Poetry Corner with "Cheap Sunglasses" and Why We All Love ZZ Top

Slip on your "Cheap Sunglasses" and join me for a rockin' reminiscence with ZZ Top as our guide. The laid-back grooves of that tune set the stage for a trip down memory lane, where I share some of the wildest and most heartfelt tales from my days behind the radio microphone. You'll hear about the electrifying live shows, the friendships forged in the DJ booth, and that one oddly unforgettable concert ticket story. 

Switching gears, we'll crank up the volume on "Pincushion". Imagine being in the DJ seat, deciding to let a hot new track play twice because once just couldn't cut it. This episode is brimming with personal memories of ZZ Top's magnetic stage presence, from the local gig to their show-stopping performance at Montreux in 2013. Whether you're a die-hard fan or new to the bluesy charm of ZZ Top, this episode promises a backstage pass to the moments that have defined not just a career in rock radio, but the soundtrack to our lives.

Transcript

Blade: 0:00

Let the soulful and uplifting expressions of poetry wash over you to provide a serene interlude in your busy day. Sit back and relax and let the melodic confluence of music and life's quirks and musical settings transport you to a place of tranquility. Please allow me to read to you the composition entitled Cheap Sunglasses, verses 1 and 3. When you get up in the morning and the light is hurt your head, the first thing you do when you get out of bed is hit that street's a runnin' and try to beat the masses and go get yourself some cheap sunglasses. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Now go out and get yourself some big black frames with the glass so dark they won't even know your name. And the choice is up to you, cause they come in two classes rhinestone shades or cheap sunglasses. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. And that concludes our reading of Poetry Corner. Join us again, won't you you have two choices of glasses rhinestone glasses and cheap sunglasses. ZZ Top let's just catch a little bit of ZZ Top here. This is the Montreux 2013 ZZ Top and they've got a great documentary out now. Actually, it came out like two, maybe three years ago ZZ Top, a little old band from Texas, and the Shuffle and See Minor is this great story that you can see at the beginning of that, but it's thrilling and fascinating from beginning to end. The top, z Top and they're one of these bands. I don't know how they do it, but they figured it out. First of all, they've got this great rock niche right, this Texas Boogie band and Southern Rock, I guess you could call it but and somehow they figured out a way to look cool and they act cool and they're funny and they're great musicians and they're unique and they do something different like every night. I don't know how they do it. I just remember this one stunt they pulled ZZ Top and how it was just so different. They pulled a woman in the front row on stage and she had to be 50 or 55 and she a little embarrassed, but she had a little buzz, I assume, and she was having some fun and they what are they going to do, you know? And they pulled her up on the stage and they were looking you know how they do with the glasses looking her up and down, with the glasses going ooh, wee. Now that is what I call an outfit Everybody clapping and cheering, woo, yeah, she was all happy and she jumped off stage. Point being, they've always got something new that they do and it's so authentic. Is it an act? I don't know and I don't care If it is an act. Man, are they good actors?

Blade: 3:42

Now, last time I saw ZZ Top show was 2012. I want to say maybe 2011 or something like that. But what's unique and memorable about that show is that everybody's name is Will McBride. He's got a band in the area there. He's doing well, he's got a good band and we're kind of the same age. And he called me up to the blade.

Blade: 4:01

I got a couple of tickets to go see ZZ Top. Are you in A Durham Performing Arts Center? I think is where it was. And I'm like, yeah, let's do it.

Blade: 4:08

And it's monumental because in my 32 years of rock radio being a disc jockey, minus the four days I spent doing something else whole day, whole different story I was the one supplying all the tickets to everybody. You know. Yeah, I'll get you on the guest list. Yeah, I can cover you with two. Yeah, I can get four. I was the one always doling out the tickets and that's what I called it on the dole. I had regulars, you know, and they were on my dole.

Blade: 4:34

But Will McBride actually bought and paid for two tickets for ZZ Top and gave one to me and I think it may be the only time that somebody bought a ticket for me, for me, instead of me giving out all the tickets you know, and bless all the program directors I had over the years. Forgive me all the concert tickets. I don't think I was ever shorted out of a concert. I know I didn't pay for any concert tickets in all of my 32 years. What is a better job than that? I saw them all. I remember in a guy I'm going to say 93, when the Eagles came out with the first $100 ticket. It was some reunion, they did right. And now one gets lost in the shuffle because they've had like four reunions and four farewells and four welcome backs and all that kind of thing, but it was a $100 ticket and I didn't pay for that one.

Blade: 5:23

And all the program directors have made sure that I got all these tickets and all the disc jockeys at the radio station got the tickets and there's a benefit on their behalf. This because first of all, we talk about it on the air right and they want to put butts in the seats for all these concerts. So we look good to the promoters who spent a large dollar in marketing money on our station because we were the concert station WRDU 106, the concert station we called ourselves when it was appropriate. But they want to put butts in the seats and they want us to build up all the shows so they're sold out, because we didn't want the promoter coming to us and saying, ah, that show didn't do very well, it's because you didn't promote it very well. We wanted to avoid all that, but you know.

Blade: 6:06

So, without paying for any of the concert tickets, I don't think I paid for a sporting event either. All the sporting events were free, and one of the best things was like is if a good show like Robert Plant came in with Patty Griffin one night a while back to do a show. I really wanted to see it really badly, and the guys were so good to me all of them that they gave me the night off. Because you know, if you think about it, set blades off. He's watching Robert Plant tonight and whoever filled in would make sure to say that. And I mean you can get off to go watch a concert.

Blade: 6:39

Now, that's a job, you know, and I didn't pay for any kind of sporting event or when, I know, cover charge for the bars, you know, I don't even think I paid for drinks, you know, and that turned into a problem there. But I mean, what would happen to you if everybody was throwing tequila bottles at you day and night? Here you go, Blade, you know every single night when you're out, every single night. But Phil Zachary, the general manager, called me the social director. You know, I'd go on and say where I was going that night and I'd call the bars, you know, and as soon as I'd call the bar, say what's happening and say, oh, we're bucking bronco night or whatever. And you know, and everybody would meet up up there to be a jam-packed house. But it's just one of the benefits having a rock radio job. But thank you, will McBride, for getting me two tickets to ZZ Top, the only guy in 32 years who ever gave me tickets. Now the top.

Blade: 7:34

They had an album out in 1994 and it was called Antenna. Didn't do a whole lot, but the program director at the time was Bob Walton, and this was what was great about this guy. First of all, he was just a funny cat to be around, always, you know, even as a program director, and because program directors aren't generally funny, there's a lot of them that try to be funny, but I mean he really was. But one night he was on his way out and I was going on the night shift seven o'clock, my favorite, you know and he threw CD on the desk and it was ZZ Top, the advance from the Antenna album which was coming out in a week and a half and it was called Pincushion. And he said here you can play this if you want. And that was the best thing about him.

Blade: 8:32

I walk in, I find all these albums and CDs and stuff on my desk. You play that, play that, play that, play that. And believe me, that was before 1995, okay, when all the consolidation hit. But and it was Pincushion is what it was and I cued it up and listened to it a little bit. Oh, wow, this is really good and it's different, but it's still ZZ Top and you know it is, let's play it.

Blade: 8:54

So I went on the air and said, hey, I've got the new ZZ Top. It's the advance from the new album coming out in a week and a half and it's called Pincushion. I think you want to be the first to hear it. I'm going to be the first to hear it with you because I haven't heard the whole thing yet. So I played it and I put on some headphones and you know a little bit of this and and I listened to it and it was an ass kicker, a complete ass kicker. And it just made me so happy inside to hear it from ZZ Top, because you look at them and you get happy. You just look at them and they make you happy.

Blade: 9:25

Now that is star power, you know, and I played the song. I said, and there you, hell with it, let's do it again. I want to hear it again. And I played it again, played it two times in a row. Now it doesn't seem like anything that will change the face of radio or something you'd put in Wikipedia, but to me it was. I'm the only guy that has ever done that. I think I liked it so much and was given the freedom to do what I wanted so much that I played a song twice in a row that I liked so much. Now I know there are plenty of people that have played songs two times in a row that didn't do it on purpose. But see, those are the two things I remember really about ZZ Top Incussion from Antenna and Will Bride giving me two tickets to the show. I've just been enjoying this. Uh, Montreux and 2013. I'm going to watch that just a little bit, and every show is completely different. Now you just can't top the top.