10 SONGS: 10/18/2025

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 # 1306

THE HALF/CUBES FEATURING ROBERT CRENSHAW AND TOM TEELEY: Whenever You're On My Mind

One of the many things on my mind right now is Found Pearls, the straight-up kickass new album from the Half/Cubes. We've been poundin' the well-beaten console on behalf of the album's advance single "I'll Be Taking Her Out Tonight," an irresistible collaboration with Peter Noone to remake a shoulda-been-a-smash first done by his early '80s new wave pop group the Tremblers. 

With the October 17th release of the album, the storied Jem Records label has lifted its radio embargo on the rest of this great, great record, finally freeing us to open this week's little mutant radio show with the lead-off track from Found Pearls: An epic oomphasizing of Marshall Crenshaw's "Whenever You're On My Mind," which the Half/Cubes accomplish with the ample added oomph of assistance from Robert Crenshaw and Tom Teeley.

You can read my gushing hype on behalf of Found Pearls here. And tune in to TIRnRR this coming Sunday night, October 19th, as the Half/Cubes will be our Featured Performers, and two lucky listeners will each win their own copy of Found Pearls. 

That, my assembled comrades, is worth keeping on your mind as well.

THE DRIFTERS: Save The Last Dance For Me

Decades ago, it occurred to me that if there is a Heaven above, its celestial soundscape has gotta be the music of the Drifters. You could make a case that it's Brian Wilson instead, and I'd also argue that it ain't Heaven without the Ramones, Ronnie Spector, and many others.

But the Drifters? For sure. Heaven's vocal group. Save the eternal dance for me.

THE COWSILLS: Is Your Love Alive?

At last! The visionaries at Omnivore Records have given the Cowsills' 1978 Cocaine Drain tapes a proper release, and the result is glorious. We are big, big fans of the Cowsills, but as much as we cherish their hits like "Hair" and "The Rain, The Park And Other Things," it's the stuff they did later on that really nails it for me. The Cowsills' Global is my favorite album of the 1990s, and its track "She Said To Me" earns a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). 

Recorded about two decades before the release of Global, the material on Omnivore's The "Cocaine Drain" Album is similarly worthy of acclaim. And comparing it to the lo-fi copy I've had for a bit, this version of The Cocaine Drain is of (very!) noticeably superior sound quality. Reissue of the year? Could be. "Is Your Love Alive?" makes its TIRnRR debut this week. We'll hear another track from The "Cocaine Drain" Album on our next show.

THE ARMOIRES: Full-On Witch Mode

We've been playing tracks from Big Stir Records' magnificent new Halloween extravaganza Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies, treating our listeners to at least one of the album's tricked-out goodies every week. This week's full-size candy offering comes courtesy of the label's de facto house band the Armoires, who conjure their appropriately spellbinding original "Full-On Witch Mode." You can hear a new interview with Big Stir CAOs (Chief Armoires Officers) Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome (plus Big Stir's resident wizard Michael Simmons) on a new episode of Only Three Lads podcast, AND on a new episode of The Spoon podcast. It's better than bobbing for hand grenades! And our ritual programming of Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies will continue on Sunday night. 

SORROWS: Radio

THE FLASHCUBES: If These Hands

In 1979, "Radio" was the B-side of the Flashcubes' second single "Wait Til Next Week." The A-side has long been a Cubic prerequisite, but "Radio" was kinda shrugged off and ultimately consigned to the group's odds-n-sods dustbin.

For Big Stir's various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, I recruited classic NYC power pop combo Sorrows to contribute a track, and they selected "Radio" as their designated flash of reflected brilliance. Good choice! The Flashcubes themselves now regard this Sorrows rendition of "Radio" as the definitive version of the song.

I recently heard from Sorrows member Arthur Alexander, expressing his opinion that the three best tracks on Make Something Happen! are the three new cuts by the Flashcubes themselves: "Reminisce" by Paul Armstrong, "The Sweet Spot" by Gary Frenay and B.D. Love, and "If These Hands" by Arty Lenin. Arthur wrote, "There is something quite endearing in the fact that the best tracks on a tribute album belong to the band being paid tribute to!"

Arthur singled out "If These Hands" as his fave among faves. And I'll just add that all of it was made to be played on the radio. Got our transmitter ready to go.

THE YARDBIRDS: Heart Full Of Soul

The Yardbirds' "Heart Full Of Soul" holds a permanent berth on my all-time Hot 100; hell, it's a legit contender for my all-time Top 10. Coincidentally, it's also the song that served as the (perhaps unlikely) tipping point for my initiation as a Flashcubes fan, when the 'Cubes covered "Heart Full Of Soul" at my first Flashcubes show in January of 1978.

THE RAMONES: Babysitter

When Dana and I were guests on Only Three Lads last year, I named "Babysitter" as one of my five favorite Ramones songs. I don't recall ever hearing the song anywhere except when I've played it, whether at home, in my car, or on the radio. I was so pleasantly surprised to hear Palmyra Delran play it last week on her essential Underground Garage radio show.  I always love hearing the Ramones; I really loved hearing this particular Ramones song in the Palmyra Delran-directed wild. PALMYRA DELRAN FOR PRESIDENT!

I wrote about "Babysitter" in a piece about my 25 favorite Ramones tracks: " 'Babysitter' was the B-side of the Ramones' 1978 single "Do You Wanna Dance?" Previously, it had been included on later UK pressings of the 1977 Leave Home album (replacing 'Carbona Not Glue'), but the song was non-LP in America. When I bought the 45 in the spring of '78, hearing 'Babysitter' for the first time prompted me to say, "My GAWD, the Searchers live on!" I for damned sure meant that as a compliment."

(I went into greater detail about "Babysitter" in this piece.

IRENE PEÑA: Must've Been Good

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

DAVID JOHANSEN: Funky But Chic

I think "Funky But Chic" was the first David Johansen solo track I ever heard, a college radio spin on the Brockport campus radio station WBSU in...well, probably 1979. I'm not sure if I heard my first-ever New York Dolls tunes--"Personality Crisis" and "Who Are The Mystery Girls"--shortly before or shortly after being introduced to "Funky But Chic." It was all within the same time frame, though I was definitely already familiar with "Personality Crisis" via its inclusion in the Flashcubes' live sets. In full circle fashion, the Flashcubes were subsequently the opening act at my first David Johansen show a few months after I heard "Funky But Chic" on WBSU.

Given "Funky But Chic" 's status as my rock 'n' roll nurse's gateway pills to solo David Jo, it's weird that this week marks the first time "Funky But Chic" has made it into a TIRnRR playlist. It was on the short list of tracks considered for our combined David Johansen/Joey Molland tribute in March, but it was crowded out by other selections. Hearing Palmyra Delran play it on Underground Garage (in the same show as her above-referenced Ramones spin) finally nudged the song into its rightful place here on The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet.

"Personality Crisis" is my favorite Dolls track. "Frenchette" is my go-to solo Johansen pick. But as we go on and on looking for a kiss, one should never forget their first. Funky. But chic. Trés chic, man. Thanks to the ever-chic Palmyra Delran for the reminder.

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.

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: 3/15/2025

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 # 1276

DAVID JOHANSEN: Cool Metro

BADFINGER: Got To Get Out Of Here

About two weeks ago, I received an email from my long-time pal Beth informing me of the death of David Johansen. As a solo artist and as the lead singer of the New York Dolls, Johansen's work was of enormous importance to me. Beth had a reasonable (and correct) expectation that TIRnRR would be paying tribute to Johansen at our earliest opportunity, and I immediately set to work sketching out a blueprint for that very thing.

The next day, we learned that Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland had also passed. Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is THE # 1 song on my all-time Hot 100; it was the subject of my very first Greatest Record Ever Made! essay, which was subsequently an important early chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Given this radio show's affectionate debt to the Dolls and Badfinger, it seemed imperative for us to attempt proper tributes to both Johansen and Molland.

We opened this week's program with "Cool Metro," a track from Johansen's first solo album. The song was co-written by David Jo and former Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, it sounds like it could have been a Dolls song, and it was also the designated opening salvo in the David Johansen Group's live shows in the late '70s. There could be no other selection to kick things off for us here.

We made an early decision to place less emphasis on Badfinger's best-known material. Molland had not yet joined Badfinger when they recorded their first hit (the Paul McCartney-penned "Come And Get It"), and the other hits--"Baby Blue," "No Matter What," and "Day After Day," plus the oft-covered LP track "Without You"--were all written by the group's other guitarist, Pete Ham. We threw in one of the hits at show's end, but our other three Badfinger picks--"Got To Get Out Of Here," "Love Is Easy," and "Love Is Gonna Come At Last"--were written by Molland. "Got To Get Out Of Here" (from the group's 1974 album Wish You Were Here) was the first such track to pop into my mind, and it's a good one. I didn't score a copy of Wish You Were Here until many years after the fact, so my introduction to "Got To Get Out Of Here" came via Rhino Records' 1990 compilation The Best Of Badfinger Volume II. Very cool track, regardless of how one gets to it.

NATURAL GAS: I've Been Waitin'

Prior to assembling potential tracks for our salute to Joey Molland, I was not at all familiar with Natural Gas, the group Molland joined after leaving Badfinger. The band's name practically plods with period AOR anonymity, but their lone album from 1976 is pretty good, and Molland's "I've Been Waitin'" offers a very nice slice of '70s heavy rockin' pop.

JOEY MOLLAND: Rainy Day Man

Joey Molland's final solo album Be True To Yourself was released in 2020, and it was and remains such an agreeably pop record, Beatley and Badfingery without pandering or nostalgia-mongering. We were immediately drawn to its track "Rainy Day Man," and if that wasn't the single it should have been. Gorgeous.

DAVID JOHANSEN: Frenchette

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

JOEY MOLLAND: You Make Me Sick

"You Make Me Sick" was a track on Joey Molland's 1992 album The Pilgrim, which I reviewed an approximate million years ago when I was a freelance writer for Goldmine magazine:

"While the world waits for the remainder of the Badfinger catalog to finally see reissue, former 'Finger Joey Molland returns with his first solo album in ages. Casual Badfinger fans may not be blown away by The Pilgrim, but more serious fans will take cautious delight in this long-awaited work.

"The album opens with its most aggressive track, the anti-Gulf War 'You Make Me Sick.' Subsequent tracks vary stylistically from the ballad 'No One Likes The Rain' to 'Your Eyes,' a rocker reminiscent of Nick Lowe. 'Vampire Wedding' dips into Anne Rice territory, while 'All The Way' (the album's original title track) simply drones on for too long.

"It's somewhat surprising to note that each track retains an indefinable but unmistakable Apple flavor--the songs sound of a piece, not only with Badfinger's now-classic recordings for the Apple label, but also with work by former label mate Jackie Lomax. This may be attributed to a critic's overactive imagination, but the Apple sound (if there is such a thing) is definitely still in the grooves for Molland.

"We'd like to say that the material here rivals Badfinger hits like 'Baby Blue' and 'No Matter What,' but that would be stretching the truth to the point of, well, outright lying. Molland is not the late Pete Ham, and we wouldn't even bother with the comparison if the Rock Critics' Code didn't specifically require that the current work of former Apple artists be constantly contrasted with their work of over 20 years ago. Sorry, but them's union rules.

"Really, Molland shouldn't need to rely on past glories. The fact that he didn't go for the easy name recognition and release this as an album by Joey Molland's Badfinger (the name under which he tours) is admirable, and makes the point that it's time to treat Molland as the solo artist he is. For Badfinger fans, The Pilgrim builds successfully upon Molland's previous work. For novices, this is as good a place as any to start. Come and get it."

Shortly before the release of Be True To Yourself in 2020, Dana pulled out "You Make Me Sick" for a spin, prompting me to write:

"We're looking forward to former Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland's new album Be True To Yourself, which is due out in October, and which features support from the likes of Micky Dolenz, Julian Lennon, Mark Hudson, and more. While we're waiting, Dana programmed this antiwar track from Molland's 1992 album The Pilgrim for our listening pleasure. I reviewed The Pilgrim for Goldmine when it was released, but I hadn't heard the song in years. It holds up, and I'm eager to hear Joey's new stuff."

THE DAVID JOHANSEN GROUP: Babylon

As noted somewhere up above, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain continued to work together for a bit after the demise of the Dolls. Sylvain was an early member of the David Johansen Group; he had moved on from that band before I got to see them in the summer of '79, but he's on this 1978 live recording, which was finally released in 1993 as The David Johansen Group Live.

And you know who else is on it? The Dolls' other guitarist, Johnny Thunders, called up from the audience by Johansen (Hey, JT! Why don'tcha come up an' do a number wid us?) in what was presumably a planned reunion but feels as gloriously chaotic as it woulda felt as mere happenstance. So we have 3/5 of the Dolls--a quorum!--assembled like grungy Avengers for a run-through of the Dolls' "Babylon." Come ON, boys!

MEDLEY:

THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Personality Crisis/

BUSTER POINDEXTER AND HIS BANSHEES OF BLUE: Hot Hot Hot

Like Johansen's "Frenchette," the Dolls' "Personality Crisis" is also The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number, man, and TIRnRR has been qualifying the absolute since 1998. If I ever do another Greatest Record Ever Made! book, it will probably include my "Personality Crisis" and "Frenchette" chapters placed together in sequence.

The natural pause in "Personality Crisis" invites the addition of some other song smack dab in its middle, inserted right before Johansen cries, And yo' a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon! The first time I saw the David Johansen Group in '79, they performed "Personality Crisis" as a medley with Donna Summer's rock number "Hot Stuff." For TIRnRR's tribute to DJ, I wanted to edit in "Hot Hot Hot," the signature tune by Johansen's swingin' alter ego Buster Poindexter. A personality crisis! 

BADFINGER: No Matter What

Our salute to David Johansen gathered four tracks apiece by the Dolls and DJ solo, two by the David Johansen Group, Johansen's duet with Robin Johnson for the soundtrack of Times Square, and Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot." For our Joey, we offered four apiece by Badfinger and Joey Molland solo, one by Natural Gas, examples of his guest appearances with John and Mary, George Harrison, and John Lennon, and we threw in Paranoid Lovesick's cover of Joey's Badfinger composition "Icicles."

And at last, we closed the main portion of show with one of Badfinger's hits. We went with the popular choice "No Matter What" (from No Dice, the only Badfinger LP I owned in the '70s). Could have been "Baby Blue." Coulda been "Day After Day." We couldn't go wrong any way, no matter what. For our encore, we circled back to a live performance of "Baby Blue" by Joey Molland's Badfinger.

Godspeed, Joey Molland, and Godspeed David Johansen. We'll see you again when our time comes. But we'll hear you again right now. 

And always.

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

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! David Johansen, "Frenchette"

This is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). If I do a Volume 2, this will probably be included in that.

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

DAVID JOHANSEN: Frenchette

Written by David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain

Produced by Richard Robinson and David Johansen

From the album David Johansen, Blue Sky Records, 1978

There was this guy from Staten Island. A singer. He was in a band, a loud, sloppy, garish mess of a rock 'n' roll band. Some said they couldn't play. Their fans said they didn't care. The band got signed, made records, looked fine on television. Readers of CREEM magazine voted them the best new band of 1973, and at the same time voted them the worst new band of 1973. All and nothing. They didn't sell a lot of records. They were as influential as nearly any band that didn't sell a lot of records could even dream of being...but again, they didn't sell a lot of records. This best new band of '73/worst new band of '73 broke up. Too much, too soon.

So if you're this guy, this singer from Staten Island: What the hell do you for your second act?

Improvise. Reinvent, from gutter glam to funky but chic. Retain the grit, smooth its edges. Survive.

David Johansen was an incredible performer. He was a magnetic, preening frontman for the glorious chaos of the New York Dolls. When he stopped playing with Dolls, he...grew up, still magnetic, still incredible, possessed of a sudden maturity that suited him as well as drag-trash had fit him before. 

Former Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders accused Johansen of selling out--or worse, selling out even though no one was buying--but Johansen himself didn't really change. He ditched the glam, and maybe he cut back a bit on the prancing part of his on-stage presentation; he still screeched (melodically), he still wailed, he still infused his rockin' pop with a deep love of R & B. He still ruled the room, and he still looked like he was having fun.

This was evident on much of Johansen's first solo record. The initial line-up of the post-Dolls David Johansen Group included Sylvain Sylvain, who had been the other guitarist in the New York Dolls, less noisy (and less heroin-smacked) than Thunders, but no less powerful. Johansen and Sylvain co-wrote a number of the songs on 1978's David Johansen album, and their collaborations "Cool Metro" and "Girls" could have fit seamlessly on the Dolls' second album Too Much, Too Soon. Sylvain moved on to his own career, but he did play on "Cool Metro."

The other two Johansen-Sylvain co-writes on the album are less evocative of the pair's mascara-streaked alma mater. "Funky But Chic" was the single, a not-quite-funky, not-quite-campy but tres chic bit of breezy, bouncy pop. 

The other one was "Frenchette."

You call that love in French, but it's just Frenchette. I've been to France, so let's just dance.

The track opens with a piano sound so mournful we are tempted to send condolences and take up an emergency collection to finance distractions from its sorrow. Johansen, the ex-lover too weary to even try to shrug off his fate, slowly sings his litany of disappointments and regrets (or, I guess, regrettes). As guitars come in and the pace quickens, the singer has already abandoned all hope. He makes one last stand anyway.  

The lyrics can seem a bit pat, as permutations of -ette--luncheonette, naturalette (whatever that is), leatherette, launderette, kitchenette, dinette, yeah yeah--delineate the modest, truncated booby prizes Johansen is forced to settle for in place of the grand romance that eluded him. The vignette is accompanied by castanets and references to the Ronettes and to the Four Tops' "Bernadette." It makes you wonder if the song's original scribblings contained discarded lines about flannelette, baguettes, Raisinets, and, I dunno, maybe a Penthouse Pet named LaFayette. Do you call that love in French?

Let's just dance and I'll forget.

And that's the heart of it. Even as we try to be glib and clever, to feign some suave patchwork shield of indifference, transcendence, philosophical understanding, and muttered assurances that yes, of course we can still be friends...damn it, we know we've lost something that meant more to us than either blush or bourbon can obscure. There's no such thing as painette.

I had never heard "Frenchette" before the first time I saw the David Johansen Group play. That live show was in the summer of 1979, with the Flashcubes opening. I'd barely heard the Dolls by then, and "Funky But Chic" was likely the only Johansen track that had crossed my path, but I knew of the Dolls and was eager to hear more. Johansen and his boys--Come ON, boys!!--nailed their set, from its cool-beyond-cool "Cool Metro" opener through the rest of the DJ songbook, including tips to the Dolls with "Babylon," Bo Diddley's "Pills," and--obviously--the signature New York Dolls number "Personality Crisis," performed as a medley with Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff." Obviously. The whole damned thing was nothing short of fascinating.

"Frenchette" was mesmerizing.

Granted, I'd had a few drinks, a few transcendental tickets to paradise to enhance my enjoyment of the night. But my God, being in a crowded nightclub as that piano lick began its melodic shiva, witnessing this guy who used to be a dressed-up Doll croon so eloquently and effectively of just dancing to forget...man, the lump in my throat is still there. This was amazing. 

And this was where I became a fan. I bought the Johansen albums, tracked down a hideously battered copy of the first Dolls LP and a cassette of their second, snapped up Johnny Thunders' live album with his band o' junkies the Heartbreakers as well as JT's own solo debut So Alone. 

I saw the David Johansen Group on a few subsequent occasions--another club show, an outdoor show, and a show in the spartan ballroom at my former college's student union building--and if nothing ever quite matched the magic buzz of my first David Jo concert, I loved each opportunity to shout along with "Girls" and "She," to raise a fist with "Personality Crisis," to flip off the persistence of memory with "Frenchette."

But that outdoor show and that ballroom show also offered a glimpse of Johansen's next avenue. By then he had played larger venues as an opening act for the Who, and he told a journalist of his growing disinterest in performing in hockey arenas for an audience of Hitler Youth. My last two Johansen shows, outside in the Buffalo suburbs and in the ballroom at Brockport, there was an increasing element of show-biz camp working its way into Johansen's schtick. That element would take full form as Johansen's swingin' alter ego Buster Poindexter, a sort of self-aware Dean Martin pastiche that was even more removed from whatever the Dolls had been. Improvise. Reinvent. Survive.

As I write this, it's been a little over a week since Johansen's death. Yesterday, as I was getting ready to leave for work, some lines popped into my head, compelling me to jot them down in my notebook before fickle memory consigned them to the dustbin of flowers and trash:

He set himself to write a song

About the girl who'd done him wrong

Picked up a guitar he couldn't play

Struggled with words he couldn't say

I'm not a songwriter, and these random lines will never find the company of melody nor even additional words. But without even meaning to, I stumbled into what might pass for the story of the New York Dolls. Couldn't play, couldn't sing? Fuck it. Doin' it anyway. David Johansen went a step beyond that, assembling a kickass post-Dolls band, building upon the legacy of the Dolls, entertaining in whatever guise he chose.

And with "Frenchette," David Johansen did what Alex Chilton did with "September Gurls," what Michael Brown did with "Walk Away Renee," what Smokey Robinson did whenever he damned well felt like doing it: He took the ache of loss and made it pretty.

What more can we ask? Our hearts are going to break. We are going to lose, at least sometimes. And we are going to have to say goodbye, whether we want to or not. Our art can comfort, confront, elevate, console. It can improvise. It can reinvent.

So let's just dance. But we're not going to forget.

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

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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

POP-A-LOOZA: Didn't Hear THAT Coming! (David Johansen Sings Donna Summer)

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archive. The latest shared post is another installment of Didn't Hear THAT Coming! (Unexpected Covers In Concert), this time remembering when I saw David Johansen cover Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff."

I can't remember exactly how many Johansen shows I saw in the late '70s and early '80s. I think I saw him four times, but a nagging nit at the edge of my memory keeps trying to tell me I saw him a total of five times. I suspect my nagging nit has been drinking. My first David Jo show was the July 1979 set discussed in the above link, at The Slide-Inn with Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes opening. It was the final time I saw the 'Cubes before the group's original and definitive line-up split; I'm delighted to note they reunited many times in later years. The Flashcubes will always be one of my all-time favorite groups, and it was my honor to induct them into The Syracuse Area Music Awards Hall Of Fame in 2014. There's roughly, oh, a zillion posts about the 'Cubes on this blog; to cherry pick but a few, I recommend the tales of my first Flashcubes show and then seeing The Flashcubes with The Ramones and The Runaways, my liner notes to their first CD collection Bright Lights, and my ambitious fantasy about a world where the 'Cubes became famous, A Brighter Light In My Mind.

Getting back to my first Johansen show: It was part of my introduction to his former group The New York Dolls, a story told here. That piece has since been very slightly rewritten to serve as a chapter about the Dolls' "Personality Crisis" in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). My second Johansen show was in...1980? Give or take. It was at The Jab on the Syracuse University hill, with (then-) former Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's combo The Most opening. I subsequently saw Johansen at an outdoor show at University of Buffalo's Amherst campus and in the ballroom at my alma mater, the State University College at Brockport. By the time of the latter show, Johansen was beginning to morph into his less-interesting (to me) Buster Poindexter persona, making it my least favorite live Johansen experience. Those are the four Johansen shows I remember. And he only sang the Donna Summer song at the first one.

I haven't written much about disco. The GREM! book will include chapters about Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," The Trammps' "Disco Inferno," and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' "Don't Leave Me This Way," and though all of those chapters have been completed they are not yet available for public perusal. I can only add this little bit I wrote elsewhere about Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff:"

Donna Summer was already the Queen of Disco in 1979, and she wanted to record a rock song. She succeeded, but everyone still thought of it as a disco song. Really, "Hot Stuff" was both, a dance number with a Big Rock posture, an AOR re-imagining of life under the flashing lights...No offense intended to my album-rock brethren, but I'd much rather see and hear Donna Summer yearning for hot stuff than listen to Foreigner brag about being hot-blooded. Your mileage may vary.

That leaves us with this concert memory of the former lead singer of a proto-punk group called The New York Dolls warblin' a song made famous by the Queen of Disco. David Johansen's cover of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" provides the subject for the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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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.

10 SONGS: 3/24/2020

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.


There was no This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio this week, but we did have an incredible simulation. This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the virtual playlist of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: Isolation Edition.

JOAN ARMATRADING: Me Myself I


I've had a complicated relationship with social interaction. Just a few years ago, I told a friend that I tend to feel out of place no matter where I am or what I'm doing. I'm a square peg, and I'm shy. I conceal it pretty well--anyone who has heard me on the radio will attest to that--and sometimes I can continue playing the role of bon vivant for short spells in real life. It's not really me, but it's the me I think I want to be. I think. I guess. I don't know.

In the early '80s, when I was a recent college graduate still living with my undergraduate girlfriend in our college town of Brockport, radio stations in Buffalo introduced me to the music of Joan Armatrading. It was probably on 97 Rock, an AOR station that aired a better'n decent Sunday night alternative show called 97 Power Rock, or it may have been WUWU-FM, the squarest peg commercial radio station I ever did hear. Either way (or both), I heard radio commercials for Armatrading's 1981 album Walk Under Ladders, and I heard a Walk Under Ladders album track called "Eating The Bear," and liked it. It took me a while to become an Armatrading fan (and I'm still but a casual fan, with her Greatest Hits CD the sole Armatrading offering in my collection), but I got there. As time went on, I became particularly taken with her songs "Drop The Pilot," "When I Get It Right," "I'm Lucky," and "Me Myself I."

"Me Myself I" is a clarion call of willful solitude. It's not who I am either, but there are times when it feels right. Damned good song, too.

ARTFUL DODGER: It's Over


By the summer of 1979, I had read a little bit about Fairfax, Virginia's Artful Dodger, but I had yet to hear a note of their music.  That changed when they played a show at Stage East, a rock club located in a shopping center in Syracuse's Eastern suburbs. I was drawn to this rock 'n' roll Mecca of East Syracuse that night in part because The Flashcubes were the opening act, and I tried very hard to see The Flashcubes as often as I could. 

But I was also curious about Artful Dodger, and man, they did not disappoint. I would later look back on that show and describe the group as a cross between Badfinger and The Faces, a comparison somewhat lacking in total accuracy, but which conveyed my impression of Artful Dodger as a power pop group with rock 'n' roll swagger. God, I loved 'em, and their performance of "It's Over" had me absolutely transfixed. And that evening, the price of admission at Stage East included a souvenir: a four-song EP of tracks from Artful Dodger's eponymous debut album. "Wayside." "Think Think." "Follow Me." "It's Over." My Artful Dodger fandom was set to begin in earnest.

THE BEATLES: For No One



The Beatles! I wrote about this wonderful Paul McCartney song in my annotated list of my all-time 25 favorite Beatles songs: This is perhaps the most dignified and simultaneously one of the saddest descriptions of desperation as love slips inexorably through one's hapless, helpless fingers. It would not have sounded out of place on The Beach Boys' masterpiece Pet Sounds. I will add that its lyrics display a depth and maturity that bely the notion that our Paulie was only capable of writing silly love songs.

SUSAN COWSILL: River Of Love


There is a magic point in art, in creation, where our pain becomes redemption, our sorrow turns to strength, our devastating losses flow like a river into our determination to endure. "River Of Love" was written by Barry Cowsill of The Cowsills, and it's a stunning study in heartbreak, in holding on, in letting go, in hoping against hope that what was lost can still be found again. 

Barry Cowsill perished in 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His sister Susan Cowsill performed the song during the months that he was missing. Its meaning had changed, but its sheer beauty had not.  Susan recorded it for her 2010 album Lighthouse, and its impossible mix of the ache of farewell with the determined buoyancy of pop music makes me want to dance and cry at the same time. We'll meet again. Waiting at the river of love.

FIRST AID KIT: America



My daughter Meghan knew about First Aid Kit well before I did, and she played their Emmylou Harris tribute song "Emmylou" during one of her guest DJ stints on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. First Aid Kit were among the final musical guests on Late Night With David Letterman in May of 2015, which was where and when they floored me with their sublime cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "America." 

As a teen, I was a Simon & Garfunkel fan, ranking them up in my pop pantheon not all that far below The Beatles. I never stopped being a fan, though I did listen to them with decreasing frequency. My introduction to the song "America" came via the incongruous means of a comic book letters column in the early '70s, wherein a reader closed his missive about the (then) topically-relevant Green Lantern/Green Arrow series by quoting the song's line, And we walked off to look for America. You can scoff if you wanna, and maybe you should, but that seemingly innocuous tag line has stuck with me for decades. I was 12 or 13. I was on a bus going to or from visiting my grandparents in Missouri. Not knowing the song itself yet, I had no idea how very appropriate it was to learn of its existence while traveling on a Greyhound.

Relevance. We search for it in our entertainment and in our art, a connection to what we feel, to what we desire, to where we think we are and what this place looks like today. Relevance. Meaning. Sometimes we imagine a meaning an artist did not intend, but that's fine. That's how art becomes a part of our lives.

First Aid Kit is from Sweden, consisting of sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg. In their rendition of "America," First Aid Kit's reading of Paul Simon's lyrics takes on a shimmering, gossamer quality that not even Paul and Artie's delicate harmonies could match. 

Cathy, I'm lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping
And I'm empty and aching and I don't know why

The American experiment is nearly two and a half centuries old. This experiment--a nation governed of the people, by the people, for the people, we the people--is ongoing. It has had successes, and it has had failures. There have been times when we've fallen far short of our goal of who we want to be. There have been times when our collective efforts have shined like a beacon of hope around the world.

I still believe in this experiment. The experiment's guiding principle isn't unique--there are other nations that also embrace these concepts of freedom and possibility--but it is, and must remain, America's defining quality. We can be better than we are. We can always seek to be better than we are. The American experiment can choose acceptance over exclusion, charity over greed, humility over arrogance, love over hate. We can. We will. We must. Our goal is written in our mission statement: a more perfect union. This experiment continues. 

All come to look for America.

Let freedom ring.



THE GO-GO'S: Vacation


It puzzles me that The Go-Go's remain so under-appreciated. They were a fabulous group, they wrote great pop songs, and executed those great pop songs as great pop recordings. Yet many still view them as something, I dunno...frilly, or ephemeral. They deserve a lot better consideration than that. Their debut album Beauty And The Beat is nearly flawless; only the quirky, forgettable "Automatic" prevents me from embracing it as a solid, start-to-finish Love At First Spin record. I loved The Go-Go's then, and I love The Go-Go's still.

Before joining The Go-Go's, bassist Kathy Valentine had been in The Textones, a punk-influenced Texas pop group that also featured future solo performer (and future Gene Clark collaborator) Carla Olsen. Valentine's "Vacation" was one of two songs on the B-side of The Textones' 1980 single "I Can't Fight It." The Textones' original version of "Vacation" shares just enough DNA with the 1982 hit version by The Go-Go's to say that yeah, it's the same song. Sort of. The lyrics are different, the melody is different, and the choppy DIY feel of the original offers little clue to how The Go-Go's could change it into such an irresistible, shining object that cuts with the sharp edges of its wistful regret and unfulfilled wishes. A pop masterpiece, I tell ya, and the title track from the second Go-Go's LP.

DAVID JOHANSEN: Frenchette


As in the case of my first Artful Dodger show, that same summer of '79 also made me a David Johansen fan, when I saw him on a bill with--duh--The Flashcubes. Now--how shall I put this? I was 19, I was with friends at both shows, and we were...well, let's say we were really, really psyched to have a good and transcendent rock 'n' roll time by whatever means necessary. At the Artful Dodger show, I remember grooving on what seemed like an endless, extended opening vamp to "It's Over." With David Jo, I remember "Frenchette" blowin' my freakin' mind, its slow, beguilingly pretty intro giving thunderous way to the forceful boom of its big-Rock battering ram. And its lyrical refrain of Let's just dance! embodied a paradox of triumphant surrender. I can't get the kind of love that I want, so let's just dance and I'll forget. Maybe it was nonsense. Maybe it was deep and meaningful. Maybe it was both. Let's just dance.

THE KENNEDYS: Safe Until Tomorrow


During our current necessary period of social distancing, The Kennedys--expatriate North Syracusan Maura Kennedy and her husband (and honorary Central New Yorker) Pete Kennedy--have been doing one-hour live stream performances from their Greenwich Village apartment every Sunday afternoon at 2:00 Eastern. It's a lovely and uplifting way to spend an hour of your time, and you can join 'em for another virtual show this Sunday. Their original tune "Safe Until Tomorrow" closes their show, and its an appropriate theme song to adopt in this time of trouble.

BEN E. KING: Stand By Me


Ben E. King's classic song "Stand By Me" is one of the 124 fine records scheduled to be featured in my proposed book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Last week, I had an unpleasant dream where my agent sat me down and told me directly that she would not be able to sell the book because my writing just isn't good enough.

Hmmm. I can be self-deprecating and full of genuine doubt about virtually any aspect of what I do or try to do...except my writing. I always believe in my writing.

Maybe the dream was a reflection of the doubt and uncertainty that I sense all around us lately. I'm probably not really as accomplished a writer as I think I am, sure, but my conviction and belief in my ability is my sole practiced arrogance. Because I'm aware that writing is the only thing I've ever been any damned bit of good at doing. The book still may not find a home--that's always a possibility in any attempted commercial endeavor--but I think the work itself is decidedly, like, not terrible.

"Stand By Me" borders on a religious experience, a timeless ode to the power and strength to be derived simply from faith and devotion. Yet it's not a religious song at all; it's a tacit recognition that such a transcendent feeling of renewal and hope can come not just from the heavens, but also from the genuine loyalty of (and loyalty to) a lover or friend. That's the opening paragraph from my book's Ben E. King chapter. 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.


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


Well. Aren't we all?

Stay safe, my friends.


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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 124 essays about 124 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).