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 # 1196. This show is available as a podcast.
THE ANDERSON COUNCIL: This Is Where I Belong
Heh. Right before the announcement that the good folks at Underground Garage had selected the Anderson Council's cover of the Kinks' "Do You Remember Walter?" as this week's Coolest Song In The World, we'd already picked a different Anderson Council track from the same Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies tribute album to kick off our own show. The more the mightier! Heck, our pal and colleague Rich Firestone also gave a spin to "Do You Remember Walter?" on this weekend's edition of Radio Deer Camp, so Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies is clearly well on its way to utter and delighted world domination.
And that's where it belongs.
GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Wicked Wit
Our friends at Big Stir Records scored a major huzZAH! when they signed a deal to put out a new album by venerable British rocker Graham Parker. Credited to Graham Parker and the Goldtops, Last Chance To Learn The Twist stands proud and tall alongside the impressive body of work Parker has created over a span of decades.
This week, we specifically whooped up that string of excellence with a one-two then-and-now shot of primo Parker, with Graham Parker and the Rumour's 1976 classic "Pouring It All Out" clearing a righteous path for ace new number "Wicked Wit." This will not be your last chance to learn the new Graham Parker record on TIRnRR.
Oh. And in between "Pouring It All Out" and "Wicked Wit," we dropped in a new TIRnRR show ID by none other than Graham Parker himself. Graham freakin' Parker recorded an ID for our little mutant radio program. I need to commandeer a time machine and tell my younger self about that.
WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss
Can one find catharsis in pop music? Yeah. Of course. Art can challenge us, but it can also comfort us when comfort is our basic need. Take a sad song and make it better. Reach out, I'll be there. Ain't no mountain high enough. Stand by me. I'm ready for my luck to turn around.
This December will mark the second anniversary of my Mom's passing. She would have been 98 years old this week, on Monday. I'm okay, really quite okay. I'm aware of her absence, especially when some milestone occurs or some cool thing happens and my first reaction is I gotta tell Mom! I'll be very aware of it when my daughter gets married in October. But while Mom's life was no stranger to sorrow, it was still a long life filled with love. I'm not sad. I'm grateful.
I didn't have any of the above in mind when I programmed Wendi Dunlap's sublime "Season Of Loss" into this playlist. The track is from Wendi's album Looking For Buildings, and I confess I was originally thinking of playing the track at the top of the show, an acknowledgement of the loss all around us. The devastation in Maui was my primary influence, as I've been unable to say anything of use or value to that awful situation. Fires. Hurricanes. Illness. Violence. It's alway a season of loss.
Upon further review, I realized that's just too much burden to place on a beguiling pop track. We let the song play in the middle of our second set instead. Freed of expectations.
A comfort nonetheless. 'Tis the season. It always is.
THE RAMONES: It's Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World)
I've been thinking about retirement. That event is still a ways off--three years, four months, two weeks, and three days, but who's counting?--and I do indeed dig that one should be careful how one wishes. Right, Mr. Limpet?
Yeah, can't be too careful with wishes to be fishes. Meanwhile, I still work full-time in retail. I'm not unhappy; it's a job, it's a paycheck, and I'm comfortable with the circumstances. I'd like more time to write, travel, write, dance, write, read, write, play, and write, and I make use of what time I have for all of that in the here and now. For the moment, it is my place in the 9 to 5 world.
The Ramones are the subject of my first book, published earlier this year. "It's Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World)" is from the Ramones' 1981 album Pleasant Dreams. Of the Ramones' 16 studio albums, Pleasant Dreams sounds the least like classic Ramones. The group's first four albums are always gonna be my favorites, but I've been getting into this sixth album a lot this year. It's not the equal of Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, or Road To Ruin, but it is great, and it's way, way underrated.
And it has its place.
BOBBY SUTLIFF: Same Way Tomorrow
I didn't know Bobby Sutliff. We were friends on Facebook, but I don't remember whether or not we ever had any substantive contact via the great and powerful interwebs.
Nonetheless, I know for damned sure that our indie pop world has suffered a loss with Bobby's passing last week. His body of work, both as a solo artist and with the great rockin' pop combo the Windbreakers (fronted by Bobby and his fellow popsmith Tim Lee), is rightly revered among true rockin' pop believers, and the work will live on. We mourn the loss of the man who created that work.
I wrote the above about a year ago, shortly after we heard that Sutliff had died. Now, Jem Records is celebrating Bobby's legacy with an expanded reissue of his 1987 album Only Ghosts Remain. With its title tweaked to Only Ghosts Remain Plus, the Jem release adds eleven bonus tracks from throughout Sutliff's solo career, doubling the original album's selections. The bonus tracks effectively make this The Best Of Bobby Sutliff, and that's saying something. I already have most of the bonus tracks (which include my favorite Sutcliff gem "Griffin Bay"), but somehow I never owned a copy of Only Ghosts Remain.
I have it now, and it's just splendid. If you likewise revere all that's jangly, I recommend you get this one, too.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
Our friends at Big Stir Records scored a major huhZAH! when they signed a deal to put out a new album by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouses the Flashcubes. Dana and I may have played a tiny little part in introducing one party to the other--Rex and Christina! Gary, Paul, Arty, and Tommy! DO SOMETHING TOGETHER!!--but our preexisting bias isn't necessary to recognize that the new 'Cubes album Pop Masters is flat-out incredible. Album of the year, mates.
And this week we introduced yet another spin of the Flashcubes' Pop Masters cover of the Motors' "Forget About You" with a brand-new TIRnRR show ID by none other than Gary Frenay of the Flashcubes. I need to commandeer a time machine and tell my younger self about that, too.
THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL: She Is Still A Mystery
My recent Greatest Record Ever Made! piece about the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City" included these comments about the group's 1967 single "She Is Still A Mystery:"
In addition to my undying allegiance to "Summer In The City," another favorite Spoonful tune was a lesser-known hit that I also heard on oldies radio: "She Is Still A Mystery." This fragile-sounding ode to love's quirks and uncertainties, its elusive nature and endless allure, took command of my equally-fragile inner romantic, which surrendered unconditionally. My inner romantic fights like a wimp.
CHUBBY CHECKER AND DEE DEE SHARP: Slow Twistin'
I wrote here about seeing Chubby Checker perform live last week. Checker is not represented in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), though his "Let's Do The Freddie" does get a mention in that book's Freddie and the Dreamers chapter. But I tell ya, Chubby's 1960 smash "The Twist" is quite possibly THE single most seismic 45 of all time, and it certainly merits its own GREM! spotlight. The task of writing that has been added to my voluminous to-do list. Come on, baby!
Greatest is its own distinct (and infinite) category. Favorite is a separate consideration. My favorite Chubby Checker record is "Slow Twistin'," his 1962 hit collaboration with Dee Dee Sharp. Listening to a Chubby Checker best-of CD (and now having seen him perform) proves that, man, there's a lot of greatness to be found in the Checker catalog. Slow Twist? Fast Twist?All the Twists, and all the Ponys, Flys, Limbos, and--what the hell--Freddies, too. Round and round and round we go.
THE BEATLES: Revolution
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
EARTH, WIND AND FIRE: September
September is upon us. And it's high time for The 12th Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT! We figured we'd start gettin' psyched for next week's epic new Soul Pit by closing this week's show with a double-length set of soul and R & B. And that set commenced with the irresistible elemental force of Earth, Wind and Fire.
I didn't even realize the accidental serendipity of opening this end-of-August Soul Pit set with "September" until after the show aired. But we'll take it. September looms. The 12th Annual Dana's Funky Soul Pit awaits on September 3.
Say that you'll remember.
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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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