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 # 1146.
KELLEY RYAN: The Church Of Laundry
Ahem. From This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. Coming very soon!
MICHAEL SIMMONS: All By Myself
The music of Michael Simmons has been part et parcel (or party parcel) of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio for almost as long as there has been a This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. I think we started our Simmonsmania with sparkle*jets U.K., and subsequently programmed some of Michael's stellar work as a solo artist, and his work with Popdudes. I believe Michael was also a founding member of the original Teen Titans, a Howlin' Commando, the finest swordsman in all of France, and the quicker picker-upper. And a Beatles fan. He gets around, he does. And his music is just, well, his music. Ours, too.
And now Michael's back with more of his/our music, courtesy of Big Stir Records' release of the new Michael Simmons release Happy Traum EP. His? Ours? Doesn't matter. It's good. We're playin' it.
THE FOUR TOPS: Standing In The Shadows Of Love
The Four Tops are probably my # 1 favorite Motown group, thanks in large part to the unstoppable juggernaut that was lead singer Levi Stubbs. I started late, with "Are You Man Enough" on AM Top 40 in 1973, but by the end of the '70s I'd discovered and embraced the motherlode of the Four Tops' '60s hits. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)." "It's The Same Old Song." "Reach Out I'll Be There." "Standing In The Shadows Of Love."
So, by the time I was a college senior in 1979, I had no friggin' patience for the stupid idea of Rod Stewart covering "Standing In The Shadows Of Love." And covering it badly.
This particular crime against music actually came out in 1978, on the Rodster's mega-belchin' hit album Blondes Have More Fun. Yeah, the same record that infected radio with "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Even when I was in my late teens, and nowhere near as enlightened as I wish I coulda been, the album as a whole struck me as tawdry and sexist. Inserting [ugh] the line Didn't I screw you right now baby, didn't I? into the Four Tops' classic "Standing In The Shadows Of Love" is a minor example of the album's overall yechh.
(People may think I object to "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" because I hated disco, and I'll cop to that, at least at the time of the offense. But I came to terms with disco, and I even came to like some disco; that evolution of opinion does not apply to Blondes Have More Fun.
And nor is this just a diatribe against Rod Stewart. Stewart did some stuff I like [especially with Faces], and Stewart did a whole lot of stuff I detest. It's worth noting that, as much as people mistakenly think my cherished '70s punk was a reaction against disco, it was really a reaction against bloated dinosaur rock. Gimme the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, and throw in some Trammps and Donna Summer. You can keep Blondes Have More Fun.)
I bring all of this up again now because that memory of Stewart's mishandling of the song lingers; its oily specter haunts even fresh spins of the real version, the Four Tops' version.
But only for a moment. Levi Stubbs, man. That juggernaut will send smarmy pretenders back to the shadows.
CIRCE LINK: Yellow Dress
Oh God, this is such a gorgeous track. Circe Link is a force of pop nature, and her superfab track "I'm On Your Side" (recorded with partner Christian Nesmith) was a highlight of This Is Rock 'n' Roll, Volume 4 and our #1 most-played track in 2017. We dig "I'm On Your Side" with unfettered glee.
The just-as-sublime "Yellow Dress" comes from Circe's 2017 album Enchanted Objects & Ordinary Things, and it also made our 2017 year-end countdown (tied with TIRnRR Vol. 4 track "Maybe Someday" by Maura and the Bright Lights at # 23). While working at home on another project last week, "Yellow Dress" popped up on shuffle play, and I heard it again for the first time in waaaay too long. Its sheer magnificence remains intact. Chew me up and spit me out, but don't have a lick of doubt that I can fly. Up, up and away, Circe and Christian. Up, up and away.
Underrated '60s and '70s soul group the Bandwagon--aka Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon and Johnny Johnson and HIS Bandwagon--are no strangers to this show, and we've played their cover of the Monkees' "The Day We Fall In Love" (which the Monkees listed without the "On") a time or several. I'm a huge fan of the Monkees, but I regard "The Day We Fall In Love" as one of the very worst tracks ever released under the Monkees brand name. The Bandwagon rescue the song, and they make it work.
"On The Day We Fall In Love" happened to be the second of three Monkees covers we played this week, immediately following the Flies' "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" and preceding a set that included Gary Owen's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." It seemed imperative to play something by the actual Monkees, and we went as actual as actual gets: an acoustic remix of master vocal of Michael Nesmith's "Sunny Girlfriend," recorded in 1967 by the hey-hey-we're-a-real band Monkees and heard in this form on the deluxe Headquarters Sessions set. Come and hear 'em sing and play. This is my preferred take of "Sunny Girlfriend," and one of my 25 favorite Monkees tracks.
THE DONNAS: Dancing With Myself
Yep, another great cover by the Donnas makes its rockin' way back to the TIRnRR playlist. The Donnas are really, really good at pulling these things off--hell, we play their Billy Idol and Judas Priest covers way more often than we play the familiar hit versions--but it's been a while since we've played any of the Donnas' original tunes. We'll program something from the Donnas' own catalog o' gems on next week's show.
NELSON RIDDLE: The Batman Theme
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
sparkle*jets U.K.: Sunshine
Hey, it's that Michael Simmons guy again. Michael's Popdudes pal (and my former Goldmine colleague) John M. Borack is the auteur at the helm of We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970, an irresistible confection/collection that we've been programming with the restraint and subtlety of carpet bombing. I'm surprised it took us this long to get around to sparkle*jets U.K.'s contribution to We All Shine On, but let the sun shine at its due time: Simmons and company (including Mr. Borack hisself on drums) do an absolutely ace rendition of "Sunshine," the title tune from an underrated album by the Archies. I know that John Borack has great affection for the Archies' original, and I'm furthermore confident that John is pleased with this new sparkle*jets U.K. version.
And John is justified on both counts.
POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart
Ahem. FROM THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO, VOLUME 5. Coming very soon!
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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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