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 # 1080.
THE ALLAH-LAS: Holding Pattern
We aims t'please. "Holding Pattern" is a track from The Allah-Las' 2019 album LAHS, and its appearance on this week's show prompted intrepid TIRnRR listener (and host of Radio Deer Camp right here on SPARK!) to exclaim, "Whatever you're playing right now is ultra-cool!" We agree. Rich added that the song sounded "like The Byrds singing over The Doors backing them," and that description pleases us, too.
P. P. ARNOLD: Different Drum
Speaking of Radio Deer Camp (which is heard every Sunday afternoon from 5 to 7 pm Eastern, http://sparksyracuse.org/), the weird but welcome symmetry of pop fans programming radio shows found both RDC and TIRnRR spinning a track from the great P. P. Arnold's 2019 album The New Adventures Of...P. P. Arnold. Serendipity rocks, man. Rich chose the lovely Ms. Arnold's rendition of a Paul Weller song called "When I Was Part Of Your Picture," while Dana and I went with the notion of P. P. Arnold covering Michael Nesmith's "Different Drum." Sure, you know the song best from Linda Ronstadt's hit 1967 reading with The Stone Poneys, and maybe you've heard us recently pounding the console on behalf of Micky Dolenz's new version of it, too.
Arnold recorded "Different Drum" in the '90s, and she invests the song with the sort of surefooted soul she learned backing up Ike and Tina Turner in the early to mid '60s; her Ikettes experience helped prepare her for the magnificence of her solo career and collaborations with Steve Marriott and The Small Faces in the late '60s. I regard P. P. Arnold's "Angel Of The Morning" and "The First Cut Is The Deepest" as definitive. I won't go quite that far with her take on "Different Drum," but it is sweet 'n' satisfying to hear nonetheless.
(And radio shows that play P. P. Arnold are inherently cooler than radio shows that fail to play P. P. Arnold.)
THE CHELSEA CURVE: Don't Look Down
Yeah, let us praise Justine Covault's label Red On Red Records! This fab imprint's been a-thumpin' and a-pumpin' out a steady stream of invigorating single releases, the precise sort of essential pop sounds that inspired a higher power to give Dana & Carl a weekly platform so's we could play 'em and preach about 'em on Sundays. TESTIFY!! Don't mess with the Gospel according to TIRnRR, my friends. We'll smite you if we have to.
Add The Chelsea Curve's latest to the Red On Red Parade O' Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. Don't look down. Look UP. And turn it up while you're at it.
CHI COLTRANE: Thunder And Lightning
I should remember Chi Coltrane's Top 20 smash "Thunder And Lightning" from my secure tether to AM Top 40 radio in the early '70s. The song entered the Hot 100 in September of 1972, just as I was entering eighth grade. My head was basically stapled to Syracuse's WOLF-AM and WNDR-AM at the time, so I must have heard it, and probably dug it.
But I don't remember "Thunder And Lightning" from that giddy milieu. I remember it from TV commercials for cheap-o K-Tel or Ronco or whatever compilation LPs, lo-fi records that tried to recreate that giddy milieu for one's permanent library. I have a vague and incomplete memory of the song playing at the middle school gym. I like the song a lot, but it was never fully a part of my radio listening experience, not to the extent of, like, Johnny Nash or Badfinger.
Or so my memory insists. Stupid, stubborn memory.
MICKY DOLENZ: Grand Ennui
With P. P. Arnold taking control of this week's "Different Drum," we still wanted to play something from the sublime new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith. "Grand Ennui" is a track exclusive to the album's CD release--sorry, vinyl and download fans--and we would have played it as part of last week's Micky Dolenz feature if logistics had allowed it.
THE FLASHCUBES: Sold Your Heart
Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes are busy little rock 'n' rollers, currently hard at work preparing a 1979 live show for CD release. The show was recorded at The Firebarn in Syracuse, May 1979, with the 'Cubes at the absolute peak of their live prowess.
I was 19. I was a huge, huge fan; I still am, and I always will be. There will be more details to follow, both for the CD and its accompanying digital single. In the mean time, here's the first paragraph of the liner notes:
"At its best, live music is alchemy in action, capable of transforming the very air around us into pure gold. This mystic process is fueled by so many ingredients, both physical and phantasmic. Sweat. Love. Lust. Hate. Alcohol. Hunger. Ambition. Greed. Generosity. Divine inspiration. Betrayal. Heartbreak. Laughter. Tears. One pill that makes you larger, one pill that makes you small. Amplifiers, power chords, the beat of the bass and drums. Voices rising in anger or exultation. Taking a sad song and making it better. One for the money, two for the show. NOISE. Beautiful, transcendent noise. The sound of gold."
Stay tuned. And get to the bar between sets. Things're gonna get hot...and loud.
JET BLACK BERRIES: Pipes Of Pan
I think (slightly) more people know this act under the name Jet Black Berries, the nom du bop they assumed as their later incarnation. I first knew 'em as New Math, a fascinating combo from Rochester, NY I saw on a bill with The Flashcubes at The Firebarn in 1978. I'm not sure how many times I got to see New Math play; it was at least three times (Firebarn, on campus at Brockport, at Scorgie's in Rochester), probably not more, and certainly not enough. In that short span from '78 into the early '80s, New Math evolved from an energetic punk-fueled pop group into something moodier and broodier. I loved 'em throughout, from the sheer punch of their first single "Die Trying" through the faux ska "Older Women" and into the surly new-wave psych of "They Walk Among You." I believe I still have my New Math Adds Up button. I would buy a New Math CD anthology right now.
"Pipes Of Pan" originally appeared on New Math's 1984 album Gardens. '84 was when New Math became Jet Black Berries. Jet Black Berries' "Pipes Of Pan" was included on a 2010 set called Postmodern Ghosts; I think it's a remake rather than the original New Math track, but it's been so long since I've listened to Gardens that I couldn't state that under oath. Still great, either way.
THE MONKEES: You Bring The Summer
When we first began to hear teaser singles from The Monkees' then-forthcoming new album Good Times! in 2016, my initial mixed reaction to the first single "She Makes Me Laugh" gave way to a full-on embrace of the bouncy and engaging vibe of second single "You Bring The Summer." "Me And Magdalena" followed to seal the deal, the album itself turned out to be nothing short of fantastic, and its bonus tracks complemented a package that was a pure treat for pop fans.
"You Bring The Summer" even turned up playing in the background during an episode of Netflix's Gilmore Girls revival. See, that's how you bring the summer.
JUICE NEWTON: Reason To Believe
This is suddenly my favorite version of Tim Hardin's "Reason To Be Believe," and not just because I think Juice Newton is better-looking than Rod Stewart. Newton's take is less world-weary, less gritty, and that could be seen as criticism, but it's also prettier, and no less resolute. She winds up somewhere between folk and country, with a pop that's polished (in a good way) and confident in the best way.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes
"Only Nixon could go to China. So maybe I'm the only one who can say that Bruce Springsteen's 'Girls In Their Summer Clothes' is The Greatest Record Ever Made." (From my eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! [Volume 1].)
An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. My spin of The Monkees' "You Bring The Summer" gave Dana the divine revelation to follow with his own infinite spin of "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" by Bruce Springsteen.
Understandable.
It is, after all, The Greatest Record Ever Made!
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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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