RECORD STORE TALES #1208: Four O’Clock Fake-Play

Here is an admission about 15 years in the making.

As many know, I got my start on local radio from 2010-2012, under the name “LeBrain”.  That name was given to me as both a mispronunciation of my real last name, and my musical “braininess”.   The local radio station 107.5 Dave Rocks had an afternoon show hosted by Craig Fee.  He had a couple popular contests:  the “Tedious Tiresome Trivia” at 3 PM weekdays, and the “Four O’Clock Four-Play” at, obviously, 4 PM.  The idea was that Craig would play four songs in a row, and we would guess the common theme.  I began calling in, and winning regularly.  I think the first quiz I got correct was “All songs produced by Bob Ezrin”.   I kept calling, and I kept winning.

I had become such a dominating force on the 4 O’Clock 4-Play, my favourite music contest, that listeners were now writing in 4-Play quizzes specifically to stump me.  For a while there it seemed everybody wanted to be the one to put an end to my reign as “King of the Four Play”.  Craig gave me that title, incidentally.  And everyone wanted to stump me.  Craig set up a whole week for me and only me to try to answer questions submitted by listeners.

Craig had me come into the studio for the contest, live on the Craig Fee show, during what he dubbed “Stump LeBrain Week“.  Each day that week, I came in at 4 o’clock in order to play the contest on the air.  Craig selected five 4-Plays, one for each day.  If I answered correctly, I won the prize (I Mother Earth tickets).  If I was stumped, the person who wrote the 4-Play question would win the prize.

I “won” all five days of “Stump LeBrain Week”, and took home the tickets, which I gifted to a friend (long story about me and concerts).  I didn’t want the tickets; I wanted the glory.  However, I am about to reveal that not all was above the board.  In one case, Craig made a mistake, and allowed a quiz question that involved a song that didn’t exist.  It didn’t matter; I won that episode on the very first clue without any help.  If I had got to the third clue, we would have had a problem. No matter what, they always play all four songs, whether I win on the first one or not.

See Day 2 of Stump LeBrain Week below, and track 03:

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Four-Play #2 (submitted by The Crook in Elmira)

Clue 01: Motorhead – Ace Of Spades (live)

01 Mike’s Guess: ‘artists who’ve done duets with Ozzy Osbourne’ (yes!)

Clue 02: Alice Cooper – School’s Out

Clue 03: Dio – Holy Diver

Clue 04: Lita Ford – Kiss Me Deadly

Comment: Mike nailed this one before the first song was even over.

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There was a fake song here.  I questioned the third song, Dio’s “Holy Diver”.  Offline, I said to Craig, “Dio never sang a duet with Ozzy Osbourne.”

“Sure he did,” said Craig.  “‘War Pigs’!”

“Dio and Ozzy never sang ‘War Pigs’ together,” I countered.  “They never sang anything together.”

“Sure they did.  I’ll play it for you.”  So Craig played what I will call a mashup.  It was probably Ozzy’s version of “War Pigs” from the Just Say Ozzy EP, mashed up with Dio’s voice from a live album, trading off lines.  It sounded cool, but was clearly fake.  However, I didn’t want to ruin the show, and so I said nothing.  But now I can reveal that The Crook had no idea what he was talking about when he created that quiz.  I knew, but we went with it because on with the show!

I won Day 2 legitimately.

Now here is the biggest reveal.  I didn’t go five for five on Stump LeBrain week.  I really went four for five.  Craig gave me the final answer.  Check out Day 5, the most difficult of all.

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Four-Play #5 (submitted by Nick Byerjean)

Clue 01 KISS – Beth

01 Mike’s Guess: ‘songs that originated as b-sides’ (no)

01 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘no members of the band played on the track’ (no)

01 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘crappy songs from great albums’ (no)

Clue 02 Guns ‘N Roses – Used To Love Her

02 Mike’s Guess: ‘single monikered album titles’ (no)

02 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘songs with unusual percussion’ (no)

02 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘songs people think is about one thing, but it’s about something else” (no)

02 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘acoustic ballads’ (no)

Clue 03 Aerosmith – Angel

03 Mike’s Guess: ‘bands led by duos’ (no)

03 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘bands who shortened their name from something longer (no)

03 Mike’s Extra Guess ‘all are bands from America’ (no)

Clue 04 Slash with Andrew Stockdale – By The Sword

04 Mike’s Guess: ‘songs released in even numbered years’ (no)

04 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘all albums released in leap years’ (no)

04 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘songs released in Canadian-hosted Olympic years’ (yes!)

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There is no way in hell I would know anything about Canadian-hosted Olympic years.  Anyone who knows me, would know that.  So there is the confession.  The last episode that week was a fix.  I didn’t get it right, but Craig didn’t want to ruin my streak, so he fed me the answer off-air.

Each track’s year refers to the single release, not the album.   In this case, the years are 1976 (Kiss), 1988 (Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses), and 2010 (Slash).  1976 was the Summer Olympics in Montreal.  Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics in 1988.  In 2010, Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics.  I had to look all of that up.  I do have a funny story about an old boss of mine who accidentally skied into the athlete’s Olympic Village in 2010, and was detained, but that is a whole other story!

I won Day 2 on the first song, so it didn’t matter that Craig screwed up on the third song (which I didn’t need to win).  Day 5 though, was a cheat.  A total cheat.  I was given the answer.  The truth is that Nick Byerjean did in fact “Stump LeBrain”, and never got credit for it.

Well done, Nick!  I should have given the I Mother Earth tickets to you.