newcritics

We Philly kids grew up with great rock and roll radio in the 60s. You’d switch on the transistor and you had it all, from the Supremes and the Four Tops to the Stones and the Beatles to the more obscure but fantastic Dyke & the Blazers and the Shadows of Knight and the Seeds. Then things got even better around 1967 — you still had the great AM stations playing weird and wonderful singles but FM radio started up playing even weirder and equally wonderful album tracks.

Somewhere along the way, around the early 70s I suppose, rock and roll radio went to shit. I stopped listening to what passed for rock radio. My tastes expanded, and over the years I spent a lot of time listening to jazz and classical radio, but I never even bothered looking for rock and roll radio.

Then a couple of weeks ago I finally checked out Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

Rock and roll radio is back, baby. Just hit on the above link and put your headphones on. You don’t want to disturb the neighbors. Or fuck that, hook your computer up to your stereo and let it rip. Log in, and go to the “Archives” section. Do what I did and just start on the first archived show from 2002, or skip around, it doesn’t matter, it’s all cool.

Steve Van Zandt calls his show the Underground Garage but the songs he plays are not necessarily underground or garage. What he does do is play only songs that are cool.

Here’s a partial playlist from the show (August 18, 2002) I’m listening to right at this second:

Title: I’m Crying
Artist: Animals

Title: You Really Got Me
Artist: Kinks

Title: I Only Want To Be With You
Artist: Dusty Springfield

Artist: King Midas In Reverse
Artist: Hollies

Title: Anyway You Want It
Artist: Dave Clark Five

Title: Wailin’
Artist: The Wailers

Title: Once Before
Artist: The Remains

Title: Be My Baby
Artist: Ronettes

Title: Day Tripper
Artist: Beatles

Title: If I Needed Someone
Artist: Beatles

Title: Lawn Mower
Artist: Los Straitjackets

Title: Biff Bang Pow
Artist: Creation

Title: Say Those Magic Words
Artist: Birds

Title: Shapes of Things
Artist: Yardbirds

Title: Song of a Baker
Artist: Small Faces

Title: A Legal Matter
Artist: The Who

Title: Ghost Rider in the Sky
Artist: The Ramrods

Title: Pictures of Matchstick Men
Artist: Status Quo

Title: I Can Hear the Grass Grow
Artist: The Move

Title: Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You
Artist: Bee Gees

Title: I See The Rain Again
Artist: Marmalade

Title: Coloured Rain
Artist: Traffic

Title: Blue Shift
Artist: Davie Allan and the Arrows

Title: No Other Guy
Artist: Kaisers

Title: This Year’s Girl
Artist: Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Title: Come See Me
Artist: Pretty Things

Title: Here Comes The Night
Artist: Them

Title: God Save The Queen
Artist: Sex Pistols

Title: Blues Theme
Artist: Davie Allan & The Arrows

Title: Anyway You Want It
Artist: Dave Clark Five

Title: Wailin’
Artist: The Wailers

Title: Once Before
Artist: The Remains

You can be forgiven for not knowing all the above tunes, but don’t worry about it. Take my word for it, the one thing all these records have in common is that they are rock and roll and that they rock.

In-between the songs and wacky movie-dialogue clips (and over other songs in the sections he calls Musical Beds) Steve Van Zandt talks, and not only does he have perfect taste in rock and roll, but he knows everything about rock and roll and he is funny and he lays it all out for you. He plays mostly 60s stuff, but as you can see from the above list, he plays real rock and roll whether it’s “fifty minutes old or fifty years old”, so you’ll also hear the White Stripes, Tom Petty, Hole, and lots of contemporary groups with one-syllable names I’d never even heard of, and they all rock.

Van Zandt plays songs that go chunka chunka thump thump through your brain, songs with guitars that rip and jangle and buzz, songs with vocal harmonies that make you think you’re not annoying the neighbors when you just must sing these words not because they were written by Shakespeare but because they go so perfectly well with that chunka thump and that jangle and buzz, songs that wake up the rammy sixteen-year-old inside you.

I do not hate this show.

I love this show.

Just dig it.

(Another great rock show on the web whose playlists include a lot of the stuff Little Steven plays is Technicolor Web of Sound. This is for all you stoners who only want to hear 60s psych, and it’s brilliant. This Newcritics exclusive has been my response to Tom Watson’s call for fave-rave media joints of the past year. A Shel Talmy/Jack Nietsche/ Andrew Loog Oldham Production. Check out my joint for only the finest in contemporary rock and roll fiction.)