Good post, Brain:

Very evocative. Late night radio... ahhhhh. When I was a teenager, I listeded to WFOX out ot Milwaukee. During the day, the signal was too erratic to pick it up but late at night, I'd lie on my bed on my back with my portable Motorola (Which I still have) turning it constantly to pick up the signal. The late night shows were all blues, jazz and rhythm and blues, and I felt like I was picking up signals from another planet. It was then that I first heard the early rhythm and blues groups (who now are reduced to nostalgia and called doo wop.) The first time I heard Gee, by the Crows, I was permanently hooked. I always liked groups, but I was used to the Mills Brothers, the Ames Brothers, and other pop singers. The Crows were raw, just backed with an electric guitar and drums, way in the background. Those were the days when rock and roll and rhythm and blues were still raw and immediate. Songs like Buick 66 and Work With Me Annie seemed as far removed from the Maguire sisters and the Ames Brothers as... hmm... can't even think of a comparable example.

As for reggae lines, I will never forget the first time I heard Rivers of Babylon by the Melodians. I was in Albany, New York, killing time the afternoon before I played at Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs. I was driving through the center of Albany when that song came on, and the lines "How can we sing King Alfa's song in a strange land" really hit me hard. I drove around until I found a record store, and with no information other than the title of the song (as I guessed it) I looked through countless albums until I found the soundtrack to The Harder They Come. That album is still included in the 100 Best Albums of all time, and it deserves it..

Jerry