10 (no--13!!) SONGS: 7/25/2026

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 # 1346

THE AMPLIFIER HEADS: A Girl Named Chop Suey

A rock 'n' roll riot! That's the promise offered and honored by the Amplifier Heads' new album Super 8. Amplified head Head Sal Baglio has made it clear in whose memory Super 8 is proclaimed:

"The Amplifier Heads' new album Super 8 is dedicated to Paul Armstrong and Ducky Carlisle — two much beloved and missed friends gone way too soon.

"Ducky introduced me to Paul the way he introduced everyone. He said: 'Do you know Paul Armstrong? Yeah, he’s a genius. You two guys should be friends.'

"And that’s exactly what happened. Both Ducky and Paul were crazed rock n’ roll FANATICS and we loved all the same music.

"We played on many stages together, including The Cavern in Liverpool. They both appear on the Amplifier Heads' Loudah album, which was also recorded and mixed by Ducky Carlisle at his Ice Station Zebra Studio.

"Both are missed very much. Super 8 is dedicated to their shining light and crazed rock n’ roll spirit. They live on in all the music we created back then, that we create right now, and that we are destined to create in the future."

TIRnRR offers a great big HELL YEAH!! to all of the above. To the Amplifier Heads, I say Ducky and PA would be proud of you.

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

From a previous blog post about my 25 favorite Monkees tracks:

Don Kirshner's last stand, but it's a really, really good last stand. Most regard this Neil Diamond ditty as an inferior follow-up to his SuperMegaSmash Monkees hit "I'm A Believer," but I actually like it better. Part of the reason is circumstantial: the original Colgems 45 of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" pounds and pops in a way no CD (or LP) reissue has ever managed to recapture. "I'm A Believer" is a better song, and arguably a better record, but I feel a vibrant and pervasive connection to "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," a connection its "Believer" big brother can't equal. (For a coincidental commentary on Kirshner's exit from the Monkees project, read the lyrics to this song as an approximation of what I think Kirshner shoulda said to the Monkees at the time. Except maybe not addressing the group as "Girl.")

CIRCE LINK: I'm On Your Side

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

MONOGROOVE: Back To School

THE MnM'S: I'm Tired

P. J. SOLES: Rock 'n' Roll High School

THE MUFFS: That's For Me

THE RUNAWAYS: School Days

THE RAMONES: 7 And 7 Is

THE COASTERS: Charlie Brown

JUNIPER: Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys!

High school reunion time! I'm pretty sure I haven't learned anything. Here's my chance to prove it.

For my share of programming this week's penultimate set, I picked four tracks to sorta kinda represent the high school experience. The set begins with Monogroove's "Back To School," a certifiable TIRnRR Pick Hit found on the group's current 30th anniversary collection Anthology. Let Alice Cooper crow that school's out for the summer; Monogroove has your essential teen guide to navigating the halls and kicking the cliques. Back? It's like I never left.

The MnM's

Following Dana's spin of "I'm Tired" by the MnM's, we inserted a bit of dialogue from the classic--that's motherlovin' CLASSIC, man!-1979 feature film Rock 'n' Roll High School, as the Ramones walk around campus and the evil principal Miss Togar asks them in a shrieking tone, Do your parents KNOW you're Ramones...?! This snippet segues into a performance of the movie's title theme as executed by its star, perfectly-cast actress P. J. Soles in her hypmotizin' role as Riff Randell, rock 'n' roller.

Riff's winning warbling flows into Dana's selection of the Muffs' "That's For Me" (from their farewell album No Holiday), which in turn sets up "School Days" by the Runaways. That song was the subject of a previous Greatest Record Ever Made! post, and it remains my favorite Runaways track. Then--just like when I saw the Runaways open for the Ramones in 1978!--the Queens of Noise lead us into glue-sniffin' temptation, as the Ramones cover Love's supercharged '60s proto-punk nugget "7 And 7 Is."

And then, the Coasters! I've described "Yakety Yak" as the all-time best song about the generation gap, and it would have seemed the likeliest Coasters track to place here. Instead, we return to my introduction to the Coasters; I heard "Charlie Brown" when I discovered a copy of the 45 in the family collection circa 1972-73--eighth grade for me--and delighted in the fee-fee-fi-fi-fo-fo-fum tale of this cat Charlie who was either the high school's biggest troublemaker or just terribly, terribly misunderstood. Dana closes the set with Juniper's "Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys!," which properly places the blame for mischief on those unruly lads. I bet they're ALL named Charlie Brown! WHY'S everybody always picking on me? I'm innocent, I tell ya! INNOCENT!

Right. I'm ditching study hall. Wanna meet up in the smoking area? But in the immortal words of Peter Tork: I don't smoke...those.

THE GREENBERRY WOODS: Waiting 'Round For Something To Go Wrong

Speaking of high school, the Greenberry Woods' new album It's All Good, Sugar includes a track called "Waiting 'Round For Something To Go Wrong," and that song title describes high school about as accurately as anything ever. The album as a whole is a welcome return for these power pop greats, and "Waiting 'Round For Something To Go Wrong" has become my go-to. We'll play it again on our next show.

THE BEATLES: I'm A Loser

And still speaking of high school....

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My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous 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.

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. 

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

10 SONGS: 5/18/2024

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 # 1233.

DUANE EDDY: (Dance With The) Guitar Man

The late, great Duane Eddy was a giant of rock 'n' roll guitar. His signature number "Rebel Rouser" closes out this week's show, but I also wanted to spin a less-recognized Eddy treat within our opening set. 

Duane Eddy built most of his legacy with twangy instrumentals. 1962's "(Dance With The) Guitar Man" sported sassy girl-group vocals by the Rebelettes, who were in reality sassy girl group the Blossoms. I knew the song from its use in a TV commercial for Rochester, NY's great, great House Of Guitars, but fantastic records don't care how you get to them. All that matters is the getting. Come on and dance.

THE MIDNIGHT CALLERS: Jumpin' Jack Flash

Last week's show offered our first taste of the forthcoming tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Jagger & Richards, debuting with king of power pop Paul Collins taking on the Rolling Stones' "Tell Me." This week, we have the Midnight Callers rising to the challenge of covering "Jumpin' Jack Flash." Remaking such an established classic rock tune can be a daunting task indeed, but our Midnight Callers cede not an inch while lookin' Mick and Keith straight in the eyes in pursuit of a gas-gas-gas-gas. It IS all right now! In fact...

...you know.

VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH: Triple Play: Saturday/Best Day/Rock Beside Me/Heartsick/Days & Days/Wheels Of Love/Every Time

Our radio program's built-in short attention span means this week is probably the only time we'll ever play this particular gem, but its single spin was totally, totally worth it.

"Triple Play" is a just-under-ten-minute song suite from The Future Store, the tres nifty new album by TIRnRR superstars Vegas With Randolph. Our playlists thrive on shorter song selections...but my gosh, "Triple Play" is just so, so cool. It's my immediate initial favorite on The Future Store; the very first time I heard it, I knew we had to--had to--make room for it on the next available playlist.

And we did! Such a swell-sounding track, our short attention span be damned. We'll hear another example of The Future Store's splendor on our next show.

HUNGRYTOWN: Tuesday Sun

The third teaser single from Hungrytown's forthcoming new album Circus For Sale builds upon the already-compelling stream of lush Americana heard in preceding sneak-peek tracks "Feel Like Falling" and especially "Another Year." If "lush Americana" seems like an oxymoron, imagine, say, Nanci Griffith produced by Brian Wilson, or Emmylou Harris fronting the Wondermints in a reflective mood. Or a more grounded Renaissance. 

None of these fantasy scenarios is truly descriptive of the Hungrytown sound, but I hope they kinda conjure a mental image of pretty pop music with blue-highway roots: Indie folk that's not afraid of a little bit of sheen. The sheen enhances its truth.

Circus For Sale is out June 21st. We'll hear more as its release date draws near. Satisfaction awaits you in Hungrytown.

SHADOWY MEN ON A SHADOWY PLANET: Exit From Vince Lombardi High

P. J. SOLES: Rock 'n' Roll High School

This two-fer serves as a de facto salute to the late B-movie king Roger Corman, whose many film credits include 1979's Rock 'n' Roll High School. The fact that the show was recorded before we heard of Corman's passing makes the tribute a coincidence, but no less sincere.

And we never need an excuse to celebrate Rock 'n' Roll High School. Given the fact that I routinely refer to the Ramones as the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time, it falls waaaaaay short of revelatory for me to say, yeah, the Ramones' movie Rock 'n' Roll High School is one of my fave rave jukebox flicks. Duh. Most of the film was set at the fictional Vince Lombardi High School, so Dana's spin of "Exit From Vince Lombardi High" by Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet led inevitably into Riff Randall, Rock 'n' Roller, as played by actress P. J. Soles. 

SHONEN KNIFE: The KKK Took My Baby Away

THE RAMONES: I Don't Care

Demonstrating the mutant synergy of TIRnRR, Dana followed Riff Randall's "Rock 'n' Roll High School" with Osaka, Japan's phenomenal pop combo Shonen Knife covering the Ramones. Hey-HO! Shonen Knife's 2011 album Osaka Ramones is one of the best Ramones covers album, maybe THE best (though I do also have a great deal of affection for the easy-listening audacity of the Nutley Brass' Ramones Songbook). Osaka Ramones has been a reliable resource for many recent TIRnRR playlists. As it should be.

And I hadda segue that into the Ramones themselves. "I Don't Care." It's FUNNY! The KKK took my baby away? I don't care, man. I don't care. But we shouldn't take the title literally, at least not in this context. TIRnRR couldn't do whatever the hell it is TIRnRR does if we didn't care.

(And Dana concluded the above set with the Donnas covering Alice Cooper's "School's Out." I love this show.)

THE KINKS: Juke Box Music

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: Make Something Happen

Two initial interviews done, a third initial interview scheduled next week. The book's publication is still a year away, but work on Make Something Happen! The DIY Story Of A Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES has officially begun.

No promise, no guara..no, scratch that. You got my promise. That's what making something happen! is all about.

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Carl's book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is 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: 4/28/2023

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 # 1178. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: 7 And 7 Is

This week's show concludes our four-week tour through the Ramones' studio album discography. Throughout the month of April, we've been playing my # 1 top track from each of the group's albums, four per week, and we begin our latest bopathon with representation from the Ramones' thirteenth album Acid Eaters.

Released in 1993, Acid Eaters is the Ramones' only all-covers album, sporting da brudders' piledriving takes on 1960s classics by the Who, Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, the Seeds, Eric Burdon and the Animals, et al. The Ramones had included a cover or two on most of their previous albums, so this seemed like an intriguing project.

Bassist C. J. Ramone wasn't so sure about it. In the 1994 interview reprised in my book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, C. J. told me, "...I really wasn’t for it. I thought it was a bit too nostalgic, kind of concentrating on a...something that could almost be detrimental to our image. It seems like people think of too much of the past when it comes to the Ramones. You hear so much of the Ramones’ history and not enough about what’s going on about the Ramones now. And I think that hurts them sometimes. And I thought that this album was just contributing to that. I still think it is...."

Me? I raved about Acid Eaters when it was new, and cooled to it some time thereafter. To represent the album on this week's show, I figured I'd default to the C.J.-sung version of Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages," a track that stood out for me at the time of its release. But in prepping for the show, I listened to Acid Eaters again, for the first time in...well, I can't count that high. I was surprised by how much I flat-out dig the album in the here and now, not just more than I expected to dig it, but possibly even more than I liked it in '93.

"My Back Pages" was still in the potential mix for this week's playlist, as was the Pete Townshend-augmented cover of "Substitute." I went with this steamrollin' version of Love's "7 And 7 Is," and delighted in the ongoing revelation of rediscovering old favorites.

MICKEY AND SYLVIA: Love Is Strange

A spin of Mickey and Sylvia's "Dearest" on last week's show led us back to their big hit "Love Is Strange" this week. What a great record, and its been far, far too long since its last appearance on TIRnRR. In our chat group Sunday night, intrepid listener Joel Tinnel commented, "The guitar is pretty hip for its day. I believe Mickey (of 'Mickey and Sylvia' fame) is the player as well as the vocalist." Our pal (and Radio Deer Camp host) Rich Firestone added, "I thought it sounded great coming out of '7 And 7 Is' because the Ramones didn't do the closing vamp from the Love record. Almost sounded like Mickey's guitar was gonna play it!"

MR. BRUCE GORDON: One Last Dance

Mr. Bruce Gordon is a long-time friend of this show. Bruce is also a welcome perennial fixture on our playlists, both as a member of the mighty Pop Co-Op and under his previous nom de bop Mr. Encrypto. Ditching "Encrypto" and retaining the honorific, Mr. Bruce Gordon has a new album due in May, courtesy of the good folks at Futureman Records. One Tall Order is the first record this peerless pop mister has done under his own name, and we are firmly on board. One LAST dance? Nuh-uh. First of many. First of many.

THE FLIRTATIONS: How Can You Tell Me?

My gosh, why weren't the Flirtations bigger stars? Their lone hit "Nothing But A Heartache" was phenomenal, and granted, nothing else in their catalog quite equals the sheer splendor of that track. Nonetheless, there's more fabulous Flirtations material beyond just the one big record. Their 1969 album Sounds Like The Flirtations (titled Nothing But A Heartache in the US) is worth a listen or two thousand. This week's radio exercise includes "How Can You Tell Me?," which was the B-side of "Nothing But A Heartache" in the States. We'll hear more from the Flirtations next week.

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

The Ramones' final studio album ¡Adios Amigos! saw the group go out with a blitzkrieg bang. And the album opens with a cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up," one of the greatest tracks ever to bear the Ramones brand name. It's not merely my favorite from ¡Adios Amigos!; when S. W. Lauden interviewed me last week for Remember The Lightning's feature on my Ramones book, he asked me to name my top five Ramones tracks, and "I Don't Want To Grow Up" is perched firmly at # 3 (behind only "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"). 

HEART: Kick It Out

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

(Powered by '70s teen pheromones.)

THE FLASHCUBES: Nothing To Do

IT'S A SECRET! Man, why am I even mentioning this to you?

THE RAMONES: Babysitter

With the Ramones' fourteen studio albums accounted for, we turn to my favorite among the group's non-LP tracks. "Babysitter" did appear on later European pressings of 1977's Leave Home album, but in America it was the non-LP B-side of the 1978 "Do You Wanna Dance" 45. At the time, I believed both sides of this single were destined to become irresistible, inescapable rock 'n' roll radio/Top 40 juggernauts. 

And they should have been. 

THE PALEY BROTHERS AND RAMONES: Come On Let's Go

Before we move from the Ramones' studio works into their live albums on next week's show, we celebrate the best of the group's soundtrack contributions. Ignoring "Chop Suey" (from the 1983 film Get Crazy), all of the main contenders come from the Ramones' own movie Rock 'n' Roll High School, which includes the absolutely ace title tune, the wonderful ballad "I Want You Around," and an eleven-minute live track (billed as a medley, encompassing blistering in-concert performances of "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Teenage Lobotomy," "California Sun," "Pinhead," and "She's The One"). Each of these has something to recommend it: the teen rebellion of "Rock 'n' Roll High School" emphasizing the film's rockin' raison d'être, the engaging chime of "I Want You Around" (accompanied on-screen by the image of actress P. J. Soles in her underwear), and, y'know, ELEVEN MINUTES OF LIVE RAMONES! Can't go wrong here.

Going into this, I presumed "Rock 'n' Roll High School" would be a given. Instead, I picked "Come On Let's Go," a dynamic cover of the Ritchie Valens gem, as performed by the Ramones backing up the Paley Brothers. The track had previously been released as a single in 1978, recorded when Joey Ramone was sidelined by an injury. Joey recalled, "It was a single before it was on the soundtrack. I was laid up, and John and Tommy and Dee Dee, they did the track with the Paley Brothers singin’ the lead. It sounded very Everly Brothersish. I thought it came out great."

Johnny Ramone also remembered the circumstances of the recording. "We negotiated a hundred bucks each [laughs], big money. And I said, 'Great! Hundred bucks for the night here, I’ll go in and do it.' Went in, put the record on, had Tommy figure out how to play it, [and he] showed me how to play it. I think I did two takes and said, 'that’s it, that’s as good as I’m gonna play it. I’m done.' And it came out good. The faster you do it, the better it comes out."

P. J. SOLES: Rock 'n' Roll High School

Still hadda get "Rock 'n' Roll High School" into this week's playlist. Enter Riff Randell. rock 'n' roller, the Ramones' # 1 fan. Take it, P. J.!

NEXT WEEK: we finish April with a track apiece from the four official live albums the Ramones released during their career. We'll begin with a track from my favorite live album ever.

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!!

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