VIRTUAL TICKET STUB GALLERY: Seeing the band in its original lineup (or in partial groupings thereof), Part 2

Here's Part 2 of a Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery tour of bands I've seen in their original lineup (or in partial groupings thereof). Part 1 listed bands I saw with their founding configurations intact. Now, let's look at groups who were one player shy of their charter membership when I saw 'em perform:

BLOTTO [5/6]

My first Blotto show occurred during a visit to Albany in the spring of 1981. The occasion was a lost extended weekend with some friends, the venue was J. B. Scott's, and the band consisted of Bowtie Blotto, Broadway Blotto, Cheese Blotto, Chevrolet Blotto, Lee Harvey Blotto, and Sergeant Blotto, Chevrolet having recently replaced Blanche Blotto. No offense to Mr. Chevrolet, but Blanche looks kinda cute in the photos I've seen (like the one directly above), so I kinda regret missing out on seeing her. Chevy hit the road [HAR!] after that, and Blotto was a quintet from then on. I only saw them a few more times in the '80s, but I remained a fan. In 2006, I saw Blotto one more time on April 1st--no foolin', really!--with the Flashcubes at Turning Stone Casino. And they did indeed play something good.

COCKEYED GHOST [2/3]

This one may be a ritual splitting of hair's separation from landing in the complete original lineup category. In the '90s, I'd been corresponding with Cockeyed Ghost frontman Adam Marsland for a while, and a tour brought the group to Planet 505 in Syracuse. 1997, I think. The touring group was the same lineup--guitarist Marsland, bassist Rob Cassell, and drummer James Hazley--that had recorded most of their 1996 debut album Keep Yourself Amused. But Hazley had been a later addition to the group, and hadn't played on their first single, "About Jill"/"Disappear," which featured Paul "Wally" Presson keeping time on the A-side, and Kurt Medlin poundin' on them Pagan skins on the flip. Splitting hairs, but technically I saw 2/3 of OG Cockeyed Ghost.

The gig itself was fascinating and invigorating. Editors at The Syracuse New Times allowed me to write an article hyping the show, and I was able to get the Flashcubes' Gary Frenay and Arty Lenin added to the bill as opening act. A splendid time was strongly implied for all.

The evening provided a quirky note of interest when I met another attendee, a woman from Cockeyed Ghost's L.A.-area stomping grounds. I don't remember her name, but she said she was married to one of the members of SoCal stalwarts the Jigsaw Seen. She was in Syracuse for a funeral, and was surprised to read my New Times rah-rah about Cockeyed Ghost's Planet 505 show. That seemed exactly the sort of event one could use to lift one's spirits, should one's spirits be in need of lifting.

At 505, someone introduced us. We'd never met before and didn't know each other at all. The weird thing was when she realized she and I had in fact spoken on the phone the past Christmas. I had been at home moping my way through the holiday season, recovering from chicken pox (not a great thing for someone my age), when David Bash happened to call me from his home in California. Why? I have absolutely no recollection. But his call cheered me up a bit. He was having a party, and he passed the phone to one of his guests and bid her to share some good vibes.

And yeah, that guest at Casa Bash happened to be the same Jigsaw Seen-adjacent pop fan who turned up that night at Planet 505. You saw that comin', I'm sure. Weird the way these things unfold. 

But it's how we keep ourselves amused.

THE KINKS [3/4]

The first two (out of three) times I saw the Kinks, they still had three-fourths of their classic well-respected men in place, with guitarists Ray Davies and Dave Davies and drummer Mick Avory, missing only bassist Peter Quaife, who left in the band in the late '60s. Avory also left by the time of my third and final Kinks show in '89.

My third Kinks concert was weird, taking place in a college gymnasium that (on a separate visit) smothered the sound of the Ramones. A mid-'80s arena show was my second live Kinks experience.

But my first Kinks show? I was in paradise.

LET'S ACTIVE [2/3]

I saw a bunch of shows when I lived in Buffalo, late 1982 to early '87. I think I only saw a small number of shows at Buffalo's punk club The Continental; my Continental gigs included Johnny Thunders (YEAH!!!, and making up for a missed opportunity to see Thunders with the Heartbreakers in Rochester a few years earlier), the Waitresses (perhaps with the original lineup, definitely including singer Patty Donahue), and the Bangles. Oh, and Intergalactic Burnt Toast. Obviously.

I also saw a two-thirds original edition of Let's Active at The Continental, with Mitch Easter and Faye Hunter, without Sara Romweber, who had already split from the band. Good show, of course, but my primary memory of the night is calling out a non sequitur request for "September Gurls" during Let's Active's set. Hunter seemed surprised and amused, and said, "Did someone just request Big Star?" It was not a common song to request at club gigs in the '80s.

They didn't actually play it, mind you. When a band responds to an unsolicited audience request, every word means no,

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS [4/5]

1989 at the great New York Stater Fair: Tom Petty hisself, with Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and Stan Lynch, plus Howie Epstein, who had replaced original bassist Ron Blair a few years back. Fantastic show, but its unique highlight was its encore, when Axl Rose strolled onstage to join in for renditions of "Free Fallin'" and Bashful Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." This was just shortly before the Guns N' Roses singer appeared with Petty on The MTV Video Music Awards that year--maybe just days before--and Axl's State Fair cameo was a complete surprise to the audience.

(We'll circle back to this show a few paragraphs south of here, when we discuss its opening act.)

THE RASCALS [3/4]

In either the very late '80s or the very early '90s, I saw the Rascals (formerly the Young Rascals) play at a bar in East Syracuse. Eddie Brigati opted not to participate in this reunion tour, but Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, and Dino Danelli did, and it was very, very cool. All four of the Rascals eventually made it back to Syracuse for a higher-profile gig at The Landmark Theatre many years later, but circumstances--I WAS OUT OF TOWN, DAMMIT TO HELL!--prevented me from attending.

THE REPLACEMENTS [3/4]

I was a latecomer to the Replacements; I don't recall even hearing them prior to MTV airing their video for "Bastards Of Young," but I must have heard them on WBNY-FM when I lived in Buffalo. In any case, my first of two Replacement shows was on the Don't Tell A Soul tour in 1989, by which time Bob Stinson was long gone. So: Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars, plus newer replacement Replacement Slim Dunlap at The Lost Horizon. The 'Mats later told Rolling Stone it was the single worst gig of the tour. I...suspect they may have been drinking that night. Shhhh. Don't tell a soul.

(My second and last Replacements show was when they opened for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the above-mentioned State Fair Grandstand date, also in '89. I liked 'em. Most of the Petty audience did not.)

THE ROLLING STONES [4/5]

You know who was missing: Brian Jones, who died in 1969, twenty years before the Steel Wheels tour brought the Stones back to Syracuse's Carrier Dome. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman, of course, with Ronnie Wood having replaced Mick Taylor, who replaced Mr. Jones.

I had made a lame attempt to get in to see the Stones at the Dome in the early '80s, hoping a scalper was desperate to unload his/her supply. You can't always get what you want. In '89 I tried the radical move of actually buying tickets. See? If you try sometimes, you get what you need.

This was, I think, my first ever time inside the Dome. Subsequently, some friends took my wife and me to a Syracuse University men's basketball game in the early '90s, but I didn't really become an Orange fan until much, much later. I saw a few games at the Dome after that, the most recent occurring in 2017. I saw the Stones there again in 1994, and Paul McCartney in 2017, probably mere weeks before my last in-person SU hoops game (so far). I do see the Dome (now JMG Wireless Dome) on TV a lot. Go, Orange!

The Steel Wheels tour came to Syracuse the same week I saw the Kinks in Oswego. Not a bad week, right?

This series concludes tomorrow, with three acts for whom I've seen all or most of the original lineup...but not at the same time.

Photo by Dana Bonn

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

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

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Works In Progress

 

Although I've long since completed (and submitted) a draft of my proposed book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), the subject itself remains open for me. I continue to work on more GREM! entries, for use here on the blog and for potential engagement in an even-more-theoretical The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 2). An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made as long as they take turns. Maybe I take the infinite part of the book's tagline too literally.

Nonetheless! Here's a look at bits of some of my many GREM! works in progress. 

THE PRETENDERS: Back On The Chain Gang

It was just like starting over.

The Pretenders emerged in England in 1978, led by Chrissie Hynde, an American playing guitar and singing lead. Hynde, guitarist James Honeywell-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers turned out to be great Pretenders, debuting on record with a 1979 single covering the Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing." More records followed: singles, two albums (1980's Pretenders and 1981's Pretenders II), with the 1981 EP Extended Play in between albums. 

And then half the band died. 

WAR: Low Rider

Has anyone ever used the word "imperious" to describe the rhythm of War's 1975 hit "Low Rider?" I'd presume it hasn't been done, and it may be a stretch to use it now. But GodDAYum, that regal riddum rules by divine and absolute right. Imperious War!

When discussing the records that make us wanna dance, prance, and make romance, we often talk about the beat. But more than the beat, "Low Rider" has a visceral, almost physical rhythm that dictates a mandatory moving of your body. Typical of me being me, I didn't come to appreciate that rhythm until way, way after the fact.

BONEY M: My Friend Jack

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 mixed-signal interactions with disco. Eurodisco group Boney M was a breed apart anyway, willfully weird but extremely pop.

PEGGY LEE: Fever

There is cool, and then there is cool. Cool-as-a-fever cool. No other approximation of cool has ever been anywhere near the sizzling cool of Peggy Lee's 1958 absolute annexation of Little Willie John's R & B (and crossover pop) hit "Fever." 

THE MAYTALS: Pressure Drop

Listening to Johnny Nash didn't prepare me for this.

I first saw Toots and the Maytals name-checked in some magazine (either Rolling Stone or Playboy, possibly both) in the late '70s, though I wasn't conscious of the music until many years thereafter. I recall that Linda Ronstadt was among those praising the essential nature of Maytals LPs Funky Kingston and Reggae Got Soul, and if I couldn't quite fit reggae into my new wave rock 'n' roll world view at the time (the Clash notwithstanding), I did get there eventually. 

THE POLICE: Roxanne

When I worked at a record store in the '80s, one of my co-workers was horrified when I mentioned that I didn't really care about the music of the Police. "Horrified" may not be much of an exaggeration; he gasped, put his hands to the sides of his face in a manner that would have made Macaulay Culkin proud, and backed away from me slowly. I think I saw him mouth the world Unclean! 

I had liked the band initially, around the time of their first two albums in the late '70s, but found myself losing interest in them as they became (to my taste) increasingly...mainstream? I guess. I wasn't trying to be hipper than the crowd, honest; it was just that I preferred their earlier records. I appreciate some of their bigger hits a bit more now than I did then, though I'm pretty sure I'll always detest that damned stalker song, "Every Breath You Take."

And "Roxanne?" My God, "Roxanne" was far and away the best thing on AM Top 40 in 1979. Nothing else even came close to it. 

ABBA: Dancing Queen

There is a false conviction among some rock 'n' roll fans that ABBA's music is inherently schlocky. This conviction is a big ol' pile of piggy poop.

AM radio surrendered to ABBA's "Waterloo" in 1973. I may have struggled with some indecision over whether or not I liked the song at the time, and I can't explain why. It was a pop song. I like pop songs. And I sorta liked ABBA. Ultimately, I decided that I liked "Waterloo," too. 

"SOS" was my favorite among ABBA's initial run of hits, though the only ABBA singles I bought were "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Take A Chance On Me." I also loved "Dancing Queen." I had no use for "Fernando." I was indifferent to "Mamma Mia" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do." Reading in Bomp! magazine's 1978 power pop issue about "So Long," a purportedly great ABBA power pop song I'd not yet heard, was reason enough for me to buy my friend Jay's copy of ABBA's Greatest Hits. I was perfectly okay with ABBA's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Hell, a lot of ABBA's hits are closer to original-formula '50s/early '60s rockin' pop than anything that a band like, say, Genesis ever did.

"Dancing Queen" is ABBA's signature tune. It's often lumped in with disco, but its gloss is more girl-group than Studio 54. It shimmers in its own deliciously pure pop way, not beholden to trends, timeless yet still so '70s it could have been sporting a WIN button.

THE AVENGERS: We Are The One

The Clash sang that anger could be power. Even before that line appeared in The Clash's London Calling album track "Clampdown" in 1979, a San Francisco group called the Avengers was on stage at Winterland, opening for the Sex Pistols in that group's final appearance meltdown, and embodying the concept of cathartic fury. Anger. Power. Rock 'n' roll.

BLONDIE: (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear

A love letter from Lois Lane, sung by Marilyn Monroe, backed by the Dave Clark Five.

Blondie's lead singer Debbie Harry was sexy without any appearance of trying to be sexy. She didn't even seem to be conscious of her everyday allure, her natural beauty and glamour, her God-given possession of It. She just was. 

My first awareness of Blondie came via Phonograph Record Magazine in 1977. I've never forgotten writer Mark Shipper's description of the band's look as "like Marilyn Monroe backed by the Dave Clark Five," a blurb which (even more than Debbie Harry's attractive image) sold me on Blondie well before I ever heard a note of their music. When I got to college that fall, I immediately started carpet-bombing the school radio station with requests for all of the acts I'd read about in PRM, from Television to the Dictators, and certainly including constant (and urgent) petitions to hear Blondie's "X Offender." I loved the track on first spin, and I have never stopped loving it since. And they called it puppy love!

THE JAM: In The City

Punk could be pop. In America, the Ramones already knew that, even if the charts didn't reflect the verity of that aesthetic.

THE YOUNG RASCALS: Good Lovin'

Little Steven says garage rock is "white kids trying to play black rhythm and blues and failing--gloriously." Fair enough. So what do we call it when a white group tries to play soul music, and succeeds? We could call that the Young Rascals.

THE RECORDS: Starry Eyes

Dreams of fame and fortune are not held solely by the performers.

THE VOGUES: Five O'Clock World

It should only be a footnote in the story of "Five O'Clock World," but the result is so engaging, so perfect, that I can't help elevating it to a prime moment in the history of rockin' pop on TV. 

THE DICKIES: Banana Splits

TRA-LA-LAAAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAAAAA! TRA-LA-LAAAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAAAAAAAAA!

No. You get a hold of yourself. Don't be messin' with the manifest majesty of the Banana Splits.

And don't be messin' with the manifest DESTINY of The Greatest Record Ever Made!, whether it's Volume 1, Volume 2, or an undrafted free agent. The infinite does what the infinite does.

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

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

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 12/29/2022

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1161: OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, And Holding On. This show is available as a podcast.

THE BEACH BOYS: Our Prayer

When I was teenaged college student and early twenty-something college graduate in the late '70s and early '80s, I wasn't much of a Beach Boys fan. That opinion evolved, in large part due to the influence of Bill Yerger, owner of Main Street Records in my college town of Brockport, NY. "Carl," Bill said, "we're gonna make a Beach Boys fan out of you yet." It took a while, and it didn't really click until a few years later, but I don't know how or when it would have happened without the positive influence of Bill and his wife Carol Yerger. I was so lucky to know them.

I was seventeen when I went off to college at Brockport in August of '77. Endless Summer was the sum total of my Beach Boys music library, and all I was ever likely to need (missing only "Good Vibrations" from what I would have thought a complete collection of essential Beach Boys tracks). I did add Pet Sounds to the ol' CC archives before the end of my freshman year, purchased from Bill when he was managing The Record Grove, a year before he opened his own store.

I remained in Brockport for a couple of years after graduating in 1980. That's when the Yergers began to work on me. applying their own set of good vibrations. A pair of two-fer double-LP sets from Main Street's used bin brought Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, and 20/20 into my collection. That was the first time I heard "Our Prayer."

It would be inaccurate to say my introduction to "Our Prayer" was some immediate revelation; as noted, it wasn't until years later that I realized my folly in delaying my full-on embrace of Hawthorne's Finest. When we settled on the theme for this week's special show, I knew we had to call it OUR PRAYER, and that we needed to open the show with the Beach Boys. 

Our prayer is for love, for hope, and for the ability to hold on. Our prayer is for friends, and our prayer is for music. Sometimes, our prayer is answered. Thank you, Bill and Carol. 

THE RASCALS: People Got To Be Free

I had the good fortune to see the Rascals at a club show sometime around the close of the '80s. It was 3/4 of the original Rascals line-up, with Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, and Dino Danelli present and accounted for, missing only Eddie Brigati. All four Rascals eventually played a show at Syracuse's Landmark Theater in this bright 'n' shiny new millennium, but another commitment prevented me from attending. I wished I coulda made it, but it wasn't in the cards.

Dino Danelli passed away two weeks ago. He was an extraordinarily talented drummer; even though the Rascals are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I'm not sure the group gets all the credit they deserve, and I don't think Danelli's name comes up often enough in discussions of the great rock 'n' roll drummers.

Some time back, I started writing a celebration of the Rascals' (or the Young Rascals') "Good Lovin'" for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I never completed the entry, and it's not part of the book's current plan, but its opening paragraph is worth noting here:

"Little Steven says garage rock is 'white kids trying to play black rhythm and blues and failing--gloriously.' Fair enough. So what do we call it when a white group tries to play soul music, and succeeds? We could call that the Young Rascals."

What a great, great group. Rest in peace, Dino.

ARETHA FRANKLIN: I Say A Little Prayer

If you're gonna bill a radio show as OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, And Holding On, you had best give Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin her due chance to testify. Doesn't even matter if her testimony in this case happens to secular; a prayer's a prayer, man.

MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

MARYKATE O'NEIL: I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around

In this sublime gem that opens Marykate O'Neil's 2006 album 1-800-Bankruptcy, O'Neil and co-writer Jill Sobule declare readiness for luck to finally turn around. At some point in our lives, we all relate to that wish. Here's a bit of what I wrote about the song for The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1);

"...I'm ready for my luck to turn around.

"I used to say that I was made out of hope. Maybe I still am. Marykate O'Neil's wonderful track was one of my most beloved security blankets in 2020, first as I attempted to calibrate my own frustrations and expectations, and then more gravely as the year became...that year. I don't think O'Neil designed the song to be a comfort for anyone. That's just how it turned out. Ultimately, even the artist's own goals fall away as the audience adopts the work as its own. 

"I'm ready for my luck to turn around. As this world continues to give us more and more reason to question what we think we know, to lose faith in what we believe to be unshakeable truth, it's a sentiment worth adopting as both shield and sword. Stand by me. 

"If you're ready."

GREAT BUILDINGS: Hold On To Something

Recommended if you like [your Fave Rave here].

RIYLs can help us find new favorites. But they can also create a false and unfair expectation. In 1981, I read somewhere (possibly in CREEM, maybe in Trouser Press) that Great Buildings were like a male counterpart to the Go-Go's. I believe it was meant as a compliment, and since Beauty And The Beat was my top album that year, the comparison provided sufficient push for me to purchase Great Buildings' Apart From The Crowd LP before I had ever heard a note of the group's music.

And I was disappointed. It didn't sound anything at all like the Go-Go's. I filed it away.

I came back to it, though. Freed of the misconception that it would sound like boys singin' original tunes that channeled "We Got The Beat," I grew to appreciate the LP on its own sterling merit. Opening track "Hold On To Something" freaking knocked me out, once I gave it its proper opportunity. 

Great Buildings' Danny Wilde and Ian Ainsworth had been in the Quick, whose quirky 1976 cover of the Beatles' "It Won't Be Long" got some airplay on Utica's WOUR-FM when I was in high school. After Great Buildings closed up shop, Wilde went solo, and eventually reconnected with Great Buildings guitarist Phil Solem to form the Rembrandts. The Rembrandts scored a Top 20 hit with "Just The Way It Is, Baby," and achieved pop culture immortality with "I'll Be There For You," the theme from Friends. Maybe you're sick of that song--dig what you dig--but it was the number one song on the radio the week my daughter was born, and I will always, always cherish that memory.

Comparing Great Buildings to the Go-Go's was a fake-out, and the disparity between what was teased and what was delivered turned me off. Initially. But without that PSYCH! moment, would I have even gotten around to hearing Great Buildings at the time? No harm, no foul. The apparent dead end of that RIYL still led me to "Hold On To Something," a magnificent track that has now been in my all-time Hot 200 for four decades. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Baby, baby, baby, hold on.

POPDUDES: Share The Land

Going into the planning session for this week's show, our list of potential tracks included three songs associated with the Guess Who: the group's own fabulous rendition of "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature," the Halfcubes' ace (but currently unreleased) cover of "Hand Me Down World," and this capable take on "Share The Land," courtesy of Popdudes. The Popdudes track made it into the show, and it comes to us from the terrific various-artists set We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970. We All Shine On scored some significantTIRnRR airplay this year--we'll hear one of its other tracks in our countdown show this Sunday--and "Share The Land" is certainly among the album's many highlights.

THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance

A new year looms. I'm going to be mentioning the Ramones a lot in 2023. Wanna dance? I sure hope so.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes

Love's a fool's dance

I ain't got much sense but I still got my feet

The original plan was to close the main portion of OUR PRAYER with the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," setting up Eytan Mirsky's incredible "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" as our post-signoff bonus track. We wound up running way, way over time, so we hadda remodel the plan a bit. Some songs came out, some songs came in, and a few tracks were moved around. All in the service of building a better playlist.

Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" was going to occupy this week's Greatest Record Ever Made! spot (because it is, after all, The Greatest Record Ever Made!). Figuring the paradox of fragile durability expressed in "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" provided an appropriate note to conclude our theme, we moved Melanie into the GREM! slot and switched Bruce into the finale. Bruce, in turn, set up Eytan for the encore.

(And yeah, Eytan Mirsky's "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" is also The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number, my friends, as long as they take turns.)

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

That's our prayer. Every year. Every day. This year? Why the hell not?

Like Eytan Mirsky, Spider-Man is also from Forest Hills

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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.