10 SONGS: 8/31/2023

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 # 1196. This show is available as a podcast.

THE ANDERSON COUNCIL: This Is Where I Belong

Heh. Right before the announcement that the good folks at Underground Garage had selected the Anderson Council's cover of the Kinks' "Do You Remember Walter?" as this week's Coolest Song In The World, we'd already picked a different Anderson Council track from the same Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies tribute album to kick off our own show. The more the mightier! Heck, our pal and colleague Rich Firestone also gave a spin to "Do You Remember Walter?" on this weekend's edition of Radio Deer Camp, so Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies is clearly well on its way to utter and delighted world domination.

And that's where it belongs.

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Wicked Wit

Our friends at Big Stir Records scored a major huzZAH! when they signed a deal to put out a new album by venerable British rocker Graham Parker. Credited to Graham Parker and the Goldtops, Last Chance To Learn The Twist stands proud and tall alongside the impressive body of work Parker has created over a span of decades. 

This week, we specifically whooped up that string of excellence with a one-two then-and-now shot of primo Parker, with Graham Parker and the Rumour's 1976 classic "Pouring It All Out" clearing a righteous path for ace new number "Wicked Wit." This will not be your last chance to learn the new Graham Parker record on TIRnRR.

Oh. And in between "Pouring It All Out" and "Wicked Wit," we dropped in a new TIRnRR show ID by none other than Graham Parker himself. Graham freakin' Parker recorded an ID for our little mutant radio program. I need to commandeer a time machine and tell my younger self about that.

WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

Can one find catharsis in pop music? Yeah. Of course. Art can challenge us, but it can also comfort us when comfort is our basic need. Take a sad song and make it better. Reach out, I'll be there. Ain't no mountain high enough. Stand by me. I'm ready for my luck to turn around.

This December will mark the second anniversary of my Mom's passing. She would have been 98 years old this week, on Monday. I'm okay, really quite okay. I'm aware of her absence, especially when some milestone occurs or some cool thing happens and my first reaction is I gotta tell Mom! I'll be very aware of it when my daughter gets married in October. But while Mom's life was no stranger to sorrow, it was still a long life filled with love. I'm not sad. I'm grateful.

I didn't have any of the above in mind when I programmed Wendi Dunlap's sublime "Season Of Loss" into this playlist. The track is from Wendi's album Looking For Buildings, and I confess I was originally thinking of playing the track at the top of the show, an acknowledgement of the loss all around us. The devastation in Maui was my primary influence, as I've been unable to say anything of use or value to that awful situation. Fires. Hurricanes. Illness. Violence. It's alway a season of loss.

Upon further review, I realized that's just too much burden to place on a beguiling pop track. We let the song play in the middle of our second set instead. Freed of expectations.

A comfort nonetheless. 'Tis the season. It always is.

THE RAMONES: It's Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World)

I've been thinking about retirement. That event is still a ways off--three years, four months, two weeks, and three days, but who's counting?--and I do indeed dig that one should be careful how one wishes. Right, Mr. Limpet?

Yeah, can't be too careful with wishes to be fishes. Meanwhile, I still work full-time in retail. I'm not unhappy; it's a job, it's a paycheck, and I'm comfortable with the circumstances. I'd like more time to write, travel, write, dance, write, read, write, play, and write, and I make use of what time I have for all of that in the here and now. For the moment, it is my place in the 9 to 5 world.

The Ramones are the subject of my first book, published earlier this year. "It's Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World)" is from the Ramones' 1981 album Pleasant Dreams. Of the Ramones' 16 studio albums, Pleasant Dreams sounds the least like classic Ramones. The group's first four albums are always gonna be my favorites, but I've been getting into this sixth album a lot this year. It's not the equal of Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, or Road To Ruin, but it is great, and it's way, way underrated.

And it has its place. 

BOBBY SUTLIFF: Same Way Tomorrow

I didn't know Bobby Sutliff. We were friends on Facebook, but I don't remember whether or not we ever had any substantive contact via the great and powerful interwebs.

Nonetheless, I know for damned sure that our indie pop world has suffered a loss with Bobby's passing last week. His body of work, both as a solo artist and with the great rockin' pop combo the Windbreakers (fronted by Bobby and his fellow popsmith Tim Lee), is rightly revered among true rockin' pop believers, and the work will live on. We mourn the loss of the man who created that work.

I wrote the above about a year ago, shortly after we heard that Sutliff had died. Now, Jem Records is celebrating Bobby's legacy with an expanded reissue of his 1987 album Only Ghosts Remain. With its title tweaked to Only Ghosts Remain Plus, the Jem release adds eleven bonus tracks from throughout Sutliff's solo career, doubling the original album's selections. The bonus tracks effectively make this The Best Of Bobby Sutliff, and that's saying something. I already have most of the bonus tracks (which include my favorite Sutcliff gem "Griffin Bay"), but somehow I never owned a copy of Only Ghosts Remain.

I have it now, and it's just splendid. If you likewise revere all that's jangly, I recommend you get this one, too.

THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You

Our friends at Big Stir Records scored a major huhZAH! when they signed a deal to put out a new album by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouses the Flashcubes. Dana and I may have played a tiny little part in introducing one party to the other--Rex and Christina! Gary, Paul, Arty, and Tommy! DO SOMETHING TOGETHER!!--but our preexisting bias isn't necessary to recognize that the new 'Cubes album Pop Masters is flat-out incredible. Album of the year, mates. 

And this week we introduced yet another spin of the Flashcubes' Pop Masters cover of the Motors' "Forget About You" with a brand-new TIRnRR show ID by none other than Gary Frenay of the Flashcubes. I need to commandeer a time machine and tell my younger self about that, too.

THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL: She Is Still A Mystery

My recent Greatest Record Ever Made! piece about the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City" included these comments about the group's 1967 single "She Is Still A Mystery:"

In addition to my undying allegiance to "Summer In The City," another favorite Spoonful tune was a lesser-known hit that I also heard on oldies radio: "She Is Still A Mystery." This fragile-sounding ode to love's quirks and uncertainties, its elusive nature and endless allure, took command of my equally-fragile inner romantic, which surrendered unconditionally. My inner romantic fights like a wimp.

CHUBBY CHECKER AND DEE DEE SHARP: Slow Twistin'

I wrote here about seeing Chubby Checker perform live last week. Checker is not represented in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), though his "Let's Do The Freddie" does get a mention in that book's Freddie and the Dreamers chapter. But I tell ya, Chubby's 1960 smash "The Twist" is quite possibly THE single most seismic 45 of all time, and it certainly merits its own GREM! spotlight. The task of writing that has been added to my voluminous to-do list. Come on, baby!

Greatest is its own distinct (and infinite) category. Favorite is a separate consideration. My favorite Chubby Checker record is "Slow Twistin'," his 1962 hit collaboration with Dee Dee Sharp. Listening to a Chubby Checker best-of CD (and now having seen him perform) proves that, man, there's a lot of greatness to be found in the Checker catalog. Slow Twist? Fast Twist?All the Twists, and all the Ponys, Flys, Limbos, and--what the hell--Freddies, too. Round and round and round we go.

THE BEATLES: Revolution

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE: September

September is upon us. And it's high time for The 12th Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT! We figured we'd start gettin' psyched for next week's epic new Soul Pit by closing this week's show with a double-length set of soul and R & B. And that set commenced with the irresistible elemental force of Earth, Wind and Fire. 

I didn't even realize the accidental serendipity of opening this end-of-August Soul Pit set with "September" until after the show aired. But we'll take it. September looms. The 12th Annual Dana's Funky Soul Pit awaits on September 3.

Say that you'll remember.

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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 1/5/2023

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 collects (mostly) previously-posted entries about each of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's 10 most-played tracks in 2022, as heard on our countdown show This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1162. The countdown show is available as a podcast.

1. THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride

9/29/2022: "Face The World With Pride" comes to us from The Lost Album, a brand new archival release from the Smithereens. The legendary rockin' pop group recorded the tracks found on The Lost Album way back in 1993, and I don't think any of them has ever been heard much (if at all) by the public at large.

But our pal (and Radio Deer Camp host) Rich Firestone heard 'em years ago. Lucky guy! And our Reechie has long, long thought that the then-unreleased "Face The World With Pride" was a hit record waiting to happen. Now that the song has finally been released on The Lost Album, Rich is still determined that "Face The World With Pride" oughtta be a hit, the hit.

I have no idea what the focus track on The Lost Album is supposed to be. Rich's word is fine for us. "Face The World With Pride" is TIRnRR's Pick Hit from The Lost Album. It made its SPARK! debut on Radio Deer Camp this past Sunday, and returned to the SPARK! airwaves Sunday night on our little mutant radio show. We'll be playing it again on next week's TIRnRR. You can't have a hit record if you only play it once.

And "Face The World With Pride" sure does sound like a hit, a beguiling cross between "Last Train To Clarksville" and Elvis Costello and the Attractions' "You Belong To Me," with maybe a hint of the Records' "I Don't Remember Your Name" and a bunch of others playing indistinctly at the edge of our mental radio's infinite signal. Every power pop or rock 'n' roll radio show should be playing this one, again and again. With pride. Rich is right. This is a freakin' hit.

2. THE BABLERS: You Are The One For Me

10/27/2022: Some years back, a fan familiar with This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio commented that Little Steven at the very least owes us a beer. The format of Little Steven's Underground Garage (both the syndicated show itself and the fab satellite radio channel that followed) is similar to TIRnRR's approach, and if I understand the math, our December 1998 debut predates the April 2002 launch of the original Underground Garage by...I can't count that high. But, like, by more than a few weeks. Or months. Or years.

Which is not to suggest that Little Steven stole the idea from us. That's possible, in the same sense that it's possible the Beatles could have reunited to play at CBGB's in 1977, but it's not terribly plausible. We weren't all that well-known, and there were other great shows who came even before us anyway, mixing old and new rock 'n' roll and pop music much like Dana and I and Little Steven and company do, and we didn't copy them either. Great ideas aren't always unique. They're still great ideas, and we're all lucky to have so many resources available to us if we wanna hear the Ramones, the Supremes, and the Shang Hi Los on the same radio show.

That said, we're tickled by the notion that the Bablers' wonderful single "You Are The One For Me" was last week's honoree as The Underground Garage's Coolest Song In The World. We love the song, and we've been playing it quite a bit since its release at the end of April. The track is an absolute lock for the year-end countdown of our most-played tracks in 2022, and we're glad Underground Garage agrees with us: Coolest song in the world!

3. PERILOUS: Rock & Roll Kiss

5/12/2022: Rockin' pop resumé! Perilous includes our pals Paul Dougherty of the Trend and Bob Cat Rawks of Hurtin' Units, plus Pauline Digati from early '80s Buffalo stalwarts Pauline and the Perils and Renee Rettie from Screaming Meemies. Their debut single "Rock & Roll Kiss" honors and expands their collective legacy, and makes us wanna dance to rock 'n' roll radio played at really loud volume. We know just the radio show to do that.

10/27/2022: Man, this is such an exhilarating track, and we're lucky to have it on our new compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. The force of rockin' pop nature called Perilous combines the lead vocals from Pauline and the Perils with the guitar from Hurtin' Units, the bass from Screaming Meemies, and the pummelin' drums from Syracuse sensations the Trend, and makes 'em all even louder and catchier. Sing, you Perilous peeps. Sing.

4. KELLEY RYAN: The Church Of Laundry

Hey, TIRnRR's # 1 most-played track in 2021, and now also a proud part of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5.

1/26/2021: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has been happily aboard the Kelley Ryan bandwagon since 2001, when Kelley (then recording under the boppin' dba astroPuppees) placed a track on Shoe Fetish, a fabulous tribute to the pop group Shoes. We began to correspond with Kelley, and astroPuppees' first TIRnRR spin was from Shoe Fetish, a cover of Shoes' "The Tube." Soon thereafter, we started playing a song called "Don't Be" (from astroPuppees' 1996 album You Win The Bride), which I recalled hearing in the 1997 TV movie Friends 'Til The End. Friends 'Til The End was a movie I originally wanted to see because our pals Cockeyed Ghost made a don't-BLINK! cameo appearance. And in the film, actress Shannen Doherty lip-syncs to a made-for-TV cover of astroPuppees' "Don't Be." 

We've gone on to play many, many more astroPuppees and Kelley Ryan tracks many, many times over the course of these last two decades. We're pleased to continue playing Kelley's music, and we're delighted to serve up her new single "The Church Of Laundry" on this week's show. We're friends 'til the end.

5. EYTAN MIRSKY: Watching From The Balcony

Given our oft-stated endorsement of his masterpiece "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" as The Greatest Record Ever Made!, Eytan Mirsky wasn't surprised that song once again made our countdown (# 43). But he didn't expect the fab "Watching From The Balcony" (from his 2022 album Lord, Have Mirsky!) to also make the countdown, let alone make our Top 10. See, saturation airplay can sneak up on ya.

3/10/2022: 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. 

6. THE GRIP WEEDS: Lady Friend

Awright, I'm a little shocked to see that the Grip Weeds' incredible cover of the Byrds' "Lady Friend" has never appeared in any previous edition of 10 Songs. The Grip Weeds' Kurt Reil looms large in TIRnRR legend for his masterful mastering of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. "Lady Friend" (from the Grip Weeds' irresistible 2021 covers album DiG) scored sufficient playlist burn to reach # 6 on our survey, so it's kinda obvious to say that we freakin' love the track. Surprised I never got around to writing about. I'd fire me, but me has tenure.

Let's look back at 10 Songs blurbs about a few other Grip Weeds cover tunes:

10/19/2021: A teaser single covering Max Frost and the Troopers' "Shape Of Things To Come" heralds the not-soon-enough release of DiG, a covers collection from the rockin' pop force of nature that is the Grip Weeds. The shape of things to come? Sign us up!

11/16/2021: The Grip Weeds appreciate the Monkees. Smart folks, those Grip Weeds. And those very same smart folks have a new covers album called DiG, which is available in single-, double-, and triple-disc editions. You know how sometimes less is more? With the Grip Weeds, more is more, and the two- and three-disc versions of DiG include two Monkees covers, of "For Pete's Sake" and the sublime Gerry Goffin-Carole King number "Porpoise Song." The Monkees' "Porpoise Song" merits a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and the Grip Weeds serve the song well. Dig?

11/23/2021: So this week, we turn to another DiG track, a confident 'n' capable take on the Creation's Mod power pop '60s classic "Making Time." The original's unbeatable. Damned if the Grip Weeds don't match it, though, and that oughtta be impossible. It's not impossible for the Grip Weeds. We love the Grip Weeds. 

12/2/2021: We've been leaning full-tilt into the Grip Weeds' new covers album DiG, and it was only a matter of time before we got to their cover of "I Wonder." The Gants' original '60s nugget is an all-time TIRnRR Fave Rave, and my God, the Grip Weeds manage a superlative rendition that honors the Gants yet still makes the song their own. Not sure yet, but I think the Grip Weeds will be represented on the year-end countdown of our most-played tracks this year. I can state with some certainty that we intend to include a track by the Grip Weeds in our blowout observation of 30 YEARS OF DANA & CARL on January 16th. Grip Weeds fans? Yeah, we're Grip Weeds fans.

8/4/2022: We mentioned Kurt Reil's studio wizardry a few paragraphs North of here, raving about his work in mastering This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. Kurt's also the idol o' millions as drummer and vocalist with his incomparable combo the Grip Weeds. The Grip Weeds' latest triumph is this explosive cover of the Who's "I'm Free," as heard on the forthcoming tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Pete Townshend. The rockin' Weeds (whose recent all-covers album DiG has been a TIRnRR Fave Rave) wouldn't be content to merely ape the original recording of "I'm Free," but instead add the oomph you'd expect from talents who truly get the idea and appeal of the 'Ooo. Ooo! The Grip Weeds even dive a bit deeper into Tommy territory, while retaining the incendiary explosiveness that made the Who power pop progenitors. We are gonna take it. Gladly!

7. POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart

8. POP CO-OP: I Just Love To Watch Her Dance

A two-fer! Pop Co-Op's "Extra Beat In My Heart" is part of the epic story of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5, and "I Just Love To Watch Her Dance" is from Your Favorite Album of 2022, Pop Co-Op's Suspension.

5/12/2022: As chronicled waaaaaay back here, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has a unique sense of pride and investment in the music of Pop Co-Op. The Post-Fab Four of Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, and Stacy Carson are good guys who make good music, and their specific connection with our little mutant radio program makes us feel like their music is just, well, our music, too.

And we're thrilled that the lads (and marketing overlord lass Laura Sessions Tinnel) chose TIRnRR as the platform to announce their forthcoming new album Suspension. We've heard it, and YOU, my friend, are gonna love it. We selected "I Just Love To Watch Her Dance" as the on-air introduction to our belief in Suspension, and we'll premiere three more tracks over the next three weeks. We'll have details on ordering the album as soon as we can, and you'll have that grand opportunity to further immerse yourself in the magic of these guys and their music. 

Their music? Our music? Listen: Pop Co-Op should be your music, too. Pride is infectious. Investment is fulfilling. Your mileage may not vary. Check your Suspension.

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

5/26/2022: And, as duly appointed DJs, we know a friggin' hit record when we hear a friggin' hit record. It's our super power.  And we've known about this particular hit, a dynamic summit meeting between power pop legends the Flashcubes and, y'know, power pop legends the Spongetones, for quite some time. We hadn't heard it, mind you, and we weren't told which Spongetones classic these combined forces would be remaking. But we guessed correctly--see above comments re: DJs, know what we're doing--and have been dying to hear it.

And PLAY IT!

A lot of radio shows jumped on "Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?" as soon as it was available, from The Rodney Bingenheimer Show on SiriusXM to Mike Murray's Whole Lotta Shakin' in Rochester, Michael McCartney's The Time Machine  in Maui (the latter with Rich Firestone, host of Radio Deer Camp right here on TIRnRR's home SPARK!), and an apparent zillion others. Awright! A lot of DJs seem to know what they're doing right now. We are legion! We are LOUD! And we for damned sure know a hit when we hear it.

(Oh, and bonus kudos to the Flashcubes and Spongetones themselves for the neat little opening Beatles homage that kicks the track directly into its frenzied Fabmania flight path. See, one gets to pop music by turning left at Greenland, after all.)

6/2/2022: In announcing this epic summit meeting between the Flashcubes and the Spongetones, the good folks at Big Stir Records credited This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl for connecting the 'Cubes and Big Stir in the first place. Well, we're eager to accept that credit! I mean, I can't sing or play guitar, so I'll take whatever meager little musical claim t' fame I can scrounge up. 

But, while we can pad our c.v. with whatever role we played in introducing artist to label, Dana and I were only talking about Big Stir releasing a single from the Flashcubes' live album Flashcubes On Fire. Instead, the 'Cubes came up with "Baby It's Cold Outside," their ace collaboration with Mimi Betinis of Pezband, and this series of Cubic covers for Big Stir was off and piledriving. See, the artists create. We are but humble servants.

Um...sort of humble. Let's not get crazy with the humility here.

10. WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

11/23/2021: Wendi Dunlap made her TIRnRR debut last week with a spin of a song called "Buildings." "Buildings" comes from her new album Looking For Buildings, and we figured we'd maybe oughtta follow that with more Wendi Dunlap this week. A song called "Season Of Loss" might seem a deliberate selection to play as we head into the holidays, but that's too glib, and it's not what the song's about anyway. We played it because it's a great song that sounds wonderful on the radio. The catharsis of pop music. Sometimes that's all you can ask for.

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: 2/24/2022

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 # 1117.

WRECKLESS ERIC: Whole Wide World

A classic gets its due! Or at least a payday, we hope. Wreckless Eric's new wave pop perennial "Whole Wide World" (aka "[I'd Go The] Whole Wide World") was first released in 1977. I didn't hear it until at least '79, on a fantastic various-artists soundtrack LP called That Summer! But it was a fave rave for me from that point on.

And I just figured everyone knew the track. How could they not? I always presumed it was a British hit, though I'm told it didn't actually chart. Shoulda. The Monkees covered it in 1987, and I was surprised to discover that many Monkees fans thought it was written for Micky, Davy, and Peter (not Mike; Michael Nesmith did not participate in the reunited Monkees' 1980s recordings). Even as a proud Monkees fan, I say Wreckless Eric's original version remains definitive.

And we're delighted that the track got a little bit of exposure on this year's Super Bowl. The song appeared at the climax of an Expedia commercial aired during the big game, prompting Eric to note, "A song I wrote, a record I made...just aired to somewhere in the region of 150 million people. I'm thrilled to bits and not a little scared, and right now I'm just a dot in the universe."

And in 2022, that dot has gone the whole wide world. A hit? It is now. But I say it always was.

PAUL DAVIE: Grow Old With Me

Local musician and promoter Paul Davie--you know him, you love him, you can't have a BeatleCuse without him--has just released his first solo album, Half And Half. Writer John Tierney has already pounded the console on behalf of Paul's record, and we played its opening track "Kiss Me Softly" a few weeks back. Half And Half is a not-quite 50-50 split of four covers (of the Rolling Stones, the Pretenders, Leonard Cohen, and the Alan Parsons Project) and six Davie originals, with a lovely cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old With Me" serving as a closing bonus track. Our Paul gets by with a little help from his friends, and he enlists none other than Joey Molland of Badfinger to lend a little help on "Grow Old With Me." See, that's the sort of friend to have. And growing older doesn't mean we have to grow up.

DOLPH CHANEY: I Wanted You

Offered here as evidence that TIRnRR can play a Dolph Chaney song that isn't "My Good Twin." Like a dog with a bone, we often become fixated on a single song by a given artist, playing that Chosen One over 'n' over with the manic fervor of...y'know, us. From Dolph's album This Is Dolph Chaney, "My Good Twin" was TIRnRR's # 3 most-played track in 2021, surpassed in our breathless thrall only by Kid Gulliver's "Forget About Him" and Kelley Ryan's "The Church Of Laundry." Listen, man: obsession is its own reward. 

Nonetheless, we broadened our righteous myopia to play a different Dolph Chaney number this week. Like "My Good Twin," "I Wanted You" also comes from This Is Dolph Chaney, and is also great. Will this be the start of a new beautiful obsession? Ya never know with us. We never know with us.

THE FOUR TOPS: If I Were A Carpenter

We've touched on the appeal of repeating certain songs from week to week. The process of assembling selections for each TIRnRR playlist also generally involves Dana and I separately trying to think of some cool songs we've never played before. We like to have new stuff, of course, and we also like to dig out older tracks, searching for worthy sides from artists both obscure and familiar. I've always loved Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter" in performances by a few different artists (particularly the familiar hit by Bobby Darin). It's possible I'd heard the Four Tops' compelling performance of "If I Were A Carpenter" prior to February of 2022, but I stumbled across the track while looking for something else last week. Magic. The Four Tops' "If I Were A Carpenter" is now THE "If I Were A Carpenter" for me.

LED ZEPPELIN: Good Times Bad Times

Is TIRnRR the only avowedly rock 'n' roll radio show where a spin of Led Zeppelin can be viewed by listeners as a radical departure from the expected? Probably not. But while we've certainly played the occasional Zep track in the past, der Zeppenwülff is hardly a staple of whatever it is we do. I've written elsewhere of my love-hate (or really sorta like-don't give a damn) relationship with Led Zeppelin:

"I was never much of a Led Zeppelin fan; they were just there, everywhere, like inflation or TV sitcoms or halter tops, symptoms of my 1970s. (I was, incidentally, in favor of halter tops.) In the days of my youth, there were good Led Zep times, and there were bad Led Zep times. Sometimes I liked them, sometimes I didn't. And some times I thought there okay, but that I just really didn't need to hear them anymore. Good times, bad times, I know I had my share.

"It's not a band's fault when their music gets overplayed. I can't imagine ever getting sick of the Beatles, but I do sort of comprehend the feeling of those who hear 'Yeah Yeah Yeah!' and answer 'No! No! NO!!!' I don't have much affinity for most of the tracks favored by classic rock radio formats; I wonder if I would have retained a greater appreciation of the music of Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Pink Floyd, or later Rolling Stones (each of whom I do like to some degree) or even Lynyrd Skynrd or Eagles (whom I generally do not) if they were all obscurities I discovered in the vinyl underground, rather than ubiquitous fixtures on every stereo except mine."

For all that, Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakout" is part of the blueprint for my long-threatened (and possibly stillborn) book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and a positive passing mention of "Good Times Bad Times" was part of my first attempt at rock journalism when I was 17. Even during the times when I didn't care much about Led Zeppelin, I thought "Good Times Bad Times" was a monster. In a good way.

WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

With this week's spin, Wendi Dunlap's irresistible "Season Of Loss" (from her album Looking For Buildings) is one of TIRnRR's most played tracks in 2022. Given that we're only eight shows into the year, that stat is meaningless in the long run. BUT! I really, really like this song, and you can bet on hearing it reprised in at least some of our upcoming shows. Obsession rewards itself again.

LINNEA'S GARDEN: Looking

The Red On Red Records label has been a reliable resource for new thrills and fresh kicks, and our Red On Red fascination has manifested in a mess o' airplay for Kid Gulliver, Justine and the Unclean, the Chelsea Curve, Andrea Gillis, Cold Expectations, and other stars of the Red On Red galaxy. 

Linnea's Garden is for damned sure a part of that galaxy, and new single "Looking" is a pumpin' li'l pressure cooker that somehow manages to gaze at its shoes while heading down the highway to the new wave dance spot across town. Look all you want. But get out of the damed way--Linnea's Garden is comin' through!

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING SHOES: Tomorrow Night

It's a HIT! We like hits. Buy it here.

THE MONKEES: Nine Times Blue

My favorite version of Michael Nesmith's "Nine Times Blue" is an unfinished one, or rather one not properly recorded for commercial release. Before we talk about that, some history of "Nine Times Blue" is in order. It was first recorded (but originally unreleased) a few times under the Monkees aegis, including a version with Davy Jones singing lead, but none of these versions was made public until decades after the fact. One of those missing links Monkees renditions is what we played on this week's show.

The song's first appearance at retail was on The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, a 1968 LP of instrumentals produced by and credited to Nesmith. Nesmith later re-recorded and released "Nine Times Blue" on his 1970 album Michael Nesmith and the First National Band. More recently, Nesmith's prime mate Micky Dolenz included his own take of "Nine Times Blue" on the 2021 album Dolenz Sings Nesmith.

That's the basic history. My favorite "Nine Times Blue" is a 1969 TV appearance by the Monkees, Micky, Davy, and Michael (not Peter; Peter Tork had left the Monkees by then). The Monkees Three were guests on The Johnny Cash Show, their spot introduced by the Man in Black hisself singing a snippet of the made-for-TV combo's first hit "Last Train To Clarksville" before ceding the spotlight to the Monkees themselves. Our heroes did some schtick about how old and moldy that 1966 song was in the far-future era of 1969, and how it would be better for them to perform something new instead: "Nine Times Blue."

They introduced the unnamed (and still then-unreleased) song as something from their new album; maybe they thought it was. Whatever they thought is eclipsed by what they did, which was a stunning, simple, and breathtaking live performance of "Nine Times Blue," just the three of them, Nesmith on acoustic guitar and lead vocal, Dolenz and Jones providing exquisite harmonies. After the song was done, Cash joined them for more schtick, and a collective run-through of Cash's novelty number "Everybody Loves A Nut."

But...dang, that song, that performance. "Nine Times Blue." Gooseflesh. Whenever some nimrods try to demonstrate their own chuckleheaded cluelessness and insist that the Monkees didn't have talent, you should place said nimrods in front of YouTube to watch this video that proves them wrong, baby, wrong. Man, get me the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the phone. NOW!!

I wish this version of "Nine Times Blue," this arrangement, had been given a proper studio treatment. Michael, Micky, and Davy, their voices, Michael's acoustic guitar, nothing else. But it was just a TV gig. It should have been on a then-new Monkees album in 1969. 

And it should have been a hit.

THE BANDWAGON: On The Day We Fall In Love

And just to prove that I don't love everything the Monkees did, lemme tell ya that the 1967 More Of The Monkees LP track "The Day We Fall In Love" is all YUCK! all the time. Hey, if you like it, well, dig what you dig, always dig what you dig. I can't stand it. Its sickly-sweet morass isn't even real sugary syrup; it reminds me of what happened on an episode of the Batman TV show, when the Joker turned Gotham City's water supply into strawberry jelly. Taste-testing the Clown Prince of Crown's sinister handiwork, Robin the Boy Wonder declared, "It looks like strawberry jelly! But it tastes like strawberry axle grease!"

The Monkees' "The Day We Fall In Love" is like the Joker's strawberry axle grease. Except not as good.

A year later, the wonderful, underrated soul group the Bandwagon (aka Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon) executed the unlikely alchemy of remaking the song into something shiny and gold. Eschewing the smarmy teen puppy-love pandering of the original, the Bandwagon's slightly retitled "On The Day We Fall In Love" is chirpy and still a bit juvenile, but far less cloying and much, much more satisfying. To paraphrase the four kings of EMI: the Bandwagon took a bad song and made it better. It served as a B-side to the Bandwagon's non-hit "Baby Make Your Own Sweet Music." Syrup need not apply.

Mind you: I still believe the Monkees should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm not holding "The Day We Fall In Love" against them. But I tell ya, Johnny Johnson and his Bandwagon clearly did the better version here.

Your mileage may vary. Your mechanic should not recommend the use of strawberry axle grease.

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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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl