10 SONGS: 10/26/2021

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.

The first of two editions of 10 Songs this week draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. 

THE ARMOIRES: Appalachukrainia

We are, of course, big fans of Big Stir Records, the reliable rockin' pop label run by noted beautiful people Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko. We opened TIRnRR # 1100 with Big Stir recording artists the Brothers Steve promising "We Got The Hits," and a bit later we added Rex and Christina's own combo the Armoires and Dana's favorite Armoires track, "Appalachukrainia." I like it, too!

BILL BERRY: 1-800-Colonoscopy

Congratulations are in order, hypothetically....

Yep, it's the love theme from 2020. Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" is from the John Wicks tribute album For The Record, a song co-written by the late John Wicks and TIRnRR's old friend Rich Rossi. It remains way, way catchier than a song with "colonoscopy" in its title has any right to be.

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

For as many beloved acts who have cast their benevolent influence on Dana and I, there are a handful whose impact is beyond all others. The Beatles and the Ramones are the most obvious examples, but none of what we do is possible without Chuck Berry first showing us the way. Berry and Elvis Presley are virtually tied for the title of the single most important act in the history of rock 'n' roll, and ya can't go wrong with either choice. Nothing else happens without both Chuck Berry and King Elvis I lighting the spark. This is what I wrote when Berry passed in 2017:

"It is impossible to overstate the impact of Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry didn't invent rock 'n' roll; that music and its tangled roots were already in place before he started playing his guitar like a-ringin' a bell. But Chuck Berry defined rock 'n' roll. He gave it shape and substance, depth and meaning, a resonance that transcended its roadhouse and jukebox genesis as simple party music, while still remaining simple party music. Chuck Berry invented rock's swagger, its bounce, its groove, its very identity. He crafted the words that had 'em rocking in Boston, and Pittsburgh, PA, deep in the heart of Texas, and around Frisco Bay. Sure, Chuck Berry didn't invent rock 'n' roll; he merely transformed it into the music that we now all know and love.

"In the story of rock 'n' roll, there is no one--no group or individual--more integral than Chuck Berry. No one. Not the Beatles and not the Rolling Stones, neither of whom would have even existed if not for Chuck Berry. Not Ray Charles, not Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, the Kinks, the Ramones, Smokey Robinson, the Isley Brothers, Otis, Janis, Bowie, Prince, the Who, the Sex Pistols, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, the Beach Boys, and not anyone else you wanna try to slip into the conversation, either. Not even Elvis Presley, who would likely have the strongest claim otherwise. These are giants. These are the seemingly peerless stars who forged this music we love. Giants.

"Giants? Absolutely. Yet Chuck Berry stood above them all.

"Chuck Berry's influence rose above pop music, crossed racial and social and economic divides, and reached across generations. I discovered it second hand, via the Beatles' cover of 'Rock And Roll Music' on Beatles '65. When either WOLF-AM or WNDR-AM (or both) started playing 'Johnny B. Goode' regularly in the early '70s, I don't think I even realized it was an oldie, and I wouldn't have cared either way. I loved it, and I wanted to hear it all the time. I still do. 'Sweet Little Sixteen' 'School Day.' 'Memphis, Tennessee.' 'Let It Rock.' 'Promised Land.' So many others, so many songs that I will never tire of hearing again and again.

"John Lennon said, 'If you had to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.' Writer and rocker Mick Farren warned us that we should never trust a rock band that didn't know any Chuck Berry songs. Ben Vaughn notes that 'Our Shakespeare has left us.' Roll over, Beethoven; there was only one Chuck Berry: motorvatin' over the hill, campaign shoutin' like a Southern diplomat, roundin' third and headin' for home, a brown-eyed handsome man. Bye bye, Johnny, goodbye Johnny B. Goode."

"Johnny B. Goode" is one of my favorite Chuck Berry numbers, and it almost made the playlist for TIRnRR # 1100. But "Promised Land" is the greatest record ever made.

COTTON MATHER: My Before And After

When we started playing Cotton Mather's "My Before And After" in 1999, our friend Dave Murray contacted us to say it might not actually be an unreleased Beatles track but it sure sounds like one. We've played a ton of other Cotton Mather songs, from "Payday" to "The Book Of Too Late Changes" and more, but "My Before And After" will always be among the defining tracks of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell

We like to refer to the Kinks as our House Band. Holly Golightly's ace reading of "Time Will Tell" is one of the greatest renditions of a Ray Davies song by anyone not named "the Kinks." Holly's "Time Will Tell" merits a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

JEREMY: Living The Dream

Singer-songwriter-musician Jeremy Morris has released roughly, oh, a zillion albums in varying styles over a span of decades. His label JAM Recordings was the home of the first two This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CDs, and we wanted to include Jeremy in this celebration of whatever the hell it is we do here. "Living The Dream" comes from Jeremy's 2020 album--wait for it!--Living The Dream, which also includes Jeremy's ace take on the Byrds' "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star." Keep living the dream, Jeremy--and thanks!

THE MUFFS: On My Own

Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" was our second-most-played track in 2020. The Muffs' "On My Own" was # 1.

We have a long history of playing the Muffs. Dana and I played their track "Saying Goodbye" on one of our old pre-TIRnRR shows in the mid '90s, and we played it again on TIRnRR # 1 in 1998. We continued to play that and many other Muffs gems over the following decades. We were crushed when the group's leader Kim Shattuck died in 2019.

We mourned Kim's passing in the most positive way we could muster: we kept on playing her music. When the Muffs' de facto farewell album No Holiday was released in late '19, we jumped on the track "On My Own," embracing its transcendent sadness as our own. Godspeed, Kim.

THE ORION EXPERIENCE: Adrianne

If memory serves, we first heard of the Orion Experience when our pal Robbie Rist raved about their album Cosmicandy in 2007. SOLD!! "Adrianne" went on to be one of our most-played tracks that year, and its shiny pop luster is undimmed by the rigors of the decade-and-change that have passed since then. (Robbie was himself represented on this week's extravaganza as a member of the Andersons!, whose "From The Get-Go" was a shoo-in for airplay this week.)

THE PHENOMENAL CATS: Seagirl

I've been corresponding with Keith Klingensmith since the '90s, a story told here and here. Over the course of TIRnRR # 1-1099, we've played some of Keith's work with Popdudes, Chris Richards, the Slapbacks, possibly Hippodrome, and probably someone else my brain's currently hoarding in its miserly memory bank. And we've for sure played the Legal Matters, whose "Light Up The Sky" seems to be on a collision course with our 2021 year-end countdown. 

Keith's long history of airplay here began with the Phenomenal Cats. I mean, ya gotta love an act that takes its name from a track on my favorite Kinks album, The Village Green Preservation Society. I reviewed their 1996 EP Seagirl And 5 Other Dogs for Goldmine, and its title tune scored some early burn here once we started this Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet gig. Keith's Futureman Records imprint is also the home of the digital downloads of our TIRnRR compilations, so Gabba Gabba, one of us! Then, as now, glad to have you on the team, Keith.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. The record that changed my life. And also the first song in our warmly-received 301 Songs About 301 Girls gimmick in 2011 (a gimmick which concluded with "Christi Girl" by the Flashcubes). The Ramones absolutely had to be part of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. We'll look at ten more of TIRnRR # 1100's songs on Thursday.

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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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 2/9/2021

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 # 1063.

SAM COOKE: That's Where It's At

When I was a 17- to-18-year-old college freshman in the fall of 1977/spring of '78, I had two overriding interests in pop music: oldies and punk. My peers were into Southern rock and The Grateful Dead, and most of the ladies preferred the a-bumpin' and a-hustlin' dance music of the day. I was and remain a square peg. Fitting in was not what I did best.

My love of oldies--The Beatles, The Monkees, The Dave Clark Five--brought me to the weekly Oldies Night at The Rathskeller. Not the famous Rat in Boston, but an on-campus bar in Brockport, NY. And one evening--either in the spring of my freshman year, or in late '78, after my sophomore year had commenced--my jones for the rockin' pop of the '60s brought me to the unlikely setting of a disco off-campus, as the mirrored ball and flashing lights of Brockport's Club 2-On-2 hosted its own oldies night.

The club's oldies night may have been a one-time event. It was sparsely attended, its weekday night fever ambiance providing an incongruous setting for the sound of 45 rpm records from the previous decade. But I settled in, ordered a drink, and listened to my music.

I saw the oldies DJ somewhere else, either before or after, maybe at the Rat, maybe in conjunction with the school's radio station WBSU. He got it in his head that my name was Kurt, and he could not be convinced otherwise. On this night, he was giving away prizes. Name the artist, claim your prize. And the record played, its distinctive oohs and ahhs registering instantly in my mind and memory banks.

That's the sound of the men workin' on the chain gang....

Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" had been a big hit in 1960, the year I was born. But I knew it; it had a shelf life well beyond its hit reign, a song still heard as I aged from baby to toddler to pre-K and so forth, a record that could spin on jukeboxes and at parties thrown by older kids within my circle, a cherished 45 I could beg my siblings or my Aunt Anna to play for me. Sam Cooke. "Chain Gang." Of course I knew it. Everyone knows "Chain Gang!"

Or...perhaps not everyone. At Club 2-On-2 in 1978, no one else moved to the DJ's booth, none sought to name and claim. Just me. I felt almost insulted by the easiness of the question, but Mr. Golden Oldies DJ was astounded that anyone knew it. "This kid Kurt [CARL!!!! Dammit!] knows his oldies--incredible!" I accepted my prize (which was either a free Club 2-On-2 t-shirt or free club admission on a future visit), finished my drink, and got out of there. Well don't you know, that's the sound of this boy headin' to his dorm roooooom....

This was an early revelation to me of the schism between the pop world as I saw it and the pop world seen by others around me. Most subsequent examples were at least generational--the teen co-worker who'd never heard of Herman's Hermits, or the young record store clerk under my supervision who thought George Harrison was a jazz musician--but the idea that people my age didn't know Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" was sobering for reasons I can't articulate. And it was further illustration of what I said a few paragraphs back: fitting in was not what I did best.

A little over a week ago, I sat before my TV with my lovely wife Brenda (herself once a Brockport co-ed who liked to dance to the disco beat) to watch the recent film One Night In Miami. The movie is a fictional retelling of an evening in 1964, when Cooke, Muhammed Ali (then still called Cassius Clay), Malcolm X, and Jim Brown found themselves together. It's a fascinating film. And it reminded me of my affection for the music of Sam Cooke. TV's job is to sell records: I realized the only Sam Cooke record I've ever owned was that old hand-me-down RCA-Victor Records "Chain Gang" 45, and I remedied that omission in short order. "That's Where It's At" is a Cooke song I never knew; perhaps someone can now tsk tsk at my ignorance. It's not in the movie, but it's included in the Sam Cooke best-of CD Portrait Of A Legend, and it's mine now. Call me a slow learner. Or call me one who tries to keep learning.

Just, for God's sake, don't call me Kurt.

LESLIE ODOM, JR.: Good Times

If the account above portrays my teen self as a smug know-it-all, well...yeah. I really wish I'd grown out of that at some point. But I was never the only one of my peers who understood and appreciated pop music's larger picture. One such peer was a guy named Les Odom, whom I've previously mentioned in some detail here. Brenda and I were casual friends with Les and his girlfriend Yvette, and nowadays we're fans of their son, actor and singer Leslie Odom, Jr. Leslie the Younger (best known for playing Aaron Burr in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton) plays Sam Cooke in One Night In Miami, and he's just riveting in the role. Watching him play Cooke conjured a random memory from more than forty years ago, when his dad and I had a brief discussion about Sam Cooke. It was a kick to remember that while watching the film, watching Les and Yvette's son bring this legendary singer back to life. Good times.

FIREKING: Just Like Sunday

And here's yet another example of one of the greatest records you may not have heard. Fireking is a Boston-based rockin' pop combo piloted by singer and guitarist Anthony Kaczynski, and I first heard of them around the time of their 2001 album Live A Little, Love A Little. That album included a track called "Bang! Goes The Tenderness" that accrued some significant airplay on our little mutant radio show. Paul Armstrong of The Flashcubes was in Fireking for a short bit, though I don't think he recorded much with them.

"Just Like Sunday" comes from Fireking's 2015 release Double Trouble, a two-CD set that swings for the fences and knocks those damned fences down to the ground. "Just Like Sunday" is my favorite Fireking track, and although we've played it several times, I don't think we've played it anywhere near enough times.

THE FOUR TOPS: Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)

I'm tempted to dedicate this Four Tops classic to the torture of watching the Syracuse University men's basketball team get steamrolled by Clemson this past Saturday. But I remain a fan (of both SU and The Four Tops).

HAYLEY AND THE CRUSHERS: Jacaranda

Aw man, this pumps! A couple of weeks ago, I don't think I'd even heard of Hayley and the Crushers, a California trio that describes itself as "poolside glittertrash," "one part punk-pop, one part sunny surf," and "a tsunami of bold, bad girl fun." See, I love it when the hype looks like something I would have written. Now, I wanna start a lucrative new religion based on their peppy single "Jacaranda." It also makes me want a rum and Coke, but really, what doesn't? "Jacaranda" comes from Haley and the Crushers' forthcoming Rum Bar Records release Fun Sized, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sacrament of MORE! 

IN DEED: What Once Was

Uppsala, Sweden's phenomenal pop combo In Deed released two fabulous, fabulous albums over the course of this imperfect millennium's first two decades: 2001's At 4000 Meters (which is way overdue for reissue) and 2018's Everest. The visionary Big Stir Records label put out an expanded version of Everest in 2019, and that remains In Deed's sole full-length Stateside release to date. You need to hear this stuff. I need to hear this stuff; I don't even have a freakin' copy of At 4000 Meters, but I've heard it, and it kicks. Meanwhile, "What Once Was" remains one of my many favorites on Everest. Like Big Star before them, this band deserves a third. (And a fourth....)

JEREMY: So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star

Jeremy Morris loves pop music as much as anyone has ever loved pop music. His label JAM Recordings has released several treasure troves' worth of sparklin' pop over the course of decades, a cavalcade o' delight that includes the first two This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CDs. As a performer himself, Jeremy's own recordings have crossed genres at will. His 2020 pop CD Living The Dream contains this stirring, sterling rendition of The Byrds' "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star."

KID GULLIVER: Beauty School Dropout

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio plays the hits. And we know a hit when we hear it. Kid Gulliver's "Beauty School Dropout" is a goddamned hit, and radio shows need to play it. Hits, man. It's all about the hits.

THE MONKEES: Papa Gene's Blues

Play, Magic Fingers!

LESLIE ODOM, JR.: Chain Gang

One Night In Miami includes a scene of Odom-as-Cooke performing a captivating a cappella rendition of "Chain Gang" before a rowdy, about-to-get-ugly crowd, and slayin' while the slayin' is good. Absolutely mesmerizing, and a right worthy example of Odom's sheer magnetism and prowess. "Chain Gang." It all comes back to "Chain Gang." I betcha even ol' Kurt would approve.

And ol' Kurt didn't like anything. Smug, know-it-all bastard, that Kurt.

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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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 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). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl