It’s not often one can react in real time to an event being simultaneously celebrated nationwide. But our regularly scheduled Monday afternoon edition of Capital Radio coincided nicely with the first total solar eclipse across North America in some decades.
Hence, a carefully planned playlist of eclipse-ready songs were interspersed with celestial updates, featuring tunes about the the event itself, anticipation for it, the moon’s complicity, the sun’s assassination, lights going out, a dark star emerging, and eventually, old Sol’s return.
The breathless updates about totality’s approach from Kerrville, Texas to Burlington, Vermont, probably won’t hold up as well as will the music.
Here’s the setlist:
Capital Radio April 8, 2024 1 – 4:30 p.m. www.cygnusradio.com
“Capital Radio Two,” The Clash
“Total Eclipse,” Superchunk
“Eclipse,” Roger Waters
“Eclipse of the Moon,” Tony, Caro & John
“Lunar Eclipse,” The Vaccines
“Eclipse,” Winterpills
“Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Nikki French
“You’re So Vain,” Carly Simon
“Not Dark Yet,” Lucinda Williams
“Dark Come Soon,” Tegan & Sara
“Shoot Out the Lights,” Richard Thompson
“Blister in the Sun,” Violent Femmes
“Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas),” They Might Be Giants
“Assassination of the Sun,” The Flaming Lips
“Staring at the Sun,” TV on the Radio
“Staring at the Sun,” U2
“New Moon on Monday,” Duran Duran
“The Killing Moon,” Echo & the Bunnymen
“You Hung the Moon,” Elvis Costello
“Blue Moon,” Elvis Presley
“Watch the Moon Come Down,” Graham Parker and the Rumour
“Out Go the Lights,” Spoon
“The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” Vic Chestnutt
“Lights Out,” Jerry Byrne
“Lights Out,” Zerben R Hicks & the Dynamics
“Lights Out,” Santogold
“Slipping into Darkness,” War
“Beware of Darkness [demo],” George Harrison
“You Want it Darker,” Leonard Cohen
“Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Bruce Springsteen
“Let Her Go Into the Darkness,” Jonathan Richman
“Darkness, Darkness,” The Youngbloods
“Dark Star,” The Grateful Dead
“Dark Star,” Beck
“Dark Moon,” Bonnie Guitar
“Black Hole Sun,” The Moog Cookbook
“I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” Death Cab for Cutie
“Blackstar,” David Bowie
“Spirit in the Dark,” Aretha Franklin
“In the Dark,” The Creations
“In the Dark,” The James Hunter Six
“In the Dark,” Toots and the Maytals
“Whistling in the Dark,” They Might Be Giants
“Stumbling Through the Dark,” The Jayhawks
“There Goes the Sun,” Pernice Brothers
“The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore),” The Walker Brothers
“Here Comes the Sun [Francois K Remix),” Nina Simone
“Who Loves the Sun [live],” The Feelies
“Sitting in the Midday Sun,” The Kinks
Capital Radio returns live April 15 at 1 p.m. EDT on www.cygnusradio.com. Also available on the free cygnusradio.com app, available at iTunes and GooglePlay.
