10 SONGS: 8/26/2021 The Tenth Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT

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 # 1091: The Tenth Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT.

THE MAIN INGREDIENT: Summer Breeze

A familiar act with a familiar song, albeit not a song we're used to hearing performed by this act. The Main Ingredient are best-remembered for "Everybody Plays The Fool," a # 3 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1972. I don't remember whether or not I've ever heard anything else the Main Ingredient ever did, but I can say I heard their take on the Seals and Crofts hit "Summer Breeze" for the first time this week, when Dana included it in this year's Soul Pit. 

And it's a cool version in its own right. I think it's time I did a deeper dive into the Main Ingredient's c.v., mindful of the truth that any record you ain't heard is a new record. And we're always looking for new records.

(I think it's a safe bet that many of our regular listeners expected to hear "Summer Breeze" in the Soul Pit, just not as performed by the Main Ingredient. The version they expected closes this year's Soul Pit [as seen below], providing "Summer Breeze" bookends. That makes us feel fine.

THE 5TH DIMENSION: Up Up And Away

Have you seen Summer Of Soul yet? You must. Filmed at the Harlem Cultural Festival over a six-week period in 1969, assembled and annotated by Questlove as a 2021 feature film, Summer Of Soul is just a phenomenal work. Yeah, I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but I do believe Summer Of Soul is (at the very least) one of the finest pop music documentaries ever produced, one of the greatest concert films ever made, and quite possibly the all-time # 1 in both of those categories. 

Among the film's many, many highlights is an incandescent live performance by the 5th Dimension. Many have thought of this group as too establishment, too mainstream pop, but godDAMN they deliver here. If you ever dismissed the transcendent splendor of the 5th Dimension, it's well past time to reconsider them.

An embrace of the 5th Dimension should go beyond their live performance in Summer Of Soul. The records in the group's cavalcade o' hits are stunning: well-produced, well-performed, irresistible. Dana chose two 5th Dimension gems for this year's Soul Pit, "Age Of Aquarius" and "Up Up And Way." It just so happens we'll hear the 5th Dimension again in next week's show.

PEABO BRYSON: Minute By Minute

Playing Peabo Bryson's cover of the Doobie Brothers' "Minute By Minute" enabled me to deliver TIRnRR's (presumably) first-ever reference to TV's What's Happening!!: "Which Doobie you be?" (I could have saved it for the final set's spin of "Takin' It To The Streets" by Quincy Jones, but you know me; mine is the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, but the patience of Johnny Ramone.) 

HONEY CONE: Want Ads

Bubblesoul. Honey Cone's 1971 # 1 smash "Want Ads" is one of the definitive examples of that late '60s/early '70s hybrid of pure, bouncy AM radio sugar performed by black artists. Think early Jackson Five and Freda Payne's "Band Of Gold," or the shoulda-been-hit-singles by Josie and the Pussycats (with the incredible Patrice Holloway on lead vocals) as reference points. "Bubblesoul." Nothing else describes it better, except maybe "YEAH!"

QUINCY JONES: Takin' It To The Streets

Yeah, as promised, another Doobie Brothers cover. Have we ever played the Doobie Brothers on TIRnRR? I suspect not, given my prevailing and pervasive dislike of most of that group's material, but it's possible. We're large. We contain multitudes.

I sang a Doobie Brothers song once, warbling "China Grove" when I failed the audition to join a country rock group in college in 1977. That's likely the only Doobietune I ever liked at all. I actively loathed "Black Water" when it was an inescapable hit during my high school years, and I cringed in '79 when Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh referred to "What A Fool Believes" as "the closest thing we had to an anthem this year." An anthem, Dave? It is to blurgh....

Upon further review, I might concede that "Takin' It To The Streets" is at least as palatable as "China Grove," perhaps more so. The Doobies' original version sports a less-objectionable-than-usual (and actually pretty decent) lead vocal by the song's author Michael McDonald. Quincy Jones' 1978 cover enlists Luther Vandross and Gwen Guthrie for the vocals, and we're all winners. That's what this fool believes.

THE ROBINS: Riot In Cell Block No. 9

They fought the law and the law won. For now.

It would be a stretch to call the Robins' 1954 R & B classic "Riot On Cell Black No. 9" as a musical precursor to '70s blaxploitation flicks, but its lyrical tale of prison insurrection is closer in spirit to Shaft and Superfly than it is to the great 'n' goofy novelty hits of the Coasters, the subsequent vocal group that included ex-Robins Bobby Nunn and Carl Gardner. Yakety yak? Don't talk back...if ya know what's good for you.

HUEY "PIANO" SMITH AND THE CLOWNS: Sea Cruise

"Sea Cruise" was written by N'awlins boogie-woogie ivory-tinkler Huey "Piano" Smith, and a 1959 hit by Frankie Ford. The version played this week on TIRnRR is the Forgotten Original, but it was originally unreleased, leaving Ford's take as the first "Sea Cruise" to set sail. Both versions use the identical backing track by Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns, with the hit version replacing Smith's lead vocals with white guy Ford. The racist implication of the record company's decision was purely coincidental, I'm sure. Ooo-wee, baby. 

IKE AND TINA TURNER: Gonna Find Me A Substitute

"Gonna Find Me A Substitute" was an LP track on 1961's The Soul Of Ike & Tina Turner, the first album by this incredible duo, whose unfortunate (to say the least) off-stage combustibility  overshadows the immense oomph of their accomplishment on wax. Ike Turner was close to an R & B rock 'n' roll genius, and he'd be rightly and widely celebrated if he hadn't been such a lousy human being. Instead, he's deplored. As he should be.

The title of this song serves as unintentional commentary on Ike and Tina's relationship. Tina was still Anna Mae Bullock, billed as Little Ann, when she began performing and recording with Ike Turner's band in the late '50s. When their recording of "Fool In Love" attracted record label attention in 1960, Ike realized he needed (or thought he needed) to maintain control of his singer. He changed her billing to Tina Turner, and then trademarked the name, so she could only use it under his aegis; if Little Ann left Ike, well, he could just get a substitute to be the new Tina Turner.

Bastard.

Tina Turner survived all of that. She even took her name with her. Nothing could stop the voice--and the soul--of Tina Turner.  

SARAH VAUGHAN: Smooth Operator

No, it's not the Sade song. Sarah Vaughan is one of the legendary singers of American jazz, but her 1959 single "Smooth Operator" flirts with pop, R & B, rock 'n' roll, and even a hint of what would come to be known as the girl group sound. Jazz? Sure. Why not? All of your labels are belong to us. Pretty smooth.

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze

The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. The Isley Brothers' incredible take on "Summer Breeze" earns its own chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). We'll hear a few other candidates for GREM! on next week's show. 

That is, in fact, ALL we'll hear on next week's show, as TIRnRR presents a finite glimpse of the infinite: The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Hope you can join us.

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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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 1/19/2021

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 is drawn exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1060.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Someone New

I saw the video for The Catholic Girls' early '80s single "Boys Can Cry" on MTV, probably just once; I didn't have cable at the time, and just happened to catch it when I was staying at my parents' house for a visit. I liked the song, but it was my only exposure to the group until many years later. 

Some time in (I think) the '90s, I picked up a used copy of Catholic Girls, the LP that gave the world "Boys Can Cry," and discovered that I liked its lead-off track "Someone New" even more than I liked "Boys Can Cry." I don't remember if I got the album in time to play a track on any of the pre-This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Dana & Carl radio shows 1992-95 or so. But The Catholic Girls certainly became a presence on TIRnRR. I began corresponding with the group's guitarist Gail Petersen around 1999 (when that debut album was reissued on CD), and we ran with it, and with their sublime 21st century recordings, too. They even let us use "Should Have Been Mine" (from their 2005 album Meet The Catholic Girls) on our 2013 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3. Heaven, here we come!

And now, The Catholic Girls have a new two-CD archival set, Rock N' Roll School For Girls, which tethers together one disc of demos and alternate takes with a disc of The Best Of The Catholic Girls. Bless us. We played the demo version of "Someone New" on this week's show.

THE COASTERS: Yakety Yak

Is "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters the single best-ever song about the generation gap? Yes. Unequivocally. You can argue on behalf of The Who's "My Generation," but that track falls short of The Coasters' wiseass pinnacle. Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" is a very close second, but even You can't use the car 'cause you didn't work a lick can't quite match Tell your hoodlum friends outside you ain't got time to take no ride. "Yakety Yak." Don't talk back.

(And, in a minor bit of pop culture serendipity, this week's playlist was settled and the show recorded prior to the Friday premiere of the new Marvel Comics TV show WandaVision on Disney+. The first episode of WandaVision makes specific and effective use of "Yakety Yak," and if we were doing live shows instead of prerecorded remote shows, the song's appearance on WandaVision would have probably influenced me to include it on our show, too. Happy coincidence.)

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise

In January of 1978--43 years ago this month--The Flashcubes for the first time. Guitarists Paul Armstrong and Arty Lenin, bassist Gary Frenay, and drummer Tommy Allen created a Wall Of Noise that captured my attention at first pummel. They've been one of my all-time favorite groups ever since. My eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about The Flashcubes' most extraordinary shoulda-been-a-hit gem, "No Promise:"

The Flashcubes. Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse. I saw my first Flashcubes show in January of 1978. That night ranks with seeing The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night at the drive-in in 1964 and the first time I heard The Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" in 1977 to form my Holy Trinity of rock 'n' roll epiphanies.

All politics is local. The same could be said of musical combos, the local rock group down the street that's trying hard to learn their song. In the garages, in the clubs, in practice spaces, school dances, rec hall hops, coffeehouses, open fields, and cellars full of noise, plugged in or unplugged, sparks ignite when someone says Let's put on a show! Aping Chuck Berry or Chuck D, Joan Jett or Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones or The Banana Splits, mighty things can happen when a musician near you starts to play.

In Zion, Illinois. In Minneapolis. Fort Worth. Nashville. Arlington. Bethesda, Maryland. Springfield, Missouri. Toronto. Liverpool. Osaka. Don't forget the Motor City. The beat goes on, and renews itself everywhere. Sweat and adrenaline, soft drinks or beer, virtue and vice, the love of a sound, an urge to participate. Band, meet audience. Audience, meet the band.

A lot of the great local acts across the decades, across the country, and across the globe should have become household names. Most remained obscure. In the eyes of their fans, though, they were stars. Stars.

Just like The Flashcubes are stars to me...

...The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones channeled Chuck Berry to build something new. The Ramones took inspiration from The Beach Boys to make glue-sniffing into potential AM radio fare. Gary Frenay took the inspiration of Raspberries' Best--the horny singles ("Go All The Way," "I Wanna Be With You," "Tonight," and "Ecstasy") written by The Raspberries' Eric Carmen--and wrote "No Promise." 

How do you see me?

Do you trust what you see?

Don't you know it's not easy

Being what I'm trying to be?

Guess I'm just a romantic

I only wanna fall in love

But you do something to me that I never thought I'd feel

And it makes it harder to say

No promise

No guarantee

No promise, baby

You'll never get one from me

Pure pop, earnest in its goals and earthy in its desires, a bruised heart stapled to a torn sleeve. The guitars from Armstrong and Lenin cut, slice, and soar above love and lust, Tommy Allen's propulsive drumming could drive a freakin' rocket to the moon, Frenay's deep bass lines and sweet vocals agree to disagree on their differences, and everyone rocks the house with the seismic authority of the San Andreas Fault. The shimmering, incandescent result embodies the Bomp! magazine power pop ideal: power pop means pop with power, not some whimpering simp in a Beatles haircut...

Yeah. I do like The Flashcubes.

NEIL HEFTI: The Batman Theme

The Batman TV series debuted 55 years ago this month, and six-year-old me had his life changed by that colorful explosion of POP and POW! in short order. Although the CD collection The Music Of DC Comics: Volume 2 credits this version of "The Batman Theme" to the song's author Neil Hefti (who did record it), it is actually the TV version, performed by Nelson Riddle and his orchestra. This is the version I consider definitive, and it's the one discussed in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

I grew up in a time when TV theme songs routinely entered the public consciousness. The catchy ditties that opened shows like Gilligan's Island, F Troop, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Patty Duke Show, and Car 54, Where Are You? weren't hit records in the usual sense, but within our shared pop culture they were nonetheless as big as any 45 spinning on the radio. 

Many theme songs were sufficiently hook-laden to prompt release as a single, sometimes by the original artist and sometimes in cover versions, and sometimes to chart success. The Cowsills' swell cover of "Love American Style" wasn't a hit, but it should have been, and it remains a staple of their live act. The Ventures, Perry Como, Henry Mancini, and Johnny Rivers all made the Top 40 with their respective renditions of themes from Hawaii Five-0, Here Come The Brides, Peter Gunn, and Secret Agent Man. Television tunes continued to maintain a radio presence throughout the '70s and '80s. In June of 1995, The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There For You," the theme from the NBC sitcom Friends, was the # 1 song on radio the week my daughter was born. I thought that was appropriate, and pretty cool.

The campy 1966 Batman TV series had a seismic effect on me when I was six. No other television program could ever equal Batman's lasting impact on impressionable li'l me, creating a life-long interest in comic books and superheroes in general, and in the Caped Crusader specifically. I didn't understand that the show kinda poked fun at the character, because actor Adam West played the title role straight, and to perfection. As West said decades later in a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory: "I never had to say 'I'M BATMAN!' When I showed up, people knew who the hell I was...."

One evening in 2016, when I was chatting with actor/comic/voice artist/singer/swell person Tom Kenny, he told me about the time he introduced Neil Hefti to the great voice actor Gary Owens, which is a tough story to top in casual conversation. Best I could manage was, "I once got a phone call from Joey Ramone!" It's the only item on my standing-next-to-greatness resumé, so Tom politely let me have the imaginary win. Like I said: swell person.

THE KINKS: All Day And All Of The Night

It's important to note the significance of "All Day And All Of The Night" in the story of how I became a fan of The Kinks. "Lola" was the first Kinks song I ever knew. My sister's copy of The Live Kinks was the first Kinks album I ever saw. But "All Day And All Of The Night" was the first Kinks track I ever owned, contained on the 2-LP compilation History Of British Rock Vol. 2 I received as a Christmas present in 1976, less than a month prior to my 17th birthday. Essential. And loud! The track was also on my first Kinks LP, Kinks-Size, purchased early in '77. I've accumulated a few more Kinks tracks since then.

PAUL McCARTNEY: Another Day

A previous post about my all-time top 25 favorite post-Beatles Paul McCartney songs included "Another Day" in its roll of honor: 

When your first band is the greatest rock 'n' roll group of all time...man, how do you follow that? Paul McCartney was about 28 years old when The Beatles rolled up their Long And Winding Road and filed it away. What now? 28 is an awfully early age to start your twilight years, to just do nothing, no matter how much money you've made. So McCartney re-invented himself. It wasn't a radical re-invention; he was still the Cute One who'd sung "Blackbird" and "Yesterday," the pop balladeer with a wink and a smile. But he was also the keen songwriter who'd chronicled a disintegrating love affair with such devastating precision in "For No One" on Revolver. The 1971 non-LP single "Another Day" is a spiritual descendant of "For No One," similarly telling a sad, so sad story of a lonely life yearning for meaning and connection.

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

Why am I suddenly obsessed with this song? Part of the answer is its newly-minted availability to me: it was on a CD-R I received in December from Radio Deer Camp host Rich Firestone, and a spin of that rekindled my interest in a song I always loved. It also reminded me that I had a little crush on Melanie when I was a pre-teen, and it immersed me in a belated realization of how friggin' transcendent The Edwin Hawkins Singers are as they back up Ms. Safka on a simply incredible, transcendent recording. There's a great YouTube clip of them performing the song together on a TV show in The Netherlands, I will not deny my obsession, and the track is gonna be in my GREM! book. Lay down already.

POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Anymore

We love Pop Co-Op, as evidenced by how much airplay we eagerly gave to their two albums (so far), 2017's Four State Solution and 2020's Factory Settings. I have a lot of Pop Co-Op fave raves, but it occurs to me that "You Don't Love Me Anymore" is my fave among faves. The lads gave us use of the track for 2017's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and there's something about it that resonates. I know I'm generally an uptempo rockin' pop guy, but I'm also a sucker for songs of regret, songs that effectively convey the ache of love slipping away, chances slipping away. The Factory Settings track "Persistence Of Memory" has that ache in spades, and so does "You Don't Love Me Anymore." It's like Chad and Jeremy playing with The Smithereens, and--as another versatile pop group noted elsewhere--you know that can't be bad.

KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

Wednesday at Noon Eastern. At long last.

STEVIE WONDER: Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours

That's this Wednesday at Noon. Time to make America good again.

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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.