Space Pirate Radio

Guy Guden wrote: Thanks Pedro for the Blue Nun toast of SPACE PIRATE RADIO and the Christmas show memories too. ... Thanks everybody...

Heck, I can easily tell you that SPR was my 1984! As was a lot of the music. But you already knew that! 

Almost everything I have is of the Sunday night stuff, right after JC and his show. you know what's funny? All of a sudden I want to get Bitches Brew, or that Esther album, or that Return to Forever album ... simply because of the bit before your show.

I put on the show that had those two hours of your bits back to back that I had put together, and gracious ... you're right ... that was too much, but it was fun to listen to! And at 65 1/2, I still cracked up to a lot of that stuff.

My speakers, if you remember the AMT's ... just had them "re-coned" again, and they are still blasting away ... a place here in Portland "re-coned" them in 1985 and then did it again a couple of years ago. I had fun blasting the opening of "Deadwing" for my roomate, the day after I had them fixed.

Wouldn't you know it ... just like magic ... I walk into 7/11 to get a cup of wake up juice (decaf with a skinny expresso) and ... Ventura Highway in the sunshine ... MY SONG! Yeah ... made my day! Another trip to Moby Disk, or a bookstore ... or ... using a coat hanger as the gas pedal ... adventures, indeed!

Edited by moshkito - February 17 2016 at 10:05

Hi,

A package was found on my mixing board today when I came home.

WOW!!!!  I had searched off and on for many years for SPR, and until now had never found anything.  I am from Oxnard, and had listened to many a show through most of its time on the air.  I even used to have many recordings of it, but those all degraded from over use and became screechy many many years ago.

And then, I find that just recently, the man himself came out of the wood work and has graced this forum with his presence.  Welcome Welcome Welcome!!!

Now I gleefully await either archives to listen to, or new content to stream on the interwebs.

If you don't mind, I think in the weeks to come I will compile some of the history laden comments found in this forum, and create the long missing Wikipedia article for SPR.  It really needs one.  For those many former listeners and others who, founded or not, feel it doesn't exist if it doesn't have a Wikipedia article.  ;)

Again. I am so glad to have found not just a forum for the SPR fans, but the man (and his rent payer. etc etc.) themselves!!! 

That was a very nice Sunday night/Monday morning.  Like SPACE PIRATE RADIO airtime, but in the flesh.  Magma were superb.  Hanging with Giorgio G. and Mike Howlett backstage before going in to congratulate Christian and Stella.  And all this coming after your introduction to Porcupine Tree.  Steve and Richard wouldn't let you photograph them.  Not knowing what they sounded like, I'm sure you felt they were a bunch of arrogant punks.  But I think the performance made up for the snub ( Even with Barbieri's keyboards not operating at full capacity ).  You became a fan from that moment on.

Hi,

Today
While at work
I read the news
...
oh boy
...
silence
nada
quiet
tear
shock
...
just sad
...
a slight uneasy
feeling
of unrest
inner quiet
inner something
inner
feeling
...
alone
...
not always lonely
...
going somewhere
that we don't know
can't imagine
...
empty inside
...
thoughts all over
can't turn off
the internal dialogue
but today
I hear one thing
that was once called
Space Pirate Radio
and it did
something
that no one ever has done
...
before
...
and it was neat
but it taught me
something
about ability
poetry
appreciation
...
on the air
was
a wise man in your heart
and he was inside a radio on the air
inside of another radio
also on the air
...
and hearing that song
echo in the distance
far away from us all
became a theme
of sorts
for me
...
because one guy
had the ability
to really see
what it all was about
and then sing it
...
the wise man
in your heart
was not
far away at all
...
it just seemed that way
...
he spoke
serenely
sang quietly
...
to a soft beat
...
and that Guy
let it shine
...
in what
really
was one of the great
compliments
artistically
to another artist
...

Like any dream
...
no one that did not
hear that
on that particular night
...
will never
hear it
...
one of the greatest
moments of all
in music
and its art
...
the perfect theater
...
space
...
through the air
...
into the night
...
a wise man
was in our hearts
for a long time
...
yeah
...
I will miss him
and his friends
...
the photographs
...
the music
...
the glissando
to the stars
my very own soundtrack
...
...
you have lifted
some spirits
higher than you know
...
magick brother
...
and
the mystic sister
...
we will forever
live
love
hear
attune
...
to the glissando
of our hearts
and its wise words
amidst the quiet
beat of your hearts
...

Edited by moshkito - March 13 2015 at 14:13

Thank you for mentioning it, Pedro.  41 Years Ago!  Quite mind blowing and yes, it seems very Unreal.

Hi,

Very nice pair of entries on your blog ... they brought back a lot of memories from Altair 4.

Not sure that today's stuff is much easier to edit and play with ... heck, I have 4 computers and a laptop, a mixer, and last year bought me a nice $400 dollar Stanton turntable, because the old Pioneer you probably remember finally hit the skids! Oh, the speakers hit the skids again, and JaMac in Portland re-coned them (2nd time!!!) and I immediately blasted "Deadwing" as soon as I got the speakers back. I asked him about them and the quality, and he said that those are still massively great and the magnets alone are worth the price! So you know the Heil's are still alive! AND I have a turntable! That Stanton cartridge that cost over $200 dollars then, finally died a couple of years ago!

I can mix, together, microphone, turntable, midi-keyboard (any software), piano, mp3, all at the same time right now ... so much so that I felt intimidated thinking that I would be copying you ... well, no one can copy Guy, so that's that! And I can record the output from the stuff to yet another computer, or my laptop! This might be fun ... you play it all together ... and add even more to the confusion ... and you end up with revolution missing a number!

All in all, the mixing side of things is the easiest part of it all these days, because you can go back if you want and add more ... unlike tape, in general, when you add something else to the elements in digital, it does not add noise ... which allows for more edits and such ... however, for example, it would make it harder to hear things inside of things as you once did with Daevid Allen's Good Morning. Doing that live would be harder, but just like your work THEN, it's really about the cleverness of it all, and the person behind it, and not the equipment. I look at the equipment as just another toy!

Digital might make it more difficult to create some "audio alchemy", but I think that it would, instead, create something else ... you can always get a DAW, to change the piece of music to go backwards, and you can do the whole piece and see the results ... how trendy that might have been 45 years ago, hey? Today, you play that with the highway sounds, and they will probably think you are some sort of musical genius ... this one "radio station" in Portland, does not have CD's ... it's all "computer" ... you turn on the DAW and start a beat and voila ... the only problem is ... you want to throw some serious spaghetti, mac and cheese and clam chowder at those folks ... boring is not even a good word for it!

Today's audience, as PA shows, is not exactly about the music. It's about what they "want" and what they "like" and as we all know, every media this and that is always ready to say something about anyone and everyone. Every album is always liked by some and hated by some, and in the end, all it does is create more "confusion" in this great ball of it already! Many of them are totally enamored with the idea that they are more important than the artists ever were. The artist is there to kiss their ass, because they are buying the music, and personally, I'm not sure that was what radio, tv, and everything was made for originally, but, yeah, it has become that, and i don't think that many folks see the difference ... they never heard anything like your show or any show that is 100% out there and not a compromise. Even the 365 crap, can only play 20 minutes and has to go back to a "song" that you know ... it's like, it's too far out!

Would I like to see SPR on? Yeah ... but I have seen the likes of Live 365 and other spots and they are a bunch of geeks, that would not know music from anything else in their lives, except their favorite songs, and dope ... just like the old days! But I really do not want the old days back ... it was very rough, for example that it took me 8 years to get an AA because of really bad English and the only connection I had to my culture were a lot of these foreign bands, and someone like Guy to help a bit here and there put things in better perspective. It might not even have been fun for him, for that matter ... but that's OK, but in the end, I think that we can look back, and agree that there was way more good, than anything else ... and we did have our laughs and then some ... !!!

Today, I fear the media folks that think they own the world, and that their christianity is  the law and that they are never wrong. At least, in those days, there was a very real "freedom" that was much more visible than today, where the real intent is hidden behind some "correctedness" that basically says that you can't have different folks out there, because it would mean your religion would not be as famous, or as rich! And we thought the Borgia's were all about something else!

Guy Guden wrote:   ...  As for SPACE PIRATE RADIO, it is gratifying to see so many who appreciated the trips we shared.  As a Fan Myself, I humbly say I have heard every show ever broadcast.  And I am very pleased with the journey.

Hello Mr. Guy,

Edited by Blobfish - November 14 2014 at 01:53