Vinyl You Can Download!

This week's all-vinyl edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl is now available to download from Westcott Radio. Dana's on the mend following his surgery, and should be back in the studio for next week's show. He sez hi, and I betcha you all say hi in return.

Here's an annotated look at the 45s and LPs played on TIRnRR this week, and where I got 'em:






THE RAMONES: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?

If you listen very closely to the beginning of the show, you can hear the needle drop on my copy of The Ramones' End Of The Century LP, which I purchased at Main Street Records in Brockport, NY the week the album was released in early 1980. Toronto's CHUM-FM had been playing this track before its release, so I was pretty hyped for it.

THE BAT BOYS: Batman (Theme)

The only track that skipped on the whole show! My much-played copy of this budget LP called Batman was purchased at J.M. Fields Department Store in North Syracuse in 1966.

THE KINKS: Prince Of The Punks

B-side of the "Father Christmas" single, purchased at a shopping-mall record store in Cleveland over Christmas break of my freshman year in college, 1977. I bought this and "It's Gonna Be A Punk Rock Xmas" by The Ravers at the same time.

THE WHO: The Punk Meets The Godfather

My used copy of Quadrophenia came from Main Street Records in, I think, the early '80s. Syracuse rockers The Dead Ducks turned me on to the song via their own kickin' live rendition.

HOLLY & JOEY: I Got You Babe

A single by Holly Beth Vincent (of Holly & the Italians) and Joey Ramone, and yet another Main Street Records purchase. That fine store will come up a lot in these listings.

RICHARD BARONE & JAMES MASTRO: I've Got A Secret

My friend Andrea Ogarrio introduced me to this track when she included it on one of the killer mix tapes she made for me. I found my copy of the Nuts And Bolts LP at...I'm not sure. Probably Knuckleheads in North Syracuse, which was run by long-time Goldmine advertiser Jack Wolak.






THE MOSQUITOS: I Know A Secret

A cover of the title tune from The Mosqutos' That Was Then, This Is Now! EP gave The Monkees a Top 20 hit in 1986, but I like this track even more. Purchased at a shopping mall while traveling, but I don't remember where I was when I bought it.

SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES: The Tears Of A Clown

One of my very favorite songs on the radio when I was in middle school. This copy came from a Motown collection called 25 # 1 Hits From 25 Years, purchased at Main Street Records.

PERCY FAITH & HIS ORCHESTRA: Little Bells And Big Bells

I wrote about ol' Percy here. The Passport To Romance LP was part of our family collection in the '60s.

THE RASPBERRIES: Go All The Way, Tonight, Ecstasy, I Wanna Be With You

The horny singles! I had never heard "Ecstasy" before receiving the Raspberries' Best LP as a Christmas gift from my parents, but I knew (and worshipped) the other three from airplay on Syracuse's WOLF-AM.

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise

This should have been the third single from my favorite power pop group The Flashcubes, but instead of seeing release in 1979, it remained unissued until the 1990s. It finally appeared on vinyl on a 2-LP set called Anthology, which was given to me as a gift from 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong.

THE BEATLES: Penny Lane

The version with the extra little horn lick at the end, from the Rarities LP. Main Street again.

THE WONDERS: That Thing You Do!

Where in the hell did I buy this 45? Hmmm. Probably at Music Express/CNY DJ Supply when it was still on James Street in Eastwood.



HERB ALPERT & THE TIJUANA BRASS: Whipped Cream

Yep, that LP cover provided an indelible memory for many kids growing up in the '60s. Swoon...! This is still the same crunchy copy that my parents owned at the time.





THE KINGS: This Beat Goes On/Switchin'

Early indie-single version of a song the group subsequently re-recorded to some notoriety and much airplay. I've neither seen nor heard another copy of this besides the one I snagged at a shop on Yonge Street in Toronto while honeymooning in 1984. (And yes, I went record shopping on my honeymoon. Your point...?)

THE MONKEES: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You

Single, purchased in the '70s at the weekly flea market held at Syracuse's Regional Market. Both sides were originally non-LP, but I had this A-side already on the group's 1976 Greatest Hits, so I bought the 45 to get the flip, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." However, no CD reissue of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" has ever quite matched the punch of the original 45, so I had to play it on this all-vinyl edition.

DAVID JOHANSEN & ROBIN JOHNSON: Flowers In The City

From the soundtrack to Times Square, purchased at--you guessed it!--Main Street Records.

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

Wonder's Talking Book was one of several used LPs I scored at either Johnnie's Collectibles or Books & Memories on James Street in Eastwood in the '90s, when I was kicking around the idea of writing a book about the definitive rock and soul albums of the 1970s. The film High Fidelity hooked me on this track, which has become my favorite Stevie Wonder song.

THE JAM: I Need You (For Someone)

Polydor U.S. 45, with added fade-out not heard on the LP version. Purchased from The Record Grove in Brockport.

THE RUTLES: Number One

My sister Denise brought me a copy of The Rutles LP as a gift from England in 1978.



JOHNNY & THE HURRICANES: The Beatnik Fly
BUDDY HOLLY: Peggy Sue

Both of these singles were contained within the two little binders full of 45s I discovered at home around '72 or '73, singles that had previously belonged to a friend of my siblings (her story told here). The Coral Buddy Holly 45 is especially crunchy, but it still plays.

THE SPINNERS: I'll Be Around

This copy from an Adam VIII Records as-seen-on-TV collection called 20 Solid Gold Hits. My lovely wife Brenda owned it in the '70s, and it became community property as a result of our merged assets in 1984.

X: True Love

I have no idea where I got my copy of X's More Fun In The New World.

ANDY WILLIAMS: Moon River
JAMES BROWN: Honky Tonk Pt. 1

Why in the world am I lumping Andy Williams and James Brown together...?! Well, because I got them both from the same source at the same time: former Syracuse Community Radio DJ Eric Strattman (whose show Unsupervised I Hit My Head used to precede TIRnRR on Sunday nights). When Eric was getting ready to move from Syracuse to Boston, he wanted to sell a few of his LPs, and these were two among the small stack I bought from him. The James Brown track is from a K-Tel set, 22 Explosive Hits. As it should be.



SNEAKERS: Things We Said Today

Promo 45 on the Bearsville label, purchased from a record and stereo equipment store that was located in Buffalo's University Plaza in the early '80s. Can't remember the store's name, and that fact has been driving me nuts. Anyone remember that store? Anyone...?

PAUL McCARTNEY: Singalong Junk

Main Street Records wasn't the only record store that loomed large in my legend. Another was Record Revolution in Cleveland Heights, near where my sister lived in the late '70s and early '80s. I snagged this LP from Record Revolution's dusty 'n' delightful basement racks over Christmas break in '76.

THE ROMANTICS: Little White Lies

I think I'd read about The Romantics in Bomp! magazine before buying their debut indie single at The Record Grove in Brockport in the spring of '78. This version shreds the group's subsequent re-recording for their first album, and it's never been given a legit reissue.

COLOR ME GONE: Lose Control

Another track from an Andrea Ogarrio mix tape, this one featuring lead vocals from Marti Jones. My copy of the EP came from either Knuckleheads or Syracuse's Desert Shore Records.

PRINCE: When You Were Mine

I think that Dirty Mind was another of the LPs I bought from Eric Strattman.



THE FLESHTONES: Way Down South

Wow. Can't remember where I picked up a copy of the 1987 Fleshtones Vs. Reality LP. Might have come from a chain store like Cavages or Record Theater, or from Desert Shore.

ROY LONEY & THE PHANTOM MOVERS: Steppin' Around

Andrea's husband Greg Ogarrio's mix tape hit me with this song, and I later bought a copy of the LP, The Scientific Bombs Away!, at The Bop Shop in Rochester.

ROCKPILE: Teacher Teacher

Used LP purchase at Knuckleheads. Can't explain why I never owned a copy of this until the '90s.

THE ROLLING STONES: Not Fade Away

I bought my copy of the Stones' Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass) from a collectibles store in Brockport in the spring of '78. Within less than two years, a girl I was dating "borrowed" it, along with my Who and Buddy Holly LPs, and I eventually had to marry her just to get the damned records back.



AL HIRT: Green Hornet

Another challenge for The Green Hornet? No. No challenge at all. I bought Hirt's The Horn Meets "The Hornet" LP at Desert Shore Records.

THE BEATLES: "Everbody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey

The White Album was a high school graduation gift from three girls I knew.

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS: (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding

Armed Forces was the first album lovely wife Brenda ever gave me, waaaaay back when she was still lovely new girlfriend Brenda.

BARON DAEMON & THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist

The best-selling local 45 in Syracuse history. I was a big fan of the Baron's TV show back in the '60s, but I don't think I even knew about his record at the time. The single was gift from TIRnRR co-host Dana Bonn.

THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN: Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron

My first pop-rock album, a gift from my parents in '66 or '67.



KISS: Calling Dr. Love

KISS had been the stars of my first rock 'n' roll concert in December of 1976. When I graduated high school in '77, I wanted "Calling Dr. Love" to replace "Pomp And Circumstance" as our class's processional soundtrack. I did not win that argument. But my sister gave me KISS's Rock And Roll Over album as a graduation gift. I've forgotten whatever it was I learned in high school, but I still have that album!

THE SEX PISTOLS: Pretty Vacant

My girlfriend Theresa gave me a copy of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols as a Christmas gift in 1977. The gift meant a lot to me, but not enough to keep us from splitting up over the holiday break. No future for us!

THE VENTURES: Walk--Don't Run

This actually comes from a budget 2-LP set of The Ventures re-recording their classic material, so, y'know, yuck. But! I purchased it in a nightclub, at a live show by The Ventures, and I had The Ventures autograph it for me. Yuck rescinded.

THE KNACK: Good Girls Don't

This 45 version has cleaner lyrics than the familiar, salacious LP track. Main Street Records.

THE CICHLIDS: Did You Ever

Man, an ace cover of a song originally done by The Hullaballoos. I bought The Cichlids' Be True To Your School LP from the back room at Buffalo's Apollo Records, run by revered rock writer Gary Sperrazza!

SHOES: Okay

Bomp! single, a gift from Greg Ogarrio.



CHUCK BERRY: Johnny B. Goode

Heh--bought this last week at Books & Melodies in Syracuse. When I decided to do an all-vinyl show, I was bummed by the realization that I'd sold all of my Chuck Berry LPs after I got a decent 2-CD Berry retrospective. This could not stand. So I re-purchased Chuck Berry's Golden Decade, and this copy's stayin' put.

BADFINGER: Icicles

Badfinger's Ass LP came from...I bought it at...damned if I can remember.

THE SMALL FACES: Lazy Sunday

No such problem remembering this one! It was just before Christmas, probably in '76, and my parents let me pick out a few LPs for them to give me as gifts. One of those (big) stocking stuffers was a collection called History Of British Rock, Volume II, discovered at Camelot Music in one of our local malls, and containing this Small Faces gem.



THE RUBINOOS: Rock And Roll Is Dead

I fell fast and hard for The Rubinoos in 1977. I bought a promo copy of their eponymous debut at Record Revolution in Cleveland Heights.

DAVID BOWIE: Suffragette City

I was a latecomer to David Bowie, but The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was definitely my favorite. Main Street Records.

THE ANIMALS: It's My Life

Like History Of British Rock, Volume II, Best Of The Animals came from Camelot Music for Christmas '76.

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Don't You Realize

The DC5's Having A Wild Weekend album was a flea market purchase in high school, snagged in pursuit of the sublime "Catch Us If You Can," but ultimately even more cherished by virtue of underappreciated, lesser-known LP cuts like "Don't You Realize."

PARTHENON HUXLEY: Double Our Numbers

I came to Parthenon's fabulous Sunny Nights album from 1988 way after the fact, but I nonetheless recognize the unassailable fact that "Double Our Numbers" is The Greatest Record Ever Made. Scored my copy of the LP as part of the same massive bin-troll that netted me the Stevie Wonder album noted above.

N/A: Morocco Mole

Even before The Royal Guardsmen's Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron became my first pop-rock LP, the tie-in album to the TV cartoon Secret Squirrel was likely my first LP of any kind.

THE SMITHEREENS: Only A Memory

Import single, purchased at Knuckleheads.



THE MONKEES: Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky, Pleasant Valley Sunday

After a friend introduced me to the wonder of The Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. album in 1977, I found a used copy for fifty cents at Mike's Sound Center in North Syracuse. Since then, the LP's cover has been autographed by Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

The single had been The Record That Changed My Life when I got it in late 1977, but I didn't get around to picking up the Rocket To Russia album until over a year later, at Springfield, Missouri's Battlefield Mall over Christmas break in '78. I bought The Runaways' Live In Japan at the same time.

THE KINKS: You Really Got Me

After hearing "All Day And All Of The Night" on that History Of British Rock, Volume II set, my sister pointed me in the direction of the even more primal "You Really Got Me." My first copy of this Greatest Record Ever Made came via the first volume of History Of British Rock, which was possibly a Gerber Music purchase in early '77.

JON & THE NIGHTRIDERS: Geronimo

Buffalo's WBNY-FM played Jon & the Nightriders' "Charge Of The Nightriders" (a surf instrumental version of "The William Tell Overture") and their long surf instrumental medley "Splashback!" enough that I knew I needed to own the album, Charge Of The Nightriders. Radio's job is to sell records. I believe I tracked this down at Home Of The Hits on Buffalo's Elmwood Avenue, though I may have picked it up on a visit to Brockport instead. I mean, why not one more album from Main Street Records?

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THE LONG RYDERS ANTHOLOGY by The Long Ryders

My review of The Long Ryders Anthology appeared in the April 23, 1999 issue of Goldmine.



THE LONG RYDERS
The Long Ryders Anthology
PolyGram Chronicles (314 558 280-2)

Like many a band before them, The Long Ryders were done in by that demon alcohol. Not in the sense that any of its bandmembers succumbed to overindulgence, but in the sense that a TV commercial the group did for Miller Beer in the mid '80s effectively torpedoed their perceived credibility in the shallow, callous eyes of the image-conscious indie rock scene. The group never made it big and eventually broke up.

Okay, it probably wasn't really as simple as that. But, whatever the reason, it's a shame that The Long Ryders never achieved their due, because this band should have been huge. Formed by a pair of refugees from L.A. retro-'60s punks The Unclaimed, The Long Ryders were perhaps the first post-punk rock 'n' roll band to establish an overt link with traditional country roots, channeled partially (not totally) through Gram Parsons' work with The Byrds in the '60s. The Long Ryders were, furthermore, an incredible band, always willing to acknowledge their roots but never content to limit themselves to the role of mere revivalists.

This two-disc set performs the public service of returning The Long Ryders to domestic retail shelves, anthologizing the group's short career for the benefit of all Americans (and others, too). The set begins with all five tracks from the group's 1983 debut EP. 10-5-60, commencing with the savage punk of its title tune. From there, the wyld ryde is on, running through selections from throughout the group's recorded legacy, bolstered by scattered demo versions, previously-unreleased covers of Bob Dylan ("Masters Of War") and The Flamin' Groovies ("I Can't Hide"), a tune from a Christmas flexi-disc, non-LP B-sides, and a live version of Neil Young's "Prisoners Of Rock 'n' Roll" that provides the set with an appropriate coda.

Along the way, we're treated to a crash course in what should have been standard radio fare in the '80s. The Long Ryders' recordings project an image of a cantankerous, rebellious band with a good nature and a good heart. Tracks such as "10-5-60," "Join My Gang," "Run Dusty Run," "Mel Tillis' (via The Flying Burrito Brothers) "(Sweet) Mental Revenge," and "I Had A Dream" are rock-solid exercises, while "I'll Get Out Somehow" is straight-forward, traditional country. Selections from the group's near-breakthrough album State Of Our Union--particularly "Lights Of Downtown," "Capturing The Flag," and "Looking For Lewis And Clark" (heard here in a longer version than the original LP)--demonstrate how richly deserving of success this group was by the time of that damned beer commercial.

Tracks from the group's final album, 1987's Two Fisted Tales, are supplemented by a slew of unreleased demos from the same era. Of the demo songs, only the invigorating "Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home" was completed and used on Two Fisted Tales, which means we've got a treasure trove of six "new" Long Ryders tunes for true believers. A lovely essay from David Fricke completes this very nice package. And here's to some enterprising label undertaking a comprehensive Long Ryders reissue program, returning each of the original albums to stores. Who's with us?

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THE EVERLASTING FIRST: Quick Takes For M [music 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 love story still needs to begin with that first kiss.

MAD MONSTER PARTY



Mad Monster Party was a simply fabulous late '80s all-female SoCal group, a combo that included Gwynne Kahn and Bambi Conway, both of whom had previously been members of The Pandoras. The group will be the subject of a near-future edition of Love At First Spin, so I guess it's safe to say that I loved Mad Monster Party as soon as I heard 'em. But I never even heard of them until more than twenty years after the fact. In 2010, I decided I wanted to feature The Pandoras on an episode of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, and started research in hope of snagging an illicit digital file of the group's unreleased Come Inside album from somewhere within that vast series of tubes we call the internet. A now-defunct site called (I think) Forest Dweller or somesuch had Come Inside, as well as a bunch of other Pandoras-related goodies, and that's where I first learned of Mad Monster Party. The group's unreleased album from the late '80s floored me; as much I love The Pandoras, I immediately loved Mad Monster Party even more. Figuring what the hell, we featured Mad Monster Party on TIRnRR the week after we featured The Pandoras. Subsequent communications with Gwynne (aka Nipper Seaturtle) and the group's drummer Jody Ritacco secured permission for us to use Mad Monster Party's "Can't Stop Loving You" on our 2013 compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, and that remains Mad Monster Party's only CD appearance to date. Happily, the group's all-too-brief recorded legacy is now available for legal download at CD Baby, and you'd best believe I bought that the week it was put up. This is amazing stuff, and it deserves a much wider audience.

THE MORELLS



Legendary rock writer Gary Sperrazza! told me about Springfield, Missouri's phenomenal pop combo The Morells on one of the many occasions I chatted with him in Buffalo in the '80s. Nonetheless, I didn't hear any of their music until much, much later, when their debut album Shake And Push was reissued on CD by the ESD label in the '90s. Even then, I didn't come to The Morells until after I'd fallen for The Skeletons, a related band that included The Morells' Lou Whitney and D. Clinton Thompson. I loved The Skeletons, so worship of The Morells came naturally. I interviewed Lou Whitney for Discoveries and/or Goldmine (long story) in 1997, and I reprised that piece (along with my 2014 obituary of Whitney) here.



TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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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. 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 868: The All-Vinyl Edition

Since Dana needed the night off this week, I decided to bag the idea of doing a regular This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, and steal an idea from our pals at The Wax Museum with Ronnie Dark over on WVOA-FM. Yep, this is our first All-Vinyl Edition, with an irresistible selection of 45s and LP tracks from what's left of my own vinyl collection. We opened with a Kinks B-side that has never been issued on CD, and played an assortment of delights, some of which are readily available on compact disc, some of which are difficult to find on compact disc, and some of which have never been available in that format at all.

I don't listen to vinyl all that often. The convenience of CDs and mp3s makes them my default choice when listening to music. But listening to LPs and 45s is a more active listening experience. Removing an album from its sleeve--especially a gatefold sleeve--is an inherently different process than prying a CD out of a fragile jewel case, or clicking your clickables for a digital audio file. Setting needle to platter is familiar and comforting in ways that just punching PLAY can't match. When Side One is finished, you have to get up and turn the record over. I mean, presuming you ever stopped dancing long enough to even sit down in the first place. CDs and mp3s are passive listening experiences, and there's nothing really wrong with that; vinyl requires you to participate. It was fun to participate this week. I think I should participate more often.

And only ONE skip, through the whole show!

We'll let the playlist speak for itself. This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like ON VINYL on a Sunday night in Syracuse this week.

Godspeed, Dana! Hope to see you on the radio next week.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl streams live on Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, exclusively at www.westcottradio.org

TIRnRR # 868: The All-Vinyl Edition 4/9/17

THE RAMONES: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? (Sire, End Of The Century)
--
THE BAT BOYS: Batman (Theme) (Design, Batman)
--
THE KINKS: Prince Of The Punks (Arista, single)
THE WHO: The Punk Meets The Godfather (MCA, Quadrophenia)
HOLLY & JOEY: I Got You Babe (Virgin, single)
RICHARD BARONE & JAMES MASTRO: I've Got A Secret (Passport, Nuts And Bolts)
THE MOSQUITOS: I Know A Secret (Valhalla, That Was Then, This Is Now!)
SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES: The Tears Of A Clown (Motown, VA: 25 # 1 Hits From 25 Years)
--
PERCY FAITH & HIS ORCHESTRA: Little Bells And Big Bells (Columbia, Passport To Romance)
--
THE RASPBERRIES: Go All The Way (Capitol, Raspberries' Best)
THE RASPBERRIES: Tonight (Capitol, Raspberries' Best)
THE RASPBERRIES: Ecstasy (Capitol, Raspberries' Best)
THE RASPBERRIES: I Wanna Be With You (Capitol, Raspberries' Best)
THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise (Backstreet, Anthology)
THE BEATLES: Penny Lane (Capitol, Rarities)
THE WONDERS: That Thing You Do! (Epic, single)
--
HERB ALPERT & THE TIJUANA BRASS: Whipped Cream (A & M, Whipped Cream & Other Delights)
--
THE KINGS: This Beat Goes On/Switchin' (Extreme, single)
THE MONKEES: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You (Colgems, single)
DAVID JOHANSEN & ROBIN JOHNSON: Flowers In The City (RSO, VA: Times Square OST)
STEVIE WONDER: I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) (Tamla, Talking Book)
THE JAM: I Need You (For Someone) (Polydor, single)
THE RUTLES: Number One (Warner Brothers, The Rutles)
--
JOHNNY & THE HURRICANES: The Beatnik Fly (Warwick, single)
--
BUDDY HOLLY: Peggy Sue (Coral, single)
THE SPINNERS: I'll Be Around (Adam VIII, VA: 20 Solid Gold Hits)
X: True Love (Elektra, More Fun In The New World)
ANDY WILLIAMS: Moon River (Columbia, Moon River And Other Great Movie Themes)
JAMES BROWN: Honky Tonk Pt. 1 (K-Tel, VA: 22 Explosive Hits)
SNEAKERS: Things We Said Today (Bearsville, single)
--
PAUL McCARTNEY: Singalong Junk (Apple, McCartney)
--
THE ROMANTICS: Little White Lies (Spider, single)
COLOR ME GONE: Lose Control (A & M, Color Me Gone)
PRINCE: When You Were Mine (Warner Brothers, Dirty Mind)
THE FLESHTONES: Way Down South (Emergo, Fleshtones Vs. Reality)
ROY LONEY & THE PHANTOM MOVERS: Steppin' Around (Norton, The Scientific Bombs Away!)
ROCKPILE: Teacher Teacher (Columbia, Seconds Of Pleasure)
THE ROLLING STONES: Not Fade Away (London, Big Hits [Hight Tide & Green Grass])
--
AL HIRT: Green Hornet (RCA, The Horn Meets "The Hornet")
--
THE BEATLES: Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey (Capitol, The Beatles)
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS: (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding (Columbia, Armed Forces)
BARON DAEMON & THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist (WNYS-TV, single)
THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN: Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron (Laurie, Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron)
KISS: Calling Dr. Love (Casablanca, Rock And Roll Over)
THE SEX PISTOLS: Pretty Vacant (Warner Brothers, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols)
--
THE VENTURES: Walk--Don't Run (Tridex, Greatest Hits)
--
THE KNACK: Good Girls Don't (Capitol, single)
THE CICHLIDS: Did You Ever (Bold, Be True To Your School)
SHOES: Okay (Bomp!, single)
CHUCK BERRY: Johnny B. Goode (Chess, Chuck Berry's Golden Decade)
BADFINGER: Icicles (Apple, Ass)
THE SMALL FACES: Lazy Sunday (Sire, VA: History Of British Rock, Volume II)
THE RUBINOOS: Rock And Roll Is Dead (Beserkley, The Rubinoos)
DAVID BOWIE: Suffragette City (RCA, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars)
THE ANIMALS: It's My Life (Abkco, Best Of The Animals)
THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Don't You Realize (Epic, Having A Wild Weekend)
PARTHENON HUXLEY: Double Our Numbers (Columbia, Sunny Nights)
N/A: Morocco Mole (HBR, Secret Squirrel And Morocco Mole In: Super Spy)
THE SMITHEREENS: Only A Memory (Enigma, single)
THE MONKEES: Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky (Colgems, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.)
THE MONKEES: Pleasant Vally Sunday (Colgems, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.)
THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (Sire, Rocket To Russia)
THE KINKS: You Really Got Me (Sire, VA: History Of British Rock)
JON & THE NIGHTRIDERS: Geronimo (Enigma, Charge Of The Nightriders)

Tonight On THIS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

The ol' CD case is staying home, because it's nothing but vinyl on tonight's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. Pops? Clicks? YEAH! So click on our pop Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, www.westcottradio.org

WHAT IF? SO WHAT? The 1979 Fantasy And Science Fiction Journal, Parts 12 through 14

Continuing entries from the journal I kept for Dr. Calvin Rich's Fantasy And Science Fiction class as a senior at Brockport in the Fall of 1979.



# 12: 10/26/79

Rather than project some alternate reality this time out, I want to discuss a curious phenomenon of pop culture, an odd item of unusual subject and cult interest. To wit, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film satire of 1950s science fiction movies, sexual attitudes, and pop culture in general, opens with a scene outside a small town (Danton, Ohio) church after a wedding. Best man Brad Majors (All-American) confronts bridesmaid Janet Weiss (Ditto), singing his praise for her and asking her to marry him. She accepts his proposal, and the couple drives off in the direction of mentor and science teacher Dr. Everett Scott to tell him the good news.

HOWEVER, on the way, they get a flat tire, stranding them on a stormy night in the middle of nowhere. Seeking shelter, they flee to a castle they passed on the road.

The castle is the home of Dr. Frank N. Furter, a scientist and "sweet transvestite" from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. Taking a cue from Frankenstein, Frank N. Furter is "Makin' a man/With blond hair and a tan." The creation is intended to be Frank N. Furter's sexual plaything. In addition to creating this creature (Rocky), Frank N. Furter seduces both Janet and Brad, and kills the teenaged motorcyclist whom he had previously lobotomized in order to get a brain for Rocky. Ultimately, Frank N. Furter lures Brad and Janet into his hypnotic circle of dominance with an urgent statement of "Don't dream it; be it."

But Frank N. Furter's hedonistic designs are shattered by his servants, Riff Raff and Magenta, who execute him, Rocky, and the interstellar groupie Columbia. Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott are ordered to flee immediately as Riff and Magenta return to their home planet. As the castle blasts off, the trio of Earthlings are left crawling in the charred debris of its flight, representing "some insects called the human race...lost in time and lost in space and meaning."

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN? We'll look into that in the next entry.

# 13: 10/31/79--ALL-HOLLOWS EVE (only fitting)

Delving further into the Rocky Horror phenomenon; whenever this film is shown--and it is shown very often, being a genuine item of cult fascination; a theater in Syracuse has shown it at midnight every Friday and Saturday since April, and has done very well with it--its audience greets it in a singularly peculiar manner. Many come to the theater dressed in the heavily made-up, corset, garter belt, and fishnet stockinged costume of Dr. Frank N. Furter. Instead of merely sitting and watching the movie, the audience insists upon participating: singing along, reciting carefully-rehearsed dialogue and responses to the dialogue, throwing appropriate items at the appropriate time (tossing toasted bread at the screen when Frank N. Furter proposes a toast, squirting water during a rain scene, hurling rolls of toilet paper when Dr. Scott--"Scottie!"--bursts through a brick wall.)

Much of the film's attraction--beyond its absurdities and sexual innuendo--lies in its professed message: "Don't dream it; be it." The hedonistic Dr. Frank N. Furter, seen early in the movie as a villain of monstrous perversion, is conceived instead by film's end as "the hero--that's right, the hero!" Frank N. Furter's sexual practices and prancing at first horrify, but then entrance Brad, Janet, and even Dr. Scott. When he, Rocky, and Columbia are killed, Brad and Janet scream their protests futilely. 

In some ways, The Rocky Horror Picture Show might represent some sort of shamanism in terms of free sexuality. The experience of sex in the movie is presented as a flight, a revelatory act which liberates the participant from the restrictions of everyday moral standards. "Don't dream it; be it." This suggests the fantasy of dreams coming true, and in context represents an analogy between sex and freedom. This, in a sense, creates a shamanistic perspective: sex-as-liberating-vision. In the "floor show," staged by Frank N. Furter--when his "Don't dream it; be it" creed is verbally established--his followers come to him in an enlightened trance of "visionary sexuality," in which they admit their inhibitions, shed them, and pledge themselves to the glorious cause of blatant hedonism.

This may be something of a perversion of the definition of shamanism, but not entirely removed from Leeming's inclusion of the opium trance that became "Kubla Khan" within the scope of the term.

# 14: 11/4/79

What if gender were interchangeable? When making love, a man and woman could, by simultaneous exertion of will at a moment just prior to orgasm, suddenly switch genders, the man becoming woman and the woman becoming man. And then the moment of orgasm, as the couple truly becomes one--a single entity in the throes of ecstasy.

2017 POSTSCRIPT: I'm not sure how many times I'd seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show when I wrote this. I'd first seen it on campus--at a matinee, believe it or not--without the attendant hoopla, and I thought it was hilarious on its own. Seeing it subsequently with the whole Rocky Horror experience--the props, the recited dialogue and rejoinders, the copies of (specifically!) The Cleveland Plain Dealer to hold over one's head as water sprayed all about during the rain scene--enhanced it and made it an event. I'd seen it on Staten Island once with Brenda, and probably a time or two at The Westcott Theater in Syracuse. (The Westcott, incidentally, is now a live music venue instead of a movie theater, and it's right down the street from the studio where we do This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl.) My enthusiasm for Rocky Horror has dimmed a bit over the decades, but I thought it all a hoot at the time.

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