10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday 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 # 1102.
THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: Time Has Come Today
My soul has been psychedelicized. I guess the Ramones' monolithic 1983 cover of "Time Has Come Today" was the first version to really make my brain buzz--I was a huge, huge fan of the Ramones' Subterranean Jungle album--but the Chambers Brothers' incredible 1967 original has become my go-to. TIME! Earlier this year, I picked up both a Chambers Brothers best-of CD and a reissue of their first album The Time Has Come, the latter to get the full-length version of its de facto title track. I doubt we're likely to play that eleven-minute-plus cut much (if ever) on TIRnRR, but the familiar 4:55 single was sufficient to psychedelicize souls on this week's playlist.
THE CHELSEA CURVE: Top It Up
I hate the Chelsea Curve. And by that I mean I love the Chelsea Curve, even as I remain intimidated by their ability to release a compelling new single every freakin' month. Let's face it: they're good, and all radio shows should program the Chelsea Curve. Yeah, even the talk radio shows, ideally in place of the talk. "Top It Up" is yet another rockin' pop triumph in the continuing saga of the Chelsea Curve, and we're gonna keep playing each new Chelsea Curve single for as long as they keep making them. So that "hate" thing is purely rhetorical. How could anyone hate--or even fail to flat-out adore--an act as rock-steadily compelling as the Chelsea Curve? Feel the love, and top it up.
JANILEIGH COHEN: The Blues Run The Game
As I mentioned last week, my wife and I have been watching the TV series This Is Us for the first time, obsessively catching up from the beginning. We're fascinated by the show's storytelling, but a side bonus of watching it has been our belated discovery of the song "The Blues Run The Game." I own the Simon and Garfunkel boxed set Old Friends, so I should have known the song from that resource, but we have no time for should-haves in this fast-paced world of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Brenda and I heard Jackson C. Frank's original 1965 version of "The Blues Run The Game" on one of the early episodes of This Is Us, and found it intriguing. And then we were fully captivated by the aching beauty of Janileigh Cohen's 2017 cover.
CIRCE LINK AND CHRISTIAN NESMITH: Satellite
The intrepid and irresistible duo of Circe Link and Christian Nesmith allowed us the use of their effervescent track "I'm On Your Side" for our compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and the song was our # 1 most-played cut in 2017. I told the story of how we first encountered Circe 'n' Christian back here, and Circe was a Featured Artist on the November 19th 2017 edition of TIRnRR as part of The Magnificent Six alongside the Jam, the Cocktail Slippers, the Easybeats, the Spinners, and the Clash. Guess it's safe to say we're on their side.
That devoted advocacy continues with their brand-new album Cosmologica. Now, a record that bills itself as progressive rock might not seem the ideal match for the bubblepunk rockin' pop likes of TIRnRR, but prog can also be pop if it wants to be pop. "Satellite" provides irrefutable evidence of that.
RADIO BIRDMAN: Aloha Steve And Danno
I purchased Radio Birdman's Radios Appear LP in '78 or maybe '79, when I was in college. The album included the great "Murder City Nights" and the group's cover of the 13th Floor Elevators' psych-punk classic "You're Gonna Miss Me," but I was most drawn to "Aloha Steve And Danno." I mean, I simply had to blast a loud 'n' fast song about TV's Hawaii Five-0, especially when the song incorporated breakneck bits of the original TV show's theme song. And I was particularly taken with the idea of yelling BOOK 'IM DANNO! MURDER ONE! along with my Birdman boys as their record played on the turntable in my dorm room.
Like (I think) most Americans of my era, I had been a fan of Hawaii Five-0 throughout the early and mid '70s, though my interest had dimmed by the time I bought Radios Appear. My lawyer says I don't have to accept blame for the show's cancellation in 1980. When CBS rebooted the series in 2010, my interest was rekindled, and I watched its first few seasons (before that interest dimmed again). As a side note, I thought it was interesting that the reboot did a gender recast of the role of Kono, originally played the late actor Zulu, and then played in this shiny 21st century by actress Grace Park.
No offense to Zulu, but yeah: upgrade. BOOK 'IM DANNO! MURDER ONE...!
THE SHANG HI LOS: Plymouth Rock
Face front, pilgrim. Boston's phenomenal pop combo (and TIRnRR Fave Raves) the Shang Hi Los return to stuff your bird with an invigmoratin' new single. You'd better be thankful!
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Radio Nowhere
My favorite Bruce Springsteen album is his 2007 work Magic. This choice may seem deliberately iconoclastic, or even mere clickbait, but I come in peace. I respect Springsteen and his accomplishments, and I certainly don't dislike (most of) his records. But nor do I share the passion for the Boss that many of my peers feel. Dig what you dig.
On the other hand, much of Magic has a shimmery and confident pop essence I don't hear in other Springsteen albums. I think I read somewhere that Springsteen had been listening to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds when he was making Magic, and if that's not true, it should be. Magic includes "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," which is not only far and away my all-time top Springsteen track, it's also The Greatest Record Ever Made!
Credit longtime TIRnRR pal Dave Murray for introducing me to this album (even though he thinks I'm nuts for preferring Magic to, say, Born To Run or The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle). And that introduction began with the album's first single, "Radio Nowhere." Is there anybody alive out there? Ethereal and, yes, magic. Your magic may vary. Me? I just wanna hear some rhythm. Radio can be magic that way.
SPYGENIUS: Queen Of Eyes
I'm not sure how or why, but I think I completely missed the music of the Soft Boys when the late '70s and early '80s were still, y'know, actually happening all around me. The group's 1980 album Underwater Moonlight woulda been a prime candidate for one of my favorite records of that whole decade, if only I'd heard it at the time. Oh, woe is me!
But I caught up with Underwater Moonlight in my own time, first with the astounding "I Wanna Destroy You" and then with the album itself, particularly the title track and "Queen Of Eyes."
Now, UK believers Spygenius pay tribute with an ace rendition of "Queen Of Eyes" as the first single from their new Big Stir Records covers album Spygenius Blow Their Covers. The album deserves special recognition for a visionary medley combining Traffic's "Paper Sun" with the Monkees' "Love Is Only Sleeping," and deep dives into the Squeeze, Gene Clark, Buffalo Springfield, and Cilla Black catalogs (among others) demonstrate that Spygenius do not blow their covers. Nope, not at all.
THE WELL WISHERS: Let's Drive
We opened this week's radio extravaganza with "Let's Drive" by the Well Wishers, a track from the WWs' new digital collection Spare Parts. The Well Wishers are, were, was, and am Jeff Shelton, whose reliable pop sounds have been heard here under his various noms du bop (from Spinning Jennies through Hot Nun and Deadlights, and all points sideways) since we started this TIRnRR thing more'n twenty years ago. My all-time favorite Shelton work is the Well Wishers' "See For The First Time," and there've been a ton of other superb Shelton sides over the decades. "Let's Drive" is among his best.
And its title suggests a link with my favorite place to hear music. Here's a section about that from a book I've been writing:
"I listen to music while I'm driving. The car is my favorite place to listen to music; it's also frequently almost my only place to listen to music, but it's not merely my favorite by default. As a former pop journalist, I should try to propagate an image of sophistication and deliberation, retiring to my study, brandy in hand, intent on contemplating the splendor of a virgin vinyl Pet Sounds played through a 5.1 surround stereo system that cost more than I made in twenty years of freelancing for Goldmine. And...no. To be fair, there are decent meals that cost more than I made freelancing for Goldmine, but that's irrelevant. Pop music was meant to be listened to on cheap speakers, loud and distorted, as you're movin' down the highway at 500 miles an hour.
"(This example is intended as hyperbole. Always obey posted speed limits, even when the Ramones are on.)..."...Still: music in the car. Irreplaceable. Windows down (or air conditioner up) in the summer, snow tires barreling forward in the winter, the music turned up LOUD. It's a solitary experience, a communion; it's not quite the same when there's a passenger. When the Monkees released the digital single "She Makes Me Laugh," the first tease from the 2016 album Good Times!, I was disappointed with it...until I listened to it in the car. Then I got it, and I loved it. Pop music is made for the car. Driving in nearly any weather, give me my tunes, and I'll get there. The wind, the rain, the sun, and the snow are no match for the power of my music. Sunglasses on. Car stereo on. Let's go."
Yeah, let's go. The Well Wishers have a soundtrack for us to begin the trek.
THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance
Well...do you? If so, you've come to the right place.
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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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