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 # 1253.
THE FLASHCUBES: Face In The Crowd
For this week's TIRnRR extravaganza, Dana came up with the flat-out fantastic concept of celebrating the roots of the Flashcubes and the Half/Cubes, loadin' up our Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet with the original versions of some of the songs that have been covered on official releases by one or the other of those two related groups o' cubes. Fab! WAY Fab, and a rewarding exercise in rock 'n' roll radio.
That said, it was important that we also include some performances by the Flashcubes (and the Half/Cubes) themselves. And since the Flashcubes are most emphatically not just a cover band, it was equally essential that we program some Cubic originals alongside your prerequisite pop masters and treasures.
So we begin our salute to Cubic roots with the Flashcubes, recorded live in their natural habitat in 1979, singing 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's ode to being a kid watching a famous rock group on stage, and dreaming of becoming something more than a face in the crowd...
...and then doing his damnedest to make that dream come true.
THE SEARCHERS: Love's Melody
Our dive into Cubic roots commences in earnest with "Love's Melody," a pop treasure first recorded in the '70s by Ducks Deluxe and made legend in 1981 by British Invasion stars the Searchers. No respectable rockin' pop library is complete without the two albums the Searchers did for Sire Records 1979-81. I wrote about "Hearts In Her Eyes" from the '79 album here, and I remember standing with Flashcubes and Half/Cubes bassist Gary Frenay at an outdoor show in the early '90s, watching Mike Pender's Searchers and being just delighted when Pender included the unexpected treat of "Hearts In Her Eyes" among his set of '60s Searchers classics (a set which unfortunately also included covers of ELO, Bryan Adams, and the Eagles. "Hearts In Her Eyes" was great though.).
The above paragraph should establish my reverence for the Searchers' Sire material. But lemme tell ya: The Half/Cubes deliver the definitive version of "Love's Melody" on their current album Pop Treasures. The Half/Cubes--Gary Frenay and drummer/producer Tommy Allen from the Flashcubes, working with the capable likes of Randy Klawon, Fernando Perdomo, and a cast of YEAH, baby!--have created an album that serves as a luscious, loving salute to some of the records that made them. All of the tracks on Pop Treasures are more than worthy of the pop legacies they honor. And many of these treasures surpass their inspirations.
"Love's Melody" is one of those treasures. I did not think it likely that anyone would ever improve upon the Searchers' seemingly nonpareil rendition. But the Half/Cubes' version is even better.
BADFINGER: Baby Blue
"Baby Blue" was (along with "No Matter What") one of two Badfinger songs I witnessed the Flashcubes cover in their live sets in the late '70s. Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is also my all-time # 1 favorite individual track by anyone, and in 2016 it was the subject of my very first Greatest Record Ever Made! entry, starting me on the path to writing my 2024 book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). The feeling just grows stronger every day.
THE HALF/CUBES: My Girl
As important as the Raspberries were (and remain) to my development as a power pop fan, I have to admit I've never been an ardent fan of Eric Carmen's solo work. I'm overdue for a reintroduction and reevaluation of some of Carmen's post-'Berries c.v., knowing that some of it will be too ballady and not my cuppa, but already aware that there's some genuine oomph to be discovered in that journey. Since Carmen's passing earlier this year, we've been playing Tommy Allen's radiant 2018 remix of Carmen's "Top Down Summer"--it was my pick for "Coolest Song You've Never Heard" when Dana and I were guests on The Spoon podcast in March--and it's pretty likely to make the year-end countdown show of our most-played tracks in 2024.
Another Carmen composition with a better'n decent shot at making the countdown is "My Girl," as covered by the Half/Cubes on Pop Treasures. Our H/Cs enlist Darian Sahanaja to help them out with the sweet vocals, their combined forces crafting a confection as delectable as anything ever.
DEL AMITRI: Not Where It's At
I was eighteen years old when I first saw the Flashcubes in 1978, and although their original songs and incendiary performances were the main thing that secured my allegiance to all things Cubic, their impeccable taste in covers didn't exactly detract from the overall package. And some of those covers were revelatory; my introductions to "Do Anything You Wanna Do" by Eddie and the Hot Rods, "Personality Crisis" by the New York Dolls, "Boogie City" by Chris Spedding, "In The City" by the Jam, "I Need You" by the Kinks, "Somethin' Else" by Eddie Cochran, and more were accomplished by the Flashcubes piledriving through those songs in their live sets. I was eagerly matriculating into the Flashcubes' College of Musical Knowledge.
Decades later, it was one of Gary's many working combos--Frenay and the Rays in the '90s--that compelled me to fall in utter thrall of "Not Where It's At" by Del Amitri. HEAVEN! I'm so glad that the Half/Cubes opted to do this for Pop Treasures.
THE RAMONES: I Just Want To Have Something To Do
The Flashcubes were the opening act the first two times I saw the Ramones: Spring '78 (with the Runaways, a memory recounted here) and July 6, 1979 (with the first Central New York screening of the Ramones' movie Rock 'n' Roll High School). Given the fact that the Beatles were no longer active as a unit, the Ramones were, of course, my favorite group in the late '70s. The Flashcubes were my other favorite group in the late '70s.
In retrospect, it seems surprising that the Flashcubes never covered the Ramones in their live sets at the time. It's not as if the 'Cubes were averse to punk--the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" were staples of early 'Cubes live sets--and the Ramones were also a legit and irresistible power pop band anyway. "Rockaway Beach?" "Swallow My Pride?" "Oh Oh I Love Her So?" Flashcubes play Ramones? It would have been a match made in wherever Carbona is manufactured.
Nonetheless, the Flashcubes didn't get around to Blitzkrieg-boppin' until the '90s. They opened a '90s show at Styleen's in Syracuse with "I Just Want To Have Something To Do," and they began mixing in "I Wanna Be Sedated" as a medley with Gary's song "Welcome To The Working Class." A long time in coming. Well worth the wait.
DINO, DESI AND BILLY: Tell Someone You Love Them
I've owned a Dino, Desi and Billy best-of CD for years, but hadn't payed much attention to this wonderful li'l number "Tell Someone You Love Them." Go'geous! Finder's fee is once again a Cubic accomplishment, as the Half/Cubes' Pop Treasures cover of "Tell Someone You Love Them" sent me scurrying back to my copy of The Rebel Kind: The Best Of Dino, Desi & Billy to scope out the origin story. Man, these Half/Cubes sure do know their stuff.
THE FLASHCUBES: Alone In My Room
Our Cubic Roots special included four Flashcubes tracks, two covers and two originals. We paid tribute to the Flashcubes' first all-covers album Sportin' Wood--The Flashcubes Play The Songs Of Roy Wood with a spin of their take on the Move's "Blackberry Way," and our closing set needed to include something from 2023's Cubic triumph Pop Masters. We opted for the Flashcubes' version of Dwight Twilley's "Alone In My Room," which just might be my favorite on the album. No shortage of great choices on Pop Masters.
The imperative of programming something from Pop Masters disrupted my original intent to spotlight each of the Flashcubes' songwriters. Gary Frenay's popcraft is highlighted in another band's fine cover of one of Gary's best songs (as mentioned in this week's 10th Song below). We opened the show with Paul Armstrong's statement of intent "Face In The Crowd," and I couldn't resist a spin of PA's "Got No Mind," specifically because the live version on the 'Cubes' Bright Lights anthology fades out as the band is rippin' into "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," and I wanted to segue that into the Beatles singing that Larry Williams tune. You make me DIZZY, Miss Lizzy!
That set of circumstances meant we didn't get around to playing anything written by 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin. Fear not! We'll hear Arty's most famous Flashcubes composition in our next show.
Just think of it as a special place where nobody else can go. And we'll hear Dwight Twilley's original version of "Alone In My Room," too.
BIG STAR: September Gurls
Like Badfinger's "Baby Blue:" Big Star's "September Gurls" is ALSO The Greatest Record Ever Made!
And it's a song I first heard via the Flashcubes' live cover in 1978. Cubic roots pay it forward. December boys got it bad? Man, it's pop music ferchrissakes. We've ALL got it good!
sparkle*jets u.k.: Make Something Happen
"Make something happen." It's become a mantra, and a tease of something special coming in 2025. Gary Frenay wrote the song in the '80s, recorded it with Screen Test and remade it with the Flashcubes, and it was ably covered by the Slapbacks for our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. Now, we have this sparkly new rendition from sparkle*jets u.k.
The Flashcubes (and the Half/Cubes) are sublimely adept at executing covers. But the Flashcubes are not a cover band. And it's high time more bands covered them.
Make something happen? Damned straight we will.
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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
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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