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.
JILL BROWN: Neverending Song
As fans of pop music, most of us have been enriched by recommendations from friends, family, like-minded enthusiasts, and sundry pundits in print and on the radio. I've for damned sure been the delighted and enlightened beneficiary of many such tips across a span of decades. The DJs who played Badfinger, the rockin' pop journalists who sold me on the Ramones, the convenience store clerk who hipped me to the Selecter, the visionary record store owner who said, You like that? I think you'll like this, too! as he pointed me toward the debut single from the Romantics, the friends who played live albums by James Brown, Otis Redding, the Runaways, and the O'Jays; each of these welcome resources painted an integral part of the picture of my music.
My sister Denise painted some large sections of that picture. Taking me to see A Hard Day's Night at the drive-in theater in 1964. Insisting that I watch The Monkees in 1966. Retroactively directing me back toward the Kinks in 1976. My sister looms large in my legend.
Denise's most recent heads-up was "Neverending Song," a current single by her friend and coworker Jill Brown. So I listened. SOLD! The track's vocal melody has a structural similarity to some of Adele's stuff, but overall it's much closer in style to the classic and invigorating rockin' pop sound that informs our little mutant radio show. A new favorite! Much obliged, sis.
Again.
THE DAZZ BAND: Let It Whip
AM Top 40 was my lifeline throughout my formative years, the soundtrack of my adolescence and early-to-mid teens in the 1970s. When I was, I dunno, sixteen or so, I started listening to more oldies, and also started opening myself up to freer-form FM radio. My interest in Top 40 plummeted, yet I held on to a cherished vision of what I thought pop radio should be.
I returned to Top 40 radio in the '80s; never exclusively, supplemented by signals from the left of the dial, but in earnest. I liked some of what I was hearing, from Tracey Ullman to the Commodores to UB40, Prince, Wham!, and more. My Top 40 experience migrated from AM to FM. It was the last time I had any real interest in what was playing in a contemporary hits format.
The Dazz Band's 1982 smash "Let It Whip" was a tangent to that environment, on the radio a bit prior to my renewal of interest in Top 40, still connected to my overall embrace of '80s pop. I've lost interest in a lot of '80s stuff, much of which now sounds too slick and synthetic for my taste. I still like this one. Let it whip.
DEVO: Whip It
Sometimes the proper segue of one song to another is so irresistible that we don't care how obvious that segue is. Like, we don't care at all. Dana played Dionne Warwick singing "Walk On By" in German, which compelled me to follow with the Beatles' moptopped goose-step through "Komm, Gib Meir Deine Hand." Jawohl. And when I played the Dazz Band's above-mentioned "Let It Whip," Dana knew Devo's new wave stalwart "Whip It" had to be next. Had to be. We answer to a higher power. Thou shalt whip it. Thou shalt whip it good.
WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss
Like your Dana and your Carl, Wendi Dunlap recalls hearing Devo and the Dazz Band on the radio in the '80s. She also appreciates hearing her own captivating new music played alongside those familiar treats on TIRnRR. This week marks her third consecutive appearance on the playlist, and the second week in a row for her song "Season Of Loss." As she heard it on the air this week, she wrote to us, "I think this is the power-poppiest song on the album." We agree! That album is Looking For Buildings, and it will be represented on our playlist again next week, too. Because after all: We play the hits.
Wendi also responded to this week's hype (which had promised a superheroic show) with an offer to send us a picture of her dressed as Triplicate Girl from the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Never underestimate the girls (and boys) of the 30th century. Comics and pop music? Wendi Dunlap is our kinda people.
THE GRIP WEEDS: I Wonder
We've been leaning full-tilt into the Grip Weeds' new covers album DiG, and it was only a matter of time before we got to their cover of "I Wonder." The Gants' original '60s nugget is an all-time TIRnRR Fave Rave, and my God, the Grip Weeds manage a superlative rendition that honors the Gants yet still makes the song their own. Not sure yet, but I think the Grip Weeds will be represented on the year-end countdown of our most-played tracks this year. I can state with some certainty that we intend to include a track by the Grip Weeds in our blowout observation of 30 YEARS OF DANA & CARL on January 16th. Grip Weeds fans? Yeah, we're Grip Weeds fans.
GENERAL JOHNSON AND THE CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD: Carolina Girls
Man, I wish they all could be Carolina girls. I mean that solely in the rhetorical sense. And honestly, I half-expected this tune to be a beach-music cover of the Beach Boys' "California Girls" with the titular babe preference relocated. Heh. I said titular. But no, it's an original from 1980, recorded by beach music legends General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board, providing tasty music to shag to.
(Shag is a dance, by the way. Though I guess its other meaning could apply, too.)
The song actually comes to TIRnRR courtesy of a New York girl, my lovely wife Brenda. Brenda found an incomplete copy of The Beach Music Anthology Box Set in a discard pile at her workplace, said to herself, I betcha Carl might want this, and brought the beach home to me. The rest of the girls can be from the rest of the places. This boy's happy he has his New York girl.
JOHNNY KIDD AND THE PIRATES: Please Don't Touch
It's been a big week for the Beatles, with the on-demand release of the fantastic three-part documentary Get Back on Disney +. I've only had the chance to watch Part 1 thus far, but it's been so, so good--it passes the audition!--and I look forward to seeing the rest of it.
Nonetheless, it's important to note that essential rock 'n' roll existed before the Beatles, and has continued to exist after the Beatles. The Beatles weren't even the first incredible British rock combo. The Shadows were huge in the U. K., deservedly so. Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were also superb, and they gave the world the original version of "Shakin' All Over," a song well-known via subsequent covers by the Guess Who and the Who (the latter on Live At Leeds). Kidd split from the Pirates in the mid '60s, and was killed in a car accident in 1966.
1960's "Shakin' All Over" is great. 1963's "I'll Never Get Over You" shows Kidd and the Pirates could have been part of the British Invasion. My favorite is the group's debut single from 1959, "Please Don't Touch," a boppin' little number also covered in 1980 by Headgirl, the combined (and loud) forces of Girlschool and Motorhead. We've been playing the Headgirl track a bit this year, and this week we dug out the Pirates' original to spin as half of a two-fer with the Headgirl lads and lasses.
IRENE PEÑA: Nothing To Do With You
And now we've reached the title track. America's Sweetheart Irene Peña has been observing a year-long celebration marking the tenth anniversary of her debut album Nothing To Do With You, releasing each of its eleven songs, one at a time, as digital singles. The tenth single is "Nothing To Do With You," of course it's great, and if you don't already plan to get it, we must humbly ask what the actual...um, never mind. We were ourselves latecomers to the splendor of Irene's music (a story told here), and I presume (and hope!) Big Stir Records will be reissuing the complete Nothing To Do With You in physical form ASAP. Which still isn't fast enough. Meanwhile, we have the singles, we're playing them, and we're diggin' em. The sweetheart revolution! It has everything to do with you. Join us already.
SPYGENIUS: Step Inside Love
I was going to play Spygenius' cover of Cilla Black's "Step Inside Love" anyway, but when Dana played a track by our Cilla herself (backed by the Sounds Incorporated for a take on Junior Walker's "Shotgun"), the choice became imperative. "Step Inside Love" was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (though it sounds to me like it was just Paul). It wasn't a hit on these shores, but I've always liked it, and Spygenius treats the song with the respect it deserves. Another fab track from their freshly-released album Spygenius Blow Their Covers.
SQUIRE: The Life
I can't testify to this in a court of law, but I think I first heard of phenomenal British pop combo Squire in the pages of Goldmine, from my friend and fellow pundit John M. Borack. A (very!) used copy of Squire's 1983 ...Get Smart! LP was one of my last-ever purchases at the best little record store that ever was, Brockport's Main Street Records. Main Street was run by Bill Yerger, the "visionary record store owner" referenced in the Jill Brown entry up top. I snagged the Squire album in 1988 on my final visit to that beloved little record store. Bill didn't specifically mention Squire to me, but John Borack's written recommendation was sufficient to place that second-hand Squire record into the small stack of records I bought at Main Street that day.
"The Life" is the opening track on ...Get Smart!, and it was my immediate and still prevailing favorite among Squire's work. Thanks for the heads-up, John. That copy of ...Get Smart! is long gone now, replaced years ago by a Squire CD best-of. The artifact fades. The sound--and the memory--remain in place. That's the life.
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