10 SONGS: 4/12/2025

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 # 1280

THE GO-GO'S: Vacation

On March 22nd of 2020--yeah, THAT year--I posted this announcement:

"The building that houses the palatial SPARK! studios will be closed until further notice, placing This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio on hiatus for the time being...Stay safe, with clean hands and the clean or dirty mind you prefer...."

The next day, I posted an imaginary TIRnRR playlist, an Isolation Edition assembling a sequence of songs to reflect my mood at that troubled time. That Isolation Edition opened with the Go-Go's insisting a vacation was all they wanted, the song's bittersweet ache leading perfectly into the mix of anxiety, hope, loss, and catharsis I was seeking at that precise flashpoint of doubt and dread.

Our vacation from the studio turned out to be permanent. We never returned, and that space is no longer ours.

A couple of weeks later, when we made a last-minute decision to try recording the show from our remote locations at home, Dana took the imaginary playlist and made it so. I added back announcements recorded on my iPhone. This became our method going forward, minus the "last-minute" part. What had been a fake playlist became a real radio show, broadcast on April 5th, 2020. Five years ago this past weekend.

Five years and one day after returning to the airwaves via remote control, we haven't missed a week yet. And we began home-schooled TIRnRR Year Six with another spin of the magnificent Go-Go's pining for the unattainable.

It still suits my mood. But its catharsis remains welcome. All I ever wanted? Not quite. It's gonna have to suffice anyway.

(One member of the Go-Go's--bassist Kathy Valentine--will be back on our next show with a solo track, a track featuring the pounding prowess of one of our favorite drummers, the late Clem Burke. We've threaded an extended tribute to Clem Burke throughout the show this coming Sunday night, with four Blondie tracks plus more Burke-propelled treats by the Plimsouls, the Romantics, the Empty Hearts, Steve Conte, Ray Paul, Chequered Past, Dan Markell, the Tearaways, Joan Jett, John Easdale, and Tall Poppy Syndrome. That's gonna crowd out a lot of our recent Fave Raves, but they'll be back, and I think we managed to pull off an absolutely kickass tribute to Clem Burke. We're opening the show with one of the specific Blondie tracks you would expect to open a tribute to Clem Burke. Man, I bet you can hear his drum intro to that in your head right now.)

TAMAR BERK: Permanent Vacation

Well, yeah, why take just A vacation when you can take a PERMANENT vacation? Tamar Berk has the right idea. "Permanent Vacation" comes to us from Tamar's 2023 album tiny injuries. We've since likewise hit the beach with Tamar Berk's 2024 release Good Times For A Change, and we're eagerly anticipating the chance to catch more rays with her forthcoming new album. We have a permanent fixation on pop music, so we're set to crank up some Tamar Berk and hit the road with righteous aplomb. 

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

I confess there was originally a different track ("Route 66" by the Rolling Stones) programmed in this spot, but it turned out I didn't have the track on the immediate hand I needed, so Mr. Chuck Berry fit in just fine instead. Permanent vacation route on Route 66 versus vacation destination in the promised land? Can't go wrong either way, and "Promised Land" is my favorite Chuck Berry song. From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"...Chuck Berry knew well the travails of the downtrodden. Dark skin, humble origin, and destined to transcend everything to become one of the most significant performers in the history of rock 'n' roll. His mind was quick, his fingers precise, wedding intricate, unforgettable wordplay to a guitar he played like a-ringin' a bell. He struggled. He pushed. He got noticed. He got pushed back. He kept pushing back in turn, smiling and duck-walking, while seething behind his flamboyant mask. A nice man? Possibly not, but beside the point. An important man? If you've ever loved rock 'n' roll, you should be ashamed to even ask that question...

"...Into this tinderbox, Chuck Berry brought an electric match: Black music that made white kids dance. He wrote in code—most famously, the irresistibly potent brown-skinned handsome man who became (wink) a brown-eyed handsome man—but he crafted and chronicled the American teen-age dream with greater eloquence than anyone else, black or white...."

THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce

I'm dying to tell you more about who's gonna be on Big Stir Records' forthcoming various-artists celebration Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. We've established that the album will open with the Flashcubes' own ace new track "Reminisce" (one of three new 'Cubes songs on Make Something Happen!), this week's show also served up 'Cubes tribute album treats by Pop Co-Op and the Kennedys, we've previously pummeled your grateful senses with Cubic covers by the Spongetones, sparkle*jets u.k., Joe Giddings, and Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols, and we've already revealed that the tribute album will also include contributions from Chris von Sneidern, Hamell On Trial, and Callan Foster.

And there's more. I'm dying to tell you about it, especially about the veteran British rock whose music I loved hearing on the radio when I was in high school, and who just completed his vocal tracks for a cover of the Flashcubes’ "Pathetic." And I just heard a flat-out astonishing ‘Cubes cover by some New York power poppers I’ve been following for nearly as long. Time ain't right for further announcements, at least not quite yet. 

Soon. Very soon. We can look forward and still reminisce at the same time.

THE GRIP WEEDS: Conquer And Divide

THE BYRDS: Lady Friend

THE GREEK THEATRE: Byrd Of Prey

Sometimes the segues just decide for themselves. We've been playing a different track ("Flowers For Cynthia") from the Grip Weeds' current teaser EP Early Clues. Recognizing that a number of other worthy radio outlets (including our SPARK! Radio colleague Rich Firestone on Radio Deer Camp and Bill Kelly and the other boss jocks at Underground Garage) have been playing the EP's opener "Conquer And Divide," we figured we oughta also get in on that action. Willful square-peg status will only get you so far, man.

Given how much TIRnRR airplay has been annexed by the Grip Weeds' divine cover of "Lady Friend" (from the Grip Weeds' divine cover album DiG), Dana automatically followed my spin of new Grip Weeds with the Byrds' original version. Had to be done. 

And given the Byrds taking flyte at that point, I moved the song "Byrd Of Prey" (a jangly number found on the Greek Theatre's new album A Deeper Scar) from its presumed place later in the playlist into, y'know, this spot right here. It's Byrderrific! The science of playlist-building. Don't question science.

STIV BATORS: It's Cold Outside

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: You Don't Know Me

As noted a few column inches north of here, accommodating  a proper salute to Clem Burke is going to occupy a lot of the slots on our next playlist. That means the fab Librarians With Hickeys will get a rare week off from TIRnRR, so let's state again that we just plain adore their latest album How To Make Friends By Telephone. And we just plain adore Librarians With Hickeys, so much so, in fact that...that...

...LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS ARE GOING TO BE ON THE FLASHCUBES TRIBUTE ALBUM! I've heard a rough of their track! I can't wait to get hold of the finished version and play it on the radio! And....

You know me. I'm dying to say more. Apologies if I've already gone too far.

SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS: Pop Radio

Pop radio, turn it up! We've been programming the current Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols single "Pop Radio" with all of the manic obsession one should expect from a self-respectin' rockin' pop radio show. We're playing it again on our next show, and we're also debuting some new SPARK Radio promos that Trip 'n' Lisa concocted for us, based on the irresistible chorus of "Pop Radio." Thank you, friends! 

And yeah: TURN IT UP! Pop radio is its own reward.

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

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Stiv Bators, "It's Cold Outside"

Drawn from a previous piece, this is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but it's a contender for the hypothetical Volume 2.

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

STIV BATORS: It's Cold Outside

Written by Danny Klawon

Produced by The Gutter Twins [Frank Secich and Stiv Bators]

Single, Bomp Records, 1979

Just because punk can be pop doesn't mean all punk is pop. I love the Sex Pistols, and believe their intrinsic worth as an exciting rock 'n' roll band is undervalued because folks can't see past the anger and anarchy. But I can't plausibly consider the Pistols as power pop. Some punk and punk-adjacent bands--the Ramones, the Jam, the Buzzcocks, Generation X, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Rich Kids with ex-Pistol Glen Matlock--at least dabbled around the edge of power pop. The Sex Pistols and the Clash did not. 

Nor did the Dead Boys, really, though the group's guitarist Jimmy Zero claimed that the Raspberries' Side 3 was his favorite album. There's no discernible power pop influence in the grooves of the Dead Boys' first album Young, Loud & Snotty, and while you can maybe hear a little bit of closeted janglebuzz in their second album We Have Come For Your Children, it still ain't quite a record that demands to be filed under Teen Beat Vocal.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that former Dead Boys lead singer Stiv Bators briefly became a full-on power pop performer with the singles he did immediately after the Dead Boys' dissolution in 1979. The Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" isn't power pop. Stiv's "It's Cold Outside"/"The Last Year" is. Unmistakably. Undeniably. Follow-up 45 "Not That Way Anymore"/"Circumstantial Evidence" is, at the very least, pretty damned close. And the singles were released by power pop proselytizer Bomp Records! Of course!

Bators knew who he needed to form his power pop band. Guitarist Frank Secich had been in the shoulda-been-famous '70s rockin' pop combo Blue Ash, and his presence imbued Bators' immediate post-Dead Boys work with power pop gravitas. After the singles, Secich was also involved in the first Stiv Bators solo album Disconnected; when Bators moved on to the Wanderers and the Lords of the New Church, Secich and the above-mentioned Jimmy Zero joined forces in Club Wow, a terrific but mostly unheralded group whose fabulous Who-inspired track "Norman Green" is also The Greatest Record Ever Made. (For additional information on Frank's work and rockin' pop history, check out his two autobiographical books, Circumstantial Evidence and Not That Way Anymore.)

"It's Cold Outside" was originally a 1966 regional hit by the Choir, a Cleveland group otherwise canonized in power pop history because it included three future members of the Raspberries, guitarist Wally Bryson, drummer Jim Bonfanti, and bassist Dave Smalley (though I don't think Smalley was on the Choir's recording of "It's Cold Outside"). 

The Choir's "It's Cold Outside" is a fabulous record. Stiv Bators' remake slays the original, and it's not even close. The world used to be sunny. Jokes used to be funny. The pain of love's failure to melt a cold, cold heart is met by a blizzard of drums, bass, and guitar. Cancel school for the day. Find something (or someone) warm. And credit one more notch to the punk and power pop alliance.

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

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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

10 SONGS: 7/7/2022

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

This week's edition of 10 SONGS draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1136: COME ON LET'S GO! A Celebration Of Classic Power Pop, Pure Pop, And The Power Pop Periphery.

THE FLASHCUBES WITH THE SPONGETONES: Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?

POP WITH POWER! It seemed appropriate to kick off our power pop extravaganza with this rock 'n' roll summit meeting between two of its all-time greatest practitioners: Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse (and this week's Featured Performers) the Flashcubes and North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones. Their recent combined-force Big Stir Records single remake of the Spongetones' "Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?" has been a huge TIRnRR favorite this year, because we have simply impeccable rockin' pop taste.

THE BEATLES: Please Please Me

We are never going to collectively agree on a definition of power pop, and we're never going to agree on power pop's point of origin. Bomp! magazine's Greg Shaw and Gary Sperrazza! pinpointed the Who's pre-Tommy sides as power pop's Ground Zero, but many informed fans and pundits insist power pop can't start until the '70s. I strongly disagree with the latter view, and kinda think we can and should start power pop's stopwatch a little earlier than Bomp! decreed. We can make a case for power pop beginning with Eddie Cochran; I think power pop's introductory detonation came courtesy of the Beatles, specifically with "Please Please Me." Writer Gary Pig Gold and I debated the subject in this piece from 2007.

JESSE BRYSON: Come Back

When we decided to do this week's show as a celebration of classic power pop, pure pop, and the power pop periphery from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, I also wanted to bridge then and now by playing all of the Flashcubes' singles, 1978-2022. As a sidebar to that, we threw in Jesse Bryson's version of "Come Back," a song Jesse's dad Wally Bryson wrote and originally recorded with Fotomaker in the late '70s; Jesse's new version enlists Gary Frenay and Tommy Allen from the 'Cubes and Frankie Vinci and Lex Marchesi from Fotomaker, so its legacy aspect made it a natural addition to this week's retrovision. Jesse Bryson's "Come Back" joined the Flashcubes' 21st century singles as the only latter-day tracks on this week's show.

THE BANGLES: Tell Me

In the mid '90s, when I was freelancing for Goldmine magazine, I wrote a lengthy history of power pop. The piece was published in the January 5th, 1996 issue of GM, alongside separate best-of power pop annotations and recommendations from John M. Borack, a Bay City Rollers retrospective by Dave Thompson, my interview with Greg Kihn, and my liner notes to the Flashcubes' then-forthcoming anthology CD Bright Lights. It was an honor to be involved with creating the first-ever power pop issue of Goldmine, and editor Jeff Tamarkin told me the issue sold well and received a very positive reaction.

But...well, nobody's perfect. Gary Sperrazza! himself was miffed that I hadn't contacted him for his recollections of Bomp! and the power pop scene (an error I still and will always regret). And one reader wrote a letter complaining about the overwhelmingly male-dominated nature of my power pop history. Although I thought some of that reader's suggestions of female power pop artists bordered on the absurd (prompting my reply, "Toni Basil? Are you putting me on?"), I eventually found myself agreeing that he had a point.

So, when I eventually updated and revamped my power pop history into a new version for John Borack's 2005 book Shake Some Action, I acknowledged the oversight and tried to correct it a little bit. Looking back, I say it was still perfunctory--how did I fail to mention Holly and the Italians?--but I did at least expand my coverage a little bit. I hadn't yet heard the fabulous music of the Shivvers or the Expressos in 2005, but I included mention of the Pop Tarts, the Catholic Girls, Nikki and the Corvettes, the B-Girls, the Go-Go's, and the Bangles. I later dovetailed some of this (including the Shivvers) into a blog piece called "Power Pop 101."

Getting back to the Bangles: their eponymous debut EP and their first full-length album All Over The Place remain stirring, sterling examples of transcendent pop-rock, earning them the "She-Beatles" sobriquet bestowed upon them by intrepid TIRnRR listener Elma Tiran, aka Sparky. Subsequent records were good too, though my heart belongs to the earlier efforts.

Especially to All Over The Place. To my ears, that record is one track shy of being a perfect album, only kept from a complete Love At First Spin by my disinterest in "More Than Meets The Eye." The rest is as good as rockin' pop music gets. Mr. Goldmine letter-writer, wherever you are: in the words of the Monkees, I'm a little bit wrong, you're a little bit right.

(Not about Toni Basil, mind you. Still think you were putting me on with that.)

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Got To Have You Back

No one thinks of the Isley Brothers as a power pop band, and that's fair (the Isleys' enormous influence on the Beatles notwithstanding). But this song, 1966's "Got To Have You Back?" I tell ya, if the exact same recording had been credited to the Who on Brunswick instead of the Isley Brothers on Motown, it would garner wider recognition as an essential early power pop track. Whatever label you choose for it, it's an amazing track.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Our above-mentioned Bomp! magazine visionaries Greg Shaw and Gary Sperrazza! recognized the power pop bona fides of the Ramones. I concur, and I made my case on their behalf when I wrote the Ramones' induction into The Power Pop Hall of Fame. "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" is, without exaggeration, the record that changed my life, an epiphany on a direct par with seeing the Beatles in A Hard Day's Night and the first time I witnessed the Flashcubes play. Punk can be pop; it can be as pop as the giddiest and catchiest stuff out there. To me, that's as simple as 1-2-3-4!  

(And, um...I wrote a book about the Ramones. But it's a secret for now. Shhhhh. Don't tell anybody.)

STIV BATORS: It's Cold Outside

Just because punk can be pop doesn't mean all punk is pop. I love the Sex Pistols, and believe their intrinsic worth as an exciting rock 'n' roll band is undervalued because folks can't see past the anger and anarchy, but I can't plausibly consider the Pistols as power pop. Some punk and punk-adjacent bands--the Jam, the Buzzcocks, Generation X, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Rich Kids with ex-Pistol Glen Matlock--at least dabbled around the edge of power pop. The Sex Pistols and the Clash did not. 

Nor did the Dead Boys, really, though the group's guitarist Jimmy Zero claimed that the Raspberries' Side 3 was his favorite album. There's no discernible power pop influence in the grooves of the Dead Boys' first album Young, Loud & Snotty, and while you can maybe hear a little bit of closeted janglebuzz in their second album We Have Come For Your Children, it still ain't quite a record that demands to be filed under Teen Beat Vocal.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that former Dead Boys lead singer Stiv Bators briefly became a full-on power pop performer with the singles he did immediately after the Dead Boys' dissolution in 1979. "Sonic Reducer" isn't power pop. "It's Cold Outside"/"The Last Year" is. Unmistakably. Undeniably. Follow-up 45 "Not That Way Anymore"/"Circumstantial Evidence" is, at the very least, pretty damned close. And the singles were released by Bomp Records! Of course!

Bators knew who he needed to form his power pop band: guitarist Frank Secich had been in the shoulda-been-famous '70s rockin' pop combo Blue Ash, and his presence imbued Bators' immediate post-Dead Boys work with power pop gravitas; I really, really hope the Flashcubes do some work with Secich, too. 

"It's Cold Outside" was originally a 1966 regional hit by the Choir, a Cleveland group otherwise canonized in power pop history because it included three future members of the Raspberries, guitarist Wally Bryson, drummer Jim Bonfanti, and bassist Dave Smalley (though I don't think Smalley was on the Choir's recording of "It's Cold Outside"). 

The Choir's "It's Cold Outside" is a fabulous record. Stiv Bators' remake slays the original, and it's not even close. Credit one more notch to the punk and power pop alliance.

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING RANDY KLAWON: Get The Message

To date, the Flashcubes have released a total of eight singles. The first two were 45s issued during the group's original run, "Christi Girl" in 1978 and "Wait Till Next Week" in '79. Since regrouping in the early '90s, the 'Cubes did one two-song CD single of Chris Spedding covers (later reissued as a 45 for Record Store Day in 2017), and commenced their current series of Big Stir digital singles in 2021.

The Big Stir singles have all been covers, with our 'Cubes usually aided and abetted by other stars of the glittering power pop sky. The first was their take on Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside" (with the song's author Mimi Betinis pitching in), followed by renditions of the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room," a collaboration with Shoes on the latter's magnificent "Tomorrow Night," the above-mentioned Spongecubes mash-up, and Slade's "Gudbuy T' Jane," performed with Ed Conte. On this week's show, we played 'em all.

And we wanted more.

So the group allowed us an exclusive premiere of "Get The Message," a way-fab cover of a song originally written and recorded by Eric Carmen in 1969, with his pre-Raspberries combo Cyrus Erie. For this new version, the Flashcubes drafted Randy Klawon, who had been in Cyrus Erie (albeit after they recorded "Get The Message"), and he'd been in the Choir. Randy's brother Danny Klawon wrote "It's Cold Outside."  SCORE!! I now regard this new version as definitive, and we thank the Flashcubes for letting us share it.

There's still a lot more to come in the Flashcubes-Big Stir LLC. I know a couple of specifics, and I know there's more that I don't really know about yet. I look forward to all of it. And I look forward to playing it all on the radio, where it belongs.

THE SMITHEREENS: Behind The Wall Of Sleep

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise

Hey, speaking (yet again) of my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1): From 1979, this is the Flashcubes' single that should have been. I've written about it here, and again here. Love this record. Love this band. This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl would not exist if not for the Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes. Pop with power. It inspires us every day, and it fuels a fresh radio show every week. There is a promise after all.

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.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl