10 SONGS: 10/14/2022

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 # 1150.

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

Our 1150th show coincides with the release of our new compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. HuzZAH! You can read about the album here, and then select your choice of CD or digital download to purchase for your music library. We'll be glad you did!

We opened TIRnRR # 1150 with the last track on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5: "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" by Brother Eytan Mirsky. This fantastic, fantastic song is one of the defining tracks of TIRnRR's long and storied history. It earns its own chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and it is one of my all-time favorite tracks by anyone at any time.

There was never any doubt that Eytan's "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" was going to be on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. In fact, we built the compilation with the conscious intent that all of its songs in sequence would lead into "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" at album's end. Because after all trials and tribulations, steps forward and back, triumphs, tragedies, and even the mere treading of water, we all try to somehow just keep doing, to the best of our mortal ability. The goal is elusive, maybe illusionary, but always in our eyesight: This year, man. This year.

(We also served up fabulous Volume 5 tracks by Irene Peña and Kelley Ryan, plus one more track we'll discuss shortly.)

TIR'N'RR ALLSTARS: Waterloo Sunset

In addition to the five This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilations, we must also mention 2019's Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a collection put together on our behalf by some of our talented friends. The project was spearheaded by Steve Stoeckel of the Spongetones and Keith Klingensmith of the Legal Matters (and of Futureman Records, which handled the release). We had nothing whatsoever to do with its creation, and didn't even know about it until it was a fait accompli. It ain't actually possible to make us feel humble about anything, but this touching gesture may have accomplished it anyway. Thank you, friends.

The title tune, a cover of the Kinks' classic, was performed by Steve Stoeckel, Keith Klingensmith, Bruce Gordon, Eytan Mirsky, America's Sweetheart Irene Peña, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, and Rich Firestone. It's such a commanding performance, and such a moving gesture. Damn it. Maybe we can feel humble after all.

(This week's playlist also included two more tracks from Waterloo Sunset, performed by the Click Beetles and Gretchen's Wheel. Futureman's original digital-only release of Waterloo Sunset remains available and recommended, and you can also still get Kool Kat Musik's CD version.)

PATTI SMITH GROUP: Ask The Angels

Penthouse magazine was the perhaps-unlikely platform for my introduction to Patti Smith. Journalist Nick Tosches interviewed Smith for the April 1976 issue of Penthouse, and ya know what? Even as a 16-year-old, while it woulda been a fib to say I only read Penthouse and Playboy for the articles, I did indeed read a lot of the articles. Nick's Penthouse chat with Patti was my first-ever peripheral exposure to what would later be called punk rock. My accounts of that experience can be found here and here.

My first actual exposure to this music came about a year later, after reading Phonograph Record Magazine had primed my radar for punk. Before I heard the Sex Pistols on the radio in the summer of '77, the Patti Smith Group appeared on TV's The Mike Douglas Show, singing "Ask The Angels."

I hated it.

That opinion evolved. And how! I was a Patti Smith fan by year's end. Ask the angels, and the devils, too. And it's wild, wild, wild, wild!

THE FINKERS: Last Thing On My Mind

For our 1150th show, we wanted to include four tracks apiece from each of our five This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilations. Our inaugural CD was This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1, released by JAM Recordings in...I forget. 2005 sounds right. For obsessive rockin' pop fans like your Dana and your Carl, the prospect of slapping together our own CD successor to the K-Tel and Ronco various-artists LPs of our misspent youth made us giddy, delirious, and...yeah, we're like that anyway. But this was giddiness with a PURPOSE...!

JAM's Jeremy Morris made it all happen. Among the treats on Volume 1 was "Last Thing On My Mind," a full-throttle irresistible from Australian combo the Finkers. We'd been corresponding with the Finkers' drummer Mickster, and we'd been programming our fair share of Finkers material. But this track absolutely knocked me out on first spin, prompting me to declare on air that "Last Thing On My Mind" was exactly the sort of song that always made me wish I had a radio show, just so I could play songs like "Last Thing On My Mind" on my radio show.

I also wrote the liner notes for Whole Lotta Fun, a Finkers best-of issued in 2002 by the Japanese label Wizzard-In-Vinyl. Yep, an American writer preachin' on behalf of an Australian band for a Japanese label. We are the world. The Finkers may have been our introduction to their lead singer Michael Carpenter, who has accumulated a ton of TIRnRR airplay as a solo artist.

(Other This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1 tracks heard on TIRnRR # 1150 were by Popdudes, the Jellybricks, and the Lolas. The original CD is long, long out of print, but remains available as a download from Futureman Records. We really oughtta look into a CD reissue of Volume 1 some day.)

ANNY CELSI: Empty Hangers

Oh God, I love this song, from songer-songwriter Anny Celsi's 2003 album Little Black Dress & Other Stories. It's like a pop record written by Mickey Spillane, and it was my introduction to Celsi's magic talent. It was predestined that "Emptry Hangers" would find its way ontoThis Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3 in 2013.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3 was our first with Ray Gianchetti's label Kool Kat Musik. Ray gave us carte blanche to assemble Volume 3 and its successors, and we took that as license to stuff the disc with Fave Raves by Mannix, the Tearjerkers, Blotto, Hawaii Mud Bombers, and the Catholic Girls. And Anny Celsi! "Empty Hangers" is absolutely one of the defining tracks of TIRnRR.

(The other This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3 tracks we played this week were by Steve Stoeckel and his This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio All-Stars, Mannix, and Hawaii Mud Bombers. We also played Michael Carpenter's "I've Been Loving You" from his 2015 album The Big Radio; that track first appeared on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3. Like Volume 1, the CD of Volume 3 is out of print, but remains available as a Futureman Records digital album.)

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING THE PALEY BROTHERS: Come Out And Play

The mighty Big Stir Records label has become a playlist perennial here, placing at least one track (and usually more) in almost every one of our weekly shows. That's been the case since even before Big Stir started releasing singles by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. But, y'know, releasing Flashcubes singles doesn't exactly hurt, dig?

That trend will continue. Looking ahead to next week's show, I see three Big Stir tracks firmly perched within the playlist, including one brand-new track, one other track from earlier this year, and--obviously!--this fab current single by the Flashcubes featuring the Paley Brothers. We thank our friends at Big Stir for their role in getting us new music to play from my favorite group. 

MR. ENCRYPTO: The Last Time [a cappella]

I have mixed feelings about 2006's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. It has a lot of great stuff, and it features an absolutely incredible '90s track by the Cowsills. I mean, whatever else we do or don't do with this little mutant radio show, Dana and I can puff with pride at the memory of the Cowsills letting us use one of their greatest songs on one of our CDs.

But whatever fond recollections I have of Volume 2 come equipped with an asterisk. It did not turn out like what we envisioned; there were disagreements with the label, nothing earth-shattering, but enough to change the result. Let’s let it go at that. I still have a big box of unsold Volume 2 CDs in my garage, and we wound up parting company (amicably) with JAM Recordings after its release. Dana may not share my disappointment with Volume 2, and the CD does have a bunch of very cool tracks contained within its digital grooves. Honestly, Volume 2 deserves better appreciation than what I'm saying about it now. Mixed feelings. Mixed feelings.

For TIRnRR # 1150, we programmed Volume 2 treats by the Spongetones, the Fire Apes, the B.A.R., and Tim Anthony. And we played a non-album expanded mix of Mr. Encrypto's amazing Volume 2 cut "The Last Time [a cappella]," a stunning vocals-only recording that still gives me chills to experience.

(The This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2 CD is officially out of print, but you can buy it from me on eBay. C'mon! Help me clean out my garage! You can also, of course, get the Futureman download.)

THE WONDERS: That Thing You Do!

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RUBINOOS: Nowheresville

Over the course of a whole lot of years doing this, TIRnRR has given us an extraordinary opportunity to connect with so many great artists whom we've admired for an even greater number of years. Our five TIRnRR comps have included contributions from the likes of the Cowsills, the Spongetones, Paul Collins' Beat, the Smithereens, John Wicks and the Records, Carolyne Mas, the Catholic Girls, the Grip Weeds, the Rooks, P. Hux, and Amy Rigby, as well as work from members of the Pandoras, Blondie, the Bee Gees, the Stems, and a big ol' list of more. We have been very lucky, and we are well aware of our good fortune.

I've been a fan of the Rubinoos since I was a senior in high school, during that same Spring '77 timeshot when I saw the Patti Smith Group on The Mike Douglas Show. I heard the Rubinoos on the radio (AM and FM), saw them on American Bandstand, and purchased their debut album. And their second album. And more after that.

Flash-forward: many years later, I wrote the entry for the Rubinoos' induction into The Power Pop Hall Of Fame. I've corresponded a little with Tommy Dunbar and Al Chan; Tommy saw that we were playing Beserkley Records-era Rubinoos material from a source he felt was substandard, so he upgraded us to the boxed set Everything You Always Wanted To Know About The Rubinoos. Well...all right!

And, best of all, the Rubinoos let us use their luxurious pop pulp noir track "Nowheresville" on 2017's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. That story is told here. And we remain grateful for this ongoing opportunity. With such continued good fortune, that's how we do it here in Somewheresville.

(This week's playlist also included Volume 4 tracks by Circe Link and Christian Nesmith, the Slapbacks, and the Hit Squad. Both the CD and the download can still be grabbed and loved by discerning rockin' pop fans.)

THE VILLAS: Someone To Hold On To

One more from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. The Villas' previously-unreleased masterpiece "Someone To Hold On To" is not only a gorgeous and endlessly inviting pop number, it also served a specific purpose for Volume 5's concept. 

Volume 5's sequence and flow was inspired in part by a song cycle I did several years ago. I like the idea of assembling songs from different artists, and letting the songs chat with one another. A girl speaks. A boy speaks. A girl speaks. A boy speaks. And a story unfolds.

As This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 plays, the girls and boys take turns relating where they think they are and what this place looks like today. And then, a girl and a boy speak together: Angie and Bill Villa. At last, after all was said and done, they had found someone to hold on to. As the Villas dance off together, our Volume 5 concludes with the wistful determination of Amy Rigby's "Tom Petty Karaoke" and, of course, Brother Eytan Mirsky. 

There is something to hold on to. Maybe we never thought we'd find it. Maybe it's still out there (as Ballzy Tomorrow's Volume 5 track suggests), awaiting discovery. But it exists. Hold on. We'll get to it yet.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 1/28/2020

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous 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 # 1010.

THE ANIMALS: It's My Life


I became a big fan of The Animals about 10-11 years after the fact, when my mid-'70s embrace of all things British Invasion made me the only teenager in North Syracuse who preferred The Dave Clark Five to Led Zeppelin. I loved "House Of The Rising Sun" and "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place," but "It's My Life" was the one that always struck me as something extra special. This track is perfect; I remember listening to it intently a few years later, as a college student alone in my dorm room, playing my unfashionable rockin' pop music amidst the white noise of Southern rock and Grateful Dead that my peers chose as their soundtrack. I was out of step with the times. I didn't care, and I still don't. It's my life.

THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Who'll Be My Keeper



Technically this is by "The Rollers," the group's name truncated for the release of 1979's Elevator album in a doomed bid for acceptance beyond its vanishing teenybopper base. But the CD reissues of three albums (Elevator, Voxx, and Ricochet) originally credited to the just-plain Rollers restored the "Bay City" billing, so we'll go with that. This is a fantastic track, with Duncan Faure's Lennonesque vocals soaring above a chuggin', rockin' Rollers sound that deserved the wider audience it was denied. All three of those albums are well worth checking out (if you can find them), and I'm all for reissues of the two other Rollers albums, the cassette-only Burning Rubber soundtrack, and the...well, awful synth mistake Breakout. I'm an unapologetic fan of a lot of The Bay City Rollers' hit-era material, especially "Rock And Roll Love Letter" and "Wouldn't You Like It," and I even wanted to write a Bay City Rollers movie when I was a teen.  But I tell ya, I betcha Elevator, Voxx, and Ricochet would have garnered more appreciation in power pop circles if not for the unwarranted stigma of The Bay City Rollers' Tartan-clad teen-idol image.

ROSANNE CASH: Pink Bedroom



Rosanne Cash's album Rhythm & Romance got a lot of in-store play when I was workin' for a downtown Buffalo record retailer in the spring and summer of '85. I was 25 years old, married, holding down that full-time record-store job plus a part-time position as a burger-flipper under the Golden Arches, and finally starting to make a few freelance writing sales (a tale I've already told elsewhere). In this time frame, Cash's magnificent and definitive take of John Hiatt's "Pink Bedroom" was as much a joyous part of my everyday sonic milieu as The Del Fuegos, The Ramones, Prince, and Katrina & the Waves. The Neil Diamond vibe of the song immediately put me in mind of The Monkees, and made me dream the impossible dream of a Monkees reunion. Sure, The Monkees (three-quarters of them, anyway) did reunite a year later, but they never got around to recording any John Hiatt songs. They should have.

ANNY CELSI: Sideways Rain



I first heard the music of Anny Celsi in 2003, when her album Little Black Dress & Other Stories was released. A copy of that CD found its way to Dana, and he played the track "Empty Hangers" on TIRnRR; for me, it was love at first spin. Anny's been a TIRnRR Fave Rave ever since, and "Empty Hangers" has secured a permanent berth on my all-time Hot 100. "Sideways Rain" is a previously-unreleased track that appeared on Anny's 2019 best-of LP Kaleidoscope Heart--12 Golden Greats, and my God, it rivals the seemingly nonpareil greatness of "Empty Hangers." Love at first spin? That love endures.

THE CLICK BEETLES: If Not Now Then When



The Click Beetles' Dan Pavelich has been a friend of TIRnRR for many years, and his new pop culture blog Pop-A-Looza carries a weekly dose of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). Huzzah! "If Not Now Then When" is my top pick among the many fine tracks that Dan has done over the years, and we were delighted to hear it as part of the 2019 compilation Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Now, it's poised to enter Click Beetles canon on the group's forthcoming new album Pop Fossil. Please budget your CD-buyin' plans accordingly.

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: You Walk Your Way



This 1975 Isley Brothers B-side of "For The Love Of You [Part 1 & 2]" should have been an A-side. I didn't even realize it had gotten a single release at all; I thought it was just an album track on the group's 3 + 3 LP, the album that also contains their transcendent version of Seals & Crofts' "Summer Breeze" and their own timeless hit "Who's That Lady." The sad sway of "You Walk Your Way" presents a heartbreaking tale of paths diverging at love's end, a soulful shrug as former partners go their separate ways. 

CAROLYNE MAS: In The Rain



Gotta credit singer/songwriter/aficionado Dean Landew for pointing us in the direction of this fine track, which made its first (and thus far only) appearance on the 2003 Carloyne Mas retrospective Beyond Mercury. Prior to that, my go-to Carolyne Mas track was the fabulous, driving "Quote Goodbye Quote" from 1979, but I think I dig the beguiling pleasure of "In The Rain" just as much. Her Carolyne Mas, Hold On, and Modern Dreams albums are scheduled for CD reissue in February; alas, Beyond Mercury is now out of print, but one hopes "In The Rain" will regain its rightful place at retail...somewhere!

MIDNIGHT OIL: The Dead Heart



After graduating from college and moving into an apartment in 1980, I didn't have cable TV until the late '80s. I saw MTV on occasional visits back home to North Syracuse, and in 1986 my upstairs neighbor Cheryl let me watch MTV's afternoon reruns of The Monkees every now and again. I finally did get cable at the end of '86, right before I moved out of Buffalo and back to Syracuse in the spring of 1987. I got cable for my new Syracuse apartment immediately, and again when I bought a house in 1989. I've had MTV ever since.

I don't watch it anymore, of course, but I do have it. 

Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" was a huge MTV hit in '87, but I was more taken with their subsequent vid-hits "The Dead Heart" and "Dreamworld." All three of those cuts came from the group's Diesel And Dust album, which I dutifully purchased some time in the late '80s. 

THE RARE BREED: Beg, Borrow And Steal



I've told the strange saga of "Beg, Borrow And Steal" as a chapter in my forthcoming book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Released versions of the song credited variously to The Rare Breed and The Ohio Express are both the exact same master, with only a little remixing to differentiate the Breed from the Express. Released by the Attack Records label in 1966, The Rare Breed's original single of "Beg, Borrow And Steal" missed the Hot 100, so its producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz turned around and re-sold it to Neil Bogart at Cameo Records, where it became the first chart hit for The Ohio Express. Again, same record as The Rare Breed's release, just with its mix tweaked and its credit altered.

The Cameo Records catalog came into the possession of Allen Klein, who had a reputation as being something of a schmuck. In the '90s, when labels like Rhino and Varese Sarabande wanted to include "Beg, Borrow And Steal" on '60s compilations, they bypassed the notoriously hardassed Klein, licensed the track directly from Kasenetz and Katz, and credited it to The Rare Breed. BUT! Both labels used the punchier Ohio Express mix rather than the original, comparatively tentative-sounding Rare Breed mix. Call it a shell game or call it musical chairs, but what we know as a Rare Breed track on CD reissues is really an Ohio Express track in disguise. The intrigue! The drama! The...all right, the fact that few beside me care about this at all. Listen: get your own blog. 

Anyway. To my knowledge, only two CD reissues of "Beg, Borrow And Steal" correctly match the mix used with the artist named on the package. Real Gone Music reissued the debut Ohio Express album as Beg, Borrow And Steal: The Complete Cameo Recordings, which I believe is the sole authorized reissue of "Beg, Borrow And Steal" by The Ohio Express. The budget label Collectables issued a Rare Breed compilation called The Super K Kollection, which I think--I think--is the only place you can hear the Rare Breed mix of "Beg, Borrow And Steal" outside of a vintage 45. We played the version from The Super K Kollection on this week's TIRnRR: the first time we've ever played "Beg, Borrow And Steal" by The Rare Breed...even though we've already been playing "Beg, Borrow And Steal" by The Rare Breed for decades. 

That was complicated. I need a drink.

RONNIE SPECTOR & THE E STREET BAND: Say Goodbye To Hollywood



Billy Joel wrote "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" as a tribute to Phil Spector's wall-of-sound production, and specifically to Spector's work with The Ronettes. Presuming Joel is the die-hard music fan I'm sure he is, I can't even imagine how thrilled he must have been when Ronettes lead singer Ronnie Spector covered "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" in 1977. It's like if The Beatles had covered The Knickerbockers' "Lies," or Creedence Clearwater Revival had covered The Hollies' "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress." GO, Billy! I used to think that the E Street Band's backing on this record slathered things on a little too thick for my taste, but I've come to embrace that over-the-top kitchen-sink approach as absolutely appropriate for the task at hand. The wall of lawsuits Bruce Springsteen had to navigate between Born To Run and Darkness Of The Edge Of Town prevented his name from appearing on Spector's record, but he's sure the boss of all he surveys here. Ronnie Spector's voice conveys frailty and strength in paradoxically equal measure, and there are days when I believe this is even greater than The Ronettes' "Be My Baby." 

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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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

My Pop Worlds Merge: ANNY CELSI Writes About BRIAN WILSON's Band, And PET SOUNDS

                                                

Anny Celsi is one of my fave raves.  I first heard Anny's music when intrepid This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio co-host Dana Bonn received a copy of her superswell 2003 album Little Black Dress & Other Stories.  From first spin, I was enthralled by the track "Empty Hangers," which has earned a permanent berth on my All-Time Hot 300. Since then, I've tracked down (I think) all of Anny Celsi's releases, from Annyland's 1996 She Walks In through Little Black Dress & Other Stories, Tangle-Free World, and January. Because Anny's a sweetie, she also allowed us to use "Empty Hangers" on our most recent compilation CD, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3.

While I fell for Anny immediately, it took me a while to become a Beach Boys fan.  As a kid in the '60s and early '70s, I knew the hits, and liked 'em well enough, but the standard-issue Endless Summer double-LP set was all the Beach Boys I was ever likely to need. Spurred on by a sudden, inexplicable love of "Sloop John B," I purchased a copy of Pet Sounds as a freshman in college, circa Spring '78.  I liked it.  My life did not change.  The Yergers, the wonderful folks who owned Main Street Records in Brockport, tried their level best to turn me into a Beach Boys fan, but I guess I just wasn't ready.  Not yet.

An odd sequence of events changed that by the late '80s. Capitol Records began a comprehensive series of Beach Boys CD reissues; I borrowed a copy of the two-fer Beach Boys Today/Summer Days (And Summer Nights!), and BAM! Hooked. Just like that. The Doonesbury comic strip ran a storyline about a terminal AIDS patient, trying to hold on to life long enough to hear Pet Sounds on CD.  Silly as it seems, this inspired me to give Pet Sounds a fresh listen.  I now agree with the many who hail it as the greatest album of all time.

I had a chance to see The Beach Boys in concert in...1989, I think? 1990? Somewhere in there. Brian Wilson, of course, was not touring with the group, and Dennis Wilson had long since caught that last wave home. Mike Love was there...yeah, hooray.  But so were Al Jardine and Carl Wilson, and it was just fantastic.  Even Love was sorta tolerable, kinda.  And I got to witness Carl Wilson singing "God Only Knows" live, and that's an indelible concert memory I can cherish until I catch the last wave home.  I saw Al Jardine with his band on one subsequent occasion, but I have never seen Brian Wilson live.

That will change on Monday, August 29th, when the legendary Brian Wilson brings his incredible band to Syracuse for a free--FREE!--show at the New York State Fair, recreating Pet Sounds live.  I guess I shouldn't call it "free"--ya gotta buy a ticket for admission to the Fair, which'll set you back a hefty $6 in advance, something like $10 at the gate.  Jeez.  Hardly seems worth it now, right?  Yeah, everyone else, just stay home that day.  Save your money!  Heh, heh, heh....

I cannot believe our good fortune in getting this opportunity here.  Wilson's crackerjack band includes members of The Wondermints, as well as Al Jardine, and a great guy named Nelson Bragg, whose own terrific music I was introduced to by some chick named...oh, Anny Celsi.  Right!  Full circle!

The Brian Wilson Band has earned international acclaim for its impeccable ability to perform Pet Sounds, SMiLE, and the full width and depth of the Brian Wilson Bible. But don't take my word for it.  Take Anny Celsi's word for it:

http://www.npr.org/2016/07/09/484983061/pet-sounds-and-the-band-that-gets-to-play-it-onstage

You should probably listen to her.  I betcha she caught on way before I did.