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 # 1051.
BOW WOW WOW: Do You Wanna Hold Me?
It's likely that I had read about British group Bow Wow Wow in the pages of Trouser Press prior to snagging an import copy of their debut single "C30 C60 C90 GO!" at Brockport's Main Street Records in the early '80s, but I had not yet heard the music itself. I think I bought that on the same record store visit that netted me the "Older Women" 45 by Rochester new wave aces New Math, and possibly at the same time that I also scored a used copy of The Velvet Underground's first album. Productive day. I associate all three platters with a trip to see friends in Albany, a time spent partying and playing records with my high school pals Jay and Beth. The Bow Wow Wow single was definitely a part of that.
A bit later, Bow Wow Wow scored in America with a hit cover of The Strangeloves' "I Want Candy," prompting me to buy another Bow Wow Wow 45. I like that version, but I regret that so few Americans seem aware of any of the group's other work. "Do You Wanna Hold Me?" did gather some recognition, via a little bit of radio play and a little more MTV play.
SOLOMON BURKE: Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Solomon Burke's soul nugget "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" was at the heart of one of the many weird moments in the long and storied history of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. I don't remember when exactly it was--probably somewhere during our first few years on the air, say from 1999 to 2001, 2002, maybe 2003, whatever. One Sunday night in the studio, Dana played The Nails' left-of-the-dial stalwart "88 Lines About 44 Women." And I had an epiphany. Yeah, another one. I'm just full of epiphanies.
Then, as now, TIRnRR playlists were generally concocted on the fly, as Dana would react to whatever track I played and vice versa, that essential rockin' pop volley hammering out the framework for whatever the hell it is we do on the radio. But that night, as I listened to The Nails rattling off their 88 lines about their 44 women, I suddenly realized that only one song could possibly follow it.
Solomon Burke. "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love." Of course.
And I was convinced that if I didn't play Solomon Burke's testimonial of everybody needing somebody to love immediately--IMMEDIATELY!--after The Nails' record ended, some cosmic force would strike me dead right then and there. I quickly rummaged through my shoebox of CDs. Did I even have the song with me? I thought I did, and...YES! There it was! I fumbled the CD case into Dana's hands, his disinterested demeanor never changing as he popped the disc into the player and segued smoothly from the fading Nails into King Sol. I was saved!
As were we all. Testify, Brother Solomon. Testify.
DEAR STELLA: Time Machine
Dear Stella is the DBA of Stefanie Drexler, a singer, songwriter, and producer originally from Austria. Dear Stella's just-released debut EP Time Zones finds Drexler working with such pop luminaries as Bleu, Eric Barao, David Myhr, and Kai Danzberg to craft a sextet of scrumptious confections that call to mind everyone from Klaatu to Mandy Moore, ELO to Idina Menzel, everywhere from Broadway to the beach. It's modern pop music, potentially capable of connecting with a mainstream audience, and simultaneously imbued with an innate sense and command of pop history.
Billed as the record's overture, "Time Machine" (co-written by Drexler and Bleu) summons all influences in an over-the-top kitchen-sink approach that's captivating and agreeable. Ambitious, sweeping, and confident, "Time Machine" sets the WABAC for some imaginary era where Olivia Newton-John fronts Cheap Trick. And it accomplishes all of this without resorting to pilferage, building upon influences to generate something new. Man, when the guitars and vocals go all seismic at about the 2:05 mark? Magic. Magic. More!
THE FOUR TOPS: Something About You
Dumplin'! Dumplin'!
My memory insists that I first became aware of "Something About You" via Dave Edmunds' cover version on his 1984 album Riff Raff. My memory is probably correct in this case, but I did own a copy of The Four Tops' Greatest Hits album by then, and that LP includes The Four Tops' original version of the song. Looking back, I guess my interest in Tops classics "It's The Same Old Song," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," "Baby I Need Your Loving," "Standing In The Shadows Of Love," and "Bernadette" just overshadowed "Something About You" to an extent sufficient to cloud my mind so I couldn't notice it.
But it's a fantastic track. Edmunds did a swell job with it, but ya can't compete with the Tops' Levi Stubbs. The choice of opening the song with cries of "Dumplin'" as a term of endearment is...unique. On-line lyric sites insist the line is Darlin'! Darlin'!, but Stubbs is clearly singing Dumplin' on at least the second word (though it probably is Darlin' on the first). DUMPLIN'! Well. The girl he loves must indeed be the apple of his eye, then.
GRETCHEN'S WHEEL: You Should Know
When it comes to the music of Lindsay Murray and her nom du bop Gretchen's Wheel, I was late to the party, and I still have a lot of catching up to do. I was floored by the song "Plans" on the 2018 Gretchen's Wheel album Black Box Theory, and Murray's newest GW effort Such Open Sky does not disappoint in the slightest. "You Should Know" is the Such Open Sky track selected for airplay this week, but we could just as well have gone with "Sharp Relief" or "Infernal Machine" or "Can't Shake The Feeling" or "Interloper" or...yeah, the whole record. You can't go wrong with Gretchen's Wheel.
KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him
Red On Red Records is a new label operated by the divine Justine Covault, who is already known to the TIRnRR faithful as CRO (Chief Rockin' Officer) of the mighty Justine and the Unclean. And Red On Red fittingly sets our meters into the crimson zone with its first two single releases, "Half Life" by The Neighborhoods and "Forget About Him" by Kid Gulliver. "Half Life" was one of two tracks crowded out of this week's jam-packed show (and we hope The Neighborhoods will take comfort in sharing that distinction with "For Your Love" by The Yardbirds), but "Forget About Him" opened the broadcast with transcendent aplomb. We've already played Kid Gulliver's "I Wanna Be A Pop Star" a couple of times this year, and Kid Gulliver's Simone Berk also sings lead on WhistleStop Rock's TIRnRR Fave Rave "Queen Of The Drive-In." See? Simone Berk's established a proven record of quality tunemakin' for this little mutant radio show!
"Forget About Him" is even better. Justine Covault describes it with authority: Only one of the best power pop songs ever written, about the cad you need to lose. Awright, I'm sold. Here's to Simone. Here's to Justine. Here's to Kid Gulliver, and here's to Red On Red Records.
THE MONKEES: Words
Written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, "Words" has been one of my favorite Monkees tracks since the mid '70s, when I discovered there were Monkees songs above and beyond the handful I'd known since the previous decade. I've told the story elsewhere--notably, in pieces about discovering The Monkees, a girl I knew somewhere, Headquarters and The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.--so suffice it to say that cable TV reruns of The Monkees led me to the bulk of my most cherished Monkees cuts.
"Words" was one of the kingpins, along with "The Door Into Summer," "Daily Nightly," "Love Is Only Sleeping," and "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?," all from the Pisces album. I loved the way the bass line seems to coil like a cobra poised to strike, the shimmering, mesmerizing vibe, the pounding throb as it heads near the chorus, the sheer majesty of Micky Dolenz's vocal, and...and...
...and Peter Tork.
Tork did not take many lead vocal turns in the official Monkees canon. Vault raids in subsequent decades would exhume a few additional Tork-sung artifacts, and our Peter would much later deliver his best-ever vocal on "Wasn't Born To Follow," contained on the group's 2016 triumph Good Times! But in the midst of original Monkeemania, producers deemed his singing pitchy, and didn't use him. Tork's voice is really heard but four times on that era's records: warbling the silly novelty number "Your Auntie Grizelda" on More Of The Monkees, rocking his own "Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again" on the Head soundtrack, sharing a back-and-forth lead with Davy Jones on the Headquarters track "Shades Of Grey," and doing the same thing with Dolenz on "Words."
"Words" was and remains my pick of the bunch.
ORBIS MAX WITH EMPEROR PENGUIN: Talk To Me
Orbis Max is one prolific pop act, a hands-across-the-land-and-water combo that's been collaborating from remote locations since long before pandemic cooties introduced the rest of us to such things. Orbis Max is no stranger to the TIRnRR playlist. "Talk To Me," a joint venture between Orbis Max and Emperor Penguin, is their best yet. And by "best" I mean THIS IS FRIGGIN' AWESOME...!!
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You
The Greatest Record Ever Made! Settled law. Evidence presented here, video testimonial here.
THE SWING SET: Trying To Get You Out Of My Mind
I don't really know anything at all about the Rochester, NY group The Swing Set or their 1985 single "You That I'm Thinking Of"/"Trying To Get You Out Of My Mind." The tracks were brought to my attention by Mike Murray, host of the fabulous radio show Whole Lotta Shakin', heard Saturdays from 4 to 6 pm Eastern at WRUR-FM in Rochester, WITH-FM in Ithaca, and webmorized at https://www.wrur.org/ If you like TIRnRR, you'll like Whole Lotta Shakin'.
And Mike figured--correctly--that I would dig The Swing Set. Both tracks are jangly, catchy examples of '60s-influenced pop music, but "Trying To Get You Out Of My Mind" is particularly boppin' and sprightly, and appropriately impossible to get out of your mind once you've heard it. I can imagine unique covers of the song by The Knack, Any Trouble, The Go-Go's, The Bangles, or even The Supremes, although The Swing Set's original doesn't really sound like any of those acts. Somebody oughtta play this stuff on the radio.
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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:
Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or 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 165 essays about 165 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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