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 # 1235.
BADFINGER: Baby Blue
This week's playlist was a salute to our stats man Fritz Van Leaven, and it collects a few of our pal Fritz's favorite tracks. Every year, Fritz updates a list of his all-time Hot 100, and we used his 2022 update as our master list of resources for compiling our Fritz! Fritz! FRITZ!! celebration.
And it seemed appropriate to kick off these rock 'em sock 'em proceedings with a track that would also be on MY Hot 100. In fact, not only is Badfinger's "Baby Blue" among my top of the pops, it's at the VERY top of my pops. "Baby Blue" is my uncontested # 1. From my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):
"For 3:36 or thereabouts, 'Baby Blue' takes everything that's ever been great about rockin' pop music and amplifies it and compresses it all into a sheer, harmony-laden, irresistible force. There has never been a better single. There are others that can compete, in their own turn, but nothing--nothing--has ever topped it. It sounds like the Beatles. No, it's better than the Beatles. Even as a twelve-year-old kid in 1972, certain to my innermost core that the Beatles were the sine qua non of pop music, I think I still knew in my heart: 'Baby Blue' was even greater. Each time I hear it, I still believe that's true."
THE STATLER BROTHERS: Flowers On The Wall
THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: Shake Some Action
Yep, another crossover with my Hot 100. From The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):
"Boom.
"The Flamin' Groovies' classic track 'Shake Some Action' sounds like an announcement of pop-rock Armageddon, and like the Beatles, Byrds, and Rolling Stones heading into the studio for a session with Phil Spector. And I don't think even that bit of willful hyperbole does the song justice...
"...I'm the sort of wide-eyed pop fan that can fall in love with a song or a band instantly. It's like a communion with an ethereal, ultimate radio station beamin' directly to me. It's magic, and there's no other word that applies. It was magic when I heard "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" by the Ramones. It was magic when I saw the Flashcubes live. And it was magic when I heard 'Shake Some Action.'
"The song was just...hypnotic. There were so many little elements combining and clashing within that track, with bits of the Byrds and Phil Spector, a brooding, booming bass, guitars that seemed to snarl and jangle at the same time, punk swagger, pop yearning, and an insistent instrumental hook that grabbed me and whispered silkily in my ear, You're with us now, son. It was a recipe for cacophony, a surefire roadmap to a sonic mess...except that it wasn't. It was precise. It was perfect. And I swear, in that moment, I knew it was The Greatest Record Ever Made.
"I wanted this record...."
THE KINKS: (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE YARDBIRDS: Evil Hearted You
This one goes out to Laurie Heffron, wherever she is.
I hasten to point out that Laurie most assuredly did not possess an evil heart, and this shout-out is offered with a prevailing sense of gratitude. I've told the story here before, but let's review:
After my '70s teen acquisition of the Yardbirds' Greatest Hits, Having A Rave-Up was my second Yardbirds LP. In the late '70s or (probably) early '80s, I heard the Yardbirds steamin' rendition of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" on an oldies radio show. Prior to that, I only knew the song from the guy across the hall in my freshman dorm blasting Aerosmith's version; I wouldn't hear earlier recordings by Tiny Bradshaw or Johnny Burnette's Rock and Roll Trio until a later time. "Train Kept A-Rollin'" wasn't on my Yardbirds Greatest Hits. I think I heard the Yardbirds' "Train Kept A-Rollin'" ripoff "Stroll On" before I heard their version of the legit original (thanks to the Yardbirds' on-screen performance of "Stroll On" in the film Blow Up).
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| Gratuitous photo of actress Jane Birkin in Blow Up |
In the early '80s, a McDonald's coworker and I somehow got into a conversation about the mid '60s British Invasion. Laurie was a bit younger than me, and had no real interest in your Kinks or your Dave Clark Five. Nonetheless, she mentioned that someone in her family had a couple of LPs from that era, one by the Animals and one by the Yardbirds. She didn't think anyone at home still wanted them, and she offered to give them to me. Within a day or two, her family's copies of Animal Tracks and Having A Rave-Up moved to their new home in my apartment.
In addition to "Train Kept A-Rollin'," Having A Rave-Up also introduced me to "You're A Better Man Than I" and "Evil Hearted You," two absolutely essential Yardbirds classics I didn't know at all. That made this beat-up copy of Having A Rave-Up one of the best gifts of music I've ever received. Thanks again, Laurie.
B. B. KING: The Thrill Is Gone
Whaddaya mean "the thrill is gone?" It's RIGHT HERE! Every week! Man, get a grip awready.
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Carl's book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is 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.
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl
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