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.
For this week's epic July 4th blowout, we presented a countdown of TIRnRR's 55 all-time most played artists, with each artist's all-time # 1 most-played track. Thanks again to the mighty Fritz Van Leaven for programming the countdown. And in the spirit of the countdown, we'll have three editions of 10 Songs this week, celebrating our 30 most-played acts with their most-played songs. As befits a greatest-hits revue, most of the individual song entries have been seen before on this blog, with maybe a couple of previously-unreleased selections as needed.
You can read part one of this trilogy here. This second of this week's three celebratory 10 Songs begins with the second of two acts tied at # 20 among our most-played artists.
20 [tie]. THE JAM: In The City
In the summer of 1978, as I tried to reassemble my own scattered pieces after a tumultuous freshman year in college, I got a job at Penn-Can Mall. I was a part-time morning maintenance man--i.e., a janitor--at Sears, part of a mostly-young crew that cleaned the store each AM prior to the start of the business day. My friend Tom was on the crew, and he helped me get the job to begin with. Money in my pocket. I could go out, see bands, try to be better.
Great. Fine. Worthy goals! But let's not forget the reason God created cash in the first place: I could buy records.
I still tried to stay within a reasonable budget. But c'mon, I now worked under the same big ol' roof as a Gerber Music store! I wouldn't and couldn't resist the allure of import 45s at Gerber. My preferred rock magazines--Bomp!, Trouser Press, and CREEM--gave me an information pipeline to some of what was out there. I read about the U.K. punk/power pop group Generation X, and snapped up their "Ready Steady Go" and "Your Generation" singles at Gerber. I may have gotten my red-vinyl 45 of the Rich Kids' "Rich Kids" and/or the single of Rich Kids bassist Glen Matlock's former group the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" on one of my frequent Penn-Can Sears-to-Gerber beelines. Beyond punk, the sight of George Thorogood and the Destroyers on TV's Midnight Special prompted a cash transaction at Gerber to secure my copy of the "Move It On Over"/"It Wasn't Me" single. I also bought teen pop star Shaun Cassidy's hit single "Hey Deanie" and local group the Alligators' "I Try And I Try." My main interests were rock 'n' roll, punk, new wave, and (especially) power pop. But I wasn't strict. If I liked something, I liked it.
My specific interest in power pop was stoked by Bomp! magazine, which had published a special power pop issue earlier in '78. Gospel to me. And it turned out Syracuse combo the Flashcubes' idea of punk kinda dovetailed with a power-pop approach, evidenced by their original songs and their chosen covers, of acts like the Kinks, the Raspberries, Big Star, Badfinger, the Hollies, and the early Who alongside your prerequisite punks the Sex Pistols. Their originals were fantastic, and they had excellent taste in covers.
And they covered the Jam, a great new British group that came out of punk but were clearly and proudly beholden to the model of '60s Mod, particularly the Who. The Flashcubes covered at least three of the Jam's many fine tunes: "The Modern World," "In The City," and "I Need You (For Someone)." Following my own weird introduction to the Jam's music, my fascination with them had grown by leaps and bounds. I bought the Jam's U.S. single of "I Need You (For Someone)"/"In The City" while away at school, and dutifully trekked to Gerber after Sears shifts that summer to snag import 45s of "The Modern World" and "All Around The World."
Years later, my wife Brenda and I were watching a collection of Jam videos. As the image showed the lads slamming their way through "In The City" in 1977, Brenda remarked, "They remind me of the Flashcubes." As well they should. Pop with power. In the city there's a thousand things I wanna say to you.
19. THE SMALL FACES: Tin Soldier
The Jam were also influenced by '60s Brits the Small Faces, whom the Who's Pete Townshend cited along with the Beach Boys and his own group of guitar-smashers when he coined the phrase "power pop" in 1967. "Tin Soldier" isn't in the same power-pop landscape as earlier Small Faces tracks like "All Or Nothing" or "Sha-La-La-La-Lee" or "Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It," which were 1965-66 Decca Records singles. With the group moved to the Immediate label, 1967's "Tin Soldier" is headier, less overtly pop, a follow-up to their we'll-get-HIGH! anthem "Itchykoo Park," the sound of a group on its way to Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.
18. DAVID BOWIE: Queen Bitch
When Dana and I were guests on The Spoon in May, I mentioned how the death of David Bowie in 2016 somehow compelled me to start a daily blog, a foolish commitment that has nonetheless never missed a day yet. Hosts Robbie Rist, Chris Jackson, and Thom Bowers joked that they'd be worried if each daily blog post was still about Bowie, but while there'd certainly plenty to worry about where I'm concerned, I actually did just the one, and then one updated version of it. The vast majority of Bowie's TIRnRR airplay has been courtesy of Dana, including our # 1 Bowie track "Queen Bitch," from Bowie At The Beeb.
17. ASTROPUPPEES: Over Her Head
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has been happily aboard the Kelley Ryan bandwagon since 2001, when Kelley (then recording under the boppin' dba astroPuppees) placed a track on Shoe Fetish, a fabulous tribute to the pop group Shoes. We began to correspond with Kelley, and astroPuppees' first TIRnRR spin was from Shoe Fetish, a cover of Shoes' "The Tube." Soon thereafter, we started playing a song called "Don't Be" (from astroPuppees' 1996 album You Win The Bride), which I recalled hearing in the 1997 TV movie Friends 'Til The End. Friends 'Til The End was a movie I originally wanted to see because our pals Cockeyed Ghost made a don't-BLINK! cameo appearance. And in the film, actress Shannen Doherty lip-syncs to a made-for-TV cover of astroPuppees' "Don't Be."
We've gone on to play many, many more astroPuppees and Kelley Ryan tracks many, many times over the course of these last two decades. Her current single "The Church Of Laundry" is a shoo-in for 2021's year-end countdown. And "Over Her Head," the lead-off track from astroPuppees' 2001 album Little Chick Tsunami, remains Kelley's biggest TIRnRR hit among her many TIRnRR hits.
16. THE PRETENDERS: Talk Of The Town
In the '70s and '80s (and still sporadically since then), it wasn't at all unusual for me to read about an artist well before I heard any bit of their music. I read about the Pretenders (probably in Trouser Press), and I was intrigued about news of this four-piece, with female lead, whose first single was produced by Nick Lowe. Oh, and that first single was a Kinks cover, "Stop Your Sobbing," so the rock rags had done their due diligence in attracting my interest in these Pretenders. I missed seeing "Stop Your Sobbing" on retail racks, but snapped up the Pretenders' second single "Kid" at first opportunity.
And...I didn't like it.
I mean, not at first. Can't explain the why or why not. I got fully on board by the time debut LP Pretenders hit the shops, and I was a full-on Pretenders fan in short order. Saw 'em live at Syracuse nightclub Uncle Sam's in 1980, with opening act the Necessaries (featuring guitar god Chris Spedding!). Great show, though one of my principle memories of it is watching Chrissie Hynde on-stage as she told a concert-goer to hit the road. "You! OUT!!" Talk of the town.
"Talk Of The Town" wasn't on that debut album, though most of us owned it subsequently as part of the Extended Play EP the Pretenders released in '81, a stopgap between Pretenders and Pretenders II. Pretenders II reprised "Talk Of The Town" and its EP comrade "Message Of Love," but the rock magazines declared the album a step down from the debut. And who were we to disagree? The original quartet disintegrated after that, and drug use killed bassist Pete Farndon and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott. Drummer Martin Chambers returned with Hynde for 1984's Learning To Crawl.
15. SEX CLARK FIVE: Fool I Was
Huntsville, Alabama's phenomenal pop combo Sex Clark Five began their reign of quirky brilliance in the ‘80s, commencing with 1987’s Strum & Drum! album. Masters of short songs with unconventional titles (e.g., “Too Much Mongol Business,” “The Men Who Didn’t Know Ice,” “The Wreck Of The Ella Fitzgerald”) and hook piled upon hook piled upon hook, they have remained consistent purveyors of intelligent, catchy pop tunes that are utterly, uniquely Sex Clark Five. They continue unabated today. "Fool I Was" is my top SC5 pick, and one of TIRnRR's defining tracks.
14. PAUL McCARTNEY: Maybe I'm Amazed
My favorite Paul McCartney solo track. "Maybe I'm Amazed" is the equal of anything the Beatles did from 1967 on, fully worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the best of Abbey Road, and better than anything on Let It Be (and I do like Let It Be, honest!).
13. THE SPONGETONES: (My Girl) Maryanne
Where and from whom did I first hear about the Spongetones? My gut and aging memory both claim I learned about the fabulous 'Tones online from my friend Greg Ogarrio in the early '90s. Greg was among a handful of power pop pals I met via Prodigy, an online service that flourished briefly and then disappeared entirely. Prodigy was my introduction to the wonder of the internet, and it was through Prodigy's auspices that I found myself within a small pop community, talking about things like Big Star and the Raspberries, trading mix tapes, and trying to turn new friends on to personal fave raves. I introduced Greg to the music of the Flashcubes. Greg introduced me to the music of the Spongetones. We both did pretty well in that exchange.
"(My Girl) Maryanne" is a Steve Stoeckel composition from the group's 1984 EP Torn Apart. Its matrix was crafted in Liverpool, a root design shared by the Knickerbockers, Utopia, and all things Fab, assembled with justifiable pride in the U.S.A. The influence is evident and eager, yet more than mere imitation, in the same sense that the Beatles' "Thank You, Girl" was more than a mere imitation of the Isley Brothers. It's something new.
And it's irresistible. The guitars combust, the harmonies sail, the beat and the music surge, and the singer expresses his own giddy delight in the rat-a-tat sound of his chatty lover's extended soliloquy. Pop songs that complain about a woman who talks too much are a dime a dozen; in "(My Girl) Maryanne," Maryanne has a lot to say, and not enough minutes in the day. Our hero hangs on each syllable, reveling in the reward of how every word makes him love her more. YES! The word is love. And that love is as pure as the pop music we adore. Keep talking, Maryanne.
12. THE HOLLIES: I Can't Let Go
Oh I try and I try but I can't say GOODBYE!
A perfect pop record. There has never been a more exquisitely constructed pop single than "I Can't Let Go" by the Hollies. It aches with longing, apprehension, and anticipation, soars with possibility, teases a promise of redemption, and hints at a hope that maybe--just maybe--we might actually get the girl when all is said and sung. Harmonies. Guitars! Love. A perfect pop record? That's selling it short.
There was a three-year span on TIRnRR where I decided I wanted to pursue some long-form programming gimmick throughout the course of a year. In 2009, we did The 50 KISS Strategy, which was a promise to play 50 different KISS tracks between New Year's Day and New Year's Eve. We dedicated 2011 to 301 Songs About 301 Girls, a very well-received effort to play a whole bunch of songs with girls' names in the title.
In between KISS and the girls, 2010 brought us The Hundred Hollies Initiative. We announced the gimmick with the playlist for our 1/10/2010 show:
Beginning with our spotlight on the Hollies last week, we have made a solemn vow to play 100 different Hollies tracks on TIRnRR before the end of 2010. A daunting task? You betcha! But the Hollies have a lot of terrific tracks to choose from, so we should be equal to the task. Besides, the price of failure is too terrible to consider: if we fail in our effort to play 100 different Hollies tracks this year, our penance will be to play something so horrible, so SICKENING that it offends the mind, the heart and the soul. I can barely bring myself to type it, but it must be entered into the public record:
If we play less than 100 different Hollies tracks this year, then we've gotta play "Old Time Rock And Roll" by Bob Seger as our punishment. (Y'know, it's difficult to type while holding one's nose.) But don't worry! We won't let you down! We've played 16 Hollies tracks already, so it's only 84 to go. You can count on us! We hope....
Yeah. We made dead certain to play 101 different Hollies tracks. Just to be sure. And that's part of the reason the Hollies are among our all-time most-played artists.
And here's to the power of radio. Our friend and listener Rich Firestone credits the Hundred Hollies Initiative with rekindling his own interest in the Hollies. Radio's job is to sell records. We were happy to do our part.
11. KISS: Calling Dr. Love
Trying to satisfy the voracious hunger of a daily blog means I'm constantly kicking around ideas that may or may not lead me to write something. One idea I've noted but not yet pursued is called "The Idea Of KISS." That would be about how I have greater affection for KISS as an abstract (if you will) than I have for their actual records or performances. This is not to say that I don't like KISS. KISS was my first rock concert, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will include a chapter on "Shout It Out Loud," I still wear my KISS t-shirt pretty regularly, and I'm always eager to get right back in the face of any punter who dares to question my right to like KISS if I want to like KISS.
But my love of KISS is not on the level of my love of the Beatles, the Ramones, the Monkees, the Kinks, the Flashcubes, or any of dozens of other acts. I have a sporadic blog series called All-Time Top 25, wherein I talk about my 25 favorite tracks by a designated artist. I've published All-Time Top 25s about the Beatles, the Monkees, and Paul McCartney, and I've begun drafts of still more: the Hollies, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones...and KISS. The Stones piece is a placeholder, but I'll have no trouble coming up with a long list of great tracks that I'll need to narrow to a mere 25. The Hollies' short list is currently 28. The Kinks' short list is 48!
With KISS, I only have 20 songs listed, and even a few of those are a stretch. I could do a rock-solid Top 10, and it would include some obscurities as well as some of the more familiar KISS tunes. But my passion for the music of KISS simply doesn't match my interest in the idea of KISS. It's complicated. But I love it loud. And I love "Calling Dr. Love," which would absolutely be in that above-mentioned rock-solid KISS Top 10. It was my first KISS favorite, from my first KISS album (Rock And Roll Over), which my sister Denise gave me as a high school graduation gift in 1977.
I'm used to people rolling their eyes whenever I say something positive about KISS. When that happens, I have a wide variety of two-word replies at the ready, and I usually settle on "Okay, then," because I'm, y'know...polite.
I like KISS. I don't like 'em without reservation, and I don't bother trying to make excuses for bassist Gene Simmons and his frequently boorish behavior. I don't like everything they've done (nor even most of it), but what I like, I like a lot. Call the doctor. The doctor is in.
This 10 Songs trilogy concludes here tomorrow, with TIRnRR's all-time Top 10 most-played artists. Anxious about who edged out KISS to take the # 10 spot? Don't worry, baby.
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