I've mentioned the playlists that we were supposed to (more or less) follow for each music shift. There were always slight deviations to the list when it came to substituting a requested song or the chance that a CD was missing. This practice generally wasn't frowned upon, unless the DJ took it upon himself to revamp the entire three hours of music.
So it was with some delight that I was allowed to deviate from the playlist on a night in October. It was Halloween night and the idea was that the "regular" three hours of music would "dress up" as a Halloween-themed hour – though it quickly expanded from sixty minutes to a rogue three-hours of God-only knows what and, more so, why.
It started innocently enough with the Springsteen track, Brilliant Disguise. I thought that this might clue listeners that we were going off on a different tangent – especially since we didn't play a lot of Springsteen during the modern rock shifts, let alone classic rock shifts (we would have done more, but all we had was that insufficient "Greatest Hits" album). From there it went downhill slowly: R.E.M.'s Strange, Devil's Haircut by Beck, "Hell-o" by Poe, Seven Mary Three, surely a Halloween-inspired parody by Weird Al, maybe the Prodigy, and, of course, close to midnight was the obligatory title track from Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Leading up to this moment of debatable "scary" music I had noticed a rather odd track arrive on our weekly preview discs. The song was Magic Comet Ride, a parody of Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride, with new lyrics by Bob Rivers. The music director hadn't added the track into rotation for a few reasons, among them being the staid-and-true excuse that it didn't fit the sound of the station. Of course, the subject matter might have left a bad taste in someone's mouth, seeing how the subject matter dealt with the recently deceased Heaven's Gate group and the Hale-Bopp comet.
But it was Halloween and I figured it might fly under the radar (heh-heh) so I gave it a spin. As soon as it was over I got the first calls asking just what the hell that was – "that was funny – play it again." No, we're not going to play that again tonight, but we might again in a few days so (I said chirpily), "thanks for listening...stay tuned!"
In the interest of keeping this short, no, we didn't play it again anytime soon. The song didn't appear on my official playlist and because no one cataloged it in the computer system, it would have been mildly difficult to locate without going through all the CDs in the control room. It wasn't until the next April that I remembered it existed and snuck it into someone's playlist.
It didn't seem to have the impact then that it did during Halloween but still garnered some strange looks and laughs. Though they might have been geared more toward the DJ on duty than the music he was playing – I don't remember.
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Magic Comet Ride
(Dennis Amero/Bryant, Joe/Ben Karlstrom/O'Neill, Spike/Bob Rivers)
Bob Rivers
From the album The Best of Twisted Tunes, Vol. 1
1997
I like to dream
Yes, yes
About flying around in a space machine
When a big blue ball appears in the night
Our leader says that the time is right
Hale Bopp draws near
Clean the house and pack that gear
Well UFO is right behind
Why don't you come with me boys and girls
On a magic comet ride
Well UFO's got a extra seat
Why don't you take a trek with me?
Beam us up we'll visit ET
Grab a ride girl
Say good bye world
Let Hale Bopp take you away
Last night I packed a travel sack
And said goodbye on video tape
Before the ship could come for me
Some witch doctor had to take my nuts away
I donned a gown
Brand new shoes from Niketown
Well you won't know if you stay behind
Why don't you come with me cyber geek
On a magic comet ride
Well follow Doe and you will see
Why don't you go to sleep with me?
This plastic bag will set you free
Say goodbye world
Log your last girl
Let the ship take you away
Well UFO is right behind
Why don't you come with me boys and girls
On a magic comet ride
Well UFO's got an extra seat
Why don't you take a trek with me?
Beam us up we'll visit ET
