Tonight On THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

Dana and I (and my lovely wife Brenda) got to meet The Cowsills last night--fantastic performers AND supernice folks--so it's a safe bet we'll play a Cowsills track or two on this week's radio shindig. We also have brand new music from Ken Sharp, Orbis Max, and Dean Landew, and our usual assortment of what'll-we-play-NEXT...?!, from Prince to The Sex Pistols to Buck Owen & his Buckaroos. It's. All. POP! And we begin with a Susan Cowsill solo track, in memory of what was. Sunday night, 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/

Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: Too Good For Words

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.


Way back in 1992, on the old Dana & Carl radio show We're Your Friends For Now (the precursor of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio), we used to do theme shows. One of those theme shows was an all-instrumental special, billed as "music too good for words." 

We should think about doing that again. Until then, here's a phony TIRnRR playlist celebrating that timeless concept of music too good for words. Sing along! Wait--that's not right....

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 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/

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-greatest-record-ever-made-updated.html

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 at https://tinyurl.com/ycnly8oz Digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) now available at https://tinyurl.com/ycauy9xt

Fake TIRnRR Playlist: Too Good For Words

THE RAMONETURES: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?
--
HERB ALPERT & THE TIJUANA BRASS: A Taste Of Honey
THE GO-GO'S: Surfing And Spying
JOHNNY & THE HURRICANES: Beatnik Fly
BOOKER T & THE MG'S: Green Onions
THE SHADOWS: FBI
HOT BUTTER: Popcorn
--
THE SHADOWS: Apache
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS: Like, Long Hair
DAVIE ALLEN & THE ARROWS: Blue's Theme
THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: Take Five
THE RAMONES: Durango 95
BO DIDDLEY: Aztec
--
THE VENTURES: Walk--Don't Run
THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Courageous Cat Theme
THE ASTRONAUTS: Baja
THE BEL-AIRES: Mr. Moto
JON & THE NIGHTRIDERS: Charge Of The Nightriders
THE SHADOWS: The Rise And Hall Of Flingel Bunt
--
THE MONKEES: Masking Tape
THE BEATLES: Cry For A Shadow
SOUNDS INCORPORATED: In The Hall Of The Mountain King
LINK WRAY: Rumble
DICK DALE & THE DEL-TONES: Miserlou
BUCK OWENS & HIS BUCKAROOS: Buckaroo
--
THE SHADOWS: Wonderful Land
THE SURFARIS: Wipe Out
THE MARKETTS: Out Of Limits
THE JAM: The Batman Theme
THE FLESHTONES: Theme From The Persuaders
BILL JUSTIS: Raunchy
--
MIKE NICHOLSON: Bellew's Creek
LINK WRAY: Rawhide
THE NUTLEY BRASS: I Wanna Be Sedated
MFSB: TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)
APOLLO 100: Joy
THE VENTURES: Hawaii Five-O
--
THE PYRAMIDS: Penetration
DUANE EDDY: Rebel Rouser
BENNY GOODMAN: Sing Sing Sing
DOM MARIANI & THE MAJESTIC KELP: Roulette
THE SHADOWS: Riders In The Sky
HAL BLAINE: Topsy '65
--
HERB ALPERT & THE TIJUANA BRASS: Mexican Road Race
AL HIRT: The Green Hornet Theme
THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: No Stopping
THE KINKS: Revenge
THE T-BONES: No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)
JON & THE NIGHTRIDERS: Splashback
DUKE ELLINGTON: Take The 'A' Train

Follow me! THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE Needs YOU!!

My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! could use your help. And it won't cost you a dime.

As I work on a book proposal in hope of hoodwinking a publisher into giving me money and getting this thing into print, I need to start trying to raise my profile a bit. I am, God help me, probably going to join Twitter. I'm making myself available to any media outlet who wants to interview me about this book or my other projects, past and present. And I'm actively seeking followers for this blog, Boppin' (LIke The Hip Folks Do).

If you dig this daily outlet for my thoughts on pop music and pop culture, please consider signing up to follow the blog. This is FREE, and you can follow by email via the instructions in the upper right corner of the page. I'm more about the content than the numbers, but it's imperative that I show some numbers. Preferably numbers of the higher persuasion. Help me if you can, as some lads once sang.

Speaking of those fab lads: once a month, Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) offers a private post only for its paid patrons. You can become a patron of this blog for just $2 a month. July's private post for patrons will be a previously-unpublished chapter from my book The Greatest Record Ever Made!, discussing "Yesterday" by The Beatles. It's going to be quite some time before this piece is made available to the public, but patrons will get to see it on Monday.

Followers and patrons. Any way you get here, I'm happy to have you. A Bop a day awaits you.




TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-greatest-record-ever-made-updated.html

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. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.

The Pulps

I'm not 100% certain how I first became aware of pulp magazines, but the book pictured above was certainly an early clue. I recall seeing the hardcover collection The Pulps at World Of Books in North Syracuse in the early '70s, maybe as early as 1971, but probably '72 or so. It was one of a number of books that caught my eye all at the same time, right alongside comic book celebrations All In Color For A Dime, Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes, and Crown Books' Superman From The 30's To The 70's and Batman From The 30's To The 70's. Edited by Tony Goodstone, The Pulps was the only one of these books that I didn't acquire in that early time frame. I was certainly intrigued by it nonetheless.



My real indoctrination into the world of pulp magazines came via Steranko's History Of Comics, I'd say around 1974. My high school library had both volumes of Steranko's captivating account of the Golden Age of comics, and I spent a lot of time immersing myself in those books. Steranko's chapter on "The Bloody Pulps" fascinated me, and fanned the flames of my nascent interest in The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Spider, Operator 5, The Phantom Detective, The Black Bat, and G-8 And His Battle Aces. 

(What's that? I should have been studying when I was in the school library? Ahem. Just move along.)



I read my first pulp adventure--The Land Of Terror, a Doc Savage paperback--before reading Steranko's account of the pulps, and possibly/probably before spying The Pulps at World Of Books. I told my story of discovering Doc Savage here--a sequel describing my discovery of The Shadow is forthcoming--and of my teenage fascination with superpulp paperbacks here. 



Somewhere in there, I picked up my first pulp anthology, The Fantastic Pulps (edited by Peter Haining), plus my very first actual pulp magazine, a flea market purchase of a forgotten random issue of Dime Detective. The flea market also provided me with a copy of The Crime Oracle And The Teeth Of The Dragon, a trade paperback reprint of two vintage Shadow pulp novels, reprints which included the illustrations from the original pulps (something the paperback reprints lacked). 





In the '80s, when I was living in Buffalo, I snagged a few more ragged pulps at the flea market. In later years I also bought some of Anthony Tollins' exquisite pulp reprints starring The Shadow and Doc Savage, and some Black Bat and Spider books, too.

And I finally did buy a copy of Tony Goodstone's The Pulps. Some time early in this newfangled new millennium, I saw a used copy on display (in very good shape) at Metropolis Books, one of the best little book shops that ever was. Metropolis was also in North Syracuse, pretty much kitty-corner across the street from where World Of Books used to be. I told Metropolis owner Mike Paduana about seeing The Pulps on the shelf when I was eleven or twelve, and gestured in the direction of the cafe that now occupied the hallowed ground that had once been World Of Books. And I mentioned to Mike how I always wanted that book when I was a kid, but never got around to getting it.

Mike kinda looked at me for a second before saying, "What are you waiting for? You know you're gonna buy it today."



Yep. Mike was right. Years later, it's on my bookshelf next to The Great Comic Book Heroes. Some things just take time.

Back cover of my Amazing Stories pulp, offered here for my friends in The Charlton Arrow Facebook group, a fine bunch of folks who have a thing about Uranus. And who wouldn't have a thing about Uranus?

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-greatest-record-ever-made-updated.html

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. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.

100-Page FAKES! presents: BATMAN # 263

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



By 1975, writer Denny O'Neil had succeeded in revitalizing the image of The Batman, restoring the character to his Dark Knight roots following the campy excess of the 1966-68 TV series. That oversimplifies the story considerably, ignoring an awful lot of factors in Batman's development over the decades, and also slighting other creators who made their own mark in puttin' the THE in The Batman, but it's still basically accurate. I would argue that O'Neil's best Batman work was in the past by this point--I am not a fan of O'Neil's later Batman stories--but it doesn't really matter. O'Neil's place in Batman history is secure, and for good reason.

Of Batman's core group of biggest enemies, O'Neil created one (Ra's al Ghul) and redefined another (The Joker). Two-Face was the first classic Bat-villain O'Neil used (in 1971's Batman # 234), and O'Neil went on to write stories with The Catwoman (not bad) and The Penguin (not great) within this early '70s timeframe. O'Neil revived The Scarecrow in Batman # 262. Unless you want to count Mr. Freeze, the only top name Batman adversary O'Neil hadn't yet chronicled was The Riddler. O'Neil's Riddler followed O'Neil's Scarecrow in the very next issue, Batman # 263.

When I was a six-year-old kid watching Batman on TV, The Riddler was my favorite supervillain. Why? Oh, it was almost certainly a combination of his costume--the closest to a superhero costume among any of the arch criminals depicted on the TV show--and actor Frank Gorshin's maniacal laugh while capering as the Prince of Puzzlers. Nine years later, I was happy to see The Riddler return to the pages of Batman.

The Riddler's return here provides a good excuse to use the added pages of our hypothetical 100-pager to reprint a few of Batman's previous scuffles with other A-listers from his gallery of rogues. We skip Ra's al Ghul (who is better served in an extended storyline rather than a stand-alone tale), and we zero in first on O'Neil's above-mentioned Two-Face story from 1971. My friend Michael LaHair told me about that issue when it was published, and I made a beeline to the spinner rack to get my own copy, stat. This may have been my first Neal Adams-drawn issue of Batman, though I had previously seen Adams' depiction of The Batman--and in Adams' hands, make no mistake, this was definitely not good ol' Batman, but undeniably THE Batman--in The Brave And The Bold. We pick a Joker story from 1945, an admittedly forgettable Penguin story from '67, and a 1946 newspaper serial with The Catwoman (as reprinted in 1965's Batman # 176, an 80 Page Giant). 

The Batman vs The Riddler in "Riddler On The Move!," Batman # 263 (May 1975)
The Batman vs Two-Face in "Half An Evil," Batman # 234 (August 1971)
The Batman and Robin vs The Joker in "The League For Larceny!," World's Finest Comics # 19 (Fall 1945)
The Batman and Robin vs The Penguin in "The Penguin Takes A Flyer--Into The Future!," Batman # 190 (March 1967)
The Batman and Robin vs The Catwoman, Batman And Robin syndicated Sunday newspaper strip (April 28 through June 16, 1946), reprinted in Batman # 176 (December 1965)

Yep, it's all copyright DC Comics Inc, shown here in sample pages; my subscribers see the whole book. With this, 100-Page FAKES! will leave both Batman and Detective Comics behind for the time being. But The Batman will return in our next faux 100-page edition of The Brave And The Bold.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-greatest-record-ever-made-updated.html

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. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.








COVER GALLERY