ANNNNND! we’re back!!! Hello students of music. Summer break is over and class is (virtually) in session. What better way to get back to the music than a show to get your school spirit going? We can’t think of one. Straighten out your pencils and your books, your classmates at Balcony Radio have Lesson 149 of the 101 Series on your schedule. For first period, we’re playing all the best songs about school we could find. Get ready for AP Music. Don’t be tardy.
SCHOOL DAYS: CHUCK BERRY (GREATEST HITS)
(REMEMBER THE DAYS OF THE) OLD SCHOOLYARD: CAT STEVENS (VERY BEST OF)
EDUCATION: FREDDY GIBBS & MADLIB (FEAT. YASIIN & BLACK THOUGHT) (BANDANA)
SCHOOL SPIRIT: KANYE WEST (THE COLLEGE DROPOUT)
SCHOOL DAYS: THE KINKS (SCHOOLBOYS IN DISGRACE)
HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL: JERRY LEE LEWIS (LIVE AT THE STAR CLUB, HAMBURG)
SCHOOL DAYS: THE RUNAWAYS (WAITIN’ FOR THE NIGHT)
MY OLD SCHOOL: STEELY DAN (COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY)
WHAR DID YOU LEARN IN SCHOOL TODAY?: PETE SEEGER (A LINK IN THE CHAIN)
TEACHER: JETHRO TULL (THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION)
PRINCIPLE’S OFFICE: YOUNG MC (STONE COLD RHYMIN’)
WE’RE GOING TO BE FRIENDS: THE WHITE STRIPES (WHITE BLOOD CELLS)
F*CK SCHOOL: THE REPLACEMENTS (STINK)
EVERYONE I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH IS DEAD: MR. BUNGLE (DISCO VOLANTE)
HIGH SCHOOL NIGHTS: DAVE EDMONDS (PORKY’S REVENGE: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK)
PLAY IT COOL, STAY IN SCHOOL: BRENDA HOLLOWAY (COMPLETE MOTOWN SINGLES, VOL. 6 1966)
DON’T BE A DROUPOUT: JAMES BROWN (JAMES BROWN SINGS RAW)
SCHOOL IS OUT: GARY U.S. BONDS (THE BEST OF)
GRADUATION DAY: THE BEACH BOYS (BEACH BOYS CONCERT – LIVE)
STILL IN SCHOOL: NRBQ (ALL HOPPED UP)
WE’LL ALL REMEMBER GRADUATION: STARK WHITEMAN (NEW ORLEANS SENIOR PROM)
Help us as we join together both the Roth and Hagar eras to praise him: EVH. Many people have picked up the guitar, but few pushed at its boundaries like one Mr. Edward Van Halen. It’s Lesson 145 of the 101 Series, and this time out we’re playing the tastiest licks tapped out over multiple generations of rock kick-assery. From the humble streets of Pasadena, to arenas everywhere, spark one up for Eddie. Turn this up to 11, let the neighbors know about it.
It’s been 26 years since Woodstock ’94 and the mud has finally been completely washed off . . . time to celebrate a time when people could stand near each other. Jump the chain link with us for Lesson 145 (though your hosts misspeak and name it Lesson 144) of the 101 Series, covering one of the better sequels (don’t bother with part three) in music history. Join Balcony Radio and 1/2 million of your closest friends in the mud to hear two dozen of the best tracks over one long weekend upstate. Leave your car on the turnpike, it’ll still be there Monday.
Certain places where time, energy and good drugs meet are magical. One of those spots was a certain zip code in the hills above Hollywood from 1965-1975. In Lesson ??? of the infinite 101 Series, we take a geography lesson with the best music of Laurel Canyon. Harmonize with the wind and the trees and the bees landing on the flowers. (And don’t pay attention to the scruffy hippies coming up the driveway . . .)
Howdy, partner, it’s time to travel the dustiest, longest trail of all: the one connecting the chakras to the universe. Infinity is a bull you can’t ride for 8 seconds, friends. Collect your stardust filled bones and pull up to the campfire for a new episode of Blue Highway, venturing further through that great weird American music. This week, we put on the denim and frills and thumb a ride to the corner of country and psychedelia, blasting off with the cosmic cowboys of the late 60s and early 70s. Hold on to your hat, we’re not stopping for it on the way to Venus.
It’s time to let the music live . . . in Lesson ??? of the 101 Series, we highlight the music of one of the original bards of rock and roll: Buddy Holly. The man who invented the singer-songwriter also managed to look cool in soda pop glass-thick frames, a skinny tie, and black and white. In just a few years, he wrote (literally) a thousand great songs. Enjoy a couple dozen with your boys on the Balcony.
Hey. You. Do you like REM? The Replacements? Tom Petty? The Jayhawks? Wilco? The Eagles? Then, guess what, buddy, you like The Byrds. All those bands owe a great debt to Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Gene Clark and the rest of the flock for all that jingle-janglin’. In Lesson ??? of the 101 Series, we take flight with The Byrds. Stay in formation, we’ll be traveling eight miles high.