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 # 1326
THE RAMONES: I WANNA BE SEDATED
Compiled from a pair of previous posts:
She was asleep, sitting up, her head resting on my shoulder. I was in love with her. And I was already in love with the music of the band whose new album was about to be played on the radio. Love and music. Reasonable goals. I just want to have something to do.
It was October of 1978. Brenda and I had just met, already exchanged I love yous, and were determined to see where that road would lead us next....
Those were the opening paragraphs of a Love At First Spin piece I had planned to write about the Ramones' fourth album Road To Ruin. I felt the story would have too much overlap with my Love At First Spin tribute to Rocket To Russia, so the Road To Ruin entry will likely remain unfinished. But the facts remain: I first heard Road To Ruin when Rochester's WCMF-FM played it in its entirety, listening as I sat in my dorm suite with my arm around this girl I'd just met and fallen for. Road to ruin? Road to something better.
"I Wanna Be Sedated" stood out immediately, helped in no small part by its superficial resemblance to Alice Cooper's "Elected," transcending that influence with its paradoxical hybrid of a wish to be numbed combined with a full-throttle approach that couldn't be taken down by a flurry of tranquilizer darts. I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain. Sounds a lot like the act of being smitten. I want it.
The Ramones--I do prefer referring to them with a definite article--never had a hit record. Their Billboard Hot 100 peak was # 66 for "Rockaway Beach" in 1977. Their highest-charting album was End Of The Century (# 44 in 1980), edging out Rocket To Russia (# 49 in '77), the only two Ramones LPs to ascend beyond the # 50 slot. They did better overseas, but as Johnny Ramone once told me, "...It was never no big deal, really, having a hit in England. All that mattered, really, was America. It's okay having a hit in England, but the main thing was you wanna make it at home."
Their legacy endured, and just about everyone now has at least some general familiarity with some of the Ramones' recorded work. Hell, you can hear the Ramones in TV commercials. "Blitzkrieg Bop" is likely the Ramones' most universally-recognized track, but "I Wanna Be Sedated" comes close. It was not released as an American single from Road To Ruin, only achieving 7" status when reissued in the late '80s in conjunction with the best-of set Ramones Mania. One imagines edge-averse 1979 radio programmers wouldn't have been quick to embrace a pop tune about sedation, just as that notoriously timid lot had been skittish about playing the Ramones up to that point. But one also wonders if such a single might have found a wider audience, if only it had been released at the time.
(The Johnny Ramone quote cited above comes from my 1994 interviews with the Ramones, contained within my 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones.)
MR. BRUCE GORDON: Every Day You Get To Choose
Our pal Mr. Bruce Gordon has been a fixture on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio pret' much from the get-go. The components of that fixture have included Bruce's fine pop work as Mr. Encrypto and Mr. Encrypto and the Ciphers, with Pop Co-Op and TIR'N'RR Allstars, and through current wonders under the Mr. Bruce Gordon dba. As I wrote upon the release of Mr. Bruce Gordon's 2023 release One Tall Order:
"Ladies and gentlemen, MR. BRUCE GORDON! You know him and love him as Mr. Encypto and as one-fourth of the irresistible Pop Co-Op. Now Bruce Gordon is ditching the 'Encrypto' moniker, retaining his alter ego's honorific, and steppin' out under his own name for the first time since the dawn of ever.
"Mr. Bruce Gordon's emergence from the power pop witness protection program results in the sublimely easy-going new album One Tall Order. One Tall Order is a sweet sway of ten engaging tracks steeped in lessons learned from a lifetime of listening: listening to the radio, AM and FM, listening to deep LP cuts, and listening between the grooves, to Motown and new wave, Steely Dan and British Invasion, folk and rock and singer-songwriter, the Church of Brian Wilson, and always to the rising voice within.
"Fan and artist in one man, this peerless pop mister is ready to reveal his secret identity. Mr. Bruce Gordon. It's time we ALL knew that name."
Now, the unencrypted Mr. Bruce Gordon returns to reinforce the ol' fixtures with a brand-new single, "Every Day You Get To Choose." You can choose to get that here, and you can choose to tune in to hear it again on our next show.
THE CORNER LAUGHERS: Dusking
"Dusking" is the latest advance tease from the Corner Laughers' forthcoming new album Concerns Of Wasp And Willow, and it serves as yet another inviting point of entry into the group's luscious blend of folk-pop, accomplished with sheer heartwinning beauty. Calling this music "gorgeous" sells it short. As dusk heralds darkness, we'll light a fire and gather together.
SPECTRAFLAME: I Always Wanted You To Stay
Man, we can't keep up with these prolific pop guys. By the time we were able to debut the splendor of Spectraflame's recent single "I Always Wanted You To Stay" on this week's show, the lads had already released another new track, "The Pawn And The Prize." WE CAN'T KEEP UP...!!
But what the hell--it's worth the effort. We'll give "I Always Wanted You To Stay" another playlist berth on our next show, and we'll attempt to catch up with "The Pawn And The Prize"...eventually. Spectraflame will probably have released a triple-LP live album and a boxed set by then.
AIMEE MANN: Driving With One Hand On The Wheel
One of the greatest rewards of doing this radio show has been the opportunity to discover so much great new music, and so much great new-to-me music. A lot of those fresh revelations are courtesy of Dana, including his spin this week of Aimee Mann's 1995 non-album single "Driving With One Hand On The Wheel." Supernifty! The road of discovery motors on.
THE CYNZ: You Wreck Me
The Cynz get a significant amount of airplay on this little mutant radio show, mostly because both Dana and I recognize the empirical truth that every rock 'n' roll radio show that claims to be a rock 'n' roll radio show oughta be slotting a significant amount of airplay to the Cynz. I mean, come on, people! Duh!
Lately, TIRnRR has been pummeling the atmosphere with tracks from the current Cynz album Confess, including this resolutely ace cover of Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me." Wreckin' the airwaves for the greater good! It's what a rock 'n' roll radio show should do. We'll return to another track from Confess on our next show.
DAVID RUFFIN: I Want You Back
From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):
When working on a new recording, there are times when an artist is absolutely confident the great track at hand will become a surefire hit. Book it. Top of the pops, # 1 with a bullet. In the '80s, the members of a fantastic pop band called the dB's were certain, certain that they'd created an irresistible worldwide smash with their recording of a terrific song called "Love Is For Lovers." The song didn't even chart. But it felt like a hit, and it still feels like it should have been a hit.
One wonders if David Ruffin had that feeling when he was recording "I Want You Back," that surefire faith that he would hit the toppermost of the poppermost with this new hit. If he did, he could not have been more wrong.
In this situation, some hubris would have seemed justified, really. Ruffin had been a proven and experienced hitmaker with the Temptations. If Motown was the sound of young America in the '60s, the Temptations were arguably the sound of Motown. Their hits were many, their popularity vast, and "My Girl" in particular is immortal, and perhaps the definitive Motown single...
...Ruffin had been the lead voice on "My Girl," as well as on the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "(I Know) I'm Losing You," and "I Wish It Would Rain," among others. But by 1968, being one of the Temptations had ceased to bring Ruffin sunshine on a cloudy day. With that, he was no longer a Temptation.
Solo success ultimately proved fleeting for Ruffin. 1969's "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" was a Top 10 hit on both the pop and R & B charts, and "I've Lost Everything I've Ever Loved" and "I'm So Glad I Fell For You" were Top 20 soul hits ignored by the pop Top 40. As the success of the Temptations continued into the early '70s, the group's former lead singer could have used a sweeter song than the birds in the trees. For Ruffin, the hits had stopped.
Could Ruffin's version of "I Want You Back" have been the hit it deserved to be, the hit Ruffin's recording career kinda needed it to be? Alas, not in the real world. Some believe that Ruffin recorded "I Want You Back" roughly contemporary to when the Jackson Five cut the version that would become their smash debut Motown single. It was, after all, standard operating procedure for acts within Berry Gordy's empire to record competing versions of the same song, with a designated Chosen One then anointed as hit-worthy. But the J5's "I Want You Back" ascended the charts in 1969; Ruffin's version was likely recorded in 1970, part of the sessions for a proposed 1971 album shelved by Motown.
Nonetheless: It should have been released. And it should have been a hit....
THE RUNAWAYS: School Days
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
SAM COOKE: (What A) Wonderful World
"Wonderful world?" With all due respect to the legendary Sam Cooke, I'd like to get a second opinion regarding his diagnosis of this world's attributes. At its core, Cooke was right: There is great wonder to be found within the heart of this frantic planet. Alas, we are led by far too many who don't know much about history.
Nor anything else.
THE BEATLES: Carry That Weight/The End
The love you take is equal to the love you make? That sounds like a lot of weight to carry, lads. Here's hoping Abbey Road leads to a freeway.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.
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