Stood in a queue for what seemed liked hours
Finally got in and the place was packed
[NOTE: Today’s 2 or 3 lines features the final installment of our three-part interview with Steven Lorber – the man behind the radio program that was the inspiration for 2 or 3 lines.]
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Q: The Georgetown University radio station, WGTB, went off the air in 1979, and later that year you moved to WHFS, which was a progressive radio station that had a real cult status in the Washington area. HFS was a commercial station, but like GTB, it played a lot of music that you never heard on other radio stations. How did you get the job at HFS?
A: A few months after GTB was no more, I got a call from David Einstein, who was the program director at WHFS. He had heard about my show, and he wanted to do some new wave thing because HFS was known for playing a lot of what my friends and I called “granola rock” – we made fun of all the Grateful Dead and Flying Burrito Brothers music they played, which wasn't our thing. David wanted to be hip and start playing Joy Division and so on, so we had a meeting and he hired me. I worked there for about a year or a year and a half, and then they fired me.
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A: Late 1980 or early 1981 – I can't remember exactly.
Q: The first tape of “Mystic Eyes” that I recorded was from March 1980, and the last one was from October of that year – I moved to San Francisco in November, so I guess I missed your last few months. Was the show always on Saturday evenings?
A: Yes. I think it ran from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Q: The first couple of hours of the show, you would mostly play three- or four-song sets by different groups – maybe they would have something in common, or maybe they wouldn’t – and talk a little about each song at the end of the set. But the last hour of the show was a little different. You would sometimes just play a whole album side, with no talk.
A: That’s called laziness.
Q: It seemed like you had sort of lost interest by that point and were just killing time until your three hours was over
A: Maybe that was my ADHD kicking in – or I was just bored.
Q: As I recall, you often repeated several songs you had played the previous week.
A: I would make jokes about that. But I would run out of new stuff to play. I’m doing a show now on the Takoma Park community station, and I still find myself running out of stuff because I have a hard time finding new music that I like.
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| Steven Lorber with his record collection |
A: I have to admit that I’m a true Luddite. The whole technical revolution has left me behind. I see that you are way, way ahead of me.
Q: [Laughs.] That’s a sad admission if it’s true. I still listen to music on a iPod shuffle, which Apple discontinued in 2017. I don't have any music on my phone because I don't know how to do that.
A: I don’t have any music on my phone either. I still listen to CDs. No Spotify, no iPod – nothing like that.
Q: But you don’t just recycle old music on your new radio show – you mix in some new stuff with the older music, right? How do you find that new music?
A: Basically word of mouth. People will tell me to check a new group out, or I’ll read something about them – for example, I read 2 or 3 lines regularly, and if you say something good about a new record that you found, I would go search for it and listen to it.
Q: I don’t remember hearing much of what I would call punk music on “Mystic Eyes.” I guess you left WHFS about the time that the DC punk scene was just starting to take off.
A: I’m not sure how much I would have embraced or played that music if I had continued on the radio – a lot of it didn’t really touch me musically as much as other stuff. Too much of it was kids who were sort of spoiled brats who wanted to start playing that day, and couldn’t be bothered to even learn three chords from the Mel Bay guitar instruction books. They were running on raw power and anger and unhappiness and illiteracy. I don’t know – had I still been on the radio, I might have given them a chance and supported them just because they were local.
Q: And you did play a lot of records by local bands on “Mystic Eyes” – the Insect Surfers, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs, the Slickee Boys, and so on.
A: Yes, I tried to promote local bands.
Q: You he Slickee Boys were the biggest local band in those days. I think they still hold the record for the most appearances at the old 9:30 Club.
A: I put out the Slickee Boys’ first seven-inch record, Hot and Cool, and I helped with their first album, Separated Vegetables – I don’t know why, but we only put out 100 copies of it – and I got them booked into Max’s Kansas City.
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A: Working with musicians is no picnic. I think it’s best if you keep your relationships with musicians at arm’s length, and don’t get involved with them financially. Just be their friend.
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While the late, great “Mystics Eyes” program exists only in the memories of its fans – and on those two dozen cassette tapes that I recorded in 1980 – you can still hear Steven playing a great mix of old and new music on the radio. He and his old friend John Paige alternate hosting the “Rock Continuum” show on Mondays from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on the Takoma Park, MD community station, WOWD-FM (94.3). Click here to listen the show online.
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The late Rob Tyner (born Robert Derminer) was the lead singer for Detroit’s legendary MC5. He’s the guy who shouts out “Kick out the jams, motherf*ckers” at the beginning of that band’s best-known song, “Kick Out the Jams.”
After the MC5 broke up, Rob Tyner performed as a solo act for several years. In 1977, he hooked up with Eddie and the Hot Rods, a British pub rock band. They called themselves Robin Tyner and the Hot Rods, and they released one and only one record, a seven-incher titled “Till the Night Is Gone (Let’s Rock).”
“Till the Night Is Gone” tells the story of a young rock ’n’ roll fan who fights his way into a crowded rock club, gets all liquored up, and enjoys the hell out of himself. If the band he went to see played “Till the Night Is Gone,” I can understand why he had such a good time – ever bar band in the world should add this song to its repertoire and close their shows with it. It is that good.
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Or – as Rob Tyner might have put it – it’s a stick of dynamite, motherf*ckers! (Especially Steve Nicol’s drumming.)
Click here to listen to “Till the Night Is Gone (Let’s Rock).
And click below to buy the song from Amazon:
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