Customer Reviews

Cruisin 1967

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Put it in the CD player of my car, and I zoomed back to my teen years in 1967. What radio really was like in the '60s, with nothing comparing with it today. Music from an age of innocence, playing in an age of terror. If you want to bring back memories of the past, buy this CD and others of the series.

I bought one of the other Cruisin' collections (1958) on LP awhile back, and what I really loved about it was that it was presented as an actual radio broadcast from the days when the songs were brand new. I decided to try Cruisin' 1967 on cassette, and to my disappointment it contained nothing but songs - contrary to the product descriptions I read before buying it. I assume the LP and CD versions of these things are all hosted by DJ's, but to me the casettes are a waste of money because there's nothing unique about just another collection of songs.

I grew up in Atlanta and I remember WQXI, "Quixie in Dixie," quite well. God Bless them, until the advent of "FM," sometime in the early seventies, "79- WQXI" was the ONLY station in Atlanta that played Rock and Roll. But not JUST that, because the sixties were the ONLY decade where one could turn on an AM (AM, now!) radio station and hear The Beatles/Sam & Dave/Janis Ian/The Four Tops/Strawberry Alarm Clock/Joe South/The Temptations/Bobbie Gentry/The Rolling Stones...you get the idea. Loathe as I am to the concept of "diversity" now and what subsequent decades have done to that noun, a good AM radio station like WQXI back then WAS "diverse" in its programming. "Diverse," even, to the point of being a teenager-negotiating-puberty's best friend! It truly was my window to the world outside beyond the miserable little southside-suburb of Atlanta where I "lived," and DJ's like "Dr" Don Rose (a "doctor," the liner notes say, of "psycho-ceramics" - CRACK POTS), and the wonderful music he shared, let me know that there truly WAS a world out there awaiting me. I'm grateful these "Crusin'" records are now available on CD, because, like the reviewer above so aptly noted, I can listen with my eyes shut, and - PARTICULARLY this 1967-Atlanta "slice of the past" - sort of remember when things were slower, people got along with each other...you get the idea. I cannot wait to receive this CD since I have literally worn the record-grooves almost smooth!

"Dr."Don Rose,morning DeeJay on WQXI,Atlanta Georgia was,doubtlessly,a "Doctor"in the same way that "Dr."Demento is a "Doctor",i.e.A Doctor of radio-ology...With his really lame jokes,and his double-meaning quips,the good Doctor kept Atlanta rolling along in the morning way back in 1967...A lot of the fun in listening to Dr.Don Rose,both live(if you are old enough to have been able to)or as recorded on this album,is to see if you can catch the good doctor flubbing a line,either accidentally or,more likely,on purpose..on this album Rose does his level best not to flub until the very end,but when he does so on this album it is a real doozy..Announcing the final song before the new sbreak(and the end of the album)Rose fast-talks himself into a corner announcing the strawberry alarm clock's hit tune"Incense and peppermints"as"Incest and peppermints"...That sort of thing would have gotten him censored back in'67,but,in a more modified format,this was just the sort of thing Dr.Don did daily....Along with ten bonifide hit tunes from that banner year,and the line-flubbing bad -joking Doctor,there are vintage commercials for the 1967 Rambler,John Smith Chevrolet(I wonder if he is still wheeling & dealing all of these decades later?)a Morgan cleaners commercials and ,of course,the"secret Student"contest..All in all,this is fun listening,recalling a time when A.M.radio was fun to listen to....

Radio as I grew up with. Dr. Don Rose is a truly great DJ, and we get a feel of Atlanta in 1967. Stick this CD in the car player and drive down the road and time goes backwards. Oldie lovers will play this one over and over. The commercials make it just as realistic. Where are you today Dr. Rose?