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| Wild Kisses |
BILL BERRY: 1-800-Colonoscopy
Awright, the category of "Best Songs With 'Colonoscopy' In The Title" may be a wee bit limited, but man, this track from the recent John Wicks tribute album For The Record just rollicks and rolls. Bill Berry's performance infuses the song with all the venom and resentment it requires, delivering a bitter and vindictive kiss-off that's simultaneously as pop and as catchy as something, I dunno, more pleasant than its titular concern. Between For The Record and the recent XTC celebration Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2020 has already given us two absolutely stellar and essential tribute albums.
THE MONKEES: Pleasant Valley Sunday
We played this in honor of Micky Dolenz's 75th birthday on Sunday. While this is the familiar 1967 hit recording, it's worth noting that Dolenz can still sing; a recent edition of 10 Songs referred to Micky as "one of the most underrated pop singers of the rock 'n' roll era," and I agree with me wholeheartedly. Dana and I saw Dolenz with The Monkees in 2012, and Micky's live performance of "As We Go Along" prompted Dana to sit back and say, Wow! I've pre-ordered my copy of the new Monkees live album The Mike & Micky Show, and its April 3rd release can't arrive fast enough to suit me.
THE NEW MONKEES: One Of The Boys
I am a bit more open to the idea of The New Monkees now than I was in 1987. At the time, I was almost militantly opposed to a new set o' Monkees usurping the name and good will of your familiar Micky-Davy-Michael-Peter set o' Monkees. Given the fact that in '87 Micky, Davy, and Peter were trying to build the previous year's MTV-driven resurgence in Monkeemania into fresh success for classic-formula Monkees, new guys just up and replacing the older guys didn't seem fair.
But the members of The New Monkees weren't at fault; hell, if I had any musical and/or acting talent, I woulda been all gung-ho to become a New Monkee myself. I did not have that talent. I could sort of hold a guitar the right way, kind of. Like New Beatles, Marty Ross, Jared Chandler, Dino Kovas, and Larry Saltis passed the audition, starred in a syndicated TV series called The New Monkees, and released a companion album of the same name. Neither found a large enough audience to sustain the project.
My resistance to The New Monkees notwithstanding, I was sufficiently curious to buy the New Monkees LP, and I would have at least sampled the TV series if given the opportunity; alas, it never aired on any TV station near me. I still haven't seen it, and would very much like to see it. I've seen clips on YouTube, and it seems like the type of agreeably goofy thing I might enjoy...if I gave it a chance. (It doesn't hurt that the show's supporting cast included actress Bess Motta, who had earlier appeared in The Terminator and starred in the early '80s cheesecake aerobics TV series 20 Minute Workout.)
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| Bess Motta |
"One Of The Boys" is not on The New Monkees' lone album; it was included in the pilot presentation for the TV series, and it remains unreleased. If it had been on the album, it would have been a highlight, rivaling (perhaps surpassing) "Burnin' Desire" as the best of The New Monkees. The New Monkees' Marty Ross was also in a band called The Wigs, and I need to investigate them further, too.
Although Monkees fans are often dismissive of The New Monkees, the group and its show does have fans. In 2019, The New Monkees reunited for a concert; Micky Dolenz joined them on stage. If it's good enough for Micky, it's good enough for me.
POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Anymore
Each of the last two This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio shows opened with a brand-new track by our pals Pop Co-Op. Ya can't go wrong with Pop Co-Op, and you should join us in our breathless anticipation of their new album Factory Settings, due out...soon. Definitely soon. (I know when it's scheduled for release, but I'm not allowed to tell you yet. What can I do? Pop Co-Op outnumbers me.)
This week, I also wanted to reach back to 2017 for an older Pop Co-Op gem. "You Don't Love Me Anymore" wasn't on their debut album Four State Solution, but it was instead an exclusive track we were allowed to use on our own compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. I told that track's story here. I've always loved this track, a song that for some reason conjures an image of what could have been the greatest thing Gerry & the Pacemakers ever did, but no...it's even better than that.
POPDUDES: Ridin' In My Car
Fans of the mighty NRBQ generally tend to be less interested in other acts' covers of NRBQ material. There's a widespread, justifiable feeling that the Q's unique and special...Q-ness can be difficult or impossible for other bands to credibly match. Me? I'm partial to Dave Edmunds' ace take on NRBQ's "Me And The Boys," and I quite like Popdudes' new Big Stir Records digital single cover of "Ridin' In My Car." I think most NRBQ fans would agree.
THE RAMONES: I Just Want To Have Something To Do
The Ramones' 1978 LP Road To Ruin will eventually be discussed in my series Love At First Spin, wherein I talk about albums I loved from start to finish the first time I heard them.
The circumstances of my first trip on this Road To Ruin were certainly amenable. I had a new girlfriend, Brenda, and she was sitting with me in the common room in my dorm suite as WCMF-FM in Rochester played the then-recent album in its entirety. It was a Midnight Album on CMF, and the late hour meant that Brenda was soon dozing on my shoulder as my favorite rock 'n' roll group--The American Beatles!--introduced me to new songs about wanting everything, wanting to be sedated, just wanting something to do. I was mesmerized, the feeling enhanced by the giddy sensation of falling in love with a girl I would eventually marry.
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| Eatin' Chicken Vindaloo in the Ramonesmobile |
DEL SHANNON: Runaway
Many of Del Shannon's classic hits are compressed, almost claustrophobic little jolts of tension, fear, frustration, longing, loneliness, alienation, and even paranoia. Yet they sound so invigorating, so full of life lived against the odds, that it's even more unfortunate that Shannon couldn't achieve the catharsis offered in his own songs. Del Shannon died by his own hand in 1990.
DONNA SUMMER: Hot Stuff
Donna Summer was already the Queen of Disco in 1979, and she wanted to record a rock song. She succeeded, but everyone still thought of it as a disco song. Really, "Hot Stuff" was both, a dance number with a Big Rock posture, an AOR re-imagining of life under the flashing lights. Former New York Dolls singer David Johansen covered the song in a live medley with the Dolls' "Personality Crisis," and it suited him (and those of us in the audience) just fine. No offense intended to my album-rock brethren, but I'd much rather see and hear Donna Summer yearning for hot stuff than listen to Foreigner brag about being hot-blooded. Your mileage may vary.
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: Rock And Roll
This song looms large in TIRnRR's legend for that time in--what, 1999, maybe?--that a listener ridin' around Syracuse stumbled across our humble signal as we played "Rock And Roll" by The Velvet Underground. Yes, he turned on that Syracuse station and couldn't believe what he heard at all. It sure was cool to be able to embody the lyrics of a song we love. And it was all right.
I first knew the song via The Runaways' cover, and later heard a snippet of the VU original as it played during that above-mentioned screening of Rock 'n' Roll High School. I bought my copy of the Velvets' Loaded album not too long thereafter, and identified with "Rock And Roll"'s tale of this girl Jenny listening to the radio, her life saved by rock 'n' roll. Did rock 'n' roll radio save my life? No. It helped to make my life, song by song. It still does.
WILD KISSES: Feels So Fine
Dean Landew is a singer, songwriter, and musician based in New York City. He's become something of a TIRnRR perennial over the past couple of years, with his track "After Work" a particular Fave Rave. Hell, there was one time when I was picking up my weekly stash of funnybooks at Comix Zone in North Syracuse, and a Zone employee named Matt asked me about that one song he'd heard on our show, a song about gettin' together after work. Yeah, that one!, Matt said. That's really good!
One of the key elements of "After Work"'s appeal is its female backing vocals, which sell the song so effectively and effervescently. Two of the three singers backing up Dean on "After Work" are Mimi Devaney and Lillian Davila, who also record as a duo called Wild Kisses. "Feels So Fine" is from the 2017 Wild Kisses album, written, arranged, and produced by Landew. Wild Kisses made their TIRnRR with a spin of "Magnificent Friend" on last week's show. "Feels So Fine" got the nod this week, and you'll continue to hear Wild Kisses on our show as 2020 progresses. It does feel pretty damned fine.
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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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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Volume 1: download
Volume 3: download
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