Saturday, October 07, 2006

FM

I just saw the 1978 movie "FM". Other than being like a 2-hour episode of WKRP, the most striking thing about this movie is how similar the soundtrack is to certain current radio stations.

I don't mean the same styles of music, I mean the exact same songs. Right now, in 2006, in Atlanta, at least three radio stations could be playing any of the songs from this movie. Probably at least two stations are playing the same one of these songs at the same time.

The kids of today should defend themselves against the seventies.

Comments:

I bought a record sometime in the early '80s from the kroger $2 bin that was the soundtrack to "FM", but it was one of those records that they don't really make anymore where when you get it home you read the fine print and what it turns out to be is all the songs performed by some other band, but not as declared "cover songs" reinterpreted in a potentially interesting way by good artists, instead, just attempts at copying the originals by a band with a name like the "hit replayers" or "total coverage" or something. i remember being pissed that i didn't get an original version of "FM" by Steely Dan when i bought that record.
it was an LP though, not an 8-track that faded out and back in in the middle of the song like that Mike Watt song you referenced does. I always wondered how many people got that part of that song.