Coming Attractives

Starting at noon today, I will be alternately sitting on and jumping up from the couch in my family room as I watch the Syracuse University men's basketball team play its first game in the 2017 ACC Tournament. A win against Miami today will strengthen SU's case for a berth in the NCAA Tournament. SU basketball rubs shoulders with rock 'n' roll and superhero comic books as my three primary pop obsessions, so the frenzied screams you may hear emanating from Clay, NY early this afternoon will likely be me. 



Last night, I completed the first draft of a Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery entry about The Beatles' 1976 reunion concert. This is fiction that should have been true. The first part of this story was published privately for my paid subscribers--[ahem] for as little as $2 a month, you can support Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) on Patreon, and receive one monthly bonus private post--with the intent of serializing the story over a couple of months' worth o' private posts. But I finished the story ahead of schedule, I'm enthused about it, and it needs a wider audience. I'll be publishing the entire story this week. That means I still owe my patrons another private post, so I'll be sending them details about a sort-of secret project I'm working on. Shhhh. For now, that information is for patrons only. (Wanna be a patron? I want you to be a patron! Fund me, baby!)



I have a new series starting soon: Rescued From The Cut-Out Bin! will discuss LPs I plucked from the record store discard racks over the years. The first entry will examine The Very Best Of The Hollies, which I bought for cheap at Gerber Music in Penn Cann Mall some time around '76. The Love At First Spin series suggested by Steve Stoeckel will commence in the near future, and I'll be getting around to Dave Murray's request to write about rock 'n' roll's all-time greatest count-ins...soon. Definitely soon.



Coming up this Sunday on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, the one 'n' only Bruce Gordon (aka Mr. Encrypto) will be joining us for the first of two new installments of his ever-fab series, LET'S BE THE BEATLES! Bruce developed the theory that The Beatles' influence was so vast and pervasive that every single track they released inspired at least one (and usually lots more) direct imitations--not covers, but attempts to concoct ostensibly original tunes based on the mop-topped matrix. Bruce will be on TIRnRR this Sunday, March 12th, and again on March 26th; I've seen his playlists, and you'd best start rattling your jewelry right now. This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio streams live from 9 to Midnight Eastern at www.westcott radio.org



I was somewhat surprised to discover that my recent Greatest Record Ever Made piece on "Beach Baby" by The First Class just freakin' took off. It is now far and away the most-viewed post in this blog's short but storied history, and the competition isn't even close. I guess one never knows just what might catch the public's fancy. My thanks to all the Tony Burrows fans who've visited my little corner of the internet, and I hope you'll visit again. I don't know what the next Greatest Record Ever Made will be until I start writing it, but I know that KISS, The Monkees, The MC5, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and Gladys Knight & the Pips have been among the many hangin' around backstage at Boppin', just waiting for their shot.



Also continuing will be WHAT IF? SO WHAT? (my 1979 fantasy and science fiction journal, which will be getting around to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in short order), Comic Book Retroview (with extended coverage of DC Comics' 100-Page Super Spectaculars from the '70s), The Everlasting First (the letter L stands for Legion Of Super-Heroes and Lyres), and a few very personal reminiscences, as well. Stay with me, friends. The bop goes on.