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Title edit
The Paris Site - A Tribute to Lee Paris - The Infamous and Always Controversial Lee Paris
Description edit
One of the most amazing periods of musical awakening and discovery in my life happened in 1983, thanks to the music that I heard being played on I-92, aka WIFI-FM in Philadelphia. I had just turned 16, and the radio was becoming a center point of my life. For 8 months, which seemed much longer to me at the time, I-92 played a really eclectic mix of new wave, rap, punk, aggressive new synth pop, and even some old TV cartoon themes like The Jetsons and the Flintstones sprinkled in for good measure. The station had kind of a free-form feel, and I got the impression that the DJs had a good deal of control over what was played and when, and they often played the long extended dance remix versions of the singles that were in the rotation. It felt more like an eclectic and spontaneous college station than it did a major commercial station.
For me and my friends, the DJ that stood out the most was a vibrant and exciting young guy named Lee Paris. As it turned out, he was not only a DJ but was the musical director of I-92 as well. For me, he began to personify the spirit and energy of the entire new music revolution that was happening around me at the time. And under Lee Paris's musical influence I felt my entire taste in music begin to change. I became fascinated with synth-based, electronically-produced music at that point, and I was absolutely enthralled by the exciting new music that Lee Paris and Co. were dishing out to me daily. Bands like The Cure, Malcolm McLaren, Blancmange, New Order, Yaz, Heaven 17, Echo and the Bunnymen, Soft Cell, Trio, Wide Boy Awake, Modern English, Iggy Pop, Devo, Depeche Mode, Haircut One Hundred, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Haysi Fantayzee, Wall of Voodoo, INXS, Ultravox, and many others. I was blown away by the amazing new sounds that I heard, and it inspired me to buy my first synthesizer: an analogue synth manufactured by Moog and sold by Radio Shack. Thus began my life-long love of synths and making electronic music. I'm now a musician who makes electronic music of my own under the name "Xylox." You can download some of my tracks in mp3 format here if interested.
Back to early 1983. My friends and I were crazy about I-92, and we particularly loved Lee Paris; he totally personified "counter-culture cool" for us, and we used to talk about what it would be like to meet him at one of the shows that he was always talking about on the air. But we were a couple of years too young to even get in the door. Anyway, I-92 was such a huge part of my everyday life, I used to tape my favorite songs from it and play them over and over again on a little jam box that went almost everywhere with me. And then, in the middle of the summer of 1983, I moved to Ohio with my family, thus ending the best radio experiences I had ever had. I moved away from the Philadelphia area and never heard Lee Paris again, except on several audio tapes I had recorded off the air, which I still have and cherish. Visit the sounds section of this site to hear some excerpts.
Contact edit
- Xylox
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- Eugene OR
- United States 97405
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- +1.5416832843
