10 SONGS: 9/22/2023

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 # 1199. This show is available as a podcast.

CARLA OLSON [FEATURING ERIC JOHNSON]: Face To Face

I don't know what benevolent sequence of events brought a new track by Carla Olson into our eager possession--a submission with the implicit instruction PLAY THIS ON YOUR RADIO SHOW!--but I'm grateful. Carla's seen some TIRnRR airplay over the years, primarily with her old group the Textones (who did the original version of "Vacation," later revamped and remodeled by the Go-Go's), but also solo, and with the legendary Gene Clark of the Byrds.

We're stoked and then some to be able to open this week's radio extravaganza with new music from Carla Olson. "Face To Face" is the advance single from her forthcoming album Have Harmony, Will Travel 3, and it finds our Carla playing with Eric Johnson in service of a pop twang and a country-fried jangle, all made pretty as can be. Music worth facing.

BONEY M: Gotta Go Home

My first awareness of the German disco-soul group Boney M was in print only; I don't recall hearing their only U.S. hit (a cover of the Melodians' reggae classic "Rivers Of Babylon") in 1978, but I did see them mentioned in the music press here and there. The mentions weren't necessarily positive; I think a review in The Syracuse New Times awarded their album Night Flight To Venus a mere one star. The Rezillos also received the same single-sun rating in those same local tabloid pages; I loved The Syracuse New Times (and much, much later did some SNT freelancing myself), but I say both Night Flight To Venus and Can't Stand The Rezillos deserved a few more stars than what SNT said.

No idea when I finally did hear Boney M's music. In the '80s? Probably not. More likely it was in the '90s or even in the Naughty Aughties, but I was instantly taken with their Eurodisco cover of U.K. psychedelic pop group the Smoke's '60s nugget "My Friend Jack." In an unfinished chapter I considered for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), I wrote of Boney M and "Painter Man:"

"My relationship with disco is complicated. I hated it during its heyday, but began to re-think my position as it became clear that some (not all) of the Disco Sucks movement was built upon a foundation of tacit racism and homophobia. I further realized that a lot of the disco LP-burnin' Fascists hated my preferred punk and power pop almost as much as they hated dat ole debbil disco, so...enemy of my enemy is my friend.

"But never mind the shifting parameters of my complicated relationship with disco. Eurodisco group Boney M was a breed apart anyway, willfully weird but extremely pop."

I have a single-disc Boney M best-of CD that satisfies my occasional Boney M jones. It's provided us with previous TIRnRR spins of "My Friend Jack," "Rivers Of Babylon," and Boney M's cover of the Creation's "Painter Man." That's...man, that's some eclectic fodder for Eurodisco. One friggin' star? I protest. Now, we add "Gotta Go Home" to the TIRnRR archives.

THE FLASHCUBES: Nothing To Do

Given my repeated and well-hammered insistence that my all-time rockin' pop Trinity is the Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes, it's well and proper that TIRnRR continues to pummel the ol' console on behalf of the Flashcubes' irresistible new all-covers album Pop Masters. We have three hours to kill each week. May as well murder that time with something good.

Each of the twelve superswell tracks on Pop Masters has scored at least one TIRnRR spin, and most have racked up multiple spins. There ain't an amateur track among this stack of Masters. Let 'em play. Let 'em ALL play!

Lately, I've been particularly obsessed with the album's current single, a cover of the Motors' "Forget About You," and we've been programming that track with carpet-bombing efficiency. Still, it seemed like we were overdue to return to one of the other fine Pop Masters tracks, maybe give "Forget About You" a well-deserved week off.

We turned to "Nothing To Do," the Flashcubes' version of a li'l ditty originally done by Sparks. I confess I wasn't all that familiar with the Sparks record--I like Sparks a lot, but Dana's generally the one more apt to squeeze Sparks into our playlist--but when I found out last year that the 'Cubes were going to cover "Nothing To Do," I made a point of including Sparks' original in our 6/13/2022 playlist.  The Cubic interpretation of "Nothing To Do" made its TIRnRR debut in April of this year. Both versions are very nice indeed.

And this week, the Flashcubes' rendition of a Sparks song had something to do: It proved we can play Pop Masters material other than just "Forget About You."

THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You

And then, of course, I turned right around and opened the very next set with another spin of "Forget About You" anyway. We play the hits, my friends. We play the hits.

SPARKS: The Decline And Fall Of Me

And Dana followed the Flashcubes with SPARKS! I love this show!

R. DEAN TAYLOR: Indiana Wants Me

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE CHARADES: Who Wanna Dance Now

THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance

Asked and answered! Sort of. I don't know much about the Charades, except that they were a dynamic, mostly female combo, that they were apparently from Madrid, and that their 2006 album When Shining Blue is an explosion of catchy, high-octane pop music. Shining blue? The Charades shine red hot if ya ask me. I was beyond delighted when Dana programmed my Fave Rave Charades cut "Who Wanna Dance Now," and I felt compelled to follow with the Ramones. Higher calling. EVERYbody dance!

MICKY DOLENZ: Shiny Happy People

I'm a proud first-generation fan of the Monkees, and I think Micky Dolenz is one of the most underrated lead singers of the rock 'n' roll era. The outta-nowhere recent notion of Dolenz doing an EP of R.E.M. covers went from presumed hoax to verified news to the public airing (and a video!) of one of its tracks in record time. What, a week and a half? Two weeks tops? My first reaction to the early Is-this-true? reports was to ask if Christian Nesmith was involved in recording the tracks. Christian IS involved? Hey hey, I'M A BELIEVER! Sign me up as one of those shiny happy people.

Christian Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Circe Link

It's funny: In the early 1990s, I was corresponding with a number of Monkees fans on Prodigy, including a woman named Jennifer. Jennifer was in college at the time, making her one of the younger Monkees fans. She also liked R.E.M., and she mentioned that she thought the Monkees and R.E.M. shared some similarities in their sound.

I agreed. I could have imagined the Monkees covering, say, "Driver 8," or R.E.M. doing "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." Hell, the Monkees' vintage live version of the latter (heard on the Live 1967 album) sounded a lot like R.E.M. to me. We CAN get there from here!

Bopper meets Believer, 1987

I'm still in occasional contact with Jennifer on Facebook. When she heard about the upcoming release of Dolenz Sings R.E.M., she posted two immediate thoughts:

"1. This is everything I love all in one bowl, like a delicious hot fudge brownie sundae with whipped cream and a cherry.

"2. I am nearly certain that I called this, like, thirty years ago."

You sure did, Jennifer! And this first teaser track from Dolenz Sings R.E.M. is just sublime; I can't wait to hear the other three tracks.

THE STALLIONS: Why

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio debuted on the last Sunday of 1998, so '99 was really our first full year on the air. In 1999, Dana started playing a track or two from a Junk Records compilation CD called Goin' After Pussy--Teasers & Tidbits. Why a compilation CD was hunting kitty-cats, I have no idea. From that album, Boris the Sprinkler's "Kill The Ramones" got some airplay on TIRnRR. From that same album, the Stallions' cover of the obscure '60s garage punk nugget "Why" (originally recorded by the Dirty Wurds) also scored a few spins on TIRnRR.

It scored a lot of spins on TIRnRR.

The Stallions' "Why" was our # 1 most-played track in 1999. It was also our # 1 most-played track in 2000, and although it never again reached the tippy-top of any more of our year-end countdowns, it remained our all-time most-played track for a very long time thereafter. Big Star's "September Gurls" took away that most-played title a few years back, but "Why" by the Stallions will alway loom large in whatever it is that passes for our legend.

This coming Sunday, September 24th, brings us to the unlikely milestone of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1200. After the tag at the end of this week's TIRnRR # 1199, it seemed appropriate to whoop it up on behalf of our imminent celebration of 1200 SHOWS!!! with a teasin' tidbit of the song that was absolutely synonymous with this little mutant radio show during our early years.

And it has to open This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1200. Best be back here on Sunday night, hear? WHY, baby? 'Cuz we like you. 

And you have our dirty wurd: no felines will be harmed. Go after something else, you ruffians.

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, archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: GUILT-FREE PLEASURES (A Defense Against The Dark Arts)! R. Dean Taylor, "Indiana Wants Me"

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is another exciting episode of Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts), pleading its case on behalf of "Indiana Wants Me" by R. Dean Taylor.

This was written as a Guilt-Free Pleasures piece, but it could have just as easily been a Greatest Record Ever Made! chapter. As always, an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. And, if my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) ever manages to will itself into existence, I would almost certainly convert this R. Dean Taylor bit for use in a very hypothetical GREM! Volume 2.

It wouldn't be the first Guilt-Free Pleasure to go through that metamorphosis. The blueprint for the actual (if still hypothetical) GREM! Volume 1 includes a piece based in part upon my Guilt-Free Pleasures study of Milli Vanilli (providing context for an entirely different act). A Guilt-Free Pleasures celebration of "Freedom" by Wham! formed the basis for a chapter originally intended for GREM! Volume 1, and subsequently shifted to Volume 2 in an effort to streamline the book into a more manageable size. It's possible, though unlikely, that I could convert a Guilt-Free Pleasures piece about the Monkees' "I Never Thought It Peculiar" to a GREM!, but a G-FP rant called "This Is Radio KISS" wouldn't lend itself to such repurposing. And anyway, the subject of KISS is already explored (and celebrated!) in its own GREM! chapter about "Shout It Out Loud."

Because so much of what I write focuses on songs, the artists who record them, and the stories associated with them, there are many posts from my many different recurring blog features that could be used as a GREM! chapter. Or vice versa. A GREM! Volume 1 chapter about the Partridge Family's "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" could have been a Guilt-Free Pleasure, but it's actually based on something from my weekly 10 Songs column. 10 Songs has been a fertile breeding ground for GREM! ideas. 

Another source to feed the GREM! ranks is my B-side appreciation series The Other Side Of The Hit, which gave the proposed book the template for its Yoko Ono chapter, as well as another Monkees piece that was just recently excised in the streamlining process. (Don't worry; the Monkees will get their due in The Greatest Record Ever Made! [Volume 1].) Some Other Side Of The Hit bits about the Ramones, the Go-Go's, and the Barbarians could likewise have been GREM! chapters. It's ALL pop music.

(And, although I still can't tell you much about my forthcoming first book, to be published in the Spring of 2023, I can say that it includes a single, stand-alone Greatest Record Ever Made! chapter near the end of the book. The first GREM! book appearance! Here's hoping it leads to more.)

As we await the elusive idea of more, we pause to marvel at the pulp noir story I hear in a pop song from 1970. R. Dean Taylor's "Indiana Wants Me" is the subject of the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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.

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 

GUILT-FREE PLEASURES (A Defense Against The Dark Arts): R. Dean Taylor, "Indiana Wants Me"

There is really no such thing as a guilty pleasure in pop music. Unless you happen to love neo-Nazi ditties or glorifications of hatred or violence, I'd say it's okay for you to dig whatever you wanna dig. Yes, even the hits of The Eagles. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE POP SONGS! Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts) celebrates pop songs. The guilty need not apply.

R. DEAN TAYLOR: Indiana Wants Me

Written by R. Dean Taylor

Produced by R. Dean Taylor

Single, Rare Earth, 1970

He fought the law, and the law won.

R. Dean Taylor's "Indiana Wants Me" was all over AM Top 40 in 1970, the very year I began listening to radio with more deliberate intent and focus. Is it a guilty pleasure? SPOILER ALERT: no, don't be silly. It's a terrific single, I love it, and I still attempt to sing along with it each time I hear it play.

But let's talk about its story.

"Indiana Wants Me" tells the sad tale of a guy on the run from the police. This fugitive is a murderer; he confesses his guilt in the song's first line, If a man ever needed dyin', he did. We learn immediately that the murder victim had said something inappropriate about the murderer's wife, thus prompting his violent demise and the murderer's status as a wanted man fleeing justice. The murderer has no remorse whatsoever for his crime; his only regret is the pain he's caused his beloved wife, his only real wish that he could see her, their home, and their little baby. One last time. The law catches up with him, he refuses to surrender, and his story ends in a hail of gunfire. 

Pulp as pop. But I think there's even more pulp beneath this story's surface.

For reference, let's give our three principal characters names, just so I can stop calling them "the murderer," "the victim," and "the murderer's wife." I thought of calling them Archie, Reggie, and Veronica, but--let's face it--the Riverdale TV series has done enough damage to those names. I almost went with Pancho, Lefty, and Emmylou, but that woulda been unfair to Emmylou (and besides, Pancho needs your prayers, it's true, but save a few for Lefty, too). So we're gonna go with Manny, Moe, and Jaqueline. Manny is our killer on the run, Moe is his late victim, and Jacqueline is Manny's soon-to-be-widowed wife.

What in the world could Moe have said about Jacqueline that so enraged Manny? No one had the right to say what he said about you. I guess it's possible that Manny's skin was so thin that an offhand comment about our Jacqueline's looks or demeanor ignited homicidal fury. If so, well, it's amazing Manny lived as long as he did before running afoul of the whole Thou shalt not kill thing. Instead, I keep coming back to one line of thought:

What if?

What if Moe said he loved Jacqueline? And what if Moe swore that Jacqueline loved him? Furthermore, what if Moe claimed that he and Jacqueline had consummated their love. Y'know...physically. Bouncy-bouncy.

If a man ever needed dying, he did. How dare Moe tell such an awful lie?

With that, we understand what sparked Manny's sudden rage. We don't excuse it--Manny is very much guilty of murder--but at least we can comprehend what happened. But I say that ain't all.

Because Moe wasn't lying.

Moe and Jacqueline were together. Whether a single night's shaking of the sheets or a long-term affair (or more), Moe and Jacqueline did it, marital vows be damned. 

And I'll add one more little detail: the little baby that Manny wishes he could see, just once more? The baby ain't his. Moe is the father. 

Regardless of R. Dean Taylor's actual real-world intent in crafting the lyrics, I'm convinced that "Indiana Wants Me" is about a guy whose wife cheated on him, and the hijinks that ensued thereafter. Whether Manny is in willful denial of the affair or knows (but won't admit) what really happened, the sins of the flesh led to the mortal sin of murder. And it's so cold and lonely here without you. All that's left is the loss.

And the guilt.

VERDICT: Well, the song's characters are guilty as sin. But the song itself? Innocent, not guilty.

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.

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