I received a brilliant post from jeff, but he couldn't get it thru to the list, so thought I'd post it.
Thanks Jeff!! Okay - in spite of my (possibly better) instincts to the contrary and because of Alex's nudging (read below), I will post this to the list. The caveat I will tack onto it is that perhaps - depending on your specific timeframe of reference - things were happening in places on the radio in Detroit where I wasn't listening. I am not about to position myself as an expert on the period or as an omniscient being. Certainly I grew tired of not finding what I was looking for on the radio and I stopped looking for stretches. And during the very late 80s, I shut it all off. However, I stand by my words and for what it's worth, I have the emerging gray to mark me as a veteran of the era :-) If you have a different history, fine. But this is how I experienced and recall it. > Virtually everyone I knew 'back then' was very jealous of YOUR radio - we > would never have had any of the things we read about in NME or Melody Maker > on our best stations. The people that knew about any of the Ann Clarks were > record geeks (like myself) who dug the stuff up, bartered for the razormaid > remix LPs (I used to trade weed for them :-) and then lent those to DJs and > other geeks. > I have spent and probably always will spend a tremendous amount on music. > Back then we didn't have email lists...we had the Brit. papers, the indie > record labels and the odd late night, VERY off the dial radio stuff as well > as clubs (which rarely played me anything I didn't already know through the > above). The notion that mainstream radio grabbed any of this stuff is > revisionist history, pu! re and s imple. I didn't want to be so strong in my > stance onlist as it seems like I may already be somewhat 'distanced' from > the common stream there and I don't wish to further alienate myself from it > by polarized statements- but I was there and I WAS in the thick of it. > I recall once when a New York DJ/producer (Ivan Ivan) was a guest DJ > in Detroit and a good friend (Chris Ewen - now a member of Future Bible > Heores) whose band (Figures on a Beach) Ivan was remixing > marched me up for an introduction during a break. For small talk, I > surmised that the exposure in New York must be tremendous. Ivan turned to > me and said "I am the exposure...I could turn you on to so much, it would > make your head spin". > Chris looked at Ivan and said "No - I'm afraid you couldn't.". > That merely to say I bought a LOT of records and I looked under a LOT of > rocks for music - because those were the only places to find it back then. > Certainly not on the radio except in radically small pockets - and I would > wager that those pockets would not have existed without the financially > irresponsible "experimental" record buyers like myself who were busy > playing those records for their friends who had avenues to spread it > farther. Diatribe off. :-) > > jeff > jeff > _________________________________________________________________ --------------------- End of message text -------------------- This e-mail is sent by the above named in their individual, non-business capacity and is not on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP may monitor outgoing and incoming e-mails and other telecommunications on its e-mail and telecommunications systems. By replying to this e-mail you give your consent to such monitoring.
