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 # 1193. This show is available as a podcast.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
The Flashcubes' fabulous new album Pop Masters is released TODAY, courtesy of the mighty Big Stir Records label. Subtlety is too namby-pamby an approach for something this vital: BUY THE DAMNED ALBUM AWREADY!!!
THE KINKS: You Really Got Me
My long-threatened (and maybe even eventual) book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about the Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset." An earlier vision for the book paired "Waterloo Sunset" with another Kinks chapter, celebrating the furious splendor of "You Really Got Me." The latter was one of many completed chapters cut in the book's streamlining process. If there's a second volume of GREM!, the "You Really Got Me" chapter will appear there.
These are my two favorite Kinks tracks. Which is my # 1 favorite Kinks track? Um...HEY! LOOK! IT'S THE GOODRICH BLIMP! Where was I? Oh, yes. These are my two favorite Kinks tracks.
Move along.
THE SUPREMES WITH THE FOUR TOPS: Function At The Junction
Motown's answer to the Justice League of America. The Supremes and the Four Tops did three albums together--The Magnificent 7, The Return Of The Magnificent Seven, and Dynamite--in a very short (1970-1971) time frame. I've only heard a handful of tracks from these records, as part of my current dive into the sheer magic of the Supremes' '70s work.
"Function At The Junction" was originally unreleased, but it's out there now. Expanded reissues to the rescue! Just like the Justice League. Or the Avengers. Supremes and Four Tops...ASSEMBLE!
ELVIS PRESLEY: Promised Land
Chuck Berry's original recording of his song "Promised Land" is my favorite Chuck Berry song, which is pretty impressive because, My God, CHUCK BERRY! I've heard Elvis Presley's cover version before, but I've never given it much thought. I got the idea to consider playing King Elvis I's "Promised Land" on this week's show, and coincidence decreed that when I was at Syracuse's Sound Garden to start setting up the August 16th in-store there for my Ramones book, I happened across a copy of the Elvis At Stax CD. SOLD! That's why the good Lord above gave me a credit card in the first place. Hello, Promised Land! How ya doin'...?
PERILOUS: Name In The Paper
Perilous kicks, man. You got something that needs kicking? Perilous will kick what's gotta be kicked. Their new single "Name In The Paper" serves as further evidence of the band's innate kickin' prowess, its lyrical concerns conjuring a connection to the Kinks' "Did You See His Name" and its melodic oomph calling to mind a loud 'n' illicit rendezvous at Bowery and Bleecker. For your kicking needs, trust the professionals. Perilous will do all your kicking for you. Danger isn't their middle name; it's their only name. Put that name in the paper!
THE MONKEES: Terrifying
"Terrifying" is a bonus track from the digital-only version of the Monkees' superb 2016 album Good Times! It's one of my 25 favorite Monkees tracks, and I wish I had it in physical form. Homemade CD-Rs don't count. "Terrifying" was briefly available on vinyl, part of one of those Record Store Day bait-and-swi...collectibles. The track has never been given a legit CD release anywhere in the world.
That ain't what oughta be.
I keep hoping for a deluxe multi-disc CD boxed set reissue of Good Times! Almost all of the Monkees albums that came out during their original run have been given the dfeluxe treatment: The Monkees, More Of The Monkees, the amazing Headquarters box, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, Head, Instant Replay, and The Monkees Present, skipping only 1967's Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. and 1970's Changes. A Pisces box is the priority here--Pisces is my favorite Monkees album--and there may not be enough Changes bonus material still in existence to do a box, even if there were sufficient interest. Moving ahead, I don't know that there's a plausible possibility of boxes for 1987's Pool It! or 1996's Justus.
But we need a fuller document of Good Times!
What's so terrifying about that?
THE RAMONES: I Want You Around
My Ramones book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones was published in May. I've just preordered another writer's new Ramones book, I Want You Around: The Ramones And The Making Of Rock 'n' Roll High School by Stephen B. Armstrong. The book's title tells you what it's all about. It's due in September, I preordered my copy from the good folks at Parthenon Books in Syracuse, and I can't wait to read it.
In my own book, I speak about the first time I saw Rock 'n' Roll High School. July 6, 1979, at a nightclub in Syracuse, the screening followed by live sets by my two all-time most-favored live rock 'n' roll combos, the Flashcubes and the Ramones. Top that for a combined movie and live music memory.
"I Want You Around" is one of the Ramones' best ballads, the seeming incongruity of that category notwithstanding. It's a very pretty tune that also happens to be one of my 25 favorite Ramones tracks.
THE GRIP WEEDS: Where Have All The Good Times Gone
This coming Sunday night's edition of TIRnRR will be an all-covers show, three hours of people doing other people's stuff. Our timing for the covers show is deliberate, coinciding with the release of the Flashcubes' new all-covers album Pop Masters. But the recently-released various-artists set Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies also bops into that blueprint. Yeah, like we need an excuse to play Ray Davies songs, whether an original version by the Kinks or cover versions by Kinks disciples. We are dedicated to following that fashion.
The Grip Weeds' rendition of "Where Have All The Good Times Gone" is the third track from Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies to score a berth on a TIRnRR playlist, preceded by spins of "I Gotta Move" by Johnathan Pushkar and "I Need You" by the Cynz the past couple of weeks. We also reprised--there's a Kinks joke in there somewhere--the Cynz and Pushkar tracks this week, and we'll be spotlighting a fourth track from that album in our covers show.
We'll hear the Grip Weeds on the all-covers show, too. They won't be singing a Kinks song, nor will we be playing any of their fine contributions to Jem's celebrations of John Lennon, Brian Wilson, or Pete Townshend. No, for our Grip Weeds selection next week...
...we're gonna go for a tiny bit deeper DiG. Dig?
BIG STAR: September Gurls
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING MIMI BETINIS: Baby It's Cold Outside
Six years ago today, I posted a piece about the Flashcubes' "No Promise." The central hook of that piece was my answer to the question of why we create: We create to correct. Whether we're addressing a monumental injustice, adjusting a picture that's mounted improperly, or fixing a hole where the rain gets in, our art and our science, our imagination and ingenuity, are sparked in service of setting right what we see as wrong.
Works for my intentions, anyway. Over the course of decades of writing, I've advocated on behalf of things I like, stuff I believe merits wider acclaim and deification. Punk. Power pop. The Monkees. The Ramones.
The Flashcubes.
Today, on the official street date for the Flashcubes' new album Pop Masters, I recall what I wrote six years ago. Maybe the world is finally starting to catch up with creative Cubic correction. It's about damned time.
The path to Pop Masters began with this 2021 digital single, a collaboration with Mimi Betinis to remake his own group Pezband's power pop classic "Baby It's Cold Outside." It was the Flashcubes' first work with the Big Stir label, and the original idea was to release a one-off single of a 1979 live track, from the Flashcubes' then-forthcoming in-concert album Flashcubes On Fire.
Creation corrected that plan.
I don't think anyone--not Dana and I, not our friends at Big Stir, nor the 'Cubes themselves--had any real inkling that this would lead to a series of digital singles. Now, all of those individual singles have been collected on an album, supplemented by a few more new tracks seeing release for the first time. This will be my favorite album of 2023. It's waaaaay too early to say that...but I sense that it's correct.
The Flashcubes' new album Pop Masters is out now. And now, creation calls upon you to take the correct action.
Don't argue with creation.
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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/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
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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