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 # 1166. This show is available as a podcast.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
NEW MUSIC FROM THE FLASHCUBES!!! I...can't tell you anything about it yet. I mean, beyond the revelations that it's a cover of the Motors' "Forget About You," it's flippin' transcendent, and it's unreleased. For now.
Otherwise? Forget I said anything.
THE BYRDS: Lady Friend
"Lady Friend" is my top pick among Byrds songs primarily associated with this week's Featured Performer, the late David Crosby. The Grip Weeds' supercool cover of "Lady Friend" was one of TIRnRR's most-played tracks in 2022, and the original version was one of two Byrds tracks predetermined to be included in this week's playlist. (During the programming process, we added "What's Happening?!?!," "Long Live The King," and a one-off '70s 4/5 live Byrds reunion performance of "Turn! Turn! Turn!")
And if I were to list my ten most-preferred Byrds tracks--something I didn't think about before beginning to write this sentence--"Lady Friend" would be a contender. As would the other prerequisite Byrds track listed a few paragraphs below here.
THE COWSILLS: Largo Nights
Our allegiance to the Cowsills is a sacred duty. It's also fun. The Cowsills' 1990s release Global is likely my favorite album of that decade, its track "She Said To Me" will be featured in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and the group even let us use it on our 2006 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. We're fans!
And we're fans of the Cowsills' 2022 album Rhythm Of The World. "Ya Gotta Get Up!" was our go-to track from that album, but a lot of other Cowsills fans have mentioned "Largo Nights," so we figured it was high time we played that one, too. Duty calls!
CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH: Long Time Gone
As I mentioned in this week's playlist commentary, my embrace of punk in the late '70s prompted me to distance myself a bit from the music of Crosby, Stills and Nash. My appreciation of CSN renewed itself in later years. Crosby's "Long Time Gone" is wonderful, and it serves as a lovely tribute to its author. Rest in peace, Croz.
STEVE STOECKEL: Laura Lynn
Knowing how important CSN's first album was to our friend Steve Stoeckel, it was imperative to follow this week's spin of "Long Time Gone" with a track from our Steve's new album The Power Of And. Hey, Steve! CSN just opened for you!
We've been playing a few different tracks from The Power Of And over the past couple of weeks, and we played a few of its other tracks back when they were singles or as-yet-unreleased. This week's show brings the TIRnRR debut of "Laura Lynn," which is my choice for the next single (following current single "Just One Kiss"). "Laura" will be back next week. That, my friends, is the power of And.
THE WEEKLINGS: I've Just Seen A Face
Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present something FAB. We love the Weeklings, and we love their new single covering the Beatles' "I've Just Seen A Face." The Weeklings are Beatles fans, and it ain't always easy for a group that digs the Beatles to pull off a cover of the Beatles; the result can risk straying too far from the original, or wind up too slavish in its imitation, begging the question: What was the point?
The Weeklings' take on "I've Just Seen A Face" threads the needle with fiendish-thingie efficiency. The arrangement shifts the folkie sense of the original into something with a palpable strut, adding a subtle raga feel that evokes both George Harrison and some of the Byrds' Indian-influenced songs. The Weeklings' "I've Just Seen A Face" returns to our show next week (as does a past TIRnRR Fave Rave written by the Weeklings' Glen Burtnik, performed when he was in a different group).
THE 5th DIMENSION: Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In [live]
Our friend Dominique King is a proud Aquarius who just commemorated another trip around the sun. Happy Birthday, Dom! Dominique's been off the grid for a few months, but we know she always requests the 5th Dimension's "Aquarius" around her birthday. So! We played it as if she'd requested it again this year.
And this time, we played the group's epic live version from the sublime various-artists concert documentary Summer Of Soul. The track's a little longer than we usually program here, but it was seven minutes well spent. Mystic crystal revelation! Hope you can rejoin us some time soon, Dom.
THE BYRDS: Eight Miles High
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
JENNY DEE AND THE DEELINQUENTS: Getaway
Over the course of a whole lotta years and a whole lotta shows, TIRnRR has played some great music by the Downbeat 5, Jenny Dee and the Deelinquents, and the Shang Hi Los. The common demon monitor among these acts is Jenny Dee herself, Jen D'Angora, whose voice lifts any radio show with the good sense to program her stuff. The Shang Hi Los' "Sway Little Player" can rightly be considered an all-time TIRnRR Fave Rave.
And I really, really like "Getaway," from the current Deelinquents album Electric Candyland. Four weeks' worth of programs into 2023, "Getaway" has already scored as many spins on this show as any other track in this young year, and more than most. It's taking a break next week, but it will be back. It'll be back more than once. Go, Jenny Dee. GO!
CROSBY, STILLS, NASH AND YOUNG: Our House
Although a Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell composition rather than a David Crosby song, CSNY's "Our House" seemed the most appropriate choice to close out this week's program. The Tuesday night before the show, about an hour before Dana and I set up the playlist, was the very last time I well ever set foot inside the house I used to live in. I lived there for the first twenty years of my life, and it still belonged to my family for more than four decades thereafter. I haven't lived there in a very long time, but it was still a regular part of my contemporary life until...well, until now. It's a weird feeling. Its necessary nature doesn't make it any less weird.
Now, someone else's cars are parked in its driveway. I've seen them, because yeah, I've driven by there a couple of times, even though it's out of my way and I have no reason to travel that route. Weird. Just weird. I imagine I'll stop driving that way soon, though I'm sure I'll still go by occasionally. But I know it's time to start letting go.
Our house. It was a very, very, very fine house. The outside of it looks good. I'll never see the inside again.
Not in this life, anyway.
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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.
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