10 SONGS: 3/2/2021

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 # 1066.

DOLPH CHANEY: My Good Twin

We've discussed this before, but it bears repeating: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl is built upon the stubborn, unshakeable delusion that it's an AM Top 40 radio show. We think we're Casey Kasem, Alan Freed, Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, and Syracuse legends Don Bombard and Dandy Dan Leonard all rolled together into a single three-hour spin-a-rama. The concept is mutated by the fiction conviction that The Ramones were as big as The Beatles, that it's ALL pop music. We play the hits. The real world may not recognize them all as hits. Which just means that the real world is wrong once again. 

"My Good Twin" comes from Dolph Chaney's current album This Is Dolph Chaney. It has not been released as a single off that album, but it is indeed a hit single, in act if not in fact. We play the hits. We play Dolph Chaney. We know a hit when we hear one.

THE HARRISONICS: Holly Goes Away

I believe we have already mentioned that we play the hits. Pay attention, people. But sometimes we don't play a particular hit as often as we'd like to. 

Is it because of our short attention spans? Yes. It's also just time, as our weekly three-hour radio slot fades away long before we've made it through half of the stack o' tracks we meant to serve up on a Sunday night. 

"Holly Goes Away" is a case in point. We received this track from The Harrisonics' Love Songs For All Occasions album last summer. Loved it! Had to play it on the radio! Intended to play it more often, but...ooooooo, what's that? SHINY! Distracted again. We played the damned thing a grand total of twice in 2020. And that's no way to treat a hit record.

So we return to it now. And we'll be coming back to it again. Ya can't keep a hit record down.

WANDA JACKSON: Let's Have A Party

Among songs primarily associated with Elvis Presley, there aren't many I'd say were done better by anyone else. Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's Forgotten Original of "Hound Dog" is the biggest exception. Chuck Berry recorded the definitive "Promised Land," though I don't really think of that as an Elvis song to begin with (because I heard Berry's version first). "Blue Suede Shoes" is a draw between Elvis and Carl Perkins. Arthur Alexander's "Burning Love" is incredible, but it can't beat Elvis. Otherwise? If King Elvis I laid claim to a song, it was his song by divine right. 

Each of the above instances cites a song Elvis covered. The only time someone improved on a song that Elvis did first was when Wanda Jackson covered "Let's Have A Party." I guess it helps that it wasn't an iconic Elvis hit to begin with; it was a track from the soundtrack of the 1957 Elvis movie Loving You, which was one of Presley's best films, but the song wasn't released as a single in America. The King's take on "Party" is majestic and agreeable. It rocks, but compared to Wanda Jackson full-tilt wail, it's like a formal invitation to a party. Wanda sounds like she's at  the damned party right then and there, shakin' a chicken in the middle of the room with reckless abandon. One hopes there will be smooching. Hoo-weeee!

THE JAYHAWKS: I'm Gonna Make You Love Me

An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. My proposed book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will discuss some 165 or more songs taking their own infinite turns. Some chapters are long, some chapters are short. A chapter about "Liar, Liar" by The Castaways would have been the book's shortest entry, but it's not in my current Table of Contents. That leaves the chapter about The Jayhawks' sublime "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" as the collection's most compact huzzah. Here it is in its entirety:

"I may as well get this confession out of the way: I don't know a damned thing about The Jayhawks. I mean, I know who they are. Kind of. I've heard of them. I know they're well-regarded, well-respected. Americana comes to mind as the word I think I've seen pundits use to describe their music. I'm sure I could easily find out a lot more about them, and I could hear all of their recorded work and make an informed decision about how much of it I should add to my own collection of tunes. I'm not proud of my ignorance, and I will attempt to remedy it. I do have the Smile album--they were the first band to make it to retail with that album title--and I recall liking the title track, too. I hear they've backed Ray Davies, and that's pretty impressive, right? I will know more about The Jayhawks before I become dust.

But for now, I already know one thing above all else: The Jayhawks' "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" is The Greatest Record Ever Made. I knew it the first time I heard it. The certainty renews each time I hear it again.

That's it. Sometimes it's just as simple as that."

THE MONKEES: What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?

The four original members of The Monkees--Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork--reunited in 1996 for an album called Justus and a one-hour TV special. A brief British tour followed in 1997. Those U.K. dates would be the final times that all four Monkees appeared together on stage. Jones passed away in 2012, and Tork left us in 2019.

While in England in '97, The Monkees spoke to the British rock press, and the exchanges were sometimes contentious. Not always contentious, mind you, but enough to contribute to an overall bad feeling, particularly as far as Nesmith was concerned. 

I remember reading some of this press, and I would agree that there was an occasional sheer, petty bitchiness in some of the reporting. But the one thing that stands out most in my memory from all of that was an offhand remark from Nesmith about a 1967 Monkees LP track called "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?"

"What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" is one of my favorites, as discussed in a previous post about my top 25 Monkees tracks. It was on my favorite Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., and I've often used it as evidence to plead my case on behalf of he Monkees' greatness. Talking to Mojo magazine in 1997, Nesmith referred to the song as "the bottom of the music."

What the actual...?! Man, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one. Here's what I wrote about it in that Top 25 post:

"'Bottom of the music?' Really, Michael? This is a sterling, stirring example of sprightly country-flavored pop music, co-written by Owens Castleman and future country star Michael Martin Murphey. There was a rumor that The Byrds were the studio band on this track, but it's Nesmith on guitar with bassist/producer Chip Douglas, drummer 'Fast' Eddie Hoh, and banjo wiz Douglas Dillard (himself an associate of The Byrds), with Micky and Davy backing up Michael's lead vocals. This may be my all-time favorite Nesmith vocal, and it's a compelling, engaging record that shouldn't ever be dismissed by anyone, not even by the guy who sang it."

When Michael Nesmith returned to The Monkees in 2012, the three surviving prime mates included "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" in their concert setlists. Nesmith's attitude toward some Monkees material had, I think, softened a bit by then. Maybe he was just putting up with the song to serve the needs of a 21st century Monkees show. I like to think his assessment of the song evolved, and that he grew to appreciate its virtues. From the bottom of the music, to the top of the music. 

I guess our chances come but once, and boy I sure missed mine. Not so. For as long as we live, we always have more chances to connect and re-connect with the music we love. We even have chances to discover the merit in music we'd previously disdained. That helps to make it worth hangin' 'round, doesn't it?

IRENE PEÑA: I Won't Budge

The good folks at Big Stir Records have taken a shine to our description of Irene Peña as "America's Sweetheart," and that's how ya start a movement, friends. 2021 marks the tenth anniversary of Irene's debut album Nothing To Do With You, and she's celebrating in a manner befitting of America's Sweetheart: she's reissuing its individual tracks one by one in Big Stir's digital singles series. That plan commences with "I Won't Budge," and it seems likely we'll be playing more of these tracks as they reappear.

CHARLEY PRIDE: More To Me

This is not the first time that the late country singer Charley Pride has appeared on one of our playlists, but it's probably his first TIRnRR appearance outside of a Christmas show. A couple of recent TV viewings--of the documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President and a network special celebrating The Grand Ole Opry--put me in the mood to program a country track alongside whatever the hell else it is that we do on this little mutant radio show. Bow Wow Wow, The Jam, Joan Armatrading, The Saints, The Muffs, Stevie Wonder, new music from The Permanent Green Light, and...well, howzabout some Charley Pride? Why not?

I don't know an awful lot about Charley Pride; I know his big hit "Kiss An Angel Good Morning" and his holiday track "Santa And The Kids," and I have a cursory knowledge of the broad strokes of his struggle to succeed as a black singer working in a genre that hasn't had many successful black singers. I need to do a deeper dive into Pride's c.v.

THE RAMONES: Carbona Not Glue

For many years, "Carbona Not Glue" was The Great Lost Ramones Track. It was an LP cut on The Ramones' second album Leave Home in 1977, but it wasn't on that album for long. The manufacturers of Carbona Spot Remover objected to the scandalous notion of ne'er-do-wells huffin' Carbona fumes in search of an illicit high, and Carbona's lawyers threatened to bitch-slap Sire Records' lawyers. Sire demonstrated its devotion to punk independence and DIY resolve by caving immediately. "Carbona Not Glue" was scraped off of all subsequently-pressed copies of Leave Home, replaced with an AM radio mix of da brudders' then-recent sorta-hit single "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker." My first copy of Leave Home had "Sheena;" I replaced it with a "Carbona"-equipped original at my first opportunity, probably around '78 or '79.

"Carbona Not Glue" remained verboten for a very long time. When Leave Home made its CD debut in 1990--paired with debut album Ramones as All The Stuff (And More) Volume One--"Sheena" was still perched punkly in the spot where "Carbona" had once been. The Ramones snuck in an unlisted performance of the song for their 1991 live album Loco Live.

Now? It's all runoff under the bridge. When Rhino Records began reissuing The Ramones' Sire albums as expanded individual CDs in 2001, "Carbona Not Glue" returned without pomp or ceremony. Wonderin' what I'm doin' tonight. Maybe Rhino's lawyers are tougher than Sire's lawyers. 

THE THREE O'CLOCK: Jet Fighter

A spin of this track on Sunday's show led to a brief discussion of the impact radio has at its best, the sheer importance of being able to listen to a radio station or radio show that can introduce you to new sounds, new songs...new worlds, really. On Sunday night, intrepid TIRnRR listener Elma Tiran (whom we've dubbed Sparky) heard us play "Jet Fighter" by The Three O'Clock, conjuring her delighted memories of the '80s, listening to that same song on L.A.'s KROQ-FM, courtesy of influential DJ Rodney Bingenheimer and his show Rodney On The ROQ. As far as Sparky was concerned, "Jet Fighter" couldn't have launched its way into her hemisphere without Rodney playing it for her.

Neither Dana nor I haver ever lived in Southern California. As a teen in the '70s, I had heard of Rodney Bingenheimer via the tabloid pages of Phonograph Record Magazine, and while that was certainly influential, reading about him couldn't match the seismic WHOMP! of hearing stuff on the radio. We had to turn elsewhere.

For Dana, the turn was to Syracuse University's adventurous WAER-FM. For me, from early to mid '70s Top 40 on Syracuse's WOLF-AM and WNDR-AM to the wider format of nearby Utica's WOUR-FM in '76 and '77, college radio in Brockport, and into the '80s with some outstanding radio in Buffalo: Sunday nights on 97 Rock, then the open frontiers of the short-lived WUWU-FM, and the excitement of Buffalo State College's New Music Radio format on WBNY-FM.

WBNY played The Three O'Clock, along with Echo and the Bunnymen, X, The Long Ryders, Black Flag, Grandmaster Flash, Translator, Lyres, The Hoodoo Gurus, Run DMC, Suicidal Tendencies, The Nomads, and so many others, all of whom I heard for the first time on WBNY. I remember driving on Niagara Street near the Peace Bridge, my crappy '78 Bobcat's dial locked on New Music Radio 91.3 WBNY, listening to "Blue Line" by Let's Active and "Jet Fighter" by The Three O'Clock, and knowing in my heart that this was how radio should be.

Sparky had Rodney On The ROQ to guide her. Dana had Dele Fadele on WAER. I had...everything. Everybody. Beaming waves across the border from Toronto, AM and FM, mingling with the best of the Buffalo airwaves. I didn't have a Rodney. I had a bunch of counterparts, none of 'em Rodney Bingenheimer, but each doing his/her part to strengthen my devotion to the possibilities of radio. Jet fighter man, that's what I am, 'cause tanks go too slow. Faster, radio. Faster!

TINA TURNER: The Acid Queen

This may seem an unlikely candidate to be anyone's first Tina Turner track, but I am as God made me. It's not that I didn't know who Turner was in 1975; I'd seen her on TV, more than once, and definitely at least once with Cher. I remember the song "Nutbush City Limits," and I may have seen/heard Ike and Tina Turner's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" in that time frame, but I would not be willing to testify to that in a court of law.

As little as I knew, I still knew enough to respect Turner's talent. Man, she was amazing, the shakin' and shimmyin' embodiment of rock 'n' roll. Nonetheless, I had no motivation to own any of her music until she covered The Who.

The truth be told, I really wasn't much into The Who then, either. AM radio had taught me a couple of their songs from Tommy, "Pinball Wizard" and "See Me, Feel Me." I was (at best) indifferent to the latter, but I did like "Pinball Wizard." Later on, when Elton John covered "Pinball Wizard" for the '75 film version of Tommy, I liked his version more than I liked the original.

Looking in my Billboard reference books last week, I was astounded to learn that "Pinball Wizard" was not a huge Top 40 hit for ol' Elton. It was never even released as a single, but it was all over Syracuse Top 40 radio when I was 15, and I wanted it. The Tommy soundtrack album was the only way to get it.

I was intrigued by the idea of the Tommy movie. For one thing, as a red-blooded fifteen-year-old boy, I thought actress Ann-Margret was gorgeous, and time spent staring at her image on-screen would be time well-spent. And I must have seen film clips of both Elton's "Pinball Wizard" and Tina's "The Acid Queen" on TV somewhere, maybe on The Midnight Special, because I vividly recall those sights and sounds. 

I never did get around to seeing the movie. My sister Denise bought the soundtrack for me, and it was my first true exposure to The Who's Tommy storyline. I would become a fan of The Who within the next two to four years. In 1975, I played Elton John's flamboyant "Pinball Wizard" and Tina Turner's sassy, sexy "The Acid Queen" over and over. Over time, I returned to The Who's original "Pinball Wizard," and deemed that the definitive take. 

Tina Turner still owns "The Acid Queen."

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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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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). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl