This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1118

Clever words go here. Words of comfort, words of camaraderie, words of humor or empathy or commiseration, words of distraction when distraction is warranted, sober words when we shouldn't allow ourselves the luxury of distraction.

This is where the words go. In the moment, I don't feel like writing the words. I do feel like hearing some music. Wanna join? Happy to have you with us. Comfort and camaraderie, humor and empathy, commiseration and distraction. Words will follow when they can. This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on a Sunday night in Syracuse this week.

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 all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). 

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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
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You can follow Carl's daily blog Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) at 
https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/

TIRnRR # 1118: 2/27/2022

TIRnRR FRESH SPINS! Tracks we think we ain't played before are listed in bold

THE RAMONES: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? (Rhino, End Of The Century)

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EYTAN MIRSKY: Conversation (Mirsky Mouse, Songs About Girls [& Other Painful Subjects]) [in memory of CHRIS GARGES]

ANNY CELSI: Tangle-Free World (Ragazza, Tangle Free World)

POP CO-OP: Persistence Of Memory (Futureman, Factory Settings)

SQUEEZE: Is That Love (A & M, The Squeeze Story)

ROTARY CONNECTION: Love Me Now (Chess, Black Gold: The Very Best Of Rotary Connection)

THE GRIP WEEDS: Lady Friend (Jem, Dig)

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ANTON BARBEAU: Rain, Rain (Big Stir, single)

LET'S ACTIVE: In Little Ways (Collectors' Choice Music, Big Plans For Everybody)

GEORGE HARRISON: I Don't Want To Do It (Varese Sarabande, VA: Porky's Revenge! OST)

PARQUET COURTS: Stoned And Starving (What's Your Rupture?, Light Up Gold)

THE SELECTER: On My Radio (Greatest Hits)

GENERATIONALS: Spinoza (Polyvinyl, Heza)

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ALLAN KAPLON: Every Single Day (n/a, Notes On A Napkin)

THE VAGRANTS: Oh Those Eyes (Arista, The Great Lost Album)

KISS: Strutter (Mercury, KISS)

FUZZBOX: Rockin' With Rita (Head To Toe) (Warner Music, Look At The Hits On That!!)

THE BEATLES: Lovely Rita (Apple, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)

THE VAPORS: Waiting For The Weekend [rough mix] (Cherry Red, Waiting For The Weekend)

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SCOTT ROBERTSON: Hours Feel Like Minutes (Futureman, Physical Education)

THE CHECKERED HEARTS: My Best Friend's Girl (Die Laughing, Joystick)

THE FOUR TOPS: Baby I Need Your Loving (Motown, The Ultimate Collection)

THEE OH SEES: No Spell (Castle Face, Floating Coffin)

STEVIE WONDER: Uptight (Everything's Alright) (Motown, VA: Hitsville USA)

CROSBY, STILLS & NASH: Long Time Gone (Atlantic, Croby, Stills & Nash)

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THE MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS: Criss-Cross, Mermaid Or Mountain (single)

ADDISON LOVE: Wee And Nancy Lee (Big Stir, Thoughts On Lunch?)

CAROLYNE MAS: In The Rain (Savage Juliet, Beyond Mercury)

THE PRETTY THINGS: Midnight To Six Man (Fontana, Get A Buzz)

IRENE PEÑA: In This Room (Big Stir, single)

MAKAR: I'm Glad (n/a, Fancy Hercules)

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CHUCK BERRY: Johnny B. Goode (MCA, The Anthology)

WALTER LURE & THE RAMONES: Street Fighting Man (Jungle, JOHNNY THUNDERS & THE HEARTBEAKERS: Down To Kill)

THE 5TH DIMENSION: Go Where You Wanna Go (Arista, Ultimate)

THE DICTATORS: Baby Let's Twist [live] (MOJO, VA: 1-2-3-4!)

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Twist And Shout (Epic, The Essential Isley Brothers)

TELEVISION: Venus De Milo [live] (MOJO, VA: 1-2-3-4!)

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THE KINKS: You Really Got Me (Sanctuary, The Anthology 1964-1971)

LULU: The Boat That I Row (Rhino, From Crayons To Perfume)

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING SHOES: Tomorrow Night (Big Stir, single)

THE LINDA LINDAS: Oh! (Epitaph, Growing Up)

THE DONNAS: Living After Midnight (Lookout!, Turn 21)

LES HANDCLAPS: Trop Tard (Handclaps, Sessions: Brooklyn)

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COKE BELDA: I Can't Make It (Kool Kat Musik, Coke Belda 6: My Tribute To Los Brincos)

THE HEARTBREAKERS: Blank Generation [version 2] (Clepatra, Yonkers Demo + Live 1975/1976)

TEGAN & SARA: Walking With A Ghost (Sire, So Jealous)

JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS: 3 Small Words (Play-Tone, VA: Josie & the Pussycats OST)

THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: So Much In Love (Grown Up Wrong, Between The Lines)

WRECKLESS ERIC: Crying, Waiting, Hoping (Salvo, Hits, Misses, Rags & Tatters)

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SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES: The Tears Of A Clown (Motown, VA: Hitsville USA)

THE JAM: David Watts (Polydor, Direction Reaction Creation)

RICHIE MAYER: Don't Say Nothing (Kool Kat Musik, The Inn Of Temporary Happiness)

THE JAYHAWKS: She Walks In So Many Ways (Rounder, Mockingbird Time)

WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss (Futureman, Looking For Buildings)

JIGSAW: Who Do You Think You Are (Renaissance, Anthology)

WILSON PICKETT: In The Midnight Hour (Rhino, A Man And A Half)

THE MIGHTY LEMON DROPS: Inside Out (Sire, World Without End)

--

RAY CHARLES: Hit The Road Jack (Castle, The Collection)

Tonight On THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

Our earnest and amiable attempt to distract you from more important things includes new music from ANTON BARBEAU, THE MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS, COKE BELDA, and SCOTT ROBERTSON, and more loud sounds from CHUCK BERRY, FUZZBOX, THE CHECKERED HEARTS, THE FOUR TOPS, RICHIE MAYER, THE DONNAS, THE PRETTY THINGS, and more. It starts with a farewell to the late, great CHRIS GARGES, reaching back to the album that introduced Dana & Carl to the percussive talents of Mr. Garges. Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, http://sparksyracuse.org/

POP-A-LOOZA: I'm At BAT!

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a fun little baseball-related trifle I call "I'm At BAT!"

The baseball connection in this piece is purely a convenience, an excuse to string together an amusement for your reading pleasure. I'm no longer much of a baseball fan, but I've also written a piece called "Diamond Are Forever," a chronicle of when I followed baseball in general and the New York Yankees in particular. I first became interested in baseball when I was in fourth grade--the same time I became interested in both Big Little Books and nude models in Playboy  magazine--and that story was a small part of my 1960s autobiography Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio. My larger interest in sports (especially Syracuse University men's basketball) was discussed here.

But today, still a little bit of a ways away from opening day, we turn to a baseball fantasy called "I'm At BAT!" It's the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: America

This was intended for my long-threatened (and now probably stillborn) book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). If the book does somehow find a path forward, this may or may not be part of it. If there ever is an "it." 

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

RITA MORENO, GEORGE CHAKIRIS, SHARKS & GIRLS: America

Written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim
Produced by Didier Deutsch
From the soundtrack album West Side Story, Columbia Records, 1961

There can be a great temptation to think of our own stories as tragedies. It would certainly be easy to do so. Thank God we have music to help us navigate that notion.

I grew up in a home filled with music. My parents loved music, my sister and brothers loved music, and I saw no reason to rebel against that. Of course I love music; how could I not?

My siblings provided a portal to some of the then-contemporary sounds of the 1960s, from Gene Pitney and Ricky Nelson to the Beach Boys and the Dave Clark Five, and more. My Dad favored what he called pre-Pearl Harbor music. My Mom loved Dixieland, swing,  Frank Sinatra, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, among many others. And, of course, Mom loved Broadway.

That love was passed on to me. Original Broadway Cast LPs of everything from Carnival  to Gypsy were as much a part of my vinyl upbringing as Beatles '65 and my T-Bones 45. I heard it all. I absorbed it all. An appreciation of music--on any level--is one of the great gifts we can give our children. It's something my wife and I were able to bestow upon our daughter. It doesn't matter that Meghan's taste sometimes diverges from ours, just as my devotion to rock 'n' roll diverged from a lot of what my Mom liked. That's okay. Again and again and again: we dig what we dig. As long as we dig something, the beat goes on.

The beat needs to go on.

My love of Broadway did endure, and it is actually an interest I'm able to share with my wife and daughter. It's an interest first developed within me by my Mom. By Mom's Broadway records. By Mom dragging me to see local productions of Anything Goes and Dames At Sea and my cousin Maryann in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. By Mom providing access to a world of wonder, and providing it incidentally. It wasn't planned. It just was.

When I was little, my preferred show album was actually the movie soundtrack from West Side Story. I didn't understand its urban milieu, social commentary, and Romeo and Juliet  storyline until many years later; I dug the tunes right then and there. "Gee, Officer Krupke" was my favorite, but I loved the song "America" nearly as much, and the latter has stayed with me ever since. I like to be in America. Okay by me in America. Everything free in America.

For a small fee in America.

Sometimes the price of living seems too high. We pay to the best of our ability, and we move ahead with whatever rhythm we can muster. It hurts. Man, it just hurts, and I can't write anything that will make it hurt any less. On New Year's Eve of 2021, the same month that I lost both Mom and my Uncle Carl, I burst into tears as my TV showed the ball dropping at midnight. I sobbed and muttered, "Good fucking riddance, 2021." 

The language would have bothered Mom. Heh. I remember that she was bothered by some of the language used in West Side Story, and she warned my young self not to repeat some of the words heard therein. I hope she understands now, and forgives me from across the veil that separates the mortal from the mystic. 

I know she forgives me. I know she's proud of me. Look, Mom: I wrote a book. And it's all about the gift you gave me, the evergreen gift that is a love of music. There's a place for us. For all of us, in America and everywhere else. Let the music play. Let the beat go on. Life can be bright in America. If you can fight in America.

We can fight, and we can win, at least in the short term. The tragedies will come, and survival is not assured. The short term is better than nothing. I'll meet you at the dance, my friends. A star-crossed love is still a love, and love is worth fighting for. 

Even in America. Especially in America.

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 2/24/2022

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 # 1117.

WRECKLESS ERIC: Whole Wide World

A classic gets its due! Or at least a payday, we hope. Wreckless Eric's new wave pop perennial "Whole Wide World" (aka "[I'd Go The] Whole Wide World") was first released in 1977. I didn't hear it until at least '79, on a fantastic various-artists soundtrack LP called That Summer! But it was a fave rave for me from that point on.

And I just figured everyone knew the track. How could they not? I always presumed it was a British hit, though I'm told it didn't actually chart. Shoulda. The Monkees covered it in 1987, and I was surprised to discover that many Monkees fans thought it was written for Micky, Davy, and Peter (not Mike; Michael Nesmith did not participate in the reunited Monkees' 1980s recordings). Even as a proud Monkees fan, I say Wreckless Eric's original version remains definitive.

And we're delighted that the track got a little bit of exposure on this year's Super Bowl. The song appeared at the climax of an Expedia commercial aired during the big game, prompting Eric to note, "A song I wrote, a record I made...just aired to somewhere in the region of 150 million people. I'm thrilled to bits and not a little scared, and right now I'm just a dot in the universe."

And in 2022, that dot has gone the whole wide world. A hit? It is now. But I say it always was.

PAUL DAVIE: Grow Old With Me

Local musician and promoter Paul Davie--you know him, you love him, you can't have a BeatleCuse without him--has just released his first solo album, Half And Half. Writer John Tierney has already pounded the console on behalf of Paul's record, and we played its opening track "Kiss Me Softly" a few weeks back. Half And Half is a not-quite 50-50 split of four covers (of the Rolling Stones, the Pretenders, Leonard Cohen, and the Alan Parsons Project) and six Davie originals, with a lovely cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old With Me" serving as a closing bonus track. Our Paul gets by with a little help from his friends, and he enlists none other than Joey Molland of Badfinger to lend a little help on "Grow Old With Me." See, that's the sort of friend to have. And growing older doesn't mean we have to grow up.

DOLPH CHANEY: I Wanted You

Offered here as evidence that TIRnRR can play a Dolph Chaney song that isn't "My Good Twin." Like a dog with a bone, we often become fixated on a single song by a given artist, playing that Chosen One over 'n' over with the manic fervor of...y'know, us. From Dolph's album This Is Dolph Chaney, "My Good Twin" was TIRnRR's # 3 most-played track in 2021, surpassed in our breathless thrall only by Kid Gulliver's "Forget About Him" and Kelley Ryan's "The Church Of Laundry." Listen, man: obsession is its own reward. 

Nonetheless, we broadened our righteous myopia to play a different Dolph Chaney number this week. Like "My Good Twin," "I Wanted You" also comes from This Is Dolph Chaney, and is also great. Will this be the start of a new beautiful obsession? Ya never know with us. We never know with us.

THE FOUR TOPS: If I Were A Carpenter

We've touched on the appeal of repeating certain songs from week to week. The process of assembling selections for each TIRnRR playlist also generally involves Dana and I separately trying to think of some cool songs we've never played before. We like to have new stuff, of course, and we also like to dig out older tracks, searching for worthy sides from artists both obscure and familiar. I've always loved Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter" in performances by a few different artists (particularly the familiar hit by Bobby Darin). It's possible I'd heard the Four Tops' compelling performance of "If I Were A Carpenter" prior to February of 2022, but I stumbled across the track while looking for something else last week. Magic. The Four Tops' "If I Were A Carpenter" is now THE "If I Were A Carpenter" for me.

LED ZEPPELIN: Good Times Bad Times

Is TIRnRR the only avowedly rock 'n' roll radio show where a spin of Led Zeppelin can be viewed by listeners as a radical departure from the expected? Probably not. But while we've certainly played the occasional Zep track in the past, der Zeppenwülff is hardly a staple of whatever it is we do. I've written elsewhere of my love-hate (or really sorta like-don't give a damn) relationship with Led Zeppelin:

"I was never much of a Led Zeppelin fan; they were just there, everywhere, like inflation or TV sitcoms or halter tops, symptoms of my 1970s. (I was, incidentally, in favor of halter tops.) In the days of my youth, there were good Led Zep times, and there were bad Led Zep times. Sometimes I liked them, sometimes I didn't. And some times I thought there okay, but that I just really didn't need to hear them anymore. Good times, bad times, I know I had my share.

"It's not a band's fault when their music gets overplayed. I can't imagine ever getting sick of the Beatles, but I do sort of comprehend the feeling of those who hear 'Yeah Yeah Yeah!' and answer 'No! No! NO!!!' I don't have much affinity for most of the tracks favored by classic rock radio formats; I wonder if I would have retained a greater appreciation of the music of Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Pink Floyd, or later Rolling Stones (each of whom I do like to some degree) or even Lynyrd Skynrd or Eagles (whom I generally do not) if they were all obscurities I discovered in the vinyl underground, rather than ubiquitous fixtures on every stereo except mine."

For all that, Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakout" is part of the blueprint for my long-threatened (and possibly stillborn) book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and a positive passing mention of "Good Times Bad Times" was part of my first attempt at rock journalism when I was 17. Even during the times when I didn't care much about Led Zeppelin, I thought "Good Times Bad Times" was a monster. In a good way.

WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

With this week's spin, Wendi Dunlap's irresistible "Season Of Loss" (from her album Looking For Buildings) is one of TIRnRR's most played tracks in 2022. Given that we're only eight shows into the year, that stat is meaningless in the long run. BUT! I really, really like this song, and you can bet on hearing it reprised in at least some of our upcoming shows. Obsession rewards itself again.

LINNEA'S GARDEN: Looking

The Red On Red Records label has been a reliable resource for new thrills and fresh kicks, and our Red On Red fascination has manifested in a mess o' airplay for Kid Gulliver, Justine and the Unclean, the Chelsea Curve, Andrea Gillis, Cold Expectations, and other stars of the Red On Red galaxy. 

Linnea's Garden is for damned sure a part of that galaxy, and new single "Looking" is a pumpin' li'l pressure cooker that somehow manages to gaze at its shoes while heading down the highway to the new wave dance spot across town. Look all you want. But get out of the damed way--Linnea's Garden is comin' through!

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING SHOES: Tomorrow Night

It's a HIT! We like hits. Buy it here.

THE MONKEES: Nine Times Blue

My favorite version of Michael Nesmith's "Nine Times Blue" is an unfinished one, or rather one not properly recorded for commercial release. Before we talk about that, some history of "Nine Times Blue" is in order. It was first recorded (but originally unreleased) a few times under the Monkees aegis, including a version with Davy Jones singing lead, but none of these versions was made public until decades after the fact. One of those missing links Monkees renditions is what we played on this week's show.

The song's first appearance at retail was on The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, a 1968 LP of instrumentals produced by and credited to Nesmith. Nesmith later re-recorded and released "Nine Times Blue" on his 1970 album Michael Nesmith and the First National Band. More recently, Nesmith's prime mate Micky Dolenz included his own take of "Nine Times Blue" on the 2021 album Dolenz Sings Nesmith.

That's the basic history. My favorite "Nine Times Blue" is a 1969 TV appearance by the Monkees, Micky, Davy, and Michael (not Peter; Peter Tork had left the Monkees by then). The Monkees Three were guests on The Johnny Cash Show, their spot introduced by the Man in Black hisself singing a snippet of the made-for-TV combo's first hit "Last Train To Clarksville" before ceding the spotlight to the Monkees themselves. Our heroes did some schtick about how old and moldy that 1966 song was in the far-future era of 1969, and how it would be better for them to perform something new instead: "Nine Times Blue."

They introduced the unnamed (and still then-unreleased) song as something from their new album; maybe they thought it was. Whatever they thought is eclipsed by what they did, which was a stunning, simple, and breathtaking live performance of "Nine Times Blue," just the three of them, Nesmith on acoustic guitar and lead vocal, Dolenz and Jones providing exquisite harmonies. After the song was done, Cash joined them for more schtick, and a collective run-through of Cash's novelty number "Everybody Loves A Nut."

But...dang, that song, that performance. "Nine Times Blue." Gooseflesh. Whenever some nimrods try to demonstrate their own chuckleheaded cluelessness and insist that the Monkees didn't have talent, you should place said nimrods in front of YouTube to watch this video that proves them wrong, baby, wrong. Man, get me the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the phone. NOW!!

I wish this version of "Nine Times Blue," this arrangement, had been given a proper studio treatment. Michael, Micky, and Davy, their voices, Michael's acoustic guitar, nothing else. But it was just a TV gig. It should have been on a then-new Monkees album in 1969. 

And it should have been a hit.

THE BANDWAGON: On The Day We Fall In Love

And just to prove that I don't love everything the Monkees did, lemme tell ya that the 1967 More Of The Monkees LP track "The Day We Fall In Love" is all YUCK! all the time. Hey, if you like it, well, dig what you dig, always dig what you dig. I can't stand it. Its sickly-sweet morass isn't even real sugary syrup; it reminds me of what happened on an episode of the Batman TV show, when the Joker turned Gotham City's water supply into strawberry jelly. Taste-testing the Clown Prince of Crown's sinister handiwork, Robin the Boy Wonder declared, "It looks like strawberry jelly! But it tastes like strawberry axle grease!"

The Monkees' "The Day We Fall In Love" is like the Joker's strawberry axle grease. Except not as good.

A year later, the wonderful, underrated soul group the Bandwagon (aka Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon) executed the unlikely alchemy of remaking the song into something shiny and gold. Eschewing the smarmy teen puppy-love pandering of the original, the Bandwagon's slightly retitled "On The Day We Fall In Love" is chirpy and still a bit juvenile, but far less cloying and much, much more satisfying. To paraphrase the four kings of EMI: the Bandwagon took a bad song and made it better. It served as a B-side to the Bandwagon's non-hit "Baby Make Your Own Sweet Music." Syrup need not apply.

Mind you: I still believe the Monkees should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm not holding "The Day We Fall In Love" against them. But I tell ya, Johnny Johnson and his Bandwagon clearly did the better version here.

Your mileage may vary. Your mechanic should not recommend the use of strawberry axle grease.

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: Pop In A Box

 

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a quick look at the boxed sets in my CD collection, "Pop In A Box."

"Pop In A Box" was written just over three years ago, but I don't think I've added any boxed sets to my collection since then. I very nearly replaced my copy of the Zombies' four-CD box Zombie Heaven, a box mentioned as MIA in the original piece. But I located my wayward copy, hiding in a spot I thought I'd checked, oh, about a zillion times. Now, once again, I'm with my Zombie Heaven, and all is right with the world.

And my world has music. Boxes of music! My boxed set collection serves as subject for the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO: A Premature Countdown (If The Year Ended Now)

Loyal listeners of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl know that we close out each year with a countdown show, playing back what we played a lot over the course of the preceding twelve months. Our intrepid stats man Fritz Van Leaven keeps track of whatever the hell it is we're doing, tabulates that fine mess, and ranks the tracks by the airplay they've accumulated.  Fritz has a tie-breaking mechanism in place to eliminate logjams at individual positions. We wind up with an epic countdown show each year, all thanks to Fritz. You can see the playlist for 2021's year-end countdown show here, and a list of our 58 most-played artists for 2021 here. 

But, just for fun, I started to wonder: what if we did our 2022 countdown show right now? We've only done...what? Eight shows so far this year? Yeah, we haven't repeated enough tracks to do a countdown show yet. But what the hell; using tiebreakers, we do have a Top 4:

1. THE RAMONES: I Can't Give You Anything

2. POP CO-OP: The Only Thing I Really Want

3. LANNIE FLOWERS: Good

4. WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

Bubbling under our mighty Top 4 for 2022, we have tracks by the Monkees (twice), Irene Peña, Orbis Max, Laurie Biagini, the Grip Weeds, the Zombies, the Flashcubes, the Flashcubes featuring Shoes, Jeremy, the Blusterfields, Anny Celsi, Lulu, Mike Browning, Lolas, the Bangles, Cheap Star, and Verdelle Smith. 

While it's a statement of the obvious, it's worth pointing out that this early countdown stat is meaningless. No tracks have accrued anywhere near enough airplay yet to be a lock for the actual countdown show next January. It's likely that some--maybe most-- of these fine songs may not make the countdown; it's even possible (if perhaps implausible) that none of them will make the countdown. 

But for now, for fun? It's a snapshot of where TIRnRR thinks it is and what this place looks like today. We'll keep building the countdown stats throughout the year, but your next public update will be after the 2022 countdown show airs in January. Are you ready, Fritz? Let's GO!!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. 

Additional products and projects are listed here.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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl