When I got started in college radio in the late nineteen-eighties, there was still a lingering myth about broadcasting being a good route to do something truly daring, even subversive. It was, after all, a radio station that had played George Carlin’s routine about the seven words that can’t be said on television, leading to a landmark Supreme Court case that got the great comedian’s brilliant skewed linguistic analysis forever entered into the federal record. And the notion of the darkly philosophizing deejay still cropped up every now and again, as if everyone who got behind the microphone could hold the audience rapt by turning into Lenny Bruce when the “On Air” light was ablaze.

Much as I liked the mordant romanticism of that vision of broadcasting, I was never actually all that inclined to push boundaries. I wasn’t going to offer about monologues about the state of the world, nor did I want to swat at the wasps’ nest of the Federal Communications Commission with a stick by playing songs that could theoretically incur a fine for the station. So I got my little doses of self-satisfaction in more meager ways, which sometimes meant that I locked in furiously on a song that could give me that little tingle of subversiveness whenever I played it.

We received Diesel Park West’s debut album, Shakespeare Alabama, in early 1989. It was a fine record, very much of the era with sharp production values, soaring choruses and a big guitar sound linked to catchy hooks. It was a good time for bands that sounded like they could open for U2. It did fairly well at our station too. I may very well have played a lot of different songs from it, but I eventually committed myself fully to “All the Myths on Sunday,” once I figured out that the song was taking shots at Christian religion. It’s not exactly scathing, but assigning the word “myth” to the foundational stories felt daring enough, especially in our little college town, populated heavily by Catholics. I’m sure I never even called attention to the subject matter of the song, but for four-and-a-half minutes at a time, I felt a little like a rebel just for playing it.

Listen or download –> Diesel Park West, “All the Myths on Sunday”

(Disclaimer: It appears to me that Shakespeare Alabama and any other compilation releases that may contain this song are out of print, at least as physical objects. Throwing money into the ill-distributed label slush fund built through digital sales is not worth worrying about. However, I don’t want to take away due compensation from the artist or the proprietor of your favorite local, independently-owned record store. The song is shared here not to take the place of a purchase, but because I don’t believe a purchase can be made. Giving away Jolt Cola on the street corner hurts no one’s sales of Jolt Cola if no one is selling Jolt Cola. Regardless, if I’m contact by someone with due authority to request this song’s removal from the interweb, and that individual or entity is making such a request, I will gladly and promptly comply.)