radio plastic revelation
by bryan thomas. copyright 1999 bryan paul thomas/radical plastical music (bmi).

audrey donner, who did all of the artwork for the album, asked me to define 'radio plastic jennifer' to help inspire her for the cover.

so here went nothing.

Subject: SO WHAT IN THE HELL IS RPJ?
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 00:00:50 -0500
From: Bryan Thomas
Organization: bryanthomas.com
To: "adonner"

WHY 'RADIO PLASTIC JENNIFER?'

i wanted to pull a line from one of the songs for the title of the cd, and this line from the song smiling was the first to pop in my head. i went thru the lyrics and jotted a list of several other candidates, but none of them sounded as cool. sounded like a cross between andy warhol and the velvet underground's 'exploding plastic inevitable' and r.e.m.'s 'radio free europe.' punk. feminine. cool.

OKAY, SO WHAT IN THE HELL IS 'RADIO PLASTIC JENNIFER?'

a good question.

prepare yourself to be very disappointed with the answer.

i was sitting in lark tavern on a tuesday nite in august. had to be close to two in the morning. talking shit over beers with some local songwriting buddies of mine, michael eck and john powhida. trading many a rock star war story (well, okay, listening to *their* war stories). i had to be at work at 8:30 the next day, but i was having too much fun to care.

eck writes music and theater reviews when he's not kicking the maximum solo acoustic, and i think we were talking on that subject when he brought up that oft repeated mantra that there are two kinds of people: rolling stones fans and beatles fans. you can be fans of both, of course, but only one can be your favorite. and the one you pick says lots and lots about what kinds of music you like - and maybe even more about who you are in general.

one of us, joking somewhat, posited another theory: 'well, it's like the gilligan's island question - who was hotter, ginger or mary ann?'

we all agreed that we were mary ann fans.

now that we were talking tv shows and women, i was reminded of yet another theory: 'a friend of mine used to say that he became a man when he realized that bailey on wkrp in cincinatti was much more attractive than jennifer.'

we all agreed we were bailey fans. hands down. no contest. like mary ann, played off by the show's producers as homely next to the glamour girl with the big boobies. in reality, a total babe.

that evening at the lark inspired the first two verses of 'smiling.'

verse one is gilligan's island.

and, as for verse two:

radio = wkrp in cincinatti.

plastic = um... surgery.

jennifer = loni anderson.

radio plastic jennifer is loni anderson.

i shit you not.

OKAY - BUT HOW DOES THAT FIT INTO THE SONG SMILING?

smiling plays on my middle school friend's theory about 'becoming a man,' with gilligan's island in the first verse, and wkrp in the second verse. fun. but stupid. trivial. frivolous.

the bridge, though, is where the song becomes more about songwriting. the mysterious smiling woman, who's been listening to the song, injects herself into the process and calls me on it: 'what you got boy?' in other words, she wants me to stop feeding her trivial pop culture bullshit. give her something real. something that REALLY changed my life. something that REALLY made me a man. most of this verse wound up on the cutting room floor, so it's admittedly cryptic, but...

ultimately, i give her what she wants in the final, quiet verse - something from the heart about a life-changing event. so the last verse references the suicide of one of my classmates in high school. not fun. not trivial. not frivolous.

still she's smiling: but why? cuz she misunderstands me? or cuz she's happy i've finally opened up about something that matters? it's purposefully ambiguous.

SO, SUM IT UP BRY-BRY:

jennifer began as loni, but she ain't just loni no mo'. she's the punk/soul sound of the album. she's the woman listening who prods me to sing about something real instead of just ironic bullshit. she's songwriting. she's art. she's radio. she's plastic. and she answers to the name jennifer.

that's it, kid. embarassed bry-bry now retreats, but quietly awaits your reply.

b.
-------------- BT1SOUL www.bryanthomas.com

bailey | jennifer | mary ann