POP-A-LOOZA: The Jam

Every Friday, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza runs a post from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. This week's Boppin' Pop-A-Looza looks back to 1977, when I discovered the music of The Jam.

For those in search of some supplemental reading, "No Time To Be 21/This Year I'll Be 22" recalls my favorite music circa 1981 and '82, the period of my most pronounced interest in The Jam; that was the final chapter of a six-part series called Imagining/Remembering The Music That Played, an attempt to reconstruct what would have been my all-time Hot 100 lists when I was aged 16 to 22, and I later gathered the whole thing together here. The subject of Paul Weller and Joan Jett's 1977 TV appearance with Tom Snyder comes up again in the Bomp! magazine chapter of my series He Buys Every Rock 'n' Roll Book On The Magazine Stand. 



The Runaways thread in the Jam piece continues in my Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery reminiscence of seeing The Flashcubes, Runaways, and Ramones live in 1978, and "My 1970s" discusses the music I was listening to during the Me Decade. The Jam are among the many, many acts mentioned in passing in my extensive power pop retrospective "The Kids Are Alright! The History Of Power Pop."



Finally, I will eventually be returning to subject of The Jam some time in (I hope) the near future, with a Love At First Spin celebration of my favorite Jam album, Setting Sons. Previous Love At First Spin pieces have examined my adoration of Drop Out With The Barracudas, The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man, and The Ramones' Rocket To Russia. I've begun writing a Love At First Spin spotlight on The Ramones' Road To Ruin, and I'm looking forward to concocting a Setting Sons piece.



But that's in the future. Right now, let's go back to when a campus radio station introduced me to a new British band that would become one of my fave raves. It's The Everlasting First: The Jam, this week's Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.



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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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 133 essays about 133 tracks, 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: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

BOPPIN's Monthly Day Off

Once a month, Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) takes a brief break from its schedule of daily public posting, and offers a private post for my paid patrons. 

This month's private post is another unpublished chapter from my eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), covering the 1965 hit "Just Like Me" by Paul Revere & the Raiders. Patrons will see that post on Sunday, March 1st, so you still have time to become a patron and read it for yourself. You can become a Boppin' patron for only $2 a month: Fund me, baby!

Regular daily public posting will resume tomorrow, with this week's Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: Music On Cassette

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 hate cassettes as an audio format, and this is not an attempt to celebrate them. However, it's also true that I used to listen to cassettes a lot--a lot--and it would be disingenuous to deny that fact. Before mini-discs, CD-Rs, and digital files, cassettes were the vehicle for all manner of music compilations. I discussed those in a previous post called The Mixtapes Of October; today, we look at a playlist constructed from tracks I owned on store-bought, prerecorded tapes. I'm also including one of my cousin Mark's Deep Purple cassettes, which we spent a lot of time listening to one summer in the '70s, a few tapes my lovely wife Brenda brought into the family cassette library, and some tapes that belonged to the late Bill Yerger of Main Street Records, given to me a few years back by Carol Yerger.

For kicks, I've thrown in a track apiece from The Bay City Rollers' Dedication and a pre-Columbia Paul Revere & the Raiders collection, the only two eight-track tapes I ever owned. Eight-track. Now there was a format...!  Press and play, my friends. It's time to play.

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

PS: SEND MONEY!!!! We need tech upgrades like Elvis needs boats. 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! (Volume 1) will contain 133 essays about 133 songs, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of songs can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise (Arlington National, VA: The Gary Frenay Songbook 1978-1990)
THE PRETENDERS: Middle Of The Road (Sire, Learning To Crawl)
THE NEW YORK DOLLS: It's Too Late (Mercury, Too Much Too Soon) 
COVEN: One Tin Soldier (Warner Brothers, VA: Billy Jack OST)
PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS: Jet (Apple, Band On The Run)
STEVIE WONDER: Sir Duke (Tamla, Songs In The Key Of Life)
--
THE BEATLES: Rain (Capitol, Hey Jude)
PAUL KELLY & THE MESSENGERS: Before Too Long (A & M, Paul Kelly & the Messengers)
THE BEACH BOYS: Darlin' (Capitol, 20/20 & Wild Honey)
THE SIDEWINDERS: Witchdoctor (RCA, cassette single)
WALTER CLEVENGER: My Little Girl) Brewery, Pop Goes The Music)
THE SHOUTLESS: I Tell No Lies (ROIR, VA: Garage Sale)
--
THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: I Only Want To Be With You (Arista, Dedication)
THE ROMANTICS: National Breakout (Nemperor, National Breakout)
SCREEN TEST: Make Something Happen (Arlington National, Screen Test)
THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Any Way You Want It (Hollywood, The History Of The Dave Clark Five)
PAUL McCARTNEY: Every Night (Capitol, Unplugged [The Official Bootleg])
THE BEATLES: The Night Before (Parlophone, Help!)
--
THE KINKS: Animal Farm (Golden Hour, Golden Hour Of The Kinks)
GIN BLOSSOMS: Christine Sixteen (Mercury, VA: Kiss My Ass)
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: I'll Meet You Halfway (Razor & Tie, Up To Date)
THE KINKS: State Of Confusion (Arista, State Of Confusion)
TINA TURNER: Nutbush City Limits (CEMA, Greatest Hits)
GARY FRENAY: Chevy (Northside, Armory Square)
--
LED ZEPPELIN: Misty Mountain Hop (Atlantic, [fourth])
THE MONKEES: Regional Girl (Rhino, Justus)
THE BEATLES: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Capitol, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES: Love Child (Motown, Greatest Hits)
THE COLOURFIELD: I Can't Get Enough Of You Baby (Chrysalis, Virgins And Philistines)
BRIAN WILSON: Love And Mercy (Reprise, Brian Wilson)
--
DEEP PURPLE: Highway Star (Warner Brothers, Machine Head)
PAUL McCARTNEY: No More Lonely Nights (Parlophone, All The Best!)
CHARLIE ROBBINS with SCREEN TEST: Heart Said Go (Syracuse New Times, VA: 20 Years Of Syracuse Rock)
ALEX CHILTON: Free Again (Ardent, 1970)
KISS: Calling Dr. Love (Mercury, Gimme KISS)
THE BEATLES: I Don't Want To Spoil The Party (Parlophone, Beatles For Sale)
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS: Like, Long Hair (Orbit, Like Long Hair)

100-Page FAKES presents: THE PHANTOM # 68

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



FOR THOSE WHO CAME IN LATE: The Ghost Who Walks walks again!

No, of course DC Comics didn't have the rights to publish funnybooks starring Lee Falk's creation The Phantom during the original 100-Page Super Spectacular era. The Boppinverse is not subject to your trivial realities! In our altered reality here, we've already established a parallel world where DC purchased the Charlton Comics Action-Heroes (Blue Beetle, The Question, Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Judo Master, Nightshade, and company) in the '70s rather than in the '80s. And we've already transferred that Phantom license from Charlton to DC with our previous 100-Page FAKE! edition of The Phantom # 67. So today, we're just walking along that fanciful path we've previously paved for ourselves.

Don't ask! Just buy...er, READ it!

1975's The Phantom # 68 was the late artist Don Newton's second issue, with Nicola Cuti taking over the writing duties previously carried out by Joe Gill. This 100-Page FAKE! issue was already in the planning stages when Cuti passed away last week. My fondest memory of Nicola Cuti's work is E-Man, the wonderful, light-hearted superhero that he and artist Joe Staton created for Charlton in the '70s. I would dearly love to see a comprehensive series of reprints that would collect and preserve the E-Man chronicles in their entirety.

To make this real-life 1975 comic book into a 21st century fabrication, we add two more Phantom stories: one from earlier in the Charlton run (with art by the great Jim Aparo) and one from the short-lived King Comics run that preceded Charlton's acquisition of the Phantom license. As an extra treat, we throw in "Children Of Doom," the dystopian 1967 Charlton Classic written by future DC superstar Dennis O'Neil (under his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonym) and illustrated by Pat Boyette.

The Phantom in "The Beasts Of Madame Khan," The Phantom # 68 (December 1975)
"Children Of Doom," Charlton Premiere # 2 (November 1967)
The Phantom in "The Pharaoh Phantom," The Phantom # 32 (June 1969)
The Phantom in "The Girl Phantom," The Phantom # 20 (January 1967)

For once, DC doesn't own any of this. The Phantom is copyright King Features Syndicate; the copyright for "Children Of Doom" is unknown. These are shown in sample pages here; my paid subscribers see the whole book. For those who came in late: you're not late at all. Please enjoy this expanded issue of The Phantom.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 133 essays about 133 tracks, 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: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

COVER GALLERY