Radio Stations and cutting out segued songs

[hbelkins]

When I aired "Home by the Sea" and "Second Home by the Sea" by Genesis on the radio, I opted to air the two parts in two consecutive episodes, as if the first episode was a cliffhanger for the second.

I consider those two songs to be one entity, a suite of sorts.

The CD and digital age certainly has played a role in how we think of songs. If you run down the parts of "2112," you see all sorts of what appear to be separate tracks: "Overture," "The Temples of Syrinx," "Discovery," etc. But on the CD, they're not broken down into individual portions or movements. It's all one big long, nearly 20-minute track.

Contrast that to Chicago's "Ballet For a Girl in Buchannan" (sic). Each song is its own digital track.

[ethanhopkin14]

One song I used to think was one was The Load Out/ Stay by Jackson Browne. In fact I remember that Stay was a cover of a Maurice Williams tune back in the early sixties. That confused me as Richard Pryor had not yet became famous, so I wondered why it was in there until I learned the whole first part was not a Maurice Williams song and a separate track.

Some soft rock stations do leave off The Load Out and start Stay as begins abruptly just as some radio stations play only the end of We're Not Gonna Take It by The Who starting with " See Me Feel Me etc."  instead of the entire song starting with " Welcome to the camp, etc."

This is the one I immediately thought of.  It helps that Jackson Browne's version of Stay is kinda short so playing them back to back is kinda the equivalent of playing Like a Rolling Stone.  Also, I think both songs can't live without each other.

There are other way around this, especially if one of the songs was a single.  The Simon and Garfunkel song "America" was actually a medley with "The Bookends Theme" and "Save the Life of My Child" preceding it on the Bookends album, but since "America" was released as a single, the record company did the hard work of eliminating the end of "Save the Life of My Child" from the beginning of "America" so the DJ didn't have to.  Basically there is the Album version nd a standalone version. 

[bandit957]

It seems like WLAP-FM actually played "Stay" by itself in the late '80s.

Wasn't this actually a double-sided hit?

[ethanhopkin14]

It seems like WLAP-FM actually played "Stay" by itself in the late '80s.

Wasn't this actually a double-sided hit?

Wow it was.  I didn't know that.  They seemed to have been a package deal a lot of times on the radio but were separate singles and not on the same 45.

[bandit957]

Remember when AM stations usually played shorter versions than FM stations?

I think "Eyes Without A Face" by Billy Idol was like this. The AM version of "Cum On Feel The Noize" by Quiet Riot omitted a whole verse. AM stations usually removed the long ending of "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" by Prince.

[golden eagle]

"Head Over Heels" by Tears For Fears has this long ending like "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" does that sounds like it might really be listed as a separate track on the album. But the only station I ever remember that played the long ending was WLAP-FM.

It's called Broken. I heard it played on a few stations back in the day.

INXS also had the same deal with Need You Tonight with a song called Mediate. I've never heard Mediate played without hearing Need You Tonight first.

[kphoger]

INXS also had the same deal with Need You Tonight with a song called Mediate. I've never heard Mediate played without hearing Need You Tonight first.

* kphoger switches YouTube from playing Toad the Wet Sprocket to playing the INXS album Kick.

[I-55]

Van Halen's "Eruption" and "You Really Got Me" seem to be segued more often on rock stations than classic hits stations. For example, I can get 98.7 WASK (Classic Hits) which plays just the latter, while 103.9 (Crawfordsville, Rock) plays both.

[ErmineNotyours]

Queen has said We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions were never intended to be played as one, but most stations do to the point it surprised me once when they played one without the other.

It's actually a pet peeve of mine that they're always played together on the radio.

I thought about that one too. Although there's no fade out between the former's guitar solo and the latter's opening, it's easy to see where the song changes. The single edit of We Will Rock You simply ends after the guitar part.
[snip]

I remember hearing the songs on the radio at the time, and I bought the single.  The version on the consumer single is a longer version of "We Will Rock You" on one side, and "We Are the Champions" on the other.  However, the AM radio version was a shorter version of "We Will Rock You" followed by the other song.  Despite what the band said, the label must have furnished radio with a special double-song single.

"Stay" (1960) is the shortest number-one single at 1:36.  So, of course, the 70s version is a bloated live version, because of long-playing records or drugs.  Take your pick.

[ErmineNotyours]

After discovering the American Top 40 Fun and Games site (another UBB board not unlike this one) I discovered where someone posts the cue sheets from American Top 40 shows.  Wow!  And sometimes the cue sheets include the even further behind-the-scenes rundown that demonstrate how the shows were put together.  Double wow!  They have all the timings for the various versions of all the songs so that they can make a four hour show that times out properly, and other information for the smooth construction of the show.  Under the info for Janet Jackson's "Control" on page 5 of the following PDF file, they say, "TRACKS TO NEXT CUT".  Yet more evidence of having to avoid segues.

http://charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/12-13-86.pdf

[hbelkins]

Remember when AM stations usually played shorter versions than FM stations?

The single versions of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" and "Dialogue" are chopped all to pieces. The single version of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" omitted both the free form piano intro and the beginning horn section. "Beginnings" was heavily edited. And the single version of "Make Me Smile" was an edited version of the album track of the same name, combined with an edited version of "Now More Than Ever."

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Remember when AM stations usually played shorter versions than FM stations?

The single versions of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" and "Dialogue" are chopped all to pieces. The single version of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" omitted both the free form piano intro and the beginning horn section. "Beginnings" was heavily edited. And the single version of "Make Me Smile" was an edited version of the album track of the same name, combined with an edited version of "Now More Than Ever."

This has been one of my biggest gripes about satellite radio, playing censored/single versions. It's like they're trying to replicate everything that sucks about regular radio except for the commercials.

[abefroman329]

Remember when AM stations usually played shorter versions than FM stations?

The single versions of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" and "Dialogue" are chopped all to pieces. The single version of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" omitted both the free form piano intro and the beginning horn section. "Beginnings" was heavily edited. And the single version of "Make Me Smile" was an edited version of the album track of the same name, combined with an edited version of "Now More Than Ever."

This has been one of my biggest gripes about satellite radio, playing censored/single versions. It's like they're trying to replicate everything that sucks about regular radio except for the commercials.

As far as I can tell, they play the censored versions on the "[decade] on [channel number]" channels, and the uncensored versions on the other channels.

It was even more jarring when I was listening to one of the "clean" standup channels and they played Mitch Hedberg's bit about how "you can't be like pancakes, all excited at first, but by the end, you're fuckin' sick of em," and they just removed everything after "all excited at first."

[skluth]

All the Moody Blues albums from In Search of the Lost Chord through Seventh Sojourn (and possibly later but I didn't listen to those albums much) have every song bleeding into the next. It was a pain in the ass when I was younger and would make mix tapes that included their songs.

The worst example of blatant editing to create a single for me was Light My Fire by the Doors with a very abrupt transition where the instrumental middle section was deleted. I didn't mind the editing for Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is as a single because that's the version I heard first. The album version of 25 or 6 to 4 is simply too long and self-indulgent and I prefer the single. It's been years since I heard the single of Dialogue but it was released with Parts 1 and 2 so I understand the AM desire to chop it to pieces. I don't recall ever hearing a single of Beginnings, but I honestly can't imagine it as anything other than the 8+ minute masterpiece that it is.

[bandit957]

The AM version of "While You See A Chance" by Steve Winwood is weird. The edit is right in the middle of some vocals.

[Dirt Roads]

Just an hour ago on a Greensboro radio station:  a female robo-voiceover comes on during the brief interlude between two songs saying "Random is good!"  The first song was T.N.T. (AC/DC) and the second song was Boogie Shoes (KC and the Sunshine Band).  Can't say that I was ever in the mood for a segue between those two songs.

[ethanhopkin14]

Remember when AM stations usually played shorter versions than FM stations?

The single versions of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" and "Dialogue" are chopped all to pieces. The single version of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" omitted both the free form piano intro and the beginning horn section. "Beginnings" was heavily edited. And the single version of "Make Me Smile" was an edited version of the album track of the same name, combined with an edited version of "Now More Than Ever."

This has been one of my biggest gripes about satellite radio, playing censored/single versions. It's like they're trying to replicate everything that sucks about regular radio except for the commercials.

Some people want that.  I can say that I am someone that can use less profanity on the radio and TV.  Its all the comforts of hearing the way the songs were played on the radio, the way you remember it when you were young, with the added bonus of being able to pick up the channel in Boston and listen to it as you drive to Denver and never lose it.

That's what satellite radio is to me.  Again, I get nothing out of hearing people professionally curse, so the added taboo of listening to DJs drop F-bombs or hearing Nine Inch Nails sing F-bombs on the radio is not appealing to me.  For me its finding a station I like and not having to worry about 3 hours down the road having it fade into white noise, or Tejano music down here.   

Now I will add that I am more a fan of the album versions of songs because they are usually longer and the single version so many times is shortened but cutting my favorite lick out of the song. 

[golden eagle]

Remember when AM stations usually played shorter versions than FM stations?

The single versions of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" and "Dialogue" are chopped all to pieces. The single version of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" omitted both the free form piano intro and the beginning horn section. "Beginnings" was heavily edited. And the single version of "Make Me Smile" was an edited version of the album track of the same name, combined with an edited version of "Now More Than Ever."

I was in Walmart Saturday and they played the very chopped down version of "25 Or 6 To 4". I was seething inside when I heard that.

[SectorZ]

All the Moody Blues albums from In Search of the Lost Chord through Seventh Sojourn (and possibly later but I didn't listen to those albums much) have every song bleeding into the next. It was a pain in the ass when I was younger and would make mix tapes that included their songs.

All of the core seven (Days of Future Passed to Seventh Sojourn) do and their 1974 greatest hits album does as well. All the ones after did not, outside of a couple tracks that were meant to be paired together, but not the run-on segue those earlier albums were.

Getting into them in my early teens I thought that was a really unique thing they did in doing that.

[michravera]

All the Moody Blues albums from In Search of the Lost Chord through Seventh Sojourn (and possibly later but I didn't listen to those albums much) have every song bleeding into the next. It was a pain in the ass when I was younger and would make mix tapes that included their songs.

The worst example of blatant editing to create a single for me was Light My Fire by the Doors with a very abrupt transition where the instrumental middle section was deleted. I didn't mind the editing for Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is as a single because that's the version I heard first. The album version of 25 or 6 to 4 is simply too long and self-indulgent and I prefer the single. It's been years since I heard the single of Dialogue but it was released with Parts 1 and 2 so I understand the AM desire to chop it to pieces. I don't recall ever hearing a single of Beginnings, but I honestly can't imagine it as anything other than the 8+ minute masterpiece that it is.

.....
Tried to set the night on fire. Yeahayeay.
Do Do Di Do dodi do
dodi dodi dum
dodi dum  dump didledum
Bop Bop Bop Bop! Bop Bop Bop Bop


Cut from 7:10 down to 2:30.

"Get Ready" by Rare Earth has an deeper cut from 19:25 down to around 3:15, but since the original by The Temptations was just around 4:00 and the Rare Earth version was a "jam extension cover", I don't exactly count it. It is somewhat incongruous that the chopped version by Rare Earth is shorter than that of the Temptations.