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 # 1075.
THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Wouldn't You Like It [live]
Musician Binky Philips has written a number of fascinating recollections of his life in and around music. His autobiography My Life In The Ghost Of Planets: The Story Of A CBGB Almost-Was is an essential read, and each of his many scattered pieces showcases his ability to tell a story and put you at the scene of rock 'n' roll as it happened.
One of my favorite Binky Philips stories is his account of seeing The Bay City Rollers in 1977. Binky went to the concert with the intent of snickering at this teen-hype boy band; to his surprise, the minute the Rollers began to play, Binky turned to his buddy as they both said, They're GOOD!
And they were. The Bay City Rollers were way, way better than a fresh-faced combo of poster boys had to be. I like them a lot; I've never had any use for their ballads and teen-dream goop, but when they wanted to rock, they could indeed rock. You don't like them? Not my problem. As I wrote recently in a different context: "In the real world, 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.”
As a college student in the late '70s, lost in a sea of Southern rockers and Deadheads trying to dictate my taste to me, I put a Bay City Rollers poster on the wall of my dorm suite as an act of defiance. In my room, on my walls, The Bay City Rollers joined The Beatles, The Runaways, The Sex Pistols, KISS, The Flashcubes, Suzi Quatro, The Heartbreakers, The Beach Boys, Louise Goffin, and many other graven rockin' pop images (as well as Suzanne Somers and various Playboy centerfolds) as my chosen tokens and talismans. What I liked, not what outsiders told me to like. Get thee behind me, Jerry Garcia.
The death of former Rollers frontman Les McKeown prompted me to sum up my Rollers fandom in a post last week. And of course we played the Rollers on this week's show, opening the proceedings with "Yesterday's Hero," including both "Saturday Night" and "Rock And Roll Love Letter"--The Greatest Record Ever Made--in our final set. We would have played more if the rules allowed us to do that.
We also played one live Rollers track: the fantastic "Wouldn't You Like It," as performed by The Bay City Rollers live at Budokan in 1977, the same year Binky Phillips saw them in New York. Binky was right; they were good.
I regret I never had an opportunity to witness that first-hand. I would have been ready. Defiance still sounds pretty good to me.
ERIC BURDON AND THE ANIMALS: White Houses
This was a track I'd all but forgotten until last week, but it was one of my many go-tos as a teen. You better get STRAIGHT! When I was in high school, more than a decade after the British Invasion, I developed a casual obsession with the music of The Animals, particularly "It's My Life" and "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place." The obsession led to an acquisition of the 2-LP Best Of The Animals at Christmas '76. From there, I started to also discover Eric Burdon and the Animals.
The Animals and Eric Burdon and the Animals were two different groups, with lead singer Burdon the only common member. Otherwise: never the twain shall meet. I was taken with the latter group's "Sky Pilot" and "When I Was Young," and I picked up a used copy of the Every One Of Us LP while visiting my sister in Cleveland Heights, circa (I think) Summer '77. That would have put Every One Of Us (as well as the original group's then-recent reunion album Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted, another Cleveland Heights score) among the records I carted off to college in August. Bay City Rollers poster? Check! Animals and Eric Burdon and the Animals LPs? Also check!
I believe Every One Of Us provided my introduction to the stalwart "St. James Infirmary," though I would hear Cab Calloway's rendition (in a Betty Boop cartoon) not long thereafter. I'd be lying if I said anything on this album grabbed me to the extent that The Animals' hits grabbed me. I'd also be lying if I claimed I didn't listen to it anyway. Most of the tracks were too lengthy for my proto-punk short attention span. But I played "The Year Of The Guru." And I played "White Houses."
I still have that album in my library, periodic collection purges notwithstanding, an LP I plucked off the shelf at either Record Revolution or The Record Exchange in Cleveland Heights more than forty years ago. Um...unless I got it for 50 cents at Mike's Sound Center in North Syracuse. My memory wages constant war with my whatchamacallit and my whosis and whatsis. Over that span of decades, "White Houses" withdrew from my memory bank completely, until a random search-and-deploy brought it back to my ears with a vengeance, just in time for this week's playlist. You better get STRAIGHT! I didn't heed that advice then. I'm not heeding it now. But I'll play it and love it. Crooked or straight. Dig what you dig.
COUNTING CROWS: Mr. Jones
I didn't have cable TV in the first part of the '80s, so my prime period of MTV-watching was mostly 1987 through the early '90s. The Sunday night left-of-the-dial showcase 120 Minutes introduced me to a lot of new stuff, and in 1993 that's probably how I first heard the irresistible "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows. I used to record 120 Minutes every week on VHS, and "Mr. Jones" captivated me, conjuring an image of Van Morrison (in my ears, anyway) and demanding as much volume as my intrepid 27" Hitachi TV could offer.
MICKY DOLENZ: Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care)
Five years ago, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio was playing teaser tracks from The Monkees' then-forthcoming album Good Times!, a work that transcended even our giddy fanboy expectations. Now, in this far-future post-apocalyptic world of 2021, we're playing both sides of the advance single from the new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith, which is due May 21st. We played A-side "Different Drum" last week, B-side "Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care)" this week, and May 21st really is too, too far away. We already care! We've been caring!
STEVE EARLE: Guitar Town
THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Nobody But Me
The sheer magnificence of The Isley Brothers' records make it tough to cover one of their songs and surpass their version. Generally, it ain't gonna happen. My pick for the definitive "Twist And Shout" (a song originally recorded with less distinction by The Top Notes) vacillates between Beatles and Isleys, and we're all winners in that contest.
I used to regard The Human Beinz' hit cover of the Isleys' "Nobody But Me" as an exception. But while the hypnotic NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!No-no-no-NO! chanted by The Human Beinz certainly makes their "Nobody But Me" a consistent frat-rock fave rave, I've started to favor the Isleys here. Slightly. We're all winners in this contest, too.
JUSTINE AND THE UNCLEAN: Vengeance
Man, this is such a great track. In the unlikely event we ever do another TIRnRR compilation, this would be high on our want list.
KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him
Man, this is such a great track. In the unlikely event we ever do another TIRnRR compilation...you know.
LIVING COLOUR: Should I Stay Or Should I Go
My Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery includes one concert by The Clash. Unfortunately, that was in 1983, after guitarist and founding member Mick Jones had been declared a non-person and exiled from the group. So, did I really see The Clash in concert? Technically, I did, as singer-guitarist Joe Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon were both there on stage at the University of Buffalo, playing with deputized Clash-type people who weren't (in my view) members of The Clash. They certainly didn't perform any Mick Jones songs. After all, ya can't perform songs written by a non-person, can ya?
So, unless I heard a bar band cover it some time in the interim, my first live experience of The Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" came in 1989, delivered by Living Colour as they opened for The Rolling Stones at The Carrier Dome in Syracuse. My first Stones show! It was also the same week I saw The Kinks for the third (and final) time. Pretty good week for concerts.
Living Colour's Vivid album had been released in 1988, and there was quite a buzz around them in '89. "Cult Of Personality" and "Glamour Boys" had been MTV hits, and I was keen to see them with the Stones. Sure, for this life-long British Invasion enthusiast, The Rolling Stones were obviously the reason I was there. But Living Colour did not disappoint.
And Living Colour's set included their rollickin' rendition of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go." That puts 'em one up on The Not-Clash in my book.
POP CO-OP: Joe Public
The able folks of The TM Collective have assembled a tribute to the music of The Rutles, and I bet it's fab anna half. I...haven't actually heard it yet. But I have heard "Joe Public," Pop Co-Op's contribution to the tribute, and that one cut is like an album's worth of tribute in one compact track. Beatles fans, Rutles fan, pop fans, and pure fun fans, the lads of Pop Co-Op have channeled their effervescent love of all things JohnPaulGeorgeRingoStigNastyDirkBarry, a disdain for George Martin's tie, and a religious conviction that E burres stigano is very bad Spanish for "Have you a water buffalo?" into Something Borrowed and somehow made new. You can listen and play spot-the-reference, and you can listen and marvel with wide eyes and ears at the invention and ingenuity that went into this. I love The Rutles. I may love this track more than I love The Rutles.
Bring your own trousers. Put your faith in these powers that be. Joe Public, that's me!
TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!
You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby!
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment