10 SONGS: 1/13/2023

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 # 1163. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Pinhead

Gabba Gabba Hey!

For reasons to be revealed soon--no, really!--I'm gonna be using that three-word-phrase a lot in 2023. So, after last week's epic countdown show, I wanted to open our first regular show of the year with a spin of "Pinhead," the classic Ramones track that introduced "Gabba Gabba Hey!" into the popular lexicon.

In programming the show, I was amazed when I discovered that we had never before played "Pinhead" on TIRnRR. "Pinhead" is one of the Ramones' definitive gems, and the Ramones are among the top most-played acts in this little mutant radio show's long and storied history. But we just never got around to spinning that particular track. We finally corrected that oversight this week.

And again: GABBA GABBA HEY!

RANK AND FILE: Amanda Ruth

The happenstance of "Pinhead" making its overdue TIRnRR debut dovetailed with Dana's determination to play a number of tracks we ain't never played here before. That plan brought the mighty Rank and File into the TIRnRR universe, with a spin of their superb 1982 single "Amanda Ruth." We play the hits. There are a lot of hits out there. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to get to 'em.

JOSIE COTTON: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

And we're not the only ones who might run late in getting to the rockin' pop gala. Major record label weasels can be among the most guilty parties ever, sitting on perfectly fine potential releases, lettin' 'em languish in the vault as the weasels' myopic attention span flits to some other glittery piece o' pyrite. 

In the early '80s, Josie Cotton released two albums on Elektra, 1982's Convertible Music and 1984's From The Hip. She scored some notice with her singles "Johnny, Are You Queer?" and "He Could Be The One," appeared with her band in the movie Valley Girl, and got some MTV play with her cover of the Looking Glass' "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" (and I regard her version of that as the version). 

Alas, the units sold weren't sufficient to satisfy the weasels, and her 1986 album Everything Is Oh Yeah was not released at the time. It was retrieved and rescued in 2019 by the non-weasel Cleopatra label. Hooray for the non-weasels!

From Everything Is Oh Yeah, Dana selected our Josie's cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" for airplay, adding that it's still as fresh as anything this newfangled 21st century can offer, and that it sounds like it could have been Josie Cotton backed by the contemporary oomph of the Linda Lindas. Which would be a great idea.

Meanwhile: I'm ordering my own copy of Everything Is Oh Yeah, and Dana will be playing another cut off that album on our next show. Can't let the weasels win, man. Can't let the weasels win.

CLIFF HILLIS: Good Morning And Goodnight

Of course, new songs likewise provide an ongoing opportunity to expand the ol' playlist. The new Cliff Hillis single "Good Morning And Goodnight" was co-written by long-time TIRnRR Fave Rave Kelley Ryan, who also sings along with Mr. Cliff on this engaging little number. A check of the archives shows we've played three other Cliff Hillis tracks--"Madeline," "Turn On A Dime," and his cover of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy"--at some points in our first 24 years on the air. We need to play more, and we will. We'll start with another play for "Good Morning And Goodnight" next week.

ABBA: On And On And On

Some of our listeners dig ABBA, and some do not. We're still working on politely bludgeoning the non-believers into compliance. But man, I heard this song last month on Michael McCartney's fabulous show The Time Machine (on Maui's Mana'o Radio), and I knew we needed to get it into one of our own playlists as soon as we possibly could. Thanks for the inspiration, Michael!

LOVE: 7 And 7 Is

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

KAI DANZBERG FEATURING DEAR STELLA: Let Him Go

THE FORTY NINETEENS: Crocodile Tears

How in the world could it be that we've never played either of these Big Stir Records singles? We need a better class of minions. Or, first, I guess we need minions. None of these acts is exactly a stranger to TIRnRR; Dear Stella's simply superlative "Time Machine" was one of our most-played tracks in 2020, we've played a bunch of stuff by the Forty Nineteens (including "Late Night Radio," the A-side of "Crocodile Tears"), and a bunch of Kai Danzberg works, too. Still: any record you ain't heard (or played) is a new record. Looking for new? These are as good as new.

TAJ MAHAL: E Z Rider

Taj Mahal was always a little bit outside my sphere of familiarity. I don't recall hearing him on the radio, though I betcha some FM station may have played a Mahal track or two when I wasn't paying attention. When I was a teenager in the '70s and when I managed a record store in the '80s, I saw Taj Mahal LPs on the racks, but didn't even think about investigating the sounds. There were so many punk and power pop and hyphenate-rock releases to occupy my starry eyes and eager ears; an artist filed under BLUES wasn't toppermost of my poppermost.

I'm not sure when Taj Mahal's music finally did enter my sovereign airspace, but he's been an occasional star in our playlists over the past year or so. I was particularly taken with "Ain't That A Lot Of Love" (which he also performed on The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus) and his ace cover of Dave Dudley's country touchstone "Six Days On The Road." I had these as digital tracks, but in October I added a CD of his 1968 album Taj Mahal to my library of physical media. More to come.

THE RAMONES: I Wanted Everything

Yet another Ramones track we somehow failed to program until now. In 2001, as a freelance writer for Goldmine magazine, I reviewed Rhino's CD reissues of the first four Ramones albums, and I regret to say I gave short shrift to their incredible fourth album Road To Ruin. 

I disavow that now.

Sure, Road To Ruin was heavier than its rockin' pop punk predecessors Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia, but it ain't exactly metal, dig? And it is as absolutely, utterly unforgettable as the first three Ramones albums. "I Just Want To Have Something To Do." "I Wanna Be Sedated." The bubblecountry experiment "Don't Come Close," the twangy ballad "Questioningly," the cover of the Searchers' "Needles And Pins," the breathless rush of "She's The One"...Great googly-GABBA-GABBA!-moogly, this stuff is great. WHAT WAS I THINKING...?!

So I've been listening to Road To Ruin again. I first heard the album late in 1978, when Rochester radio station WCMF-FM played the record in its entirety. It was a midnight album spin, and I sat in the suite area of my college dorm room, my new girlfriend Brenda dozing, her head on my shoulder. I just want to have something to do. 

And I wanted everything.

Brenda and I had just started dating. We're still together now. For Christmas this year, knowing that 2023 was looking to be a big Ramones year for me, Brenda gave me a Ramones hoodie and a Road To Ruin jigsaw puzzle. The road to ruin? That's not the path we traveled, but it is the soundtrack we chose. And another Road To Ruin track will make its belated TIRnRR debut next week. 

Yeah: I wanted everything. I got it. Here's to the road, and its rewards. The pieces come together when they can.

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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.

10 SONGS: 4/20/2021

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1073.

JIM BASNIGHT AND THE MOBERLYS: Tonight

Our little mutant radio show has been programming music from Jim Basnight's various noms du bop for a couple of decades. But I was a latecomer to all things Basnight. Jim's old Seattle-area punk-pop combo The Moberlys woulda been a natural-born contemporary Perfect Fit Fave Rave for me in the late '70s and early '80s. Alas, I don't think I heard them until the '90s...at which point they automatically became a natural-born retroactive Perfect Fit Fave Rave for me. Great records don't care what year it is.

"Tonight" may have been the first Basnight/Moberlys track I ever heard. Good introduction! I think it was on a pop compilation VHS tape that Jeremy Morris sent my way, but however I got there, hell yeah, MOBERLYMANIA!! "Tonight" subsequently found a home on the 2000 Jim Basnight and the Moberlys set Seattle - New York - Los Angeles, and that essential collection is now available as a Bandcamp download. Go! Get it! You need this tonight.

LARRY COLLINS: See The Hills

Yet another illustration of the happenstance that feeds TIRnRR playlists. A listener recommended we play some material by '50s rockabilly guitar teen wunderkind Larry Collins; we've played his "Whistle Bait" in the past, and of course we've played the stalwart "Hoy Hoy," recorded in 1958 by The Collins Kids (Larry and his older sister Lorrie Collins). Time for more!

A search for deeper Larry Collins cuts led to a stumble across "See The Hills," a track from a collection called Sharon Sheeley: Songwriter. Sheeley wrote or co-wrote a number of tunes you may know, including Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" and her boyfriend Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else." "See The Hills" is country pop, and presumably just a demo recording. I don't know if anyone else ever recorded this, but The Beau Brummels should have. It's worthy of wider exposure, and it's certainly worth a spin on the radio. Thanks again, happenstance.

SAM COOKE: (Ain't That) Good News

Actor Leslie Odom, Jr.'s Oscar-nominated portrayal of Sam Cooke in the film One Night In Miami... has prompted us to play a lot more Sam Cooke on TIRnRR this year. We are willing thralls to the stimuli of pop culture. While Cooke classics like "Chain Gang" and "Another Saturday Night" are recognized pop-soul juggernauts, "(Ain't That) Good News" isn't quite as well-known. I mean, it was a hit (# 11 in Billboard in 1964, achieving a higher chart position than Cooke's iconic "A Change Is Gonna Come"), but it's usually not one of the first five or six songs to come to the mind of most folks when discussing Sam Cooke's c.v. I remember it from a TV ad for some mail-order Sam Cooke best-of LP decades ago, and its easygoing sway and casual confidence retain Cooke's swagger and cool groove, now and forever. Good news.

THE FORTY NINETEENS: It's The Worst Thing I Could Do

We've been corresponding with The Forty Nineteens' singin' drummer Nick Zeigler for ages already, so it was always a no-brainer we'd play new Forty Nineteens music as it became available. The group's new album New Roaring Twenties adds an extra irresistible with the inclusion of "It's The Worst Thing I Could Do," a song previously done by Zeigler and The Forty Nineteens' front number John Pozza with their old gang The Leonards. The song's been an ongoing obsession for me since its appearance on a fab 1992 various-artists set called Hit By A Succession Of Bricks. The Forty Nineteens slow down The Leonards' original breakneck approach, but retain the inherent bludgeoning charm of a great song built to survive and thrive in varying arrangements and environments. It's the BEST thing we could do!

THE KENNEDYS: Half Of Us

Several years back, The Kennedys coined the phrase "coffeehouse pop" to describe their music, a catchphrase built upon the understanding that their music is just, well, their music. It's an apt description, but if you don't know The Kennedys--and my God, how could you possibly not know The Kennedys?!--it may not convey the sheer depth of Pete and Maura's POV. You'll get some of it quickly: they met as members of Nanci Griffith's band; their first date was a visit to Buddy Holly's grave in Lubbock, Texas; their sound incorporates folk and Americana, a singer-songwriter vibe, a pervasive love of all that music can be. Awrighty. The idea of coffeehouse pop can probably convey all of that.

But does it hint at Maura's roots in the early '80s Syracuse punk scene? Does it suggest the sheer virtuosity of Pete as an incomparable player of anything that has strings to pluck, pick, or strum? Do you hear Gershwin? Howzabout The Hollies? And are you ready for a coffeehouse pop song inspired by The Ramones?

"Half Of Us" is that song, an absolutely lovely li'l bopper from The Kennedys' 2002 album Get It Right. Maura once said they wrote it under the influence of Forest Hills' phenomenal pop combo, and who are we to argue? If "Half Of Us" doesn't sound immediately like music to huff Carbona by, the 1-2-3-4! pop instinct is nonetheless there, distinct and undeniable. And it's coffeehouse pop. Joey Ramone would have loved it.

(And if you really don't know The Kennedys, you can remedy that woeful situation by checking out Pete and Maura's weekly YouTube shows, which stream every Sunday afternoon at 2:00 Eastern. Coffeehouse pop never tasted sweeter than this.)

NIGHTSPELL: Sea Of Thieves

A beguilingly sing-songy intro leads into a kaleidoscopic goosing of the flesh, all courtesy of Boston's Nightspell and their new Red On Red Records single "Sea Of Thieves." The brittle claustrophobia of the lyrics may seem to contrast with the confident bounce of the tune, but that dichotomy creates the precise cathartic jolt that's central to the song. Take anything you want/Take anything but me. The result is one of the most pleasant-sounding expressions of that familiar sentiment, Hit the road, Jack! 

(But yeah, pleasant or not: take a hike, ya worthless crumb.)

POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Any More

I say again: if Chad and Jeremy had recorded Pop Co-Op's "You Don't Love Me Anymore," it would have been the very best thing Chad and Jeremy ever did. And I love Chad and Jeremy. Pop Co-Op's own stirring version is available as a CD or as a digital download on our 2017 compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4.

THE RAMONES: Swallow My Pride

Power pop from The Ramones. Specifically, it's power pop from The Ramones' second album, 1977's Leave Home. There are knowledgeable pop pundits (some of whom are my pals) who don't regard any of The Ramones' records as fitting within the critical parameters of power pop. I disagree. "Swallow My Pride" is a prime example of why I disagree. It's not da Brudders' only power-pop masterwork--that list also includes "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," "Oh Oh I Love Her So," "Rockaway Beach," "Babysitter," and more--but it serves as an opening argument. Power pop from The Ramones. Proud power pop from The Ramones. But isn't it always that way?

KEVIN ROBERTSON: Love's Blue Yonder

Man, this is pure sunshine. "Love's Blue Yonder" is a single off the forthcoming debut solo album from Kevin Robertson of The Vapour Trails. If the single's any indication of how great the album's gonna be, we hereby advise you to make some space on your CD shelf and plan your budget accordingly.

THE ROLLING STONES: She's A Rainbow

Standing in the shadows of Sgt. Pepper, or a bold Stonesy step the pop world wasn't ready to take in 1967? It's been many, many years since I've listened to The Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request, and I owe myself a refresher course in its virtues, vices, lanterns, and gompers. My first copy of the record came a little more than a decade after the fact, a used reissue pressing sans 3D cover graphics, but still dripping with the black-light atmosphere of its psychedelic reputation. It was...fine. Good. It was no Aftermath, certainly no Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass), but really, what was? I kinda liked the hippie vibe of the LP's opening track "Sing This All Together." My proto-punk teen self took to the riff-driven "Citadel," and I paid occasional tribute to the bass player with spins of Bill Wyman's "In Another Land." The rest of the record rarely registered on my Satanic Majesties' request line in 1978.

That said, Side Two did contain a couple of tracks I knew from my battered 'n' cherished copy of Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2): "2000 Light Years From Home" and "She's A Rainbow." When Dana included the latter among his selections for this week's radio show, we opted for the slightly longer Their Satanic Majesties Request album version--with its unique dialogue intro--rather than the single. Satanic? Majestic! Ooh-la-la-ooh-la-la-lala....

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10 SONGS: 6/9/2020

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 # 1028.

THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS: O-o-h Child



For decades, I thought of The Five Stairsteps' sublime 1970 soul hit "O-o-h Child" as a song of comfort offered by a parent to a distraught child, rather than as a larger call for peace in times of social strife. Now I realize that it's both, and the song still resonates in that sense today. Black lives matter. Our troubles continue, with no immediate path to deliverance. 

But things are gonna get easier. Some day, when the world is much brighter. We can allow ourselves the soothing balm of reassurance, the bond of love, family, friendship, unity, all blessed to us in song. And we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun, eyes fixed on the prize. 

Some day.

THE FORTY NINETEENS WITH TONY VALENTINO: Late Night Radio



Given that I co-host a weekly radio show named after a line in a song about radio, it should be no surprise that I have a soft spot for songs about the radio. TIRnRR has been playing the music of The Forty Nineteens for years, and 40-19 drummer Nick Zeigler's former group The Leonards for years before that. Dana and I are also long-time fans of Tony Valentino's old band The Standells, so a collaboration between The Forty Nineteens and Tony Valentino--playing a song about radio!--just has TIRnRR written all over it. This is available right now as a digital single from Big Stir Records, and The Forty Nineteens are working on a new album. We'll play it on the radio.

JUDAS PRIEST: Heading Out To The Highway


I'm not really a metal guy, but there have been a few fist-shakin', head-bangin' truncheonfests that I have found to be agreeably bludgeoning, albeit all of them on the pop side. I love Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" without any hint of guilt or apology. I enjoy some Def Leppard, a little bit of Black Sabbath, and--maybe stretching the parameters--some Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, plus the light hair-metal of "We Stand Alone" by Killer Dwarfs. And Mötörhead. And KISS! I mean, if you wanna count KISS as metal, I guess.

And Judas Priest?

There was something about the Priest that made me unable to take them seriously...which would be okay if they didn't seem so hell-bent-for-leather intent on being taken seriously. I very much liked the first Judas Priest track I ever heard, which was their gloriously unsubtle take on the Joan Baez folk chestnut "Diamonds And Rust." After that, though, I thought "Breaking The Law" was tiresome, and its video really made Judas Priest look dumb beyond redemption. CREEM magazine started to make fun of them, and I went right along with that spirit of derision and dismissal.

But..."Heading Out To The Highway." GodDAMN I loved that from its first bombastic chug and squeal, and in the present day it still inspires turn-it-UP volume and a defiantly paradoxical mix of sneering and grinning when it plays in my car. 

Especially if I happen to be heading out to the highway. LOUDER! LOUDER!!! 



JUNIPER: Best Kept Secret


Juniper first turned up on TIRnRR a couple of weeks back, when Dana played a fine track called "Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys!," a scrappy tune sung from the POV of a teenage girl acknowledging the universal truth that boys ain't nothin' but trouble. The girl in question is Juniper Shelley, and her new debut album Juniper finds her backed by her dad, Michael Shelley, for twelve a-boppin' and a-poppin' numbers with roots in '60s girl group and '80s left-of-the-dial, while not really sounding like either. The elder Shelley's "Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys!" is a highlight, but my favorite is "Best Kept Secret," written by a pair of true pop stalwarts--Tommy Dunbar of The Rubinoos and solo star/ex-Candy front man Kyle Vincent--and sportin' a guitar solo by the right honorable Marshall Crenshaw. Find out more at Michael Shelley's website.

JUSTINE'S BLACK THREADS: You And Me Against You And Me



I am a constant recipient of endless emails from publicists, labels, and even the occasional performer desperate for airplay. These are mass submissions, rarely really targeted to TIRnRR and whatever it is that we do. I don't have anywhere enough time to deal with all of them, so the vast majority of these solicitations get junked. I can usually tell at a glance if it's a style or genre outside of TIRnRR's interest; if it's just a link to stream something, it likewise gets unceremoniously dumped. I have some favored resources, and an eye for what might merit consideration. Most blind submissions go straight to the trash bin, unheard. 

Rum Bar Records, on the other hand, has been sending some interesting stuff. This year, we've happily played Rum Bar releases from The Real Impossibles, Brad Marino, and The Fleshtones' Ken Fox, and an ace track called "Vengeance" by Justine and the Unclean has appeared on the ol' playlist a few times already. Justine and the Unclean's Justine Covault is also the Justine of the more country-flavored Justine's Black Threads. Justine's Black Threads have a new five-song mini-album called Cheap Vacation, which includes a nice cover of "Needles And Pins" that TIRnRR played a few weeks back. It also includes this swell juke joint lament "You And Me Against You And Me," a tale that sounds like it could take place as a prelude to the honky-tonk classic "You're Still On My Mind." An empty bottle. A broken heart. You and me against you and me. See, this is why we drink.

THE KINKS: Tired Of Waiting For You

This was my first Kinks LP. Though my copy was considerably more beat-up than this one.

In my oft-told story about how I became a fan of The Kinks, 1964's "Tired Of Waiting For You" represents the tipping point, the seismic event when I heard the song on the radio in 1977 and knew, just knew before the DJ said, that it was The Kinks. The Kinks' primal oldies "All Day And All Of The Night" and "You Really Got Me" had only recently taken my fancy hostage, a mere decade and change after the fact. Radio introduced me to The Kinks with "Lola" in 1970, my burgeoning interest in the mid-'60s British Invasion prompted a deeper dive into Sire's History Of British Rock collections, and radio came back to seal the deal with a spin of "Tired Of Waiting For You." It's not an oversimplification; that really was the precise moment when I became a die-hard Kinks fan. It's your life, and you can do what you want. And I want to listen to The Kinks.

AMOS MILBURN: Down The Road Apiece



When I was freelancing, unsolicited promo CDs routinely turned up in the mail, like, all of the time. I was writing a lot of reviews then, and if I liked something enough to wanna write about it, I'd pitch Goldmine editor Jeff Tamarkin to get a review assignment. I never got a review assignment for Down The Road Apiece, a 1993 EMI Records compilation of R & B singer/pianist Amos Milburn's 1946-1957 output for the Aladdin label, but its title track grabbed me at first boogie-woogie. The song itself dates back to a 1940 version by The Will Bradley Trio, but Milburn speeds it up just a little, and just enough to make it a bona fide rock 'n' roll song that predates the rock 'n' roll era.

THE SHINS: Turn On Me



I don't know a damned thing about The Shins, other than the fact that I heard one of their albums playing in a store once and I knew I needed to own the damned thing, stat. And that they were on an episode of Gilmore Girls once. The music reminded me of The Kinks for some reason I couldn't articulate, a similarity I no longer hear (and I swear I was sober both then and now). A more apt comparison might be to The New Pornographers, if only in the idea that both groups may overload their songs full-to-bursting with hooks, cram in an awful lot of clever wordplay, and seem to employ a compressed songwriting template that suggests a very small and confined space, an approach that should cause my claustrophobia to flare but instead manages to feel like rockin' pop liberation. I should learn more about The Shins. And we should play them more often. We'll start with this intoxicatingly appealing track from their 2007 album Wincing The Night Away.

THE STANDELLS: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White



I mentioned The Standells up above. I became a fan as part of my overall exploration and embrace of '60s rock 'n' roll when I was a teen in the '70s. I started with a used 45 of their only big hit, 1966's classic "Dirty Water," and a various-artists set called 15 Original Rock N' Roll Biggies Vol. 2, which included "Why Pick On Me" and "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." My interest in The Standells expanded even further as I fell hard for the notion of '60s punk/garage Nuggets, Pebbles, and dazzlin' debris of all description. Years later, I interviewed Standells drummer/lead singer Dick Dodd for an ultimately-abandoned Nuggets retrospective; I never finished the piece, but the interview can be read here.

"Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" was the first Standells track played on TIRnRR, making its playlist debut on our sixth show, 1/31/99. I have a long radio history with the song. My first-ever radio shows were two guest-hosting gigs on the Buffalo State college station WBNY's amateur DJ show Ha Ha, I'm On The Radio! in the mid '80s. I no longer have any record of what I played on those shows, but it's for damned certain that I played The Standells' "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." God, I love that track. The only reason it's not (currently) in my proposed book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is because I needed to make room for other songs, too. 

I'm a poor boy born in the rubble/And some say my manners ain't the best. A chip on my shoulder and a song in my heart. When I played the record at home in the '70s, my Mom thought Dodd sounded like Sonny Bono, and she wasn't wrong. And, coincidentally, Bono did work with The Standells earlier in their career; Sonny's own "Laugh At Me" shares some cantankerous DNA with "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." Surly and put upon, misunderstood, a shrug that's somehow defiant. We stand with The Standells.

SWEET: Ballroom Blitz


The music of Sweet was huge for me in the '70s. I was happily addicted to AM radio, and Sweet's records were an integral part of that pop-music mainline directly into my eager veins. I don't know if I made note of the group itself when I was diggin' "Little Willy" and "Blockbuster" on Syracuse's Big 15 WOLF in 1973, but I knew the songs. "Little Willy" was a Top Ten hit across the country, and although "Blockbuster" struggled to breach the charts nationally (Billboard peak at # 73), it was in regular rotation on the 'Cuse airwaves.

I didn't know anything about Sweet. I don't think I even knew they were British, nor that they were considered part of an amorphous U.K. glam/glitter scene, alongside the disparate likes of Slade (whom I also loved), Suzi Quatro (with whom I was teen-crush besotted), and Gary Glitter, even The Bay City Rollers. I eventually saw all of those acts lip-syncin' on Supersonic, a weekly British jukebox TV show available via cable from New York's WPIX, and I presume I musta seen Sweet there, too. 

Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) will never skip any excuse to post a picture of Suzi Quatro

But it was another TV show--the venerable American Bandstand--that hooked me on 1975's "Ballroom Blitz." The group itself didn't appear on this particular Bandstand; it was just Dick Clark playing the record as his assembled AB dancers did their thing. I was 15. I'm sure I ogled the girls, envied the guys, but most importantly, I listened to the damned song. I'd probably already heard it on the radio by then. But something about this televised rockin' pop moment just...clicked. It wasn't the sight of the girls bouncin' about, honest. It was the song. It's always the song.

Well all right, fellas
Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

"Ballroom Blitz" bopped. The phrasing is not accidental. About a year later, The Ramones would basically revamp "Ballroom Blitz" with some added chanting inspired by The Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" into their own masterful call to arms "Blitzkrieg Bop." Sweet provided the blueprint. It's quite possible that I would never have fallen so hard for The Ramones if Sweet hadn't prepared me for such rapture.



It took me and my minuscule record-buyin' budget a while, but I eventually acquired a copy of Sweet's Desolation Boulevard LP, most likely via the RCA Record Club. The album included "Ballroom Blitz" and its follow-up hit "Fox On The Run." "Fox On The Run" was my highlight on Side Two, but I mainly obsessed over Side One: "Ballroom Blitz," "The 6-Teens," "No You Don't," "A.C.D.C.," and "I Wanna Be Committed," the latter song almost certainly another inspiration for The Ramones. I played that side relentlessly, joyously. During my senior year, 1976-77, I often brought Desolation Boulevard to school for spins when I was hanging out at the newspaper office, as much a go-to album as my Beatles and British Invasion, my Raspberries' Best, my decidedly odd 2-LP compilation Heavy Metal, and the Monkees albums introduced to me by a girl I knew somewhere. As I learned about The Kinks, as I learned about punk, as I prepared to trade one set of experiences for the next in that overrated growin'-up sequence, Sweet was as important a part of my soundtrack as everything else. 

Oh yeah!
It was electric
So perfectly hectic
Then the band started leaving
'Cause they all stopped breathing

And the man in the back said, "Everyone attack!" Sweet bassist Steve Priest died last week. That news did not break until after we had already recorded this week's TIRnRR. The presence of "Ballroom Blitz" on the playlist is a coincidence. It's not even a testament to my ongoing allegiance to a still-vivid recollection of listening to Desolation Boulevard during the musical crucible of my teens; Dana's the one who played it this week. 

But I hear the song. And I remember. I remember what it meant to me, how great it was, how great it still is, how great it will always be. Are you ready, Steve? Uh-huh. Andy? Yeah. Mick? Okay. And alright, fellas. Thank you for being there when I needed you. Thank you for being Sweet.


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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.

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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).