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 # 1236.
sparkle*jets u.k.: Box Of Letters
One of the rules for puttin' on a show is to open BIG. A new single by the mighty sparkle*jets u.k. fits that bill from our POV, especially with this fab track "Box Of Letters." BIG pop music! We'll hear it again on our next show. Big pop music is its own reward.
JOHNATHAN PUSHKAR: Don't Stop
No, it's not the Fleetwood Mac song (not that there would be anything wrong with that). Johnathan Pushkar's righteous rendition of the Rolling Stones' "Don't Stop" comes to us via the new tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Jagger & Richards. Dana's pick!
And a good pick it is, too. It's a 21 century Stones track, and I wasn't at all familiar with the original version. Hey, wait here while I check that one out.
Awright, I'm back. The Rolling Stones' version is fine, but I do prefer the pop of Pushkar's take. We'll hear another track from Jem Records Celebrates Jagger & Richards on our next show.
ALAN MERRILL: Everyday All Night Stand
The late Alan Merrill was an American musician who sounded like a British musician. I mean that as a compliment. Merrill was a member of the Arrows, a '70s UK group that also included fellow Yank Jake Hooker. The Arrows are best remembered for a then-obscure B-side written by Merrill and Hooker: "I Love Rock And Roll."
Joan Jett was a fan. We know the song now because Joan Jett loved it, covered it, and spread its Gospel. Put another dime in the jukebox, baby. I wrote about the song back in 2020, right after Merrill died due to COVID:
"Joan Jett is about my age, and of course I had a crush on her. Duh. When the Runaways split at the end of the '70s, Jett seemed the one former member most likely to make some interesting new music; Lita Ford was more suited to hard rock, Sandy West, Jackie Fox, and Fox's replacement Vickie Blue didn't appear to be headed to solo careers, and although Cherie Currie (with her sister Marie Currie) did an appealingly basic cover of Rainbow's 'Since You've Been Gone,' none of them quite had Jett's potential. But Joan herself? Joan loved rock 'n' roll.
"So she made rock 'n' roll. She kicked the bad habits that could have ended her career and her life, she kept playing, she kept recording, and she kept playing some more. Her eponymous 1980 debut album (later reissued as Bad Reputation) was one of my favorite records in that period. She had done some recording with former Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, some of which appeared on that first album. But the B-side of her UK single cover of Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me" remained non-LP. I confess I was a little disappointed with the Gore cover, but I played that B-side a lot. That was 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'...
"While (forgive the redundancy) I love 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll,' I've never felt it was Joan Jett's very best track. I'd put 'Love Is Pain,' 'Bad Reputation' (and nearly all of that debut album), her take on Bruce Springsteen's 'Light Of Day,' 'This Means War,' 'Eye To Eye,' and several others above it. Similarly, when the Coronavirus claimed the song's co-author Alan Merrill last month, I recalled that it wasn't quite my favorite among his own catalog either."
My favorite Merrill track remains "Everyday All Night Stand,": which I first heard on his 2012 album Snakes And Ladders. I didn't realize until, like, a week ago that the Snakes And Ladders track was a remake of a song Merrill had originally recorded and released in the early '70s, pre-Arrows. The earlier version is now among my all-time Fave Raves, and a near-miss for my recently-posted All-Time Hot 150.
Allan Merrill was one of the first musicians I heard of succumbing to COVID. It feels like a million years ago, and it feels like yesterday. As I write this, I'm still in shock over the real-life yesterday's news that long-time TIRnRR friend Scott Cornish has also passed from this damned virus.
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| Brenda and I with Scott "King" Cornish at a Joan Jett show |
Somewhere.
HUNGRYTOWN: Green Grow The Laurels
Lush Americana. Don't argue with the blogger, man. Hungrytown's new album Circus For Sale is available right now. Go! GROW!
PARTHENON HUXLEY: Double Our Numbers
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
SLYBOOTS: Blindsided
Ace NYC combo Slyboots made their TIRnRR debut two weeks ago, with a spin of their recent cover of Meat Puppets' "Oh, Me." All well 'n' groovy. Now, we dig a little bit deeper for a way swell Slyboots original called "Blindsided." "Blindsided" was released last summer, but you know the drill:
Any record you ain't heard is a new record.
And, new or old, we're delighted to hear this record. We'll hear it again Sunday night.
THELMA HOUSTON: Jumpin' Jack Flash
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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 The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will be published in July. 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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