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 # 1281, offered in memory of the late, great Clem Burke.
BLONDIE: Dreaming
I never met drummer Clem Burke. I don't think I ever had any real communication with him, though I'm told he was aware of our radio show and approved of whatever the hell it is we do. The news of his passing was an unexpected punch in the gut. As we mourn the loss of one of our heroes, our hearts go out to his friends and family.
And we had to pay tribute, or at least we had to try to pay some sort of tribute to this man who provided the beat for Blondie, and for so many other fantastic artists. To kick off our salute to the flash and power of Clem Burke, in my head I knew there could be no other song choice besides "Dreaming." That intro! That over-the-top percussive intro that never seems excessive, even as it threatens (convincingly!) to spiral outta control into shambles and abyss. We all know--know--that Clem Burke's got it covered, and he will not cede command of the beat nor let it wander anywhere other than exactly where he wants it to be.
"Dreaming" is the opening track on Blondie's 1979 album Eat To The Beat. After we recorded our show but before it aired, I heard last week's episode of The Spoon, wherein overhost Robbie Rist chose Eat To The Beat's closing track "Living In The Real World" to represent Burke's legacy, and that's a damned fine pick as well. Clem Burke left us with a very, very long list of damned fine picks. We played just a few of them this week.
JOHN EASDALE: Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress
Although we've obviously been Clem Burke fans for decades, our direct if tenuous connection to the man hisself came via Jigsaw Seen guitarist Jonathan Lea. We'll circle back to that subject a bit later in today's post. When our Clem Burke tribute included this fab Hollies cover by John Easdale playing with Clem and Jonathan (among others), Jonathan wrote:
"This track is from the first session I ever played with Clem (along with Mark Englert and Craig Ballam) and it was unlike any session I’d played before (very loose and carefree.)
"Prior to the session, the executive producer (Greg Dwinnell) told me that this project was costing a fortune and there wasn’t room in the budget to feed everyone so he asked me not to mention anything about food. About fifteen minutes into the session (before we’d even played a note,) Clem says 'Let’s order some food, where’s the menus?' I then look at Greg and he just deflates. Within another couple of minutes, Clem is on the phone with a Chinese restaurant and it sounds like he’s literally ordering everything on the menu. Clem and I had immediately hit it off (birds of a feather?) so he says to me 'Jonathan, do you like orange chicken?' I reply 'Sure,' so he then tells the person taking the order 'Give us two more orders of orange chicken.' I’d only ever worked on indie sessions with shoestring budgets so for me, this was like recording Tusk.
"Thirty years later, I still remember it all vividly. At Clem’s request, we also recorded a version of the Who’s 'The Ox' for a Sub Pop Records project but I’m not sure whatever happened with it."
THE PLIMSOULS: Playing With Jack
The very first episode of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio aired on December 27th, 1998, and we did indeed include a Clem Burke performance in our inaugural playlist. But it wasn’t a Blondie track; we didn’t get around to playing Blondie for, I think, a couple of months. Let’s face it: We’re slackers.
No, Clem’s appearance on TIRnRR # 1 found him pounding out the beat for power pop luminaries the Plimsouls. Clem was a member of that group at the time of their 1998 album Kool Trash, and its heart-pumpin’ track “Playing With Jack” was a big early favorite on this little mutant radio show. We also wound up playing the Kool Trash track “Dangerous Book” a lot, but “Playing With Jack” was the first of many TIRnRR spins for the Plimsouls and Clem Burke alike.
KATHY VALENTINE: Retouch Me
Kathy Valentine is (deservedly!) in The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as bassist for the Go-Go's. She's also a writer, author of the book All I Ever Wanted: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir and a Substack soapbox called The Direction Of Motion. We're fans. Knowing that Clem Burke played on Kathy's 2005 album Light Years, it was imperative for us to return that album's old TIRnRR Fave Rave "Retouch Me" to this week's playlist.
She also had a long and close relationship with Clem. She writes so movingly about him in this piece that my heart breaks again for those who mourn Clem not merely like we do, as fans from afar, but as people who've lost someone special in their own lives.
Read. Cry. Then live like Clem did.
BLONDIE: (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE ROMANTICS: Midnight To Six Man
I never got to see Blondie perform live. I saw Debbie Harry and Chris Stein on the Escape From New York tour in 1990 (with the Ramones, Tom Tom Club, and Jerry Harrison), but I don’t believe Clem Burke was playing with them at the time.
Given that, I’m grateful that I did get to witness one Clem Burke performance, and that was when he was with the Romantics in the ‘90s.
I’ve been a Romantics fan nearly as long as I’ve been a Blondie fan, starting with a purchase of the “Little White Lies” 45 in 1978. They used to play occasionally in Syracuse, on a bill with Syracuse’s own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes, but their ‘Cuse shows always occurred after I was back in school and away from home. That’s what I didn’t like about them.
I guess it was kind of full circle that when I finally did get to see the Romantics, Flashcubes bassist Gary Frenay was also in attendance, and we thrilled as the Detroit rockers (propelled by the Burke beat) opened their show with a confident cover of the Pretty Things’ “Midnight To Six Man.” Oh, MAN! I knew this was gonna be good...!
BLONDIE: Accidents Never Happen
I am not a musician. I can neither play nor sing, but I consider myself fortunate that I'm able to play great records on the radio, and to write with conviction and (I hope) authority about the sounds that move me. A few years back, I posted a piece called "I've Got The Music In Me (And That's Where It's Gonna Stay)," discussing and coming to terms with my inability to create music. That piece included a reminiscence of playing bongos in college alongside a couple of, y'know, actual musicians in a two-thirds competent jazz trio called Bud Mackintaw & the Skeeters. At the point where the Skeeters went the way all bands from the Beatles to the Shaggs must one day go, I wrote:
"Nonetheless, Bud Mackintaw & the Skeeters parted as friends. How many bands can say that? Tom left Brockport after that semester, but I caught up with him again when he visited campus the following year. I saw Truck and his roommate Ray a few times in '79-'80, too. By then, I'd moved from bongos to dorm-room suite chairs; with my handy-dandy drumsticks, I pounded out a rhythm to accompany Blondie's recording of 'Accidents Never Happen,' just to prove I could keep time as a drummer."
Mind you, I couldn't really keep time as a drummer. But I did my best. I betcha Clem would have approved of the effort, if not the result.
TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Come Some Christmas Eve (Or Halloween)
Thanks to Jonathan Lea, I am able to say that Dana and I produced a compilation album that included work by the great Clem Burke. Both Jonathan and Clem were members of Tall Poppy Syndrome, a rockin' pop supergroup also featuring guitarist Vince Melouney of the Bee Gees, singer Paul Kopf from the latter-day edition of the Seeds, and bassist Alec Palao from Cream Puff War magazine and too many bands to list. Their 2021 cover of Robin Gibbs' "Come Some Christmas Eve (Or Halloween)" was intended as "Mod-era Who performing the Zombies' Odessey And Oracle-style." Mission accomplished! It caught our ears, and the lads allowed us to use the track on our 2022 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5.
THE TEARAWAYS: Charlie, Keith And Ringo
And Clem. Heroes, meet hero.
BLONDIE: X Offender
All stories start somewhere. "X Offender" was the first Blondie song I ever heard, my aural introduction to Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Jimmy Destri, Gary Valentine, and an incredible drummer named Clem Burke. The song was part of my first teen attempt at rock journalism, and its impact still resonates. The stories and the music continue even when we are no longer able to keep up with them. The rhythm of the stories will not and will never surrender their enduring flash. Godspeed, Clem Burke.
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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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