IMAGE GALLERY: Single-artist compilation LPs I acquired when I was a college student (1977-1980)

During a recent morning commute, my trusty iPod shuffled to "Good Lovin'" by the Young Rascals, which is always a welcome choice. As the song played, the dash displayed the graphic for the Rascals best-of set Time Peace, and immediately my memory fired up recollections of listening to that album in my college dorm.

Music is a time capsule. The same can be said of LP cover artwork. I'm not a vinyl guy. I rarely, rarely listen to vinyl, and I almost never buy vinyl. But it's for damned sure that CDs and digital downloads can't pack anywhere near the visual punch of a 12" cover graphic.

Inspired by this sudden memory of the battered Time Peace album that once served as part of the soundtrack of my intrepid matriculatin', I decided to put together image galleries of some of the LPs I acquired when I was a college student. The date of the album's release is irrelevant. New and used, purchases, gifts, and trade-ins alike, these are albums that entered the CC music library during my undergraduate years, late August 1977 through May of 1980. 

I'm going do a few of these, covering (HAR!!) various-artists sets, soundtracks, live albums, and maybe even, y'know, regular albums I snagged in the same workin'-for-a-BA time frame. I might even look at some other time frames, too. But with the Rascals getting us started, we kick things off with a gallery of LP covers from single-artist compilations that entered my collection in between the end of summer vacation '77 and the start of ADULT LIFE...?! in mid '80.

A picture's worth a thousand words. So let's allow those pictures to do the talking. And we'll start the conversation with an album that wasn't technically mine because it belonged to my girlfriend. We're married now, so--close enough! Girl, you really got me goin'.

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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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

POP-A-LOOZA: LP Cover Cavalcade # 2

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 in my series of annotated record album galleries, LP Cover Cavalcade # 2.

With this post, Pop-A-Looza has now shared all of my LP Cover Cavalcades and Comic Book Cover Cavalcades to date: LP Cover Cavalcade # 1 and Comic Book Cover Cavalcade # 1. Two weeks ago, I posted a complete collection of links to all editions those series' predecessor, Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade. There's still one more separate Cavalcade that will probably appear at Pop-A-Looza in the near future. Clearly, it's time for me to make more.

So. Next up will be either a Comic Book Cover Cavalcade devoted to DC Comics' 1970s dollar tabloids or the first edition of CD Cover Cavalcade. I'll commence writing the former once I get over the crushing disappointment of discovering that I got rid off all of my Famous 1st Edition tabloids somewhere along the way; WHAT WAS I THINKING...?! Oh, the humanity...! The latter will be an annotated gallery of the cover graphics from five CDs for which I wrote the liner notes.

I'm happy to say that I've written liners to more than just five CDs, as well as liners for one vinyl-only release. I think this set o' links offers portals to (nearly) my entire liner-writin' resumé:

1.4.5.: 3 Chords & A Cloud Of Dust

THE FINKERS: Whole Lotta Fun

THE FLASHCUBES: Bright Lights

THE FLASHCUBES: A Cellarful Of Boys

JACK "PENETRATOR" LIPTON: Bad Boy

THE PENETRATORS: Live At Kenny's 1980

SCREEN TEST: Inspired Humans Making Noise

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Big Stir Singles: The Fourth Wave

VARIOUS ARTISTS: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1

VARIOUS ARTISTS: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2

VARIOUS ARTISTS: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3

VARIOUS ARTISTS: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4

VARIOUS ARTISTS: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 [online supplemental liners]

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For TIRnRR

A modest list to be sure, but I'm proud of it. I also wrote liners for Rhino Records' Poptopia! Power Pop Classics Of The '90s, which isn't linked here because I've never posted those liners on the blog. Guess I oughtta rectify that oversight.

Meanwhile, we have five other albums to talk about, by The Go-Go's, Herman's Hermits, The Kinks, The Rutles, and various Motown Records artists. LP Cover Cavalcade # 2 is 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

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 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: LP Cover Cavalcade # 1

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 annotated collection of five album covers, LP Cover Cavalcade # 1.

LP Cover Cavalcade grew out of my earlier series Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade, which debuted on this blog waaaay back on November 24, 2017. The original idea was to combine my love of rock 'n' roll records with my love of comic books, and present commentary about five LP covers mixed with commentary about five comic book covers. The inaugural edition offered Metal Men, KISS, Daredevil Battles Hitler, The Monkees, Vampirella, Suzi Quatro, Judo Master, The James Montgomery Band, Iron Man And Sub-Mariner, and Blondie. 

I thought these were pretty cool, but the series had two inherent problems. The biggest problem was something my wife Brenda pointed out: some music fans don't want to read blogs about comics, and some comics fans don't wanna hear about rock 'n' roll. Oof. The other problem? It took longer to write a blog piece spotlighting ten items than it would take to write about just five items. Limited time to work. Daily blog. Buh-bye, Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade. 

(And then, of course, I committed to doing the weekly 10 Songs feature. Oy. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Little Richard, and Li'l Archie. Or something.)

I accomplished nine editions of Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade, plus two special editions, before splitting the concept into separate series. Following the above-cited super-duper collectors' item first edition cited above, these were the remaining hybrid Cavalcades:

 

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 2, with The Beatles, Funnyman, Chuck Berry, World's Finest Comics, Lesley Gore, Marvel Feature starring the Astonishing Ant-Man, The Flamin' Groovies, The Marvel Family, The Beau Brummels, and The Phantom.

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 3, with The Avengers, The Rolling Stones, Mighty Comics starring The Shield, The Black Hood, and The Web (and--swoon!--Pow Girl), Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Spectre, Rick James, Blue Beetle, The Runaways, The Scorpion, and Elvis Presley.

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 4, a Christmas edition, with Phil Spector's Christmas Album, Walt Disney's Christmas Parade, Now That's What I Call Music--The Christmas Album, Dennis The Menace, A Very Special Christmas, Batman, The Beatles' Christmas Album, Giant Superhero Holiday Grab Bag, The Best Of Cool Yule, and Christmas With The Super-Heroes.

 

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 5, with The Flintstones At The New York World's Fair, The 5th Dimension, Famous First Edition starring the original Captain Marvel, Fanny, Fantastic Four, Fleetwood Mac, The Fightin' 5, The Five Americans, The Fox And The Crow starring Stanley and his Monster, and The Four Tops.

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 6, with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Vampirella, Badfinger, The Green Hornet, Bebe Buell, Jonny Quest, ABBA, Showcase starring Dolphin, Cherry Vanilla, and Dr. Strange.

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 7, with The Archies meeting The Monkees, The Ramones, Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, The Everly Brothers, Wonder Woman, Diana Ross & the Supremes Join The Temptations, Strange Tales starring The Human Torch and The Thing (almost) meeting The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, The Partridge Family, and Bobby Vee Meets The Crickets.

 

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 8, with The Kinks, Batman, The Who, Marvel Tales, Little Richard, Marvel Super-Heroes, The Motown Story, Superman, 25 # 1 Hits From 25 Years, and The Great Comic Book Heroes.

 

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade # 9, with The Animals, Shazam!, The Everly Brothers, The Avengers, Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart, The Green Hornet, The Tremblers, Charlton Bullseye, The Beau Brummels, and Secret Origins.

Comics And LP Cover Cavalcade Supplement # 1: Paperbacks And Rock Mags, with Batman Vs. Three Villains Of Doom, CREEM Presents The Monkees, Paingod And Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison, Bucketfull Of Groovies, The Pigman, Rock Scene, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Punk, The Phantom in The Veiled Lady, and Hot Wacks Quarterly.

Comics And LP Covers Cavalcade Supplement # 2: Superpulp Paperbacks And Rock 'n' Roll 45s, with The Green Hornet in The Infernal Light, Stiv Bators, The Avengers Battle The Earth-Wrecker, Suzi Quatro, Batman Vs. The Fearsome Foursome, The Knack, Weird Heroes, Public Image Ltd., Armageddon 2419 A. D., and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Now, the concepts live on, each in its own compact domain: LP Cover Cavalcade, Comic Book Cover Cavalcade, and Paperback Cover Cavalcade, with maybe a few other categories to form in the near future. And LP Cover Cavalcade # 1 is 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 165 essays about 165 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).

LP Cover Cavalcade # 2

THE GO-GO'S: Beauty And The Beat



The Go-Go's do not get anywhere near the level of respect they deserve. A self-contained rockin' pop combo that wrote nearly all of their own material, The Go-Go's scored hits in the early '80s, and released three fantastic albums before splintering in the acrimony that claims many a great group. They've reunited a few times since then for concerts and additional fine recordings. They should have been a shoo-in for induction into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame years ago. They have never even been nominated.

Their debut album Beauty And The Beat was my favorite new album in 1981. Nearly four decades later, I remain as fond of it now as I was then. It is very nearly a perfect album, with the cold-sounding, dispassionate new wave number "Automatic" the only track I don't like. The rest? "How Much More," "Lust To Love," "Skidmarks On My Heart," "This Town," "Fading Fast," "You Can't Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep)," "Can't Stop The World," and "Tonight" are all engaging as hell. The first single "Our Lips Are Sealed" was one of the two best things on the radio in '81; the other best thing on the radio that year was also by The Go-Go's, also from Beauty And The Beat, and it was their signature tune "We Got The Beat," a magnificent single that earns its own entry in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Gotta respect The Go-Go's.

HERMAN'S HERMITS: Hold On!



Although I did indeed see Herman's Hermits in their 1966 movie Hold On! when it was still in theaters, let's forget about that. And believe me, it's an easy movie to forget. Instead, let's move ahead by a decade and change, to when I was an 18-year-old college freshman in 1978. That's when I scored a truly beat-up copy of the Hold On! soundtrack LP, a record that was a lot more interesting than the cinematic trifle that spawned it.

One may be tempted to likewise dismiss the album as a trifle, but it was at least an interesting trifle; I loved some of it, and I wasn't much put off by the rest. If I could take or leave (mostly leave) "The George And Dragon," "Leaning On A Lamp Post," and Shelley Fabares' "Make Me Happy" (which skipped on my copy anyway), I had more enthusiasm for "Hold On!," "Wild Love," "All The Things I Do For You Baby," and "Gotta Get Away." My biggest go-to tracks on Hold On! were "Got A Feeling," "Where Were You When I Need You" (which I heard and loved here before discovering that it had later been a hit for The Grass Roots), and "A Must To Avoid." "A Must To Avoid" quickly became my favorite Herman's Hermits (at least until I heard "No Milk Today"). My local heroes The Flashcubes used to cover "A Must To Avoid" in their live sets, and that was okay by me.

The sharp-eyed among you will notice some scribbling near the photos on my LP cover. The Herman-less Hermits played a bar called The Gin Mill in Liverpool, NY that very same summer of '78, and you're damned right I was there. The Hermits put on a swell show, after which I solicited autographs from bassist Karl Green, guitarist Derek Leckenby, and drummer Barry Whitwam, plus guitarist Frank Renshaw, who had replaced Keith Hopwood in Hermitdom. I saw original Herman's Hermits lead singer Peter Noone on several subsequent occasions, including one show with his fab early '80s new wave group The Tremblers, but have never had an opportunity to get him to add his signature alongside those of his erstwhile co-workers.

THE KINKS: The Great Lost Kinks Album



About a year before The Who's vault-raidin' 1974 compilation Odds And Sods, The Kinks' by-then-former American label Reprise issued The Great Lost Kinks Album, a collection of 1966-1970 recordings that The Kinks would have preferred to leave as lost. Gentlemen, start your lawyers! 

I associate this album with The Vinyl Jungle, a small and short-lived record shop in my college town of Brockport in the fall of '77. I remember seeing the album for sale at The Vinyl Jungle, but I passed on it and instead bought a Kinks compilation called The Pye History Of British Pop Music. I didn't get my copy of The Great Lost Kinks Album until many years later, when I was considering (and finally deciding against) writing a book about the 500 definitive albums of the '70s. This LP wouldn't have been among the records discussed in That Great Lost Carl Book, but I scooped it up at the same time I was grabbing cheap-cheap-cheap vinyl by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foghat, ZZ Top, et al. for research. Far out, dude. The Great Lost Kinks Album was of much more interest to me anyway, and I especially fell for "This Man He Weeps Tonight." All of its once-rare tracks are now readily available, the lawyers all paid and satisfied.

THE RUTLES: The Rutles



My introduction to the fictional Prefab Four The Rutles came when Eric Idle of Monty Python's Flying Circus hosted Saturday Night Live (then still called NBC's Saturday Night) in October of 1976, when I was a high school senior. Idle played a clip of his faux Beatles mugging through "I Must Be In Love," and I was hooked. When The Rutles' TV special All You Need Is Cash appeared in March of 1978, I was all in. I reveled in the promo clip of "Ouch!" that was shown on Midnight Special the week before All You Need Is Cash, and was one of several floormates crammed into the dorm room across from mine to watch the TV special itself when it aired.

Alas, I was the only one among my group who dug it.

Undeterred, I bought the 45 of "I Must Be In Love"/"Doubleback Alley," and gratefully accepted a gift of the companion album The Rutles, brought home from England by my sister Denise. Number one, number one...!

VARIOUS ARTISTS: The Motown Sound Vol. 6



My very first Motown record? Could be, though my lovely wife Brenda thinks this was her LP rather than mine. If only we'd kept better track of stuff prior to the matrimonial merging of our collections. Either way, I do remember that we picked it up on a visit to the weekly flea market at Syracuse's Regional Market, probably in 1979. It would have been around the same time (if not the same weekend) that Brenda snagged her flea-market copy of The Kinks' Greatest Hits!, and/or when I got my 35-cent copy of The Who's Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy. We were frugal shoppers. In spite of many, many cullings of the collection over the years, all three of these LPs still remain in our vinyl library.

And it certainly could have been either one of us who grabbed this Motown sampler. Brenda had grown up listening to soul and R & B on the radio, and this would have been a natural thing to add to her personal stash. I was just beginning to appreciate how great all that stuff was, and would have been drawn to my favorite Supremes song "Stop! In The Name Of Love," my favorite Four Tops song "It's The Same Old Song," and my favorite Stevie Wonder song "Uptight (Everything's Alright)," and probably to The Miracles' "Going To A Go Go." The rest would have been a history lesson waiting to happen. So: Brenda's record? My record? 

C'mon.

Our record now.




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).