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 memory of the late Les McKeown, the latest shared post is my Greatest Record Ever Made! celebration of "Rock And Roll Love Letter" by The Bay City Rollers.
An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. This proud declaration of a short attention span is the foundation of my ongoing GREM! series (and maybe an eventual GREM! book). I've encountered occasional pushback from folks who hate the concept outright and/or disagree with some of the individual tracks or artists it embraces. Different strokes, and so on and so on and scooby-doobie-doobie. I remain delighted with the idea, and I still hope to find a way to get it all plastered together and perched on a shelf at a bookstore near you. (At which point, yeah, I suggest we all get plastered together.)
Resistance to GREM! song choices usually occurs when I write about an artist that others view as unworthy or even contemptible, especially acts like The Bay City Rollers, KISS, The First Class, Wham!, Freddie and the Dreamers, even The Monkees, though most have at least learned better in the case of Micky, Davy, Peter, and Michael. Some have thought I picked the wrong song to represent an artist they love, particularly in the case of Bruce Springsteen. Some, of course, just think I'm an idiot.
But we dig what we dig. Regardless of whether or not a GREM! book ever wills itself into existence, my vision of its parameters includes Led Zeppelin, P. P. Arnold, James Brown, The Partridge Family, Rick James, Van Halen, The Velvelettes, The Muffs, Don Henley, Merle Haggard, The Temptations, Judy Collins, The Runaways, Grandmaster and Melle Mel, The Bandwagon, Todd Rundgren, Rufus, The Kinks, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Grateful Dead, Stevie Wonder, Eytan Mirsky, The Ramones, The Beatles, and more. Infinite. Infinite.
And today's slice of the infinite presents The Bay City Rollers. "Rock And Roll Love Letter" is the subject of 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
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.
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