I’ve written about a number of albums over the years (especially when I was freelancing for Goldmine), but I’ve always been a single-song guy. Each of the tracks in today’s fake playlist is an individual song that was the focus of a post right here at Boppin’ (Like The Hip Folks Do). Most of them came from my Greatest Record Ever Made! series, though some were originally posted in some other series instead. The curious can follow links to read my original post about each song. Ready to bop? We’ve got some songs for you.
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:
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My favorite decade of music has always been the 1960s. Even as a teenager in the ’70s, soakin’ up the wonders of AM radio (from Badfinger to The Isley Brothers to Alice Cooper) and then FM (from Graham Parker to Nick Lowe to The Sex Pistols), my true allegiance remained steadfast and true: The Beatles. Nothing could ever change that.
Although I was, technically, alive for all but the first sixteen (and much of the seventeenth) days of the ’60s, a lot of my awareness and appreciation of the decade’s music came well after the fact. I’ve been examining some of these stories on this blog, recognizing the dialectic and dialogue that reaches across the eras of one’s own life. I became a fan of ’50s hits by Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly when I heard them in the early ’70s; I didn’t discover The Velvet Underground, or Love, or even Otis Redding until the ’80s.
But I do remember some stuff from the ’60s, contemporaneous to the ’60s. I remember “The Twist” by Chubby Checker–my Aunt Anna had the 45–and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by The Four Seasons, and “Save Your Heart For Me” by Gary Lewis and the Playboys. I remember my friend Willie singing Jan and Dean‘s “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena” in my friend Steve’s back yard. Gene Pitney‘s legend loomed large in the Cafarelli household, with “Town Without Pity” and “Half Heaven Half Heartache” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” Lesley Gore‘s “California Nights.” Nancy Sinatra‘s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.” The Rolling Stones‘ “Get Off Of My Cloud.” Tiny Tim, too.
One presumes I must have heard The Kinks, James Brown, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Righteous Brothers, and so many more, but I don’t recall any of these prior to rediscovering them in subsequent decades. I knew of Chad and Jeremy, but I don’t think I knew any of their songs at the time. There was an ad for We’re Only In It For The Money by The Mothers Of Invention in the pages of Marvel Comics, but I didn’t have the merest clue who Frank Zappa was. I saw Herman’s Hermits in an awful movie called Hold On!, and while I’m sure I knew some of the Hermits’ biggest hits, I didn’t remember any of their songs in that film prior to buying a used copy of the soundtrack LP in the late ’70s.
Here are a few others that I do remember:
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: “Somebody To Love” THE T-BONES: “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)” THE BEACH BOYS: “Surfer Girl” THE ARCHIES: “Sugar, Sugar” THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: “I Fought The Law” THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: “Bits And Pieces” THE CASTAWAYS: “Liar, Liar” THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS: “Monday, Monday” THE TURTLES: “Happy Together” THE FIVE AMERICANS: “Western Union” THE AMERICAN BREED: “Bend Me, Shape Me” TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS: “Hanky Panky” BILLY JOE ROYAL: “Down In The Boondocks” ANDY WILLIAMS: “A Fool Never Learns” EYDIE GORME: “Blame It On The Bossa Nova” DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: “Wishin’ And Hopin'” TWINKLE: “Terry” FREDDY CANNON: “Teen Queen Of The Week” BEN COLDER: “Ring Of Smoke” JEANNIE C. RILEY: “Harper Valley PTA” THE SURFARIS: “Wipeout” THE FIFTH DIMENSION: “Up, Up And Away” and “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In”
I also knew a few of The Monkees‘ records–“She,” “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow),” “Gonna Buy Me A Dog,” “I’m A Believer,” “Last Train To Clarksville”–and I certainly knew a bunch of Beatles tunes, from “All My Loving” through “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “I’ll Follow The Sun.” That cumulative pop frenzy is why I still regard Beatles ’65 and Beatles VI as my all-time favorite albums. But really, all of this stuff would come to mean even more to me as I looked back upon it in later years.
Is it nostalgia that makes me prefer ’60s music to all that came afterwards? Yes, of course, but not quite in the usual sense of personal nostalgia for the cherished playthings of childhood. Although I have some contemporaneous memories of rock ‘n’ roll during The Great Society, I can’t truly associate (The Association!) all that much of the era’s music with specific warm ‘n’ fuzzies from my preteen timeline. There is, I guess, that prevailing image of Beatlemania, that lingering sense that pop music was ruled by The Beatles, and always would be; seeing A Hard Day’s Night at the drive-in when you’re four years old can have that kind of effect on your development, and then seeing The Monkees on TV can reinforce that, move it from the realm of shiny passing fancy into the bedrock foundation of faith and certainty. I may not remember all of the nuances and shades, nor even all of the broad strokes of the ’60s with the crystal clarity of a reliable eyewitness, but I was there in just enough of its giddy heyday to retain that glow of affection, and to maintain that sense of familiarity and wonder. I remember what I remember; I embrace what I later encountered as a result of those memories.
Oh, and I remember some Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. I remember this one album cover in particular….
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With current work completed on my forthcoming [REDACTED] book, I’ve started turning my attention back to my long-threatened other book, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). My first order of business really ought to be finding a new agent; I haven’t even started looking for new representation since parting company (reluctantly but amicably) with my previous agent. But working on the book itself is something I can do in the here and now.
In the past two and a half weeks, I’ve completed GREM! chapters about Tracey Ullman, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, Arthur Conley, the Dixie Cups, Ike and Tina Turner, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Marykate O’Neil, and the Beatles‘ “Revolution,” restored previously-completed Love and Yoko Ono chapters, worked a little bit more on a still-unfinished chapter about the O’Jays, and tweaked the Linda Ronstadt chapter from a completed piece about the Stone Poneys‘ “Different Drum” into a completed piece about Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good” instead.
As of my last public GREM! update in September, the Dixie Cups, Yoko Ono, Love, and Arthur Conley chapters were not part of the book’s Table of Contents; they are now. I’ve removed previously-planned chapters about the Police, the Shocking Blue, Television, and Peter, Paul and Mary. I almost restored my chapter about the Romantics, but it’s not in the book’s current blueprint. Completed chapters about the Buzzcocks, the Raspberries, the Dandy Warhols, the Castaways, Deep Purple, the Only Ones, Nick Lowe, Wanda Jackson, and Al Hirt that were already out of the book’s TOC remain out of the book now, though any one (or more) of ’em could still be taken off the bench and placed into the line-up. Everything’s in play until the book’s done.
Yeah, maybe even still in play after I think the book’s done. I tweak therefore I am. Here’s what my working Table of Contents looks like today:
THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (VOLUME 1)
Table of Contents
FOREWORD
DISCLAIMERS AND DECLARATIONS (A User’s Guide To The Greatest Record Ever Made!)A Fistful Of 45s
OVERTURE THE RAMONES: Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?
1. BADFINGER: Baby Blue
2. CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land
3. DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You
4. THE SEX PISTOLS: God Save The Queen
5. ELVIS PRESLEY: Heartbreak Hotel
6. WILLIE MAE “BIG MAMA” THORNTON: Hound Dog
7. PATTI SMITH: Gloria
8. LITTLE RICHARD: The Girl Can’t Help It
9. NEIL DIAMOND: Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show
10. CRAZY ELEPHANT: Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’
11. WILSON PICKETT: In The Midnight Hour
12. THE HOLLIES: I Can’t Let Go
13. MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)
14. SAM COOKE: Chain Gang
15. PETULA CLARK: Downtown
16. ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Soldier Of Love
17. TRANSLATOR: Everywhere That I’m Not
18. LESLEY GORE: You Don’t Own Me
19. THE SHANGRI-LAS: Leader Of The Pack
20. THE SHIRELLES: Will You Love Me Tomorrow
21. THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
22. AMY RIGBY: Dancing With Joey Ramone
23. PINK FLOYD: Wish You Were Here
24. GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: Midnight Train To Georgia
25.THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: I Fought The Law
26. MERLE HAGGARD: Mama Tried
27. THE TEMPTATIONS: Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone
28. BUDDY HOLLY: Peggy Sue/Everyday
29. JOHNNY NASH: I Can See Clearly Now
30. ELTON JOHN: Saturday Night’s Alright For Fightin’
31. SUZI QUATRO: I May Be Too Young
32. ALICE COOPER: School’s Out
33. THE RARE BREED/THE OHIO EXPRESS: Beg, Borrow And Steal
34. THE DIXIE CUPS: Iko Iko
35. ARTHUR CONLEY: Sweet Soul Music
36. OTIS REDDING: (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay
37. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Respect
INTERLUDE The Monkees Play Their Own Instruments
38. THE MONKEES: Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)
39. PRINCE: When You Were Mine
40. THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: You’re Gonna Miss Me
41. THE ROLLING STONES: Get Off Of My Cloud
42. PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS: Just Like Me
43. BOB DYLAN: Like A Rolling Stone
44. THE KINGSMEN: Louie, Louie
45. BARON DAEMON AND THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist
46. NELSON RIDDLE: The Batman Theme
47. THE MARVELETTES: I’ll Keep Holding On
48. THE CREATION: Making Time
49. THE WHO: I Can’t Explain
50. TODD RUNDGREN: Couldn’t I Just Tell You
51. SHOES: Tomorrow Night
52. THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise
53. DONNA SUMMER: I Feel Love
54. SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES: The Tears Of A Clown
55. LOVE: 7 And 7 Is
56. JUDAS PRIEST: Heading Out To The Highway
57. ABBA: Dancing Queen
58. THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Personality Crisis
59. MILLIE SMALL: My Boy Lollipop
60. THE EASYBEATS: Friday On My Mind
61. IKE AND TINA TURNER: River Deep Mountain High
62. THE RONETTES: Be My Baby
63. RONNIE SPECTOR AND THE E STREET BAND: Say Goodbye To Hollywood
64. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes
65. KISS: Shout It Out Loud
66. THE LEFT BANKE: Walk Away, Renee
67. THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Rock And Roll Love Letter
68. THE KNICKERBOCKERS: Lies
69. THE WONDERS: That Thing You Do!
70. THE GO-GO’S: We Got The Beat
71. THE LOVIN’ SPOONFUL: Summer In The City
72. VAN HALEN: Dance The Night Away
73. PEGGY LEE: FeverINTERLUDE The Tottenham Sound Of…The Beatles?!
74. THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Any Way You Want It
75. JAMES BROWN: Please, Please, Please
76. GRAND FUNK: We’re An American Band
77. THE VELVELETTES: He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’
78. WAR: Low Rider
79. THE FIRST CLASS: Beach Baby
80. THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze
81. THE RUBINOOS: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
82. THE PANDORAS: It’s About Time
83. P. P. ARNOLD: The First Cut Is The Deepest
84. BIG STAR: September Gurls
85. SAMMY AMBROSE: This Diamond Ring
86. PAUL COLLINS: Walking Out On Love
87. LINDA RONSTADT: You’re No Good
88. THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: Take Five
ENTR’ACTE THE BEATLES: Yesterday
89. THE BEATLES: Revolution
90. THE MC5: Kick Out The Jams
91. THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: Time Has Come Today
92. MARVIN GAYE: I Heard It Through The Grapevine
93. RAY CHARLES: Hit The Road Jack
94. THE MUFFS: Saying Goodbye
95. YOKO ONO: Kiss Kiss Kiss
96. THE FLAMIN’ GROOVIES: Shake Some Action
97. THE CARPENTERS: Only Yesterday
98. MATERIAL ISSUE: Kim The Waitress
99. THE 5TH DIMENSION: Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In (The Flesh Failures)
100. THE JACKSON FIVE: I’ll Be There
101. SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Everybody Is A Star
102. JUDY COLLINS: Both Sides Now
103. EMITT RHODES: Fresh As A Daisy
104. THE BANGLES: Live
105. THE SEARCHERS: Hearts In Her Eyes
106. THE HUMAN SWITCHBOARD: (Say No To) Saturday’s Girl
107. THE BYRDS: I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better
INTERLUDE Rick James! Neil Young! Motown Sensations THE MYNAH BIRDS!
108. RICK JAMES: Super Freak
109. THE FLIRTATIONS: Nothing But A Heartache
110. THE SPINNERS: I’ll Be Around
111. TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: American Girl
112. THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: I Woke Up In Love This Morning
113. LED ZEPPELIN: Communication Breakdown
114. EDDIE COCHRAN: Somethin’ Else
115. THE BANDWAGON: Breakin’ Down The Walls Of Heartache
116. DON HENLEY: The Boys Of Summer
117. THE CLASH: Train In Vain (Stand By Me)
118. BEN E. KING: Stand By Me
119. GENE PITNEY: Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
120. RUFUS: Tell Me Something Good
121. THE SPONGETONES: (My Girl) Maryanne
122. THE TRAMMPS: Disco Inferno
123. HAROLD MELVIN AND THE BLUE NOTES: Don’t Leave Me This Way
124. GRANDMASTER AND MELLE MEL: White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)
125. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: I’ll Be Your Mirror
126. DEL SHANNON: Runaway
127. THE EVERLY BROTHERS: Gone, Gone, Gone
128. THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
129. FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie
130. SAM AND DAVE: Soul Man
131. BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY: Piece Of My Heart
132. THE MAYTALS: Pressure Drop
133. T. REX: 20th Century Boy
134. HEART: Kick It Out
135. THE RUNAWAYS: Cherry Bomb
136. AMERICA: Sister Golden Hair
137. THE KINKS: Waterloo Sunset
138. THE KINKS: You Really Got Me
139. HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell
140. THE SMITHEREENS: Behind The Wall Of Sleep
141. THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me
142. ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS: (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
143. THE FOUR TOPS: Reach Out I’ll Be There
INTERLUDE Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll
144. THE BOB SEGER SYSTEM: 2 + 2 = ?
145. THE JIVE FIVE: What Time Is It?
146. LULU: To Sir, With Love [Museum Outings Montage]
147. FREDA PAYNE: Band Of Gold
148. EARTH, WIND AND FIRE WITH THE EMOTIONS: Boogie Wonderland
149. THE CONTOURS: Do You Love Me
150. BLONDIE: (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear
151. THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS: All For Swinging You Around
152. WHAM!: Freedom
153. THE SUPREMES: You Keep Me Hangin’ On
154. THE BEACH BOYS: God Only Knows
155. JOAN ARMATRADING: Me Myself I
156. THE SELECTER: On My Radio
157. TRACEY ULLMAN: They Don’t Know
158. MANNIX: Highway Line
159. THE DRIFTERS: On Broadway
160. FIRST AID KIT: America
161. THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS: O-o-h Child
162. SOLOMON BURKE: Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
163. THE JAM: That’s Entertainment
164. THE COASTERS: Yakety Yak
165. CHEAP TRICK: Surrender
166. DAVID BOWIE: Life On Mars?
167. THE O’JAYS: Put Your Hands Together
168. THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Uncle John’s Band
169. EDDIE AND THE HOT RODS: Do Anything You Wanna Do
170. THE PRETENDERS: Back On The Chain Gang
171. JOAN JETT: Bad Reputation
172. STEVIE WONDER: I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)
173. MARYKATE O’NEIL: I’m Ready For My Luck To Turn Around
174. EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year’s Gonna Be Our Year
175. THE JAYHAWKS: I’m Gonna Make You Love Me
An Infinite Number
INTERLUDE
Underrating The Beatles
ENCORE!
THE BEATLES: Rain
ENCORE!!
THE T-BONES: No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)Cruisin’ Music
CODA
THE RAMONES: Blitzkrieg Bop
AFTERWORD
An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. I’m feeling an increasing temptation to include a chapter about the Animals; we’ll see.
At this writing, the chapters still in need of a completed first draft are ABBA, Millie Small, Peggy Lee, the Velvelettes, War, the Pandoras, P. P. Arnold, the Chambers Brothers, Ray Charles, the Muffs, the 5th Dimension, Judy Collins, the Bangles, Don Henley, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Maytals, the Cowsills, Earth, Wind and Fire with the Emotions, Blondie, the New Pornographers, the Supremes, Cheap Trick, the O’Jays, and the Pretenders.
The rest of it? Done, at least in draft form. Now, I need to finish the rest, and secure some representation for it, not necessarily in that order. It’s time to head back into the infinite.
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My first issue of Phonograph Record Magazine. Tattered and torn, but still mine.
I don’t understand why no one ever talks about Phonograph Record Magazine, a rock tabloid that ran from 1970 to 1978. The magazine seems to be nearly forgotten, and you don’t see it mentioned alongside your Rolling Stone or your Creem, your Crawdaddy or Circus, or even your Trouser Pressas one of the great rock rags of the ’70s. But it was. For me, in fact, it was more important than any those, even more than my beloved Creem. Because PRM was my first. Not my first rock magazine; I’d flirted with a couple before that. But Phonograph Record Magazine was the first to make me fall in love with rock ‘n’ roll journalism, both as a fan and as a potential practitioner. Maybe I would have wound up writin’ about the big beat even without PRM‘s influence. It’s possible, maybe probable. Either way, though, it was in fact Phonograph Record Magazine that provided that nudge. I remain grateful, and I remain a fan.
I was a senior in high school in the spring of 1977. Although I’d been a devoted AM Top 40 radio listener for all of my young life, the increasingly banal fare on former Syracuse airwave Fave Rave WOLF-AM had largely driven me to FM–specifically, to nearby Utica’s WOUR-FM, “The Rock Of Central New York.” OUR had some of the negative aspects of ’70s FM rock stations, the laid-back atmosphere, the consciousness of its own perceived hipness, the almost smug feeling of superiority over those frivolous, uncouth Top 40 outlets. BUT! The station compensated for all of that by simply being more adventurous than any other commercial station in the area. I betcha Syracuse University‘s WAER-FM was probably at least the equal of WOUR, but I never heard AER at the time. It was okay, though. WOUR rewarded my interest by playing The Kinks (I became a huge fan of The Kinks’ Schoolboys In Disgrace LP track “No More Looking Back” via airplay on WOUR), Graham Parker, Greg Kihn, Michael Nesmith, Nick Lowe, and The Rubinoos. WOUR had a killer Friday night oldies show, but one could often also find essential ’60s gems by The Animals, The Rascals, The Dave Clark Five, and The Beatles airing alongside the station’s contemporary music choices. The following summer, I wasn’t surprised to hear vintage Elvis Presley on WOUR a few days before his scheduled Syracuse concert. Hearing a number of Presley tracks back-to-back, however, was my first clue that The King would not be keeping that Syracuse date. Elvis had left the building.
I digress. The point is that WOUR was a great radio station that helped to expose me to more and more music. Hell, I first heard The Yardbirds on OUR, and later on, it was OUR that allowed me my first dose of The Sex Pistols. Let AM radio have its disco and its swill and its “Undercover Angel;” WOUR-FM was playing the stuff I needed to hear.
And, in that spring of 1977, WOUR offered me a chance to read all about it, too.
I doubt that I had heard of Phonograph Record Magazine before that, though it’s certainly possible that an earlier issue crossed the periphery of my vision while I was divin’ through Hollies and Suzi Quatro LPs in the cutout bins at Gerber Music. But the April 1977 issue of PRM was different; it was free! The magazine had deals with radio stations in many markets (WMMS-FM in Cleveland, for example), with the stations presumably underwriting the cost to distribute PRM as promotional giveaways. WOUR instructed local rock ‘n’ roll fans to head on down to any Gerber Music location to pick up a free copy of the latest Phonograph Record Magazine. Well, I had my orders. Duty called! Rendezvous at Gerber Music! FALL IN, you battle-happy Joes!
Target acquired. And I was immediately rewarded with entry into a fresh vista of pure rock ‘n’ roll wonder. Phonograph Record Magazine blew my freakin’ mind.
More than forty years later, in this ever-changing world in which we live in, it’s just impossible to properly convey the feeling of discovery, the liberating sense of possibility, that blanketed me with the turn of each pulpy tabloid page. What, transcendent revelation from a razzafrazzin’ rock magazine?! Oh yes. Emphatically yes. This was a whole new world. This was the Promised Land! And it had a good beat. If one could dance, one would surely dance to that beat.
There was something indescribably exciting about Phonograph Record Magazine, a palpable thrill I never got from previous perusals of Circus or Rolling Stone. PRM‘s writers seemed engaged. tapped into the music they were covering. You might presume it was legendary rock writer Lester Bangs who dazzled me here, but I don’t even remember his Nils Lofgren piece from this issue. No, I was enticed by Ken Barnes, by Greg Shaw (in the May issue), by Rodney Bingenheimer, by Flo & Eddie, and by the proud, delirious silliness of Mark Shipper. Furthermore, I was intrigued by all of these mysterious, elusive rock acts I’d never heard about before. I’d read news reports of the controversial punk group The Sex Pistols, but this was my real introduction to the concept of punk rock. I instantly wanted to know more, so much more. Punk? Hey, that’s for ME! Between this issue and its May 1977 follow-up (with Eric Carmen on the cover), I saw a truckload of rock ‘n’ roll names that were brand-new to me. Iggy Pop. Blondie. The Dictators. Cheap Trick. Elvis Costello. The New York Dolls. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Eddie and the Hot Rods. Chris Spedding and the Vibrators. The Damned. Milk ‘n Cookies. The Ramones.
The Ramones. THE RAMONES!!! Oh, the notion of The Ramones just transfixed me. What could they possibly sound like? Were they really that loud, that fast, that violent, that incredible, that irresistible? Were they really as dangerous and depraved as they seemed? Did it matter? I was a closet Ramones fan before I’d heard even one of their famous three chords, all thanks to Phonograph Record Magazine.
Alas, I saw but one more issue of PRM, with the familiar face of The Raspberries‘ former lead singer Eric Carmen as its poster boy. I don’t know if WOUR’s deal with PRM ended, but I presume that was so. And it left me hanging. The May issue’s edition of Flo & Eddie’s Blind Date column had featured our erstwhile Turtles wrestling uncomfortably with British punk, with a promise of an all-American punk Blind Date to follow in June. I never saw it. And Lord, I wanted to! But it was not to be, at least for me. I found an older, WMMS-sponsored issue of PRM while visiting my sister in Cleveland that summer. I never saw another issue anywhere.
By the time I was in Cleveland that August of 1977, I had heard The Sex Pistols explode my radio with “God Save The Queen,” courtesy of WOUR. And then I was off to college, where I would finally hear more of that punk rock Phonograph Record Magazine had made me crave. I would read more about it, thanks to a (frankly, dumb) one-shot ripoff called Punk Rock or somesuch, teasing, enticing bits in the hallowed pages of a new discovery called Rock Scene, as well as in the otherwise-stuffy Rolling Stone. I would get into Creem and Trouser Press before long, and into John Holmstrom‘s Punk magazine, all as I developed a near-insatiable need to read rock ‘n’ roll magazines. And I developed a need to write about rock ‘n’ roll, which manifested in My First Rock Journalism: “Groovin’ (Like The Hip Folks Do),” an emeritus contribution to my high school newspaper The NorthCaster. My piece was influenced by Phonograph Record Magazine in much the same way George Harrison‘s “My Sweet Lord” was “influenced” by The Chiffons. I had to start somewhere. PRM provided my template.
A rock magazine mention of The Monkees, and it wasn’t condescending? Another reason to love PRM!
No one talks about Phonograph Record Magazine. There’s no hardcover retrospective, no proposed behind-the-scenes documentary, no comprehensive, dedicated on-line archive. The magazine that meant so much to me is now a mirage, a memory that few recall. But I remember. If I ever write anything that can come close to connecting with a rock ‘n’ roll fan with even a fraction of the blissful, electric bond I felt with PRM, then my so-called writing career has succeeded. I am not exaggerating when I say that Phonograph Record Magazine was ultimately as important to me as any rock ‘n’ roll act this side of The Beatles. Seriously. Because I don’t get to The Ramones or The Flashcubes–and I don’t get to writing for Goldmine–without PRM pushing me in the right direction.That way, kid. Head to the light!
In the spring of ’78, about a year after communion with my first Phonograph Record Magazine, I was an eighteen-year-old punk of the world. I’d seen punk shows. I’d developed an occasional ability to seem pruriently interesting to gurls. In my mind, I was feverishly linking the punk of the Pistols and Ramones with the Beatles and Kinks records I loved, and with my favorite never-forgotten AM radio sounds of The Raspberries, Badfinger, and Sweet. I found a magazine that articulated that link, a magazine written in part by PRM‘s Greg Shaw, and in part by a visionary named Gary Sperrazza! They were writing about something called powerpop. Their magazine was called Bomp! It was pretty important to me, too.
TO BE CONTINUED!
This could be the start of something BIG!
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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.
