10 SONGS: 12/1/2023

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 # 1209. This show is available as a podcast.

POPDUDES: She's An Obsession

I was chatting recently with my friend and fellow pop journalist John M. Borack. John's power pop bona fides meet the dictionary definition of "unassailable," and he and I agree on much, disagree on a little, and we're fans of each other's informed punditry even when our POVs diverge.

John's also a drummer, and he has a new album with the Armoires due out in the not-quite-near-enough future. One of John's other DBAs is Popdudes, a revolving-member aggregation that usually finds our John working with Michael Simmons of sparkle*jets u.k. Popdudes have just released a new covers collection, gathering sundry swell Popdudifications of material previously done by NRBQ, Paul McCartney, the Five Stairsteps, Elvis Costello, the Guess Who, Roy Orbison, Ringo Starr, and more.

The album's called Number Two, but it's # 1 on our playlist this week, as we open this week's show with Popdudes' rendition of 20/20's "She's An Obsession." You know the old saying: Starve a cold, feed an obsession. Happy to do our part here on TIRnRR.

HEY! Speaking of the Armoires, the group has a lovely and brand-new track called "Music & Animals," available on the new benefit compilation Embers Of Aloha: A Maui Wildfire Benefit Project. Let's cut-n-paste a little something about this album, courtesy of Eddie Van Finley:

"All proceeds of this special digital BENEFIT project will go to directly help the victims of the Maui Wildfires, which resulted in loss of property, homes, pets and loved ones. Your generous donation will help to provide immediate relief for the people of Lahaina and West Maui communities in the wake of this horrible disaster.

"Mahalo for the kind contributions of every artist on this compilation that have given of their time and talents to make this project possible. Please consider supporting these artists who have selflessly supported this cause. Artist information is contained in each track's info section.

"I'd like to thank Big Stir Records, JAM Records, JEM Records, Kool Kat Musik, David Beard (Endless Summer Quarterly) for their immeasurable guidance, kind encouragement and advice.

"Special thanks to Lisa Mychols (my tireless co-chair) and Nadja Dee (Artwork) for the constant forward momentum and positivity. And thank you to Michael McCartney, for being our catalyst, positive reinforcement and for Inspiring this project to come together with purpose, meaning and aloha.

"On behalf of everyone involved, "Mahalo nui loa" for supporting such a worthy cause and for making this an amazing compilation of songs!

"May EMBERS of ALOHA live in your heart. Always."

Embers Of Aloha is out TODAY. I bought it. You shoulda oughta buy it, too. Mahalo to the great Michael McCartney, radio's best friend. Mahalo to the island and its spirit. Mahalo to the Armoires. Mahalo to you for doing your part to help the wonderful people of Maui.

LOU RAWLS: Bring It On Home

From a previous edition of 10 Songs (2/23/2021):

"When I was an oldies-obsessed college student in the late '70s, there was one time when I sang an impromptu duet with a woman working at the campus snack bar, me doing most of the warbling on a snippet of Sam Cooke's 'Bring It On Home To Me.' She was surprised someone so young was familiar with the song to begin with, but, y'know, see above reference to oldies-obsessed. Truth to tell, I mostly knew the song from the Animals' cover version, but I knew Cooke's original, too. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I learned the secondary vocal on Cooke's recording was performed by a then-unknown Lou Rawls. You'll never find (dum dum dumdee dum) another secondary vocal like his (dum dum dumdee dum). Bring it on home, Lou."

I didn't realize that Rawls also released his own version of the song in 1970. Cool! I discovered it on a Lou Rawls best-of CD that I just picked up, and figured it would make a more'n appropriate TIRnRR spin. Lou Rawls covers Sam Cooke!

And yeah, I forgot Rawls sang on the original. Intrepid TIRnRR listener Mike Browning pointed out that Rawls' "Bring It On Home" was as much a remake as it was a cover (much like my own oft-cited instance of Merry Clayton's remake of "Gimme Shelter," seeing as how she's the one wailin' WAR, children! on the original Rolling Stones release). Good catch, Mike! Nice to have someone who can bring it when we need it.

THE RONSON HANGUP: Waxes & Wanes

This is stunning. From their new album Centaurus, the Ronson Hangup effectively channel the Hollies in an original song called "Waxes & Wanes." It's not an imitation or an homage; the vocals echo the Hollies without sounding like them, and for all I know I'm just imagining the comparison. But to my ears, this sounds like someone covering an undiscovered, previously unheard Hollies gem, and covering it well enough that I expect one or another Ronson Hangupper to break up the band so he can go hang with David Crosby and Stephen Stills instead. Irresistible.

MICKY DOLENZ: Radio Free Europe

Of the four tracks on Micky Dolenz's new EP Dolenz Sings R.E.M., "Radio Free Europe" is the only one where I don't flat-out prefer Micky's cover to the Athens-bred original. I didn't know R.E.M.'s "Leaving New York," but everyone with a radio and/or MTV knew "Shiny Happy People" and "Man On The Moon." It's a true credit to Dolenz and his musical director Christian Nesmith that they were able to stake ballsy dibs on such familiar work, and emerge with what I think are now the definitive versions.

"Radio Free Europe" presents a tougher challenge, if only because it's probably my favorite R.E.M. track. That specific, emotional tether to a beloved record is difficult to challenge...

...which makes it all the more amazing that Micky does challenge R.E.M.'s primacy on "Radio Free Europe." Dolenz and company manage a convincing, compelling, damned near magical remake of a song I've adored for decades, reimagining it, reinventing it, and giving me pause to consider the sheer audacity and accomplishment of what they've done. I can't quite let go of my entrenched and established affection for R.E.M.'s own "Radio Free Europe," and this shouldn't even be a close choice.

But it is. Damn, this Dolenz guy is good.

JACKIE BRENTSON AND HIS DELTA CATS: Rocket "88"

Jackie Brentson's seminal rock 'n' roll single "Rocket '88' " doesn't have an entry in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but the track is mentioned within the chapters for two other songs. Let's mash 'em up here, from GREM! pieces about Big Mama Thornton and Ike and Tina Turner:

Where and when did rock 'n' roll start? There are a few key records that one could name as possibilities for the first rock 'n' roll record. "Rocket '88' " by Jackie Brentson and his Delta Cats (1951, and really Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm) is the closest we have to a consensus choice, though some would point to "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino (1950). I would at least add Amos Milburn's "Down The Road Apiece" (1947) to the discussion, and no less an authority than Lenny and Squiggy (on TV's Laverne And Shirley) spoke on behalf of "Call The Police," a 1941 single Nat King Cole made with the King Cole Trio. There are other progenitors and trailblazers from across the heady mingling of jump blues, R & B, country, and swing that birthed this bastard child we call rock 'n' roll. What was the daddy of them all? Not even a blood test is going to make that determination.

"Rocket '88' " can lay plausible claim to being the first rock 'n' roll record (though I still say it was Amos Milburn's "Down The Road Apiece"). On merit, Ike Turner should be celebrated as one of popular music's most important most artists. 

History does not remember him that way. He had only himself to blame for that. Revelation of his ongoing abuse of Tina Turner when they were married effectively reduced Ike Turner from headliner to deplorable footnote. 

Charles Manson was a frustrated musician and songwriter. O.J. Simpson was a celebrated athlete. Joe Meek. Gary Glitter. Bill Cosby. It's a long list of the famous and infamous. We celebrate the art. The artist may disappoint us.

Or worse.

KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

We play favorites. With pop music, there's no sensible justification for objectivity. Pop music exists for the express purpose of getting into our ears, into our pores, into our vibratin' corpuscles, and into whatever else is ripe for gettin' into. Failure to play favorites would be as dumb as dumb can be.

Kid Gulliver's "Forget About Him" is a favorite, and more: It's a TIRnRR classic, reprised from the group's Kismet album for our own 2022 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. It's one of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's greatest hits. Yeah it's a favorite. Gotta play the favorites.

THE CREATION: Making Time

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Why Is It Always This Way?

More than 1200 shows in, I cannot believe we've never played this Rocket To Russia track on TIRnRR before this week. In last week's 10 Songs, I talked about how I'm starting to wonder if the Ramones' fourth album--1978's Road To Ruin--might really be the group's masterpiece. Whether that's true or not, its immediate predecessor Rocket To Russia also remains a contender, a Love At First Spin album for me, and the long-playing home of "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," the record that changed my life. With last week's spin of "Bad Brain" and this week's ritual uppin' of the volume for "Why Is It Always This Way?," TIRnRR has now played each and every one of the tracks on Road To Ruin and Rocket To Russia at least once over the course of our long and bewildering tenure.. Let's see where the road takes that rocket next.

NICK LOWE: I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass

Er...okay? Breaking glass strikes me as an odd sound upon which one might fixate, but what the hell. Dig what you dig.

Smashing!

THE BEATLES: Here Comes The Sun

Syracuse got some snow this week. It wasn't as much as I expected us to get, and not nearly as much as was dumped upon areas to our north. My Tuesday evening commute invited repeated descriptions of Yuck!, but the TIRnRRmobile made its way back home to the suburbs. Accumulation on the ground and in the driveway at stately Carl Manor was minimal. The ol' Cub Cadet stood at the ready, but was not called into service this time. 

'Tis the season. And the season's just starting.

I don't love winter...but I accept it. I'm 63 years old, and I've lived in the Northeast my whole life. As a general rule, snow doesn't get me down. I bundle up. I fire up the ol' Cub Cadet when necessary. I've got the right tires for traction, the right music playing in the car, and (I hope) the right attitude to get through what needs getting through.

I don't know if Dana's pick to close this week's show with the Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun" was a deliberate Juju against the then-forthcoming lake effect snow warning, or just the welcome result of, y'know, that's a good one, we should play that one. Works for me!

Or maybe it was Dana's way of heralding our next show.

NEXT WEEK: We ignore the actual season, and celebrate an entirely different season. Yes, it's SUMMER IN DECEMBER! Counterprogramming the Holidays. We're either in willful denial or we think we're Australian. We'll have three hours of songs that make us think of summer. Winter can hold its icy water for one more week. This Sunday, December 3rd, we're hangin' ten with SUMMER IN DECEMBER!

SURF'S UP!!!

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

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, 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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 6/10/2023

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 # 1184. This show is available as a podcast.

TEGAN AND SARA: Girls Talk

The fifth and final season of the Amazon Prime TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was top-to-bottom marvelous indeed, and the series finale two weeks ago hit all the marks it needed to hit. No spoilers. The glow of satisfaction lingers, and I know I'm going to remember Maisel as one of my all-time favorite series. 

(The first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel also inspired me to write a tangent that is one of my favorite blog pieces, a fantasy about a make-believe 1950s rock 'n' roll movie called Jukebox Express. Somebody get Sophie Lennon on the phone!)

Also mixing Maisel and music, the finale's end credits rolled to the tune of Tegan and Sara's irresistible new cover of "Girls Talk," a song written by Elvis Costello and a long-time Fave Rave as rendered by Dave Edmunds in 1979. We played Linda Ronstadt's version just a couple of weeks back. 

Tegan and Sara's "Girls Talk" doesn't quite displace the Edmunds version in my rockin' pop cosmology, at least not yet, but damn, it's a solid, beguiling performance that is absolutely what I wanna hear again right now. Hits up. And Tegan and Sara's "Girls Talk" returns to the playlist next week.

TINA TURNER: What You Get Is What You See

I think my first real awareness of the late Tina Turner came via her TV appearances in the early '70s. I must have heard Ike and Tina Turner's hit cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" on AM Top 40 in '71, but I have no recollection of it. To me, Turner was the dynamo I saw on television, beltin' out stuff like "Nutbush City Limits," probably with Cher, or maybe on Midnight Special. In '75, Turner's version of the Who's "The Acid Queen" became the first Tina Turner tune to have direct impact on teen me, and the first to enter my record library when my sister bought me the Tommy soundtrack LP. So: TV and turntable. That's how I knew Tina Turner. I didn't know her from radio.

That changed in the '80s. Freed from tethers to her abusive ex-husband, Tina Turner annexed the airwaves as her own, on her own. I remember hearing her then-new cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" on a Buffalo FM station in '83, with no inkling of the massive uptick Turner's popularity was about to enjoy.

What's love got to do with it? Everything. I bought Private Dancer, and while I confess I haven't retained my affection for '80s Turner--I've come to prefer her older material, notwithstanding the involvement of the schmuck to whom she had been married--my interest in Private Dancer was genuine at the time.

I saw Turner in concert in the late '80s, with the incongruous choice of Wang Chung as her opening act. She was great. Of course she was great. She was Tina friggin' Turner. Simply the best.

Knowing we were going to play Ike and Tina's "River Deep--Mountain High" in this week's Greatest Record Ever Made! spot, I wanted to be sure to play something credited to Tina Turner as a solo artist. "What You Get Is What You See" has long been my favorite example of '80s Tina Turner. It bops like nothing else, recalling Dire Straits while bustin' through the plasticized morass that characterized so much '80s pop music. 

What you get is what you see. We were fortunate to live in a world that got to see Tina Turner.

THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride

A big ol' WELCOME BACK to Rich Firestone, whose essential rockin' pop wireless shindig Radio Deer Camp returned to the airwaves this week, right here on SPARK! And we figured we'd roll out the red carpet with this simple directive from one of Rich's favorite beat groups, the Smithereens. 

"Face The World With Pride" was recorded in 1993, but remained unreleased until just this past September, when it finally saw daylight on The Lost Album. Rich, as a Smithereens insider, knew about the track for the better part of three decades; when it finally came out on The Lost Album, our Reechie urged his fellow DJs to carpet-bomb playlists with spins of "Face The World With Pride," to make the damned thing the hit he always knew it was.

We heard. We obeyed. "Face The World With Pride" was TIRnRR's # 1 most-played track in 2022, which is pretty impressive for something released about a week before the year's last quarter. 'Cuz Rich Firestone said so.

With Radio Deer Camp back on the air where it belongs, there could be no track more appropriate to mark Rich's return to the airwaves. Face the world with pride. Good advice. Welcome back, Reechie.

DAVE COPE AND THE SASS: Circles

Another one of my favorite 2022-released tracks is the title tune from the album Julee by Dave Cope and the Sass. The group has a brand-new album Killer Mods From Inner Space, courtesy of Kool Kat Musik, and it's gonna get a little airplay on our little mutant radio show. It's what we do! That airplay begins with "Circles" this week; we'll hear another Killer Mods From Inner Space track on our next program. Julee would demand nothing less. 

THE RAMONES: Pet Sematary

It wasn't exactly an oversight when we omitted "Pet Sematary" from our recent three-part salute to THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES. Well, it kinda was an oversight, but I'd do it again. For THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES, I wanted to pay full and proper tribute to Ramones tracks heard in their 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School, I wanted to play some recognized Ramones classics ("Rockaway Beach," "I Wanna Be Sedated," and "Blitzkrieg Bop") that turned up in films otherwise unrelated to the Ramones, I wanted to squeeze in "Chop Suey" from 1983's Get Crazy, and it felt important to include "I Believe In Miracles," which the Ramones' lip-synced on-screen in Car 54, Where Are You?, their final film appearance. 

That plan occupied all twelve of the spots we had available for Ramones tracks over the three-week span of THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES. There was no room for "Pet Sematary."

It was a glaring omission nonetheless. As the title theme from a movie based on a Stephen King book, "Pet Sematary" was one of the Ramones' highest-profile tracks during their career, and we should have gotten to it. We did play a live version in April. The studio version at long last makes its TIRnRR debut this week. 

Think of it as a return engagement. THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES. Held over! By popular demand.

THE MONKEES: Birth Of An Accidental Hipster

2016 was not a good year. No, 2016 was not a good year at all. 

Still, even lousy years are allowed a positive moment. 2016's best moment was the release of Good Times!, a triumphant new album by the Monkees. Leading up to the album's appearance, I wrote that I was less than captivated by its first teaser single "She Makes Me Laugh," fully taken with its second teaser "You Bring The Summer," and just awed by third single "Me & Magdalena." By the time the album itself was released at the end of May, my anticipation was at Defcon 1. 

The album lived up to my expectations--surpassed them, really. I had retired--PERMANENTLY!!!!--from writing record reviews years before. I came out of retirement just long enough to write my Good Times! review. I followed with a supplemental piece on the album's bonus tracks, and circled back later to craft my hypothetical speech inducting the Monkees into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. But it shoulda.

"Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" was the key track for me, even more than "Me & Magdalena." Written by Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher, "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" could have been on the Monkees' 1968 Head soundtrack album, while still sounding like 21st century Monkeeshines. Good Times! stands as one of the Monkees' best albums, and I like a lot of Monkees albums. 2016 can suck it. I'm heading out to the sunshine, babe.

THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You

Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes have a new album due out by the end of the summer. It's called Pop Masters, it will be released by the mighty Big Stir Records, and it collects all of the Flashcubes' Big Stir digital singles, a series of tracks which find our 'Cubes covering pop masters by Shoes, the Spongetones, Pezband, and more, often with a little assistance from members of the original acts. It's GREAT, I wrote the liner notes (teased here), and I can't wait for everyone to hear this. It is to 2023 what the Monkees' Good Times! was to 2016.

Pop Masters will also include a few tracks that have not yet been released, like this absolutely ace take on the Motors' "Forget About You." We'll hear one of the familiar Pop Masters singles on next week's show, as part of a Flashcubes THEN and Flashcubes NOW! two-fer, paired with a cover tune the 'Cubes recorded for a compilation album some years back. 

IKE AND TINA TURNER: River Deep--Mountain High

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE CYNZ: Tell That Girl To Shut Up

Confident and assured, the Cynz firmly reject irrelevant backtalk on this cover of Holly and the Italians' classic "Tell That Girl To Shut Up." We've been playing this a lot, and it seems guaranteed a spot on our year-end countdown of TIRnRR's most-played tracks in 2023. We'll give it another spin this coming Sunday, too. Don'tcha give me no lip. The record can speak for itself.

MAX FROST AND THE TROOPERS: Shape Of Things To Come

This week's show was recorded before we learned of the passing of legendary songwriter Cynthia Weil. With her husband Barry Mann, Weil created a rockin' pop body of work that will live on forever and ever. We'll hear four of my favorite Mann and Weil compositions on our next show.

The appearance of Mann-Weil song on this week's show is neither design nor coincidence. Nearly every installment of TIRnRR gathers nonpareil material from across a span of decades, and that often includes a little something from the Mann and Weil songbook. I don't remember where, when, or how I first heard "Shape Of Things To Come" by Max Frost and the Troopers; I've never seen Wild In The Streets, the film that gave us this song on its soundtrack, though I know enough to shout 14 OR FIGHT! whenever Dana plays the track. My introduction to the song came courtesy of the Raiders, for whom it was an LP track on their Indian Reservation album. 

I picked up my used copy of Indian Reservation for fifty cents at Mike's Sound Center in North Syracuse, Spring of 1977. It happened to be around the time I was becoming specifically aware of Mann and Weil's work. Greater awareness would follow. The shape of things to come. Rest in peace, Ms. Weil. 

IN-PERSON EVENT! On June 29, I will be making an in-store appearance at GENERATION RECORDS, 210 Thompson Street in NYC on behalf of my  new book GABBA GABBA HEY! A CONVERSATION WITH THE RAMONES. The book contains my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., which were cited by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as essential reading. I'll be at Generation to chat with fellow Ramones fans, talk about the book, the interviews, and how the music of the Ramones impacted my life. If you are in the New York area on June 29th, I would love to see you at Generation Records. Hey-ho, let's GO!  

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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/

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: River Deep--Mountain High

This is a chapter from my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). It was written well before the passing of Tina Turner, but is offered today in her memory. Simply the best.

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

IKE AND TINA TURNER: River Deep--Mountain High
Written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich
Produced by Phil Spector
Single, Philles Records, 1966

The original post has been unpublished for bookkeeping purposes. It can be seen as a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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/

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 8/26/2021 The Tenth Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT

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 # 1091: The Tenth Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT.

THE MAIN INGREDIENT: Summer Breeze

A familiar act with a familiar song, albeit not a song we're used to hearing performed by this act. The Main Ingredient are best-remembered for "Everybody Plays The Fool," a # 3 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1972. I don't remember whether or not I've ever heard anything else the Main Ingredient ever did, but I can say I heard their take on the Seals and Crofts hit "Summer Breeze" for the first time this week, when Dana included it in this year's Soul Pit. 

And it's a cool version in its own right. I think it's time I did a deeper dive into the Main Ingredient's c.v., mindful of the truth that any record you ain't heard is a new record. And we're always looking for new records.

(I think it's a safe bet that many of our regular listeners expected to hear "Summer Breeze" in the Soul Pit, just not as performed by the Main Ingredient. The version they expected closes this year's Soul Pit [as seen below], providing "Summer Breeze" bookends. That makes us feel fine.

THE 5TH DIMENSION: Up Up And Away

Have you seen Summer Of Soul yet? You must. Filmed at the Harlem Cultural Festival over a six-week period in 1969, assembled and annotated by Questlove as a 2021 feature film, Summer Of Soul is just a phenomenal work. Yeah, I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but I do believe Summer Of Soul is (at the very least) one of the finest pop music documentaries ever produced, one of the greatest concert films ever made, and quite possibly the all-time # 1 in both of those categories. 

Among the film's many, many highlights is an incandescent live performance by the 5th Dimension. Many have thought of this group as too establishment, too mainstream pop, but godDAMN they deliver here. If you ever dismissed the transcendent splendor of the 5th Dimension, it's well past time to reconsider them.

An embrace of the 5th Dimension should go beyond their live performance in Summer Of Soul. The records in the group's cavalcade o' hits are stunning: well-produced, well-performed, irresistible. Dana chose two 5th Dimension gems for this year's Soul Pit, "Age Of Aquarius" and "Up Up And Way." It just so happens we'll hear the 5th Dimension again in next week's show.

PEABO BRYSON: Minute By Minute

Playing Peabo Bryson's cover of the Doobie Brothers' "Minute By Minute" enabled me to deliver TIRnRR's (presumably) first-ever reference to TV's What's Happening!!: "Which Doobie you be?" (I could have saved it for the final set's spin of "Takin' It To The Streets" by Quincy Jones, but you know me; mine is the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, but the patience of Johnny Ramone.) 

HONEY CONE: Want Ads

Bubblesoul. Honey Cone's 1971 # 1 smash "Want Ads" is one of the definitive examples of that late '60s/early '70s hybrid of pure, bouncy AM radio sugar performed by black artists. Think early Jackson Five and Freda Payne's "Band Of Gold," or the shoulda-been-hit-singles by Josie and the Pussycats (with the incredible Patrice Holloway on lead vocals) as reference points. "Bubblesoul." Nothing else describes it better, except maybe "YEAH!"

QUINCY JONES: Takin' It To The Streets

Yeah, as promised, another Doobie Brothers cover. Have we ever played the Doobie Brothers on TIRnRR? I suspect not, given my prevailing and pervasive dislike of most of that group's material, but it's possible. We're large. We contain multitudes.

I sang a Doobie Brothers song once, warbling "China Grove" when I failed the audition to join a country rock group in college in 1977. That's likely the only Doobietune I ever liked at all. I actively loathed "Black Water" when it was an inescapable hit during my high school years, and I cringed in '79 when Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh referred to "What A Fool Believes" as "the closest thing we had to an anthem this year." An anthem, Dave? It is to blurgh....

Upon further review, I might concede that "Takin' It To The Streets" is at least as palatable as "China Grove," perhaps more so. The Doobies' original version sports a less-objectionable-than-usual (and actually pretty decent) lead vocal by the song's author Michael McDonald. Quincy Jones' 1978 cover enlists Luther Vandross and Gwen Guthrie for the vocals, and we're all winners. That's what this fool believes.

THE ROBINS: Riot In Cell Block No. 9

They fought the law and the law won. For now.

It would be a stretch to call the Robins' 1954 R & B classic "Riot On Cell Black No. 9" as a musical precursor to '70s blaxploitation flicks, but its lyrical tale of prison insurrection is closer in spirit to Shaft and Superfly than it is to the great 'n' goofy novelty hits of the Coasters, the subsequent vocal group that included ex-Robins Bobby Nunn and Carl Gardner. Yakety yak? Don't talk back...if ya know what's good for you.

HUEY "PIANO" SMITH AND THE CLOWNS: Sea Cruise

"Sea Cruise" was written by N'awlins boogie-woogie ivory-tinkler Huey "Piano" Smith, and a 1959 hit by Frankie Ford. The version played this week on TIRnRR is the Forgotten Original, but it was originally unreleased, leaving Ford's take as the first "Sea Cruise" to set sail. Both versions use the identical backing track by Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns, with the hit version replacing Smith's lead vocals with white guy Ford. The racist implication of the record company's decision was purely coincidental, I'm sure. Ooo-wee, baby. 

IKE AND TINA TURNER: Gonna Find Me A Substitute

"Gonna Find Me A Substitute" was an LP track on 1961's The Soul Of Ike & Tina Turner, the first album by this incredible duo, whose unfortunate (to say the least) off-stage combustibility  overshadows the immense oomph of their accomplishment on wax. Ike Turner was close to an R & B rock 'n' roll genius, and he'd be rightly and widely celebrated if he hadn't been such a lousy human being. Instead, he's deplored. As he should be.

The title of this song serves as unintentional commentary on Ike and Tina's relationship. Tina was still Anna Mae Bullock, billed as Little Ann, when she began performing and recording with Ike Turner's band in the late '50s. When their recording of "Fool In Love" attracted record label attention in 1960, Ike realized he needed (or thought he needed) to maintain control of his singer. He changed her billing to Tina Turner, and then trademarked the name, so she could only use it under his aegis; if Little Ann left Ike, well, he could just get a substitute to be the new Tina Turner.

Bastard.

Tina Turner survived all of that. She even took her name with her. Nothing could stop the voice--and the soul--of Tina Turner.  

SARAH VAUGHAN: Smooth Operator

No, it's not the Sade song. Sarah Vaughan is one of the legendary singers of American jazz, but her 1959 single "Smooth Operator" flirts with pop, R & B, rock 'n' roll, and even a hint of what would come to be known as the girl group sound. Jazz? Sure. Why not? All of your labels are belong to us. Pretty smooth.

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze

The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. The Isley Brothers' incredible take on "Summer Breeze" earns its own chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). We'll hear a few other candidates for GREM! on next week's show. 

That is, in fact, ALL we'll hear on next week's show, as TIRnRR presents a finite glimpse of the infinite: The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Hope you can join us.

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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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