Today is Cesar Chavez Day in Tucson. I used to do a radio show on KXCI every year in Chavez’s honor, and I was lucky that I found the following one from 2014 so that I could share it with you today. I dedicate this to my brother Richard Elias, who was a fierce union supporter. He showed up to every single Cesar Chavez day march and rally in Tucson, from the first to the last.
The following three hour program, a special edition of “The Home Stretch”, is divided into three sections below. I didn’t add the playlists this time around, but the songs are all announced during the show.
I have to admit it feels weird not doing radio these days, but I am glad I have my old shows. I thought I’d share this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. birthday show, in case anyone is in need of hearing songs about freedom and justice. Included are many uplifting tunes and some classics from the Sixties about the struggle for freedom and justice.
Happy Birthday/Stevie Wonder–Woke Up This Morning/Sweet Honey in the Rock–(If You Miss Me At the Back of the Bus)(Ain’t Scared of Your Jail)(Oh Freedom)/Pete Seeger–It Isn’t Nice/Judy Collins–Dog, Dog/The Freedom Singers–A Change Is Gonna Come/Aretha Franklin–Go Limp/Nina Simone–Masters of War/Bob Dylan–The Beatitudes/Sweet Honey in The Rock–Blowin’ In The Wind/Peter, Paul and Mary–Pride (In The Name Of Love)/The Persuasions-(It’s A Hard Life)(Abraham, Martin and John)/Emmylou Harris
(It’s A Hard Life)(Abraham, Martin and John)/EmmyLou Harris–I’m On My Way to Freedomland/Sweet Honey in the Rock–People Get Ready/The Impressions–Pack Up Your Sorrows/Judy Collins–Go Tell It On The Mountain/Fanny Lou Hamer–Keep Your Eyes on the Prize/Pete Seeger–If I Had A Hammer/Barbara Dane–Mississippi Goddamn/Nina Simone–The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll/Bob Dylan–This Little Light of Mine/Sweet Honey in the Rock–We Shall Overcome/Joan Baez–Get On Board, Children Children/Willie Peacock–Carry It On/Judy Collins–Peace/Sweet Honey in the Rock
Fats Domino/Hello Josephine–Connie Francis/My Happiness–The Flamingos/A Kiss From Your Lips–Danny and the Juniors/At The Hop–LaVern Baker/Bop-Ting-A-Ling–Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers/Paper Castles–Shirley Gunter and the Queens/Oop Shoop–The Champs/Tequila–Little RIchard/Long Tall Sally–The Heartbeats/A Thousand Miles Away–Dee Dee Sharp/Your Precious Love–The Miracles/Bad Girl–Bill Haley and the Comets/Rock Around the Clock–The Bobbettes/Mr. Lee–Jackie Wilson/Reet Petite–The Duprees/You Belong To Me–The Teddy Bears/To Know Him Is To Love Him–The Everly Brothers/All I Have To Do is Dream–Gene Chandler/The Duke of Earl–The Blossoms/He’s A Rebel–The Drifters/Under the Boardwalk–Little Eva/The Locomotion(partial)
Little Eva/The Locomotion (partial)–Chubby Checker/The Twist–Dee Dee Sharp/The Mashed Potato–Little Willie John/Let Them Talk–Santo and Johnny/Sleepwalk–The Chantels/The Plea–Bobby Lewis/Tossin’ and Turnin’–Big Maybelle/A Little Bird(Told Me That You Loved Me)–Gary U.S. Bonds/Quarter to Three–Jewel Akens/The Birds and the Bees–Betty Everett/The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In HIs Kiss)–Major Lance/Land of 1,000 Dances–Fats Domino/Let The Four Winds Blow–The Shirelles/Mama Said–Joe Jones/You Talk Too Much–The Rays/Silhouettes–The Chantels/Look In My Eyes–The Five Satins/In The Still of the Night–Chuck Berry/Roll Over Beethoven–Carl Perkins/Blue Suede Shoes–Jerry Lee Lewis/Great Balls of Fire–The Casinos/Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye–The Little Darlings/A Little Bit of Soul.
I was very tired yesterday when I got home from work at 5, so I took a nap, thinking I could just sleep for half an hour and wake up in plenty of time to work on my radio show from 5:30 to 7pm. As luck would have it, however, I overslept and woke up at 5:50 rather than 5:30. I thought to myself, oh oh, what am I gonna do? I don’t have a lot of time to prepare this show. I hate having to rush, but the clock was ticking away. I decided, to heck with it, I’m just going to play nothing but songs that last 5 minutes or longer. Where could I find a whole show’s worth of songs that were that long? And then the lightbulb went on! Last week I had played an all-English language dance music show, so this week I decided I would play an all Spanish language dance show and feature nothing but salsa! Those songs are all usually 4 to 6 minutes long and they’re quite danceable too. So lo and behold, that’s exactly what I did. I went through my small collection of salsa and musica tropical and came up with a good handful of tunes, all of which were at least 4 minutes long. I gave folks a heads up on Facebook that I would be having another dance party, but that this time the featured music would be a mix of salsa and Latin jazz, and one friend in particular got very excited and told me she had just put her dancing shoes on and was ready to boogie the night away. I dubbed the title of the show, “Salsa A to Z”. I almost made it all the way through the alphabet, but had to skip one or two artists because I had run out of time. That same friend who was ready to bop the night away later told me she thought it was a perfect show. Wow, sometimes you never know how things are going to turn out. I have to admit that initially I wasn’t all that excited about doing an all salsa show, as I was bummed that I had to rush things, and I usually like to mix things up, but I’m glad at least one person liked it.
