MetaQuiz: Songs on the Radio About The Radio -18

Answer: Joe Walsh

Ex-lead guitarist for the Eagles, Joe Walsh recorded this lead single from his eighth studio solo album "Got Any Gum?" in 1987. The album wasn't a great success, but the song did well, reaching Number eight on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks.

"Inside the silence is a symphony
Every note there is in every key
The music tells me how it wants to be
I help it write itself down
I hear the way that would sound
It's like your favorite station
Playing your favorite song
Just like they do on the radio
Like they do on the radio
But the radio isn't on
On the radio"

Answer: Everclear

The song, written by Everclear members Art Alexakis, Joe Broussard, Greg Eklund, Craig Montoya, Carroll Washington, and Ralph G. Williams is a look back at AM radio in the early 70s along with other pop culture artifacts of that period. The lyrics share images of that era such as "Sometimes we'd go driving around in my sister's Pinto", "Can't we watch 'Good Times' or 'Chico And The Man' or something cool?", "I started going to concerts and I saw the Led Zeppelin", and the video that was made of the song featured images from "The Brady Bunch" TV show, the band KISS, a Mr. Potato Head toy, etc.

Answer: My star may never shine too far, but we're on Gasoline Radio

I made up the other lines that were wrong choices. That real last line also functions as the chorus, and then the song goes into its second verse:
"Well I jumped right outa my car, when I pulled up in front of the bar
I said -Hey y'all I'll grab the tab, coz we're on Gasoline Radio
There was blank stares all around, my good mood sunk right to the ground
No one else had heard a sound-No one got a Gasoline Radio."

The song clocks in at 3 minutes and 13 seconds and comes from their album "Cut Loose and Live" recorded in 2004. Christian D's last name is DeArmond and he played with the band The Hangovers in Canada. The band, The Hangovers, were formed by Gina Birch who was a former member of the band The Raincoats.

Answer: Eddie Rabbit

Co-written with David Malloy and Even Stevens, this was Eddie Rabbit's second most popular song (after "I Love a Rainy Night"). In 1980, "Driving My Life Away" was a Number One hit on the Hot Country Singles, and it peaked at Number Five on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was certified gold, having sold over a million records. The song describes the unrooted lives that roadies live, becoming strangers to their loved ones because of all the traveling on the road.

Answer: MC Ren

Well it was tough finding a section of that piece that I could display without getting censored here. But there it is, a sample of the rap by Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, aka MC Ren. It was released on December 29, 2014. Born in Compton, in 1969, MC Ren formed his rapper name by using the middle three letters of his first name: LoRENzo.

Answer: Eric Idle

This is the second song in a row that was difficult to find a suitable section of lyrics that wouldn't offend someone out there. But there we are. Fittingly, Eric has made the song free to download from the "Monty Python" website. He originally recorded the song as a protest against the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) for issuing a fine against him after he dropped the F bomb on a radio station.

In his protest song he uses that word 14 times to really stick it to the FCC.

Answer: B.o.B.

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., aka B.o.B. started rapping when he was 13-years-old influenced by Eminem and DMX. He is able to play the guitar, the piano, the trumpet, the French horn and the cello. His father was a preacher and so from going to church when he was young he was also influenced by gospel singing. Oh and he is an outspoken proponent of the Flat Earth theory, claiming that the Earth is disc-shaped rather than spherical.

His 2016 rap "Flatline" further explains his views on this, um planetary perspective. Yeah.

Answer: Lil' Wayne

Lil' Wayne was born in 1982 in New Orleans. Here's a fun trivia fact for us: The first time that the word "bling" was used on a record was in 1998 when Lil' Wayne rapped it on Big Tymer's recording "Millionaire Dream." On that track Lil' Wayne rapped, "I got ten around my neck, and baguettes on my wrist, Bling!"

Answer: Nas

The Nas album the song comes from is also called "Hip-Hop Is Dead." The title is referring to Nas's opinion that mainstream Hip-Hop lacks originality--that it has devolved from a purpose of social change and understanding into materialism and the degradation of women. Produced by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, the track went to Number 48 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and Number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: Tom Petty

It seems a lot of the songs in this 18th quiz in this series featured songs that were for lack of a better term "anti-radio." An artist of great integrity, Mr. Petty refused the use of his music in commercials to the very end of his life. Incredibly, Clear Channel Communications banned the song from its stations for being "anti-radio." Hard to believe this can happen in the United States of America, but ironically Tom Petty was "elated" when they did it. He told Billboard: "'I remember when the radio meant something. We enjoyed the people who were on it, even if we hated them. They had personalities. They were people of taste, who we trusted. And I see that vanishing.'" In the radio industry industry there has been a purge of local disc jockeys as the corporate station owners started a system of computerizing their playlists and having DJs pre-record or voice-track their shows ahead of time. Since the DJ is therefore often not a local personality or inhabitant and since the DJ isn't really present at the time listeners are tuned in, there can't be any reference to timely events happening. And how does a DJ form a bond, a connection with an audience he isn't really familiar with? It has become an impersonal institution, and this what Tom Petty was reacting to.

"There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey?
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ."