
Album: Submarine
Year: 1988
Because Submarine didn’t have a lyric sheet and in the grandest indie rock tradition – or like a radio station that’s too far away to tune in properly – Alan Korn’s vocals are buried deep in the mix, I’m just going to make an educated guess that this song is a about a DJ that they love to listen to.
Alice stands her ground
And plays a melody so sweet as if from above
Broadcasting a symphony
That speaks to her autonomy
Destiny’s impossible to know
I think. The lyrics are not found anywhere, and that includes on the original album, one of the couple dozen or so that I still own from my once-massive vinyl collection, which sold off a few years ago because I am a stupid fucking idiot. Anyways.
Alice broadcasts all night long
So, not just a DJ. But a college radio DJ, naturally. And therefore I’m going to declare that “Alice on the Radio” is the perfect spawn of “Clap For The Wolfman” and “Left of the Dial.” After all, while the words are hard to figure out, it’s easy to suss out the joy as they all chime in on the chorus:
Alice on the raaaaaadiooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Alice on the raaaaaadiooooooooooooooooooooooo!
At the beginning of that chorus, Melanie Clarin joins in, but by the last syllable of it, all four Cat Heads are singing in glorious unison. Meanwhile, Sam Babbit & Mark Zanandrea’s guitars are just killing it, especially the choppy rhythm guitar that sneaks in behind the verses and the long solo after the second verse.
Alice doesn’t understand
Why she cannot talk to everyone
Weird postscript: in 1995, seven years after this song came out, San Francisco radio station KRQR changed formats from Rock to Adult Contemporary, and in doing so, decided to brand themselves as “Alice,” which they remain as this writing.
Giving voice to everything we know
Since The Cat Heads were a San Francisco based band, this seemed like more than a weird coincidence, but given that the same sort of folks who would give a radio station a person’s name were probably not the same sort of folks who would ever listen to The Cat Heads, it was probably just a weird coincidence.
Fan-made video for ”Alice on the Radio”