10 SONGS: 6/15/2024

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single. 

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1237

THE SHIRTS: Move On Groove On

Hey Carl! Dig THIS!

Over a span of years--decades, really--most music fans have benefitted from inspiration and specific recommendations to discover new (or at least new-to-us) sounds: New records, new artists, new discoveries, each a fresh revelation even when it happens to be a record released before we were born. Any record you ain't heard is a new record.

I benefitted from friends and family, from helpful and knowledgeable folks at record stores, and from mass media. Rock magazines. Radio stations. The pursuit of buzz. I'm still on the hunt for all of it.

Alas, no one hipped me to the Shirts in the '70s. A few live tracks on the Live At CBGB's various-artists set were the only Shirts material I recall hearing at the time, and that didn't grab me like, say, Bowery scene contemporaries the Ramones, Blondie, and Television grabbed me. i didn't get hip to how GREAT the Shirts were until the '90s at the earliest, whenever it was that I snapped up a used CD reissue of the Shirts' eponymous debut album from 1979.

Instant thrall. Maybe I said to myself, Hey Carl! Dig THIS! I know I cursed the passage of a couple of decades that I had wasted by delaying my entry into Shirts fandom. But what the hell--I'm there now. Any record you ain't heard....

Through all of that, I certainly didn't think it likely that I would ever be able to enjoy a brand-new Shirts release. 

But the Shirts are back! The Shirts' new single "Move On Groove On" retains the spunk and sass of the old days, sidestepping nostalgia and just, y'know, doing. NEW SHIRTS! And they fit just fine. Dig THIS!

(All of the above also applies to "Move On Groove On" 's virtual B-side "Deux Royale;" we opened this week's show with "Move On Groove On" and programmed "Deux Royale" near show's end. In between, we supplemented our Shirts appreciation with recent fave rave "The Man Behind The Man With A Gun" by Shirts guitarist Arthur Lamonica's group Rome 56 and another spin of the '79 Shirts nugget "Tell Me Your Plans." The Shirts return to TIRnRR next week. The digging never stops. Our overcompensation has gotta start somewhere.)

THE FLASHCUBES: Nothing Really Matters When You're Young

THE SPONGETONES: Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?

IYKYK

AMOS MILBURN: Down The Road Apiece

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is due out on July 10th, and it's available for preorder right now (as mentioned here). The book does not include a chapter about "Down The Road Apiece" by Amos Milburn; maybe I'll get around to writing that chapter for Volume 2. But Milburn's record is mentioned at least twice in Volume 1, within my chapters about Big Mama Thornton and Ike and Tina Turner. 

Why? Because I insist that Amos Milburn's 1947 recording of "Down The Road Apiece" is the very first rock 'n' roll record. It predates Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" (1949) and Jackie Brentson and his Delta Cats (1951), the latter really Brentson singing with Ike Turner's group. 

No one can tell me "Down The Road Apiece" ain't rock 'n' roll. If there was something earlier that rocks like this does, I haven't heard about it yet.

THE ANDERSON COUNCIL: Connection

THE MIGHTY LEMON DROPS: Paint It Black

A twin spin of Rolling Stones covers, starting with the Anderson Council's "Connection" (from the ace current tribute compilation Jem Records Celebrates Jagger & Richards) and barrelin' into the Mighty Lemon Drops' 1988 live performance of "Paint It Black." Wet paint connection! 

(Wet paint connection is like the rainbow connection except, y'know...black! Black as night! Black as coal! Connect away.)

THE MYNAH BIRDS: I Got You (In My Soul)

The Mynah Birds were signed to Motown in the mid '60s, and the group was fronted by a then-unknown Rick James and also included the likewise then-unknown Neil Young. The Mynah Birds broke up due to extracurricular circumstances--James was busted and incarcerated for being AWOL from the military--and Motown opted to let the group's recordings remain in the vault. Young went on to Buffalo Springfield and, I guess, did some other stuff after that. 

Unlike Amos Milburn's "Down The Road Apiece," I did complete a chapter about the Mynah Birds' originally-unreleased 1966 classic "I Got You (In My Soul)." It was written as part of a chapter about "Super Freak" by Rick James, a piece I later split into two separate chapters. "Super Freak" is in the book; "I Got You (In My Soul)" is in reserve, but you can read it here.

And I still can't get my head around the idea of what might have been. Rick James and Neil Young. That coulda been something else, man.

COTTON MATHER: The Book Of Too Late Changes

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

sparkle*jets u.k.: Box Of Letters

Man, I like this track. "Box Of Letters" is the current single from sparkle*jets u.k., and it turns out that it's also going to be the title track from their imminent (but not soon enough) new album. We debuted the single last week. We played it again this week. It notches up its third consecutive TIRnRR appearance this coming Sunday night. Sometimes it's best to think inside the box. Sparkle is as sparkle does.

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Back To Schooldays

Although it would be inaccurate to call the great Graham Parker a punk rocker, the irascible 'n' irrepressible vibe of some of his 1970s material places him (at the very least) on punk's periphery. Parker wasn't a punk...but a lot of punks loved him. This punk sure did.

As such, GP was among the first artists I ever heard within this broad not-really-a-category category of the punk-adjacent. In my senior year of high school, 1976-77, WOUR-FM in Utica, NY was playing Parker's "Hotel Chambermaid," and they were also playing Nick Lowe's "So It Goes." In the summer of '77, WOUR added the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" to its parade of Hey, Carl! Dig THIS!! revelations. None of these three sounded at all like the other two. The common ground was attitude. 

The shared trait was transcendence.

Graham Parker is, of course, still at it, gloriously still at it, and still a reliable resource for Hey, Carl! Dig THIS! Graham Parker and the Goldtops' 2023 album Last Chance To Learn The Twist was one of the year's highlights, and our friends at Big Stir Records have just issued another digital single from that record.

The A-side, "Last Stretch Of The Road," is the de facto source of its album's title, and it scored TIRnRR airplay last year. Its B-side is a searin' live version of GP's classic 1976 rocker und roller "Back To Schooldays." 

I don't remember whether or not we've ever played Parker's original studio version, but we're playing the new live version now. Hey, listeners! Dig THIS! 

Label at your own risk. But perhaps there are still more chances to learn the Twist.

Dig?

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

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

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

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: The Book Of Too Late Changes

Drawn from previous posts, this is not part of my long-threaten...er, my FORTHCOMING book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

COTTON MATHER: The Book Of Too Late Changes

Written by Robert Harrison

Produced by Robert Harrison

From the album Death Of The Cool, The Star Apple Kingdom, 2016

Cotton Mather has been a This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Fave Rave for nearly as long as there has been a This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Our show made its debut on December 27th 1998, and we played "Homefront Cameo" from Cotton Mather's 1997 album Kontiki three weeks later on our 1/17/99 show (my 39th birthday). "My Before And After" from Kontiki became a top favorite during our first year on the air, and it remains one of our all-time most-played tracks. 

"Payday," from Cotton Mather's 1994 album Cotton Is King, also received significant TIRnRR airplay over the years, and we've loved and played a number of other Cotton Mather tracks over the course of our...my God, we've done more than 1200 shows...? What?! Man, that explains why I'm not 39 years old anymore!

Through it all, "My Before And After" has been our defining, go-to Cotton Mather track, with "Payday" serving ably in its role as stalwart understudy, with a number of other worthies from "Ivanhoe" to "Better Than A Hit" always poised at the ready. 

So I guess it borders on heresy to suggest now that "The Book Of Too Late Changes" (from their 2016 album Death Of The Cool) has become my favorite Cotton Mather track. "The Book Of Too Late Changes" is just...everything, a willfully excessive pop assault, with drumming that channels Keith Moon and a vocal tag that evokes classical influences while remaining wholly, unerringly rooted in classic, hyperbolic AM radio oomph. 

The 2016 release of Birth Of The Cool followed a fifteen-year break from the idea of new Cotton Mather music. They had seemed the next best thing to next big thing...and then they weren't. Per a report on genius.com, Cotton Mather's Robert Harrison told a reporter from Texas Monthly:

"The question was, where do I begin? One problem is you have to convince people you’re worth hearing again. I knew it had to be something explosive. I consulted the I Ching and got hexagram 24, 'The Return,' which is about turning back onto the path. So I thought, I’ll make it about the return of Cotton Mather. I wrote the song, which I call 'The Book of Too Late Changes.' It’s an answer to people who might say, 'What happened to Cotton Mather? You guys got really big and then were gone.' I thought, This needs the full rock production. It’s way over the top. Pretty soon I had about seven songs written or in production in my home studio. By summer I had some more."

Over the top? In the best way. Elsewhere, I've written that I hate singers who over-sing and guitarists who over-play, but that I'm fine with drummers who over-drum. MORE than fine, actually! Gimme Keith Moon, man! Gimme action. And gimme Cotton Mather's "The Book Of Too Late Changes."

Heresy be damned. I am as Cotton Mather made me. Book it. It's never too late.

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

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

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

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 10/26/2021

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.

The first of two editions of 10 Songs this week draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. 

THE ARMOIRES: Appalachukrainia

We are, of course, big fans of Big Stir Records, the reliable rockin' pop label run by noted beautiful people Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko. We opened TIRnRR # 1100 with Big Stir recording artists the Brothers Steve promising "We Got The Hits," and a bit later we added Rex and Christina's own combo the Armoires and Dana's favorite Armoires track, "Appalachukrainia." I like it, too!

BILL BERRY: 1-800-Colonoscopy

Congratulations are in order, hypothetically....

Yep, it's the love theme from 2020. Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" is from the John Wicks tribute album For The Record, a song co-written by the late John Wicks and TIRnRR's old friend Rich Rossi. It remains way, way catchier than a song with "colonoscopy" in its title has any right to be.

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

For as many beloved acts who have cast their benevolent influence on Dana and I, there are a handful whose impact is beyond all others. The Beatles and the Ramones are the most obvious examples, but none of what we do is possible without Chuck Berry first showing us the way. Berry and Elvis Presley are virtually tied for the title of the single most important act in the history of rock 'n' roll, and ya can't go wrong with either choice. Nothing else happens without both Chuck Berry and King Elvis I lighting the spark. This is what I wrote when Berry passed in 2017:

"It is impossible to overstate the impact of Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry didn't invent rock 'n' roll; that music and its tangled roots were already in place before he started playing his guitar like a-ringin' a bell. But Chuck Berry defined rock 'n' roll. He gave it shape and substance, depth and meaning, a resonance that transcended its roadhouse and jukebox genesis as simple party music, while still remaining simple party music. Chuck Berry invented rock's swagger, its bounce, its groove, its very identity. He crafted the words that had 'em rocking in Boston, and Pittsburgh, PA, deep in the heart of Texas, and around Frisco Bay. Sure, Chuck Berry didn't invent rock 'n' roll; he merely transformed it into the music that we now all know and love.

"In the story of rock 'n' roll, there is no one--no group or individual--more integral than Chuck Berry. No one. Not the Beatles and not the Rolling Stones, neither of whom would have even existed if not for Chuck Berry. Not Ray Charles, not Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, the Kinks, the Ramones, Smokey Robinson, the Isley Brothers, Otis, Janis, Bowie, Prince, the Who, the Sex Pistols, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, the Beach Boys, and not anyone else you wanna try to slip into the conversation, either. Not even Elvis Presley, who would likely have the strongest claim otherwise. These are giants. These are the seemingly peerless stars who forged this music we love. Giants.

"Giants? Absolutely. Yet Chuck Berry stood above them all.

"Chuck Berry's influence rose above pop music, crossed racial and social and economic divides, and reached across generations. I discovered it second hand, via the Beatles' cover of 'Rock And Roll Music' on Beatles '65. When either WOLF-AM or WNDR-AM (or both) started playing 'Johnny B. Goode' regularly in the early '70s, I don't think I even realized it was an oldie, and I wouldn't have cared either way. I loved it, and I wanted to hear it all the time. I still do. 'Sweet Little Sixteen' 'School Day.' 'Memphis, Tennessee.' 'Let It Rock.' 'Promised Land.' So many others, so many songs that I will never tire of hearing again and again.

"John Lennon said, 'If you had to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.' Writer and rocker Mick Farren warned us that we should never trust a rock band that didn't know any Chuck Berry songs. Ben Vaughn notes that 'Our Shakespeare has left us.' Roll over, Beethoven; there was only one Chuck Berry: motorvatin' over the hill, campaign shoutin' like a Southern diplomat, roundin' third and headin' for home, a brown-eyed handsome man. Bye bye, Johnny, goodbye Johnny B. Goode."

"Johnny B. Goode" is one of my favorite Chuck Berry numbers, and it almost made the playlist for TIRnRR # 1100. But "Promised Land" is the greatest record ever made.

COTTON MATHER: My Before And After

When we started playing Cotton Mather's "My Before And After" in 1999, our friend Dave Murray contacted us to say it might not actually be an unreleased Beatles track but it sure sounds like one. We've played a ton of other Cotton Mather songs, from "Payday" to "The Book Of Too Late Changes" and more, but "My Before And After" will always be among the defining tracks of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell

We like to refer to the Kinks as our House Band. Holly Golightly's ace reading of "Time Will Tell" is one of the greatest renditions of a Ray Davies song by anyone not named "the Kinks." Holly's "Time Will Tell" merits a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

JEREMY: Living The Dream

Singer-songwriter-musician Jeremy Morris has released roughly, oh, a zillion albums in varying styles over a span of decades. His label JAM Recordings was the home of the first two This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CDs, and we wanted to include Jeremy in this celebration of whatever the hell it is we do here. "Living The Dream" comes from Jeremy's 2020 album--wait for it!--Living The Dream, which also includes Jeremy's ace take on the Byrds' "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star." Keep living the dream, Jeremy--and thanks!

THE MUFFS: On My Own

Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" was our second-most-played track in 2020. The Muffs' "On My Own" was # 1.

We have a long history of playing the Muffs. Dana and I played their track "Saying Goodbye" on one of our old pre-TIRnRR shows in the mid '90s, and we played it again on TIRnRR # 1 in 1998. We continued to play that and many other Muffs gems over the following decades. We were crushed when the group's leader Kim Shattuck died in 2019.

We mourned Kim's passing in the most positive way we could muster: we kept on playing her music. When the Muffs' de facto farewell album No Holiday was released in late '19, we jumped on the track "On My Own," embracing its transcendent sadness as our own. Godspeed, Kim.

THE ORION EXPERIENCE: Adrianne

If memory serves, we first heard of the Orion Experience when our pal Robbie Rist raved about their album Cosmicandy in 2007. SOLD!! "Adrianne" went on to be one of our most-played tracks that year, and its shiny pop luster is undimmed by the rigors of the decade-and-change that have passed since then. (Robbie was himself represented on this week's extravaganza as a member of the Andersons!, whose "From The Get-Go" was a shoo-in for airplay this week.)

THE PHENOMENAL CATS: Seagirl

I've been corresponding with Keith Klingensmith since the '90s, a story told here and here. Over the course of TIRnRR # 1-1099, we've played some of Keith's work with Popdudes, Chris Richards, the Slapbacks, possibly Hippodrome, and probably someone else my brain's currently hoarding in its miserly memory bank. And we've for sure played the Legal Matters, whose "Light Up The Sky" seems to be on a collision course with our 2021 year-end countdown. 

Keith's long history of airplay here began with the Phenomenal Cats. I mean, ya gotta love an act that takes its name from a track on my favorite Kinks album, The Village Green Preservation Society. I reviewed their 1996 EP Seagirl And 5 Other Dogs for Goldmine, and its title tune scored some early burn here once we started this Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet gig. Keith's Futureman Records imprint is also the home of the digital downloads of our TIRnRR compilations, so Gabba Gabba, one of us! Then, as now, glad to have you on the team, Keith.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. The record that changed my life. And also the first song in our warmly-received 301 Songs About 301 Girls gimmick in 2011 (a gimmick which concluded with "Christi Girl" by the Flashcubes). The Ramones absolutely had to be part of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. We'll look at ten more of TIRnRR # 1100's songs on Thursday.

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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
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I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 4/28/2020

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 # 1022.

BADFINGER: Baby Blue



My favorite song on the radio in the '70s, possibly my favorite radio song of all time. Badfinger's "Baby Blue" was the very first song written up for my series The Greatest Record Ever Made!, which celebrates the durable notion that an infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. As I move forward with my intent to turn this notion into a big book called The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), that Badfinger entry follows an Overture of The Ramones' "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" to get the party started. I really, really love this song.


THE BEATLES: I Should Have Known Better



One weekend when I was in high school (probably in '76- '77, my senior year), one of the NYC TV stations we received via cable in suburban North Syracuse played The Beatles' 1964 movie A Hard Day's Night. I don't remember how many times I had already seen it by that point. Four-year-old me saw it at The North Drive-In in Cicero during its first run, I saw it at least once on TV, on the night of the 1968 presidential election, and probably another time or two after that. I may have also seen it at The Hollywood Theatre in Mattydale at some '70s matinee; I know I saw Let It Be and Magical Mystery Tour on a Hollywood double bill, so it's plausible that A Hard Day's Night played there too, maybe with Yellow Submarine? I don't know. (I do know that I had only seen their 1965 movie Help! on TV. I think. Or maybe it was Help! instead of Yellow Submarine on a double bill with A Hard Day's Night at the Hollywood. I should have kept better notes as a teenager.)

Anyway, my point is that I had certainly seen A Hard Day's Night a few times prior to its screening on WPIX or WOR or WNEW or whatever on that Saturday night in the late '70s. I'm pretty sure I already regarded it as my all-time favorite movie, edging past Duck Soup and What's Up, Doc? and Batman and any of my other most cherished cinematic treasures when I was in my teens. I'd inherited a copy of the film's paperback novelization when my sister moved out, allowing me to re-live A Hard Day's Night at will, even in those days before home video became commonplace. I loved the film without reservation, and was delighted with the opportunity to see it again.



I watched the movie at home, alone. As it ran, right after the scene where the Fab Four sing "I Should Have Known Better" to Paul McCartney's very clean grandfather and some girls (including George Harrison's future wife Patti Boyd) in the train's luggage compartment, my phone rang. It was my friend Tom, also watching the movie (possibly for the first time) over at his house. That song, he said. Do you have it? I replied in the affirmative, and he said, I'm borrowing it, and hung up. Back to the movie. On Monday, I brought my family copy of the film's soundtrack LP to school for Tom to borrow, and he returned it to me shortly thereafter, presumably having now added it to his cassette library.

All these decades later, "I Should Have Known Better" is one of a few songs that still immediately bring Tom to my mind. It's a good memory, even given its tragic aftermath. I've written many times of how Tom's suicide in 1979 devastated me, haunted me, and I don't intend to use a title like "I Should Have Known Better" as a rueful commentary on that. No. I hang on to the good memories, too. 

And it is a good memory: a memory of watching my favorite movie, and a memory of its connection to one of my best friends. It's a good thing, a great thing, in spite of all that came afterward. Should I have known better? That's not for me to say.



COTTON MATHER: The Book Of Too Late Changes



Cotton Mather has been a TIRnRR Fave Rave for nearly as long as there has been a TIRnRR. Our show made its debut on December 27th 1998, and we played "Homefront Cameo" from Cotton Mather's 1997 album Kontiki three weeks later on our 1/17/99 show (my 39th birthday). "My Before And After" from Kontiki became a top favorite during our first year on the air, and it remains one of our all-time most-played tracks. "Payday," from Cotton Mather's 1994 album Cotton Is King, also received significant TIRnRR airplay over the years, and we've loved and played a number of other Cotton Mather tracks over the course of our...my God, we've done 1022 shows...? What?! Man, that explains why I'm not 39 years old anymore!

Through it all, "My Before And After" has been our defining, go-to Cotton Mather track, with "Payday" serving ably in its role as stalwart understudy, with a number of other worthies from "Ivanhoe" to "Better Than A Hit" always poised at the ready. And I guess it borders on heresy to suggest now that "The Book Of Too Late Changes" (from their 2016 album Death Of The Cool) has become my favorite Cotton Mather track. "The Book Of Too Late Changes" is just...everything, an over-the-top pop assault, with drumming that channels Keith Moon and a vocal tag that evokes classical influences while remaining wholly, unerringly rooted in classic, hyperbolic AM radio oomph. Heresy be damned. I am as Cotton Mather made me.

RICH FIRESTONE: If The Sun Doesn't Shine



Rich Firestone and his wife Kathy Firestone (collectively aka Reechie and Frodis) are among my longest-standing online pals. Our cyber-paths first crossed in the early '90s on Prodigy, probably on a board devoted to The Monkees. They've been good friends and dedicated supporters of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. We're proud to spin Reechie's solo debut, a cover of The Smithereens' "If The Sun Doesn't Shine," taken from The TM Collective's salute to The Smithereens' Green Thoughts album.

Rich is, of course, a long-time fan of The Smithereens; his heartfelt eulogy for the group's late frontman Pat DiNizio is one of this blog's most-read pieces, and the connection he and Kathy had with them forms the core of the Smithereens chapter in my book. If Rich's solo debut wasn't gonna be a Monkees song, it made perfect sense that it would be a Smithereens song.

(I say solo debut, because TIRnRR has indeed played Rich before, in other incarnations. Rich sings back-up on "I Could Be Good For You" by Steve Stoeckel and his This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio All-Stars on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, and he's one of the lead vocal participants in TIR'N'RR Allstars' "Waterloo Sunset" on Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio (available on CD or as a download); "Waterloo Sunset" even has a video to prove its Reechie content. And Mr. Firestone was the lead singer of The Tweakers, a legendarily obscure combo whose obscure legend should begin any minute now, and whose sole released work was "Super Secret Mystery Track" on the expanded This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3. We played that track once on TIRnRR. I would tell you more about it, but then it wouldn't be a secret.)

And now, Rich Firestone takes the spotlight, covering a song from an album that meant an awful lot to him. He's backed up here by 3/4 of Pop Co-Op: Steve Stoeckel, Joel Tinnel, and Stacy Carson, with keyboard work by Alex Tinnel. (The fourth member of Pop Co-Op, Bruce Gordon, was unavailable when the track was recorded, busy in Gotham City helping Batman thwart another evil plan by the insidious Eclipso. A grateful world thanks Bruce for his service.) 



And Reechie? Reechie shines, man. More please, Reechie. More.


THE ISLEY BROTHERS: It's Your Thing



There seem to be at least three distinct, separate periods in The Isley Brothers' recording career (more if you wanna split up the period from 1969 on). There was their classic early period commencing just before the dawn of the 1960s, influencing The Beatles with "Shout" and "Twist And Shout." There was their Tamla-Motown period circa '66-'67, which yielded the hit "This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)" and the shoulda-been hit "Got To Have You Back." And there was the period beginning in 1969, when The Isley Brothers started releasing work on their own label, T-Neck Records. "It's Your Thing" was the group's first hit on T-Neck.

"It's Your Thing" doesn't sound materially different from The Isleys' Tamla output, containing just the merest hint of some funkier underpinnings to follow in the '70s. But it was the start of something big. With their own label, The Isley Brothers had their thing, and did what they wanted to to do.

THE KINKS: See My Friends



I'm not 100% sure where I first heard The Kinks' 1965 single "See My Friends." I initially knew "See My Friends" from the great British group The Records, who included their version in an all-covers EP that came with the purchase of The Records' debut LP in 1979. My first exposure to The Kinks' original must have been Golden Hour Of The Kinks, a 1977 compilation I picked up as a budget cassette release in the mid '80s. With the possible exception of my bootleg live Flashcubes tape, Golden Hour Of The Kinks was my favorite cassette, even more so than the (then-) contemporary garage sampler Garage Sale. I listened to Golden Hour Of The Kinks over and over on the boom box my Uncle Carl gave Brenda and I as a wedding gift in 1984, with only a couple of Beatles tapes (Help! and Beatles For Sale) challenging its boom-box sovereignty. Golden Hour Of The Kinks hooked me on "Animal Farm," reinforced my adoration of "Days," "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion," "Till The End Of The Day," "Waterloo Sunset," "Dead End Street," "Shangri-La," and "You Really Got Me," and it introduced me to the original "See My Friends." Best cassette ever? A contender at the very least.

KISS: Shout It Out Loud



Another fond memory of my friend Tom is going to see KISS in 1976, my first rock concert. And yeah, "Shout It Out Loud" merits a chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

JUSTINE'S BLACK THREADS: Needles And Pins


"Vengeance" by Justine and the Unclean knocks me out, so we played it last week and again this week, and it was featured in last week's 10 Songs. A perfectly-clean Justine Covault also fronts Justine's Black Threads, whose debut album Cheap Vacation is due in June from Rum Bar Records. Their cover of "Needles And Pins" is available right now, a lovely alt-country take on this classic, a version that would make Jackie DeShannon, The Searchers, and The Ramones all say, "AWRIGHT!" I say it, too. 

LED ZEPPELIN: Communication Breakdown


I've never had quite the level of interest in Led Zeppelin as many of my peers. I don't think I ever actually disliked them, and I have occasionally cranked something from my modest Led Zep collection with the vim and vigor of those about to have their lemons squeezed. I don't listen to them often, but I do listen, and I do dig. As my book's chapter on "Communication Breakdown" explains:

I was never much of a Led Zeppelin fan; they were just there, everywhere, like inflation or TV sitcoms or halter tops, symptoms of my 1970s. (I was, incidentally, in favor of halter tops.) In the days of my youth, there were good Led Zep times, and there were bad Led Zep times. Sometimes I liked them, sometimes I didn't. And some times I thought there okay, but that I just really didn't need to hear them anymore. Good times, bad times, I know I had my share.

It's not a band's fault when their music gets overplayed. I can't imagine ever getting sick of The Beatles, but I do sort of comprehend the feeling of those who hear "Yeah Yeah Yeah!" and answer "No! No! NO!!!" I don't have much affinity for most of the tracks favored by classic rock radio formats; I wonder if I would have retained a greater appreciation of the music of Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Pink Floyd, or later Rolling Stones (each of whom I do like to some degree) or even Lynyrd Skynrd or The Eagles (whom I generally do not) if they were all obscurities I discovered in the vinyl underground, rather than ubiquitous fixtures on every stereo except mine.

But I like 'em when I like 'em. And I like "Communication Breakdown" a lot.

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

Yeah, we've been playing this one a few times lately. Terrific track co-written by Marykate O'Neil and Jill Sobule, and an appropriate sentiment for the current landscape. On Monday morning I added the song to my Greatest Record Ever Made! book. It occupies a climactic spot near the book's end, nestled naturally between Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)" and Eytan Mirsky's "This Year Will Be Our Year." Belief feeds hope. 

If you're ready.


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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:

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Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 134 essays about 134 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).