10 SONGS: 11/29/2025

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 # 1312

THE RAMONES: Punishment Fits The Crime

Each week, when getting ready to plan the show's playlist with Dana, I keep a list of potential track choices to consider. The list includes new stuff, recent faves, old faves, old tracks we've never played before, and assorted items of varying vintage and familiarity that might fit into the presumed master plan of whatever it is we do on TIRnRR. The list carries through from week to week, its contents adjusted as we go.

The Ramones' "Punishment Fits The Crime" has been on that list for many weeks. The song was written by bassist Dee Dee Ramone and Plasmatics guitarist Richie Stotts, sung by Dee Dee, and included on the group's 1989 album Brain Drain (the last Ramones studio album to include Dee Dee as anything other than just songwriter). Frankly, Brain Drain is a contender for my least favorite Ramones album, but it does give us the fantastic "I Believe In Miracles," plus "Pet Sematary" and "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)," proving that even the merest Ramones album is still A RAMONES ALBUM!! Anyway, "Punishment Fits The Crime" fits in the category of "old tracks we've never played before," and that status is what placed it in my week-to-week list of playlist possibilities.

Prior to this week's programming session, I realized it had been a little while since we'd opened a show with the Ramones. I considered programming one of my many, many Ramones Picks T' Click in that leadoff spot, but opted to finally give "Punishment Fits The Crime" its long-overdue TIRnRR debut.

Throughout the process, it didn't even occur to me that the song's title could apply to...you know who. Let's hope we find a legal punishment to fit that guy in the very near future. As another punk band said: All crimes are paid.

THE LEGAL MATTERS: Everybody Knows

The minute I found out that the Legal Matters were doing a new album for Big Stir Records, I immediately petitioned the band and label for permission and access to play the then-forthcoming advance single. The album, Lost At Sea, is due in 2026, and the single "Everybody Knows" was released to radio just after this week's show was recorded. But we got it! Everybody knows we would be playing it; we knew we could not wait another week to do so. And everybody should know now: We're playing it again this Sunday. 

SHOES: Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)

We don't get many opportunities to program new music by power pop legends Shoes, and we've never before had an opportunity to play Shows covering power pop's Ur group Raspberries. Opportunity SEIZED! Shoes' rendition of the Raspberries hit "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" comes to us from the superb various-artists 'Berries salute Play On: A Raspberries Tribute, a tribute curated by our friend Ken Sharp. Want a hit record? Look no further.

(Raspberries' original version of "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" ands Shoes' own incredible 1978 single "Tomorrow Night" are among the 145 tracks--one 45 at a time!--I discuss in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! [Volume 1]. SPOILER ALERT: I like both of those records a lot. You can read all about them and their 143 GREM! brethren and sistren by ordering your own copy of the book. I'm Carl Cafarelli, and I approve this message.  The Greatest Record Ever Made [Volume 2] is [very] tentatively planned for 2027.)

THE BUSBOYS: The Boys Are Back In Town

When Robbie Rist saw in this week's show hype that we were playing the BusBoys, he immediately wanted to know if we were playing new music by this great group. Alas, although we did program the BusBoys' then-recent single "In My Heart" back in 2024 (and likewise with "Love On My Mind" in 2022), we weren't even aware that there was new BusBoys music available. Honestly, I'd fire the TIRnRR research department, but that department is, y'know, me, and I've got tenure.

Robbie's (presumably) figurative headslap to our collective noggin prompted a fresh search for new BusBoys tuneage, resulting in a purchase of the 2025 digital-only album In My Heart. Target acquired! The album includes both of the 2020s singles mentioned above, and we'll debut another track from In My Heart on Sunday. Thanks for the nudzh, Robbie! Meanwhile, here's another spin of the BusBoys' best-known track "The Boys Are Back In Town," as heard when the BusBoys appeared in the 1982 Eddie Murphy-Nick Nolte flick 48 Hours. 'Cuz when the boys are back, there ain't no foolin' around.

THE MONKEES: Papa Gene's Blues

PLAY, magic fingers!

TAYLOR SWIFT: The Last Great American Dynasty

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

KEN SHARP: I'm A Rocker

One more from Play On: A Raspberries Tribute, "I'm A Rocker" as performed by the set's auteur Ken Sharp. I owned the original Raspberries 45 of "I'm A Rocker" when I was a teen in the '70s, and I was puzzled that it wasn't on the Raspberries' Best Featuring Eric Carmen compilation LP. Our Ken knows Raspberries' best better'n anybody, and he honors that legacy here.

DIRTY LOOKS: Let Go

Staten Island's phenomenal pop combo Dirty Looks with their signature tune. From a previous 10 Songs:

Statement of intent. This Staten Island trio's eponymous debut LP was released on the Stiff America label in 1980, and "Let Go" was an immediate fave rave on 97 Power Rock, a Sunday night alternative-rock showcase aired on Buffalo's 97 Rock FM. Hmmm. A Sunday night rock 'n' roll radio show? I may have made note of that particular notion for possible future use. 

"Let Go" is a perfect post-punk radio pop song, fueled by new wave rock energy, rooted in catchy 1960s radio fare, and dead certain that the Ramones, the Who, Joe Jackson, and Paul Revere and the Raiders are Heaven-sent inspirations.

It's not easy to write a song about rock 'n' roll. It's not. Too many attempts at rock anthems feel forced, or overly earnest, pompous, clueless, heavy-handed, and...blechh. With "Let Go," Dirty Looks pull it off with style, and they make it seem like a cinch. Don't you know that rock 'n' roll is still the best drug? The drumming is hyperactive, the bass pushy (in a good way), the guitar simple and authoritative, the vocals and harmonies steadfast, reflecting the confidence of a group secure in the knowledge that it has God on its side. All you gotta do, let go, let go, let GO! GO! GO! GO! Belief is infectious. And godDAMN, this sounds so exhilarating on the radio. 

It always has.

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS: Clowntime Is Over

Is clowntime over? All respect to Elvis Costello and the Attractions, but clowntime ain't really over until we heed the words of the Ramones:

Let the punishment fit the crime.

THE HIGH FREQUENCIES: Cleanup Time

And if there is any justice, clowntime will give way to cleanup time. "Cleanup Time" is my favorite track on the High Frequencies' super groovy new album Get High, and like our opening track by the Ramones, the title's topically apt nature didn't strike me until after the fact. Nonetheless: CLEANUP ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE! Mops at the ready. Let's go.

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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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: 4/28/2022

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 # 1126.

NICK FRATER: Buggin' Out

This little mutant wireless TIRnRR shindig has found Nick Frater's 2021 album Earworms to be a productive resource for the sacred task of programming better radio. I mean, you've got the plethora of spotlight-ready pop ditties on the album itself, and you've got the sundry li'l shots of Fab courtesy of the Rubutles, Frater's answer to the rhetorical question of the Rutles and a bonus tangent to Earworms. A tangent known by its trousers. Yeah, of course we're playing Earworms.

And Earworms is the gift that keeps on giving. Its track "Buggin' Out" has been released as a digital single, paired with the non-album "How About It Girl? (Sara Pt. 2)." And that gives us an excuse to open the show with the A-side. Better radio. We thanks ya, Nick.

THE BUSBOYS: Love On My Mind

While I believe the BusBoys shoulda been bigger in the '80s--neither "New Shoes" nor "The Boys Are Back In Town" made the Billboard Hot 100, and their Ghostbusters track "Cleanin' Up The Town" only scared its way up to a chart peak of # 68--they were nonetheless a legit and large part of that decade's pop culture. My favorite BusBoys track is "Minimum Wage," from their 1980 debut LP Minimum Wage Rock & Roll, though I don't remember whether or not I saw them perform the song on ABC's late-night SNL ripoff Fridays. The most indelible '80s memory of the BusBoys remains the sight of them singing "The Boys Are Back In Town" in Eddie Murphy's 1982 breakout flick 48 Hours. C'mon--how was that song not a hit?!

Pfui...but water under the bridge. In our shiny, shiny 21st century, the BusBoys are back with a new single, "Love On My Mind," and it's a worthy continuation of the A-list material that shoulda been top of the pops during the Reagan regime. No nostalgia moves here; good stuff is timeless, and this is good stuff.

AMOEBA TEEN: New Material World

Listen: we know a good idea when we steal it.

When we were programming this week's show, Dana asked me if I was planning on playing Amoeba Teen. "Why, yes!," I replied, "I am going to play Amoeba Teen!" And then Dana informed me of his plan....

Now, UK pop sensations Amoeba Teen have a new album, Amoeba Teen, its release preceded by a digital single of its track "New Material World," which we already played on a recent edition of TIRnRR.  Norman Weatherly reviewed the album for Weathered Music, and gave it the appropriate rave. In his piece, Weatherly noted that "The single...is as New Wave as a song can get. It bristles with guitar lines that would have been at home in a New Wave playlist nestled between Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile."

We know a good idea when we steal it.

Dana played Brinsley Schwarz' "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?" I swapped out my original intent to spin Amoeba Teen's "Melody Told You" and reprised "New Material World" instead. Dana followed with Rockpile's "Heart." We conceded credit to Weatherly on air; it was his idea. 

But it's ours now!

GYMNASIUM: Coast To Coast Companion

Aw, I like this. We're predisposed to dig stuff from the mighty Red On Red Records label anyway, and this latest single from Gymnasium rewards that interest with exactly the sort of toe-tappin' sense of invigmoration we seek. The track will be on Gymnasium's forthcoming album Hansen's Pop 'n' Rock Music '22, and I betcha we'll be predisposed to dig that, too.

POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart

Great song. Fabulous song. And I know something about it that you probably don't know. It has something in common with [redacted]. It's enough to put an extra beat in any heart. 

THE FLASHCUBES: Soldier Of Love

Unsung soul legend Arthur Alexander's classic "Soldier Of Love" is probably best-known as a Beatles performance originally heard only on bootlegs. I certainly heard the Beatles' then-unreleased "Soldier Of Love" well before I heard Alexander's original, and I may have heard Marshall Crenshaw's cover even before I heard John Lennon pleading for his lover to lay down her arms.

But, before Arthur Alexander, Marshall Crenshaw, or the Beatles, I was introduced to "Soldier Of Love" by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Visiting my girlfriend in NYC over spring break in 1979, I dragged her to a Bowery club called Gildersleeves to see the 'Cubes. 

They were fantastic, of course. The Flashcubes were always a great live band, and they were at their peak in 1979. And they included "Soldier Of Love" in their set, as they piledrived their way through covers and originals in a performance that caused even supposedly jaded New Yorkers to yell up at the 'Cubes on stage, "Hey, you guys are good!"

A couple of months later, in May of 1979, the Flashcubes were still playing "Soldier Of Love," and it's on the tape of an incendiary live show captured on the recent archival release Flashcubes On Fire. Before Arthur Alexander, Marshall Crenshaw, or the Beatles, the Flashcubes were the first to teach me a song called "Soldier Of Love." Jaded New Yorkers knew they were good. The rest of the world is still trying to catch up.

FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

HOOVER AND MARTINEZ: The Scene Of The Cryin'

We've been corresponding with Jamie Hoover for ages, honestly. The Spongetones! The Van deLecki's! Jamie and Steve! Stepford Knives! Whatever rockin' pop dba Jamie utilizes in the moment, it's likely gonna score a berth on the ol' TIRnRR playlist. Hoover and Martinez, our Jamie's current collaboration with Christine Martinez, is no exception to established pro-Hoover policy. Plus it's, y'know, swell! The 3P is their debut three-song digital single--available NOW!!!--and it commences airplay with this week's spin of "The Scene Of The Cryin'." We'll have another track from Hoover and Martinez next week. Policy, man. Gotta stay with our policy.

THE MONKEES: Love Is Only Sleeping

I love sooooooo many of the Monkees' tracks. "Porpoise Song" is my top pick, but I had difficulty narrowing my Monkees faves raves to even a Top 25. 

"Love Is Only Sleeping" is for damned sure one of my Monkees essentials. I discovered it in mid-'70s reruns of the TV show; even though I watched the show in prime time during the '60s and on Saturdays in the early '70s, I don't recall noticing that song until I was a teenager watching cable TV out of New York. And I really tuned into the song when a girl I knew somewhere let me borrow her copy of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. during my senior year in high school, spring 1977. 

It made an impression.

LINDA RONSTADT: You're No Good

There is no progress to report on the status of my above-mentioned, long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). A publisher has the completed manuscript, and is reviewing it to determine if it's a suitable project for his company. It's a long shot, but it's within the realm of plausible possibility. 

This wonderful Linda Ronstadt song is among the 175 tracks discussed in the book's current draft, and it's also in the slightly shorter back-up blueprint I've prepared. I remain hopeful that you'll get to read it someday.

Wouldn't that be good?

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

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 2/2/2021

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 # 1062.

THE BUSBOYS: Minimum Wage

I mostly missed out on The BusBoys in the '80s. I had heard of them; I read about them in Trouser Press, and maybe in CREEM, and of course I saw them sing "New Shoes" and "The Boys Are Back In Town" (not the same-titled Thin Lizzy tune) in the 1982 Eddie Murphy-Nick Nolte film 48 Hours. Maybe I saw them on Saturday Night Live. That's probably all I heard of them at the time. Were they getting any significant radio play anywhere? Maybe Buffalo's adventurous and engaging WBNY-FM programmed a BusBoys track or two, but I couldn't tell ya either way.

Since we're always looking to add tracks to This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's master playlist, I determined some time back that I wanted to get The BusBoys into our little Play-Tone Galaxy O' Stars. I did not want TIRnRR's first BusBoys spin to be "The Boys Are Back In Town," so we opted for this de facto title track from their 1980 debut album Minimum Wage Rock & Roll. 

RAY CHARLES: Hit The Road Jack

While I'm pleased that my concert-goin' resumé includes that one time I got to see Ray Charles perform live, I've gotta admit I wish his set had included my single favorite Ray Charles tune, "Hit The Road Jack."

Yeah. I was surprised he didn't play it either.

But he did play "What'd I Say" and "Georgia On My Mind," among many others, and it was Ray friggin' Charles, so you won't hear a peep of a complaint from me. It was an outdoor show at The New York State Fair, either late '80s or early '90s, the same free-with-Fair-admission concert series that gave me opportunities to see Brian Wilson, The Everly Brothers, Don McLean, Gene Pitney, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Chicago, Micky Dolenz & Davy Jones, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Little Big Town, Lady Antebellum, various oldies package shows (featuring acts from Bo Diddley to Cub Koda), and Earth, Wind & Fire over a span of decades. This is not a complete list. 

I'm not sure, but I think--I think--my one Ray Charles show occurred prior to the early '90s Diet Pepsi commercials that earned Charles another notch on his pop culture c.v. You've got the right one, baby. Ray friggin' Charles. I'm okay with him skipping "Hit The Road Jack."

THE CHEAP CASSETTES: Get Low

The Boston-based Rum Bar Records label has proven to be a reliable resource for records that rock, platters with pizazz, music that moves your ass and doesn't care whether or not your mind follows. We've been playing fine Rum Bar releases from Justine and the Unclean, Gallows Birds, The Shang Hi Los, Natalie Sweet, The Real Impossibles, Ken Fox, Brad Marino, Heatwaves, Stop Calling Me Frank, Geoff Palmer and Lucy Ellis, The Yum Yums, and I betcha I forgot someone I shouldn'ta oughtta've forgotten. But the point is that all of these mighty Rum Bar acts provide the volume and the fun with action-packed impunity. It's not grunge. It's not left-of-the-dial, at least not in the sense you might expect. It's pop music. Loud and proud pop music. Even the ballads bounce, man.

Now we add The Cheap Cassettes to that roll of in-your-face honor. From Rum Bar's 2017 reissue of the group's album All Anxious, All The Time--hey, it's a concept album about me!--The Cheap Cassettes' "Get Low" leaps from radio speakers to establish eminent domain. 

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Doctor Rhythm

I was four to six years old in 1964-1966, and I had at least a peripheral awareness of the British Invasion. Everyone knew The Beatles--duh--and I kinda knew Herman's Hermits, knew of Chad And Jeremy, adored Petula Clark's "Downtown," and heard The Rolling Stones' "Get Off Of My Cloud" on the radio. And I knew The Dave Clark Five's "Bits And Pieces;" my sister had the 45. I'm sure I heard them on the radio, and I probably saw them on TV, whether it was on The Ed Sullivan Show or in a TV special with Lucille Ball. But the concrete memory is elusive. I was four, five, six years old. I remember "Bits And Pieces."

My greater understanding and appreciation of the British Invasion in general and the DC5 in particular came in the mid-to-late '70s, when teen me commenced an active embrace of '60s music. I borrowed a small stack of my cousin Maryann's old albums and singles, a stash which included Beatles For Sale, The Beatles' Second Album, Meet The Beatles, Meet The Searchers, The Best Of The Animals, The Best Of Herman's Hermits, some Beach Boys, singles by the Stones and The Lovin' Spoonful. And there was a pair of Dave Clark Five LPs, Glad All Over and The Dave Clark Five Return! I thought I recognized the "Glad All Over" title, and a spin of the record confirmed my memory of a song I must have known and then forgotten. Ah'm feelin' WHOMP! WHOMP! glad all ovah! The Tottenham Sound. Familiar and invigorating. I was a fan immediately.

Over the next few years, as I escaped high school and entered college, and as punk, new wave, and power pop supplemented my existing affections and obsessions, I went about the business of buying as many DC5 records as I could. All used, of course, some very, very used, scored at flea markets and second-hand shops. I established a decent collection, albeit an incomplete one. I still own every one of the DC5 LPs I accumulated decades ago, periodic collection-purges be damned.

1967's You Got What It Takes was an early '80s purchase. I think I bought it in Cleveland Heights on a visit to see my sister circa '81 or so, right around the time she got married, but I'm not exactly under oath here. In this time frame, one of the cool things about acquiring later, post-1965 DC5 albums was that you might not know a single one of the songs before you played the damned thing at home. Two of this album's tracks, "You Got What It Takes" and the fabulous "I've Got To Have A Reason," had been hits, but I didn't know them. Tabula rasa, baby. In addition to "I've Got To Have A Reason," I liked the album's goofy novelty number "Tabitha Twitchit," but I was disappointed that a cover of "Blueberry Hill" didn't live up to my high expectation of what the DC5's incredible and underrated lead singer Mike Smith would sound like as he wailed away on a Fats Domino cover.

"Doctor Rhythm" should have been a single, and it should have been a hit. It's a boppin' little thing, unpretentious and pounding, simple and invigorating. The Tottenham Sound. Ask your doctor if rhythm is right for you.

EMPEROR PENGUIN [featuring LISA MYCHOLS]: Planet Of Love

I was a Star Trek fan. I have (almost) always flown my geek flag high, defiant in proclaiming my affection for comic books, superheroes, science-fiction, and similar exercises in flamboyance and fantasy. There was a time when peer pressure and fear of ridicule prompted me to downplay that interest in public, but I outgrew that. I haven't outgrown much in my life of willful immaturity, but thank God I at least outgrew the notion that anyone else could ever tell me what I could or couldn't like. Dig what you dig. Naysayers can go straight to Hell. Please provide your own handcart.

So yeah, Star Trek. I was aware of the show during its original '66-'69 prime time run (same era as my beloved Batman and The Monkees, although those were both cancelled in '68); I remember the image of Mr. Spock, and I remember my neighbor Lenny making references to phasers when the kids on the block were playing rough 'n' tumble action games. But I didn't watch the show, not regularly, perhaps not at all. I became a fan in the '70s, when the syndicated Star Trek reruns aired every weekday afternoon. Man, I was hooked. In high school, I even did an off-the-cuff video discussion of the show for a friend's TV production project. I, Geek. Proud of it. My teen obsession with Star Trek merits a full-fledged post of its own some day.

But I mention it here because Emperor Penguin's track "Planet Of Love" (from the new album Corporation Pop!) makes use of audio clips from Star Trek, specifically a clip from the 1969 episode "The Way To Eden" (aka, "the one with the space hippies"). Listen: a hook's a hook. 

With or without the Star Trek reference, "Planet Of Love" is a sprightly and fun track, with a typically engaging guest lead vocal from the lovely and talented Lisa Mychols. We'll be playing this again. 

KID GULLIVER: Beauty School Dropout

It's a safe bet that I'm never going to look back on 2020 as my Best Year Ever. Still, even the lousiest of lousy years offers music, and 2020 introduced TIRnRR to the voice of Simone Berk. 

The initial connection came in roundabout fashion via the above-mentioned Rum Bar Records, as we started carpet-bombing our playlists with "Vengeance," a Rum Bar single by Justine and the Unclean. From there, the perfectly-clean Justine Covault directed us to her involvement with WhistleStop Rock, a collective of female musicmakers that had been putting on live shows in those halcyon pre-pandemic days. Ah, those were the days, my friend. As COVID cooties shut down the notion of live shows, WhistleStop Rock collaborated on the socially-distanced recording of a single, "Queen Of The Drive-In." This was where we first heard the track's lead singer. Yeah, that would be Simone Berk.

We liked what we heard.

Airplay and adulation. Simone appreciated our appreciation, and sent us her stuff, recorded as Sugar Snow and Kid Gulliver. Justine decided to start her own label, Red On Red Records, which released a flippin' awesome Kid Gulliver single, "Forget About Him." More adulation and airplay. And more music, including this latest Red On Red single of "Beauty School Dropout" by Kid Gulliver. No, it's not the song from Grease; aim higher, people. It's an original, it cooks, and it sounds like it oughtta be on the radio. Our discovery of Simone Berk is the glorious result of a miserable year.

THE KINKS: Set Me Free

1977: I was just 17, if you know what I mean. And my girlfriend and I were moving way too fast. It was almost entirely my fault, maybe even my fault alone. But I had to stop it.

Over the course of '77, I had become a fan of The Kinks. In August, I went off to college with the tentative beginning of a Kinks collection, which included the Kinks-Sized, Sleepwalker, and possibly Schoolboys In Disgrace LPs. I was still learning about this great band and its cavalcade of wonder. Late in that fall semester of my freshman year, I picked up a Kinks compilation, The Pye History Of British Rock. That revelatory set included just two Kinks tracks I already owned ("You Really Got Me" and "I Gotta Move"), and introduced me to "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion," "Where Have All The Good Times Gone," "Till The End Of The Day," "Sunny Afternoon," "The World Keeps Going Round," "So Mystifying," "Long Tall Shorty," and a superb, rockin' B-side called "I Took My Baby Home." Fantastic stuff, and an essential plank on my path to greater Kinks devotion.

And it included a song called "Set Me Free."

Set me free, little girl

All you gotta do is set me free, little girl

You know you can do it if you try

All you gotta do is set me free, free....

It wasn't her fault. It was mine. Yeah, probably all mine. I was 17. That's explanation, not excuse. I listened to the song playing on my roommate's stereo in our dorm room, looking at my girlfriend, feeling guilty for what I was thinking. But I was beginning to realize what had to happen.

We lasted until Christmas break. I wrote her a letter. It hurt her, and I regret my actions that made that seem necessary. Damn me. But it was time. Set me free.

THE MONKEES: Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow) [TV version]

I've been into The Monkees since I was six; never paused, never ceased, never will pause or cease. I bought all of the records, and resurgent Monkeemania in the '80s gave me the chance to see all of the episodes of their TV series. I'd seen them all before, mind you; I'd seen a few in prime time circa '66-'68, probably all of them in Saturday morning reruns in the early '70s, and again in syndicated afternoon reruns in the mid '70s. 

But in the '80s, I was theoretically an adult, and able to notice things I hadn't picked up on when watching The Monkees as a younger fan. While enjoying a late '80s rerun of  the 1967 first season episode "The Monkees In Manhattan," I realized that the version of Neil Diamond's "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" (a favorite of mine since I was six or seven) was longer than the version I knew, containing a keyboard break unique to this TV track. It instantly became my preferred version, though I had to wait until its eventual release on the 2001 Monkees boxed set Music Box to own a copy of it.

POPDUDES: O-o-h Child

Popdudes' lovely cover of The Five Stairsteps' sublime 1970 hit "O-o-h Child" was released as a Big Stir Records digital single in 2020, with proceeds from its sale benefiting the homeless and hungry in Orange County, California. We played its virtual B-side (a cover of The Guess Who's "Share The Land") on the show, but the fact that we were playing the original Five Stairsteps "O-o-h Child" postponed a TIRnRR spin of Popdudes' version. Until now! The track also serves as a teaser for We All Shine On, a various-artists tribute to the music of 1970, due out later this year from the good folks at SpyderPop Records. I can not wait to hear that. 

THE SHANG HI LOS: Saturday In The Park

The Rum Bar and WhistleStop Rock connection continues. Rum Bar Recording artists The Shang Hi Los were a consistent TIRnRR Pick Hit in the latter part of 2020, thanks to their irresistible little number "Sway Little Player." A line from "Sway Little Player" provides the band with the title of their recently-released mini-album, Kick It Like A Wicked Bad Habit. 

Kick It Like A Wicked Bad Habit also includes this nice cover of Chicago's "Saturday In The Park," and it occurs to me that this was actually the very first Shang Hi Los performance I ever heard. The band performed it as part of the video release party for WhistleStop Rock's "Queen Of The Drive-In" this past summer. We were delighted to make that acquaintance. 

Can you dig it? Yes I can.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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

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

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl