10 SONGS: 9/26/2026

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 # 1354

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING TOM KENNY: Got No Mind

Revealed at last! Got, got, got no mind/Got no mind, but I don't mind!

We've been playing this fantastic forthcoming new single for weeks, all the while coyly refusing to, y'know, say what it is. That ends now, as this week's radio show began proudly and loudly with "Got No Mind" by the Flashcubes featuring Tom Kenny. The song was written by Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong, and a basement recording of "Got No Mind" served as one of two tracks ("Guernica" was the other) on the B-side of the Flashcubes' 1978 debut single "Christi Girl." As our local Syracuse music community and the larger international power pop community continue to mourn PA's passing earlier this year, his friends are assembling a proper tribute to his impact and legacy.

The tribute starts with this brand new version of Paul Armstrong's Cubic classic "Got No Mind." Recorded in 2026 by the surviving members of the Flashcubes--guitarist Arty Lenin, bassist Gary Frenay, and drummer/producer Tommy Allen--aided 'n' abetted by guitarists Chris Armstrong (PA's son) and Mark Doyle, with gang vocals by Paul's Boston-area buds Mike Gent, Sal Baglio, and Barrence Whitfield, the track is propelled into the motherlovin' stratosphere with vocals by Syracuse's favorite son, famed voice actor, performer, singer, and all-around best guy ever Tom Kenny.

The new "Got No Mind," backed with Paul and his fellow Flashcubes' previously-released (and KICKASS!) track "Reminisce," will be released in November by the visionary Big Stir Records label, and it will be available as a digital single and as a 7" 45 RPM rekkid. The physical single will also be sold at the sure-to-be seismic event A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO PAUL ARMSTRONG, which is set to peel the paint off the walls at Syracuse's legendary home of rock 'n' roll The Lost Horizon on Saturday, November 7th.

The Lost Horizon show will feature live performances by Amerikan Primitive, Perilous, 1.4.5. (with The Wax Museum host Ronnie Dark), Boston's Drivin' Sisters, and Tom Kenny, culminating in the Flashcubes' farewell to their brother Paul Armstrong. Dana and I will be your hosts, but don't let that stop you. BE THERE!!

Meanwhile, TIRnRR will keep on programming "Got No Mind" by the Flashcubes featuring Tom Kenny. I also played the track this week during my guest appearance on The Spoon podcast alongside The Men Of The Spoon Robbie Rist, Chris Jackson, and Thom Bowers. True believers. And friends. If there's ever a chance to celebrate the power of friendship and the magic of music...

...I don't mind.

PERILOUS: Overwhelmed By Reality

One of my favorite current bands, I'm looking forward to seeing Perilous again at the Lost in November. Mind you, I did just see them last week at a benefit show for Spark Syracuse, but who sez I can't already be looking forward to seeing 'em again? Man, when I was a club-legal teen in the late '70s, I saw the Flashcubes as often as I could, and the buzz of a Perilous show calls to mind (as in got-got-got no mind!) the buzz of a Flashcubes show. The current Perilous single "Overwhelmed By Reality" spins again on our next show. I'm looking forward to that, too.

BALLZY TOMORROW: Five Personalities

My above-crowed guest appearance on The Spoon began with our Robbie Rist hisself, operating under his rockin' pop dba Ballzy Tomorrow for an invigmoratin' take on the Flashcubes' "Five Personalities." Robbie's rendition comes to us from Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, a 2025 passion project I spearheaded with the good folks at Big Stir. Robbie does an amazing job with this song I've loved for so long, and I believe some members of the Flashcubes regarded Robbie's take as the definitive "Five Personalities." And looking back on the album, I take some satisfaction in knowing Paul Armstrong lived to hear artists like Ballzy Tomorrow, Sorrows, Hamell On Trial, the Verbs with Meegan Voss and Steve Jordan, the Peppermint Kicks, Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin, and Graham Parker and Mike Gent cover songs written or co-written by PA. 

THE HALF/CUBES: The Mighty Quinn

The Half/Cubes are of course half of the Flashcubes, Gary Frenay and Tommy Allen, working with Randy Klawon and Fernando Perdomo, plus occasional extra special guests. From Jem Records' all-star various-artists tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Bob Dylan, we've been playing the Half/Cubes' ace take on Bashful Bobby's "The Mighty Quinn" because--let's face it!--you've not seen nothing like the Mighty Quinn.

On our next show, we'll move our intrepid Dylanmania to a another winner from Jem Records Celebrates Bob Dylan, this time courtesy of the Grip Weeds. And we will open the show with a new single by the Half/Cubes, covering the mighty Slade. Lights out, lads.

THE RAMONES: Teenage Lobotomy

"Teenage Lobotomy?" May haveta amend that to "Senior Citizen Lobotomy," but otherwise? Some things don't change. Guess I'll have to break the news that I GOT NO MIND to lose....

GREAT BUILDINGS: Hold On To Something

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS: Rock Against Romance

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's willful short-attention-span format discourages longer tracks. When it comes to TIRnRR airplay, a great under-two-minute track is in far better position than a great four-minute song to snag a berth on our playlist. And a five-minute song? This generally isn't the right show for that.

So I concede the fact that a track that's more than five and a half minutes long seems an unlikely component of any given episode of TIRnRR. It's not unprecedented, nor even sufficient cause to stop the presses, but it is something that doesn't happen very often. It happened this week with our first ever spin of "Rock Against Romance" by Holly and the Italians.

Holly and the Italians' 1981 debut (and, really, only) album The Right To Be Italian was a love at first spin, a perfect record that I've always loved without reservation or qualifying clause. Like, all-time Top 20 album at the very least. Its 5:39 closing track "Rock Against Romance" is, I think, the only one of the original LP's ten tracks that we've never played on the show, and hearing it again during a recent commute convinced me that I needed to take a stab at squeezing it in somewhere.

"Rock Against Romance" is nothing short of epic, a full body-and-soul immersion in love's promise and pitfalls, equal parts waifish and steely-eyed, dizzying in its giddiness, grounded in its world weariness, and stubborn enough to dig in its high heels and take arms against a sea of troubles. I would not be shocked to learn that the singer's packin' heat and has the will to use it.

It's also versed in every lesson it learned from listening to pop radio and teen bistro jukeboxes, reading rock mags, pulp paperbacks, and romance comic books alike, and boppin' to the beat in any dive bar that would allow it (or at least not care enough to ban it). Like CREEM magazine said, The Right To Be Italian sounds like Lesley Gore backed by Leave Home-era Ramones. "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" is its most authoritative statement. "Youth Coup" is its manifesto.

"Rock Against Romance" is its mic drop. Gotta find time for a mic drop.

THE MONKEES: The Girl I Knew Somewhere

September 12th marked the 60th anniversary of the debut of The Monkees TV series. For their first two albums, the individual members of the Monkees--Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork--were restricted to vocals-only duties on the records bearing their brand name, and strictly forbidden from playing instruments on the tracks. Nesmith was somehow able to insist on producing the studio sessions for Monkees songs he wrote, but he was not allowed to play even on those sessions. Yeah, the song's author and producer was barred from picking up a friggin' guitar ON HIS OWN MATERIAL. Madness!

That changed in 1967. The Monkees were playing concerts as a live band, and both Nesmith and Tork chafed at Musical Supervisor Don Kirshner's insistence that the Monkees could not--could NOT!--play on their own damned records. The Monkees revolted. Kirshner resisted. Management ruled that the Monkees could be the studio band for their next single, "All Of Your Toys." Kirshner blocked its release (and it remained in the vault until the '80s). The Monkees cried foul. Kirshner was fired. The Monkees prevailed.

And the Monkees played. From a previous post detailing my 25 favorite Monkees tracks: 

"Nesmith's 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere' was originally planned to share a single with the shelved 'All Of Your Toys.' As the B-side of 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,' it became the first public document of the Monkees themselves playing on record (with bassist John London). Nice introduction, even if too few acknowledged it. Nesmith occasionally expressed disinterest in writing pop songs, claiming weightier songwriting goals, but he was damned good at writing pop songs. While an alternate version of 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere' features a Nesmith lead vocal, the familiar Dolenz lead is unbeatable, propelled by Tork's harpsichord, Nesmith's guitar, Jones's tambourine, and London's bass. In the early '90s, I knew a college-age Monkees fan named Jennifer Skaja, and she became a fan in part because songs like 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere' sounded a bit like R.E.M. I agree with Jen on that point, and I would further state that a segue of R.E.M.'s '(Don't Go Back To) Rockville' into the Monkees' 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere' would be a just killer 1-2 punch.

RADIO KARMA: Sweetheart Deal

Radio Karma is the dynamic duo of long-time friend of this show Richard Rossi and supercool pop musician Joe Giddings. Rich is also a Flashcubes fan of several decades' standing, while Joe was inducted into 'Cubedom when we recruited him to cover "You're Not Grounded" for the Flashcubes tribute album. Together, they're detectives! Wait...that ain't right. No, together they're deities, at least according to the title of their debut three-song collection We Were Gods. Leadoff track "Sweetheart Deal" is resolutely radio-ready, which is why we've already put it on the radio two weeks in a row. It racks up week # 3 this Sunday. Bless us, Radio Karma!

THE KINKS: You Really Got Me

For Peggy Olson, wherever she is.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book, its six-chapter novelette digest A Band Called GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!, and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it 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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here

10 SONGS: 6/13/2026

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 # 1340

THE HALF/CUBES: The Ghost At Number One

We gave you an advance listen to this latest single by the Half/Cubes a couple of weeks back. Now: It's OUT! So, y'know, we're playing it again. We play the hits! And ya can't get a bigger hit than # 1, as the Half/Cubes cover Jellyfish and the spirits 'n' specters all come out a-boppin'. NUMBER ONE!

THE BANGS: Getting Out Of Hand

Before they switched to their more familiar moniker, the Bangles originally called themselves the Bangs, We're guessing the earlier name was switched at Ellis Island. Lousy bureaucrats. As noted in the commentary accompanying this week's playlist, we recently had the very great pleasure of witnessing a fantastic live performance by Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill, she of the Bangles and he of the Cowsills. We play the Bangles and the Cowsills quite a bit in our sovereign airspace, and we're going to be playing even more on our June 21st show, when Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill will be our Featured Performers. Along with your Bangles, your Cowsills, and your tracks from Vicki and John's exquisite 2025 album Long After The Fire, you can expect to hear the Continental Drifters, the Psycho Sisters, Susan Cowsill, Tommy Tune, and more, all perched within the framework of whatever else we decide to play.

Will we be getting out of hand? Remains to be determined, I guess. But be assured: Bangles by any name would sound as sweet.

THE SPONGETONES: (I Really) Need To Kiss You

It's the second week in a row for TIRnRR airplay of the Spongetones' new single "(I Really) Need To Kiss You." Please see above Half/Cubes-related statement that we play the hits. We do! A theme show this coming Sunday night means we're giving 3/4 of the Spongetones the weekend off, but we'll be retaining the services of 'Tones bassist Steve Stoeckel, whose other combo Pop Co-Op just so happen to fit the theme perfectly. Fear not! The Spongetones will return soon.

HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS: Just For Tonight

This luscious pure pop confection comes to us from the 1981 classic The Right To Be Italian, which was the only full-length album released by the great NYC combo Holly and the Italians. A 1982 follow-up called Holly And The Italians was a Holly Beth Vincent solo album (and billed as such). The Right To Be Italian is one of my all-time favorite albums.

Some years back, the above-mentioned Spongetone Steve Stoeckel recommended I consider writing a series of blog pieces on behalf of individual albums I considered perfect. I took that advice, dubbed it Love At First Spin!, and wrote lengthy appreciations of the Barracudas' Drop Out With The Barracudas, the Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man, and the Ramones' Rocket To Russia, but never completed any further entries in the series.

If I'd continued Love At First Spin, I probably would have gotten around to extolling the virtues of The Right To Be Italian. I have notes from what would have been that piece's opening paragraphs:

"Even our pop obsessions can be reined in by the limits of our budget. In 1981 I was a recent college graduate, flipping burgers under the Golden Arches to fund little things like rent and food. And beer. Oh, and a college loan, minuscule as it was. I certainly didn't bother with frivolous things like savings, or health insurance. 

"So what little remained of my weekly McDollars went to entertainment. Pop obsessions. Movies, books, magazines, comic books, the occasional bar-band rock 'n' roll show. But my biggest pop obsession was buying and listening to records.

"Duh.

"Still, whether new or used, there were only so many records I could afford to buy at any given time. Some pop obsessions had to be deferred.

"Where did I first hear of Holly and the Italians? I think the initial HEADS UP!! came to me via another pop obsession: CREEM magazine. I don't recall which of CREEM's supercool scribes reviewed the lone Holly and the Italians LP The Right To Be Italian, but I remember how he described the sound:

"Like Lesley Gore or the Angels backed by Leave Home-era Ramones...."

DAVID MYRH: Summer Summer Summer

As we dive into the summer season, David Myrh's new single "Summer Summer Summer" offers an absolutely ace celebration for the beach-bound convertible cruise of your bikini-clad dreams. School's out. Sun's up. SURF'S UP, too!

MIKE BROWNING: It's Festival Time

The summer's here, and the time is right. Mike Browning knows.

IRENE PEÑA: It Must Be Summer 

America's Sweetheart Irene Peña's 2011 album Nothing To Do With You is one of 21st century rockin' pop music's most underrecognized works. The album has never been given a physical release, and I first heard about it waaaaay after the fact, when the good folks at Big Stir Records offered a tenth-anniversary digital-download reissue. Nothing To Do With You retroactively became one of my favorite albums of the 2010s. It's a record that warrants wider appreciation, and it is long overdue for a CD release, perhaps in an expanded edition that includes even more from Irene Peña's catalogue o' wonder. HEY! RECORD LABELS! Yeah, YOU guys. GET ON THIS AWREADY!! And I'm first in line to write some liner notes.

I've been thinking about all of the above for a little while. This week, Dana's spin of Irene's impeccable non-album cover of the Fountains Of Wayne gem "It Must Be Summer" brought the thoughts up front. America's Sweetheart. Let's hear it all.

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Hot Fun In The Summertime

From a previous edition of 10 Songs:

I have previously written that Sly and the Family Stone's "Hot Fun In The Summertime" is "as inviting and idyllic as any June-July-August embrace ever committed to wax, a comforting groove that shines in the daytime and sways with the shadows of twilight." I later added, "If memory serves, a poll of Trouser Press magazine readers in the early '80s named 'Hot Fun In The Summertime' as the # 1 choice for the title of all-time top summer song. Surpassing the Beach Boys in that category would seem a daunting task. But if anyone could do it, it would have to be Sly."

It would probably be a stretch to suggest that Sly Stone wrote "Hot Fun In The Summertime" under the influence of Brian Wilson. I don't quite believe any of Sly and the Family Stone's brilliant work was shaped by Wilson's pet sounds of the soul, at least not willfully. But it would also be a stretch to insist that Wilson wasn't a possible influence; Sly Stone was aware of everything going on in pop music in the '60s, and--to paraphrase something famously uttered by someone else in the Wilson family--Sly Stone was a genius, too. "Hot Fun In The Summertime" doesn't sound like the Beach Boys. Doesn't matter. Sly and Brian sound great in the same radio show. Hot fun, fun, fun in the summertime.

THE MONKEES: Birth Of An Accidental Hipster

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: I Don't Care

Effective this week, I have now written and published three books, two of them non-fiction, one of them a collection of professional lies (aka fiction). Each of the three books has included at least some element celebrating the Ramones; my first book was 2023's Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, my 2024 book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) contains chapters about two Ramones tracks (plus one about Amy Rigby's "Dancing With Joey Ramone"), and the Ramones are a recurring reference point within my brand-new fiction project Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies. The spiffy Joey Ramone portrait seen above also appears in Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! The Ramones. It's safe to say I'm a big, big fan. The title of this week's Ramones track notwithstanding, it's plain to see that I do care.

Tomorrow night, June 14th, we're devoting the entirety of the next TIRnRR to music by some of the real-life musical acts mentioned in Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Chuck Berry! The Cynz! Slade! Wonderboy! The Grip Weeds! Aretha Franklin! Dusty Springfield! The Flashcubes! The Kinks! King Elvis the First! And lots, lots more, including the Ramones. Wouldn't be one of my books if it didn't reference the Ramones. This IS rock 'n' roll radio. Stay tuned for more rock 'n' roll. 

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it 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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here

10 SONGS: 2/13/2025

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 # 1323

BALLZY TOMORROW: Double Our Numbers

Our Featured Performer this week was the late, great Parthenon Huxley, and I think we managed an effective and loving tribute to this wonderful artist. We played a lot of Parthenon's music, including material under his own nom de bop, with his group P. Hux, fronting latter-day Electric Light Orchestra incarnation the Orchestra, as a member of Veg, as Rick Rock, with 3KStatic, collaborating with Jeffrey Foskett, and as part of his "pretty good band" with Rusty Anderson, Jen Condos, and Rob Ladd. It was Hux to the max, all in memory of a TIRnRR idol.

For all that, we deliberately skipped my favorite Parthenon Huxley song: "Double Our Numbers," from his brilliant 1988 album Sunny Nights. Our pal Robbie Rist is one of the biggest P. Hux fans we know, so we wanted our P. Hux tribute to include Robbie's cover of "Double Our Numbers," marketed under Robbie's alter ego Ballzy Tomorrow. From a previous edition of 10 Songs:

We have said this many times, yet it bears repeating: Enthusiasm is its own reward.

Enthusiasm drives our individual fandom, and I mean that in a good way. It certainly drives this little mutant radio show. Sure, there can be something said on behalf of detached objectivity...but ferchrissakes not in pop music, or at least not when we're listening to pop music. Objectivity? No. Not on our watch.

Robbie Rist occasionally feigns detachment, but he's never afraid to let his enthusiasm be known. Robbie loves pop as much as anyone loves pop; he loves it unashamedly, proudly. As a performer, Robbie will not hesitate to share his own enthusiasm with the audience

Case in point: Robbie Rist loves the music of Parthenon Huxley, particularly the music on Parthenon Huxley's 1988 album Sunny Nights, and most particularly the Sunny Nights track "Double Our Numbers."

Robbie is right about all of that. "Double Our Numbers" is exquisite, and the subject of one of my Greatest Record Ever Made! rants (and a seeming shoo-in for the hypothetical GREM! Volume 2). The song never became the rockin' pop staple it deserved to be, and I don't think it's available on any current streaming service.

So Robbie's kept the song alive, with a faithful rendition released under his Ballsy Tomorrow dba, all the while tipping his hat and dutifully applying heart to sleeve in recognition of Parthenon Huxley's original.

If you love a song, you wanna play that song, sing that song, dance to that song. And you want to introduce that song to your friends. 

Double our numbers. Triple our numbers. Robbie Rist has the right idea. Greater strength in numbers. Enthusiasm rewards and renews.

We'll hear Parthenon Huxley's original version of "Double Our Numbers" on our next show. We're enthused. And we're doubling down.

THE CYNZ: You Wreck Me

We're also enthusiastic about the music of the Cynz, and we've been playing selections from the group's new album Confess with zealous, righteous conviction. This week, we turn to their absolutely ace cover of Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me," and we may have wrecked a speaker trying to crank this one up to proper volume. So worth it. We'll circle back to a previous Pick Hit from Confess on Sunday night.

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: American Girl

From an American girl singin' a Tom Petty song into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singing "American Girl." I tell ya, sometimes the segues just program themselves.

SORROWS: Just One Fool To Blame

I continue to be amazed at the gift of Sorrows' 2025 release Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow, a previously-unreleased 1981 one-night-studio-stand that serves as the group's in-era farewell but sounds like it was recorded tomorrow. The album was a consistent fixture on our playlists last year, and we just debuted its epic John Lennon salute "Cricket Man" on our January 25th show. Two weeks later, we return to the well of constant Sorrows for "Just One Fool To Blame," which turns out be just one more winner from an album overflowing with post-teenage heartbreak of the sweetest kind.  

THE FLASHCUBES: I Won't Wait Another Night

In the course of my work curating my passion project Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes for Big Stir Records in 2025, I had a series of communications with Parthenon Huxley about the possibility of him recording a Flashcubes cover for the compilation. His schedule didn't allow him a lot of opportunity to get this done, but he was friendly and open to the idea, and settled tentatively on doing a solo acoustic 12-string rendition of 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin's lovely ballad "I Won't Wait Another Night." 

Our conversation began in February of 2025. I then sent Parthenon several possibilities for him to evaluate from the Cubic catalog, and after considering another Arty tune ("Cycle Of Pain"), he picked "I Won't Wait Another Night" as his preference. He had a lot of working and gigging commitments, including a cruise. In March, he noted that he was closing in on an arrangement of the song. In April, he moved his Make Something Happen! participation status from tentative to "I will participate."

A downturn in Parthenon's health prevented that participation. He remained friendly and engaged in subsequent messaging, but I told him that it was more important for him to get better and feel better than it was to for him to risk damaging his vocal chops while trying to recover from a persistent cough. I expressed appreciation and gratitude for his interest and indulgence, and he expressed hope that we might meet in person some day.

This week, we played the Flashcubes' own original version of "I Won't Wait Another Night." A toast to absent friends, and a toast to what might have been.

P. HUX: Better Than Good

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

And yes, I did indeed repurpose much of this for my subsequent GREM! celebration of "Double Our Numbers." Serving the greater good, and that's much better than good.

HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS: Tell That Girl To Shut Up

Holly and the Italians' 1981 debut long-player The Right To Be Italian is a perfect record from start to finish. The 'tude classic "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" is the best-known among the original LP's ten tracks, but they're all great, presenting an irresistible oomph-a-thon of girl-group pop, New York punk, and undeniable rock 'n' roll climbing in the back seat and pulsating to the backbeat. One of my all-time favorite albums.

ELVIS COSTELLO: (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shows

I saw Elvis Costello and the Attractions perform on campus when I was a Freshman at Brockport in early 1978, and I wrote an extended reminiscence of that experience here. The performance did not include the 1977 My Aim Is True track "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes," but we did hear (but not see) Declan and the lads run through the tune that night. Let's look back at that part of my in-concert recollection:

"...Costello's debut album, My Aim Is True, featured studio backing by a group called Clover; he formed the more raucous, willfully chaotic Attractions after that. My Aim Is True was well-received by critics; I suspect a few critics may have embraced it because it was tangentially punk, but not really, and endorsing it might make such critics seem slightly hipper than they actually were. But My Aim Is True was a terrific album, deserving of accolades regardless of the unconscious reasons prompting such praise.

"Still, it was surprising to return to Brockport and discover that Elvis Costello was scheduled to perform on campus. Although there was some underground support for punk and new wave among a beleaguered minority of students (and a very small handful of DJs on the student-run radio station WBSU), Brockport was simply not a hip place. The predominant musical taste of Brockport students was embodied by the Grateful Dead, Southern rock, and similar shit-kickin' and/or stoner stuff. It was either that, or dat ole debbil disco. The campus newspaper The Stylus had dismissed the Sex Pistols' album in a fit of blind, frothing fury: "Simply put, this album sucks." This was not a CBGB's crowd...

"...This was only my third rock concert. I'd seen KISS in 1976, and (yechh!) the Charlie Daniels Band in '77. More importantly, though, I'd seen my first club show and my first punk or new wave or trend du jour show in January, when I witnessed Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes for the first time. I already knew that was a life-changing experience; why not hope for another revelation, with Elvis Costello and the Attractions?

"As we waited outside the ballroom before showtime, Costello rushed sullenly and silently past us, en route to his soundcheck. We heard run-throughs of 'Alison' and '(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes' coming from behind the closed doors of the ballroom. It would be the only time we'd hear either of those songs that night...."

So, a question for the armchair pundits in our audience: This was my only Elvis Costello show; are "Alison" and "Red Shoes" a part of my virtual ticket stub gallery, or not? The well-shod angels in our midst await your decision.

THE BEATLES: Here Comes The Sun [Take 9]

Listen, man: Here in Syracuse, we're still waiting for proof of this elusive "sun" of which you speak. We'll believe it when we see it.

PARTHENON HUXLEY: Beautiful

Another one of the biggest P. Hux fans we know is loyal TIRnRR listener Eleanor Cook. Our Eleanor has guest-programmed a couple of shows for us, and one of those shows included "Beautiful,"  a go'geous tune from Parthenon Huxley's 2013 album Thank You Bethesda. Beautiful. And a beautiful way to conclude our tribute. Godspeed, Parthenon.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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. You can read about our history here.

POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! Hellcat, The Hollies, Holly & the Italians, and Hot Wheels

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 continues my never-ending story of The Everlasting First, recalling my first exposures to a comic book character, two rockin' pop groups, and a popular toy line: Hellcat, the Hollies, Holly and the Italians, and Hot Wheels.

Of the four, the Hollies have had the most enduring impact in my world. The Hollies' song "I Can't Let Go" earns a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1); I haven't shared that chapter on the blog, but I did make a video talking about it (as discussed here and seen here). Very early drafts of GREM! also included a piece about my first Hollies LP, The Very Best Of The Hollies, but that was removed from the book's blueprint quite some time ago.

I still love Holly and the Italians, of course. We just played Holly Beth Vincent's new single "Hey Boy" a couple of weeks back on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. And I also wrote this little bit about her 1982 collaboration with Joey Ramone, covering a Sonny and Cher classic: 

"Starting around 1980 or so, I began telling everyone within earshot that the Ramones should cover the Sonny and Cher staple 'I Got You Babe,' and rope in Blondie babe Debbie Harry to serve as Joey Ramone's duet partner. It seemed a natural prospect to me, especially given that guitarist Johnny Ramone had already played a similar folk-rock riff on the Ramones' cover of the Searchers' 'Needles And Pins.' I was a visionary! Sort of. This 1982 single credited to the one-off Holly & Joey was the closest manifestation of that vision, with Holly Beth Vincent playing the Cher to Joey's Sonny, backed by Holly's own group Holly and the Italians. A friend of mine was amazed and enthused that I'd predicted it as closely as I had, even though it really wasn't all that close at all. When I interviewed Joey for Goldmine in 1994, he told me he really wanted to work with Holly again. When I was briefly in touch with Holly Beth Vincent a few years back, I shared with her what Joey had said, and she immediately broke off all contact with me. Oops? Maybe I'm not quite the visionary I fancied myself to be."

As much as I adored my Hot Wheels cars when I was kid, nowadays I find I don't play with them anywhere near as much as I used to. Pfft. This maturity thing is way overrated. Even in my dotage, though, I would jump at a chance to buy a trade collection of the Hot Wheels comics produced by DC in the late '60s and early '70s. These were solid comics, with some stunning artwork by Alex Toth (and a little by Neal Adams), and they would be well worth preserving.

It would be beyond the scope of this blog to reproduce those Hot Wheels comics here, but I did include representative pages from all six issues in my 100-Page FAKES! blog series, which imagined a bunch of 1970s DC Comics 100-Page Super Spectaculars that never were. The Hot Wheels material was spread out to appear in my 100-Page FAKES! editions of Detective Comics # 449, Detective Comics # 451, Adventure Comics # 444, Detective Comics # 452, Adventure Comics # 445, Detective Comics # 453, Adventure Comics # 446, Detective Comics # 454, Adventure Comics # 447, Detective Comics # 455, and Detective Comics # 456. This places the heroes of Hot Wheels alongside Batman, Aquaman, and other DC characters. Rightly so!

Finally, I don't really have anything at all to say about Hellcat, but I'll repeat that I liked her as written by Steve Englehart in The Avengers. Nonetheless, Hellcat, the Hollies, Holly and the Italians, and Hot Wheels are all on equal footing in The Everlasting First. Those introductions serve 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