Record Bin Roulette

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4:30am

Thu February 16, 2012
Record Bin Roulette

Pop songs from real life

Don McLean's American Pie

From “The Star Spangled Banner” to “Walk on the Wild Side”, popular music has re-told real-life events, stuff that actually happened.

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4:30am

Thu February 9, 2012
Record Bin Roulette

Here's some lascivious love songs for V-Day

You'll put an eye out with that thing!
--(@rwen / flickr

Love songs are the heart, soul and spleen of the music business. And musicians, being rebels and upstarts, have always been pushing the boundaries of taste and decency, leading to some surprising outcomes…

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4:30am

Thu February 2, 2012
Record Bin Roulette

Sound effects in pop music explored

The 1812 Overture calls for cannon

The Beatles were famous for using sound effects they found in the Abbey Road library, and many other artists used sound to great effect. (haha)  Babby Darin’s “Splish Splash” had a gurgling bath in the track, and The Ronettes “Walking in the Rain” was Grammy-nominated for use of thunder sound effects.

Maybe the first use of sound effects in music was in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which calls for live cannons.

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4:30am

Thu January 26, 2012
Record Bin Roulette

Singing about 'quiet desperation'

jerebu / Flickr

Maybe sometimes the desperation isn’t so quiet, but we begin with a premise by Thoreau, and head straight downhill from there.

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4:30am

Thu January 19, 2012
Record Bin Roulette

Singing about 'the slammer'

Johnny Cash outside Folsom Prison
WBUR / Flickr

The Hoosegow, the Big House, The Clink, Up The River, The Pen. We’ve never been ourselves, but we did time listening to scores of songs about "the slammer."

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4:30am

Thu January 12, 2012
Record Bin Roulette

Slaying dragons and other pop song suffering

Queen For a Day!

This week we learned that it’s good to be the king. But it’s a long road from being a lord or lady to becoming a duke, princess or king. Along the way there are dragons to slay and pop songs to suffer through.

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4:30am

Thu January 5, 2012
Record Bin Roulette

Time is on our turntable

Time is Nature’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once. And the sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. It’s deep thoughts like this that keep us up at night and make us sleepy during the day.

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4:30am

Thu December 29, 2011
Record Bin Roulette

Singing about ... pants?

Clothes make the man.
chappo2002 / Flickr

Clothes make the man, and in this case, the radio episode. Who knew that there would enough songs about pants to fill a front loading washer?

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