Saturday, October 10, 2020

POP-A-LOOZA: The Beatles, "Rain"

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. In honor of John Lennon's 80th birthday yesterday, the latest shared post is from my series The Greatest Record Ever Made!, and it's a celebration of "Rain" by The Beatles.

An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. That's the theme of my book in progress The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), a book which will certainly include this piece about "Rain." At this time, the book is planned to also include two other Beatles songs ("Yesterday" and "Revolution"), plus a separate discussion of the time The Beatles copied The Dave Clark Five, and an explanation of why I think The Beatles are underrated. I also wrote a GREM! piece about "Hey Jude," but that's not currently intended to be used for the book.

The Beatles and Batman remain the two most significant influences upon the development and scope of my appreciation of pop culture in general. The second piece ever to appear on this blog back in January of 2016 (even before I changed the masthead from CC Says to Boppin' [Like The Hip Folks Do]) was a personal reminiscence of what John Lennon meant to me. Since then, I've written a fantasy about a 1976 Beatles reunion, and individual pieces about Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, Beatles '65/Beatles VI, and an imaginary LP collection of the best cover performances recorded by The Beatles, Leave My Kitten Alone!

I've also done my best Sophie impression to name my 25 all-time favorite Beatles tracks, did the same thing for my 25 all-time favorite post-Beatles Paul McCartney tracks, talked about the time I attended Ringo Starr's press conference, slapped together a three-part chronicle of my only Paul McCartney concert experience (divided into Part 1Part 2, and Part 3), a B-Side Appreciation of Yoko Ono's "Kiss Kiss Kiss," and a Christmastime appreciation of what Yoko meant to John. I haven't yet written anything specifically devoted to George Harrison (which is a pretty significant omission on my part), but George's "What Is Life" was the only solo Beatle track I considered for inclusion in the GREM! book, even though I ultimately elected not to include it there. Maybe Volume 2?

The greatest record ever made. We mean it each time we say it, even if our chosen song changes from time to time. An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. But if it's gotta be just one, I have the one in mind. The Greatest Record Ever Made: Rain is the latest 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

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 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).

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