THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Works In Progress

 

Although I've long since completed (and submitted) a draft of my proposed book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), the subject itself remains open for me. I continue to work on more GREM! entries, for use here on the blog and for potential engagement in an even-more-theoretical The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 2). An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made as long as they take turns. Maybe I take the infinite part of the book's tagline too literally.

Nonetheless! Here's a look at bits of some of my many GREM! works in progress. 

THE PRETENDERS: Back On The Chain Gang

It was just like starting over.

The Pretenders emerged in England in 1978, led by Chrissie Hynde, an American playing guitar and singing lead. Hynde, guitarist James Honeywell-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers turned out to be great Pretenders, debuting on record with a 1979 single covering the Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing." More records followed: singles, two albums (1980's Pretenders and 1981's Pretenders II), with the 1981 EP Extended Play in between albums. 

And then half the band died. 

WAR: Low Rider

Has anyone ever used the word "imperious" to describe the rhythm of War's 1975 hit "Low Rider?" I'd presume it hasn't been done, and it may be a stretch to use it now. But GodDAYum, that regal riddum rules by divine and absolute right. Imperious War!

When discussing the records that make us wanna dance, prance, and make romance, we often talk about the beat. But more than the beat, "Low Rider" has a visceral, almost physical rhythm that dictates a mandatory moving of your body. Typical of me being me, I didn't come to appreciate that rhythm until way, way after the fact.

BONEY M: My Friend Jack

My relationship with disco is complicated. I hated it during its heyday, but began to re-think my position as it became clear that some (not all) of the Disco Sucks movement was built upon a foundation of tacit racism and homophobia. I further realized that a lot of the disco LP-burnin' Fascists hated my preferred punk and power pop almost as much as they hated dat ole debbil disco, so...enemy of my enemy is my friend.

But never mind the shifting parameters of my mixed-signal interactions with disco. Eurodisco group Boney M was a breed apart anyway, willfully weird but extremely pop.

PEGGY LEE: Fever

There is cool, and then there is cool. Cool-as-a-fever cool. No other approximation of cool has ever been anywhere near the sizzling cool of Peggy Lee's 1958 absolute annexation of Little Willie John's R & B (and crossover pop) hit "Fever." 

THE MAYTALS: Pressure Drop

Listening to Johnny Nash didn't prepare me for this.

I first saw Toots and the Maytals name-checked in some magazine (either Rolling Stone or Playboy, possibly both) in the late '70s, though I wasn't conscious of the music until many years thereafter. I recall that Linda Ronstadt was among those praising the essential nature of Maytals LPs Funky Kingston and Reggae Got Soul, and if I couldn't quite fit reggae into my new wave rock 'n' roll world view at the time (the Clash notwithstanding), I did get there eventually. 

THE POLICE: Roxanne

When I worked at a record store in the '80s, one of my co-workers was horrified when I mentioned that I didn't really care about the music of the Police. "Horrified" may not be much of an exaggeration; he gasped, put his hands to the sides of his face in a manner that would have made Macaulay Culkin proud, and backed away from me slowly. I think I saw him mouth the world Unclean! 

I had liked the band initially, around the time of their first two albums in the late '70s, but found myself losing interest in them as they became (to my taste) increasingly...mainstream? I guess. I wasn't trying to be hipper than the crowd, honest; it was just that I preferred their earlier records. I appreciate some of their bigger hits a bit more now than I did then, though I'm pretty sure I'll always detest that damned stalker song, "Every Breath You Take."

And "Roxanne?" My God, "Roxanne" was far and away the best thing on AM Top 40 in 1979. Nothing else even came close to it. 

ABBA: Dancing Queen

There is a false conviction among some rock 'n' roll fans that ABBA's music is inherently schlocky. This conviction is a big ol' pile of piggy poop.

AM radio surrendered to ABBA's "Waterloo" in 1973. I may have struggled with some indecision over whether or not I liked the song at the time, and I can't explain why. It was a pop song. I like pop songs. And I sorta liked ABBA. Ultimately, I decided that I liked "Waterloo," too. 

"SOS" was my favorite among ABBA's initial run of hits, though the only ABBA singles I bought were "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Take A Chance On Me." I also loved "Dancing Queen." I had no use for "Fernando." I was indifferent to "Mamma Mia" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do." Reading in Bomp! magazine's 1978 power pop issue about "So Long," a purportedly great ABBA power pop song I'd not yet heard, was reason enough for me to buy my friend Jay's copy of ABBA's Greatest Hits. I was perfectly okay with ABBA's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Hell, a lot of ABBA's hits are closer to original-formula '50s/early '60s rockin' pop than anything that a band like, say, Genesis ever did.

"Dancing Queen" is ABBA's signature tune. It's often lumped in with disco, but its gloss is more girl-group than Studio 54. It shimmers in its own deliciously pure pop way, not beholden to trends, timeless yet still so '70s it could have been sporting a WIN button.

THE AVENGERS: We Are The One

The Clash sang that anger could be power. Even before that line appeared in The Clash's London Calling album track "Clampdown" in 1979, a San Francisco group called the Avengers was on stage at Winterland, opening for the Sex Pistols in that group's final appearance meltdown, and embodying the concept of cathartic fury. Anger. Power. Rock 'n' roll.

BLONDIE: (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear

A love letter from Lois Lane, sung by Marilyn Monroe, backed by the Dave Clark Five.

Blondie's lead singer Debbie Harry was sexy without any appearance of trying to be sexy. She didn't even seem to be conscious of her everyday allure, her natural beauty and glamour, her God-given possession of It. She just was. 

My first awareness of Blondie came via Phonograph Record Magazine in 1977. I've never forgotten writer Mark Shipper's description of the band's look as "like Marilyn Monroe backed by the Dave Clark Five," a blurb which (even more than Debbie Harry's attractive image) sold me on Blondie well before I ever heard a note of their music. When I got to college that fall, I immediately started carpet-bombing the school radio station with requests for all of the acts I'd read about in PRM, from Television to the Dictators, and certainly including constant (and urgent) petitions to hear Blondie's "X Offender." I loved the track on first spin, and I have never stopped loving it since. And they called it puppy love!

THE JAM: In The City

Punk could be pop. In America, the Ramones already knew that, even if the charts didn't reflect the verity of that aesthetic.

THE YOUNG RASCALS: Good Lovin'

Little Steven says garage rock is "white kids trying to play black rhythm and blues and failing--gloriously." Fair enough. So what do we call it when a white group tries to play soul music, and succeeds? We could call that the Young Rascals.

THE RECORDS: Starry Eyes

Dreams of fame and fortune are not held solely by the performers.

THE VOGUES: Five O'Clock World

It should only be a footnote in the story of "Five O'Clock World," but the result is so engaging, so perfect, that I can't help elevating it to a prime moment in the history of rockin' pop on TV. 

THE DICKIES: Banana Splits

TRA-LA-LAAAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAAAAA! TRA-LA-LAAAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAAAAAAAAA!

No. You get a hold of yourself. Don't be messin' with the manifest majesty of the Banana Splits.

And don't be messin' with the manifest DESTINY of The Greatest Record Ever Made!, whether it's Volume 1, Volume 2, or an undrafted free agent. The infinite does what the infinite does.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 1/13/2023

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1163. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Pinhead

Gabba Gabba Hey!

For reasons to be revealed soon--no, really!--I'm gonna be using that three-word-phrase a lot in 2023. So, after last week's epic countdown show, I wanted to open our first regular show of the year with a spin of "Pinhead," the classic Ramones track that introduced "Gabba Gabba Hey!" into the popular lexicon.

In programming the show, I was amazed when I discovered that we had never before played "Pinhead" on TIRnRR. "Pinhead" is one of the Ramones' definitive gems, and the Ramones are among the top most-played acts in this little mutant radio show's long and storied history. But we just never got around to spinning that particular track. We finally corrected that oversight this week.

And again: GABBA GABBA HEY!

RANK AND FILE: Amanda Ruth

The happenstance of "Pinhead" making its overdue TIRnRR debut dovetailed with Dana's determination to play a number of tracks we ain't never played here before. That plan brought the mighty Rank and File into the TIRnRR universe, with a spin of their superb 1982 single "Amanda Ruth." We play the hits. There are a lot of hits out there. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to get to 'em.

JOSIE COTTON: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

And we're not the only ones who might run late in getting to the rockin' pop gala. Major record label weasels can be among the most guilty parties ever, sitting on perfectly fine potential releases, lettin' 'em languish in the vault as the weasels' myopic attention span flits to some other glittery piece o' pyrite. 

In the early '80s, Josie Cotton released two albums on Elektra, 1982's Convertible Music and 1984's From The Hip. She scored some notice with her singles "Johnny, Are You Queer?" and "He Could Be The One," appeared with her band in the movie Valley Girl, and got some MTV play with her cover of the Looking Glass' "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" (and I regard her version of that as the version). 

Alas, the units sold weren't sufficient to satisfy the weasels, and her 1986 album Everything Is Oh Yeah was not released at the time. It was retrieved and rescued in 2019 by the non-weasel Cleopatra label. Hooray for the non-weasels!

From Everything Is Oh Yeah, Dana selected our Josie's cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" for airplay, adding that it's still as fresh as anything this newfangled 21st century can offer, and that it sounds like it could have been Josie Cotton backed by the contemporary oomph of the Linda Lindas. Which would be a great idea.

Meanwhile: I'm ordering my own copy of Everything Is Oh Yeah, and Dana will be playing another cut off that album on our next show. Can't let the weasels win, man. Can't let the weasels win.

CLIFF HILLIS: Good Morning And Goodnight

Of course, new songs likewise provide an ongoing opportunity to expand the ol' playlist. The new Cliff Hillis single "Good Morning And Goodnight" was co-written by long-time TIRnRR Fave Rave Kelley Ryan, who also sings along with Mr. Cliff on this engaging little number. A check of the archives shows we've played three other Cliff Hillis tracks--"Madeline," "Turn On A Dime," and his cover of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy"--at some points in our first 24 years on the air. We need to play more, and we will. We'll start with another play for "Good Morning And Goodnight" next week.

ABBA: On And On And On

Some of our listeners dig ABBA, and some do not. We're still working on politely bludgeoning the non-believers into compliance. But man, I heard this song last month on Michael McCartney's fabulous show The Time Machine (on Maui's Mana'o Radio), and I knew we needed to get it into one of our own playlists as soon as we possibly could. Thanks for the inspiration, Michael!

LOVE: 7 And 7 Is

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

KAI DANZBERG FEATURING DEAR STELLA: Let Him Go

THE FORTY NINETEENS: Crocodile Tears

How in the world could it be that we've never played either of these Big Stir Records singles? We need a better class of minions. Or, first, I guess we need minions. None of these acts is exactly a stranger to TIRnRR; Dear Stella's simply superlative "Time Machine" was one of our most-played tracks in 2020, we've played a bunch of stuff by the Forty Nineteens (including "Late Night Radio," the A-side of "Crocodile Tears"), and a bunch of Kai Danzberg works, too. Still: any record you ain't heard (or played) is a new record. Looking for new? These are as good as new.

TAJ MAHAL: E Z Rider

Taj Mahal was always a little bit outside my sphere of familiarity. I don't recall hearing him on the radio, though I betcha some FM station may have played a Mahal track or two when I wasn't paying attention. When I was a teenager in the '70s and when I managed a record store in the '80s, I saw Taj Mahal LPs on the racks, but didn't even think about investigating the sounds. There were so many punk and power pop and hyphenate-rock releases to occupy my starry eyes and eager ears; an artist filed under BLUES wasn't toppermost of my poppermost.

I'm not sure when Taj Mahal's music finally did enter my sovereign airspace, but he's been an occasional star in our playlists over the past year or so. I was particularly taken with "Ain't That A Lot Of Love" (which he also performed on The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus) and his ace cover of Dave Dudley's country touchstone "Six Days On The Road." I had these as digital tracks, but in October I added a CD of his 1968 album Taj Mahal to my library of physical media. More to come.

THE RAMONES: I Wanted Everything

Yet another Ramones track we somehow failed to program until now. In 2001, as a freelance writer for Goldmine magazine, I reviewed Rhino's CD reissues of the first four Ramones albums, and I regret to say I gave short shrift to their incredible fourth album Road To Ruin. 

I disavow that now.

Sure, Road To Ruin was heavier than its rockin' pop punk predecessors Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia, but it ain't exactly metal, dig? And it is as absolutely, utterly unforgettable as the first three Ramones albums. "I Just Want To Have Something To Do." "I Wanna Be Sedated." The bubblecountry experiment "Don't Come Close," the twangy ballad "Questioningly," the cover of the Searchers' "Needles And Pins," the breathless rush of "She's The One"...Great googly-GABBA-GABBA!-moogly, this stuff is great. WHAT WAS I THINKING...?!

So I've been listening to Road To Ruin again. I first heard the album late in 1978, when Rochester radio station WCMF-FM played the record in its entirety. It was a midnight album spin, and I sat in the suite area of my college dorm room, my new girlfriend Brenda dozing, her head on my shoulder. I just want to have something to do. 

And I wanted everything.

Brenda and I had just started dating. We're still together now. For Christmas this year, knowing that 2023 was looking to be a big Ramones year for me, Brenda gave me a Ramones hoodie and a Road To Ruin jigsaw puzzle. The road to ruin? That's not the path we traveled, but it is the soundtrack we chose. And another Road To Ruin track will make its belated TIRnRR debut next week. 

Yeah: I wanted everything. I got it. Here's to the road, and its rewards. The pieces come together when they can.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

10 SONGS: 11/17/2022

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1155. The show is available as a podcast.

Much of this week's show was programmed as a salute to our friend and colleague Rich Firestone, the host of Radio Deer Camp right here on SPARK! Our Reechie has been facing significant health issues and associated expenses, and we want to draw attention to a campaign to help Rich and his comparably cool partner Kathy Firestone (aka Frodis) in their time of need:

SUPPORT RICH'S TRANSITION TO DISABLED LIVING!

We hope you'll reach deeeeeeeep into the ol' pockets and do whatever you can. We thanks ya!

Let's get to 10 SONGS!

THE SMITHEREENS: Drown In My Own Tears

So we wanted this week's shindig to include a number of performers near 'n' dear to Reechie's interests. Carteret, New Jersey's phenomenal pop combo the Smithereens would be near the top of that list, and "Drown In Your Own Tears" (from their 1988 album Green Thoughts) was Rich's gateway into the realm of 'Reen thoughts. Rich heard that song playing in a record store, and his life was changed. Reechie himself tells the story here, and I added my own spin on his Smithereens journey here.

THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer

Reechie likes to say that the Monkees have been good to him. Hell, as a young MonkeeMan, he met, courted, and married a young MonkeeWoman nicknamed Frodis (a reference to "The Frodis Caper," the final episode of The Monkees TV series). If that ain't Monkeemania, there ain't no Monkeemania.

Monkeemania was also the name of a 2-LP Australian import collection that helped hook Reechie on all things Micky-Davy-Peter-Michael. Prior to stumbling across Monkeemania in (I guess) the early '80s, that Firestone boy was aware of the Monkees--their TV show and their biggest hits--but it was Monkeemania that started him down a more intrepid walkin'-down-the-street-gettin'-the-funniest-looks-from-everyone-we-meet worldview. Were the Monkees more than their hits and their televised romps? The Monkeemania compilation indicated an affirmative answer.

And that, in turn, led Reechie to the Monkees' 1967 album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones. Ltd. That album was also my  Monkees tipping point (read here and here), serving to help elevate my own fascination with the Monkees into the stratosphere (and phantasmagoric splendor). We chose the Pisces track "The Door Into Summer" to represent that portion of Reechie's rockin' pop fandom.

If memory serves, I first came into contact with Reechie and Frodis via online Monkees fandom on Prodigy. We've been friends now for more than thirty years. I'm grateful for that opportunity. I guess the Monkees have been good to me, too.

P. P. ARNOLD: When I Was Part Of Your Picture

You don't have to tell Dana & Carl about the magnificence of singer P. P. Arnold. We love P. P. Arnold! Her dynamic original version of the all-time classic "The First Cut Is The Deepest" earns a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). In those halcyon days when TIRnRR was done live in the studio, a P. P. Arnold best-of set owned a permanent berth in my CD carrying case, ever at the ready when it was time to program a little of Ms. Arnold's wonderful music.

But I first heard Arnold's lovely tune "When I Was Part Of Your Picture" when Reechie played it on Radio Deer Camp. The track comes from 2019's The New Adventures Of...P. P. Arnold, a latter-day work that found the soul legend working with the likes of Paul Weller, who also wrote this particular number. Any record you ain't heard is a new record. Thanks, Reechie!

THE COUNT FIVE: Psychotic Reaction

What? Did you think I was the only rockin' pop fan declaring The Greatest Record Ever Made! an infinite number of times? Pshaw. Here's Reechie's choice. Or one of 'em, anyway. From the Count Five--the American Yardbirds, because why not?--"Psychotic Reaction" serves as today's Greatest Nugget Ever Made.

ABBA: SOS

Y'know, we love Reechie like a distant cousin, but let's face it: he ain't perfect. His stubborn refusal to play a friggin' ABBA song awready is a source of endless tsuris around here...or it would be if we actually, y'know...cared. Reechie claims his beloved Corgi Harry (who is also, of course, the producer of Radio Deer Camp, and perhaps not the only producer in radio who literally barks at on-air talent) ate all of the ABBA records in the Firestone family library. The closest surviving exception was Frida's solo hit "There's Something Going On," which Harry spared because he likes Phil Collins. Obviously.

To which we say: Reechie! BUY ANOTHER ABBA RECORD!!!

Or don't. It's your show.

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

From This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5, because even a tribute show has bills to pay. And so we have Eytan Mirsky with "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year."

Maybe optimism isn't the proper response in the face of adversity. But maybe defiance is. This year? It's hit us all, but its time is nearly done. Another year awaits. Perhaps that will be the year when we hit back. Sing it, Brother Eytan. Sing it.

MICKY DOLENZ: Daybreak

Reechie's also a big fan of Harry Nilsson. In recognition of this, we programmed a very nice (and obscure) '60s Nilsson track called "Sister Marie," and we also played a cover of Nilsson's big smash "Everybody's Talkin'," as performed by Rich and Steve, which is our Reechie teamed with Steve Stoeckel of the Spongetones and Pop Co-Op.

But we figured we needed one more Nilsson song. And we went with Harry's old friend Micky Dolenz, singin' a song that was a hit for Nilsson (at least as far as AM radio in Syracuse was concerned in 1974). 

THE MONKEES: Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Better Get Home

"I Better Get Home" is a track from Handclaps & Tambourines, the current album by the ever-fab Librarians With Hickeys. HEY! I have this compulsion to yell out HEY! whenever I mention "I Better Get Home." HEY! Best to just give in to it.

This is also the latest single from the album. We've already been playing it for weeks now, and it's about damned time the world caught up to our visionary single-sniffing acumen. HEY! But we played it this week as a specific wish on behalf of Reechie and Frodis. Enough with the hospitals. HEY! Rich better get home...and he did. He listened to this week's mutant radio party from the relative comfort of his own Deer Camp digs. Challenges await. But he's home. And that's better.

THE SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride

A hit record. A BIG hit record. Radio Deer Camp says so. Don't argue with our Reechie.

And if you wanna face the world with pride, we direct you to do the right thing:

SUPPORT RICH'S TRANSITION TO DISABLED LIVING!

See, facing the world with pride is its own reward.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! ABBA, Action Comics, Action Swingers, Adventure Comics, The Adverts, and Astonishing Tales

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 reprise of the very first edition of my series The Everlasting First, offering quick takes on my introductions to ABBA, Action Comics, Action Swingers, Adventure Comics, the Adverts, and Astonishing Tales.

This piece was a little bit longer when it was first posted back in August of 2016. My original intent for The Everlasting First was for each alphabetical entry to spotlight my introductions to a musical act and a superhero or other fictional entity, supplemented by the quick takes, consisting of an equal number of music and comics/pulp fiction subjects. As the series progressed, I realized that many comics fans didn't want to read about rock 'n' roll, and some pop music aficionados didn't care about the funnybook stuff.

So I started separating the music from the comics and pulp stuff, and retroactively split all the previously-posted Everlasting Firsts, as well. 

Over the course of nearly six years of The Everlasting First, I still haven't made it through the damned alphabet. I have gotten through the letter T, with T is for TARZAN, T is for THE TURTLES, and T's Quick Takes For Comics (Teen Titans, Thor, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and The Twilight Zone) and Quick Takes For Music. (Television, the Temptations, Tommy Tutone and the Troggs). I haven't yet decided on the U entries--Uncle Scrooge? The Ugly Ducklings? U.N.C.L.E.? The Undertones? Uncle Sam? Tracey Ullman?--but I'll get to 'em eventually. When I finally do finish making my way through EF A-Z, I'll circle back to do others in no particular order, perhaps including the Animals and the Lone Ranger.

Two other dormant series are also due for a near-future comeback here: 5 Above (covering five songs from a specific artist or within a specific category) and Comic Book Retroview (covering short runs and/or single issues of comic book titles). Among the subjects potentially looming in one or t'other, we have the Romantics, Iron Man And Sub-Mariner, KISS, Daredevil Battles Hitler, the Hollies, Shazam!, Herman's Hermits, Detective Comics, Suzi Quatro, Captain Action, the Kinks in the '80s, the Spectre in the Silver Age, and comic book songs.

They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every love story still needs to begin with that first kiss. 

That's the boilerplate intro for The Everlasting First. And the origin of The Everlasting First serves as the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider  supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl