10 SONGS: 11/3/2020

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 # 1049.

THE ARCHIES: Get On The Line

Incidental music for a Saturday morning TV cartoon series. Beyond the hit singles (which were intended to compete with The Beatles and The 5th Dimension for space on Top 40 radio and for disposable income [or allowances] from young listeners), most of the music released under The Archies' brand name was pure pop, carefully crafted and exquisitely rendered. "Sugar, Sugar" was the biggest hit by far, "Jingle Jangle" my pick for the best (and a serious contender for inclusion in my Greatest Record Ever Made! book), and the four Archies LPs contain a decent selection of lesser-known but worthy numbers.

From The Archies' third (and best) album Jingle Jangle, 1969's "Get On The Line" is my top pick among The Archies' album tracks, and it's second only to "Jingle Jangle" in my overall estimation of the output of Riverdale's Finest. It's infectious, and it implies a sense of greater purpose. It bears a superficial resemblance to Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" (also from '69), just in terms of a shared vibe and a shared call to faith in something larger and better.

We started something

Gonna get it together

Every man and woman, boy and girl

Lovin' one another

All the sisters and the brothers

Lovin' one another 'round the world

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

The sun is rising

On a brand new morning

Got to tell the people everywhere

Got to pass it on

Before all hope is gone

Let the light go by you if you dare

Get on the line...!

"Get on the line for love." Words to live by. Especially right now.

CHUCK BERRY: Back In The USA

Vote.

THE CHI-LITES: (For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People

Though best-known for '70s soul classics "Oh Girl" and "Have You Seen Her," The Chi-Lites also pleaded eloquently on behalf of giving more power to the people. And there remains a simple and effective means to achieve that goal: 

Vote.

THE CLASH: Clampdown

Let fury have the hour/Anger can be power/How can you refuse it?

See, The Clash knew what they were talking about.

THE MC5: Kick Out The Jams

Of course, back when the future members of The Clash were still just kids playing and laughing and dreaming idly of maybe someday rocking the casbah, the guys in The MC5 were already angry and loud, the rockin' and rollin' embodiment of PISSED OFF!!! in the '60s. As the world seemed set to burn, The MC5 were a testimonial, heralded by the fiery threat of revolution and an incendiary battle cry of Kick out the jams, motherfuckers! Cathartic anger. Irresistible anger. Anger without end, Amen.

PACIFIC SOUL LTD.: We Go High

While anger can inspire positive action, anger can't be what defines us. We can be better. Our friends on the right can do the same. I often fall short of the ideal. Recently, the odious sight and sound of a small horn-honkin' caravan of Red Hats prompted me to respond with my version of an emphatic thumbs-up, except I chose to use a different finger.

Childish? You betcha. 

But it felt right in the moment. It felt necessary in the moment. Sometimes a situation requires anger. This year, I didn't just vote; I voted angry. Like, seething angry, vote-that-fucker-out angry. 

Anger should fade over time. If the good guys can prevail over our horrid Buffoon-In-Chief and his craven enablers, the good guys aren't going to govern angry. They're going to build. They're going to include. They're going to redeem. This land is our land. The high road beckons us. Pacific Soul Ltd. has the precise song we need as we seek to make America good again. 

To make America America again.

IRENE PEÑA: I Won't Back Down

Earlier this year, America's Sweetheart Irene Peña recorded this delightful cover of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down," and released it as a digital single on behalf of Rock The Vote. And we don't wanna argue with America's Sweetheart.

THE RAMONES: I Believe In Miracles

Johnny Ramone was a hard-right Republican. Joey Ramone was a liberal Democrat. It's probably pretty clear who each would back if either Ramone were still with us for Election 2020. But I wonder....

When I interviewed The Ramones for Goldmine in 1994, Johnny told me about the ordeal of working with legendary asshole producer Phil Spector. And something Johnny said about Spector has stayed with me: 

He'd be nice to us, but he'd be so horrible to everyone around. And I don't care if he's being nice to me. I'm sure Joey is gonna feel different, he's like their idol, Joey and Marc. But if the person isn't a nice guy, I don't care if I liked his work. It doesn't mean anything. And if he's being nice to me but horrible to everybody else, still he's not a nice guy.

What would Johnny have thought of President Trump? I mean, if ever there was a public figure who plainly is not a nice guy, it's Trump. Trump and Spector seem a lot alike in that respect. Would that have been enough to cause Johnny to question his own Fox News dogma? Even if he couldn't bring himself to support a Democrat, would Johnny have been as disdainful of not-a-nice-guy Donald Trump as he was of not-a-nice-guy Phil Spector?

I fear we know the answer to that. Fox News dogma runs deep. But I wonder. And I believe in miracles.

WAR: Why Can't We Be Friends?

We can be friends. But politics do matter. What happens in politics affects all of us, as we determine the way our society should function on a day-to-day basis. Friends care about what happens to friends, about what happens to friends of friends. Friends don't vote with the specific shallow goal of making liberals cry again. Friends don't delight in the notion of progressive heads going all Scanners if America's Biggest Mistake somehow wins a second term. And friends, on the right or the left, don't gloat when the other side loses. That's crass and insensitive. We go high. That's what friends do. That's what everyone ought to do.

Man, we don't have to agree on everything. We don't even have to agree on all that much. Why can't we be friends? At the end of all of this: why the hell can't we be friends?

THE ZOMBIES: This Will Be Our Year

One hopes. One hopes.

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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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