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 # 1290
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Hot Fun In The Summertime
Selecting a mere four tracks to play in memory of Sly Stone could be something of a challenge. With an intention of programming three Sly and the Family Stone hits and one slightly deeper cut, our choices somehow felt immediately clear and definite. I regret we couldn't also include "Dance To The Music" or "Everyday People" or "I Want To Take You Higher" (though the latter was sorta represented on the playlist by Billy Preston's "Advice," which was arranged and co-written by Sly and presages some of the lyrical hook of "I Want To Take You Higher").
Nonetheless: Three hits, one deep cut. I knew I wanted to open with either "Stand!" or "Hot Fun In The Summertime," and the current real-world resonance of "Stand!" made it a fitting choice to rise up in power near the end of the show. The fact that my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about "Everybody Is A Star" made that track a practically compulsory pick for our regularly-scheduled weekly GREM! spot. The designated non-hit Sly track "Trip To Your Heart" took care of itself.
All of the above pushes "Hot Fun In The Summertime" to the top of the playlist. The song is as inviting and idyllic as any June-July-August embrace ever committed to wax, a comforting groove that shines in the daytime and sways with the shadows of twilight.
THE GREAT SOCIETY: Someone To Love
When the legend becomes fact: Did Sylvester Stewart--the DJ and producer soon to achieve fame and acclaim as the one and only Sly Stone--really quit his staff job at San Francisco's Autumn Records label because of his frustration while working on a session with a then-unknown Grace Slick and her then-current band the Great Society?
Whether the story is Gospel, Big Fib, or in the large gray zone in between, it's a good story. Grace did okay either way, taking "Someone To Love" (under its new title "Somebody To Love") to her next combo Jefferson Airplane.
And Sly? Yeah, Sly did okay, too. And his legend became fact for damned sure.
Ahem.
Yeah, we got Graham Parker--GRAHAM MOTHERLOVIN' PARKER!!--to cover the Flashcubes for our forthcoming compilation album Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. We feel taller! Credit Mike Gent of the Figgs for making this particular something happen, revamping and adapting 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's "Pathetic" into a worthy vehicle for the esteemed 'n' well-respected GP, and seeing it through to perfection.
With that accomplishment serving to make us rightly chuffed, we had "Pathetic" spearhead an entire set of Cubic-related huzZAH!, interspersing two more Make Something Happen! gems courtesy of Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas and Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin with a couple of treats by the Half/Cubes (a combo piloted by the Flashcubes rhythm section of Gary Frenay and Tommy Allen) and a repeat spin of the world's first Flashcubes cover, the Slapbacks' "Make Something Happen" (from our previous compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5).
Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes is due in September from our friends at Big Stir Records. This week, I listened to the entire compilation in its entirety, in sequence, for the first time. It is very, very good. I'm not humbled--let's not get crazy--but I'm so happy and so grateful to all who had a helping hand in making...
...you know.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Trip To Your Heart
"Trip To Your Heart" was not a hit, nor do I think it was even a single. It was a track on the first Sly and the Family Stone album, 1967's A Whole New Thing, which also was not a hits. Hits would follow. Legend would follow.
Still, "Trip To Your Heart" has its own place in popular culture, as it was sampled by rapper LL Cool J for the title tune (and subsequent hit single) of his 1990 album Mama Said Knock You Out. I don't claim to be much of a hip hop fan, but I've always loved "Mama Said Knock You Out," and I didn't even realize that its vocal hook was taken from Sly and the Family Stone until many years later, when I heard Dana play "Trip To Your Heart" on TIRnRR.
Don't call it a comeback. Legend establishes its legacy by whatever trip happens to knock it out.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Everybody Is A Star
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE BEAU BRUMMELS: Laugh, Laugh
Sly Stone's production work with the Beau Brummels is, at best, a footnote to his stellar career. But it's a supremely cool footnote, because I adore the Beau Brummels. I interviewed Beau Brummels lead singer Sal Valentino in 1998:
"The Beau Brummels signed with Autumn Records, a label run by DJs Tom Donahue and Bob Mitchell. How did you connect with Donahue and Mitchell?
Tom always told the story that a hooker turned him on to the Beau Brummels. And I didn't know that she was a hooker, but she had an act down on North Beach. He was living in the house of the guy that owned the Morocco Room with his father. And he had this big house, and she was up there for a period of time. And so she ran into Tom one night in North Beach, and she told him about us. And he came out to see us. And he brought Bob Mitchell out, and Carl Scott, and then Sly. And they wanted to sign us....
How was Sly Stone to work with as a producer?
It was great. We were pretty scared, probably, and Sly listened to everything, he encouraged us, he was really into the material, he loved my singing. He liked the whole thing, and he made it work...."
The Beau Brummels’ Sly-produced 1965 hit "Laugh, Laugh" has a permanent berth on my all-time Hot 100. Yeah, it's just a footnote in the incredible story of Sly Stone. But it's a footnote for which I will always, always be grateful.
THE FLASHCUBES WITH MIKE GENT: Reminisce
Ahem.
THE NEW DIGITAL SINGLE FROM THE FLASHCUBES WILL BE RELEASED ON JUNE 27th. Working with the same Mike Gent lauded above for his Flashcubes cover with Graham Parker, "Reminisce" is the first original (non-cover) Flashcubes single in decades. One can preorder this fresh wonder right here. Proceed accordingly, and then you'll be able to reminisce about your undeniable savviness as a rockin' pop consumer. This is my song of the year for 2025, and it will also appear on Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Stand!
Good advice, and an imperative in these troubled times. Godspeed, Sly Stone.
The rest of us?
STAND!
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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. You can read about our history here.
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