Among old friends with whom I'm still in touch, there are four I've known longer than I've known any other friends: Faith, Jay, Mike, and Beth. I believe I met them in that order, in high school, 50+ years ago. I'm also in occasional contact with a couple of other high school buds (Debbie and Lissa), and in Facebook proximity to several others. Faith, Jay, Mike, and Beth have the longest-running tenure in my circle.
I don't hear from Mike very often, but still every once in a while. Faith and I renewed contact about a decade ago, and she attended the release party for my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) in 2024; at that event, she joked about telling my daughter all of the secrets about what I was really like in high school (an idle threat, actually; then, as now, I was always a perfect angel). My wife and I like to meet up with Jay and his wife with some frequency, and Jay and I had a random text exchange about the Sex Pistols just last week. These long-standing friendships remain in place.
The same goes for my dear pal Beth. I haven't seen her in several years, but we correspond, we kibbitz, and she listens to the radio show. It was Beth who nudzhed me with a gentle reminder that TIRnRR needed to pay tribute to the late drummer Gilson Lavis by playing a few tracks by Gilson's former group Squeeze.
Beth's pretty smart 'n' savvy about stuff. When we were teenagers, Beth asserted her de facto leadership of our little cadre of co-conspirators, by virtue of being the oldest member of the group and also Jewish. Decades later, I'm still content to follow the leader, especially when she directs us to play great records by Squeeze.
I have brilliant friends. Robbie Rist, a friend of more recent minting, referred to Gilson Lavis as "hero." I wasn't brilliant enough to suss that out on my own--we just play the records, man--but I'm fortunate to have friends who can set me right in that regard. Thanks, Robbie. Thanks, Beth. And thank YOU, friends, for joining us in our rockin' pop reverie. Let's start things off with a little Squeeze. This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on another Sunday night in Syracuse this week.
Because Beth said so. And she's our leader, after all.
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 all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). You can follow Carl's daily blog at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do).
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Carl's latest book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get Carl's previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
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