10 SONGS (1200th Show Edition): 9/29/2023

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 edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1200. This show is available as a podcast.

THE STALLIONS: Why

We subtitled this week's blowout 1200th show as "Some Fave Raves From Our First 1199." Milestone shows present the challenge of trying to figure out which among many, many key tracks we wanna spin as representation of whatever the hell it is we do. But the result is always invigmoratin', and even though we had to omit a ton of epic greatness, I think this is one of the best milestone playlists we've done; and over the course of 1200 efforts, we've hit upon some pretty good ones along the way.

I determined weeks ago that I wanted to open this 1200th show with "Why," a cover of a '60s nugget originally done by an obscure group called the Dirty Wurds. The Pandoras covered "Why" in the '80s, but a version recorded in the '90s by NYC punk combo the Stallions just friggin' rules in all its chaotic splendor. For a very long time, the Stallions'"Why" was the all-time most-played track on TIRnRR, almost entirely on the strength of how often we played it in our first few years on the air. Big Star's "September Gurls" snatched the most-played title away from the Stallions quite some time ago, but "Why" is still an integral part of this show's DNA (even though we don't play it much anymore).

I used to introduce this song with a scream, a silly move that maybe two of our fans liked and half of our DJ team abhorred. But I tried to introduce it again in that rambunctious manner for this special show: It's not just any song! It's not just any band! It's...THE STALLIONS WITH "WHY"ON SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!!!!!!!

Tried it. Recorded it that way. It was...almost adequate, but not quite. I can't do the scream anymore, so I redid it without the scream. Time waits for no one, Stallion or otherwise. Ours is not to reason....

MANNIX: Highway Lines

When I opened with "Why," Dana immediately followed it with "Highway Lines" by Mannix. Good choice. After two years with the Stallions at the top of our season-ending countdowns, this track from Mannix's album Come To California was our # 1 track in 2001, and it has been a TIRnRR staple ever since. Even more than "Why" or "September Gurls," I regard "Highway Lines" as the single defining track of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. It later appeared on our compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, and it will have a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

Another saga 'bout another love gone wrong

And the DJ knows what I'm goin' through

In "Highway Lines," the radio playing in the car serves as sympathetic companion to our lovelorn hero as he drives across the country to make one last stand to salvage a doomed relationship. For TIRnRR # 1200, "Highway Lines" seemed like an ideal lead-in to Laurie Biagini's "Hey Mr. DJ." 

LAURIE BIAGINI: Hey Mr. DJ

Hey Mr. DJ, play me a song

As much as we've loved pret' near everything Laurie has crafted over the years, "Hey Mr. DJ" stands at the pinnacle. We realize it's not about us--the song's titular DJ is Laurie's beacon on a Saturday night, the evening before our own declaration that the weekend stops here--but man, it resonates in a way that's just magic to anyone who ever loved the radio. The track was on her 2022 album Stranger In The Mirror; when we started putting together This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 last year, "Hey Mr. DJ" was the only thing we considered for that compilation's opening track. It initiates TIRnRR Volume 5's girl-and-boy song cycle (an idea that was a sort-of reimagining of this song cycle). "Hey Mr. DJ" is absolutely essential to the concept for TIRnRR Volume 5. 

Hey Mr. DJ; play us some songs.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

For three years in a row--2009 through 2011--we undertook three year-long gimmicks on the show. And when I say we, I mean me. Dana's not really one for the gimmicks. Our first gimmick was The 50 KISS Strategy, a straightforward vow to play 50 different KISS tracks within a single calendar year. The following year offered the expanded ambition of The Hundred Hollies Initiative, with a vicious penalty for failure: if we didn't accomplish our goal of playing 100 different Hollies tracks before the year was up, we would have to play Bob Seger's awful "Old Time Rock & Roll" as penance.

Our audience shuddered. Cringed. We played 101 Hollies tracks, just to be sure. Crisis averted!

And 2011 brought us 301 Songs About 301 Girls, an effort to program 301 songs with a girl's name in each title. It started with a goal of 200 songs, grew to 300, and then I added one more because Dana played a 300th qualifying track before I could get to my intended 300th, "Christi Girl" by the Flashcubes. Dana may not be one for gimmicks, but he knows what records to play. 301 Songs About 301 Girls was a lot of fun, and it received the best sustained reaction of any crazy scheme we've ever executed. 

And the scheme started with Girl # 1: Sheena. AKA: The record that changed my life, performed by the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time, the Ramones. I could write a book about 'em. New York City really has it all.

THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You

Although we play a lot of new music nearly every week, a 1200th show should be about legacy. We determined that this week's playlist should only include tracks that accrued some previous TIRnRR airplay. We'll start to address the growing backlog of brand-new releases on our next show. On to # 1201!

But nor did we want to only play older tracks. So this week, in addition to some of the relatively recent individual gems that have already established themselves among our Fave Raves (treats by Kid Gulliver, the Linda Lindas, Dolph Chaney, Circe Link and Christian Nesmith, the Brothers Steve, Pop Co-Op, the Half Cubes, Harmonic Dirt, and the Gold Needles), some of our designated legacy acts are represented by pure gold from the 2020s rather than from previous decades. The Grip Weeds are here with "Lady Friend" instead of "Every Minute," Kelley Ryan with "The Church Of Laundry" instead of something by her old rockin' pop DBA astroPuppees, etc. If we'd gotten around to playing the Catholic Girls, it woulda been their current single "Hear My Prayer" in place of "Someone New" or "Should Have Been Mine."

A track from Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes should be considered a given for any TIRnRR milestone. Hell, the 'Cubes are a given for us on most weeks. The Flashcubes have classic tracks from their original run in the '70s, reunion tracks from the '90s, and a treasure trove of fresh goodies since the dawn of this 21st century. They even wrote and recorded a song about us, a track which led off This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1 in 2005.

The Flashcubes have a new album out, an all-covers set called Pop Masters. It will surprise absolutely no one to hear that it's my top album of 2023. Its current single is an ace cover of the Motors' "Forget About You." 

For our 1200th show, we played that one. Legacy grows. Don't forget to smile everybody! It's the Flashcubes.

TIRnRR ALLSTARS: Waterloo Sunset

TIRnRR first went on the air on December 27th, 1998. You can read up on our weird history here, from the first Dana & Carl radio series We're Your Friends For Now in 1992 through the various limited projects that occupied us during the bulk of the '90s, the debut of TIRnRR, and hijinks that ensued thereafter.

As TIRnRR approaches its 25th anniversary, our stubborn refusal to just go away already is enabled, at least in part, by our seamless mimicry of both Blanche DuBois and Billy Shears: we have always relied on the kindness of strangers, and we get by with a little help from our friends.

This strange kindness and friendly help saved the show (and the station itself) when we were all about to be kicked to the curb at the end of 2006. I'm not exaggerating; we were done, kaput, bereft of life, breathing our last gasps, about to transition from -ing to -ed. Our supporters dictated otherwise. Earlier this year, America's Sweetheart Irene Peña invited us to an interview on her Twitch channel, Irene Peña Music, and then surprised us by presenting a donation on behalf of Irene herself and a number of our other talented pals; you see that moment here. We are blessed with kind, strange, helpful friends.

Another example of this is the 2019 release Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Available as a Futureman Records digital download or a Kool Kat Musik CD, Waterloo Sunset collects tracks by the Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Vegas With Randolph, Pop Co-Op, Michael Slawter, Gretchen's Wheel, the Grip Weeds, the Armoires, the Anderson Council, Pacific Soul Ltd., and Ms. Irene Peña. It was assembled in secret, and presented to us as a fait accompli. I added liner notes (already stressing the Blanche DuBois angle), but otherwise? We had nothing to do with it. It was all the work of our friends. All of it.

The compilation is toplined by a fresh cover of the Kinks' sublime "Waterloo Sunset," performed by TIRnRR Allstars. Our assembled avengers include all of Pop Co-Op--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon (the track's studio wunderkind), Joel Tinnel, and Stacy Carson--plus Keith Klingensmith (who masterminded the project), Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Rich Firestone, and, of course, Irene Peña. The Allstars deliver a stunning rendition of a much-loved classic, and we continue to play it with some frequency. It certainly had to be a part of our 1200th show.

1200 shows. See our friends? They got us here. And as long as we gaze on all of this, all of this...

...we are in paradise.

THE BOB SEGER SYSTEM: 2 + 2 = ?

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

We still ain't playin' "Old Time Rock & Roll."

THE POPTARTS: I Won't Let You Let Me Go

The very first song played on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1, December 27, 1998. It wouldn't have been a proper 1200th show without a spin of the Poptarts.

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

Maybe it will be, Brother Eytan. Maybe it will.

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

Is there a promised land? I don't know. But Chuck Berry wrote and recorded an irresistible song about that prospect, that possibility. We may as well keep headin' on down that road. Here's to the promise. Here's to the road that brought us this far. Here's to what we hope we'll find if we get to wherever it is we're going. Tell the folks back home: Dana & Carl are on the line.

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!! 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: 1/20/2022

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.

John Wicks, Carl Cafarelli, Paul Collins, Dana Bonn, June 11th 2009

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1112: WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS FOR NOW! 30 Years Of Dana & Carl.

THE FLASHCUBES: Flavor Of The Month

If it was difficult to distill three decades of Dana & Carl radio shows into one three-hour playlist, it would be even more of a challenge to whittle all of that down to just ten songs. So, we're not going to attempt that. From our 30th anniversary shindig, these are just the ten songs I feel like annotating a little bit.

And it starts with the Flashcubes. Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse! Given how important the 'Cubes have been to us, I wanted to begin this celebration with a Flashcubes track. Obviously. I had my favorite 'Cubes song "No Promise" lined up as the likely pick, but although I didn't tell anyone (not even Dana), I was hoping for a different choice: something new. I knew the group was working on new recordings--they released two new covers in 2021-2022, of Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside" and the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room"--and hints dropped by two of the 'Cubes suggested a third was due imminently. An early mix of that third cut, a cover of the Posies' "Flavor Of The Month," arrived just in time to be included in this week's 30-year blowout. HuzZAH! On the radio it goes. Flavor of the month? Flavor of 30 years, my friends.

(Will there be still more Cubic covers to come in 2022? I dunno. But I betcha. The answer will be in revealed in flashes. Brilliant flashes.

DIGBY: Spirit

I've told these stories before. I'm going to tell them again.

Digby's 2003 album Go Digby was a huge TIRnRR favorite, with two of its tracks ("Minerva" and "Spirit") scoring significant airplay on our weekly radio party. So when Digby came to town for a show at Happy Endings coffeehouse, Dana and I were there!

Unfortunately, Dana and I were just about the only ones there. There was, I think, one other person in attendance, and that guy had never heard of Digby, he just happened to be there. Digby's audience that night would number three. Three would be the number, for the number would be three.

That's gotta be demoralizing. Gotta be. Nonetheless, Digby sucked it up, hit the stage, and played as if there were Digby At Budokan. They put on a show. Troupers. And one hell of a good rock 'n' roll band. Digby got spirit.

THE CHARMS: Top Down

Speaking of troupers, count the Charms' lead singer Ellie Vee amongst the troupiest. We were playing the hell out of the Boston group's 2003 debut album Charmed, I'm Sure, and she somehow got trapped into doing a telephone interview with Dana & Carl. That wouldn't have been so bad by itself--no, really, we're not that unpleasant to deal with--but the interview itself was overwhelmed by tech glitches. Listeners could not hear Ellie at all; they just heard me, asking questions, and then repeating whatever Ellie said (YES, ELLIE SAYS SHE'S DELIGHTED TO BE ON THE SHOW. NO, SHE INSISTS THAT SHE'S NOT LYING WHEN SHE SAYS THAT.). Oy....

To her enduring credit, Ellie put up with all of this static like the pro she is. She even let us include a Charms track, "Talk Is Cheap" (fitting!), on our second compilation album, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. A trouper. We've been blessed to meet some true rock 'n' roll troupers over this thirty-year gig. Ellie Vee is one of the best.

THE BEAT: Rock N Roll Girl

Sometimes I wanna pinch myself to make sure this isn't just a dream. Lemme check now...OW! Ouch! Okay, not dreaming. Damn! Magic fingers hurt...!

Where was I? Yeah, it's been cool to have so many opportunities to connect in some way with musicians whose work has affected me. As a freelance writer, I was able to interview the Ramones, Joan Jett, Mark Lindsay, Cyril Jordan, Greg Kihn, and more, and I've had correspondences with a large number of others. And it was a real treat the day that Paul Collins and John Wicks came to visit This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

I've been a fan of both of these guys since I was in college. I saw John play with his group the Records in 1979; I plucked my copy of Paul's former combo the Nerves' EP off the retail rack even before that, and my allegiance followed Mr. Collins as he formed his own group, the Beat. 

In 2009, Paul Collins and John Wicks were touring as an acoustic duo, and the tour brought them to nearby Cortland, NY. I had another commitment that prevented me from hitting that show, but TIRnRR's longtime friend Richard Rossi arranged for Paul and John to appear with us on the air at the TIRnRR studio in Syracuse the night before their gig. They sang, we chatted, and it was just a blast. They could not have been nicer to us. 

We're told you shouldn't meet your heroes. Screw that. The gray, anonymous dispensers of such wisdom have never had any freakin' clue about what's really best for us. Meet your heroes if you can. Tell them how important they are to you. Be a fan. Be polite and respectful, for God sake, but be a fan. It's part of the dream.

At the Cortland gig the next night, Paul recognized Dana and gave him a big bear hug, and said that appearing on TIRnRR was "so much fuckin' FUN!" I approve of that message. I corresponded with John and Paul for years after that. We lost John Wicks to cancer in 2018. I still hear from Paul now and again, and he supplied a fresh congratulatory bumper for our 30th anniversary show. 

And I told Paul: I wanna go back in time, and I wanna tell my late '70s and early '80s self that someday some of your heroes will be aware of whatever the hell it is you do, and they'll acknowledge you. They'll be good to you. It's not a dream. But it's like a dream. Paul's right: it is so much fuckin' fun...!

MARY LOU LORD: Aim Low

Dana and I met singer Mary Lou Lord on two separate occasions, and Dana met her once or twice after that. The first time I heard Mary Lou's music was when Dana played "Lights Are Changing" on the very first This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, December 27th, 1998. (NOTE: for those confused by the math problem of a show that started in 1998 celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2022, be advised that the Dana & Carl show predates the launch of TIRnRR, commencing on January 15th, 1992 as We're Your Friends For Now. A more detailed history of our radio shell game can be found here.)

Mary Lou played a disastrous, audience-talking-through-the-razzafrazzin'-set club gig in Syracuse in...1999? Dana and I were there, and we commiserated with her for an hour or two after the show. And yeah, as I've said many times since then, she and I spent a lot of that time talking about our daughters. Didn't see that coming when I was a teenager dreaming about meeting pop stars.

THE POPTARTS: I Won't Let You Let Me Go

The first track played on the first TIRnRR was "I Won't Let You Let Me Go" by the Poptarts, an all-female local quintet from the same vibrant late '70s scene that gave us the Flashcubes. The group's lead singer Gael Sweeney and her husband David Soule (who had been in the Tearjerkers, whose lone single "Syracuse Summer" is The Greatest Record Ever Made) later sat in with us for an evening of TIRnRR, promoting a Lou Reed Night live show they were hosting at Happy Endings. Dana actually played at that show, too, as bassist for Lovelorn. I...did not play. I think I hummed along from my perch in the audience.

PACIFIC SOUL, LTD.: We Go High

Picking a song from the 30th anniversary playlist, the stories of "We Go High" by Pacific Soul, Ltd. and "Another Night" by the legendary Evie Sands intersect (for us, anyway) with "I Hate Rock 'n' Roll" by Cockeyed Ghost. Cockeyed Ghost's Adam Marsland and I were members of the same online power pop community in the '90s, sharing information and trading cassettes. Adam lived in Southern California, though he had roots in Central New York. Dana and I met him when the Keep Yourself Amused incarnation of Cockeyed Ghost came to Syracuse in the late '90s, and we met Adam again (with bassist Robert Ramos) when they did a 1999 Easter Sunday set at Borders on behalf of their then-recent album The Scapegoat Factory. Adam and Robert visited the radio show, and spent much of their TIRnRR time trading Star Trek and Davey And Goliath impressions, Adam as William Shatner saying Spock! and Robert replying Davey?  You had to be there.

(Robbie Rist was also a member of the above-mentioned online pop music community, which was where he and I first got in touch. Robbie played on The Scapegoat Factory, but we met him a few years later when he was touring with Kenny Howes.)

We saw Adam as a solo act a few times after that, and again when his brought his new combo Adam Marsland's Chaos Band to town for a show with Beauty Scene Outlaws at the Half Penny Pub. That night was the first time I ever heard Beauty Scene Outlaws' original song "Carl Cafarelli," but I never did figure out who or what that song was supposed to be about. Some DJ, I guess.

Adam's Chaos Band included Evie Sands, an accomplished singer and guitarist with a dizzyingly impressive resumé; the fact that she was a guest on Shindig! is good enough for me. Severo had played bass on the band's recordings, but Teresa Cowles was in charge of four-string duties that night at the Half Penny. Not realizing that Teresa had officially joined the Chaos Band, I made the false presumption that she was filling in for Severo just for the tour, and I asked her if she played in any bands back in L.A.

Well, can't blame her for taking offense there. "Yeah," she said, "that was me playing the Danelectro bass on stage just now, you stupid boy!" She, uh, didn't actually say "stupid boy," but it was implied and deserved. Oops? I stammered an apology, she realized the source of my error, and forgave me sufficiently to allow me to live. The next time I saw her, when the Chaos Band returned to the area for a show in Cortland, she greeted me with a hug. Forgiveness!

You've probably seen Teresa as Carol Kaye in the Brian Wilson biopic Love And Mercy. She's also a TIRnRR Fave Rave as the voice of "We Go High" by Pacific Soul, Ltd., which is the trio of her, Adam, and Norman Kelsey. The song offers words to live by: When they go low, we go high. It ain't easy, but we try.

RINGO STARR: It Don't Come Easy

We talked to a Beatle. On July 21st, 2003, Dana and I attended Ringo Starr's press conference in Rama, Ontario. With press credentials, I got to ask Ringo a question, and he answered me.

We talked to a Beatle. A Beatle talked back.

Best. Gig. Ever.

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

I'm sorry, but if you don't dig the Cowsills, I suspect there may be something fundamentally wrong with you. Seek medical attention. Now.

We began corresponding with Bob Cowsill a bit in the 2000s. I have no recollection of how our email paths crossed, but Bob admired the show and was appreciative of the airplay we'd given the Cowsills' utterly fantastic 1990s album Global. Bob granted us use of the Global track "She Said To Me" on our 2006 compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2.

Dana, my wife Brenda, and I got to see the Cowsills perform as part of the Happy Together Again oldies tour at a Syracuse date in the summer of 2019. They were just stellar--so good live!--and they did a meet-n-greet after the show. I introduced myself to Bob, and I will never forget the way his face lit up when he realized who we were. "Paul! Susan!," he said to his siblings. "These are the guys from that radio show I was telling you about! They play stuff you don't hear anywhere, and I mean anywhere!" 

I'm basically shy. I know I hide that very well, and the confidence I have in my writing and in my pop music taste helps me to manufacture enough bravado to fool folks into believing I'm more outgoing than I really am. I often fool myself into believing that. ACTING! Yet I'm still surprised when someone likes what we do. It's not false modesty--my bravado insists I don't have any modesty of any description--but my inner doubts sometimes compromise my ability to embrace the notion that people like us. I guess, even though my bravado does most of the talking, the work really does speak for itself.

Bob Cowsill's face. I swear, he was as happy to meet us as we were to meet him. I can't tell you how much that means, and how great that feels.

MR. ENCRYPTO: The Last Time [a cappella--expanded mix]

Magic. Oh, this track is just friggin' magic. We've corresponded with Bruce Gordon (aka Mr. Encrypto) for years, and met him on a few occasions when he's flown all the way from California to Syracuse to guest-host TIRnRR with his Let's Be The Beatles! concept. Let's Be The Beatles! insists that the Beatles had such pervasive impact that every single track they ever released prompted the sincere flattery of at least one attempt to mimic it--not as a cover version, but as a theoretical original built from Mersey moptopped DNA. It's a fascinating idea, and it makes for way fab radio.

And of course we're big fans of Mr. Encrypto's own music. We have ears and pulses. Our favorite among favorite Mr. Encrypto tracks is a vocals-only mix of his song "The Last Time," an a cappella masterpiece that is one of the defining tracks of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's long and storied history.

You wanna know who else likes this track? A listener and guitarist named Joel Tinnel. Joel heard "The Last Time" on TIRnRR, and was properly blown away. Joel played the track for his friend Steve Stoeckel, bassist for the Spongetones, and Joel told Steve, "We should form a band."

Across four states, Joel and Steve recruited Bruce, as well as drummer Stacy Carson, and an incredible group called Pop Co-Op was born, its spontaneous generation prompted by a little mutant radio show in Syracuse. 

We did that? Us? We are told that this is true. It's not a dream. It's the best gig ever. We're your friends for now. 30 years on, I'm thinking we may have expanded the definition of "for now." Thank you, friends.

See ya again this Sunday night? We'll be here. 

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

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

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 9/8/2020

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 # 1041.

T BONE BURNETT: Jellico Coal Man


I'm fascinated by the varying random ways in which we discover music. My discovery of this track was about as random as it gets. A co-worker was testing some wi-fi streaming audio thing that I don't actually understand, and without warning this majestic, hypnotic music enveloped my ears and inner monologue. There was only one rational response I could offer in reply to this sublime sound: What. Is. THIS...?!



"This" was "Jellico Coal Man" by T Bone Burnett. Based on a poem by Johnny Cash, Burnett composed the music and recorded the song for Forever Words, a 2018 compilation of various artists adding melody to Cash's words. "Jellico Coal Man" is simply wonderful, one of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's most-played tracks in 2019, and it's something I would likely have never even heard if not for serendipitous happenstance. Fascinating.

EARTH, WIND & FIRE: Shining Star


When I think of rock 'n' roll or pop music movies, I have something specific in mind. I'm not thinking of documentaries or concert films, and I'm not really thinking of biopics (though I wouldn't necessarily exclude them); I'm thinking of films with some kind of storyline, however slight or substantial, where the musical element is the main thing but not quite the only thing. The Girl Can't Help It. Jailhouse Rock. Expresso Bongo. A Hard Day's Night. Head. Rock 'n' Roll High School. That Thing You Do! Bloodstone in Train Ride To Hollywood, or (if it had been completed) The Sex Pistols in Who Killed Bambi? Some are better than others, and some are terrible, but when thinking of beat flicks, these pop into my head before any performance film would.

(I mean, except for The T.A.M.I. Show, which is the perfect rock 'n' roll movie. I am large. I contain multitudes.)

Lovely wife Brenda and I recently watched the 1975 film That's The Way Of The World, which featured Earth, Wind & Fire in a supporting role (playing a group called...The Group). Maurice White and other members of the group--sorry, The Group--are fine with the little bits of acting required of them, though obviously it's their music that's the real shining star here.

The film itself is a low-key melodrama about the record industry, starring Harvey Keitel as a hotshot producer navigating the demands of his label, a Mob boss, his belief in (and commitment to) The Group, a (seemingly) clean-cut family act foisted upon him by his boss, and both the personal and professional desires of that act's pretty lead singer, Velour Page (played by actress Cynthia Bostick, a former Miss Kentucky whom a quick Google search indicates is a currently a Trumper, which is disappointing but in perfect keeping with her character in That's The Way Of The World).



Writing in the book Hollywood Rock, Marshall Crenshaw gave That's The Way Of The World a full five-star ranking, which seems a couple of stars too high for me. It is very much a '70s film, in its ambiance and in its pacing, its attitude, its curious mix of idealism and cynicism. I liked it for what it was: a hokey but interesting time capsule with some great music. Plus Bert Parks and Murray the K. It's on Amazon Prime if you're keen on seeing it for yourself.

And in one scene, EWF's "Shining Star" plays on the radio. That's sufficient motivation to get the track back on the TIRnRR playlist (in an alternate mix from the group's--arghh, THE GROUP'S--boxed set, The Eternal Dance). Shining star for you to see what your life can truly be. 

FOOLS FACE: Always The Last To Know



Pop fans have stacks 'n' stacks of stories about favorite almosts and shoulda-beens, cherished acts that seemed to have everything--everything--one could look for in a rockin' pop success story, missing only, y'know, the success part. Springfield, Missouri's Fools Face were a prime example, a nonpareil group that wrote great songs, reportedly put on dynamic live shows, made some fantastic independent records in the '70s and '80s, and did not get noticed. I own the only copies I've ever seen of their second and third albums, 1981's Tell America and 1983's Public Places, and I've only ever seen one other copy of their debut LP, 1979's Here To Observe. Tell America is an all-time Top 20 record for me.

The group's eponymous 2002 reunion album lived up to their legacy, and that album's "Always The Last To Know" is as good as anything released by anyone that year. Few heard it. Fools Face was the group's only studio album to be released on CD; it's now nearly as tough to come by as their old LPs.

IAN HUNTER: Soul Of America



Ian Hunter's Shrunken Heads was one of my favorite albums of 2007, and possibly my favorite of Hunter's long and storied career. Yeah, even including the absolute classic stuff he did with Mott the Hoople. I had the good fortune to see Hunter play with Mick Ronson at a club show in 1989--hey, Thanksgiving night at The Lost Horizon!--and I continue to marvel at the length and breadth of his career. Ian Hunter is, of course, not in The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

"Soul Of America" from Shrunken Heads was requested this week by intrepid TIRnRR listener Dave Murray, as a long-distance dedication to Joe Biden. The soul of America. Vote blue.

THE LIKE: Release Me



I don't know anything at all about The Like, an all-female combo that was signed to Geffen Records earlier in this newfangled 21st century. I can only tell you that I heard the title tune from their 2010 album Release Me, and was immediately enthralled by its boppin' appropriation of '60s girl-group hooks within a vaguely alt-rock setting. Shoulda been a hit.

THE MONKEES: I'll Be Back Up On My Feet



This track from The Monkees' 1968 album The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees represents one of the first times I was aware that there could be different versions of the same song by the same group. I purchased the Bees LP at the flea market in the mid '70s, right around the same time I was re-connecting with the group's TV show via reruns on cable. Before long, I noticed that the version of "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet" on my album sounded very different from the version heard on TV. (I mean, aside from the fact that my Bees album skipped on that track, changing the line I won't disappear to I won't deeeear. Well. As long as you promise you won't.) No backing brass, different overall feel. I began to wonder about such variations, and in college wished that the TV version could be released. I got it on a bootleg in the early '80s, and of course Rhino eventually gave it a legit issue as part of the label's ongoing crusade to just take my money.

Oddly enough, I now prefer the album version. See, it sounds fine without the skip, Deeeear.

POP CO-OP: Persistence Of Memory



Oh, what a beautiful song. It sounds so frail and delicate, yet possessed of its own stubborn resilience, its steadfast remembrance of what was, the prevailing persistence of memory. From Pop Co-Op's most recent effort Factory Settings, Your Favorite Album Of 2020.

THE POPTARTS: I Won't Let You Let Me Go

The Poptarts were a terrific all-female quintet in the late '70s, playing in the same effervescent Syracuse scene as The Flashcubes, The Ohms, and The Tearjerkers. The '60s-influenced look and sound of The Poptarts presaged the successful formula of The Go-Go's in the '80s, but The Poptarts weren't able to break through, and disbanded without ever releasing any records. Their handful of demos, rehearsal tapes, and studio recordings have never seen official release.

"I Won't Let You Let Me Go" was the first song ever played on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, kicking off TIRnRR # 1 on December 27th, 1998. We've played it again many times since then, and we usually favor the more energetic demo version. This week, we opted to play the studio version, produced by Bill Murphy. The members of The Poptarts hated the results of their studio sessions, with guitarist Cathy VanPatten once telling me that the producer "cut off our balls...and we didn't even have any!" 

But, just as The Poptarts anticipated The Go-Go's, their reaction to a producer's slightly slicker realization of their sound was later duplicated by the feelings of The Go-Go's when they first heard what producer Richard Gottehrer had done to their punk-bred approach. It must have been jarring. Nonetheless, Gotterher's gloss helped make The Go-Go's household names. I adore those records, and I wish The Poptarts had been able to achieve similar success.

Decades ago, in an overview of The Poptarts' recordings, I referred to Bill Murphy's work with the group as "woefully overproduced." While I still prefer the earlier demo versions, I've come to appreciate Murphy's valiant attempt to accentuate the first syllable in Poptarts. It's good stuff. I wish more people had a chance to hear it.

ROSETTA STONE: Drive On



I was and remain an unapologetic fan of The Bay City Rollers. The late Ian Mitchell was only in the Rollers for a very brief time in the '70s, so we wanted to pay tribute to him with a spin of something by his post-Rollers group Rosetta Stone. Rest in peace, Ian.

ANDY WILLIAMS: A Fool Never Learns



This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is also large enough to contain multitudes. This isn't the first time we've played this great Andy Williams track, nor is it the only Andy Williams track ever played on the show; I played "Moon River" on an all-vinyl edition of TIRnRR in 2017, sandwiched in between X and James Brown. Multitudes, I tell ya! "A Fool Never Learns" was written by former Buddy Holly collaborator Sonny Curtis, whose popcrafting resumé also includes "I Fought The Law" and the familiar Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song "Love Is All Around." The 1963 Andy Williams 45 of "A Fool Never Learns"/"Charade" was in the family record collection when I was a kid, and I've loved it since then. I have learned that there is nothing foolish about that.

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

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

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
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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).