There are so many things wrong with Sirius XM I don’t know where to begin.\u00c2\u00a0 But it all starts with the programming.<\/p>\n
Distribution is king.\u00c2\u00a0 But arrangements have already been made with all the car manufacturers.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it’s important to get on new platforms, but if Sirius XM is banking on its iPhone app for profitability, it might as well go bankrupt now.<\/p>\n
XM used to be a cult.\u00c2\u00a0 Millions strong, people frothed at the mouth when they discussed it.\u00c2\u00a0 Did you hear this?\u00c2\u00a0 That?\u00c2\u00a0 Now, we hear too much of what we already know, which we’ve already heard.\u00c2\u00a0 What kind of crazy fucked up service is it where there are a hundred plus stations and everybody complains they’re hearing the same damn songs over and over again?<\/p>\n
I tried to battle perception, to fight the tide, because despite its failings, Sirius XM is still my listening of choice in the car.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t talk on the cell, I just want to bask in the music.\u00c2\u00a0 But how many times can I hear Ringo’s "It Don’t Come Easy"?\u00c2\u00a0 And the promos… They’re just as bogus as what’s on terrestrial radio, as if we need to be sold on the service, as if they’re programming for theoretical aliens who’ve never heard music before.\u00c2\u00a0 The stations are riddled with every radio cliche known to man.\u00c2\u00a0 Exactly the crap that Lee Abrams excised on XM.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so jive.<\/p>\n
Still, some of the XM stations are still brilliant.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Deep Tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 And the Loft.\u00c2\u00a0 But Outlaw Country is a shadow of XM’s X Country.\u00c2\u00a0 And the regular country station is riddled with repeats.\u00c2\u00a0 Worst is the Bridge.\u00c2\u00a0 Even housewives like to have sex.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to the station, all the rough ends have been shorn off.\u00c2\u00a0 I like soft rock, but when I hear the promos, I wince.\u00c2\u00a0 I want surprises. Delivered by normal people, who believe in music, not research, who don’t follow the trades, but spend time checking out music themselves.<\/p>\n
And then I stumble upon something like "Girl Can’t Help It".<\/p>\n
They’ve neutered the decades channels.\u00c2\u00a0 The same damn songs again and again.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing unknown, and ultimately, nothing unexpected.\u00c2\u00a0 But then you hear something you don’t know, or barely know, and you have that magic radio moment, when you feel like you want to point your car towards Reno, some destination unknown ten or twelve hours away, just so you can be alone in the car, listening to the radio.<\/p>\n
Where do we want to begin with Journey?<\/p>\n
Do we want to state it was a completely different band before Steve Perry joined?\u00c2\u00a0 Or say that we hated the people who loved them?\u00c2\u00a0 Or that so much of the music was meaningless?<\/p>\n
Or do we just want to say that Steve Perry had an incredible voice?<\/p>\n
One of my favorite Journey songs is a Steve Perry solo work, "Oh Sherrie".\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ll admit to even coming to like "Wheel In The Sky", "Any Way You Want It" and "Lights" in their heyday.\u00c2\u00a0 But I threw out the "Escape" cassette someone gave me.\u00c2\u00a0 I was afraid someone would see it in my glove box.<\/p>\n
And then came the "Sopranos" finale.<\/p>\n
Not much was happening.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody was having dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe Tony was about to be clipped.\u00c2\u00a0 All we know is there was tension.\u00c2\u00a0 And playing over this creepy moment was a powerful, sunny song by a band we’d never align with the best TV series of the twenty first century.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, Tony did not have eclectic tastes.\u00c2\u00a0 He was positively mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 He remembered his eighties heyday, getting high, driving along to the tunes.\u00c2\u00a0 So, maybe "Don’t Stop Believin’" was a perfect fit.<\/p>\n
What we do know is overnight Journey became legitimized.\u00c2\u00a0 Enough time had gone by for the haters to admit their guilty pleasure.\u00c2\u00a0 We could all admit this was a damn powerful song.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t want to stop believing, in the power of great art like the "Sopranos", of powerful rock and roll like "Don’t Stop Believin’".<\/p>\n
So I’m about a mile from my house, pushing my satellite radio buttons.\u00c2\u00a0 And I hear a somewhat familiar hook.\u00c2\u00a0 I know I’ve heard it before, but I can’t really place it.\u00c2\u00a0 I look down at the radio readout to see it’s Journey’s "Girl Can’t Help It".\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n
The song keeps building.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s missing some of the perfection Clive Davis insists upon.\u00c2\u00a0 But when the tension is released, it’s exactly like coming.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what a great record is, a sexual moment.<\/p>\n
Ooh, there’s a fire in his eyes for you<\/span><\/p>\n Who knows why you broke up.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can’t seem to get it back together.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d talk about her more, but your friends are gonna avoid you if you do, and you need them to get through.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, you lie awake at night, thinking only of her.<\/p>\n And when he calls her<\/span> That’s the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 You know it’s going to hurt.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can’t help but try and connect.\u00c2\u00a0 And the problem is the feeling is about as good as ever.\u00c2\u00a0 But the conversation doesn’t end up with you getting back together, but still apart, your guts ripped open once again. The curse of modern society.\u00c2\u00a0 No one wants to settle, no one wants to get less than he deserves.<\/p>\n Hasn’t found what he’s lookin’ for<\/span><\/p>\n He felt that when they broke up he would crawl from the wreckage into a brand new car.\u00c2\u00a0 But he didn’t realize how much they truly shared, how hard it is to get that far with anybody.<\/p>\n Ooh, nothing stands between love and you<\/span><\/p>\n Except everything.<\/p>\n There are millions of members of the opposite sex.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re surrounded.\u00c2\u00a0 But you feel positively alone, you’re lonely.\u00c2\u00a0 What to do?<\/p>\n Turn on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen for that song that describes your plight.<\/p>\n And oftentimes, when the track’s a hit, when you first love it, the words don’t apply at all.\u00c2\u00a0 And then, in your moment of despair, you rediscover it.<\/p>\n These are the moments I’m looking for.\u00c2\u00a0 The unexpected.\u00c2\u00a0 "Girl Can’t Help It" is not a Sirius XM staple, I heard it at eleven p.m. on the west coast.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no problem hearing "Don’t Stop Believin’", but that won’t get you through the night.\u00c2\u00a0 You need something just for you.\u00c2\u00a0 And radio, when done right, is just like that.\u00c2\u00a0 A hot medium, where you get the impression you’re the only listener extant, and the deejay is spinning the records just for you.<\/p>\n If Sirius XM is going to recover from its tailspin, it’s going to be as a result of its programming.\u00c2\u00a0 At this point, even Dell and HP make slick computers.\u00c2\u00a0 But Apple triumphs because of the software.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the clean OS, but the built-in apps.\u00c2\u00a0 Just open your ears, you can’t avoid the cacophony of lemmings testifying.\u00c2\u00a0 Satellite radio’s throng was never quite as large, but it was just as rabid.\u00c2\u00a0 But now it’s like the Sculley era, the late eighties and early nineties in Macville, when only the true believers held on.\u00c2\u00a0 Until Steve returned.<\/p>\n I’d say to bring back Lee Abrams.<\/p>\n Because to Lee, it wasn’t about picking records, it was about a love for radio.\u00c2\u00a0 The experience of tuning in and finding your one and only friend.<\/p>\n You can hear "Girl Can’t Help It" by Googling it and clicking the LaLa button to play it.<\/p>\n Or you can go to YouTube to hear the same studio version here: <\/p>\n
She tells him that she still cares<\/span><\/p>\n
Girl can’t help it, she needs more<\/span><\/p>\n\n