This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1011.
THE B-52's: 52 Girls
When I was in college, there was a girl (whom I'll call Roxy) from somewhere downstate in the dorm room kitty-corner from mine. Roxy felt her musical taste was jarringly outta step with that of our peers at our school. I felt her pain; I was roughly as much of a musical oddball as she was. Roxy liked punk and its anti-mainstream ilk, and she had no use for the prevailing Deadheadedness that was the preferred soundtrack of our fellow students. We weren't exactly friends, but I was one of the very few sympathetics she encountered. I was impressed that she had seen Sid Vicious at Max's Kansas City. And she was one of the first people I met who liked The B-52's; in our dorm in 1979, before "Rock Lobster" became an alt-pop staple and long before "Love Shack" became a hit, Roxy, my roommate, and I seemed to be the only prospective members of any hypothetical Perry Hall B-52's Fan Club.
Even more than "Rock Lobster," "52 Girls" was my early B-52's favorite, a chugging milkshake of catchy, spastic pop. Roxy's frustration with her four-cornered surroundings likely contributed to her decision to hightail it outta there; she didn't finish the semester, and may have been gone within the first month. The following spring, my roommate and I helped to put on a successful Punk Night at a bar in town. Maybe Roxy shoulda tried to stick it out?
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| For dramatic purposes, the role of Roxy shall be played by singer and actress Debbie Gibson |
BOC's best-known tracks are "Don't Fear The Reaper" and (later on) "Burnin' For You," with maybe an honorable mention for "Godzilla." My favorite remains "This Ain't The Summer Of Love," a lean and efficient LP track from Agents Of Fortune (the album that gave us "Don't Fear The Reaper"). I learned of the song through my doomed high school pal Tom, prompting me to purchase my own battered, used copy of the album in time for college. During my freshman year, Side One of Agents Of Fortune was as much a go-to slab of vinyl as my Sex Pistols and Monkees records, and "This Ain't The Summer Of Love" in particular fit well alongside my steady diet of Ramones, Television, Jam, and Dave Clark Five. My friend Ronnie Dark mentioned Agents Of Fortune last week, and that was sufficient motivation for me to play this great track once again.
THE DARLING BUDS: Let's Go Round There
The Darling Buds' 1989 debut Pop Said... is the only album I can recall buying just because Rolling Stone magazine told me to. A review of the record in RS name-checked The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, and Blondie in its attempt to describe the group's sound, and I was sold on it, unheard, right then and there. I think I made the purchase before hearing "Let's Go Round There" on MTV's 120 Minutes, a show I committed to VHS every Sunday night, and it certainly became my favorite Darling Buds track (edging out "The Other Night" and "Hit The Ground").
THE JACKSON FIVE: I'll Be There
Simply exquisite. This is such a magnificent pop single, and it rates a chapter in my (theoretically) eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Enjoying the innocent sound of the young Michael Jackson requires a disconnect with the (credible, I think) accusations of his crimes as an adult. If we can make and maintain that separation of art and artist, The J5's "I'll Be There" offers sheer, sweet joy. A friend advised me last week that it's probably okay to make that separation, especially in this instance of records made decades before MJ's alleged misdeeds. He's probably right. Your mileage may vary.
THE KINKS: Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
When I was in the process of becoming a Kinks fan at the age of 16 and 17 (circa late '76 and into '77), "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" was a mystery track. I had seen the title listed in reference works, but it wasn't a Kinks song I knew, like "Lola" or "You Really Got Me," "All Day And All Of The Night," "Tired Of Waiting For You," "A Well Respected Man," or even "No More Looking Back" from Schoolboys In Disgrace. I recall hearing Status Quo's "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" on the radio, and wondering (with no real-world justification) if that might be "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion." I have no memory of where, when, or how I finally heard "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion," but I do remember that I was initially underwhelmed by it.
Well, that reaction sure changed over time. In the summer of 1979, the first time I saw the fab local combo The Dead Ducks, my pal Joe Boudreau and I bellowed along with the Oh yes he IS! as the Ducks covered the song. Many, many years later, I have a specific memory of strolling through a shopping mall with my wife and daughter as "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" came on the sound system. Just as I'd done as a teenager, I began to bellow along, Oh yes he IS! My then-teen daughter was mortified. Hmph. It's as if she didn't think her Dad was in fashion.
KISS: Anything For My Baby
"Anything For My Baby" is an LP track from the 1975 KISS album Dressed To Kill, the record that gave the world "Rock And Roll All Nite." The song was written and sung by Paul Stanley, but for some reason Stanley all but disowns the tune. I'm unashamed in my continuing affection for some of KISS's work, and "Anything For My Baby" would be a candidate for my all-time KISS Top 10.
THE MONKEES: For Pete's Sake
From The Monkees' 1967 album Headquarters, their third LP but the first where they were allowed to be the musicians in the studio. The song was co-written by Peter Tork and Joseph Richards, it was used as the closing theme during the second season of the group's TV series, and it shoulda been a single. At this year's GRAMMY telecast, a snippet of "For Pete's Sake" played when Tork's face appeared during the memorial segment honoring artists we lost during the previous year. We were born to love another, this is something we all need. Frankly, I'd expected the awards show to use a more familiar Monkees hit, either "I'm A Believer" or "Daydream Believer," and I'm delighted that the producers made the right choice instead.
THE SOFT BOYS: I Wanna Destroy You
If I had heard The Soft Boys' 1980 album Underwater Moonlight some time contemporary to its release, it would have been one of my favorite albums of that decade. Instead, I didn't hear it until its CD reissue on the Matador label in 2001. I did hear the group's classic Underwater Moonlight track "I Wanna Destroy You" somewhere in between, probably from Dana (who played it again on this week's show). But my introduction to the song itself predates that spin, and is about as weird as it gets. In the '90s, former teen pop star Debbie Gibson was said to be involved with the producer of Circle Jerks, the hardcore group perhaps best known for "Golden Shower Of Hits," their thrashing covers medley of cheeseball blechh like "You're Having My Baby." Realizing a match made in Perdition, Gibson sang backup on Circle Jerks' cover of "I Wanna Destroy You," and even joined them on stage to perform the song at CBGB's in 1995. Well, that all sounds ducky so far, right? I'm not sure if it was a one-off where she jumped on stage to join those Jerks in concert, or if it was staged as an MTV event, or what. But I learned about it in a report on MTV News, and I submit that no one else had a weirder introduction to this song than I had.
TIN TIN: Toast And Marmalade For Tea
A throwaway line in my Sunday hype for this week's TIRnRR inspired a need to include this on the show. Some time back, when Dana and I were attending an acoustic show by The Flashcubes' Gary Frenay and Arty Lenin, Gary and Arty performed a cover of "Toast And Marmalade For Tea," then defied us to name the original artist. In yet another stunning display of the boundless mastery of pop information that drives This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, we...yeah, we didn't have a freakin' clue. Heads will roll, my friends, heads will roll. Oops--eyes will roll. Sorry, I read that wrong. Man, it's good thing Dana and I have tenure.
The palpable Bee Gees vibe of "Toast And Marmalade For Tea" is partially attributable to the fact that the record was produced by Maurice Gibb, who also plays bass on the track. But I've retroactively decided that it wasn't Tin Tin at all; it was Debbie Gibson, using a time machine to go back and make a record before she was even born, disguising her voice so she sounds like two guys from Australia. Of course.
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| Toast and marmalade for tea...FROM THE FUTURE! |
This song comes from Stevie Wonder's 1972 album Talking Book. My point of entry for this wonderful number comes via the 2000 film adaptation of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. The song is used so effectively in the movie's climactic scene, and it's been lodged in my consciousness ever since. My entry for this song in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) likewise serves as the book's climactic chapter. I hope you get to read it someday.
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| DEBBIE GIBSON: Read his book? He's crazy! TIFFANY: He IS crazy--but it's HIS BLOG...! |
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