Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: IMPACT!!

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is simply too large a concept to be neatly contained within a mere three-hour weekly time slot. Hence these occasional fake TIRnRR playlists, detailing shows we're never really going to do...but could.

Impact.

Its story is personal, varying from subject to subject. Each of the tracks in the playlist seen below is something that specifically and dramatically moved a needle in my head. The impact may have been an introduction to a new-to-me performer, or it could have been a widening of my ears and mind to a performer I'd heard before, but hadn't fully appreciated until proper IMPACT!! made it so. Needle, meet groove. And brace for impact.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl--y'know, the real one--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 all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

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

PS: SEND MONEY!!!! We need tech upgrades like Elvis needs boats. Spark Syracuse is supported by listeners like you. Tax-deductible donations are welcome at 
http://sparksyracuse.org/support/

You can follow Carl's daily blog Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) at 
https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/

Fake TIRnRR Playlist: IMPACT!!

THE KINKS: Tired Of Waiting For You
SUZI QUATRO: I May Be Too Young
WILSON PICKETT: In The Midnight Hour
THE SEX PISTOLS: God Save The Queen
THE BEACH BOYS: Girl Don't Tell Me
THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: Shake Some Action
--
CHUCK BERRY: Johnny B. Goode
DAVID BOWIE: Suffragette City
PATTI SMITH: Gloria
THE RUBINOOS: Wouldn't It Be Nice
BLONDIE: X Offender
THE RUNAWAYS: Cherry Bomb
--
RASPBERRIES: I Wanna Be With You
THE FOUR TOPS: It's The Same Old Song
DAVID JOHANSEN: Frenchette
THE HEARTBREAKERS: Chinese Rocks
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: I Need To Know
COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: You Do Run
--
THE GO-GO'S: We Got The Beat
R.E.M.: Radio Free Europe
TRANSLATOR: Everywhere That I'm Not
PRINCE: Little Red Corvette
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD: Mr. Soul
THE MYNAH BIRDS: It's My Time
--
RICK JAMES: Super Freak
THE WHO: I Can't Explain
JOAN ARMATRADING: Eating The Bear
BUDDY HOLLY: Peggy Sue
BUDDY HOLLY: Everyday
THE HUMAN SWITCHBOARD: (Say No To) Saturday's girl
--
PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS: Kicks
THE KNICKERBOCKERS: Lies
THE ROMANTICS: Little White Lies
HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS: Tell That Girl To Shut Up
THE BEAU BRUMMELS: Laugh Laugh
STEVIE WONDER: Uptight (Everything's Alright)
--
ANNY CELSI: Empty Hangers
THE FLESHTONES: R.I.G.H.T.S.
BIG STAR: September Gurls
THE RECORDS: Starry Eyes
TELEVISION: Elevation
IGGY POP: I'm Bored
--
THE BANDWAGON: Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache
THE YARDBIRDS: Heart Full Of Soul
CHEAP TRICK: Surrender
SLADE: Gudbuy T' Jane
THE HOLLIES: Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress
BOW WOW WOW: C30 C60 C90 GO!
THE SELECTER: On My Radio
MANNIX: Highway Lines
--
EYTAN MIRSKY: Record Collection
ARTFUL DODGER: It's Over
FOOLS FACE: American Guilt
ABBA: SOS
TEGAN AND SARA: Walking With A Ghost
X: True Love
STEVIE WONDER: Uptight (Everything's Alright)
THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
--
THE PANDORAS: It's About Time

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

VIRTUAL TICKET STUB GALLERY: April Fools' Day Edition


I've never cared much about April Fools' Day. I don't like pranks to begin with, and nowadays every friggin' day is another All Fools' Day edition any way you look.

So let's celebrate an enjoyable joke that we can all be in on. Normally, Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery looks back on performers I've seen in live performance, and it manifests on this blog as an all-time list (which I hope will continue to have more great acts to add in the future) and as a series of individual reminiscences (like seeing KISS, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, the Ramones with the Runaways and the Flashcubes, my first Flashcubes show, the Kinks, David JohansenPeter Tork, the Bangles, Tommy James, the Monkees, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, and a fabricated memory of seeing the Beatles reunited in 1976).

Today's Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery does not include any act I've ever witnessed in live performance. In fact, most of these are acts that no one has ever seen in live performance. Most, in fact, are fictional, taken from movies, TV, comic books, et al. I've even included a few acts I created for my own works. 

The few that did exist in the real world have asterisks on their in-concert résumé: The Dirty Mac (John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell) were a one-off that only performed once as part of the 1968 taping for The Rolling Stones' Rock And Roll Circus. Paul McCartney and the Broad Street Bounders is a name I concocted for a band Macca assembled for his film Give My Regards To Broad Street, with Dave Edmunds, Chris Spedding, John Paul Jones, and Ringo Starr. Gilda Radner's Patti Smith-inspired character Candy Slice appeared in SNL skits and as part of Radner's live act, but never in any other setting. The Barbusters (which were Joan Jett and her Light Of Day castmates Michael J. Fox and Michael McKean) played a live show that Jett organized to expose the made-for-the-movies band to the experience of rockin' a nightclub, but I'm countin' 'em here because I feel like countin' 'em.

It was a coin toss whether or not to include the Redcoats and/or Nigel and Patrick, the British Invasion duos played by Chad and Jeremy (basically playing themselves) on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show respectively, as well as the Group (played by Earth, Wind and Fire in the film That's The Way Of The World) and Prince's Purple Rain doppelganger the Kid. I did disqualify the Beau Brummelstones

(And before you ask: Spinal Tap and the Rutles aren't here because they have done live shows, not allowing a little technicality like, y'know, not really existing to interfere with their pursuit of the rock and the roll. That's the spirit! The same thing goes for Otis Day and the Knights, and I think it may also be true of the Commitments and even Josie and the Pussycats.)

For the fake acts, I tried to limit myself to one act per resource; otherwise, I could've gone deeper into more imaginary performers concocted for The Monkees, Batman, That Thing You Do!, The Rutles, SNL, The Flintstones, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gilligan's Island, and more. Shared universes were fair game, though, allowing acts from both Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, from different DC Comics titles, and from different Marvel Comics titles.

Other than links to the stuff I made up myself, I'm not going to provide annotations here. If you're curious about where I discovered one or another of these fictional tunesters that I've appropriated, feel free to contact me.

And now: 1-2-3-FOOL!!


VIRTUAL TICKET STUB GALLERY: April Fools' Day Edition
APE SEX
THE ARCHIES
THE BANANA SPLITS
THE BARBUSTERS
THE BEAGLES
THE BEDBUGS
CONRAD BIRDIE
BLACK DOG
WILLINGTON BLUE
THE BUCKET HEADS
THE BUGALOOS
CAPTAIN GROOVY AND HIS BUBBLEGUM ARMY
THE CARRIE NATIONS
THE CHAN CLAN
DEWEY COX
THE CRY-BABY COMBO
THE DAISY BANG
DAZZLER
DIMENSION 
DINGOES ATE MY BABY
EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS
THE ELECTRICS
THE EXCREMENT RIFLES
DANNY FISHER
THE FIVE HEARTBEATS 
FLAME
BOBBY FLEET AND HIS BAND WITH A BEAT
FRANK AND THE SYRACUSE DOORS
MAX FROST AND THE TROOPERS 
THE GIRLS ON THE BEACH
THE GROUP
THE GRUNGIES
THE HARDY BOYS
THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS 
THE HEARDSMEN
HELP [Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer]
HEP ALIEN
BONGO HERBERT
MOE HILL AND THE MOUNTAINS
HOLLEY HIP
THE HONEYBEES
THE HONG KONG CAVALIERS
THE IMPOSSIBLES
DAISY JONES AND THE SIX
DEENA JONES AND THE DREAMS
RICK JONES
THE KID
KIDD VIDEO
JENNIE LEE AND THE MYSTERY
THE LIVERPOOLS
THE LITTLE LADIES
LONDON’S BRIDGES
THE MADHOUSE GLADS
BREATHLESS MAHONEY
THE MANCHESTERS
THE MASKED MARAUDERS
PAUL McCARTNEY AND THE BROAD STREET BOUNDERS
MING TEA
MR. MOD
NIGEL AND PATRICK
NORMAN'S NORMANS
THE OLIVER TWISTS
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY
THE POWERPUFF GIRLS
STAG PRESTON
THE PUNK FLOYD
THE REDCOATS
THE RICKY RICARDO BAND
THE RIPTIDES
THE SACRED COWS
SCOOTER AND THE BANSHEES
SCUM OF THE EARTH
THE SLEEZ SISTERS 
CANDY SLICE
THE STAINS
STEEL DRAGON 
THE STEELTOWN ROCKERS
STILLWATER
STRANGE FRUIT
THE STRAY CATS
STUMP
THE SUNDANCE KIDS
THE SWANKY MODES
THE TERROR TWINS
THE THAMESMEN
LEATHER TUSCADERO
THE TWYLIGHT ZONES
THE WAY OUTS
THE WESTMINSTER ABBIES
WITCHKRAFT
WYLD STALLYNS

The Westminster Abbies

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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.

Monday, March 31, 2025

This Is Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1279


To the Bunnymobile! We're about halfway through the season of Lent, but this week's TIRnRR is just loaded with Easter eggs. In fact, there's at least one such hidden treat in each set. We'd tell you more, but further information remains [REDACTED]. For now.

We open with something that isn't necessarily an Easter egg, but it sure is sweet: A brand new track from Joe Giddings, covering the Flashcubes' "You're Not Grounded." It's simply superb, and we look forward to September, when you'll be able to own your own copy of "You're Not Grounded" by Joe Giddings as part of the various-artists set Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES

More details yet to come on that particular project. Meanwhile, please enjoy some tasty Easter eggs as a part of this balanced diet of pop with power, rock with roll, radio with purpose, frilly fun with intent to stun. To the Bunnymobile! It's rabbit transit.This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on another Sunday night in Syracuse this week.

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 all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO)

TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

Carl's new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get Carl's previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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
Volume 5: CD or download

TIRnRR # 1279: 3/30/2025
TIRnRR FRESH SPINS! Tracks we think we ain't played before are listed in bold.

HARMONIC DIRT: Tumbleweeds (n/a, Tumbleweeds)
THE ARMOIRES: The Night I Heard A Scream (Big Stir, Incognito)
PARTHENON HUXLEY: Something In My Heart Stopped (Columbia, Sunny Nights)
--
THE AIRPORT 77'S: If It's On, I'm In (Jem, single)
SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS: Pop Radio (single)
THE CARS: My Best Friend's Girl (Rhino, Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology)
THE MOCKERS: Rascals Who Died (single)
--
CHRIS CHURCH: Life On A Trampoline (Big Stir, Obsolete Path)
THE ARTWOODS: I Feel Good [BBC] (RPM, Steady Gettin' It: The Complete Recordings 1964-67)
JAMES BROWN: I Got You (I Feel Good) (Polydor, The 50th Anniversary Collection)
SWEET: Wig Wam Bam (Razor & Tie, Sweet)
--
THE HIGHWAY DOLLYS: The Game (CountryCana, single)
AMY RIGBY: Last Night's Rainbow (Tapete, Hang In There With Me)
THE NON-PROPHETS: Alibi (single)
THE RUBINOOS: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (Castle, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About The Rubinoos But Were Afraid To Ask)
THE KENNEDYS: Half Of Us, (Jiffyjam, Get It Right)
BLONDIE: (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear (Chrysalis, The Platinum Collection)
--
THE YUM YUMS: Got Me Good (Rum Bar, Poppin' Up Again)
THE OHIO EXPRESS: Yummy, Yummy, Yummy (Buddha, The Best Of The Ohio Express)
sparkle*jets u.k.: You Complete Me (Big Stir, Box Of Letters)
DAVE EDMUNDS: Crawling From The Wreckage (Rhino, The Anthology [1968-1990])
MIKE MITSCH'S LAGANSLOVE: I Don't Want To Waste Another Day (single)
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS: Crawling To The USA (Rykodisc, This Year's Model)
--
BRAD MARINO: Baby Doll (Rum Bar, On The Brink)
LET'S ACTIVE: In Little Ways (Collectors Choice Music, Big Plans For Everybody)
FIREKING: So You Say You Lost Your Baby (Blueberry Pie, Double Trouble)
MIKE BROWNING: Four Days Of Rain (single)
THE BRIEFS: She's Just A Girl On The Block (Vivid Sound, VA: He Put The Bomp In The Bomp: Greg Shaw)
--
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE STANDELLS: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White (Sundazed, Why Pick On Me)
THE SEEDS: Pushin' Too Hard (Big Beat, The Seeds)
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Mirror (Big Stir, How To Make Friends By Telephone)
THE MUSIC MACHINE: Little Bit O' Soul (Rhino, VA: Nuggets)
WONDERBOY: Something's Missing (Racer, Napoleon Blown Apart)
THE RATIONALS: I Need You (Rhino, VA: Nuggets)
--
POP CO-OP: Persistence Of Memory (Futureman, Factory Settings)
THE MUFFS: Sad Tomorrow (Reprise, Blonder And Blonder)
TOM KENNY AND THE HI-SEAS: Tossin' And Turnin' (n/a, Live At The Troubadour)
THE CLASH: Capital Radio One (Epic, Clash On Broadway)
THE AMPLIFIER HEADS: Black Mascara (n/a, Music For Abandoned Amusenent Parks)
THE GO-GO'S: Speeding (IRS, Return To The Valley Of The Go-Go's)
HAMELL ON TRIAL: N.Y. State Thruway (Blue Wave, VA: History Of Syracuse Music Volume 14)
THE RAMONES: Oh Oh I Love Her So (Rhino, Leave Home)
--
FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE: Better Things (Rykodisc, VA: This Is Where I Belong
THE VERBS: I Saw The Light (Jay-Vee, Cover Story)
THE DAMNED: New Rose (Castle, Smash It Up--The Anthology 1976-1987)
CHRIS VON SNEIDERN: The Ballad (Heyday, Sight & Sound)
THE SPONGETONES: She Goes Out With Everybody (Loaded Goat, Always Carry On: The Best Of The Spongetones 1980-2005)
THE MAYFLOWERS: Lazy Sunday (Rooster, Best Of The Mayflowers [From The Beginning])
THE BEATLES: Here Comes The Sun (Apple, Abbey Road)
--
GRAHAM PARKER AND THE FIGGS: Take Everything (Razor & Tie, The Last Rock 'n' Roll Tour)

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Tonight on THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

We start with JOE GIDDINGS covering THE FLASHCUBES, the radio premiere of another great track from the forthcoming Flashcubes tribute album. Then all Hell breaks loose--but in a good way! We serve up our usual hypercatchy mix of the new, the classic, the recent, and the WHERE HAS THIS IRRESISTIBLE SONG BEEN  ALL MY LIFE?!, courtesy of CHRIS CHURCH, JAMES BROWN, HARMONIC DIRT, THE RAMONES, THE VERBS, PARTHENON HUXLEY, SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS, THE AIRPORT 77'S, THE CARS, THE MOCKERS, THE ARMOIRES, SORROWS, LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS, IAN HUNTER, THE HIGHWAY DOLLYS, THE YUM YUMS, BRAD MARINO, BLONDIE, THE KENNEDYS, THE RAMONES, LET'S ACTIVE, THE SEEDS, THE NON-PROPHETS, THE MUFFS, THE CLASH, THE GO-GO'S, THE SPONGETONES, THE DAMNED, WONDERBOY, FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE, ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS, CHRIS VON SNEIDERN, TOM KENNY AND THE HIGH-SEAS, and the sort of prerequisite MORE!!! you expect from The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. PLUS! We celebrate the fifth anniversary of the FACTORY SETTINGS album by POP CO-OP, and that album's specific relevance in the history of this little mutant radio show. Hey! History that's FUN! Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FMhttps://sparksyracuse.org/, streaming on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. The weekend stops HERE!

Saturday, March 29, 2025

SHORT STORIES AND OTHER WHITE LIES/IT'S HARLAN ELLISON'S FAULT (And he didn't even know me): The foreword and introduction to my eventual book of short stories GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!!

Earlier this month, I posted about my plan to publish a collection of my short stories. That book will be called GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!! Short Stories And Other White Lies, and it's a book that I will complete and publish, probably in 2026. 

That's not quite as immediate as I had intended a few weeks ago, but there are two main factors prompting my decision to postpone this book. First, there is the matter of my forthcoming nonfiction book Make Something Happen! The Story Of A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. There is a lot of work still to be done for this book, and that needs to be a priority. Second, the good folks at AHOY Comics recently bought another one of my short stories. "Bullets From The Copperhead Detective" was never intended to be part of GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!!, but its sale led me to take one of the new stories written for GvsR!! and submit it to AHOY instead. AHOY might buy it, or AHOY might decline the option, but either way the short story is now off the market for the immediate future. With all of that, postponing GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!! was the only real choice.

But MEANWHILE...!

Here's a sneak peek at the introduction to an eventual short story collection called GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!! Short Stories And Other White Lies. It serves today as twin manifestations of both Batman and Irwin Shaw alike: Who I am and how I came to be, and where I think I am and what this place looks like today. It's followed by the tribute I wrote in memory of Harlan Ellison when he died in 2018. This is how my book of short stories will begin, when it finally gets around to becoming a book.

Foreword

SHORT STORIES AND OTHER WHITE LIES

I was thirteen, maybe fourteen years old when I decided I wanted to be a writer. Looking back, I can't understand why it took so long for me to reach such an obvious decision.

But no: 1973 or '74. I was thirteen or fourteen. The inevitability of my path prior to that moment is only clear in retrospect. I had always been an imaginative kid, often to my detriment. My wide-eyed love of TV, books, and comic books--especially superhero comic books--fueled flights of fancy, manifesting in creative play. When I was six, I concocted my first of many crayon-crafted DIY comic books. As the 1960s wore on, I scribbled constantly in notebooks, jotting down sketches and notions of my own imaginary comic book line, with its own collection of derivative superstars.

In 1968 or thereabouts, I responded to a local newspaper's open call for kids to write and tell its readers how we imagined the Easter Bunny's mode of travel. An excerpt of my paragraph detailing the Easter Bunny's use of the Bunnymobile (with a Bird 'Copter for a presumed avian sidekick) was my first published work. I was writing and writing and writing from an early age, with undefined ambition to be...something. The next Stan Lee. The next Jack Kirby. The next Adam West. The next...well, something.

In fourth grade, I was bugged that I didn't have a role in my class's dramatic presentation for our parents, so I made up my own role, horned in with ad-libbed lines, and was added to the cast. That's writing, right? In sixth grade I joined the school newspaper, scripting cartoons that were plagiarized from Peanuts. In seventh grade, group projects in social studies (during our segment on the American Revolution) and English classes (as we delved into Bram Stoker's Dracula) found me taking over, writing and scripting a video play about traveling back in time to participate in the Boston Tea Party and writing and scripting an audio presentation of my original [sic] horror story Laviska. In eighth grade I wrote and drew my own superhero comic strip Jack Mystery in art class--we'll talk about that later in this book--and started writing superhero short stories for extra credit in English.

The moment of specific revelation came at my cousin's wedding reception. I can't quite pinpoint whether that occurred in 1973 or '74. I remember sitting at the table, sipping soda, scribbling in my notebook as I always did. Another wedding guest asked me what I was working on, and I said that I was writing a Batman story.

"Ah," the guest replied. "Are you thinking of writing comic books professionally?"

Holy Lightbulb!

I finished the story. I mailed it to DC Comics. The fact that the story was simply terrible was presumably a large factor in DC's decision to politely ignore my submission. No matter. I'd made my decision. Writer. I was going to be a writer.

I've never made a living at it, nor even made much money at all. But I did have a decades-long side career as a freelance rock journalist, an experience which led to my first two books, Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones and The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I started a daily blog. In 2019 I made my first-ever fiction sale when the good folks at AHOY Comics bought my prose short story "Guitars Vs Rayguns." Money for my lies! BWA-HA-HA-HAAAA!

As a teen wannabe writer in the '70s, my hero was Harlan Ellison. I was particularly taken with Ellison's short stories, eagerly consumed in Ellison anthologies like Paingod And Other Delusions, No Doors, No Windows, Gentleman Junkie, and Love Ain't Nothin' But Sex Misspelled. With that model in mind, I have long held a goal of publishing an anthology of my own short stories.

So here we have Guitars Vs Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies, gathering tales of a rock 'n' roll guitarist hijacked into space, a film noir gun moll who longs to be in a musical, a humorous fill-in superhero suddenly called to greatness, a former boy band star turned record company fix-it man, a would-be painter, an obsessed collector, a fated swordswoman, a fallen giant, a frustrated time traveler, and other untruths detailing love, loss, disappointment, a fascination with shiny objects, and--occasionally--a juvenile sense of humor. Maybe you'll see Harlan Ellison's influence here and there, or maybe the inspiration didn't quite translate in the execution.

But the stories are mine. It's what I've wanted to do since I was thirteen or fourteen years old, or maybe since I was six. From crayons to the Bunnymobile, Jack Mystery to AHOY Comics and beyond: Writer. I hope you'll enjoy this collection of a few of my white lies.

But first, these words about my inspiration....

Introduction

IT'S HARLAN ELLISON'S FAULY (And he didn't even know me)

I wrote this when Harlan Ellison died in 2018. Given the importance of Ellison’s impact upon me, especially the impact of his short story collections, it feels imperative to open my own debut short story anthology with this reminiscence. 

"DEPART, HARLEQUIN!" SAID THE TICKTOCKWORLD

"Hitler Painted Roses." "Jeffty Is Five." "Daniel White For The Greater Good." "The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs." "Lonelyache." "All The Lies That Are My Life." "The City On The Edge Of Forever." "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said The Ticktockman."

I cannot eulogize Harlan Ellison. I can't.

It's not that I've been reading up on his work lately, nor that I've forgotten what I've already read. Ellison's importance to me is beyond measure, beyond my meager ability to detail, to chronicle...to just fucking write. His work was everything to me. I can't believe he's gone.

As much as the Beatles have meant to me, the fact that I was never a musician placed a limit on how directly they could influence what I was capable of creating. As a writer, Harlan Ellison was my Beatles.

In 1975, when I was a fifteen year old suburban misfit, lonely and out of place, I read my first Harlan Ellison book, a short story collection called Paingod And Other Delusions. I already knew I wanted to become a writer. But everything--everydamnedthing--I wrote from that point forward has been affected by Ellison. I can say that without exaggeration, because that's the nonpareil impact his stuff had on me immediately. Fiction, nonfiction, all of it. It was a model for whatever I might be able to do, in any imagined, fantastical circumstance. It wasn't even just the writing (though that would have been plenty, believe thee me); it was his attitude, his self-confidence, his sneering faith in the uncompromising power of standing ground, fighting back, remaining true to a dangerous vision that the blind fools cannot see, because they're chuckleheads. In high school, I wrote an Ellison-inspired poem to a girl I wanted to ask out; she turned me down, sure, but I couldn't even have taken that step before Ellison lit a goddamned spark deep in my soul. Soon, there were girls who didn't turn me down anymore, as I heeded Ellison's advice to think pretty, as action followed belief, as I wrote myself into a better storyline than the tired script I'd been handed.

I tried to be Harlan Ellison. I failed at it, but I failed with distinction, with style! I took apart Ellison's short story "Lonelyache," reconfigured it as a suicide note disguised as a short story of my own, and found the experience cathartic (and not quite plagiaristic). My failures built all the lies that are my life...but in a good way. I couldn't be Harlan Ellison. I couldn't write as well--no one could--and I couldn't write as quickly nor as off-the-cuff. But the act of trying made me a better writer, a faster thinker, a more adventurous craftsmen, a more precise dreamer.

I wrote. I wanted to be a writer, and Ellison said you ain't no writer if you don't write, ya shiftless crazy fuckhead. So I wrote. And I read. And I wrote more. I immersed myself in Ellison's work, especially the Pyramid Books paperbacks I purchased brand-new and whatever older tomes I could pry out of the dusty recesses of the dingy basement at Economy Bookstore. I saw him speak at Syracuse University while I was still in high school, and he autographed my copy of No Doors, No Windows.

I copied Ellison, and tried to make his inspiration into my own. Of all my favorite writers, from Steinbeck to Spillane, Dashiell Hammett to John Irving, the combination of all of them could not match the sheer enormity of Ellison's effect on whatever I hoped to become. As a writer. As a person. As a harlequin, bedeviling a Ticktockman.

Harlan Ellison often quoted Irwin Shaw's description of the writer's job: to report "where I think I am, and what this place looks like today." This place looks like hell, people, and the smell is some unholy mix of sulfur and month-old lox. But we're still here, so we're still going to tell you about it. It's what Harlan Ellison did. Repent? Get stuffed. Stick that in your ticktock, man. Approaching oblivion, alone against tomorrow, but to hell with all of that. Harlan Ellison says we have work to do. Are you a writer? Then write, God damn you. Write!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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.

Friday, March 28, 2025

10 SONGS: 3/28/2025

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 # 1278

SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS: When We Close Our Eyes

I'm digging the process of putting together this tribute album celebrating Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES is due in September from the irresistible Big Stir Records label, and we've already previewed a few of its Cubic covers courtesy of sparkle*jets u.k., the Kennedys, the Spongetones, and Pop Co-Op, as well as its opening track "Reminisce" by the Flashcubes themselves. This week's TIRnRR kicks off with the everywhere-wide radio debut of another treat from Make Something Happen!, as the combined rockin' pop forces of Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols turn in their own super-yummy take on the Flashcubes' "When We Close Our Eyes." Brilliant!

A brief bit of behind-the-scenes kudos to Super 8's Trip Ryan and his collaborator Lisa: "When We Close Our Eyes" was written by Flashcubes guitarist Arty Lenin, and it may be my favorite from Arty's songbook, rivaled only by "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young" (which the Spongetones have done a superb job of covering for this tribute album). Given my affection for the song, it was important for me to see it included on Make Something Happen! It had been assigned to another artist, but alas, that didn't work out. Trip 'n' Lisa stepped in to save us, and they did so pretty late in the game. YAY, Trip and Lisa! The Cubic legion salutes you!

Next week's show will offer another spin of the great current Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols single "Pop Radio," part of a stealth programming move to play a bunch of unrelated tracks by artists who will be represented on Make Something Happen!, mixing them in alongside a number of other acts, both classic and current (from the Beatles, the Ramones and the Rubinoos to Airport 77's, Amy Rigby, and Chris Church), who won't be on the tribute. We like to keep you guessing. We like to keep us guessing. With open eyes, and radio turned UP. 

THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce

Speaking of that opening track from Make Something Happen!, 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's "Reminisce" is so far my favorite individual track of 2025, and it's gonna be a tough one to challenge. The song was first written in the '90s and (I think) only performed once before being filed away and mostly forgotten. (I remember it, of course, but I'm, y'know...me.)

If I understand the subsequent story correctly, several months back PA reconstructed the song from memory, moving what had been a somewhat perfunctory number into the magic realm of rock 'n' roll transcendence, toasting the past but raising the roof in the here and now, even adding a Ramones quote that nails a demonstration of the essential truth that what's cool once is cool forever. The present is built upon the past. We can still jump up, down, and all around to its sound. 

And we will!

sparkle*jets u.k.: Make Something Happen

On Make Something Happen!, "Reminisce" will segue into sparkle*jets u.k.'s luscious cover of the album's title tune, which was written by 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay. It's a song I wanted the Monkees to record for their 2016 triumph Good Times! (and I'd still like to hear a version with a Micky Dolenz lead vocal), and I'm delighted with how wonderful the song sounds now in the always-capable hands of sparkle*jets u.k.

(On our next show, a track from sparkle*jets u.k.'s most recent album Box Of Letters will play its part in our unspoken salute to the performers on Make Something Happen! Box Of Letters was absolutely one of the best albums of 2024, maybe the single best album in a year of a lot of really, really good albums. I'm so grateful they also agreed to take part in the Flashcubes tribute album.)

THE RUBINOOS: Rock 'n' Roll Is Dead

"Rock 'n' roll is dead?" No. It's. NOT! Come on, Rubinoos! You know better than that! Hell, this very song proves its title was, like, ironic or something. 

My Rubinoos fandom is detailed here. What a great, great band, then and now. Just don't believe them when they kid you about the death of rock 'n' roll. Pranksters. Pranksters, the lot of them.

DONNA SUMMER: I Feel Love

The year of 1977--the same year when I first became a fan of the Rubinoos-- also provided me with the first Donna Summer song I ever loved. "I Feel Love" was the second Donna Summer song I heard, but 1975's "Love To Love You Baby" never meant anything to me (its implied 'n' earthy sense of bouncy-bouncy notwithstanding). By contrast, the new wave cool of "I Feel Love" was so monolithic and precise that even my practiced teen anti-disco stance couldn't hope to resist its sway. I feel it. As I wrote in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"1977 had the potential to be a year of musical revolution. When we say that, most of us are talking about punk, about the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash. Maybe we're not thinking as much about disco, and maybe that's fair. But if we want to consider the potential of pop music's revolution in '77, our discussions of 'God Save The Queen,' 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker,' and 'White Riot' had better allow some room on the dancefloor for 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer.

"In the late '70s, disco and punk were supposed to be at war with each other. As a self-professed punk rocker in that era, I can attest that, yeah, punks didn't like disco, and the bumpin'-n-hustlin' set was appalled by the loud and fast noise my people favored. Hatfields and Capulets, meet McCoys and Montagues. Never mind the fact that the mainstream rock crowd held both punk and disco in nearly equal disdain; this was war!

"Except that it wasn't. I'm skeptical of the notion that many of the Saturday Night Fevered ever took much interest in the Damned or the Dead Boys, but some among the new wave brigade did eventually allow their ears and minds to be a bit more open to non-pogo dance music, to the beat of dat ole debbil disco. Maybe it was just me, but I was a pop fan anyway; my intense dislike of disco music evolved into occasional tolerance, and tolerance evolved into a sporadic realization that some of the records weren't bad. 

"Plus: Donna Summer. Donna Summer was gorgeous. I feel love...."

THE MONKEES: For Pete's Sake
THE MONKEES: You Just May Be The One

Collectively, The Greatest Record Ever Made!

CHUBBY CHECKER: The Twist


I have not been shy in proclaiming that the ongoing failure of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to induct the Monkees is that institution's single most egregious omission among a big ol' stack of egregious omissions. #inductthemonkees awready!

Chubby Checker is likely my pick for the Hall's second-biggest snub to date. His 1960 hit "The Twist" is one of the most impactful singles of the rock 'n' roll roll era, and while it's good and proper that Hank Ballard and the Midnighters (who recorded the original version of "The Twist") are in the Hall, it was Chubby Checker's mass hit version that made history, broke barriers, changed the course of mighty rivers, bent steel in its bare hands, et cetera. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's wish to punish Chubby Checker for the mortal sin of not being Hank Ballard is--how shall I phrase this delicately?--fucking brain-dead stupid. At long last, Chubby Checker has been nominated FOR THE FIRST TIME [?!], and I pray he finally gets in this year.

(How seismic was Chubby Checker's "The Twist?" It is easily one of the all-time Top Five most impactful 45s, and you could make a case for it in the Top Three. "Heartbreak Hotel" by King Elvis I is # 1, and I don't consider that point subject to debate. Bill Haley and his Comets' "Rock Around The Clock" has to at least be in the discussion, just by virtue of being rock 'n' roll's first # 1 hit. And Beatlemania, of course, with either "She Loves You" in the UK or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in America. I think those are the four, and I don't even have a ready candidate for a fifth 45. Impact. That's all I'm talking about here. There are records I like even more than I like these, but I can't think of any other picks that could rival their importance and effect upon the rock and pop world.)

JOE GIDDINGS: Tonite Tonite

Stories With Guitars is the excellent current album from Joe Giddings, and we've been playing its magnificent radio-ready track "Tonite Tonite" with all of the dizzyingly manic fervor people expect from obsessive pop fans like Dana and Carl. It's what we do!

We're playing our man Joe again on our next show, but we're giving "Tonite Tonite" the week off. What gift from Giddings are we programming in its stead? Joe Giddings IS one of the fine acts on this Flashcubes tribute album. So! Let's open this coming Sunday night's radio record party with Joe Giddings covering the Flashcubes. Set bright lights to stun. You won't want to miss this.

IRENE PEÑA: Come And Get It

Pop music. If you want it, here it is. You know what to do.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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.