The DJ Saved My Life

OK, that's maybe not the exact title of the song, but regardless, Dale's Return and Report post was not only a tale of inner DJism, but also a reminder of who the DJ was, is and will be. Today, the radio DJ is virtually non-existent. The DJ at the club doesn't really spin records anymore. They have i-pods and laptops and all sorts of other things making their job a little less DJ Shadowy. I miss the college radio DJ. The everyday guys (and gals) who play music they think is better than what is (or was) overexposed either on radio in the mall or now, on the television.

This got me thinking. What songs are literally about the DJ -radio or club? I'm not talking about DJs giving other DJs shout outs in hip-hop mix tapes. There's the free spirited, spot-on foreshadowing lyric of NOFX's Dinosaurs Will Die, that lends more to the demise of the music industry's "7 record deal" or the gain of records with "more than one good song" than the collapse of KROCK or DC 101, but still - it's part of the deal - the loss of the DJ due to the corporate part of the music industry collapsing within itself.

On a lighter note, there's DJ by Bowie or Roll over Beethoven by both Run and DMC. There's Hey Mr. DJ by Van Morrison and The Smith's Panic. You have popular hits by the Kinks such as Around the Dial or Surfin' USA by The Beach Boys that both mention DJs. Another more relevant NOFX song is Please Play This Song on the Radio, a classic radio generated pop-punk song...for about a minute forty seconds before they pull one over on the DJ. I'm not a fan of Miriah Carey (did I even spell her name right?) or Jet, so I won't mention those DJ songs.

Contrary to popular belief Left of the Dial by The Replacements and Radio, Radio by Elvis Costello do not mention DJs but do have radio undertones.

What are you favorite songs that give (or fail to give) DJs a proper place in this thing we call a song, that they so artfuly will play for us?