10 SONGS: 7/12/2025

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 # 1293.

THE BEACH BOYS: Good Vibrations

Although the late Brian Wilson was (of course) the Featured Performer on our June 22nd show, it still felt imperative to dedicate an entire show to Wilson's impact. Hence this week's presentation of GOOD VIBRATIONS! Brian Wilson and the Legend of Summer.

As our chosen title suggests, the intention this week was to pay tribute to the good vibrations of Brian Wilson's legacy. That effort needed to include Brian (with and without the Beach Boys), as well as other artists covering Brian's songs, and work by others inspired by Wilson. We also wanted to throw in some otherwise-unrelated songs about summer, and whatever else felt right in the context of picking up good vibrations.

My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) has a chapter about the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," a celestial track from the wonder that is Pet Sounds. In that chapter, I write:

"...There is a risk in elevating Pet Sounds and forgetting about the simple wonders Brian and the Beach Boys crafted before that, in the days when they were the living avatars of the beguiling and alluring California myth. There are summer days (and summer nights) when 'I Get Around' is The Greatest Record Ever Made, as is its B-side 'Don't Worry Baby;' hell, arrogant strutting, backed by adolescent insecurity? That's both sides of the teenage experience captured at 45 RPM and wrapped in a picture sleeve. 'Surfin' USA,' 'Help Me Rhonda,' 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' and 'Girl Don't Tell Me,' each in its own infinite turn. 

"The Beach Boys continued to record essential works beyond Pet Sounds, with and without brother Brian. ' 'Til I Die' from 1971's Surf's Up is heartbreaking in its desolate beauty, and that album's title tune is stunning. And honestly, it's ludicrous to even have this discussion of a greatest record ever made without talking about the miracle of 'Good Vibrations'...."

That miracle endures. And its eternal excitations move us toward our deeper dive into the legend of summer. 

GARY FRENAY: It's Like Heaven

I first knew the Brian Wilson-Diane Rovell song "It's Like Heaven" from a cover version recorded by underrated teen pop star Shaun Cassidy. Save your snickering; it's good! I didn't hear the originally-unreleased version by Spring (aka American Spring, which was Rovell with her sister Marilyn Wilson) until a very long time after that. I really wanted to include something by Spring (probably "This Old World"), but I couldn't find my DIY copy of American Spring, and I suspect it has disappeared from my library.

My pick for the definitive "It's Like Heaven" comes from singer-songwriter Gary Frenay's 2015 album File Under Pop Vocal. Gary's a very familiar figure on TIRnRR playlists, as a solo artist and with the Flashcubes and Screen Test. Gary also wrote "Syracuse Summer," an incredible channeling of the sun-and-surf ethos into the mercurial climate of Central New York, an East Coast wonder recorded by the Tearjerkers and later by Gary with the FabCats. It would have taken an act of God-Only-Knows to block that from taking its rightful place in this week's playlist.

So yeah: We had to play Gary's "It's Like Heaven," and we had to play the Tearjerkers' "Syracuse Summer." Recommended if you like Heaven.

MICHAEL SIMMONS: Sail On, Sailor

Like Gary Frenay, Michael Simmons is also a frequent fixture on TIRnRR's sovereign airwaves. We've been playing Michael's superswell combo sparkle*jets u.k. for just as long as Stig has been dead (for ages, honestly), and their most recent album Box Of Letters was one of THE records of 2024 in these quarters. We've also carpet-bombed airplay of Michael with Popdudes, as a solo artist, and as a secret weapon for various 'n' sundry rockin' pop DBAs. Michael is at the mastering helm of the forthcoming various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and sparkle*jets u.k. themselves turn in the title track on that set (which is--full circle!--a Gary Frenay tune). Hell, I think Michael was very nearly a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, but jealous guys Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy blackballed him for flirting with Saturn Girl. Man, teen superkids can be so petty!

And like...well, all of us, Michael was affected by the passing of Brian Wilson, and therefore compelled to express himself. Unlike most of us, Mr. Simmons possesses the talent to transmogrify that sorrow into art, and he absolutely nails this cover of the Beach Boys' "Sail On, Sailor," offered in Brian Wilson's memory. See? THAT'S why Michael Simmons is a TIRnRR FaveRave.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes

For this track from Bruce Springsteen's 2007 album Magic, these words from my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"..I think I read somewhere that Bruce Springsteen was heavily influenced by Brian Wilson--specifically, by the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds--while he was making Magic. If that's not true, it should be. Its first two tracks, 'Radio Nowhere' and 'You'll Be Coming Down,' capture that elusive wispy quality of goals just beyond our reach, happiness that escapes our grasp. The result is mesmerizing. It doesn't sound anything at all like the Beach Boys. Yet it's difficult to imagine it existing in a world where Pet Sounds didn't exist first.

"None of this prepared me for 'Girls In Their Summer Clothes.'

"As pop fans--dedicated, dyed-in-the-wool pop fans--there are moments when our grandest ideas and ideals of the universe align within the concise running time of a new song we're hearing for the very first time. These are the all-too-rare moments when an unfamiliar track annexes us as its own. Body. Mind. Heart. Soul. Sometimes the feet as well. The purity and majesty of the experience is incomparable.

"That feeling that engulfed me the first time I heard 'Girls In Their Summer Clothes,' the same feeling that still claims me every time I hear it again. And the girls in their summer clothes pass me by. It is a flawless, gorgeous ache, a mournful ode to whatever has slipped away, and continues to pass us by. It is, like much of Springsteen's best work, a drugstore-rack paperback novel brought to life as a pop song. It means more than it says. It implies more than it reveals...."

THE KRAYOLAS: Surf's Down

Inspiration can be immediate and undeniable. It can also be finicky and introspective, even shy, waiving its right to reveal itself. Consider this message from Hector Saldana of the ace American rockin' pop combo the Krayolas regarding "Surf's Down," an inspired Krayolas track from the vaults:

"...When I heard the news of [Brian Wilson's] passing, I wanted to make some gesture to show how much he meant to me and the Krayolas. I decided to release a never-heard unreleased recording from spring 1979. I found the audio recorded at a small studio on an analog 8-track 1/2 inch Otari tape machine. I sent it to legendary mastering engineer Richard Dodd in Nashville and rush released it via The Orchard. We were super young and could sing high around a mic to get that sound...."

Inspiration deferred does not have to be inspiration denied. We were inspired to play "Surf's Down" as an integral part of our Brian Wilson tribute. "Surf's Down" is UP! And it's up again on our next show.

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Hot Fun In The Summertime

It would probably be a stretch to suggest that Sly Stone wrote "Hot Fun In The Summertime" under the influence of Brian Wilson. I don't quite believe any of Sly and the Family Stone's brilliant work was shaped by Wilson's pet sounds of the soul, at least not willfully. But it would also be a stretch to insist that Wilson wasn't a possible influence; Sly Stone was aware of everything going on in pop music in the '60s, and--to paraphrase something famously uttered by someone else in the Wilson family--Sly Stone was a genius, too. "Hot Fun In The Summertime" doesn't sound like the Beach Boys. Doesn't matter. Sly and Brian sound great in the same radio show. Hot fun, fun, fun in the summertime.

THE RONETTES: Be My Baby

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

Brian Wilson was obsessed with the Ronettes' "Be My Baby," and the record was an enormous influence on what his own genius went on to create thereafter.

THE FIRST CLASS: Beach Baby

From The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"Can a pastiche touch the divine? Can a copy become more than it is? Can mere imitation transcend its mundane genesis, and live on its own as something great?

"In rock 'n' roll? Yeah. It happens all the time.

" 'Beach Baby' conjures the classic sound of the Beach Boys without calling to mind any specific Beach Boys track. Perhaps there are hints of 'In My Room,' or 'Don't Worry Baby,' or 'California Girls,' or other lush, luxurious, mid-tempo hits from the pride of Hawthorne, but we're just grasping at straws in the sand to say so. Really, 'Beach Baby" sounds like none of these. 

"And yet it sounds like all of them. Surf’s up...

"...And it’s not Beachmania; it isn't the Beach Boys, nor is it an incredible simulation. Lead singer Tony Burrows doesn't sound at all like Brian Wilson or Carl Wilson or Dennis Wilson, not Al Jardine nor David Marks, and for damned sure nothing like Mike Love. No one with ears would mistake it for a Beach Boys record. 

"But the homage is clear and true, the tribute seemingly sincere, the result unerringly effective and moving. It’s sad, like a memory of summer love long gone. It’s festive, like the songs shared as one by revelers gathered around the fire, as the moon lights the sand and the promises of the stars above reflect in the irresistible spark you could swear you see in the eyes of someone you just might want to love for ever and ever.

"Long hot days. Cool sea haze. It seems so long ago, if it ever really existed in the first place. 

"And now it’s fading away...."

THE BEACH BOYS: Wouldn't It Be Nice

THE BEACH BOYS: Pet Sounds

Two from Pet Sounds, empirical evidence of a benevolent deity beaming a signal to mortal ears. In the words of a Beach Boys song we'll hear on this coming Sunday night's show: That's why God made the radio. And that's why the Benevolence gave as a mortal angel named Brian Wilson.

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...no, 11 SONGS!: 5/31/2025

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 expands to 11 songs, and draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1287

THE SPONGETONES: Lulu's In Love

From Sir, with love. New music from North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones is always a welcome (if rare) cause for a round of Oh YEAH!s, so we're dead chuffed to begin this week's proceedings with the group's brand-new single "Lulu's In Love." 

Not counting their collaboration with the Flashcubes on the latter's WAY fab 2016 remake of the Spongetones' "Have You Ever Been Torn Apart," this new single is the Spongetones' first group appearance on the Big Stir Records label. "Lulu's In Love" also serves as the recorded debut of the group's new drummer Eric Willhelm, joining bassist Steve Stoeckel and guitarists Jamie Hoover and Pat Walters as they devise the next step in the Spongetones' master pop plan. "Lulu's In Love" is the first of three new 'Tones studio singles, and Big Stir will be collecting all three singles later this year in a special package with some live music recorded at the Spongetones' 40th Anniversary gig. The Spongetones' legacy of beat music survives and thrives. No wonder Lulu loves them so.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Hurry Up Sundown

TAYLOR SWIFT: The Last Great American Dynasty [Long Pond Studio Session]

Here's to a pair of American folk heroes, Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. Their celebrity gives them a forum if they choose to use it, and I'm delighted that they've both opted to speak out against homegrown tyranny. Even at their dizzying level of fame and acclaim, they are not necessarily insulated from the threat of pushback, and I respect them all the more for doing the right thing anyway. Born in the USA? It's a love story, so baby just say YES.

From the 2014 EP American Beauty, "Hurry Up Sundown" is one of my favorite Boss tunes. I've never been a Springsteen fan on the level of so many of my peers, but nor would I or could I ever deny the man's passion and accomplishment. He's recorded a number of things I like, a handful of works I love, and one song--"Girls In Their Summer Clothes"--that I just adore. My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter on "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," and that articulates my feelings about Springsteen better than anything else I could ever attempt in that regard.

I'm not in Taylor Swift's demo, but I've come to appreciate her more and more, and I've even discovered a few of her tracks capable of annexing some pop-starved corner of my little wheelhouse. This is particularly true of "The Last Great American Dynasty," a stunning track from Swift's 2020 album Folklore; it's even more true of the alternate version of "The Last Great American Dynasty" found on Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, which feels more intimate and artful. As I said to a friend recently: I can't see anyone who likes Rumours-era Stevie Nicks disliking "The Last Great American Dynasty."

And I'm glad we have both Bruce and Taylor on our side.

THE BONGOS: The Beat Hotel

THE CYNZ: Heartbreak Time

THE GRIP WEEDS: Gene Clark (Broken Wing)

Tonight in Asbury Park, the Bongos--one of my many favorite bands of the 1980s--will be marking the release of their fabulous archival in-concert album The Shroud Of Touring: Live In 1985 with a reunion gig. TIRnRR Fave Raves the Cynz and the Grip Weeds are also on the bill with their Jem Records labelmates the Bongos, and I really, really wanted to be in attendance. Alas, I wasn't able to execute the logistics of making the trip, so I have to sit this one out. It's going to be an incredible show, and I'm bummed that I have to miss it. But we spin a track apiece from each of the three groups as a virtual long-distance cigarette lighter held high above our heads.

We've been programming the recent singles by the Cynz ("Heartbreak Time") and the Grip Weeds ("Gene Clark [Broken Wing]") anyway, and we've been on a weekly Bongos kick as well, starting with studio tracks then moving to live cuts from The Shroud Of Touring as soon as they were cleared for airplay. Other than a spin of the live "In The Congo"--probably my single favorite Bongos song--we've been sticking with Bongos numbers (with wings!) that have never made it to any previous TIRnRR playlist in either a live or a studio incarnation.

That continues with this week's airing of "The Beat Hotel" from The Shroud Of Touring. The studio version was the title track from an album the Bongos released when I was working at a record store in the '80s. I gave it a lot of in-store play, and I can't believe I never got around to playing it on the radio before including its live performance in this week's show.

We'll have another track from The Shroud Of Touring on our next show, a song we have played in its original studio version, but which wasn't originally credited as an official Bongos track. And we toast all of our friends in Asbury Park tonight. Wish we were there.

KISS: Calling Dr. Love

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce

Ahead of the September release of Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES, our friends at Big Stir Records have announced a June 27 date for the various-artists tribute album's first digital single: "Reminisce" by the Flashcubes with Mike Gent.

Our regular listeners already know the song quite well. We've been playing "Reminisce" for months, each spin somehow even more enthusiastic than the last. After a few years celebrating the Flashcubes' prowess in covering other artists, it was imperative to remind all 'n' sundry of the magnificence to be found in the band's own songwriting catalog. Hence a tribute album, gathering a bunch of accomplished rockin' pop performers to offer their own interpretations of some Cubic classics. 

I felt it was important--very important--that this tribute album should also include at least one newly-recorded original track by the Flashcubes themselves. Independent of what passes for my thought process, the 'Cubes were already working on three new tracks--"Reminisce" by Paul Armstrong, "If These Hands" by Arty Lenin, and "The Sweet Spot" by Gary Frenay (with the late B. D. Love)--so this was a match made in Bomp! magazine.

In addition to being the first single, "Reminisce" will open the album, kicking off this magic immersion in the Flashcubes' songbook, culminating in the Spongetones' album-closing cover of Arty Lenin's "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young." Make Something Happen! is a fantastic record, and I'm looking forward to the day you can hear it in its entirety. For now, we start with the single. June 27th will be your first opportunity to make something happen.

(An advance look at my liner notes for Make Something Happen! will be distributed privately to my $3-a-month paid Patreon supporters tomorrow, along with a mostly-unredacted look at the album's line-up. Wanna see it? Fund me, baby!)

THE RAMONES: Rockaway Beach

HEY!WE'RETHERAMONESANDTHISONE'SCALLED"ROCKAWAYBEACH!"

Outside of the Beatles, no band has ever meant more to me than the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time, the Ramones. The Flashcubes are the only other band in my all-time pop Trinity. The Ramones were the subject of my first book, and the creators of the record that changed my life. It's Alive is my favorite live album.

This week's spin of "Rockaway Beach" comes from NYC 1978, a 2003 King Biscuit Flower Hour CD that preserves a January 7th, 1978 Ramones performance at the Palladium. That date was eight days after the London New Year's Eve performance captured on It's Alive, ten days before my 18th birthday (which was the day I bought the "Rockaway Beach" 45), and about a week shy of three months before the March 31st, 1978 Ramones/Flashcubes/Runaways Syracuse gig that was my first Ramones show.

There is no substitute for live Ramones. There's also no substitute for studio Ramones, but let's talk in-concert brudders for a sec. Both It's Alive and NYC 1978 offer essential shots of Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy in their natural element.

It's not hard, not far to reach. Everything is as it was then...except you are there. Take it, Dee Dee!

BEATLES: No Reply

Speaking of the Beatles: 

If I were you I'd realize that I

Love you more than any other guy

And I'd forgive the lies that I

Heard before when you gave me no reply

Pop music's best bridge ever. Narrowly edging out the Beatles' "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party," which narrowly edges out Badfinger's Beatles-inspired "Baby Blue." Toppermost of the poppermost, lads.

DAVIE ALLAN AND THE ARROWS: Blues' Theme

Our old theme song! Before the late-evening dawn (What...?!) of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio at the very end of 1998, the first Dana and Carl radio shows were the short-lived 1992 series We're Your Friends For Now. The trek from We're Your Friends For Now through the first two decades of TIRnRR is chronicled in my mini-memoir Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio).

On We're Your Friends For Now, our opening and closing theme song was usually Davie Allan and the Arrows' chopperrific classic "Blues' Theme." It's a track from the soundtrack of The Wild Angels, a 1966 biker flick starring Peter Fonda (as Blues) and Nancy Sinatra (as Blues' go'geous girlfriend Mike).

I saw The Wild Angels on a mid-'70s matinee double bill with The Born Losers, the 1967 film that introduced Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to "Blues' Theme," and I don't recall what sequence of circumstance led me back to the song in the '80s. It became one of my top tunes, so I was more than all-in when Dana started playing it at the Hola! and Sayonara! spots in each week's exciting episode of We're Your Friends For Now.

And it still sounds great--and chopperrific!--ridin' into the sunset of this week's eleven-song 10 Songs. Hey, Blues! Tell Mike we said hi.

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

10 SONGS: 12/29/2022

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 # 1161: OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, And Holding On. This show is available as a podcast.

THE BEACH BOYS: Our Prayer

When I was teenaged college student and early twenty-something college graduate in the late '70s and early '80s, I wasn't much of a Beach Boys fan. That opinion evolved, in large part due to the influence of Bill Yerger, owner of Main Street Records in my college town of Brockport, NY. "Carl," Bill said, "we're gonna make a Beach Boys fan out of you yet." It took a while, and it didn't really click until a few years later, but I don't know how or when it would have happened without the positive influence of Bill and his wife Carol Yerger. I was so lucky to know them.

I was seventeen when I went off to college at Brockport in August of '77. Endless Summer was the sum total of my Beach Boys music library, and all I was ever likely to need (missing only "Good Vibrations" from what I would have thought a complete collection of essential Beach Boys tracks). I did add Pet Sounds to the ol' CC archives before the end of my freshman year, purchased from Bill when he was managing The Record Grove, a year before he opened his own store.

I remained in Brockport for a couple of years after graduating in 1980. That's when the Yergers began to work on me. applying their own set of good vibrations. A pair of two-fer double-LP sets from Main Street's used bin brought Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, and 20/20 into my collection. That was the first time I heard "Our Prayer."

It would be inaccurate to say my introduction to "Our Prayer" was some immediate revelation; as noted, it wasn't until years later that I realized my folly in delaying my full-on embrace of Hawthorne's Finest. When we settled on the theme for this week's special show, I knew we had to call it OUR PRAYER, and that we needed to open the show with the Beach Boys. 

Our prayer is for love, for hope, and for the ability to hold on. Our prayer is for friends, and our prayer is for music. Sometimes, our prayer is answered. Thank you, Bill and Carol. 

THE RASCALS: People Got To Be Free

I had the good fortune to see the Rascals at a club show sometime around the close of the '80s. It was 3/4 of the original Rascals line-up, with Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, and Dino Danelli present and accounted for, missing only Eddie Brigati. All four Rascals eventually played a show at Syracuse's Landmark Theater in this bright 'n' shiny new millennium, but another commitment prevented me from attending. I wished I coulda made it, but it wasn't in the cards.

Dino Danelli passed away two weeks ago. He was an extraordinarily talented drummer; even though the Rascals are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I'm not sure the group gets all the credit they deserve, and I don't think Danelli's name comes up often enough in discussions of the great rock 'n' roll drummers.

Some time back, I started writing a celebration of the Rascals' (or the Young Rascals') "Good Lovin'" for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I never completed the entry, and it's not part of the book's current plan, but its opening paragraph is worth noting here:

"Little Steven says garage rock is 'white kids trying to play black rhythm and blues and failing--gloriously.' Fair enough. So what do we call it when a white group tries to play soul music, and succeeds? We could call that the Young Rascals."

What a great, great group. Rest in peace, Dino.

ARETHA FRANKLIN: I Say A Little Prayer

If you're gonna bill a radio show as OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, And Holding On, you had best give Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin her due chance to testify. Doesn't even matter if her testimony in this case happens to secular; a prayer's a prayer, man.

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

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

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

In this sublime gem that opens Marykate O'Neil's 2006 album 1-800-Bankruptcy, O'Neil and co-writer Jill Sobule declare readiness for luck to finally turn around. At some point in our lives, we all relate to that wish. Here's a bit of what I wrote about the song for The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1);

"...I'm ready for my luck to turn around.

"I used to say that I was made out of hope. Maybe I still am. Marykate O'Neil's wonderful track was one of my most beloved security blankets in 2020, first as I attempted to calibrate my own frustrations and expectations, and then more gravely as the year became...that year. I don't think O'Neil designed the song to be a comfort for anyone. That's just how it turned out. Ultimately, even the artist's own goals fall away as the audience adopts the work as its own. 

"I'm ready for my luck to turn around. As this world continues to give us more and more reason to question what we think we know, to lose faith in what we believe to be unshakeable truth, it's a sentiment worth adopting as both shield and sword. Stand by me. 

"If you're ready."

GREAT BUILDINGS: Hold On To Something

Recommended if you like [your Fave Rave here].

RIYLs can help us find new favorites. But they can also create a false and unfair expectation. In 1981, I read somewhere (possibly in CREEM, maybe in Trouser Press) that Great Buildings were like a male counterpart to the Go-Go's. I believe it was meant as a compliment, and since Beauty And The Beat was my top album that year, the comparison provided sufficient push for me to purchase Great Buildings' Apart From The Crowd LP before I had ever heard a note of the group's music.

And I was disappointed. It didn't sound anything at all like the Go-Go's. I filed it away.

I came back to it, though. Freed of the misconception that it would sound like boys singin' original tunes that channeled "We Got The Beat," I grew to appreciate the LP on its own sterling merit. Opening track "Hold On To Something" freaking knocked me out, once I gave it its proper opportunity. 

Great Buildings' Danny Wilde and Ian Ainsworth had been in the Quick, whose quirky 1976 cover of the Beatles' "It Won't Be Long" got some airplay on Utica's WOUR-FM when I was in high school. After Great Buildings closed up shop, Wilde went solo, and eventually reconnected with Great Buildings guitarist Phil Solem to form the Rembrandts. The Rembrandts scored a Top 20 hit with "Just The Way It Is, Baby," and achieved pop culture immortality with "I'll Be There For You," the theme from Friends. Maybe you're sick of that song--dig what you dig--but it was the number one song on the radio the week my daughter was born, and I will always, always cherish that memory.

Comparing Great Buildings to the Go-Go's was a fake-out, and the disparity between what was teased and what was delivered turned me off. Initially. But without that PSYCH! moment, would I have even gotten around to hearing Great Buildings at the time? No harm, no foul. The apparent dead end of that RIYL still led me to "Hold On To Something," a magnificent track that has now been in my all-time Hot 200 for four decades. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Baby, baby, baby, hold on.

POPDUDES: Share The Land

Going into the planning session for this week's show, our list of potential tracks included three songs associated with the Guess Who: the group's own fabulous rendition of "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature," the Halfcubes' ace (but currently unreleased) cover of "Hand Me Down World," and this capable take on "Share The Land," courtesy of Popdudes. The Popdudes track made it into the show, and it comes to us from the terrific various-artists set We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970. We All Shine On scored some significantTIRnRR airplay this year--we'll hear one of its other tracks in our countdown show this Sunday--and "Share The Land" is certainly among the album's many highlights.

THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance

A new year looms. I'm going to be mentioning the Ramones a lot in 2023. Wanna dance? I sure hope so.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes

Love's a fool's dance

I ain't got much sense but I still got my feet

The original plan was to close the main portion of OUR PRAYER with the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," setting up Eytan Mirsky's incredible "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" as our post-signoff bonus track. We wound up running way, way over time, so we hadda remodel the plan a bit. Some songs came out, some songs came in, and a few tracks were moved around. All in the service of building a better playlist.

Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" was going to occupy this week's Greatest Record Ever Made! spot (because it is, after all, The Greatest Record Ever Made!). Figuring the paradox of fragile durability expressed in "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" provided an appropriate note to conclude our theme, we moved Melanie into the GREM! slot and switched Bruce into the finale. Bruce, in turn, set up Eytan for the encore.

(And yeah, Eytan Mirsky's "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" is also The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number, my friends, as long as they take turns.)

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

That's our prayer. Every year. Every day. This year? Why the hell not?

Like Eytan Mirsky, Spider-Man is also from Forest Hills

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.

10 SONGS: 7/21/2022

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 # 1138.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

With the notable exception of "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," we don't play very much Bruce Springsteen on TIRnRR. Neither Dana nor I dislike the Boss, and we have played several different Springsteen tracks on the show over the years, from "Born To Run" to "Radio Nowhere." AND "Girls In Their Summer Clothes." And, y'know, "Girls In Their Summer Clothes." Brooooce isn't one of our go-to artists, but we like him well enough, and we don't have anything negative to say about him. (Prices for concert tickets are a separate subject.)

Intrepid and loyal TIRnRR listener Dave Murray is a Springsteen fan. And, since Sunday's broadcast just happened to coincide with Dave's birthday, we figured we'd open with what I think is Dave's favorite Springteen track, "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." Yes, all seven minutes of it. But seven minutes well-spent! 

THE STALLIONS: Why

By contrast, Dave used to hate the Stallions' rampagin' cover of the Dirty Wurds' obscure '60s nugget "Why." And, since we played it nearly every week during TIRnRR's first two years on the air, he was forced to listen to it a lot. A lot. Over time, we wore down Dave's silly resistance to the track's belligerent brilliance, and he came to embrace it. Of course.

DANA AND CARL [with DAVE MURRAY]: The Ballad Of Jah Clampett

Completing the hat trick, we fulfilled the 1-2-3 of this week's initial half-set with Dave hisself from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1, helpless as we shoved him aside to perform our unique not-quite-reggae arrangement of the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies. Happy Birthday, Dave!

THE BABLERS: You Are The One For Me

Dana really, really likes "You Are The One For Me," the most recent single from Big Stir Records recording artists the Bablers. It wouldn't be a stretch to speculate that this may be Dana's favorite new single of 2022 so far; the boy's got pretty good taste in the rockin' pop stuff, he does. I like it, too! Will "You Are The One For Me" make our year-end countdown of TIRnRR's most-played tracks in '22? Well...yeah. It's already qualified. Duh. How high will it chart in our final stats for the year? That story has not been written yet. But Dana really, really likes this song. That means it's gonna get played.

Rightly so.

DESOLATION SOUND: Record Store

"Record Store," from the new Desolation Sound album Salish Rock, comes to us courtesy of our friends at the Robo Jack Records label. And ya gotta love a song that prompts Rich Firestone--host of the way-fab program Radio Deer Camp, heard Sunday afternoons from 5 to 7 Eastern right here on SPARK!--to immediately cry out, "No fair finding a cool song about a record store before I do!" Rich then added, "Oh, but I shall play it at some point." As well ya should, Reechie. As well ya should. Love of a record store is its own reward.

PHIL YATES AND THE AFFILIATES: I Can't Wait

I guess I'm considered a pundit of sorts, which carries a tacit expectation (or at least presumption) of knowing a little bit about stuff in one's chosen field of punditry. I don't tout myself as an expert (because, plainly, I am not an expert), but I know what I like, and I know a thing or thing-anna-half about pop music, so sure: I, Pundit. Hear me speak, ye rabble.

But I had no familiarity--or at least no recollection of familiarity--with Phil Yates and the Affiliates before Futureman Records' executive visionary Keith Klingensmith sent us a heads-up regarding the group's new album A Thin Thread, with a note stating, "We absolutely love this record, and hope you will too!" Oh, we do, Keith. We do. Thanks again for helping this particular pundit learn more stuff.

NICK FRATER: The Love Songs Of Simon Love

Big Stir Records teased the forthcoming release of Aerodrome Motel, the new album from England's phenomenal pop purveyor Nick Frater, with a digital single of its track "Dancing With A Gertrude." We chose to play the single's non-album virtual B-side "The Love Songs Of Simon Love," though both tracks are, in TIRnRR parlance, radio-ready. We have an album track from Aerodrome Motel already lined up for next week's show. A public service? Yes. Absolutely. Join us again next week as we check into the Aerodrome Motel.

STEVIE WONDER: I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

And a Happy Anniversary to my babe.

THE RAMONES: I Wanna Be Sedated

The Ramones--I do prefer referring to them with a definite article--never had a hit record. Their Billboard Hot 100 peak was # 66 for "Rockaway Beach" in 1977. Their highest-charting album was End Of The Century (# 44 in 1980), edging out their best album Rocket To Russia (# 49 in '77), the only two Ramones LPs to ascend beyond the # 50 slot. They did better overseas, but as Johnny Ramone once told me, "...It was never no big deal, really, having a hit in England. All that mattered, really, was America. It's okay having a hit in England, but the main thing was you wanna make it at home."

Their legacy endured, and just about everyone now has at least some general familiarity with some of the Ramones' recorded work. Hell, you can hear the Ramones in TV commercials. "Blitzkrieg Bop" is likely the Ramones' most universally-recognized track, but "I Wanna Be Sedated" comes close. It was not released as an American single from 1979's Road To Ruin, only achieving 7" status when reissued in the late '80s in conjunction with the best-of set Ramones Mania. One imagines edge-averse 1979 radio programmers wouldn't have been quick to embrace a pop tune about sedation, just as that notoriously timid lot had been skittish about playing the Ramones up to that point. But one also wonders if such a single might have found a wider audience, if only it had been released at the time.

(The Johnny Ramone quote cited above comes from my 1994 interviews with the Ramones. I'm working on bringing those interviews back to the public eye in an expanded form. Details to follow, albeit with maybe a little more than twenty- twenty- twenty-four hours to go.)

THE FLASHCUBES WITH STEVE CONTI: Gudbuy T' Jane

As you all know, I've been a fan of the Flashcubes for more than forty years (starting here). The Flashcubes' current series of Big Stir digital singles makes us giddy, and we've been playing each of them upon its release. This is the fourth week in a row that we've played the 'Cubes' most recent single, a collaboration with Steve Conti to cover my favorite Slade song "Gudbuy T' Jane." It'll be back on future playlists, I betcha, but it's taking a break next week to make room for an even newer Flashcubes single.

Well, newer and classic, all at the same time. Sherman, set the WABAC machine for 1979. I wonder who's playing at The Firebarn...?

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