BOPPIN' THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' PLANET (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO), Part 7: Changing All Those Changes

Continuing the history of our little mutant radio show This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, as we near the unlikely-but-true occasion of our 1000th episode on Sunday, November 10th. You are but a click away from each of the preceding chapters: Chapter 1: The Kids Are Alright, Chapter 2: We're Your Friends For Now!, Chapter 3: I'll Send You a Tape From Central New York, Chapter 4: Hello There, Whole Friggin' Planet, Chapter 5: Sound Of The Radio, and Chapter 6: Crafting Mixtapes In The Digital Age (or: Dana & Carl Make A CD). Time for Chapter 7.

OUR STORY SO FAR: Dana & Carl had hoodwink...CONVINCED Jeremy Morris of JAM Recordings to release a compilation CD, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1. YEAH, baby! Except that when we sent him the compilation in 2003, he didn't like it, and didn't want to release it unless we made some changes.

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

Once we accepted Jeremy's wish to cut our DJ banter tracks out of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1, it really wasn't difficult to revamp the CD into the sort of purely music compilation he had in mind. 

And it's worth reiterating that Jeremy was right; the other day, I listened again to the original, unreleased beta version of the compilation, and it doesn't hold up anywhere near as well as the released version does. The banter is a distraction, and I think the CD would not have been quite as well received if it had been released in its original incarnation. I like some of the individual bits of silliness, particularly "East Side Story...?!" (which was me warbling lines from Mad magazine's early '60s West Side Story parody, as Dana somehow makes his scornful glare audible), but excising them was a good call on Jeremy's part. 


So the changes were easy. We wanted a couple more tracks to make up the difference in running time. Jeremy supplied The Shambles' fantastic cover of the Connie Francis nugget "Warm This Winter." We contacted Lugless Booth to secure permission to use his track "I Blame His Brother," a TIRnRR Fave Rave about a songwriter trying to get a tune to Joey Ramone, but who is blocked at every turn by Joey's brother Mickey Leigh; demonstrating his own sense of humor, Mickey Leigh himself mixed the track. 

We did insist on leaving one of the original banter tracks in, and Jeremy agreed that "The Ballad Of Jah Clampett," our mock reggae reading of the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies, made an appropriately goofy and agreeable closing track. We switched out two other selections: Jeremy wanted to use "If We Try" on his own album, and directed us to use his track "What God Wants" instead; we decided that Sex Clark Five's "Japan Under The Sun" didn't work in context, and the band granted us permission to substitute "She's The End/Great Sheiks." We tweaked the sequence one more time for maximum punch, and This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1 was completed by late 2003, maybe early 2004 at the latest. Scott Jameson of CNY Radio Archives, sat in with us to research an article about us and the station, and we felt like big shots. Even as the expense of music broadcasting prompted Syracuse Community Radio to switch to an all-talk format on WXXE-FM, our webcasting continued as before. And that's where our audience was anyway.

A TIRnRR CD compilation. I wrote the liner notes, Dana came up with graphics, and Jeremy lined up a professional to do the mastering. It seemed to take forever to happen, but the CD--OUR FIRST CD!--was finally released in January of 2005. Reviews and reaction were very positive, and Dana and I wanted to do a sequel immediately.


Alas, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2 was a troubled production from start to finish. Maybe we should have waited longer between volumes, though I don't know how much that quick turnaround did or didn't damage the process; perhaps the length of time it took to compile, complete, and release Volume 1 prompted us to rush the process of Volume 2. For whatever reason, it was a more contentious project overall. Most of the individual tracks were fantastic, as good as anything on Volume 1. But...troubled. It was a troubled production.

But you know what? Screw the troubles. It's a very good album, with simply ace contributions from John Wicks & the Records (whom our friend Rich Rossi brought to the TIRnRR table), Screen Test, Eytan Mirsky, astroPuppees, Cloud Eleven, The Spongetones, The Grip Weeds, Tim Anthony, Jim Basnight, and The Dipsomaniacs, among others. Jeremy suggested we use "I Just Wanna Stay At Home," a terrific track by The Blondes, but I asked if we could sub in The Blondes' tribute to my rock 'n' roll crush Suzi Quatro; I believe Jeremy chuckled, and made it so.



Our biggest thrill in putting together Volume 2 was securing a track from The Cowsills. We had been corresponding with Bob Cowsill, who expressed his support for whatever the hell it is we do on the radio, and especially for our embrace of The Cowsills' Global album, the best record of the '90s. We asked Bob if we could use "She Said To Me," a simply wonderful track from Global, on TIRnRR # 2. Our timing was awful. In August of 2005, as we were assembling tracks for our frivolous little compilation, the members of The Cowsills were frantically looking for brother Barry Cowsill, who was missing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Barry's body was discovered later that month. In the midst of this horror, Bob sent us an email granting permission to use "She Said To Me." I still can't believe he bothered with us at all during that difficult time. The Cowsills are good people, and we will always wish them the best (and we can't wait to hear their new album in 2020).

Landmark Theater Syracuse, 2019, L-R: Paul Cowsill, my lovely wife Brenda, anonymous blogger, Susan Cowsill, that other TIRnRR guy, and Bob Cowsill

A friend of mine--Mike Paduana, then the owner of a great little shop called Metropolis Book Store in North Syracuse--heard The Flashcubes' "Carl (You Da Man)" on Volume 1 and said, well, that could be about any guy named Carl. So he wrote a song called "Carl Cafarelli" for his group Beauty Scene Outlaws. The song was actually an outgrowth of a melody Mike had written, a melody his bandmates said sounded like a Carl Cafarelli type of song. They may not have meant that as a compliment. Nonetheless: melody, meet lyrics. Lyrics, melody. Don't you know Carl Cafarelli's on? I liked it, and it was an automatic go for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2.

Another song we were eager to include was Mr. Encrypto's a cappella mix of "The Last Time," the isolated vocal tracks from a full-band cut on the first Mr. Encrypto album, Hero And Villain. We adored this one, but Jeremy did not share our enthusiasm. It was one of two tracks on Volume 2 that he asked us to remove; we reluctantly surrendered on the other track (an unfortunate decision that damaged our relationship with the act we had to drop from the CD), but held firm with "The Last Time." Jeremy accepted the compromise. He, in turn, had a track he had secured from another artist, and we didn't think it fit our CD at all. But it was a take-it-or-leave-it situation, so the track did indeed wind up on TIRnRR # 2, our objections notwithstanding.

For all its troubles, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2 turned out well. I wrote liner notes, Dana did the art, Jeremy had it mastered, and JAM Recordings released it in the latter part of 2006. Good reviews, and, I think, ultimately a good feeling for all of us. We did a CD release party at Metropolis Book Store, with performances by Beauty Scene Outlaws, Tim Anthony, and The Fallen Archies, and a giddy aura of satisfaction. My friend Dave Murray wrote a cover story about TIRnRR for The Syracuse New Times. That issue of the New Times hit the stands in December of 2006. Dana and I figured we were riding pretty high.




The ink wasn't even dry on our SNT cover story when Syracuse Community Radio informed us of its sudden (to us) decision to pull the plug on our webcast. We were greeted with that bombshell as we arrived at the studio for The Eighth Annual This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Christmas Show on December 17th 2006, the Sunday following our fleeting moment of New Times stardom. Too costly, was the summary explanation for the webcast's imminent termination, perhaps (and perhaps not) accompanied by a Sorry, boys or a Thank you for all you've done, boys. Looking into the future, all we could see now was the end of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl.

Well, actually, we saw one other thing.

We saw red.

WHEN BOPPIN' THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' PLANET Returns: Starting Over

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Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).