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 # 1152.
THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride
It's. A. HIT!! The Smithereens' "Face The World With Pride" (from the recent archival release The Lost Album) marks its fifth consecutive week on the TIRnRR playlist, and its second week in a row at the top of the show. SPOILER ALERT: we're playing it again next week. It's a hit. That's what you do with hits.
PERILOUS: Rock & Roll Kiss
Man, this is such an exhilarating track, and we're lucky to have it on our new compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. The force of rockin' pop nature called Perilous combines the lead vocals from Pauline and the Perils with the guitar from Hurtin' Units, the bass from Screaming Meemies, and the pummelin' drums from Syracuse sensations the Trend, and makes 'em all even louder and catchier. Sing, you Perilous peeps. Sing.
THE CYNZ: Narrow Hips
I believe that Perilous would get along smashingly with the Cynz. Furthermore, the Cynz's new single "Narrow Hips" suggests to me that Cynz lead singer Cyndi Dawson would herself dig a rock & roll kiss, presuming it's delivered by the narrow-hipped guy she's singin' about. Hey, it's rockin' pop Tinder! We're told that the Cynz are hard at work on their first album for the mighty Jem Records, and I betcha we'll dig that, too.
CHARLIE: She Loves To Be In Love
May of 1978 gave me my first opportunity to see the Kinks in concert (a story told here). A British band called Charlie was the opening act, and they did not interest me at all. They were slick, they were smug, and they were boring. Dana was also at that show (though this was nearly a decade before we met), and recalled Charlie as a band that couldn't decide if they wanted to be Cheap Trick or if they wanted to be Yes. Charlie did not succeed with either goal. Honestly, their most notable attribute was a generic ability to put out LPs with pretty women on the cover.
But there was this one song. There often is one song, even with an artist you would otherwise dismiss outright. "She Loves To Be In Love" (from Charlie's 1978 album Lines) is also slick, and maybe it's smug, but it ain't boring. It's POP, in a way that the other Charlie tracks I (almost) remember were not. I'll take the one song. Sometimes one song is all you need.
THE BABLERS: You Are The One For Me
Some years back, a fan familiar with This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio commented that Little Steven at the very least owes us a beer. The format of Little Steven's Underground Garage (both the syndicated show itself and the fab satellite radio channel that followed) is similar to TIRnRR's approach, and if I understand the math, our December 1998 debut predates the April 2002 launch of the original Underground Garage by...I can't count that high. But, like, by more than a few weeks. Or months. Or years.
Which is not to suggest that Little Steven stole the idea from us. That's possible, in the same sense that it's possible the Beatles could have reunited to play at CBGB's in 1977, but it's not terribly plausible. We weren't all that well-known, and there were other great shows who came even before us anyway, mixing old and new rock 'n' roll and pop music much like Dana and I and Little Steven and company do, and we didn't copy them either. Great ideas aren't always unique. They're still great ideas, and we're all lucky to have so many resources available to us if we wanna hear the Ramones, the Supremes, and the Shang Hi Los on the same radio show.
That said, we're tickled by the notion that the Bablers' wonderful single "You Are The One For Me" was last week's honoree as The Underground Garage's Coolest Song In The World. We love the song, and we've been playing it quite a bit since its release at the end of April. The track is an absolute lock for the year-end countdown of our most-played tracks in 2022, and we're glad Underground Garage agrees with us: Coolest song in the world!
I tell ya, if you're in need of a pumpin', radio-ready pop tune, the Well Wishers will never let you down. "Figure It Out Myself" is the advance single from the Well Wishers' forthcoming album Blue Sky Sun, and it provides further evidence of Jeff Shelton's ability to bend the airwaves at will. You can't go wrong with the Well Wishers.
That rockin' pop guarantee also applies to Jeff's work under the Deadlights dba. A few paragraphs up we mentioned our delight in having Perilous' "Rock & Roll Kiss" on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5, and the same most assuredly goes for Deadlights' awesome "Pretend To Pretend." I'm still caught up in the rush of it all, but every track on TIRnRR Vol. 5 is a stunner. We're blessed. No pretense in that.
BARON DAEMON AND THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
POPULAR CREEPS: Gone By 45
Our cherished pop music comes in many flavors, some sweet, some bitter. For every giddy love song or invigorating dance tune, there are so many records with a deep sense of loss embedded at the heart. That's true of a lot of our stories, whether set to music or set down in prose, and it's certainly true of a lot of my own chronicled memories. There are some things we don't ever quite get over. We can learn to adjust, and move on to the extent we're able to move on. We don't forget the loss, not ever.
And we shouldn't forget. The loss is part of us, and remembering the good parts that preceded a loss can remind us of better things. We are the sum of all of our things, both better and less so.
Popular Creeps understand loss. Their new single "Gone By 45" reflects on short lives, on a friend leaving this world far too soon. One supposes there are lessons to be learned, and a day to be seized, even as we turn the record up and let the sound commiserate with us.
But the ache lingers, as it must, as it should. That's the nature of loss.
AMY RIGBY: Tom Petty Karaoke
The divine Amy Rigby also understands loss, and articulates its sting with clarity, insight, and cathartic deliverance. When Dana and I appeared with Michael Mitsch on WMSC-FM's Back To The Future on Sunday, we waxed rhapsodic over Amy's talents. I mentioned that "Dancing With Joey Ramone" has long been my favorite Amy Rigby track (and it earns a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! [Volume 1]), but that her TIRnRR Vol. 5 contribution "Tom Petty Karaoke" was poised to take over that # 1 spot.
"Tom Petty Karaoke" is sublime. It's sad, it's touching, it's uplifting, it's resigned, it's determined, and it's grandiose yet almost defiantly unpretentious. It hurts, and it heals, a bracing balm for the gnawing we may feel within. We cannot thank Amy enough for letting us use this wonderful, wonderful track on our CD.
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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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