Frank Zappa "Catholic Girls" in a truckstop in New Jersey about 10pm. Today in a grocery store in Council Bluffs, Iowa I heard Harry Chapin "A Better Place to Be" about noon. This shocked me because it wasn't "Cats in the Cradle" plus the song is about 10 minutes long. Roughly half an hour later after a few of the usual classic rock oldies, I heard Essra Mohawk "I Have Been Here Before." This caused me to just stand and listen to the song (it's also 10 minutes long) in sheer disbelief I was hearing it in the context. Since it's very likely the songs were chosen by a computer, that it was Essra Mohawk and Harry Chapin give me hope that the mood of the country and the world are finally swinging my way politically. Essra Mohawk if you remember is famous for "Suffering for Sufferage" from Schoolhouse Rock, and Harry Chapin rivalled Phil Ochs in the charitable works department. I didn't stay long enough to hear if Phil Ochs was the next deep cut but if he were I might have danced and celebrated hard on the spot.
"Time Waits For No One," by the Stones, of course, set to muzak in a mall, which made it a doubly-weird experience.
Maybe not "in public", but another ten and a half minute song - the Waterboys' "Long Strange Golden Road" in 2015 on Sirius car radio. Can't remember the station. It would have been sometime in June or July - I was just becoming a fan but for some reason I didn't pick up the new album (despite seeing a rack full of them in the store - man, at my current level of obsession, I would have bought the whole thing, rack and all). Hearing that on the radio is what inspired me to finally buy the album.
Don't know how this happened but a few weeks ago ' Desolation Row ' was playing at the Dollarama store near me. It wasn't the radio and it wasn' t the album.
Not a deep cut, but a 'deep' remix of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle. heard in a local grocery store a few years ago. Odd they had access to it, as far as I know it was only released on the 1994 soundtrack 'Threesome' and 7 inch promo. Hook's solo is used twice in this mix.
I heard The Band's 'Tears Of Rage' playing in a local supermarket (Morrisons) a couple of months ago - that was novel
Last month I heard Rock and Roll by the Velvet Underground at Walmart. It was a crazy, super long live version. Not sure where it was from but it was awesome! My wife was looking at shampoo, I'm like "take all the time you need" haha!
A couple of weeks ago I heard "Is It Day Or Night" off The Runaways' first album in a Jersey Mike's Subs. I couldn't believe it, in the last 45 years I don't believe I've ever heard the Runaways outside of my house or car. And it was an obscure album cut, not "Cherry Bomb." Good for Jersey Mike's!
. The speaker was in the ceiling, overhanging the sidewalk between the jewelry store and the DMV. I'm sure people wondered why I was standing there, like I was looking into the sky. The experience remains memorable. .
I was in a Red Robin (burger joint) when I heard "A World Without Heroes" by KISS. As a fan of The Elder (the KISS album that even most KISS fans hate), I found this to be the most mind-boggling musical experience I've ever had in a public place.
Rye Coalition's 'The Higher the Hair, The Closer to God' at a bar in Denver last September I was caught so off-guard that I asked the bartender who was in charge of the music and messaged the drummer to tell him about it
This wasn't so amazing for the cut being deep but once in "Indian Row" I was with my husband in a wonderful restaurant sharing a prix fixe, when we were sitting under one of the speakers. We were waiting for the main course, sharing naan and noticing the Ridiculously Famous Person that was in the table next to us with her date, the four of us being the only ones in that wing of the restaurant. Yet being New Yorkers and not wanting to draw attention to the other person's fame, we were acknowledging but not discussing. The music, whatever it was, was Bollywood Pop but it had to be from the early 70's because it was in MAJOR ping pong stereo, to make "Crosstown Traffic" sound positively mono. I'm breaking off a piece of naan to dress it and break bites off in that way that Those In Deep True Love do, generating cartoon hearts between me and my husband, when out of the blue, over our heads, three women with Yoko voices sing "EYE YI YI YI YAIIIIIIEEEEE!!" in what was obviously supposed to be a background part. This was incredibly loud, and the balance of the song went back to being mainly in the other speaker in the other wing. I jumped out of my skin and nearly shrieked like a little girl. (Insert Dieter face here.) I, my husband, the Famous Person, and her date completely lost it -- tears streaming down our faces laughing at what just happened. She introduced herself and we ended up having a lovely extended evening (I think we were there for four or five hours just visiting). And she has emailed me every month or so since this happened about 20 years ago.
I was having breakfast once at a pretty mellow (and crowded) restaurant, and somehow someone there decided it would be wise to play the entirety of "Street Hassle."
My friend works at a local liquor store, and the boss lets him put on his own CDs, to play over the PA system. Every time I walk in there, I hear loads of great tunes one wouldn’t hear regularly. The other day he was playing Jerry Garcia acoustic band, and it sounded good. My friend told me he gets a LOT of compliments from the customers. Many are real hip to Grateful Dead sounds. My friend knows how to have good customer relations.
Not sure this counts, but I once played the side 2 cut "Ann" from the first Stooges album on a jukebox once at a bar. The feeling of relief in the place when it was over was quite palpable.
Bob Holroyd's cover of Peter Gabriel's Games Without Frontiers with Happy Rhodes on vocals...in a Boston Market!
