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 # 1217. This show is available as a podcast.
VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH: What If?
Anyone who knows me is aware that my devotion to the big beat of the rock and the roll is matched, guitar to cape, by my pervasive and prevailing interest in superhero comic books. And while I have no idea whether or not the members of Vegas With Randolph have ever even read an issue of The Brave And The Bold or Tales To Astonish, I did use an enthusiastic comics comparison when hyping their 2017 super team-up with Lannie Flowers for our compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. That provides a coincidental bit of symmetry as we open this week's battle for truth, justice, and the Rickenbacker way with a new VWR track that shares its title with a Marvel Comics series:
What If?
That's the central question that sparks all fiction, the fantastic and the everyday alike. It's also the not-so-secret origin of many a relationship, and it serves as inspiration for many a fine pop song. Tell us about it, VWR:
What if, What if
I found you
and you wanted me
And I wanted you
And we were meant to be
What if I could lift the veil and see
Our destiny
Adventures await. It all starts with that question: What if?
"What If?" comes to us from Vegas With Randolph's forthcoming new album The Future Store. You should buy it. I did! And we will hear another of its tracks on our next show.
Will hear. There is no "if." There is just the amazing, the incredible, and the mighty. Excelsior!
THE JACK RUBIES: Heaven Shook Me
THE CYRKLE: Red Rubber Ball [21st century version]
This week's second set opens with two in a row from our friends at Big Stir Records. And while many think of Big Stir as a power pop (or at least power pop adjacent) label, this pairing illustrates that Big Stir is so much more than just one thing.
The Jack Rubies are a British group that plied their surly craft in the '80s. Usually described as postpunk, the Jack Rubies are back with a new Big Stir album called Clocks Are Out Of Time, a brooding concoction that's as far removed from jangle as Mickey Spillane is from Mickey Mouse. Both great. Both great in different ways.
The Jack Rubies' "Heaven Shook Me" leads into the Cyrkle. Obviously. In the '60s, the Cyrkle annexed the charts with the sunshine pop of their big hits "Turn Down Day" and, of course, "Red Rubber Ball," the latter written by Paul Simon. The Cyrkle's present-day incarnation has signed with Big Stir, and in 2023 they released a single of the autobiographical "We Thought We Could Fly" coupled with a 21st-century remake of "Red Rubber Ball." We played "We Thought We Could Fly" upon its release, and the morning sun's "Red Rubber Ball [21st century version]" shines on this week's playlist. We hear the group is working on a new album for Big Stir. And we think's it's gonna be all right. Full Cyrkle. BO DIDDLEY: Pills
It seems likely that a lot of folks in the TIRnRR demographic were introduced to Bo Diddley's classic 1961 song "Pills" via the cover version found on the New York Dolls' 1973 eponymous debut album.
Me? I never even knew the song existed before hearing former Dolls lead singer David Johansen warble it live at my first David Jo show in the summer of 1979. Even then, I thought the song was called "Rock 'n' Roll Nurse." I barely knew any Dolls or Johansen material before that show, just "Personality Crisis" and "Who Are The Mystery Girls," maybe "Babylon," and possibly David Jo's solo "Funky But Chic." After that night, I made a point of catching up as fast as I could.
I got to Bo Diddley's own "Pills" in 1990, with the acquisition of the two-CD Diddley compilation The Chess Box. A few years later, I got to see Diddley himself as part of an oldies package tour. I don't think he performed "Pills" in that live set at the New York State Fair, nor did Johansen sing it again in any of the shows of his I caught after my first one in '79. Guess he really didn't dig that jive the nurse was giving him.
We played Bo Diddley's "Pills" this week, and we played his late '60s bubblegum single "Bo Diddley 1969" last week. We'll serve up a third Bo Diddley classic on this coming Sunday night's program. Which one? Well, I tell ya: It ain't no town, and it ain't no city.
MARYKATE O'NEIL: I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around
FAIRPORT CONVENTION: Time Will Show The Wiser
On our radio show, Dana's been the one playing Fairport Convention, and I'm the one cheering every time he does. But I first heard Fairport Convention's cover of the Merry-Go-Round's delicate pop treasure "Time Will Show The Wiser" when my boss Lewis mentioned it. Lew loves Fairport Convention, and he saw them in concert some time in the way back when. As much I love the original, I now regard the Fairport Convention cover as definitive. Thanks for the tip, Lew! And thanks to Dana for programming it. Wise move.
HEADGIRL: Please Don't Touch
Girls can rock. Girls and boys can even rock together.
In 1980, the members of British metal acts Motörhead and Girlschool merged briefly as Headgirl, with their respective frontpersons--bassist Lemmy Kilmister and guitarist Kelly Jackson--trading lead vocals on a single called "Please Don't Touch." At the time of its release, I knew Motörhead a little bit, and I was peripherally aware of Girlschool, an all-female group that was part of the then-hyped British New Wave of Heavy Metal, or at least a tangent to it. I guess a tangent is more accurate; their gender prevented them from being considered fairly alongside the boys in Iron Maiden and Def Leppard.
I didn't hear Headgirl's fantastic bludgeoning of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Please Don't Touch" until 2021, but it made up for lost time by immediately becoming a part of my permanent Hot 100. It has a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and it's always ready to pop into the TIRnRR playlist at any time.
(The playlist is the only instance where I'm only going to spin the song once, and move on. Otherwise? It is not uncommon for repeat plays of "Please Don't Touch" to occupy the entirety of the iPod soundtrack for my evening commute. Don'tcha touch me baby 'cuz I'm shakin' so much.)
THE FLASHCUBES: Gudbuy T' Jane
A few paragraphs north of here, we talked about how Big Stir Records is so much more than just a power pop label. But now, let's speak of one of the label's power pop superstars, the Flashcubes. But first: These words about rock 'n' roll radio.
My love of rock 'n' roll radio was forged by my absolute fascination with AM Top 40, beginning when I was a kid in the '60s, manifesting in earnest when I was in middle school and high school in the '70s. My migration to FM by the time I graduated from high school in 1977 didn't change the fact of the matter: Radio was everything.
In those days, Top 40 stations in one city weren't necessarily playing all of the same potential hit records as Top 40 stations in other cities. Regional hits. Years later, I was surprised to learn that, say, "Tonight" by the Raspberries and "Blockbuster" by Sweet weren't radio smashes all across the USA. But here in Syracuse, they were. And so was "Gudbuy T' Jane" by UK stompers Slade.
My God, I loved this record. Still do. Slade were huge in their native land, but the colonies didn't catch on until the '80s, first via the numbskull proxy of covers by Quiet Riot and then by the much-belated appearance of Slade themselves on the American pop radar (and on MTV) with "My Oh My" and "Run Runaway."
The members of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouses the Flashcubes knew (and know) better. I'm sure they heard "Gudbuy T'Jane" on Syracuse's WOLF-AM circa '72, and I know at the very least that 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong is a Slade fan of long standing. So "Gudbuy T' Jane" was a natural choice for the Flashcubes to remake on their superlative 2023 all-covers album Pop Masters. Latter-day New York Dolls guitarist Steve Conte brings additional oomph here, and the Flashcubes provide plenty of oomph of their own. It's what they do!
"Gudbuy T' Jane." Made for the airwaves, then and now. Get with it, America. Jane is all right, all right, all right, all right.
THE WEEKLINGS: Falling Down A Flight Of Stairs
When the Weeklings release new music, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has a tendency to wanna play it. We have to fill three hours of radio each week, and we very much prefer to fill that spot with irresistible music. Hey! The Weeklings create irresistible music! Let's play THAT!
We debuted "None Of Your Business," an advance track from the Weeklings' new album Raspberry Park, on last week's show. Dana's been champin' at the bit to play a different track from Raspberry Park, the beguiling "Falling Down A Flight Of Stairs," but we hadda wait until the album's actual release to follow through.
Now: The album's out! And "Falling Down The Stairs" is on the air in Syracuse. Fall in. It's the Weeklings! On the radio, where they belong.
CHUBBY CHECKER: Slow Twistin'
The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame is a nice place to visit. But in terms of its relevance to the story (and history) of rock 'n' roll, people keep telling me it's unmimportant, that I should ignore it, that its continuous chuckleheaded snubs of worthy acts are best shrugged off with extreme disdain. These folks are right.
And they're also wrong.
Yes, the Hall is irrelevant, bloated, a joke, a blight, and it probably has bad breath. None of that contradicts my conviction that, in all caps and in bold, ROCK 'N' ROLL SHOULD HONOR ITS OWN. That glorified Hard Rock Cafe on the banks of Lake Erie, flawed though it is, remains the best, highest-profile means to do that. They keep messing it up. I'm gonna keep on calling for them to get it right.
Induct the Monkees. Induct Paul Revere and the Raiders. Induct the New York Dolls, Harry Nilsson, and Warren Zevon, each of whom has at least been nominated. And, for God's sake, induct Chubby Checker.
Come on, baby. Let's do this.
Speaking of acts looooong overdue for induction into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, our next edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio will program a few tracks by the Shangri-Las, in memory of the late, great Mary Weiss.
REMEMBER!
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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.
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