Song of the Day (51): Rex Bob Lowenstein – Mark Germino and the Sluggers

This might be my favorite paean to the FM DJ:
 
His request line’s open but he makes no bones
About why he plays Madonna after George Jones
 
I played Mark Germino’s music all the time in the early 90’s and was sad to learn that he passed away a few years go.  
 
I had my own brief bout as a DJ at Holy Cross. The guys running the stion, who I think went on to have jobs in media and record distribution; I didn’t. They were zigging towards making the station more professional with playlists and set shows. I was zagging towards anarchy and the sounds in my head and considered myself too wild a buck to be reined in by their fences which also meant I could be an asshole. Not a good mix.
 
One day the drive time DJ got sock (yes, they had a drive time DJ), and I was the only one around with a license, so I jumped in the booth. I figured that bought me some leeway: I tossed aside the playlist and started down whatever path the music took me. Soon enough, I found myself campaigning to make “This Land is Your Land” the national anthem and they were banging on the window to get me off the air. I locked the door and jumped around from Neil Young to Waylon Jennings to Patti Smith.
 
I got suspended for that stunt. I think it went down on my permanent record.
 
We did work something out. The station had a 24-hour license, yet shut down at 11 p.m. I convinced the power-to-be (man, they must have hated me) to let me take over one night a week. And so, on Tuesday nights, I get a case of beer or two, bring some friends and their instruments along and rave on.
 
Somewhere there are taps of Paul Niles passionately playing the “C Chord Blues” cause it was the only chord he knew and Jim Smith with a straight face playing straight through a musical version of Lewis Carool’s “Jabberwocky.” I couldn’t sing, so I read poetry: Etheridge Knight and Phillip Levine. John Flynn and Charlie Browne would team up to make your heart sing. And we played songs that never came near the playlist: Jonahtan Lincoln Wirght and the Sour Mash Boys, bootlegs of Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Steve Goodman and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
 
Here’s to Rex Bob Lowenstein, Allison Steele, Wolfman Jack, Vin Scelsa and youthful rebellion. Boy, we had fun.
 
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ObU2WiXB6Hw?si=fVBHktQU36F-_tZ6
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1x9Lh7AitWTaiw6qrYjKJA?si=a26776017cbd4464