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Excuse me for intruding, but I figure if you are on the Chemical Brothers message board, you are one of the good ones.
I would greatly appreciate dialog concerning the following......
I have aweekly column posted every Wednesday on http://www.richmond.com
A weekly radio show on WVNZ 1320 AM Richmond, Virginia airing
Thursdays 2-5PM
Fridays 4-6 PM
RADIO
The Bopst Show
Goodbye, Joe Strummer
Richmond.com
Wednesday January 1, 2003
I was getting ready for what I hoped was going to be a stress-free holiday season when I found out that Joe Strummer had died. My mother appeared at my house full of Christmas cheer about 10 minutes after the news took root in my head, and I feebly tried to reciprocate her jolliness but to no avail. ?You?re not going to ruin Christmas because of some dead rock star, are you?? she said, not knowing that was conceivably the worst thing she could have said to me at that moment. ?No,? I replied, lying through my teeth, hoping against hope that the man who has meant so much to me over the years hadn?t left this plane of existence, ?Merry Christmas.?
I still can?t believe he is dead. The man always seemed to be overflowing with life, burning with a sense of purpose and optimism more fitting for a man half his age. I saw Joe Strummer and his new band, the Mescaleros, at the 9:30 club last year, and it was the best musical performance I had seen in many a moon. And I say that without any phony Clash mania clouding my thinking. I staked out the upper left corner on the balcony by the stage to take it all in and Strummer unleashed a solid fury of deep-seeded humanity for almost two hours before calling it the night. Having never seen the man perform live before, I was amazed by his tenacity and his ability to make wildly different musical forms his own. The band gave him solid backing on the few Clash numbers they played, but they really drove the point home with Strummer?s newest material which is some of the best music he has ever written as far as I?m concerned. It would have been easy for him to bang out all the old favorites, but he never let the past ever be more than a stepping-stone toward the future. After 10 years of virtual non-existence, he was back with a vengeance with a band worthy of him and he played, as I imagined he always did, as if his life depended on it.
I started my radio show because of Joe Strummer. He instilled in me a righteous fury to weed out all the despicable evil in this world and to never bow to anyone else?s thinking other than my own. Strummer was my John Lennon who wore his heart on his sleeve proudly without any cheap sentimentality or corporate hype. He made records that changed my life for the better. Because of Joe Strummer, I opened my once-closed adolescent punk rock mind to all forms of audio expression and I actively began reading everything I could get my hands on from The Communist Manifesto to J.G. Ballard to The People?s History of the United States and beyond. His unrepentant defiant lyrics and his gravel-throated delivery of his songs move me to the core of my being and after all these years, I still am in awe of the redemptive force found in his music. He wasn?t some corporate shill pushing the latest in idiot rebellion as seems to be the case in today?s music scene; he was the real McCoy. Joe Strummer, with The Clash and The Mescaleros, played countless benefit gigs for worthy causes, charged ridiculously low prices for his recordings and shows and he never lost his wide-eyed enthusiasm for the world at large. He was not your typical rock and roll star bloated with the excesses of monetary success. He was Martin Luther King with a guitar fighting the good fight with his last gig being a benefit concert for the families of striking firefighters in England. He was one the greats, my friends, and if you don?t know any of his music, I strongly suggest immersing yourself in anyone of his recordings (except the failure of The Clash?s Cut The Crap) to find out what real rock and roll is all about. Goodbye Joe, I?ll miss you.
To find out more on Joe Strummer, go to
http://www.strummersite.com/
When I found out about Joe Strummer?s death for some reason I turned on my radio thinking that one of our pathetic excuses of rock and roll stations would play some of the man?s music, but I should have known better. Those pre-programmed, 30-song play list big business scum balls couldn?t be bothered to play even one song by The Clash and in two pain inducing hours of listening to their trite garbage I didn?t hear word one about Joe Strummer?s untimely passing. The exercises in monotony I?m talking about are Y101, the X102 and 96.5 the Planet. Those pompous Satan spawns are laughably clueless as we all know, but I thought they would at least mention that the singer for what was referred to, as the only band that mattered was no longer with us at least once in their broadcasts. For that matter, they never
even mentioned the passing of the great Joey Ramone, whose music not only means a great deal to rock and roll fans, but also is a direct influence on the trite bile they are pushing with mind numbing frequency as if being a tribute to banality is all a radio station should aspire to. Is that what rock and roll is all about? I think not.
Y101 Responds
Dear Editor, Richmond.com
Chris Bopst's recent article was full of factual inaccuracies that I would like to point out.
1.) He said that the Y101 DJ's never mentioned the death of Joe Strummer. That is wrong. Our morning show host, Charlie, announced the death early in the morning and continued to bring it up throughout his show. Chris Centore, who was doing afternoons that day, also brought up his death and his influence on music. Ed, who was doing nights, also discussed the importance of Strummer on the punk rock and new rock scene.
2) Bopst said we didn't play one Clash song that day. Also wrong. Charlie played "Should I Stay or Should I Go" at 8:05 a.m. He played "Train in Vain" before he signed off at 9:49 a.m. Mike Murphy played Rock the Casbah at noon. At 10 p.m. we do a special feature where we play a song by an artist and take calls on the song. On that night we played "London Calling."
3) Bopst said we never mentioned the passing of Joey Ramone. This was due to the fact that Y101 wasn't on the air at the time. "I Wanna Be Sedated" was our number 2 new rock song of all time during our Memorial Day 500 Countdown.
So, XL102 and the Planet may have ignored Strummer's death, but at Y101 we realize the importance and the influence of the Clash. And please tell Bopst to double check his facts before calling us "pompous Satan spawns."
Thank you very much.
Keith Dakin
Music Director
WDYL-FM
Check out the web sites . . .
Y101 http://y101rocks.com/
102.1 http://www.wrxl.com/
96.5 http://965theplanet.com/
All three of these stations are completely clueless as we all are well aware of, but take the time to marvel at the audacity of their claims to be Richmond?s number one station. Hell, 101 and 102 are running essentially the exact same play lists! How?s that for being rebellious. Many times at work my co-workers and I have tuned into both of those stations and have heard the same songs playing at the same time. These stations are priceless examples of mindless conformity and show such a lack of creative programming that one might mistake their stations as some horrible inside joke. Mark my words, one of the two of them, if not both, will be gone by this time next year. Until then, laugh a merry gut laugh at their awful, inexcusable broadcasts and cheer the coming day they will be cut out like the cancerous audio sores they are.
If you want to hear music not heard elsewhere on your radio dial, I hope you can find the time to give my show a listen on Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Unforgettable 1320 AM. Every show I have done and will ever do prove, without a doubt, what a horrible waste of air space any of the above mentioned stations are.
Until next time,
Stay clean
Bopst Show Set List from Thursday, Dec. 26, 2-5 p.m.
1. Johnny Appleseed: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
2. Linus & Lucy: The Vince Guaraldi Trio (The Bopst Show Theme)
3. Babylon?s Falling: The Trumpeteers
4. Budo: Miles Davis
5. Police And Thieves: Junior Murvin
6. Holiday Pickin?: The Stanley Brothers
7. I Clowns: Nino Rota
8. Aggravatin? Papa: Bessie Smith
9. In Search of a Well: Rabih Abou-Khalil
10. Straight to Hell: The Clash
11. Nobody?s Dirty Business: Mississippi John Hurt
12. It is to Laugh: The Beau Hunks
13. Pop-Eye Stroll: The Mar-Keys
14. Sally?s Got a Wooden Leg: The Sons of the West
15. Dancing Mood: Delroy Wilson
16. Little Janey?s Gone: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
17. Big City Blues: Sun Ra & His Myth Science Arkestra
18. Undemocratic Rhodesia: Sampson The Lark
19. IZ-US: Aphex Twin
20. Hungarian Dance No. 5: The Brahms Symphony Orchestra
21. Strange Things Happen Every Day: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
22. Consejitos: Bio Ritmo
23. The Witch Captures Dorthy: The Wizard of Oz
24. After The Sunrise: The Chuck Wagon Gang
25. Driving Drums: Eric Delaney
26. WDPK 83.7 FM: Daft Punk
27. Make Yourself Comfortable: Sarah Vaughan
28. Jarabe Tapatio: Xavier Cugat
29. Tighten Up: The Untouchables
30. Miracle of Miracles: Stern & Williams
31. Tango Til They?re Sore: Tom Waits
32. Tune from Rangoon: Martin Denny
33. If You?re a Viper: Bob Howard & His Boys
34. Never Talking to You Again: Husker Du
35. Ma Jaiye Oni: King Sunny Ade
36. Rock My Soul: The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet
37. Ain?t no Sunshine (Live): Bill Withers
38. The Way I Love You (Live): Nina Simone
39. Island Hopping: Joe Strummer
40. Mama Tried: Merle Haggard
41. Plenty More: The Squirrel Nut Zippers
42. The Harder They Come: Jimmy Cliff
43. I Remember it Well: Maurice Chevalier & Hermone Gingold
44. Gypsy?s Chorus: Guiseppe Verdi
45. Washington Bullets: The Clash
46. White Riot: The Clash
Bopst Show Set List from Friday, Dec. 27, 4-6 p.m.
1. Sean Flynn: The Clash
2. Linus & Lucy: The Vince Guaraldi Trio (The Bopst Show Theme)
3. History Lesson Part 2: The Minutemen
4. Funky Kinston: Toots & The Maytals
5. When Your Love Has Gone: Charles Mingus
6. God?s Gonna Cut ?em Down: The Golden Gate Quartet
7. Keep on the Sunny Side: Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch
8. Mambo Beat: Tito Puente
9. You?re Gonna Miss Me: The 13th Floor Elevators
10. Sugar Blues: Clyde McCoy
11. Get Off With Me: Coot Grant & Kid Westley Wilson
12. Whatever Happened to Billy the Comedian?: The Spaceheads
13. Jaman Mozo: Afel Bocoum
14. Break Down The Walls: Mikey Dread
15. Charlie Don?t Surf: The Clash
16. School House Rock Theme: School House Rock
17. Lose Your Blues & Laugh at Life: Jimmie Revard & His Oklahoma Playboys
18. Radio Station: Run DMC
19. Wind-Up Doll: Carl Stalling
20. (If I Love Ya, Then I need Ya) I Wantcha Around: Eartha Kitt
21. Pledging My Time: Bob Dylan
22. Anyhow: The Five Blind Boys of Alabama
23. Something Tropical: Typsy
24. Six Feet Under Theme: Thomas Newman
25. My Rules: Void
26. Gentle Lady: Peggy Seeger
27. Police & Thieves: The Clash
28. Different Strokes Theme
29. Mega Bottle Ride: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
30. Corner Soul: The Clash
RADIO
The Bopst Show
Some quotations that live
Chris Bopst
Wednesday January 8, 2003
Certain quotations will live in your head for the entirety of your days. They creep into your consciousness and affect every aspect of your life, from the profound to the mundane. Similar to pieces of music or visual images, quotations can resonate with a deep seeded truth that in-depth analysis or heavy contemplation can sometimes muddle in the translation. They cut to the chase in stunning simplicity summing up complex issues, ideas or philosophies into little, easily digestible packages. This week I?d like to share some quotations with you, the valued Internet user, that live comfortably in my head and affect just about everything I do.
* They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
* Those against politics are in favor of the politics inflicted upon them.
Bertolt Brecht
* A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey
* He who allows oppression, shares in the crime.
Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin)
* When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority is wrong.
Eugene V. Debs
* Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong, which will be imposed upon them.
Frederick Douglass
* Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
H.L. Mencken
* Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying no to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social, and even political.
Ignazio Silone
* In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.
Jesse Jackson
* Those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
* The more corrupt the state, the numerous the laws.
Tacitus
* Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.
Thomas A. Edison
* What you do is of little significance, but it is very important that you do it.
Mahatma Gandhi
* Not our location is important, but the direction in which we move.
Lev Tolstoy
* The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
Alice Walker
* Those wanting to improve democracy in their countries should not wait for permission.
Bulent Ecevit
* How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Henry David Thoreau
* The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
Albert Einstein
* Integrity has no need of rules.
Albert Camus
* Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning.
Frederick Douglass
* Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
These quotations are the underlying themes that I try to incorporate into my radio show. I feel it is of utmost importance to present my weekly programs against the tyranny of corporate conglomerates that rule our nation?s airwaves. A man who has spent the better part of 50 years in the radio business told me that within 10 years most of radio will be owned by one of three companies, and that I should just accept the inevitability of it. "Your type of program has no future," he said matter of factly, suggesting that if I want a future in the radio industry I should play by the established rules of genre-specific formatting and traditional industry standards.
What he failed to understand was that I have no desire to be a DJ in the traditional sense of the word. Being the mouthpiece for one of those soulless stations pushing the latest preordained hit ad nauseam has no appeal to me whatsoever. I don't want to be part of the disease. I want to be part of the cure.
To Keith Dakin, music director of Y101, I say this . . . I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.
Well that does it for this week. I hope that you can find the time to give my show a listen on Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Unforgettable WVNZ 1320 AM.
Until next time,
Stay clean
Bopst Show Set List from Thursday, Jan. 2, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
1. Happy-Go-Lucky-Me: Paul Evans
2. Linus & Lucy: The Vince Guaraldi Trio (The Bopst Show Theme)
3. The Twilight Zone Theme
4. Wig Wise: Duke Ellington
5. Maga Dog: Peter Tosh
6. Longa Farahfaza: Simon Shaheen
7. Boyd?s Blues: Bill Boyd & His Cowboy Ramblers
8. Them There Eyes: Billie Holiday
9. Like a Rolling Stone: Sebastian Cabot
10. Fragile: Wire
11. La Valse Chinoise: Les Primitifs Du Futur
12. White Heat: Max Steiner
13. Cat O? Nine Tails: Lord Invader & His Calypso Group
14. The Model: Kraftwerk
15. Lead Me to the Rock: The Heavenly Gospel Singers
16. Give Them the Ride: Sizzla
17. Cherokee: Charlie Barnet
18. Cadillac: Combustible Edison
19. Sam Hall: Johnny Cash
20. El Jilguerillo: Nati Cano?s Mariachi Los Camperos
21. Overture No. 1 Passepied: Johann Sebastian Bach
22. Kalumba: Sofia Rosa
23. That?s When I Reach for My Revolver: Mission of Burma
24. Fancy This: The Beau Hunks & The Metropole Orchestra
25. Git Them Pretty Girls: The Bad Livers
26. Rollie Pollie: Roland Alphonso
27. Second Song of the Elima: Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest
28. Twenty Five Miles: Lonnie Smith
29. The Barney Miller Theme: Jack Elliott & Allyn Fergurson
30. Romance without Finance: Tiny Grimes with Charlie Parker
31. Opera Montage (From Citizen Kane): Bernard Herrmann
32. Jumping Master: Mikey Dread
33. Lightening Strikes (Not Once But Twice): The Clash
34. Let?s Dance: Benny Goodman
35. Quiet Please: Negativland
36. Manhattan Minuet: Raymond Scott
37. Make it Good to Yourself: James Brown
38. Mi Guajira: Noro Morales
39. Jolie Blonde: The Hackberry Ramblers
40. Lenny Bruce: Nat Hentoff
41. Conjunction Junction: School House Rock
42. Get Away Jordon: Mahalia Jackson
43. Hang on St. Christopher: Tom Waits
44. Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix): A3
45. My Honey?s Lovin? Arms: Ray Miller & His Orchestra
46. Movie Star: Stereo Total
47. Get Yo? Feet Back on the Ground: Tower of Power
48. War Pigs: Bud E. Love
49. I Shall Be Released: Nina Simone
Bopst Show Set List from Friday, Jan. 3, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
1. We Got Your Money: The Big Boys
2. Linus & Lucy: The Vince Guaraldi Trio (The Bopst Show Theme)
3. Holy Ghost: Tommy Ellison & The Swinging Stars
4. Tic Tac Do Meu Caracao: Carmen Miranda
5. Pesa #1: Public Enemy
6. Dem a Laugh and a Kiki: The Soulmates
7. Snopper & Blabber Theme: Hoyt Curtin
8. Deanna: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
9. Barefoot Nellie: Reno & Smiley
10. Tight Times: Jimmy McGriff
11. Stackolee: Woody Guthrie
12. Murder Beat: The Gert Wilden Orchestra
13. The Valet: Nora Dean
14. You Got Me Hummin?: Sam & Dave
15. Tarragon: Vic Chestnut
16. Rock Steady: The Marvels
17. How Do They Do it That Way: Victoria Spivey & Red Arlen?s Orchestra
18. Smedley?s Melody: Squarepusher
19. Golf Cue: Carl Stalling
20. All Tomorrow?s Parties: The Velvet Underground
21. Peter Piper: Run DMC
22. Global a Go-Go: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
23. Sweet Jamaica: Lord Kitchener
24. Big Fat Mama & Skinny Pa: Louis Armstrong & The Hot Fives
25. Pine State Honky Tonk: Claude Casey & His Pine State Boys
26. I Love The Life I Live; I Live he Life I Love: Muddy Waters
27. The Adams Family Theme: Vic Mizzy
28. Keys to Your Heart: The 101er?s
29. The Good Egg: Carl Stalling
30. In The Mood: The Henhouse Five Plus Too
31. Ticket Agent, Ease Down Your Window: Bessie Smith
32. Career Opportunities: The Clash
Forum
Your attention, please...
MultiQuote
#10
- vandal, first grade
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- Group: Members
- Posts: 3658
- Joined: 10-November 02
- LocationToronto, Ontario, Canada
Posted 16 January 2003 - 1:47 AM
!!!!ME TOO!!!! WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG!!??
He put on a turn-down collar, a black bow, and wore his Sunday tail-coat. As such, he looked spruce, and what his clothes would not do, his instinct for making the most of his good looks would.
