Today’s slow drag is with “Radio Silence,” from “When I was Cruel,” released in 2002. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.

Show Notes:

Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy

Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com

Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag

References:

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Radio Silence”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Radio_Silence

“Radio Silence”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CcSwea80dc (can’t find an official EC upload)

“Radio Silence” Definition: webster.com/words-at-play/radio-silent-silence-meaning"> https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/radio-silent-silence-meaning

“Pearl Harbor” Strike Force radio silence”: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01611190701313940?journalCode=ucry20

“The Secret History of messages etched into records”: https://thevinylfactory.com/features/secret-history-messages-etched-runout-groove/

“The World and His Wife” Origin: https://wordhistories.net/2020/04/22/world-and-his-wife/

Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” https://www.amazon.com/Most-Terrible-Time-Life-Thursday-ebook/dp/B07XLXS5PL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y4SGCT62WPEK&dchild=1&keywords=the+most+terrible+time+in+my+life+ends+thursday&qid=1608873405&sprefix=The+Most+Terrible+Time+in+%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-1

 

"Radio Silence" Lyrics:

Signal fading, listen to what I'm saying

Testing, testing

This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting

Maintaining radio silence from now on

 

Barricaded in the talk radio station

Hostage taken

The red "On-Air" light shines on

Something cheaper that passes for free speech will have to do

 

Hear him coming through loud and clear

He's trickling in your ear

He'll tell you anything you want to hear

 

Tape starts running

He's going to tell you something

String starts strumming

Another humdrum conundrum

Signing off now

Maintaining radio silence from now on

 

But there's one thing I should have said

"The hostage will end up dead"

It's just a comedy

The hostage is me

 

So, pay the ransom

Beyond the run-out groove

And get my wife down here

A helicopter on the roof

No police marksman

Maintaining radio silence from now on

 

Mystery voices

Drowned out by too much choice

That's not to mention

The sad waste of this wonderful invention

Maintaining radio silence from now on

 

Libraries filled up with failed ideas

There's nothing more for me there

I trust in tender ink and gentle airs

 

Do those drug dealers still polish women made of wax?

Gangsters and world leaders

Require the same protection from attack

From a distance it's hard to tell the difference

Between a king and jack

then a poet and hack

Maintaining radio silence from now on