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 # 1191. This show is available as a podcast.
JOHNATHAN PUSHKAR: I Gotta Move
Johnathan Pushkar's cover of the Kinks' "I Gotta Move" is the first advance track from the forthcoming tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies, and it's a good one. The original was on the American Kinks-Size LP, which was the first Kinks album I ever owned (part of my indoctrination into Kinks fandom during my senior year in high school). It's a pretty basic tune, sure, but Johnathan conveys the necessary dedicated-follower bounce to retain its bop in our newfangled 21st century. We'll play it again next week, and we'll also play another Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies track, courtesy of the Cynz. We need to! We don't wanna get left behind.
THE SUPREMES: Love Train
Man alive, I've been knocked out by the '70s stuff Dana's been playing by the Supremes. I talked about it a bit in the July 14th 10 Songs, and this material just seems so ripe for rediscovery...or, really, discovery, for the first time. Why weren't these records huge? And why is the two-CD collection The '70s Anthology a high-priced collectible rather than the readily-available essential it oughtta be? I don't why, I don't know how, but I blame Diana Ross.
As I groove vicariously through Dana's spins of '70s Supremes, the group's sublime cover of the O'Jays' "Love Train" satisfies the ol' (Nathan) jones for this week.
THE WAITRESSES: Square Pegs
It's not punk. It's new wave. Totally different head. Totally.
IYKYK.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
Awright. As the rockin' pop world prepares its eager self for the release of the Flashcubes' incomparable new album Pop Masters, Big Stir Records' Chief Boppin' Officers Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko recently had this to say about our own little mutant radio show, the 'Cubes, and Pop Masters:
Rarely have a show, a band, and an album gone so hand-in-hand as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, the Flashcubes, and the new record Pop Masters.
We accept that with honor, pride, and humili...okay, scratch the humility part. Let's not get crazy.
It's impossible to overstate the importance of the Flashcubes in my life and in the development of TIRnRR. I ain't kidding: The Beatles. The Ramones. The Flashcubes. For me, all my other favorites come after that Trinity. Pop Masters. Truth in advertising. Album of the year, mate. Album of the year.
THE DONNAS: Wig Wam Bam
My TIRnRR history Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet reveals that we've been playing the Donnas since our very first show, December 27, 1998. Lately, we've been dipping back more and more into the Donnas' earliest releases, a period that commenced even before there was any such thing as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.
Our archival source for such grungy transcendence is a Real Gone Music Donnas collection called Early Singles 1995-1999. When Dana programmed the Donnas' cover of Sweet's "Wig Wam Bam" for this week's show, I joked about how the Donnas do, in fact, get a few of Sweet's original lyrics right in their rockin' rendition. Otherwise, they just make it up as they go: Sweet's opening prose Hiawatha never bothered too much/About Minnihaha and her tender touch/'Til she took him to the silver stream is altered by the Donnas into the way more salacious I don't wanna be a bother too much/I just wanna be the girl you wanna touch/You make me cream in my jeans.... And so on.
Dana dismissed the wisecrack. "Girls with guitars," he said.
And he is correct. Girls, meet the boys. Boys, the girls. Wig-wam, bam sham-a-lam. Or words to that effect.
DAISY JONES AND THE SIX: Regret Me
A band doesn't have to be real to make a radio-ready record. Here on TIRnRR, we offer equal time for fiction and fact. When we feel like it, anyway. SO! The made-for-streaming Daisy Jones and the Six on this week's program, Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac next week. There's no such thing as a guilty pleasure in pop music. We remain regret-free.
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: I Fought The Law
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
HAYLEY AND THE CRUSHERS: Jacaranda
We pre-record our shows. It's a coincidence when one of our selections carries a connection to some news headline that splatters forth in between recording the show on Wednesday and airing it on Sunday night. We played Hayley and the Crushers' fantastic "Jacaranda" this week because it's, y'know, fantastic. Its lyrics about ditching tinyville livin' in favor of tropical summer fun in the sun were chosen for turn-it-up status without any real-world context in mind.
But yeah, like Hayley sings: screw the small town.
I thought Dana's idea of a tribute To Kim Shattuck was compelling and important, and I wanted to participate. I swapped out several of my song picks in favor of tracks that included Kim, records by Derrick Anderson, Bowling For Soup, one more by the Muffs ("Nothing") to play at the very, very end, and four Shattuck-equipped tracks by the Pandoras.
"On My Own" comes from the Muffs' farewell album No Holiday. It was released just after Kim passed in October of 2019, and it was TIRnRR's single most-played track in 2020. It's still a frequent treat on our playlists, and probably always will be.
The Pandoras' "I'll Walk Away" has never been given an official release. It appeared on a collection called Psychedelic Sluts!, a CD of questionable legitimacy and disappointing fidelity. The track was originally intended for Come Inside, a proposed (and completed) 1987 album which would have been the Pandoras' first release for Elektra Records. Come Inside got as far as a test pressing and a listing in the Schwann catalog, but Elektra dropped the Pandoras and scuttled the release. The album has yet to see the light of day.
That's a shame. Come Inside leans hard (HAR!) into single-entendre innuendo and arena rock moves; even its title is a sex joke (come inside the Pandoras--GET IT?). Subtlety wasn't a big thing in the '80s. But the album has its moments, particularly the fascinating power ballad "I'll Walk Away." I'm generally not one for power ballads, unless they're power ballads by the Ramones. I make an exception for the Pandoras' "I'll Walk Away."
In a just world, Come Inside would have been released and hit big. John Hughes would have used "I'll Walk Away" in the climactic scene of one of his teen movies. Missed opportunity. The Pandoras would have made it. Their leader Paula Pierce would have lived longer. Kim Shattuck would have lived longer. But now...
...we walk away.
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now 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 will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). 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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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