Two of my favorite muscial artists are Emmylou Harris and Counting Crows. Absolutely wonderful!
One Saturday night, in South Florida, before satellite radio in Fort Doberdale, I was scrolling the dial and caught the local country western station. They said it was the listener request night, so I called in to ask for an Emmylou Harris song. Didn’t matter which, just any. The DJ told me they did not play any Emmylou Harris. I asked if they were country/western or not? Yes, but we do not play Emmylou. Why not? Because we just don’t.
Can you imagine? That’s South Florida for you. I’d worked at two c/w radio stations in So. Calif back when music and the radios that played it were purer of heart and listener popularity – not $$$$ for playtime. One station was AM (KCKC) and one was FM (KNTF). Both played Emmylou and all the solid c/w artists. Emmylou was around singing c/w long before the punk DJ on the South Florida station was listening, and yet…eeegads!
To this day, I am dumbfounded with a c/w station that put such a policy into effect. I do not even know the station because I refused to listen to it after that. I’d rather hear the sound of silence, which is a beautiful sound in and of itself.
Well, back to my revelation. This afternoon, I noted that both Emmylou and Counting Crows recorded songs about Michelangelo. Harris recorded “Michelangelo” and Crows, did “When I Dream of Michelangelo.” Imagine that, will you? How often does anyone think of the man? But he lives through their music. He’s got some heavy duty psychic vibes, Michelangelo does.