(Almost) An Hour with KRXO

An hour (or close to it) with Oklahoma's classic rock giant, KRXO, and this is what I get:

"What a Fool Believes"---The Doobie Brothers

Some of yer old school Doobie fans, the ones whose favorite songs are "China Grove" and "Black Water", may not be too awfully fond of the more Adult Contemporary stylings of the Michael MacDonald hits (this one is probably the biggest, but "Takin' It To The Streets" qualifies). They're certainly entitled to their opinion, but personally I quite like this song and would rank it over many of their other, more rockin' tunes. ESPECIALLY "Black Water", which is, as far as
I'm concerned, one of the most annoying songs in all of rock.

Okay, no fair. I was planning on writing a post about "An Hour With KRXO", just to see what it's like to spend an hour with terrestrial radio (as opposed to XM Satellite Radio)...I haven't spent 5 minutes with KRXO since getting XM, and I was feeling a little bit guilty. After all, KRXO is THE classic rock station in Oklahoma, and I have spent many forgotten hours being reminded of my musical heritage by their DJs.

I had every intention of commenting on each song they played in a one hour time limit...note the Doobie Brothers quip at the top. That was going to be my starting point, and I could only hope that they wouldn't throw in any 38 Special or Styx into the mix (as I wasn't really in the mood to get too cruel).

But they foiled my plans by offering up what they like to call, "Get The Led Out", which is basically a long block of songs by Led Zeppelin. So I'm thinking, well, I might as well have just dragged out one of my Zeppelin CDs and tried to write a review, wouldn't have been much difference, now, would it?

Oh, well.

They kicked the set off with "Going To California", with the line about how Rob's "woman unkind smoked his stuff and drank all his wine". Back in my marijuana-consuming days I would have seen this as KRXO's way of telling me it was time to load up a bowl and fire it up, "the kllla Zeppelin tracks are on the way and you need to get your head ready". And no doubt the stoners who took the cue probably enjoyed "Since I've Been Loving You" more than I did when they played it. It's never been one of my favorite Led Zeppelin tracks (favorites being "When The Levee Breaks", "The Battle of Evermore" and "Immigrant Song", in case you wanted to know...oh, yeah, I like "No Quarter" a lot, too).
From "Since I've Been Loving You" to "Trampled Under Foot", which is another Page/Plant song that I just do not enjoy. Physical Graffiti gets a lot of credit from Zep diehards as being one of their best albums, but I beg to differ. It has a few really good songs in the mix, but it's too long and with dreck like "Trampled Underfoot" included they should have cut it down to one album.

Okay, 25 minutes into the hour and Get The Led Out is over (I forget that a "block of rock" is just 3 songs...that they give a flippin' TITLE to their Zeppelin blocks made me think it might be longer in duration).

~~~"After Midnight"---Eric Clapton

No disrespect to Slowhand, but I can't stand this stupid song.

But hey, I'M the stupid one, because I just realized something (it dawned on me when they followed "After Midnight" with "Lay Down Sally"...another Clapton song I hate...and I LIKE Eric Clapton)...this is THURSDAY! As in "TRIPLE PLAY THURSDAY"!!! In other words, they'll be spinning 3-song blocks o' rock from EVERY artist they play tonight! Oh JOY!

Reminds me of the game me and my friends used to play where we'd try to guess which song KRXO would play next in any particular block. The trick was to get at least one correct of the two that they would play after the first. It wasn't that hard, because the playlists at KRXO are so tight that you can count on them playing the same songs every time. And the fewer big hits an artist had, the easier it was to guess. For instance, with the Rolling Stones it would be pretty difficult. Lots of big hits and fazed cookies from that lot (although "Jumpin' Jack Flash" or "Honky Tonk Women" would usually be a fruitful guess). But with a group like Blue Oyster Cult it was easy to get both songs...made only somewhat more difficult if the first song in the block was "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", the obvious shoe-in. If that were the case, one need only guess "Godzilla" and you're guaranteed at least 2 out of the three.

Then again, that was a completely hypothetical example, since it's doubtful that KRXO would play anything else from BOC than those two songs. I can't think of another that they would play...even though I CAN think of several others that are worthy ("E.T.I.", "In Thee"). The Cars would have been a better group to pull an example from. "Just What I Needed", "Let's Go" and "Let The Good Times Roll" is a safe bet.

Well, I WAS planning on spending an hour with KRXO, but they've kicked off a Crosby, Stills & Nash block, and that's not something I'm prepared to endure (especially when they lead off with "Southern Cross"...yuck). Sure, they could find a loophole and throw in some CSN&Y for to redeem the whole thing, but I'm not about to hang around long enough to find out. I can't even describe how much I can't tolerate "Southern Cross".

BTW, ~~~375,000 in cash and prizes to the winner of Don Quixote's Talent Quest karaoke contest, but those $1.50 long necks is what keeps 'em coming back.