10 SONGS: 2/24/2022

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 # 1117.

WRECKLESS ERIC: Whole Wide World

A classic gets its due! Or at least a payday, we hope. Wreckless Eric's new wave pop perennial "Whole Wide World" (aka "[I'd Go The] Whole Wide World") was first released in 1977. I didn't hear it until at least '79, on a fantastic various-artists soundtrack LP called That Summer! But it was a fave rave for me from that point on.

And I just figured everyone knew the track. How could they not? I always presumed it was a British hit, though I'm told it didn't actually chart. Shoulda. The Monkees covered it in 1987, and I was surprised to discover that many Monkees fans thought it was written for Micky, Davy, and Peter (not Mike; Michael Nesmith did not participate in the reunited Monkees' 1980s recordings). Even as a proud Monkees fan, I say Wreckless Eric's original version remains definitive.

And we're delighted that the track got a little bit of exposure on this year's Super Bowl. The song appeared at the climax of an Expedia commercial aired during the big game, prompting Eric to note, "A song I wrote, a record I made...just aired to somewhere in the region of 150 million people. I'm thrilled to bits and not a little scared, and right now I'm just a dot in the universe."

And in 2022, that dot has gone the whole wide world. A hit? It is now. But I say it always was.

PAUL DAVIE: Grow Old With Me

Local musician and promoter Paul Davie--you know him, you love him, you can't have a BeatleCuse without him--has just released his first solo album, Half And Half. Writer John Tierney has already pounded the console on behalf of Paul's record, and we played its opening track "Kiss Me Softly" a few weeks back. Half And Half is a not-quite 50-50 split of four covers (of the Rolling Stones, the Pretenders, Leonard Cohen, and the Alan Parsons Project) and six Davie originals, with a lovely cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old With Me" serving as a closing bonus track. Our Paul gets by with a little help from his friends, and he enlists none other than Joey Molland of Badfinger to lend a little help on "Grow Old With Me." See, that's the sort of friend to have. And growing older doesn't mean we have to grow up.

DOLPH CHANEY: I Wanted You

Offered here as evidence that TIRnRR can play a Dolph Chaney song that isn't "My Good Twin." Like a dog with a bone, we often become fixated on a single song by a given artist, playing that Chosen One over 'n' over with the manic fervor of...y'know, us. From Dolph's album This Is Dolph Chaney, "My Good Twin" was TIRnRR's # 3 most-played track in 2021, surpassed in our breathless thrall only by Kid Gulliver's "Forget About Him" and Kelley Ryan's "The Church Of Laundry." Listen, man: obsession is its own reward. 

Nonetheless, we broadened our righteous myopia to play a different Dolph Chaney number this week. Like "My Good Twin," "I Wanted You" also comes from This Is Dolph Chaney, and is also great. Will this be the start of a new beautiful obsession? Ya never know with us. We never know with us.

THE FOUR TOPS: If I Were A Carpenter

We've touched on the appeal of repeating certain songs from week to week. The process of assembling selections for each TIRnRR playlist also generally involves Dana and I separately trying to think of some cool songs we've never played before. We like to have new stuff, of course, and we also like to dig out older tracks, searching for worthy sides from artists both obscure and familiar. I've always loved Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter" in performances by a few different artists (particularly the familiar hit by Bobby Darin). It's possible I'd heard the Four Tops' compelling performance of "If I Were A Carpenter" prior to February of 2022, but I stumbled across the track while looking for something else last week. Magic. The Four Tops' "If I Were A Carpenter" is now THE "If I Were A Carpenter" for me.

LED ZEPPELIN: Good Times Bad Times

Is TIRnRR the only avowedly rock 'n' roll radio show where a spin of Led Zeppelin can be viewed by listeners as a radical departure from the expected? Probably not. But while we've certainly played the occasional Zep track in the past, der Zeppenwülff is hardly a staple of whatever it is we do. I've written elsewhere of my love-hate (or really sorta like-don't give a damn) relationship with Led Zeppelin:

"I was never much of a Led Zeppelin fan; they were just there, everywhere, like inflation or TV sitcoms or halter tops, symptoms of my 1970s. (I was, incidentally, in favor of halter tops.) In the days of my youth, there were good Led Zep times, and there were bad Led Zep times. Sometimes I liked them, sometimes I didn't. And some times I thought there okay, but that I just really didn't need to hear them anymore. Good times, bad times, I know I had my share.

"It's not a band's fault when their music gets overplayed. I can't imagine ever getting sick of the Beatles, but I do sort of comprehend the feeling of those who hear 'Yeah Yeah Yeah!' and answer 'No! No! NO!!!' I don't have much affinity for most of the tracks favored by classic rock radio formats; I wonder if I would have retained a greater appreciation of the music of Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Pink Floyd, or later Rolling Stones (each of whom I do like to some degree) or even Lynyrd Skynrd or Eagles (whom I generally do not) if they were all obscurities I discovered in the vinyl underground, rather than ubiquitous fixtures on every stereo except mine."

For all that, Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakout" is part of the blueprint for my long-threatened (and possibly stillborn) book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and a positive passing mention of "Good Times Bad Times" was part of my first attempt at rock journalism when I was 17. Even during the times when I didn't care much about Led Zeppelin, I thought "Good Times Bad Times" was a monster. In a good way.

WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

With this week's spin, Wendi Dunlap's irresistible "Season Of Loss" (from her album Looking For Buildings) is one of TIRnRR's most played tracks in 2022. Given that we're only eight shows into the year, that stat is meaningless in the long run. BUT! I really, really like this song, and you can bet on hearing it reprised in at least some of our upcoming shows. Obsession rewards itself again.

LINNEA'S GARDEN: Looking

The Red On Red Records label has been a reliable resource for new thrills and fresh kicks, and our Red On Red fascination has manifested in a mess o' airplay for Kid Gulliver, Justine and the Unclean, the Chelsea Curve, Andrea Gillis, Cold Expectations, and other stars of the Red On Red galaxy. 

Linnea's Garden is for damned sure a part of that galaxy, and new single "Looking" is a pumpin' li'l pressure cooker that somehow manages to gaze at its shoes while heading down the highway to the new wave dance spot across town. Look all you want. But get out of the damed way--Linnea's Garden is comin' through!

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING SHOES: Tomorrow Night

It's a HIT! We like hits. Buy it here.

THE MONKEES: Nine Times Blue

My favorite version of Michael Nesmith's "Nine Times Blue" is an unfinished one, or rather one not properly recorded for commercial release. Before we talk about that, some history of "Nine Times Blue" is in order. It was first recorded (but originally unreleased) a few times under the Monkees aegis, including a version with Davy Jones singing lead, but none of these versions was made public until decades after the fact. One of those missing links Monkees renditions is what we played on this week's show.

The song's first appearance at retail was on The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, a 1968 LP of instrumentals produced by and credited to Nesmith. Nesmith later re-recorded and released "Nine Times Blue" on his 1970 album Michael Nesmith and the First National Band. More recently, Nesmith's prime mate Micky Dolenz included his own take of "Nine Times Blue" on the 2021 album Dolenz Sings Nesmith.

That's the basic history. My favorite "Nine Times Blue" is a 1969 TV appearance by the Monkees, Micky, Davy, and Michael (not Peter; Peter Tork had left the Monkees by then). The Monkees Three were guests on The Johnny Cash Show, their spot introduced by the Man in Black hisself singing a snippet of the made-for-TV combo's first hit "Last Train To Clarksville" before ceding the spotlight to the Monkees themselves. Our heroes did some schtick about how old and moldy that 1966 song was in the far-future era of 1969, and how it would be better for them to perform something new instead: "Nine Times Blue."

They introduced the unnamed (and still then-unreleased) song as something from their new album; maybe they thought it was. Whatever they thought is eclipsed by what they did, which was a stunning, simple, and breathtaking live performance of "Nine Times Blue," just the three of them, Nesmith on acoustic guitar and lead vocal, Dolenz and Jones providing exquisite harmonies. After the song was done, Cash joined them for more schtick, and a collective run-through of Cash's novelty number "Everybody Loves A Nut."

But...dang, that song, that performance. "Nine Times Blue." Gooseflesh. Whenever some nimrods try to demonstrate their own chuckleheaded cluelessness and insist that the Monkees didn't have talent, you should place said nimrods in front of YouTube to watch this video that proves them wrong, baby, wrong. Man, get me the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the phone. NOW!!

I wish this version of "Nine Times Blue," this arrangement, had been given a proper studio treatment. Michael, Micky, and Davy, their voices, Michael's acoustic guitar, nothing else. But it was just a TV gig. It should have been on a then-new Monkees album in 1969. 

And it should have been a hit.

THE BANDWAGON: On The Day We Fall In Love

And just to prove that I don't love everything the Monkees did, lemme tell ya that the 1967 More Of The Monkees LP track "The Day We Fall In Love" is all YUCK! all the time. Hey, if you like it, well, dig what you dig, always dig what you dig. I can't stand it. Its sickly-sweet morass isn't even real sugary syrup; it reminds me of what happened on an episode of the Batman TV show, when the Joker turned Gotham City's water supply into strawberry jelly. Taste-testing the Clown Prince of Crown's sinister handiwork, Robin the Boy Wonder declared, "It looks like strawberry jelly! But it tastes like strawberry axle grease!"

The Monkees' "The Day We Fall In Love" is like the Joker's strawberry axle grease. Except not as good.

A year later, the wonderful, underrated soul group the Bandwagon (aka Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon) executed the unlikely alchemy of remaking the song into something shiny and gold. Eschewing the smarmy teen puppy-love pandering of the original, the Bandwagon's slightly retitled "On The Day We Fall In Love" is chirpy and still a bit juvenile, but far less cloying and much, much more satisfying. To paraphrase the four kings of EMI: the Bandwagon took a bad song and made it better. It served as a B-side to the Bandwagon's non-hit "Baby Make Your Own Sweet Music." Syrup need not apply.

Mind you: I still believe the Monkees should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm not holding "The Day We Fall In Love" against them. But I tell ya, Johnny Johnson and his Bandwagon clearly did the better version here.

Your mileage may vary. Your mechanic should not recommend the use of strawberry axle grease.

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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: 6/29/2021

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 # 1083.

CHUCK BERRY: Sweet Little Sixteen

"Johnny B. Goode" was my gateway drug to the timeless music of Mr. Chuck Berry, as AM Top 40 radio in Syracuse included this classic song from 1958 in regular rotation circa 1972. That, my friends, is what radio should do. But almost a decade later, "Sweet Little Sixteen" was the record that made me wanna seek out more. I'd heard the song prior to the '80s, sure, just as I'd heard a number of other Chuck Berry songs after WOLF-AM introduced early-70s me to the sound of a guy playin' a guitar just like a-ringin' a bell, go GO! But I dunno, something both specific and undefined clicked in my head with "Sweet Little Sixteen," heard on an oldies show when I was a recent college graduate in 1980, and I had to own it. Obsession ensued. A purchase of a used copy of Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits at Brockport's Main Street Records was the precise fix necessary to satisfy the too-much-monkey-business on my back. 

THE CHECKERED HEARTS: They Don't Know

Joystick, the debut EP from Hilary Burton and Lisa Mychols under their newest nom du bop the Checkered Hearts, is a collection of five fabulous covers (of songs previously recorded by the Cars, the Housemartins, Phil Seymour, Kirsty MacColl, and the Knack), plus one bonus Lisa 'n' Hilary song on the CD version. We've been playing their cover of the Cars' "My Best Friend's Girl," but this invigorating performance of MacColl's (and/or Tracey Ullman's) "They Don't Know" is my pick so far. Or is it? Better listen to the whole record again, just to be sure.

THE FLASHCUBES: I Need You

As mentioned elsewhere, the Flashcubes' live cover of the Kinks' "I Need You" was my introduction to the song. "I Need You" isn't as well-known as its primal brethren "You Really Got Me" and "All Day And All Of The Night," but it oughtta be. The Flashcubes' ace rendition will finally be preserved for mass public appreciation as part of Flashcubes On Fire, the forthcoming CD release of a live Flashcubes show recorded at Syracuse's beloved Firebarn Tavern in May of 1979. God save the Flashcubes!

THE GODS: Come On Down To My Boat Baby

The Gods were a '60s British combo that included future Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. I'd never heard of them (nor of their subsequent incarnation as Toe Fat) prior to Dana playing the Gods' version of the Rare Breed/Every Mother's Son bubblenugget "Come On Down To My Boat Baby" on this week's broadcast. Taylor left the group to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers shortly after this single's release in 1967. Greg Lake (later to find fame as one of the names in Emerson, Lake and Palmer) was briefly a bassist with the Gods, but his short tenure occurred after "Come On Down To My Boat Baby." So, when it comes to the Gods, Greg Lake was perhaps meant to be there from the beginning...but he wasn't.

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: It's Your Thing

My favorite Isley Brothers track is their absolutely amazing version of the Seals and Crofts hit "Summer Breeze," and I suspect we'd play that nearly every week if the thought of programming a song that's 6:12 in length didn't make me break out in cold panic (kinda like Maynard G. Krebs reacting to the notion of work...work? WORK...?!). 

But the Isleys are no strangers to our playlists. We played "Twist And Shout" last week, and it wouldn't surprise me if "It's Your Thing" makes our year-end countdown. That's our thing.

LINNEA'S GARDEN: Friday Night

Linnea's Garden is an essential part of the same Red On Red Records axis that fed this week's TIRnRR spotlight on our Featured Performer Simone Berk (of Kid Gulliver, Sugar Snow, and WhistleStop Rock). Like Kid Gulliver (and Justine and the Unclean, The Chelsea Curve, Cold Expectations, Andrea Gillis, and other stars in Red On Red's answer to the Play-Tone galaxy), the efforts of Linnea's Garden come to us via the stewardship of Red On Red's visionary CEO Justine Covault. The group is piloted by Linnea Herzog, and "Friday Night" is from their recent Red On Red EP Nowhere Friday Nights. And a spin of "Friday Night" led directly into Uncle Tupelo's "I Got Drunk" and WhistleStop Rock's "Queen Of The Drive-In." Friday night, I got drunk, Queen of the drive-in--yeah, sounds like the ideal weekend, for sure.

THE RAMONES: Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue

We have a big show planned for July 4th, as TIRnRR celebrates its own stubborn sense of giddy independence with a countdown of our 55 all-time most-played artists, with each one's all-time # 1 most-played song. It is no spoiler to reveal that the Ramones are high on that countdown. The countdown will include a Ramones studio track, but this week we went with the unique thrill of live Ramones, from my own all-time favorite live album, the 2-LP It's Alive!

THE THOUGHTS: All Night Stand

On the one hand, I guess it's a shame that the Kinks never did a full-on recording of this compelling Ray Davies composition (though Ray's demo is included on the Kinks boxed set The Anthology 1964-1971). On the other hand, well, this 1966 reading by British group the Thoughts is pretty cool in its own right, capturing the surly 'n' cantankerous brilliance the song requires. Relatively obscure and under-recognized, the Thoughts' "All Night Stand" stands--or leans against the wall--as one of the best Kinks songs done by people who weren't the Kinks.

VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH: Lake Paradise

A new single from Vegas With Randolph...?! Sounds like paradise to us!

STEVIE WONDER: Higher Ground

As my Greatest Record Ever Made! piece about "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)" reveals, I was a latecomer to appreciating Stevie Wonder. We've been playing Wonder a bit more over the past several months, particularly his irresistible "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours." We've also been playing "Higher Ground," its funky opening riff an effective call for aspiration and action. 

And volume! 

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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: 5/25/2021

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 # 1078.

HEADGIRL [Motörhead and Girlschool]: Please Don't Touch

Yeah, I know I already spent the entirety of this week's playlist commentary a-ramblin' and a-ravin' about "Please Don't Touch," the one-off 1981 consolidation of Motörhead and Girlschool as Headgirl. My obsession remains proudly in place. You could (rightly) call this a bludgeoning of the old Johnny Kidd and the Pirates ditty, but it's an affectionate roughhousing, faithful in its way to the swing and spirit of the original, heavier and more ominous, yet unerringly pop. And righteous. And LOUD! It could do with another spin right now. Obsessive? I am as Headgirl made me.

NELSON BRAGG: Lost All Our Sundays

The biggest single entry on the mighty Nelson Bragg's rock 'n' roll c.v. is his record of service as a percussionist for Brian Wilson, which also led to Bragg participating in The Beach Boys' acclaimed 50th anniversary tour. 

Well. Is that all? 

That's, um...actually that's a pretty big deal, innit? The fact that Nelson has also done a lot of other great stuff outside of the Wilson aegis further illustrates the significance of his rockin' pop propers. He's done some fine work with perennial TiRnRR Fave Rave Anny Celsi, and his solo tracks "Forever Days" and "Tell Me I'm Wrong" have been essential building blocks in this show's ongoing jones for assembling The Best Three Hours Of Radio In The Whole Friggin' Planet. A great show is constructed of great parts. We can rely on Nelson Bragg for that.

Nelson's working on a new album, Gratitude Blues, which is due out before 2021 dims its lights and heads to bed. The album is teased now with an advance single of one of its tracks, a cover of Elton John's "I Want Love," a fresh digital release in the ongoing saga of Big Stir Singles. "I Want Love" will be included on Gratitude Blues, but its virtual B-side "Lost All Our Sundays" will not. So, we figured we oughtta play that one. On a Sunday night radio show. That's how ya win back all those lost Sundays, friends. We're happy to help.

COLD EXPECTATIONS: Summer Dress

Ah, such a cool, yearning summer song. Red On Red Records does it again.

MICKY DOLENZ: Different Drum

At this writing, I have just received my CD copy of the new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith. But I've already heard enough of it to know I love it. We've been playing the digital single of "Different Drum," and we'll be playing at least one other track from Dolenz Sings Nesmith on next week's show.

(We will, in fact, be playing a lot of Micky Dolenz material on next week's show: new and old, solo and with The Monkees, and in other incarnations, too. It's been a long time since we've been able to spotlight a Featured Performer on TIRnRR. It's time for that spotlight to fall upon Micky Dolenz.)

THE FOUNDATIONS: Build Me Up Buttercup

Familiarity has not bred anything resembling contempt for The Foundations' signature hit "Build Me Up Buttercup." Great songs are supposed to get played again and again, fercryinoutloud, and the best tunes can survive such saturation spins without losing luster. It's true that I've become more immediately interested in some of The Foundations' other numbers (especially "In The Bad Bad Old Days [Before You Loved Me]"), but I doubt I'll ever become sick of hearing "Build Me Up Buttercup." Hell, I doubt I'll ever get even a little bit tired of hearing it.

LINNEA'S GARDEN: Replacement

Ah, such a cool (if bittersweet) observation of a parting of the ways. Red On Red Records does it again...again!

THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Personality Crisis

A basic rule of this blog: when I complain about The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, don't bother telling me that the RnRHOF doesn't matter; I already know it doesn't matter. But rock 'n' roll should honor is own, and I will continue to rant on behalf of deserving acts that are snubbed by that overblown Hard Rock Cafe on the banks of Lake Erie.

The Monkees remain the Hall's most egregious snub to date. With this year's inductees, long-standing snubs of Tina Turner, Carole King, The Go-Go's, and Todd Rundgren have finally been set right. The New York Dolls were also nominated this round, but they didn't get the damned votes. Oy. The Dolls were among the most influential rock 'n' roll acts of the '70s, and failing to recognize their sheer and ongoing impact is willful lunacy.

DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES: Love Child

Playing the Dolls on the latest TIRnRR had no conscious influence on my decision to also include Diana Ross and the Supremes in this week's playlist. After the fact, it occurred to me that The David Johansen Group used to cover "Love Child" in late '70s live sets. I don't remember whether or not DJ and his boys did the song at my first Johansen show in 1979, but it's on The David Johansen Group Live, which preserves a hot-hot-hot 1978 NYC show, and is a much more compelling live document than Johansen's Live It Up! The Johansen Group's '78 performance of "Love Child" was a conscious influence on Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes, who subsequently started covering The Supremes' "Stop! In The Name Of Love" in their own killer live shows. As much as I still love The Supremes' original, I really liked the 'Cubes' arrangement of "Stop! In The Name Of Love," which nicked its opening from The Four Tops and sounded perfectly of a piece with the Flashcubes sound.

But "Love Child?" Gotta love The David Johansen Group, sure, but you can't top Diana Ross and the Supremes on "Love Child."

THE RUTLES: Doubleback Alley

Pop fans like us remain fond of The Rutles' music and TV special, which were an effective and engaging parody of some little-known combo called The Beatles. I am reasonably certain you've heard of The Beatles, and I betcha you know The Rutles, too.

But The Rutles' album and show were both relative commercial failures in 1978. Not in my ears nor in my eyes, of course; I adored all of it without reservation, and I still do. In the period between watching All You Need Is Cash in my freshman dorm and receiving an import LP of The Rutles as a gift from my sister, I bought the Prefab Four's U.S. 45, "I Must Be In Love"/"Doubleback Alley." The Merseymania A-side was the song that had introduced me to The Rutles on Saturday Night Live, and the flip was a pastiche of "Penny Lane." As an 18-year-old power-pop punk in '78, I was beginning to distance myself from the post-1966 Beatles sound, and therefore found "I Must Be In Love" intrinsically more interesting than "Doubleback Alley." Dig 'em both now. A legend that will last a lunchtime. 

SPIRIT: I Got A Line On You

Classic rock! In a good way. I became particularly enamored with Spirit's 1968 gem "I Got A Line On You" when I was living in Buffalo in the early '80s. There was no distinctive impetus for this; I must have heard the song on an oldies radio show somewhere, and it clicked.

I do remember seeing a local oldies cover band a few times at a bar near the corner of Kensington and Bailey, a short walk from my rat-infested apartment. My stubborn brain cells have reluctantly conceded that the bar was called McGillicuddy's, but even a quick span of my Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery fails to jog my memory enough to recall the name of the band. I know I liked 'em okay, so it wasn't Phil and the Spectors (whom I didn't like). The true ID of the band in question is likely lost. 

But, whoever they were,  they weren't bad at all: a nice, meat 'n' potatoes oldies bar band, providing the soundtrack to good times. I'll drink to that. And I did! Did I mention the bar was within walking distance? It was within staggering distance, too.

On one of the occasions that I saw them, this capable oldies combo did a more-than-capable cover of Spirit's "I Got A Line On You." As the song finished, I shouted out, "YEAH, THAT'S THE SPIRIT!" The band's leader chuckled and winced at the same time, moaning, "Who said that?"

Lines? I got a million of 'em. One or two might even be funny.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.