10 SONGS: 1/13/2023

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 # 1163. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Pinhead

Gabba Gabba Hey!

For reasons to be revealed soon--no, really!--I'm gonna be using that three-word-phrase a lot in 2023. So, after last week's epic countdown show, I wanted to open our first regular show of the year with a spin of "Pinhead," the classic Ramones track that introduced "Gabba Gabba Hey!" into the popular lexicon.

In programming the show, I was amazed when I discovered that we had never before played "Pinhead" on TIRnRR. "Pinhead" is one of the Ramones' definitive gems, and the Ramones are among the top most-played acts in this little mutant radio show's long and storied history. But we just never got around to spinning that particular track. We finally corrected that oversight this week.

And again: GABBA GABBA HEY!

RANK AND FILE: Amanda Ruth

The happenstance of "Pinhead" making its overdue TIRnRR debut dovetailed with Dana's determination to play a number of tracks we ain't never played here before. That plan brought the mighty Rank and File into the TIRnRR universe, with a spin of their superb 1982 single "Amanda Ruth." We play the hits. There are a lot of hits out there. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to get to 'em.

JOSIE COTTON: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

And we're not the only ones who might run late in getting to the rockin' pop gala. Major record label weasels can be among the most guilty parties ever, sitting on perfectly fine potential releases, lettin' 'em languish in the vault as the weasels' myopic attention span flits to some other glittery piece o' pyrite. 

In the early '80s, Josie Cotton released two albums on Elektra, 1982's Convertible Music and 1984's From The Hip. She scored some notice with her singles "Johnny, Are You Queer?" and "He Could Be The One," appeared with her band in the movie Valley Girl, and got some MTV play with her cover of the Looking Glass' "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" (and I regard her version of that as the version). 

Alas, the units sold weren't sufficient to satisfy the weasels, and her 1986 album Everything Is Oh Yeah was not released at the time. It was retrieved and rescued in 2019 by the non-weasel Cleopatra label. Hooray for the non-weasels!

From Everything Is Oh Yeah, Dana selected our Josie's cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" for airplay, adding that it's still as fresh as anything this newfangled 21st century can offer, and that it sounds like it could have been Josie Cotton backed by the contemporary oomph of the Linda Lindas. Which would be a great idea.

Meanwhile: I'm ordering my own copy of Everything Is Oh Yeah, and Dana will be playing another cut off that album on our next show. Can't let the weasels win, man. Can't let the weasels win.

CLIFF HILLIS: Good Morning And Goodnight

Of course, new songs likewise provide an ongoing opportunity to expand the ol' playlist. The new Cliff Hillis single "Good Morning And Goodnight" was co-written by long-time TIRnRR Fave Rave Kelley Ryan, who also sings along with Mr. Cliff on this engaging little number. A check of the archives shows we've played three other Cliff Hillis tracks--"Madeline," "Turn On A Dime," and his cover of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy"--at some points in our first 24 years on the air. We need to play more, and we will. We'll start with another play for "Good Morning And Goodnight" next week.

ABBA: On And On And On

Some of our listeners dig ABBA, and some do not. We're still working on politely bludgeoning the non-believers into compliance. But man, I heard this song last month on Michael McCartney's fabulous show The Time Machine (on Maui's Mana'o Radio), and I knew we needed to get it into one of our own playlists as soon as we possibly could. Thanks for the inspiration, Michael!

LOVE: 7 And 7 Is

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

KAI DANZBERG FEATURING DEAR STELLA: Let Him Go

THE FORTY NINETEENS: Crocodile Tears

How in the world could it be that we've never played either of these Big Stir Records singles? We need a better class of minions. Or, first, I guess we need minions. None of these acts is exactly a stranger to TIRnRR; Dear Stella's simply superlative "Time Machine" was one of our most-played tracks in 2020, we've played a bunch of stuff by the Forty Nineteens (including "Late Night Radio," the A-side of "Crocodile Tears"), and a bunch of Kai Danzberg works, too. Still: any record you ain't heard (or played) is a new record. Looking for new? These are as good as new.

TAJ MAHAL: E Z Rider

Taj Mahal was always a little bit outside my sphere of familiarity. I don't recall hearing him on the radio, though I betcha some FM station may have played a Mahal track or two when I wasn't paying attention. When I was a teenager in the '70s and when I managed a record store in the '80s, I saw Taj Mahal LPs on the racks, but didn't even think about investigating the sounds. There were so many punk and power pop and hyphenate-rock releases to occupy my starry eyes and eager ears; an artist filed under BLUES wasn't toppermost of my poppermost.

I'm not sure when Taj Mahal's music finally did enter my sovereign airspace, but he's been an occasional star in our playlists over the past year or so. I was particularly taken with "Ain't That A Lot Of Love" (which he also performed on The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus) and his ace cover of Dave Dudley's country touchstone "Six Days On The Road." I had these as digital tracks, but in October I added a CD of his 1968 album Taj Mahal to my library of physical media. More to come.

THE RAMONES: I Wanted Everything

Yet another Ramones track we somehow failed to program until now. In 2001, as a freelance writer for Goldmine magazine, I reviewed Rhino's CD reissues of the first four Ramones albums, and I regret to say I gave short shrift to their incredible fourth album Road To Ruin. 

I disavow that now.

Sure, Road To Ruin was heavier than its rockin' pop punk predecessors Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia, but it ain't exactly metal, dig? And it is as absolutely, utterly unforgettable as the first three Ramones albums. "I Just Want To Have Something To Do." "I Wanna Be Sedated." The bubblecountry experiment "Don't Come Close," the twangy ballad "Questioningly," the cover of the Searchers' "Needles And Pins," the breathless rush of "She's The One"...Great googly-GABBA-GABBA!-moogly, this stuff is great. WHAT WAS I THINKING...?!

So I've been listening to Road To Ruin again. I first heard the album late in 1978, when Rochester radio station WCMF-FM played the record in its entirety. It was a midnight album spin, and I sat in the suite area of my college dorm room, my new girlfriend Brenda dozing, her head on my shoulder. I just want to have something to do. 

And I wanted everything.

Brenda and I had just started dating. We're still together now. For Christmas this year, knowing that 2023 was looking to be a big Ramones year for me, Brenda gave me a Ramones hoodie and a Road To Ruin jigsaw puzzle. The road to ruin? That's not the path we traveled, but it is the soundtrack we chose. And another Road To Ruin track will make its belated TIRnRR debut next week. 

Yeah: I wanted everything. I got it. Here's to the road, and its rewards. The pieces come together when they can.

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.

10 SONGS: 6/23/2022

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 # 1134.

THE HANDCUFFS: I Cry For You

I first heard the pulse-poundin' prowess of drummer Brad Elvis when he was in the group Screams in the '70s, and subsequently when he was with the Elvis Brothers in the '80s. Later, I became a big fan of Big Hello, an ace combo that included Brad and his wife, super-powerhouse singer-guitarist Chloe F. Orwell. Brad 'n' Chloe eventually bid farewell to Big Hello to form their current team, the Handcuffs.

On this little mutant radio program, we've played Screams, the Elvis Brothers, Big Hello, the New Monkees covering the Elvis Brothers, Brad's other group the Romantics, and we've played tracks from each 'n' every one of the Handcuffs' previous albums, Model For A Revolution, Electroluv, and Waiting For The Robot. Let's face it, we have a history with Handcuffs. That...doesn't sound right. But we dig the Handcuffs, and we play the Handcuffs.

Why stop now? The Handcuffs have a fab new album, Burn The Rails, and its radio-ready track "I Cry For You" opens this week's exciting edition of TIRnRR. As it should. With Brad and Chloe, we have a proud tradition to uphold.

NOLAN PORTER: If I Could Only Be Sure

As a pop fan with more than six decades' experience, I'm constantly thrilled by fresh reminders that there's still so much fantastic music I haven't yet discovered. That includes new releases, of course, but it also means old stuff that somehow escaped the spotlight of my short attention span. You know the mantra: Any record you ain't heard before is a new record.

Nolan Porter was a soul singer in the early '70s. The irrepressible interwebs suggest that Porter recorded two LPs, No Apologies and Nolan, and scraped the bottom of the Hot 100 with a few of his singles. About two weeks ago, intrepid TIRnRR listener Dave Murray brought one of Porter's singles to my attention, and now I'm an instant Nolan Porter fan. 

Just. Like. That. 

Seriously: what I've heard of Nolan Porter's stuff is flippin' fantastic, making its relative obscurity all the more mystifying. Porter passed away in 2021; his work is well, well worthy of wider acclaim...or at least some acclaim, fercryinoutloud. A CD two-fer reissue of No Apologies and Nolan is an elusive artifact--wish someone would reissue that reissue awready--but I've been buying the digital tracks. Nolan Porter makes his TIRnRR debut with this week's spin of "If I Could Only Be Sure." We'll hear another of Porter's shoulda-been-hits next week.

MAPLE MARS: Gliding

Like Big Hello and the Handcuffs, Maple Mars has likewise been a long-time fixture on TIRnRR playlists. So we jumped at the opportunity to play "Gliding," the advance single from Maple Mars' brand-new album, Someone's Got To Listen. "Gliding" is the second advance Someone's Got To Listen track for which we've done the jumping thing, following our console-thumping on behalf of "Goodbye California" last year.

Wait..."last year?" Man, that's a long time to pause in between teases. BUT! The pause expires at this point, as the album is available for preorder right now, a month ahead of its long-awaited release. We've heard it. It's good with a capital G and that rhymes with P and that stands for POP MUSIC!! Someone's got to listen. You'll be glad you did. More from Someone's Got To Listen coming your way. Immediately.

GARY FRENAY: Just Like Me

I may have mentioned that I'm a big, big fan of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. I may have mentioned that a million times. Restraint is overrated. I may have also mentioned that Dana and I are putting together another irresistible compilation CD, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5, due circa Septemberish from the rockin' pop juggernaut Kool Kat Musik. Start gathering your pennies, because you want this.

I may not have mentioned that This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 will include "Just Like Me," a new solo recording from Flashcubes singer/songwriter/bassist/debonaire man-about-town Gary Frenay. Gary originally recorded the song as a demo with his post-'Cubes outfit Screen Test in the '80s, and this finished 21st-century recording also employs the talents of Gary's 'Cubes and Screen Test colleagues Arty Lenin and Tommy Allen. The track will appear on Gary's next solo album, due out in 2023, but it will make its first commercial appearance on TIRnRR 5. 

That's our goal with TIRnRR: to continue to bring you fine, fine pop music, both on the radio and at retail. Worth mentioning, right? You're welcome, my friends. You're welcome.

BALLZY TOMORROW: Out There

Speaking of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5, we've also secured the services of our pal Robbie Rist, who offers us "Out There," a swell and sturdy bopper he recorded with his rockin' pop dba Ballzy Tomorrow. Its snark is its power, its power is POP, and we've got it all for you right here on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

LAURIE BIAGINI: In The Here And Now

It's been waaaaay too long since the last Laurie Biagini album, 2013's Sanctuary Of Sound. We've been playing advance tracks from Laurie's new effort Stranger In The Mirror, and we're delighted to say that album has now been released. We celebrate by playing one of its tracks, the non-single "In The Here And Now," which sounds so catchy and compelling we think it oughtta be a single after all. We play the hits!

ROBIN LANE: All I'll Ever Need

We debuted Robin Lane's new single "All I'll Ever Need" on last week's show. Robin herself posted a note of gratitude for the airplay; whenever a veteran artist shares appreciation for whatever the hell it is we do here, I'm struck with a wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self about it. Hey, late '70s/early '80s incarnation of me!, I'd say. Someday, my friend, you're going to receive acknowledgement, even thanks, from a lot of the people making the records you're listening to right now. You'll hear from members of Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, the Beat, the Pandoras, the Records, Nikki and the Corvettes, the Cowsills, the Rubinoos, the Barracudas, the Knickerbockers, Screams, and more! You'll talk to the Ramones and Joan Jett on the phone. Hell, Micky Dolenz will share something you wrote about the Monkees. No, never mind what "sharing" means in this far future world. Trust me; it's a good thing.

My younger self, naive li'l git he/I was, will believe all of it. The fact that it's true is friggin' mind-blowing. And it remains a thrill, even as my teens and early twenties slip even further away in the rear view mirror. I'm still that giddy, star-struck kid. 

I always will be. It's still all I'll ever need.

THE KINKS: Waterloo Sunset

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: Singing My Song

My 62nd birthday was in January. When I was younger, 62 seemed so old. Now, while it's true that my curated collection of aches and pains can sometimes make me feel as old as my teen self once deemed 62 to be, it's also true that I ain't dead yet. I still read my superhero comic books, I still listen to my rockin' pop music, and I still retain a spark that insists I'm not too old for fun. I've developed sufficient maturity to perform necessary tasks and meet expected obligations. If time has slowed me down an eensy little bit, I'm still only 62. 

We don't measure that in dog years. I aim to dance to punk rock at my daughter's wedding next year, and to keep dancing for a few decades thereafter. Don't tell me I can't. I didn't listen to naysayers when I was 17, and I'm not gonna start heeding the whining of crybabies now. I'm 62. And I'm singing my song.

We're all products of what made us. I was built by family and friends, art and pop culture, education and experience (to the extent either of them stuck with me). I was formed by Batman and the British Invasion, the Sex Pistols, Motown, rock magazines, paperback novels, AM radio, FM radio, science-fiction, cartoons, pretty pinups, bubblegum cards, home cooking, fast food, Watergate, crushes on Suzi Quatro and Yvonne Craig, resentments, love, telephone conversations, occasional excess, regrets, excuses, adjustments, wins, losses, stalemates, and TV shows. And pie. Your individual composition may vary. 

At 62, I'm not ashamed to listen to the Partridge Family. Strike that; I'm proud to proclaim that I listen to the Partridge Family. I'm less likely to listen to their biggest hit "I Think I Love You," but eager to stuff my iPod with PF tracks like "I Woke Up In Love This Morning," "Somebody Wants To Love You," and a peppy debut album track called "Singing My Song." I hear it, and I feel as young as ever. 

But that's not why I listen to it. I don't need outside stimuli to feel young, nor validation to know I'm right. I listen because I like it. I'm old enough to be comfortable with that. Don't bug me when I'm singing my song.

 TAJ MAHAL: Six Days On The Road

The legendary Taj Mahal is primarily regarded as a blues musician, though that oversimplifies his stature and footprint. He's certainly played some rock 'n' roll music in his day, and I say his 1969 take on "Six Days On The Road" is the signature version of this oft-covered country classic (originally a hit for Dave Dudley in 1963). Genre labels are useful. But labels don't define us. 

We define us.

Sing it and play it, Taj Mahal. Time for us to hit the road. And we're gonna make it home tonight.

Going my way, young man?

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

10 SONGS: 3/10/2022

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 # 1119.

EYTAN MIRSKY: Watching From The Balcony

We opened last week's show with a track from Brother Eytan Mirsky's debut album, 1996's Songs About Girls (And Other Painful Subjects), in memory of drummer Chris Garges. This week, we open with Eytan for a happier reason: the release of his brand-new album Lord, Have Mirsky! Eytan's eighth album is another straight-up winner, and its closing track "Watching The Balcony" secures a berth on this week's playlist, and again on next week's playlist. I betcha we'll play more of its tracks in the coming weeks, too. 

TAJ MAHAL: Six Days On The Road

Each week, Dana and I try to mix familiar favorites with a few tracks we've never played before. New releases obviously help out in the latter category, but we also like to dig deep into the archives for classic cuts--both popular and obscure, by acts that might fit either description--in search of something that hasn't yet graced a TIRnRR playlist. In recent weeks, my specific wishes to play something by Rotary Connection, Led Zeppelin, and even Eagles manifested in fresh playlist appearances (though, of course, we have played each of those acts before). Same goes for Taj Mahal this week. I got it into my head that I wanted to play a Taj Mahal song, ideally a Taj Mahal song we ain't played before, and so the hunt began. It was a short hunt; once I stumbled across Taj Mahal's irresistible cover of Dave Dudley's durable country stalwart "Six Days On The Road," I knew I'd bagged my quarry. On to the next round!

THE SHANG HI LOS: Billy

Others have already commented that the Shang Hi Los' new single "Billy" sounds like it could be a theme from an imaginary Western. Listen, when Hollywood inevitably decides to make a big-budget feature film out of my story "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid," I'm most definitely in favor of having the Shang Hi Los on its soundtrack.

THE PRETENDERS: Cuban Slide

Dana is generally the one to put some Pretenders in the playlist, and this week's Pretenders spin is no exception. Great choice, too; "Cuban Slide," an outtake from their debut album Pretenders, employs a version of the Bo Diddley beat to power one of my top Pretenders tracks. It originally surfaced on the Pretenders' 1981 four-song release Extended Play, and I've come to prefer it to anything that was on the group's second album Pretenders II. That's not faint praise, considering that Pretenders II did include two simply fabulous selections from Extended Play ("Talk Of The Town" and "Message Of Love"), as well as the great "Day After Day." Those are all sublime. I just like "Cuban Slide" even more.

RICHIE MAYER: You Don't Get Me High

Interesting little story here. We've been playing tracks from Richie Mayer's 2021 album The Inn Of Temporary Happiness, because we enjoy playing good records. But this week's Richie Mayer spin comes instead from The Inn Of Temporary Happiness Revisted, a truncated and reimagined version that makes an already-fine album finer still. Some credit goes to everyone's pop pal Bruce Brodeen, who suggested this tweak, reducing the album from 17 tracks to (officially) ten, maximizing its punch with a fresh, more fully pop remix. Gets me high, lemme tell ya.

THE BEATLES: No Reply

For all the attention I give to the concept for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), its inclusive nature--an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns--renders it distinct from a listing of my own Top 10 or Top 100 or Top 3047. For a near-future blog post, I'm putting together a list of my favorite songs, an all-time Top 10 or maybe Top 20. To keep it manageable, I'm limiting myself to one track per artist. The list will not be ranked, but I'll tell you right now that my # 1 favorite song ever is Badfinger's "Baby Blue" (which also happened to be the subject of the first chapter I wrote for GREM!).

The list will not include anything by the Beatles. My love of the Beatles' music, particularly their output from 1964 (A Hard Day's Night) through 1966 (Revolver) can't be limited to just one song. I wrote about that here, and listed my 25 favorite Beatles tracks here. But, for the sake of argument, if I were to pick a single song to represent my Beatlemania, it could be "Thank You, Girl" or "Rain," or it might be "Help!," "A Hard Day's Night," "The Night Before," "She Said She Said"...

...and it could very well be "No Reply." Honestly, this track's bridge just kills me, kills me, every time. If I were you/I'd realize that I/Love you more/Than any other guy/And I'd forgive/The lies that I/Heard before/When you gave me no reply. Best bridge ever. The rest of the song's pretty fab, as well.

THE BANGLES: The Rain Song

The best-known configuration of the Bangles--with three of its founding members, drummer Debbi Peterson and guitarists Vicki Peterson and Susanna Hoffs, plus bassist Michael Steele (who replaced Annette Zilinskas at the four-string spot in between the group's 1982 eponymous debut EP and their first full-length album All Over The Place in 1984)--split in 1989. The quartet regrouped for the 2003 album Doll Revolution, a splendid and underrated effort that gave us this wonderful track "The Rain Song." Written by Susan Cowsill and Vicki Peterson, and previously recorded by Susan 'n' Vicki with their other group the Continental Drifters, "The Rain Song" is both dreamy and invigorating. And its airplay on this week's TIRnRR scored the reaction DJs always hope for: a listener demanding to know the ID of that great song we just played. (The fact that said listener was himself an ace popsmith--none other than the above-mentioned Eytan Mirsky--made the connection even sweeter. Let it rain.)

ANTON BARBEAU: American Road

Last week, upon the release of Anton Barbeau's new album Power Pop!!! (which both Anton and his intrepid label Big Stir Records rightly insist is not power pop), I attempted to coin the new marketing term CATCHYBUZZ! to describe its not-power-pop appeal. That...did not catch on. Maybe it shouldn't've. Undeterred, we offer another track from Power Pop!!!, and humbly direct you to catch its buzz on your own terms.

TWISTED SISTER: We're Not Gonna Take It

Neither this blog nor this radio show has any power to enact meaningful change in this world of wonder and woe. Hearts and prayers accomplish nothing. Signs and flag decals, however well-intentioned, accomplish nothing. Action speaks. Money talks. To assist in humanitarian relief for victims of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, please consider a targeted donation to Operation USA, an organization with an established record of getting aid to where it's needed the most, without a lot of overhead. And I hope my fellow Americans will join me in not whining about rising fuel prices during this crisis. Our petty hardships are nothing, NOTHING, compared to the plight of the Ukranian people. If you feel differently, well, unless this situation is actually putting you in direct jeopardy, I cordially invite you to button your lip for the duration.

I first heard Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" on my car radio during a morning commute in Buffalo in 1984. I liked it immediately, but its meaning has changed as Ukranian refugees and freedom fighters have adopted it as an unofficial anthem. We sing it along with them. Hearts and prayers. But none of it has any value unless we back it up. 

THE CLICK BEETLES: If Not Now, Then When

Like the song says. Once again: Operation USA. The Click Beetles know what they're talking about.

You can support 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