10 SONGS: 2/13/2025

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 # 1323

BALLZY TOMORROW: Double Our Numbers

Our Featured Performer this week was the late, great Parthenon Huxley, and I think we managed an effective and loving tribute to this wonderful artist. We played a lot of Parthenon's music, including material under his own nom de bop, with his group P. Hux, fronting latter-day Electric Light Orchestra incarnation the Orchestra, as a member of Veg, as Rick Rock, with 3KStatic, collaborating with Jeffrey Foskett, and as part of his "pretty good band" with Rusty Anderson, Jen Condos, and Rob Ladd. It was Hux to the max, all in memory of a TIRnRR idol.

For all that, we deliberately skipped my favorite Parthenon Huxley song: "Double Our Numbers," from his brilliant 1988 album Sunny Nights. Our pal Robbie Rist is one of the biggest P. Hux fans we know, so we wanted our P. Hux tribute to include Robbie's cover of "Double Our Numbers," marketed under Robbie's alter ego Ballzy Tomorrow. From a previous edition of 10 Songs:

We have said this many times, yet it bears repeating: Enthusiasm is its own reward.

Enthusiasm drives our individual fandom, and I mean that in a good way. It certainly drives this little mutant radio show. Sure, there can be something said on behalf of detached objectivity...but ferchrissakes not in pop music, or at least not when we're listening to pop music. Objectivity? No. Not on our watch.

Robbie Rist occasionally feigns detachment, but he's never afraid to let his enthusiasm be known. Robbie loves pop as much as anyone loves pop; he loves it unashamedly, proudly. As a performer, Robbie will not hesitate to share his own enthusiasm with the audience

Case in point: Robbie Rist loves the music of Parthenon Huxley, particularly the music on Parthenon Huxley's 1988 album Sunny Nights, and most particularly the Sunny Nights track "Double Our Numbers."

Robbie is right about all of that. "Double Our Numbers" is exquisite, and the subject of one of my Greatest Record Ever Made! rants (and a seeming shoo-in for the hypothetical GREM! Volume 2). The song never became the rockin' pop staple it deserved to be, and I don't think it's available on any current streaming service.

So Robbie's kept the song alive, with a faithful rendition released under his Ballsy Tomorrow dba, all the while tipping his hat and dutifully applying heart to sleeve in recognition of Parthenon Huxley's original.

If you love a song, you wanna play that song, sing that song, dance to that song. And you want to introduce that song to your friends. 

Double our numbers. Triple our numbers. Robbie Rist has the right idea. Greater strength in numbers. Enthusiasm rewards and renews.

We'll hear Parthenon Huxley's original version of "Double Our Numbers" on our next show. We're enthused. And we're doubling down.

THE CYNZ: You Wreck Me

We're also enthusiastic about the music of the Cynz, and we've been playing selections from the group's new album Confess with zealous, righteous conviction. This week, we turn to their absolutely ace cover of Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me," and we may have wrecked a speaker trying to crank this one up to proper volume. So worth it. We'll circle back to a previous Pick Hit from Confess on Sunday night.

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: American Girl

From an American girl singin' a Tom Petty song into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singing "American Girl." I tell ya, sometimes the segues just program themselves.

SORROWS: Just One Fool To Blame

I continue to be amazed at the gift of Sorrows' 2025 release Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow, a previously-unreleased 1981 one-night-studio-stand that serves as the group's in-era farewell but sounds like it was recorded tomorrow. The album was a consistent fixture on our playlists last year, and we just debuted its epic John Lennon salute "Cricket Man" on our January 25th show. Two weeks later, we return to the well of constant Sorrows for "Just One Fool To Blame," which turns out be just one more winner from an album overflowing with post-teenage heartbreak of the sweetest kind.  

THE FLASHCUBES: I Won't Wait Another Night

In the course of my work curating my passion project Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes for Big Stir Records in 2025, I had a series of communications with Parthenon Huxley about the possibility of him recording a Flashcubes cover for the compilation. His schedule didn't allow him a lot of opportunity to get this done, but he was friendly and open to the idea, and settled tentatively on doing a solo acoustic 12-string rendition of 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin's lovely ballad "I Won't Wait Another Night." 

Our conversation began in February of 2025. I then sent Parthenon several possibilities for him to evaluate from the Cubic catalog, and after considering another Arty tune ("Cycle Of Pain"), he picked "I Won't Wait Another Night" as his preference. He had a lot of working and gigging commitments, including a cruise. In March, he noted that he was closing in on an arrangement of the song. In April, he moved his Make Something Happen! participation status from tentative to "I will participate."

A downturn in Parthenon's health prevented that participation. He remained friendly and engaged in subsequent messaging, but I told him that it was more important for him to get better and feel better than it was to for him to risk damaging his vocal chops while trying to recover from a persistent cough. I expressed appreciation and gratitude for his interest and indulgence, and he expressed hope that we might meet in person some day.

This week, we played the Flashcubes' own original version of "I Won't Wait Another Night." A toast to absent friends, and a toast to what might have been.

P. HUX: Better Than Good

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

And yes, I did indeed repurpose much of this for my subsequent GREM! celebration of "Double Our Numbers." Serving the greater good, and that's much better than good.

HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS: Tell That Girl To Shut Up

Holly and the Italians' 1981 debut long-player The Right To Be Italian is a perfect record from start to finish. The 'tude classic "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" is the best-known among the original LP's ten tracks, but they're all great, presenting an irresistible oomph-a-thon of girl-group pop, New York punk, and undeniable rock 'n' roll climbing in the back seat and pulsating to the backbeat. One of my all-time favorite albums.

ELVIS COSTELLO: (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shows

I saw Elvis Costello and the Attractions perform on campus when I was a Freshman at Brockport in early 1978, and I wrote an extended reminiscence of that experience here. The performance did not include the 1977 My Aim Is True track "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes," but we did hear (but not see) Declan and the lads run through the tune that night. Let's look back at that part of my in-concert recollection:

"...Costello's debut album, My Aim Is True, featured studio backing by a group called Clover; he formed the more raucous, willfully chaotic Attractions after that. My Aim Is True was well-received by critics; I suspect a few critics may have embraced it because it was tangentially punk, but not really, and endorsing it might make such critics seem slightly hipper than they actually were. But My Aim Is True was a terrific album, deserving of accolades regardless of the unconscious reasons prompting such praise.

"Still, it was surprising to return to Brockport and discover that Elvis Costello was scheduled to perform on campus. Although there was some underground support for punk and new wave among a beleaguered minority of students (and a very small handful of DJs on the student-run radio station WBSU), Brockport was simply not a hip place. The predominant musical taste of Brockport students was embodied by the Grateful Dead, Southern rock, and similar shit-kickin' and/or stoner stuff. It was either that, or dat ole debbil disco. The campus newspaper The Stylus had dismissed the Sex Pistols' album in a fit of blind, frothing fury: "Simply put, this album sucks." This was not a CBGB's crowd...

"...This was only my third rock concert. I'd seen KISS in 1976, and (yechh!) the Charlie Daniels Band in '77. More importantly, though, I'd seen my first club show and my first punk or new wave or trend du jour show in January, when I witnessed Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes for the first time. I already knew that was a life-changing experience; why not hope for another revelation, with Elvis Costello and the Attractions?

"As we waited outside the ballroom before showtime, Costello rushed sullenly and silently past us, en route to his soundcheck. We heard run-throughs of 'Alison' and '(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes' coming from behind the closed doors of the ballroom. It would be the only time we'd hear either of those songs that night...."

So, a question for the armchair pundits in our audience: This was my only Elvis Costello show; are "Alison" and "Red Shoes" a part of my virtual ticket stub gallery, or not? The well-shod angels in our midst await your decision.

THE BEATLES: Here Comes The Sun [Take 9]

Listen, man: Here in Syracuse, we're still waiting for proof of this elusive "sun" of which you speak. We'll believe it when we see it.

PARTHENON HUXLEY: Beautiful

Another one of the biggest P. Hux fans we know is loyal TIRnRR listener Eleanor Cook. Our Eleanor has guest-programmed a couple of shows for us, and one of those shows included "Beautiful,"  a go'geous tune from Parthenon Huxley's 2013 album Thank You Bethesda. Beautiful. And a beautiful way to conclude our tribute. Godspeed, Parthenon.

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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.

POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! Hellcat, The Hollies, Holly & the Italians, and Hot Wheels

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post continues my never-ending story of The Everlasting First, recalling my first exposures to a comic book character, two rockin' pop groups, and a popular toy line: Hellcat, the Hollies, Holly and the Italians, and Hot Wheels.

Of the four, the Hollies have had the most enduring impact in my world. The Hollies' song "I Can't Let Go" earns a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1); I haven't shared that chapter on the blog, but I did make a video talking about it (as discussed here and seen here). Very early drafts of GREM! also included a piece about my first Hollies LP, The Very Best Of The Hollies, but that was removed from the book's blueprint quite some time ago.

I still love Holly and the Italians, of course. We just played Holly Beth Vincent's new single "Hey Boy" a couple of weeks back on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. And I also wrote this little bit about her 1982 collaboration with Joey Ramone, covering a Sonny and Cher classic: 

"Starting around 1980 or so, I began telling everyone within earshot that the Ramones should cover the Sonny and Cher staple 'I Got You Babe,' and rope in Blondie babe Debbie Harry to serve as Joey Ramone's duet partner. It seemed a natural prospect to me, especially given that guitarist Johnny Ramone had already played a similar folk-rock riff on the Ramones' cover of the Searchers' 'Needles And Pins.' I was a visionary! Sort of. This 1982 single credited to the one-off Holly & Joey was the closest manifestation of that vision, with Holly Beth Vincent playing the Cher to Joey's Sonny, backed by Holly's own group Holly and the Italians. A friend of mine was amazed and enthused that I'd predicted it as closely as I had, even though it really wasn't all that close at all. When I interviewed Joey for Goldmine in 1994, he told me he really wanted to work with Holly again. When I was briefly in touch with Holly Beth Vincent a few years back, I shared with her what Joey had said, and she immediately broke off all contact with me. Oops? Maybe I'm not quite the visionary I fancied myself to be."

As much as I adored my Hot Wheels cars when I was kid, nowadays I find I don't play with them anywhere near as much as I used to. Pfft. This maturity thing is way overrated. Even in my dotage, though, I would jump at a chance to buy a trade collection of the Hot Wheels comics produced by DC in the late '60s and early '70s. These were solid comics, with some stunning artwork by Alex Toth (and a little by Neal Adams), and they would be well worth preserving.

It would be beyond the scope of this blog to reproduce those Hot Wheels comics here, but I did include representative pages from all six issues in my 100-Page FAKES! blog series, which imagined a bunch of 1970s DC Comics 100-Page Super Spectaculars that never were. The Hot Wheels material was spread out to appear in my 100-Page FAKES! editions of Detective Comics # 449, Detective Comics # 451, Adventure Comics # 444, Detective Comics # 452, Adventure Comics # 445, Detective Comics # 453, Adventure Comics # 446, Detective Comics # 454, Adventure Comics # 447, Detective Comics # 455, and Detective Comics # 456. This places the heroes of Hot Wheels alongside Batman, Aquaman, and other DC characters. Rightly so!

Finally, I don't really have anything at all to say about Hellcat, but I'll repeat that I liked her as written by Steve Englehart in The Avengers. Nonetheless, Hellcat, the Hollies, Holly and the Italians, and Hot Wheels are all on equal footing in The Everlasting First. Those introductions serve as 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.

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10 SONGS: 8/4/2020

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 # 1036.

ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Soldier Of Love



Songs The Beatles taught us. The great soul singer Arthur Alexander never achieved the pop success that should have been his due. 1962's "You Better Move On" was his only Billboard Top 40 hit, but The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bashful Bob Dylan were fans, each recording at least one Arthur Alexander tune. Arthur Alexander is the only songwriter to have his material covered by all three of those rock icons. Paul McCartney has said that the early Beatles really wanted to be a soul act, and he cited Arthur Alexander as an example of the sort of performer they had in mind as a model for what they did.

The Beatles covered Alexander's "Anna (Go To Him)" on their debut album, shortening the song's title to just "Anna." The Fab Four also covered his "Shot Of R & B" and "Soldier Of Love" in radio performances, and those cuts found a larger clandestine audience via Beatles bootlegs in the '70s. The Flashcubes used to cover "Soldier Of Love" in their 1979 live sets, stating that they'd learned the song from Beatle boots (the vinyl sort rather than the footwear, I'm guessing). Marshall Crenshaw also covered it on his eponymous debut. The Beatles' recording has since been made available as an official release.

Arthur Alexander's original version remains definitive. Having written it, of course, he gets the words right, which puts him one up on John Lennon's (nonetheless great) attempt to approximate the lines he thought he heard on a 45 brought by boat from America to the docks of Liverpool. Alexander's performance has a soulful sway that The Beatles couldn't quite match...though they did pretty well with it, didn't they? They wanted to be a soul act, like Arthur Alexander. The Beatles' cover of "Please Mr. Postman" surpasses The Marvelettes' original, and John, Paul, George, and Richard likewise acquitted themselves admirably with their takes on Chuck Berry, The Miracles, and Little Richard, demonstrating their ability to process their influences and make them their own.

But there was only one Arthur Alexander. Lay down your arms, soldier of love. Surrender to Arthur.

ALICE COOPER: School's Out


This was the clarion call for summer in the '70s, as each June traded pencils, books, and teacher's dirty looks for the presumed pleasures of the sunny school's-out season. Of course, as a teenage wannabe-writer, I kept right up with pencils (or pens) and books, but at least I was out of range of any disapproving glances a school administrator might cast with scorn in my direction. Plus: swimming!

From the Alice Cooper chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

To an adolescent or young teen in the early to mid 1970s, nothing in the world was cooler than Alice Cooper. Before KISS, before punk, Alice Cooper was gaudy and dangerous, potentially the most scandalous, depraved character on AM radio. It didn't matter that it was all an act--show biz!--or that David Bowie was ultimately a far more potent threat to the straight-laced status quo; at the time, Alice Cooper seemed the most dangerous, and therefore the most alluring. Within this fist-pumpin' time frame, a kid that couldn't relate to "School's Out," or didn't want to turn the radio up louder than it could actually go whenever that song came on...well, that kid just would not have been me....

ELVIS COSTELLO: Watching The Detectives


I've written elsewhere of my experience seeing Elvis Costello & the Attractions live on campus during my freshman year at college. Although I had read about Costello (primarily in Phonograph Record Magazine), "Watching The Detectives" was the first Costello song I actually heard, delivered to me when ol' Declan and his Attractions subbed for The Sex Pistols on Saturday Night Live in December of 1977. I thought the performance was riveting, though ya can't beat the incendiary cool of their second song on the show, as they started and suddenly stopped playing "Less Than Zero" and switched to "Radio, Radio" instead. The readers of Trouser Press later crowned that as TV's all-time # 1 rock 'n' roll moment. 

"Watching The Detectives" is pulp fiction made into music, a quick distillation of film noir and Gold Medal paperbacks rendered with a jagged, reggae-influenced beat and simmering punk anger. The record was not produced by Mickey Spillane...but it coulda been.



FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie



Ahem. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE GO-GO'S: Club Zero



A new single by The Go-Go's! And it's fabulous, continuing the group's streak of always meeting and surpassing expectations. From their original early '80s heyday through sporadic reunions, The Go-Go's have never disappointed.

Yet they're still criminally underrated, and that pisses me off more than I can articulate. We'll talk a little bit more about The Go-Go's tomorrow.

HOLLY & THE ITALIANS: Youth Coup


I can't pinpoint my specific introduction to Holly & the Italians, but I can narrow it down a little bit. There was a Holly & the Italians flexi-disc for those (like me!) who subscribed to Trouser Press magazine, and there was a CBS Records loss-leader various-artists set called Exposed II: A Cheap Peak At Today Provocative New Rock, both in 1981; the former offered a song called "Poster Boy" backed with a medley, and the latter included "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" and "Rock Against Romance" alongside its Tommy Tutone (not that song), Gary Myrick & the Figures, Psychedelic Furs, Karla DeVito, and Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons. And there was CREEM magazine's rave review of the group's debut album The Right To Be Italian, which compared the Holly sound to Lesley Gore or The Angels backed by Leave Home-era Ramones. Okeydokey. SOLD! Where do I sign?

I scored my copy of The Right To Be Italian at a used record store in Manhattan, probably in or near the Village, though I don't really remember for sure. It was my last trip to the city for many, many years. The LP's cover was water-damaged, but the record played fine, and it was an immediate favorite. Among many great tracks, "Youth Coup" eventually became my single biggest go-to cut. A fantastic album overall, and it was the only album Holly & the Italians did. Lead singer Holly Beth Vincent later did a single with Joey Ramone (as "Holly & Joey") and uncredited Italians covering Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe," and went on to a solo career thereafter.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)


Librarians With Hickeys have a brand-new album, Long Overdue, out on the ever-cool Big Stir Records label. Long Overdue is very, very good, and we opened this week's show with a spin of its current single "That Time Is Now," a lovely tune which finds our passionate bibliophiles supplemented by the able talents of Lisa Mychols. Later in the show, we also played the single's non-album B-side, which is this cover of a song originally done by Saturday morning's phenomenal pop combo The Banana Splits. 



Everybody remembers the insidiously catchy theme song from The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and if mention of The Banana Splits didn't immediately set off a resounding TRA-LA-LAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAA! to drown out your inner monologue, I betcha it has now. No need to thank me; consider it a public service courtesy of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). I did watch the show during its original 1968-1970 run (and in mid '70s cable TV reruns), and "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)" is the only other Banana Splits song I can recall. I can still picture Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky cavorting on my screen as the song played in all its psychedelic bubblegum glory. Librarians With Hickeys do a fine job channeling that vibe.

THE O'JAYS: Put Your Hands Together


From The O'Jays' chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

Put your hands together.

We've talked about rock 'n' roll as The Devil's Music. But what about rock's celestial roots? In the wicked consummation of the orgiastic union of the rock and the roll, Gospel music was a participant no more reserved and no less sweaty than R & B, country, honky tonk, and blues. Now that was a party! Bless us, Lord!....

Although I heard The O'Jays on the radio quite often during my prime AM Top 40 years, and frequently heard my suitemates' copy of their live album during my second year at college, I don't remember "Put Your Hands Together" at all. It's so uplifting, so infectious, so absolutely irresistible. Put 'em together. PUT 'EM TOGETHER! Now, dammit!

SQUEEZE: Goodbye Girl



My favorite Squeeze song. Although I was a relative latecomer to Squeeze fandom, I fell hard for "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)," and also liked "Annie Get Your Gun." Then they broke up. Then they got back together! I didn't own any of Squeeze's stuff until the late '80s, when Singles--45's And Under became one of my early CD purchases. More purchases would follow. I now have many favorite Squeeze songs. "Goodbye Girl" remains my # 1.

UTOPIA: I Just Want To Touch You



As my friend Bruce Gordon says: Let's be The Beatles! The urge to imitate and even try to effectively become the act we've known for all these years is widespread and enduring. The Knickerbockers pulled it off on an incredible single called "Lies." The Rutles created a mirror image that was at least as much affectionate pastiche as it was parody. And somewhere in between The Knickerbockers and The Rutles was Deface The Music by Utopia.



I guess the album's supposed to be something of a lark, which is fine by me. It's been said that Utopia's Todd Rundgren finds the process of writing and recording pure pop songs too limiting, too predictable, too boring. But I have loved this album ever since its release. It's far and away my top Utopia record; it is, in fact, the only Utopia record I'm ever likely to listen to. Other than "Couldn't I Just Tell You," "We Gotta Get You A Woman," and some of Todd's 1960s stuff with The Nazz, Deface The Music is also my favorite Rundgren work overall. Hell, I like it better than "I Saw The Light" or "Hello It's Me," but that's just me. Deface The Music is willfully derivative, a deliberate and almost wiseass rip of The Beatles. Original? Nope, not a chance. Pure pop fun? Three loud YEAHS should answer that. Let's be The Beatles? Sounds like a worthy goal to me, mate.


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10 SONGS: 2/18/2020

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 # 1013.

THE CONTOURS: Do You Love Me



If memory serves, a cover of "Do You Love Me" was the first British hit for The Dave Clark Five in 1963, and it subsequently became (I think) their third hit in the U.S. in '64, following "Glad All Over" and "Bits And Pieces." No chart histories were consulted in the making of this reminiscence. The Contours' original was one of the early Motown hits, and it's the best-known version, thanks in part to its return to the charts in the '80s (courtesy of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack). I knew and adored the DC5 take long before I heard The Contours, and I also heard a cover by Johnny Thunders with his band The Heartbreakers prior to discovering the original. Hell, I'm pretty sure I heard local Syracuse rockers The Most perform the song live before my first conscious exposure to The Contours. In fact, when I complimented members of The Most for covering The Dave Clark Five, guitarist Derek Knott sneered at me for not knowing The Contours. Punks, man....



I came to know The Contours' "Do You Love Me" quite well in the '80s. Not from Dirty Dancing, but from oldies radio airplay that hooked me on the track a few years before anyone warned anyone else not to put Baby in the corner. I've vacillated between the Contours and DC5 takes as my favorite, but the overwhelming consensus is that The Contours' original is definitive.

EDDIE & THE HOT RODS: Get Out Of Denver



TIRnRR used Bob Seger as a cartoon bogeyman for years, scaring listeners with the idle threat of playing the hated "Old Time Rock & Roll" if they misbehaved. We still hate "Old Time Rock & Roll" and "We've Got Tonight," but the Seger joke ran its course, and we finally played Seger's great "Get Out Of Denver" as potent proof that some of Seger's older stuff is far more interesting than his better-known bucket o' yechh. Seger's fantastic "2 + 2 = ?" was among our most-played tracks in 2018, and it will merit a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).



For years before we lifted our embargo on Seger's records, we were occasionally playing Eddie & the Hot Rods' ferocious, fast 'n' faithful cover of "Get Out Of Denver." I first knew the song via live performances by The Flashcubes in '78, when 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong introduced the song as something Seger did "10 years ago, when he was still cool." The Flashcubes, of course, were doing it as an Eddie & the Hot Rods cover, from that group's Live At The Marquee EP. All three versions--Seger, Hot Rods, 'Cubes--rock with righteous authority.

THE FAST: Kids Just Wanna Dance


In that late '70s Syracuse music setting, when I saw The Flashcubes as many times as I could, my favorite local nightspot was The Firebarn on Montgomery Street. I first knew The Firebarn through the Syracuse Cinephile Society, which screened its classic film presentations upstairs at The Firebarn. I saw Dead End, The Adventures Of Robin Hood, and the complete 12-chapter Adventures Of Captain Marvel movie serial in that upstairs room in the early to mid '70s. 

What do you mean you can't serve me a beer unless I show ID...?!

The Flashcubes were my first live band at The Firebarn, also upstairs, in 1978. I was not among the dozen or so who saw The Police play with the 'Cubes there, but I did see a ton of shows at The Firebarn, upstairs and downstairs alike. At one point, probably in 1979 or '80s, Fritz the bartender would see me walk in and have an ice-cold bottle of Miller waiting for me at the bar by the time I got there. One night, I was one of several onlookers pulled onstage by The Most's lead singer Dian Zain to sing screeching back-up on "Got No Mind;" the stage collapsed as we rocked upon it, but I had secure footing and caught Dian before she could fall. See? I was a hero! Tell that to your sneering guitarist Derek, Dian!

The Most

The Fast

NYC's power-pop punks The Fast were another of my upstairs concert treats at The Firebarn, playing on a bill with The Flashcubes in 1978. They were very Who-influenced, and their set included covers of "I Can See For Miles," Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking," and Tommy Roe's "Sheila." I loved them, and I bought their way swell 1977 single of "It's Like Love"/"Kids Just Wanna Dance" at my first opportunity. The Fast later re-recorded "Kids Just Wanna Dance" with Ric Ocasek producing, but the single is, oh, a gazillion times better.



A specific event prompted me to play The Fast this week. On Sunday, I set foot in the former Firebarn location for the first time since 1981. It's now called Wolff's Biergarten, and the upstairs doesn't seem to be open to the public anymore. It's been remodeled, the bar on the opposite side of where it was, and Fritz wasn't there (nor had he been there when I last visited in '81). But I sat with my wife and daughter, sipped a delicious mug of Coca-Cola (I was driving) and nibbled on peanuts, thrilled and grateful to be back inside this building that meant so much to me.



HOLLY & JOEY: I Got You Babe



Starting around 1980 or so, I began telling everyone within earshot that The Ramones should cover the Sonny & Cher staple "I Got You Babe," and rope in Blondie babe Debbie Harry to serve as Joey Ramone's duet partner. It seemed a natural prospect to me, especially given that guitarist Johnny Ramone had already played a similar folk-rock riff on The Ramones' cover of The Searchers' "Needles And Pins." I was a visionary! Sort of. This 1982 single credited to the one-off Holly & Joey was the closest manifestation of that vision, with Holly Beth Vincent playing the Cher to Joey's Sonny, backed by Holly's own group Holly & the Italians. A friend of mine was amazed and enthused that I'd predicted it as closely as I had, even though it really wasn't all that close at all. When I interviewed Joey for Goldmine in 1994, he told me he really wanted to work with Holly again. When I was briefly in touch with Holly Beth Vincent a few years back, I shared with her what Joey had said, and she immediately broke off all contact with me. Oops? Maybe I'm not quite the visionary I fancied myself to be.

Debbie & Joey. Holly could not be reached for comment.

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell



Different Holly! My favorite Kinks cover, bar none, and also the subject of a chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I always presumed Holly Golightly was a stage name, but Holly was born Holly Golightly Smith. Dream-maker, you heartbreaker. Holly's recorded a ton of cool tracks over the years, and you should check 'em all out.

JONI MITCHELL: Free Man In Paris



I didn't have any particular affinity for Joni Mitchell when I was a teen in the '70s. But I liked her hit "Help Me" enough to buy the single, I loved "Big Yellow Taxi," and I just about worshiped Judy Collins' cover of Mitchell's "Both Sides Now;" a few years later, I wondered how it would have sounded if The Byrds had also covered "Both Sides Now," with jangly 12-string Rickenbackers and sweet, chiming Roger McGuinn lead vocals. I'm sure I must have heard more of Mitchell's work, but I didn't specifically engage until I picked up a used-LP copy of the Court And Spark album in the '90s. At the time, I was researching a (later abandoned) project about the definitive albums of the '70s, scarfing up miscellaneous Me Decade records with determined impunity. 

And Court And Spark got to me, in such a warm and inviting way. I listened to it often in my upstairs office at home, simply captivated. "Free Man In Paris" became my favorite, and it still is.



THE MONKEES: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You


Try as many a mastering engineer might, no CD reissue of this non-LP Monkees single has ever come within a light year of matching the sheer punch and power of the original Colgems Records 45. Most Monkees fans consider this a relatively minor entry in the group's history, a Neil Diamond composition that represented former producer/puppeteer Don Kirshner's last grasp of The Monkees' strings; B-side "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," written by Michael Nesmith and performed by The Monkees themselves rather than by session musicians, is ultimately more important, even though the A-side was the the hit. But man, I just love the way the sound of my flea-market 45 jumps out of the speakers, loud and distorted in all the right ways.

RADIO BIRDMAN: You're Gonna Miss Me


Before my very first spin of the essential 2-LP various-artists set Nuggets in 1979 introduced me to the cantankerous brilliance of The 13th Floor Elevators, I already knew their signature tune "You're Gonna Miss Me" from this slammin' cover, courtesy of Australia's Radio Birdman. The track was on the American version of the group's debut album Radios Appear in 1977, and I bought a promo copy of that in '78. Radio Birdman's Hawaii Five-0 tribute "Aloha Steve & Danno" (which incorporated extended bits of the TV show's theme song) was my focus track on the album, but "You're Gonna Miss Me" woulda been my second choice, then acing out my eventual favorite "Murder City Nights."

SCREEN TEST: Make Something Happen


"Make Something Happen" was written by Flashcubes and Screen Test bassist Gary Frenay, and I don't understand why someone hasn't covered it to multi-platinum success. The Monkees should have done this for their Good Times! album in 2016. Mary Lou Lord should have covered it. The Slapbacks did cover it, and they did a wonderful job with it. It was first recorded by Screen Test in 1985, and again by The Flashcubes in 2003. It was used in last week's episode of the TV show Young Sheldon, but it played in the background in a bar scene as characters from the show kept yammerin' on, their inane dialogue drowning out the sound I really wanted to hear. Arghh. Where's my TV Brick?



(If you happen to be in Central New York on Wednesday, February 19th, I betcha you'll get to hear it at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel during its 5-8 pm Happy Hour. That's when Gary and his fellow rockin' pop troubadour Arty Lenin will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the start of their regular weekly Wednesday residency at the Sheraton. It's the longest-running weekly gig in the history of the Syracuse music scene, and I hope you'll join Gary & Arty as they play a set of Beatles songs, a set of their own Flashcubes, Screen est, and solo numbers, and a set of requests. A good time is strongly implied for all, and I look forward to seeing you there.)

THE SPINNERS: My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)



There are so many paths we may take to discover our favorite records. My path to this one wound through the Liverpool Public Library. That's Liverpool, NY, one of Syracuse's Northern suburbs, rather than, y'know, Gerry & the Pacemakers and "Ferry Cross The Mersey" and your John, your Paul, your George, and your Ringo. No; the other Liverpool. The Liverpool Library was the resource for my first CDs, which I borrowed during that period around 1987 to '88, when I had a CD player but wasn't yet quite ready to start buying CDs. A bit later on, the burgeoning popularity of CDs prompted the library to get rid of its LP collection. One of the Liverpool Library's vinyl cast-offs was Motown's The Best Of The Spinners, which I snapped up for a buck or so. 

Unidentified Liverpool librarians

Nearly all of The Spinners' hits came after the group's tenure with Motown. That meant this presumed Best Of The Spinners included the Motown-era smash "It's A Shame," but was not graced with the likes of "I'll Be Around" or "Rubberband Man" or "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love." But what the hell, it was a buck. And its purchase invited me into the glorious comfort of The Spinners' sublime version of the David Ruffin hit "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)." Ruffin's version never meant much to me, but I was instantly taken with the sweet sway of The Spinners' interpretation, which I love to this day. When I played it again on the show this week, Dana was surprised that I've never owned it on CD. But no; it was a B-side, relatively unrecognized by the greater pop world at large, included as filler on a cash-grab "best"-of LP by a label that didn't own the rights to the group's most popular material. I did buy an mp3 of the track to hear on my iPod, and I still have my vinyl, courtesy of the Liverpool Library. The Best Of The Spinners? You know, maybe it is, after all.

Hey, look! A Liverpool library!

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