10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1255.
JUNIOR VARSITY: Where The Groove Is
Just based on the name of the song, it would have been tough to resist opening this week's extravaganza with the title tune from Where The Groove Is, the new four-song debut release from Rum Bar Records recording artists Junior Varsity. Well, I guess it wouldn't have been all that tough to resist if the song, like, sucked or something. But it doesn't! It's GOOD! And it opens another groovin', boppin', and percolatin' edition of our irresistible Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. The groove is where you want it to be. And Junior Varsity will groove again on our next show.
SUNBUZZ: Desiree Today
Musician Joseph Mannix has been part of TIRnRR's story since the 2001 release of the exquisite album Come To California by his former group Mannix. The Come To California gem "Highway Lines" is one of this show's five or so all-time defining tracks, and one could make a strong case that it's # 1. "Highway Lines" was the subject of one of my Greatest Record Ever Made! essays, and that essay would have been in my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) if not for a missed connection that prevented me from using it.
Now, Joseph Mannix is back with a new group. In July, we played "Sunny Days," a track from Sunbuzz's then-forthcoming debut five-song EP Hello Again. The EP has now been released, so we're adding its delectable number "Desiree Today" to the playlist. "Desiree Today" will rack up another spin this Sunday night. It may not ever catch up to the million or so times we played "Highway Lines"--that would be a daunting prospect for any new record--but it's gotta start somewhere.
GANG OF FOUR: I Found That Essence Rare
BOBBY WOMACK: Lookin' For A Love
A neck-snappin' segue? It's all pop music, man. I'm not sure of the specific thought process that compelled me to follow Dana's Gang of Four selection with Bobby Womack, but even if the transition looks weird in print it sounds sublime on the radio.
I first heard Gang of Four in the early '80s, when their tracks "Damaged Goods" and "Anthrax" were included on a Warner Brothers label family sampler called Troublemakers. "Anthrax" was a little outside of my preferred parameters, but I did play "Damaged Goods" quite a bit at the time. Many years later, Dana hooked me on "I Found That Essence Rare," and that track has become my Gang of Four go-to.
It would be a stretch to think of "I Found That Essence Rare" as a love song, but the notion of securing an essence rare made me think of "Lookin' For A Love." It's my favorite Bobby Womack performance, even more than his original Rolling Stones-inspiring version of "It's All Over Now" when he and his brothers were billed as the Valentinos. The Valentinos also recorded the first version of "Lookin' For A Love" in 1962, but I give the nod to Womack's '74 remake.
See? Bobby Womack has that essence rare. Don't worry. Your neck will be fine.
PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.: Public Image
THE MONKEES: You And I
Not a neck-snappin' segue at all. The Monkees have a lot in common with Public Image Ltd. frontman John Lydon's former group the Sex Pistols; both groups were fabricated in a way (though the specific ways differed), both transcended the machinations that created them, and both merit recognition from the verdammt Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Pistols are in the Hall, though they snubbed the invitation; the Monkees are not in, but they oughta be.
(The Sex Pistols also covered the Monkees' proto-punk classic "[I'm Not Your] Steppin' Stone," but that's incidental to the similarities between them. And the Monkees actually rocked even harder on their version, and somehow more even more convincingly than the original version by Paul Revere and the Raiders, who also should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)
But the reason we pair PiL's 1978 debut single "Public Image" with the Monkees' 1969 Instant Replay album track "You And I" is that both are essentially about the aftermath of pop idolatry: "Public Image" is an angry diatribe against manufactured images with no philosophy, and "You And I" reflects upon the fleeting nature of fame, an ephemeral gift with no future, no future, no future for you. The former Johnny Rotten and the starry-eyed Davy Jones mean it, man. I'm a believer.
(Oh, and one other connection between Pistols and Monkees: Neil Young sang This is the story of Johnny Rotten in his own song "Hey Hey My My [Into The Black]," and ol' Neil also played the lead guitar on the Monkees' recording of "You And I.")
THE KINKS: I Tool My Baby Home
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE LOLLIPOP SHOPPE: You Must Be A Witch
I can't quite remember where and how I first became enthralled by the Lollipop Shoppe's incredible, incendiary 1968 rock 'n' roll explosion "You Must Be A Witch." Even if I heard it when I was an eight-year-old kid (which is possible if unlikely), that wouldn't have been my point of impact. I came under the song's spell in the mid '80s, and I betcha it was due to airplay on Buffalo State college radio. I wasn't a student, but I listened to Buff State's WBNY-FM with religious devotion, and it seems likely that BNY DJ Cal Zone! played "You Must Be A Witch" on his show. Once duly under the song's black-magic thrall, I tracked down a various-artists compilation album (Pebbles Vol. 8) to add "You Must Be A Witch" to my personal cauldron...um, collection.
The more I think about it, the more certain I am that it was Cal Zone! and WBNY that introduced me to this track. I was working in record retail at the time, but I'm also certain that my acquisition of Pebbles Vol. 8 didn't come via my shopping-mall outlet but instead from either Home Of The Hits or writer Gary Sperrazza's Apollo Records, both of which were located on Elmwood Avenue just up the road from Buff State. And I do remember discussing the track with local record-collecting luminary Louie the Mad Vinyl Junkie, who told me not to bother with the Lollipop Shoppe's then-rare album; "You Must Be A Witch" was all the Lollipop Shoppe one would need
I don't know if he was right about that. But you don't argue with Mad Louie.
THE HUNTINGTONS: Rock N Roll Girl
Hey, speakin' of Buffalo! I was back in the Queen City for a visit in June. It was a chance to reconnect with some old friends, visit my old comics retailer Queen City Bookstore, hop on the subway I used to take to work, stroll by the empty shell of one of the dead malls that used to be my place of employment, make my first ever trip to the beyond wonderful Buffalo AKG Art Museum, autograph copies of Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones on the shelf at Talking Leaves...Books on Elmwood, and, of course, eat at Mighty Taco. Miiiiiighteee Taco!
Alas, Apollo Records is long, long gone, and Home of the Hits closed its doors in 2007 (and I think there's a luxury condo or something going up in its place). But there is still a record store on Elmwood Ave, albeit one that didn't exist during my Buffalo years: Revolver Records. I don't buy vinyl anymore, but I did snag a nice li'l haul of CDs from Revolver's clearance wares. One of the discs in that haul was Growing Up Is No Fun, a Huntingtons best-of set.
I already have several Huntingtons CDs, and the group has made several TIRnRR playlist appearances over the years. I like a lot of their stuff, but my favorite Huntingtons memory was shopping at Borders with my daughter, something like twenty-four or twenty-five years ago. Meghan would have been about four, maybe five years old. I brought a Huntingtons CD to the counter, and the clerk said he hadn't heard the group, but had heard that they sounded a lot like the Ramones.
"Oh!," Meghan said in immediate response. "Daddy loves the Ramones. He LOVES them!"
That moment is always the first thing to come to my mind when I think of the Huntingtons. As I write this, some strange science has transformed my daughter into an adult. I'm as proud of her as anyone could ever be proud of anyone.
When I bought Growing Up Is No Fun this summer, I may have expected a track called "Rock N Roll Girl" to be a Paul Collins cover. It is not, but it's a cool number in its own right. Here's to all the rock 'n' roll girls, and rock 'n' roll boys, rock 'n' roll Borders clerks, and especially to rock 'n' roll girls whose daddies love the Ramones. Even if growing up is no fun, the experience has its positives.
And I love the positives. I LOVE them.
THE ARMOIRES: Green Hellfire At The 7-11
The Armoires' new album Octoberland is one of this year's best. Chief Executive Armoires Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko were guests on this week's two-part episode of the Only Three Lads podcast with Brett Vargo and Uncle Gregg (you can hear Part 1 here, and Part 2 here), and they mentioned the urgent political motivation at the heart of their current single "Green Hellfire At The 7-11." October surprise? November blue wave. And like Rex and Christina: I'm with her. We're not going back. I'll meet you for Slurpees after we vote.
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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
