I have noticed that lately K-Earth has been very cautiously dipping its toe in a new pool of classic rock to try and add just a bit of variety to their improved but still tiresome on-air library. Of course they have always had artists like the Doobie Brothers and CCR which fit comfortably in both the classic rock and classic hits formats, but now they have become ever-so-slightly more aggressive by adding newcomers to the list that include Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing". Foreigner's "Double Vision", "Walk this Way" by Aerosmith, and just about all of the major hits by David Bowie (I guess he must test well these days). They haven't gone all in by any means - still no sign of Led Zep, Deep Purple, or Black Sabbath, so the kids are still safe.
The results have been decidedly K-Earthish, which is to say, if there is a new way for them to take the joy out of your old favorite songs, they will find it. To wit:
Heard "Young American's" by David Bowie this morning and they cut a full minute or more out of the song to, as Billy Joel once sang, "cut it down to 3:05". K-Earth has a long tradition of playing the three minute hit versions of otherwise longer songs such as the Doors' "Light My Fire", but this edit was so bad and it cut right from chorus to the end of the song's coda that it had to be a hack inside job. No label would release something that bad. I notice this stuff all the time because I am both a radio and music fan, but this hack splice job had to be jarring even to casual listeners.
Next Up, "Sultans of Swing". No edit here, but they quite obviously sped the song up. It's supposed to be a relaxed, somewhat bluesy song, but K-Earth's version felt like it was sprinting to the finish line. Maybe they do that with a lot of hit songs these days, so they think their audience won't notice, but certain classic rock hits are so ingrained in a lot of listeners minds they, like I, know exactly where every note goes and to hear the song messed with is again rather disconcerting. Makes me want to turn OFF a song I might otherwise want to turn UP. Whatever may happen, please God, do not let these people get ahold of the Steely Dan catalog!
The results have been decidedly K-Earthish, which is to say, if there is a new way for them to take the joy out of your old favorite songs, they will find it. To wit:
Heard "Young American's" by David Bowie this morning and they cut a full minute or more out of the song to, as Billy Joel once sang, "cut it down to 3:05". K-Earth has a long tradition of playing the three minute hit versions of otherwise longer songs such as the Doors' "Light My Fire", but this edit was so bad and it cut right from chorus to the end of the song's coda that it had to be a hack inside job. No label would release something that bad. I notice this stuff all the time because I am both a radio and music fan, but this hack splice job had to be jarring even to casual listeners.
Next Up, "Sultans of Swing". No edit here, but they quite obviously sped the song up. It's supposed to be a relaxed, somewhat bluesy song, but K-Earth's version felt like it was sprinting to the finish line. Maybe they do that with a lot of hit songs these days, so they think their audience won't notice, but certain classic rock hits are so ingrained in a lot of listeners minds they, like I, know exactly where every note goes and to hear the song messed with is again rather disconcerting. Makes me want to turn OFF a song I might otherwise want to turn UP. Whatever may happen, please God, do not let these people get ahold of the Steely Dan catalog!
