10 SONGS: 4/11/2026

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 # 1331

THE PEPPERMINT KICKS: Shaking Underground

At the top of this week's show, I said that any rockin' pop radio show that has an opportunity to open its latest presentation with a brand-new single from the Peppermint Kicks had damned well oughta open its presentation with that brand-new single from the Peppermint Kicks. The group's minty-fresh treat "Shaking Underground" shakes its shakables underground, overground, all around, and pounding around again. We're repeating it this Sunday. Shake with us!

SECTOR FRONTIER: Love Goes Out The Window

Although a contemporary track (released digitally in 2025, and on CD from our friends at Kool Kat Musik in 2026), Sector Frontier's "Love Goes Out The Window" could easily pass for a British new wave pop song from the early '80s. And if it had in fact been a work from 45 years ago, it would have been a fave rave for me, then and now.

In reality, Sector Frontier is the brainchild of Philadelphia popmeister Dave Cope, who is most familiar to TIRnRR under the dba Dave Cope and the Sass. Let's review the delightful fabricated biography of this delightfully fabricated "band:"

Sector Frontier: The Forgotten Vanguard of Post-Punk Britain

Origins in the Blitz of Boredom

Sector Frontier emerged from the smoke-choked pubs and council-estate squats of West London in 1978. The city was in pieces: strikes, bin bags piled like barricades, kids in safety pins fighting skinheads in Carnaby Street, and Margaret Thatcher’s looming iron fist promising “discipline.” Amid that chaos, Mick Murray—a sharp-jawed singer/guitarist with a sneer as wide as the Thames—decided to form a band “that sounded like the Jam after a fistfight with Devo.”

Mick recruited Ewan Swann, a lanky art-school dropout obsessed with German synths and cheap pedals. He played guitar like a buzzsaw but could just as easily hammer out a dystopian arpeggio that sounded like a factory collapsing. The rhythm section came from the Tupney brothers: Cliff on bass, perpetually sullen, and Wedge, a drummer who pounded with the subtlety of a demolition crew. They rehearsed in a condemned warehouse in Acton that smelled of damp carpets, spilled cider, and Marmite sandwiches gone rancid.

Songs from a Broken England

I approve of these lies, and I wish I'd fabricated 'em myself. Best I can do is play this sweet stuff on the radio. Open up your window! Pop love goes out to Sector Frontier.

SGT. SPLENDOR: Play On

MEN WITHOUT HATS: Eloise & I

Two disparate spins, each suggested by friends who have essential can't-miss podcasts. First up, Sgt. Splendor is fronted by Kate Vargas and Eric McFadden, and I confess I had not heard of them prior to their recent guest appearance on Only Three Lads, the weekly podcast hosted by Brett Vargo and Uncle Gregg. The Sgt. Splendor samples aired by O3L got my attention, and I made a point of snagging "Play On" (from their most recent album Isotopia) and wedging it into our playlist at the first available opportunity.

I never miss an episode of O3L, and I never miss an episode of The Spoon, the superswell podcast hosted by our friends  Robbie Rist, Chris Jackson, and Thom Bowers. Writer Will Harris (another friend, and host of his own fab podcast Letting Them Talk) appeared with The Men Of The Spoon for The Spoon # 611 ("All The Chicks Dig Writers [The Will Harris Story]"), and Will's pick for that episode's Greatest Song You've Never Heard feature was "Eloise & I," a track from the 1989 Men Without Hats album The Adventures Of Women & Men Without Hate In The 21st Century.

(Heh. "Women & Men Without Hate In The 21st Century." As if!)

Anyway, as I wrote in yesterday's blog post about "The Safety Dance," "Eloise & I" "...reminded me of a cross between circa-1966 Paul McCartney and a less-annoying version of Styx. Harris mentioned that Men Without Hats were still active, and in fact had released a new album called On The Moon in 2025." I love the Beatles and kinda detest Styx (except when I don't), but "Eloise & I" was sufficiently beguiling to compel my purchase and programming of the track as soon as I could. This same Spoon-fed sequence of events also prompted "The Safety Dance" to occupy this week's Greatest Record Ever Made! spot (see below).

With that, the TIRnRR playlist benefits from the addition of Sgt. Splendor and Men Without Hats tracks suggested by friends on their own podcasts. In the words of Alex Chilton: Thank you, friends.

THE SHIRTS: Tell Me Your Plans

Possibly my favorite archival release so far the year, the Shirts' Live At Paradise 1979 showcases the band's live prowess and undeniable rockin' pop panache. I can't explain how or why I missed out on discovering the Shirts' music when I was a punk- and pop-obsessed college student in the late '70s, but I've been trying to make up for lost time. I bought a CD reissue of the group's 1978 eponymous debut album a few decades ago. I recently purchased digital copies of the Shirts' otherwise-OOP second and third albums, and we've been programming live Shirts with manic devotion.

This week marks our first spin of the Live At Paradise rendition of debut album gem "Tell Me Your Plans." It's probably my top Shirts song (perhaps in a virtual tie with "Reduced To A Whisper," also from the debut), and we'll play this live cut again on our next show. We'll also throw in a studio track from their second album Street Light Shine, and a track by Rome 56, which is Shirts guitarist Artie LaMonica's current combo. 

MEN WITHOUT HATS: The Safety Dance [extended dance version]

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Needles & Pins

When I was a college freshman in the spring of 1978, the Ramones were already on their way to becoming one of my all-time favorite groups. A few months before, "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" assumed the title of the record that changed my life, the "Rockaway Beach" 45 was my 18th birthday gift to myself, and I saw the Ramones share a bill with the Runaways and the Flashcubes, my first of eight Ramones live experiences, 1978-1991. The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. I wrote a book about them.

Either before or after my first Ramones concert, I picked up the then-recent "Do You Wanna Dance"/"Babysitter" 45, immediately presumed it was gonna be a double-sided mega-platinum kazillion seller, and was stunned--STUNNED!--when it didn't attain AM Top 40 radio ubiquity. Stupid real world.

Nonetheless, in the giddy enthusiasm of the moment, I wrote a review of the single as a freelance submission to CREEM magazine, and CREEM could not have been less interested in  buying anything I wrote. Stupid, stupid real world! In the review, I wrote about the pure pop appeal of "Babysitter," and summed that up by declaring, "My GAWD, the Searchers live on!"

I meant it as a compliment, and the Ramones' decision to include their cover of the Searchers' 1964 hit "Needles & Pins" on the next Ramones LP (Road To Ruin, also in '78) validated my POV. 

THE CYNZ: Impossible Ending

The Cynz have already secured a berth on our year-end 2026 countdown show, as our carpet-bombing approach to programming "Love's So Lovely" (from the Cynz album Confess) has established the track as a bona fide TIRnRR hit. We play the hits! Now, we also wanna include a few other worthy Confessions, as "Impossible Ending" makes its debut here this week, and yet another treat from Confess will light up our sky this Sunday.

RIHANNA: Shut Up And Drive

Maybe it doesn't seem likely for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio--a show with a nominal power pop format, and taking its title from a line in a Ramones song--but Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive" also has a good chance of making our 2026 countdown show. From a future GREM! chapter, drawn from two previous editions of 10 Songs:

Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive" is a stupid song about sex. But it's a great stupid song about sex, probably the best-ever stupid song about sex, and a legit contender for my all-time Hot 200. Yeah, even among songs that may or may not be stupid and may or may not be about sex.

I remember hearing Rihanna's hit "Umbrella" in 2007, and not being especially taken with it. In 2008, the updated version of her Good Girl Gone Bad (Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded) landed into my consciousness via my then-teen daughter, whose interest in "Take A Bow" and "Disturbia" brought those songs to my attention as well. I was a little surprised to discover I liked them (especially "Disturbia"), but I did indeed like them.

I missed out on the track "Shut Up And Drive." I'd heard it, but I never noticed it until a random search for playlist ideas brought me to it again. It was like a brand new song to me, and I loved it.

(How did I know I loved it? The fact that I played it on obsessive repeat would be a pretty clear clue to that.)

Wikipedia describes "Shut Up And Drive" as a new wave song--no, really!--based on "Blue Monday" by New Order. No offense to the mopey British guys, but I prefer it the way Rihanna did it.

"Shut Up And Drive" strikes me as a sort-of equivalent to "Heavy Music" by Bob Seger and the Last Heard, a track I initially dismissed as a stupid song about sex before realizing it was--you guessed it!--a great stupid song about sex. 

Rihanna's song is greater. Drive, baby. Drive.

DAVE COPE AND THE SASS: Julee

As this week's show debuts Dave Cope's Sector Frontier, we close with an encore spin of the Dave Cope and the Sass record that sparked our obsession in the first place. From a previous 10 Songs:

Don't ever let anyone get away with trying to tell you there's no worthy new music. That's nonsense. Maybe the good new stuff doesn't reach your ears as effortlessly as it did when you were younger. But it's out there, and it's worth the effort to find it. Every week on TIRnRR, Dana and I try to do our part to mix the great new stuff with the great familiar stuff. Right now is always the best-ever time to be a fan of rockin' pop music.

"Julee," the title tune from a 2022 Kool Kat Musik release by Dave Cope and the Sass, is my favorite new track of this year so far. That's saying something, because as crappy as the year has been in general terms, there's been a rush of fabulous new music, courtesy of Kool Kat, Big Stir, Red On Red, Jem, Rum Bar, and so many others. In my head, "Julee" conjures a million different influences I can't quite isolate or identify; I hear some kind of mid/late '60s British vibe, which may be imaginary, but I don't care. Can't play this one enough.

Restraint is for suckers. Embrace the enthusiasm awready.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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. You can read about our history here.

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Men Without Hats, "The Safety Dance [extended dance version]

Drawn in part from a previous post, this is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

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

MEN WITHOUT HATS: The Safety Dance [extended dance version]

Written by Ivan Doroschuk

Produced by Marc Durand

12" single from the album Rhythm Of Youth, 1982

In the early to mid '80s, there was a great Buffalo area radio station called WUWU-FM.WOO WOO! Wethersfield, East Aurora! The Rock Of Western New York! In my head, I still hear all of that in the unique radio voice of DJ Justin Case. I started listening to WUWU when I was still living in Brockport in 1982, and continued when I moved to the Queen City later that year. It was a wonderfully eclectic station, and I cherish memories of hearing everything from Heaven 17 to Haysi Fantayzee to Dire Straits to the Glenn Miller Orchestra on this weird signal outta Wethersfield. As the station (inevitably) collapsed, I shifted my allegiance to Buff State's WBNY-FM, which was even better. But WUWU was huge for me. (And it was all part of my challenged life in Buffalo in the '80s, chronicled in my memoir The Road To GOLDMINE.)

It was on WUWU that I first heard Men Without Hats' eventual smash "The Safety Dance." It wasn't exactly the (now-) familiar hit version, but a longer take with a different cumulative feel. I was puzzled when the version we all know achieved its uber ubiquity, because it sounded so different from "The Safety Dance" I'd heard on WUWU. 

I do love the hit. I still prefer it the way I heard it first. 

I know the metric equivalent of bupkis about Men Without Hats. I adored their 1987 MTV hit "Pop Goes The World," which doubled my awareness of the Men Without Hats canon. Doubled it! The group's central figure was and remains singer-songwriter Ivan Doroschuk, and I think I knew from somewhere--maybe something I read in Trouser Press?--that MWH were a Canadian combo. 

Beyond that? I guess I wouldn't have been surprised to be informed that some version of Men Without Hats was touring the '80s nostalgia circuit. During a March 2026 guest appearance on The Spoon podcast, writer Will Harris played a lovely 1989 Men Without Hats track called "Eloise & I," a song which reminded me of a cross between circa-1966 Paul McCartney and a less-annoying version of Styx. Harris mentioned that Men Without Hats were still active, and in fact had released a new album called On The Moon in 2025.

Wikipedia informs us that Doroschuk wrote "The Safety Dance" after being bounced out of a nightclub for pogo dancing. The song's new-wave synth sound reveals little of its punk roots. In 1982 and '83, I was still listening to a lot of AM Top 40 radio--man and woman cannot live on indie FM alone--and the 7" single version of "The Safety Dance" was chirpy and fun, its accompanying Renaissance Faire video an agreeable fixture on MTV (or maybe on Friday Night Videos, since I couldn't afford cable). 

But it all seems oddly earnest when divorced from the setting of its extended version. The dance version's first minute--with the implied brooding of its bass-and-drums intro, the echoed effect of spelling out S! A! F! E! T! Y! that suggests the Bay City Rollers without sounding the merest bit like the Bay City Rollers, the quirky synth that channels the perky goofiness of early, "Just Can't Get Enough"-era Depeche Mode before that band got too mopey for my taste--provide context, creating a (probably unintentional) illusion of release, as the singin' dancer/dancin' singer moves from his tentative spot on the sideline onto the transcendence of the dance floor. What seemed earnest without context now feels earned. We CAN dance if we want to! 

This is how it's done. There's safety in numbers. Maybe we don't even have to leave our friends behind.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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. You can read about our history here.

PROFESSIONAL LIAR gets money for nothing, as the first COPPERHEAD KID adventure returns to comics shops

Your friendly neighborhood blogger and professional liar returns to comic book stores next Wednesday, April 15th, when AHOY Comics offers an encore presentation of my 2019 short story "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" in the pages of the latest AHOY funnybook, Toxic Crusaders # 5.

"The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" is a Western. It was the third story I sold to AHOY, and the first one published (in the pages of Second Coming # 5). The good folks at AHOY paid me on acceptance, and they just paid me a reprint fee for its use in the new issue of Toxic Crusaders. And yeah, that means I get paid for, y'know, doing nothing. And I'm GOOD at that!

The Skeletons

Since my first freelance (nonfiction) writing sales in 1984, this is only the second time I've been paid twice for the same work, and that first time was not a reprint fee nor a royalty payment. In (I think) the early 2000s, I wrote an article about the great Springfield, Missouri band the Skeletons; I sold it to DISCoveries magazine, where it sat in inventory for many months before that magazine's editor John Koenig decided it had sat too long, so he paid me a kill fee and returned its rights to me. I then sold it to Goldmine. I'm pretty sure I had to update it a little bit, so I guess I can't call the Goldmine payment as money for nothing. Money for almost nothing!

(There was one point during my twenty years as a Goldmine freelancer when then-editor Jeff Tamarkin almost reprinted one of my articles in a GM special edition, which would have netted me an additional fee, but plans changed and the reprint didn't happen. And there was one time when GM accidentally used my review of a Suzi Quatro compilation in two different issues, but I was only paid once.)

"The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" was written as a stand-alone tale, but its warm reception prompted me to write a series of additional stories about the hard-riding Kid's heroic descendants: A hard-boiled private eye, a masked vigilante, a secret agent, a punk chick, and a reluctant superhero. I intend to write more entries in this series, and to eventually pull them all together to serve as a novel about the Copperhead Kid's legacy. Meanwhile, "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" will also appear in my short story collection Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies, which I hope to transmogrify into book form by the end of May.

But right now, you can read the story that started the Copperhead chronicles by heading to your local comic book retailer and snagging your very own copy of Toxic Crusaders # 5. RIDE! The Copperhead Kid would have wanted it that way.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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. You can read about our history here.

Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: Records I purchased in Brockport, NY

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl 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.

I went to college in Brockport, NY, 1977-1980. I graduated before my girlfriend (and now wife) Brenda, so we got an apartment in the village of Brockport, and we remained there for another two years.

I've done previous fake TIRnRR playlists dedicated to music I listened to in my dorm rooms and music I listened to in my first apartment. Today, I wanna throw together a playlist of records I purchased in Brockport. I'm only including actual purchases, whether new or used; this list excludes radio-station giveaways (disqualifying Radio Birdman and Oingo Boingo, among others), free-with-purchase goodies at the best little record store that ever was, Main Street Records (thus excluding "She's A Dog" by Simply Saucer and Dressed To Kill by KISS), and records received as gifts (like the Yardbirds and Animals LPs given to me by a girl I knew from my McDonald's job, or the Village People live album Brenda gave me). 

Otherwise? Fair game here encompasses any LP, 12" single, 45, cassette, or (much later) CD that I acquired in Brockport for cash or (much later) credit card, whether it was the used copy of the Monkees' Head album I bought for a buck a two from a friend or the three-LP Australian import Monkeemania I scored at Main Street. In addition to scores at the mighty Main Street, it includes purchases made at The Record Grove, The Vinyl Jungle, Trader Shag's Emporium (which now occupies the space that once housed Main Street Records), or any other new or used retail outlet in Brockport, plus garage sales, on-campus transactions, and what have you. It includes purchases made on visits back to Brockport in later years, but it doesn't include anything I bought on my most recent visit in 2024, because...well, because I don't remember what I bought on that visit. Yes, I do indeed remember purchases made in 1977-1982 waaaay better than I remember 2024. 

And I remember each of the records listed below. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you some of the sounds I bought in Brockport. And obviously, it begins with the Record Grove purchase that changed my life in 1977. Take it, Dee Dee.

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

Volume 5: CD or download

Fake TIRnRR Playlist: Records I purchased in Brockport, NY [and where I bought 'em]

THE  RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (Sire, single) [The Record Grove]

RICK JAMES: Give It To Me Baby (Gordy, Street Songs) [Main Street Records]

THE ROLLERS: Doors, Bars, Metal (Epic, Ricochet) [MSR on my last-ever visit, circa 1988]

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: I'll Be Your Mirror (Verve, The Velvet Underground & Nico) [MSR]

SQUIRE: The Life (Hi-Lo, ...Get Smart!) [MSR]

THE SEX PISTOLS: Did You No Wrong (Virgin, single) [TRG, same day I bought "Sheena"]

--

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Motown, VA: The Motown Story) [MSR]

KLAATU: California Jam (Collectors' Choice Music, 3:47 e.s.t.) [Trader Shag's Emporium]

THE KINKS: I Took My Baby Home (Pye, The Pye History Of British Pop Music) [The Vinyl Jungle]

ELVIS PRESLEY: (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame (RCA, Elvis's 40 Greatest) [MSR]

CAT STEVENS: First Cut Is The Deepest (Decca, VA: Hard-Up Heroes) [TRG, special order import!]

HOLLY AND JOEY: I Got You Babe (Virgin, single) [MSR]

--

THE HULLABALLOOS: Did You Ever (Collectables, England's Newest Singing Sensations/On Hullabaloo) [TSE]

THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: You Tore Me Down (Sire, Shake Some Action) [MSR]

THE MOST: Rockerfeller (Out Of Print, VA: From The City That Brought You...Absolutely Nothing) [MSR]

CHUCK BERRY: Johnny B. Goode (Chess, Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits) [MSR]

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS: Love Is Pain (MCA, I Love Rock 'n' Roll) [MSR]

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Concentration Baby (Epic, single) [table set up on campus]

--

THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Babylon (Mercury, Too Much Too Soon) [MSR]

R.E.M.: Radio Free Europe (IRS, single) [MSR]

LITTLE RICHARD: Good Golly Miss Molly (United Artists, The Very Best Of Little Richard) [MSR]

LOVE: My Little Red Book (Elektra, Love) [MSR]

BLONDIE: In The Flesh (Chrysalis, Rip Her To Shreds) [TRG]

THE PRETENDERS: Kid (Sire, single) [MSR]

--

THE MONKEES: Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again? (Colgems, Head) [purchased from a friend]

THE MONKEES: Circle Sky [live] (Arista, Monkeemania) [MSR--saved up money for weeks!]

DOLENZ, JONES, BOYCE AND HART: I Remember The Feeling (Capitol, Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart) [MSR]

THE CLASH: Complete Control (Epic, The Clash [USA]) [MSR]

CHERIE AND MARIE CURRIE: Since You've Been Gone (Capitol, single) [MSR]

THE UGLY DUCKLINGS: She Ain't No Use To Me (Trash, VA: Ear-Piercing Punk) [MSR]

--

THE GO-GO'S: Vacation (IRS, single) [MSR]

THE BONGOS: In The Congo (PVC, Drums Along The Hudson) [MSR]

THE B-52'S: 52 Girls (Warner Brothers, The B-52's) [MSR]

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.: Public Image (Virgin, single) [MSR]

DAVID BOWIE: See Emily Play (RCA, Pinups) [used record sale at the dining hall]

THE ROMANTICS: I Can't Tell You Anything (Spider, single) [TRG]

--

THE BEACH BOYS: Sloop John B (Capitol, Pet Sounds) [TRG]

DAVID JOHANSEN AND ROBIN JOHNSON: Flowers In The City (RSO, VA: Times Square OST) [MSR]

JOHNNY THUNDERS: You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory (Sire, So Alone) [MSR]

THE FOUNDATIONS: Baby Now That I've Found You (Pye, VA: Best Of The British Invasion) [forgotten record retailer]

THE REAL KIDS: Now You Know (Bomp, VA: Experiments In Destiny) [MSR]

THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: Another Sad And Lonely Night (Rhino, The Best Of The Bobby Fuller Four) [MSR]

--

THE JAM: The Eton Rifles (Polydor, Setting Sons) [MSR]

THE WHO: The Punk Meets The Godfather (MCA, Quadrophenia) [MSR]

TELEVISION: Elevation (Elektra, Marquee Moon) [TRG]

THE FLESHTONES: Let's See The Sun (IRS, Roman Gods) [MSR]

BOW WOW WOW: I Want Candy (RCA, single) [MSR]

THE FOUR TOPS: I Can't Help Myself (Motown, Greatest Hits) [MSR]

THE BARRACUDAS: I Wish It Could Be 1965 Again (Voxx, Drop Out With The Barracudas) [MSR]

THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: You're Gonna Miss Me (Sire, VA: Nuggets) [MSR]

--

THE MC5: Shakin' Street (Atlantic, Back In The USA) [lawn sale]

SLADE: Gudbuy T' Jane (Reprise, Sladest) [MSR]

JOSIE COTTON: Johnny Are You Queer? (Elektra, single) [MSR]

THE TREMBLERS: I'll Be Taking Her Out Tonight (Johnston, Twice Nightly) [MSR]

IGGY AND THE STOOGES: Gimme Danger (RCA, Raw Power) [MSR]

THE SCRUFFS: Revenge (Power Play, Wanna' Meet The Scruffs?) [MSR]

THE RECORDS: Paint Her Face (Virgin, single) [MSR]

BIG STAR: September Gurls (Ardent, Radio City) [MSR]

--

KIM WILDE: Kids In America (EMI America, Kim Wilde) [MSR]

GEN X: Dancing With Myself (Chrysalis, single) [MSR]

THE VENTURES: Hawaii 5-0 (United Artists, The Very Best Of The Ventures) [MSR]

Man! Already too long for a real-world playlist, and I still didn't get around to Talking Heads, the Lovin' Spoonful, Lords of the New Church, Judas Priest, the Fireballs, New Math, the Chesterfield Kings, Nikki and the Corvettes, the Hypstrz, Stiv Bators, Roxy Music, Shrapnel, the Rolling Stones, Blue Cheer, the Senders, the Music Explosion, the Hollies, Bruce Springsteen, Gary Numan, Cheap Trick, the Cars, the Invictas, Shoes, Utopia, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bebe Buell, the Damned, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Quincy, Tommy Tutone, the Vapors, the Knack, Herman's Hermits, the Pleasers, Joy Division, Fingerprintz, Split Enz, the Boomtown Rats, the New Colony Six, the Buggles, Soft Cell, T. Rex, Alice Cooper, Blotto, Devo, the Rutles, Marshall Crenshaw, the Rubinoos, and...and...and...!!

COMIC BOOK COVER GALLERY: Seventh issues acquired in the '60s, '70s, and '80s

Every installment of my Comic Book Cover Gallery is an exercise in throwing together a bunch of cover images from funnybooks I acquired in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. The chosen theme each time out could be borderline substantive, or it could be as flimsy as the notion that an experienced law enforcement official like Commissioner Gordon didn't realize that the Batman was Bruce Wayne. Either way, it's nothing more than an excuse to throw some comic book covers into this spot.

This week, we're going with flimsy: For April 7th, a collection of various titles' seventh issues. As always, we'll be sticking exclusively to the '60s-'80s era of acquisition I've established for these galleries. Today's selection includes books I bought new, back issues I acquired after the fact (but within the timeline), and B-stock contraband originally purchased without their covers. These aren't actual photos of comics in my collection; most images are courtesy of the Grand Comics Database, which is grand indeed. But I did have each and every one of 'em at some point in time.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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. You can read about our history here.