10 SONGS: 6/27/2025

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 # 1291

BRIAN WILSON: Love And Mercy

If some quirk of cosmic regulation and rulemaking decreed that only one--ONE--musician, performer, songwriter, and/or producer of the rock 'n' roll era could be acclaimed as genius, that one genius would be Brian Wilson.

Wilson's transcendent brilliance is widely recognized, but I was slow to accept it. As a kid in the 1960s, my awareness of the Beach Boys was peripheral--one of my older siblings had a copy of the Surfer Girl LP--and while I must have heard their hits again and again on AM Top 40 radio, they didn't really register in my ears at the time. One presumes I wasn't picking up the good vibrations.

That changed, sure, but the change took a while. In the '70s, even as teen me became increasingly obsessed with '60s rock 'n' roll, the Beach Boys were still merely a peripheral. A high school acquaintance tried to convince me of Brian Wilson's bona fides as occupying a rarified strata alongside the Beatles, and I found that notion preposterous.

Guess I'm dumb.

By the end of high school in 1977, I did love "Good Vibrations" and I liked or loved some of the early hits. I thought "Wouldn't It Be Nice" sounded intriguing in commercials for the movie Shampoo, and while I didn't like any of the '70s Beach Boys music I heard, the lure of the classic Hawthorne sound compelled me to pick up the Endless Summer 2-LP compilation. I added a copy of Pet Sounds during my freshman year in college. After college, circa '81 or '82, I bought used 2-LP reissues of 20/20 & Wild Honey and Friends & Smiley Smile. 

For all that, I still wasn't ready to proclaim the genius of Brian Wilson. That willful myopia crumbled as I heard Capitol Records' series of two-on-one CD reissues of the Beach Boys' '60s albums. Revelation. Not because of format; because I was finally paying attention. That led me to reacquaint myself with Pet Sounds.

You know how I talk about the greatest record ever made, insisting that an infinite number of individual tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. I mean that. But when it comes to albums, man, there is only one all-time greatest album. Pet Sounds. It remains as near to the celestial as human ears can comprehend.

In that same general time frame, I also bought Brian Wilson's then-recent eponymous album on CD, sold to me by a Desert Shore Records clerk named Dana. Yes, the one-and-only that Dana. Ah, the dialectic of pop music. The album's opening track "Love And Mercy" is Brian Wilson's best-known solo song, a singularly appropriate comfort in our troubled times, and the imperative choice to open this week's show, as TIRnRR mourns the passing of a genius named Brian Wilson.

THE BEACH BOYS: In My Room

"In My Room" was on that Surfer Girl album in the ol' family music library, and I won't even attempt an explanation of why I didn't notice its irresistible warmth until many years later. Stupid kid. I'll be in my room.

THE FLASHCUBES WITH MIKE GENT: Reminisce

The new single is out TODAY! Act accordingly. "Reminisce" by the Flashcubes with Mike Gent is my top new track of 2025 so far, and its debut as a digital single marks the first official release of material from the forthcoming various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. 

"Reminisce" will spin again on our next show, alongside the debut airings of three more Make Something Happen! tracks by Ballzy Tomorrow, Dolph Chaney, and the Verbs, plus a reprise of the Choosers' cover of the Flashcubes' first single "Christi Girl." AND! We'll throw in non-Flashcubes material from each of the other acts on Make Something Happen!, servin' up other fine treats courtesy of sparkle*jets u.k., Librarians With Hickeys, Chris von Sneidern, Graham Parker, Joe Giddings, the Kennedys, Pop Co-Op, Hamell On Trial, Super 8 featuring Lisa Mychols, the Armoires, the Peppermint Kicks, the Mayflowers, Callan Foster, Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin, Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas, Sorrows, and the Spongetones. We have the hitmakers who make things happen!

THE BEACH BOYS: God Only Knows

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

BIG STAR: Thirteen

THE RAMONES: I Want You Around

It's hard to follow "God Only Knows." Nonetheless, Dana pulled off that seemingly dauntless task with the haunting adolescent ache of Big Star's "Thirteen," compelling me to fill out the three-fer with the Ramones' uncharacteristically tender ballad "I Want You Around." Sling and arrows be damned. The eternal teen heart will keep its rhythm and persevere. 

THE CRICKLE: Place In My Heart

Gotta love a combo that took its nom de bop from a childhood memory of mispronouncing the name of "Red Rubber Ball" popmeisters the Cyrkle. The Crickle, bless 'em, are still with us and still vital. Their '80s track "Place In My Heart" is a TIRnRR perennial, and it was part of a glorious 1985 various-artists cassette called Garage Sale! 19 Wylde And Savage Bands!

Garage Sale! was released by the ROIR label in association with Goldmine magazine. And it was the precipitating incident that got me to subscribe to Goldmine, eventually resulting in my twenty-year tenure as a freelance writer for the magazine. That long story is told here.

My 1986-2006 time as a hired hand for Goldmine looms large in what passes for my legend. The slight notoriety I garnered via GM fed efforts to raise awareness of this little mutant radio show, which has turned out to loom kinda large in its own right. The combined, um...loomage of Goldmine and This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio enable me to pound the pulpit on behalf of rockin' pop music, to write books, and somehow even compile professional CD releases like Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. 

So yes, yay, and yeah-yeah-yeah, Garage Sale! was a VERY important release for me. Thanks, Crickle! Clearly, you're always going to have a place in our hearts here.

ANNETTE FUNICELLO [WITH THE BEACH BOYS]: The Monkey's Uncle

In my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), my chapter about the Monkees' magnificent single "Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)" notes:

"...Everyone who knows me knows that I love the Monkees. I love the TV series, I love the prefab Kirshner-era records, the hey-hey-we're-a-real band triumph of the Headquarters LP, the Monkees with sidemen compromise of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. (my favorite Monkees album), the schtick, the ambition, the songs, the image, the truth behind the image. I'm a believer already. But there's something emphatically special about the movie Head and its soundtrack. It's part of the grit that gives the cotton candy substance...."

That said, let us not be too quick to presume the cotton candy has no substance of its own. Pop music is its own reward, and any music that moves you or touches you or engages you has no need to justify itself to anyone else. Let 'em get their own soundtrack. AND their own goddamned cotton candy.

I bring this up here to acknowledge that, for some, the legend which has grown around Brian Wilson will exalt Pet Sounds and SMiLE, but perhaps not so much the Beach Boys' earlier frothy favorites. "Surf's Up" ¡SÍ!, "Surfin' Safari" ¡NO! 

If that POV exists, I disavow its validity. "I Get Around" is essential. "Help Me Rhonda" is essential. "Little Deuce Coupe," "Shut Down," "Surfin' USA," and the rest of this fun-fun-FUN! catalog are timeless, well-crafted, well-executed absolute pop gems, and they would be worthy of accolade even if Brian Wilson's ambition and vision had never went on to declare he just wasn't made for these times.

Paradoxically as ephemeral and eternal as it gets, "The Monkey's Uncle" is the title theme from a 1965 Disney flick co-starring Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello. The film opens with Annette singing the song on-screen with the Beach Boys backing her up, and it's a winningly goofy confection perfection. It doesn't even NEED any grit!

Straitjackets are not appropriate beach wear. We are infinite. We can dance and we can think, we can dream and we can plan, goof around and create, dive into the possibility of the immediate and conjure the promise of the abstract. We can be the beach boys and beach girls we wish to be. Fun, fun, fun. Life is too short to disdain fleeting opportunities to enjoy it.

BRIAN WILSON: 'Til I Die

I'm a leaf on a windy day. As all of us are. We'll return to celebrate the genius of Brian Wilson again on July 6th, with a special edition of TIRnRR called GOOD VIBRATIONS: Brian Wilson and the Legend of Summer. Fun in the sun and the pet sounds of the soul, influence and impact, sincere flattery, girls on the beach, reasons to smile, the feel of a vibe, the vibe of feel, an impressionist portrait of the effect genius can have in inspiring others to craft their own reaction and creation. Surf's up. Godspeed, Brian Wilson.

THE GRIP WEEDS: You're So Good To Me

For this week's feature on Brian Wilson as a performer, we elected to stay away from other artists covering his work. We allowed ourselves one easygoing exception, with the Grip Weeds' able and amiable take on "You're So Good To Me" taking us up to the bitchin' Witching Hour. The track comes from the various-artists set Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson, and you can bet on hearing more selections from that album on our July 6th show.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

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.

10 SONGS: 4/26/2025

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 # 1282

THE FLASHCUBES: The Sweet Spot

Work continues with blinding bright-lights speed on Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. There's a lot of stuff that still needs doin', mind you, but we're on track for the album's planned September release from the good folks at Big Stir Records. We've already played Make Something Happen! contributions from sparkle*jets u.k., Joe Giddings, the Kennedys, Pop Co-Op, the Spongetones, and Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols, we've revealed that the album will also include 'Cubes covers by Chris von Sneidern, Callan Foster, and Hamell On Trial, and we have two more tracks to debut on our next show. 

We have three Make Something Happen! debuts this week.

In planning a Flashcubes tribute album, I was determined to include at least one new track by the Flashcubes themselves. In fact, we will have a 'Cubic trinity of fresh Flashcubes offerings, one apiece written or co-written by Paul Armstrong, Arty Lenin, and Gary Frenay. This show's already been pummelin' the airwaves with Paul's irresistible new tune "Reminisce," and we'll hear Arty's "If These Hands" on this coming Sunday night's broadcast.

This week's show opens with a sublime new Flashcubes track called "The Sweet Spot." Gary co-wrote "The Sweet Spot" with the late B.D. Love, who was also known to long-time Syracuse music fans as Buddy Love. That's not the NYC pop performer of the same dba, nor is it Jerry Lewis for that matter. Our Buddy/B.D. fronted Buddy Love and the Tearjerkers and My Sin, and he was an integral part of our local scene in the new wave era.  

Other than times 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin sat in on drums for Buddy Love and the Tearjerkers, I believe "The Sweet Spot" is the first Flashcubes-B.D. Love collaboration. And oh, it's magnificent. We are honored to be able to honor B.D. Love's memory by including this track on Make Something Happen! And we'll hear "The Sweet Spot" again on our next show.

Sweet.

CHUBBY CHECKER: Slow Twistin'

The many, many flaws of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame notwithstanding, I remain adamant in my view that rock 'n' roll should honor its own. So I keep preaching that the Hall should finally correct its biggest snub to date (INDUCT THE MONKEES!!!), and that such honors should likewise be awarded to the New York Dolls, the Bangles, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Rick James, the Shangri Las, and a long list of other worthies.

NOW, dammit!

After the Monkees, my pick for the Hall's second-most egregious omission to date is Chubby Checker. Unlike these others, Chubby is at least on the ballot this year, so here's hopin'. We'll find out Sunday night. 

THE CHOOSERS: Christi Girl

In the summer of 1978, I haunted Gerber Music's Penn Can Mall location, badgering the (remarkably patient) staff about when the Flashcubes' debut single "Christi Girl" would be available for purchase. I was 18 years old, in between my freshman and second years at college, with a part-time job at another Penn Can store (which made it even easier for me to haunt Gerber Music at will). 

Anyway. Gerber had a promo copy of the 45 on hand, so even though they couldn't sell it to me just yet, they did let me hear the record play through the store's sound system. And I was fully stoked when it finally became time to trade cash for 'Cubes.

We should have a special place nobody else can go

We should know the things nobody else can know

When I was a teenaged Flashcubes fan, a newly-minted owner of my very own "Christi Girl" 45, could I have imagined that 47 years later I would be involved in getting a bunch of fab rockin' pop bands to record a bunch of Flashcubes songs for a Flashcubes tribute? Would I even conceive the possibility of a Japanese band doing "Christi Girl?" 

Whatever I coulda/couldn'ta at the time, these fanciful notions are coming true now. A few years ago, the Choosers offered a live video of their rendition of "Christi Girl," it for damned sure passed the audition, so Gary Frenay reached out to recruit the Choosers for this project. And the Choosers' finished version of "Christi Girl" will indeed help take Make Something Happen! to that special place nobody else can go.

THE POPPEES: She's Got It

The Poppees were an avowedly fab, Beatles-influenced NYC combo machin' schau in the late '70s. The group included Arthur Alexander, who went on to noted TIRnRR Fave Raves Sorrows, and we're fans. An ace 1978 single by the Poppees sported an effervescent beat original called "Jealousy" backed with this boppin' cover of Little Richard's "She's Got It" on the flip.

Remember this 45. We'll be mentioning it again before this week's edition of 10 Songs is done. Got it?

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE KINKS: Add It Up

As noted here, our pal and stats man Fritz Van Leaven informed us that this week's show would include TIRnRR's 70,000th spin, and that the milestone would be achieved with whatever track wound up being our 44th song of the night. We teased the event a few times throughout the show--Are we up to our 70,000th spin yet, Dana? How about now? Must be there by now, right?--until we were set to begin our next-to-last set with Spin # 69,999.

We called in the house band to help us tabulate. And the Kinks led us into...

BIG STAR: September Gurls

Our 70,000th spin, and it had to be "September Gurls" by Big Star. Had to be! Our all-time most-played individual track, the first song we ever proclaimed on-air to be The greatest record ever made! (way, waaaaay before it even occurred to me to write a Greatest Record Ever Made book), and a song that's emblematic of this little mutant radio show. Great pick, Dana.

SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS: Pop Radio

Spin # 70,001. As we continue on the road to 100,000 spins, we start the next leg of the journey with a specific salute to the joy of radio. "POP RADIO!" Here's to every AM Top 40 hit and every left-of-the-dial communiqué that built TIRnRR. And we'll hear Trip 'n' Lisa's prototype for what became "Pop Radio" on our next program.

But right now, speakin' of "Radio"....

SORROWS: Radio

"Radio" was the B-side of the Flashcubes' second single "Wait Til Next Week." I bought the 45 directly from Gary Frenay at a show on Bowery in 1979. The song was co-written by Paul Armstrong and Gary Frenay, and although it was a live favorite at the time, it fell into disfavor within the band and was dropped from the set.

Coincidentally, within days of snaggin' my copy of "Wait Til Next Week"/"Radio" from Gary, I also picked up "Jealousy"/"She's Got It" by the Poppees. Yes! The same Poppees 45 referenced a few entries back! I love how this stuff ties together!

Sorrows formed out of the aftermath of the Poppees, and Sorrows' recent album Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow is guaranteed representation on TIRnRR's 2025 year-end countdown show. Guaranteed. 

And for Make Something Happen!, Sorrows have given us a cover of "Radio" that is nothing short of full-on freakin' phenomenal. 

Listen: You can search the four corners of the globe, and by the time you realize globes don't have corners, you'll already know that I'm the world's most insistent Flashcubes fan. Given that, consider the sheer gravity of me saying that Sorrows have accomplished the definitive version of the Flashcubes' "Radio." Pop music is my religion. Radio is one of my pulpits. With "Radio," Sorrows deliver the sermon we need.

Testify. And put your antenna to the sky.

THE ZOMBIES: What More Can I Do

TIRnRR spin # 70,015. What more can we do? Just keep spinning. Join us again on Sunday night for spin # 70,016 and counting.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

10 SONGS: 10/5/2024

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 # 1253.

THE FLASHCUBES: Face In The Crowd

For this week's TIRnRR extravaganza, Dana came up with the flat-out fantastic concept of celebrating the roots of the Flashcubes and the Half/Cubes, loadin' up our Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet with the original versions of some of the songs that have been covered on official releases by one or the other of those two related groups o' cubes. Fab! WAY Fab, and a rewarding exercise in rock 'n' roll radio.

That said, it was important that we also include some performances by the Flashcubes (and the Half/Cubes) themselves. And since the Flashcubes are most emphatically not just a cover band, it was equally essential that we program some Cubic originals alongside your prerequisite pop masters and treasures.

So we begin our salute to Cubic roots with the Flashcubes, recorded live in their natural habitat in 1979, singing 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's ode to being a kid watching a famous rock group on stage, and dreaming of becoming something more than a face in the crowd...

...and then doing his damnedest to make that dream come true.

THE SEARCHERS: Love's Melody

Our dive into Cubic roots commences in earnest with "Love's Melody," a pop treasure first recorded in the '70s by Ducks Deluxe and made legend in 1981 by British Invasion stars the Searchers. No respectable rockin' pop library is complete without the two albums the Searchers did for Sire Records 1979-81. I wrote about "Hearts In Her Eyes" from the '79 album here, and I remember standing with Flashcubes and Half/Cubes bassist Gary Frenay at an outdoor show in the early '90s, watching Mike Pender's Searchers and being just delighted when Pender included the unexpected treat of "Hearts In Her Eyes" among his set of '60s Searchers classics (a set which unfortunately also included covers of ELO, Bryan Adams, and the Eagles. "Hearts In Her Eyes" was great though.).

The above paragraph should establish my reverence for the Searchers' Sire material. But lemme tell ya: The Half/Cubes deliver the definitive version of "Love's Melody" on their current album Pop Treasures. The Half/Cubes--Gary Frenay and drummer/producer Tommy Allen from the Flashcubes, working with the capable likes of Randy Klawon, Fernando Perdomo, and a cast of YEAH, baby!--have created an album that serves as a luscious, loving salute to some of the records that made them. All of the tracks on Pop Treasures are more than worthy of the pop legacies they honor. And many of these treasures surpass their inspirations.

"Love's Melody" is one of those treasures. I did not think it likely that anyone would ever improve upon the Searchers' seemingly nonpareil rendition. But the Half/Cubes' version is even better. 

BADFINGER: Baby Blue

"Baby Blue" was (along with "No Matter What") one of two Badfinger songs I witnessed the Flashcubes cover in their live sets in the late '70s. Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is also my all-time # 1 favorite individual track by anyone, and in 2016 it was the subject of my very first Greatest Record Ever Made! entry, starting me on the path to writing my 2024 book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). The feeling just grows stronger every day.

THE HALF/CUBES: My Girl

As important as the Raspberries were (and remain) to my development as a power pop fan, I have to admit I've never been an ardent fan of Eric Carmen's solo work. I'm overdue for a reintroduction and reevaluation of some of Carmen's post-'Berries c.v., knowing that some of it will be too ballady and not my cuppa, but already aware that there's some genuine oomph to be discovered in that journey. Since Carmen's passing earlier this year, we've been playing Tommy Allen's radiant 2018 remix of Carmen's "Top Down Summer"--it was my pick for "Coolest Song You've Never Heard" when Dana and I were guests on The Spoon podcast in March--and it's pretty likely to make the year-end countdown show of our most-played tracks in 2024.

Another Carmen composition with a better'n decent shot at making the countdown is "My Girl," as covered by the Half/Cubes on Pop Treasures. Our H/Cs enlist Darian Sahanaja to help them out with the sweet vocals, their combined forces crafting a confection as delectable as anything ever. 

DEL AMITRI: Not Where It's At

I was eighteen years old when I first saw the Flashcubes in 1978, and although their original songs and incendiary performances were the main thing that secured my allegiance to all things Cubic, their impeccable taste in covers didn't exactly detract from the overall package. And some of those covers were revelatory; my introductions to "Do Anything You Wanna Do" by Eddie and the Hot Rods, "Personality Crisis" by the New York Dolls, "Boogie City" by Chris Spedding, "In The City" by the Jam, "I Need You" by the Kinks, "Somethin' Else" by Eddie Cochran, and more were accomplished by the Flashcubes piledriving through those songs in their live sets. I was eagerly matriculating into the Flashcubes' College of Musical Knowledge.

Decades later, it was one of Gary's many working combos--Frenay and the Rays in the '90s--that compelled me to fall in utter thrall of "Not Where It's At" by Del Amitri. HEAVEN! I'm so glad that the Half/Cubes opted to do this for Pop Treasures.

THE RAMONES: I Just Want To Have Something To Do

The Flashcubes were the opening act the first two times I saw the Ramones: Spring '78 (with the Runaways, a memory recounted here) and July 6, 1979 (with the first Central New York screening of the Ramones' movie Rock 'n' Roll High School). Given the fact that the Beatles were no longer active as a unit, the Ramones were, of course, my favorite group in the late '70s. The Flashcubes were my other favorite group in the late '70s.

In retrospect, it seems surprising that the Flashcubes never covered the Ramones in their live sets at the time. It's not as if the 'Cubes were averse to punk--the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" were staples of early 'Cubes live sets--and the Ramones were also a legit and irresistible power pop band anyway. "Rockaway Beach?" "Swallow My Pride?" "Oh Oh I Love Her So?" Flashcubes play Ramones? It would have been a match made in wherever Carbona is manufactured.

Nonetheless, the Flashcubes didn't get around to Blitzkrieg-boppin' until the '90s. They opened a '90s show at Styleen's in Syracuse with "I Just Want To Have Something To Do," and they began mixing in "I Wanna Be Sedated" as a medley with Gary's song "Welcome To The Working Class." A long time in coming. Well worth the wait.

DINO, DESI AND BILLY: Tell Someone You Love Them

I've owned a Dino, Desi and Billy best-of CD for years, but hadn't payed much attention to this wonderful li'l number "Tell Someone You Love Them." Go'geous! Finder's fee is once again a Cubic accomplishment, as the Half/Cubes' Pop Treasures cover of "Tell Someone You Love Them" sent me scurrying back to my copy of The Rebel Kind: The Best Of Dino, Desi & Billy to scope out the origin story. Man, these Half/Cubes sure do know their stuff.

THE FLASHCUBES: Alone In My Room

Our Cubic Roots special included four Flashcubes tracks, two covers and two originals. We paid tribute to the Flashcubes' first all-covers album Sportin' Wood--The Flashcubes Play The Songs Of Roy Wood with a spin of their take on the Move's "Blackberry Way," and our closing set needed to include something from 2023's Cubic triumph Pop Masters. We opted for the Flashcubes' version of Dwight Twilley's "Alone In My Room," which just might be my favorite on the album. No shortage of great choices on Pop Masters.

The imperative of programming something from Pop Masters disrupted my original intent to spotlight each of the Flashcubes' songwriters. Gary Frenay's popcraft is highlighted in another band's fine cover of one of Gary's best songs (as mentioned in this week's 10th Song below). We opened the show with Paul Armstrong's statement of intent "Face In The Crowd," and I couldn't resist a spin of PA's "Got No Mind," specifically because the live version on the 'Cubes' Bright Lights anthology fades out as the band is rippin' into "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," and I wanted to segue that into the Beatles singing that Larry Williams tune. You make me DIZZY, Miss Lizzy!

That set of circumstances meant we didn't get around to playing anything written by 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin. Fear not! We'll hear Arty's most famous Flashcubes composition in our next show. 

Just think of it as a special place where nobody else can go.  And we'll hear Dwight Twilley's original version of "Alone In My Room," too.

BIG STAR: September Gurls

Like Badfinger's "Baby Blue:" Big Star's "September Gurls" is ALSO The Greatest Record Ever Made!

And it's a song I first heard via the Flashcubes' live cover in 1978. Cubic roots pay it forward. December boys got it bad? Man, it's pop music ferchrissakes. We've ALL got it good!

sparkle*jets u.k.: Make Something Happen

"Make something happen." It's become a mantra, and a tease of something special coming in 2025. Gary Frenay wrote the song in the '80s, recorded it with Screen Test and remade it with the Flashcubes, and it was ably covered by the Slapbacks for our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. Now, we have this sparkly new rendition from sparkle*jets u.k. 

The Flashcubes (and the Half/Cubes) are sublimely adept at executing covers. But the Flashcubes are not a cover band. And it's high time more bands covered them. 

Make something happen? Damned straight we will.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history 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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

5 ABOVE: Sick Day Edition

 5 Above picks five great things within a specific category. Look out below--these are five that rise above.

First off: I'M FINE! Honest. This isn't even my Sick Day. On this week's new episode of the Only Three Lads podcast, a scheduled guest had to concede Under-The-Weather status and cancel her O3L appearance at the last minute. This prompted the show's hosts Uncle Gregg and Brett Vargo to scrap their intended topic and pivot to an alternative: Top five tracks to listen to when you're sick.

Me? I suffer from chronic copycat syndrome. Ain't no cure. So I'm stealing this idea.

The first track to occur to me in this category was "You Sound Like You're Sick" by the Ramones. Upon further review, though, this didn't fit my idea of the concept: Songs you play to cheer yourself up when crusty 'n' contagious cooties bring ya down. We'll allow "You Sound Like You're Sick" the consolation chicken soup of airplay this coming Sunday night on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio With Dana and Carl. For today's list, we're channeling the Partridge Family: Get HAPPY!

For today's 5 Above, we're sticking to the classic alternative era, which O3L defines as the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. But we'll step out of that era for a couple of...

...HONORABLE MENTIONS!

FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie

The transcendence and triumph of the unapologetically goofy. Freddie and the Dreamers' 1965 novelty number "Do The Freddie" never fails to make me smile. My long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is based on the notion that an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record, as long as they take turns. "Do The Freddie" gets a turn. This should get lots of turns. It's the thing to do! Kids will envy you! Nothing can exorcise the yuckies quite like the Freddie can.

EYTAN MIRKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

If Eytan Mirsky's 2012 track "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" had been released in the O3L era, it woulda been a contender for # 1 on my list, and settled for a close # 2. What a great, GREAT song, absolutely one of my all-time favorites. It's snippy and stubborn, but simultaneously aspirational and full of...hopeless hope. Things probably aren't going to get better. But we're barrelin' ahead anyway. THIS year!

It just occurred to me that "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" came out the same year I lost my dad. What a weird dovetail, but I guess it's also appropriate. There will never be a shortage of heartaches at hand. We will never run out of reasons why we should just give up. For today--maybe even for this year--we will hold those reasons at bay.

And yeah, of course "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" has a chapter in my GREM! book. Duh.

TOP FIVE SICK DAY SONGS IN THE O3L ERA

5. BIG STAR: The Ballad Of El Goodo

Big Star was an after-the-fact discovery for me, initially introduced by the proxy of the Flashcubes' live cover of "September Gurls" in 1978, with exposure to the original records to follow in later years. "September Gurls" was the first track I ever referred to as The Greatest Record Ever Made (though Badfinger's "Baby Blue" was the first GREM! piece I wrote). And my "September Gurls" chapter also mentions the resilience and determination of Big Star's "The Ballad Of El Goodo:"

"A teenaged hitmaker with the Box Tops, a cult-pop legend with Big Star, and a fiercely (and frustratingly) independent solo artist, Alex Chilton was dismissive of his own legacy. But he was a brilliant songwriter, responsible in whole or in part for a handful of what I believe to be among the most affecting, beautiful pop songs ever done. With his Big Star partner Chris Bell, Chilton co-wrote 'The Ballad Of El Goodo,' the single most transcendent expression of triumphant hope that I am ever likely to hear...."

4. THE KINKS: Better Things

At my dad's funeral in 2012, my eulogy concluded with the lyrics from "Days" by the Kinks. It's such a moving, evocative, appreciative song, and I think you can understand why I don't often listen to it anymore. 

Within the O3L era, "Better Things" (from the Kinks' 1981 album Give The People What They Want) is less stiffer-upper-lip and more Partridgesque c-mon-get-happy. And it will serve. I hope tomorrow we all find better things.

(The Kinks are represented in GREM! by a celebration of "Waterloo Sunset," with "You Really Got Me" held in reserve for an even-more-theoretical Greatest Record Ever Made! Volume 2).

3. MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

I'm not sure to what extent (if any) the recent passing of Melanie Safka elevated this lovely track on my list for today, but I tell ya, I have always, always adored "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)." Yes, it gets a GREM! chapter. We can stay dry against the rain.

2. KISS: Shout It Out Loud

Awright, if we're gonna wedge a KISS track into our Sick Day 5 Above, it probably oughta be "Calling Dr. Love." The first step of the cure is...KISS!!

But I'm going with "Shout It Out Loud," as infectious a party tune as anything ever. Perhaps you don't wanna deal with "infectious" when you're sickly. Screw that. Rock 'n' roll is good for what ails ya. Don't let them tell you that there's too much noise. Dr. Love prescribes a SHOUT!

Oh! Almost forgot: The Greatest Record Ever Made! KISS: Shout It Out Loud

1. THE RAMONES: Blitzkrieg Bop

The soundtracks of our everyday days and nights are vast and varied, with individual components set in their places by a divine artistic director that knows what He, She, or They are doing. When a mishap with my car forced me to postpone a long-planned and much-needed road trip originally set for the next morning, I blasted the entirety of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols to channel my anger and frustration. Decades ago, when a college girl I fancied went out with another guy, I sat on the floor of my dorm room, swilling beer and listening to Paul McCartney warble that he believed in yesterday. 

There are songs for all occasions. The right tune can comfort, console, lift, motivate. It can offer catharsis or escape, band aid or blunt instrument, challenge or confirmation. A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together. 

Also dancing. Evidence suggests the right song can inspire dancing.

The music of the Ramones has been a vital part of my existence ever since a November afternoon in 1978, when "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" became the record that changed my life. "Sheena" gets a chapter in GREM!, as does "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" "I Don't Want To Grow Up" wound up in my other book, published last year. If there's ever a GREM! Volume 2, it will include "Blitzkrieg Bop."

"Blitzkrieg Bop" is the definitive Ramones song. Hey-ho, let's go! It's a compact realization of the group's essence, the purity of their transcendent rockin' pop righteousness, the sheer inevitability of Ramonesified oomph. Take it! It's good, AND it's good for you!

It's certainly been good for me. We're all revved up and ready to go.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

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/

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl