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 # 1077.
THE ANIMALS: Baby Let Me Take You Home
"Baby Let Me Take You Home" was The Animals' first single, released in their native England in 1964. It wasn't a hit here in the colonies, and my first real awareness of it came in December of 1976, when my residency on Santa's Nice List resulted in a copy of the 2-LP Best Of The Animals under the Christmas tree. In the hand...paws of The Animals, the song was a British Invasion raved-up version of the traditional folk tune "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," which Bashful Bob Dylan recorded for his debut album.
The arrangements were very different. As an unabashed rockin' pop fan less than a month shy of his 17th birthday, I respected Dylan and thought I probably liked him--I was supposed to like Dylan, right?--but I'd never heard his nor anyone's folk reading of "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" prior to hearing The Animals go electric with it. Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine opens the track with a mesmerizing lick that captivated me in an instant. Through my first dozen (or two) spins of it, I was initially disappointed that the rest of the song didn't match the style of the intro (something I also felt about "Think For Yourself" by The Beatles). I got over that resistance soon enough, and embraced "Baby Let Me Take You Home" as yet another effervescent British Invasion treasure. Rock 'n' roll. Pop music. Baby, let me play it again!
TAMAR BERK: Skipping The Cracks
Singer-songwriter-musician Tamar Berk joins our little Play-Tone Galaxy Of Stars with "Skipping The Cracks," the leadoff track from her new release The Restless Dreams Of Youth. The song earworms its way into the ol' cranium, recalling Penelope Houston, TIRnRR Fave Rave Irene Pena, and a shinier (and FCC-friendly) version of early Liz Phair. There is an oh-so-sweet bitterness in play, and it makes for a radio-ready rush of catharsis. (And note that Tamar insists that she didn't step on the cracks; if you happen to be a faithless lover suddenly afflicted with a broken back, well, it's your own stupid fault, ya jerk.)
THE BROTHERS STEVE: We Got The Hits
We play the hits. The Brothers Steve GOT the hits--whatta deal! The group's 2019 album # 1 provides a solid pummeling of the sort of energetic pop music this little mutant radio show has in mind when we say the word hits, a wall-to-wall hookfest of engaging janglebuzz. I often find myself singing "Beat Generation Poet Turned Assassin" at random moments, and we really need to play a few more tracks from this gem. But we can't resist the lure of "We Got The Hits," which is well on its way to becoming an all-time TIRnRR classic. As befits a hit.
CADDY: Cost Of Love
Norway's Phenomenal Pop Act Caddy is a singular rather than a collective; one-man band Tomas Dahl is Caddy's Smart One, Caddy's Cute One, Caddy's Quiet One, Caddy's Funny One, Caddy's Reluctant One, Caddy's Misunderstood Mad Scientist One, Caddy's...yeah, like that. I still call Caddy "they," because habit. The latest Caddy release Detours And Dead Ends Vol. 1 (brand new on Kool Kat Musik) presents ten new covers of '70s and '80s pop songs. None of the original versions (by SVT, Gary Charlson, The Freshies, Sgt. Arms, Junior Campbell, Screaming Sneakers, The Invaders, and Chrissy) was exactly a household name to begin with, though maybe a few more people remember Ronnie Lane and the Chartbusters. As well they should!
The best-known song here is likely "Cost Of Love." Even if too few fans purchased the original by The Cretones (on their fab 1980 debut Thin Red Line), it was also one of three Cretones songs covered by Linda Ronstadt on her 1980 hit LP Mad Love. "Cost Of Love" has been a record made for radio play in both of its previous incarnations, and it remains so in Caddy's current take. Well done, lads! Um...lad.
ERMA FRANKLIN: I Don't Want No Mama's Boy
It couldn't have been easy to be a soul singer trying to make your mark on the charts when your sister happens to be the greatest soul singer of all time. Both older sister Erma Franklin and baby dynamite sis Carolyn Franklin spent their careers in the juggernaut-sized shadow of middle sister Aretha, but both did deliver an impressive supply of compelling tracks. I've played some of Carolyn's stuff on recent shows, and Dana's long favored Erma's sassy kiss-off "I Don't Want No Mama's Boy." We all know Aretha. We should get to know Erma and Carolyn, too.
THE GO-GO'S: We Got The Beat
At long last, welcome to The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Sure, there are still many, many other acts overdue for such recognition (including, of course, my choice for the Hall's most egregious snub to date), but I'm so happy that The Go-Go's are finally, finally set to be inducted. Their 2020 single "Club Zero" served notice that the group still retains possession of the beat, and we look forward to hearing more new music from this fab combo. But this week, we went back to the beginning, playing the group's debut release from 1981, the original Stiff Records single of "We Got The Beat." While I ultimately prefer the full, familiar sound of their 1982 hit remake, I really dig the backing vocals--They're walking in time!--that were shed in the subsequent recording. When I listen to the hit, I add those parts back in (just like I add the missing shooby-doo-wops to The Beatles' "Revolution" single).
"We Got The Beat" was also the subject of last week's rant in my weekly video series The Greatest Record Ever Made!
JOAN JETT: Bad Reputation
My daughter Meghan is getting married. It's a happy moment, even as we acknowledge this continued avalanche of sand plummeting so damned fast in the hourglass. Where does the time go? And could it maybe slow down every once in a while, just for a short little bit?
The event itself is still off somewhere in the future. Meghan and I have a long-time agreement that when that party does kick into place, the song for our father-daughter dance will be "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett. That agreement stands. And this paragraph (which appeared in a previous 10 Songs) expresses the importance of the song's message:
"In real life, there is perhaps no greater super power than the ability to shrug off the disapproval of others. Dig what you dig. Love who you love. Be who you want to be, not whatever some gray they want you to be. Don't give a damn about your reputation."
Let the sand fall. Let time do what time does. The fleeting moments are worth it. Love is worth it. Mazel tov. Let's dance.
THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer
The Monkees understood that sobering sense of days cascading away from us:
THE MYNAH BIRDS: I Got You (In My Soul)
I continue to be taken with this story of The Mynah Birds, a band that included then-unknowns Rick James and Neil Young, signed to Motown in 1966, but broke up before releasing any records. What might have been? Beyond the soon-to-be-realized star power in the group, I'm even more fascinated by the fact that the tiny handful of Mynah Birds material that has been rescued from the vault so far--four songs to my knowledge--has offered glimpses of a potentially killer soul-pop rock 'n' roll act. The almost-single "It's My Time" sounds like it coulda been a big hit in '66, and "I Got You (In My Soul)" would have been a natural for The Yardbirds, especially if The Yardbirds had recorded for Motown.
SEGARINI: Gotta Have Pop
Statement of intent. Gotta have it. Gotta.
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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
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.
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