Single review: Brian Ray – “Pirate Radio”

Pirate Radio. The title itself conjures up thoughts and images of a fun bygone era of illicit music, and singer/songwriter Brian Ray capitalizes on his memories and experiences of this extraordinary time in his thumpingly catchy new single.

Opening with the ominous howl of a wolf and a pulsing staccato guitar, Pirate Radio immediately paints the picture of a secret hidden away radio station far out in the middle of nowhere that’s broadcasting it’s forbidden signal for the world to hear.

The punchy verses tell of Brian’s first encounter with his transistor radio and the fun he used to have listening to and learning the ground breaking, life changing songs that he heard on there.

Speaking about this inspiration, Brian said: “They were playing original rhythm and blues, doo-wop, and raunchy rock ‘n’ roll which the now commercialized radio stations were not playing. It was that music that caught my attention and inspired a lifetime in music!”

As the song rocks on, the chorus opens up that small personal story into an instantly catchy anthem that sweeps the listener off of their feet and entices them to sing along. And sing along you can – the “oh, oh oh!” lines of the chorus are infectiously repetitive and begging to be played to an audience – the bigger the better!

One highlight of Pirate Radio is the guitar solo and how competently restrained it is. Sure, Brian could have gone wild with a blistering solo, and while there is nothing wrong with that at all, it’s always refreshing to have a guitar solo that you can almost sing along to just as much as you can the lyrics. Admittedly it’s a strange highlight, but one that is greatly appreciated.

Being the world-class proficient musician that he is, Brian handled guitars, Vox continental organ, keyboards, percussion and – of course – vocals, but he was also joined in the studio by Davey Faragher on bass and backing vocals and Erik Eldenius on drums, percussion and backing vocals. Additional backing vocals were also added by Weezer’s Scott Shriner.

And lest we forget the massive talent in the studio’s control room: Joe Zook and Jose Alcantar competently handle the recording process at California’s EastWest Studios and Bad Manors respectively, while Eric Boulanger mastered and polished the whole thing up to a pirate-y gleam at The Bakery.

As a side note – EastWest Studios (formerly known as United Western) was where many hits of the 60s were recorded, including Monday Monday, California Dreaming and the entirity of The Beach Boys’ seminal album ‘Pet Sounds’.

And here’s a second fun little side note – the wolf sound effect heard in Pirate Radio is an actual clip from an old broadcast of Wolfman Jack’s. He would begin his show with the howl and throw it in the middle of songs when he would get excited – which was fairly often!

Pirate Radio will be available from the evening of Friday 24th on iTunes, Amazon, and any other purveyor of fine-ass digital music. Also be sure to visit Brian Ray’s official website for the latest scoop on whats going on in the world of the reluctant rock god!