you could have been a candle

On the topic of Listening To The Radio, Keith Richards wrote, of the year 1964, "And the radio!  You couldn't believe it after England.  Being there [in America] at a time of a real musical explosion, sitting in a car with the radio on was beyond heaven.  You could turn the channels and get ten country stations, five black stations, and if you were traveling the country and they faded out, you just turned the dial....
We lived off Motown on the road, just waiting for the next Four Tops or the next Temptations.  Motown was our food, on the road and off."

Eighteen years later in 1982, the rock critic Lester Bangs said, in answer to the question What Do You Think About Radio Today -- "I never listen to it.  I don't even have any opinion of it, because it's so bad that I don't even bother."
[interviewer]  You Don't Think It's As Important A Force As It Was In The '60's.
"I don't think rock 'n' roll is as important a force as it was in the '60's.  Rock 'n' roll is getting like jazz used to be -- it's big in Europe.  Those kids out there, they're concerned with getting good jobs and stuff.  They'll go see Styx and it's like spectacle.  It's very much leisure-time activity right now.  It's just something to consume."
[end interview excerpt]----------------

________________________
Did Radio go from being really good to being really bad in the 18 years between 1964 and 1982?  I don't know -- it could be different people's perspectives and viewpoints at the time, or times -- also maybe Music can't be "exploding" all the time.  Maybe these trends come in waves, or something.

And maybe rock critic Lester Bangs got extremely picky.  That can happen with critics.  (Tina Turner:  "Sometimes I think critics don't realize how critical they are...!")

The Bangs quotes are from an interview done by Jim DeRogatis, a high school student at the time.  He had written to Lester Bangs -- May I interview you? -- and received a response....

[quote from DeRogatis' intro to the interview] ...As soon as I walked in the door that day my mom told me that she'd gotten a mysterious call (collect) from a fellow named Lester.  I could interview him if I wanted to on Friday -- just come to 542 Sixth Avenue near the corner of Fourteenth Street and shout up at the fifth-floor window.  He didn't have a phone or a doorbell, but he'd throw down the keys when he heard me yell. ...[end quote]

_________________________
Did 1964 have better music than 1982?  I sigh wearily and say, inside of head, "I don't know. ..."  Does everything good eventually get taken over by commerciality and then screwed up and battered into nothingness?  Again -- I don't -- know.

Some of the top songs, 1964

"I Want To Hold Your Hand"
    The Beatles
"She Loves You"
    The Beatles
"Hello, Dolly!"
    Louis Armstrong and the All Stars
"I Get Around"
    The Beach Boys
"Everybody Loves Somebody"
    Dean Martin

Some of the top songs, 1982

"Physical"
    Olivia Newton-John
"Centerfold"
    The J. Geils Band
"I Love Rock 'N Roll
    Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
"Maneater"
    Daryl Hall and John Oates
"Jack & Diane"
    John Cougar

-----------------------
{Google "the way you do the things you do" > You Tube, The Temptations}



You got a smile so bright
[ba-bomp ba-bahm,  ba-bomp ba-bahm]
You know you could have been a candle
I'm holding you so tight
You know you could have been a handle
The way you swept me off my feet
You know you could've been a broom
And babe you smell so sweet
You know you could've been some perfume

Well -- you could've been anything
that you
wanted to -- and
I can tell
The way you do the things you do

As pretty as you are
You know you could've been a flower
If good looks were minutes
You know you could have been an hour
The way you stole my heart
You know you could have been a crook
And baby you're so smart
You know you could have been a school book

Well you could've been anything
that you -- wanted to
I can tell --
The way you do the things you do

You make my life so rich
You know you could have been some money
And baby you're so sweet
You know you could have been some honey

Well you could have been anything
that you -- wanted to
I can tell --
The way you do the things you do ...

-------------------------------
Keith Richards:  "Motown was our 'food'....Listening to car radios through a thousand miles to get to the next gig.  That was the beauty of America. ..."

========================
{"The Way You Do The Things You Do" -- writers, Smokey Robinson; Robert Rogers -- released January 23, 1964 - Label:  Gordy -- on the albums Meet the Temptations and The Temptations Sing Smokey.}
{Life, by Keith Richards.  Copyright 2010.  Little, Brown}

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