When I am at work I listen to Sirius satellite radio on my computer. I have a subscription to Sirius because Jimmy Buffett has his very own channel, Radio Margaritaville.Not all my co-workers fully appreciate Buffett, and since I work inside City Hall for the Police Department, the Chief wants me to keep some slight resemblance of professionalism for the public whom we protect and serve, who wander up to the counter with a question or a complaint. I guess Toots and the Maytals singing I Shall Be Free might not be the best song someone hears when they’re asking why their brother was just arrested.
So I keep the station tuned to one of two channels: Spa and Watercolors. I have it playing on my computer at a very low volume. Most of the time no one is aware that there is music playing at all. Now and then you might hear a flute tune by R. Carlos Nakai or some soft piano touches. Some could classify what I listen to during the day as elevator music, except we have an elevator and there is no music playing in it. To me, elevator music is that distinct lame attempt at taking a perfectly good song originally sung by Fleetwood Mac and turning it into an instrumental with musicians who once played in Lawrence Welk’s band. That kind of music should be illegal to reproduce in any form.
We were decorating our office for Christmas two weeks ago. I searched through the channel listings on Sirius looking for some Christmas music. I couldn’t find a channel that featured all Christmas music. I ended up tuning back to the Watercolors channel.
Watercolors is described as “cool grooves and jazzy vocals blend into a lush audio landscape.” It could fall into the category of New Age. Spa, on the other hand, is a channel with “sounds for the mind and soul”; otherwise known also as New Age, with an occasional song by Sarah McLachlan or Simon and Garfunkle tossed in.
What I really want to listen to is an all-Beatles station. Can you believe there isn’t one? I understand that Sirius and XM radio have recently combined forces, for the most part. Maybe XM has an all-Beatles channel, but if so, then why hasn’t it blended over into the Sirius list? I mean, if Elvis and AC/DC and Bruce Springsteen have their own channels, why not the Beatles? Sinatra has his own channel. The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson and BB King have their own channels.
There is one channel called The Bridge. It features a limited engagement of various artists. Led Zepplin is their current choice. They had Neil Diamond several months ago. I never pay attention to which artist the channel is featuring, since I don’t do much channel surfing. It’s a lot like cable TV: hundreds of channels, but only half a dozen worth tuning to.
But AC/DC — 24/7? Seriously? Yet no Beatles? Siriusly?? Come on. I’m not even going to get into the Howard Stern channel or Martha Stewart’s own channel. I suppose they both have their avid followers, but what the hell does Martha Stewart have to talk about 24 hours a day? I want to hear the Beatles, dammit!
A few years back Ric Rock, a bartender at the Woody Creek Tavern, declared every Tuesday ‘Beatles Day.’ Some of us would bring CDs in for him to play. We had some rare live recordings or studio cuts to listen to. We’d sit at the bar and sing along. Someone would walk in and make a comment about whatever Beatles song was playing, and how long it had been since they heard that song. We would always say, “You can’t go wrong with the Beatles.” I hope someday someone at Sirius will realize that.
Yes, Irish. That would be very nice if Sirius would add a Beatles channel and drop some of these other strange channels, but I don’t see it happening for a very long time. The younger generations can’t really relate to the old Beatle music as we can. They’d rather listening to those channels that you mentioned that grate on our aging nerves. After this trip through the Artic Blast I don’t think I could have stood one more note of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmas Time”. I would have prefered to listen to cuts from the Dirt Band’s “Christmas Album” or JD’s “Colorado Christmas”. Then again there’s always Buffett’s Christmas CD. Then too there are those little jingles that we use to make up when we were little, though they’d never get air play. Nope. Can’t say there was Writers Block along the way on this trip. I was on a roll at least the first five days.
Seriously, I too think that Sirius should have an All Beatles channel, but how can we get them to listen?
Everything in life falls under three categories: money, sex and power. Since Michael Jackson holds ownership (there’s two of the three life-managing components – power and money) over Lennon-McCartney tunes, I’m sure that Sirius would have to do some negotiating with Jackson.
Egos being what they are, Jackson would first want to discuss a Michael Jackson channel before thinking about a Beatles channel. I don’t think the idea of 24 hours of Michael Jackson would be that appealing to Sirius.
And, unless Sirius sent a boy to do a man’s job…. well, there you have that third element of life’s managing factors.