POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! Teen Titans, The Mighty Thor, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is another exciting edition of The Everlasting First!, looking back at my introductions to Teen Titans, the mighty Thor, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and The Twilight Zone.

No offense to the other irresistible properties listed above, but my reminiscence of discovering the adventures of DC Comics' young superhero group the Teen Titans is clearly the main thing in this piece. As a tangent to that, here's a little something that turned up in one of my weekly 10 Songs columns, revealing how the Titans also served as my peripheral introduction to the rock group the Doors:

"...my introduction to the Doors was no less (potentially) prosaic as my introduction to the Monkees via a weekly TV show: I first recall learning of the Doors in the pages of a superhero comic book.

In 1972, the 38th issue of the DC Comics title Teen Titans opened with a scene of clairvoyant Titan Lilith dancing to the Doors' "When The Music's Over." Since twelve-year-old me already had a little bit of a crush on our Lilith, her recommendation of what rock group I oughtta be listening to could not be taken lightly. The men didn't know. This little boy understood. Sort of.

Lilith's first appearance, Teen Titans # 25, drawn by Nick Cardy

I was old enough that I must have heard the Doors music before that, but it hadn't registered with me. I later discovered that my sister had the Doors' 'Hello, I Love You'/'Love Street' 45, so I did hear the Doors in short order. I hope Lilith will forgive me for never becoming quite the Doors fan she was.

(And later, when I became a fan of the Kinks during my senior year in high school, I realized that 'Hello, I Love You' was very heavily influenced by the Kinks' 'All Day And All Of The Night.' Lilith may have known. I'm sure she understood.)"

As a member of the mighty Avengers, Thor was pretty important to me, too. He's part of my story of buying comic books since 1966, my discovery of Marvel Comics, my history as a fan of the Avengers (and a tangent to my history with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch), my eulogy of Stan Lee, and my 1960s pop culture autobiography Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio. Perhaps my all-time favorite Thor appearance was the sight of him throwing down with Superman in the pages of the epic DC and Marvel collaboration JLA/Avengers.

I like T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and The Twilight Zone, but have never had much to say about either. What I did say about them, along with my fond recollections of the Teen Titans and Thor, serve as the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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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: 11/16/2021

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 # 1103.

THE MONKEES: You Just May Be The One

"You Just May Be The One" is a track from the Monkees' 1967 album Headquarters. It was produced by Chip Douglas (credited under his real name Douglas Farthing Hatlelid) and engineered by Hank Cicalo. Douglas also sang back-up on the track.

You know who else was on that session? The Monkees. And no one else.

The song was written by Michael Nesmith, who sang lead and played electric and acoustic guitars. Peter Tork played bass. Micky Dolenz played drums. Davy Jones played tambourine. Yes, the precise line-up and instrumentation we saw on their TV show. Peter, Micky, and Davy joined de facto deputy Monkee Chip Douglas to sing behind their wool-hatted prime mate Michael. It's the Monkees. For all the ill-informed crap we've heard about the Monkees not playing their own instruments, this is the Monkees. No slight to the amazing Chip Douglas, whose integral contributions made it all happen, but on "You Just May Be The One," it is effectively only the Monkees.

And it's fantastic. It shoulda been a single.

Both Davy and Peter have left us. On Sunday night, as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio blared its mighty sound across the whole friggin' planet, surviving Monkees Mike and Micky took the stage in Los Angeles for the final date of the Monkees' farewell tour. There will still be a few more stand-alone shows--a cruise with the Beach Boys, and isolated make-up dates for previously-scheduled concerts postponed because of...well, you know--but this is the end of the road. 

We were lucky to have them. Thank you, Micky, Davy, Peter, and Michael. 

Oh, and a side note to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: #inductthemonkees

THE GRIP WEEDS: Porpoise Song

The Grip Weeds appreciate the Monkees. Smart folks, those Grip Weeds. And those very same smart folks have a new covers album called DiG, which is available in single-, double-, and triple-disc editions. You know how sometimes less is more? With the Grip Weeds, more is more, and the two- and three-disc versions of DiG include two Monkees covers, of "For Pete's Sake" and the sublime Gerry Goffin-Carole King number "Porpoise Song." The Monkees' "Porpoise Song" merits a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and the Grip Weeds serve the song well. Dig?

SPYGENIUS: Paper Sun Love Is Only Sleeping

Spygenius appreciate the Monkees. And their fab new covers album Spygenius Blow Their Covers also includes two Monkees songs. Both the Grip Weeds and Spygenius cover "For Pete's Sake," and Spygenius deliver their rendition of the Monkees' "Love Is Only Sleeping" as a medley with their take on Traffic's "Paper Sun." This is a brilliant gathering of the tribes, mixing Traffic's classic rock perennial with a Monkees album track. For those of us who remember the condescension some FM radio rock fans used to ooze while smugly disdaining the Monkees, this medley demonstrates the prevailing silliness of that artificial divide, that arbitrary insistence that one thing is hip and one thing is not. In Spygenius' capable hands, the Monkees song is as heavy as the Traffic song, and the Traffic song as pop as the Monkees song. And since Spygenius accomplishes faithful covers of both, that even-handed compasrison applies equally to the originals. I spy genius at work here.

THE DOORS: Hello, I Love You

The Doors appreciated...man, I have no idea whether or not the Doors appreciated the Monkees. But they should have. Let's presume they did.

And my introduction to the Doors was no less (potentially) prosaic as my introduction to the Monkees via a weekly TV show: I first recall learning of the Doors in the pages of a superhero comic book.

In 1972, the 38th issue of the DC Comics title Teen Titans opened with a scene of clairvoyant Titan Lilith dancing to the Doors' "When The Music's Over." Since twelve-year-old me already had a little bit of a crush on our Lilith, her recommendation of what rock group I oughtta be listening to could not be taken lightly. The men didn't know. This little boy understood. Sort of.

Lilith's first appearance, Teen Titans # 25, drawn by Nick Cardy

I was old enough that I must have heard the Doors music before that, but it hadn't registered with me. I later discovered that my sister had the Doors' "Hello, I Love You"/"Love Street" 45, so I did hear the Doors in short order. I hope Lilith will forgive me for never becoming quite the Doors fan she was.

(And later, when I became a fan of the Kinks during my senior year in high school, I realized that "Hello, I Love You" was very heavily influenced by the Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night." Lilith may have known. I'm sure she understood.) 

WENDI DUNLAP: Buildings

Pop music. Gorgeous, inviting pop music. What more do you need? Wendi Dunlap's new album Looking For Buildings offers your opportunity to fall heart-first into a dreamy, luxurious bed of pure radio-ready bliss. Wendi Dunlap has just the building you're looking for.

LITTLE RICHARD: Good Golly Miss Molly

I was born in 1960. Growing up in the '60s and early '70s, most of my introductions to 1950s rock 'n' roll came via proxy, and that proxy was usually your John, your Paul, your George, and your Ringo. I first heard the music of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, and Larry Williams in cover versions by the Beatles on the American hodgepodge LPs Beatles '65 and Beatles VI. That's also how I first heard Little Richard.

For my money, the Beatles improved Berry's "Rock And Roll Music," Holly's "Words Of Love," and Williams' "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Bad Boy," and drew a tie with Perkins on "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby." Even the Beatles couldn't improve on the Georgia Peach. Little Richard's songs were done best by Little Richard. 

(And, ever the adolescent, I'd say Miss Molly sounds like a fun date if she sure likes to ball. No, you grow up.)

For dramatic purposes, the role of Miss Molly will be played by Lilith of the Teen Titans

HAYLEY MARY: Like A Woman Should

Intrepid TIRnRR listener Dave Murray introduced us to Australian singer Hayley Mary with a YouTube video of her 2020 single "Like A Woman Should," with Dave commenting, "I love everything about this song." We agree. Oh man, do we ever agree.

MANDY MOORE: Moonshadow

As I continue my current obsession with the TV series This Is Us, we welcome one of that show's stars, singer and actress Mandy Moore, back to the ol' playlist with a spin of her cover of the Cat Stevens hit "Moonshadow." The original was a big hit during the prolonged heyday of my '70s AM Top 40 thrall, but Moore gives the song a glossy shine that suits it well.

THE QUICK: It Won't Be Long

By the time of my senior year in high school, 1976-77, my radio allegiance had migrated from AM Top 40 to freer-form FM, specifically WOUR-FM, The Rock Of Central New York. OUR played Michael Nesmith, so I exempt the station and its jocks from the charge of anti-Monkees bias I leveled at other, lesser FM outlets a few paragraphs North of here. In that time frame, WOUR also introduced me to Graham Parker, the Rubinoos, Greg Kihn, Nick Lowe, and the Sex Pistols, and the station wasn't afraid to play oldies by the Yardbirds, the Animals, the Rascals, and the Dave Clark Five. 

And WOUR played the Quick. Or at least they played the Quick's cover of the Beatles' beloved Meet The Beatles LP track "It Won't Be Long," from the Quick's 1976 album Mondo Deco. I don't recall having heard anything by Sparks by this point in my time line, so I was oblivious to Sparks' influence on the Quick. And while the Quick's take on "It Won't Be Long" certainly didn't steal any of my affection away from the early Beatles, I did get its quirky pop appeal, then and now.

ANDY WILLIAMS: A Fool Never Learns

Something about following Dana's spin of the Velvet Underground's S & M ode "Venus In Furs" with Andy Williams' jaunty 1964 hit "A Fool Never Learns" was immediately appealing and irresistible. It's all pop music. 

"A Fool Never Learns" was written by Sonny Curtis, whose own rockin' pop c.v. spans working with Buddy Holly before the formation of the Crickets (a group Curtis himself later joined) and writing all-time touchstones "I Fought The Law" and "Love Is All Around," the latter used as the much-loved theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Andy Williams' "A Fool Never Learns" was yet another part of my cherished soundtrack as a kid. I have learned of no reason to forsake that foolish thing. I suspect it's not really foolish at all.

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

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

THE EVERLASTING FIRST: Quick Takes For T [comics edition]

Continuing a look back at my first exposure to a number of rock 'n' roll acts and superheroes (or other denizens of print or periodical publication), some of which were passing fancies, and some of which I went on to kinda like. They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every story still needs to begin with that first kiss.

THE TEEN TITANS

Robin the Boy Wonder! Wonder Girl! Kid Flash! Aqualad! I was six years old in 1966, and I I was certainly a fan of ol' Robin from his heroic appearances on my favorite TV show Batman. The others were unfamiliar to me prior to my introduction to DC Comics' junior superhero group The Teen Titans. I didn't even really know Wonder Woman or The Flash yet, and I first encountered Aquaman around the same time as my first issue of Teen Titans. That would have been Teen Titans # 6, cover-dated November-December 1966.

But I for damned sure knew Robin. Batman and Robin! I think I saw a house ad for Teen Titans # 1 before ever noticing the Titans on the spinner rack. I was absolutely fascinated by DC's house ads during this era, colorful come-ons that teased and enticed with glimpses of everything from Batman and Superman to Starman and Black Canary, Dial H For HERO, The Spectre, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, and Scooter. I don't remember whether or not I ever owned a copy of Teen Titans # 1; I think maybe I did buy it as a back issue in the '70s, but if so, it's long gone now. Either way, though, its cover captivated my young mind, and I wanted it.

In this time frame, my parents frequently allowed me to pluck a comic book of my choice from the rack at Sweetheart Corner, a grocery store in North Syracuse. That's how Teen Titans # 6 came into my possession. Robin was on the cover! Of course. 

And I loved it. This issue guest-starred Beast Boy from The Doom Patrol; my only previous exposure to The Doom Patrol was another irresistible house ad, depicting a team-up of the Doomsters and that Scarlet Speedster, The Flash. My next Teen Titans was # 11 (September-October 1967), which guest-starred The Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy (and opened with a scene revealing the Titans' bulletin board, featuring pinned letters from Earth-One's version of President Lyndon Johnson and that other Fab Four, The Beatles).

Seeing Speedy with the Titans prepared me for the team's TV debut in the fall of '67, as The Teen Titans became one of the rotating guest features on the new Saturday morning cartoon series The Superman-Aquaman Hour Of Adventure. This show aired on CBS, but the Boy Wonder was still contractually obligated to appear with his caped crusadin' mentor over on ABC, thus elevating Speedy to full Titandom, at least on Saturday mornings.

I bought Teen Titans comics when I could. Writer Bob Haney's willful abuse of the English language in pursuit of his outta-touch idea of hip teenspeak can be kinda painful to read now, but I was all in as a young'un. The art by Nick Cardy was terrific, and would become even better as the series continued. Cardy may be my all-time favorite comics artist, and I first encountered his work in Aquaman and Teen Titans. 

(Even beyond his overall skill as a draftsman and visual storyteller, Cardy drew some of the prettiest girls in comics, including Wonder Girl and early '70s Titans addition Lilith.)

DC's Teen Titans comic book lasted 43 issues, succumbing to cancellation at the end of '72. It was brought back for another ten issues in the late '70s, but the latter series was not my cuppa. In the early '80s, writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez managed a popular and critically-acclaimed revival as The New Teen Titans, and that series (which also brought back Beast Boy, renamed Changeling) made the Titans into A-listers from that point forward.

The New Teen Titans was a great book, and it was key to getting me back into comics after I graduated college. The six-year-old superhero fan from 1966 had grown up...but I resisted growing up too much.

THOR

1966 was a big year for me and my superheroes. I liked superheroes before actors Adam West and Burt Ward donned capes and masks to bop the bad guys as TV's Batman and Robin, but it was certainly Batman that knocked that interest into overdrive. My previous affection for Superman comic books grew into a full-blown obsession with all sorts of superdoers patrolling the spinner racks and magazine shelves. I discovered Marvel Comics in there somewhere, starting with Sub-Mariner and The Incredible Hulk in Tales To Astonish. 

I first encountered The Mighty Thor in the pages of The Avengers # 13, the same time and place where I first met Captain America, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and The Wasp. We were vacationing at my grandparents' house in Missouri, and my sister Denise and cousin Cheryl came back from a walk with that comic book in hand. It was an old comic book, published at the end of '64 (postdated February '65, as comics were wont to do), probably coverless. Okay by me. Any book you ain't read is a new book.  

This book was so important to me, and I read it and re-read it many, many times. I have no idea of when I next saw the mighty God of Thunder in a comic book--by the time I got another issue of The Avengers, Thor was no longer an Avenger--but even the one appearance was sufficient to instill wonder and awe in this six-year-old. And if I didn't see Thor in the funny pages, I could see him on TV; Thor joined Captain America, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, and The Hulk as one of the rotating stars of The Marvel Super-Heroes, a series of (barely) animated short cartoons that aired weekday afternoons, beginning in September of '66. The year of the superhero!

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS

My introduction to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was most definitely second-hand. If there were issues of Tower Comics' 25-cent giant T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents on the rack at Sweetheart, I missed 'em, and I didn't get around to seeing any of them (and their sublime Wally Wood artwork) until snagging a couple of back issues in the '70s. No, instead I saw two parodies first. The second of the two was from Marvel Comics, as seen in the humor book Not Brand Echh. I didn't come aboard the Brechh train until its fourth issue, so I missed seeing NBE # 2's cracked-mirror version of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. facing Dynamo and NoMan of The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (that would be Knock Furious, Agent of S.H.E.E.S.H. facing Dynaschmoe and Invisible Man of The Blunder Agents). But I did see it when it was reprinted in Not Brand Echh # 10--"The Worst Of Not Brand Echh"--in the summer of '68. I have all of the Not Brand Echhs in a hardcover collection now.

My first vicarious exposure to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was in a DC Comics humor title: the bad guys in H.U.R.R.I.C.A.N.E., as seen in DC's The Inferior Five # 1 in 1967. We covered that in a previous Everlasting First. I wish there were a hardcover Inferior Five collection I could buy now.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

The classic TV anthology series The Twilight Zone ended in 1964, so four-year-old me should have had no business watching it. Maybe it was still in reruns a little after that? Not that I would have been any braver to face the show at six or seven years old. I remember that creepy opening, and I remember the show scared the livin' chicklets outta me. Ooh! I particularly remember one episode where a mystic scarab or something caused some poor geezer to crumble into dust before my terrified eyes. Brrr! This never happened on Batman. Robin! ROBIN! Save me, Boy Wonder!

Or, y'know, you could send Wonder Girl to save me. That would be fine, too.

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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). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

100-Page FAKES! presents: DETECTIVE COMICS # 448

100-Page FAKES! imagines mid-1970s DC 100-Page Super Spectaculars that never were...but should have been!



The real-world version of 1975's Detective Comics # 448 gave us the book-length conclusion of writer Len Wein's "Bat-Murderer" serial. Although the 100-Page Super Spectacular was dead and buried by this time, that won't stop the Boppinverse from slappin' together some vintage reprints to expand this issue of 'Tec into a 100-pager.

Superstar artist Jim Aparo turned in yet another characteristically gorgeous cover for this issue, but he was no longer handling the interior art. More's the pity, but Ernie Chua and Dick Giordano managed to put out some pretty pictures themselves. We've added Golden Age tales of Robin the Boy Wonder and the pulchritudinous Phantom Lady, and raided the 1960s archives for a Captain Atom and Nightshade adventure (drawn by Steve Ditko, and originally published by Charlton Comics) and a Batman-Teen Titans team-up from the pages of The Brave And The Bold, the latter with some magnificent artwork from Neal Adams. Roll credits!

The Batman in "Bedlam Beneath The Big Top!," Detective Comics # 448 (June 1975)
Robin The Boy Wonder in "The Boy Who Hated Robin!," Star Spangled Comics # 82 (July 1948)
Captain Atom and Nightshade in "The Fury Of The Faceless Foe," Captain Atom # 86 (June 1967)
Phantom Lady (untitled), Phantom Lady # 14 (October 1947)
Batman and The Teen Titans in "Punish Not My Evil Son," The Brave And The Bold # 83 (April-May 1969)

All characters are copyright DC Comics Inc. The Captain Atom and Phantom Lady stories are now public domain; the rest can only be suggested here in representative sample pages. I share the whole thing with my subscribers. With this, 100-Page FAKES! is likely done with expansions of Detective Comics, but there's still lots more in the way of faux Super Specs coming your way soon here at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do).


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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. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.










COVER GALLERY