And welcome back to 35,000 watts, the podcast. My name is Michael Millard. I’m here with Keith Porterfield and Scott Mobley. We are three ex college radio DJs and executive staffers talking about college radio stuff, particularly college radio music. But before we get started, 35,000 watts, the story of college radio, a feature documentary about college radio is now available on Amazon Prime or Google Play.
Just head over there and search for 35,000 watts. You will find us, and you can rent or buy the film right now. So today we are again revisiting one of our favorite topics. And I think we’ve only done one episode so far on this. But we really enjoyed it.
And there’s, there’s so many good ones to talk about. We are talking about college radio covers. So covers of songs that ended up getting played on college radio. A lot of the times the original versions aren’t college radio music, but the actual cover version is by a band that got played on college radio. We each have a few choices to talk about.
I’m gonna kick things off with one of my favorite bands talking about Devo and their cover of I can’t get no satisfaction by the way. And I say it’s a famous one kind of because this really was Devo’s origin story for the larger public. They started playing and recording as early as 1972 and doing shows, but like, they were kind of relegated to just Akron and the Midwest. They don’t even consider themselves a band. They consider themselves like an art collective.
So they were doing like some really weird stuff even early on in the seventies. And I don’t think anybody really would go see devo in like ’95 or ’75, ’70 ‘6 and be like, ah, these guys are gonna be, you know, signed to Warner Brothers and they’re gonna have a top 40 hit someday. Like, I don’t think that was really in the cards for for Devo and their approach to to music and the and the business or anything. But, one day they happened to kind of hit on this guitar riff and one thing led to another and they ended up recording a cover ostensibly of I can’t get no satisfaction. I can’t get no satisfaction.
I can’t get no satisfaction. I can’t It is very, very different from the original if you’ve heard it. It it really is one of those that’s like a complete reimagining of the song. It’s essentially just the lyrics and and a little bit of the rhythm that survives here and there. So it’s different to the point where they almost weren’t sure if it could be considered a cover because there are some kind of legal ramifications for the differences between doing a cover and doing, like, a re a remake and doing a satire.
Like, they all are legal, but they all fall under different branches of the of the legal coach, if you will. And they literally, like, had to have this discussion about, is this a cover or not? Because it’s so different. To the point where they decided they needed to get Mick Jagger’s permission to record this, and this is not, again, Devo that was, like, a well known band. This is essentially kind of an unknown band having to go and literally play the song for Mick Jagger while they’re in the room, and they had this moment of watching his reaction the first thirty or forty five seconds.
He’s, like, not reacting at all and just they’re having a hard time reading him. And then suddenly he gets up and starts dancing around and doing the Mick Jagger thing and saying he loves it and gives them their blessing. And that puts this song out into the world. I think their biggest jump was probably getting a gig on Saturday night live, and this is one of the songs they did. So you have a band that is about as underground as as they get and really about as weird as they get actually getting a gig on late night national TV.
But at that point, Saturday night live was a popular show and, and, you know, you only have three or four channels. So like, that’s a lot of exposure for a band like Devo. They also took the money that was given them by Warner Brothers when they did get signed to record videos. And that video ended up getting a lot of airplay later on on MTV, although that was that was really a couple years later, but it kinda was led to a little bit of a resurgence of interest in this song even though they were, at that point, two or three albums beyond are we not men, which is the album that this appears on. But an interesting kind of entry into the world of Devo and for them an entry into to the world of getting at least a little bit of national attention.
They certainly got college radio airplay, and that’s where I think this song probably had the longest life. But they it had a moment in the sun, which is really odd for a song that that that is this weird. I was introduced to it really early on as, like, a kid because my brother was into devo. So I’ve known this song since I was, like, six or seven years old, which is probably not the case for a lot of people. I probably heard the song before I heard the original Rolling Stones version, oddly enough.
I don’t know how familiar you guys were with this back in the day. I know you guys are somewhat Devo fans and are are familiar with it, but I we’ve never really talked about it before. So curious your thoughts on it. Yeah. I would call myself a a Devo fan and, like, less of one than you and more of one than probably most people, but, I was definitely familiar with this song before.
You know, I think there’s you know, when we talk about cover tunes, there’s there’s a few different ways to go with the cover tune. There’s the the straight up cover. We’re just gonna replay this song. Then there’s the plucking a song out of obscurity and sort of making it popular when it wasn’t the first time. And then there’s the take the concept of a song and radically throw it into the blender and and make it something completely original and and new.
That’s this. What’s neat about it is that as radically different as it is, and and it’s also very much musically sort of of its time. I every time I hear this song, I also think about the, excuse me, the cover of Money That’s What I Want by the Flying Lizards, which popped up everywhere in the late eighties and early nineties. It’s that. It’s taking this sort of eighties slick electronica sort of sound and taking an old staple of a song and and reimagining it that way.
This is a brilliant, brilliant cover. I I think you’re sort of underselling it maybe a little bit because it’s just it’s it’s just such a wonderful reimagining of a classic song that everybody’s heard a million times. And how do you how do you have the stones no pun intended there. How do you have the the stones to do a cover of that? You know, to take a song like I Can’t Get No Satisfaction and and even think you could you could dream about covering it.
And the way you do that is to do this, to make it so unique and so radically different that for the first maybe minute and a half, you don’t even know that’s the song you’re listening to, you know? And you you talked about the legal ramifications. It was obviously maybe twofold. They they they wanted Jagger’s permission because, you know, just as a tribute to, you know, here. Hey.
We we wanna let you know we’re doing this, and and this is what it is. But the lyrics, you know, they used all the lyrics, so they had to get permission for that. But, yeah, the I’d be hard pressed to think that anybody, you know, thinks these songs are remarkably similar because they’re not. But another interesting thing to me is that Martin Scorsese, the filmmaker, is, famously a Rolling Stones die hard fan. He is he has crammed one of their songs in almost every one of his movies.
The exception is nineteen ninety two’s Casino, where he used this song instead of the Rolling Stones. So there you have a a diehard lifelong Rolling Stones fan saying, this is a good cover. And, you know, this is this is the way to do it. And so I really think, you know, this is this is a great example of how you take a song and make it your own and at the same time, pay tribute to a classic song that everybody knows, but really sort of make I mean, there’s no mistaking when you hear this. This is a Devo song even though it’s it’s not.
And so, yeah, this is this is a fantastic one. Really, really great choice, and I, I applaud I applaud you. I applied the song. This is a great one. I am, not as big a Devo fan as either of you guys are.
I I have their greatest hits. I’m one of the greatest hits records, and that’s the only Devo thing I have. I like them. You know, I’m I’m not anything against them, but I would go so far as to say that I’m a a bigger Rolling Stones fan than I am a Devo fan. And so while I will give Devo all the credit in the world for doing something completely original with this song, which you guys both, you know, pointed out and and pointed to being, what you really liked about it, I cannot fathom ever entertaining the idea in my head of covering Satisfaction lick?
And so I didn’t like it. I I think it’s it’s neat for its own thing, but it does not, in my estimation, come anywhere near approaching the original as far as being a great song. I I just I can’t I can’t see how you would sit down and say, hey. You know what? This is a song we should root to cover, but we don’t wanna have this incredibly great guitar lick be part of it.
You know? It’s so that’s it’s a good song. It’s a good cover. It’s incredibly original, and I will give them all the credit in the world for that. But I can’t say it’s a favorite of mine just because I like the Stones song so much better.
I think the interesting thing here is that, and you kinda tapped into it, is that even though this is the same song, both of these songs are I Can’t Get No Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. You’re comparing apples and oranges when you compare them to each other. They are so radically different. You know? But you’re right.
The the satisfaction guitar is iconic. Nobody wants to hear my cover of take on me that doesn’t go do do do do do do. You know? It’s it’s that. But at the same time, I think they did something so original and so unique with it that it it it becomes its own thing while by being sort of umbilical linked to this other thing.
It becomes its its own animal all in and of itself. So and and I don’t know. I think I think the fact that the the Stones and the Stones fans have sort of signed off on it maybe says that, you know, they they were onto something. They they tapped into something that maybe even the the guy who wrote the song says, oh, this is a nice, you know, this is a nice reimagining of this. You know?
So I I don’t know. But you’re you’re right. I mean, you’re talking about a very iconic guitar riff. But maybe if they put that guitar riff in, then it just becomes another cover song that, honestly, in that case, no one needs to hear because it would just be another band playing I Can’t Get No Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. Yeah.
Yeah. I can see that. And you may be right. Yeah. But but I don’t know.
It just, it doesn’t do it just doesn’t doesn’t do it for me in the way that the original does. But, again, like I said, I’ll give them all the credit in the world for doing something so radically different. And I, you know, the one thing I would say I would add to that is that this was 1977. So there weren’t a lot of bands that were radically reimagining much of anything at that point. Like that was not something that I think even just the concept of taking a song and completely deconstructing it to that degree.
I’m not really aware of much of anything that existed at that time where someone had done that to especially to a classic song, I guess, in in ’77, I guess you could argue whether that was a classic yet or not, but I assumed to be classic song like satisfaction. Yeah. To just kind of completely deconstruct it all the way down to to the lyrics essentially, and then rebuild it, I I think is was definitely unique and and almost unheard of at that time. So I I think they do get some credit for for taking that chance and then to somehow manage to ride that to a Warner Brothers contract just blows my mind. The fact that Devo was ever signed to a a label like Warner Brothers and then would go on to to literally have a top 40 hit, also mind blowing, but, that’s for another episode for another day.
But They sold some records too. They they those guys sold some records. And if you if you showed me them in the seventies and said these guys are gonna sell a whole bunch of records in the eighties, I’d have laughed in your face. Like, it’s just it’s it’s too out there, but at the same time, it’s not. It’s kind of it’s out there, but it’s fresh and original and interesting at the same time.
And I think that that kind of thing will find an audience at some point. You know? They it’s weird that I mean, they fly in the face of everything you know about what it takes to get, like, a major record label deal. I mean, these are guys who are not particularly big fans of record labels in general already. And some of that came from, I think, their experiences with Warner Brothers.
But, you know, they had they had the backing of David Bowie, which certainly helps. They had Brian Eno help produce their first record, although he, I don’t think, was particularly enamored with him by the end of that process. But, mainly because they wanted to just sound the way they sounded, and and he wanted to kinda change it up. But, yeah, Devo just is is one of the most unlikely major label acts who, again, performed on Saturday Night Live, performed on Fridays. If you remember that show, it was kind of a ABC’s take on Saturday Night Live.
And Devo, I think, did at least two, maybe three different appearances on Friday. So, I mean, they were getting network airtime. They had a major label again. You know, Whip It was literally a top barely, but but a top 40 hit. It’s just, yeah, some of the most unlikely one of the most unlikely career paths of any band, I think, oddly enough, kind of all goes back to to this decision to that day in that studio where they were goofing around essentially with, like, a guitar riff and a and a beat.
And suddenly it just kinda came to the them this idea of turning it into a cover and that, you know, one thing leads to another and and the rest is history. So one of the more interesting covers, I think, and if you’re if you’re looking to listen to it, it’s probably on I’m assuming it’s on their greatest hits, but it originally on are are we not men? We are devo, the album, which is I have to say if you’re only familiar with devo from some of their later stuff, that is a very punk guitar based album. Devo definitely changed more into, like, an electronic band later on in their career, and most of the other albums are much more heavily electronic. But, man, go listen to Are We Not Men.
It is punk and guitar rock nirvana. I was just gonna throw out there. They have, their greatest hits thing is a two disc set. One of them is called greatest hits. The other one’s called greatest misses.
It is definitely on one of those. Greatest hits is where you’re gonna find Whip It and, you know, Through Being Cool and those songs. The greatest misses is sort of like their their songs that they they threw out there that just didn’t land. It I would think it’s on the hits. This is this is a hit for them, I think, but they, but it’s on one of those.
Also, if you like what Michael is talking about with the punk sound of Are We Not Men and sort of the early Devo stuff as opposed to the purely electronic stuff, Raiko, years ago, put out this, like, it’s like a three or four disc set of all the stuff D. Va recorded, like, in the early early seventies when they essentially were a punk band. It is remarkably weird and not I wouldn’t say all good, but, man, is it interesting. It is it is there is some fascinating stuff on there, including some stuff where they, like, wrote these really nasty blue lyrics, and, some of the songs are, almost like spoken word kind of thing. It’s it’s they were obviously not trying to be a rock band.
They were trying to be an art project, like you said, and and it’s all these recordings of that. So that’s something interesting to listen to if you’re if you’re digging down the Devo hole. That’s a way to go. I just pulled my copy of their greatest hits album just to see to make sure, and it does yeah. It’s on here.
I can’t get no satisfaction. I I don’t know how many compilation albums Devo has done. This one is simply called Devo Greatest Hits. So and I can’t even see now without opening up the liner notes when it came out. But but, yes, it is on at least this one compilation of theirs.
I think that is a the yeah. They did the Greatest Hits Greatest Misses, like, double release a long time ago, and and they’ve never really they’re not like a big rerelease everything kind of band, oddly enough. And and sometimes it’s even hard to find the original albums, and they’re sometimes they’re combined into double albums and stuff. But, yeah, it’s all out there. I’ve already talked about Devo longer than I was supposed to.
But, yeah, I love Devo and can’t recommend him enough. Alright. We’re talking about college radio covers, and we are gonna go next to mister Scott Mobley. So my first one today, I have chosen Superman by REM. So the original of this song is from 1969.
It’s a band out of Austin called The Click. Their music on their bio is described as sunshine pop, and I don’t know what that is, but I need more of it in my life. I’m gonna figure out what that is and and dig into it. Anyway, these guys only had one album best I can tell. There was this one single from it, called Sugar on Sunday, which ironically is a cover of a Tommy James and the Shondell song.
Superman was its b side. So the original is no doubt a late sixties pop song. It’s there’s hints of psychedelia, just a a twinge of psychedelia. It’s kind of just a a a country rock sixties song. It definitely sounds of that era and everything.
So, you know, unlike a lot of the covers that we talk about, this one is not really a hit song when REM got a hold of it. In fact, I didn’t know for a long time that it was a cover. But, my story with this is this is the song that I sort of credit with getting me into REM, and and I think I told this story maybe on the REM episode. But, basically, I knew who they were. I had heard their name.
I knew I probably had heard songs like don’t go back to Rockville, Driver Eight. They were probably way out on my radar, but I had probably heard those songs. I was conscious of REM, but I wasn’t into them yet. I was running the sound board for the auditions for a talent show one year at my high school, and I was probably a sophomore. And these guys came in with two acoustic guitars and played this song.
I’d never heard it. And so afterwards, I went up and asked them. I said, who is this? You know, who who is is this original? The who what’s this song?
And they said, no. This is a song by REM. So I immediately went out and bought Life Search pageant, fell in love with it. The rest is history. So this really is the song I kind of credit with making me go from casual, yeah, I know who those guys are, to becoming a really big REM fan.
So it’s an important one to me. So REM makes this an REM song. They don’t change a whole lot about it, but they do change a couple of things. The main thing being Mike Mills’ back vocals, that is not in the original. So the original or the, you know, in the REM version that we’ve all heard, you hear I am, and then Mike Mills goes I am.
I’m behind that. That’s not in the original. The original just goes I am, and then it holds it for a second. So that’s a really nice touch. And, you know, I’ve I’ve sure I’ve said this before as well, but as back vocalists go, as harmonies and back vocals go, I think Mike Mills might be the king.
You know, a lot of people say Michael Anthony and Van Halen. I certainly won’t argue with anybody about that, but Mike Mills is up there. When when you get him on a microphone behind Michael Stipe, it is gold every single time. And it’s really a key to REM sound that I that I think, you know, makes them what they are and certainly makes this song what it is. The interesting thing here is that REM took out a countermelody that’s going on underneath the song.
So I can’t really tell what the lyrics are. I can’t really tell what they’re saying. But while the song is going on in the original, there’s somebody underneath it singing another line of lyrics that kinda works. It kinda makes the song busier and a little more, you know, a little more going on and a little more for your ears to hang on to. R.
E. M. Took that part out, which I thought was kind of interesting. They should have maybe left it in, but that’s neither here nor there. This is a fantastic song.
It it was released as a single by REM. It made it up, a little bit on the modern rock charts. I think it was number 22 or something about that like that on the modern rock charts. So this was a mild hit for REM. And, I I just really I I have such a fondness for this song in my heart.
It may not be the best REM song ever. It may not even be the best cover song, you know, for this kind of discussion, but I think it’s a wonderful song. And then so I would recommend to anybody if you if you like REM and maybe haven’t heard this one, check it out. It’s, it’s a it’s a cover song that REM sort of made into an REM song, and I and I really like that. So that’s Superman, REM.
Oh, by the way, appears on the album Life’s Rich Pageant, if I didn’t mention that before, which is it just happens to be my favorite REM album. Life’s Rich Pageant was largely my introduction to REM as well. I’d I’d heard of them, and I knew some other songs, but I had a buddy who had this album. And and this was my first, album that I heard from end to end was Life’s Rich Pageant. And, of course, you know, Superman is the last track on there.
Yeah. Fantastic song. Great, great, great song. And one of my favorites early on when I was first getting into REM. I knew it was a cover, but I had never until I was doing my prep work for this, I had never heard the original.
So I went and listened to the click version of it, and it’s it’s pretty good. I mean, you’re not gonna obviously, if it’s their song, they wrote it. So I was about to say you’re not gonna mess up a good song, but they’re the ones who wrote it. So, obviously, they didn’t mess it up. But, I don’t think it’s as good as the REM song or at least I like the REM cover better.
And I’ll tell you, you know, you mentioned kind of that counter vocal melody on the click version that goes kinda under the main, vocal part. To me, I didn’t like that. I actually kinda thought it was a little too busy and kinda kinda mucked things up a little bit. And where it could have been a little bit cleaner of a recording, it was, a little I don’t know. I guess busy is the best word I can use for it.
You know, I was not a big fan of that, part of the original. So not even knowing that it was supposed to be there maybe because I’d heard the REM song so many times. Maybe that was why it kinda rubbed me wrong. But, yeah, I think actually REM made a good choice in leaving that part of that out, and I think that their version of the song is the definitive version of it. I think it’s better than the click version, and part of it is taking that extra vocal out.
I certainly agree with you that it’s better. I don’t know. I kinda like that little countermelody, though. It it really so in the same way that that second I am being missing really made my ears go, wait. What’s this?
Yeah. That countermelody sort of did the same thing. I kinda went, oh, what’s this? And it and it I I liked it. I don’t know.
But, yeah, I I’m in no way gonna sit here and try to tell you that the clicks version is in any way better. It’s not. Our REM made this a much better song than it is, but, there it was in its original format. It definitely feels like an REM song, and I think you guys have kinda covered it. It’s it’s not my favorite song on the album by any stretch.
I love life life stretch pageant, and it’s not necessarily one, you know, one of my favorite songs on it, but it it’s a great song. And I have some really good memories of it from KTXT. I particularly remember, after doing, a show on KTXT, the guys after me did a show called FUBAR radio and featuring one Rob Meadows. And I can’t remember his partner’s name, unfortunately, but shout out to Rob Meadows if you’re out there. I remember them singing I I am Superman along with REM one night on the air, and I will it’s I don’t know.
You have these, like, memories that just stick in your head. For some reason, I will always have this memory of Rob and his partner trying to sing I am Superman along with with REM, on the air. And so that, that always kind of gives me a chuckle. Yeah. Just, but this song, Superman is, just a delightful little song.
Like you, it’s hard to hate on on Superman. I I can’t imagine too many people disliking it. Again, is it my favorite on Life’s Pageant? Not necessarily, but just super listenable, super likable. And it’s REM, so can’t go wrong with that.
Next up, Keith. During our first covers episode, I went out of my way to pick songs that would not ever have been played on KTXT, songs by bands that, you know, just weren’t something that we would have played that ended up getting played by a band that we did play. I didn’t put that caveat on myself this time, but for the second time in a row, I ended up choosing a Simon and Garfunkel song. I had missus Robinson on the last episode. This this song, or this episode, I’ve got Hazy Shade of Winter.
I didn’t know this when I was picking this song, but this song is on the same album as missus Robinson, that, being the 1968 album Bookends. And not only is it on the same album, it’s the next track after missus Robinson. So if you go listen to, to Bookends by Simon and Gyrfocal, you’ll get these two songs back to back. So I didn’t plan on doing that, but somehow it worked out that way. So maybe next time I’ll do whatever the the track after Hazy Shade of Winter is on on that album.
But this time, I did the Bangles cover of Hazy Shade of Winter. Not necessarily a band you would immediately think of as being a college radio band. I mean, obviously, they had some huge hits in the eighties with, you know, Walk Like in Egyptian and Manic Monday. We did play this song at KTXT. This was actually my introduction to this song, to this cover was on KTXT.
So I have kinda always thought of it as being college, radio song. What I didn’t know until I was doing a little background work for this was that this song was huge. This song actually went to number two on the Billboard 100. I had no idea. I don’t know how I missed that, but I didn’t.
I did not know that. But it’s Oh, man. Is it a great cover? It was done for the soundtrack to the movie Less Than Zero back in 1987, was produced by Rick Rubin. It’s pretty true to the original.
It is rocked up a little bit. Although, for a Simon and Garfunkel song, Hazy Shade of Winter is one of their more rocking tracks. At this one, they did the guitars are louder, and it is like I said, it’s a a pretty true cover, but it’s man, it just really really rocks, and it really takes me back to that that time at KTXT when I was playing this or when it would come up. This wasn’t on any of their albums. Like I said, it was on the Less Than Zero soundtrack.
It did later appear on a Greatest Hits album. But it just it’s a it’s a fun rocker. It blends itself well to the group vocals that, the Bengals do on this. You know, usually, you think of Susanna Hoffs kinda being the main singer, for the Bengals. This particular song, all four of them kinda harmonize and do the the lead vocal together, and that works really well on the song, especially being a Simon and Garfunkel song, which is built around vocal harmonies anyway just because of what those guys did.
So so, yeah, it’s not one I couldn’t tell you how it did for us at KTXT. I don’t know whether we charted it well or not. It was a little bit before my time there even though that’s where I first heard it. But, but, man, yeah, a favorite of mine, strangely enough, another Simon and Garfunkel song off the album bookends. But, yeah, a good one.
Bangles, Hazy Shade of Winter. I remember when this came out, and you’re right. It was on the Less Than Zero soundtrack. I went the minute I heard this in 1980, whatever that was, ’88 maybe, and, bought the 45 single of this, and played it till it had a hole in it, I think. I this is just a fantastic song.
Now the interesting part is that I did not know it was a cover for a while. When I found out it was one, my reaction was, well, okay. It’s a Simon and Garfago song, but there’s no way it sounds like this. It kinda does. And, it’s it’s it’s interesting that Simon Garfunkel recorded something that really is kind of a rocker.
Now you’re right. Keith, the Bengals definitely amped it up in the rocking department a little bit. And, you know, so it kinda made the guitar a little more focused or whatever. But the the Simon and Garfunkel version of this song, if you haven’t heard it, absolutely rocks. Yeah.
This was a monster hit for the Bengals. It was, you know, they if you go see them live, they you know, they’re still out there playing. The the this is the first song. This is their show opener every night, no matter when you see them or or where. And it’s it’s still just a a a fantastic, you know, kinda rock and pop song that, I you know, the Bengals get a lot of credit for a lot of their big hits.
I really still to this day think this is the best thing they ever did. And, you know, it’s a cover which makes kinda maybe dampens their legacy a little bit. But this is just this is as good as it gets as far as, you know, rock and pop songs go. And, the fact that it’s really not that far from the original has always been sort of interesting to me. It’s it’s, you you hear it, and if you didn’t know it was a cover or you did and but you never heard the Simon and Garfunkel version, you would have the same reaction I did, I think, where you’d go, well, I kinda knew you hear the Simon and Garfunkel one now because there’s no way it sounds like this, but it it it really does.
It it’s pretty a pretty loyal cover. But, yeah, this is a this is an excellent choice. This is a fantastic song. Yeah. I was shocked the first time I heard the original because I I had the same experience.
Like, this is this was my introduction to the song, and I, obviously, it rocks real real hard. And, yeah, the Bengals, I think, are underrated for several reasons. And I think, you know, early on, they definitely they it was they were a little bit not really a different band. I mean, I don’t think they really changed, but they they did trade off. Like, all four of them take the lead on different songs on their first album or or two, and they’re they’re kinda more a little bit more of, like, a straightforward rock band as opposed to pop.
You know, they they start leaning more towards pop, and Susanna Hoss kinda starts taking all the lead vocals on for the most part as they get deeper in. And and there’s some you know, like you said, Bengals aren’t necessarily something somebody you think of as a college radio band, but I I remember them being on the playlist at at at least a handful of songs. And I remember liking some of the other stuff that was probably, like, in my room is is to me one of my favorite, like, pop songs of the eighties. Like, I love in my room, and it possibly put me into puberty by by, like, watching that video and the the lyrics to that song and may may have kick started my puberty if, if I’m not if I’m remembering that correctly. But yeah.
And I, I’ll also give a shout out to Going Down to Liverpool, which is also a a cover song by them off their first album. That’s just a really I just it’s a really nice, like, little laid back song. It has a really funny video with Leonard Nimoy, oddly enough, like, driving them around, and he’s like the driver and they’re in the back song. But and again, an example of of Suzanne Hoss not being the lead vocalist on that song. Yeah.
I I remember this. I remember the movie less than zero as well, which is kind of a hard watch, but definitely great if if you like it. That’s it really is a great movie if you haven’t seen less than zero. I mean, that’s a it’s Scott Robert Downey junior. It’s got Andrew McCarthy.
It’s got James Spader and Jamie Gertz. So it’s kind of a kind of the the Brat Pack style movie, although not with the exact members of the Brat Pack, but it’s kind of in that same vein, I I feel like, in that same time period. But, yeah, what a it’s just such such a good song and and one that I mean, I I guess I I I think everybody has this image of the bangles in your in your head, and you just forget, like, those women knew how to rock. I mean, you had one one of the members was was from the runaways, if I remember. Right?
The bassist was like like, they had a pedigree before that, if I’m not mistaken. Yeah. I think they all had dabbled in some other bands. The Runaways might have been one of them. Yeah.
I you know, you you mentioned that, you know, this may not be the best example of a college radio band, but they certainly got to start that way. Yeah. You know, their their first album in going down to Liverpool, those were college radio songs. And and I’m honestly I’m gonna throw this out there. You know, there’s an arc to their story where they start as kind of this maybe indie, you know, rocking band, and they they end up being this pop diva band.
It sort of all ends with, oh, that big ballad. They, eternal flame. That that’s kind of the big the end for them because if you you know, eternal flame is a beautiful song. The Bengals aren’t playing it. It’s it’s Susanna Hoff singing over a an orchestra track.
You know, there’s there’s no there’s no band there. But I will give a big shout out to the album that’s in between those things, which I believe is called different light. It’s the album that had walk like an Egyptian on it and manic Monday. They’re they’re big hits. That album is really good cover to cover, and it’s got a lot of good rockers on it.
There’s still a little hint of their punk fluence punk influence on it. There’s still you know, there’s you can tell there’s a poppy edge to it, but it definitely has a little more a little more dark edge too that they would abandon, an album or two later. But that’s a that’s a solid album if you haven’t heard it. Maybe not a college radio album, but it’s a it’s a damn good one. I think their career arc, has a little bit of a parallel with the Go Go’s in that they kinda started off as more of a punky rocky band, and then kinda morphed into the more of the pop band as as time went on.
But still because of their, you know, origins, you know, in in that little more of a kind of a rocky, you know, punky thing, they kind of, held on to a little bit of a I don’t know what the word I wanna use is, but a little of their credibility, I guess, if you wanna call it that. But, yeah, a little bit of a parallel with the Go Go’s there. And then I just also wanted to mention, Mike, you mentioned in your room, my favorite Bangle song of all time, actually. I love that song. So, yeah, that’s a good one too.
That’s actually on the album after Different Light. That’s on the album that has Eternal Flame on it. Right? I think so. Yeah.
It is, I think. Yeah. They hadn’t quite run out of steam, but definitely that was in the, like, the Susanna Hoff, you know, fronting era, which is still good. And and they actually do a cover of a Elvis Costello song later in their career. I I wanna say this is late nineties, maybe even the two thousands called tear off your own head.
And And it’s a nice little it’s a nice little cover song as well, like a a nice rocker. The original is good. It’s not not a departure at all. Like, the both songs are the original and the cover are both very similar, just kind of straightforward rockers. But, yeah, I I I would actually recommend either of those, those, the Elvis Costello version or the Bengals version.
But if for some reason you haven’t heard well, for some reason you haven’t heard hazy shade of winter, go listen to that right now. Fix that problem right now. Yeah. Fix that. Like Pause this and go listen to that song.
Yeah. I’ll I’ll even allow that. Like, pause the podcast and go listen to that. But also, going down to Liverpool for sure. And I guess if maybe you were someone who, like, dismissed the Bengals at the time and and didn’t really listen, Check out, like, Walk Like an Egyptian’s a fun song.
In My Room is a fantastic pop song. Manic Monday was written by freaking Prince. I mean, that’s a great one. So Yeah. All good songs.
All all good. All, worth checking out. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Give the Bengals a shot. Alright. Three more great college radio cover songs to go check out. Can’t go wrong with REM. Can’t go wrong with Devo.
And as we just talked about, you can’t go wrong with the Bengals. Like, if, again, if you don’t consider them a college radio band, I get it. They they broke big and became a pop band, and they were huge. And that’s not always, you know, associated with college radio. But, man, there’s some really good songs.
And, yeah, if you haven’t heard Hazy Shade of Winter, definitely go check it out. Another thing you could go check out if you were so inclined is 35,000 Watts, the story of college radio. It’s a feature documentary about college radio, and it is available right now on Amazon Prime or Google Play. It’s only like seventy minutes long. It won’t take you long to to check it out, learn a little bit about the history of college radio.
See, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo talking about, college radio. He’s in the film. Joey Santiago from the Pixies is in the film. Burtis Downs, the manager of REM, also in the film. So, yeah, lots of great people to talk about college radio.
They, it’s it’s it’s a fun movie. Granted, I made it. So, yeah, I’m a little biased, but go check it out. Amazon Prime, Google Play available now. Thanks again to Scott Mobley, Keith Porterfield for joining me, and we will see you guys all next time on thirty five thousand watts, the podcast.