10 SONGS: 5/22/2026

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 # 1337

THE LEMON TWIGS: 2 Or 3

We are big fans of rockin' pop music, and we are delighted when the music we love is able to connect with a larger audience. The Lemon Twigs have garnered some buzz within our power pop world, and while they may not secure a TODAY'S HITS! radio berth alongside Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, we hope they do. Hell, we hope they record a track with Taylor and/or Sabrina. It's pop music. It's supposed to be popular.

Our own little mutant radio program has not given the Lemon Twigs a ton of airplay; believe it or not, I think we may have played Taylor Swift more often than we've played the Lemon Twigs, though that would be just a function of our short attention span (and my determination to demonstrate that some of Swift's stuff can fit in just swell alongside the Ramones, the Four Tops, and the Muffs in our chosen format--it's ALL pop music). We're going to try to program the Lemon Twigs more often; it's a bandwagon well worth hoppin' on for the ride.

No better place to start than the Lemon Twigs' latest album Look For Your Mind! Our friends at The Spoon podcast recently hooked me on the exquisite Look For Your Mind! gem "2 Or 3," compelling us to open our own show with that track. We'll hear the new album's title tune on Sunday night. Let's get this bandwagon movin'!

MARSHALL CRENSHAW: What Time Is It

The Jive Five's 1962 doo-wop classic "What Time Is It?" is one of my all-time favorite individual tracks, and it earned a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I was introduced to the song via Marshall Crenshaw's sublime 'n' dreamy cover version, heard on MC's 1983 album Field Day. Crenshaw's rendition held me in instant thrall from the second I heard it, and if my heart's desire migrated to the Jive Five, I never stopped loving the version I heard first.

This week, Dana's spin of the Distractions' "Time Goes By So Slow" prompted me to follow with "What Time Is It?" I had the Jive Five in mind, but then reconsidered and programmed Marshall Crenshaw's (punctuation-free) cover instead. Couldn't go wrong either way.

(Later, when annotating track credits for the posted playlist, I realized this was the first-ever TIRnRR spin for Marshall Crenshaw's "What Time Is It." As The Spoon's Robbie Rist recently reminded me, time takes time. Tick, tock.)

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Black Lincoln Continental

Another advance peek at Quality Footware: Live At The Brook, the forthcoming new live album from the elemental forces of Graham Parker and the Goldtops. "Black Lincoln Continental" is already available as a single, as is "Soul Shoes," which we played a couple of weeks back. On our next show, we'll treat you to the Quality Footware live cut of the first Graham Parker song I heard (back when I was an impressionable teen surgically affixed to my radio). Grab your soul shoes and hop in your black Lincoln Continental; on Sunday night, we've got a date with a hotel chambermaid.

THE JIVE FIVE: My True Story

Having given the Jive Five's first-set spot to Marshall Crenshaw's "What Time Is It," it was only fair to give the doo-woppers their due with an airing of their only big hit, 1961's # 3 smash "My True Story." This solution spared us from having to cry CRY cry whoa-oh-oh our blues away. This story's ended. It was no lie!

BLONDIE: Little Girl Lies

My next book is a short story collection called Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies. It's my first full-length foray into fiction, following two nonfiction books about music, and it does incorporate a lot of musical influences into its gathering of deliberate lies. The book takes its title from a series of short stories I wrote about a group of rock 'n' roll musicians from Earth playing gigs on other planets, and it name-checks (mostly in passing) a whole bunch of artists, from Enrico Caruso to LL Cool J. I'll post a list of the book's musical name-checks in the very near future.

I don't think I got around to name-checking Blondie, but I do mention one of the group's individual members. Not the gorgeous one you'd automatically expect me to mention! Blondie's powerhouse drummer Clem Burke is cited in this sequence from a story that appears late in the book, as uttered by planet-hopping Guitar Vs. Rayguns drummer Leiko:

Leiko leaned in for emphasis. "I'm Keith fucking Moon. I'm Marky fucking Ramone. I'm Clem fucking Burke. I'm Dennis fucking Diken from the Smithereens, Tommy fucking Allen from the Flashcubes, Ringo fucking Starr if I wanna be Ringo fucking Starr.

"I'm fucking LEIKO, bitches!"

I'm...convinced. Also frightened.

Leiko's a big girl, and she's neither cryin' nor lyin'. As I prepare the publication of my new book of little boy lies, TIRnRR offers this celebratory spin of Blondie's "Little Girl Lies." We hope Leiko would approve. If it pisses her off, I'm pretty sure she won't allow her status as, y'know, fictional to prevent her from kicking our asses.

THE WELL WISHERS: Pox On Everything

Nowadays, "pox on everything" may serve as go-to mantra. It also serves as the title of a new treat from TIRnRR Fave Raves the Well Wishers. Along with "Back Of The Line," "Pox On Everything" is one of two advance tracks from the next Well Wishers album Expected Outcomes. The album is due in June, we played both of the advance tracks this week, and we're playing "Pox On Everything" again on our next show. Think of us as pox protection! Apply the pox only where it's warranted. No shortage of options there...

TOM KENNY & THE HI-SEAS: Welcome To The Working Class

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

MOTÖRHEAD: Motörhead

On our May 10th show, the weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! spot was occupied by "Please Don't Touch," an invigmoratin' 1981 cover of a Johnny Kidd and the Pirates classic, executed by Headgirl. Headgirl were the combined metal might of the boys in Motörhead and the girls in Girlschool, and that week's extravaganza also featured a spin of Girlschool's oomph-driven cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy." We figured we owed Motörhead their own reciprocal playlist representation this week. Hey, howzabout the first Motörhead track I ever heard? The eponymous li'l number "Motörhead" was on an absolutely ace 1977 various-artists borgasmord called Geef Voor New Wave, a record I snagged as a teen punk and proceeded to play over und over with the manic obsession (and commensurate volume) one should expect a proper teen punk would bring to such a thing. MOTÖRHEAD!

SPECTRAFLAME: Yesterday (Jane)

A couple of weeks ago, we offered our first spin of Spectraflame's nifty single "Yesterday (Jane)," but we played the wrong mix, an earlier version not considered the definitive version. This is because we're inept. Luckily, we have tenure, and we played the correct mix this week, righting (our own) wrongs and making the world safe for pop music. POP MUSIC IS SAVED! Just doin' our job.

THE BEATLES: Do You Want To Know A Secret

No secret: My book Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies includes a short story about a fictional 1976 Beatles reunion. While nearly all of the musical performers referenced in the book are just mentioned in passing, the Beatles appear as characters in their own story. Elsewhere in the book, one other real-life performer does actively participate in a very brief cameo role.

Which real-life performer? That's still a secret, told in a story that I have not yet shared with anyone. Leiko knows who the performer is, even though [redacted] isn't known as a drummer. But Leiko knows. 

And she approves. The book should be out in early June.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

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.

5 ABOVE: Songs With "Heart" In The Title

5 Above picks five great things within a specific category. Look out below--these are five that rise above.

Well, it was just a couple of days ago that I used a 5 Above column to tie in with the Only Three Lads podcast, anticipating an imminent episode where O3L hosts Uncle Gregg and Brett Vargo (and a Third Lad to be named later) will each offer a list of favorite albums that ya gotta own on vinyl. The question intrigued me enough that I decided to provide my own Top Five list of vinyl imperatives in response.

Each episode of O3L poses a Top Five challenge along those lines, with answers usually limited to stuff from the O3L classic alternative era of 1974-1999. And I don't know if I wanna get in the habit of answering those weekly challenges here at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) HQ...but I don't know if don't wanna get in that habit either. You think you never know with me? Man, I never know with me.

Either way, after I wrote that previous 5 Above vinyl list, I finished listening to the most recent O3L, a two-part conversation with members of the Darling Buds, which found our assembled lads and ladette addressing the question of top five songs with the word "heart" in the title. And I found myself once again compelled to participate.

I spent the metric equivalent of no time at all coming up with this list. If I just looked at my iPod, I'd probably come up with a dozen more worthies. But the 5 Above placed paradoxically below are the five that occurred to me first.

HONORABLE MENTION 1: Not really, because it doesn't qualify. But mentioning "heart" makes me think of the band Heart, and thinking of the band Heart makes me think of that time when I was 17 in 1977, and a teen girl introduced me to Heart's "Kick It Out" while telling me about her ambition to pose for Playboy. That's...actually the whole story, but I padded it like a bra here.

HONORABLE MENTION 2: "Some Hearts" by Marshall Crenshaw. I don't even mind Carrie Underwood's version.

HONORABLE MENTION 3: "Heart And Soul" by the Monkees, the first single and best track from their uneven 1987 album Pool It! Sure, the album's iffy, but "Heart And Soul" is solid, its video was perfect, and it shoulda been a hit. Its path to chart success was impeded in part by T'Pau's contemporaneous smash record with the.same title, but the real blame lies with swinish programming mooks 'n' suits at MTV, who snubbed audience demand for the Monkees and instead suffocated the resurgent Monkeemania the network itself had helped to build just the year before. Bastards.

Now: Let's lay our hearts on the line.

5. LYRES WITH STIV BATORS: Here's A Heart

When I lived in Buffalo in the '80s, the Buff State radio station WBNY-FM hooked me on Boston's phenomenal fuzz combo Lyres and their Nuggets-worthy album On Fyre. I'd already been listening to Stiv Bators for a few years by then, commencing with his work fronting the Dead Boys while I was still in college in the '70s, his incredible power pop solo singles and album for Bomp Records after that, and his subsequent role as the lead singer of Lord of the New Church; I don't recall if I heard our Stiv's interim stint with the Wanderers before I heard the Lords or later on, after the fact. My Buffalo years had their ups, downs, and way-downs, but they did grant me opportunities to see separate club shows by Lyres and the Lords of the New Church, and I remain grateful for my good fortune.

I fell particularly hard for On Fyre, and often proclaimed (as a compliment) that Lyres didn't just want to be like the early Kinks, they wanted to BE the early Kinks. Cool goal! They succeeded in being Lyres, and that was fine by me.

Here's a heart crying out for love

Here's a heart that's been guilty of loving you too much

"Here's A Heart" was originally recorded by 1960s British popmeisters Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. I dig a lot of DDDBM&T (especially "Hold Tight"), but I don't even remember their "Here's A Heart." To me, the song belongs to Lyres and Stiv Bators, who combined forces for this 1988 single.

4. ACTION SWINGERS: No Heart And Soul

Listen: a band cool enough to twist the title of my favorite Sweet album Desolation Boulevard into their own Decimation Blvd merits immediate props in these quarters. I'd never heard of Action Swingers before plucking a used copy of that 1993 CD out of a record rack at a store in Lake George, NY some years after its release, but the punk urgency of "No Heart And Soul" got my attention, and it earned significant spinnage on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

3. THE FLASHCUBES: Sold Your Heart

"Sold Your Heart" by Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong was one of my many Cubic fave raves in the late '70s, a loud and angry rant about the ache of rejection. But it's also pop, catchy as an STD, its rage borne by hooks, its melody unashamed to proclaim its essential pissed-offedness. The track was one of the Flashcubes' demos, originally unreleased, repunched and reclaimed for public consumption on the 1997 collection Bright Lights.

It was also a staple of the Flashcubes' live sets in '79, and the definitive "Sold Your Heart" is preserved on Flashcubes On Fire, a 2022 CD release of an absolutely incendiary 'Cubes show recorded at The Firebarn in Syracuse on May 26, 1979. My liner notes for that album explain why I'm such a fan; the disc itself provides an insistent, high-volume CASE CLOSED! in that regard.

2. THE RAMONES: Poison Heart

It's a given that my list would include the Ramones. My initial pick was "Listen To My Heart" from the Ramones' 1976 debut album Ramones, but "Poison Heart" (from 1992's Mondo Bizarro) emerged unbidden as the best choice. Mondo Bizarro was the first Ramones album recorded after bassist, songwriter, and founding member Dee Dee Ramone abruptly split from the group, but Dee Dee continued to write and submit songs to his erstwhile brudders-in-arms. Dee Dee co-wrote "Poison Heart" with Daniel Ray, and it's one of the very best latter-day Ramones tracks: Moody, surly, seething with a restlessness it can neither deny nor identify, delivered at a pace that breaks no necks but still simmers with the pure poison of resentment. 

D-U-M-B? It turned out that accusation was incorrect. 

1. THE SEARCHERS: Hearts In Her Eyes 

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

And DAMN, I just thought of "Radio Heart" by Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band. But the list stands as is. Its heart, at least, is in the right place.

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: 1/27/2022

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 # 1113.

RONNIE SPECTOR AND THE E STREET BAND: Say Goodbye To Hollywood

A listener once joked that the only way Billy Joel would get airplay on TIRnRR would be via Ronnie Spector and the E Street Band's fantastic cover of our Billy's "Say Goodbye To Hollywood." We actually have played Billy Joel a few times, and I wouldn't rule out playing him again when the whim strikes. 

But yeah, we clearly have played Ronnie's version of "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" more than we've played all other Billy Joel songs combined. As the pop world mourns her passing, it seemed a given that we should close this week's show with the Ronettes' "Be My Baby," open with "Say Goodbye To Hollywood," and thread more Ronnie Spector performances throughout the playlist. 

THE BLUSTERFIELDS: January Jones

It's no shade against the music of the Blusterfields--whose new album The Vicious Afterglow is really good--to confess that their song "January Jones" appears on this week's 10 Songs in part because it gives me an excuse to post a picture of the actress who shares that name.

What was Don Draper thinking? Anyway, the song's great, too. More Blusterfields to come on future playlists.

CHRIS CHURCH: We're Going Downtown

Chris Church's 2011 album Darling Please was originally kind of a stealth release, but it's just been given a fresh shine and a factory-fresh spotlight. Yes, it's another public service from Big Stir Records, bless 'em. More! Please?

RONNIE SPECTOR [with JOEY RAMONE]: You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

The combined forces of the Ramones and producer Phil Spector did not create a match in Heaven. On the other hand, Ronnie Spector and Joey Ramone were a good fit. Ronnie had covered Joey's Ramones ballad "Here Today Gone Tomorrow" on her 1980 album Siren, and Joey produced her 1999 EP She Talks To Rainbows. The EP's title tune was one of two more Ramones covers on the record (along with "Bye Bye Baby"), which also featured Ronnie's version of the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" and a remake of the Ronettes' "I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine." Joey provided backing vocals for a cover of Johnny Thunders' tough/tender lament "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory." Perfect match all around. 

WENDI DUNLAP: Baby Blue

As often as I talk (sincerely!) about an infinite number of tracks each being THE greatest record ever made as long as they take turns, my own all-time # 1 favorite is probably Badfinger's "Baby Blue." I mean, on the days that it's not something by the Beatles or the Kinks or...skip it. It ain't easy for an artist to cover a song that's already perfect, but Wendi Dunlap manages a rendition of "Baby Blue" that's compelling on its own merit. The track is available on this free-for-nothing-gratis compilation album, a gift from the good folks at Futureman Records.

RONNIE SPECTOR: Something's Gonna Happen

Ah, curse whatever random mix of personal cluelessness and general obscurity kept this release outside of my awareness for so damned long. In the very late '80s, maybe into the early '90s, Ronnie Spector recorded a handful of tracks with every pop fan's pal Marshall Crenshaw. Working with Crenshaw and his combo, Spector cut five Crenshaw songs--"Something's Gonna Happen," "Favorite Waste Of Time," "For His Love," "Whenever You're On My Mind," and "Communication"--but the world at large wasn't interested. The tracks remained unreleased until 2003. 

Stupid, stupid world at large.

This is a magnificent little treasure trove of stirring pop music. If only this had gotten some traction at the time, prompting a full-length album by Ronnie, MC and company, we would all have a cherished memory of what would have been one of the best albums of the '90s. But it wasn't to be.

Nonetheless: it should have been. If you don't have the eventual Something's Gonna Happen EP, I must humbly recommend you remedy that ASAP. What a record. And what a missed opportunity.

LANNIE FLOWERS: Don't Make Me Wait

A new collection of tunes from Lannie Flowers! The partnership between Big Stir Records and SpyderPop Records has already yielded a wealth of maximumYEAH! for rockin' pop fans. Big Stir has given wider release for previous SpyderPop albums (like Danny Wilkerson's TIRnRR Fave Rave Wilkerson, represented on this week's radio extravaganza by the irresistible "Let It Go Tonight"), and BSR and SPR have pooled resources on behalf of new stuff, too.

Lannie's long-awaited new album Flavor Of The Month gathers remixed versions of the digital-only singles Lannie released prior to his 2019 album Home. The new album was cleared for airplay just in time for this week's shindig, so over the wireless it went. Fantastic stuff, and another invigmoratin' product of the partnership between SypderPop and Big Stir.

THE RONETTES: He Did It

With "Be My Baby" set as this week's finale, and with spins of the Ronettes' "Walking In The Rain" and "Baby, I Love You" programmed elsewhere in the playlist, we still wanted to include one more Ronettes track. We opted for "He Did It," a 1965 release on the Colpix label. I'm pretty sure the track is older than its release date, presumably recorded before Ronnie, Estelle Bennett, and Nedra Talley got involved with, y'know...that guy. The murderer. Good enough for us! Who needs a wall of sound when you've got Ronnie Spector?

RONNIE SPECTOR: I'll Follow The Sun

Former hitmakers forsaken by the record biz often find themselves recording remakes of their own material and/or covers of other hitmakers' material. Ronnie Spector's 2016 album English Heart offers the fabulous Veronica interpreting some 1960s sides previously done by British acts the Dave Clark Five, the Zombies, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, the Kinks, the Fortunes, the Animals, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and the Bee Gees, plus the lesser-known "I'd Much Rather Be With The Girls," a song the Rolling Stones gave away. My initial impression of the record wasn't terribly enthusiastic, but I owe it another spin to see if it rings in better with repetition. 

I do like Ronnie's English Heart cover of the Beatles' "I'll Follow The Sun." Maybe it was just because I heard it for the first time shortly after Ronnie had passed, but it seems a sad and touching moment, a moving farewell as we bid her goodbye. 

THE RONETTES: Be My Baby

Boom-boomboom-chuk-boom-boomboom-chuck Godspeed, Ronnie Spector.

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: 10/27/2020

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 # 1048.

THE FLESHTONES: American Beat '84

A national treasure! I think I first heard The Fleshtones in the very early '80s, either via the live version of "Shadowline" on the 2-LP soundtrack of the film Urgh! A Music War, or via an MTV airing of "R-I-G-H-T-S." I had the Urgh! record, and the 1981 Roman Gods record became my first dedicated Fleshtones purchase. The Roman Gods track "Let's See The Sun" was my go-to 'Tones tune in short order. Super-Rock!

Within just a few years, though, the supremacy of "Let's See The Sun" was abruptly usurped by "American Beat '84." WBNY-FM in Buffalo hooked me on the track, and its appearance in an early scene in the Tom Hanks slob comedy Bachelor Party sealed the deal. I bought the 12" single at a used record store on Buffalo's Hertel Avenue, and it remains one of my all-time favorites.

ROBERT GORDON: Someday, Someway

I think Robert Gordon's rock-solid rendition of "Someday, Someway" was released prior to the song's author Marshall Crenshaw's version, but I definitely heard MC's version first. Both are great.

JOEY MOLLAND: Rainy Day Man

In last week's edition of my Greatest Record Ever Made! video series, I talked about how much Badfinger's "Baby Blue" meant to me. You can see the video here, you can read about it here, and you can read my GREM! book chapter about the song here. 

That's prologue. Now, Badfinger's beloved guitarist Joey Molland has a brand-new album out, Be True To Yourself. Working with producer Mark Hudson and such stalwarts as Micky Dolenz and Julian Lennon, Molland retains the essential These guys sound like The Beatles! promise that made me a Badfinger fan when I was in middle school. "Rainy Day Man" is an awesome single, ready-made for radio, a beguiling tease for a must-have album.

IRENE PEÑA: It Must Be Summer

Hey, congratulations to America's Sweetheart Irene Peña, as she assumes benevolent stewardship of Big Stir Records' essential digital singles series. The story of TIRnRR's blissful history as Peñamaniacs was told here, and we're delighted that the Big Stir singles will continue in such capable hands. To celebrate, we figured we'd serve up a repeat spin of Ms. Peña's own recent Big Stir single, her irresistible cover of Fountains Of Wayne's "It Must Be Summer." It must be Big Stir. Huzzah, Irene!

THE O'JAYS: Love Train

A message from The O'Jays. The message never goes out of style (which is good), and the need to repeat it never fades away (which is unfortunate). Get on board.

THE ROLLERS: Who'll Be My Keeper

Both this week's playlist and the CD reissue of the 1979 album Elevator credit this track to The Bay City Rollers, but the original LP and its little-heard follow-ups shortened the group's name to just The Rollers. I wrote about Elevator here, and elsewhere I also wrote this:

I adored The Bay City Rollers--"Rock 'n' Roll Love Letter,""Yesterday's Hero," and a superb album track called "Wouldn't You Like It" are sublime power pop nuggets that transcend the perceived limitations of teeny-bop pop--but this post-mania LP is the only full Rollers album that ever grabbed me. By this time, lead singer Les McKeown had split (replaced by Duncan Faure, late of the group Rabbitt), and the group had shortened its name and released this album as a desperate bid for a new audience. Desperate or not, it sounds fine, especially the fab "Who'll Be My Keeper."

There is some fabulous stuff to be found in this brief chapter of The Bay City Rollers' career, '79 to about '82 or so. I've still never heard the rare cassette-only release Burning Rubber, but both Voxx and Ricochet include a few stellar tracks, particularly "85," "God Save Rock And Roll," "Roxy Lady," and "Doors, Bars, Metal."

EVIE SANDS: Don't Look Back Don't Look Down

Singer. Songwriter. Producer. Musician. Evie Sands has been making records for more than five decades, but her music first came to my ears because of her association with SoCal musician (and expatriate Central New Yorker) Adam Marsland. In the first decade of our current sparkly century. Sands played guitar and sang as a member of Adam Marsland's Chaos Band, and I saw her when the AMCB did a club show in Syracuse circa...2005, maybe? They were on a bill with local combo Beauty Scene Outlaws, and it was the first night I ever heard BSO's song "Carl Cafarelli," about some crazy guy who later tried to maintain a daily blog. Weirdo. It was also the night I annoyed AMCB bassist Teresa Cowles by asking her if she played regularly in any bands back in L.A.; Yeah, I was just on stage here with my Danelectro bass, she replied, the you moron! unstated but clearly implied. Oops.

(In my defense, I did know who she was, but mistakenly believed she was just filling in on tour for Severo, whom I thought was the band's regular bassist; I didn't realize Severo had joined The Smithereens, and Cowles was now the AMCB's permanent four-string wizard. With my faux pas corrected, Teresa Cowles allowed me to live. I'm grateful for that.)

I didn't really speak with Evie Sands, but I bought some CDs of her old recordings, including her original '60s versions of songs like "I Can't Let Go" and "Angel Of The Morning." Evie Sands was the first artist to record and release those tunes, before they became hits for The Hollies and Merrilee Rush, respectively. Now, Evie has a brand-new album called Get Of Your Own Way, which was just released in Europe and is officially due out in the States in January. I joined the Kickstarter for that project, and the magnificent end result has been well worth the long wait. We'll be hearing another track from Get Out Of Your Own Way on next week's show.

THE TROGGS: I Can't Control Myself

Well, it's certainly been a minute or two since I've written an entry in The Everlasting First, my A-Z series of reminiscences about how I first encountered various musical acts and fictional characters. The most recent full entries were S Is For THE SEX PISTOLS in November of 2018 and S Is For THE SHADOW in August of 2019. T Is For TARZAN is waaaaay overdue, and that further delays its eventual successor, T Is For THE TROGGS. Wild Thing, you make my heart sing. But in the mean time, this week's show programmed a spin of my favorite Troggs track, "I Can't Control Myself." I had the 1966 Atco Records 45, albeit a little over a decade after the fact, intrigued by its then-scandalous description of a girl whose slacks were low and her hips were showin', ba-ba-bop-a-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. Oh, no? Oh,YES!

WAR: Low Rider

As much as I loved War's big hit "Why Can't We Be Friends?" when I was 15 in 1975, it was the only War song that mattered to me at the time. War's earlier AM radio smash "The Cisco Kid" hadn't connected with me in '73, nor did I have much use for "Low Rider," the follow-up to "Why Can't We Be Friends?" I didn't really succumb to "Low Rider" until the early '90s, when a fantastic Syracuse group called L'il Georgie and the Shufflin' Hungarians used to include it in their raucous 'n' funky live sets. Then I got it, and suddenly found myself the willing slave to its Latin-derived rhythm and cobra-like groove. The Hungarians did a great cover, but nothing can match the original.

The whims and alchemy that combine to create each weekly TIRnRR playlist somehow led me to wanna program "Low Rider" this week. I don't think we ever played it on any previous show, and I didn't actually own a copy of the song. But ya can't argue with a DJ's whims--it's unhealthy and rude--so I purchased a two-CD War anthology just so I could play "Low Rider." The rest of the set sounds pretty damned good, too, so War will likely continue on future shows. My teenage self was such a clueless little pisser.

KIM WILDE: Kids In America

On This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, we tend to play The Muffs' willfully snarky and messy cover of "Kids In America" more often than we play the original 1981 version by British singer Kim Wilde. We love both versions. I recall that Kim Wilde's eponymous debut LP was once a fave on my turntable--mostly for "Kids In America," of course, but I remember playing and digging the album as a whole, or at least some of its tracks. I'm curious to re-investigate that sound, to see if it still holds up for me almost forty years later. But my copy of that album is long, long gone, a victim of one of the many periodic purges my vinyl collection has endured over the years. I'm not a kid anymore.

Kids in America. When the record came out in the summer of '81, I was 21 years old, already a year out of college, living with my girlfriend in a one-bedroom apartment. I was still a kid, emotionally and chronologically, though I was trying hard to pretend otherwise. 

I voted for the first time the preceding November. I wish I could say that I voted to re-elect Jimmy Carter, a fine man whom I did not appreciate until it was far too late. I can at least say that I did not vote for Reagan--God, no--but I wish that I hadn't wasted my vote on third-party candidate John Anderson. I was a kid. I didn't know any better...but I should have.

Forty years later, I can't necessarily claim that I've learned all that much. But I keep trying. I married the girlfriend. We voted on Sunday. We hope all the other kids in America will do the same. 

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

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).