Kansas City Playlist: Overdue Demise Of 'Local Celebrity' For The Best

The main takeaway from recent elections and in the aftermath of the pandemic is that ideas about "community" linked to geographic location are now completely outdated in the age of the Internets.

Technology allows many of us the opportunity to live inside virtual "bubbles" wherein the reality of the outside world rarely intervenes and can be explained away with a few keystrokes. 

The only exceptions to this rule are natural disaster, running out of money, health, climate change skyfall coming in 12 years and/or Vlad dropping one of his nukes and triggering the end of humanity. Until then . . . Everything remains up for debate as the Internets provides seemingly infinite support for all manner of superstitions.

Of course this comes at a cost but allow us to "bright side" the inevitable passing of the inglorious past:

Real world "community" might have been overrated. 

If "friends are the family you choose" (they're not)  . . . Then community is where you click. 

Sure . . .

The death of neighborhoods, home ownership and full-time employers paying a living wage has a great many downsides but . . . Again, the right belief system can help convince us that all of our hardships are to blame on somebody else and either a donation or "smashing that like button" will help fix it. 

It's not like we didn't see this coming . . . 

In 1965 Roger Miller hit #7 on the country charts with his maudlin crooning about the ethereal nature of local celebrity.  

The song reminds listeners not to take themselves and their betters so seriously given the ridiculous nature of local celebrity and our (social) media dominated world. 

That tune and this ideas inspire our playlist tonight . . .

Best clip we've seen of this classic with a local connection . . .

The best cover we've heard from Kacey Musgraves a few years ago . . .

No Roger Miller playlist is complete without his #1 hit "King Of The Road" which speaks to the "vibe" of this town before hipsters invaded and began their crusade to try and turn Kansas City into Portland.

Still on the topic of fleeting fame . . . A dedication in remembrance of 80s legend Irene Cara who passed this weekend.

One last note on the topic of stardom . . . We love these old clips because they provide context. What seemed cutting edge not so long ago becomes dated rapidly and even more quickly via the constant stream of online content. And so we finish with this old school Bowie classic . . .

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe & fun Saturday night.