10 SONGS: 12/20/2025

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 # 1315

SAM AND DAVE: Soul Man

The passing of Stax Records legend Steve Cropper compelled us to attempt a modest tribute to Cropper's legacy, and the show itself opened with Cropper's immortal guitar work on Sam and Dave's classic "Soul Man." Play it, Steve.

From the "Soul Man" chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"It ain't braggin' if you can do it.

"Like many others among my generation of pop fans, my introduction to the music of Sam and Dave was ass-backwards. I have no recollection whatsoever of Sam and Dave's music from when I was a kid in the '60s, nor did I develop any awareness of them as an oldies-obsessed adolescent and teen in the '70s. I'm embarrassed to admit that I first heard the song 'Soul Man' via Saturday Night Live, when John Belushi and Dan Akroyd performed it on the show in their incarnation as Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers.

"I didn't care much about the Blues Brothers on SNL, but the Blues Brothers' subsequent recorded version sizzled, thanks largely to the irresistible guitar work of Stax Records legend Steve Cropper. Cropper and bassist Duck Dunn had also played on the original Sam and Dave recording of 'Soul Man,' and Jake and Elwood's faux soul revival eventually led me to the real deal. Gotta give Belushi and Akroyd some respect for knowing who to hang with. But once I did hear Sam and Dave's 'Soul Man' and 'Hold On, I'm Coming,' I would have neither time nor inclination to ever listen to the Blues Brothers again.

"The song itself is an extended boast. But it's a boast backed up by its collective prowess. Responding to Sam and Dave's command Play it, Steve!, Cropper's guitar work cuts and advances like an agile offensive line, its easygoing sway belying the force and efficiency of its piledriving advance. The Memphis Horns add bounce to spare. Resistance is futile...."

THE LITTLE GIRLS: How To Pick Up Girls

It has been a very, very long time since we've played anything by the Little Girls, a fab 1980s SoCal pop combo fronted by sisters Caron Maso and Michele Maso. Their track "Earthquake Song" scored at least one TIRnRR spin some time back in the way back; a recent message from Caron prompted me to snap up a digital copy of their Thank Heaven For Valley Pop compilation, with an eye and ear toward renewed Little Girls airplay. I was immediately struck by the snarky pop perfection of "How To Pick Up Girls," and PRESTO! The Little Girls have at long last returned to This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Betcha we'll be hearing 'em again as we pick up 2026. Thank heaven!

JIM BASNIGHT: Get It Out

This week's TIRnRR was our last regular show of 2025, as the rest of December is taken up by The 27th Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Christmas Show this coming Sunday and then the year-end Countdown show on December 28th. The Christmas show has already been recorded, and we submitted an advance copy of that playlist to our stats man Fritz Van Leaven. He, in turn, has provided us with the rankings of our 50 most-played tracks this year.

This week's show included 13 of the tracks that will be in our Top 50 Countdown. Jim Basnight's "Get It Out" happens to be one of 'em. I have seen the Countdown and it is good!

OTIS REDDING: (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay

Also in tribute to the song's producer and co-author Steve Cropper, and also from The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

 "Far from home, with nothing to do. Nothing worth doing, anyway.

"But who can say what might have been?

"Soul singer Otis Redding's only crossover pop hit was '(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay,' an incredible mix of pride and resignation, a swagger reduced to a shrug. It was a posthumous # 1, ascending the charts after Redding perished in a plane crash in 1967. 

"But there was more to the story. There was much, much more to that story.

"Redding was a huge, huge star on the R & B charts. Rock promoter Bill Graham referred to Redding as "the black Elvis," an electrifying showman with a nigh-unique potential to unite black and white audiences under one big soulful pop rock 'n' roll tent. He wasn't a crossover artist, not in the same sense as the Motown acts selling 45s by the truckload to young America. Redding was the single greatest voice of Stax/Volt Records, a Memphis label that was pure soul. Crossover? Let the white kids cross over to us, man. If anyone could achieve that specific level of destiny in the '60s, it was gonna be Otis Redding.

"Except that it wasn't...."

WILSON PICKETT: In The Midnight Hour

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

PERILOUS: Can't Stand The Holidaze

JAMIE HOOVER: Surfin' With Santa

THE KRAYOLAS: Maria Believes In Christmas Again

OTIS REDDING: Merry Christmas Baby

As each December comes rollin' around, we're reluctant to start programming much (if any) Christmas music, generally preferring to save the Yuletunes for the Christmas show itself. We did include "Carol Of The Guitars" by the Spongetones in the post-tag spot at the very end of last week's show. Otherwise? Deck your own halls if you wish. We weren't ready yet.

Knowing how difficult it is to squeeze all the seasonal sides we wanna play into the always-crowded playlist for the actual Christmas show, I wanted to mix some of our new 2025 holiday-centric acquisitions into this week's pre-Christmas show extravaganza. Our pals Perilous bring us the gift of cantankerousness with their new single "Can't Stand The Holidaze," Spongetones guitarist Jamie Hoover (working with TIRnRR stalwart Rich Rossi) bails entirely on the silly concept of winter wonderland with his new single "Surfin' With Santa," and the Krayolas fire up replenished faith in something brighter with "Maria Believes In Chjristmas Again." All great, all well worthy of airplay, and the Krayolas' track has the potential to be an evergreen on future This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Christmas shows. (We weren't able to find room this week for a track from Blaine Campbell and the California Sound's Holidays EP, but one will appear in the Christmas show.)

Dovetailing our Steve Cropper feature with our late-December concession that Christmas is indeed coming, we also played Otis Redding's version of "Merry Christmas Baby." The song was first recorded in 1947 by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers--someone send a thank-you eggnog to Wikipedia!--and my first recollection of the tune was when the 1987 various-artists Special Olympics benefit album A Very Special Christmas included a live rendition performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Boss provided me with a fine introduction to the song; it's also been recorded by Ike and Tina Turner, King Elvis I, Chuck Berry, the Monkees, and a sleigh-full of other artists.

Otis Redding's version is definitive.

BOOKER T AND THE MG'S: Jingle Bells

As we get ready for The 27th Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Christmas Show, our celebrative dash through the snow is once again accompanied by the guitar sound of Steve Cropper. Godspeed to the axe of Stax.  

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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. You can read about our history here.

10 SONGS: 1/24/2025

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 # 1269

BOB DYLAN: I Want You

I'm not a Bob Dylan fan to the extent that many of my peers are Bob Dylan fans. I respect him, and sometimes I even like him, but I don't listen to his work with any discernible frequency. My Dylan spin count would uptick slightly if we include his time as a Traveling Wilbury. Otherwise, it's a relative rarity for me to play a record by Bashful Bobby Dylan.

(That's my Marvel Comics name for the Bard of Hibbing, Minnesota: Bashful Bobby Dylan. Surely Stan Lee would approve.)

Don't let any of the above mislead you into thinking I don't appreciate Dylan's talent and (especially!) his impact. In my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), I devote a chapter to "Like A Rolling Stone," my favorite Dylan track:

"...Bob Dylan bulldozed the boundaries of what a pop song could be. He wasn't the first;
the folk tradition contains a rich history of social commentary, and Billie Holiday's 1939
rendition of the anti-lynching lament 'Strange Fruit' was as daring and incendiary as
any song ever released. But Dylan's ambitious lyrical rap and proto-punk arrogance
steamrolled the fences and rewrote the freakin' map. Like Chuck Berry and Elvis
Presley bringing R & B to white kids, Dylan brought a raised expectation of what pop
lyrics could or should be...

"...As a teenager in the '70s, I became a Dylan fan, though I claimed to be more

serious about it than I ever really was. I was supposed to like Dylan. The quest for

Dylanesque authenticity also led me to Arlo Guthrie, Woody Guthrie, and Phil Ochs,

though in each case I responded more viscerally to the innate pop appeal of specific

songs, all the while claiming I was connecting with the deep meaning of works of

substance. Or the deep substance of works of meaning. Or hoping to sleep with a folkie

chick.

"The onset of punk dealt a crippling blow to my interest in Dylan, and seeing a Dylan

concert in 1978 put that interest in its grave. I don't know what I was expecting, but I

didn't expect Bashful Bob to hit the stage wearing pants adorned with lightning bolts on

the legs. I resisted any urge to yell JUDAS! Coupled with Dylan's lackluster performance (exacerbated by my nosebleed seats), this wardrobe choice was off-putting. Yeah, even though it was less than two years after I saw KISS, the same year I saw the Ramones, the Runaways, the Kinks, the Flashcubes, and Elvis Costello and the Attractions. And Herman's Hermits. I wasn't opposed to a little pizazz, and I was eager for excitement. But it felt wrong--jarringly wrong--at a Bob Dylan show. Doesn't matter if that's unfair. How does it feel? It feels like I'd rather be at another Ramones show...."

With all that said, the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown prompted Dana to dip into the Zimmerman library on two consecutive weeks, and Dana's picks (Blonde On Blonde cuts "Most Likely You Go Your Way [And I'll Go Mine]" last week, "I Want You" this week) sounded absolutely aces on the playlist. I finally saw the film on Sunday, and it was fascinating, with flawless performances and a compelling narrative. I've been singing Dylan songs to myself ever since.

In the '70s, my sister Denise had a Dylan poster, and my brother Rob had some Dylan LPs (Greatest Hits, Self Portrait, possibly Blonde On Blonde) that I borrowed and played in my teen years. Dylan was on Top 40 AM radio with "Lay Lady Lay" and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." I didn't own any Dylan until I much later acquired a beat-up used copy of Greatest Hits. 

I still have that. Maybe it's due for another spin.

THE NON-PROPHETS: Alibi

The Non-Prophets' CBO (Chief Boppin' Officer) Allan Kaplon was thrilled to hear us describe "Alibi" as "their current hit single." We calls 'em as we sees 'em, my friend, and "Alibi" looks and sounds like a hit to us. It will return to TIRnRR on Sunday. That's what hit singles do.

JIM BASNIGHT: Gotta Get Straight

A new single from Jim Basnight? We play those! Always! We're fans. And like us, Jim is himself a fan of rockin ' pop music, his deep interest in all things a-thumpin' and a-janglin' informing his work as he creates more fine things that go a-thumpin' and a-janglin'. It's a process. Respect the process! Gotta get straight, man. And while we're at it, gotta get it on the radio again.

20/20: Remember The Lightning

20/20: Springtime Love Song

With the January 17th release of the fabulous new 20/20 album Back To California, it seemed a good time to program two-in-a-row from these Power Pop Hall Of Fame figures. 20/20 THEN....and 20/20 NOW!!! I...betcha we did the same thing when the album's first advance singles came out last year. 20/20 hindsight. But why re-invent the wheel? We have pop music to play!

"Yellow Pills" is considered 20/20's signature tune, but I like "Remember The Lightning" even more. Both songs inspired the titles of essential power pop publications, Jordan Oakes' well-remembered Yellow Pills (which has been preserved in book form, worth grabbing if you can track it down), and S. W. Lauden's current quarterly Remember The Lightning (and his Substack of the same name). Jordan may recall that I wasn't all that much of a fan of 20/20 initially, but lemme declare that I came around to the 20/20 vision years ago. Everybody's feeling groovy!

And I love the new album. "Springtime Love Song" is, I believe, the sixth different Back To California track to achieve TIRnRR airplay, with a seventh choice primed for a playlist berth this coming Sunday night. It may not be springtime yet, but love is in the air: 20/20 then, and 20/20 now. 

SORROWS: Out Of My Head

Speaking of long-established rockin' pop acts still serving up new releases: New York City's phenomenal pop combo Sorrows have an album called Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow due out in the near future, with advance single "Out Of My Head" released today. Today? Hooray! 

Both the single and album are new to us, but the material was recorded during Sorrows' 1981 hey-hey-HEYday, and unheard by the public until now. On the crunching and triumphant basis of "Out Of My Head," I'd say this stuff has been worth the 44-year wait. Repeat the mantra: Any record you ain't heard is a new record. I'm very much primed to lodge this new record into my head. We'll hear the single again on our next show.

(Word via the grapevine suggests that Sorrows will be recording at least one new track this year, a cover of a song originally recorded by the Flashcubes. If so, it provides a fitting symmetry for me: My introduction to the wonderful world of Sorrows came via my purchase of the "Jealousy"/"She's Got It" 45 by Sorrows precursors the Poppees, a single I bought from Sam Goody at Smithtown Mall a day or two after seeing a Flashcubes show on Bowery in 1979. The Flashcubes are in The Power Pop Hall Of Fame; one hopes that someday Sorrows will be in as well.)

THE DENTISTS: You Make Me Say It Somehow

Here again: Any record you ain't heard is a new record. I don't recall whether or not I'd ever heard the music of the Dentists before Brett Vargo rhapsodized about the group's 1985 album Some People Are On The Pitch They Think It's All Over It Is Now on a recent episode of the Only Three Lads podcast. Brett's recommendation and accompanying song snippet were sufficient inspiration to get me to buy the album (which I downloaded because I'm--in-joke!--a newfangled fancy-pants). Jeez, this record has TIRnRR written all over it, which is a neat trick for a digital album to have something written all over it. Thanks for the tip, Mr. Brett! We'll play another track from this long-titled album on our next show.

THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE CYNZ: You Would Not Miss Me

Notwithstanding the considerable TIRnRR airplay accrued by the Cynz in 2024--they were our # 5 most-played artist, and two of their songs ("Just A Boy" and "Woman Child") were among our most-played tracks--I don't think I fully appreciated the sheer overall oomph of their 2024 album Little Miss Lost until it was kinda late in the game. That happens sometimes; we get caught up in individual tracks and lose sight of their magnificent brethren and sistren. We've recently started to pick up and play a few of the Little Miss Lost gems we missed before, including (fittingly) this fine number "You Would Not Miss Me." Little Miss Lost was definitely one of 2024's best albums, and we look forward to a new Cynz album due some time this year.

We will take great care not to miss that one.

SAM AND DAVE: Soul Man

It felt imperative to pay at least some tribute to the late, great Sam Moore this week. Sam and Dave--Moore with the late Dave Prater--were powerhouses of 1960s Stax Records soul, and I wish I could claim I was aware of them before the Blue Brothers covered "Soul Man" in the '70s. But I got there eventually. We played Sam and Dave's lesser-known hit "Said I Wasn't Gonna Tell Nobody" in our opening set, and circled back to the original classic "Soul Man" near the show's end. From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"...The song itself is an extended boast. But it's a boast backed up by its collective prowess. Responding to Sam and Dave's command Play it, Steve!, Steve Cropper's guitar work cuts and advances like an agile offensive line, its easygoing sway belying the force and efficiency of its piledriving advance. The Memphis Horns add bounce to spare. Resistance is futile.

"And, above it all, our soul men Sam Moore and Dave Prater testify.

"Isaac Hayes, who co-wrote 'Soul Man' with David Porter, said the song was inspired by the aftermath of a race riot in Detroit in 1967. An expression of defiant pride during troubled times, 'Soul Man' still resonates now as it did then, as an indomitable declaration of will and confidence. Close your eyes, right now, and let your mind conjure Cropper's distinctive guitar lick; you may suddenly feel more sure of yourself than you did just a moment before. 

"Most of are neither Sam nor Dave. I know I'm not. Hell, I'm not even Jake or Elwood. Nonetheless, as we listen to this great soul duo reign o'er the musical majesty the Stax studiomen have provided them, their determination...well, it doesn't quite become ours, but we feel it. It's 1967, and all points forward. Faith. Certainty. Walls are gonna fall, change is gonna come. Comin' to ya, on a dusty road. It ain't braggin' if you can do it. They're not called soul men for nothing."

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: 7/7/2020

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 is the first of three drawing exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1032.

CHUCK BERRY: Johnny B. Goode


Part of the reason why Dana and I insist on mixing eras on TIRnRR is because that's how we heard music on the radio when we were (theoretically) growing up. Dana says it's also because we're lazy. I would argue the point, but it's too much bother. I listened to AM Top 40 in the early '70s. It was magic, and I occasionally heard things like The Beatles on Syracuse's WOLF or WNDR, mixed in with the prerequisite Jackson Five and Badfinger. And around 1972 or so, Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was in regular rotation on WOLF. I didn't know it was an old song from the '50s. If I had known, I wouldn't have cared about its vintage anyway. A great song is always great. And worth the trouble.

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me


The Cowsills' Global may well be the best album of the '90s, and if it's not, I can't think of what else could be. Decades later, I continue to be annoyed that no major label would deign to release this wonderful record. The unstated reason for such short-sighted record company reticence? The superstitious and cowardly lot we call A & R guys didn't think they could market a group of former '60s hitmakers--especially a group with such a (perceived) squeaky-clean image--in the big 'n' bad '90s. Wimps. 

Oh, when I say "wimps," I'm not referring to The Cowsills; the A & R guys were the wimps. The Cowsills friggin' rule, and anybody with a lick of pop grit and know-how could have sold the sound and the story. I love their classic stuff, especially "Hair" and "Love American Style," and many lesser-known tracks, and I ain't kiddin' when I proclaim Global as the best of the '90s. Jim Babjak of The Smithereens told me of his own frustration in trying to pitch Global to disinterested parties at Capitol Records, and Jim's recollections will be included in the Cowsills chapter of my eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). For now, here's a peak at that chapter's opening lines:

A family band. The ongoing reference to The Cowsills as the real-life inspiration for TV's fictional Partridge Family is tiresome but unavoidable. The true story is so much more than what was fabricated for prime time.

Because The Cowsills were a real band, initially a band of brothers who--like so many others in the '60s--wanted to be The Beatles....

Of course, for all the groups who set out to be The Beatles, success in that particular goal would always be unattainable; there could only be one Beatles. But you know what? There could also be only one Cowsills. The Cowsills created a lot of fine music, well worthy of rediscovery and acclaim. They're still a fantastic live band, and they're working on a new album. I can't wait to hear it. A & R weasels? Screw 'em all, the lot of them. We know better.

Carl and Dana plus my lovely wife Brenda meet The Cowsills in 2019

THE FLAMIN GROOVIES: Teenage Head


"Teenage Head" by The Flamin Groovies has the rare honor of getting airplay on a Gotham City radio station in a Batman comic book story. It happened in Detective Comics # 589 (August 1989), the conclusion of a three-part serial called "Night People." All three chapters in this story used Gotham City radio as a recurring backdrop to the action, revealing that listeners in The Batman's hometown had a station that played The Rolling Stones, The New York Dolls, KISS, and Laura Branigan (among others) within a single format. Yeah, it's probably a talk radio station by now. But in 1989, it was playing The Flamin Groovies.



All this, yet no reference to The Joker being a smoker or a midnight toker. For all the violence and chaos that Gothamites must suffer on a regular basis, at least they had some decent radio. Ask any supervillain: with Batman, the hits just keep on coming. BAM!

THE GO-GO'S: Get Up And Go



This past Sunday, our pal Rich Firestone played "Get Up And Go," a fabulous cut by The Go-Go's, on his splendid weekly shindig Radio Deer Camp right here on SPARK! WSPJ in Syracuse. "Get Up And Go" was on the group's 1982 album Vacation, and it was also released as a single, though it couldn't crack the Top 40. Still, a fantastic record, even if it's not one of the first Go-Go's tracks most folks would think of when thinking of Go-Go's tracks.

Which didn't stop This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio from playing it again the very same night. 

Oops? Nah, not in my view. Both shows are pre-recorded nowadays, so while we probably would have avoided duplicating one of Rich's selections if we'd realized it, I'm also perfectly okay with the idea of a cool record getting played more than once in a day. One wouldn't want to get carried away with it, but if a song can't stand up to a little bit of repeat play, it wasn't meant to be a pop record in the first place. Play it again! NOW...!!

HEART: Kick It Out



When I was 17, I met a girl whose short-term goal was to pose for Playboy. It was a brief and casual platonic meeting, we were not alone at any point (nor would anything noteworthy have been likely to occur anyway), so there's not much more to the story than that. When you're a 17-year-old boy, hearing a girl about your age say she wants to remove her clothing for a magazine pictorial tends to get your attention. I don't remember her name, I can't quite remember what she looked like (except that she was definitely cute), and I don't think she had quite yet achieved the legal age required for one to take off her shirt for the cameras. Nor had I, for that matter, not that anyone was asking. She was, I presume, just planning ahead.

Hey! That's...no, that's not her. Never mind.

It's likely I'm always going to associate "Kick It Out," a track from Heart's 1977 Little Queen album, with the afternoon when I met this prospective Miss August. I knew Heart's hit single "Magic Man" (I bought the 45), and I must have heard and probably liked Little Queen's first hit single "Barracuda" by then. But "Kick It Out" was new to me. And it was the apprentice Playmate's favorite song on the album, so she had to play it for me. In her room, by the way, but again: never alone. No moral boundaries were breached in the making of this story.

I have no idea if this particular angel was ever a centerfold, though I suspect not. "Kick It Out" was released as a single by the end of 1977, but it wasn't a hit. It remains one of my favorite Heart songs, its status enhanced by the memory of its introduction to me. When you're a 17-year-old boy, the allure of a pretty girl about your age can have an immediate and a pervasive effect, even if it means nothing. The moment fades. The soundtrack remains.

SAM AND DAVE: Soul Man



Like many people my age, I first encountered the Stax Records classic "Soul Man" via its late '70s cover by The Blues Brothers, aka Saturday Night Live yucksters John Belushi and Dan Akroyd. The Blues Brothers never meant much to me, whether as a skit on SNL or in that movie they made. Didn't hate 'em, didn't really care about 'em. But "Soul Man" got my attention, and the guitar on "Soul Man" got my attention. Some time after that, I learned the guitarist on The Blues Brothers' "Soul Man" was Steve Cropper, who had also played on the original 1967 recording by Sam and Dave. I heard Sam and Dave, and I had no further need of The Blues Brothers.

From the "Soul Man" chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

It ain't braggin' if you can do it...

...The song itself is an extended boast. But it's a boast backed up by its collective prowess. Responding to Sam & Dave's command Play it, Steve!, Cropper's guitar work cuts and advances like an agile offensive line, its easygoing sway belying the force and efficiency of its piledriving advance. The Memphis Horns add bounce to spare. Resistance is futile.

And, above it all, our soul men Sam Moore and Dave Prater testify....

It ain't braggin' if you can do it. No disrespect to Jake & Elwood, John & Dan, but there's no substitute for Sam and Dave.

THE BOB SEGER SYSTEM: 2 + 2 = ?



Forget about the awful Bob Seger records that everyone knows. I actively despise "We've Got Tonight" and "Old Time Rock & Roll," and that ain't gonna change any time soon...or ever. But some of his older stuff is terrific, including the rockin' Chuck Berry pastiche "Get Out Of Denver," the "Gloria" rip "East Side Story," and particularly the cantankerous brilliance of the anti-war diatribe "2 + 2 = ?" From The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

...Many of you are probably familiar with Nuggets, Lenny Kaye's groundbreaking 1972 collection and celebration of 1960s garage, punk, and psychedelic rockin' pop. Nuggets spawned imitations, expansions, and an accepted understanding of its guiding DIY philosophy. It's no exaggeration to call Nuggets the most influential various-artists rock compilation ever released. It established a recognized aesthetic of '60s garage punk, penciled in some broad parameters for discussion, and elevated critical appreciation of previously-undervalued acts like The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband, and The Electric Prunes.

Listen to me: Not only would "2 + 2 = ?" by The Bob Seger System have fit in perfectly on the original Nuggets, it would have been one of its single most striking cuts. As you consider that, consider also that Nuggets includes a couple of other tracks (by The Knickerbockers and The 13th Floor Elevators) discussed elsewhere in this very book, and a few others (by The Remains and The Electric Prunes, and more) that could have been. The surly brilliance of Seger's "2 + 2 = ?" is of that same transcendent proto-punk ilk.

The Greatest Record Ever Made. By Bob Seger. The mind bogglewoggles....

Maybe it's not enough to compensate for the lucrative sins of Seger's mega-selling monstrosities...or maybe it is. Put those old records back on the shelf. Listen to this great old record instead.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: Sunday Morning


"Sunday Morning" was the first Velvet Underground track I can recall hearing. As a burgeoning young punk fan in the late '70s, I read so much about the Velvets, but didn't have an opportunity to actually hear their music. It wasn't on the radio as far as I knew, and I couldn't afford to spring for the pricey import 2-LP VU anthology I saw on the rack at Korvettes when visiting my girlfriend on Staten Island. In 1981, I found a beat-up copy of The Velvet Underground & Nico in the used record bin at Brockport's Main Street Records, and I only had to surrender a little bit of cash to assume ownership. 

I didn't even have time to listen to it; I was about to catch a ride to Albany, where I was going to visit my high school pals Jay and Beth. Jay, incidentally, is the guy who would much later introduce me to Dana, earning him a credit as midwife in the birth of TIRnRR. When I got to Jay's apartment in Albany, Beth came over, and we listened to some records, including my new 45s by New Math and Bow Wow Wow, and my introduction to The Velvet Underground. The album's first track, the lush, pop-sounding "Sunday Morning," wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I was duly hooked.

WHISTLESTOP ROCK: Queen Of The Drive-In


Why do we have a radio show? This is why we have a radio show: to play great stuff you know, and especially to play great stuff you don't know yet. Do you know WhistleStop Rock? I didn't. Now I do. Billing themselves as New England power pop punk queens, WhistleStop Rock is a collective of female musicians formed for the purpose of all of their respective bands playing and touring together. As COVID-19 cooties suffocated the live music scene this season, the members of WhistleStop Rock decided to write and record a new song together.

Oh, and it rocks. Written by Simone Birk (of Kid Gulliver and Sugar Snow) and Linnea Herzog of (Linnea's Garden and PowerSlut), "Queen Of The Drive-In" was inspired by the WhistleStoppers' memories of going to drive-in movies and not actually seeing the movie (effectively putting the Action! in Lights! Camera...y'know). WhistleStopper Justine Covault (of TIRnRR faves Justine and the Unclean) thought that sounded like it oughtta be a song. Action, indeed! Let's have the WhistleStop Rock hype machine tell us more:

Next thing you know, the women of WhistleStop had figured out a way to collaborate on a recording of the song from their respective pandemic-isolation bunkers, quickly volunteering to contribute all the needed components of the perfect summer pop song. Simone (Kid Gulliver, Sugar Snow) would sing dirty-sweet lead, Linnea (Linnea's Garden, PowerSlut) would drive with her rhythm guitar and deliver a blistering solo, Linda Bean Pardee (The Chelsea Curve) would anchor with her signature punk-lyrical bass sound, Justine (Justine and the Unclean, Justine’s Black Threads) would add a touch of 80s-style lead and rhythm guitar, Heather Rose (Heather Rose in Clover) would bring unexpected sonic depth with her Stylophone, and Lynda Mandolyn (Tiger Bomb, Crystal Canyon), JoEllen Saunders Yannis (Cold Expectations), and Heather would release their inner ABBA on the backing vocals. Sandy Summers (Kid Gulliver) then accepted the invitation to pound the hell out of the drums, Brian Charles captured Simone’s stellar lead vocals at Zippah Studios, and David Minehan agreed to engineer and produce the song at Woolly Mammoth Sound.

The result of their efforts is stunning, and it's made to be played on the radio. There's a video to go with it, and there's a free live event on Facebook this Friday, July 10th to premiere that video. Before all that, you could hear it on the radio. Why do we have a radio show? We serve at the pleasure of the queen of the drive-in. What greater cause could there be?



KISS: Shout It Out Loud



TIRnRR's intrepid stats keeper Fritz Van Leaven suggested we devote part of this week's show to countdowns of our top 10 all-time most-played artists and our top 10 all-time most-played tracks. Seizing the idea, we had already recorded the show before we realized that this weekend marked the 50th anniversary of Casey Kasem's first American Top 40, making our own humble little countdowns de facto tributes to keeping one's feet on the ground while reaching for the stars.

Fritz told us that KISS was our # 11 all-time most-played artist, missing a tie with The Beach Boys at # 10 by a single spin. Since The Beach Boys were automatically getting another spin any way, we figured we'd also throw in my favorite KISS track, "Shout It Out Loud." And yes, of course there's a chapter about "Shout It Out Loud" in my GREM! book. Branding, people! It's all about the branding.

Hey, speaking of that pair of Top 10 TIRnRR countdowns: none of those songs is represented in this week's first edition of 10 Songs because it makes more sense to give each of those countdowns its own separate 10 Songs piece. Come back the day after tomorrow for the second of three 10 Songs this week, as we celebrate TIRnRR's All-Time Top 10 Most-Played Artists. We'll follow that the very next day with TIRnRR's All-Time Top 10 Most-Played Tracks. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Casey Kasem would have expected no less.

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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

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 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).