POP-A-LOOZA: GUILT-FREE PLEASURES (A Defense Against The Dark Arts)! R. Dean Taylor, "Indiana Wants Me"

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 another exciting episode of Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts), pleading its case on behalf of "Indiana Wants Me" by R. Dean Taylor.

This was written as a Guilt-Free Pleasures piece, but it could have just as easily been a Greatest Record Ever Made! chapter. As always, an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. And, if my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) ever manages to will itself into existence, I would almost certainly convert this R. Dean Taylor bit for use in a very hypothetical GREM! Volume 2.

It wouldn't be the first Guilt-Free Pleasure to go through that metamorphosis. The blueprint for the actual (if still hypothetical) GREM! Volume 1 includes a piece based in part upon my Guilt-Free Pleasures study of Milli Vanilli (providing context for an entirely different act). A Guilt-Free Pleasures celebration of "Freedom" by Wham! formed the basis for a chapter originally intended for GREM! Volume 1, and subsequently shifted to Volume 2 in an effort to streamline the book into a more manageable size. It's possible, though unlikely, that I could convert a Guilt-Free Pleasures piece about the Monkees' "I Never Thought It Peculiar" to a GREM!, but a G-FP rant called "This Is Radio KISS" wouldn't lend itself to such repurposing. And anyway, the subject of KISS is already explored (and celebrated!) in its own GREM! chapter about "Shout It Out Loud."

Because so much of what I write focuses on songs, the artists who record them, and the stories associated with them, there are many posts from my many different recurring blog features that could be used as a GREM! chapter. Or vice versa. A GREM! Volume 1 chapter about the Partridge Family's "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" could have been a Guilt-Free Pleasure, but it's actually based on something from my weekly 10 Songs column. 10 Songs has been a fertile breeding ground for GREM! ideas. 

Another source to feed the GREM! ranks is my B-side appreciation series The Other Side Of The Hit, which gave the proposed book the template for its Yoko Ono chapter, as well as another Monkees piece that was just recently excised in the streamlining process. (Don't worry; the Monkees will get their due in The Greatest Record Ever Made! [Volume 1].) Some Other Side Of The Hit bits about the Ramones, the Go-Go's, and the Barbarians could likewise have been GREM! chapters. It's ALL pop music.

(And, although I still can't tell you much about my forthcoming first book, to be published in the Spring of 2023, I can say that it includes a single, stand-alone Greatest Record Ever Made! chapter near the end of the book. The first GREM! book appearance! Here's hoping it leads to more.)

As we await the elusive idea of more, we pause to marvel at the pulp noir story I hear in a pop song from 1970. R. Dean Taylor's "Indiana Wants Me" is the subject of 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 

GUILT-FREE PLEASURES (A Defense Against The Dark Arts): R. Dean Taylor, "Indiana Wants Me"

There is really no such thing as a guilty pleasure in pop music. Unless you happen to love neo-Nazi ditties or glorifications of hatred or violence, I'd say it's okay for you to dig whatever you wanna dig. Yes, even the hits of The Eagles. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE POP SONGS! Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts) celebrates pop songs. The guilty need not apply.

R. DEAN TAYLOR: Indiana Wants Me

Written by R. Dean Taylor

Produced by R. Dean Taylor

Single, Rare Earth, 1970

He fought the law, and the law won.

R. Dean Taylor's "Indiana Wants Me" was all over AM Top 40 in 1970, the very year I began listening to radio with more deliberate intent and focus. Is it a guilty pleasure? SPOILER ALERT: no, don't be silly. It's a terrific single, I love it, and I still attempt to sing along with it each time I hear it play.

But let's talk about its story.

"Indiana Wants Me" tells the sad tale of a guy on the run from the police. This fugitive is a murderer; he confesses his guilt in the song's first line, If a man ever needed dyin', he did. We learn immediately that the murder victim had said something inappropriate about the murderer's wife, thus prompting his violent demise and the murderer's status as a wanted man fleeing justice. The murderer has no remorse whatsoever for his crime; his only regret is the pain he's caused his beloved wife, his only real wish that he could see her, their home, and their little baby. One last time. The law catches up with him, he refuses to surrender, and his story ends in a hail of gunfire. 

Pulp as pop. But I think there's even more pulp beneath this story's surface.

For reference, let's give our three principal characters names, just so I can stop calling them "the murderer," "the victim," and "the murderer's wife." I thought of calling them Archie, Reggie, and Veronica, but--let's face it--the Riverdale TV series has done enough damage to those names. I almost went with Pancho, Lefty, and Emmylou, but that woulda been unfair to Emmylou (and besides, Pancho needs your prayers, it's true, but save a few for Lefty, too). So we're gonna go with Manny, Moe, and Jaqueline. Manny is our killer on the run, Moe is his late victim, and Jacqueline is Manny's soon-to-be-widowed wife.

What in the world could Moe have said about Jacqueline that so enraged Manny? No one had the right to say what he said about you. I guess it's possible that Manny's skin was so thin that an offhand comment about our Jacqueline's looks or demeanor ignited homicidal fury. If so, well, it's amazing Manny lived as long as he did before running afoul of the whole Thou shalt not kill thing. Instead, I keep coming back to one line of thought:

What if?

What if Moe said he loved Jacqueline? And what if Moe swore that Jacqueline loved him? Furthermore, what if Moe claimed that he and Jacqueline had consummated their love. Y'know...physically. Bouncy-bouncy.

If a man ever needed dying, he did. How dare Moe tell such an awful lie?

With that, we understand what sparked Manny's sudden rage. We don't excuse it--Manny is very much guilty of murder--but at least we can comprehend what happened. But I say that ain't all.

Because Moe wasn't lying.

Moe and Jacqueline were together. Whether a single night's shaking of the sheets or a long-term affair (or more), Moe and Jacqueline did it, marital vows be damned. 

And I'll add one more little detail: the little baby that Manny wishes he could see, just once more? The baby ain't his. Moe is the father. 

Regardless of R. Dean Taylor's actual real-world intent in crafting the lyrics, I'm convinced that "Indiana Wants Me" is about a guy whose wife cheated on him, and the hijinks that ensued thereafter. Whether Manny is in willful denial of the affair or knows (but won't admit) what really happened, the sins of the flesh led to the mortal sin of murder. And it's so cold and lonely here without you. All that's left is the loss.

And the guilt.

VERDICT: Well, the song's characters are guilty as sin. But the song itself? Innocent, not guilty.

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

Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: The Songs Of BOPPIN' (LIKE THE HIP FOLKS DO)

I've written about a number of albums over the years (especially when I was freelancing for Goldmine), but I've always been a single-song guy. Each of the tracks in today's fake playlist is an individual song that was the focus of a post right here at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). Most of them came from my Greatest Record Ever Made! series, though some were originally posted in some other series instead. The curious can follow links to read my original post about each song. Ready to bop? We've got some songs for you.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl--y'know, the real one--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 all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

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

PS: SEND MONEY!!!! We need tech upgrades like Elvis needs boats. Spark Syracuse is supported by listeners like you. Tax-deductible donations are welcome at 
http://sparksyracuse.org/support/

You can follow Carl's daily blog Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) at 
https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/

Fake TIRnRR Playlist: The Songs Of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do)

THE MONKEES: I Never Thought It Peculiar

THE RAMONES: Babysitter

BADFINGER: Baby Blue

GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS: Midnight Train To Georgia

THE BARBARIANS: Take It Or Leave It

THE GO-GO'S: Surfing And Spying

--

WHAM!: Freedom

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You

WILSON PICKETT: In The Midnight Hour

NICK LOWE: So It Goes

WANDA JACKSON: Let's Have A Party

LITTLE RICHARD: The Girl Can't Help It

--

MANNIX: Highway Lines

JOHNNY NASH: I Can See Clearly Now

YOKO ONO: Kiss Kiss Kiss

ELTON JOHN: Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

HEART: Kick It Out

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

--

THE BEATLES: Tell Me Why

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Any Way You Want It

MATERIAL ISSUE: Kim The Waitress

PATTI SMITH: Gloria

THE MONKEES: The Girl I Knew Somewhere

LOVE: 7 And 7 Is

--

BIG STAR: September Gurls

DAVID BOWIE: Life On Mars?

THE RASPBERRIES: I Wanna Be With You

SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES: The Tears Of A Clown

CRAZY ELEPHANT: Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'

MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

--

STEVIE WONDER: I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)

THE BUZZCOCKS: Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)

THE SEARCHERS: Hearts In Her Eyes

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

FIRST AID KIT: America

--

THE KINKS: Waterloo Sunset

THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Uncle John's Band

THE SMITHEREENS: Behind The Wall Of Sleep

THE WONDERS: That Thing You Do!

THE CASTAWAYS: Liar, Liar

LESLEY GORE: You Don't Own Me

--

THE MONKEES: Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)

THE WHO: I Can't Explain

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes

GRAND FUNK: We're An American Band

FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie

THE DRIFTERS: On Broadway

THE ROLLING STONES: Happy

THE BEATLES: Thank You, Girl

--

THE RARE BREED: Beg, Borrow And Steal

THE JAYHAWKS: I'm Gonna Make You Love Me

THE KNICKERBOCKERS: Lies

THE LEFT BANKE: Walk Away, Renee

KISS: Shout It Out Loud

THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Rock And Roll Love Letter

THE KINKS: You Really Got Me

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

POP-A-LOOZA: WHAM!, "Freedom"

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 celebration of the 1984-85 hit "Freedom" by Wham!

An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. This piece was originally written in 2019 as the inaugural entry in my sporadic series Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts), but I have since then tweaked it slightly to make it a chapter in my proposed book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I didn't change much of it, so reading it here gives you a pretty good glimpse of how it will appear in the book (if the book ever appears).

My boilerplate introduction for Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts) sums up my rejection of the silly notion of guilty-pleasure records: There is really no such thing as a guilty pleasure in pop music. Unless you happen to love neo-Nazi ditties or glorifications of hatred or violence, I'd say it's okay for you to dig whatever you wanna dig. Yes, even the hits of The Eagles. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE POP SONGS! Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts) celebrates pop songs. The guilty need not apply. 

I've only gotten around to writing three additional entries in this series, discussing KISS, Milli Vanilli, and "I Never Thought It Peculiar" by The Monkees. The Milli Vanilli piece has also been repurposed as part of a chapter in GREM!, but that chapter will mostly be about an entirely different artist and song. I may eventually do Guilt-Free Pleasures pieces about The Partridge Family and The Archies. The future of the series is uncertain, but I don't think it's done quite yet.

But for today, we turn our attention to a wonderful pop record from the '80s, the pleasure of which is decidedly innocent, not guilty. "Freedom" by Wham! is the subject of the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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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.

POP-A-LOOZA: The Monkees, "I Never Thought It Peculiar"

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 my pulpit-pounding on behalf of a song many others might describe as a guilty pleasure: "I Never Thought It Peculiar" by The Monkees.

There is really no such thing as a guilty pleasure in pop music. Unless you happen to love neo-Nazi ditties or glorifications of hatred or violence, I'd say it's okay for you to dig whatever you wanna dig. Yes, even the hits of The Eagles. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE POP SONGS! Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts) celebrates pop songs. The guilty need not apply.

The above paragraph is the boilerplate intro for my Guilt-Free Pleasures series, which was where the piece about "I Never Thought It Peculiar" first appeared. The inaugural Guilt-Free Pleasures was a 2019 celebration of "Freedom" by Wham! Pieces about KISS and Milli Vanilli followed (though the latter turned out to be as much about Michael Jackson as it was about Milli Vanilli). I'll be getting around to a Guilt-Free Pleasures spotlight on The Partridge Family...soon. Definitely soon. Two of the published pieces will reappear in revamped form in my eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

Meanwhile, both Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) and This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl continue the good fight: dig what you wanna dig. We've even played The Eagles. And we've played an unhip, gawky-but-nifty little Monkees song called "I Never Thought It Peculiar." It's the subject of the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.



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

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 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).

GUILT-FREE PLEASURES (A Defense Against The Dark Arts): "I Never Thought It Peculiar" by The Monkees

NOTE: This is the 1400th post at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do).

There is really no such thing as a guilty pleasure in pop music. Unless you happen to love neo-Nazi ditties or glorifications of hatred or violence, I'd say it's okay for you to dig whatever you wanna dig. Yes, even the hits of The Eagles. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE POP SONGS! Guilt-Free Pleasures (A Defense Against The Dark Arts) celebrates pop songs. The guilty need not apply.

THE MONKEES: "I Never Thought It Peculiar"

I never thought it peculiar
That you never gave me a smile
I wasn't socially suited
To make it worth your while
Oh, no....

Our own paths through the landscape of pop culture are directed by quirks and idiosyncrasies. We may have points of common ground--a hit movie or TV show everyone within our peer group saw, a top record we all heard on the radio in heavy rotation--but there are also less-shiny pop artifacts only some of us know, experienced in less-than-universal circumstances. There are TV shows we loved as kids that no one else seems to even remember much, if at all. There are records our memories insist must have been ubiquitous mega-smashes, because we remember 'em, in spite of the fact that they never occupied a second of AM or FM airspace on any radio known to boy or girl. They are the flowers in the dustbin (as The Sex Pistols would say). The world at large may be indifferent to their charm, but they matter to us.

And I never thought it peculiar
That my heart always beat like a drum
Each time I would see you walk by me
You were as pretty as they come

Within the cavalcade of memory and impression I recall from being a kid in the '60s and into the early '70s, it seems to me that The Monkees had more hits than Billboard chart histories insist. Wasn't "(Theme From) The Monkees" a hit? Howzabout "She?" "Papa Gene's Blues?" "Gonna Buy Me A Dog?" C'mon, "(Look Out) Here Comes Tomorrow" must have been huge; how could it not have been...?!

But these weren't hits, nor were they even singles. They were LP tracks I heard on my brother Art's copies of the first two Monkees albums in 1966 and '67, catchy ditties I likely also heard on The Monkees television series. Their everyday familiarity to me fooled my brain into thinking they were chart-toppers like "Last Train To Clarksville" and "I'm A Believer." 

They were not. Yet I loved them as if they were.

Ain't that peculiar?

As popular as The Monkees had been in the '60s, the rock establishment in the '70s was determined to toss the group and its legacy lock, stock, and little red maracas into the dustbin as well. By the time people tried to tell me that I couldn't possibly like The Monkees, I already loved The Monkees, and I'd already determined that nobody could ever dictate what I could or couldn't like. I've told that story elsewhere, notably in my account of seeing The Monkees live and of wishing to induct them into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The Monkees transcend my concepts of the guilty or even guilt-free pleasure.



In The Monkees' canon, a clunky little number called "I Never Thought It Peculiar" is the closest thing I have to an exception.

Yeah, there aren't an awful lot of folks who love this one. "I Never Thought It Peculiar" was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, the ace tunesmiths who created a number of classic songs for The Monkees, from the TV show's theme through "Last Train To Clarksville," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "She," "Words," and "Valleri," among many others. As performers, Boyce & Hart appeared on the TV shows Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie, released a bunch of singles and albums, and scored a # 8 hit in 1967 with "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight." 



"I Never Thought It Peculiar" was something of a throwaway. It had been written and recorded during sessions for second album More Of The Monkees, and relegated to the vaults, unreleased. The track had no discernible sense of cool. As sung by heartthrob Davy Jones, it was guileless pop fodder, music hall, the sort of chirpy but forgettable dreamy-eyed luv song a teen-idol pinup could sing sweetly to his smitten little Tiger Beat girl (and vice versa). It didn't appear on a record until it was unceremoniously exhumed to fill dead space at the end of Changes, the 1970 Micky Dolenz-Davy Jones vehicle that was the final album released under the Monkees brand name, after Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith had already left Monkeeshines behind them. It was not a hit record by any definition.



Making my own way through the '70s, I discovered over time that The Monkees had released more albums than the mere two I remembered. There wasn't much information readily available regarding The Monkees' discography, but watching reruns of the TV show proved there were more Monkees songs out there. Through flea markets and friends, I filled in a lot of the gaps.

I had never seen nor heard a copy of Changes until the fall of my freshman year at college in Brockport, NY, late 1977. I was interested in joining the campus radio station WBSU--because, y'know, playing records--and took a tour of the studio. It was there that I saw this Monkees album I didn't know. Changes. 



It was the only Monkees album the station had. I looked it over, but didn't recognize the songs. I figured (correctly) that "Oh My My" probably wasn't the Ringo Starr hit with the same name. I scanned these unfamiliar titles, "I Love You Better" and "99 Pounds" and "Midnight Train," and settled my gaze on the album's final track: "I Never Thought It Peculiar."

And I began to sing that song to myself. I remembered the song from...hey, where the hell could I have remembered that song from...?! I knew I'd never listened to Changes. I was pretty certain the song hadn't been played on the radio, and I was likewise sure it wasn't among the few Monkees records I'd cut off the backs of specially-marked boxes of Post Honey Combs cereal. But I knew the song! I did!

Over the next few weeks, I pestered WBSU DJs with request after request, mixing urgent pleas for oldies by The Dave Clark Five and Paul Revere and the Raiders with fevered demands for the punk/new wave sounds of The Ramones and Blondie. And I often requested "I Never Thought It Peculiar." The first time I heard that on WBSU confirmed my memory of it, from whatever secret place that memory was spawned. 

(My taste in rockin' pop was decidedly out of sync with most of my fellow students, including most of the jocks at WBSU. There were exceptions, but most of 'em disliked my oldies, and really disliked my punk. And they hated The Monkees more than they hated any of the rest.)



Hating The Monkees. I'm sorry, I could never understand how anyone could hate a sound that made me feel so happy. But I did have to concede that "I Never Thought It Peculiar" wasn't particularly hip. It was gawky, square, as awkward as unrequited love. I wrote its goopy lyrics in my notebooks, fighting for space alongside the words from lovelorn gems by The Rubinoos and Freddie and the Dreamers, the presumed soundtrack of an earnest love affair yet to be: a college girl whose eye I would catch, whose hand I would hold, whose lips I would kiss, a girl whose heart would beat next to mine. Peculiar? Infatuation's like that. Love's for damned sure like that, too.

So I sent some flowers to your doorstep
And wrote on the card, "I love you"
I don't know why
But I do know that I
Had a feeling that you liked me, too

Her favorite Monkees song is "Oh My My," from Changes. Peculiar together!

Changes isn't much of an album, but it has its moments. "Oh My My" is a fantastic little chunk of strutting hard pop with a bubbly soul, Dolenz's breathy vocals delivering an AM-ready juggernaut that should have been a hit. "I Love You Better" is agreeably reminiscent of Neil Diamond. The rest is marginal, culminating in the terminally uncool but somehow engaging trifle "I Never Thought It Peculiar," the song that I knew somewhere.

I wouldn't figure out the mystery of my forgotten introduction to "I Never Thought It Peculiar" until a few years later. Although I was old enough (if barely) to watch The Monkees' TV series during its original 1966-68 prime time run, my true immersion in the Monkees experience came when the show was rerun on Saturday mornings from 1969 to 1973. Around 1970, when Changes was released, suits at Colgems Records hoped to capitalize on this TV exposure to spur sales for new Monkees product, so tracks from Changes replaced some of the older tracks previously heard playing behind Monkees romps on individual episodes. One of those freshly-inserted songs was, of course, "I Never Thought It Peculiar." The song sunk its gummy hooks deeply into my ten-year-old psyche, and slumbered there until jolted awake when I was in college.

So I never thought it peculiar
When you stopped to ask me the time
And I don't think it's terribly peculiar
That now, little girl, you are mine

There are no guilty pleasures in pop music. It's pop music ferchrissakes. As I approach my 60th birthday, I'm still the boy who loved The Monkees, the boy who fell in love with girls, the boy who learned that love is defined by those who love, not by those who look on. I'm still a bit peculiar myself, and adamantly unlikely to change. My path remains quirky and idiosyncratic, and I'm still fascinated by flowers in the dustbin. The Sex Pistols wound up covering The Monkees, by the way. These flowers still bloom, for all who care to see. Peculiar? Proudly so.

VERDICT: Innocent, not guilty.



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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, 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)

Our most recent compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is still available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes, Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.