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 # 1123.
MICHAEL SIMMONS: This Time Tomorrow
Singing In My Heart, the new covers album from the pristine pop force of Michael Simmons, is indeed cause for singing, dancing, and carrying on at all hours. It is, to put a word on it, good. Really good. Targets acquired include material previously done by Squeeze, Steely Dan, the Beach Boys, Sloan, Paul McCartney, Crowded House, and more. Knowing we were going to kick this week's extravaganza into fab gear with a track from Singing In My Heart, I automatically gravitated to "This Time Tomorrow," which I figured hadda be a cover of the Kinks' song with that same title.
But NO! It was a different "TTM," originally done by the Move, and although the Move's version has been in my music library for years and years, I had completely forgotten about it. And, as much as we love the Move here on TIRnRR, I've gotta say I think I like Michael Simmons' take on "This Time Tomorrow" even more than I dig the original. It will be back on the radio again next week.
CURTIS MAYFIELD: Superfly
Our first-set spin of "Superfly" prompted intrepid TIRnRR listener Joel Tinnel to say, "Let us pause now to reflect on the majesty of the late, great Curtis Mayfield." Yep. I don't remember if "Superfly" was a staple of my AM Top 40 radio devotion contemporary to its 1972 hit reign (probable, along with Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead"), or if I grew to embrace the song later, via its inclusion on the 2-LP oldies compilation Dick Clark 20 Years Of Rock N' Roll (possible, though I do think it was the former; AM radio friggin' ruled). Either way: of course Joel is right. The man of the hour has an air of great power. SUPERfly!
TAMAR BERK: Tragic Ending
When Tamar Berk made her TIRnRR debut with a spin of her song "Skipping The Cracks" in May of 2021, I wrote:
"Singer-songwriter-musician Tamar Berk joins our little Play-Tone Galaxy Of Stars with 'Skipping The Cracks,' the leadoff track from her new release The Restless Dreams Of Youth. The song earworms its way into the ol' cranium, recalling Penelope Houston, TIRnRR Fave Rave Irene Peña, and a shinier (and FCC-friendly) version of early Liz Phair. There is an oh-so-sweet bitterness in play, and it makes for a radio-ready rush of catharsis. (And note that Tamar insists that she didn't step on the cracks; if you happen to be a faithless lover suddenly afflicted with a broken back, well, it's your own stupid fault, ya jerk.)"
Nearly a year later, our Tamar is prepping a new album, Start At The End, and we repeat our above-stated breathless enthusiasm for its leadoff single "Tragic Ending." And we'll have another new Tamar Berk track on next week's show. The Tamar Berk generation starts HERE!
THE SUPREMES: A Hard Day's Night
An illustration of how much pop culture has changed since the '60s. Can you imagine one of today's most popular recording acts--say a Billie Eilish, or someone of comparable current star power--recording an album covering contemporary material, as in other artists' recent hits? I don't see it happening, and that's probably a sensible thing. Eilish doesn't need to cover Olivia Rodrigo or Silk Sonic; why would she do that?
But in the '60s, pop music had a presumed element of disposability. If much of that music now seems destined to be immortal, it doesn't change the fact that virtually no one at the time believed this stuff would last. It was about NOW, not about posterity. Strike while the iron is hot.
In that environment, it wasn't unusual for the Beatles in '63 to cover a Miracles song, "You Really Got A Hold On Me," from '62. Just a few years later, it wasn't terribly odd (though it was ill-advised) for both the Beau Brummels and the Standells to release entire albums covering recent hit songs. In the film That Thing You Do!, which is set in 1964, it may seem weird to us when Play-Tone Records exec Andrew White (played by Tom Hanks) insists that teen sensations the Wonders will have to record covers of songs by other Play-Tone artists, but it's perfectly plausible within the real-world parameters of 1964.
Motown was a savvy label. When the young American record-buying public went potty for the British Invasion, Motown's biggest stars the Supremes tapped that market with 1964's A Bit Of Liverpool LP. The album wasn't strictly Merseybeat; it included covers of London's Dave Clark Five and Newcastle's Animals, as well as two songs--"Do You Love Me" and the above-mentioned "You Really Got A Hold On Me"--that had originally been Motown cuts before respective appropriation by the DC5 and the Beatles. The rest was all Liverpool, mostly Beatles. with fellow Liverpudlians Gerry and the Pacemakers represented by their first hit "How Do You Do It?" It's very 'cross the Mersey!
So yeah (yeah yeah): cash grab, pure and simple. Cash grabs have evolved over the ensuing decades. But let's hear it for Philistine hucksterism anyway. This one was kinda fab.
BROWNSVILLE STATION: Smokin' In The Boy's Room
"Smokin' In The Boys' Room" was the lone big hit for Brownsville Station, the ace '70s rock 'n' roll combo fronted by everyone's favorite rekkid collector, the late Cub Koda. We've certainly played Brownsville Station before--principally their cover [upgrade!] of Gary Glitter's "I'm The Leader Of The Gang"--but I had it in my head that we'd never gotten around to playing the hit. Oops? As we played it on this week's show, our intrepid stats man Fritz Van Leaven informed us that we've played the track on five previous occasions--not as many times as "I'm The Leader Of The Gang," but waaaay more than I thought.
And I tell ya, it was a surprise to learn that we've played it that often. I mean, everybody knows that smokin' ain't allowed in school.
LAURIE BIAGINI: Do What You Gotta Do
We have long been fans of Laurie Biagini's luxurious sunshine pop. As she teases the release of a new album called Stranger In The Mirror, we've been playing each of its advance singles as soon as it's released. Surf's UP! "Do What You Gotta Do" is the latest and greatest, we played it this week, we're playing it next week, and the sun shines on. It is, after all, what we gotta do.
GEORGE HARRISON: Cheer Down
Happy coincidence: Sunday night was Grammys night, and we happened to play a track from one of 2022's Grammy winners, albeit a posthumous Grammy awarded to the great George Harrison for the deluxe reissue of his classic All Things Must Pass. Ah, my sweet serendipity!
Granted, we didn't play a track from All Things Must Pass, either in its classic form or its newfangled form. Instead, we skipped the Me Decade and went to the we-was-fab decade of the '80s for "Cheer Down," the song George contributed to the soundtrack of 1989's Lethal Weapon 2. There...is something incongruous about that. But consider it an early clue to the new direction.
THE FLASHCUBES: Christi Girl
"Christi Girl" was the Flashcubes' first record, a 45 (backed with "Guernica" and "Got No Mind") released in 1978. It's a pretty pop ballad written by 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin, and it also made its way to a Bomp Records various-artists set called Waves, Vol. 1, and years later it was exhumed for a Rhino Records power pop compilation CD. Since the Flashcubes only released a grand total of two records during their original late '70s run--1979's "Wait Till Next Week"/"Radio" 45 was the other one--"Christi Girl" was, by default, the Flashcubes' best-known song, at least to the extent that any Flashcubes song could be described as "best-known."
But "Christi Girl" wasn't representative of the Flashcubes' sound. Don't get me wrong--I love this record, always have, always will--but the 'Cubes came out of the punk scene. Even if we can debate whether or not he Flashcubes were ever really a punk band (as long as we agree that you're wrong if you say they weren't), their brand of power pop was absolutely rooted in the raucous. Loud. Proud.
The "Christi Girl" record is sublime. The live "Christi Girl," as heard on the Flashcubes' recent archival 1979 live release Flashcubes On Fire, is the real "Christi Girl." The live take is faithful, but with all the added oomph that transforms pure pop into power pop. A special place where nobody else can go. We'll hear two more Flashcubes On Fire tracks on next week's show.
THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Any Way You Want It
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE KINKS: This Time Tomorrow
Yeah, that case of mistaken song ID at the top of the show leads us to close this week's proceedings with the Kinks song I thought Michael Simmons was covering. That worked out pretty well this time.
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
Thank-you, Carl!
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