's a deep manly voice loud and clear.* We're not completely one or the other. Just wholly human.
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*...heh, I've been told I sing in a tenor's range, if not lower. ;)
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