10 SONGS: 8/4/2020

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 # 1036.

ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Soldier Of Love



Songs The Beatles taught us. The great soul singer Arthur Alexander never achieved the pop success that should have been his due. 1962's "You Better Move On" was his only Billboard Top 40 hit, but The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bashful Bob Dylan were fans, each recording at least one Arthur Alexander tune. Arthur Alexander is the only songwriter to have his material covered by all three of those rock icons. Paul McCartney has said that the early Beatles really wanted to be a soul act, and he cited Arthur Alexander as an example of the sort of performer they had in mind as a model for what they did.

The Beatles covered Alexander's "Anna (Go To Him)" on their debut album, shortening the song's title to just "Anna." The Fab Four also covered his "Shot Of R & B" and "Soldier Of Love" in radio performances, and those cuts found a larger clandestine audience via Beatles bootlegs in the '70s. The Flashcubes used to cover "Soldier Of Love" in their 1979 live sets, stating that they'd learned the song from Beatle boots (the vinyl sort rather than the footwear, I'm guessing). Marshall Crenshaw also covered it on his eponymous debut. The Beatles' recording has since been made available as an official release.

Arthur Alexander's original version remains definitive. Having written it, of course, he gets the words right, which puts him one up on John Lennon's (nonetheless great) attempt to approximate the lines he thought he heard on a 45 brought by boat from America to the docks of Liverpool. Alexander's performance has a soulful sway that The Beatles couldn't quite match...though they did pretty well with it, didn't they? They wanted to be a soul act, like Arthur Alexander. The Beatles' cover of "Please Mr. Postman" surpasses The Marvelettes' original, and John, Paul, George, and Richard likewise acquitted themselves admirably with their takes on Chuck Berry, The Miracles, and Little Richard, demonstrating their ability to process their influences and make them their own.

But there was only one Arthur Alexander. Lay down your arms, soldier of love. Surrender to Arthur.

ALICE COOPER: School's Out


This was the clarion call for summer in the '70s, as each June traded pencils, books, and teacher's dirty looks for the presumed pleasures of the sunny school's-out season. Of course, as a teenage wannabe-writer, I kept right up with pencils (or pens) and books, but at least I was out of range of any disapproving glances a school administrator might cast with scorn in my direction. Plus: swimming!

From the Alice Cooper chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

To an adolescent or young teen in the early to mid 1970s, nothing in the world was cooler than Alice Cooper. Before KISS, before punk, Alice Cooper was gaudy and dangerous, potentially the most scandalous, depraved character on AM radio. It didn't matter that it was all an act--show biz!--or that David Bowie was ultimately a far more potent threat to the straight-laced status quo; at the time, Alice Cooper seemed the most dangerous, and therefore the most alluring. Within this fist-pumpin' time frame, a kid that couldn't relate to "School's Out," or didn't want to turn the radio up louder than it could actually go whenever that song came on...well, that kid just would not have been me....

ELVIS COSTELLO: Watching The Detectives


I've written elsewhere of my experience seeing Elvis Costello & the Attractions live on campus during my freshman year at college. Although I had read about Costello (primarily in Phonograph Record Magazine), "Watching The Detectives" was the first Costello song I actually heard, delivered to me when ol' Declan and his Attractions subbed for The Sex Pistols on Saturday Night Live in December of 1977. I thought the performance was riveting, though ya can't beat the incendiary cool of their second song on the show, as they started and suddenly stopped playing "Less Than Zero" and switched to "Radio, Radio" instead. The readers of Trouser Press later crowned that as TV's all-time # 1 rock 'n' roll moment. 

"Watching The Detectives" is pulp fiction made into music, a quick distillation of film noir and Gold Medal paperbacks rendered with a jagged, reggae-influenced beat and simmering punk anger. The record was not produced by Mickey Spillane...but it coulda been.



FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie



Ahem. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE GO-GO'S: Club Zero



A new single by The Go-Go's! And it's fabulous, continuing the group's streak of always meeting and surpassing expectations. From their original early '80s heyday through sporadic reunions, The Go-Go's have never disappointed.

Yet they're still criminally underrated, and that pisses me off more than I can articulate. We'll talk a little bit more about The Go-Go's tomorrow.

HOLLY & THE ITALIANS: Youth Coup


I can't pinpoint my specific introduction to Holly & the Italians, but I can narrow it down a little bit. There was a Holly & the Italians flexi-disc for those (like me!) who subscribed to Trouser Press magazine, and there was a CBS Records loss-leader various-artists set called Exposed II: A Cheap Peak At Today Provocative New Rock, both in 1981; the former offered a song called "Poster Boy" backed with a medley, and the latter included "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" and "Rock Against Romance" alongside its Tommy Tutone (not that song), Gary Myrick & the Figures, Psychedelic Furs, Karla DeVito, and Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons. And there was CREEM magazine's rave review of the group's debut album The Right To Be Italian, which compared the Holly sound to Lesley Gore or The Angels backed by Leave Home-era Ramones. Okeydokey. SOLD! Where do I sign?

I scored my copy of The Right To Be Italian at a used record store in Manhattan, probably in or near the Village, though I don't really remember for sure. It was my last trip to the city for many, many years. The LP's cover was water-damaged, but the record played fine, and it was an immediate favorite. Among many great tracks, "Youth Coup" eventually became my single biggest go-to cut. A fantastic album overall, and it was the only album Holly & the Italians did. Lead singer Holly Beth Vincent later did a single with Joey Ramone (as "Holly & Joey") and uncredited Italians covering Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe," and went on to a solo career thereafter.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)


Librarians With Hickeys have a brand-new album, Long Overdue, out on the ever-cool Big Stir Records label. Long Overdue is very, very good, and we opened this week's show with a spin of its current single "That Time Is Now," a lovely tune which finds our passionate bibliophiles supplemented by the able talents of Lisa Mychols. Later in the show, we also played the single's non-album B-side, which is this cover of a song originally done by Saturday morning's phenomenal pop combo The Banana Splits. 



Everybody remembers the insidiously catchy theme song from The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and if mention of The Banana Splits didn't immediately set off a resounding TRA-LA-LAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAA! to drown out your inner monologue, I betcha it has now. No need to thank me; consider it a public service courtesy of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). I did watch the show during its original 1968-1970 run (and in mid '70s cable TV reruns), and "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)" is the only other Banana Splits song I can recall. I can still picture Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky cavorting on my screen as the song played in all its psychedelic bubblegum glory. Librarians With Hickeys do a fine job channeling that vibe.

THE O'JAYS: Put Your Hands Together


From The O'Jays' chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

Put your hands together.

We've talked about rock 'n' roll as The Devil's Music. But what about rock's celestial roots? In the wicked consummation of the orgiastic union of the rock and the roll, Gospel music was a participant no more reserved and no less sweaty than R & B, country, honky tonk, and blues. Now that was a party! Bless us, Lord!....

Although I heard The O'Jays on the radio quite often during my prime AM Top 40 years, and frequently heard my suitemates' copy of their live album during my second year at college, I don't remember "Put Your Hands Together" at all. It's so uplifting, so infectious, so absolutely irresistible. Put 'em together. PUT 'EM TOGETHER! Now, dammit!

SQUEEZE: Goodbye Girl



My favorite Squeeze song. Although I was a relative latecomer to Squeeze fandom, I fell hard for "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)," and also liked "Annie Get Your Gun." Then they broke up. Then they got back together! I didn't own any of Squeeze's stuff until the late '80s, when Singles--45's And Under became one of my early CD purchases. More purchases would follow. I now have many favorite Squeeze songs. "Goodbye Girl" remains my # 1.

UTOPIA: I Just Want To Touch You



As my friend Bruce Gordon says: Let's be The Beatles! The urge to imitate and even try to effectively become the act we've known for all these years is widespread and enduring. The Knickerbockers pulled it off on an incredible single called "Lies." The Rutles created a mirror image that was at least as much affectionate pastiche as it was parody. And somewhere in between The Knickerbockers and The Rutles was Deface The Music by Utopia.



I guess the album's supposed to be something of a lark, which is fine by me. It's been said that Utopia's Todd Rundgren finds the process of writing and recording pure pop songs too limiting, too predictable, too boring. But I have loved this album ever since its release. It's far and away my top Utopia record; it is, in fact, the only Utopia record I'm ever likely to listen to. Other than "Couldn't I Just Tell You," "We Gotta Get You A Woman," and some of Todd's 1960s stuff with The Nazz, Deface The Music is also my favorite Rundgren work overall. Hell, I like it better than "I Saw The Light" or "Hello It's Me," but that's just me. Deface The Music is willfully derivative, a deliberate and almost wiseass rip of The Beatles. Original? Nope, not a chance. Pure pop fun? Three loud YEAHS should answer that. Let's be The Beatles? Sounds like a worthy goal to me, mate.


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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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