Friday, April 4, 2025

GABBA GABBA HEY! A CONVERSATION WITH THE RAMONES Coda: Chewin' Out A Rhythm On My Bubblegum

We're coming up on the two-year anniversary of the publication of my first book, Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones. The book's official publication date was May 9th of 2023, but it was already out and about by late April of that year. The book is still available from publisher Rare Bird Books, and you can still purchase autographed copies directly from me.

The book collected my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., the four headbangers that represented the Ramones' final line-up. A condensed version of these interviews was published in Goldmine in 1994, and later cited as "essential reading" by The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame when the Ramones were indicted in 2002. I am very proud of this work, and I'm grateful to Rare Bird Books for allowing me to preserve and expand upon it.

Two years on, let's look back at how the book ends. This is the book's coda, my closing arguments after Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J. have had their say and we have bid them all a fond ¡Adios Amigos!

CODA:

Chewin' Out A Rhythm On My Bubblegum

Joey Ramone did not live to see the Ramones become icons of pop culture. Today, the music of the Ramones is routinely heard in TV commercials and sitcom soundtracks. There was at one point plans for Martin Scorcese to direct a Ramones biopic, and at this writing Netflix is developing a 2022 movie based on Joey's brother Mickey Leigh's autobiography I Slept With Joey Ramone, with Pete Davidson as Joey.  The world has changed since the end of the '70s and the end of the century. 

Although Joey passed before the Ramones' popular ascension, he was able to see the trend in that direction; he saw the magazine articles, the comments from other artists acknowledging a debt to the Ramones, and he was aware of the demand for more Ramones shows. He was too sick to consider a Ramones reunion for one more tour, or even just one more show.

Joey may have...strike that, he probably expected his group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he certainly believed they were worthy. The Ramones were first eligible for induction in 2001, the year Joey died. He passed in the spring, and the Ramones were among the winners when the Hall announced its honorees later in the year. 

The induction ceremony was in 2002, as the Ramones were celebrated alongside fellow new inductees Gene Pitney, Isaac Hayes, Brenda Lee, Chet Atkins, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, and Stax Records visionary Jim Stewart. In his speech inducting the Ramones, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder said, "the Ramones were our Beatles."

The Hall officially inducted Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy, and Marky; latter-day Ramones Richie and C.J. were snubbed, in spite of Johnny's righteous insistence that they were Ramones, too. They should have been recognized as such.

In accepting the induction, Tommy said, "This means a lot to us. It meant everything to Joey." Dee Dee thanked himself. Johnny said "God bless President Bush." A dysfunctional family to the end. Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz was asked if the Ramones would join the Hall of Fame's traditional jam session after the awards. Frantz chuckled, and said, "The Ramones don't jam...!"

Dee Dee succumbed to a heroin overdose in 2002, less than three months after thanking himself at the Hall of Fame. Prostate cancer claimed Johnny in 2004. Tommy died in 2014, also taken by cancer. The four original members of the Ramones are gone, and many have joked that they're together now in the hereafter, still fighting and squabbling as they did in life.

The Ramones battled each other like brudders. But they were indeed brudders, united not by blood but by a bond unique to their experience. Some of them may have denied it, but the bond was there. 

In the course of our discussion, Joey made a point of complimenting Johnny's distinctive guitar style, and he made a favorable comparison of Marky to the likes of Ginger Baker. Marky was pleasantly surprised--flabbergasted, really--to hear that Joey had said that. 

When Joey died, Johnny said something to the effect that he didn't like Joey, and that he couldn't understand why Joey's death depressed him. After Joey was gone, Johnny told Ramones tour manager Monte Melnick, "I'm not doing anything without him. I felt that was it. He was my partner. Me and him. I miss that."

In my interviews with the Ramones, Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J. spoke on the record. The sole instance where I was asked to take something off the record was one moment--one--when a member of the Ramones made a relatively innocuous personal observation about a bandmate. The remark was factual, and in fact it was discussed openly and on the record by two other Ramones. Nonetheless, the Ramone making the comment thought the comment could seem hurtful, and requested that it be deleted from the transcript. That request stands.

Brudders. Hell, brothers. We will never see their like again. 

The few, the proud.

Semper Fi.

Gabba gabba hey. 

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.

Thursday, April 3, 2025

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Standells, "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White"

Adapted from previous posts, this is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite numbers of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE STANDELLS: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Written by Ed Cobb
Produced by Ed Cobb
Single from the album Dirty Water, Tower Records, 1966

A poor boy born in a rubble makes his first last stand.

It's tempting to say that the counterculture was born in the 1960s. Members of the Beat Generation would beg to differ--beg to differ, man--pointing instead to the '50s as the true Ground Zero for an active and high profile alternative to the mainstream. And I'm sure there were fringe elements predating Beatniks, Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, operating somewhere out there on the periphery of popular consciousness.

Nonetheless: It was in the '60s that counterculture became an active and at times dominant part of the greater pop culture. That creates a paradox--how can something be part of something to which it claims to be a counter?--but you go into culture wars with the oxymoron you have, not the logical parameters you wish you had. The Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan. Youth revolution, across race and gender, resisting rules, protesting injustice, tuning in, turning on, dropping out of what had been mainstream before, redrawing the map of what could become mainstream thereafter.

Before the simplistic notion of My country, right or wrong would be challenged by chants of Hell no, we won't go!, there was already a push to embrace the antihero, to celebrate the bad boy. The Rolling Stones established that template, providing a scowling, earthier counterpart to the perceived cheer of the Beatles. It was a façade--I do think, if it came down to it, the Beatles coulda beat down on the Stones in a street fight, five against four odds be damned--but it was an effective affectation, and the Stones delivered the soundtrack to match it. That template was followed by garage bands everywhere. It was certainly followed by the Standells.

The Standells weren't quite a garage band. They were playing clubs in L.A. in the early to mid '60s, appearing in the film Get Yourself A College Girl, providing the theme song for the kids' matinee flick Zebra In The Kitchen, and even appearing on an episode of the wacky TV sitcom The Munsters. All of this occurred before most of the record-buying public had even heard of the Standells. As a mainstream rock combo, they did not establish a popular impression. When they applied dat ole Rolling Stones template, the mainstream came to the grungier, garagier Standells.

I became a fan of the Standells as part of my overall exploration and embrace of '60s rock 'n' roll when I was a teen in the '70s. I started with a used 45 of their only big hit, 1966's classic "Dirty Water," and a various-artists set called 15 Original Rock N' Roll Biggies Vol. 2, which included "Why Pick On Me" and "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." My interest in the Standells expanded even further as I fell hard for the notion of '60s punk/garage Nuggets, Pebbles, and dazzlin' debris of all description. "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" was my favorite.

I'm a poor boy born in a rubble/And some say my manners ain't the best. A chip on my shoulder and a song in my heart. When I played "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" at home in the '70s, my mom thought drummer and lead singer Dick Dodd sounded like Sonny Bono. She wasn't wrong. Coincidentally, Bono did work with the Standells earlier in their career; Sonny's own "Laugh At Me" shares some cantankerous DNA with "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." It's all part of that Stonesy bad boy template. 

Good guys, bad buys, which is which? Sometimes the bad boy is a good guy that's misunderstood; sometimes the bad boy's just plain bad. Who can say who's the better man? Surly and put upon, an outsider staking his claim, with a shrug that's somehow defiant. A poor boy born in a rubble. We stand with the Standells. 

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.

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!

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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.