To say Republica was a major turning point in my time at the station is to give far too much credit to something so undeserving. 1996 was about the time I was making the change from operations to programming – from worrying about the news department to helping with the day-to-day operations and sound of the station.
As I had already been filling in on weekend mornings and on some of the weekday classical shifts, I was no stranger to the control room or what happened there. But now I was filling in for the more sought-after, primetime modern rock shifts, thereby sealing my fate with the music of that era. In my later years there I would sometimes joke on air about how trivial some of the songs were: “Ah, Sweet 75 – you’ll be hearing great things from them down the road” or “Those kids in Silverchair could whoop Hanson any day, don’t you think?” It was all in jest – though I was certain a lot of what I played would be forgotten within four years – but I always loved how fans of some one-shot group would call and strongly hint that my ridiculing of Republica was uncalled for and that the band was "cool." Whatever.
Republica’s music is lightweight dance pop and this song is fairly easy to identify from its throbbing beat. The England-based group was led by a woman named Saffron who sported around the mid-90s with a group of guys that eventually penned a lyric that I have committed to memory.
Why? You encounter, and sometimes even work with, a wide assortment of characters in college radio stations. Some are convinced that the station should be nothing but Death Metal sign-on to sign-off or are spawn of Les Nessman and insist on nothing but news.
As an undergraduate, I stumbled upon a guy referred to as Top Gun: clean cut, military-background, spoke little and argued his points relentlessly. I forget his real name, and I think he was one of the news or sports reporters that semester, but he would often approach faculty or staff management with his ideas for improvement. He stopped me in the hall one afternoon and insisted I identify the song that had the lyric "on the roof top, shouting out." He was able to identify the general time period he had heard the song the day before (15-hundred hours, of course) and asked I review old playlists and consult air check tapes to give him an answer.
I said okay.
He said preferably within the next ten minutes.
However I got out of that encounter I don’t know; a day or two later it suddenly dawned on me and upon giving my answer, Top Gun solemnly nodded, as if everything now clicked in his world, and announced purposely that he liked the song. With a curt nod he whirled around and went off to find his other shoe or something – I don’t know.
I'm told Republica released another album in 1998 (Speed Ballads) but I missed out on that, as I think did radio stations, and I haven't heard hide or hair of them since they were on the rooftop, shouting out, “Please remember us in a decade!”
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Ready to Go
(Dorney/Male/Saffron/Todd)
Republica
From the album Republica
1996
You're weird, in tears, too near and too far away,
He said, saw red, went home stayed in bed all day,
Your t'shirt, dish dirt,
Always love the one you hurt
It's a crack, I'm back yeah standing
On the rooftops shouting out,
Baby I'm ready to go
I'm back and ready to go
From the rooftops shout it out
It's a crack, I'm back yeah standing
On the rooftops having it
Baby I'm ready to go
I'm back and ready to go
From the rooftops shout it out, shout it out
You sleep, too deep, one week is another world
Big mouth, big mouth, drop out, drop out
You get what you deserve
You're stange, insane, one thing you can never change
It's a crack, I'm back yeah standing
On the rooftops shouting out,
Baby I'm ready to go
I'm back and ready to go
From the rooftops shout it out
It's a crack, I'm back yeah standing
On the rooftops having it
Baby I'm ready to go
I'm back and ready to go
From the rooftops shout it out, shout it out
Abused, confused, always love the one that
hurt ya hurt ya hurt ya
It's a crack, baby I'm ready to go
Baby I'm ready to go...
