Tag: reo speedwagon

Movie Music Monday – FM

It was on this day in 1978 that “FM” premiered in theaters. As a former radio DJ, I knew it was just a matter of time before this movie would pop up in this feature. I’m surprised that it hasn’t come up already, as it has one of the best movie soundtracks!

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The film starred Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Alex Karras, Cleavon Little, Martin Mull, Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, and REO Speedwagon (just to name a few). Despite what they say, this film was not the inspiration for WKRP in Cincinnati (which was in the works at the same time).

Honestly, it’s really not that great of a movie. It’s billed as a comedy, but it’s not something you’ll be belly laughing at. It also has some serious moments that are a bit forced. Then there is the lackluster “feelgood” ending that feels more fake than good. Thank goodness for the amazing soundtrack!

The soundtrack is like a snapshot of 1978 rock radio and is loaded with hits. It is so difficult to choose just one song to play here, as there are so many to choose from. Bob Seger, Steve Miller Band, Tom Petty, Foreigner, The Eagles, Boz Scaggs, Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, Joe Walsh, and even Queen! I decided to choose a band that I haven’t featured on the blog before – Steely Dan.

I suppose that it makes sense to pick the movie’s title song, FM (No Static At All). Walter Becker and Donald Fagen wrote this song specifically for the film. Fagen told American Songwriter magazine: “There was a film called FM and we were asked to do the title song,” he said. “And I said, ‘Does it have to have any specific words?’ And they said, ‘No, it just has to be about FM radio.’ We wrote that very quickly, I remember, in one or two days. And we also recorded it very quickly, too. Johnny Mandel came in and did the string chart. It was fun to meet Johnny Mandel.”

The song sold a ton of records and was actually much more popular than the movie. Fagen felt the song could have been a bigger hit if the movie had been more successful. “The song was a hit, but I think we should have seen the movie before we committed ourselves,” he said in 2007. “As you know, it wasn’t a very successful movie.”

As a piece of music, it has a lot going on. Look it up on Wikipedia and the description sounds like a music theory class! You have an overture to start, arpeggios, tonal chords, thirds and fifths, a string section, major chords and minor chords, and all kinds of key changes. It’s actually cool to hear in headphones.

When the movie came out, FM radio listening was on the rise. As the song says, it had less static than AM radio. What made FM radio stations popular was their ability to take chances by playing lesser known bands and album cuts. Listeners couldn’t get enough of it.

The Red 8 Track Tape

8-TrackTape

Recently a friend went to buy a new car.  He was appalled when he found out there was no CD player in it.  As a music lover, I totally get this.  I want to be able to pop in the music of my choice when I am driving.  Up until recently, the CD Player was a standard option.  Now they provide a USB port for you to plug a thumb drive or iPod into for music.  This wasn’t always the case.

Prior to the CD player, it was the cassette tape that was the choice for music.  You could record your music to these 60-90 minute tapes and have your favorite cruising tunes at your finger tips.  The only trouble was that if you wanted to hear a song again, you’d have to rewind it (or fast forward the other side if there was no rewind option).  Prior to that mode of media – there was the 8 Track tape!

The 8 track was a continuous looped tape that had 4 stereo tracks (8 tracks total), and the player head would move play which ever track it was positioned over.  You could buy 8 tracks with music already on them or, if you had a recorder (like my dad did), you could record your own.  With prerecorded 8 tracks, all the songs played in their entirety with no type of interruption.  My dad recorded his own, and sometimes a track would run out during a song and switch to the next track, so the player would “click” in the middle of a song.  It’s humorous to try to explain it in words here, but if you know what I am trying to explain, you are chuckling!

My dad had quite the collection of his own 8 tracks.  We’d listen to them often.  My mother asked him to put some songs together for her.  He put them on a red 8 track.  He may have had other red 8 tracks, however, this one in particular I remember. It contained mom’s songs … mostly ballads.

As a child, we’d go to Caseville for weekend summer vacations.  From our house, it was approximately 2-3 hours to drive there.  We’d sit in the car bored out of our minds and listen to music.  I remember when mom’s 8 track went it, it was like someone gave us a double dose of Benadryl.  Oh man, TRY to stay awake with these songs on.  The only thing that would keep me awake was listening to my mom mumble through the first 3/4 of the lyric (the part she didn’t know) and belt out the last two words of the line. “mumble, mumble, almost intelligible, mumble, half a word, mumble ….CAUSE I’D REALLY LOVE TO SEE YOU TONIGHT!”

To this day, there are songs that make me think of those rides to the trailer.  When they come on, I think “Caseville 8 Track!”  I remember driving up 53 through the towns of Romeo, Almont, Imlay City, Marlette, Cass City, Owendale, Pigeon, and finaly arriving at Caseville and listening to them all!  Here is a partial list of some of them:

  • Sad Eyes – Robert John
  • Babe – Styx
  • You Needed Me – Anne Murray
  • Heartlight – Neil Diamond
  • Just The Way You Are – Billy Joel
  • Sweet Music Man – Kenny Rogers
  • You Are So Beautiful – Joe Cocker
  • You Light Up My Life – Debby Boone
  • Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue – Crystal Gayle
  • Your Song – Elton John
  • If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot
  • Lyin’ Eyes – The Eagles
  • Longer – Dan Fogleberg
  • Blue Bayou – Linda Ronstadt
  • Annie’s Song – John Denver
  • Keep On Loving You – REO Speedwagon
  • I’d Really Love to See You Tonight – England Dan and John Ford Coley
  • Who’s Crying Now – Journey
  • Sundown – Gordon Lightfoot
  • Song Sung Blue – Neil Diamond
  • Could It Be Magic – Barry Manilow
  • The Way We Were – Barbara Streisand
  • Three Times a Lady – The Commodores
  • All Out of Love – Air Supply
  • If – Bread

….and those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head!  I am sure there are plenty that I am forgetting.  I am sure there are probably a few more Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond songs that should be on here, too.

While most of these songs are never going to make my “favorites” play list, they do take me back to a time when I was a young boy driving in our station wagon up to our favorite summer get away.  They also remind me of mom.  What I wouldn’t give to hear her mumble through some lyrics today.