10 SONGS:9/17/2026

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 # 1353

PERILOUS: Overwhelmed By Reality

We jump-start this week's demostration of better radio through better radio with the debut spin of "Overwhelmed By Reality," the great new single from Perilous. In our ongoing effort to be an eensy bit less, y'know, whelmed, we will hear this fine track again on our next show. In the mean time, rock und rollers in the 315 have a chance to witness Perilous perform the song live on Friday, September 18th--TOMORROW!--at Funk 'n Waffles in Syracuse. It's a SPARK RADIO FUNDRAISER, and Perilous will be on a bill with the Flashing Astonishers and Know Nothing. YOU should be there! It is, after all, an overwhelmingly worthy cause.

THE KENNEDYS: Girl On A Motorcycle

The release of a new album by esteemed coffeehouse pop masters the Kennedys always scores an automatic and irrefutable claim to a piece of TIRnRR airspace, and their latest effort Smoketree continues that well-earned tradition. My immediate Smoketree favorite is "Girl On A Motorcycle," partially for its immediate titular connection to the enduring mystique of Marianne Faithfull...but mostly 'cuz it sounds so good. See, we're proud to be suckers for stuff that sounds good.

THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: Back Where You Belong

Ooo--more stuff that sounds good! We've been meaning to play the Cocktail Slippers' exuberant "Back Where You Belong" for quite some time, starting from way back when it was an ace advance single from the group's then-forthcoming album Joyride. Yeah, we're late to the party, but the album's out now, and trust me: This party is where we all belong. Welcome back, Cocktail Slippers!

SPECTRAFLAME: The Look In Your Eyes

Continuing the saga of TIRnRR's dedication to being suckers for stuff that sounds good, from a previous edition of 10 Songs:

Awright, we've been playing St. Petersburg, Florida's phenomenal pop combo Spectraflame a lot this year, a situation cued up by our pal Robbie Rist's involvement with (and recommendation of) the group, but maintained in dedicated earnest by the quality of Steve Burgess's original pop songcraft. We have three hours of airtime to occupy each week, and it's more efficient to occupy that airtime with good stuff. Spectraflame has proven to be a reliable resource for the good stuff, and "The Look In Your Eyes" is Spectraflame's best one yet. Resistance is futile. Occupation continues. I know that look.

DAVID RUFFIN: I Want You Back

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

RADIO DAYS: Keep Me Straight

Aw, this is just so unerringly radio-ready, and I say that without intending a reference to the band's name. They're called Radio Days, but this is meant for radio days and nights and maybe even early mornings, too. It's from their new album Off The Record, but I'll go on the record with a straight-up vow to play this again on our next show.

THE MONKEES: Love To Love

September 12th marked the 60th anniversary of the debut broadcast of The Monkees TV series. I didn't see that first episode, but my sister got me watching not long thereafter, and I've been a fan ever since. We completely forgot about the anniversary when programming this week's show, but we did wind up including the Monkees anyway, with this spin of the 2016 remix of "Love To Love." As I wrote in a round up of my 25 favorite Monkees tracks:

Neil Diamond wrote four songs for the Monkees. We've discussed "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)," and (in passing) "I'm A Believer," but my pick of the bunch is "Love To Love," recorded right before Don Kirshner's expulsion in '67 and officially unreleased until the '80s (on Rhino Records' 1982 picture disc Monkee Business, though a lo-fi, bootleg-quality recording of the track appeared on a 1979 Australian compilation called Monkeemania, released by Arista). This is my favorite Davy Jones song, an absolutely winning confection of pure, sweet pop music. The version released on the 1996 vault dive Missing Links Volume Three is sublime, but I've come to prefer the 2016 remix used for the Good Times! album, with its added backing vocals by Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz.

[REDACTED] FEATURING [REDACTED]: [REDACTED]

Due out in November from the visionary Big Stir Records label. The 45 RPM single will be available for sale at Syracuse's legendary home for rock 'n' roll The Lost Horizon on the evening of November 7th, which just happens to be the night of a really loud memorial show honoring Syracuse punk/new wave patron saint Paul Armstrong. A coincidence, I'm sure.

We've been playing it here for weeks, while coyly refusing to name it. We are such mother[redacted]ing teases. We will name it at the top of our very next show. And before that--hey, TOMORROW!--I'll talk about it when I guest on The Spoon podcast with Robbie Rist, Chris Jackson, and Thom Bowers.

And if you already know what it is, that's fine, too. I don't mind.

THE BEATLES: Dizzy Miss Lizzy

Hey, speakin' of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse [redacted], their '70s live sets used to include a cover of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," a Larry Williams R 'n' B gem they (like most of us) learned from the Beatles. When [redacted] opened for the Runaways and the Ramones in 1978, I recall [redacted] guitarist Arty [Redacted] telling me that he'd always thought it was a Beatles original, and had then just recently discovered the Fabs didn't create it. Yeah, I replied helpfully, It was like Little Richard, I think. This serves as a reminder that, at the age of 18, I was already a dumbass.

I did learn better. No, honest! And recently, when I was interviewing Arty [Redacted] for a book I'm writing, he told me:

"Well, you know, the Beatles, you learn more and more when you listen to the songs that they were doing, all those beautiful gems of American black music. I mean, it's an incredible thing. I finally heard the original version of "Devil In Her Heart" [by the Donays] fairly recently. And it's just one of the greatest records you've ever heard. You know, the Beatles just had such unbelievable taste. Because those records, when you listen to Larry Williams and stuff, his versions really hold up in a big way. I mean, [the Beatles] were copying some of the greatest music...."

Agreed. Even the best of the best had to learn somewhere.

PERILOUS: Rock & Roll Runaway

Run away? From this reality? Oh, I am IN...!

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.

My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous 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.

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. 

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: 8/22/2026

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 # 1349

SPECTRAFLAME: The Look In Your Eyes

Awright, we've been playing St. Petersburg, Florida's phenomenal pop combo Spectraflame a lot this year, a situation cued up by our pal Robbie Rist's involvement with (and recommendation of) the group, but maintained in dedicated earnest by the quality of Steve Burgess's original pop songcraft. We have three hours of airtime to occupy each week, and it's more efficient to occupy that airtime with good stuff. Spectraflame has proven to be a reliable resource for the good stuff, and "The Look In Your Eyes" is Spectraflame's best one yet. Resistance is futile. Occupation continues. I know that look.

VERDELLE SMITH: Life Goes On

Today's post is the first entry in my theoretically-weekly 10 Songs series since July 25th. The absence has been a byproduct of my decision to suspend Boppin's status as a daily blog, limiting posting to two or three times a week. I believe this period has been the first interruption in 10 Songs'' schedule since the feature's debut in early 2020.

Is it back now? I dunno. The world around us has felt increasingly discouraging, and I'm sometimes overwhelmed by the pointlessness of whatever the hell it is I do here. But...I dunno.

I do know that life goes on. George Harrison said it goes on within you and without you. In 1965, singer Verdelle Smith insisted it just goes on, our troubles notwithstanding. There will come another day. There will be another Spring. Life goes on.

Or so one hopes.

THE SPONGETONES: The Music At The Close

More new music from the Spongetones? Yes, please! A "We'll Meet Again" to meet the overarching yechh of modern times, "The Music At The Close" is the virtual 45 RPM equivalent of whistling through the graveyard, a joyride on the Titanic, stubbornly blessed with incongruous will to keep boppin' no matter how futile the boppin' may seem. 

The song was co-written by Spongetones bassist Steve Stoeckel and his Pop Co-Op cohort Joel Tinnel--two longtime friends of TIRnRR-- and if its stiff upper lip might be equally likely to contort into a sneer or a smile, one senses it's open to the promise of singing past the close--particularly if the "close" refers to what the damned walls feel like they're doing all around us.

(Furthermore, I betcha our Joel is thrilled to have co-written a single for the freaking Spongetones. Well done, Agent J! We're playing this one again on this Sunday night's celebration of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1350. And what the hell, we'll play a little Pop Co-Op as well. Let's put off closing time for at least a little bit longer.)

JUDAS PRIEST: Heading Out To The Highway

From a previous post:

I'm not really a metal guy. But there have been a few fist-shakin', head-bangin' truncheonfests that I have found to be agreeably bludgeoning, albeit all of them on the pop side. I love Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" without any hint of guilt or apology. I enjoy some Def Leppard, a little bit of Black Sabbath, and--maybe stretching the parameters--some Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, plus the light hair-metal of "We Stand Alone" by Killer Dwarfs. And Motörhead. And KISS! I mean, if you wanna count KISS as metal, I guess.

And Judas Priest?

There was something about the Priest that made me unable to take them seriously...which would be okay if they didn't seem so hell-bent-for-leather intent on being taken seriously. I very much liked the first Judas Priest track I ever heard, which was their gloriously unsubtle take on the Joan Baez folk chestnut "Diamonds And Rust." After that, though, I thought "Breaking The Law" was tiresome, and its video really made Judas Priest look dumb beyond redemption. CREEM magazine started to make fun of them, and I went right along with that spirit of derision and dismissal.

But..."Heading Out To The Highway." GodDAMN I loved that from its first bombastic chug and squeal, and in the present day it still inspires turn-it-UP volume and a defiantly paradoxical mix of sneering and grinning when it plays in my car. 

Especially if I happen to be heading out to the highway. LOUDER! LOUDER!!! 

CINDY LAWSON: The Reckoning

ANGER! Sheer, pissed-off rock 'n' roll anger! Cindy Lawson knows the story, and she is not afraid to spit that story right back in the face of those in dire need of a freakin' reckoning, stat. From her forthcoming new release ¡Long Live The Resistance!, "The Reckoning" channels the lesson the Clash taught us all those years ago: Let fury have the hour. Anger can be power! How can you refuse it?

Cindy Lawson is not inclined to refuse, nor to back down. It's the only reckoning that matters.

LITTLE EVA: Stand By Me

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Stand!

THE PRETENDERS: I'll Stand By You

I tell ya, sometimes these segues just write themselves.

THE MONKEES: Words

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE BEATLES: Tomorrow Never Knows

It's now been a full sixty years since the Beatles' released the Revolver album. And it still feels like the daunting yet inviting sound of tomorrow. Turn off your mind. Relax. Float downstream. We got you.

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.

My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous 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.

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. 

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: 7/4/2026

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 # 1343

PAUL COLLINS: Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

Here comes the Zimmer...man. Our friends at Jem Records continue their superb series of various-artists songwriter spotlights with Jem Records Celebrates Bob Dylan, and that series ain't made a misstep yet. Jem Records Celebrates Bob Dylan is due in August, and its release is heralded with this first teaser track, as TIRnRR fave rave Paul Collins takes on Bashful Bobby's "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again." Dylan is (deservedly) one of the most-covered songwriters of the Rock 'n' Roll Era, and the Bard of Hibbing is in very good hands here. I'm very much looking forward to hearing more of this album.

(And if this series ever gets around to Jem Records Celebrates Michael Nesmith, I would really love to hear what our hometown heroes and Jem recording artists the Half/Cubes could do with Nesmith's "Rising In Love.")

MONOGROOVE: Back To School

From a previous 10 Songs:

"I've been a fan of Monogroove's Rin Lennon since hearing her former group On The Air's contribution to the 1984 Rhino Records (then-) contemporary girl group compilation The Girls Can't Help It. My pal Andrea Ogarrio included an On The Air track in a mixtape she sent me in the early '90s, and I snagged my very own copy of On The Air's 1987 eponymous six-song EP during a Florida vacation in 1994. More recently, we've been delighted to add Monogroove to our little Play-Tone galaxy o' stars, and 'That Girl' (from Monogroove's recent album Popsicle Drivethru) was TIRnRR's # 35 most-played track in 2025. Yep: ON THE AIR! It's what we do.

"In 2026, our on-the-air Monogroove presence has been established by the group's recent single 'Back To School,' and that's been a perfectly peppy rah rah siss boom bop in its own right. Pencils? Books? Teacher's dirty looks? It's all writ in # 2 graphite. 'Back To School' pushes against the scornful demands of high school's cliques and ninnies, on behalf of all of us who lurked in the nooks and crannies instead. School is in."

While this time of year may seem more suited to Alice Cooper crooning that school is out for the summer, Monogroove's "Back To School" returns now to the playlist as part of the new Kool Kat Musik release Anthology, a 20-track set commemorating Monogroove's 30th anniversary. And "Back To School" will be back again in a near-future playlist. We can't let the truants have ALL the fun.

BETH PEABODY: Out And About

JIM BASNIGHT: Get It Out

Beth Peabody is a singer and a member of Jim Basnight's band. We've been playing Jim in a variety of his rockin' pop dbas (including the Moberlys, the Rockinghams, Meice, and more) since the dawn of ever, and Beth has just released a new two-song digital 45 with her own ace lead vocal renditions of two Basnight songs, "Out And About" and "Get It Out." We debuted Beth's version of "Out And About" this week, and we also encored Jim's "Get It Out" in that same set. Now duly empowered, we'll hear Beth's take on "Get It Out" in our next show, AND we'll also hear her sing "Out And About" again. Can't have a hit record if you only play it once.

THE RAMONES: Rockaway Beach

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

SPECTRAFLAME: Life Is Fine

In between the lines, we all know that life is not fine. Maybe it never was, and maybe it never can be. The struggle continues. The feeling of struggle continues, too.

A new song by Spectraflame offers...well, not quite solace, but "Life Is Fine" does offer solidarity in standing against the forces of yechh. 

Things don't always go your way
Unless you've got something to say
But it's just a game you play

Love is fine
Can't get you off my mind
Love is blind you see it all the time
In my mind you always look divine

But they get smarter every day
It makes your game harder to play
But just who's playing anyway

Struggles can be physical or emotional, personal or societal, winnable or...not winnable. The battle rages on. Spectraflame is on our side.

"Life Is Fine" music and lyrics by Steve Burgess

KIRSTY MacCOLL: He's On The Beach

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Hot Fun In The Summertime

'Cause the summer's here and the time is right.

Oh! And if you're looking for some summer reading: I write books!

BUY!!

THE BEATLES: All You Need Is Love

As we stated earlier this week: If love isn't the only thing, it may be the most important thing. Without it, we won't progress at all. Without it, we are nothing. Is love all we need? No. But it remains a damned good start.

THE DAHLMANNS: Dark Side With You

The Dahlmanns are a great, great recording combo from Norway, and we don't play them nearly as much as we oughta. Their 2012 track "Shake Me Up Tonight" remains a legit contender for my all-time Hot 200, and recently we've been programming the righteous hell out of "Dark Side With You" (from the Dahlmanns' current album Life In Reverse). With tough and tender chick vocals, a bruised but resilient heart safety-pinned to its sleeve and the first four Ramones long-players blastin' on its trusty Walkman, "Dark Side With You" is so unerringly TIRnRR we should nickname it "Dana & Carl With You." But we won't! It's already perfect just as it is. It spins again this Sunday night. Light up the dark, man. Light up the dark.

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.

My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous 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.

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. 

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: 5/22/2026

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 # 1337

THE LEMON TWIGS: 2 Or 3

We are big fans of rockin' pop music, and we are delighted when the music we love is able to connect with a larger audience. The Lemon Twigs have garnered some buzz within our power pop world, and while they may not secure a TODAY'S HITS! radio berth alongside Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, we hope they do. Hell, we hope they record a track with Taylor and/or Sabrina. It's pop music. It's supposed to be popular.

Our own little mutant radio program has not given the Lemon Twigs a ton of airplay; believe it or not, I think we may have played Taylor Swift more often than we've played the Lemon Twigs, though that would be just a function of our short attention span (and my determination to demonstrate that some of Swift's stuff can fit in just swell alongside the Ramones, the Four Tops, and the Muffs in our chosen format--it's ALL pop music). We're going to try to program the Lemon Twigs more often; it's a bandwagon well worth hoppin' on for the ride.

No better place to start than the Lemon Twigs' latest album Look For Your Mind! Our friends at The Spoon podcast recently hooked me on the exquisite Look For Your Mind! gem "2 Or 3," compelling us to open our own show with that track. We'll hear the new album's title tune on Sunday night. Let's get this bandwagon movin'!

MARSHALL CRENSHAW: What Time Is It

The Jive Five's 1962 doo-wop classic "What Time Is It?" is one of my all-time favorite individual tracks, and it earned a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I was introduced to the song via Marshall Crenshaw's sublime 'n' dreamy cover version, heard on MC's 1983 album Field Day. Crenshaw's rendition held me in instant thrall from the second I heard it, and if my heart's desire migrated to the Jive Five, I never stopped loving the version I heard first.

This week, Dana's spin of the Distractions' "Time Goes By So Slow" prompted me to follow with "What Time Is It?" I had the Jive Five in mind, but then reconsidered and programmed Marshall Crenshaw's (punctuation-free) cover instead. Couldn't go wrong either way.

(Later, when annotating track credits for the posted playlist, I realized this was the first-ever TIRnRR spin for Marshall Crenshaw's "What Time Is It." As The Spoon's Robbie Rist recently reminded me, time takes time. Tick, tock.)

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Black Lincoln Continental

Another advance peek at Quality Footware: Live At The Brook, the forthcoming new live album from the elemental forces of Graham Parker and the Goldtops. "Black Lincoln Continental" is already available as a single, as is "Soul Shoes," which we played a couple of weeks back. On our next show, we'll treat you to the Quality Footware live cut of the first Graham Parker song I heard (back when I was an impressionable teen surgically affixed to my radio). Grab your soul shoes and hop in your black Lincoln Continental; on Sunday night, we've got a date with a hotel chambermaid.

THE JIVE FIVE: My True Story

Having given the Jive Five's first-set spot to Marshall Crenshaw's "What Time Is It," it was only fair to give the doo-woppers their due with an airing of their only big hit, 1961's # 3 smash "My True Story." This solution spared us from having to cry CRY cry whoa-oh-oh our blues away. This story's ended. It was no lie!

BLONDIE: Little Girl Lies

My next book is a short story collection called Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies. It's my first full-length foray into fiction, following two nonfiction books about music, and it does incorporate a lot of musical influences into its gathering of deliberate lies. The book takes its title from a series of short stories I wrote about a group of rock 'n' roll musicians from Earth playing gigs on other planets, and it name-checks (mostly in passing) a whole bunch of artists, from Enrico Caruso to LL Cool J. I'll post a list of the book's musical name-checks in the very near future.

I don't think I got around to name-checking Blondie, but I do mention one of the group's individual members. Not the gorgeous one you'd automatically expect me to mention! Blondie's powerhouse drummer Clem Burke is cited in this sequence from a story that appears late in the book, as uttered by planet-hopping Guitar Vs. Rayguns drummer Leiko:

Leiko leaned in for emphasis. "I'm Keith fucking Moon. I'm Marky fucking Ramone. I'm Clem fucking Burke. I'm Dennis fucking Diken from the Smithereens, Tommy fucking Allen from the Flashcubes, Ringo fucking Starr if I wanna be Ringo fucking Starr.

"I'm fucking LEIKO, bitches!"

I'm...convinced. Also frightened.

Leiko's a big girl, and she's neither cryin' nor lyin'. As I prepare the publication of my new book of little boy lies, TIRnRR offers this celebratory spin of Blondie's "Little Girl Lies." We hope Leiko would approve. If it pisses her off, I'm pretty sure she won't allow her status as, y'know, fictional to prevent her from kicking our asses.

THE WELL WISHERS: Pox On Everything

Nowadays, "pox on everything" may serve as go-to mantra. It also serves as the title of a new treat from TIRnRR Fave Raves the Well Wishers. Along with "Back Of The Line," "Pox On Everything" is one of two advance tracks from the next Well Wishers album Expected Outcomes. The album is due in June, we played both of the advance tracks this week, and we're playing "Pox On Everything" again on our next show. Think of us as pox protection! Apply the pox only where it's warranted. No shortage of options there...

TOM KENNY & THE HI-SEAS: Welcome To The Working Class

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

MOTÖRHEAD: Motörhead

On our May 10th show, the weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! spot was occupied by "Please Don't Touch," an invigmoratin' 1981 cover of a Johnny Kidd and the Pirates classic, executed by Headgirl. Headgirl were the combined metal might of the boys in Motörhead and the girls in Girlschool, and that week's extravaganza also featured a spin of Girlschool's oomph-driven cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy." We figured we owed Motörhead their own reciprocal playlist representation this week. Hey, howzabout the first Motörhead track I ever heard? The eponymous li'l number "Motörhead" was on an absolutely ace 1977 various-artists borgasmord called Geef Voor New Wave, a record I snagged as a teen punk and proceeded to play over und over with the manic obsession (and commensurate volume) one should expect a proper teen punk would bring to such a thing. MOTÖRHEAD!

SPECTRAFLAME: Yesterday (Jane)

A couple of weeks ago, we offered our first spin of Spectraflame's nifty single "Yesterday (Jane)," but we played the wrong mix, an earlier version not considered the definitive version. This is because we're inept. Luckily, we have tenure, and we played the correct mix this week, righting (our own) wrongs and making the world safe for pop music. POP MUSIC IS SAVED! Just doin' our job.

THE BEATLES: Do You Want To Know A Secret

No secret: My book Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies includes a short story about a fictional 1976 Beatles reunion. While nearly all of the musical performers referenced in the book are just mentioned in passing, the Beatles appear as characters in their own story. Elsewhere in the book, one other real-life performer does actively participate in a very brief cameo role.

Which real-life performer? That's still a secret, told in a story that I have not yet shared with anyone. Leiko knows who the performer is, even though [redacted] isn't known as a drummer. But Leiko knows. 

And she approves. The book should be out in early June.

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.