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 # 1199. This show is available as a podcast.
CARLA OLSON [FEATURING ERIC JOHNSON]: Face To Face
I don't know what benevolent sequence of events brought a new track by Carla Olson into our eager possession--a submission with the implicit instruction PLAY THIS ON YOUR RADIO SHOW!--but I'm grateful. Carla's seen some TIRnRR airplay over the years, primarily with her old group the Textones (who did the original version of "Vacation," later revamped and remodeled by the Go-Go's), but also solo, and with the legendary Gene Clark of the Byrds.
We're stoked and then some to be able to open this week's radio extravaganza with new music from Carla Olson. "Face To Face" is the advance single from her forthcoming album Have Harmony, Will Travel 3, and it finds our Carla playing with Eric Johnson in service of a pop twang and a country-fried jangle, all made pretty as can be. Music worth facing.
BONEY M: Gotta Go Home
My first awareness of the German disco-soul group Boney M was in print only; I don't recall hearing their only U.S. hit (a cover of the Melodians' reggae classic "Rivers Of Babylon") in 1978, but I did see them mentioned in the music press here and there. The mentions weren't necessarily positive; I think a review in The Syracuse New Times awarded their album Night Flight To Venus a mere one star. The Rezillos also received the same single-sun rating in those same local tabloid pages; I loved The Syracuse New Times (and much, much later did some SNT freelancing myself), but I say both Night Flight To Venus and Can't Stand The Rezillos deserved a few more stars than what SNT said.
No idea when I finally did hear Boney M's music. In the '80s? Probably not. More likely it was in the '90s or even in the Naughty Aughties, but I was instantly taken with their Eurodisco cover of U.K. psychedelic pop group the Smoke's '60s nugget "My Friend Jack." In an unfinished chapter I considered for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), I wrote of Boney M and "Painter Man:"
THE FLASHCUBES: Nothing To Do
Given my repeated and well-hammered insistence that my all-time rockin' pop Trinity is the Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes, it's well and proper that TIRnRR continues to pummel the ol' console on behalf of the Flashcubes' irresistible new all-covers album Pop Masters. We have three hours to kill each week. May as well murder that time with something good.
Each of the twelve superswell tracks on Pop Masters has scored at least one TIRnRR spin, and most have racked up multiple spins. There ain't an amateur track among this stack of Masters. Let 'em play. Let 'em ALL play!
Lately, I've been particularly obsessed with the album's current single, a cover of the Motors' "Forget About You," and we've been programming that track with carpet-bombing efficiency. Still, it seemed like we were overdue to return to one of the other fine Pop Masters tracks, maybe give "Forget About You" a well-deserved week off.
We turned to "Nothing To Do," the Flashcubes' version of a li'l ditty originally done by Sparks. I confess I wasn't all that familiar with the Sparks record--I like Sparks a lot, but Dana's generally the one more apt to squeeze Sparks into our playlist--but when I found out last year that the 'Cubes were going to cover "Nothing To Do," I made a point of including Sparks' original in our 6/13/2022 playlist. The Cubic interpretation of "Nothing To Do" made its TIRnRR debut in April of this year. Both versions are very nice indeed.
And this week, the Flashcubes' rendition of a Sparks song had something to do: It proved we can play Pop Masters material other than just "Forget About You."
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
And then, of course, I turned right around and opened the very next set with another spin of "Forget About You" anyway. We play the hits, my friends. We play the hits.
SPARKS: The Decline And Fall Of Me
And Dana followed the Flashcubes with SPARKS! I love this show!
R. DEAN TAYLOR: Indiana Wants Me
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
MICKY DOLENZ: Shiny Happy People
I'm a proud first-generation fan of the Monkees, and I think Micky Dolenz is one of the most underrated lead singers of the rock 'n' roll era. The outta-nowhere recent notion of Dolenz doing an EP of R.E.M. covers went from presumed hoax to verified news to the public airing (and a video!) of one of its tracks in record time. What, a week and a half? Two weeks tops? My first reaction to the early Is-this-true? reports was to ask if Christian Nesmith was involved in recording the tracks. Christian IS involved? Hey hey, I'M A BELIEVER! Sign me up as one of those shiny happy people.
Christian Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Circe Link
It's funny: In the early 1990s, I was corresponding with a number of Monkees fans on Prodigy, including a woman named Jennifer. Jennifer was in college at the time, making her one of the younger Monkees fans. She also liked R.E.M., and she mentioned that she thought the Monkees and R.E.M. shared some similarities in their sound.
I agreed. I could have imagined the Monkees covering, say, "Driver 8," or R.E.M. doing "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." Hell, the Monkees' vintage live version of the latter (heard on the Live 1967 album) sounded a lot like R.E.M. to me. We CAN get there from here!
Bopper meets Believer, 1987
I'm still in occasional contact with Jennifer on Facebook. When she heard about the upcoming release of Dolenz Sings R.E.M., she posted two immediate thoughts:
"1. This is everything I love all in one bowl, like a delicious hot fudge brownie sundae with whipped cream and a cherry.
"2. I am nearly certain that I called this, like, thirty years ago."
You sure did, Jennifer! And this first teaser track from Dolenz Sings R.E.M. is just sublime; I can't wait to hear the other three tracks.
THE STALLIONS: Why
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio debuted on the last Sunday of 1998, so '99 was really our first full year on the air. In 1999, Dana started playing a track or two from a Junk Records compilation CD called Goin' After Pussy--Teasers & Tidbits. Why a compilation CD was hunting kitty-cats, I have no idea. From that album, Boris the Sprinkler's "Kill The Ramones" got some airplay on TIRnRR. From that same album, the Stallions' cover of the obscure '60s garage punk nugget "Why" (originally recorded by the Dirty Wurds) also scored a few spins on TIRnRR.
It scored a lot of spins on TIRnRR.
The Stallions' "Why" was our # 1 most-played track in 1999. It was also our # 1 most-played track in 2000, and although it never again reached the tippy-top of any more of our year-end countdowns, it remained our all-time most-played track for a very long time thereafter. Big Star's "September Gurls" took away that most-played title a few years back, but "Why" by the Stallions will alway loom large in whatever it is that passes for our legend.
This coming Sunday, September 24th, brings us to the unlikely milestone of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1200. After the tag at the end of this week's TIRnRR # 1199, it seemed appropriate to whoop it up on behalf of our imminent celebration of 1200 SHOWS!!! with a teasin' tidbit of the song that was absolutely synonymous with this little mutant radio show during our early years.
And it has to open This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1200. Best be back here on Sunday night, hear? WHY, baby? 'Cuz we like you.
And you have our dirty wurd: no felines will be harmed. Go after something else, you ruffians.
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/
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, streaming at SPARK stream, archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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