Life after Village People

Following my frustrating experience with a “rope saw,” I called in the pros and this morning Lovell and Yeri showed up to prune a couple of dead limbs. Before becoming tree professionals, they had a brief music career that I found fascinating.

Seems they were two of the original members of the Village People but were forced out of the group before stardom hit. The other members felt Yeri’s Tree Climber looked too much like the Construction Work and people would be confused. Additionally, there were some concerns about his climbing spikes. They were just never sure what Lovell was supposed to be.

 

AM radio is being removed from many cars

Following are excerpts from a story in The Washington Post:

Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Tesla and other automakers are eliminating AM radio from some new vehicles, stirring protests against the loss of a medium that has shaped American life for a century. […] Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated.

Some station owners and advertisers contend that losing access to the car dashboard will indeed be a death blow to many of the nation’s 4,185 AM stations. […] From the 1950s into the 1970s, Top 40 hit music stations in many big cities maintained astonishing shares of the audience, with 50 percent and more of listeners tuned to a single station. […] Ford says its data, pulled from internet-connected vehicles, shows that less than 5 percent of in-car listening is to AM stations.

Of the $11 billion in advertising revenue that radio pulled in last year, about $2 billion came into AM stations, according to BIA Advisory Services, which conducts research for broadcasters.

Some of the best years of my life were spent in and around radio. But I haven’t listened in years. The Land Rover doesn’t have a radio and the pickup truck has one but it’s never worked.

It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that radio –in one form or another– paid for every stitch of clothing I ever wore and every bite of food I ate. But it changed and I changed. I suspect FM radio will disappear some day.

Sheryl Crow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction

“I don’t feel like I’ve been doing this that long. It’s gone so fast. I really didn’t see this coming”

On November 3rd (2023) hometown girl Sheryl Crow will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside George Michael, Missy Elliott, Rage Against The Machine, Willie Nelson, the Spinners, Kate Bush, Chaka Khan, DJ Kool Herc, Al Kooper, Bernie Taupin, and Don Cornelius. From the Rolling Stone interview:

I could not have predicted it if I tried, especially in the early days of my career, coming from a town with three stoplights. Having grown up listening to Willie on my radio station, I just couldn’t have predicted it. There’s no way.

First and foremost, Willie Nelson is my favorite person to sing with in the universe. But if I get to stand and sing with Chaka Khan, I’m afraid I will lose my shit. [Laughs] She’s one of the greatest singers of all time and just a badass.

When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened up in Cleveland in 1995 with a massive stadium concert featuring Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Lee Lewis, and countless other rock veterans, Sheryl Crow was one of the youngest artists on the bill.