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 # 1300.
THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce
Hitting a milestone like a 1300th show invites a celebration. For us, it seemed appropriate to mark this festive occasion of TIRnRR # 1300 with some specific examples of the sort of rockin' pop mojo that brought us this far. Every track on this show is something we've played before, most of them with some frequency.
With the imminent release of the various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, I wanted to open this milestone mutha with "Reminisce," the first of the three new singles that Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse did in conjunction with their own tribute album. The Flashcubes have meant an awful lot to me, and to this show. "Reminisce" is the perfect song to kick off a celebration, looking back while facing front at the same damned time.
We also felt compelled to program the Flashcubes' other two fabulous Make Something Happen! singles--"The Sweet Spot" and "If These Hands"--at subsequent points in our 1300th show, setting up one other Flashcubes song to kick off the show's final set. We'll return to that subject in a few minutes. Now? All I wanna do is reminisce with you.
SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go
My favorite individual track of 2024, "If We Could Let Go" by Slyboots is heartbreaking in all the best ways, a song full of hope and ache, empowered with an awareness of how far we fall short in pursuit of peace, love, and understanding, and driven by determination to overcome that gap and collectively become the better people a burning world needs us to be. Not merely my favorite track from last year; it's a legit contender for my all-time Hot 100.
SOLOMON BURKE: Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Starting waaaaay back in the earliest Dana and Carl shows (1992's TIRnRR precursor We're Your Friends For Now), Dana and I have occasionally been known to come up with some unexpected song segues. Our pal Dave Murray called these Neck-Snappin' Segues™, where, y'know, one of these things is not like the other, at least on paper. We never mean it as an intentional shock-value jump cut; we always figure our seemingly outta-left-field pick of an unexpected Song B is the appropriate follow-up to Song A, even if no one else sees it that way. To paraphrase the Batman describing the Joker's thought process: Dana and Carl's motives make sense to us alone.
Our first Neck-Snappin' Segue™ occurred on the very first We're Your Friends For Now, Phil Ochs ("I Ain't Marching Anymore") into the Ohio Express ("Yummy, Yummy, Yummy"). In the early days of TIRnRR, I recall back-to-backs of Little Richard ("The Girl Can't Help It") into Pink Floyd ("See Emily Play") and Sugar ("If I Can't Change Your Mind") into the Partridge Family ("I Woke Up In Love This Morning"), both of which were seamless and perfect.
My favorite Neck-Snappin' Segue™ memory is from one Sunday evening in 1999, 2000, whatever it was. Dana played the Nails' left-of-the-dial stalwart "88 Lines About 44 Women." As I mulled options for the right follow-up song, I was struck by the sudden realization--nay, the sudden conviction!--that if I didn't play Solomon Burke's soul classic "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" faster'n immediately, an otherwise-benevolent deity would smite me where I sat. Fairly certain that I had the track with me, I rummaged through my CD case, searching intently as the Nails racked up increasingly larger numbers of lines about their 44 women. I found the right CD, handed it to Dana, and he had it set to play just as the Nails completed a couplet about their 44th subject.
Disaster averted. SING it, King Sol! Just another night here at The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet.
THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me
How in the world did we rate getting a track from the Cowsills for our compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2? I can't answer that, beyond noting that the Cowsills are really, really nice people. They're also really, really talented people; "She Said To Me" was on their stunning 1998 album Global, and it merited an enthusiastic chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Global has since been reissued by Omnivore Recordings. Omnivore also released the Cowsills' wonderful 2022 album Rhythm Of The World, and the label will soon offer the first-ever legitimate physical release of the Cowsills 1978 lost album The Cocaine Drain. The Cowsills' hits were great; their later stuff is also great, and well, well worth your time and attention.
sparkle*jets u.k.: 10 Inches
From their 1998 debut album In, Through, And Beyond, the track "10 Inches" served as our introduction to the way fab music of sparkle*jets u.k. More recently, their 2024 album Box Of Letters was one of last year's very best albums, and really a serious contender for the best. Even more recently, the group's Michael Simmons was in charge of making all of the tracks gathered for our Flashcubes tribute album Make Something Happen! play nice and sound terrific together, and sparkle*jets u.k. themselves executed an absolutely stunning rendition of the tribute album's title tune. We're fans! For our 1300th show, it was time for a reprise of where it all started for us. sparkle*jets u.k. are GO!
THE GRIP WEEDS: Strange Bird
The Grip Weeds have been fixtures on TIRnRR for the entirety of our mutant radio lifetime. We wouldn't have it any other way, and that status will not change. I've been able to see them perform on three separate occasions so far, and they're as dynamic and exciting live as they are on record. And vice versa! Their current album Soul Bender continues the Grip Weeds' record of excellence. TIRnRR superstars!
THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: You're Gonna Miss Me
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE FLASHCUBES: Carl (You Da Man)
I don't know how deep I got into the planning for the Flashcubes tribute album before I realized that the last original 'Cubes composition recorded and released by the band was a song about us.
The Flashcubes recorded "Carl (You Da Man)" for our first compilation album, 2005's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1. "Carl (You Da Man)" came after the Flashcubes' 2003 album Brilliant (which featured just one cover, of Eddie and the Hot Rods' "Do Anything You Wanna Do") and before a string of accomplished covers the 'Cubes did over the ensuing decades: The Roy Wood tribute album Sportin' Wood, a two-sided single of Chris Spedding covers, contributions to various-artists Monkees and Bay City Rollers tribute albums, and a string of digital singles heralding the triumph of 2023's Pop Masters album.
As flattering as it was (and remains) for the Flashcubes to write a song naming Dana and me "the kings of power pop," the world needed more new material from the Flashcubes. That need was answered this year by "Reminisce," "The Sweet Spot," and "If This Hands," and embellished by the act of other bands finally paying proper tribute to the Flashcubes on Make Something Happen!.
After playing all three of the Flashcubes' 2025 singles within our 1300th show playlist, it felt right to begin the celebration's closing set with the original song the Flashcubes gave to us twenty years ago. The weekend stops here. The music keeps playing still.
THE RAMONES: Blitzkrieg Bop
The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time, and a damned near religious inspiration for me. I don't ever get to the opportunity to co-host a radio show, let alone co-hosting a radio show for such an ungodly long period of time, without the Ramones nudging me toward an ideal of rock 'n' roll radio. I don't get to the Flashcubes without the Ramones. I don't get to writing about pop music without the Ramones. I certainly don't get to writing books without the Ramones, and that would be true even if my first book didn't happen to be a book about the Ramones.
Only the Beatles could claim greater importance in my life as a music fan, and the Ramones are closer to the toppermost of my poppermost than an unbeliever might expect. Beatles. Ramones. Flashcubes. Hey-ho, let's go.
THE STALLIONS: Why
We couldn't do a milestone show without another spin of the Stallions' cover of the Dirty Wurds' 1966 garage obscurity "Why." "Why" by the Stallions was far and away our most-played track during our first year, as well as during our second year, and although it ceded that position to "Highway Lines" by Mannix in Year # 3, "Why" remained our all-time most-played track for years thereafter. Its reign was finally brought to an end by Big Star's "September Gurls." Even though we don't play "Why" very often any more, it racked up sufficient spins in those early years to still remain the second most-played track over the course of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's long and storied history.
A long and storied history that continues! Why? Because we like it.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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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