10 SONGS: 9/29/2022

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 # 1148.

LAURIE BIAGINI: Hey Mr. DJ

KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

BALLZY TOMORROW: Out There

TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Come Some Christmas Eve (Or Halloween)

In just one week: IT'S OUT!! Our long-awaited new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 is set for release on October 6th, courtesy of our friends at Kool Kat Musik. We've heard the master, we've seen the artwork and booklet design, and lemme tell ya, this is one hell of a great package. Is it our best yet? Y'know, earlier this year, I would have thought that unlikely. Man, I didn't think we would ever be able to match the sheer WHOMP!! of 2017's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and I woulda been pleased if TIRnRR # 5 was at least worthy of being in Volume 4's sovereign airspace. But now? Now, I'm starting to believe that This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 really is our finest hour and twenty minutes ever. You can order it RIGHT HERE BABY!, and I believe you will be happy to do so.

We included the federally-mandated maximum of four tracks from TIRnRR # 5 in this week's show, kicking off with my daughter Meghan introducing Laurie Biagini's thematically-appropriate "Hey Mr. DJ," and swooping back for equally-stellar Volume 5 treats from Kid Gulliver ("Forget About Him"), Ballzy Tomorrow ("Out There"), and Tall Poppy Syndrome ("Come Some Christmas Eve [Or Halloween]"). We'll have another four tracks from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 on next week's show.

IT'S OUT! And we are pretty damned proud of it.

THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride

"Face The World With Pride" comes to us from The Lost Album, a brand new archival release from the Smithereens. The legendary rockin' pop group recorded the tracks found on The Lost Album way back in 1993, and I don't think any of them has ever been heard much (if at all) by the public at large.

But our pal (and Radio Deer Camp host) Rich Firestone heard 'em years ago. Lucky guy! And our Reechie has long, long thought that the then-unreleased "Face The World With Pride" was a hit record waiting to happen. Now that the song has finally been released on The Lost Album, Rich is still determined that "Face The World With Pride" oughtta be a hit, the hit.

I have no idea what the focus track on The Lost Album is supposed to be. Rich's word is fine for us. "Face The World With Pride" is TIRnRR's Pick Hit from The Lost Album. It made its SPARK! debut on Radio Deer Camp this past Sunday, and returned to the SPARK! airwaves Sunday night on our little mutant radio show. We'll be playing it again on next week's TIRnRR. You can't have a hit record if you only play it once.

And "Face The World With Pride" sure does sound like a hit, a beguiling cross between "Last Train To Clarksville" and Elvis Costello and the Attractions' "You Belong To Me," with maybe a hint of the Records' "I Don't Remember Your Name" and a bunch of others playing indistinctly at the edge of our mental radio's infinite signal. Every power pop or rock 'n' roll radio show should be playing this one, again and again. With pride. Rich is right. This is a freakin' hit.

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING THE PALEY BROTHERS: Come Out And Play

ALSO a hit record. Every radio show should have this in saturation airplay, too.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Better Get Home

Aw man, this is good. When you're listening to new music from Librarians With Hickeys, a hearty exclamation of "Good!" is pretty much gonna be automatic. We played "Ghost Singer," the lead single from the group's new album Handclaps & Tambourines, on last week's show, and it is indeed good. But I'm really taken with this album track "I Better Get Home," and it gets TIRnRR airplay this week, and again on next week's show. It's the HEY! Ya can't go wrong with the HEY! 

(And, looking ahead to next week's playlist, I am reasonably certain this will be the first time "[redacted]!" by [redacted] has ever been segued into "I Better Get Home" by Librarians With Hickeys. It may seem unusual. But trust us: it's good.)

THE MONKEES: I'll Be Back Up On My Feet

In my mind--and only in my mind--"I'll Be Back Up On My Feet," a track from the Monkees' 1968 album The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, has something in common with "When Love Comes Knockin' At Your Door," a track from the lads' 1966 LP More Of The Monkees. The similarity is purely a matter of circumstance: my first conscious exposure to each song came from less-than-pristine vinyl copies. My flea-market The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees skipped during "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet," and my older brother's hand-me-down More Of The Monkees skipped during "When Love Comes Knockin' At Your Door." Decades later, I still sometimes expect to hear those familiar little vinyl leaps when these songs play. It's a conditioned expectation, in spite of the fact that the condition changed so long ago.

T. REX: 20th Century Boy

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: I Love You

I first heard about the Ramones' intention to record a cover of the Heartbreakers' "I Love You" in 1994, when Joey Ramone himself told me about it. That may make me seem a little cooler than I really am--most people and things are, in fact, at least a little cooler than I really am--but it is nonetheless true. I had interviewed each of the Ramones within the previous week or so, and Joey called me because he'd thought of a few additional things he felt I should know. The Ramones' cover of this Johnny Thunders song was one of those additional things.

The Ramones cut "I Love You" for a Johnny Thunders tribute album called I Only Wrote This Song For You. The track also wound up on the Ramones' own farewell album ¡Adios Amigos! in '95, and it remains a kick to hear my favorite American band--the Ramones, the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time--play my favorite Heartbreakers song. And it's still cool to recall that I heard about it first from Joey Ramone.

(Hello...Carl? It's Joey Ramone. Yeah, top THAT for an unexpected phone call.)

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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