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 # 1219. This show is available as a podcast.
THE WEEKLINGS: All The Cash In The World
I'm prone to hyperbole anyway, so maybe you should ingest a li'l bit o' sodium when you hear me wonder out loud if the Weeklings' new album Raspberry Park just might be the group's best effort yet. But I tell ya: I'm starting to believe it is.
Exhibit A in that case is the Raspberry Park track "All The Cash In The World." As much as I've loved (and programmed!) the Weeklings' previous Pick Hits, "All The Cash In The World" carries some super-special intangible that elevates its pure sensory delight. "In The Moment,' from the Weeklings' 2020 album 3, has long been my go-to moment of Weeklingness.
That moment now belongs to "All The Cash In The World."
MELANIE: Peace Will Come (According To Plan)
Our pal and colleague (and Radio Deer Camp host) Rich Firestone recently bemoaned the fact that we're forced to bid farewell to so many of our rockin' pop idols with such numbing, non-stop frequency. On this week's show, we say goodbye to Melanie Safka.
I wrote at length about my introduction to Melanie's music in a Greatest Record Ever Made! piece spotlighting "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)," Melanie's magnificent collaboration with the Edwin Hawkins Singers. As we remember Melanie, it was tempting to play that song yet again this week. But it felt more appropriate to play a Melanie song that we'd never played before.
"Peace Will Come (According To Plan)" opens with a quiet dignity that blossoms into full-body exuberance, an embrace of peace that will accept no substitute. It is the delicate grace and willful power of Melanie in microcosm. Peace will come.
Melanie said so.
Godspeed, Ms. Safka.
HUNGRYTOWN: Another Year
Have we ever played Hungrytown before? A check of the ol' stats says...nope, this was the first time. Man, it's a lucky thing for us that we have tenure. Now that Hungrytown's Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson have brought their unique folk vision to the ever-intrepid Big Stir Records label, maybe Dana and Carl can do a better job of getting Hungrytown into The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. It starts with "Another Year," Hungrytown's new single and Big Stir debut. Another year? We say it's another chance. We'll get it right this time.
THE SATISFACTORS: Arrested
Serendipity! When I fell in deep thrall to this track by the Satisfactors, I had no idea the ace lead vocals were supplied by none other than Kurt Reil of TIRnRR Fave Raves the Grip Weeds. HuzZAH!! Kurt was also the studio wizzard (spelling intentional, as it Wood be) who made our own 2022 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 sound so flippin' fantastic.
"Arrested" is also flippin' fantastic. The album is Dramatis Personae. This arrest merits further investigation. Just the facts: I'm on the case.
PAUL COLLINS: I'm The Only One For You
THE welcome earworm of 2024 so far. From power pop icon Paul Collins' forthcoming new album Stand Back And Take A Good Look, "I'm The Only One For You" finds Collins boppin' with righteous aplomb alongside the late Dwight Twilley, and the irresistible result fits right in among the best stuff Collins has ever done, including the Nerves, the Breakaways, and Paul Collins' Beat. I mean, the Beat's eponymous 1979 debut LP is one of the classics of power pop; "I'm The Only One For You" would have felt right at home on the record, mingling as a peer with your "Rock And Roll Girl" and your "Don't Wait Up For Me"" and your "Walking Out On Love."
We debuted "I'm The Only One For You" on last week's TIRnRR. We played it again this week. And it returns to the air in Syracuse this coming Sunday night. DO wait up for this. And I can't wait to hear the album.
LEATHER CATSUIT: Can't Get You Off My Mind
Speaking of welcome earworms! Leather Catsuit's "Can Get You Off My Mind" comes equipped with a title that mirrors my opinion of the track: I can't get it off my mind. I don't wanna get it off my mind. It's pop music! I wanna hear it again and again.
SUZI QUATRO: Paralysed
During back-announcements on this week's show, I joked that the set that opened with Leather Catsuit kicked off instead with Leather Tuscadero, mock-corrected myself, and then noted a couple of tracks later that we played Ms. Tuscadero herself, Suzi Quatro. And folks think we never plan stuff out in advance!
(They're usually right about that. But I digress.)
My original intent was to play Suzi Q's "I May Be Too Young," the first Suzi Quatro track I ever heard, and the subject of a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). But, as often happens when we're trying to shoehorn the show into its three-hour slot, we had to look at where we could sub in shorter selections. In that process, I switched my Quatro choice to "Paralysed," from her album Your Mama Won't Like Me.
Although I bought Your Mama Won't Like Me (at Record Revolution in Cleveland Heights, Ohio) when I was still a 1970s rock 'n' roll teen with a crush on Suzi Quatro, it's been established that I didn't really like this album all that much. The above-mentioned Rich Firestone has suggested Suzi should have called it Carl Won't Like This. I need to give it a fresh listen one of these days, just to see if I like it better now.
Even back then, though, "Paralysed" was the one track I did like. Still do. The stories you've heard are gonna be confirmed. Sing it, Suzi.
ROB MOSS AND SKIN-TIGHT SKIN: Hey You (We're Sick Of You)
"Hey You (We're Sick Of You)," the latest single from Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin, has the good sense, good taste, good breeding, and good rockin' tonight to enlist the aid of the Flashcubes' irresistible force of nature Paul Armstrong on Special Guest Bat-Villain guitar. Holy Search and Destroy! It's a match made in Boston. Probably at The Rat. It's loud. It's proud. It's skin-tight. And it's on the radio in Syracuse.
TEGAN AND SARA: Walking With A Ghost
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
TAYLOR SWIFT: The Last Great American Dynasty
I'm told our next show has some heavy duty competition from a big football game on TV this Sunday. If the Buffalo Bills were playing, I'd even watch the game. But I would watch with the radio on.
But anyway, our congratulations to Taylor Swift. I've forgiven her boyfriend's team for ending the Bills' postseason this year--we'll get 'em next year!--and she is most definitely THE pop person of the moment. I don't listen to all of her work, but I admire her talent and her character. Plus she pisses off many of the same people who piss ME off. "The Last Great American Dynasty" (from her 2020 album folklore) is a truly wonderful track, and I think its Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac vibe is of a piece with whatever the hell it is we do here on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.
And regardless of whether or not the team Taylor's rooting for at the Super Bowl prevails or comes up short, one thing's for sure: She's still gonna be Taylor Swift.
Winner!
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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.
