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 # 1181. This show is available as a podcast.
THE RAMONES: Blitzkrieg Bop/Teenage Lobotomy/California Sun/Pinhead/She's The One [live]
We begin Part 2 of our three-week salute to THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES with the eleven-minute five-song live medley from their 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School. Well, it's referred to as a medley, and it's all a single track on LP, CD, digital download, or streaming, but each individual song is complete. Because the Ramones could do five songs in eleven minutes. Obviously. The laws of physics do not apply to the Ramones.
Also obvious: eleven minutes of live Ramones music is a great way to open a rock 'n' roll radio show. Hey-ho!
Following a 45 B-side in 1977 and the fantastic It's Alive album (released earlier in '79 but recorded in '77 with original drummer Tommy Ramone), this was the third live Ramones performance to see legit issue. And it was the first with Tommy's replacement Marky Ramone, who had joined your Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, and Dee Dee Ramone in time for the 1978 studio album Road To Ruin.
Drumming for the Ramones is a challenge. Marky Ramone rose to that challenge.
THE MIDNIGHT CALLERS: Baby Let Me Be
Man, we love the Midnight Callers. Hell, we've been fans of the group since their earlier incarnation as Chris Paine and the Lettertrain, and even before that we followed Paine and fellow MCer Julien Budrino in their previous combo London Egg. The Midnight Callers' 2020 debut album Red Letter Glow gave us the TIRnRR Fave Rave "41 Miles To Roscoe," and we've playlist-programmed the group's ace contributions to Jem Recordings' John Lennon, Brian Wilson, and Pete Townshend tributes. "Baby Let Me Be"--the first single off their forthcoming album Rattled Humming Heart--is very likely to follow suit. We played it this week. We're playing it again next week. We call it a hit, at any time of day.
POPSICKO: No Better Time
Popsicko's "No Better Time" (from their excellent archival set Off To A Bad Start) has been in my brain a lot lately, for no other reason than because it's insanely catchy and irresistible. There can be no better reason. And no better time.
GAME THEORY: Linus And Lucy
And that's what This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is all about, Charlie Brown.
THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance
As much as we associate Rock 'n' Roll High School with the Ramones, actress P. J. Soles was the film's actual star, playing Riff Randell, teen rock 'n' roller. But the Ramones are at the heart of it all, and I can't imagine how the movie would have played with its previous intended band Cheap Trick (or director Allan Arkush's teen fantasy of a making a movie with the Yardbirds), nor how producer Roger Corman's original concept of Disco High could have succeeded on any aesthetic level. The essential nature of the Ramones' involvement here reminds me of what Roger Ebert said about the Beatles' first movie: if A Hard Day's Night had been shot in color, but was otherwise identical, frame by frame, it would not have been the same classic (and classic feeling) film as it is in black and white. The iconic black and white images of the Beatles are an essential part of A Hard Day's Night, just as the Ramones are central to Rock 'n' Roll High School.
Ramones music plays throughout the film, mixed with treats by Chuck Berry, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Devo, MC5, Alice Cooper, Brownsville Station, the Velvet Underground, and more. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Marky have brief "acting" bits, and five on-screen musical appearances. When we first see them, they lip-sync "I Just Want To Have Something To Do," and they show up in a dream sequence in Riff's bedroom--nice work if you can get it--serenading her with "I Want You Around." We played both of those tracks on last week's show. Then comes the in-concert sequence mentioned up top.
The Ramones return for two more songs at the film's climax. The first of the two is "Do You Wanna Dance," a cover of the familiar rock 'n' roll classic. For a very, very long time I regarded this as my all-time favorite cover of anything by anybody. And while I've kinda shifted my allegiance to the Ramones' cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up," I still wanna dance.
Don't you?
THE MYNAH BIRDS: I Got You (In My Soul)
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE RAMONES: Rock 'n' Roll High School
Like Riff Randell says in the movie, Hit it, MARKY! The Ramones play the title tune that Riff wrote for them, the school blows up, and authority is soundly defeated. A happy ending all around.
THE FLASHCUBES: Got No Mind/Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Presenting Big Stir Records recording artists the Flashcubes in their natural habitat, recorded live at The Firebarn in Syracuse, May 1979. I was (and remain) a huge, huge fan of the 'Cubes, who occupy a point in my rock 'n' roll trinity alongside the Beatles and the Ramones. Anecdotal evidence suggests that I was not in attendance at this particular Firebarn show, but I had seen the 'Cubes many times before that and many more times going forward. And I saw them a little over a month after that Firebarn gig, July 6th of 1979, playing on a bill with the Ramones at the first Central New York screening of Rock 'n' Roll High School.
The Flashcubes have a new album, Pop Masters, due in August. It's beyond great, and I can't wait for you to hear it. Meanwhile, knowing that 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong was bringing his other group 1.4.5. to Syracuse to play at last Saturday's release party for my new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones--the party raging on before this week's show aired but after it was recorded--I wanted to include the single most Ramones-influenced song the Flashcubes ever created.
That would be Paul's "Got No Mind," carrying the DNA of "Teenage Lobotomy" and "Rockaway Beach" and applying shock treatment as needed. The live version is best, that Firebarn performance preserved on the album Flashcubes On Fire, segued perfectly into the 'Cubes covering Larry Williams via the Beatles. The Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes.
My trinity.
I did not expect 1.4.5. to perform "Got No Mind" at my book release party. Happy surprise! We'll hear a track from Pop Masters on our next show.
THE RAMONES: I Believe In Miracles
Part 2 of our salute to THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES concludes with the defiant and chillingly determined (if unexpected) optimism of "I Believe In Miracles." The Ramones lip-synced the song in the otherwise-horrible 1994 feature film remake of Car 54, Where Are You? Outside of Rock 'n' Roll High School, I'm pretty sure this was the Ramones' only on-screen appearance in a non-documentary motion picture.
With the Ramones' appearances in Rock 'n' Roll High School and Car 54, Where Are You? now addressed, THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES will conclude next week with four Ramones tracks heard in non-Ramones films. That starts with a little something from a 1979 flick called That Summer! Chewin' out a rhythm on our bubblegum, this Sunday night on TIRnRR.
No, not that rendition of the chewin'-on-my-bubblegum thing. C.C. Ramone has retired from the stage.
PERILOUS: Rock & Roll Kiss
Drummer Paul Doherty was an early cheerleader for my Ramones book. This status goes back a couple of years, when the book was still a secret known only to a few people. Given that, there was no freakin' way I was gonna attempt a book release party without enlisting the services of Paul's group Perilous.
Both Perilous and 1.4.5. rocked the 443 last Saturday, as I knew they would. It was my first opportunity to witness Perilous in concert, and man, did they ever deliver! We played their 2022 TIRnRR Pick Hit "Rock & Roll Kiss" on this week's show. We'll play their brand new single next week, as well as music from 1.4.5. and a track apiece from two of Perilous' seed groups, the Trend and Pauline and the Perils.
Ya wanna get loud? Okay, we can get loud. It's as simple as 1-2-3-4!
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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!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
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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