brunobaby

It's now known as "Classic Rock," but in the late '60s-early '70s it was known as "FM." You would usually find out about it through one of the "cool" kids in school when he would say, "You're still listening to AM? That's babysh*t. FM's where it's at."

I first discovered the other band on my parents' radio in the summer of 1970, and alternated between WNEW-FM and WABC-AM for the next four years, until popular music began to split into a million fragments. By then, FM had devolved from a "free-form" media--if it ever was--to a vehicle for getting kids to buy an album for the whopping price of $4.00 instead of a 45 for $.75.

If you grew up in the New York area in the '70s, here's some of the stuff you would have heard Scott Muni, Alison Steele and their colleagues playing...or at least what's on my iPod so far:

All Right Now - Free
Apple Scruffs - George Harrison
Barabajagal - Donovan With Jeff Beck
Beautiful People - Melanie
Bell Bottom Blues - Eric Clapton
Burn Down The Mission - Elton John
Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
Crown of Creation - Jefferson Airplane
Dear Mister Fantasy -- Traffic
Empty Pages - Traffic
Find The Cost Of Freedom - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
For Yasgur’s Farm - Mountain
Freedom Rider - Traffic
Fresh Air - Quicksilver Messenger Service
Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones
Glad - Traffic
God Bless The Child - Blood, Sweat & Tears
How Have You Been? - John Sebastian
I’m A Man - Chicago
Jingo - Santana
Lather - Jefferson Airplane
Livin’ Lovin’ Maid - Led Zeppelin
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Maybe I’m Amazed - Paul McCartney
Memo From Turner - Mick Jagger
Nantucket Sleighride - Mountain
Nature’s Way - Spirit
Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Punky’s Dilemma - Paul Simon
Questions - Moody Blues
Questions 67 and 68 - Chicago
Sixty Years On - Elton John
Soft Parade - Doors
Soul Sacrifice - Santana
Spill The Wine - Eric Burdon & War
Stage Fright - The Band
Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones
The Cage - Elton John
The King Must Die - Elton John
The Shape I’m In - The Band
Them Changes - Santana With Buddy Miles
Time Has Come Today -- Chambers Brothers
To Susan on the West Coast Waiting - Donovan
Up On Cripple Creek - The Band
Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
Wind - Circus Maximus
Wooden Ships - Jefferson Airplane
You Can’t Always Get What You Want - Rolling Stones

...And of course, the unabridged:

Layla - Derek and the Dominos
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Stills & Nash

BTW, a friend of mine recently pointed out that "FM" has another connotation, especially applied to high-heeled shoes. And if you were listening to FM radio in those days, you were probably sharing a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill or Yago Sangria, and thinking about how to get that, too.