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 # 1125.
THE SAINTS: (I'm) Stranded
Australian punk. When we heard that singer Chris Bailey had passed, it felt imperative to open this week's show with his old group the Saints, rampaging their way through their signature tune, "(I'm) Stranded." "(I'm) Stranded" is an enduring classic of '70s punk, a solid rush of obstreperous immediacy, a rock 'n' roll love letter to alienation.
As the song played Sunday night, our friend Joel Tinnel said that he first heard the song well after the fact, courtesy of Rhino Records' punk compilation series DIY in the early '90s. Both Dana and I recall it from the '70s, Dana from airplay on Syracuse's WAER-FM, me from...I have no idea. But I knew it, and loved it. I eventually picked up used copies of the Saints' first two American LPs, (I'm) Stranded and Eternally Yours.
I saw a latter-day line-up of the Saints at a club show in the late '80s. Original guitarist Ed Kuepper was long, long gone, but Bailey was still up front, wailin' like a Saint oughtta. The group was promoting its then-recent album All Fool's Day, which had caught the attention of MTV's Sunday night alt-showcase 120 Minutes. 120 Minutes favored the track "Just Like Fire Would," but I'd fallen hard for its album-track brother "Big Hits (On The Underground)."
The live show was great, though I admit I was disappointed that neither "Big Hits (On The Underground)" nor "(I'm) Stranded" made an appearance in the set list, in spite of (or because of?) me leading the crowd in chanting, STRANDED! STRANDED! STRANDED! STRANDED! at encore time. Ah, well. Stranded, on my own. A classic still, and we mourn the passing of the Saint who sang it.
BLONDIE: In The Flesh
The same embrace of circa '77 punk that led me to the Saints also led me to Blondie. "X-Offender" was my first, following indoctrination and seduction via the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine and my subsequent program of carpet-bombing requests for it at Brockport's WBSU-AM in the fall of my freshman year at college. I was 17, and I couldn't resist Debbie Harry. I'm not deaf, dumb, and blind.
"X-Offender" was the lead track on Blondie's eponymous debut album. It's possible that "You Look Good In Blue," another track from the same album, was my second exposure to Blondie's music; I know I heard the song in the on-campus bar the Rathskeller the following semester. But I think I bought the "Rip Her To Shreds" 12" single before that, specifically to own a copy of "X-Offender." If so, the single's two other tracks--"Rip Her To Shreds" and "In The Flesh"--were the next steps in my assimilation into Blondie's world.
DATURA4: Open The Line
This little mutant radio show has a long and proud history of playing music by Australian pop god Dom Mariani. Dom's work solo and with the Stems, DM3, the Someloves, and Dom Mariani and the Majestic Kelp has revved up many a previous playlist, and DM3's righteously rousing "1 x 2 x Devastated" was included on our very first compilation, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1. Yeah, count Dana and Carl firmly in the pro-Mariani faction.
But we've never played anything by Dom's current combo Datura4. It wasn't a slight; we just didn't get to it. We remedy that right now with this spin of "Open The Line," a triumphantly blood-pumpin' victory cry from Datura4's forthcoming album Neanderthal Jam. What took us so long?
THE MONKEES: Tapioca Tundra
I have no contemporaneous memory of Michael Nesmith's song "Tapioca Tundra." It was the B-side of the Monkees' "Valleri" single in 1968, and an album track on The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees that same year. I didn't hear it on the TV show, didn't hear it on the radio, and it wasn't among the meager Monkees artifacts in our family record library.
So I didn't know the song at all, not until I expanded our Monkees library with the acquisition of both The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees and 1967's Headquarters album on a visit to the flea market in the mid '70s. I was already a fan of the Monkees. I was about to become a much, much bigger fan. Nesmith said it himself, looking out over a sea of fans from the stage at a Monkees concert, and knowing that this made-for-TV combo was larger than its origin, larger even than the Monkees themselves. He wrote "Tapioca Tundra" about that realization: It cannot be a part of me 'cause now it's part of you. We thank you. Michael.
THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING SHOES: Tomorrow Night
My favorite track of 2022 so far? It's a contender. C'mon, it would take an act of Congress to prevent this Big Stir single combining the irresistible pop forces of the Flashcubes and Shoes covering the latter's power pop touchstone "Tomorrow Night" from garnering airplay on TIRnRR.
And that ain't all. The Flashcubes' artist page at the Big Stir Records website reveals that the 'Cubes will continue their current program of remaking pop gems of the past--"Tomorrow Night," Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside," the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room"--with more dips into the ol' pop-with-power songbook. Next up: a collaboration with the Spongetones! Oh, I am so diggin' all of this...!
JUNIPER: Turn To You
Hear on TIRnRR, we love the Go-Go's. So we were right stoked to hear of a new Go-Go's tribute album, If You've Gotta Go-Go, Go-Go Now, and it was inevitable we'd start programming stuff from that album as soon as it became available. But where to start? The tribute includes so many Go-Go's songs covered by so many TIRnRR Fave Raves, from Holly and the Italians to Hayley and the Crushers. I guess we coulda gone eenie-meenie...or we could just go-go ahead and play Juniper's "Turn To You." The latter seemed the wiser option. And we'll hear another track from this Go-Go's tribute on next week's show.
JIM BASNIGHT: Hello Mary Jane
Reliable rockin' pop performer Jim Basnight has been making his back catalog available digitally, in many cases for the first time ever. Our Jim's digital offerings via the visionary folks at Powerpopaholic Productions include a fresh remaster of his 1992 release Pop Top, and Jim shared a couple of its cuts with us for potential TIRnRR airplay. SOLD!! "Hello Mary Jane" finds its way to this week's playlist; we'll hear another selection from Pop Top next week.
AL GREEN: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
We play the hits. And we play requests. The above-acclaimed Jim Basnight also sent us a bunch of suggestions for records he's like to hear on this here Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. They were good suggestions--the lad has taste--so we picked five of them to follow Jim's "Hello Mary Jane" in an incomparable six-song set. Ya can't go wrong with T. Rex ("Telegram Sam"), the Ramones ("I Don't Want You"), and Roxy Music ("Pyjamarama"), and they combine with tunes from Al Green and the Walker Brothers to conjure radio like it oughtta be conjured. I was particularly taken with Green's rendition of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," and following that with the Walker Brothers' "After The Lights Go Out"--a B-side that's even better than their well-loved A-sides--is the stuff of radio legend. Later in the show, we circled back to a couple more of Jim's requests--"I'll Be You" by the Replacements and "The Word" by the Beatles--further demonstrating that Mr. Basnight knows his pop music. Jim, you've come to the right radio show.
THE WONDERS: That Thing You Do!
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
SONNY AND CHER: The Beat Goes On
Yes. Yes it does. Join us!
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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.
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl
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