10 SONGS: 5/5/2023

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 # 1179. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Rockaway Beach

HEY! WE'RE THE RAMONES AND THIS ONE'S CALLED "ROCKAWAY BEACH!"

1-2-3-4.

The Ramones' 1979 double-LP in-concert document It's Alive is my all-time favorite live album. Nothing else even comes close. One could argue that It's Alive is the Ramones' single finest moment, as they perform material from their first three albums (Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia), playing the songs faster and louder and faster still, while holding on to the breathless, giddy AM Top 40 spark that made the studio versions so irresistible to begin with.

It's Alive was recorded in London on December 31st, 1977. Happy freakin' New Year! In the interviews included in my new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones (https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/), Joey Ramone told me, "Yeah, we wanted to do a live album, and we were like really big in England at the time. And we played, it was New Year’s Eve 1977, and it was a real big show at the Rainbow Theatre. And I guess everybody was there, all the bands at that point. Ya know, the whole audience was mostly bands [laughs], like the Clash, the Pistols, everybody was there.

"And so we recorded that night. And [producer] Ed Stasium, I think he did the recording. It was a mobile situation. And it came out great! I remember, I think it was NME that said it was the best live album ever recorded. Previously it was Thin Lizzy...."

It's Alive opens with "Rockaway Beach." Whatta record. My first Ramones show was just a few months later. Chewin' out a rhythm on my bubblegum. Not hard, not far to reach. It's still alive. Rock, rock!

JOE DILILLO: Superhero Star

BEEBE GALLINI: Nobody Loves The Hulk

Saturday May 6th is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Best holiday ever. And that seemed like a bodacious excuse to program the title track from Joe Dilillo's new EP Superhero St*r. Plus it's, y'know, good. The city is saved! FREE COMIC BOOK DAY IS SAVED!

Thus empowered by the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, but the patience of Johnny Ramone, we circled back for further Free Comic Book Day partying in the form of Beebe Gallini's incredible (HAR!) take on the Traits' obscure classic "Nobody Loves The Hulk." As much as I love the Traits' original recording, Beebe Gallini belts the tune with gamma rays, throwing in an appropriate bellow of HULK SMASH! to certify the mightiness of her avenging. 

THE RAMONES: Pet Sematary

It was a little bit of a surprise to realize we had never before played the Ramones' title song for the film adaptation of Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Granted, it's not one of my favorite Ramones songs, but nor is it one I would deliberately avoid. Hell, I was delighted to hear it on the radio in 1989; airplay for the Ramones was a rarity, and even if I would have preferred to hear "I Believe In Miracles" from the same album (Brain Drain), I do also like "Pet Sematary." Any Ramones airplay is better than no Ramones airplay.

And TIRnRR still hasn't played the studio track on TIRnRR. We'll rectify that at some near-future point. As it is, "Pet Sematary" appears on this week's playlist by default, representing the Loco Live album.

I've never been fond of Loco Live. Johnny Ramone said, "I’m happier with It’s Alive. [For Loco Live] we got some producer that the office found us that didn’t know anything about the Ramones at all. I’m just not happy with it. I don’t really know what’s wrong with it, it’s just not right." In contrast,  Marky Ramone told me, "It was a very energetic album, a lot of energy in that album. I can’t compare it to the Ramones’ It’s Alive. They’re two different albums, but to me I liked the production on It’s Alive better than Loco Live, but I liked the energy on Loco Live better than It’s Alive."

To my ears, Loco Live sounds rushed, slapdash. By rote. By the 1-2-3-4 numbers. I don't think then-new bassist C. J. Ramone is the problem here; the band just doesn't sound into it, and (like Johnny said) it's just not right. And the only reason this live "Pet Sematary" stands out from its Loco Live brethren is because it hides a welcome bonus: an unlisted performance of "Carbona Not Glue" follows "Pet Sematary" within the same track.

The original studio version of "Carbona Not Glue" is one of my top five Ramones tracks. At the time of Loco Live's American release in 1992, "Carbona Not Glue" had been unavailable at retail since 1977, when legal threats from the manufacturers of Carbona Spot Remover prompted its removal from all subsequent pressings of the Ramones' second album Leave Home. Loco Live was the Ramones' final album for their original label Sire Records; the group slipped "Carbona Not Glue" into the album without informing Sire. Joey told me, "Right. We snuck it in because it was our last record for Sire, and we really wanted people to kinda get to hear it." And Johnny said, "Yeah, we snuck that in. We tried to get in other things, but they always tore it off . But that time we just put it down and put it in there—they don’t even know about it [laughs]."

The studio "Carbona Not Glue" wouldn't return to retail shelves until Rhino Records released an expanded reissue of Leave Home in 2001. But from '77 until 2001, the only available "Carbona Not Glue" was the buried treat hidden on Loco Live. It remains the only part of Loco Live that I really like.

THE MONKEES: The Girl I Knew Somewhere

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

The Ramones' last studio album was !Adios Amigos! in 1995. The group continued to tour, and selections excerpted from a 1996 live performance (less than half of the actual show) were released that summer as Greatest Hits Live. Though not the equal of It's Alive, Greatest Hits Live presents a much, much more compelling live document than Loco Live. Other than the album's two studio bonus tracks--covers of the Dave Clark Five's "Any Way You Want It" and Mötorhead's "R.A.M.O.N.E.S."--I don't think we've ever played much of Greatest Hits Live on the show. A spin of the album's "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" earlier this year may have been the sole appearance of a live track from this album on any of our playlists.

Man, Greatest Hits Live is such a cool record of live, in-concert...I dunno, redemption after the disappointment of Loco Live. Joey sounds a lot more invested and in control, the band is tighter by miles and miles, and the result is invigmoratin' like live Ramones oughtta be. Maybe we should have pressed the Free Comic Book Day angle and played the Greatest Hits Live run-through of "Spider-Man," but for me it was a coin toss between "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Don't Want To Grow Up." Both are among my top three Ramones tracks (along with "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"), and the coin toss went in favor of "I Don't Want To Grow Up." 

Greatest Hits Live is an underrated album, and I may have been among those guilty of underrating it. I've grown up a bit since then.

THE RAMONES [with LEMMY]: R.A.M.O.N.E.S.

Hey, speakin' of Mötorhead's song about the Ramones: Mötorhead bassist Lemmy himself turned up on stage at the Ramones' farewell gig, August 6, 1996 at Billboard Live in Los Angeles. The event is preserved on We're Outta Here!, and while part of me wishes the Ramones' final shock treatment was performed without so many special guests, ya can't deny the appeal of Lemmy joining in to help sing and play the anthem he wrote about these American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. Gabba gabba, see them go....

And they were gone.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Can't Wait 'Till Summer

Big Stir Records has the hits. This is one of them. Librarians With Hickeys' "Can't Wait 'Till Summer" is guaranteed a berth on 2023's year-end countdown show. And it scores yet another spin next week. See, we play the hits. That's what makes proper rock 'n' roll radio.

THE BEATLES: Tomorrow Never Knows

Her Majesty's Ramones. Some have suggested we amend our billing of the Beatles to HIS Majesty's Ramones, given the ascension of Charles III to new status as (I guess) a pretty nice boy who doesn't have a lot to say. I say timing is everything. Elizabeth II was Great Britain's monarch before, after, and during the entirety of the Beatles' existence as a band. Her Majesty's Ramones. Tomorrow knows that much, at least. 

THE RAMONES: California Sun/I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You

Even before It's Alive, the very first Ramones live release was this 45 B-side in 1976. Recorded live at The Roxy in Los Angeles in '76, "California Sun/I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You" served as the non-plug side of "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" in the US, and of "Blitzkrieg Bop" in the Netherlands. It's the perfect coda for this week's celebration of live Ramones.

NEXT WEEK: the start of a three-part salute to THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES!

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.

Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

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: 4/13/2021

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 # 1072.

THE FLASHCUBES: Soldier Of Love

In the '70s, Arthur Alexander's "Soldier Of Love" became a fave rave among some rock fans via a cover version by The Beatles. It was a song heard only on bootlegs, performed by the Fabs in BBC radio broadcasts during the early flourishes of Beatlemania, not available for legitimate public purchase until decades later. But fans knew the song, and most of us had never heard Arthur Alexander's original. To us, it was a Beatles song.

And it was a Beatles song to Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes. The 'Cubes added this bootleg Beatles song "Soldier Of Love" to their live set around 1979 or so; I remember hearing them play it when I saw them at a Bowery club called Gildersleeves during my spring break in New York in '79, and it was in their set for a live show at my favorite Syracuse nightspot The Firebarn in May of '79.

I don't remember whether or not I was at that particular Firebarn show, but I've heard the performance. The show was recorded on multitrack, the only Flashcubes show of that vintage to be preserved in any higher-fidelity fashion. 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay gave me a cassette copy of part of the show several years back, and it's a kickass document of one of my all-time favorite groups at the absolute peak of their live prowess. Covers and originals, The Flashcubes' Firebarn '79 tape is Exhibit A in my argument that the 'Cubes were among the best live acts I've ever witnessed.

We've occasionally played tracks from that Firebarn show on TIRnRR. Only two of those tracks have ever seen official release: "A Face In The Crowd" on the limited-edition bonus disc included with some copies of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3 (and still available on its digital version), and "Got No Mind," which closes the 'Cubes anthology Bright Lights. The Bright Lights "Got No Mind" fades as the 'Cubes launch into a furious cover of Larry Williams' "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," itself (like "Soldier Of Love") another R & B oldie we learned from The Beatles. It's a shame that the public hasn't yet had an opportunity to hear the entire Firebarn show.

But you will. Mixed and mastered, the original tapes freshly baked and preserved, The Flashcubes' essential Firebarn '79 show is willing itself into...something. Something new. Something cool. As a tease, we played the restored "Soldier Of Love" on this week's TIRnRR, complete with a spoken intro that wasn't on my edited cassette. There's more to come. And I can't wait to hear it all.

Lay down your arms. And stay tuned.

ARETHA FRANKLIN: Save Me

Any record you ain't heard is a new record.

The recent National Geographic TV biopic mini-series Genius: Aretha Franklin introduced me to a 1967 Aretha album track called "Save Me." We all know the Queen of Soul's classic singles, but I don't really know many (if any) of her non-single LP cuts. Hearing the TV soundtrack cover of "Saved" compelled me to seek out and purchase Aretha's original. See, television's job is to sell records.

And it's a fantastic track. The riff is "Gloria." The horn part shares DNA with "Tell Mama" by Etta James. But it's Aretha becoming Aretha. The TV version's lyrical references to superheroes Superman, Batman, The Green Hornet, and Black Panther also caught my attention, though I figured the latter reference was an anachronism; Black Panther had been introduced as a supporting character in the Fantastic Four comic book in 1966, and wasn't likely to have been known by anyone except Marvel Comics devotees when "Save Me" was recorded in '67. (The actual lyric in "Save Me" refers to the Caped Crusader, The Green Hornet and Kato, each of whom was also a TV star in the '60s.) 

"Save Me" is on I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, Aretha Franklin's first album for Atlantic Records, following a disappointing stint with Columbia. And the above reference to "Aretha becoming Aretha" is not made lightly; where Columbia didn't seem to know what to do with the natural force of Aretha Franklin, she came into her own at Atlantic. Aretha becoming Aretha. Save me. The city is safe.

CAROLYN FRANKLIN: Reality

I don't think I was even aware of Aretha's younger sister Carolyn Franklin prior to Genius. I was, at least, aware of older sis Erma Franklin's Forgotten Original "Piece Of My Heart," which inspired one Janis Joplin to sear the song indelibly into the public consciousness. But Carolyn and (for the most part) Erma are both tabula rasa for me, and I need to rectify that, just as I need to fill in my knowledge of middle sister Aretha's album tracks. Any record you ain't heard is a new record. We'll start with this track from Carolyn Franklin's 1969 album Baby Dynamite. More to come.

BEEBE GALLINI: To Love Somebody

Awrighty. If you ever wanted to hear a cover of a Bee Gees song that sounds like it was performed by The Small Faces but with a female lead singer in place of Wailin' Steve Marriott, your wish has been granted by Beebe Gallini. From the current Rum Bar Records release Pandemos, which also includes the previous TIRnRR Pick Hit "Nobody Loves The Hulk." 

You don't know what it's like? Beebe Gallini SMASH!

ANDREA GILLIS: Leave The Light On

We're giddily enthusiastic supporters of the Red On Red Records label. Red On Red is the lethal plaything of Justine Covault (herself a rockin' roller of formidable reputation with TIRnRR stalwarts Justine and the Unclean), and Red On Red is a presumed component of Covault's plan for establishing jukebox hegemony and--almost incidentally--utter world domination. Okeydokey. She supplies us with tunes, we supply her with willing thralls. Good deal!

We must obey the will of Justine. Justine's will must be obeyed.

"Leave The Light On" by Andrea Gillis adds another notch on Red On Red's campaign tote board. It's a terrific single, calling to mind all sortsa greatness from The Hoodoo Gurus to...well, that's enough right there, innit? And her vocals remind me of someone--Susan Cowsill? Pernilla Andersson?--but I can't quite place it. Not that it matters anyway. It's absolutely wonderful on the radio, and that's all we ask. World domination sounds peachy to us.

BARRY LEE AND THE MYSTIC ARROWS: Dearest

My first exposure to Buddy Holly's music came via proxy, courtesy of those Beatles and their majestic cover of Holly's "Words Of Love." Not a bad introduction, that. I became a diehard Holly fan by the end of the '70s, a path of discovery that led from a 45 of "Peggy Sue"/"Everyday" through the film The Buddy Holly Story and my subsequent acquisition of the 20 Golden Greats best-of LP.

I followed 20 Golden Greats with He's The One, an odd little collection of scattered supplemental Holly tracks, from "Rock Around With Ollie Vee" to "Love's Made A Fool Of You." It was a battered used record courtesy of my best friend Jay, and its battered treasures included a pop song called "Ummm, Oh Yeah." I would later learn that it was a solo Holly acoustic recording, dressed up with additional instrumentation and superfluous tweaking after his death. In any incarnation, the song is better known by the title "Dearest."

I love that song, in all its gawky He's The One glossing after the fact, and in its purer original form. Now, on this new Big Stir Records digital single, Barry Lee and the Mystic Arrows manage a reverent and engaging cover that balances Holly's natural approach with a fuller pop sound that feels natural and easy-going, a delicate freshening rather than a slap-dash coat of paint. They even add a subtle sense of mournful, melancholy ache, a vibe present in the lyrics but not necessarily evident in previous performance.The resulting triumph means Barry Lee and the Mystic Arrows can lay legit claim to continuing The Beatles' legacy of respectful and delightful Buddy Holly covers. Well done, lads.

THE MONKEES: Our Own World

2016 seemed to be a uniquely miserable year, at least until 2020 showed up and said, "Hold my beer!" Even lousy years have their highlights, and the release of The Monkees' transcendent comeback album Good Times! was one flat-out great thing about 2016. Produced by the late Adam Schlesinger, Good Times! retains its vibrant gravitas five years later; as a beyond-avid Monkees fan, I rank this album among The Monkees' best work, maybe even as high as their third-best album overall (behind Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. and Headquarters), and no worse than Top 6.

Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, Adam Schlesinger

"Our Own World" was written by Schlesinger, his only solo songwriting contribution to Good Times!; Micky Dolenz shared a co-write with Schlesinger on the album-closer "I Was There (And I'm Told I Had A Good Time)." Just over a year since we lost Schlesinger to COVID-19 in the really, really miserable year of 2020,  we served up a spin of "Our Own World" as a tribute to good times starting and ending, good times remembered, good times missed.

MARYKATE O'NEIL: I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around

Damned straight I'm ready. Marykate O'Neil's "I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around" remains a comfort in troubled times.

This Friday will mark two full weeks since my second jolt of the ol' Moderna. Yeah, I'm ready. We're ALL ready. Time to start turning this thing around.

KEN SHARP: Something Happening

Our friend (and my former Goldmine colleague) Ken Sharp has a new album called Miniatures, a collection of 32 short songs, each less than two minutes long, some less than one minute long. Well, my notoriously short attention span is thrilled! And it's good stuff, described by our Ken as "intimate and introspective" and "a bit baroque in places." As befits TIRnRR's throttlepop world-view, we went with the more uptempo "Something Happening" on this week's show, but we recognize the delicate wonder of the slower numbers, too. Neat 'n' nifty.

THE WONDERS: That Thing You Do!

As a very general rule of thumb, I prefer not to commemorate the anniversaries of deaths. I break that rule with notable frequency, so I certainly understand the sincere wishes of others wanting to honor departed heroes as yet another twelve-month void cascades into the abyss. 

Dana and I didn't set out to pay tribute to Adam Schlesinger this week. Schlesinger's death a year ago hit the pop community pretty hard, and that memory still stings. But in our closing set, I found myself playing The Wonders' "That Thing You Do!," a song written by Schlesinger as the title theme for my all-time favorite movie. Dana followed with "Denise" by Schlesinger's own combo Fountains Of Wayne, prompting me to complete the trifecta with The Monkees' above-mentioned recording of Schlesinger's "Our Own World." 

When Schlesinger passed, I felt compelled to exorcise the sadness by writing about it. I wrote a Greatest Record Ever Made! salute to "That Thing You Do!," a heartflet appreciation of Schlesinger's life and work which you can read here. A couple of days after that posted, I added this passage:

"For those of us who are immersed in pop music and/or pop culture, the passing of a beloved artist can seem like an intimate loss, even if we've never had any direct contact with the writer or performer. The art itself connects us. There's nothing wrong with mourning a person we never met, with playing records or watching movies or reading books in memory of someone whose acts of inspiration and creation touched us, and became a part of our own lives.

"As a writer and as a radio host, I've often felt a personal responsibility to pay some sort of tribute when one of my many heroes leaves this mortal world behind. It's not an actual responsibility--I’m not quite that arrogant--but I feel it nonetheless, and if I feel it, I act on it. This blog exists because I needed a way to express my emotions when David Bowie died in 2016. I had written many sincere eulogies for pop performers prior to that, sometimes for print media, sometimes as commentary for playlists on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. I've taken to referring to these pieces as 'Closing Arguments,' attempts to summarize what an artist meant to me, attempts to pay some kind of proper tribute as I say goodbye."

We're all tired of saying goodbye. But we can't forget, and we won't forget, ever. We miss you, Adam. We miss that thing you did.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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

Follow me on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 3/30/2021

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 # 1070.

THE CLIQUE: Superman

The closest thing White Whale Records act The Clique ever had to a hit was their cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' "Sugar On Sunday," which peaked at # 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969. That single's B-side was a song called "Superman," which ultimately became the group's most enduring contribution to pop culture. More people know it from R.E.M.'s 1986 cover, and many folks likely presume it was written by R.E.M. The Clique's original is a little bit quirkier, sort of calling to mind the late '60s Bee Gees sound without that group's trademark falsetto. And since mentioning one comic-book song gets me thinking about another comic-book song....

BEEBE GALLINI: Nobody Loves The Hulk

HA! Ya wanna talk about a choice of cover song that hits my personal demographic right on the gamma-irradiated noggin? "Nobody Loves The Hulk" was a 1969 single by an obscure group called The Traits, and we've played it several times on past TIRnRRs. Beebe Gallini's take on the tune appears on their new Rum Bar Records release Pandemos, and it is indeed incredible, mighty, and Marvelous. They even throw in a heartful 'n' appropriate Hulk SMASH!! that I don't recall hearing in The Traits' original. Listen to it. Buy it. Don't make angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm...y'know.

STONEWALL JACKSON: Me And You And A Dog Named Boo

I'm prepared to presume no one expected this one to turn up on the playlist this week (though I also imagine no one's all that surprised by it either, given our repeated insistence that it's ALL pop music). Honestly, I didn't even know this track existed until about a week and a half ago. I was toying with the idea of playing a Lobo track some time, though if I did, it (probably) wouldn't be "Me And You And A Dog Named Boo." Anyway. I was looking for Lobo-inspired inspiration when I stumbled upon this 1971 cover by country singer Stonewall Jackson. Inspiration acquired! Sorry, Mr. Lobo; I now regard Stonewall Jackson's rendition as the definitive "Me And You And  Dog Named Boo." Yeah, the Brady Bunch kids' attempt at it notwithstanding.

ALLAN KAPLON: Notes On A Napkin

Some time back, our friend and listener Allan Kaplon sent us a track called "Flesh And Blood," recorded under the dba The Non Prophets. We dug it, and we played it on the radio. Now, Allen's recording under his own name, and his album Notes On A Napkin intrigues and delights. Jamie Hoover of The Spongetones produced six of the album's 11 tracks, Jamie's fellow Spongetone Steve Stoeckel pops up on one of those six, and Elena Rogers chips in some exquisite backing vocals. That Kaplon lad's pretty good, too. 

KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

This makes 20 weeks in a row that TIRnRR has played at least one song featuring a lead vocal from Simone Berk. Shall we make it 21 next week?

THE RUTLES: Ouch!

I was a freshman in college when the classic TV special All You Need Is Cash aired in 1978, offering the world at large its first long-form view of the fabulous Faux Four, The Rutles. The guys in the dorm room across from me had a television, one of those guys happened to be a big Beatles fan, so a bunch of us settled in front of the tube to experience Rutlemania.

Unlike my peers, I was already a Rutles fan. I was hooked about a year and a half before that, when Monty Python's Flying Circus luminary Eric Idle guest-hosted Saturday Night Live in October of '76; that show included a clip of Eric and this fake band The Rutles cavorting their moptopped way through "I Must Be In Love," a FABrication which turned out to be the musical brainchild of Neil Innes. Innes played The Rutles' John Lennon counterpart Ron Nasty alongside Idle's Dirk McQuickly; the clip had previously appeared on the 1975 BBC series Rutland Weekend Television, but it was new to me on SNL in '76. Innes returned as Nasty on SNL in 1977, leading up to the 1978 TV special. 

The Friday night prior to the March 22nd, 1978 airing of All You Need Is Cash, NBC included two Rutles clips on its weekly musical showcase The Midnight Special. One of those clips was The Rutles' "Help!" parody, "Ouch!"

Awrighty. We love you Rutles, oh yes we do.

Alas, I was the only one of those assembled in that Thompson Hall dorm room to appreciate The Rutles. Story of my life: I, Square Peg. I bought the "I Must Be In Love"/"Doubleback Alley" 45, and my sister gave me a copy of The Rutles' LP that she picked up in the UK. A legend that will last a lunchtime? Ouch. 

THE STAN LAURELS: I'm Only Sleeping

It wasn't by design, but we wound up playing a number of covers on this week's extravaganza. The Stan Laurels' fab rendition of The Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping" is the virtual B-side of their recent Big Stir Records digital single "This Is Your Life." Since we've played the A-side in the past, we figured we'd flip instead. It is, of course, far from the first time we've flipped for The Beatles.

TAVARES: Free Ride

In a previous 10 Songs post about Tavares' hit "It Only Take A Minute," I wrote about how their cover of "Free Ride" served as my actual (if belated) gateway into all things Tavares:

"It was the late great Dick Clark who got the ball rolling in my belated discovery of Tavares. In (I think?) the '90s, VH1 was running selected, edited archival episodes of American Bandstand, and one such episode included Tavares lip-syncing their 1975 cover of The Edgar Winter Group's "Free Ride." I always liked EWG's original, and I'd never before heard Tavares' take on it, but that cover instantly became the definitive version for me...."

BADFINGER: Baby Blue

We closed this week's show with two examples in our ongoing discussion of The Greatest Record Ever Made!: "Baby Blue" by Badfinger and "September Gurls" by Big Star. An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as the take turns. I've been writing a book about that subject, and while that project has hit some roadblocks, I aim to continue bludgeoning its path forward in my usual charmingly stubborn fashion.

The Badfinger song and the Big Star song both rate chapters in the book, and "September Gurls" was the first track I ever described as GREM! "Baby Blue" looms large in my legend as the single that meant the most to me on the radio, a song spinning in my ears at the very moment that I fell permanently in love with radio. 

BARNEY RUBBLE AND THE FLINTSTONE CANARIES: The Soft Soap Jingle

A post-playlist coda. Because it's important to be clean.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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

Follow me on Twitter @CafarelliCarl