Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do): November 2024

My thoughts on pop music and pop culture, plus the weekly playlists from THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO with Dana and Carl (Sunday nights 9 to Midnight Eastern, SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM in Syracuse, sparksyracuse.org). You can support this blog on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2449453 Twitter @CafarelliCarl All editorial content on this blog Copyright Carl Cafarelli (except where noted). All images copyright the respective owners TIP JAR at https://www.paypal.me/CarlCafarelli

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: Banana Splits

This is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE DICKIES: Banana Splits

Written by Mark Barkan and Richie Adams

Produced by John Hewlett

Single, A & M Records, 1979

TRA-LA-LAAAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAAAAA! TRA-LA-LAAAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAAAAAAAAA!

No. You get a hold of yourself. Don't be messin' with the manifest majesty of the Banana Splits.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar.

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.

Monday, November 11, 2024

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1259

This week's show seemed a lot happier when we programmed it, before the election results came in. It will stand for now. We hope the republic will stand as well.

This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on a Sunday night in Syracuse this awful week.

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

TIRnRR # 1259: 11/10/2024

TIRnRR FRESH SPINS! Tracks we think we ain't played before are listed in bold.

THE BINGS: Hold On (Bachelor, Power Pop Planet [The Lost Tapes])

THE JIGSAW SEEN: On A Carousel (eggBERT, VA: Sing Hollies In Reverse)

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True (Tres Melo Musique, single)

SHOUT OUT LOUDS: Please Please Please (Bud Fox Recordings, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff)

STEVIE WONDER: Higher Ground (Motown, The Definitive Collection)

SHONEN KNIFE: (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave (Virgin, The Birds And The B-Sides)

THE GOLD NEEDLES: I Don't Know About That (Big Stir, single)

SQUEEZE: Is That Love (A & M, The Squeeze Story)

THE KENNEDYS: Waging Peace (The Kennedys, Headwinds)

OLD 97'S: Garage Sale (Idol, single)

JOHN HIATT: You Used To Kiss The Girls (MCA, Slug Line)

THE STRAY CATS: Rumble In Brighton (Capitol, Greatest Hits)

DEER: Don't Wanna Hear ('Bout Your Lovin') (single)

THE AVENGERS: I Believe In Me (Superior Viaduct, Avengers)

THE ROMANTICS: When Will It End (WEB Entertainment, 61/49)

THE BANGLES: Sweet Tender Romance (Down Kiddie, Sweetheart Of The Sun

THE FOUR TOPS: It's The Same Old Song (Motown, The Ultimate Collection)

THE BLASTERS: Barefoot Rock (Hightone, American Music)

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go (single)

THE CLASH: Train In Vain (Epic, Clash On Broadway)

MICKEY AND SYLVIA: Love Is Strange (Rainbow, Presenting Mickey & Sylvia)

THE BEVIS FROND: Empty (Fire, Focus On Nature)

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise (Northside, Bright Lights)

THE CYNICS: Business As Usual (Get Hip, Rock 'N' Roll)

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Brand New Boyfriend (Big Stir, How To Make Friends By Telephone)

YOUNG HOMEBUYERS: Boyfriend (Zero Hour, VA: Power Pop From The Garage: Austalian Power Pop, 74-86)

TEGAN AND SARA: Girls Talk (Legacy, VA: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Music From Season 5)

THE RIFFFS: "I'm Not" Just Another Boy (Zero Hour, VA: Power Pop From The Garage: Austalian Power Pop, 74-86)

MILLIE SMALL: My Boy Lollipop (Island, The Best Of Millie Small)

THE EIGHTY EIGHTS: What Would Your Mother Say (Zero Hour, VA: Power Pop From The Garage: Austalian Power Pop, 74-86)

BROTHER DYNAMITE: The Girl's In Love (single)

ESQUERITA: She Left Me Crying (Collectables, Rockin' The Joint)

THE VIPERS: Tears (Only Dry) (Rhino, VA: Children Of Nuggets)

THE FOUR + 1: Don't Lie To Me (RPM, VA: Excerpts From...Keith West)

THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride (Sunset Blvd, The Lost Album)

RADIO STARS: Radio Stars (Chiswick, VA: Good Clean Fun: A Chiswick Sampler)

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE DICKIES: Banana Splits (A & M, Great Dictations)

PEARL HARBOR AND THE EXPLOSIONS: Shut Up And Dance (Blixa Sounds, Pearl Harbor & the Explosions)

THE CYNZ: Woman Cild (Jem, single)

PERMANENT GREEN LIGHT: Street Love [demo] (Omnivore, Hallucinations)

THE BANDWAGON: People Got To Be Free (Kent Soul, Breakin' Down The Walls Of Hearttache)

PHIL SEYMOUR: Baby, It's You (The Right Stuff, Precious To Me)

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS: (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding? (Rykodisc, Armed Forces)

THE NERVES: Hanging On The Telephone (Alive, One Way Ticket)

BETH PEABODY: Don't Play (single)

THE MUFFS: I'm Here I'm Not [demo] (Omnivore, Really Really Happy)

ROOFTOP SCREAMERS [featuring RANDY McSTINE]: Souvenirs (single)

THE RUTLES: I Must Be In Love (Rhino, The Rutles)

ERIC HISAW BAND: Which Time (single)

THE MILKSHAKES: More Honey (Damaged Good, Talkin' 'Bout...Milkshakes!/After School Session)

WONDERBOY: Girl Songs (n/a, Hero Isle)

THE RAMONES: I Wanted Everything (Rhino, Road To Ruin)

MARTIN LUTHER LENNON: I Own The World (Not Lame, VA: SymPOPhony # 1)

THE ORGONE BOX: World Revolves (Minus Zero, The Orgone Box)

MANDY MOORE: I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week (Storefront, Amanda Leigh)

RASPBERRIES: Play On (RPM, Power Pop Volume Two)

PAUL COLLINS: I'm The Only One For You (Jem, Step Back And Take A Good Look)

THE BEATLES: Glass Onion (Apple, The Beatles)

IRENE PEÑA: I Won't Back Down (Futureman, single)

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Tonight on THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

Well, it's been a very rough week. As much as we wish a little pop music could help make things better...it won't. Still, it's what we do, and we welcome you if you'd like to join us. New music from THE GOLD NEEDLES, DEER, LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS, and BROTHER DYNAMITE, mixed with additional sonic catharsis from THE BINGS, CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME, SQUEEZE, THE KENNEDYS, THE BANGLES, THE FOUR TOPS, SLYBOOTS, THE CLASH, THE FLASHCUBES, THE CYNICS, TEGAN AND SARA, ESQUERITA, THE CYNZ, BETH PEABODY, THE MUFFS, MARTIN LUTHER LENNON, and more. It won't make things better. But it won't hurt. Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, https://sparksyracuse.org/, streaming on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. The weekend stops HERE!

Saturday, November 9, 2024

In the wee hours Wednesday morning

On the night of the election, I went to bed after midnight. The election results were still trickling in, but their awful conclusion was already clear. The voters had made their choice. The voters had made their devastating, hurtful choice.

I was able to clear my mind enough to fall asleep. As I slept, I had a dream.

I was driving alone at night, traveling on a highway. There were no other vehicles anywhere, no other distractions, but I didn't see the pile of ice and snow in the middle of the road until I was almost upon it, too late to avoid hitting it straight on.

The icy obstacle wasn't of sufficient mass to stop my car, but it caused me to veer off the road, over the guard rail, off the bridge, free falling into the dark.

Even though I was alone in the car, I whispered to my wife, hoping she could somehow hear my last words:

I'm sorry.

And I prepared to accept fatal impact.

Then I woke up. That doomed, desperate feeling remains.

Thursday, November 7, 2024

BOPPIN' slows down

This blog began on January 18, 2016, a proposed daily blog (very) briefly called CC Says that changed its name to Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks) before the first week was done. I honored my goal of putting up at least one post a day every day; over the course of 3,217 days or so--math still isn't my strong suit--this blog's current tally stands at 3,288 public posts, counting what I'm writing here. And that number doesn't count a big ol' bunch of additional posts I've removed from the blog, including several entries that appear in my recent book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). A Bop a day, every day? Yep. And then some.

After today, I'm retiring the "daily" part of Boppin's mission statement. I'll continue posting here and there, probably at least with the weekly playlist for each Sunday's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. The blog will technically remain in operation, but posts will be sporadic, on a when-I-feel-like-it basis. Daily posts? No, those are done for the time being.

Why? I don't feel like doing this anymore. The awful results of the election are a big factor in the decision to stop now, but there's been a version of this post pending for several weeks. That may change--hell, it will probably change--but I also have other projects awaiting my attention. This blog has been good for me, and I'm bummed to give up the daily boppin' forum.

Nonetheless: I guess it's time to do that.

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: An alternate BREAK THE GLASS! show

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is simply too large a concept to be neatly contained within a mere three-hour weekly time slot. Hence these occasional fake TIRnRR playlists, detailing shows we're never really going to do...but could.

I'm writing this a few days before the election, and in fact before this week's real-world TIRnRR BREAK THE GLASS! edition. The imaginary playlist below is a companion piece to this week's actual playlist, and most of the tracks were among the six hours of music I pulled for my half of a three-hour show. The theme remains the same:

She rises. She steps to the mic. She sings. We listen.

I've been repeating the phrase We're not going back. As you read this, I desperately hope that wish came true.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl--y'know, the real one--airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: CD or download

PS: SEND MONEY!!!! We need tech upgrades like Elvis needs boats. Spark Syracuse is supported by listeners like you. Tax-deductible donations are welcome at
http://sparksyracuse.org/support/

You can follow Carl's daily blog Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) at
https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/

Fake TIRnRR Playlist: An alternate BREAK THE GLASS! show

THE KENNEDYS: Safe Until Tomorrow

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Hear My Prayer

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: I'll Be Your Mirror

DONNA SUMMER: She Works Hard For The Money

BARBRA STREISAND: Stoney End

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS: All For Swinging You Around

THE SUPREMES: Up The Ladder To The Roof

THE PRETENDERS: Kid

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell

IRENE PEÑA: I Won't Back Down

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: Wishing And Hoping

RONNIE SPECTOR: Something's Gonna Happen

WANDA JACKSON: Let's Have A Party

TEGAN AND SARA: Walking With A Ghost

THE SHIVVERS: Please Stand By

MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKING SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

P. P. ARNOLD: Soul Survivor

THE RUNAWAYS: American Nights

THE NATIVES: Tell Me A Story

THE DARLING BUDS: Let's Go Round There

THE SHIRTS: Move On Groove On

NANCY SINATRA: Flowers In The Rain

TAYLOR SWIFT: The Last Great American Dynasty

HALESTORM: Gold Dust Woman

GIRLSCHOOL: Run With The Devil

INDIGO GIRLS: Closer To Fine

MAD MONSTER PARTY: Death Valley Days

SUZY AND LOS QUATTRO: Play On

SUZI QUATRO: Keep A-Knockin'

THE WALKER BRIGADE: Fallout

JUSTINE AND THE UNCLEAN: The Signal Light

MARY WEISS: Stop And Think It Over

THE SHOCKING BLUE: Send Me A Postcard

HEART: Kick It Out

JUDY COLLINS: Both Sides Now

THE SELECTER: On My Radio

PETULA CLARK: You're The One

YOKO ONO: Move On Fast

SUZANNE VEGA: Left Of Center

HAYLEY AND THE CRUSHERS: Alleyways

RACHEL SWEET: Shadows Of The Night

SPANKY AND OUR GANG: If You Could Only Be Me

THE MARVELETTES: I'll Keep Holding On

WENDY O. WILLIAMS: It's My Life

EVIE SANDS: Don't Look Back Don't Look Down

THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: Be The One

PACIFIC SOUL LTD.: We Go High

GRETHCHEN'S WHEEL: Plans

THE CHELSEA CURVE: A Better Way

MONOGROOVE: One Tin Soldier

PENETRATION: Don't Dictate

WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

THE DOLLY MIXTURE: Everything And More

SAM PHILLIPS: Fighting With Fire

MAKIN' TIME: Feels Like It's Love

ON THE AIR: Even Try

MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS: Nowhere To Run

THE AVENGERS: We Are The One

RUFUS: Tell Me Something Good

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

10 SONGS: 11/5/2024

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 # 1258.

MARTI JONES: I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass

The other day, I saw a meme that summed up my current feeling: Nauseously optimistic. I think (and hope) Kamala Harris will win the election. The real possibility that she won't win is making me very, very anxious.

Nonetheless, I believe we will move forward, and perhaps we can even move toward finally closing the door on the toxic era of Trump. It is my desperate wish that the glass ceiling above American politics is about to be shattered.

And I love the sound of breaking glass.

Vote.

THE BURN SISTERS: I Am A Patriot

Roger that. Vote.

MARYKATE O'NEIL: I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around

Roger that. Vote.

THE ARMOIRES: We Absolutely Mean It

Us, too. VOTE!

HAYLEY MARY: Like A Woman Should

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

VOTE!

THE GO-GO'S: We Got The Beat

From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"The glass ceiling.

It's an odd phrase, isn't it? It implies something frail and fragile, delicate, something to handle with care, something easily broken, easily damaged, easily breached. Instead, it describes an invisible barrier that is nearly impenetrable: An unseen barricade that blocks advancement, halts upward progress, and prevents certain people—especially minorities, and most especially women—from achieving heights above their presumed station. The glass ceiling is a bad thing.

"Rock 'n' roll used to have a glass ceiling. It broke for the first time in 1981. It was broken by the Go-Go's...."

And now, the biggest glass ceiling of all awaits our attention.

VOTE!!

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS: Light Of Day

We are just around the corner. VOTE!!

THE BANGLES: Hero Takes A Fall

Not my hero, and never was. VOTE!!

LESLEY GORE: You Don't Own Me

We hold this truth to be self-evident.

VOTE!!!

FIRST AID KIT: America

America. Love it or lose it.

VOTE!!!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar.

Monday, November 4, 2024

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1258: BREAK THE GLASS! (This ceiling won't just shatter itself)

Woman. Hear her roar.

We all have some work to do. Break the glass! This goddamned ceiling won't just shatter itself.

Vote. In numbers too big to ignore.

VOTE.

This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on another Sunday night in Syracuse, as we pray we're on the edge of making history.

You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO).

TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

TIRnRR # 1258: 11/3/2024

BREAK THE GLASS!

MARTI JONES: I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass (Sugar Hill, My Long Haired Life)

AIMEE MANN: Superball (DGC, I'm With Stupid)

THE BURNS SISTERS: I Am A Patriot (Philo, Close To Home)

AMY RIGBY: Too Old To Be So Crazy (Tapete, Hang In There With Me)

HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS: Youth Coup (Wounded Bird, The Right To Be Italian)

BLONDIE: Sunday Girl (Chrysalis, The Platinum Collection)

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go (single)

BLUE ANGEL: Take A Chance (Hip-O Select, Blue Angel)

PATTI ROTHBERG: Dish It Out (Double On Tundra, Candelabra Cadabra)

boygenius: Leonard Cohen (Interscope, The Record)

THELMA HOUSTON: Jumpin' Jack Flash (Motown, Best Of Thelma Houston)

MERRY CLAYTON: Gimme Shelter (Columbia, VA: 20 Feet From Stardom OST)

BIG MAMA THORNTON: Hound Dog (Ace, The Original Hound Dog)

CINDY LEE BERRYHILL: Ballad Of A Garage Band (Rhino, Who's Gonna Save The World?)

THE PANDORAS: It's About Time (Voxx, It's About Time)

CARLENE CARTER: Love Is A 4-Letter Verb (Demon, Musical Shapes/Blue Nun)

MARYKATE O'NEIL: I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around (n/a, 1-800-Bankrupt)

CYNDI LAUPER: She Bop (Portrait, She's So Unusual)

sparkle*jets u.k.: Make Something Happen (REDACTED)

TRACEY ULLMAN: Breakaway (Rhino, You Broke My Heart In 17 Places: The Best Of Tracey Ullman)

KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him (Kool Kat Musik, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5)

DAR WILLIAMS: It's Alright (Razor & Tie, Many Great Companions)

THE CYNZ: Woman Child (Jem, single)

DARLENE LOVE: River Deep, Mountain High (Real Gone Music, The Many Sides Of Love)

BETH PEABODY: Don't Play (single)

THE ANGELS: My Boyfriend's Back (Mercury, VA: Growin' Up Too Fast: The Girl Group Anthology)

ANNY CELSI: Empty Hangers (Ragazza, Little Black Dress & Other Stories)

LITTLE EVA: The Loco-Motion (Collectables, VA: Great Ladies Of Rock & Roll: The 60s)

THE GRACES: Lay Down Your Arms (A & M, Perfect View)

JANE WIEDLIN: World On Fire (EMI, Tangled)

JOAN ARMATRADING: Eating The Bear (A & M, Walk Under Ladders)

JOSIE COTTON: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (Cleopatra, Everything Is Oh Yeah)

BIG HELLO: Today Will Be Yesterday Tomorrow (Parasol, Apple Album)

LAURA NYRO: California Shoeshine Boys (Columbia, The First Songs)

SUSAN COWSILL: River Of Love (Threadhead, Lighthouse)

LAURIE AND THE SIGHS: Face To Face (Wounded Bird, Laurie and the Sighs)

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

HAYLEY MARY: Like A Woman Should (I Oh You, The Piss, The Perfume)

LETTERS TO CLEO: Cruel To Be Kind (Big Beat, VA: Girls Go Power Pop!)

THE ARMOIRES: We Absolutely Mean It (Big Stir, Octoberland)

LUCINDA WILLIAMS: I Just Wanted To See You So Bad (Rough trade, Lucinda Williams)

ARETHA FRANKLIN: Respect (Atlantic, The Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970)

PATTI SMITH: Because The Night (Arista, Land [1975-2002])

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True (Tres Melo Musique, single)

THE GREAT SOCIETY: Someone To Love (Sundazed, Born To Be Burned)

IN DEED: Peace & Quiet (Kool Kat Musik, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5)

THE MUFFS: That's For Me (Omnivore, No Holiday)

TAMMY AND THE LORDS OF MISRULE: Kind Of Girl (Her Highness Porcupinus, King Maker)

NORMA TANEGA: Walkin' My Cat Named Dog (Real Gone Music, Walkin' My Cat Named Dog)

THE GO-GO'S: We Got The Beat (IRS, Beauty And The Beat)

THE STONE PONEYS: Different Drum (Rhino, LINDA RONSTADT: Greatest Hits I & II)

LULU: To Sir, With Love [museum outings montage] (Retroactive, VA: To Sir, With Love OST)

JUNIPER: Baby Doll (Confidential Recordings, She Steals Candy)

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS: Light Of Day (Blackheart, Flashback)

SKEETER DAVIS: I Can't Stay Mad At You (Real Gone Music, VA: Honeybeat: Groovy 60s Girl-Pop)

THE BANGLES: Hero Takes A Fall (Columbia, All Over The Place)

LESLEY GORE: You Don't Own Me (Mercury, It's My Party: The Mercury Anthology)

FIRST AID KIT: America (Columbia, America)

LINDA RONSTADT: Rivers Of Babylon (Asylum, Hasten Down The Wind)

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Tonight on THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

She rises. She steps to the mic. She sings. We listen. Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, https://sparksyracuse.org/, streaming on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. The weekend stops HERE!

Saturday, November 2, 2024

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Hayley Mary, "Like A Woman Should"

This is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but it seems a likely candidate for the hypothetical Volume 2.

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

HAYLEY MARY: Like A Woman Should

Written by Hayley McGlone and John Took

Produced by Scott Horscroft

Single, I Oh You, 2020

What should a woman do? If that's not a loaded question, it is at least rhetorical. This song doesn't ask that question. It merely answers it.

Australian singer Hayley Mary was a member of the Jezabels, an indie group from Sydney that (per Wikipedia) released three albums and a stack of singles from 2009-2017. The group hit the pause button in '17, and Mary embarked on a solo career. Her first single was "The Piss, The Perfume" in 2019.

Her third single was "Like A Woman Should." If ever a song could be described as a defiant shrug, "Like A Woman Should" would be that song. Its lyrics are...well, maybe not quite wistful, but fueled by a longing for something better.

Specifically: It longs for something better for women. Specifically, the singer wishes she could be born in the future, to see her daughters born in a world where they could walk the street safely. Like a woman should. And not like the world we live in now.

Yet it's not a dark song. Mary plants her feet and delivers a confident performance, a hopeful performance, a commanding performance that takes back the night, if only for the four minutes of its spin time. Empowerment for the 21st century? I suppose it is, even though I keep dreaming we're past the need for such empowerment. Sadly, we are not past the need. We don't even seem to be close.

But what should a woman do? What can a woman do? What can a woman be? There is only one acceptable answer:

Anything she wants.

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Doctor, lawyer, district attorney. Senator. Vice-President. President. She should for damned sure be able to walk without fear, right now, and then forever after in the future.

I'm gonna screw up the quote, but I believe Syracuse's own Karen DeCrow once defined feminism as the radical idea that a woman is a person, an individual. For too many, that simple truth remains a dangerously subversive notion. The naysayers are on the wrong side of history...but the future ain't quite here yet.

For now, we're left with a determination to make that future happen faster. Hayley Mary models her own determination with a defiant shrug, and with a compelling song that inspires belief. "Like A Woman Should" is a pop record, not a polemic. It offers hooks and beauty, stirring melody, and the palpable thrill of something irresistible we can all sing together.

As we should. Fists raised, ballots cast, eyes fixed on the prize. We're not going back.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar.

Friday, November 1, 2024

10 SONGS: 11/1/2024

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1257.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Listening

We've been looking forward to the new Librarians With Hickeys album How To Make Friends By Telephone since...yeah, since their last album, 2022's Handclaps & Tambourines. The 2022 record gave us two full-on TIRnRR Fave Raves with "I Better Get Home" and "Can't Wait 'Till Summer," and the teaser singles from How To Make Friends By Telephone ("Hello Operator" and "No More Goodbyes") have likewise brightened our airwaves and compelled our volume controls to reach for magnetic North. We are indeed listening.

And we like what we hear.

THE CYNZ: Woman Child

With this week's spin, "Woman Child" by the Cynz has scored its fourth consecutive appearance on the TIRnRR playlist. It will notch Week # 5 this Sunday. More to come. Let us be your "Woman Child" resource.

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True

With this week's spin, Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome's supergroovy cover of Brenda Lee's irresistible "Is It True" has scored its fourth consecutive appearance on the TIRnRR playlist. It will notch Week # 5 this Sunday. More to come? That's probably true. The Cynz, Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome, and all of the stars of our little Play-Tone galaxy. We play the hits.

SPANKY AND OUR GANG: Sunday Will Never Be The Same

It's hard to believe, but Spanky and Our Gang didn't make their TIRnRR debut until...wait, is this right? Last week?! We've been running this rock 'n' roll radio dog and pony show since the end of 1998, which means it took us almost twenty-six years to get around to programming Spanky and Our Gang. It's a damned good thing we have tenure.

Now, the merry Spanksters notch up two weeks in a row on this little mutant radio show. Up and coming band! After spinning the group's cover of the Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing" last week, we move to one of their own hits this week: "Sunday Will Never Be The Same." I do remember playing the track on our old early '90s show We're You're Friends For Now (the precursor of whatever the hell it is we do on TIRnRR), and I woulda swore we played it here as well...

...but I woulda been wrong. Now we have played it on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Better late than never! Sundays will chart their own independent path from here on out.

THE BINGS: Don't Stop Dancing

I am constantly amazed to discover great decades-old rockin' pop music I never knew about. The Bings are a case in point. I first heard of the Bings when the group's singer and guitarist David Chrenko left this comment on my exhaustive history of power pop:

"Excellent article. Greg Shaw would be proud. I was a staff member of Bomp! Records and Bomp! magazine in the late '70s. The Hollywood scene of which Bomp! was a mover 'n' shaker was not unlike Liverpool in 1962-64. I took all I'd learned from Greg and Suzy Shaw and in 1980 formed the Bings. We took the best music of the club scenes in London, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and combined it with our own originals (what is now known as Power Pop) and unleashed it on the Southern California suburbs. In March 2024 Bachelor Records released a vinyl album of our studio and live recordings, which is getting airplay in America, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, and Asia - 40 years after the Bings packed it in! ...Hope you can still POGO to it!"

The album is called Power Pop Planet (The Lost Tapes), and man, where has this record been all my life? Any record you ain't heard is a new record, and I'm dead chuffed to hear this now. Power Pop Planet has TIRnRR written all over it. Channeling my inner Bruce Brodeen: EXTREMELY highly recommended!

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

My favorite album of the 1990s remains the Cowsills' wonderful 1998 release Global. The record never got anywhere near the acclaim it deserves, and it's been difficult (and pricey) for those who missed it at the time to catch up with what they missed. I'm delighted that Omnivore Recordings will be remedying that situation in one week, with a deluxe reissue of Global due out on November 8th. If you're a rockin' pop fan, you've gotta get this. I've had (and loved!) the CD for decades, but I'm buying the reissue for its bonus tracks, and because I like buying Cowsills albums. A world with more Cowsills albums is a better world. (And I would very much like to see the Cowsills record a new album with Christian Nesmith producing; that would be a match made in Heaven.)

The Global track "She Said To Me" has been a frequent fixture on TIRnRR playlists, and the group allowed us to use the song on our 2006 compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about "She Said To Me." I've heard that Bob Cowsill was tickled that "She Said To Me" was given the GREM! treatment, but man, this song absolutely deserves it. Global: My favorite album of the 1990s. And "She Said To Me" is a large part of the reason why that's so.

THE ARCHIES: Get On The Line

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

And I most certainly did get on the line: I voted

THE RAMONES: I Wanna Be Sedated

Given my anxiety about the election, yeah, sedation sounds GREAT, thanks

THE MONKEES: Terrifying

Will there ever be a deluxe edition of Good Times!, the superb 2016 album by the Monkees? The original album (subject of the only record review I've written since deciding I didn't want to write those things anymore) was accompanied by four scattered bonus tracks which have never been available in one package. "A Better World" was only issued on the FYE-exclusive version of Good Times!, "Love's What I Want" was on the Japanese release, and "Terrifying" and "Me & Magdalena [Version 2]" were digital-only. The four tracks were gathered on a Record Store Day vinyl edition, but have not yet appeared together as part of any legit issue of Good Times! "Love's What I Want" and "A Better World" aren't even available for streaming.

I don't buy or play vinyl. I have a CD-R of the whole thing, but I really want an official CD release that presents the entirety of the Good Times! experience, perhaps adding unreleased bonus material if any such thing exists.

Note to Rhino Records: Take my money, awready.

LESLEY GORE: You Don't Own Me

A sneak peek at our next show. Enough with chipping away at the glass ceiling. Let's breach that sucker.

Let's breach that sucker now. We're not going back.

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