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 # 1184. This show is available as a podcast.
TEGAN AND SARA: Girls Talk
The fifth and final season of the Amazon Prime TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was top-to-bottom marvelous indeed, and the series finale two weeks ago hit all the marks it needed to hit. No spoilers. The glow of satisfaction lingers, and I know I'm going to remember Maisel as one of my all-time favorite series.
(The first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel also inspired me to write a tangent that is one of my favorite blog pieces, a fantasy about a make-believe 1950s rock 'n' roll movie called Jukebox Express. Somebody get Sophie Lennon on the phone!)
Also mixing Maisel and music, the finale's end credits rolled to the tune of Tegan and Sara's irresistible new cover of "Girls Talk," a song written by Elvis Costello and a long-time Fave Rave as rendered by Dave Edmunds in 1979. We played Linda Ronstadt's version just a couple of weeks back.
Tegan and Sara's "Girls Talk" doesn't quite displace the Edmunds version in my rockin' pop cosmology, at least not yet, but damn, it's a solid, beguiling performance that is absolutely what I wanna hear again right now. Hits up. And Tegan and Sara's "Girls Talk" returns to the playlist next week.
TINA TURNER: What You Get Is What You See
I think my first real awareness of the late Tina Turner came via her TV appearances in the early '70s. I must have heard Ike and Tina Turner's hit cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" on AM Top 40 in '71, but I have no recollection of it. To me, Turner was the dynamo I saw on television, beltin' out stuff like "Nutbush City Limits," probably with Cher, or maybe on Midnight Special. In '75, Turner's version of the Who's "The Acid Queen" became the first Tina Turner tune to have direct impact on teen me, and the first to enter my record library when my sister bought me the Tommy soundtrack LP. So: TV and turntable. That's how I knew Tina Turner. I didn't know her from radio.
That changed in the '80s. Freed from tethers to her abusive ex-husband, Tina Turner annexed the airwaves as her own, on her own. I remember hearing her then-new cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" on a Buffalo FM station in '83, with no inkling of the massive uptick Turner's popularity was about to enjoy.
What's love got to do with it? Everything. I bought Private Dancer, and while I confess I haven't retained my affection for '80s Turner--I've come to prefer her older material, notwithstanding the involvement of the schmuck to whom she had been married--my interest in Private Dancer was genuine at the time.
I saw Turner in concert in the late '80s, with the incongruous choice of Wang Chung as her opening act. She was great. Of course she was great. She was Tina friggin' Turner. Simply the best.
Knowing we were going to play Ike and Tina's "River Deep--Mountain High" in this week's Greatest Record Ever Made! spot, I wanted to be sure to play something credited to Tina Turner as a solo artist. "What You Get Is What You See" has long been my favorite example of '80s Tina Turner. It bops like nothing else, recalling Dire Straits while bustin' through the plasticized morass that characterized so much '80s pop music.
What you get is what you see. We were fortunate to live in a world that got to see Tina Turner.
THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride
A big ol' WELCOME BACK to Rich Firestone, whose essential rockin' pop wireless shindig Radio Deer Camp returned to the airwaves this week, right here on SPARK! And we figured we'd roll out the red carpet with this simple directive from one of Rich's favorite beat groups, the Smithereens.
"Face The World With Pride" was recorded in 1993, but remained unreleased until just this past September, when it finally saw daylight on The Lost Album. Rich, as a Smithereens insider, knew about the track for the better part of three decades; when it finally came out on The Lost Album, our Reechie urged his fellow DJs to carpet-bomb playlists with spins of "Face The World With Pride," to make the damned thing the hit he always knew it was.
We heard. We obeyed. "Face The World With Pride" was TIRnRR's # 1 most-played track in 2022, which is pretty impressive for something released about a week before the year's last quarter. 'Cuz Rich Firestone said so.
With Radio Deer Camp back on the air where it belongs, there could be no track more appropriate to mark Rich's return to the airwaves. Face the world with pride. Good advice. Welcome back, Reechie.
DAVE COPE AND THE SASS: Circles
Another one of my favorite 2022-released tracks is the title tune from the album Julee by Dave Cope and the Sass. The group has a brand-new album Killer Mods From Inner Space, courtesy of Kool Kat Musik, and it's gonna get a little airplay on our little mutant radio show. It's what we do! That airplay begins with "Circles" this week; we'll hear another Killer Mods From Inner Space track on our next program. Julee would demand nothing less.
THE RAMONES: Pet Sematary
It wasn't exactly an oversight when we omitted "Pet Sematary" from our recent three-part salute to THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES. Well, it kinda was an oversight, but I'd do it again. For THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES, I wanted to pay full and proper tribute to Ramones tracks heard in their 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School, I wanted to play some recognized Ramones classics ("Rockaway Beach," "I Wanna Be Sedated," and "Blitzkrieg Bop") that turned up in films otherwise unrelated to the Ramones, I wanted to squeeze in "Chop Suey" from 1983's Get Crazy, and it felt important to include "I Believe In Miracles," which the Ramones' lip-synced on-screen in Car 54, Where Are You?, their final film appearance.
That plan occupied all twelve of the spots we had available for Ramones tracks over the three-week span of THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES. There was no room for "Pet Sematary."
It was a glaring omission nonetheless. As the title theme from a movie based on a Stephen King book, "Pet Sematary" was one of the Ramones' highest-profile tracks during their career, and we should have gotten to it. We did play a live version in April. The studio version at long last makes its TIRnRR debut this week.
Think of it as a return engagement. THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES. Held over! By popular demand.
THE MONKEES: Birth Of An Accidental Hipster
2016 was not a good year. No, 2016 was not a good year at all.
Still, even lousy years are allowed a positive moment. 2016's best moment was the release of Good Times!, a triumphant new album by the Monkees. Leading up to the album's appearance, I wrote that I was less than captivated by its first teaser single "She Makes Me Laugh," fully taken with its second teaser "You Bring The Summer," and just awed by third single "Me & Magdalena." By the time the album itself was released at the end of May, my anticipation was at Defcon 1.
The album lived up to my expectations--surpassed them, really. I had retired--PERMANENTLY!!!!--from writing record reviews years before. I came out of retirement just long enough to write my Good Times! review. I followed with a supplemental piece on the album's bonus tracks, and circled back later to craft my hypothetical speech inducting the Monkees into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. But it shoulda.
"Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" was the key track for me, even more than "Me & Magdalena." Written by Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher, "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" could have been on the Monkees' 1968 Head soundtrack album, while still sounding like 21st century Monkeeshines. Good Times! stands as one of the Monkees' best albums, and I like a lot of Monkees albums. 2016 can suck it. I'm heading out to the sunshine, babe.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes have a new album due out by the end of the summer. It's called Pop Masters, it will be released by the mighty Big Stir Records, and it collects all of the Flashcubes' Big Stir digital singles, a series of tracks which find our 'Cubes covering pop masters by Shoes, the Spongetones, Pezband, and more, often with a little assistance from members of the original acts. It's GREAT, I wrote the liner notes (teased here), and I can't wait for everyone to hear this. It is to 2023 what the Monkees' Good Times! was to 2016.
Pop Masters will also include a few tracks that have not yet been released, like this absolutely ace take on the Motors' "Forget About You." We'll hear one of the familiar Pop Masters singles on next week's show, as part of a Flashcubes THEN and Flashcubes NOW! two-fer, paired with a cover tune the 'Cubes recorded for a compilation album some years back.
IKE AND TINA TURNER: River Deep--Mountain High
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE CYNZ: Tell That Girl To Shut Up
Confident and assured, the Cynz firmly reject irrelevant backtalk on this cover of Holly and the Italians' classic "Tell That Girl To Shut Up." We've been playing this a lot, and it seems guaranteed a spot on our year-end countdown of TIRnRR's most-played tracks in 2023. We'll give it another spin this coming Sunday, too. Don'tcha give me no lip. The record can speak for itself.
MAX FROST AND THE TROOPERS: Shape Of Things To Come
This week's show was recorded before we learned of the passing of legendary songwriter Cynthia Weil. With her husband Barry Mann, Weil created a rockin' pop body of work that will live on forever and ever. We'll hear four of my favorite Mann and Weil compositions on our next show.
The appearance of Mann-Weil song on this week's show is neither design nor coincidence. Nearly every installment of TIRnRR gathers nonpareil material from across a span of decades, and that often includes a little something from the Mann and Weil songbook. I don't remember where, when, or how I first heard "Shape Of Things To Come" by Max Frost and the Troopers; I've never seen Wild In The Streets, the film that gave us this song on its soundtrack, though I know enough to shout 14 OR FIGHT! whenever Dana plays the track. My introduction to the song came courtesy of the Raiders, for whom it was an LP track on their Indian Reservation album.
I picked up my used copy of Indian Reservation for fifty cents at Mike's Sound Center in North Syracuse, Spring of 1977. It happened to be around the time I was becoming specifically aware of Mann and Weil's work. Greater awareness would follow. The shape of things to come. Rest in peace, Ms. Weil.
IN-PERSON EVENT! On June 29, I will be making an in-store appearance at GENERATION RECORDS, 210 Thompson Street in NYC on behalf of my new book GABBA GABBA HEY! A CONVERSATION WITH THE RAMONES. The book contains my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., which were cited by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as essential reading. I'll be at Generation to chat with fellow Ramones fans, talk about the book, the interviews, and how the music of the Ramones impacted my life. If you are in the New York area on June 29th, I would love to see you at Generation Records. Hey-ho, let's GO!
If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.
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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