10 SONGS: 2/18/2020

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous 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 # 1013.

THE CONTOURS: Do You Love Me



If memory serves, a cover of "Do You Love Me" was the first British hit for The Dave Clark Five in 1963, and it subsequently became (I think) their third hit in the U.S. in '64, following "Glad All Over" and "Bits And Pieces." No chart histories were consulted in the making of this reminiscence. The Contours' original was one of the early Motown hits, and it's the best-known version, thanks in part to its return to the charts in the '80s (courtesy of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack). I knew and adored the DC5 take long before I heard The Contours, and I also heard a cover by Johnny Thunders with his band The Heartbreakers prior to discovering the original. Hell, I'm pretty sure I heard local Syracuse rockers The Most perform the song live before my first conscious exposure to The Contours. In fact, when I complimented members of The Most for covering The Dave Clark Five, guitarist Derek Knott sneered at me for not knowing The Contours. Punks, man....



I came to know The Contours' "Do You Love Me" quite well in the '80s. Not from Dirty Dancing, but from oldies radio airplay that hooked me on the track a few years before anyone warned anyone else not to put Baby in the corner. I've vacillated between the Contours and DC5 takes as my favorite, but the overwhelming consensus is that The Contours' original is definitive.

EDDIE & THE HOT RODS: Get Out Of Denver



TIRnRR used Bob Seger as a cartoon bogeyman for years, scaring listeners with the idle threat of playing the hated "Old Time Rock & Roll" if they misbehaved. We still hate "Old Time Rock & Roll" and "We've Got Tonight," but the Seger joke ran its course, and we finally played Seger's great "Get Out Of Denver" as potent proof that some of Seger's older stuff is far more interesting than his better-known bucket o' yechh. Seger's fantastic "2 + 2 = ?" was among our most-played tracks in 2018, and it will merit a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).



For years before we lifted our embargo on Seger's records, we were occasionally playing Eddie & the Hot Rods' ferocious, fast 'n' faithful cover of "Get Out Of Denver." I first knew the song via live performances by The Flashcubes in '78, when 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong introduced the song as something Seger did "10 years ago, when he was still cool." The Flashcubes, of course, were doing it as an Eddie & the Hot Rods cover, from that group's Live At The Marquee EP. All three versions--Seger, Hot Rods, 'Cubes--rock with righteous authority.

THE FAST: Kids Just Wanna Dance


In that late '70s Syracuse music setting, when I saw The Flashcubes as many times as I could, my favorite local nightspot was The Firebarn on Montgomery Street. I first knew The Firebarn through the Syracuse Cinephile Society, which screened its classic film presentations upstairs at The Firebarn. I saw Dead End, The Adventures Of Robin Hood, and the complete 12-chapter Adventures Of Captain Marvel movie serial in that upstairs room in the early to mid '70s. 

What do you mean you can't serve me a beer unless I show ID...?!

The Flashcubes were my first live band at The Firebarn, also upstairs, in 1978. I was not among the dozen or so who saw The Police play with the 'Cubes there, but I did see a ton of shows at The Firebarn, upstairs and downstairs alike. At one point, probably in 1979 or '80s, Fritz the bartender would see me walk in and have an ice-cold bottle of Miller waiting for me at the bar by the time I got there. One night, I was one of several onlookers pulled onstage by The Most's lead singer Dian Zain to sing screeching back-up on "Got No Mind;" the stage collapsed as we rocked upon it, but I had secure footing and caught Dian before she could fall. See? I was a hero! Tell that to your sneering guitarist Derek, Dian!

The Most

The Fast

NYC's power-pop punks The Fast were another of my upstairs concert treats at The Firebarn, playing on a bill with The Flashcubes in 1978. They were very Who-influenced, and their set included covers of "I Can See For Miles," Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking," and Tommy Roe's "Sheila." I loved them, and I bought their way swell 1977 single of "It's Like Love"/"Kids Just Wanna Dance" at my first opportunity. The Fast later re-recorded "Kids Just Wanna Dance" with Ric Ocasek producing, but the single is, oh, a gazillion times better.



A specific event prompted me to play The Fast this week. On Sunday, I set foot in the former Firebarn location for the first time since 1981. It's now called Wolff's Biergarten, and the upstairs doesn't seem to be open to the public anymore. It's been remodeled, the bar on the opposite side of where it was, and Fritz wasn't there (nor had he been there when I last visited in '81). But I sat with my wife and daughter, sipped a delicious mug of Coca-Cola (I was driving) and nibbled on peanuts, thrilled and grateful to be back inside this building that meant so much to me.



HOLLY & JOEY: I Got You Babe



Starting around 1980 or so, I began telling everyone within earshot that The Ramones should cover the Sonny & Cher staple "I Got You Babe," and rope in Blondie babe Debbie Harry to serve as Joey Ramone's duet partner. It seemed a natural prospect to me, especially given that guitarist Johnny Ramone had already played a similar folk-rock riff on The Ramones' cover of The Searchers' "Needles And Pins." I was a visionary! Sort of. This 1982 single credited to the one-off Holly & Joey was the closest manifestation of that vision, with Holly Beth Vincent playing the Cher to Joey's Sonny, backed by Holly's own group Holly & the Italians. A friend of mine was amazed and enthused that I'd predicted it as closely as I had, even though it really wasn't all that close at all. When I interviewed Joey for Goldmine in 1994, he told me he really wanted to work with Holly again. When I was briefly in touch with Holly Beth Vincent a few years back, I shared with her what Joey had said, and she immediately broke off all contact with me. Oops? Maybe I'm not quite the visionary I fancied myself to be.

Debbie & Joey. Holly could not be reached for comment.

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell



Different Holly! My favorite Kinks cover, bar none, and also the subject of a chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I always presumed Holly Golightly was a stage name, but Holly was born Holly Golightly Smith. Dream-maker, you heartbreaker. Holly's recorded a ton of cool tracks over the years, and you should check 'em all out.

JONI MITCHELL: Free Man In Paris



I didn't have any particular affinity for Joni Mitchell when I was a teen in the '70s. But I liked her hit "Help Me" enough to buy the single, I loved "Big Yellow Taxi," and I just about worshiped Judy Collins' cover of Mitchell's "Both Sides Now;" a few years later, I wondered how it would have sounded if The Byrds had also covered "Both Sides Now," with jangly 12-string Rickenbackers and sweet, chiming Roger McGuinn lead vocals. I'm sure I must have heard more of Mitchell's work, but I didn't specifically engage until I picked up a used-LP copy of the Court And Spark album in the '90s. At the time, I was researching a (later abandoned) project about the definitive albums of the '70s, scarfing up miscellaneous Me Decade records with determined impunity. 

And Court And Spark got to me, in such a warm and inviting way. I listened to it often in my upstairs office at home, simply captivated. "Free Man In Paris" became my favorite, and it still is.



THE MONKEES: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You


Try as many a mastering engineer might, no CD reissue of this non-LP Monkees single has ever come within a light year of matching the sheer punch and power of the original Colgems Records 45. Most Monkees fans consider this a relatively minor entry in the group's history, a Neil Diamond composition that represented former producer/puppeteer Don Kirshner's last grasp of The Monkees' strings; B-side "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," written by Michael Nesmith and performed by The Monkees themselves rather than by session musicians, is ultimately more important, even though the A-side was the the hit. But man, I just love the way the sound of my flea-market 45 jumps out of the speakers, loud and distorted in all the right ways.

RADIO BIRDMAN: You're Gonna Miss Me


Before my very first spin of the essential 2-LP various-artists set Nuggets in 1979 introduced me to the cantankerous brilliance of The 13th Floor Elevators, I already knew their signature tune "You're Gonna Miss Me" from this slammin' cover, courtesy of Australia's Radio Birdman. The track was on the American version of the group's debut album Radios Appear in 1977, and I bought a promo copy of that in '78. Radio Birdman's Hawaii Five-0 tribute "Aloha Steve & Danno" (which incorporated extended bits of the TV show's theme song) was my focus track on the album, but "You're Gonna Miss Me" woulda been my second choice, then acing out my eventual favorite "Murder City Nights."

SCREEN TEST: Make Something Happen


"Make Something Happen" was written by Flashcubes and Screen Test bassist Gary Frenay, and I don't understand why someone hasn't covered it to multi-platinum success. The Monkees should have done this for their Good Times! album in 2016. Mary Lou Lord should have covered it. The Slapbacks did cover it, and they did a wonderful job with it. It was first recorded by Screen Test in 1985, and again by The Flashcubes in 2003. It was used in last week's episode of the TV show Young Sheldon, but it played in the background in a bar scene as characters from the show kept yammerin' on, their inane dialogue drowning out the sound I really wanted to hear. Arghh. Where's my TV Brick?



(If you happen to be in Central New York on Wednesday, February 19th, I betcha you'll get to hear it at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel during its 5-8 pm Happy Hour. That's when Gary and his fellow rockin' pop troubadour Arty Lenin will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the start of their regular weekly Wednesday residency at the Sheraton. It's the longest-running weekly gig in the history of the Syracuse music scene, and I hope you'll join Gary & Arty as they play a set of Beatles songs, a set of their own Flashcubes, Screen est, and solo numbers, and a set of requests. A good time is strongly implied for all, and I look forward to seeing you there.)

THE SPINNERS: My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)



There are so many paths we may take to discover our favorite records. My path to this one wound through the Liverpool Public Library. That's Liverpool, NY, one of Syracuse's Northern suburbs, rather than, y'know, Gerry & the Pacemakers and "Ferry Cross The Mersey" and your John, your Paul, your George, and your Ringo. No; the other Liverpool. The Liverpool Library was the resource for my first CDs, which I borrowed during that period around 1987 to '88, when I had a CD player but wasn't yet quite ready to start buying CDs. A bit later on, the burgeoning popularity of CDs prompted the library to get rid of its LP collection. One of the Liverpool Library's vinyl cast-offs was Motown's The Best Of The Spinners, which I snapped up for a buck or so. 

Unidentified Liverpool librarians

Nearly all of The Spinners' hits came after the group's tenure with Motown. That meant this presumed Best Of The Spinners included the Motown-era smash "It's A Shame," but was not graced with the likes of "I'll Be Around" or "Rubberband Man" or "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love." But what the hell, it was a buck. And its purchase invited me into the glorious comfort of The Spinners' sublime version of the David Ruffin hit "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)." Ruffin's version never meant much to me, but I was instantly taken with the sweet sway of The Spinners' interpretation, which I love to this day. When I played it again on the show this week, Dana was surprised that I've never owned it on CD. But no; it was a B-side, relatively unrecognized by the greater pop world at large, included as filler on a cash-grab "best"-of LP by a label that didn't own the rights to the group's most popular material. I did buy an mp3 of the track to hear on my iPod, and I still have my vinyl, courtesy of the Liverpool Library. The Best Of The Spinners? You know, maybe it is, after all.

Hey, look! A Liverpool library!

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