Let's talk about dayparts, shall we?
A daypart is the division of the broadcast day into segments with certain types of music regularly scheduled for each segment. Music was generally formatted in accordance of the demographic group listening: the jazz and classical music that we played from 6 am to 3pm was geared toward the community at large while the rock was saved for the afternoon and evenings and the college population, out enjoying their night life.
Third Eye Blind was a staple of our first three-hour block of rock music. I can vividly recall hearing the first few seconds of Semi-Charmed Life ooze out of the speaker on more than one occasion at straight up 3pm. Then that excessive “doo-doo-doo, doo-dah-doo-doo, doo-doo-doos” that followed. It was okay, but nothing I was a huge fan of. For months we played an edited version from our preview discs. Why was it shorter? I think it was edited for lyrical content or drug references. You can’t understand the guy anyway so why bother noting lyrical content? When we did get the album version, complete with that annoying 50-second bridge two minutes and twenty seconds into the song, I remember a few people sort of in awe that we'd play it. Listening to it now, it sounds like some sort of enduring anthem for some lost civilization.
Anyway, the daily rock portion of the broadcast day began at three o'clock and usually featured core pop-rock tracks you'd hear on contemporary hit radio stations – a sort of top 40 slant on things. One of the student managers branded the first three hours as The Drive - as in "drive time." It was a time when the college kids were getting out of class for the day and a time we hoped to hit our target audience with music they wanted to hear. And with no other station in town – except the obligatory country music station – we hoped they would listen.
Third Eye Blind was still too poppy for my likes and therefore I really never caught on to their bandwagon. I know there were some other songs in rotation as the years wore on but because most of their music tended to sound the same (and could be indistinguishable from...oh, let's say Matchbox 20) everything they did eventually became filler in my sonic world.
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Semi-Charmed Life
(Jenkins)
Third Eye Blind
From the album Third Eye Blind
1997
I'm packed and I'm holding,
I'm smiling, she's living, she's golden and
she lives for me, She says she lives for me,
Ovation, She's got her own motivation,
she comes round and she goes down on me,
And I make her smile, It's like a drug for you,
Do ever what you want to do,
Coming over you,
Keep on smiling,
what we go through.
One stop to the rhythm that divides you,
And I speak to you like the chorus to the verse,
Chop another line like a coda with a curse,
And I come on like a freak show takes the stage.
We give them the games we play, she said,
I want something else, to get me through this,
Semi-charmed kind of life,
I want something else,
I'm not listening when you say, Good-bye.
The sky it was gold, it was rose,
I was taking sips of it through my nose,
And I wish I could get back there,
Some place back there,
Smiling in the pictures you would take,
Doing crystal myth,
Will lift you up until you break,
It won't stop,
I won't come down, I keep stock,
With a tick tock rhythm and a bump for the drop,
And then I bumped up. I took the hit I was given,
Then I bumped again,
And then I bumped again.
How do I get back there to,
The place where I fell asleep inside you?
How do I get myself back to,
The place where you said,
I want something else to get me through this,
semi-charmed kind of life,
I want something else,
I'm not listening when you say, good-bye,
I believe in the sand beneath my toes,
The beach gives a feeling,
An earthy feeling,
I believe in the faith that grows,
And the four right chords can make me cry,
When I'm with you I feel like I could die.
And that would be all right,
All right, When the plane came in,
She said she was crashing,
The velvet it rips,
In the city we tripped,
On the urge to feel alive,
But now I'm struggling to survive,
The days you were wearing,
That velvet dress,
You're the priestess,
must confess,
Those little red panties,
They pass the test,
Slide up around the belly,
Face down on the mattress,
One,
Now you hold me,
And we're broken.
Still it's all that I want to do.
Feel myself with a head made of the ground,
I'm scared but I'm not coming down.
And I won't run for my life,
She's got her jaws just locked now in smile
but nothing is all right,
All right, I want something else,
To get me through this,
Semi-charmed kind of life,
I want something else,
I'm not listening when you say,
good-bye.
