Samuel's Blog

Samuel’s Musician Of The Week

This week I have decided to do something a little bit different with the Musician Of The Week award, I am dedicating it to someone, someone who is appealing a lenient court ruling, someone who on Friday was fined $1000 and placed on a nine month good behaviour bond, someone who will undoubtedly talk about it a fair bit tomorrow morning on 2GB. Yes, this week’s Musician Of The Week award is dedicated to 2GB breakfast presenter Alan Jones, the feature song is the one he uses for his theme music, and the award goes to Laura Branigan.

It took me a little while to work out why Alan Jones is appealing his lenient sentence for broadcasting the name of a juvenile involved in a court case, but my crystal ball worked that out*.

He is always advocating a “get tough” approach on crime and wants to set an example. He won’t be happy until he gets the maximum sentence. Then his fill-in presenter will campaign to have the “insufficient” maximum sentence raised, his campaign will be successful, Jones will appeal again and get an even longer sentence.

2GB, by now suffering in the ratings, will buy the jail and set up an internal radio station, which will by some amazing coincidence get simulcast on 2GB weekdays from 5:30am-10am. ACMA will have another enquiry, 2GB will be found to be in breach again, Jones will be found guilty of some offence to do with conducting business from jail and will get an extension on his jail sentence and a revocation of any parole period.

* Crystal ball may be foggy.

Anyway, the feature song is “Gloria” by Laura Brannigan, and I’m really quite surprised that people haven’t taken more cheap shots at Jones using the lyrics of his theme song over the years. I personally have nothing against Jones, I haven’t really heard enough of him to form much of an opinion, but I really did think he was smarter than to appeal a very lenient sentence. For what it’s worth I don’t always agree with Jones, but it can not be denied that he will go down in history as one of the big players in Australian radio.

Gloria, you’re always on the run now
Runnin’ after somebody, you gotta get him somehow
I think you’ve got to slow down, before you start to blow it
I think you’re headed for a breakdown, so be careful not to show it

You really don’t remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?
Gloria, don’t you think you’re fallin’?
If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?
You don’t have to answer
Leave them hangin’ on the line, oh-oh-oh, calling Gloria

Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria)
I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you’ve been livin’ under (Gloria)
But you really don’t remember, was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?

A-ha-ha, a-ha-ha, Gloria, how’s it gonna go down?
Will you meet him on the main line, or will you catch him on the rebound?
Will you marry for the money, take a lover in the afternoon?
Feel your innocence slippin’ away, don’t believe it’s comin’ back soon

And you really don’t remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?
Gloria, don’t you think you’re fallin’?
If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?
You don’t have to answer
Leave them hangin’ on the line, oh-oh-oh, calling Gloria

Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria)
I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you’ve been living under (Gloria)
But you really don’t remember, was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?

(Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria)
(Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria) … [fade out]

Samuel

2 comments April 22nd, 2007 at 06:09pm

Samuel’s Persiflage #13

Samuel’s Persiflage Episode Number Thirteen has arrived at long long last, and is ready for download . There is also a low quality version for the bandwidth impaired here.
(Update: Links corrected, sorry about that)

This month we solve the mystery of Frog from Songland Records and chat with Frankster from The Frankster Archives Library.

The episode starts with Frankster, we talk about his radio and television archive, copyright laws, strange programs on Channel Nine and a few other things.
Frankster’s website can be found at http://frankster.zanyspace.com/ and he may be able to assist with transferring your old memories from tape (of just about any sort, even waterlogged) to DVD.
Frankster can be contacted by email. archiveslibrary at optusnet dot com dot au

Just about everyone in Canberra has heard of “Frog from Songland Records”, but why is he called Frog, and just why is Songland Records the “home of the hard to find”. I chatted with Frog to find out the answers to these questions and more in the the first ever on location Samuel’s Persiflage interview.
Songland Records is located opposite Coles Supermarket in the Tuggeranong Hyperdome and would love to help you find that hard to find bit of music. They can be contacted by phone on (02) 6293 4677 or by email, songland at protel dot com dot au.

The classic ad this month is one that is very well known in Canberra and still on the air after at least a decade and probably more, and I have an anecdote to accompany it.

There is also plenty of feedback from the last two episodes, and even some for episode four.

All listeners are invited to send in more feedback, both in written and audio format. As per usual feedback can be sent to podcast@samuelgordonstewart.com (text, MP3, Wave or Ogg Vorbis), spoken feedback by clicking here or on the button below would be great, or leave a comment below.

You can also send feedback by post

Samuel’s Persiflage
PO Box 1272
Dickson ACT 2602
Australia

The Samuel’s Persiflage #13 file itself is available here, and is 56:00 in length (51.2MB) at 128kbps stereo. The 128kbps format is used so as to provide you with a high quality and good sounding podcast. I do, however, acknowledge that this is just unreasonable for dial-up, so a 16kbps mono file is also available here. The sound quality isn’t as good, but is much better for those on dial-up or with small download limits. The low quality version is 6.41MB

For those of you who are using podcast software to receive your podcasts, the feed can be found here and if you are using iTunes you can subscribe to Samuel’s Persiflage by clicking here.

There is no Persiflage Puzzle this month as the overwhelming feedback for it so far has been negative. I would like more feedback on the issue before making a final decision on whether to keep it or discard it. Do you want the Persiflage Puzzle to be a part of Samuel’s Persiflage? Let me know.

The next episode of Samuel’s Persiflage will be next month, I apologise for the long delay between the last episode and this one.

Enjoy the show!

Samuel

4 comments April 22nd, 2007 at 03:59am