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 # 1129.
POP CO-OP: Short Fuses
Our pre-release campaign on behalf of Suspension, the forthcoming new album from the irresistible melodic buzz force called Pop Co-Op, enters its second week with a spin of another exclusive track. We feel taller! "Short Fuses" pops 'n' sizzles in all the right places, and it opened the big show this week. Yep, just like the Suspension track "I Just Love To Watch Her Dance" kicked off last week's show, and how next week's show and then the next week's show after that will open with...
...well, that would be telling. Stay tuned.
POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart
In the same spiffy category as "Short Fuses," "I Just Love To Watch Her Dance," [redacted] and [redacted], "Extra Beat In My Heart" is another irresistible new 2022 track from Pop Co-Op. BUT! It will not be included on Suspension; it's from something else. It's not currently available from any resource. It will be. And it is indeed something else.
ARIELLE EDEN: U-Turns
Speaking of something else!, a previous edition of 10 Songs said this about "Sagittarius," a wonderful track from rockin' pop chanteuse Arielle Eden: "Well, now, this is pop music. Arielle Eden first came to TIRnRR's attention last year, through a recommendation from our pal, America's Sweetheart Irene Peña. 'Sagittarius' is Arielle's best yet, a bubbly and inviting track that easily earns this Capricorn's eager approval. This is the dawning of the age of Arielle."
Ms. Eden's recent singles have taken more a country-pop turn, and we continue to play those, too. Her latest effort "U-Turns" cruises on the periphery of modern mainstream country, and contemporary country radio would be improved by programming it. It's ALL pop music! And pop music is something else, man.
SOLOMON BURKE: Cry To Me
The great Solomon Burke: denying efforts to put Baby in the corner since 1962. At its core, "Cry To Me" is really a country song, but country (or any other damned thing) became soul when it was sung by King Sol.
(And, while I have neither a particular affinity for nor a spiteful grudge against the popular film Dirty Dancing, I have seen it--way, waaay after the fact--and I believe Burke's "Cry To Me" plays on the movie's soundtrack when Patrick Swayze's character was trying to teach Jennifer Grey's character the flick's titular moves. Take it, Baby!)
PERILOUS: Rock & Roll Kiss
Also something else! And really, really good. BUY IT!
BRAD MARINO: Another Sad And Lonely Night
Although a myopic pop world remembers the Bobby Fuller Four as a one-hit wonder for the superb 1966 smash "I Fought The Law," that song is either my third- or maybe even fourth-favorite BF4 track. And there's a fistful of other Fuller cuts that are nearly as good. One-hit wonder? The world is a ninny.
Brad Marino recognizes the richness of the Bobby Fuller catalog. Marino's latest Rum Bar Records single is an ace, blood-pumpin' cover of Fuller's "Another Sad And Lonely Night," a sturdy little ditty that is my # 1 BF4 track on the days when "Fool Of Love" isn't my # 1 BF4 track. ("Let Her Dance" rounds out my Bobby Fuller Top 4.)
And I tell ya, Mr. Marino rises to the occasion of honoring Fuller's legacy. Whether you're investigating the great originals or immersing yourself in our Bobby's many able proxies, there is a world of treasure to discover beyond the well-known bop of breaking rocks in the hot sun. We'll be playing Brad Marino's "Another Sad And Lonely Night" again on next week's show.
STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK: Incense And Peppermints
Going out to the Z-man, wherever he is. It's my happening, and it freaks me out!
I don't remember if I knew Strawberry Alarm Clock's "Incense And Peppermints" at the time of its 1967 chart reign--I was seven years old, but it's possible--or if I came to embrace the song after the fact. If the latter, I may have heard of the 1970 sexploitation film Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls before I knew "Incense And Peppermint;" I certainly didn't see the movie itself until many, many years later, and I didn't know that Strawberry Alarm Clock appeared in it, but I saw a Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls pictorial in Playboy, and that got my adolescent attention. (What business did a ten-year-old have reading Playboy? The business of staring at unclothed women. Plus articles, I guess.)
But yeah, in addition to the pulchritudinous charms of its actresses, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls presented Strawberry Alarm Clock in a party scene, lip-syncing their hit from a few years back, and then doing the same with two new songs for the soundtrack LP (as well as pretending to back up the film's fictional combo the Carrie Nations).
Unlike the Carrie Nations, Strawberry Alarm Clock kept their clothes on.
THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE FLASHCUBES: I Wanna Be With You
Recently, Pop Co-Op's Steve Stoeckel referenced something I wrote for the first issue of Big Stir magazine in 2018: "Enthusiasm isn't everything. But nothing of value endures without it." I wholeheartedly agree with me on that point.
I bring this up again because it applies specifically to the enthusiasm musical performers can bring to their efforts, and how their own passion for acts that inspired them manifests in fresh magic, magic that can inspire others. That mystic mojo can be in the grooves of original work, or it can be expressed in covers.
Covers can be perfunctory, sure. But they can also serve as sincere and enthusiastic tribute, a thank-you note to the sounds that formed us. As Pop Co-Op's Bruce Gordon says, Let's be the Beatles! Or let's channel Chuck Berry, or Janis Joplin, or the Miracles, Buddy Holly, the Kinks, Otis Redding, the Velvet Underground, the Sex Pistols, Joan Jett. For the Flashcubes--my favorite power pop group--one can picture them imagining themselves as the Raspberries.
The Flashcubes have always been avid fans of pop music, rock 'n' roll, the vibrant sound of hooks and la-la-las played at a louder volume than decorum would prefer. The 'Cubes had dozens of influences, from British Invasion through punk, the Who through the Jam. I don't think there's any single act that served as the Flashcubes' biggest overall influence, but the Raspberries would be a huge part of that discussion. The Flashcubes positioned themselves--enthusiastically!--as a power pop band in the late '70s. That power pop approach was embodied by the Raspberries' hits, by "Go All The Way," "Tonight," and "I Wanna Be With You." The 'Cubes were Raspberries fans. That was evident. A power pop band is proud to wear its heart on its sleeve.
I remember witnessing the Flashcubes cover both "Tonight" and "I Wanna Be With You" at club shows when I was a street-legal teen. Their live version of "I Wanna Be With You" is one of the assorted shots o' gusto contained on the recent release Flashcubes On Fire, which preserves a 1979 'Cubes live show and captures the band at the height of their prowess.
And the height of their enthusiasm. Covers and originals. The value of enthusiasm endures.
(That same enthusiasm carries through the Flashcubes' current series of Big Stir digital singles, covering the likes of Pezband, the Dwight Twilley Band, and Shoes. Chris Carter's British Invasion show recently debuted the 'Cubes' cover of Slade's "Gudbuy T' Jane" [and we'll start playin' that as soon as we get our hands on it], and next week's TIRnRR will include the combined forces of the Flashcubes and the Spongetones remaking the latter's "Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?" There's still much more to come. We're enthused about the possibilities.)
STYX: Lorelei
Even the act you actively despise may be capable of creating one or more tracks you flat-out adore. As much as I hated Styx in the '70s and '80s--and, believe me, I hated Styx in the '70s and '80s--even then I knew I liked their peppy pop song "Lorelei." I still do like it, singer Dennis DeYoung's bombast notwithstanding, while retaining my decades-old disdain for most of the familiar Styx songbook. (I was also okay with "Too Much Time On My Hands, and I worship a 2003 Styx track called "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" as just over-the-top friggin' fabulous. So: three. Three cool tracks from an act I otherwise shun. Here's to ya, Lorelei.)
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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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