RADIO BROARADIO BROADCAST #872

12-19–25

Fanatic! I hope you had a great week and if you’re one to celebrate the holidays, I hope you have your travel plans in order. Many tours I’ve been on would end right before Christmas. It makes sense, there’s not a great deal of activity around that time. It would be right around now, I’d be looking at a multiple plane and airport experience. More than once, for some reason, the last show of the year would be in Moscow. I would hit the stopwatch as I walked out of the hotel lobby and stop it when I walked in to my house. As I remember, it was almost 24 hours. So many times, on this day, December 19, I’d be on a plane with hours and hours to go. The airports would often be full of families and inexperienced flyers.

Fanatic, I think last week I told you about that really cool Velvet Underground 5LP box set that was just unleashed by the great Sundazed label. My copy just arrived and I got right into it. My schedule will be one LP a night until I cycle through all five. I had not listened to the first Velvet Underground album in his entirety for a long time. Partway through the first track, Sunday Morning, it was almost as if I was five songs into the album. It was so completely immersive, perhaps due to the sheer amount of times I’ve listened to it. Just my opinion, but I think the album is an example of pure genius. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it. Easily one of the greatest albums I’ve ever heard. As I remember, my introduction to the Velvet Underground was administered by brainiac and all-around good guy Chris Hasket, who I was in a band with for many years. One night myself and many of the microscopic DC punk scene were at a show at the legendary Madam’s Organ. I think the Bad Brains and the Teen Idles might have been on the bill. Things would often start pretty late there. It wasn’t always so much of a show, but a party with bands playing now and then. As the show was letting out, Chris suggested that some of us follow him to his place. My car loaded up with people and several minutes later we arrived. We were hanging out in Chris's room and he put on a record. It didn't make any sense to me. He told me it was the Velvet Underground and the album was called White Light/White Heat. I remember hearing the song Sister Ray, and not understanding why a band would play a song for that long. I didn’t dislike the record, I just simply didn’t have a place in my mind to put it. A few years later, I heard the first Velvet Underground record, which I liked immediately and then revisited White Light/White Heat, and somehow understood it differently and really dug it. In early 1983., I got a copy of the book Uptight: The Velvet Underground Story by Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga. As I remember, it was very compelling and made me want to hear every record that was mentioned. This book inspired me to listen to the solo albums of Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico. I loaned the book to someone and never got it back. It was one of two books I loaned to this person. I got the other back, but it took years. Anyway, we’re playing a track from the first Velvet Underground album tonight.

Tonight’s show will hopefully be a mixtape that hits the right notes and keeps you engaged for the entirety. We are almost done with 2025 and if all goes according to plan, we will be charging into 2026 with our usual Fanatic zeal. Engineer X, Engineer Am-Rock and I are now putting the finishing touches on next week’s show and should have it ready for you on time.

We hope you survive the holidays in safety and optimum health. Be careful out there and STAY FANATIC!!!

–– Henry