Intro - The 50 at 50 Challenge
THE 50 AT 50 PLAYLIST CHALLENGE
I don’t remember exactly where I was when my friend Nick first asked me if I had heard about legendary WLIR DJ Larry the Duck and his “40 at 40 Playlist.” We were probably at a vineyard on Long Island, arguing about music, because that’s what we do when Nick and I and our wives hang out: drink wine, complain about work and argue about music. Nick and I met in 2005, when he interviewed me for what would become the job that would alter the course of my career and my life. He wasn’t going to be my boss, but it was a recruiting/sales job and there had to be a buy-in from the whole team, so one by one these guys paraded into the conference room and tried to throw me off my game, and most of all, see if they could stand me for 10 hours a day and make money with me. Fortunately, I won them over and they liked me well enough and I was hired, thus beginning the aforementioned life change, and my friendship with Nick.
At first, we did not get along, at least I don’t think we did. In fact, he was already very good friends with the person who would eventually become my wife, and she would give eye-rolls whenever she heard us arguing or debating our daily nonsense. We were both very competitive and he was an attorney before he became a recruiter, so he LOVED to argue, especially about music, movies, TV and pop culture in general. We were always trying to out-trivia (is that a word?) each other and prove each other wrong about who was in what movie and who said what movie quote and arguing over whether or not “The Godfather” really is the greatest movie of all time (it is, come on). There was one time he tried to argue that “Living After Midnight” by Judas Priest, one of my favorite bands, was a cover. “Are you sure?” he kept asking me, “I think you’re wrong, that song sounds like a cover.” The other guys were looking at him like he was nuts; not that they knew or cared, but because they knew I was probably right, and he wouldn’t let up. I just looked at him and said “Nick, you will lose this argument…badly,” and that was the end of that.
Nick also tried to get me to like what he liked. I seriously think he spent the first month I worked with him trying to convince me to watch the ABC show “Lost” so he could analyze it with me; to me that show looked terrible and I laughed and said “told you so” when everyone complained about how bad the finale was. And when he liked a new song, man he made sure you knew it. I started the job shortly after U2 released their new song “Vertigo”, and we’d all be working away, making our calls, and all of a sudden he would blurt out “DONDE ESTA??” from “Vertigo”….but just that lyric, it was nuts. I just thought, “I’m pretty sure Bono wrote some more lyrics….”
Anyway, why am I telling you this? Why is my history with Nick so important to this? Because he ultimately gave me the idea for this project which has become sort of an obsession for me…not only a journey of self-reflection and a chance to think about and truly look at my life history and why I like the music I like, but how it’s actually shaped who I am, the choices I’ve made and the people I’ve gravitated towards. But most important I’d like to hopefully leave an impression on whoever reads it, and if one person comes away discovering a new song or artist, or thinks to themselves, “Yes, I remember the first time I heard that and it had the same effect on me,” then I’ll be happy. So…I was taught to give credit where credit is due, and Nick proposed this idea and I ran with it, so I owe him one.
So…back to the vineyard in 2019.
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First some context and a little Long Island radio history lesson, so let’s jump on the musical time machine. Larry the Duck was a DJ with the legendary Long Island radio station WLIR, 92.7, based in Garden City, Long Island. Without getting too bogged down with radio history, the short story is that WLIR started out as easy listening in the 60s, then switched to progressive rock in the 70s (i.e. deep cuts and non-hits), and then started to play the stuff other stations stayed away from, like punk and new wave. In 1982, the station began playing what was known as New Music, changed the slogan to Dare To Be Different, and became the first radio station in the country to play artists like U2, The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, Duran Duran, and Men at Work, among others. If you wanted to be hip and in the know back then about music by unknown bands, you listened to WLIR. And since most of those bands broke and landed in heavy rotation on MTV at the time, a lot of that music ended up on the Billboard charts and those bands went on to become icons.
I must admit that I did not listen to WLIR back then, and I was introduced to new wave music on MTV rather than the radio. Plus, I lived in Suffolk County, far away from the signal in Nassau County, and don’t think I would have been able to tune it in anyway (this was waaaaay before satellite or internet radio, kids). I was more of a WBAB guy growing up; more on that later.
So, Larry the Duck, or Larry Dunn, was the guy who picked up the box of import records at JFK every week and played them on the radio. He also interviewed several of these bands before they were megastars, and he also seems like a very relatable, neighborly guy, so it’s no wonder he was and remains so popular in an underground sort of way. In 2019, his 40th year on the radio, he put together a playlist of his favorite 40 songs. You can access the playlist on Spotify, or here: It’s an awesome playlist whether you’re into New Wave or not and I highly recommend giving it a listen. PS…There are 39 songs on the playlist because one of them is not on Spotify (“World Domination” by The Belle Stars. I couldn’t find it on Apple Music either, but you can see the 7” version video on YouTube). So, Nick tells me about Larry the Duck’s playlist, and here’s the conversation that followed:
Nick: “Do you think you could do that, make a list of your favorite 40 songs ever? I’m thinking about trying to do it for my 50th birthday this year….so it would be 50 songs.”
Me: “Yeah I can do 50 probably. I can think of like 10 right now, what’s so hard about that?”
Nick: “What?? I don’t know, that’s gonna be tough. It’s ONLY 50 songs, think of how many songs you’ve heard in your life.”
Me: “Yeah but I know which ones mean the most to me, so I know I could do it. In fact, I’ll also do it next year, when I turn 50. You need to get started now if you’re so unsure you can get it to 50 songs!”
Fast forward to September 2019, we’re in Aruba for Nick’s 50th birthday with our wives and his daughters and some family, and the conversation turns to “The List…”
Nick: “So did you start your playlist yet?”
Me: “No way, I got till next year. I mean I’ve given it some thought and I have some no-brainers, but nothing I would call a playlist yet.”
Nick: “Man I need to work on it today, while Cherie is with the girls. I need some time to really think about this.”
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Last I saw he was under a palapa, hovering over his phone, scrolling through his music…he may have pared it down to 200 songs, maybe 150, but I seriously do not know if he ever finished it. And the funny part is he was really stressed about it! I think he was worried he would be leaving artists off his list and they would be upset with him, or that the songs had feelings and would be disappointed if he didn’t pick them. Maybe they would tap him on the shoulder, and say “Hey WTF, you forgot about me!! Remember the time I got you through that breakup and you listened to me 200 straight times, and now I don’t make your stupid list!! F*** you!!” But I had a year to ponder this playlist, and I was determined to get it down to 50 and be somewhat merciless about it. Of course, I had my favorites, and if I’m being honest, I did agonize over quite a few, and ended up needing the better part of 2020 to finalize the 50 songs. And from this, an idea grew in my mind of where I could take this and make it more than just a playlist to post to Spotify or Apple Music. I could turn it into a story, a musical journey if you will, and dig into why these songs mean so much to me, why I love music the way I do and the impact that music and these songs have had on my life and history. Will people want to read about one person’s journey through music? Well you’re here 😊 right? Will you stick around for the playlist, my 50 songs at age 50? I hope so…we’re gonna get there, I promise. For now, no more intro stuff, you know the backstory. Next time I’ll tell you how I arrived at the 50 songs, how long it took me, some list stats, etc. and then we can dive into it. For now, thanks for reading, and thanks Nick for planting the idea…dude are you still under the palapa choosing songs? Give it up, you can’t do it!! 😊
PS…. WLIR became WDRE in 1991, right before the explosion of grunge/alternative (this is when I think I listened literally every day, since my first full-time job was down the block from the radio station), then went back to WLIR again in 1997, playing alternative rock and alternative dance music, before signing off in 2004. You can listen to WLIR on www.wdarefm.com, where they maintain the “spirit” of the original WLIR, and have some of the original WLIR and WDRE personalities. Or you can subscribe to Sirius and tune into 1st Wave! Larry the Duck is on weekdays from 5AM to 9AM.