The Foote Files: Al Stewart And Song On The Radio

(CBS 11) - Al Stewart is a Scottish singer/songwriter/folk rock musician who was popular during the late 1970s.

Born Alastair Ian Stewart on September 5, 1945 in Glasgow, Scotland, he's known for combining folk-rock with beautiful lyrics. From 1977-1980, he charted four times on Billboard. Most people familiar with him know his first song, "Year Of The Cat" from 1977 which got all the way to #8. His second one, "Time Passages" in 1978 got up to #7. But it was his next song that we are featuring today.

"Song On The Radio" was his third song to chart in the U.S., from the "Time Passages" album. While it only got as high as #29, it hit #10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and #3 on the Canada RPM Adult Contemporary chart. Released in January 1979, produced by Alan Parsons (a former keyboardist for The Animals from the 1960's), written by Stewart, running 6:26 (album cut) on the Arista label, the lyrics go like this:

I was making my way through the wasteland
The road into town passes through
I was changing the radio stations
With my mind on you
Oh your friends call you "Lily Paloma"
But that's not the way that you are
It's too much of a gentle misnomer
For a shooting star

But you and me baby
I saw you there
Straight away I knew
There's really no hiding
I'll tell you right now
What we're gonna do
We'll go collecting the days
Putting the moments away
You're on my mind like a
Song on the Radio

In April 2017, Stewart was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, presented by his colleague and friend, Tony Blackburn, with whom he had played with in band in Dorset years before.

You can hear this song on SIRIUS XM 70s On 7 with Magic Matt Alan, Jaybeau Jones, J.J. Walker and Charlie Wilde and on SIRIUS XM 32 The Bridge.