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.
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This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1224. This show is available as a podcast
CARLA OLSON: I Can See For Miles
I was very much a latecomer to appreciating the Who. I remember hearing "Pinball Wizard" and "See Me Feel Me" on AM Top 40 radio, but I didn't really develop any serious interest in the Who until my senior year in high school. A spring '77 presentation of '60s rock 'n' roll videos at Syracuse University hooked me on "I Can't Explain," prompting me to scurry back to my sister's copy of Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy. Appreciation achieved! A year later, Bomp! magazine taught me that the Who invented power pop. Appreciation intensified.
(And yeah, I still say the Beatles invented power pop. Ain't no losers in this debate.)
Carla Olson is, of course, a deservedly well-regarded performer, generally in the broad field we call Americana, but really choosing her own vistas as an artist oughta. Carla's current album Have Harmony, Will Travel 3 has already enriched TIRnRR playlists with her cover of the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man," and her ace take on the Who's power pop classic "I Can See For Miles" opens this week's show.
And I appreciate it. And how!
THE WHO: The Kids Are Alright
My sister's copy of Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy introduced me to "The Kids Are Alright," one of power pop's early defining tracks. In the '90s, when I wrote a history of power pop for Goldmine, I called the article "The Kids Are Alright." I regarded the song as a sort of power pop litmus test: If you can't imagine a group pulling off a credible cover of "The Kids Are Alright," it ain't a power pop band.
In college, I briefly preferred a cover version by the UK band the Pleasers to the Who's nonpareil original. Part of this was to rib my roommate's girlfriend (who was a BIG Who fan), but I really did have that preference at the time. TIRnRR was originally supposed to be called The Kids Are Alright--It's Sunday night, and THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT!--with the Pleasers singin' the titular tune. We switched to the Ramones-approved This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio while on the way to the studio for our debut show in 1998.
We're not kids, not now and not then. But it's alright.
THE FOUR TOPS: Keeper Of The Castle
I can't believe we've never played this one before. Impossible...but true. The Four Tops are frequent fixtures on this little mutant radio show, though we're more apt to reach back to their '60s Motown motherlode. Still, the 1973 hit "Are You Man Enough" was my first conscious introduction to the top of the Tops--thank you again, AM Top 40 radio--and I reached out to the Motown classics some time thereafter.
Starting with "Are You Man Enough" in '73 means I didn't really notice "Keeper Of The Castle" in '72. I must have heard it, but it didn't stick in between the ol' ears. Honestly, I think I knew it more from Dickie Goodman using its line Red, yellow, black, white, and brown in one of his break-in records.
I recently picked up a single-disc compilation of the Four Tops' '70s sides, and now "Keeper Of The Castle" at long last makes its TIRnRR debut. Come on home, Four Tops.
THE AMPLIFIER HEADS FEATURING BARRENCE WHITFIELD: They Came To Rock
That. They. DID! As a statement of intent, "They Came To Rock" is a friggin' juggernaut, combining the irresistible forces of the Amplifier Heads and garage soul shouter Barrence Whitfield to obliterate namby-pamby naysayers. They came to rock? Mission accomplished, men. Mission accomplished.
THE ELECTROMAGNATES: Airwave Hello
A power pop supergroup, comprised of friends of the show, singin' a rock 'n' roll love letter to radio. Yeah, no one's shocked we're playing this one. Steve Stoeckel, Dolph Chaney, Chris Church, and Peter Watts unite under the rockin ' pop dba the Electromagnates, and their debut single "Airwave Hello" makes its second consecutive TIRnRR appearance this week. We'll hear it again this coming Sunday night.
And now the question: Will we be hearing more from the Electromagnates in the future? Hello! These airwaves await further greetings.
EDDIE COCHRAN: Somethin' Else
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride
Still good advice. Heed the example of the Smithereens.
Yesterday marked four years since the last-ever live This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio webcast. Cooties took over the world. We took one week off, returned for a live-on-Zoom TIRnRR with Pop Co-Op, and then figured out how to record the show at home, beginning on April 5th of 2020. I recounted our early pandemic experience here.
And that's where we still are: Here. Every week. We haven't missed a show since then. If pride's a sin, we confess it. Hell, we proclaim it.
Face the world with pride. Sing, you Smithereens. Sing.
If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar.
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 and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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