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 # 1138.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
With the notable exception of "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," we don't play very much Bruce Springsteen on TIRnRR. Neither Dana nor I dislike the Boss, and we have played several different Springsteen tracks on the show over the years, from "Born To Run" to "Radio Nowhere." AND "Girls In Their Summer Clothes." And, y'know, "Girls In Their Summer Clothes." Brooooce isn't one of our go-to artists, but we like him well enough, and we don't have anything negative to say about him. (Prices for concert tickets are a separate subject.)
Intrepid and loyal TIRnRR listener Dave Murray is a Springsteen fan. And, since Sunday's broadcast just happened to coincide with Dave's birthday, we figured we'd open with what I think is Dave's favorite Springteen track, "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." Yes, all seven minutes of it. But seven minutes well-spent!
THE STALLIONS: Why
By contrast, Dave used to hate the Stallions' rampagin' cover of the Dirty Wurds' obscure '60s nugget "Why." And, since we played it nearly every week during TIRnRR's first two years on the air, he was forced to listen to it a lot. A lot. Over time, we wore down Dave's silly resistance to the track's belligerent brilliance, and he came to embrace it. Of course.
DANA AND CARL [with DAVE MURRAY]: The Ballad Of Jah Clampett
Completing the hat trick, we fulfilled the 1-2-3 of this week's initial half-set with Dave hisself from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1, helpless as we shoved him aside to perform our unique not-quite-reggae arrangement of the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies. Happy Birthday, Dave!
THE BABLERS: You Are The One For Me
Dana really, really likes "You Are The One For Me," the most recent single from Big Stir Records recording artists the Bablers. It wouldn't be a stretch to speculate that this may be Dana's favorite new single of 2022 so far; the boy's got pretty good taste in the rockin' pop stuff, he does. I like it, too! Will "You Are The One For Me" make our year-end countdown of TIRnRR's most-played tracks in '22? Well...yeah. It's already qualified. Duh. How high will it chart in our final stats for the year? That story has not been written yet. But Dana really, really likes this song. That means it's gonna get played.
Rightly so.
DESOLATION SOUND: Record Store
"Record Store," from the new Desolation Sound album Salish Rock, comes to us courtesy of our friends at the Robo Jack Records label. And ya gotta love a song that prompts Rich Firestone--host of the way-fab program Radio Deer Camp, heard Sunday afternoons from 5 to 7 Eastern right here on SPARK!--to immediately cry out, "No fair finding a cool song about a record store before I do!" Rich then added, "Oh, but I shall play it at some point." As well ya should, Reechie. As well ya should. Love of a record store is its own reward.
PHIL YATES AND THE AFFILIATES: I Can't Wait
I guess I'm considered a pundit of sorts, which carries a tacit expectation (or at least presumption) of knowing a little bit about stuff in one's chosen field of punditry. I don't tout myself as an expert (because, plainly, I am not an expert), but I know what I like, and I know a thing or thing-anna-half about pop music, so sure: I, Pundit. Hear me speak, ye rabble.
But I had no familiarity--or at least no recollection of familiarity--with Phil Yates and the Affiliates before Futureman Records' executive visionary Keith Klingensmith sent us a heads-up regarding the group's new album A Thin Thread, with a note stating, "We absolutely love this record, and hope you will too!" Oh, we do, Keith. We do. Thanks again for helping this particular pundit learn more stuff.
NICK FRATER: The Love Songs Of Simon Love
Big Stir Records teased the forthcoming release of Aerodrome Motel, the new album from England's phenomenal pop purveyor Nick Frater, with a digital single of its track "Dancing With A Gertrude." We chose to play the single's non-album virtual B-side "The Love Songs Of Simon Love," though both tracks are, in TIRnRR parlance, radio-ready. We have an album track from Aerodrome Motel already lined up for next week's show. A public service? Yes. Absolutely. Join us again next week as we check into the Aerodrome Motel.
STEVIE WONDER: I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
And a Happy Anniversary to my babe.
THE RAMONES: I Wanna Be Sedated
The Ramones--I do prefer referring to them with a definite article--never had a hit record. Their Billboard Hot 100 peak was # 66 for "Rockaway Beach" in 1977. Their highest-charting album was End Of The Century (# 44 in 1980), edging out their best album Rocket To Russia (# 49 in '77), the only two Ramones LPs to ascend beyond the # 50 slot. They did better overseas, but as Johnny Ramone once told me, "...It was never no big deal, really, having a hit in England. All that mattered, really, was America. It's okay having a hit in England, but the main thing was you wanna make it at home."
Their legacy endured, and just about everyone now has at least some general familiarity with some of the Ramones' recorded work. Hell, you can hear the Ramones in TV commercials. "Blitzkrieg Bop" is likely the Ramones' most universally-recognized track, but "I Wanna Be Sedated" comes close. It was not released as an American single from 1979's Road To Ruin, only achieving 7" status when reissued in the late '80s in conjunction with the best-of set Ramones Mania. One imagines edge-averse 1979 radio programmers wouldn't have been quick to embrace a pop tune about sedation, just as that notoriously timid lot had been skittish about playing the Ramones up to that point. But one also wonders if such a single might have found a wider audience, if only it had been released at the time.
(The Johnny Ramone quote cited above comes from my 1994 interviews with the Ramones. I'm working on bringing those interviews back to the public eye in an expanded form. Details to follow, albeit with maybe a little more than twenty- twenty- twenty-four hours to go.)
THE FLASHCUBES WITH STEVE CONTI: Gudbuy T' Jane
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As you all know, I've been a fan of the Flashcubes for more than forty years (starting here). The Flashcubes' current series of Big Stir digital singles makes us giddy, and we've been playing each of them upon its release. This is the fourth week in a row that we've played the 'Cubes' most recent single, a collaboration with Steve Conti to cover my favorite Slade song "Gudbuy T' Jane." It'll be back on future playlists, I betcha, but it's taking a break next week to make room for an even newer Flashcubes single.
Well, newer and classic, all at the same time. Sherman, set the WABAC machine for 1979. I wonder who's playing at The Firebarn...?
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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