Stoic Music 12

Of all the geniuses of the long forgotten 80's music scene, perhaps no one is more forgotten that Nik Kershaw. Some may remember him from the hit "Wouldn't It Be Good?", which is itself quite a Stoic song, being about how we all complain about how bad we have it.

My favorite of his, however, will always be "Radio Musicola", quite a scathing rant about the crass commercialization of music in particular, and of society in general. I know I have found a friend and kindred spirit when someone immediately understands his critique of the buying and selling of creativity and integrity.

The lyrics prove the man to be a poet, and the funk bass doesn't hurt. I spent hours trying to play that line in my younger years, and many more hours trying to write like that.

Written in 5/1997

Nik Kershaw, "Radio Musicola", from Radio Musicola (1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcW7OE8LxHU

Black vinyl man with black plasticized imagination
More fodder for the new lost generation
I got a question to send you to the nearest closet
"Why can't you let us do it like Joni does it?"
There you go again, giving it your very best
trying so hard to make it sound like all the rest
And as your factory sanctifies your wooden soul
you gave us T.V. dinners, now it's T.V. rock 'n' roll

We're growing up
We're growing up
To radio musicola
We're growing up
We're growing up
To radio musicola

I got political inclinations to announce
but no way, if it doesn't scan with your accounts
I got some spiritual ideology for you
I know it's gotta correspond with the corporation view

We're growing up
We're growing up
To radio musicola
We're growing up
We're growing up
To radio musicola

You can find it in the streets
You can find it in the elevators
You can find it where the ladies wash their hands
It emanates from little boxes on the wall and it'll
soon be coming in disposable tin cans

My soul shows art to me, but dollars says my radio
Wall Street liquid lunches showing us the way to go
Why tolerate this numismatical polity?
There isn't any other way, there isn't any other way, more's the pity

We're growing up
We're growing up
To radio musicola
We're growing up
We're growing up
To radio musicola