THE GREEN HORNET '66: The Beat And The Sting

This was originally distributed privately to paid patrons of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) in November of 2017. For a mere $2 a month, you can be one of my cherished patrons, too: Fund me, baby!



This is a work in progress, a vague idea I may or may not try to pursue. I wanted to at least get some words on the page so I could remember what I have in mind for it. If you happen to be involved with Dynamite Entertainment...well, call me!

Anyway. Here's the back-cover blurb to a book that doesn't yet exist:



THE BEAT AND THE STING

Arnie Bennett was a jerk, but he was a talented jerk. His band Ben Arnold and the Turncoats was one of the most promising new rock 'n' roll groups of 1966, and their single "You Won't Get Me" rocketed up the Top 40 chart, a seemingly overnight # 1 with a bullet.

It was a bullet that ended Bennett's stardom, and his life. Several bullets actually, as Bennett's death had all the hallmarks of a different kind of hit: a mob hit. Was Bennett rubbed out because his abrasive personality rubbed some crime boss the wrong way? Had he courted trouble with the syndicate that ran his record label? Did he simply know something he shouldn't have known? Or did his star-crossed dalliance with a gangster's girlfriend seal Bennett's fate?

Bennett's murder was too public. The syndicate didn't like public executions; bad for business! The four surviving members of The Turncoats had regrouped, and the underworld figures behind their renewed push for success hoped they'd be easier to handle than that idiot Bennett. But already drummer Tommy Hammond--once Bennett's rival, now leader of the reconstituted group--was angling for more control, bassist James Thomas was speaking out against the war in Viet Nam, guitarist Roger Hartwell was talking to the press about his own suspicions, and keyboardist (and now lead singer) Steve Davis was spending far too much time holding hands--and God knows what else!--with the young daughter of the syndicate's head.

To make matters even worse, there was suddenly unwelcome competition. The city's biggest and baddest criminal mastermind was sticking his hidden nose into business, eager for a piece of the syndicate's rock 'n' roll action. The underworld was more afraid of him and his own black-masked enforcer than they ever were of the police or the press, never suspecting he wasn't really a criminal like them; he was their secret enemy, a clandestine force for law and order, a nightmare they did not understand. He had them all fooled. To their secretive opponent, they were all just one more challenge in his ongoing crusade.

Another challenge for The Green Hornet.