POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! Klaatu, the Knack, and the Knickerbockers

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 an Everlasting First! Quick Take recalling my introductions to Klaatu, the Knack, and the Knickerbockers.

I haven't written much about Klaatu (other than wishing that a 1999 Klaatu tribute album called Around The Universe In 80 Minutes had instead channeled The Day The Earth Stood Still and chosen the title KLAATU: Borrowed 'n' Nicked, Too). My CD collection includes better'n Klaatu representation, and debut album 3:47 E.S.T. track "California Jam" remains a favorite. I owe myself a deeper dive into my Klaatu library. But I've never had much to say about Klaatu.

I have had a little bit more to say about the Knack. These excerpts from my lengthy history of power pop The Kids Are Alright! sum it up:

"Even all these years after the fact, it’s difficult to articulate exactly what the problem was with the Knack. They really weren’t a bad group; their debut album, 1979’s Get The Knack, was a damn fine record, loaded with damn fine pop tunes like 'Good Girls Don’t,' 'Let Me Out,' 'That’s What The Little Girls Do,' the excellent 'Your Number Or Your Name,' and one much-maligned but still agreeable monster hit single ('M-m-m-m-m-m-m-my Sharona'). Sure, they weren’t the next Beatles, or the next Big Star, but what was so wrong about the Knack?

"The short answer: everything was wrong about the Knack. (Short answers are rude, disrespectful and have terrible personal grooming habits.) The long answer is a bit more complicated.

"The Knack’s own swift, gargantuan success was a large part of the problem many people had with the group. Much of this was due to simple jealousy. The Knack became so big so fast--a mere six months passed from the band’s formation to its signing with Capitol--that many were understandably chagrined by the group’s apparent paucity of dues-paying. Add in the general consensus that there were many acts more deserving of the kind of success the Knack enjoyed, and you’ve got fertile breeding ground for a backlash.

"The Knack’s Doug Feiger has claimed many times that if the Knack hadn’t hit big, if Get The Knack had only sold as many units as, say, Radio City, the Knack today would be revered as a visionary cult act. And there is probably some truth in Feiger’s claim...."

I like Klaatu. I really like the Knack. But although the Knickerbockers were a one-hit wonder with the fabulous "Lies," and in spite of the fact that I own more Klaatu tracks and more Knack tracks than I own Knickerbockers tracks, the Knickerbockers actually have a greater presence on my iPod than Klaatu and the Knack combined. "Lies" merits its own chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). When that chapter was reprised at Pop-A-Looza, the Knickerbockers' own Beau Charles wrote:

"Thank you Carl for an insightful view of our best effort 'Lies!' My brother [John Charles] and I have always been amazed by that performance by our band! BTW, a day or two before we recorded it our producer Jerry Fuller told me to get 'Lies' together for the session and make it about two and a half minutes! Our earlier demo was about half that! John and I worked on it and his bass part and I added the guitar break. Viola, 2:40! We showed [fellow Knickerbockers Jimmy Walker and Buddy Randell] the changes the next day in the studio and we did it! I love everything about it! The energy, the ad libs, the sound, and the love we had for playing rock 'n' roll! I think your analysis is spot on! Thank you!!!"

Thank YOU, Beau! Can't tell you how much it means to hear something like that from one of the architects of one of my all-time favorite tracks.

And let's add this one more thing I wrote separately about the fabulous Knickerbockers:

"...The Knickerbockers were one-hit wonders; they are remembered only for that one big record 'Lies,' if they are remembered at all. They deserve better. Both 'Lies' and a much lesser-known Knickerbockers track called 'They Ran For Their Lives' have permanent berths on the list of my all-time favorite songs, and I wish more folks knew additional Knickerbockers gems like 'One Track Mind,' 'My Feet Are Off The Ground,' 'I Must Be Doing Something Right,' 'Just One Girl,' 'High On Love," "Rumors, Gossip, Words Untrue," "I Can Do It Better," "She Said Goodbye," "Can't You See I'm Trying,' 'Please Don't Fight It,' 'Give A Little Bit,' and...well, that's a lot more great stuff than you'd expect from a one-hit wonder.

"I once had an editor (not at Goldmine!) who had inserted a reference to the Knickerbockers into a piece I'd written, and he was going over it with me to be sure I had no objection to the addition. He was a knowledgeable guy, and I had no issue with the (relevant) tangent he'd added to my piece. But giddy pop music wasn't his specialty. He had referred to the Knickerbockers as a California group; I wanted to correct that, as I knew they were from New Jersey. Are you sure?, the editor asked. I thought they were from California. I said that yeah, I was certain, but that I'd double-check the info in my Knickerbockers boxed set. He was flabbergasted. They have a BOXED SET...?!

"Yeah, they do. More than one, in fact. One-hit wonder? True, I guess. Only a one-hit wonder? No. Lies, man. Lies."

It's time to listen to some Knickerbockers, and maybe some Klaatu and Knack while I'm at it. My introductions to all three of these rockin' pop combos provide 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

10 SONGS: 7/23/2020

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous 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 # 1034.

THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Yesterday's Hero



We want the Rollers! We want the Rollers!

Released late in 1976, The Bay City Rollers' single of "Yesterday's Hero" did not match the American chart success of "Saturday Night," "Money Honey," "Rock And Roll Love Letter," or "I Only Want To Be With You," missing the Top 40 and peaking at a mere # 54 in Billboard. Nonetheless, I'd rate "Yesterday's Hero" with "Rock And Roll Love Letter" and an LP track called "Wouldn't You Like It" as the best of The Bay City Rollers, vibrant proof that the Tartan-clad poster boys were capable of transcending their teenybop image and delivering genuine, exciting power pop. 

In '76 and early '77, I wasn't aware of the phrase "power pop," which had been coined by The Who's Pete Townshend in the '60s but was not yet a part of the everyday rock 'n' roll lexicon. I heard "Yesterday's Hero" on WOLF-AM in Syracuse, and I loved it. I was in a transitional period, just starting to transfer my allegiance from AM Top 40 to the wider rock 'n' roll vistas of album-rock WOUR-FM. I didn't know that George Vanda and Harry Young, the authors of "Yesterday's Hero," had been members of 1960s Australian pop gods The Easybeats, nor that they had written The Easybeats' signature hit "Friday On My Mind." In fact, I didn't know The Easybeats or "Friday On My Mind" at all; that knowledge would come later. I just knew there was a song on the radio that deserved to be on the radio, but that it disappeared from radio almost immediately. 

I was a senior in high school. Boys weren't supposed to like The Bay City Rollers, and I don't think that girls my age were much interested in the Rollers by that point; although the group would bounce back with two big hits in '77 ("You Made Me Believe In Magic" and "The Way I Feel Tonight"), they were themselves about to become yesterday's heroes.





We don't wanna be yesterday's hero.

Not me. Not yet. As I turned 17 in January of '77, I was already tired of people trying to tell me what I could or couldn't, should or shouldn't. Piss off. Whether it was superhero comics or oldies records, The Monkees or The Marx Brothers, Marilyn Chambers or Suzi Quatro, if I was into something, the matter wasn't up for debate. Dig what you dig. AM and FM influences would merge and converge. Catchy singles. Deeper cuts. Varying styles. Folk. Prog. Bubblegum. Metal. Soul. Punk. 

And power pop. We don't wanna be yesterday's hero. Haven't I seen your face before? We want the airwaves. We want the Rollers. When we walk down the street, tomorrow's gonna take yesterday along for the ride. 

It had better. If it knows what's good for it.

HEINZ: Just Like Eddie



There are so many ways we can discover favorite songs. Radio airplay, recommendations from friends, write-ups in the music press, effective use in other media, and random independent study have accounted for many, many additions to my personal catalog o' hits over the decades. I discovered Heinz's 1963 British hit "Just Like Eddie" via throwaway jokes in the liner notes to an otherwise-unrelated album.



The album was History Of British Rock, a 2-LP set issued by Sire Records. It came out in 1974, but I didn't get it until 1977; I had received its sequel as a gift the preceding Christmas. The record includes so much great stuff from The Kinks, Small Faces, Dave Clark Five, Cliff Richard, Dusty Springfield, Hollies, and more, but Heinz is not represented, nor is his former group The Tornados. But the liner notes--printed on the individual LP sleeves and meant to recapture the giddy thrill of the U.K. pop press in the swingin' '60s--included a "Blind Date" session with Screaming Lord Sutch, wherein he didn't want to hear any of the platters presented to him; he was only interested in "Just Like Eddie" by Heinz.



It was all nonsense, presumably crafted by Bomp! magazine's visionary pundit Greg Shaw, but it was well-played nonsense. I'd never heard of Screaming Lord Sutch. I'd never heard of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. I'd certainly never heard of Heinz, and it would be years (maybe decades) before I would actually hear "Just Like Eddie" and its endearing tribute to the late Eddie Cochran. But I heard it eventually, and I've loved it ever since. For me, that story started here.

JUSTINE AND THE UNCLEAN: Can't Pretend I Don't Know



The stories of music discoveries (old and new) continue on and on, for as long as we have ears and for as long as we draw breath. A year ago, I wasn't at all aware of Justine and the Unclean, a scrappy Boston combo fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Justine Covault. The group's recent single "Vengeance" is currently on a collision course with TIRnRR's year-end countdown of our most-played tracks in 2020--seriously, at this point, it would take an act of Congress to keep "Vengeance" out of the countdown--so it seems a good time to get to know the Unclean history. We'll start with this ace number from their 2017 debut album Get Unclean. 

THE NERVES: Walking Out On Love



For purposes of continuity, we credit TIRnRR airplay of the incredible power pop classic "Walking Out On Love" to The Nerves, even though the track wasn't actually recorded by The Nerves. The Nerves probably played the song live, but it wasn't committed to posterity until after The Nerves broke up. "Walking Out On Love" was recorded as a demo in 1979 by The Breakways, which included 2/3 of The Nerves (Paul Collins and Peter Case); The Breakaways were themselves short-lived, so the track was credited to Paul Collins solo when it was released on a 1979 Bomp! Records anthology called Waves Vol. 1. Collins subsequently re-recorded the song for the debut album of his next band The Beat (later called Paul Collins' Beat and variations thereof). Reissues of the original demo have been credited to The Breakaways, and it's included on The Nerves' anthology One Way Ticket.

My eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is dedicated to the belief that an infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. "Walking Out On Love" qualifies, and here's a snippet from that song's chapter in my book:

The value of hindsight allows us to think of the 1970s rockin' pop trio The Nerves as a power pop supergroup before the fact. Nerves guitarist Jack Lee ultimately had the greatest commercial success, albeit as a songwriter rather than as a performer. Lee's songs were covered by Blondie ("Will Anything Happen?"), Paul Young ("Come Back And Stay"), Suzi Quatro ("You Are My Lover"), and The Rubber City Rebels (the flat-out amazing "Paper Dolls"). "Hanging On The Telephone" was far and away Lee's biggest success, recorded by The Nerves for their eponymous 1976 EP, and an international hit for Blondie in 1978.

For all that, it was really the other two guys in The Nerves--bassist Peter Case and drummer Paul Collins--who've loomed the largest in power pop's janglebuzz history...

..."Walking Out On Love" is roughly a minute and a half of pure, concentrated pop-punk punch, a sure-footed confection that could not exist in a world that didn't include The Ramones, but equally beholden to the British Invasion and everything that was ever great on AM Top 40 in the '60s. It is fleeting, ephemeral evidence of pop immortality, an incongruous dash of both the disposable and the permanent....

POP CO-OP: No Man's Land



We owe Pop Co-Op a beer. Well, technically, we owe them four beers, since they're, y'know, a quartet, and we probably also owe a nice glass of Chardonnay to their tech guru Laura Tinnel, and a beverage of choice to Futureman Records CEO Keith Klingensmith. Why? Because part of the reason that This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is still on the air every Sunday night during this quarantine scene is because we needed to do something to hype the April 1st (of course!) release of Pop Co-Op's newest album Factory Settings.

We were already in shutdown by then, unable to go to the studio, and we had already skipped one week's show, with no projected date of return. So Laura and the lads set up a Zoom chat to stream live in our usual time slot on Sunday, March 29th. Dana and I talked with Steve, Joel, Bruce, and Stacy (plus Keith!), played a number of Pop Co-Op tracks new and less-new, and had a righteous good time.

The Factory Settings event, combined with the home-recording example set by our pal Rich Firestone and his fabulous weekly SPARK! show Radio Deer Camp, made us determined to figure out a way to get TIRnRR back on the air. We were back the very next Sunday, recording from home, still sequestered but there, virtually if not physically. I guess we would have gotten around to that anyway, as it became clear that the building that houses our studio wouldn't be reopening any time soon. But it was Pop Co-Op, Laura, and Rich who spurred us into action. Thanks, lads and lass. The next round's on us.

THE REZILLOS: Top Of The Pops



I have two principle contemporary memories of the wonderful British punk-pop group The Rezillos. One is seeing their only studio album, 1978's Can't Stand The Rezillos, for sale at a very cool record store in Joplin, Missouri over Christmas break '78-'79. I didn't have anywhere near enough money to buy even a fraction of the enticing items on display there--I think I settled on the rather prosaic purchase of The Rolling Stones' "Shattered" single, maybe/possibly/not-necessarily accompanied by Plastic Bertrand's 45 of "Ca Plane Pour Moi." I passed on picking up Can't Stand The Rezillos, and I also passed on something called Shake Some Action by The Flamin' Groovies. I would regret that latter decision almost immediately.

My other overriding late '70s memory of The Rezillos was the capsule review of Can't Stand The Rezillos that appeared in The Syracuse New Times. The review was written by the New Times' "punk rock expert" Sniffy LePage. Sniffy was born Sniffington Arnaldo LePage IV, which was odd, because his dad's name was Reggie LePage, his grandaddy was Reggie LePage Junior, and his great grandfather was Paige "Beige" LePage, and none of 'em looked anything at all ike Bettie Page.



So, I dunno, maybe it was a pseudonym. 

But ol' Sniff gave Can't Stand The Rezillos a dismissive one-star--ONE STAR?!--review, while lavishing praise upon noted thrashers Sniff 'n' the Tears. This prompted me to question Monsieur or Madame LePage's credentials as a punk rock expert, and I set things right when I did my own SNT rave review of the album's 1993 CD reissue. I referenced the Sniffter's previous review in my own review, and concluded by saying, "One freakin' star? Oh, Sniffy...!"

For all that, I didn't ever get around to hearing The Rezillos until the early '80s, when I snagged a copy of Can't Stand The Rezillos out of the used bin at a Buffalo record store. "My Baby Does Good Sculptures" and a cover of the DC5's "Glad All Over" were my faves at the time, but "Top Of The Pops" really is the group's enduring classic. Spin-off group The Revillos also did some nice work; I'm particularly fond of a B-side called "Mind Bending Cutie Doll," which I bought well before getting Can't Stand The Rezillos. And it's worthy of some 10 Songs symmetry to note that Revillos 45's A-side was "She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man," a song originally recorded by noted Heinz fan Screaming Lord Sutch. Pay attention, Sniffy.



THE RUBINOOS: Nowheresville



This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has given Dana and I such tremendous opportunities to connect with artists we've admired for years and years. Some of them have even allowed us to use their work on our This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums, and those CDs have been graced by contributions from The Cowsills, The Smithereens, John Wicks of The Records, The Spongetones, The Catholic Girls, Blotto, Paul Collins, former members of The Pandoras, and more. 



Getting The Rubinoos for 2017's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 was a kick. Besides The Cowsills, The Rubinoos is the TIRnRR compilation album act I've enjoyed for the longest period of time. As part of the AM/FM synergy noted in our Bay City Rollers section above, I heard The Rubinoos' cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' "I Think We're Alone Now" and their album track "Wouldn't It Be Nice" on the radio in '77, and their eponymous debut LP quickly became one of my favorites. Years later, I would attempt to sum that up:

The music we listen to as teens can resonate throughout our lives, etched in memory alongside every eternal snub and accolade. In 1977, I was a seventeen-year-old senior at a high school in Syracuse's northern suburbs. I liked oldies better than most then-current music--The Beatles, The Monkees, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, and my recent discovery, The Kinks--but I was also looking for new. I liked KISS. I liked "Cherry Baby" by Starz, and "Isn't It Time" by The Babys, "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas, Boston's debut LP, Sweet's Desolation Boulevard, and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. Spurred by intriguing things I read in Phonograph Record Magazine, I would become a fan of The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and Blondie before the end of the year, as this high school senior transformed into college freshman. But before The Ramones, or the Pistols, or my nascent hormonal devotion to Blondie's Debbie Harry, one group stood as the great teen hope. That group was The Rubinoos.

The Rubinoos were young, not much older than I was. They were on the radio, with a hit cover of Tommy James & the Shondells' "I Think We're Alone Now," and (on freer-form WOUR-FM) with a delectable album track called "Wouldn't It Be Nice." They were on TV, lip-syncing "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Rock And Roll Is Dead" on American Bandstand. They were revered in the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine, and they were one of the subjects of My First Rock Journalism. Their eponymous debut album was an absolutely essential purchase for me. God, I loved this band. That has never changed over the ensuing crashing and passing of four freakin' decades. I love The Rubinoos. I will always love The Rubinoos.

Rubes guitarist Tommy Dunbar contacted TIRnRR on an unrelated matter in, I think, 2015 or 2016, and the conversation later led to The Rubinoos agreeing to appear on one of our CDs. We were given our choice of a number of options, initially picking an uptempo number called "This Is Pop" before claiming the slower, luxurious pop noir groove of "Nowheresville." We retain our characteristic giddiness with the result.

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Dance To The Music



A direct and uncluttered command to action. I confess that, for years, I misheard Cynthia and Jerry's message they're sayin' All the squares go home! as All is well, somethin'-somethin'. I blame KISS for any and all hearing issues I may or may not have. All is well. 

THE SUPREMES: You Keep Me Hangin' On



The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" earns a chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), though it's a chapter I haven't quite managed to process in the ol' writin' noggin so far. Here are the first two paragraphs from that entry:

The Supremes are among the most popular recording acts of all time. They were certainly among the biggest of the '60s, and possibly the biggest on Motown at the time, which was a pretty big deal itself. The Supremes were stars.

But, in fact, only one of the three members of The Supremes was really considered a superstar. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Diana Ross. Oh, and the others. Mary Wilson. Florence Ballard. They started out billed as equals. Before long, it was Diana Ross and the Supremes. Before long, it was just Diana Ross, her former co-stars left behind as the spotlight followed her and faded away for The Supremes....

I have a little bit more written past that, but the whole isn't mapped in my head yet. I'll get there. Keep hangin' on.

THE KNICKERBOCKERS: Lies



We had already recorded this week's show before learning that Jimmy Walker of The Knickerbockers had passed. We still had time to attach the group's incredible hit "Lies" to the beginning of the show prior to airtime, and we'll play a couple of The Knickerbockers' lesser-known tracks on next week's show. See yesterday's post for more about The Knickerbockers.

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).

POP-A-LOOZA: THE KNICKERBOCKERS

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 chapter from my eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), celebrating "Lies" by The Knickerbockers.

Knickerbockers drummer Jimmy Walker passed away last week. We were friends on Facebook, and he expressed his appreciation of this piece and my plan to include it in my book. As I offer my sympathy to his friends and family, my mind goes back to the body of work he created with his fellow Knickerbockers.

The Knickerbockers were one-hit wonders; they are remembered only for that one big record "Lies," if they are remembered at all. They deserve better. Both "Lies" and a much lesser-known Knickerbockers track called "They Ran For Their Lives" have permanent berths on the list of my all-time favorite songs, and I wish more folks knew additional Knickerbockers gems like "One Track Mind," "My Feet Are Off The Ground," "I Must Be Doing Something Right," "Just One Girl," "High On Love," "Rumors, Gossip, Words Untrue," "I Can Do It Better," "She Said Goodbye," "Can't You See I'm Trying," "Please Don't Fight It," "Give A Little Bit," and...well, that's a lot more great stuff than you'd expect from a one-hit wonder.

I once had an editor (not at Goldmine!) who had inserted a reference to The Knickerbockers into a piece I'd written, and he was going over it with me to be sure I had no objection to the addition. He was a knowledgeable guy, and I had no issue with the (relevant) tangent he'd added to my piece. But giddy pop music wasn't his specialty. He had referred to The Knickerbockers as a California group; I wanted to correct that, as I knew they were from New Jersey. Are you sure?, the editor asked. I thought they were from California. I said that yeah, I was certain, but that I'd double-check the info in my Knickerbockers boxed set. He was flabbergasted. They have a BOXED SET...?!

Yeah, they do. More than one, in fact. One-hit wonder? True, I guess. Only a one-hit wonder? No. Lies, man. Lies.

But it's the truth that an infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. It's also true that today, "Lies" is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Read all about it in 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! 

Hey! If you buy from Amazon, consider making your purchases through links at Pop-A-Looza. A portion of your purchase there will go to support Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). Thinking Amazon? Think Pop-A-Looza.

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).

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: "Lies"

An infinite number of rockin' pop records can be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!




THE KNICKERBOCKERS: "Lies"

Imitation and inspiration are two very different things. We generally have less regard for the former, but recognize that nothing worthwhile can be sparked without the latter. And some imitations are inspired. Many Beatles fans adore The Rutles, and also Utopia's Deface The Music, both of which are able and engaging tributes, copying familiar Beatles songs, rewriting them, and reframing them as something almost new. The result is sincere flattery, but compelling and interesting sincere flattery. 

The Beatles inspired more than just imitation, though. The Beatles certainly drew from their own gumbo of influences--Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, The Everly Brothers, The Shirelles, Arthur Alexander--and evolved from imitation to divine inspiration. Some acts set out to imitate The Beatles in some way and became inspired to be more than imitation: to become The Byrds, to craft the sublime majesty of Pet Sounds, to invent '70s punk rock as simply as a rapid-fire count-off of 1-2-3-4!  Let's be The Beatles, lads. And then let's be something we can call our own.

Most would think of "Lies" by The Knickerbockers as imitation, a greed-driven attempt to recreate the sound of The Beatles, maybe even to fool the gullible into thinking it is The Beatles. When I first heard it, my immediate reaction was that it sounded more like The Beatles than The Beatles did. So yeah (yeah yeah), I guess it is imitation. But it's imitation with a vision, and it is still so much more than just that.



At first glance, The Knickerbockers would seem an unlikely source for rockin' pop transcendence. I don't mean to be disrespectful when I say that The Knickerbockers never looked cool, because--let's face it!--I've never looked cool either. The group started out in Bergenfield, New Jersey in 1962, and they were not in any way ahead of their time. They were a cover band. They imitated. They got people to dance, which is good, but they could make no claim to greatness. 

Until, suddenly, they could make that claim.



Founding members Beau Charles and John Charles--brothers, on guitar and bass respectively--were joined by newer Knicks Buddy Randell (sax) and Jimmy Walker (drums) in 1964. They were still primarily a covers act. Their first two albums, Lloyd Thaxton Presents The Knickerbockers and Jerk And Twine Time (both from '64), were without distinction. Either or both could be erased from history without affecting the time-space continuum in the slightest.

Given that: where the hell did "Lies" come from...?!



The Beatles were pop music in '64 and '65. There were lots and lots of other great stuff happening, from James Brown to Paul Revere & the Raiders, Motown to girl groups, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass to Wilson Pickett, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Stax, and Louis Armstrong, even. But The Beatles ruled, by perception and acclaim, their fab reign and domain reflected in influence, imitation, and inspiration. Beatlemania inspired The Knickerbockers.

"Lies" was written by Buddy Randell and Beau Charles. The Knickerbockers' previous records had been competent and bland, bordering on the anonymous. Coming after those forgettable works, "Lies" seemed to scream with moptopped frenzy, Let's be The Beatles! Was it a conscious ambition? Man, it must have been.  What working rock or pop performer in 1965 didn't want to be The Beatles? Maybe Quincy Jones didn't want to be The Beatles. Everyone else did.

It's one thing to want; it's quite another to achieve. "Lies" magically distills everything--everything--great about Beatles '65 into one single 45 side. Originally, it was the wrong 45 side; Challenge Records, The Knickerbockers' demonstrably clueless label, stupidly relegated "Lies" to the B-side of "The Coming Generation," an earnest and boring track not destined to ever trouble the Top 40. Clearer heads prevailed when DJs turned the record over. "Lies" was a hit. And you know that can't be bad.

The track's obvious debt to The Beatles makes it tempting to dismiss "Lies" as ersatz Merseybeat, a copy and nothing more. Except that it's not a copy, and it is more. "Lies" is not a ripoff of any Beatle record. There are general elements taken from Lennon and McCartney, but really more in terms of a general feel, an accomplished and successful attempt to channel Meet The Beatles and A Hard Day's Night and "Thank You, Girl" without resorting to thievery. It didn't hurt that Beau Charles' lead vocals were so damned convincingly reminiscent of John Lennon. "Lies" doesn't sound like any one Beatles record. It sounds like all of them. Audaciously, triumphantly, a band from Jersey had pulled it off. For one shining moment, The Knickerbockers had effectively become The Beatles.

Released in late '65--pop music's best year ever--"Lies" should have been a # 1 smash. It peaked at # 20 in '66, and it was The Knickerbockers' only big hit. They deserved better. After the dull banality of their earliest records, The Knickerbockers willed themselves into becoming a dynamic beat combo, capable of having a rave-up and having a wild weekend eight days a week, right alongside the best of the British Invasion. In 1966, they released their third and final album Lies (credited to "The Fabulous Knickerbockers"). The album was schizophrenic. Side Two was awash with big balladry, a pseudo Righteous Brothers sequence that squandered the fab rush of "Lies" (and presaged Jimmy Walker's subsequent departure from the Knickerbockers to replace Bill Medley in the actual Righteous Brothers). But Side One? "I Can Do It Better," "Can't You See I'm Trying," "Please Don't Fight It," and especially "Just One Girl" demonstrated that The Knickerbockers should not have been merely one-hit wonders, their lack of follow-up chart success notwithstanding.



In 1994, I picked up a Knickerbockers compilation CD called A Rave Up With The Knickerbockers. I already owned a handful of Knickerbockers discs (including reissues of Lies and Jerk And Twine Time), but this was the first to really demand my attention. A Rave Up With The Knickerbockers eschewed the ballads, ignored the early covers, and concentrated on The Knickerbockers' uptempo gems. Well, fine, it did include "Coming Generation," but that was okay in context. I already knew and adored "Lies," of course, as well as its terrific non-LP follow-up "One Track Mind," a great cut called "She Said Goodbye," and the other tracks from Side One of Lies. Putting all of that (minus the Lies track "Please Don't Fight It") on one disc, combined with unfamiliar treats like "My Feet Are Off The Ground," "Rumors, Gossip, Words Untrue," "High On Love," and the flat-out amazing "They Ran For Their Lives," served to provide a fresh revelation. Knickerbockermania!

"One-hit wonder" is often taken as a pejorative term. I never intend it that way. To me, it refers to a missed opportunity, a chance the public didn't get or never took to hear more from a great act that dazzled the country once, and was probably capable of dazzling yet again. Some one-hit wonders merited much greater notoriety than they received, more praise, more adulation, more airplay, more hits. The Bobby Fuller Four should not have been just a one-hit wonder. The Knickerbockers shouldn't have been that either. Still, even if "Lies" had been the only track The Knickerbockers ever recorded, its transcendent celebration of an American Beatlemania delivered on its own self-assured terms...well, that would be reason enough for idolatry, cause enough to worship the group that created this essential work of wonder. Someday I'm gonna be happy, but I don't know when just now.

Because it's no lie: imitation can lead to inspiration. Inspiration is timeless. And it sounds fabulous.



A tip of the hat to Bruce Gordon, whose own Let's Be The Beatles studies have gone in far greater depth than I could ever manage. 

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now 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.