For someone who can't sing, write songs, produce records, or play any instruments, I've created a fair number of musical acts. I'm not talking about fantasy air guitar combos--though I have a bunch of those, too--but fictional musicians I've used or intended to use in stuff I write. Yeah, I'm a regular Raybert (and only Monkees fans will get that reference). Here are a few of the musicmakers I've created:
GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS
After decades of nonfiction freelancing, my first fiction sale was my short story "Guitars Vs. Rayguns," purchased and published by the good folks at AHOY Comics. The story namechecks a number of real-life acts, from Chuck Berry to the Ramones, but the planet-hopping group at the center of it all is never identified. Well, folks, they call themselves Guitars Vs. Rayguns. Obviously. This was intended as a one-off story, until an AHOY fan wrote a letter to the editor wishing for more. So, I'm working on it. I've had no discussions with AHOY about this yet, and I may never get around to writing it. Keep watching the skies.
COPPER
 |
| Other than (presumed) shared reference points, my character of Copper has nothing to do with this Jaime Hernandez illustration from the great Love And Rockets comics. |
Copper is a 17-year-old punk bassist in the mid 1980s, and she's the star of my most recent short story sale, "Chaos At The Copperhead Club." That story has been purchased but not yet published by AHOY, and is in the same shared continuity as my previous stories "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid," "The Copperhead Strikes!," and "The Copperhead Affair." Copper's band is not named in the story, so let's name 'em now: please welcome to the stage Copper and the Pit Vipers!
THE DUST BUNNYS
Fabricated power pop group the Dust Bunnys kicked bassist Jenny Woo out of the band--and through the window of a high-rise building--at the start of Eternity Man!, my proposed rock 'n' roll time travel superhero novel. Don't worry! She's one of the stars of the novel, so it's no spoiler to say that she's immediately saved by Eternity Man himself. I wrote the first five chapters of Eternity Man! before setting it aside. It's not necessarily abandoned, as I often sketch out ideas, leave them alone, and then return to them weeks, months, or years later. Hell, Eternity Man!'s fourth chapter includes my first public mention of the Copperhead Kid, long before I wrote and sold "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid." Some ideas have an expiration date; some do not.
In that first chapter of Eternity Man!, our Jenny mentions previous stints in some other fictional combos: Elegant Cream Vehicle, the Lemming Pipers, Attica's Finch, and Warriors of Romance. A friend of mine came up with the name "Elegant Cream Vehicle," and I came up with the others.
Elegant Cream Vehicle and Daddy's Soul Donut (a name also suggested by a friend, taken from an episode of The Simpsons) turned up (alongside Archie's Band, who were from Queens, not Riverdale) in this trifle. And Warriors of Romance well predate Eternity Man! What was the action-packed, pulse-pounding origin of Warriors of Romance? Face Front, True Believer:
WARRIORS OF ROMANCE
In the '80s, when I was scrambling to try to write professionally, one of my many, many stillborn concepts was Marvel Girl, intended as a new character with a familiar name. Marvel Comics' original Marvel Girl had been Jean Grey, a founding member of the uncanny X-Men; Jean had been upgraded to a new identity as Phoenix, so I figured Marvel might need a new Marvel Girl to retain its trademark. Helpful? That's me! I also tried to concoct a new Supergirl for DC Comics for the same reason. Neither notion even got as far as a draft proposal, both existing only as figures in my sketch book.
Marvel Girl would have been Debbie McCullagh, aka Debbie Mack, drummer for a struggling psychedelic group called (you guessed it) Warriors of Romance. Memory suggests I intended her to have Superman level powers, but with the powers only manifesting either as needed or sporadically (a notion possibly inspired by the Hulk or the original SHAZAM!-shouting Captain Marvel). The idea was not thought through, and was never executed. 'Nuff said.
WILLINGTON BLUE, SKIP KELLER
Willington Blue and Skip Keller were characters in my unsold short story "Home Of The Hits" (formerly "Hitcore"). I had high hopes for this one, and I was surprised that it was rejected. The story references a previous group that included auteur Blue, and songwriter/record label contractor Keller is mentioned as having been in a boy band, but neither act is named.
THE SHAMBLES
Yeah, I'm aware that there is a terrific real-life recording act called the Shambles, but I hope Bart Mendoza will forgive me for coming up with the same name independently in 1979. My set o' Shambles was concocted for a lackluster entry in the journal I kept for a college class called Fantasy And Science Fiction. It was terrible. The actual Shambles are much, much better.
BEN ARNOLD AND THE TURNCOATS
Aw, this one never had any chance in hell of happening, but I wish it did. Ben Arnold and the Turncoats were the mid '60s American rock 'n' roll group at the heart of The Beat And The Sting, my idea for a comic book mini-series based on the 1966 TV version of The Green Hornet. I particularly like Kato's line that the Turncoats' hit "You Won't Get Me" is derivative of the Kinks, and Britt Reid's preference for being more of an Al Hirt man. I posted a blurb for the idea, and the first few script pages, but it doesn't make sense for me to continue it as fanfic. Another challenge for the Green Hornet? Sadly, not this time.
AND THE REST!
Those are the ones I've used in...something. There are others attached to projects too embryonic to discuss here: the Frantiks, the Ragtags, the Limey Fruits, Butterscotch Peacemongers, the Terry Legend, the Broken Things, Rock Lobster, and Bright Lights. Those all require more rehearsal and woodshedding before they hit the stage. If they ever hit the stage.
And a-one, and a-two...!
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
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.
No comments:
Post a Comment