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 # 1078.
HEADGIRL [Motörhead and Girlschool]: Please Don't Touch
Yeah, I know I already spent the entirety of this week's playlist commentary a-ramblin' and a-ravin' about "Please Don't Touch," the one-off 1981 consolidation of Motörhead and Girlschool as Headgirl. My obsession remains proudly in place. You could (rightly) call this a bludgeoning of the old Johnny Kidd and the Pirates ditty, but it's an affectionate roughhousing, faithful in its way to the swing and spirit of the original, heavier and more ominous, yet unerringly pop. And righteous. And LOUD! It could do with another spin right now. Obsessive? I am as Headgirl made me.
NELSON BRAGG: Lost All Our Sundays
The biggest single entry on the mighty Nelson Bragg's rock 'n' roll c.v. is his record of service as a percussionist for Brian Wilson, which also led to Bragg participating in The Beach Boys' acclaimed 50th anniversary tour.
Well. Is that all?
That's, um...actually that's a pretty big deal, innit? The fact that Nelson has also done a lot of other great stuff outside of the Wilson aegis further illustrates the significance of his rockin' pop propers. He's done some fine work with perennial TiRnRR Fave Rave Anny Celsi, and his solo tracks "Forever Days" and "Tell Me I'm Wrong" have been essential building blocks in this show's ongoing jones for assembling The Best Three Hours Of Radio In The Whole Friggin' Planet. A great show is constructed of great parts. We can rely on Nelson Bragg for that.
Nelson's working on a new album, Gratitude Blues, which is due out before 2021 dims its lights and heads to bed. The album is teased now with an advance single of one of its tracks, a cover of Elton John's "I Want Love," a fresh digital release in the ongoing saga of Big Stir Singles. "I Want Love" will be included on Gratitude Blues, but its virtual B-side "Lost All Our Sundays" will not. So, we figured we oughtta play that one. On a Sunday night radio show. That's how ya win back all those lost Sundays, friends. We're happy to help.
COLD EXPECTATIONS: Summer Dress
Ah, such a cool, yearning summer song. Red On Red Records does it again.
MICKY DOLENZ: Different Drum
At this writing, I have just received my CD copy of the new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith. But I've already heard enough of it to know I love it. We've been playing the digital single of "Different Drum," and we'll be playing at least one other track from Dolenz Sings Nesmith on next week's show.
(We will, in fact, be playing a lot of Micky Dolenz material on next week's show: new and old, solo and with The Monkees, and in other incarnations, too. It's been a long time since we've been able to spotlight a Featured Performer on TIRnRR. It's time for that spotlight to fall upon Micky Dolenz.)
THE FOUNDATIONS: Build Me Up Buttercup
Familiarity has not bred anything resembling contempt for The Foundations' signature hit "Build Me Up Buttercup." Great songs are supposed to get played again and again, fercryinoutloud, and the best tunes can survive such saturation spins without losing luster. It's true that I've become more immediately interested in some of The Foundations' other numbers (especially "In The Bad Bad Old Days [Before You Loved Me]"), but I doubt I'll ever become sick of hearing "Build Me Up Buttercup." Hell, I doubt I'll ever get even a little bit tired of hearing it.
LINNEA'S GARDEN: Replacement
Ah, such a cool (if bittersweet) observation of a parting of the ways. Red On Red Records does it again...again!
THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Personality Crisis
A basic rule of this blog: when I complain about The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, don't bother telling me that the RnRHOF doesn't matter; I already know it doesn't matter. But rock 'n' roll should honor is own, and I will continue to rant on behalf of deserving acts that are snubbed by that overblown Hard Rock Cafe on the banks of Lake Erie.
The Monkees remain the Hall's most egregious snub to date. With this year's inductees, long-standing snubs of Tina Turner, Carole King, The Go-Go's, and Todd Rundgren have finally been set right. The New York Dolls were also nominated this round, but they didn't get the damned votes. Oy. The Dolls were among the most influential rock 'n' roll acts of the '70s, and failing to recognize their sheer and ongoing impact is willful lunacy.
DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES: Love Child
Playing the Dolls on the latest TIRnRR had no conscious influence on my decision to also include Diana Ross and the Supremes in this week's playlist. After the fact, it occurred to me that The David Johansen Group used to cover "Love Child" in late '70s live sets. I don't remember whether or not DJ and his boys did the song at my first Johansen show in 1979, but it's on The David Johansen Group Live, which preserves a hot-hot-hot 1978 NYC show, and is a much more compelling live document than Johansen's Live It Up! The Johansen Group's '78 performance of "Love Child" was a conscious influence on Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes, who subsequently started covering The Supremes' "Stop! In The Name Of Love" in their own killer live shows. As much as I still love The Supremes' original, I really liked the 'Cubes' arrangement of "Stop! In The Name Of Love," which nicked its opening from The Four Tops and sounded perfectly of a piece with the Flashcubes sound.
But "Love Child?" Gotta love The David Johansen Group, sure, but you can't top Diana Ross and the Supremes on "Love Child."
THE RUTLES: Doubleback Alley
Pop fans like us remain fond of The Rutles' music and TV special, which were an effective and engaging parody of some little-known combo called The Beatles. I am reasonably certain you've heard of The Beatles, and I betcha you know The Rutles, too.
But The Rutles' album and show were both relative commercial failures in 1978. Not in my ears nor in my eyes, of course; I adored all of it without reservation, and I still do. In the period between watching All You Need Is Cash in my freshman dorm and receiving an import LP of The Rutles as a gift from my sister, I bought the Prefab Four's U.S. 45, "I Must Be In Love"/"Doubleback Alley." The Merseymania A-side was the song that had introduced me to The Rutles on Saturday Night Live, and the flip was a pastiche of "Penny Lane." As an 18-year-old power-pop punk in '78, I was beginning to distance myself from the post-1966 Beatles sound, and therefore found "I Must Be In Love" intrinsically more interesting than "Doubleback Alley." Dig 'em both now. A legend that will last a lunchtime.
SPIRIT: I Got A Line On You
Classic rock! In a good way. I became particularly enamored with Spirit's 1968 gem "I Got A Line On You" when I was living in Buffalo in the early '80s. There was no distinctive impetus for this; I must have heard the song on an oldies radio show somewhere, and it clicked.
I do remember seeing a local oldies cover band a few times at a bar near the corner of Kensington and Bailey, a short walk from my rat-infested apartment. My stubborn brain cells have reluctantly conceded that the bar was called McGillicuddy's, but even a quick span of my Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery fails to jog my memory enough to recall the name of the band. I know I liked 'em okay, so it wasn't Phil and the Spectors (whom I didn't like). The true ID of the band in question is likely lost.
But, whoever they were, they weren't bad at all: a nice, meat 'n' potatoes oldies bar band, providing the soundtrack to good times. I'll drink to that. And I did! Did I mention the bar was within walking distance? It was within staggering distance, too.
On one of the occasions that I saw them, this capable oldies combo did a more-than-capable cover of Spirit's "I Got A Line On You." As the song finished, I shouted out, "YEAH, THAT'S THE SPIRIT!" The band's leader chuckled and winced at the same time, moaning, "Who said that?"
Lines? I got a million of 'em. One or two might even be funny.
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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
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