10 SONGS: 12/6/2024

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 # 1262.

THE PALEY BROTHERS: Ecstasy

It felt imperative for us to pay tribute to the late Andy Paley this week, and that tribute had to begin with the Paley Brothers, the late '70s shoulda-been-a-smash duo of Andy and Jonathan Paley. The group didn't release a lot of material, but their c.v. includes some absolutely ace pop music. My pick for the best of the Paley Brothers is "Ecstasy," a non-LP single from '77 that just explodes with equal parts earnest longing and urgent desire, occupying an innocent but deadly space somewhere between Raspberries and Rubinoos. The song's title reviews itself: Ecstasy.

PETER HAMMILL: Birthday Special

Going out by request to Paul Armstrong, guitarist for Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. "Birthday Special" comes from Peter Hammill's 1975 album Nigel's Big Chance, which was billed as a Hammill solo record but represents a reunion of Hammill's former band Van der Graaf Generator. 

In requesting the song, PA said: "This was a very influential record to many (me)...you can hear the influence on Sex Pistols, Psychedelic Furs, Soft Boys, etc." The boy is not wrong. One can imagine a not-yet Rotten John Lydon hearing this, taking notes, and lurching forward accordingly. Pretty vacant? No--pretty special. Thanks for the heads-up, PA.

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go

In last week's exciting edition of 10 Songs, I wrote of "If We Could Let Go" by Slyboots:

"This just might be my favorite new track of 2024, and if it ain't, it's for damned sure a contender. Slyboots are a great, great group from New York, and they're deserving of much wider notoriety. 'If We Could Let Go' is nothing short of stunning. Their best one yet."

With the wisdom and perspective that another week adds to our...um, wisdom and perspective, let's remove that damned just might be qualifier. Slyboots' "If We Could Let Go" is my favorite new track of 2024. Not lettin' go of this one.

sparkle*jets u.k.: Box Of Letters

A box of BETTERS!

Notwithstanding my above coronation of the Slyboots track, I generally don't do year-end Top Ten lists. It may seem odd for a guy who writes so much and so often about pop music to say he (me!) doesn't care to think about the subject enough to rank Fave Raves, but, well, me doesn't care. I'm driven to analyze and pound the podium on behalf of songs, albums, and performers that move me in the moment, but I despise rating them. It's one of the many reasons I stopped writing reviews for publication, because I'm no longer interested in giving a freakin' letter grade to art or product.

Plus I hate writing reviews. There's that, too.

With all that said, I must acknowledge that a troika of Big Stir Records releases would be at or near the top of my pops in 2024: Octoberland by the Armoires, Pop Treasures by the Half/Cubes, and Box Of Letters by sparkle*jets u.k., with How To Make Friends By Telephone by Librarians With Hickeys poised in the on-deck circle. Among others--among a ton of others--from many sources. No matter how crappy a year it is in the real world, it's always a good year for pop music.

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True

 

With ten weeks in a row of TIRnRR airplay for Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome's irresistible current cover of Brenda Lee's "Is It True," I guess it's safe to say I like this one a lot, too. We'll mark Week # 11 this Sunday. True dat.

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

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Locket Love

With last year's publication of my first book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, I declared 2023 as my Year of the Ramones. But who was I kidding? Every year is my year of the Ramones: The American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. The Ramones' "Locket Love" was one of Dana's picks this week, and it was one of the first four Ramones tracks I ever owned: The B-side of "Rockaway Beach," a 45 purchased on my eighteenth birthday, not long after "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" became the record that changed my life. Can't limit that impact to a single year. Here's to another Year of the Ramones.

NICK BATTERHAM: Bars And Bedrooms And Bags

"Bars and Bedrooms and Bags?" Hey, sounds like a tour itinerary! Instead, this track from Nick Batterham's new Kool Kat Musik album The Sentimentalist conveys sadness and bitterness in roughly comparable proportion, a deep ache made pretty for the radio. Or at least putting on a show of being made pretty for the radio, but sparing nothing in its anger and resentment. Anyone who has ever loved and lost will empathize. 

THE FLASHCUBES [WITH THE PALEY BROTHERS]: Come Out And Play

Was this track from the Flashcubes' 2023 album Pop Masters the last Paley Brothers recording? That would seem likely, unless they did some subsequent work I don't know about. A splendid collaborative 'Cubes 'n' Paleys remake of the Paley Brothers' own radiant 1978 single, the new version was first released as a Big Stir Records digital track in 2022, and it scored a lot of TIRnRR airplay, making it to # 42 in our 2023 year-end countdown even though it wasn't released until September of that year. An invitation to play is evergreen. The music of the Paley Brothers lives on.

THE BEATLES: The Word

And that's the word from Her Majesty's Ramones. Love. Love's a pretty good word, I say.

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

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history 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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Paley Brothers and Ramones, "Come On Let's Go"

Expanded from previous posts, this is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

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

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

Written by Ritchie Valens

Produced by Earle Mankey and Tommy Erdelyi

Single, Sire Records, 1978

The combined forces of the Paley Brothers (actual siblings Andy Paley and Jonathan Paley) and Ramones (non-blood brudders-in-arms Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, and Tommy Ramone, with lead singer Joey Ramone out on medical leave) provided me with my second-hand introduction to Ritchie Valens's fantastic 1958 debut hit "Come On, Let's Go." As much as I came to dig the Valens original, I regard the Paley/Ramones cover version as definitive.

The track was originally issued in 1978 as a Paley Brothers 45, but I knew it from the soundtrack of the Ramones' 1979 movie Rock 'n' Roll High School. I don't remember whether I bought that album right before or shortly after first seeing the film in a crowded nightclub called Uncle Sam's on July 6th of '79, a Friday at the end of a week from Hell. The screening preceded lives sets from the Flashcubes and the Ramones themselves, and lemme tell ya, that's how ya celebrate a rock 'n' roll movie. 

I was nineteen years old. I think I bought the album after seeing the film, though it could have been the other way around. It became one of my go-to albums that yin-and-yang summer of '79. Syracuse's 95X had been playing the movie's title track, so I definitely at least heard that song prior to seeing the movie (and to hearing the Ramones include it in their live set). The LP included great stuff by Devo, Alice Cooper, Brownsville Station, Chuck Berry, Nick Lowe, and Eddie and the Hot Rods, the film's star (and my newest crush) P. J. Soles warbling her version of "Rock 'n' Roll High School," less interesting (to me) selections from Eno and Todd Rundgren, some live Ramones cuts, and two new Ramones studio tracks heard in the film, the lovely ballad (Ballad...?!) "I Want You Around" and, of course, "Rock 'n' Roll High School." It did not include the Paul McCartney, MC5, and Velvet Underground songs played within the film itself. It did include "Come On Let's Go," its credit reversed to "Ramones with the Paley Brothers." Sorry boys; gotta give top billing to the stars of the picture.

The track was recorded in 1978, when Joey Ramone was sidelined by an injury. During the interviews for my book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, 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."

"Come On Let's Go" was also the first time I recall hearing the Paley Brothers, and it was the only Paley Brothers performance I knew for years thereafter. It's weird that this one-off collaboration with the Ramones is likely the Paley Brothers' best-known track. The Paley Brothers seemed destined for stardom, with the right looks and the right hooks--"Come Out And Play" and "Ecstasy" should have been huge, huge hits--but we all know that fame and acclaim aren't always awarded fairly. Together and separately, the Paley Brothers nonetheless built a body of work celebrated by the pop fans who love it.

Andy Paley passed in November of 2024. I got to see him perform on two occasions, on consecutive evenings in 2022. Among Paley's mile-high stack of pop music accomplishments, he was a musical co-conspirator with Syracuse's favorite son Tom Kenny. Tom is the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants and the coolest guy that anyone anywhere has ever known. Tom 'n' Andy worked together on music for SpongeBob SquarePants and in the kickass live combo Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas.

In 2022, Tom Kenny was inducted into The SAMMYs (Syracuse Area Music Awards) Hall of Fame. And Tom brought his pal Andy and the rest of their Hi-Seas to Syracuse to participate in the celebration. The Flashcubes joined Tom 'n' Andy on stage at The SAMMYS to plug in and let loose on two songs, beginning with a cover of Eddie and the Hot Rods' power pop classic "Do Anything You Wanna Do."

After "Do Anything You Wanna Do," Tom told the story of seeing the Flashcubes play with the Ramones at that above-mentioned 7/6/1979 Uncle Sam's gig with Rock 'n' Roll High School. In the aftermath of that unforgettable evening at Uncle Sam's, Tom made a beeline for Gerber Music to snag a copy of the Rock 'n' Roll High School soundtrack LP, thus adding "Come On Let's Go" by the Paley Brothers and Ramones to the Tom Kenny home library. At The SAMMYS, Tom referred to the track as the only time the Ramones ever backed up another artist on that artist's record. And then Tom asked Andy when he and his brother recorded the track. "1979," Paley replied. Tom then asked Andy when was the last time he had performed the song. "1979." *

*(Yeah, I know the single of "Come On Let's Go" came out in '78, the year before its appearance on the Rock 'n' Roll High School soundtrack LP. Just roll with us, man).

Sure, you saw that coming. I don't care. All I know is, Andy Paley, Tom Kenny, and the Flashcubes then played the damned song before my widened eyes and eager ears. My God, my smile was as bright as the brightest lights. I don't really want to be ninenteen again--there is no amount of reward that could ever make me want to go through all of that mishegas again--but THAT moment, right there at The SAMMYS, was the best part of nineteen brought back to life for a little over two minutes. 

I don't remember whether or not Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas also performed "Come On Let's Go" as part of their amazing club show the night after The SAMMYS. And I guess we should concede that maybe the Paley Brothers' Super-Team Family meeting with the Ramones was just a footnote in Andy Paley's long and storied career. 

But it mattered. It still does. It always will. The rest of the Paley Brothers' brief recording career is likewise ripe for rediscovery, or (for many) just plain discovery. Great, great stuff. You will never convince this unrepentant former nineteen-year-old to relinquish his affection for one track in particular. Brothers, meet brudders. Come on. Let's GO!

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

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history 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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

10 SONGS: 11/22/2024

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 # 1260.

THE COWSILLS: Shine

For years now, I've been proudly declaring that the Cowsills' under-heard and underrated 1998 work Global is my favorite album of the '90s. Its track "She Said To Me" is a TIRnRR standard; the Cowsills themselves allowed us its use on our compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2, and the song has its own chapter in my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). The rest of Global is just as good.

The original album has been out of print for decades, limiting chances for its discovery by potential new fans. During the course of interviews I've done on behalf of my GREM! book, radio host Jim Monaghan expressed his delight that I cast a spotlight on a track from Global, whereas journalist Jeff Tamarkin (who knows more about music than I'll ever know) wasn't familiar with it at all. My favorite album of the '90s, but for most music lovers the album may as well have never existed in the first place.

Omnivore Records' new deluxe reissue of Global remedies that. You can read Jeff Tamarkin's discussion with Bob Cowsill about Global and its reissue here, and you can get with it awready and buy your own copy of Global here. 

The updated Global includes three previously-unreleased tracks from the same era. Each of the three deserves to be part of the Global experience, and we're pleased to open this week's radio extravaganza with one of them. We'll hear another one on Sunday night. Global is as Global does.

DONNA SUMMER: She Works Hard For The Money 

When Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money" hit big in the '80s, I wanted to hear how it would sound in the hands of a rock band, emphasizing the song's Kinks-like riff. I also wanted to hear a hard rock version of Summer's disco smash "I Feel Love." I don't think I was looking for capital-R ROCK! validation of the songs--I liked both songs just fine as they were--but I was, I dunno, imagining how they could cross over into a different market.

Even if those versions had happened, though, I'm confident Donna Summer's originals would have remained definitive.

We play Donna Summer on TIRnRR, perhaps not a lot, but enough that listeners aren't surprised when a "Hot Stuff" or an "I Feel Love" finds its way to our sovereign airwaves. I love both of those records, and frankly I'm surprised we've never gotten around to playing "She Works Hard For The Money" before this week. It's come close on a few previous occasions,  and it was specifically in our initial programming blueprints each of the two previous weeks. Yes, it worked hard for the airplay.

And it deserves it. 

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go

NYC combo Slyboots made their TIRnRR debut on May 19th of this year with a cover of Meat Puppets' "Oh, Me." In June, we started playing their original tune "Blindsided," and that track's now a likely lock for the year-end countdown show of our most-played tracks in 2024.

As superb as "Blindsided" is, the new Slyboots single "If We Could Let Go" is somehow even better, and easily one of my favorite tracks of this year. The title offers a path forward in troubled times, even if it's a path I'm not sure I'm ready to take. Yet. But we'll play the song, again and again. Another great record from a great group.

THE ARMOIRES: Ridley & Me After The Apocalypse

I don't think we've quite reached the "after the apocalypse" stage. We might not even be into the thick of its spiraling malaise. We're approaching the onramp. The onramp to Armageddon. Road trip! We'll face the apocalypse with rings on our fingers, bells on our toes, chips on our shoulders, and a song by the Armoires in our hearts.

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True

With this turn on the ol' virtual turntable, Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome's cover of Brenda Lee's "Is It True" makes its seventh consecutive weekly appearance on the TIRnRR playlist. We'll go for eight in a row on Sunday. 

THE PALEY BROTHERS: Come Out And Play

Earlier this month, we received news that the great Andy Paley was nearing the end of his life. The information was not meant to made public at the time, so we paid unspoken tribute with another spin of "Come Out And Play," the 1978 pure pop gem from the Paley Brothers, Andy and Jonathan Paley. We circled back later in the playlist for "Come On Let's Go," the Paley Brothers' collaboration with the Ramones to render the definitive cover of that Ritchie Valens classic. We toasted amongst ourselves in appreciation of the life and gift of one of pop music's good guys.

Andy Paley passed this week. We mourn along with those who knew him better, including some mutual friends who are experiencing a personal loss far beyond what we feel as fans. Others are better suited to eulogize him, and to celebrate the pervasive breadth and depth of his legacy, a wide-ranging c.v. of heart and substance, inspiration and accomplishment, craft and artistry. 

Our suns only shine upon us for the briefest of times. While we are here, we are together. Come out and play.

LESLEY GORE: You Don't Own Me

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: I Fought The Law

Realizing that this week's show was TIRnRR # 1260, it felt important to celebrate the importance of that number in my life: 

1260 WNDR!!

1260 WNDR was (along with The Big 15 WOLF) one of the two Syracuse Top 40 AM radio stations that shaped so much of my development as a pop music fan in the '60s and '70s. We devoted the entirety of this week's closing set to songs Dana and/or I used to hear on WNDR and/or WOLF.

And the set began with a song I remember hearing on the radio when I was six years old. From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"In 1966, my brother Art had a red Alfa Romeo. I'm told it was a shitty car, and I remember its ignominious final days in his possession: A scarlet husk parked, prone, lying in state beyond the shed at the end of our back yard. Collecting dust, collecting rust. A tow truck came to whisk this luckless red shell to its final reward.

"But my prevailing memory of this doomed vehicle is a happy one. The memory involves the consumption of Royal Crown Cola, or possibly a root beer and Teen Burger at the nearby A & W Drive-In. The memory absolutely involves the car's one true immortal virtue: 

"Its radio. 

"That radio? When I was six years old, I thought that radio was magic.

"I mean, it must have been magic. There were songs I heard on that car's radio that I never heard anywhere else. But it was a different magic than I imagined; it was Syracuse's 1260 WNDR-AM. Set to 1260, the Alfa Romeo played 'I Like It Like That' by the Dave Clark Five, a record that--to me--only existed in Art’s star-crossed Alfa Romeo. Even better, it played--often!--another irresistible exclusive: 'I Fought the Law' by the Bobby Fuller Four. 

"My visceral memory of that terrific song remains inextricably linked to those moments in my brother's Alfa Romeo, of drums, guitars, and a singer bemoaning his fate of breakin' rocks in the hot sun, all pouring forth from the little car's speakers as my big brother cruised suburban streets with his pesky kid brother on board. It's indelible, and I embrace and cherish its vivid image...."

FREDA PAYNE: Band Of Gold

While my ears were stapled to WOLF and WNDR in Syracuse, my future wife Brenda was a little girl listening to WABC in New York. Also from The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"Brenda also grew up listening to the radio. Jesus, didn't everyone our age do that? As a little girl originally from Brooklyn, living from school-age to young adulthood on Staten Island in a government housing project--an environment dramatically more racially- and culturally-diverse than my vanilla childhood surroundings--she was immersed in a lot more black music than this suburban kid was exposed to during the same time frame. 

"But Top 40 radio was an equal-opportunity rush. I heard Motown, just like she did. I heard the Honey Cone, Isaac Hayes, the Spinners, the Stylistics, the O'Jays, Rufus, Curtis Mayfield, and more, all pop music, offered for interracial, interfaith radio worship along with the Partridge Family, Three Dog Night, the Carpenters, Alice Cooper, and John Denver. It was the soundtrack of the seventies, in the city and the suburbs alike. Brenda heard more of it, and she heard it more often; but the soulful sounds certainly reached my ears sometimes, too.

"At the end of 1970, when Brenda was eleven years old, she listened to the year-end countdown on New York's WABC, the home of iconic NYC DJ Cousin Brucie. 

"Cousin Brooooooooooocieeee! 

"Ahem. As she listened to the radio's proclamations that New Year's Eve, as '70 became '71, Brenda knew exactly which great record would be anointed # 1 for the Year Of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred And Seventy. And she was right. Number ONE! ONE! ONE! ONE! ONE! Freda Payne, 'Band of Gold.' Brenda's belief was validated. And the hits just kept on coming...."

THE BEATLES: I Want To Hold Your Hand

Pop mania's Ground Zero. In Syracuse, we heard it on WNDR. Tweeeelve-sixty, double-you-enn-dee-ARRRRRRRE! 

I think you understand.

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

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history 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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

10 SONGS: 6/29/2023

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 show draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1187. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Because New York City really has it all, I'm gonna be there TODAY for a 6:30 pm in-store appearance at Generation Records, 210 Thompson Street in the Village. See, NOW New York City really has it all! Sort of. I'll be at Generation to talk about my new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, and I hope some of my NYC-area pals can show up to keep me company. It might even be a real cool time. 

Anyway, this is a good excuse to open both the show and this week's 10 Songs with another spin of "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," the record that changed my life, and the greatest record ever made, and a big underlying part of the case I presented when the Ramones were inducted into The Power Pop Hall Of Fame. Maybe I'll talk a little bit about that at Generation tonight.

MARVIN GAYE: Ain't That Peculiar

When I started this cockamamie daily blog in January of 2016, one of the earliest posts was a reprise of an article I wrote for Goldmine about a decade before that. "Rock The Coin Right Into The Slot: The Definitive Rock 'n' Roll Jukebox" was an attempt to to list the 100 U.S. 45s that could stock a hypothetical definitive rockin' pop jukebox, and one of those chosen singles was "Ain't That Peculiar" by Marvin Gaye. In a subsequent post, I offered this explanation/disclaimer for selecting this particular record:

And there probably isn't another fan in the world who wouldn't have selected "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" or "What's Goin' On" or one of Gaye's duets with Tammi Terrell over "Ain't That Peculiar." Ain't that...y'know?

I do believe "Ain't That Peculiar" is prime jukebox material, but in retrospect I should have gone with the searing heartbreak of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" instead, at least for the jukebox. Nonetheless, "Ain't That Peculiar" sounds great in this week's playlist. 

And peculiar or not, my paid supporters will get to see an otherwise-unpublished celebration of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (from my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! [Volume 1]) this Saturday. If you would also like to see it, you can become a patron of this blog for a mere $2 a month. 

Jukeboxes, radio playlists, and greatest records ever made. An infinite number, as long as they take turns. I heard that through...the usual word-of-mouth means. Peculiar? Your grapevine my vary.

DANNY THE K: Roller Derby Girl

Our regular listeners know Dan Kopko from his stellar work with the Shang Hi Los and the Peppermint Kicks. Now, assuming the nom de bop of Danny the K, our esteemed Mr. Kopko has a solo album, Cigarettes & Silhouettes, And Other Songs, due soon from the irresistible force known as Rum Bar Records. That album's advance single "Roller Derby Girl" hip-checks its way into the playlist this week, with more to come. Let's roll.

ROCKAWAY BITCH: I Wanna Be Sedated

CHICKS SINGIN' RAMONES SONGS! Singin' 'em well, too. This is the fifth time out of the last six weeks that the Carbona-huffin' splendor of Rockaway Bitch has bludgeoned its way onto the TIRnRR airwaves. And it's high time something from RB lead singer Patti Rothberg's own superb catalog also made a reappearance here. We'll play Patti solo and with Rockaway Bitch next week.

THE 5th DIMENSION: Don't Cha Hear Me Callin' To Ya

This track from the soundtrack of the dazzling documentary Summer Of Soul captures a live performance by the 5th Dimension, and it sizzles--sizzles--in a way the studio version never quite matched.

STEVE STOECKEL: Mod Girl

"Mod Girl" is a very cool track from Steve Stoeckel's current Big Stir Records release The Power Of And. We dig this the most ut, but we're never sure if we wanna program the fab album version or its equally groovy unreleased a cappella mix, which highlights the amazing backing vocals of Jamie Hoover and Elena Rogers. Oooooo--sublime! That alternate version really needs a general issue. Steve! Rex! Christina! Mod girls AND Mod boys! THE WORLD IS WAITING!

Meanwhile, we are going with the album track on this show this time. The a cappella mix will return in a near-future playlist. Can't go wrong either way. 

SUZI QUATRO: I May Be Too Young

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

MICKEY LEIGH'S MUTATED MUSIC: It Felt Like Love

We have not played Mickey Leigh's work to the extent we oughtta. I mean, we have programmed a few different tracks by his old combo the Rattlers here and there: "On The Beach," "Livin' Alone," "For Johnny's Entertainment," "What Keeps Your Heart Beatin'?," and their cover of the Nightcrawlers' "Little Black Egg." Sibling Rivalry (which was Mickey and his brother Joey Ramone, covering Blodwyn Pig's "See My Way") has received the plurality of our Mickey Leigh spins over the years. But we should be doing more.

And we're gonna. I just purchased Variants Of Vibe, a 2022 album by Mickey Leigh's Mutated Music, and it joins my copy of Sibling Rivalry's In A Family Way and the CD reissue of the Rattlers' Rattled! I snagged in Berkeley in 1999. Variants Of Vibe is quite good, and it makes its TIRnRR debut with a wonderfully punchy tune called "It Felt Like Love." Feels like we should be playing it. 

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING THE PALEY BROTHERS: Come Out And Play

The Paley Brothers should have been huge, but I don't remember hearing any of their great stuff contemporaneously to their release in the '70s. The only Paleys track I knew at the time was their outtasight collaboration with the Ramones on a sugar-frosted amphetamine cover of Ritchie Valens' "Come On Let's Go," introduced to me via its appearance on the soundtrack to the Ramones' 1979 cinematic masterpiece Rock 'n' Roll High School.

I first heard the original of the Paleys' 1978 gem "Come Out And Play" when it appeared as the title tune for a Rhino Records various-artists power pop compilation in 1993. That collection also just happened to offer the CD debut of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes, a group that remains up there with the Beatles and the Ramones as my personal Top O' The Pops.

So yeah, obviously TIRnRR likes to play this triumphant team-up of the Paleys and the 'Cubes, remaking "Come Out And Play," takin' a rad song and makin' it (even) better. It's on the new Flashcubes album Pop Masters, due this summer from Big Stir Records. We're playin' it. Come out and play, friends. Come out and play.

THE RAMONES: Touring

Touring is never boring. Oh! That reminds me!

IN-PERSON EVENT TODAY!!! June 29

On June 29 at 6:30 pm--hey, that's TODAY!--I will be making an in-store appearance at GENERATION RECORDS, 210 Thompson Street in NYC on behalf of my  new book GABBA GABBA HEY! A CONVERSATION WITH THE RAMONES. The book contains my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., which were cited by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as essential reading. I'll be at Generation to chat with fellow Ramones fans, talk about the book, the interviews, and how the music of the Ramones impacted my life. If you are in the New York area today, I would love to see you at Generation Records. Hey-ho, let's GO!  

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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl