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 # 1175. This week's show is available as a podcast.
THE RAMONES: Blitzkrieg Bop
The imminent release of my first book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones inspired me to want to pay further tribute to the Ramones throughout April and May on TIRnRR. In our April shows, we'll be playing my single favorite track from each of the Ramones' fourteen studio albums, in chronological order, four tracks per week. We'll top off our April 23 show with my favorite non-LP Ramones single track and my favorite Ramones soundtrack cut. (And, yeah, as much as I love "I Want You Around," it's no spoiler to admit my top Ramones soundtrack song choice is exactly what you expect it to be.) We'll do the live albums on 4/30, and more Ramones mania will follow in May.
That celebration of my # 1 tracks from each of the Ramones' albums begins this week, with the classic first four: Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, and Road To Ruin. And we start with the first track from the first album. "Blitzkrieg Bop" was also the first Ramones song I ever heard, courtesy of my Brockport campus radio station WBSU in the fall of my freshman year 1977.
As mentioned in yesterday's post, I was 17 in '77, primed for punk by reading Phonograph Record Magazine, aching to claim new and more exciting vistas in my rock 'n' roll.
That revelation was at hand. "Blitzkrieg Bop" opened the door, setting the stage for another track that would soon knock that door down. Hey-ho. Let's GO!!
NICK PIUNTI: Heart Stops Beating
New music from Nick Piunti is pretty much guaranteed a spin on TIRnRR. Death, taxes, construction on I-81, and spins of new Nick Piunti songs on TIRnRR--see, there are some things in life you can count on.
And for good reason. Nick's stuff is always radio-ready, and his new Jem Records single "Heart Stops Beating" continues that streak of irresistible rockin' pop reliability. Elsewhere in this vast world of radio, "Heart Stops Beating" is also The Coolest Song In The World this week on Little Steven's Underground Garage.
Rightfully so.
THE RAMONES: Carbona Not Glue
My favorite number on the Ramones' second album Leave Home wasn't even on some folks' copies of Leave Home. Hell, it wasn't on my first copy of Leave Home, though I remedied that sitchyation PDQ.
Although I think I acquired my Ramones LPs in their proper chronological order--I'm not 100% certain if I picked up Leave Home before or after third album Rocket To Russia, but I do believe I snagged 'em in sequence--the fact that I arrived late to the party meant I got to each individual album after the fact. 1980's End Of The Century was the first Ramones album I bought when it was still a new release.
By the time I got to 1977's Leave Home some time in (presumably) 1978, the ace track "Carbona Not Glue" had been excised due to threats of legal action from the manufacturers of Carbona Spot Remover. WEASELS! I replaced my incomplete latter-day Leave Home with a used and (fittingly) warped copy of the original issue, and "Carbona Not Glue" instantly became my favorite on the album.
"Carbona Not Glue" is easily one of my Top Ten Ramones tracks, possibly Top 5. Wondering what I'm doing tonight. It's the goddamned catchiest song about substance I ever did hear. It was finally restored to its proper place on Leave Home when the album was reissued on CD in 2001. Have a heapin' huff of justice served. Take that, weasels!
THE SHIRELLES: Will You Love Me Tomorrow
In retrospect, the Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" seems remarkably mature for a pop hit circa 1960. Sex was a taboo subject on Top 40 radio, with any record approaching an even remotely risqué topic essentially dismissed from airplay consideration. This particular record is about doing it; there is no other plausible interpretation. Its sense of uncertainty, its vulnerability, its contemplation of tonight's ramifications on tomorrow add a weight beyond easy dismissal or censorship. It's about love and passion, passion and love, both in equal parts.
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" was also the first # 1 hit for its songwriting team, Gerry Goffin and Carole King. King wrote the music, Goffin crafted the lyrics. There is no shortage of irony in the fact that these tender lyrics about intimacy were written by Goffin, who so casually cheated on King throughout their relationship. Tonight the light of loving's in your eyes. Tomorrow's perspective may remain a work in progress.
THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
The record that changed my life. I know I've said that a lot, especially lately, because there is just no way for me to talk about "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" without making that specific reference: The Record That Changed My Life. I heard "Blitzkrieg Bop" first, but listening to the "Sheena" 45 in November of 1977 is where and when it all clicked into place. For me, everything--everything--started in earnest when I heard "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker."
Phonograph Record Magazine. WBSU. A Ramones 45, followed by another Ramones 45 ("Rockaway Beach"), and still another 45 ("Do You Wanna Dance"), all from the Rocket To Russia album. In between scarfin' up "Rockaway Beach" and "Do You Wanna Dance," I saw my first Ramones show, with the Runaways and the Flashcubes. I began to buy the albums, starting with the debut. I picked up Rocket To Russia over Christmas break in 1978. My enthusiasm would continue to grow and grow and grow. 1-2-3-4. PRM and "Blitzkrieg Bop" got my notice. "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" made me a fan. The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. I can't imagine my life without the thrill of the Ramones.
Thank you, Sheena.
THE SEX PISTOLS: God Save The Queen
Even before I heard "Blitzkrieg Bop," my first direct exposure to punk rock was when Utica's WOUR-FM played "God Save The Queen" by the Sex Pistols. Summer of '77, just a little before tour "Blitzkrieg Bop" entry's photo of 17-year-old me was taken. That story was told here, and later adapted for use as a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). It remains my hope that Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones will help make the GREM! book a reality.
No future? I am not yet willing to concede that.
THE RAMONES: I Wanna Be Sedated
"She was asleep, sitting up, her head resting on my shoulder. I was in love with her. And I was already in love with the music of the band whose new album was about to be played on the radio. Love and music. Reasonable goals. I just want to have something to do.
"It was October of 1978. Brenda and I had just met, already exchanged I love yous, and were determined to see where that road would lead us next...."
Those were the opening paragraphs of a Love At First Spin piece I had planned to write about the Ramones' fourth album Road To Ruin. I felt the story would have too much overlap with my Love At First Spin tribute to Rocket To Russia, so the Road To Ruin entry will likely remain unfinished. But the facts remain: I first heard Road To Ruin when Rochester's WCMF-FM played it in its entirety, listening as I sat in my dorm suite with my arm around this girl I'd just met and fallen for. Road to ruin? Road to something better.
"I Wanna Be Sedated" stood out immediately, helped in no small part by its superficial resemblance to Alice Cooper's "Elected," transcending that influence with its paradoxical hybrid of a wish to be numbed combined with a full-throttle approach that couldn't be taken down by a flurry of tranquilizer darts. I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain. Sounds a lot like the act of being smitten. I want it.
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Can't Wait 'Till Summer
Man, I love this track. I love it enough to give it the last word in today's Ramones-centric post, and that's (in the immortal words of the Velvelettes) really sayin' somethin'. From Librarians With Hickeys' 2022 album Handclaps & Tambourines, "Can't Wait 'Till Summer" is likely to get significant burn on the ol' TIRnRR playlist in the weeks to come.
In fact, it's even gonna get played again next week. The vast majority of my selections for the April 9 show will come from the Sire Records catalog, in memory of the late Seymour Stein. For my half of the playlist programming, I'll only have four tracks that weren't ever released on Sire. Two of those are brand new (by the Tearaways and Moonlight Parade), and one is by an act (the Flashcubes) who shoulda been on Sire. Dana provides appropriate balance to make it a proper and nonpareil playlist (though he'll also play more than a few Sire gems, too). I have to postpone playing a lot of superb new tracks to accommodate my ideas for the Sire tribute.
I still made room for Librarians With Hickeys. "Can't Wait 'Till Summer." Man, I love this track. It returns to the airwaves Sunday night, alongside a bunch of noteworthy sides from Sire Records.
Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio? Your refresher course awaits.
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available for preorder, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!!
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.
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