About The Song
“Mohammed’s Radio” appears as track seven on Linda Ronstadt’s album Living in the USA, released September 19, 1978, via Asylum Records. Produced by Peter Asher at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles, the song runs 4:20 and features a mid-tempo country-rock arrangement with prominent electric guitar, steady rhythm, and Ronstadt’s clear, passionate vocal that blends warmth with a sense of urgency.
Written by Warren Zevon, the track was originally recorded for his 1976 self-titled album. Ronstadt’s version marked her final Zevon cover and became the most widely heard interpretation, gaining significant airplay on album-oriented rock (AOR) radio stations even though it was never issued as a commercial single.
The lyrics use radio as a powerful, almost spiritual metaphor for escape and solace amid everyday struggles. The opening verse captures restlessness and frustration: “Everybody’s restless and they got no place to go / Someone’s always trying to tell them something they already know.” The chorus introduces the central image—“Don’t it make you want to rock and roll / All night long / Mohammed’s radio”—portraying the music as a lifeline that cuts through despair. Later verses paint a picture of economic hardship and exhaustion: “Everybody’s desperate, trying to make ends meet / Work all day, still can’t pay the price of gasoline and meat.” Ronstadt described the song’s metaphor as “omnipresent and powerful, almost godlike,” noting in a Rolling Stone interview that Zevon chose “Mohammed” instead of more conventional religious figures. She joked that Zevon might “throw up” if he heard her interpretation, yet she embraced its theme of turning to music for relief when life feels overwhelming.
Though it did not chart independently, the track contributed to the album’s massive success. Living in the USA reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, spent 32 weeks on the chart, and earned multi-platinum certification. Music critic John Rockwell later praised Ronstadt’s rendition as an “artistic breakthrough” for her in a 1979 essay collection edited by Greil Marcus.
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Lyric
Everybody’s restless
And they got no place to go
Someone’s always trying to tell them
Something they already know
So their anger and resentment flow
Don’t it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed’s radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio
Mohammed’s radio
You know the sheriff’s got his problems too
And he will surely take them out on me and you
In walks the village idiot and her face is all aglow
Because she’s been up all night listening to
Mohammed’s radio
Don’t it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed’s radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio
Mohammed’s radio
Everybody’s desperate
Trying to make ends meet
Work all day still can’t pay
The price of gasoline and meat
Alas their lives are incomplete
Don’t it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed’s radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio
Mohammed’s radio
You’ve been up all night just listening for his drum
Hoping that the righteous might just might just might just might just come
I heard the general whispering to his aide de camp
Be watchful for Mohammed’s lamp
Don’t it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed’s radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio
Mohammed’s radio
Mohammed’s radio