MetaQuiz: Songs on the Radio About The Radio -16

Answer: George Harrison

"Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip
I heard it in the night
Words that thoughtless speak
Like vultures swooping down below
On the devil's radio
I hear it through the day
Airwaves gettin' filled
With gossip broadcast to and fro
On the devil's radio."

The album came out in 1987, and featured an all-star cast of music legends working with George, who sang lead and played guitar. Also on the album were Jeff Lynne on bass guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals, Eric Clapton playing guitar solos, Elton John tickling the piano keys, George's fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr beating the drums, and Ray Cooper on percussion.

Answer: Scotland

"I always wake to the sound of your voice
And I am floating on an ominous cloud
This dark land looming over the hill
Maintain a holy stance and protect your children."

Lead singer Simon Neil describes the song as being about valuing the friends that you have and loving the people around you. The Mexican mariachi band in the song helps deliver the feel-good message as they play the unusual 5/4 time signature.

Answer: Nirvana

Kurt Cobain writes:
"I'll start this off
Without any words
I got so high that
I scratched 'til I bled"
in the song "On a Plain" a song about songwriting that is featured on the 1991 album "Nevermind" that shot Nirvana to the top of the rock'n'roll world in the 90s.

The original title of the song "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" was "Four Month Media Blackout," which referred to the period in 1991-1992 when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was playing on the radio ubiquitously and the album was on the charts.
"Save, save your friends
Find, find your place
Speak, speak the truth"

Answer: "Flesh + Blood"

"Flesh + Blood" was the Roxy Music's seventh studio album, their penultimate album recorded before their final and greatest of all, "Avalon." But the song "Oh Yeah (On The Radio)" is Bryan Ferry's "picture of Americana, and long hot summer evenings at drive-in movies. It is wistful and nostalgic, rather like a country record."

Answer: Thomas Dolby

"Strange how the scale forms
In tiny patterns
On my antenna
And The Five O'Clock Show, hello hello
Brooklyn is crawling with famous people
I turn my vehicle beneath the river, west from south
Through the airwaves
People never read the airwaves
Do we only feed the airwaves
I really should have seen through the airwaves"

You probably can't go to a movie theatre without seeing the credit DOLBY Sound System on the screen at the end. That system was developed by Thomas Dolby in the 1990s by his tech company Beatnik.

Answer: Reba McEntire

In fact, when this song hit the top of the charts, Reba McEntire became the first female solo act to have a Number One hit in four consecutive decades.
Cherie Oakley, Mark Oakley and J.P. Twang wrote the song and Reba asked them if he could record it for her 30th studio album.

Answer: The Hooters

"And now a silence fills the rooms where once we sang
And all is quiet where once the chimes of freedom rang
Somewhere a pirate ship is crashing through the waves
Sending a signal out, a ballad to the brave
Give the music back, give the music back
Give the music back before it's gone
Give the music back, give the music back
Put the music back where it belongs..."

"Zig Zag" was their final album for the Columbia record label. They got political with the album, as you can see from the lyrics, even enlisting the aid of activist folk legends Peter, Paul, and Mary to sing back up vocals.

Answer: Lady Antebellum

"Golden" was Lady Antebellum's fifth studio album. It hit Number One on both the Billboard Top 200, and the Billboard Top Country Albums. "Downtown" "Goodbye Town" and Compass" fro that album were all released as singles, but "And the Radio Played" was not. The song mentions a lot of other song titles in its lyrics, songs that meant a lot to the writers Charles Kelley and Josh Kear.

Answer: Memphis, Tennessee

The 39-minute album was recorded for their Flying Fish record label. "Rockabilly on the Radio" was written by Paul Burlison and Sonny Burgess. Jack Smith is the lead singer of the band with Jerry Miller on guitar, "Chicago Vin" Earnshaw on bass, with "Black Jack" Matthews and Tom McDermott on drums.

The scene is July 5, 1954, Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore and Bill Black were in the recording studio at the Sun Records. Scotty More recalls, "We were taking a break, I don't know, we were having Cokes and coffee, and all of a sudden Elvis was singing a song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up the bass and he began acting the fool, too, and you know, I started playing with them. Sam had the door to the control room open, I don't know, he was either editing some tape or doing something, and he stuck his head out and said, "What are you doing?" and we said, "We don't know." "Well back up," he said "try to find a place to start and do it again'" And that was how Rockabilly was invented that night in Memphis.

Answer: Marc Cohn

"...It serves me right if
You can't even hear me singing
If you tuned me out a long time ago
And it served me right
If you already changed the station
And you're listening right now to that old boy on the radio
And you're lost
And you're gone
Listening to Levon."

"Walking in Memphis" was nominated for a Grammy but lost. At least it was nominated. Released as a single, "Listening to Levon" from his album 2007 album "Join the Parade" was not even nominated.