This week's show brings us to This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1326. That's not a milestone number by any common reckoning, but it has a specific resonance with me. During my second semester in college, Fall of 1978 through Spring of '79, 1326 was the number of my dorm suite. I shared the two-bedroom suite with three other students; the first set of three hightailed it outta there and moved to student apartments at the end of the first semester, and a fresh trio of recruits assembled for the second semester. I got along with the second group of 1326ers better than I got along with their predecessors.
One evening in the Fall semester, my girlfriend and I were hanging out in 1326. Rochester, NY radio station WCMF-FM was about to air its Midnight Album feature, spinning a then-recent LP in its entirety:
The Ramones. Road To Ruin.
By this time, the Ramones were already my favorite contemporary group. A year before, their "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" 45 became the record that changed my life. Before my freshman year of 1977-'78 hit the exit ramp, I added two more Ramones singles ("Rockaway Beach" and "Do You Wanna Dance") to my bourgeoning collection, I won a copy of their eponymous debut LP from the campus radio station, and I saw the Ramones perform live on a bill with the Runaways and the Flashcubes, and that was the best four bucks I ever spent. But as I commenced into my second year at college, I hadn't heard Road To Ruin before the WCMF DJ dropped the needle on the LP's opening track "I Just Want To Have Something To Do."
This may have been the first time I heard the Ramones on commercial radio. That experience was long overdue, and I still wish it were a more common occurrence. But I immersed myself in this album-length opportunity, digging each note and each pure pop hook. The next day, I had a new Ramones song stuck in my head, and I sang it to myself (and others!) everywhere I went:
Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go, I wanna be sedated
It took me, I think, a few months before I snagged my own copy of Road To Ruin. I picked up Rocket To Russia at Battlefield Mall in Springfield, Missouri over Christmas break, a used copy of Leave Home in Cleveland Heights (at either Record Revolution or The Record Exchange) and a promo copy of Road To Ruin at Syracuse's Desert Shore Records. In the summer of '79, I saw the Ramones in concert again for my second of a total of eight times, and I kept on buying each new Ramones record upon release. That story started before and continued long, long after my residence at 1326.
But the girlfriend I met when I lived at 1326 is still my girlfriend, and has remained so even after we got married (to each other!) more than forty years ago. I knew she was mine when she confessed that she'd started writing the lyrics to Ramones songs in the margins of her notebook.
So here's to 1326. Here's to love enduring, and here's to the 1-2-3-4! transcendence of traveling a road to ruin and surviving with gusto. Get me to the airport, put me on a plane. I wanna be elated, man.
And I am.
Thanks, 1326. This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on another Sunday night in Syracuse this 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.
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).
TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.
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.
DAVE EDMUNDS: Almost Saturday Night (Rhino, The Anthology [1968-1990])
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