POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST: Artful Dodger

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look back at my introduction to the music of Fairfax, Virginia's phenomenal pop combo Artful Dodger.

Given that The Everlasting First was intended from the get-go as an A-Z reminiscence about my first exposures to various rock 'n' roll acts and comic book heroes, it's no shock that my first music entry was A is for ARTFUL DODGER. When The Everlasting First debuted on this blog on August 17th of 2016, the original plan was to combine the music and comics entries, commencing with The Everlasting First # 1's presentation of A is for AQUAMAN and A is for ARTFUL DODGER, supplemented by five Quick Takes for A (covering my intros to ABBA, Action Comics, Action Swingers, Adventure Comics, The Adverts, and Astonishing Tales). Eventually, I realized that some music fans didn't want to read about comics, and vice versa. So I retroactively split all the previously-posted EFs into their separate categories, and carried on from that point forward. (And I really need to get back to that series, picking up with the still-to-be-written T is for THE TURTLES. If I ever get past the letter Z, I'm going to follow with additional entries for past letters, like A is for THE ANIMALS and L is for THE LONE RANGER.)

Back to Artful Dodger. They were an amazing group, and it's unfortunate that they've never really received their due. I gave them a mention in my history of power pop, but even there I didn't really have room to wax the appropriate level of rhapsodic about these guys. But lemme tell ya: get yourself a copy of Real Gone Music's 2-CD Artful Dodger set The Complete Columbia Recordings, and turn it up. UP, I say! Follow me! My introduction to the fabulous music of Artful Dodger 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.

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