As any kid who grew up in the 60s and 70s will tell you, in order to love black artists, first you have to hear their music. That was the magic of that era’s Top 40 stations. And that’s why Bowie was pushing MTV VJ Mark Goodman so hard in this interview — they made the decision to cut off viewers from a huge chunk of our musical heritage. Were there any white artists they thought were too shocking to play? We already know the answer:
An interview with David Bowie
Chess Records
Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker.
“Race records and artists.”
And then came the rip of artist of the century, Pat Boone.
“It would be scary for the midwest if we played Prince which we’re now doing.”
Ummmm, Prince was from Minneapolis, last I heard, part of the midwest.
Local am radio station played it all. Then it was crowded out in consolidation and right wing talk. FM was great but silo in musical genres.
Shout out to San Francisco Bay Area KFRC KFRE and KSAN Represent!