Sirius XM, John and Me.

In my first blog, I wrote about how much I love my blue hybrid Subaru. In this, my third entry, I will describe how much I’ve been enjoying the Sirius XM radio subscription I purchased along with the car.

Not that I’ve explored that many stations these past two years. John and I have tried out “80s on 8”, “90s on 9”, “Classic Vinyl” and “Classic Rewind”…but mostly settled on these four stations only: “First Wave”, “Lithium”, “Yacht Rock” and “Liquid Metal”.

First Wave (which is actually spelled “1st Wave”, but that’s harder to type) is all the classic New Wave pop that I remember from radio and MTV during the early to mid 1980s.  The Police, Duran Duran, the Talking Heads, The Cure, The The (that’s a real name, yeah. It was really just Matt Johnson), Erasure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, OMD, Yaz…I’m sure I can list more than these nine names.

Lithium, in addition to being a Nirvana song title, is all the “alternative grunge rock” of the 1990s. So of course Nirvana and other successful Seattle rock bands like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, as well as…who else have I heard? Veruca Salt, the Breeders, Cracker, Green Day, Smash Mouth, Bush…gosh, all these goofy names I thought would just always be there. Oh, and the Beastie Boys have had the honor of being played on both of these stations, depending on which album came out in which decade!

Then there are the far ends of the spectrum, as one might expect: on the soft end, Yacht Rock. Why do I like this station whose name was coined by some comedian who gathered up all the soft rock hit singles from the mid-1970s through roughly 1982 and said “these were all songwriters living by Marina Del Rey in Southern California so it’s clearly music to sail in yachts by”?  For the simple reason that I remember ALL these songs from those years (my age would have been nine to 14). Back in those days they were called simply “soft rock” and they were what I heard on my parents’ car radio on our summer road trips from Ohio to the beach in South Carolina.  I’ve never even been on a yacht.

So when I had my paid holiday on a Monday (for Lincoln’s birthday), I took advantage of it by driving for half an hour to my Healthy Solutions weight loss clinic in the east half of the county, a drive that can be very nerve wracking since it involves the Saw Mill Parkway and I-287. Even in late morning when it’s no longer rush hour, it can make me nervous. So it genuinely helped my drive to soothe myself with “Spooky” by the Atlanta Rhythm Section, “What You Won’t Do For Love” by Bobby Caldwell, “One of These Nights” by the Eagles, and the most definitive Yacht song of all, “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. Have you ever wondered what the perfect song is for slowly driving around a large parking lot in search of any available spot that’s bound to be a hike from the clinic? I’m here to inform you all; that song is and always will be “Sailing”!

So….what can I say about Liquid Metal?

Not nearly as much as John can say about it; he has been well versed in the genre of heavy metal since his late teens and recognizes names of bands that are not at all familiar to me (as well as names I know, like Metallica or Anthrax). I enjoy some of the songs played on it, but most of it I can do without. So when we both go driving anywhere, we regularly joke about how relaxing (even soothing!) it is for him to listen to the Liquid Metal station. “It’s my Yacht Rock!” he says, only half jokingly. Meanwhile I’m focused on calculating a safe left turn somewhere and all I hear from my radio is something like “BLAH!  BLEH BLECK!!! BLEH!  UUuuuurrrrrgggghhhhh!” And I hear myself thinking “I cannot BELIEVE I’m listening to this atonal nonsense while I drive!”

But it makes for some really memorable moments. Like this one:

November 6, 2022. A Sunday. We’re enjoying a weekend getaway up in Ulster County at a favorite B&B in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

We’re driving to a country restaurant for brunch and a live blues band: Big Joe Fitz and the Lo-Fi’s. The “Joe” in the group is our old family friend, an Irish American about 70 years of age but still so youthful in the face, who is dedicated to singing and playing the original country and blues songs which were the basis of today’s “classic rock”. The “Lo-Fi’s” are usually three men on bass, drums and lead guitar, but for some reason at this venue there is no sufficient room for the drum set, so they’re an acoustic trio on upright bass and guitars only.

John and I have been familiar with the playlist of Joe’s band for nearly ten years now.  I suspect that was the main reason I let John indulge in the Liquid Metal station on the ride to Maggie Mae’s on the golf course just outside of New Paltz. Much as I knew it was something of a musical mismatch, I figured “hey, it’s our private car. Who does it hurt? No one.”

And so we found the parking lot and got a decent space…just as a song called “Lost and Found” by Prong began. Prong was a local band in NYC and an old favorite of his, so right away he said “Let’s listen to the whole song before we get out! I’ve NEVER heard this one on radio before!” And so we remained in the car (we could deactivate the engine and the radio would stay on) as he played the air bass and did that head banging thing with enough force to shake the Sube this way and that! That car kept a-rocking, even if anyone came a-knocking. (No one did.)

With that great moment passed, it was on into Maggie Mae’s for the mellow music of Joe’s acoustic trio, friendship, iced tea and burgers. 

This husband, this car, this co-op apartment and satellite radio…they’ve all given joy to my life!