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 # 1252.
THE RAMONES: Don't Come Close
Recently, I've been talking (a lot) about how, after decades as a first-three-Ramones-albums-RULE! guy, I'm now beginning to regard fourth album Road To Ruin as the Ramones' masterpiece. Joey Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh replied that maybe Road To Ruin is "the final component of a masterpiece quadrilogy." Y'know, I can't argue with that. Four perfect albums.
"I Wanna Be Sedated" is the album's signature tune, but Don't Come Close" was the first single off Road To Ruin. With its very, very slight country influence--an influence so slight as to be nearly imaginary--it seemed an outta-left-field choice for a focus track, even in 1978. But the song's bubbletwang virtues prevail. "Don't Come Close" is one of the key elements elevating Road To Ruin's claim to supremacy, a vital component of the Ramones' most successfully varied album, as record that branches out without surrendering the merest inch of its essential Ramonesness.
Ramones. Leave Home. Rocket To Russia. Culminating in Road To Ruin. A masterpiece quadrilogy. You know it's generally known. Don't talk back to a brudder, man.
THE GRIP WEEDS: Strange Bird
Hey, a chance to hear a TIRnRR classic again for the first time! The Grip Weeds' original version of "Strange Bird" was the B-side of a single released in Germany, later re-recorded for the group's album The Sound Is In You. The Grip Weeds also gave us an exclusive remix/retweak of the original single for our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 (a tale told here, and you can still get that CD here and its download edition here).
And now, the Grip Weeds have recorded brand-new versions of both "Strange Bird" and its original A-side "She Brings The Rain," offered in a teaser EP in advance of their forthcoming album. We're told the tracks will not be on the album, so grab 'em now. Strange birds of the world, UNITE!
THE UGLY DUCKLINGS: Nothin'
Snarling, surly '60s punk from Ontario's answer to the Rolling Stones. If memory serves, the Ugly Ducklings were the subject of my second-ever feature article for Goldmine magazine, following a retrospective of the Bay City Rollers (the latter seen in a subsequent tweak here), both accomplished early in my 1986-2006 tenure as a GM freelancer. My awareness of the group began in the early '80s; I'm not sure if I read about the Ugly Ducklings in The Pig Paper before or after first hearing them via their track "She Ain't No Use To Me" on the various-artists LP Ear-Piercing Punk. Mid-'80s visits to Toronto scored an Ugly Ducklings Oldies 45 ("Gaslight"/"Nothin'"), a best-of LP, and even a (then-) latter-day reunion album called Off The Wall. "Nothin'" is the Ugly Ducklings' defining moment, a track as Nuggets as Nuggets can be.
DONNA SUMMER: Hot Stuff
My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." If I do a Volume 2--presuming I can somehow stumble forth from the sting of the two-star Amazon rating Volume 1 received from a disappointed reader--I'll probably put a GREM! spotlight on "Hot Stuff." For the first book, I gave the nod to "I Feel Love" in recognition of its groundbreaking feel, its seismic status as a disco record that sounded like no disco record before it. It also happens to be a great rock record, and a harbinger of new wave.
"Hot Stuff" is a flat-out rock record, one of the best AOR tracks of the era, maybe the best. AOR snubbed it because it's Donna Summer. Too hot for ya? Not my problem, and I much prefer Donna Summer and "Hot Stuff" to a lot of what was getting album-rock FM play at the time. We'll get into this idea of ROCK 'N' ROLL DONNA SUMMER! as GREM! Vol. 2 starts to take shape.
And speaking of that still-hypothetical book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 2)....
SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY AND THE ASBURY JUKES: I Don't Want To Go Home
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
In our weekly editions of 10 Songs, the designated Greatest Record Ever Made! provides a link to a GREM! entry I've written and previously posted about the track at hand. This week...um, I haven't written my Southside Johnny GREM! piece yet. I'll get to it. Honest. For now? In the words of another noted singer from Jersey: One for my baby. And one more for the road.
THE ARMOIRES: Green Hellfire At The 7-11
Great. Now I want a Slurpee. A GREEN HELLFIRE Slurpee! They're surprisingly refreshing. The Armoires' imminent new album Octoberland is even more refreshing, and clearly one of this year's best. Thank heaven for "Green Hellfire At The 7-11." Sluuuurp!
JOAN ARMATRADING: Eating The Bear
They're eating the bears! I saw it on TV. They're eating the bears...!
BLONDIE: Nothing Is Real But The Girl
Illustration of the sometimes-prosaic way a great song can will itself into a TIRnRR playlist. My wife and I love TV game shows, specifically TV game shows that involve either quizzes or pop music. A couple of weeks ago, we were watching either Beat Shazam or Name That Tune, and I was surprised that Blondie's 1999 song "Maria" came up.
Why was I surprised? Because shows like this deal in recognizable hit records, and "Maria" wasn't really a hit in America. Maybe that explains why the contestants whiffed on this one, but I was delighted to hear it. And hearing "Maria" in this unlikely setting prompted me to dig out the album it came from, Blondie's No Exit.
I've had the CD for years--decades--but haven't given it much thought in quite some time. Whether it was Beat That Tune or Name Shazam that we were watching, the quick as-heard-on-TV hint of "Maria" convinced me TIRnRR was long overdue to program a deeper track from No Exit.
The chosen one is "Nothing Is Real But The Girl," a sublime number that I can't believe we ain't played before. And we wouldn't have played it this week if not for an unintentional nudge from a cheesy TV game show. Must be alchemy. Cheese turns into gold.
THE HALF/CUBES: My Girl
A few weeks back, Dana proposed a fantastic idea for a theme show: Play the original versions of songs covered by the Flashcubes on their 2023 triumph Pop Masters, plus the original versions of gems covered by the Half/Cubes on their amazing new album Pop Treasures. Great concept for a special edition of TIRnRR, and I couldn't agree fast enough. We expanded the blueprint to include songs the Flashcubes covered on official releases that predate Pop Masters, and mandated that we also need to play a few tracks as performed by the Flashcubes and Half/Cubes themselves. The result of our effort is nothing short of stunning, as you'll be able to hear for yourself this Sunday night. Treasured masters!
One eligible song we won't hear in its original rendition on Sunday is Eric Carmen's "My Girl." Oh, we'll hear from Eric, mind you, both as a solo act and with the Raspberries. But we've been playing the Half/Cubes' version of "My Girl," and we're not about to stop playing it now.
THE FLASHCUBES: Face In The Crowd
SPOILER ALERT! Sunday's TIRnRR tribute to the roots of the Flashcubes and the Half/Cubes will kick off with the Flashcubes playing live in 1979, singin' a Paul Armstrong original about chasing dreams of rock 'n' roll stardom. Cubic inspiration. We start as a face in the crowd. From there, well, we all do what we can to make something happen.
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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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