On my last day of work at the Boston Phoenix (RIP), I went into the WFNX studio, and started spinning songs I merely wanted to hear: Suede (all seven of them), New Order, Pulp, a bunch of Britpop hits from our Top 100 Britpop Anthems of the ’90s feature from August 2011.
Then, around 5pm, as my colleagues and I were headed to An Tua Nua for some memorial cocktails, I set Merchandise’s 11-minute epic “Become What You Are” on repeat seven times, filling more than an hour, separated only by our robot DJ, 3001, saying “Whatever, man” in between.
That was my sendoff. To quote Carson Cox in my favorite lyrics of the song (at least how I hear them): “I’m a mother’s son. I’m a rolling stone. I don’t want anything that I have to own.”
Peace out, WFNX.
