10 SONGS: 10/10/2025

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 # 1305.

STEVE STOECKEL: I Wanna Be A Vampire

It's important to have goals. Be the vampire you wish to be!

My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about "The Transylvania Twist," a terrific 1963 single credited to Baron Daemon and the Vampires. Baron Daemon (played by the late, great Mike Price) was Syracuse's local TV vampire when I was a kid in the '60s. As I wrote in the book: To any kid living in Syracuse at that time, Baron Daemon was as big as the Beatles.

Friend of TIRnRR Steve Stoeckel is best-known as singer/songwriter/bassist with North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones. Our Steve was not a Syracuse kid in the 1960s, and any familiarity he might have with Baron Daemon probably came from, y'know, reading my book (a book that also contains a chapter about the Spongetones). But Steve effectively channels the Dracula Beat on "I Wanna Be A Vampire," his contribution to Big Stir Records' epic new Halloween compilation Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies.

The music of the night! And a vampire song that does not suck. We'll switch from vampires to witches for a spin of another track from Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies on our next show.

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

Grow up...?! As if.

(But speaking of the Ramones--the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time--lemme take this opportunity to thank my friends at Rare Bird Books, the publisher of my 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones. The book was featured in this week's edition of Rare Bird's newsletter The Bird's Eye View, and I am very grateful for the mention.

Grateful. Still not grown up, mind you, but grateful.)

THE WEEKLINGS: Diamond Dogs

From the wonderful current compilation Jem Records Celebrates David Bowie, here's the Weeklings' cool take on Bowie's "Diamond Dogs." We offer it here as a dedication to the coaching staff (plus Higgins) of UFC Richmond. Hey guys! Looking forward to seeing you again this summer.

THE KENNEDYS: Walking Through The Park

From her secret origin as Maura Boudreau in North Syracuse, Maura Kennedy has always been one of us, a native daughter made good. Her husband Pete Kennedy isn't from around here, but he is likewise one of us, and Central New Yorkers proudly consider Maura and Pete's internationally-renowned coffeehouse pop combo the Kennedys to be local heroes, their downstate base of operations notwithstanding. It's a legit homecoming whenever the Kennedys play in Syracuse, and their latest homecoming occurs this Saturday, October 11th, at The 443 Social Club & Lounge. Tickets for the show? Glad you asked! Grab 'em with delirious glee right here.

Adding to the homecoming vibe, the Kennedys recently participated in Big Stir Records' various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, recording a sublimely aching cover of the Flashcubes' lovely "Walking Through The Park." Here's hopin' the Kennedys' homecoming includes a live performance of "Walking Through The Park" at the 443 on Saturday.

VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH: She's An Intellectual

Calling all intellectuals! Long-time TIRnRR Fave Raves Vegas With Randolph have released Drops Of Gold: The Best Of Vegas With Randolph, an absolutely primo retrospective set that oughta be an automatic purchase for all of us who adore music of the rockin' pop persuasion. And the lads of VWR are promoting Drops Of Gold with an absolutely primo new video for their past TIRnRR Pick T' Click "She's An Intellectual." Even better, it's an animated video inspired by the style of classic DC Comics cartoons. HEY! They're playing directly to MY demographic! And they're playing to win. It's Vegas, baby.

SLYBOOTS: Silent Storm

New single from Slyboots! Their 2024 single "If We Could Let Go" was my # 1 favorite new track last year, and "Silent Storm" continues that world-weary but determined sense of reaching for a better world. 

And I think we could all use a better world at this point.

TINA TURNER: The Acid Queen

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE SUPREMES: All I Want

Like the rest of the group's post-Diana Ross output, the Supremes' 1972 cover of Joni Mitchell's "All I Want" is woefully, criminally underrated. It's too much of a hot take to say the Supremes records after Ross left are a better group o' tunes than the familiar hits with Ross, but I admit the hyperbole is tempting. Not true, I guess. But tempting. 

Either way, if you can find it, a two-disc Supremes compilation called The '70s Anthology is well worth seeking and acquiring. Will it be all the Supremes you want? No, probably not. Will it be worthwhile in its own right? Damned right it will.

SHOES: Tomorrow Night

From The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

In the late '70s, power pop was a niche genre that did not wish to be a niche genre. It wanted fame, fortune. It wanted action. It for damned sure wanted the girl, right now. If not tonight, then tomorrow night...

...Shoes was one of the most notable (and durable) among '70s power pop groups, an exquisite four-man band from Zion, Illinois. Shoes took their first step with an album that was literally homemade, recorded in guitarist Jeff Murphy’s living room and released on the group’s own Black Vinyl label in 1977.  

That album, Black Vinyl Shoes, was an instant pop classic, bursting with understated gems, songs simultaneously Beatlesque yet not strictly derivative of anything. Black Vinyl Shoes brought the group to the attention of Bomp Records/Bomp! magazine visionary Greg Shaw. Bomp released a non-LP 45 of  “Tomorrow Night”/”Okay,” which still ranks as the best 1-2 punch of Shoes’ always-distinguished recording career. 

"Tomorrow Night" is nearly textbook power pop, a pretty ditty that combines yearning and lust, its façade suggesting an equal measure of the two, but really looking for a steamy tomorrow-night stand. What the track lacks in explosiveness á la the Who or Raspberries is more than compensated by its confidence and posture, the music leaning forward with single-minded precision. It's catchy and aggressive, its dreamy, breathy vocals piloting a rockin' sound with one Beatle boot perched in the British Invasion and one ragged Converse stepping on a back-breaking crack in the New Wave of post-punk rock 'n' roll....

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Shout (Part 1)

The perils of prerecording a radio show: On Sunday night, my back-announcement of spinning the Isley Brothers' "Shout (Part 1)" was accompanied by my prerequisite cry of Let's GO, Buffalo! That moment aired shortly after the previously-unbeaten Buffalo Bills had been defeated by themselv...er, by the Patriots. Nonetheless: Let's GO, Buffalo! I retain my hope of seeing Bad Bunny perform a Halftime show during a Bills game on TV this February.

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: 4/26/2024

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 # 1230. This show is available as a podcast.

THE FLASHCUBES: Make Something Happen

"Make something happen?" Okeydokey! I'm in the very early stages of writing a new book about Power Pop Hall of Famers the Flashcubes. The book's working (and probable official) title is Make Something Happen! The DIY Story Of A Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES, and the project was initiated by the Flashcubes themselves. Well, I'M in! 

And when I say "early stages," I mean it, man. I've had a couple of planning meetings with members of the 'Cubes, and I've begun trying to find and learn appropriate tech to record and transcribe interviews. My next task is to write a one-sheet on the book's behalf, and then to start talking to the Flashcubes and their entourage. It's all very exciting, and we hope to bring the book to retail by the Summer of 2025. From the book's first public announcement last week:

"This will be an oral history of the band, with personal stories related by the 'Cubes themselves--Tommy Allen, Paul Armstrong, Gary Frenay, and Arty Lenin--discussing their roots as rockin' pop fans in the '60s and '70s, their formation in the punk rock crucible of 1977, their frenzied live shows with the Ramones, the Runaways, the Police, the Jam, David Johansen, Joe Jackson, the Scruffs, the Romantics, Artful Dodger, 999, and more, their irresistible original songs, their indie 45s, their demo tapes, their breakup at the end of the '70s, and the subsequent recognition that the Flashcubes were a legit power pop legend. This growing awareness and celebration reunited the Flashcubes in the '90s, culminating in their award-winning 2023 album Pop Masters.

"In Make Something Happen!, the Flashcubes story will also be told by eyewitnesses: Fans, fellow musicians, industry insiders, and maybe the occasional drunken pogo dancer yelling out GOT NO MIND!, or swooning to 'Christi Girl,' vowing to wait till next week, it'll be all right. This is the first-hand story of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse, a band that thrived under bright lights of their own invention."

More details to come. Oh, rest assured there will be more details to come. As I've written elsewhere: I think everyone knows that I'm possibly the world's most insistent Flashcubes fan. The Flashcubes are my favorite power pop band, they rank with the Beatles and the Ramones in the troika of my top rock 'n' roll groups, and I've long wished they enjoyed the sort of mass notoriety and adulation I think they deserve. "Make Something Happen" was first recorded by Gary Frenay's post-Flashcubes band Screen Test in the '80s, then recorded again by the reunited 'Cubes for their 2003 album Brilliant. It's a hit record, no matter how few the number of people who've heard it.

And it makes a dandy title for a book about the Flashcubes. We played it this week, and we're playing it again on our next show. 

Make something happen.

Good advice.

THE ARMOIRES: We Absolutely Mean It

Another song that Gary Frenay wrote and recorded with Screen Test was called "I Am Sincere." And while that song has nothing to do with the Armoires' new single "We Absolutely Mean It," I dig the shared lyrical celebration of authenticity. Sincerity has great intrinsic value. Its value is embodied in the work of the Armoires.

That's not just true of the band's music. It's a defining quality of Armoires mainstays Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko, who are also the proprietors, CEOs, primary enforcers, benevolent despots, intimidating muscle, and photogenic poster kids for the mighty Big Stir Records label. Other than the annual edition of Dana's Funky Soul Pit and the occasional special program, a TIRnRR playlist without at least one Big Stir track is rarer'n rare. We like Big Stir. We like Rex and Christina. And, obviously, we like the Armoires. 

And also obviously: We absolutely mean it. 

THE CYNZ: Just A Boy

I think I've settled on my designated Pick T' Click from Little Miss Lost, the superswell new album from the Cynz. We've been playing a number of its individual treats, and this is our third consecutive playlist to spin the album's treat-of-treats "Just A Boy." It's a hit! And it will rack up TIRnRR airplay for its fourth week in a row this coming Sunday night. 

SHADOWY MEN ON A SHADOWY PLANET: Tired Of Waking Up Tired

Too good for words. And I don't even mean that as a reference to the fact that it's an instrumental. I've always loved the Diodes' 1979 power pop classic "Tired Of Waking Up Tired." Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet re-worked the song into a surf instrumental, and--much like the Nutley Brass' transcendent easy-listening cover of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated"--the resulting triumph illustrates how a great song can be adapted into different styles and still retain its essential mojo. I will not be tiring of this any time soon.

THE FOUR TOPS: Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)

In building a better playlist, there is no such thing as a song-to-song segue so obvious we wouldn't deign to do it anyway. Case in point: Dana played Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet's "Tired Of Waking Up Tired," and I turned immediately to "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" by Motown's phenomenal pop combo the Four Tops. It's not rocket surgery, folks--IT'S POP MUSIC! Sometimes the obvious thing is the right thing. We'll return to this subject of playlist building in just a moment. 

But first, this word:

THE BARBARIANS: Take It Or Leave It

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE GRIP WEEDS: Lady Friend [vocals only mix]

STEVE STOECKEL: Mod Girl [a cappella]

MR. ENCRYPTO: The Last Time [a cappella--expanded mix]

Playlist building in action. Both of your intrepid TIRnRR co-hosts are big fans of the Grip Weeds, and both of us adore the Grip Weeds' cover of the Byrds' "Lady Friend." That track was on the Grip Weeds' exquisite all-covers album DiG, and we split its airplay between the album version and a vocals-only mix found on the companion album A Deeper DiG.

So! This week, Dana played the Grip Weeds' vocals-only "Lady Friend." I felt delightedly compelled to follow with the a cappella mix of Steve Stoeckel's "Mod Girl." The full track appeared on Steve's album The Power Of And, but the vocals-only mix is officially unreleased. And it's freakin' awesome, showcasing simply incredible backing-vocal interplay courtesy of Jamie Hoover and Elena Rogers. This cries out for legit issue.

Finally, Dana completed our little no-instruments-allowed hat trick with one of the defining tracks of TIRnRR's long and storied history: The a cappella mix of Mr. Encrypto's "The Last Time." Go'geous! Go'geous and a HALF!  

And that's how one builds the superior playlist. Something great triggers another something great. Instrumental, a cappella, full-band, what-have-you. We know what fits, and when. This is rock 'n' roll radio.

ELENA ROGERS: Queen

Oooo, speaking of Elena Rogers: YEAH!!!!!! My gosh, she's good. We're giving her next week off. She'll be back, and she'll be back soon.

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

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

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

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 (no, 11!) SONGS: 1/12/2024 (Our Most-Played Artists In 2023)

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

This week's first of two editions of 10 Songs expands to 11 songs, celebrating TIRnRR's 11 most-played artists in 2023. The Countdown show is available as a podcast.

11. LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Listen, The Snow Is Falling

TIRnRR ends each year/begins the next with a Countdown show, playing back what we played a lot over the course of the preceding twelve months. Our friend Fritz Van Leaven minds our stats, and provides us with two countdown lists, detailing the year's most-played artists and most-played tracks.

For a very long time, the countdown tallies were based solely on the year's accumulated spins, resulting in a number of ties. Fritz thought that was waaaay too clunky, so he instituted a series of tie-breakers to maintain the sort of compelling order a proper countdown needs. That's why the number of tracks included in the countdown--a Top 46 this year, a Top 60 last year, a Top 56 the year before that--varies so much. The tie-breakers provide structure, but we make sure to include all tracks that qualify for the countdown.

The same goes for the artist countdown. This year, our # 11 and # 10 most-played artists received the same number of individual spins, so today's 10 Songs fist-bump huzzah of our most-played acts in 2023 needs to ape Spinal Tap and go to...you know. Eleven is the number. The number is eleven.

With two songs in our most-played tracks countdown (including our # 2 track "Can't Wait 'Till Summer"), Librarians With Hickeys scored some significant TIRnRR spinnin' in 2023.  To represent them in our artist countdown, we selected their sublime cover of Yoko Ono's "Listen, The Snow Is Falling." 

We're told we can expect new music from Librarians With Hickeys in 2024. It seems pretty likely we'll be playing it. Listen.

10. STEVE STOECKEL: Christine

It would be accurate (and cool!) to call Steve Stoeckel a friend of this show. Dana and I have been fans for years 'n' years, blasting off from Steve's wonderful work as a member of the Spongetones and proceeding in all directions. We've never met Steve, but somewhere along the way we became on-line pals. We're delighted to play his music, solo and in groups. Steve credits TIRnRR with sparking the creation of his group Pop Co-Op, and he was one of the prime movers behind Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Thank you, friend!

The 2023 release of Steve's first solo album The Power Of And gave us MORE Steve Stoeckel to play. So we played it. That's what friends are for. 

(Plus, it's really good. That doesn't hurt either.)

9. THE GRIP WEEDS: Rainbow Quartz

The Grip Weeds made their first-ever Syracuse appearance in October, and we're still buzzin'. Whatta band! They've been TIRnRR perennials for a quarter of a century, and that ain't gonna stop. The Grip Weeds' 2022 all-covers album DiG has been a very frequent playlist resource for Dana and I both, and the DiG cover of the Byrds' "Lady Friend" was a shoo-in for the list of our ten most-played tracks.

We like good covers, and we like 'em a lot. Still, we're hankerin' to hear more Grip Weeds originals. To represent the Grip Weeds on our most-played artists countdown, we reached back to the Grip Weeds' 2015 album How I Won The War and an irresistible track called "Rainbow Quartz." But make no mistake: Whether it's a cover or an original, we dig the Grip Weeds.

8. THE PRETENDERS: Night In My Veins

One of TIRnRR's strengths is that its playlists are built by two people, 50-50, rather than by just one. Dana and I have similar ideas about what fits our chosen format, but the specifics are programmed by a melting pot of our respective points of view. Dana programs the annual Dana's Funky Soul Pit by himself. I generally solo-program one playlist a year. And Fritz, of course, does the Countdown. Otherwise? Half Dana. Half Carl. I play a record. Dana plays a record. Back and forth. This is rock 'n' roll radio.

I love the Pretenders. I saw the original lineup in 1980, bought the singles and albums, and my affection for the group has never wavered. Having completed the draft of my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), I'm trying to compose a celebration of the Pretenders' "Back On The Chain Gang" for a (very) theoretical GREM! sequel. I'm a Pretenders fan.

That said, the Pretenders' airplay on this show is almost always one of Dana's picks. No reason why, and I'm delighted to hear 'em, including the selections Dana's been playing from the Pretenders' fab 2023 album Relentless. Great, great stuff, and all well worthy of a home on the radio.

To represent the Pretenders on our artists countdown, the initial pick was "Cuban Slide," a superb non-album track from 1979 which was just too long to squeeze into an already jam-packed show. Instead, 1994's terrific "Night In My Veins" served as an equally able choice. 

7. THE KINKS: Who'll Be The Next In Line

The House Band! The Kinks are the only act to ever take over the entirety of the programming for an episode of TIRnRR, and we actually did TWO all-Kinks shows. I don't think we played them as much as we should have in 2023...but we still played 'em often enough to secure # 7 on the list of our most-played acts last year. 

I betcha they'll place at least a little higher in 2024. Who'll be the next in line? We'll see.

6. JUNIPER: Picture Of You

Teen singer Juniper is for damned sure no stranger to TIRnRR's playlist. But her 2023 release She Steals Candy was just huge for us last year, even more so than any of her previous TIRnRR Picks T' Click. Two of She Steals Candy's sweet treats were among our go-tos in '23: The wonderful "Ride Between The Cars" (represented on the countdown by its AM mix) and her incredible cover of Amy Rigby's "Baby Doll" (our # 3 track). Also from She Steals Candy, Juniper's cover of Delbert McClinton's "Picture Of You" provides a perfect, wistful ache to represent her as our sixth most-played artist in 2023.

5. THE MUFFS: Sad Tomorrow

The Muffs entered our custom-made radio world in the early '90s, when their eponymous debut album was released. This fell in between the sudden demise of the first Dana and Carl radio series We're Your Friends For Now in 1992 and the start of whatever the hell it is we've done on TIRnRR from December 27, 1998 to date. I reviewed The Muffs for Goldmine, and I fell particularly hard for its track "Saying Goodbye." Shortly after its release, "Saying Goodbye" became the first Muffs track ever played on a Dana and Carl radio show, appearing on an episode of our '90s gig between gigs Radio Peace, the series of shows we recorded on cassette (a weird story that's part of our weird history).

And when we signed on for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1 on 12/27/1998, "Sad Tomorrow" (from the Muffs' second album Blonder And Blonder) was part of our first TIRnRR playlist. It remains a part of TIRnRR's DNA, as does most of the Muffs' under-celebrated cranky catalogue of wonder.

4. THE MONKEES: Love Is Only Sleeping

The Monkees may be the most unfairly overlooked and underappreciated superstar artists of the rock 'n' roll era. If that seems like a contradiction in terms, consider the bickering but congruent sets of facts that the Monkees were enormously popular but critically reviled in their day. The legacy of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork continues to attract newer fans and delight long-time believers as well, even as know-nothing pundits deny the group's merit and The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame sticks its fingers in its ears (and its head up its ass) and murmurs Neener-Neener-CAN'T HEAR YOU! whenever someone makes the logical case that it's way past time to induct the Monkees.

TIRnRR will continue to give the Monkees their due. And for as long as we have a show, it's very unlikely there will ever be a year when the Monkees won't be among our most-played acts.

As for the song we selected to represent the Monkees at # 4, here's a li'l something from a post called "Once Upon A Once-In-A-While: My 25 Favorite Monkees Tracks:"

"I've written elsewhere of my discovery of the Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. and Head albums as a high school senior in the Spring of 1977. I had already heard 'Love Is Only Sleeping' in TV reruns, but it really hit me for the first time in '77. Lyrically, this Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil song may be about female sexual dysfunction (more so than Sandie Shaw's deceptively-titled 'Girl Don't Come' anyway), but it's so much more than that. It's a tale of hope. It's a tale of frustration and despair conquered by passion and persistence, sweet deliverance earned and embraced. Chip Douglas' bass and Nesmith's guitar slice, as Michael's lead vocal shimmers with cool, calm confidence, all made breathier and more inviting by harmony from Dolenz. Love is only sleeping. Try it! It can work for you, too!"

3. THE BEATLES: Magical Mystery Tour

Roll up! I think Dana would agree that neither this radio show nor pop music itself could have happened for us in the same essential and meaningful way if not for the Beatles. I'm just old enough to remember the rush of Beatlemania in 1964, and I still remember how they were simply synonymous with pop when I was four years old.

Six decades later: They still are. 

2. THE FLASHCUBES: Alone In My Room

I'm not 100 % sure, but I'm pretty sure we played every track from the Flashcubes' 2023 album Pop Masters at least once last year; if so, it's probably the only album that can make that claim. Two of its tracks made our Top Ten. A third, the Flashcubes' cover of Dwight Twilley's "Alone In My Room," serves to represent the 'Cubes as our second most-played artist of the year.

The Monkees. The Beatles. The Flashcubes. If you know this show, that makes it pretty clear who are # 1 most-played act has gotta be.

1. THE RAMONES: Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue

Inevitable. My book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones was published in 2023, and while the Ramones are gonna be among our top acts each 'n' every year anyway, there was never any doubt they'd be our # 1 group this time out. The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll group of all time. The Ramones at # 1? Obviously.

To represent the Ramones on our artist countdown, we were originally going to use their invigmoratin' cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up." It is, after all, The Greatest Record Ever Made!, and a righteous statement of intent. BUT! We needed something shorter, and went instead with a different statement of intent. "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." 

Because goals are important.

And thus this recap of our most-played artists in 2023 concludes with the Ramones. Tomorrow, a recap of our ten most-played tracks will begin with the Ramones. Hey-ho, let's go.

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

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

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

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 9/16/2023

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1198. This show is available as a podcast.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Hear My Prayer

New work from the Catholic Girls is pretty much guaranteed a spin on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, and their new single "Hear My Prayer" provides further evidence of why we love the group. This is pop music that mourns its sadness but stands tall in its defiance, its insistence that there will be at least one more day. The single spins again on our next show.

THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer

Always one of my very favorite Monkees tracks. It's from my favorite Monkees album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., and its familiar sting of if-only regret suited my own tinges of melancholy as Dana and I were programming this week's show. Sometimes the laughter from that caravan feels ever more distant. Fool's gold stacked up all around us.

But we're okay, right? We acknowledge and move on, at least to the best of our capability. The music of the Monkees has always been a source of comfort, a source of satisfaction. Even their saddest songs can make me happy.

Happy is good. We can use more happy.

AMY RIGBY: Baby Doll

We've been giving a lot of air time this year to tracks from Juniper's recent covers album She Steals Candy, especially to Juniper's cover of Amy Rigby's "Baby Doll." Such a great song, and I don't think we've ever played Rigby's wonderful original. Dana rectified that oversight this week. Good on ya, Mr. Bonn.

Coincidentally, Amy herself posted the above picture to my Facebook page last week. Listen, I'm still pinching myself when artists of Amy Rigby's stature even give me the friggin' time of day, let alone post pictures of my Ramones book sighted in the wild. Amy captioned the pic, From the original Rough Trade in West London!, and I was immediately giddy to the nth degree. Thank you SO much, Amy!

Juniper's "Baby Doll" returns to TIRnRR this Sunday. Amy Rigby returns the following Sunday. We wouldn't dream of doing *ahem* THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO # 1200 without some Amy Rigby. Giddy is as giddy does.

CYNDI LAUPER: I Drove All Night

Is 1989's "I Drove All Night" my favorite Cyndi Lauper track? Yeah, I believe it is. And that's not faint praise; I think Cyndi's great, and I love her big smash hit records, including "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," and especially "Time After Time." I think the first time I heard the latter was when she appeared on The Tonight Show in 1984, delivering an electrifying performance of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and then topping it with a dramatic rendition of "Time After Time." Watching it on my little black and white TV, my jaw dropped. I was impressed, and I believe Johnny Carson also approved. Smart guy, that Carson. Robert Klein seemed to agree, too. Another smart guy!

Memory suggests The Tonight Show also introduced me to "I Drove All Night" a few years later. Hey, who needs radio when ya got Johnny Carson? Whether my first exposure or a reinforcement of established bias, Lauper's "I Drove All Night" knocked me out. Songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly originally crafted the song for Roy Orbison, and that intent is evident in the song's only-the-lonely DNA even if you've never heard Orbison's own splendid, posthumously-released version. Lauper owns it anyway; can't say that about many Orbison numbers performed by artists who weren't Roy razzafrazzin' Orbison.

In both the Lauper and Orbison performances, "I Drove All Night" just simmers with controlled desire, an earthly passion--burning up inside--accompanying a pristine love, impossible to resist, even if one were foolish enough to want to resist in the first place. Its consummation is sweet and well-earned.

Lauper's best track? Yes. Don't argue with the driver.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Can't Wait 'Till Summer

Librarians With Hickeys' 2022 album Handclaps & Tambourines supplied this little mutant radio program with two perennial go-tos: "I Better Get Home" (TIRnRR's # 25 most-played track last year) and "Can't Wait 'Till Summer," which is guaranteed a berth on our year-end countdown for 2023. We play the hits. I love this gig. And in my mind, I imagine Lauper's "I Drove All Night" as an answer song to "Can't Wait 'Till Summer," the chronology of the two songs notwithstanding. In the Librarians With Hickeys track, love is unrequited, deferred at best, and just as likely to be taken off life support before there's even a hint of the summer sun. In "I Drove All Night," love wins. 

I approve of that message. And it is worth waiting for.

STEVENSON AND COMPANY: Insane

Loyal TIRnRR listeners know Stevenson and Company from their magnificent little ditty "Talking Down To Me," which appeared on our most recent compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. A previous 10 Songs revealed that "Talking Down To Me" was "originally brought to our attention by every pop fan's best bud Steve Stoeckel. Steve's best known for his work as a member of the Spongetones and Pop Co-Op (the latter of whom are also represented on TIRnRR # 5), and 'Talking Down To Me' is a li'l gem originally written by Steve's friend Danny Stevenson. Steve subsequently earned a co-write on the song, and added bass and vocals to what Danny and his drummin' brother Bruce Stevenson had already done. We loved it! And we played it on the radio, crediting it to the nom de bop King Mixer. 

"When it came time to address the idea of slapping together a fifth TIRnRR compilation, 'Talking Down To Me' was an automatic choice. At the artists' request, the billing has been changed to Stevenson and Company. Which is just as well; a King Mixer could have cost us a fortune in breach-of-promise cases...." 

There's your preamble, and we're thrilled that Stevenson and Company have just released their debut album Out Of Time, and it most assuredly swoops 'n' sways the way a rockin' pop record oughta. Let me say here what my overlords won't allow me to say on the air: BUY IT!!! We played one of its many fine tracks on this week's show, and promised more in the weeks ahead.

So yeah: we'll hear another one this Sunday night. We would not be able to afford a breach of promise suit, believe you me. That would be insane.

DOLPH CHANEY: Ice Cream Embers

What does Dolph Chaney have in common with the Catholic Girls? Rhetorical question! New music from Dolph Chaney is also pretty much guaranteed a spin on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Catholic Girls? Meet Dolph. Dolph, the Catholic Girls. I'll get us some beverages.

Ah. Dolph brought his own refreshment. 

Our lad Dolph has been a Fave Rave here, most especially for his all-time TIRnRR Pick T' Click "My Good Twin." Now, Dolph's back with his brand-new album Mug, courtesy of the benevolent visionaries at Big Stir Records. So this week: Catholic Girls and Dolph Chaney. Two great treats that treat great together. Or something like that.

And ya wanna know what else the Catholic Girls' "Hear My Prayer" and Dolph Chaney's "Ice Cream Embers" have in common? We'll hear 'em both again next week! 

I pray there'll be ice cream.

THE JAM: That's Entertainment

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Oh Oh I Love Her So

We've established that the Monkees make me happy. Same goes for the Ramones. My motto remains that a day without the Ramones would be like...I don't have any idea what a day without the Ramones would be like. Nor do I ever intend to find out.

"Oh Oh I Love Her So" is an explosion of adrenaline-charged joy, one of my favorite Ramones tracks. Like most of the Ramones' best works, it is pure in a way that may seem unexpected by heathens who don't worship at the Church of Ramones.

But it is pure. It is exciting and life-affirming and vividly real, even at its most cartoonish, even in the midst of its Bowery-bred seediness, the danger of its genesis redeemed by the exuberance of its pop. Fast. Loud. Pure. Oh oh, I love it so.

JACK "PENETRATOR" LIPTON: It's My Life

During Labor Day weekend, we learned that Jack "Penetrator" Lipton, a fixture of the Syracuse rock 'n' roll scene and a long-time friend of this show, had taken his own life. We were not yet at liberty to share this news publicly, and I wouldn't have had the will to do so anyway. That Sunday night, as I listened to this year's edition of Dana's Funky Soul Pit on TIRnRR, my mind wandered, and its meandering path kept strolling to Jack Lipton, and to Jack's decision to exit this mortal world.

Jack and I weren't especially close. I don't want to compare my sense of loss to the aches felt by his tightest friends and family. But I would say we were on good terms, and Jack's enthusiasm and boundless good will always made him seem like a pal. Maybe those who knew Robin Williams recognize that sense of seeming delight and humor, an illusion of cheer that hides whatever troubles may brew beneath. Where there tell-tale signs? I don't know. Probably not, not really...but I don't know. Neither do you.

I've written before of how suicide affects the survivors, or at least how it affected me when one of my best friends killed himself in 1979. No one can save us. But there are potential paths to facilitate our rescue: the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is within reach via a phone call to 988, and often our loved ones will be willing, eager, to help in any way they can. It may feel like no one will listen, that no one will understand. But someone, somewhere will listen, and they'll try to understand. Repeating what I said earlier this week: your life is worth saving. Our lives are worth saving.

Jack always wanted us to play his cover of the Animals' "It's My Life" on the show. We never did, not during his lifetime. It was too long for our chosen format, so we played some of Jack's other work instead, both solo and with the Penetrators and Mark Doyle and the Maniacs. 

We played Jack's "It's My Life" this week. It's a good cover of one of my very favorite songs. It hurts to play it now. 

But it was high time we did.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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

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

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl