Martha and the Muffins -- Black Stations/White Stations

 

Time for some Canadiana once more on the weekly Reminiscings of Youth. Toronto's Martha and the Muffins is a group that has been around since 1977 and I first heard about them through their 1980 rock/New Wave song "Echo Beach", and until today, I'd been planning to put this one here as their introduction to the pages of KKP because it had apparently been the group's one big international hit.

However, I changed my mind at the last minute. "Echo Beach" is fine and all (and I'll probably cover it soon enough this year), but it hasn't been the Martha and the Muffins' song that really caught my ear when I was a callow youth. No, that honour will go to their 1984 single "Black Stations/White Stations". In a few ways, this single symbolized a new moment in the history of the Muffins because not only did they change their name (albeit temporarily) to M+M, the group pared itself down to a duo consisting of vocalist Martha Johnson and founder Mark Gane and they moved away from New Wave to something funkier and more danceable.

I had heard some inkling about the origins behind "Black Stations/White Stations" as the band's indictment against racism in the radio industry but for me, I was just struck by how catchy it was, especially with the percussion and the lyrics "Black stations, white stations break down the doors/Stand up and face the music, this is 1984!". Plus, there was the black-and-white motif in the slightly avant-garde music video. Both the song and music video got plenty of airplay here, and I recall hearing it very often on my radio as I was in my room puttering away at my high school homework.

Sadly and ironically enough, "Black Stations/White Stations", a song criticizing a radio station for refusing to play a song regarding an interracial relationship, was itself prevented from being played at certain other radio stations because of its lyrics. I certainly didn't get that impression here in Toronto. It made it up to No. 26 on Canada's RPM and No. 63 on US Billboard.

Since I couldn't track down the month of release of "Black Stations/White Stations" in 1984, let's go with what had won the major prizes at the Japan Record Awards that year.

Grand Prize: Hiroshi Itsuki -- Nagaragawa Enka (長良川艶歌)

Best Album: Mariko Takahashi -- Triad

Best Star: Akina Nakamori -- Kita Wing （北ウィング）