10 SONGS: 5/20/2020

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 is the second of two separate editions of 10 Songs this week, each drawing exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1025.

MICHAEL CARPENTER AND MICHAEL OLIVER: It Only Hurts When I Breathe



Both Michael Carpenter and Michael Oliver have been long-time Fave Raves on TIRnRR, so it makes perfect sense that we should fall so fully for their new collaboration "It Only Hurts When I Breathe." We've been playing these guys for years, as solo artists and under group titles (Carpenter singing lead for The Finkers as well as with a series of his own combos like Michael Carpenter and the Cuban Heels, Oliver fronting Michael Oliver and Go, Dog, Go!), and they really oughtta be household names already. They've appeared on TIRnRR compilations, and each of their contributions has been a stunning highlight; hell, when I heard Oliver's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 submission "You Won't Do," I immediately contacted Dana and Kool Kat Musik's Ray Gianchetti to tell them we'd just received a track that would single-handedly justify our project. Stunning stuff, and the Michaels offer rich catalogs of music that will delight you.  You can get "It Only Hurts When I Breathe" right here.

DAVE EDMUNDS: Queen Of Hearts



Even though I already owned Dave Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary album (purchased specifically to snag Edmunds' extraordinary cover of Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk") well before Juice Newton's "Queen Of Hearts" hit radio in 1981, I didn't immediately realize that this fabulous Juice Newton single was a cover of a song on Repeat When Necessary. Oops? That happens sometimes; I get preoccupied with one track--"Girls Talk" in this case--and forget about the rest of the album. I am as God made me. I admit the heresy of digging Juice Newton's version even more than the Edmunds original, but man, you can't go wrong with either version. 

THE FIRST CLASS: Beach Baby



I know that "Beach Baby" by The First Class occasionally shows up on some folks' lists of the all-time worst hit songs, but I must respectfully disagree. "Beach Baby" is an amazing evocation of the mythic California sound, executed by a British studio group, pulling the whole magic trick off without ever sounding like a Beach Boys imitation. Tony Burrows sings lead, and Dana and I like to refer to Burrows as the world's only five-time one-hit wonder, since he also lent his voice to the sole Billboard smashes credited to Edison Lighthouse ("Love Grows [Where My Rosemary Goes]"), White Plains ("My Baby Loves Lovin'"), The Brotherhood Of Man ("United We Stand"), and The Pipkins ("Gimme Dat Ding"). "Beach Baby" is Burrows' finest moment. One of the all-time worst? Please. "Beach Baby" earns its own chapter in my eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

THE HEARTBREAKERS: Love Comes In Spurts


Although I was a teenage punk fan in 1977, I didn't have much enthusiasm for Richard Hell and the Voidoids. I loved The Sex Pistols and The Ramones, and I appreciated the naughtiness of a title like "Love Comes In Spurts," but even when I won a free copy of the Voidoids' debut album Blank Generation from my college campus radio station, I could find no reason to keep it in my collection.

Before the Voidoids, Hell had been bassist with The Heartbreakers, the legendarily disheveled group fronted by The New York Dolls' former guitarist Johnny Thunders. Hell was long gone from The Heartbreakers by the time of their lone studio album L.A.M.F., but Dana pulled out this 1975 demo of Hell 'n' Heartbreakers for airplay on this week's show. Musically, this earlier version of "Love Comes In Spurts" sounds a lot more like The Heartbreakers' subsequent L.A.M.F. track "One Track Mind"--one of my three favorite Heartbreakers cuts--than it does to the familiar Voidoids recording of the same song. And I like it a lot.

HÜSKER DÜ: Eight Miles High



Given my general affinity for melody and disdain for noise, Dana was surprised to discover how much I like Hüsker Dü's chaotic cover of The Byrds' "Eight Miles High." The Byrds' 1966 recording of "Eight Miles High" was probably the first Byrds record I ever owned, an oldies reissue 45 purchased when I was still a high school student in the mid '70s. I was (and remain) taken with the audacity and ambition The Byrds brought to the original, mixing their well-known vocal blend with an adventurous arrangement intended to adapt the free-form improvisational style of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane to a pop song played by an American folk-rock guitar band at the height of the British Invasion..

If there was a subtle embrace of cacophony inherent in The Byrds' creation of "Eight Miles High," Hüsker Dü grabs the noisier elements in a freakin' headlock, wringing out every bit of grunge and distortion to be found. On paper, I shouldn't dig this, and should probably hate it. But I've loved it for decades, ever since hearing it on Buffalo's WBNY-FM in the mid '80s and snappin' up my copy of the 45 from visionary rock writer Gary Sperrazza! at Apollo Records. As much as I still adore The Byrds' version, Hüsker Dü's cover has become my preferred take on "Eight Miles High."

THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer



I like The Monkees. Their new live album The Mike & Micky Show is just fantastic, and this is its best track. Wonderfully played by a superb group of musicians (who, again, REALLY NEED TO RECORD A NEW MONKEES STUDIO ALBUM!), expertly and lovingly reproduced for your home enjoyment. Michael Nesmith is in fine voice, Micky Dolenz is always in fine voice, and I'm sorry, but I can't stop talking about how great their band sounds with them. New studio album. Now. Please?

MÖTORHEAD: RAMONES



I think I read about this song (from Mötorhead's 1991 album 1916) somewhere in the rock press, certainly long before I heard the track itself. My introduction to Mötorhead's music came back in the '70s, when their blistering track "Motorhead" was included on a sampler album called Geef Voor New Wave, a compilation that also included tracks by The Rubinoos, The Motors, Johnny Moped, Eddie and the Hot Rods, The Adverts, Generation X, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jonathon Richman, The Sex Pistols, The Dwight Twilley Band, The Radiators From Space, Radio Stars, and Earth Quake. Geef Voor New Wave was one hell of a collection, and my copy of that LP has withstood every attempted purge of excess items in my vinyl collection. I still have that record, and it deserves a separate post of its own some day.

My Geef Voor New Wave and me. Evidence suggests this is a recent photo.

"Ace Of Spades" is probably the best-known Mötorhead track overall, and I heard that in the early '80s, probably not all that long after its 1980 release. I dug the idea of Mötorhead--grungy, unapologetic hard rock that was both punk and metal while violently shrugging off any attempt to categorize it--more than I really listened to them. But I loved the song "Motorhead," and I liked "Ace Of Spades" a lot.

I first heard Mötorhead's own original salute to The Ramones as a cover by--of course!--The Ramones themselves. The Carbona Quartet recorded two versions of the song, with bassist C. J. Ramone singing lead on their first released version (on 1995's ¡Adios Amigos!), and Joey Ramone resuming his usual place at the microphone for a studio cut on the 1996 album Greatest Hits Live. The Ramones included the song in their final live performance, August 6th of '96, with shared lead vocals by C.J. and Mötorhead's Lemmy (documented on the 1997 live album We're Outta Here!). I finally grabbed a copy of 1916 to hear the Mötorhead version after that. It's my favorite Mötorhead song. Duh.

THE MYNAH BIRDS: I Got You (In My Soul)



The Mynah Birds appear in 10 Songs for the second consecutive week. The historical hook for this lost 1966 Motown group is that it included both Rick James and Neil Young before they were famous, but honestly, I'm caring less and less about that curiosity. This stuff just cooks, and it's a shame it wasn't released in the '60s. A total of four tracks have been made available on digital compilations, and if there's still any more left in the vaults, I hope someone exhumes it all soon. I would buy a Mynah Birds CD right now, if only such a thing existed.

POPDUDES: Ridin' In My Car



Popdudes' ace cover of NRBQ's "Ridin' In My Car" returns to the playlist and to 10 Songs, as the track (previously available only as a digital single) is now available for the first time as a physical product. The occasion is the release of the brand-new compilation CD Big Stir Singles--The Sixth Wave, which collects virtual As and Bs from Popdudes, Librarians With Hickeys, Dolph Chaney, Jim Basnight, The Walker Brigade, Paula Carino, Joe Normal and the Anytown'rs, Trip Wire, The Corner Laughers, and Spygenius, a double A-side of XTC covers by Glowbox and Tom Curless and the 46%, plus The Well Wishers' fab "We Grow Up." 23 tracks! Good stuff! And a good cause, with 25% of the proceeds benefiting Sweet Relief's Musician Assistance Fund. Radio's job is to sell records; we've done our part, so now do yours: Big Stir Records compilations

THE STEMS: Never Be Friends



This week's playlist was dominated by our tribute to the late Little Richard. The pop world also lost Richard Lane, who had been a founding member of an absolutely incredible Australian pop group called The Stems. The Stems--Lane, Dom Mariani, Julian Matthews, and David Shaw--released one brilliant album, 1987's At First Sight Violets Are Blue before combusting. I can't get along with you/I can't can't get along with you/I can't get along with you/I can't get along with you. The album included this exuberant power pop kiss-off "Never Be Friends," and the song's verve and swagger shines on the radio, where it belongs.


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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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 134 essays about 134 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).

10 SONGS: 3/3/2020 [THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!]

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.


As I continue to fight a lingering cold--and I have not ruled out the use of nuclear weapons in this battle--I skipped this week's TIRnRR. But 10 Songs must go on! This week's edition discusses ten little numbers that I considered as subjects in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but which aren't included in the book's current Table Of Contents.

As always: an infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns.

THE ANIMALS: It's My Life



Among instruments commonly used in creating pop music, the bass guitar is uniquely suited to herald an impending apocalypse.

Boom boom. Boom boom. Boom boom boom boom boom boom.

For the book, my concept of The Greatest Record Ever Made! is to offer an individual and equal celebration of each great song in its infinite turn. It is not a ranked list, and it is not an attempt to name the 100 (or whatever number) all-time greatest songs. It serves a higher purpose: to revel in the idea that any track you really love, in its moment, is The Greatest, for the duration of its presumably short running time. We don't need to pick just one, nor just one hundred. 

That means there are dozens--hundreds--of other fantastic songs out there that also qualify, each as giddy a GREM! experience as anything discussed in my book. With that in mind, I figured early on that the book needed to deliberately omit a few of my own All-Time Top-Of-The-Pops Fave Raves, including "Five O'Clock World" by The Vogues, "Starry Eyes" by The Records, and "A Million Miles Away" by The Plimsouls.

The most prominent among these willful exclusions is "It's My Life" by The Animals.

I have adored this song for decades, and it has never left my consciousness since I belatedly discovered its gritty pop power when I was 16. It's always in my all-time Top 10, usually in my all-time Top 5, every once in a while my all-time # 1. It is the very model of The Greatest Record Ever Made!

But it's not in the book. Boom boom. Boom boom. Boom boom boom boom boom boom.

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 combo called The Avengers was on stage at Winterland in January of '78, opening for The Sex Pistols in that group's final appearance meltdown, and embodying the concept of cathartic fury. Anger. Power. Rock 'n' roll.



I came to The Avengers' music well after the fact, and actually heard some of Avengers lead singer Penelope Houston's folkier solo work in the '90s--Houston's "Scratch" remains poised to strike at any shuffled moment on my iPod--long before I heard the anger and power of The Avengers. I think "The American In Me" was my introduction, but "We Are The One" is indeed The One. The Avengers recorded the song twice, both versions are aces, but I go with the earlier 45 version.

THE BEVIS FROND: He'd Be A Diamond



When the tape runs out
The music keeps playing
And when the walls come down
It's still hard to cross the line
And when his love is gone
He says he still needs her
And he wants to let you know
That if he had his chance again
He'd be a diamond

What a truly awful feeling: that sick, twisted ache inside when we realize we've screwed things up beyond any possible hope of redemption. And we know every last miserable bit of it is our own stupid fault.

When you dab your eyes
The tears keep on falling
And when you blow your nose
It still gets blocked up and runs
And though you feel like shit
He says you look beautiful
And he swears by all the saints
That if he had his chance again
He'd be a diamond

I discovered the music of British singer, musician, and songwriter Nick Saloman (dba The Bevis Frond) through the Dana half of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The Bevis Frond did a benefit for our overlords Syracuse Community Radio in the '90s, and the Frond's been a perennial TIRnRR pick over the 21+-year course of whatever the hell it is we do. 

Is he lying to get what he wants
Or does he mean it this time?
Is he running low on affection
And beer and dope
And an ironing board
And an unpaid analyst who shags?

"He'd Be A Diamond" is the most powerful post-breakup song I know. Its heartbroken storyline is devastating, delivered casually in the third person, but no less harrowing, no less desperate, no less striking in its depiction of a faithless ex-lover who has seen the error of his ways far too late to make one damned bit of difference.

When you turn your back
You still see what's behind you
And when you start afresh
You still think of days gone by
And when a heart is broken
It still goes on pumping
And he told me just last night
That if he had his chance again
He'd be a diamond

The lyrics. Y'know, I'm primarily a melody guy, a song and dance man, slave to the rhythm and the feel and the hook. I generally sing along with snappy tunes as if all lyrics were la la la showaddywaddy shamalama ping pong. But these lyrics? I wish to God I had written them. I can't imagine a more eloquent expression of longing and regret. A diamond indeed.

THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL: Summer In The City



I never gave The Lovin' Spoonful any strong consideration for inclusion in my book (which is a shame, considering that I already have a perfectly good Spoonful piece I could have easily reworked into a chapter about "Summer In The City"). Hell, I might still end up doing that.

But I've been thinking about the group a bit lately, and not just because of Wild Honey Orchestra's all-star Lovin' Spoonful tribute show last week. My own reverie was inspired by a friend's recent online post wondering why the Spoonful were considered worthy of induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I chose not to respond to the post--the friend is at least as pop-savvy as I am (and then some), and entitled to his opinion--but I've always been pleased that the Spoonful got into the Hall. Sure, there's a long list of acts I'd also wanna see honored, from The Monkees to The New York Dolls, but it wouldn't have ever occurred to me to question the bona fides of The Lovin' Spoonful. Hell, I was far more surprised that The Mamas & the Papas got into the Hall as quickly as they did, but they also deserve the honor.

"Summer In The City" was always my go-to Lovin' Spoonful track (rivaled briefly by the lesser-known "She Is Still A Mystery"), but it's not my only tuneful Spoonful something-that-rhymes-with-oonful. Balloonful. Macaroonful. Spitoonful? No, that doesn't work. Anyway. I also love "Rain On The Roof," "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice," "Day Dream," "Darling Be Home Soon," "Pow [Theme From What's Up, Tiger Lily?]," and especially "Do You Believe In Magic," which is also The Greatest Record Ever Made. This infinite number gimmick comes in handy.

THE MC5: Kick Out The Jams



1968. It was the end of the world as we knew it, and there wasn't anyone feeling fine. Kick out the jams, muthas and bruthas. 

I wish I had worked out a way to include The MC5's "Kick Out The Jams" in my book. It's a prototype for many a metal and punk record that would follow, it's powerful and pissed-off, yet just barely polished enough to retain its angry, big rock groove, a statement of defiant intent as Rome and all its Romans burn. As relevant today as it was then.

(And incidentally, I first heard this song in its censored version, contained on an odd budget-priced 2-LP compilation set called Heavy Metal. Truth to tell, I'm fine with it that way; that version I can play on the radio.)

RUN-DMC: Walk This Way



I'm not a hip-hop fan by any reasonable stretch of the imagination. But I have enjoyed a few rap tracks in the past, including LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" and Grandmaster & Melle Mel's "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)," and the latter track gets its own chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

I recently added Run-DMC's hit cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" to my Table of Contents, and I'm just now about to remove it in an attempt to consolidate my sprawlin' li'l behemoth of a book. Even so, it's worth noting that some folks forget how important this record is, and classic rockers in particular tend to shrug off its significance.

But I was working in a record store in the '80s. Aerosmith was yesterday's news; an attempted reunion/comeback album, 1985's Done With Mirrors, was met by an indifferent buying public with a dismissive retort of Dream on! By 1986, Aerosmith was held in such little regard that MTV didn't even credit group members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry for their participation in both the recording and the video of Run-DMC's version of "Walk This Way."

With "Walk This Way," Run-DMC scored the biggest hit of their career. Some look back and think Aerosmith did Run-DMC a favor, and maybe they did. But really, it was Run-DMC that did the bigger favor; Aerosmith's nearly-moribund career was revitalized after the collaboration with Run-DMC, and Aerosmith went on from there to a string of successes that saved their falling fortunes. Aerosmith had been rendered lame, then made to walk (this way) again--all thanks to Run-DMC.

Oh. And when Aerosmith performed on this year's GRAMMY telecast, I thought they were boring...until Run-DMC joined them onstage and redeemed the performance. Saved by Run-DMC. Again.



(I don't hate Aerosmith, though the above might read as if I do. They've never been among my favorites, but I really like the song "Sick As A Dog," and I have varying degrees of affection/tolerance for some of their other '70s tracks, from "Back In The Saddle" to "Mama Kin" to "Sweet Emotion" to "Chip Away The Stone." I lose all interest in them from the '80s onward. I saw The Joe Perry Project in '83 or so, and I preferred their version of Perry's "Let The Music Do The Talking" to Aerosmith's remake on Done With Mirrors. I like the Aerosmith and Run-DMC versions of "Walk This Way" about the same.)

THE SAINTS: (I'm) Stranded



When it comes to the defining debut 45s of '70s punk, I'd rank "(I'm) Stranded)" by Australian rockers The Saints up there with The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop," and even above the Pistols' "Anarchy In The UK" and The Clash's "White Riot," each of which is a fantastic rush of fast, surly energy. When I saw a latter-day line-up of The Saints perform in the late '80s at an off-campus bar near Syracuse University, I led the crowd (which likely included many punters not at all familiar with The Saints) in a chant of Stranded! Stranded! Stranded! Stranded!, setting up what I figured would be the band's inevitable encore. STRANDED!!

And they didn't play it. Damn it! Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Wait--wrong '70s punk band. STRANDED! STRANDED! STRANDED!

THE STEMS: Never Be Friends



If memory serves, my friend Greg Ogarrio introduced me to this amazing confection by Australian pop gods The Stems in an exchange of power pop mixtapes in the late '80s or early '90s. Man, whatta record! In later years, I wound up corresponding a bit with The Stems' Dom Mariani, who allowed us to use DM3's "1 x 2 x Devastated" on the first This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CD. My awareness of the great Dom Mariani started here.

Oooh! And kudos to The Stems for the title of the album that gave us "Never Be Friends": At First Sight Violets Are Blue. That title is so intriguing to me, implying menace, mystery, romance, and danger, while really meaning nothing at all. Yeah!



THE TOYS: May My Heart Be Cast Into Stone 



The Toys' "May My Heart Be Cast Into Stone" is such a magnificently over-the-top gush of hormonal, adolescent pinky-swears that it deserves its own genre. That first sentence you just read? It found its way into a discussion of the girl-group sound, contained within my chapter on "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles. So, The Toys are kind of in the book, even though they aren't.

THE YARDBIRDS: Heart Full Of Soul



Like the Animals, Vogues, Records, and Plimsouls gems mentioned up top, The Yardbirds' "Heart Full Of Soul" is a permanent fixture in my Hot 100. Significantly in the development of my pop cosmology, it was The Flashcubes' live cover of that very song during my first 'Cubes show in 1978 that made me realize that The Flashcubes were always gonna be stars in my eyes. Later on, when the 'Cubes played a private gig in a fellow fan's garage on July 1st, 1979, I stumbled forward and delivered an urgent, drunken song request to guitarist Paul Armstrong: YARDBIRDS!! At PA's direction, The Flashcubes then did "Heart Full Of Soul" live for the first time in over a year. After that, bassist Gary Frenay asked Paul why he'd suddenly added a Yardbirds song to the set; Carl said! was his response.

"Heart Full Of Soul" was the first Yardbirds song I ever heard, courtesy of Utica, NY's WOUR-FM in 1977. It was part of my 1970s embrace and exultation of the '60s, particularly the British Invasion, that same whoosh of delighted discovery that hooked me on The Kinks. A clip of The Yardbirds performing "Heart Full Of Soul" was included in Rock Of The '60s, a presentation of vintage rock videos put on by Syracuse University one night in '77. I scored a used Yardbirds Greatest Hits LP at the flea market or somesuch, and I've never been without my own copy of "Heart Full Of Soul" since then.



I'm a fan of The Yardbirds. I love "Over Under Sideways Down," I love "Evil Hearted You," I love "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and "Little Games" and "Still I'm Sad." I love "For Your Love," the hit song that made blues purist schmuck Eric Clapton flee the group. I liked The Yardbirds better with Clapton's replacement, Jeff Beck.



Most of all, I love "Heart Full Of Soul." It has a hook. It has that riff. Like The Bevis Frond's "He'd Be A Diamond," it has the hopeless regret of lost love. And it has a chorus that would almost sound like a suicide note if it weren't so damned catchy. It's...everything.

And it's The Greatest Record Ever Made. 

It's just not part of my book about that subject. 

Curious to see a few chapters that I completed for The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) but ultimately decided not to include in the book? Well, I collected links to a few such things right here.

"He'd Be A Diamond" written by Nick Saloman, Universal Music Publishing Group



TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 133 essays about 133 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).