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 # 1130.
POP CO-OP: Out My Window
Yes, TIRnRR's Pop Co-Op hype machine chugs on! "Out My Window" is our third of four exclusive radio premiers on behalf of Pop Co-Op's forthcoming new album Suspension, due soon (but not soon enough) from the visionary folks at Futureman Records. We've heard the whole thing, and we endorse it with all the power and authority vested in our position as...well, as a couple of guys who play records on the radio. Man, that does not look anywhere near as impressive in print as it sounded in my head. Nonetheless: Pop Co-Op GREAT! Pop Co-Op's Suspension great! And we'll have one more exclusive radio debut from another Suspension song at the top of next week's show. [SPOILER ALERT: it's the title track.]
Impressive? Yeah, actually. We're DJs. We know what we're doing.
THE FLASHCUBES WITH THE SPONGETONES: Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?
And, as duly appointed DJs, we know a friggin' hit record when we hear a friggin' hit record. It's our super power. And we've known about this particular hit, a dynamic summit meeting between power pop legends the Flashcubes and, y'know, power pop legends the Spongetones, for quite some time. We hadn't heard it, mind you, and we weren't told which Spongetones classic these combined forces would be remaking. But we guessed correctly--see above comments re: DJs, know what we're doing--and have been dying to hear it.
And PLAY IT!
A lot of radio shows jumped on "Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?" as soon as it was available, from The Rodney Bingenheimer Show on SiriusXM to Mike Murray's Whole Lotta Shakin' in Rochester, Michael McCartney's The Time Machine in Maui (the latter with Rich Firestone, host of Radio Deer Camp right here on TIRnRR's home SPARK!), and an apparent zillion others. Awright! A lot of DJs seem to know what they're doing right now. We are legion! We are LOUD! And we for damned sure know a hit when we hear it.
(Oh, and bonus kudos to the Flashcubes and Spongetones themselves for the neat little opening Beatles homage that kicks the track directly into its frenzied Fabmania flight path. See, one gets to pop music by turning left at Greenland, after all.)
DEADLIGHTS: Pretend To Pretend
Over the decades we've been doing whatever the hell this weekly radio thing is supposed to be, we've been big, big fans of Jeff Shelton in all of his many rockin' pop DBAs. Spinning Jennies! The Well Wishers! Hot Nun! Trip Wire! Even the enigmatic Ultratone! And certainly including Jeff's current project Deadlights, who've already scored a few TIRnRR playlist berths this year.
The new Deadlights single "Pretend To Pretend" is one of Jeff's very best ever, on a par with the Well Wishers' should-be-called-a-classic "See For The First Time." Over and above its inherent radio-ready sheen, sales of the digital single directly benefit humanitarian aid to the embattled people of Ukraine. As Jeff hisself says:
"100% of sales of this digital single will go to support Razom for Ukraine. Since its inception in 2014, Razom for Ukraine has provided personal protective equipment to more than 40 hospitals across Ukraine. They mobilized over 400 volunteers to carry out their programs and humanitarian services, including sending over 70 pallets of aid to Ukraine, and approximately 218 tons of essentials and supplies."
Great music in service of a great cause. All we can add is this: BUY IT!!!
PIPER: Bad Boy
I was not among Billy Squier's many fans during his early-'80s MTV heyday. But nor was I aware of the fantastic stuff Squier did before that, for two albums fronting his '70s rockin' pop combo Piper. My first conscious exposure to Piper's music came waaaaay after the fact, when Rhino Records included Piper's irresistible confection "Can't Wait" on a power pop compilation CD in the early '90s. Somewhere after that, I heard the boppin' magnificence of Piper's "Who's Your Boyfriend?," and I was told that the Flashcubes used to cover it live. Yeah, I'd say that's a good fit.
I tracked down a used copy of Piper's eponymous 1977 LP (which included "Who's Your Boyfriend?"), but never did find their other long-player Can't Wait. I didn't hear the latter until American Beat reissued both albums as a two-fer CD in 2005. Can't Wait turned out to be my favorite of the two records, with the title tune, the stellar "Drop By And Stay," and "Bad Boy." Maybe I should give the MTV stuff another chance?
THE BABLERS: You Are The One For Me
We get the impression that "You Are The One For Me" is a teaser for whatever's coming next from Finland's phenomenal pop combo the Bablers. In the here and now, Dana has already said it's one of his favorite new tracks so far this year, and--because he's a DJ--I suspect he knows what he's doing. (And this week's spin of "You Are The One For Me" inspired me to follow with the Monkees' "You Just May Be The One," and we all benefit from that sequence.)
THE BANGLES: Hazy Shade Of Winter
Many of my TIRnRR playlist selections are the result of a simple process I call Because my iPod said so! However, this week's spin of the Bangles' 1987 hit cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade Of Winter" wasn't prompted by my iPod's edicts, but by airplay on a radio station in Pensacola, Florida. Good enough for me!
THE WHO: I Can't Explain
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE JIVE FIVE: He's Just A Lucky Man
In the early '80s, the Ambient Sound label issued several records--some singles and some albums--featuring new recordings by classic doo-wop groups. At the time, my sole acquisition from the Ambient Sound catalog was a 1982 compilation LP called Everything New Is Old...Everything Old Is New. I snapped that one up specifically to own the Mystics' rendition of "Doreen Is Never Boring," a song written by Joey Ramone (originally as "Touring," which the Ramones recorded but consigned to the vaults at the time).
I didn't really pay much mind to the other stuff on that album--I was there for Doreen, man!--so my silly 22-year-old self ignored offerings by Randy and the Rainbows, the Capris, the Harptones, and the Capris. And nor did I pay any attention at all to the music of the Jive Five.
Oh, stupid, silly 22-year-old!
I got to the Jive Five via Marshall Crenshaw, whose sublime cover of "What Time Is It" inspired me to seek out the even more sublime, luscious, heavenly Jive Five original. I eventually cobbled together a modest Jive Five collection in the form of two non-overlapping Jive Five anthology CDs. The Jive Five's "What Time Is It" is currently slated for a spotlight in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).
But neither of my Jive Five CDs included any of the group's '80s stuff. The Jive Five did two albums for Ambient Sound, 1982's Here We Are! and 1984's Way Back, and that's twice as many albums as they did before the '80s. A recent comment from Blitz magazine's Mike McDowell sent me scurrying back to the Jive Five's Ambient Sound era, and this winner from Here We Are! Just because I know what I'm doing doesn't mean I'm not willing to learn more.
KEVIN ROBERTSON: If You're Free
Listeners of this little mutant radio program already adore Kevin Robertson from his work with Vapour Trails (wherein our Kev was billed as Kevin Trail), and from previous spins of his Big Stir digital single "Love's Blue Yonder." Kevin's new album Teaspoon Of Time assigns all its jangle and buzz in the appropriate spots, but ditches mere decorum to rock the house as the cosmos intended. More from Teaspoon Of Time on next week's show.
THE TRAVELING WILBURYS: Not Alone Anymore
A few entries north of here, I mentioned a recent visit to the sunny Southern climes of Florida. I've been to Florida a total of...eight times? I think that's right, starting with a visit to family in the panhandle--the part of Florida that is Alabama--in 1970.
Half of my Florida trips have been to that greater Pensacola area, where my Uncle Carl, Aunt Jo, and my cousins Langley, Alan, and Colin lived. Langley still lives there. Her brothers have sought their fortunes elsewhere. Aunt Jo passed several years ago. We lost Uncle Carl in December, about two weeks after my Mom--Uncle Carl's sister--left us. Earlier this month, my sister, my brother-in-law, and one of my brothers accompanied me back to the panhandle to represent our ever-glowing nuclear family at Uncle Carl's memorial service.
There's an odd, maybe paradoxical mixture of sadness and joy at a memorial. We grieve our loss, but we revel in the memory. We had just seen Langley at my mother's memorial service in April--when I was just over my (relatively mild) bout with COVID--but I hadn't seen Colin in eighteen years, and I hadn't had much time to really chat with Langley in April. So seeing them and spending time with them in Florida two weeks ago was...well, it was nice. Really nice.
After I returned to Syracuse, something that should have been obvious my entire life belatedly but suddenly dawned on me: more than just cousins, Langley, Alan, and Colin (as well as our California cousin Mark) were really like my additional siblings. I mean, we fought like siblings, and they were closer to me in age than my actual brothers and sister. We had and still have that bond like siblings. I don't understand why it took me so long to understand. I get it now. And I'm not alone anymore.
The segue into the Traveling Wilburys' "Not Alone Anymore" isn't quite as forced as you think. I first heard the track in Florida, just after New Year's Day of 1989. I was in Key West, a tourist in Margaritaville, visiting old college friends and having a righteous good time. I was, let's face it, high as a freakin' Florida kite. And I heard that voice. That voice.
You're not alone
You're not alone
You're not alone anymore
Although lyrically a sad song rather than an uplifting one, it felt like a message of comfort from beyond the veil. Roy Orbison had left this world behind less than a month before my pilgrimage to Margaritaville. I respected and appreciated Orbison, and I felt the pop world's sorrow at the loss of one of its giants. I knew, of course, that Orbison was one of the Traveling Wilburys, alongside George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Supergroup? Even that description is inadequate. The only Traveling Wilburys song I really knew before that was the hit, "Handle With Care." Hearing the late Roy Orbison sing "Not Alone Anymore" as only Roy Orbison could, that otherworldly voice both booming and floating above the tchotchkes strewn in the Margaritaville gift shop, I knew I'd been touched by something greater. I needed that CD. I bought it shortly after returning home to Syracuse.
You're not alone anymore. On that 1988-into-1989 trip, I'd flown into Key West from Pensacola after attending Langley's wedding. That was the last time I was in Pensacola, or the last time I was in Pensacola until two weeks ago. During the pandemic, and until Uncle Carl passed in December, I visited Pensacola again via weekly Zoom with Uncle Carl and Langley, my sister hosting the meeting from her home in England. Our final Zoom was a little after Mom died in December. Uncle Carl's rapid decline was perhaps not unexpected. I don't know why it caught me so unprepared.
But I'm not alone. We're going to go back to Pensacola next year, just to go, to spend time, to be together. Life is too short to spend separately. We're not alone anymore. I betcha Roy Orbison would agree.
I know that Uncle Carl would.
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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
