Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: Another Side Of The One-Hit Wonders

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.


One-hit wonders. It's a very common story.

--Andrew White, Play-Tone Records A& R, 1964

That Thing You Do!'s Mr. White and his boys The Wonders (nee The One-ders) were fictional, but White was right: the one-hit wonder is indeed a very common story. Frankie Ford bristled at the description, but it's not always intended as a pejorative; "Sea Cruise" was Ford's only hit, but it wasn't the only worthy record that he cut, and the same could be said of many other artists whom pop history remembers as one-hit wonders.

For this fake TIRnRR playlist, we've assembled a selection of slightly (or more so) lesser-known tracks by artists whom the general public would probably only associate with one hit and one hit only. To determine who was or wasn't a one-hit wonder here, we're going with a kind of hybrid definition. A U.S. one-hit wonder is generally understood to be an act who scored one single on Billboard's Top 40, and never troubled the Top 40 again. But that definition would include acts like Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Grateful Dead, and Frank Zappa, and no one in their right mind would lump any of those guys alongside your Singing Nun or your Right Said Fred. And then there are acts who may have had more than one Top 40 hit, but the public really only remembers one of 'em. Since this is all in fun anyway, we're playing pretty fast 'n' loose with dem rules, man.

And the general public's memory can be tricky. Many folks recall, say, The Romantics as a one-hit wonder for "What I Like About You," which didn't even make the Top 40; "Talking In Your Sleep" and "One In A Million" were The Romantics' Top 40 hits. Some would argue (with justification) against considering Lulu or Katrina & the Waves, both of whom had minor hits beyond their big smashes, but c'mon--most people only know "To Sir, With Love" and "Walking On Sunshine" respectively, and don't remember Lulu's "Oh Me Oh My (I'm A Fool For You Baby)" (# 22) or "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)" (# 18), nor Katrina & the Waves' fab "Do You Want Crying" (# 37).

The Knickerbockers, The Bobby Fuller Four and The Easybeats are my three favorite examples of one-hit wonders who deserved a string of Billboard smashes instead. But "Lies" was The Knickerbockers' only big hit ("One Track Mind" just missed the Top 40); The Easybeats grazed the low end of the Top 40 with "St. Louis," and the BF4 had a regional hit with "Let Her Dance" and scraped into the Top 40 with a cover of Buddy Holly's "Love's Made A Fool Of You," but "Friday On  My Mind" and "I Fought The Law" were respectively the only Easybeats and BF4 songs as far as the masses were concerned. To honor these three coulda-shoulda-wouldas, we close this phony playlist with an extended set of only The Knickerbockers, The Bobby Fuller Four, and The Easybeats..

(And we further honor one-hit wonders with a spin of a lesser-known track by the greatest fictional one-hit Wonders of all time. It's that thing we do. You're right, Mr. White: It's a very common story.)

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl--y'know, the real one--plays Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse on The Spark WSPJ-LP 103.3 and 93.7, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/

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/

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes, Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here.

Fake TIRnRR Playlist: Another Side Of The One-Hit Wonders
[Entry in brackets notes the act's better-known One Hit]

THE FIRST CLASS: Wake Up America ["Beach Baby"]
--
THE SHOCKING BLUE: Send Me A Postcard ["Venus"]
THE SWINGING BLUE JEANS: What Can I Do Today ["Hippy Hippy Shake"]
THE EQUALS: Police On My Back ["Baby Come Back"]
TONI BASIL: I'm 28 ["Mickey"]
TRACEY ULLMAN: Breakaway ["They Don't Know"]
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: Another Sad And Lonely Night ["I Fought The Law"]
--
THE KNICKERBOCKERS: They Ran For Their Lives ["Lies"]
THE CONTOURS: It's So Hard Being A Loser ["Do You Love Me"]
JIGSAW: Lollipop And Goody Man ["Sky High"]
STEALERS WHEEL: Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Work Out Fine ["Stuck In The Middle'}
BROWNSVILLE STATION: Let Your Yeah Be Yeah ["Smokin' In The Boy's Room"]
SUZI QUATRO: Tear Me Apart ["Stumblin' In" (with Chris Norman)]
--
WE FIVE: If I Were Alone ["You Were On My Mind'}
MICHAEL NESMITH & THE FIRST NATIONAL BAND: Silver Moon ["Joanne"]
THE DWIGHT TWILLEY BAND: You Were So Warm ["I'm On Fire"]
THE BUGGLES: Living In The Plastic Age ["Video Killed The Radio Star"]
TOMMY TUTONE: Get Around Girl ["867-5309/Jenny"]
ZAGER & EVANS: Cary Lynn Javes ["In The Year 2525"]
--
THE WONDERS: Little Wild One ["That Thing You Do!"]
FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE: The Girl I Can't Forget ["Stacy's Mom"]
THE EXCITERS: Do Wah Diddy ["Tell Him"]
NAZARETH: Holiday ["Love Hurts"]
BOW WOW WOW: C30, C60, C90, Go! ["I Want Candy"]
CILLA BLACK: Step Inside Love ["You're My World"]
--
YVONNE ELLIMAN: I Can't Explain ["If I Can't Have You"]
PILOT: January ["Magic"]
KATRINA & THE WAVES: Red Wine And Whiskey ["Walking On Sunshine"]
THE GENTRYS: Cinnamon Girl ["Keep On Dancing]
LULU: I'll Come Running
A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS: Telecommunication ["I Ran"]
--
STORIES: Please, Please ["Brother Louie"]
THE STANDELLS: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White ["Dirty Water"]
IRON BUTTERFLY: Unconscious Power ["In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"]
THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS: World Of Fantasy ["O-o-h Child"]
DORIS TROY: I'll Do Anything (He Wants Me To) ["Just One Look"]
TAL BACHMAN: If You Sleep ["She's So High"]
--
THE VAPORS: Waiting For The Weekend ["Turning Japanese"]
THE CASCADES: Cheryl's Goin Home ["Rhythm Of The Rain"]
THE HUMAN BEINZ: Turn On Your Love Light ["Nobody But Me"]
FRANKIE FORD: Roberta ["Sea Cruise"]
THE CAPITOLS: Ain't That Terrible ["Cool Jerk"]
THE EASYBEATS: Sorry ["Friday On My Mind"]
--
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: Fool Of Love
THE KNICKERBOCKERS: I Must Be Doing Something Right
THE EASYBEATS: Made My Bed (Gonna Lie In It)
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: Never To Be Forgotten
THE KNICKERBOCKERS: Rumors Gossip Words Untrue
THE EASYBEATS: She's So Fine
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: Only When I Dream
THE KNICKERBOCKERS: High On Love
THE EASYBEATS: St. Louis
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: Let Her Dance
THE KNICKERBOCKERS: One Track Mind
THE EASYBEATS: Good Times
THE CHANTAYS: Monsoon ["Pipeline"]

"Depart, Harlan!" 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 sulphur 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.

100-Page FAKES! presents: THE SANDMAN # 1

100-Page FAKES! imagines mid-1970s DC 100-Page Super Spectaculars that never were...but should have been!



What an odd series this was. The Sandman # 1 was intended to be a one-shot special in 1974, reuniting the legendary creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby on a brand-new creation, the first time this mighty duo had worked together in years. It was also their final collaboration, and was perhaps not quite the equal of such previous creations as Boys' Ranch, the Golden Age Sandman, Boy Commandos, the romance comics genre, and some obscure superhero called Captain America. Hmmm. Wonder whatever happened to that guy...?

The Sandman was a quaint throwback to Simon & Kirby's glory days, and it was decidedly out of step with the comics scene of the '70s. It never had a chance, and it wasn't really supposed to have a chance--it was a one-shot. But some glitch in sales reports led DC Comics' management to believe The Sandman # 1 was an unexpected breakout hit, prompting the decision to continue the series. Neither Simon nor Kirby was available for that, though Kirby did continue as cover artist. Michael Fleisher took over as the writer with The Sandman # 2, with Ernie Chua as penciller and frequent Kirby collaborator Mike Royer returning to provide continuity on inks. Kirby came back to pencil The Sandman # 4-6, plus an originally unpublished seventh issue. That was it for the master of dreams.

So now it's our turn to dream. What if that one-shot Simon & Kirby Sandman had been a 100-Page Super Spectacular? If that had happened, the obvious choice would have been to fill in the reprint selections with some classic Simon & Kirby.

At the time of The Sandman # 1, DC was already reprinting stories from S & K's 1950s horror series Black Magic as a separate title, so it makes sense to include a Black Magic piece in this 100-page Simon & Kirby Super Spectacular. It also makes sense to include some Golden Age exploits of the original Sandman, a character I first knew from appearances in Justice League-Justice Society team-ups, but whose 1940s Simon & Kirby adventures I experienced via reprints in Kirby's Forever People. What else? Oh, The Boy Commandos (familiar to me from reprints in Kirby's Mister Miracle) and The Newsboy Legion (which had been reprinted in some Kirby issues of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen). Manhunter (fresh from reprints in Kirby's New Gods) would have been a natural fit, but I wanted to save room for a Golden Age Simon & Kirby artifact DC wasn't reprinting at the time.

And that would be the original Captain Marvel.

Now, S & K's lone stab at chronicling the exploits of the World's Mightiest Mortal would not be among the all-time greats of Captain Marvel stories or Simon & Kirby stories. It was, after all, just a quickly-executed task that Joe 'n' Jack pulled off when Fawcett Comics needed material fast to capitalize on the bourgeoning popularity of the star of Whiz Comics and fill a new all-Cap title, Captain Marvel Adventures # 1. But man, it's comics history, and I woulda just ached to see it reprinted when I was 14.

I considered a lot of other material, too. In this fanciful Boppinverse, we could have imagined DC licensing Simon & Kirby's Boys' Ranch to include the story "Mother Delilah" in this Super Spec, and I would have bumped one of the Golden Age Sandman stories if I had a Boys' Ranch scan handy. I also considered two series Kirby worked on without Simon--Green Arrow and Challengers Of The Unknown--but I didn't have a scan of the former and I thought the latter took up too much space. No; I'm good with the choices I made.

The Black Magic and Captain Marvel Adventures stories are in the public domain, so those can be shared publicly. The rest can only be hinted at here via sample pages, though I share the complete contents with my subscribers. Here's what we have:

The Sandman (untitled), The Sandman # 1 (Winter 1974)
Golden Age Sandman and Sandy in "Courage A La Carte," Adventure Comics # 91 (April-May 1944)
"Dead Man's Load!," Black Magic Volume 2 # 4 (March 1952)
The Newsboy Legion in "Playmates Of Peril!," Star Spangled Comics # 15 (December 1942)
Captain Marvel (untitled), Captain Marvel Adventures # 1 (March 1941)
The Boy Commandos in "The Siege Of Troy!," Boy Commandos # 3 (Summer 1943)
Golden Age Sandman and Sandy in "The Man Who Knew All The Answers!," Adventure Comics # 74 (May 1942)

And now: don't dream it; be it. Sweet dreams are made of this. Here's a 100-Page Super Spectacular version of The Sandman # 1.

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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here.












COVER GALLERY

A Mix Tape By Any Other Name

There is an art to titling mix tapes. It's not high art, and it wouldn't be high art even if we were referring to mixes compiled and named by Picasso or Camus (though one might be surprised by how many Freddie & the Dreamers tracks turn up on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's home-made cassettes--go figure). Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity contained a proper appreciation of the craft and care involved in slappin' such things together, but no one seems to speak of the importance of deciding what to call each all-important concoction.

Mainly 'cuz it's silly.

Silly or not, I always enjoyed coming up with (mostly nonsensical) titles for my mixes. I think I called one such gem something along the lines of The Undertones Rumble With The Standells On The Banks Of The River Charles. I made dozens of mix tapes, but I don't remember most of the titles, and the few that have survived are stashed and buried in storage. The only other titles I remember at the moment are Dig It! and Don't Call Me Baby, each named respectively after a Beatles (unreleased long version from Let It Be) or Voice Of The Beehive (familiar CD cut from Let It Bee) track contained therein, plus This Gig SUCKS! (which commenced with a dub of The Ramones' appearance on The Simpsons) and Pop Friction, a 1995 mix I opened with "Miserlou" by Dick Dale & the Del-Tones shortly after seeing the film Pulp Fiction.

I don't make mix tapes anymore, but I do make mix CDs, usually for use on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.  And I still put silly titles on 'em to help me keep 'em straight--Playlist # 357 seems so, so...prosaic. I began this month with a new mix CD called June May Just Ignore You, and used a fresh mix called June Never Liked Me Anyway on Sunday's show. Here are some of the mix CDs in my mix CD library:

A Fab Forever After
A New Rope
Aardvark
Above Named
Action Heroes
Again With The Stuff
Amber Waives
Another Knave For My Heart
Another Other
Another Year To Dismember
Arms For The Poor
Beginning To See Delight
Breakfast Of Chumps Again
Bring Your Own
Coconut Cream Piety
Come Back To...THIS?!
I Think That 2016 Is Gonna Be A Good Year [2018 POSTSCRIPT: Yeah, by the end of '16, I changed that sentiment to:]
2016 Gets Pushed Off A Cliff
In The Shadow Of A Groundhog
Inexpensive Subterfuge
Labor Of Lunch
Legends & Fibs
Lone Star Falling
LP Single Picture Cover Or Plain
May FLOWERS!!
Nothing Is Beatleproof
October Gurls. Guys, Too
Other Than Other
Pinball Blizzard
Quisling
Radio Worth Paying For
Ready For Our Close-Up
Rockin' Soul Love Letter From England
Symptoms Of November
The Only One, And Other Ones
The Weekend Stops Here
When We're Not Really Here

As fans--especially those of us who are fans but can't sing or play a freakin' instrument--we may fantasize about naming our own bands, and then conjuring fanciful album titles for our imaginary band's vast 'n' glorious discography. I've had opportunities to help name actual releases. There are our four This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilations, of course; given their connection to our radio show of the same name, I guess those compilations kinda named themselves (though give us credit for insisting that the first one include Volume 1 in the title, making clear our intent to do more than one). I was also among those consulted in naming The Flashcubes' first CD collection back in the '90s; my suggestion of No Promise Lasts Forever was (rightly) passed over in favor of Bright Lights, though one wonders if it mighta sold better under my second-choice title, HEY! Look! New Album By The Beatles!! I shoulda fought harder for that one.

But really, naming our mixes is as close as most of will ever get to naming our own A Saucerful Of Secrets, Around The World In A Day, You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, or Village Green Preservation Society. We participate in the capacity available to us. To paraphrase Joe Walsh: You made it. You name it.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here.

THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO # 929

My recent blog post about falling in love with Suzi Quatro when I was 15 prompted the long-overdue decision to make Suzi Q our Featured Act on this week's exciting edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. We reached back to the '60s for a track by then-teen Suzi's first group The Pleasure Seekers and went as late as 1980 for tracks from her Rock Hard album, but mostly we stuck with the churnin' glam motherlode of Suzi Quatro's '70s sides. We deliberately skipped her only U.S. hit "Stumblin' In," because we funny that way. From "Can The Can" through "Lipstick," we hope we did the glycerine queen proud.

With Suzi Quatro as our bedrock 'n' roll, we also offered the latest from The Primitives, Dana Countryman, Amoeba Teen, and The Doughboys, and a plethora of irresistibles from the past, present, and whatever's left. All this, and Suzi Quatro. Thump Thump ThumpThumpThump. This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on a Sunday night in Syracuse this week.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse on The Spark WSPJ-LP 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/

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/

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes, Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here.

TIRnRR # 929: 6/24/18

THE RAMONES: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? (Rhino, End Of The Century)
--
SUZI QUATRO: I May Be Too Young (Razor & Tie, The Wild One)
THE BLONDES: Suzi Quatro (JAM, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2)
THE KINKS: Waterloo Sunset (Sanctuary, The Ultimate Collection)
APRIL WINE: Roller (Disky, April Wine)
MICHAEL NESMITH: Rising In Love (Pacific Arts, ...tropical campfire's...)
STARZ: Tear It Down (Rykodisc, Starz)
--
THE PRIMITIVES: Lose The Reason (n/a, Five Fluffy Favourites)
NRBQ: C'mon Everybody (Omnivore, NRBQ)
THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: I Want You Bad (Sonic Kicks, Fantastic Plastic)
THE LEFT BANKE: Pretty Ballerina (Mercury, There's Gonna Be A Storm)
SUZI QUATRO: Love Is Ready (RSO, Rock Hard)
THE BEATLES: Tomorrow Never Knows (Capitol, Revolver)
--
DANA COUNTRYMAN: Summer Sand (https://danacountryman.bandcamp.com/track/summer-sand)
ROD STEWART: Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller (Mercury, Smiler)
SUZI QUATRO: Paralysed (EMI, The Essential Suzi Quatro)
WINGS: Famous Groupies (Capitol, London Town)
THE DAMNED: New Rose (Castle, Smash It Up)
GANG OF FOUR: At Home He's A Tourist (Rhino, VA: Classic Punk)
--
THE PLEASURE SEEKERS: What A Way To Die (Norton, VA: Friday At The Hideout)
LESLEY GORE: It's My Party [alternate vocal] (Teensville, VA: Lookin' For Boys!)
SUZI QUATRO: Glycerine Queen (EMI, The Essential Suzi Quatro)
MERRY CLAYTON: Gimme Shelter (Columbia, VA: 20 Feet From Stardom OST)
SUZI QUATRO: Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (RAK, Aggro-Phobia)
LULU: The Boat That I Row (Rhino, From Crayons To Perfume)
--
AMOEBA TEEN: Hearts And Minds (Kool Kat Musik, Selection Box Vol. 1/The Appleyard Sessions)
THE 4TH COW: Dog (n/a, Meat And Bone: The Eggs Pay For It)
SUZI QUATRO: Daytona Demon (EMI, The Essential Suzi Quatro)
THE 4TH COW: Pay More (n/a, Meat And Bone: The Eggs Pay For It)
THE SEX PISTOLS: God Save The Queen (Virgin, Kiss This)
THE 4TH COW: Jeepster (n/a, Meat And Bone: The Eggs Pay For It)
--
THE DOUGHBOYS: Play With Fire (Ram, single)
THE FACES: Miss Judy's Farm (Warner Brothers, A Nod Is As Good As A Wink)
SUZI QUATRO: Lipstick (Razor & Tie, The Wild One)
THE MUSIC EXPLOSION: Little Bit O' Soul (Rhino, VA: Nuggets)
THE O'JAYS: Love Train (Epic, Love Train)
TODD RUNDGREN: Hello It's Me (Rhino, Something/Anything?)
--
THE B-52'S: Give Me Back My Man (Rhino, Nude On The Moon)
DEVO: Satisfaction (Rhino, VA: Classic Punk)
SUZI QUATRO: 48 Crash (Razor & Tie, The Wild One)
THE MONKEES: Me & Magdalena [Version 2] (Rhino, Good Times! [digital edition])
SUZI QUATRO: Can The Can (Razor & Tie, The Wild One)
THE BOB SEGER SYSTEM: 2 + 2 = ? (Capitol, single)
SUZI QUATRO: Devil Gate Drive (Razor & Tie, The Wild One)
THE CLASH: Clampdown (Epic, The Essential Clash)
SUZI QUATRO: Tear Me Apart (Razor & Tie, The Wild One)
SWEET: Ballroom Blitz (Capitol, The Best Of Sweet)
STEVE STOECKEL: Waterloo Sunset [instrumental] (unreleased)

Tonight On THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

"Can The Can." "48 Crash." In 1973, those were Suzi Quatro's first two hits in the UK, and we'll hear both of 'em and much, much more tonight as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio salutes our Featured Act, the one 'n' only little Suzi from Detroit, MI. We'll also hear the latest from The Primitives, Dana Countryman, Amoeba Teen, and The Doughboys, all alongside glittery rockin' pop gems from across our decades of dedicated research. "Research?" Our decades of dedicated boppin', man. It's what we do. Uno. Dos. One, two, tres, QUATRO! Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at Spark WSPJ-LP 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at sparksyracuse.org It's a lightning flash!

(Apologies to Bruce Gordon for stealing the "One, two, tres, Quatro!" bit.)

100-Page FAKES! Presents: JUSTICE, INC. # 1

100-Page FAKES! imagines mid-1970s DC 100-Page Super Spectaculars that never were...but should have been!



DC Comics was making active use of licensed properties in the early to mid '70s. This was nothing new for the company, as DC and its '40s affiliate All-American Comics had been leasing characters from other rights holders for decades, from Mutt & Jeff through The Adventures Of Jerry Lewis, The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis, Hot Wheels, Captain Action, and Bomba The Jungle Boy. DC had discarded all of those licenses by '75, but had taken on others. DC's biggest licensing success in the '70s was Tarzan; Korak, Son Of Tarzan presumably did okay for DC, though one suspects other Edgar Rice Burroughs creations like John Carter Of Mars in DC's Weird Worlds title may not have been quite as popular.  Fritz Leiber's sword and sorcery characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were on the immediate horizon, introduced in the pages of Wonder Woman before commencing their own title, Sword Of Sorcery. And in 1975, following the promising start of a terrific venture into adapting classic pulp with The Shadow, DC licensed another vintage Street & Smith pulp hero: The Avenger!

The Avenger had originally been Street & Smith's attempt to duplicate its previous newsstand sales bonanzas with The Shadow and Doc Savage. The character was even credited to Kenneth Robeson, the pseudonym used (mostly by Lester Dent) for chronicling Doc Savage's exploits. Both Dent and The Shadow's raconteur Walter Gibson consulted with writer Paul Ernst on the creation of The Avenger. The Avenger ran for 24 issues from 1939 to 1942, far short of the long runs of its predecessors. Nonetheless, when Bantam's paperback reprints of old Doc Savage pulp novels found a new audience for the Man of Bronze in the '60s and '70s, other publishers wanted a piece of the pulp action. In 1972, Paperback Library (a division of Warner Communications, which also owned DC) started reprinting The Avenger. The character was more popular in paperbacks than he'd been in his original pulps, and Warner continued the series with new Avenger novels (still credited to Kenneth Robeson, by now written by Ron Goulart). The back cover of each paperback reprised The Avenger's back story in delicious purple prose:

In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human.

It was so with Dick Benson. He had been a man. After the dread loss inflicted on him by an inhuman crime ring, he became a machine of vengeance dedicated to the extermination of all other crime rings.

He turned into the person we know now: a figure of ice and steel, more pitiless than both; a mechanism of whipcord and flame; a symbol to crooks and killers; a terrible, almost impersonal force, masking chill genius and super-normal power behind a face as white and dead as a mask from the grave. Only his pale eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, hint at the deadliness of the scourge the underworld heedlessly invoked against itself when crime's greed turned millionaire adventurer Richard Benson into--THE AVENGER.

Jesus. Every attempt I've ever made to write pulp fiction has been an effort to channel that.

Now, given that arch-rival Marvel Comics had its own superhero team book with a similar title, DC wasn't about to (nor, one guesses, legally able to) launch a book called The Avenger. Instead, this new comic book would take its name from the title of the first Avenger novel: Justice, Inc. Denny O'Neil, who was already writing The Shadow, was tapped to likewise adapt Justice, Inc. Al McWilliams provided elegant artwork for the debut issue, with comics legend Jack Kirby taking over at the drawing board for issues 2-4, completing the brief run of Justice, Inc. at DC. The Avenger also made a guest appearance in DC's The Shadow # 11, getting to meet one of his primary inspirations.



In making DC's Justice, Inc. # 1 into a 100-Page FAKE!, we're taking more liberties than we've done with our previous faux Super Specs. I mean, if we're gonna pretend anyway, why not pretend more? So this 100-page extravaganza imagines DC accompanying its licensing of The Avenger with additional licenses: Dick Tracy, The Green Hornet, and The Lone Ranger. DC actually did license our good cop Tracy not long after this, for the tabloid-sized Limited Collectors' Edition # C-40 (December 1975-January 1976), a book which I adored but which apparently sold the mass-market equivalent of bupkis. In 1975, The Green Hornet had been absent from comics since Gold Key's three-issue companion to the 1966-67 TV show; Gold Key was still publishing The Lone Ranger in '75.  Still, I betcha DC could have secured licenses to both the Hornet and The Lone Ranger. Maybe. I guess. Pinnacle Books began reprinting Fran Striker's old Lone Ranger juvenile novels as paperbacks at this time, in preparation for an announced forthcoming "major motion picture," and interest in the late actor Bruce Lee (who had played Kato on the '60s Green Hornet TV series) would prompt a theatrical release of a badly-edited compilation of three episodes of that show as a feature film called Kato And The Green Hornet.

In the fanciful, untethered Boppinverse, that's sufficient grounds to imagine DC's Justice, Inc. # 1 as a 100-Page Super Spectacular, with the then-new adaptation of The Avenger alongside reprints of Dick Tracy, The Green Hornet, and The Lone Ranger. A stretch? Oh yes. It's fantasy, so forgive the indulgence. We're gonna do that here sometimes. The Super Spec version of Justice, Inc. # 1 is filled out with reprints of legit DC properties The Batman and Scribbly and The Red Tornado, plus the original Captain Marvel, a character DC began licensing in 1972 and eventually acquired outright.

Future 100-Page FAKES! will likely return to Justice, Inc. for at least one of the Jack Kirby issues, plus another visit (or more) with The Shadow, and perhaps even a DC 100-Page Super Spectacular version of a title Charlton Comics was publishing in this time frame. For now, all of these characters are copyright their respective owners. We can share a representative sampling here; my subscribers get to see the whole thing. Here's where everything appeared originally:

The Avenger/Justice, Inc. in "This Night...An Avenger Is Born!," Justice, Inc. # 1 (May-June 1975)
The Batman (untitled), Detective Comics # 36 (February 1940)
The Green Hornet in "Proof Of Treason," The Green Hornet [Four-Color] # 496 (1953)
Dick Tracy in "The Case Of The Purloined Sirloin" (1958 Esso giveaway)
Scribbly and The Red Tornado (untitled), All-American Comics # 53 (October 1943)
The Lone Ranger in "The Ghost Town Sheriff," The Lone Ranger # 100 (October 1956)
"Captain Marvel Battles The Pressure Peril," Captain Marvel Adventures # 133 (June 1952)

Scoff if you must, but I woulda jumped up, down, and sideways for a comic book like this in 1975. Suspend your disbelief. Just imagine. The Batman. Captain Marvel. Dick Tracy. The Green Hornet. The Lone Ranger. Scribby and The Red Tornado. And The Avenger! DC Comics. Justice, Inc. # 1.

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