"You either shut up or get cut up, they don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel"
This refers to the old out-dated editing method of cutting out undesirable parts of a song from the tape reel with a razor blade. In other words, nothing was allowed on the air that was remotely challenging. Seems not much has changed over the years.
What gets me about this song is it's relevance today in dealing with talk radio. Guys like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity weren't around when this song was written, yet this part of the song sums them up neatly:
"Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio"
"You either shut up or get cut up, they don't wanna hear about it It's only inches on the reel-to-reel And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools Tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel"
This refers to the old out-dated editing method of cutting out undesirable parts of a song from the tape reel with a razor blade. In other words, nothing was allowed on the air that was remotely challenging. Seems not much has changed over the years.
What gets me about this song is it's relevance today in dealing with talk radio. Guys like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity weren't around when this song was written, yet this part of the song sums them up neatly:
"Radio is a sound salvation Radio is cleaning up the nation They say you better listen to the voice of reason But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason So you had better do as you are told You better listen to the radio"
This song truly was ahead of it's time.