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 # 1248.
THE GREG KIHN BAND: Reunited
Our featured performer this week was, of course, the late, great Greg Kihn. I've often written about what I call my crucible year of 1977, a year of transition from high school into college, and a big year of transition in the music I loved. The transition really began in late '76, and bled well into '78, but you know how crucibles are; heat expands, and the heat of my crucible couldn't be contained within a single calendar year.
The acts, new and old, that I discovered and/or embraced in this short span of time redefined me. No, "redefined" ain't the right word. Refocused. Redirected? Renewed? Ah, got it: Refined. My preexisting love of '60s British Invasion and early '70s AM Top 40 radio didn't cede space for new arrivals; no, the floor plan for my passions just grew. I already loved the Beatles, the Monkees, Badfinger, the Raspberries, the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, Sweet, and more. My crucible forged fresh and ongoing awareness of the Kinks, the Ramones, the Flashcubes, Blondie, the Runaways, the Jam, the Yardbirds, Television, Elvis Costello, et al.
And at the heart of all of that, WOUR-FM in Utica, NY introduced my ears to the sounds of the Rubinoos, Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, the Sex Pistols...and to Greg Kihn.
I don't mention Greg Kihn as often as I mention most of these others, but he was absolutely an important and still-cherished part of my crucible, part of how I thought pop music should sound in my world.
So yes, of course the news of Kihn's passing demanded tribute, and we played as many Greg Kihn and Greg Kihn Band performances as we could. The show and the tribute started with the Greg Kihn Band's 1984 gem "Reunited," as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio remembers Greg Kihn.
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Hello Operator
Any new music by Librarians With Hickeys is pret' much guaranteed a spin (or more!) on our little mutant radio show. Akron's Phenomenal Pop Combo is back with a fab new single, "Hello Operator," and yes, we will absolutely accept the charges. "Hello Operator" is a teaser for a new Librarians With Hickeys album due out before the end of the year. It's pret' much guaranteed we'll be playing that, too. The number you have reached IS in service!
THE ARMOIRES: Snake Island Thirteen
As the rockin' pop world waits with giddy anticipation for the imminent release of the Armoires' splendid new album Octoberland, we have one more advance single from that mighty, mighty record. The digital single was released on August 24--Ukrainian Independence Day--and it pairs the Octoberland track "Snake Island Thirteen" with "Don't Kill That World I'm Living In," the latter by Ukrainian performer Roy Crank. Sales of the split single Songs For Ukrainian Independence Day benefit humanitarian aid through United Help Ukraine. YOU should purchase it immediately, and you can do so right here. You can also donate directly to United Help Ukraine here.
(I have heard Octoberland, and it's one of the best albums of 2024. We'll be talking more about Octoberland very soon.)
The photo up at the tippy-top of today's post shows that I have a fair to decent collection of Greg Kihn's music. I have an obvious and very common pick for my # 1 favorite Greg Kihn track, and we'll get to that in a couple of entries south of here. My second-favorite among Kihn's catalog is "Hurt So Bad," a wonderful cut from his 1977 album Greg Kihn Again. Whatta record! I don't think I got around to hearing it until the '80s--and I can't believe we never played it on TIRnRR before this week's show--but "Hurts So Bad" has been one of my top Greg Kihn go-tos for decades. It would have required military action to keep "Hurt So Bad" out of the playlist this week.
The only Greg Kihn Again track I knew contemporary to its release in '77 was Kihn's cover of Bruce Springsteen's "For You," which scored significant airplay on WOUR and served as my introduction to Greg Kihn. As the Boss hisself wrote in a different song: From small things, Mama, big things one day come.
JONATHAN RICHMAN: Roadrunner
Within the alt-pop realm where Dana & Carl often dwell, Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner" has become an acknowledged classic. Usually, that means a spin of the Modern Lovers' John Cale-produced version from 1972, but my first exposure to the song was ex-Modern Lover Richman's solo version, first released as a single in '74 and a UK hit when reissued in '77.
On this version (now usually referred to as "Roadrunner [Once]"), our Jonathan is backed by the Greg Kihn Band, and Kihn sings back-up. And I heard it via its inclusion on a friggin' fantastic various-artists compilation called Geef Voor New Wave, a battered but bountiful cornucopia that slotted its "Roadrunner" alongside essentials by the Rubinoos, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Generation X, Motörhead, the Adverts, the Motors, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, X-Ray Spex, Earth Quake, Radio Stars, the Radiators From Space, Johnny Moped, and the Sex Pistols. Lemme tell ya: This was awesome.
The Greg Kihn Band later recorded their own version of "Roadrunner," a live-in-the-studio rave-up on their 1979 album With The Naked Eye. Post-crucible, yes, but this particular "Roadrunner" enjoyed a lot of airplay on Syracuse's 95X, and it was an integral part of my soundtrack that summer. I had the radio ON...!
THE GREG KIHN BAND: The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: Time Has Come Today
In the midst of our Irish wake for Greg Kihn, it seemed imperative to also pay tribute to the late Joe Chambers of psychedelic soul juggernaut the Chambers Brothers. The obvious song to play for that tribute is also the right song to play for that tribute: "Time Has Come Today," co-written by Joe and his brother Willie Chambers, is a stone masterpiece, and I was tempted to program its eleven-minute+ LP version instead of the five-minute single. The track rules at either length.
Here's a bit from the "Time Has Come Today" chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):
"My soul has been psychedelicized.
"Some records feels so massive, so friggin' huge, that we can't imagine how that sonic tsunami could be contained by any physical medium. The track's palpable mojo bursts free from its grooves, untethered, conjuring the equivalent of cinematic Sensurround within our eager heads. The record is larger than life. That description applies to the dynamic acid soul of 'Time Has Come Today' by the Chambers Brothers.
" 'Time Has Come Today' was released as a single the winter following the summer of love. It became a hit as 1967 became 1968, the track's epic lysergic earthquake serving as fiery prequel to the upheaval '68 would bring. The record is louder and heavier than the heavens, its clarion call of revelation and revolution only too fitting to hear from a group of four brothers (plus a non-brother drummer) raised on the Gospel.
"For even as the world seemed poised to tumble into the Stygian depths, the Chambers Brothers do not preach of destruction, nor sing the praises of Hell. We already know that the devil has no music to call his own. Not even in 1968. Not even today.
"So the Chambers Brothers evoke the apocalyptic in service of greater good...."
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS: Be Straight
Our tribute to Greg Kihn included tracks credited to the Greg Kihn Band and to Kihn as a solo artist, a sample of Kihn's work with future guitar hero Joe Satriani, and the Jonathan Richman track. As a bonus, we also threw in "Be Straight" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, a track from the group's 1981 album I Love Rock 'n Roll. Jett co-wrote the song with Kihn and Kenny Laguna, Jett's manager. "Be Straight" is one of four tracks on I Love Rock 'n Roll that I like even more than I like the album's title track, and one of five such tracks if we also consider the originally non-LP "Oh Woe Is Me." And I do love the title track, too. I'm a fan.
As a member of the Runaways, Jett was also a big part of my crucible. This week, I saw Joan Jett and the Blackhearts for my fourth time overall (and Jett herself for my fifth time, counting the time I saw the Runaways with the Ramones and the Flashcubes). Her set this week didn't include "Be Straight," but it did offer all of her prerequisite Joan Jett favorites, some superb-soundin' new numbers, my top three tracks from the expanded I Love Rock 'n Roll album ("Victim Of Circumstance," "Oh Woe Is Me," and especially "Love Is Pain"), and the show concluded with her signature tune, "Bad Reputation," a song that means a great deal to me.
(PLUS! Joan wore a KAMALA HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT button throughout the show. Rock AND roll! I love it.)
THE GREG KIHN BAND: Testify
And we do indeed testify. Every day. The crucible will accept nothing less.
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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available; you can see details here. My 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is also still available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books.
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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