This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1033. The Badfinger entry previously appeared at the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza.
BADFINGER: Day After Day
Badfinger was my favorite act on the radio in the early '70s. It's no coincidence that the first entry in my series The Greatest Record Ever Made! was Badfinger's "Baby Blue," nor was there ever any likelihood of me choosing any other song to open my eventual GREM! book.
Have to repeat the mantra for those who came in late: An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. "Baby Blue" stands out as my favorite among Badfinger favorites, and if I had to pick just one--ONE!!--song and stick with it as GREM!, "Baby Blue" would be among the finalists. But I loved all of the Badfinger songs I heard on the radio when I was in middle school. "Come And Get It," the song Paul McCartney gave to the lads, was wonderful, but the singles written by the group's own Pete Ham were better. "Baby Blue," of course. "No Matter What," which many think of as Badfinger's signature tune. And this irresistible ballad "Day After Day."
I am not generally a ballad guy, except on those occasions when I am. I'm infinite, too. "Day After Day" just soars, its heartfelt tale of devotion and longing propelled by a sound taken straight from Abbey Road, a sliding guitar that seems to mourn and hope at the same time, piano that proclaims '70s pop music in all the best ways, harmonies, the experiences of love, wishes, dreams, regret, and AM radio all made as one.
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| The Fab Five: Arty Lenin, Gary Frenay, Dave Miller, Dave Novak, Paul Davie |
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| Screen Test in the '80s: Arty, Tommy, Gary |
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| Joey Molland, Gary Frenay |
And Arty friggin' owned it.
I was 34 years old, a drink in one hand, my lovely wife Brenda on my arm. But I was also 11-12 years old again, my ears stapled to WOLF-AM and WNDR-AM in '71 and '72, hearing music that promised something better than my adolescent doldrums, my preteen angst, looking out of my lonely gloom, day after day. It was...everything, the good and the bad, with good winning out in storybook fashion. I was nearly speechless. After the set, I found my voice and walked up to Arty to say,"Dude, you are Badfinger!"
Pop music is a time machine. It's not just memories, and it's not just the past, because all the things we saw and heard and felt and tasted and dreamed and cried over or bled for remain with us. Always. The records don't remind us--we would remember anyway--but the sound connects us, then and now, now to then. I don't want to be 12 again. I wouldn't mind having a little more hair, a few less pounds, and a better back, and it sure would be nice to skip one or a hundred of the heartbreaks along the way. But living is now, ending in -ing rather than -ed. Every day, my mind is all around you. Turn it up. Every day, I feel the tears that you weep. It's okay. Night after night. Day after day.
We have time.
THE CARPENTERS: Only Yesterday
I enjoyed the music of The Carpenters until I decided that I wanted to be too cool to enjoy the music of The Carpenters. Luckily, I outgrew the silly notion of being too cool for...well, anything. C'mon; dig what you dig. While I never gained (or regained) any transcendent affection for The Carpenters' more MOR material, I respect their talent, and I still like "Rainy Days And Mondays." And I love "Only Yesterday." It's smooth and sweet, as one would expect from The Carpenters, but it has its own kick, its own spirit. I associate the song with a memory of an awful day, years after its reign as a hit record; I heard it on the radio less than 24 hours after the last time I saw one of my best friends alive. Yet the song is welcome even now, its tangential connection to sadness and grief less important than my recollection of the song making me smile at a time when I needed to remember how to smile. July 1st of 1979, on my way to a Flashcubes show. More than forty years ago. And still: only yesterday.
HEART: Kick It Out
As discussed in last week's 10 Songs, with another dedication to Miss August, wherever she is. (Also with a better-sounding copy of the track than what I foisted on you last time.)
HONEY CONE: Want Ads
Another staple of my AM radio days, Honey Cone's effervescent bubblesoul hit "Want Ads" is only my second favorite Honey Cone track; the lesser hit "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" is even better than "Want Ads," and I'm way overdue for greater diligence in checking out the Honey Cone songbook. Betcha there's more where these came from.
THE JANGLE BAND: So Long
Because we only have three hours a week to program the glittery pop prizes that capture our short attention spans, and because we have to fit those songs in alongside back-announcements, banter, legal IDs, show bumpers, hourly acknowledgements of our sponsors, and my ongoing attempts to pull off sight gags on the radio, a lot of great songs don't get the repeat play they deserve. I am really, really fond of this 2020 effort by Australia's phenomenal pop combo The Jangle Band, yet I think this is only its second appearance on our playlist. Its lack of airplay so far is not a fair reflection of my interest in the track; it is, frankly, one of the best new songs I've heard this year. We need to play it more often. Maybe I'll skip one of my sight gags.
KID GULLIVER: I Wanna Be A Pop Star
Kid Gulliver joins our little Play-Tone Galaxy O' Stars in the aftermath of last week's spin of "Queen Of The Drive-In" by WhistleStop Rock. While my interest in WhistleStop Rock was fueled by my current obsession with "Vengeance" by Justine and the Unclean--the perfectly clean Justine Covault plays guitar on "Queen Of The Drive-In"--the WSR track also led me to its lead singer Simone Berk and her own able combo Kid Gulliver. For those of you who know and love a terrific 2007 song called "Famous" by the Swedish group Marmalade Souls, "I Wanna Be A Pop Star" provides a worthy complement, both tracks centered upon the often empty nature of flash-in-the-pan celebrity, and both transcending the subject of the Lindsay Kardashian du jour with the sound of bona fide pop music. In the (perhaps unlikely) event I can remember to follow through, we'll see if we can play both Marmalade Souls and Kid Gulliver on next week's show.
THE MONKEES: Daily Nightly
Psychedelic! Micky Dolenz sets the Moog on stun while reciting Michael Nesmith's stream-of-WTF lyrics about the 1966 demonstrations on the Sunset Strip. In an interview on The Monkees' TV show, Dolenz mused that newspaper reporters mis-characterized the demonstrations as a riot because "riot" only has four words and is easier to spell. Separate from the interviews, the stunning black and white "Daily Nightly" video--Darkened rolling figures move through prisms of no color--also aired on the show, and I was duly hypmotized. From my favorite Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Hot Fun In The Summertime
My interest in the Sly and the Family Stone catalog has been growing lately. I've still been focused on the hits--"Trip To Your Heart" has been the only (relatively) lesser-known Sly track to grab my attention, prompted by the familiar hook sampled by LL Cool J for "Mama Said Knock You Out"--and I'll need to do a deeper dive into the deeper tracks in the near future. But man, those hits! "Everybody Is A Star" earns a chapter in my GREM! book, and "Stand!," "Everyday People," and "Dance To The Music" remain relentlessly righteous. Ditto for "Hot Fun In The Summertime," which readers of Trouser Press voted the all-time # 1 summer song in a readers poll in the early '80s. Another illustration of my infinite-number concept for GREM!: I could have just as easily chosen "Hot Fun In The Summertime" instead of "Everybody Is A Star" for discussion in the book.
THE SMITHEREENS with ANDY WHITE: Love Me Do
This is pretty cool. The late Andy White was a drummer whom record producer George Martin brought in to pound them pagan skins on The Beatles' sessions for both "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" in 1962. Martin hadn't been satisfied with work by the group's own drummer Pete Best, and arranged for White's presence in the studio before getting to know Best's abrupt replacement in the group, one Richard Starkey, aka Ringo Starr. I would not bet that our little Richard ever fully forgave Martin for the perceived snub, but they managed to become friendly and to work together peacefully and with great success for many years after that. (Ringo actually wound up playing on the British single version of "Love Me Do," though it is Andy White on the LP version, the American 45, and on "P.S. I Love You.")
When New Jersey's phenomenal pop combo The Smithereens were recording a series of Beatles covers in 2007 and 2008, they recruited Andy White to join them in the studio for remakes of his Beatles oeuvre. Neither track was released at the time, but both were just recently issued as a 45 available from The Smithereens themselves. Go ahead. Buy it. Ringo won't mind.
RINGO STARR: Photograph
Ringo Starr survived George Martin's initial rejection in '62, and had a better'n decent career (which is still going on). Ringo's drumming was criminally underrated for years. The tired jokes referred to him as the luckiest man in rock 'n' roll history, an amiable everylad who latched his Starr to the rising stars of those three other, more talented Beatles, and enjoyed the fab success of...y'know, Fabdom. It was never true; John, Paul, and George always knew they were lucky to have Ringo. Hell, as some have pointed out recently, Ringo may have been the best musician in the group to begin with.
Ringo's "Photograph" was all over radio in 1973, accompanied by rumors that it got by with a little help from its friends, a 3/4 Beatles reunion of Ringo, George Harrison, and John Lennon. Rumors notwithstanding, although Harrison was indeed on "Photograph," Lennon was not. But the accompanying album Ringo had John and George join Ringo on a track called "I'm The Greatest," and Paul McCartney also showed up, sequestered from former co-workers John and George on a separate track, "Six O'Clock." Nonetheless, Ringo was the first (and maybe only?) post-Beatles album ever to include all four of the guys who had collectively been the act you knew for all those years.
I remember one night in '73, my body in bed but my mind still awake, still tuned to the wizardry of my bedside radio. It was after midnight. I think I twiddled the dial to move from WOLF to WNDR, as I did sometimes, and heard a news report that The Beatles had reunited. I jumped out of bed to tell my Dad. The news didn't seem to thrill him quite as much as it thrilled me.
Did I imagine this news report? Dream it? I don't think so. Looking back, maybe whatever I'd heard had something to do with a quartet of former Beatles all appearing on the Ringo album, even if they didn't appear together.
Ringo just celebrated his 80th birthday, He doesn't look a day over 64. We have more than just photographs. So rock on, one time for Ringo.
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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.
The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:
The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:
Volume 1: download
Volume 3: download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: CD or download
Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, 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).
Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, 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).
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