10 SONGS: 8/4/2020

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




This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1036.

ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Soldier Of Love



Songs The Beatles taught us. The great soul singer Arthur Alexander never achieved the pop success that should have been his due. 1962's "You Better Move On" was his only Billboard Top 40 hit, but The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bashful Bob Dylan were fans, each recording at least one Arthur Alexander tune. Arthur Alexander is the only songwriter to have his material covered by all three of those rock icons. Paul McCartney has said that the early Beatles really wanted to be a soul act, and he cited Arthur Alexander as an example of the sort of performer they had in mind as a model for what they did.

The Beatles covered Alexander's "Anna (Go To Him)" on their debut album, shortening the song's title to just "Anna." The Fab Four also covered his "Shot Of R & B" and "Soldier Of Love" in radio performances, and those cuts found a larger clandestine audience via Beatles bootlegs in the '70s. The Flashcubes used to cover "Soldier Of Love" in their 1979 live sets, stating that they'd learned the song from Beatle boots (the vinyl sort rather than the footwear, I'm guessing). Marshall Crenshaw also covered it on his eponymous debut. The Beatles' recording has since been made available as an official release.

Arthur Alexander's original version remains definitive. Having written it, of course, he gets the words right, which puts him one up on John Lennon's (nonetheless great) attempt to approximate the lines he thought he heard on a 45 brought by boat from America to the docks of Liverpool. Alexander's performance has a soulful sway that The Beatles couldn't quite match...though they did pretty well with it, didn't they? They wanted to be a soul act, like Arthur Alexander. The Beatles' cover of "Please Mr. Postman" surpasses The Marvelettes' original, and John, Paul, George, and Richard likewise acquitted themselves admirably with their takes on Chuck Berry, The Miracles, and Little Richard, demonstrating their ability to process their influences and make them their own.

But there was only one Arthur Alexander. Lay down your arms, soldier of love. Surrender to Arthur.

ALICE COOPER: School's Out


This was the clarion call for summer in the '70s, as each June traded pencils, books, and teacher's dirty looks for the presumed pleasures of the sunny school's-out season. Of course, as a teenage wannabe-writer, I kept right up with pencils (or pens) and books, but at least I was out of range of any disapproving glances a school administrator might cast with scorn in my direction. Plus: swimming!

From the Alice Cooper chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

To an adolescent or young teen in the early to mid 1970s, nothing in the world was cooler than Alice Cooper. Before KISS, before punk, Alice Cooper was gaudy and dangerous, potentially the most scandalous, depraved character on AM radio. It didn't matter that it was all an act--show biz!--or that David Bowie was ultimately a far more potent threat to the straight-laced status quo; at the time, Alice Cooper seemed the most dangerous, and therefore the most alluring. Within this fist-pumpin' time frame, a kid that couldn't relate to "School's Out," or didn't want to turn the radio up louder than it could actually go whenever that song came on...well, that kid just would not have been me....

ELVIS COSTELLO: Watching The Detectives


I've written elsewhere of my experience seeing Elvis Costello & the Attractions live on campus during my freshman year at college. Although I had read about Costello (primarily in Phonograph Record Magazine), "Watching The Detectives" was the first Costello song I actually heard, delivered to me when ol' Declan and his Attractions subbed for The Sex Pistols on Saturday Night Live in December of 1977. I thought the performance was riveting, though ya can't beat the incendiary cool of their second song on the show, as they started and suddenly stopped playing "Less Than Zero" and switched to "Radio, Radio" instead. The readers of Trouser Press later crowned that as TV's all-time # 1 rock 'n' roll moment. 

"Watching The Detectives" is pulp fiction made into music, a quick distillation of film noir and Gold Medal paperbacks rendered with a jagged, reggae-influenced beat and simmering punk anger. The record was not produced by Mickey Spillane...but it coulda been.



FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie



Ahem. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE GO-GO'S: Club Zero



A new single by The Go-Go's! And it's fabulous, continuing the group's streak of always meeting and surpassing expectations. From their original early '80s heyday through sporadic reunions, The Go-Go's have never disappointed.

Yet they're still criminally underrated, and that pisses me off more than I can articulate. We'll talk a little bit more about The Go-Go's tomorrow.

HOLLY & THE ITALIANS: Youth Coup


I can't pinpoint my specific introduction to Holly & the Italians, but I can narrow it down a little bit. There was a Holly & the Italians flexi-disc for those (like me!) who subscribed to Trouser Press magazine, and there was a CBS Records loss-leader various-artists set called Exposed II: A Cheap Peak At Today Provocative New Rock, both in 1981; the former offered a song called "Poster Boy" backed with a medley, and the latter included "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" and "Rock Against Romance" alongside its Tommy Tutone (not that song), Gary Myrick & the Figures, Psychedelic Furs, Karla DeVito, and Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons. And there was CREEM magazine's rave review of the group's debut album The Right To Be Italian, which compared the Holly sound to Lesley Gore or The Angels backed by Leave Home-era Ramones. Okeydokey. SOLD! Where do I sign?

I scored my copy of The Right To Be Italian at a used record store in Manhattan, probably in or near the Village, though I don't really remember for sure. It was my last trip to the city for many, many years. The LP's cover was water-damaged, but the record played fine, and it was an immediate favorite. Among many great tracks, "Youth Coup" eventually became my single biggest go-to cut. A fantastic album overall, and it was the only album Holly & the Italians did. Lead singer Holly Beth Vincent later did a single with Joey Ramone (as "Holly & Joey") and uncredited Italians covering Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe," and went on to a solo career thereafter.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)


Librarians With Hickeys have a brand-new album, Long Overdue, out on the ever-cool Big Stir Records label. Long Overdue is very, very good, and we opened this week's show with a spin of its current single "That Time Is Now," a lovely tune which finds our passionate bibliophiles supplemented by the able talents of Lisa Mychols. Later in the show, we also played the single's non-album B-side, which is this cover of a song originally done by Saturday morning's phenomenal pop combo The Banana Splits. 



Everybody remembers the insidiously catchy theme song from The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and if mention of The Banana Splits didn't immediately set off a resounding TRA-LA-LAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAA! to drown out your inner monologue, I betcha it has now. No need to thank me; consider it a public service courtesy of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). I did watch the show during its original 1968-1970 run (and in mid '70s cable TV reruns), and "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)" is the only other Banana Splits song I can recall. I can still picture Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky cavorting on my screen as the song played in all its psychedelic bubblegum glory. Librarians With Hickeys do a fine job channeling that vibe.

THE O'JAYS: Put Your Hands Together


From The O'Jays' chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

Put your hands together.

We've talked about rock 'n' roll as The Devil's Music. But what about rock's celestial roots? In the wicked consummation of the orgiastic union of the rock and the roll, Gospel music was a participant no more reserved and no less sweaty than R & B, country, honky tonk, and blues. Now that was a party! Bless us, Lord!....

Although I heard The O'Jays on the radio quite often during my prime AM Top 40 years, and frequently heard my suitemates' copy of their live album during my second year at college, I don't remember "Put Your Hands Together" at all. It's so uplifting, so infectious, so absolutely irresistible. Put 'em together. PUT 'EM TOGETHER! Now, dammit!

SQUEEZE: Goodbye Girl



My favorite Squeeze song. Although I was a relative latecomer to Squeeze fandom, I fell hard for "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)," and also liked "Annie Get Your Gun." Then they broke up. Then they got back together! I didn't own any of Squeeze's stuff until the late '80s, when Singles--45's And Under became one of my early CD purchases. More purchases would follow. I now have many favorite Squeeze songs. "Goodbye Girl" remains my # 1.

UTOPIA: I Just Want To Touch You



As my friend Bruce Gordon says: Let's be The Beatles! The urge to imitate and even try to effectively become the act we've known for all these years is widespread and enduring. The Knickerbockers pulled it off on an incredible single called "Lies." The Rutles created a mirror image that was at least as much affectionate pastiche as it was parody. And somewhere in between The Knickerbockers and The Rutles was Deface The Music by Utopia.



I guess the album's supposed to be something of a lark, which is fine by me. It's been said that Utopia's Todd Rundgren finds the process of writing and recording pure pop songs too limiting, too predictable, too boring. But I have loved this album ever since its release. It's far and away my top Utopia record; it is, in fact, the only Utopia record I'm ever likely to listen to. Other than "Couldn't I Just Tell You," "We Gotta Get You A Woman," and some of Todd's 1960s stuff with The Nazz, Deface The Music is also my favorite Rundgren work overall. Hell, I like it better than "I Saw The Light" or "Hello It's Me," but that's just me. Deface The Music is willfully derivative, a deliberate and almost wiseass rip of The Beatles. Original? Nope, not a chance. Pure pop fun? Three loud YEAHS should answer that. Let's be The Beatles? Sounds like a worthy goal to me, mate.


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

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download

Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download

Volume 4: CD or download

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

10 SONGS: 3/30/2020

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



A tech delay postpones the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's record release party with Pop Co-Op. Once that's been resolved, I should be able to share the playlist as soon as tomorrow. In the mean time, let's do this week's 10 Songs a day early.

THE BEATLES: I Want To Hold Your Hand


It seemed such an innocent request in '63 and '64. Now? If a person's closer than six friggin' feet away, it's cause for alarm, even panic. There will be no hand-holding in the Coronaverse, no love in the time of pandemic. There will be music, and there actually will be love, as always. Just no physical contact. Now go wash your hands.

BIG HELLO: Action Now



I was going to tie this great track from Big Hello's 2000 effort The Orange Album with a demand for ACTION NOW!! in place of the usual clueless douchebaggery of our nation's Buffoon-In-Chief, but I guess I'll stick with the music. Trump's an asshole, by the way.

"Action Now" popped up a couple of times on my iPod recently, and it sounds great each and every time. Is it a call to action--Now's the time for supersonic action--or is it only rock 'n' roll? I know it's both, and I like it.

Since saying goodbye to Big Hello, the wife 'n' husband team of  Chloe Orwell and Brad Elvis have fronted The Handcuffs, another fab group worthy of large-sized salutation and celebration. The Handcuffs' Electroluv album has been in my CD carrying case for weeks, awaiting its overdue return to the This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio playlist. All the more reason for action now, to end this crisis and return The Handcuffs to their rightful place on the radio.



THE DOORS: Touch Me


Ew. Not because of the song--I've become more receptive to The Doors' music over the past few years--but because, y'know...touching. Ew.

THE FOUR TOPS: Reach Out I'll Be There


No. You. Won't. Jeez, keep your razzafrazzin' distance already!

THE GEORGIA SATELLITES: Keep Your Hands To Yourself


Yeah, that's more like it. 

The Georgia Satellites may have put on the loudest show I've ever survived, which is saying something when you consider that my first concert was KISS, that I saw The Ramones nine times, and that I just about put my head into the PA at one of The Flashcubes' gigs. My most vivid memories of the Satellites' circa '87 set at The Lost Horizon are the sheer volume and resultant lingering buzz in the ol' ears, and Dan Baird asking the audience, Y'all all right? You're awfully quiet. Are you gettin' enough to drink? It's a proven fact: the more you drink, the more we sound like the goddamned Beatles. It's true!

THE PANDORAS: It's About Time



The Pandoras' irresistible '80s garage-pop classic "It's About Time" was one of the tracks I included in last week's fake playlist This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: Isolation Edition. I chose the song for its recurring line Ain't it about time we got together now, and placed it near the end of the playlist (segued into Ben E. King's "Stand By Me") as a totem of hope that this period of willful separation will pass. It won't pass anywhere near as quickly as we'd wish, but it will pass.

THE POLICE: Don't Stand So Close To Me



Okay, everyone else sick of this joke, of this hit by The Police serving as the unofficial Love Theme From Social Distancing? Me too, though that won't prevent me from using it just this once. These are not proud times.

I absolutely adored "Roxanne," and regarded it as the coolest song on the radio in 1979. I quite liked "Message In A Bottle" and probably a few other scattered tracks from the first two Police albums, but I found myself losing interest in the group after that. Mind you, I never relinquished my affection for "Roxanne" and "Message In A Bottle," but that affection did not extend to subsequent efforts. When I managed a record store in the '80s, one of my clerks was horrified--horrified--to learn of my indifference to The Police. I waived my right to his counsel on that matter (and I waived it kinda rudely).

POP CO-OP: Underworld




But in a similar matter to how my icy disregard for The Doors gradually thawed over time, so too did I slowly become less dismissive of The Police's music (though I doubt I'll ever be able to tolerate any of Sting's solo material, or that horrid stalker song "Every Breath You Take"). So this wonderful Police pastiche by Pop Co-Op came along at just the right time. "Underworld" is on the brand-new Pop Co-Op album Factory Settings, but it was originally released on a 2018 collection called Back In Time--Lost Hits Of The 80's Vol. 2, the second of two various-artists collections that gather contemporary artists to salute the '80s with original songs that sound like they could have been on MTV during the heyday of Reaganomics and Miami Vice. The Back In Time sets are the brainchild of Dan Pavelich, and they succeed in re-writing and expanding pop history to accommodate the paradox of brand-new records from the 1980s.

The acts on Back In Time take on phony noms du bop for their concoctions, so "Underworld" was originally credited to "PCPD," as in "Pop Co-Op Police Department." It's an effective theft and rehabilitation of The Police's sound, and it first reached me right around the same time that I decided to add a Police best-of CD to my home library. I kinda like The Police now, but if you surreptitiously slipped "Underworld" onto any Police record (see what I did there?), it would be among the best tracks on that record. I hope my former record store clerk would approve.

(And more about the new Pop Co-Op album Factory Settings--Your Favorite Record Of 2020--on tomorrow's exciting edition of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do).



STEVE STOECKEL & HIS THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO ALL-STARS: I Could Be Good For You



The Pop Co-Op story has its roots in a virtual combo I called Steve Stoeckel & his This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio All-Stars. I had no right to name this group, but somehow I got away with it. "I Could Be Good For You" began as a songwriting exercise, as the ever-intrepid and ever-inventive Stoeckel decided he wanted to experiment with an attempt to craft lyrics by committee. He solicited ideas from various on-line acquaintances, and this new song was written line-by-line by a collection of pop fans, some of whom had previous experience, and some of whom didn't have much experience at all. 

So "I Could Be Good For You" was written by Stoeckel with Dan Pavelich, Kathy Jackson Firestone, Loyd Dillon, Brenda Trent Dillon, Elizabeth Racz, and Joel Tinnel, each of whom shared songwriting credit. Steve recorded the track, with a guitar break by Joel Tinnel and a backing vocal by long-time TIRnRR pal Rich Firestone, and let me affix the TIRnRR brand name to its spurious billing. It appeared on our 2013 CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, and it was our show's single most-played track that year.

But its most important and lasting legacy is laying the first brick on the pathway to what came later, as Steve and Joel eventually recruited Bruce Gordon and Stacy Carson to form Pop Co-Op. The story of Pop Co-Op started here. 

UTOPIA: I Just Want To Touch You



Right. I'm calling' a cop.

C'mon, you're gonna have to stay farther apart from each other than that!

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

Barring pandemics, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download

Volume 2: CD or download

Volume 3: download

Volume 4: CD or download

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 124 essays about 124 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).