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 # 1178. This show is available as a podcast.
THE RAMONES: 7 And 7 Is
This week's show concludes our four-week tour through the Ramones' studio album discography. Throughout the month of April, we've been playing my # 1 top track from each of the group's albums, four per week, and we begin our latest bopathon with representation from the Ramones' thirteenth album Acid Eaters.
Released in 1993, Acid Eaters is the Ramones' only all-covers album, sporting da brudders' piledriving takes on 1960s classics by the Who, Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, the Seeds, Eric Burdon and the Animals, et al. The Ramones had included a cover or two on most of their previous albums, so this seemed like an intriguing project.
Bassist C. J. Ramone wasn't so sure about it. In the 1994 interview reprised in my book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, C. J. told me, "...I really wasn’t for it. I thought it was a bit too nostalgic, kind of concentrating on a...something that could almost be detrimental to our image. It seems like people think of too much of the past when it comes to the Ramones. You hear so much of the Ramones’ history and not enough about what’s going on about the Ramones now. And I think that hurts them sometimes. And I thought that this album was just contributing to that. I still think it is...."
Me? I raved about Acid Eaters when it was new, and cooled to it some time thereafter. To represent the album on this week's show, I figured I'd default to the C.J.-sung version of Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages," a track that stood out for me at the time of its release. But in prepping for the show, I listened to Acid Eaters again, for the first time in...well, I can't count that high. I was surprised by how much I flat-out dig the album in the here and now, not just more than I expected to dig it, but possibly even more than I liked it in '93.
"My Back Pages" was still in the potential mix for this week's playlist, as was the Pete Townshend-augmented cover of "Substitute." I went with this steamrollin' version of Love's "7 And 7 Is," and delighted in the ongoing revelation of rediscovering old favorites.
MICKEY AND SYLVIA: Love Is Strange
A spin of Mickey and Sylvia's "Dearest" on last week's show led us back to their big hit "Love Is Strange" this week. What a great record, and its been far, far too long since its last appearance on TIRnRR. In our chat group Sunday night, intrepid listener Joel Tinnel commented, "The guitar is pretty hip for its day. I believe Mickey (of 'Mickey and Sylvia' fame) is the player as well as the vocalist." Our pal (and Radio Deer Camp host) Rich Firestone added, "I thought it sounded great coming out of '7 And 7 Is' because the Ramones didn't do the closing vamp from the Love record. Almost sounded like Mickey's guitar was gonna play it!"
MR. BRUCE GORDON: One Last Dance
Mr. Bruce Gordon is a long-time friend of this show. Bruce is also a welcome perennial fixture on our playlists, both as a member of the mighty Pop Co-Op and under his previous nom de bop Mr. Encrypto. Ditching "Encrypto" and retaining the honorific, Mr. Bruce Gordon has a new album due in May, courtesy of the good folks at Futureman Records. One Tall Order is the first record this peerless pop mister has done under his own name, and we are firmly on board. One LAST dance? Nuh-uh. First of many. First of many.
THE FLIRTATIONS: How Can You Tell Me?
My gosh, why weren't the Flirtations bigger stars? Their lone hit "Nothing But A Heartache" was phenomenal, and granted, nothing else in their catalog quite equals the sheer splendor of that track. Nonetheless, there's more fabulous Flirtations material beyond just the one big record. Their 1969 album Sounds Like The Flirtations (titled Nothing But A Heartache in the US) is worth a listen or two thousand. This week's radio exercise includes "How Can You Tell Me?," which was the B-side of "Nothing But A Heartache" in the States. We'll hear more from the Flirtations next week.
THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up
The Ramones' final studio album ¡Adios Amigos! saw the group go out with a blitzkrieg bang. And the album opens with a cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up," one of the greatest tracks ever to bear the Ramones brand name. It's not merely my favorite from ¡Adios Amigos!; when S. W. Lauden interviewed me last week for Remember The Lightning's feature on my Ramones book, he asked me to name my top five Ramones tracks, and "I Don't Want To Grow Up" is perched firmly at # 3 (behind only "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker").
HEART: Kick It Out
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
(Powered by '70s teen pheromones.)
THE FLASHCUBES: Nothing To Do
IT'S A SECRET! Man, why am I even mentioning this to you?
THE RAMONES: Babysitter
With the Ramones' fourteen studio albums accounted for, we turn to my favorite among the group's non-LP tracks. "Babysitter" did appear on later European pressings of 1977's Leave Home album, but in America it was the non-LP B-side of the 1978 "Do You Wanna Dance" 45. At the time, I believed both sides of this single were destined to become irresistible, inescapable rock 'n' roll radio/Top 40 juggernauts.
And they should have been.
THE PALEY BROTHERS AND RAMONES: Come On Let's Go
Going into this, I presumed "Rock 'n' Roll High School" would be a given. Instead, I picked "Come On Let's Go," a dynamic cover of the Ritchie Valens gem, as performed by the Ramones backing up the Paley Brothers. The track had previously been released as a single in 1978, recorded when Joey Ramone was sidelined by an injury. Joey recalled, "It was a single before it was on the soundtrack. I was laid up, and John and Tommy and Dee Dee, they did the track with the Paley Brothers singin’ the lead. It sounded very Everly Brothersish. I thought it came out great."
Johnny Ramone also remembered the circumstances of the recording. "We negotiated a hundred bucks each [laughs], big money. And I said, 'Great! Hundred bucks for the night here, I’ll go in and do it.' Went in, put the record on, had Tommy figure out how to play it, [and he] showed me how to play it. I think I did two takes and said, 'that’s it, that’s as good as I’m gonna play it. I’m done.' And it came out good. The faster you do it, the better it comes out."
P. J. SOLES: Rock 'n' Roll High School
Still hadda get "Rock 'n' Roll High School" into this week's playlist. Enter Riff Randell. rock 'n' roller, the Ramones' # 1 fan. Take it, P. J.!
NEXT WEEK: we finish April with a track apiece from the four official live albums the Ramones released during their career. We'll begin with a track from my favorite live album ever.
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!!
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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