Show #119 SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL May 3, 2014

Dedicated to Raylene!

Raylene- Bonnie Hayes With The Wild Combo Good Clean Fun 
Saturday Nite Riot- Pink Spiders Teenage Graffitti 
On With The Business- The Hold Steady Teeth Dreams 
Salad Days- The Grip Weeds House Of Vibes
We Must Pay- De Cylinders We Must Pay 7''
Crawling From The Wreckage (Of A Saturday Night)- The Connection Let It Rock
Purely Automatic- Brendan Benson You Were Right 
Secretary- Nightman Don't You Know
^Saturday Night- Bay City Rollers The Definitive Collection 
Miles Away- The Nomads Solna 
Breakaway- Dead End Kids Breakout 
Every Light On- Nick Piunti 13 In My Head
I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down- Elvis Costello The Very Best Of Elvis Costello 
Hanging Me Up- The CRY! Dangerous Game 
*Saturday Night- Tweezers Already!
*Saturday Night- The Adicts Smart Alex 
*Saturday Night- Herman Brood and His Wild Romance Saturday Night 
*Saturday Night- Ram Jam Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Ram
*Saturday Night- Misfits Famous Monsters 
The Wait- The Pretenders Pretenders 
What Is- Wipers Over the Edge
Hey, Little Child- Tommy Keene The Real Underground 
Geez Louise- Corin Ashley New Lion Terraces 
Land Of The Free- Curtiss A I Don't Wanna Be President 7"
Hey Little Girl- The Kids Yellow Pills Prefill 
>Saturday Night- The Easybeats The Definitive Anthology 
Go Steady- The Lambrettas Beat Boys In The Jet Age
The Body Says No- The New Pornographers Mass Romantic 
Saturday Nite Is Dead- Graham Parker Squeezing Out Sparks 
Saturday Night- Suede Saturday Night 

^Power Pop Peak:  #1 Billboard Hot 100 10/11/75

*SacroSet:  "Saturday Night" Songs

>Power Pop Prototype: 1967

You can run an on-line radio station from your laptop but an actual radio station is a lot more complicated, with studios, offices, audio chain, transmitter site, antenna, etc.  So KSVY's

recent move, while only six blocks (from 164 to 680 West Napa Street) has been an enormous undertaking.  Technical Director Bob Taylor and his team have been killing themselves getting the station up and running.  To get back on the air as quickly as possible they focused their initial efforts on the main broadcast studio and will now go back to work on the rest of the station, including the production studio where I usually record ALL KINDSA GIRLS.  What this means is that tonight's show was LIVE for the first time in years.  I probably should have told Bill, host of Rox Files, the show before mine, that I was coming in because I think I really threw off his last two breaks.  On the other hand, his dog Taxi seemed happy to see me.

It was a rough start- the first half hour took me right back to my early years (ineptly) doing college radio in Boston.  Yet, necessity is the mother of invention and after about 45 minutes I solved a conundrum that has plagued me for years- the live segue.  You can set iTunes to crossfade one song into another, but it sounds clunky as hell sometimes.  I thought I could go back and forth between my iPhone and my laptop, but the station only had one external input that night.  My CD burner in iTunes wasn't working either so I was SOL until I figured out how to bring up Windows Media Player and go back and forth between it an iTunes.  To the tech-savvy this is probably "uhhh...DUH!" but for me, well I felt like Steve freakin' Jobs.  I have always appreciated a well run radio show with tight segues so this is a big deal for ALL KINDSA GIRLS.  (That's it for the geek talk- I promise!)


As I often say on the air, "Saturday Night is the most rock and roll time of the week" which means it has inspired tons of songwriters over the years.  My first favorite Saturday night song was Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting."  It straight up rocks and I guess since Elton John was an established pop star at the time you'd hear the song on the AM

pop stations my parents listened to.  Yet "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" is a far cry from the standard Neil Diamond and Carpenters AM radio fare with lyrics that appealed to my burgeoning rock and roll tastes:

Don't give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Saturday night's alright for fighting
Get a little action in

I was also intrigued by the narrator's sister who:
Looks cute in her braces and boots
A handful of grease in her hair

I heard the song on SF radio station 107.7 The Bone the other day and it stands up- that opening Davey Johnstone riff is still a killer!  As much as I loved Elton John back then I remember wishing he had more songs like "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting." 

Saturday night is a magical time.  It is the midpoint of the weekend- you're as far away as you can get from work, both the end of the Friday workday and the start of the Monday work week.  It's a time to banish responsibility and deep thought, a time for mindless rock and roll fun.  This is why I

kick off every episode of ALL KINDSA GIRLS with the intro from The Bay City Rollers "Saturday Night."     You can't get any more mindless than the lads from Glasgow and I mean that as a high compliment!  I mean check out these lyrics: 

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night! 

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

Gonna keep on dancin' to the rock and roll
On Saturday night, Saturday night
Dancin' to the rhythm in our heart and soul
On Saturday night, Saturday night
 I, I, I, I, I just can't wait, I, I, I, I got a date

At the good ole rock and roll road show, I gotta go
Saturday night, Saturday night
Gonna rock it up, roll it up, do it all, have a ball
Saturday night, Saturday night

It's just a Saturday night
It's just a Saturday night
It's just a Saturday night

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night! 

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

Gonna dance with my baby till the night is through
On Saturday night, Saturday night
Tell her all the little things I'm gonna do
On Saturday night, Saturday night
I, I, I, I love her so, I, I, I, I'm gonna let her know

At the good ole rock and roll road show, I gotta go
Saturday night, Saturday night
Gonna rock it up, roll it up, do it all, have a ball
Saturday night, Saturday night

It's just a Saturday night
It's just a Saturday night
It's just a Saturday night

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night! 

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

It's just a Saturday night
It's just a Saturday night
It's just a Saturday night

There are 226 words in this song and 78 of them are "Saturday" or "night."  That said, I just realized that for nearly 40 years I've been singing the wrong words!  The lyrics above clearly say "It's just a Saturday night" but I have always thought it was a stutter "S-S-S-Saturday night."  I'm sorry, but at this point I'm not changing- plus I think my stutter lyrics are cooler.  Anyway, back in the post for Show #51 (the Scottish Show) I talk about hearing the Bay City Rollers perform "Saturday Night" on the short lived TV show "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell" in 1975.  The next day my sister Sarah and I went out and bought the 45.  Forty year's later I'm still not sick of "Saturday Night"- that's the power of a simple song and a special time of the week.

(Took WAY too long on this post so the download links are no longer available.  Check out the show facebook page to stay informed.  Or , if you leave a comment with your e-mail address I can put you on the twice monthly distribution list.)