THE Playlist
THE Playlist
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Every adult from Southern California remembers KQLZ
100.3, also known as Pirate Radio. It ran from 1989 until
1992. The primary arena for what would in the future be
known as "hair metal" and the [usually Hollywood-based]
"big hair bands", the Pirate actually played a rather
ecclectic mix of eighties pop and classic rock in addition
to a million bands with one-word names. It was a fabulous
combination, and easily one of the best radio stations
ever to grace Los Angeles. The charismatic deejays,
"Friday blowout parties" and rocker image were the icing
on the cake! ("Don't be a dick. Listen to Pirate Radio,"
one radio spot advised in a monster-truck-announcer
voice.) My heart aches every time I hear some idiotic teenager with blue hair and a Blink 182 tee shirt say something about "cheesy eighties music". Their big jeans don't look an eighth as flattering as our fitted ones did. I'd give anything to have the Pirate back for a week; I'd record every second of it! No radio station since has held a candle to it. There are plenty of webcasts of bands from the "glam years" (IDIOTS! Glam was something entirely different!) but they seem to be focused mainly on a handful of bands that were incredibly popular: usually Poison, Motley Cr e and others never heard on mainstream radio today (even the classic rock radio stations out here don't touch these bands, although the music fits-- the hair band stigma is a mighty thing). Dozens upon dozens of my favorite songs are left out; many of the albums they appeared on are out of print. I searched for Tesla's "Love Song" for five years, without a title or an artist to search under. I would sing snippets of it to baffled boys to no avail. Finally I found it, on a friend's now-defunct Live365 broadcast. He did me a great service without even knowing it! Too impatient to wait until morning to go buy the CD (it was 3 a.m.), I downloaded it at once and a part of my heart, long lost, drifted back into place. I hope to do similar things for many of you. Having the titles and artists of the songs makes it easier to grab them in a fit of P2P filesharing mania... so here is your very own, do-it-yourself Pirate Radio! This is a list of songs I distinctly remember hearing on KQLZ. They are full of memories, the floating ghosts of beautiful teenaged boys in tight jeans [drool] and boots that make delicious sounds on rained-on concrete (hi, Stuart, wherever you are!), inspiring fantasies galore, insomniac weekends at Lake Arrowhead in Harley Davidson sweatshirts, Rain Scent by Love's, pages and pages of homework and my first kiss (hi Chris, wherever you are!)... this is pretty much the soundtrack to my pre-college life (after the Pirate went under, I continued listening to my favorite bands in secret). This thing could spark memories for hundreds of my peers. NOTE: I have focused on the years BEFORE "alternative" (whatever the hell THAT means) took over the station. So please don't send me additions with ten Pearl Jam songs listed. Don't send me the titles of Van Halen songs I overlooked, either! I care much more about the obscure tunes. (Author's note, Trip, the original creator of this list preferred the less traveled stuff. Feel free to email the webmaster with any and all songs you heard on the Pirate, alternative, metal, pop, you name it. I'll add them to this list in an effort to make it as complete as possible.) So put your feet up, have a beer and dream away. Enjoy! "You Shook Me All Night Long" "Money Talks" Adams, Bryan "Summer of '69" "Run To You" "Heaven" "It's Only Love" "Heaven" Aerosmith "Walk This Way" "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" "Sweet Emotion" "What It Takes" "F.I.N.E." "Janie's Got A Gun" Asia "Only Time Will Tell "Roam" B-52s "Love Shack" Bad English
Billy Joel
Black Crowes
Depeche Mode
Dokken GNR Gorky Park
Gramm, Lou
Ratt REM
Smithereens
Vanilla Ice
Vixen Parodies Played On The Pirate:
Blame It On Hussein (Blame It On The Rain)
Copyright 1999-2024 by Dennis Younker
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