Taming the Forces of Nature with Music

KNKX Public Radio | By John Kessler,

Published October 11, 2012 at 4:30 AM PDT

This is how radio looks, the new video version of Record Bin Roulette! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urbbQmGMiEs&feature=youtu.be

It was a dark and stormy night when we set out to conquer the Forces of Nature. We’ll spare you the songs about Earthquakes, Lightning and Floods and jump right to The Wizard of Oz, where we found Dorothy Gale, singing about the tornado that sent her house careening into Munchkinland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOEq-ImGWJ0&feature=related

Our needle then dropped in 1943 for Lena Horne and her forecast for “Stormy Weather”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCG3kJtQBKo

This is the song that put Martha and the Vandellas on the weather map. From 1963, it’s one of Motown’s first hits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE2fnYpwrng

The spooky thing about this spooky song is, it’s the last song Jim Morrison recorded before he died. Spooky. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_eQGsbHhDo

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Record bin Roulette

John Kessler

John has worked as a professional bassist for 20 years, including a 15 year stint as Musical Director of the Mountain Stage radio program. John has been at KNKX since 1999 where he hosts “All Blues”, is producer of the BirdNote radio program, and co-hosts “Record Bin Roulette”. John is also the recording engineer for KNKX “In-Studio Performances”. Not surprisingly, John's main musical interests are jazz and blues, and he is still performing around Seattle.

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John Maynard

John Maynard started working in radio in the seventies as a DJ at Seattle’s KJR AM which at the time was the dominant AM station in the Seattle market. After a brief stint as a restaurateur and night club owner, Maynard returned to radio with Robin Erickson, creating the hugely popular “Robin and Maynard Show.” In the more than 20 years under that marquee, Maynard flew with the Blue Angels, piloted the Goodyear Blimp, sang with Donny Osmond and hung out in a Universal Studios bar with Kojak (Telly Savalas).

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