The Best Records of 1982!

 

PEAK POST-PUNK!

by BK Munn

It's taken me over 40 years, but I've finally whittled down my list of the Best Albums of 1982!

As I wrote in my notes for 1986, the first one of these I attempted, this list comes with a number of caveats and blindspots, and I think I'm going to stick with the same quirky, personal format. So: this is a largely English-language, rock-oriented list reflecting my continued fetish for post-punk and garage rock sounds. There are a couple German records here, but that's about it. In part, this is a nostalgic list, but as usual most of the records here were totally unknown to me at the time. Some are new to me this week, but most have crossed my path at some point over the last four decades, and many I even own in vinyl format!

In 1982, I was only 12 but obsessed with not only Top 40 radio but also the synth pop and New Wave sounds coming out of Toronto's fm station CFNY.  I distinctly remember hearing the dj for Hamilton's CKOC introduce Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" for the first time. I was a year or two away from real teenage rebellion and the discovery of our local college radio station CFRU, but nevertheless I thought I was cool because I had discovered David Bowie and listened to Scary Monsters and the ChangesOne compilation incessantly (Let's Dance didn't come out until 1983, I think). My tastes have changed since those days, but some of the records I liked back then I still like, meaning I can still stand to listen to them without too many unpleasant associations.

This is not true for most of the big hits of the day. 1982 was the year of Michael Jackson's Thriller and despite it's continuing centrality to our culture and Western Civilization, I feel close to blowing my brains out whenever I hear the opening notes of any of the megahits from that album these days. I was pretty much burned out on that record by 1983, even as a kid. Ditto for most of the 1982 Top 40. 

1982 was a year that funk and hip-hop started to register with white people, post-Disco, but my list has very little of either. I decided to eliminate jazz from the list as well, even though there are excellent records from giants like Ornette Coleman, Nina Simone, and Alice Coltrane that year, as well as jazz-inflected things like Rip Rig and Panic, and Indian and African stuff like Rupa and Manu Dibango that interest me. No soundtracks on this list either, even though Morricone (The Thing) and Vangelis (the amazing Blade Runner soundtrack) were out there (David Lynch released his soundtrack for 1977's Eraserhead in 1982 as well). 

I'm pretty proud of my curation of the first 30 or so records on this list, but to be honest, the rest of the list is more or less a random assemblage, with not much thought given to rankings. I have another 20 or so records that I could easily substitute for any 20 of the records in the bottom 52.  Maybe I'll post those separately. For now I'm sticking to the gimmick of matching the number of slots with the year, so I'm limited here to 82 in total. I'm sure I've missed something! Let me know!

1. The Fall, Hex Education Hour
2. Lilliput, Lillput
3. Kate Bush, The Dreaming
4. English Beat, Special Beat Service
5. Gang of Four, Songs of the Free and Another Day/Another Dollar
6. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, The Message 
7. Trio, Trio aka The Album/Da Da Da
8. REM, Chronic Town
9. Daniel Johnston, Don’t Be Scared
10. Prince, 1999
11. Cocteau Twins, Garland
12. Sonic Youth, Sonic Youth
13. The Clean, Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-so Sounds So-so, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten
14. Gun Club, Miami
15. The Clash, Combat Rock
16. The Cure, Pornography
17. Blue Orchids, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) 
18. Siouxsie And The Banshees, A Kiss In The Dreamhouse
19. Dead Kennedys, Plastic Surgery Disasters
20. Waitresses, Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful
21. Simple Minds, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
22. X, Under the Big Black Sun
23. Talking Heads, The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
24. Chic, Tongue in Chic
25. TV Personalities, Mummy Your Not Watching Me/They Could Have Been Bigger than the Beatles
26. The Birthday Party, Junkyard
27. Wall of Voodoo, Call of the West
28. Fleshtones, Roman Gods
29. Judy Nylon and Crucial, Pal Judy
30. Laurie Anderson, Big Science
31. XTC, English Settlement
32. Familie Hesselbach, Familie Hesselbach
33. Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Majestics, Mystic Miracle Star
34. Tom Verlaine, Words from the Front
35. Nightingales, Pigs on Purpose
36. Misfits, Walk Among Us
37. Nurse With Wound, Homotopy to Marie 
38. John Cooper Clarke, Zip Style Method
39. Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, D.T.K. (Live At The Speakeasy)
40. The Jam, The Gift
41. Marine Girls, Beach Party
42. The Sound, All Fall Down
43. Pere Ubu, Song of the Bailing Man
44. Romeo Void, Benefactor
45. D.O.A., War on 45
46. Iron Maiden, The Number of the Beast
47. Eddy Grant, Killer on the Rampage
48. Tall Dwarfs, Louis Likes His Daily Dip
49. Bauhaus, The Sky's Gone Out/Press The Eject and Give Me the Tape
50. Cleaners from Venus, Midnight Cleaners/On Any Normal Monday
51. George Clinton, Computer Games
52. The Psychedelic Furs, Forever Now
53. African Head Charge, Environmental Studies
54. Material, One Down
55. Duran Duran, Rio
56. Culture Club, Kissing to Be Clever
57. Bad Brains, Bad Brains
58. The Descendents, Milo Goes to College
59. Mission of Burma, Vs.
60. Brian Eno, Ambient 4: On Land
61. Neil Young, Trans
62. Thomas Dolby, The Golden Age Of Wireless/She Blinded Me With Science
63. Lou Reed, The Blue Mask
64. Flipper, Album Generic Flipper
65. King Sunny Adé and His African Beats, Juju Music
66. Yazoo, Upstairs at Eric’s
67. Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska
68. Grace Jones, Living My Life
69. Madness, The Rise and Fall
70. Rick James, Throwin Down
71. Go-Go’s, Vacation
72. Devo, Oh No! It’s Devo
73. Nina Hagen, NunSexMonkRock
74. Motorhead, Iron Fist
75. Fear, The Record
76. Men Without Hats, Rhythm of Youth
77. Peter Gabriel, Security
78. Bow Wow Wow, I Want Candy
79. Hunters and Collectors, s/t
80. Strange Advance, World’s Away
81. Dream Syndicate, The Days Of Wine And Roses
82. A Flock of Seagulls, s/t

Cruisin' 1977

"Cruisin' 1977" by Mike Royer (2022, pencil and ink on bristol board). 

My wife Kara and I collect alot of records and along the way somehow we started collecting the Cruisin' series, a nostalgia title that came out in the early Seventies featuring oldies from the 1950s and 60s interspersed with classic radio dj chatter and station ads. The whole collection is made up of 15 records, from 1955 to 1970, and the unique thing about the series is that the cover of each record features the same group of characters in different scenes through the years. The main protagonists are Eddie and Peg, two teenagers in love, who go through many ups and downs, including the Vietnam War and the student revolts of the Sixties, before finally getting married. Each cover was illustrated in classic comic book style, with word balloons and many background details specific to each year. It wasn't until we had collected these records for many years that I realized that the artist who drew these covers was Mike Royer, a cartoonist famous among comic book fans for his association with Jack Kirby, inking and lettering most of Kirby's comics throughout the 1970s, including The New Gods, Black Panther, and The Eternals.

When we sold our record store earlier this year, I got the idea to memorialize our run with some special art, so I contacted Mr. Royer to see about commissioning him to create a version of one of his classic covers as an homage to the Cruisin' series and to our time at Royal Cat Records. I chose his cover to Cruisin' 1967, which takes place in a hippie headshop, and asked him to update it to a record shop in 1977, the year punk broke, and place Kara and myself in the scene. The results were beyond my wildest dreams! I asked local cartoonist Jay Stephens to add colour to the black-and-white masterpiece Mr. Royer created, and I gave the whole package to Kara for Christmas this year.

Thank you Mike and Jay and Merry Christmas from Bryan and Kara!

The Best Records of 1986

by BK Munn

So by popular demand, here’s my list of the Best Albums of 1986! Of course, I think they are objectively the best as well as being favourites --my taste is that good! Nostalgia plays a part in this list, I’m sure, but I discovered large chunks of the records here long after the 80s ended. Some of the records I listened to hundreds of times in 1986 and since. Some I discovered for the first time last week. The ranking is based on not just how good the record is, but also how likely I am to listen to it again and/or how tired I am of the record. The list reflects my stunted taste for dumb, post-punk, and garage-flavoured sounds, and really gives a wide berth to most of the bestselling discs of the day. There are innovative pop and rock records from 1986 that were massive crossover hits and are considered classics by huge swaths of the population but I am heartily sick of them (and was likely sick of them in 1986, so don’t come at me with your Paul Simons and Peter Gabriels, etc). There are a few cheats, and a few anachronisms, mostly in the anthology/compilation category, but most of the stuff here was actually released in 1986 for the first time (it’s largely confined to Anglophonia as well, meaning UK/USA/Canada, so no South Africa, no Zimbabwe, no Japan). What else is not on this list? There are only a handful of country-adjacent records here and I really dropped the ball in the 1986 reggae department. Jazz? I’m a dilettante. Miles released “Tutu” in 1986, and it is a *very* 80s-sounding record. Is it even in the top 40 Miles records? I really don’t know. Not for me. John Zorn is on the list because he’s really more of a punk, isn’t he? And because I feel I could actually listen to those records again at some point. What else did I miss, jazz-wise? A bunch of fusion-y and synth-y noodly stuff it sounds like, for the most part. I mean, let me know how wrong I am. When I’m not blasting angry punk I do sometimes listen to *some* of the more refined and civilized things. Tony Bennett released one of his better comeback albums in 1986, and it’s hard to find a bad Tony Bennett album, period, but should it be on this list? (Ditto the great Mel Torme!) What else? Soundtracks? Blue Velvet and The Mission are standouts, but I would rather rewatch the films, honestly. Laurie Anderson’s is a soundtrack that functions as a stand-alone album to me, and is on the list. No orchestral music, generally. This is a rockist’s rock list!

1. The Fall, Bend Sinister

2. Run-DMC, Raising Hell

3. Various, Back From the Grave Vol 3 + 4

4. Deja Voodoo, Swamp of Love

5. Gruesomes, Tyrants of Teen Trash

6. Various, It Came from Canada 2

7. Sonic Youth, Evol

8. Husker Du, Candy Apple Grey

9. Public Image Ltd, Album

10. Schoolly D, Schoolly D

11. Shop Assistants, Shop Assistants

12. Butthole Surfers, Rembrandt Pussyhorse

13. Dead Kennedys, Bedtime for Democracy

14. Jazz Butcher, Distressed Gentlefolk (tie)

14. Hasil Adkins, Out to Hunch (tie)

15. Bad Brains, I Against I

16. Suicide, Ghost Riders

17. Cocteau Twins, Victorialand

18. The Smiths, The Queen is Dead

19. XTC, Skylarking

20. Throwing Muses, Throwing Muses

21. R.E.M., Life’s Rich Pageant

22. Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Caesars of Trash

23. Cramps, A Date with Elvis

24. Prince, Parade

25. Big Black, Atomizer

26. Ministry, Twitch

27. Talking Heads, True Stories

28. Laurie Anderson, Home of  the Brave

29. Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry 

30. Camper Van Beethoven, Camper Van Beethoven

31. Jr. Gone Wild, More Pop Less Art

32. Big Audio Dynamite, No. 10 Upping St.

33. Felt, Forever Breathes the Lonely Word

34. Spaceman 3, Sound of Confusion

35. The Housemartins, London 0 Hull 4

36. The Feelies, The Good Earth

37. Eugene Chadbourne, Corpses Of Foreign War

38. The Clean, Compilation

39. Dag Nasty, Can I Say

40. Descendents, Enjoy

41. The Leaving Trains, Kill Tunes

42. Nikki Sudden And The Jacobites, Texas/The Last Bandits in the World

43. The Pandoras, Stop Pretending

44. Salt n Pepa, Hot Cool and Vicious

45. Lyres, Lyres Lyres

46. Kool Moe Dee, s/t

47. Didjits, Fizzjob

48. John Zorn, The Big Gundown

49. This Mortal Coil, Filigree And Shadow

50. Ramones, Animal Boy

51. Razor, Malicious Intent

52. Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians, Element Of Light 

53. Motorhead, Orgasmatron

54. Skinny Puppy, Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse 

55. Lou Reed, Mistrial

56. Nick Cave, Kicking Against the Pricks

56. Nick Cave, Your Funeral My Trial

57. That Petrol Emotion, Manic Pop Thrill

58. Delmonas, The Delmonas 5

59. Violent Femmes, The Blind Leading The Naked 

60. Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, Planet Rock: The Album

61. Youth of Today, Break Down the Walls

62. Killing Joke, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns 

63. Swans, Holy Money

64. Iggy Pop, Blah Blah Blah

65. Go-Betweens, Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express 

66. The Flaming Lips, Hear It Is

67. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Tinderbox

68. Ray Condo And His Hardrock Goners, Crazy Date

69. Art of Noise, In Visible Silence

70. Meat Puppets, Out My Way

71. Velvet Underground, Another VU

72. The No Comprendo, Les Rita Mitsouko

73. fIREHOSE, Ragin', Full-On  

74. Dayglo Abortions, Feed Us A Fetus

75. NoMeansNo, Sex Mad

75. Revolting Cocks, Big Sexy Land

77. New Order, Brotherhood

78. Stetsasonic, On Fire

79. Various, C86 

80. Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill

81. Stan Ridgway, The Big Heat

82. John Zorn, Cobra

83. The Chameleons, Strange Times

84. The Smithereens, Especially For You

85. Cowboy Junkies, Whites Off Earth Now!!

86. Talk Talk, The Colour of Spring

Recent Flexi-disc Comic Books

The greatest novelty publishing format mixes two of my favourite things: comics and records. There was a brief vogue for including flexi-discs in comic books during the 1980s. Famously, Alan Moore recorded as part of combo The Sinister Ducks and released a flexi, "March of the Sinister Ducks"/"Old Gangsters Never Die", in Critters #23 (1988). Issues of Nexus, Scout, RAW, Femforce, Mad, and many others included similar stunts. With the resurgence of vinyl, the flexi has reappeared and the combining of comics and records has also made a comeback, usually in comics with a music connection or as stand-alone marketing gimmicks added to record packages by musicians. Here are some recent flexi-discs included in comic books from the last few years:

Ed Piskor / Jorun Bombay, Hip Hop Family Tree #12 (2016)

Publisher's blurb: "Too many incredible milestones in this issue to name! LL Cool J makes a record with Rick Rubin and Def Jam. KRS One gets arrested and meets his future DJ. The Fat Boys and Run DMC headline the first national Hip Hop tours. Just to name a few. PLUS: This issue comes with an exclusive flexi disc of hip hop gold!" [flexi-disc by Jorun Bombay: "Hip Hop Family Tree"]

HANS ZIMMER & JUNKIE XL, "There War Here" (2016)

Inserted into a special edition of Birth.Movies.Death, the magazine of soundtrack label Mondo Records. Publisher's blurb: This March titans tussled as BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE exploded into theaters. To celebrate the long-awaited team up of the world’s finest superheroes, BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH. published a special collector’s issue exploring the histories of the characters in comics, cartoons, TV shows and movies. From ACTION COMICS #1 to the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE movie, BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH. tells you everything you need to know to watch Batman and Superman square off.

As a bonus we are randomly inserting limited flexi discs featuring a track from Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL's epic BATMAN V SUPERMAN score into copies of the magazine. Only 2,500 exist! The issue features the secret history of Wonder Woman, an appreciation of Prince’s classic Batdance and an essay by comic book legend Mark Waid reminding us “Why Superman Matters.” This spectacular collector’s edition boasts a dynamic wraparound Mondo-designed cover by Oliver Barrett, and inside it features an exclusive gallery of Mondo’s most exciting DC Comics artwork, reprinted in full page, full color glory!

CHARLY BLISS, Guppy: Issue One (2017)

Publisher's blurb: "Now you too can experience one of the year's most critically acclaimed albums ... in comic book form! Barsuk Records and Charly Bliss are pleased to present Guppy: Issue One, a limited-edition 16-page full-color comic that's a companion piece to Charly Bliss' debut album Guppy. Not only does this comic include artwork by noted indie comic book artists Sadie DuPuis (of Speedy Ortiz), Michael DeForge, and cover art by Noah Van Sciver (amongst others) but it also includes a flexi-disc with two previously unreleased tracks from the Guppy sessions, "Golden Age" and "Special", along with a download code for digital enjoyment. The comic book is limited to 500 worldwide and each are hand numbered."

FRANCESCO DE MASI / ANOTHER DEAD JUNKIE, The New York Ripper theme (2017)

This comic book adaptation of The New York Ripper, the 1982 Italian giallo film directed by Lucio Fulci, contains a signed-and-numbered 7-Inch New York Ripper flexi picture disc soundtrack featuring Francesco De Masis' theme music from the original soundtrack performed by Another Dead Junkie.  Flexi art by Pat Carbajal, with colours by Bruna Costa. Comes in a plastic sleeve with liner notes insert, featuring the original poster art from the original theatrical release.

Denzel Curry, Unlocked (2020)

Publisher's blurb: "Earlier this year, Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats put their heads together and emerged with a clever project, Unlocked. It was first released as a short film/long-form music video, in which a collaborative album between the two leaks online, so the two have to virtually traverse the internet to recover it. The next day, they released the songs from the film as a new album of the same title. Now, Curry and Beats are dipping back into the Unlocked well, as they are gearing up to release the project in comic book form.

The plot of the comic comes courtesy of Psycho Films, and the 48-page book will be illustrated by Sam Hochman, Joey Prosser, Forrest Whaley, Justin Johnson, Chaz Bottoms, Malik Bolton, Rachel Headlam, Borboev Shakhnazer, and Asekov Tilek. Additionally, the book will include a vinyl flexi-disc insert of the single “DIET_.” "

Comics in Film: Top Guns of the West in The Harder They Come (1972)

Comics in Film: The Harder They Come (1972). Top Guns of the West: Super DC Giant #14, 1970.

Reggae star Jimmy Cliff reads a comic about gunfighters in this movie about a wannabe reggae star who finally has a big hit on the radio and the sales charts when he becomes a gunfighting marijuana dealer. This comic is a reprint collection of classic western stories illustrated by well-known superhero artists like Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Kubert (who drew the cover). Also seen in the film, in a scene where Cliff's jealous preacher boss looks through the car, is another 1970 comic book, Two Gun Kid #95, featuring stories by the Holy Trinity of Marvel Comics westerns, John Severin, Dick Ayers, and Jack Kirby. Cliff's character later become something of a "two gun kid" himself when he embarks on his crime spree, killing a bunch of cops with a pair of pistols and then brazenly posing for a set of glamour shots in a photo studio brandishing the same guns like a comic book cowboy. These imported U.S. comics were part of the cultural mileu that ska and reggae emerged out of, along with crime movies and U.S. top 40 pop and jazz. The desperate life of serial unemployment and low-level drug dealing the film documents had a fantasy flipside in the music that could just as easily reference "James Bond" and "Al Capone" as well as romance or Rastafarianism.

Pussy Katnip by Len Short

by BK Munn

Pussy Katnip was a super-powered nightclub singer and detective who appeared in over 20 comic book stories in the 1940s, mostly in anthology funny animal and humour titles published by Fox Feature Syndicate. Created and drawn by cartoonist Len Short (I know nothing about him), Pussy Katnip debuted in 1944. The owner of the Katnip Kafe nightclub, Pussy and her boyfriend, firefighter George the dog, would get involved in solving a mystery or crime in every short story. The villains of the series were local gangsters Boss and Mugsy. The thing that makes the series interesting, besides Len Short's weirdly wonderful art style, is that Pussy got her superpowers from an old family recipe (her family look like witches!) for "Katnip Fizz"!!

When confronted with a problem she cannot solve, she quickly runs to her secret pantry shelf where is concealed a bottle of Katnip Fizz ... brewed in Olden Times by Pussy's ancestors and passed on to each succeeding generation, this potent drink changes her usual shy self into a fighting fury and gives her an insight and intelligence unsurpassed in Feline History!

These two strips are from the comic book Ribtickler #1, 1945.

Burton Cummings, Comic Book Critic

Superstar rocker Burton Cummings is a big comic book collector, maybe the King of Canadian Comic Book Collectors. He has fond memories of everything from Jimmy Olsen to Little Lulu and Tubby, and doubled down on his pop culture collecting beginning in the 1980s, amassing a giant archive of vinyl records, cds, sports cards, etc. He writes often on the subject on his Facebook page. He also has written a weird fictional(?) story about an older collector living in California who gets ripped off by a femme fatale. I thought it would be interesting to share some of his reflections on collecting DC comics in the 1950s and 1960s when he was a kid in Winnipeg. Here he is writing on Facebook from November, 2019:

COMICS AND MONEY

COMICS…for many of us of a certain age, comics were "that other world". Bear in mind, I'll be 72 on December 31st this year, so I clearly remember life before there was television. We were not an affluent household, so my Mother couldn't afford television immediately when it was first available. For a while, I would go to the Rosh Pina synagogue on Matheson avenue with my friend Arnold Silver or his younger brother Barry, and a bunch of us kids would sit cross legged on the floor, hypnotized by this new "magical" thing called television. The synagogue had one before most of the neighbourhood. Spellbound, we would sit on the floor and be whisked away by Roy Rogers, Range Rider, Lassie, Father Knows Best, Huckleberry Hound, maybe King of the Khyber Rifles, or a host of other early television shows. But before that, at least for me and many other kids, comics were the "release" into the world of fantasy.
There was always a choice between the Marvel family and the DC family. I ALWAYS preferred DC to MARVEL. Don't really know why, but I always did.
DC family included Superman, Batman, Superboy, Action, Adventure, World's Finest (which teamed up Superman with Batman and Robin), Lois Lane, and my personal favourite Jimmy Olsen.
For some reason, the Jimmy Olsen comics struck a chord with me. Maybe it was because he was Superman's pal, and a lot of us young boys could identify with how miraculous that would be if it were one of us.
And the Jimmy Olsen stories seemed more fantastic in many ways. Once in a while, DC would put out a special issue containing "errors" which were purposely placed throughout one of the stories. We were told to spot the errors and write in with our answers. I never "wrote in" but my friend Arnold Silver and I would sit on the steps inside his house on Lansdowne and try to spot all the purposely placed mistakes…(for example, the "S" on Superman's costume might be backward, or Jimmy Olsen's hair might be black instead of red, or the Daily Planet newspaper might have a different name, etc.) We always thought that was so special…

Pictured here are two comic covers…Action #240, featuring which is perhaps one of my all time favourite covers, with the sphinx having Kryptonite vision. This one was released in May of 1958, so I would have been 10 when it came out. The other one is Jimmy Olsen #108, released in January of 1968. I had just turned 20 at its release date, had been in the Guess Who for a year or so, but I still loved the comics. You'll notice that the price had risen from 10c to 12c, indicating a huge change in the world of "back then".
For me, when the price jumped up to 12c, things never seemed quite the same after that. We had all become so accustomed to 10c being the price, I don't think any of us really liked the change. It was an indication that our world was not immune to disruptive change.
These two covers illustrate the beauty that we all found in these thin paper books. The artwork was always superbly drawn and DC had quite a following on a world wide basis.
Much later in the 1980's, I began collecting comics obsessively, almost getting carried away at times, but I still held on to boxes full of the ones I had bought as a kid. Today, the comic collecting world has, in some ways, become tarnished and corrupted by the money. Recently some musician paid over 2 million dollars for an Action #1, which contains the first appearance ever of Superman. 2 million for a ten cent comic…astounding…but then again, think of it for a minute…people have been known to pay far more than that for a tiny postage stamp or a single coin. The old adage rings true…"something is genuinely worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it". How true. I would never succumb to the phrase that money is the root of all evil, but it certainly has changed things…sports is a good example.
The Huston Astros recently invested 500 million dollars to acquire three pitchers…500 million !!!
And it didn't even help them win the world series against the Washington Nationals…oh well…
Mickey Mantle made $100,000 a season from 1963 to 1968 and he was one hell of a player…when Rocket Richard first signed with the Montreal Canadiens, he was paid $5,000 for a season…today there are hockey players signing contracts for upwards of ten million and more…as Bob Dylan so eloquently put it
"for the times, they are a-changin'"...
Money certainly has changed through my lifetime. The Beatles sold out Shea Stadium and were paid a lump sum of $50,000…Taylor Swift did a stadium tour not long ago which grossed $266 Million…yikes…I'll bet she has her car and fridge paid off by now.
We live in a strange world now, compared to the world I was raised in, all those years ago on Lansdowne Ave. in the North end of Winnipeg. I'm seriously grateful still to be alive and fairly healthy, able to go out and do one man shows for seriously appreciative audiences.
But when I gaze at the two comic book covers pictured below, part of me yearns wholeheartedly for those days of yesteryear…
Hang on to your memories, folks. No one can ever take those away from you.
They're worth far more than all the money that's ever printed…
Luck and Health…
BLC

R.I.P. Mark E. Smith

by BK Munn

Mark E. Smith 1957-2018.

Marvel Team-Up #41-44, by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema (Marvel Comics, 1976). 

In this 4-issue series of stories, the sorcerous super-villain Dark Rider uses Cotton Mather to transport Spider-Man and the Scarlet WItch to the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 in order to lure Dr. Doom and siphon his mystic powers. The story is referenced in The Fall song, "Various Times," the B-Side to the band's second single, "It's the New Thing" (1978). Fall singer and chief song-writer Mark E. Smith was a comic book reader and made many comics references in his art, including nods to Jack Kirby, Brian Talbot, Viz Comics, and, most famously, to the work of Jack Cole in his song "How I Wrote Elastic Man." Smith was something of a prole-art visionary, obsessed with time-travel, the Holocaust, rockabilly, Arthur Machen, H.P. Lovecraft, 60s Motown, Philip K. Dick, Rasputin, the Witch Trials, and other arcane aspects of U.S. and UK pop culture and history. 

Mark E. Smith died today at age 60. 

The relevant lyrics from "Various Times" are as follows (the lyric also references a novel by science fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin, whose death is also being widely mourned today). The song examines racism and ideological extremism during three different points in human history (The Salem Wich Trials, World War II Germany, and modern-day Britain) and ponders how seemingly normal people could become complicit in mass hysteria and horrible historical atrocities.

"Future:
1980
Black windows
And smokey holes
My head is full of lead
And the beer is so weak
Since they got rid of time around here

Dr. Doom
Fresh from Salem
And the witch trials
The Lathe of Heaven
Time mistaken
Three places at once
Human [race]
Don't think, ask him
Ask him
Ask him”

Marvel Boycott Diary: Jack Kirby Petition Playlist

The Jack Kirby Petition Soundtrack. 1,400 signatures and growing.

It's always a delicate balance with these Kirby playlists. I want to capture something of the fury and frustration of the Jack Kirby petition, and the growing movement to abandon Marvel, but at the same time I have this fantasy that Kirby should actually be able to relate to the music? Dunno. It's tough. On the one hand, Kirby was a visionary whose gaze took in galaxies and the far future. He was a political liberal who nevertheless had a super-strong work ethic, having survived the Depression, the streets of New York, World War II, and the comic book industry. He saw a lot, loved a lot of what he saw, was philosophical, but was also fairly embittered by many of his experiences. So, what kind of music did he listen to? Surely he was immersed in the pop music of his youth: jazz, blues, swing and the ballads of the 20, 30s, and 40s? Later, his son Neal had a rock band. Would the creator of the Hairies, OMAC, and Captain Victory hate punk and new wave? What about hip-hop? I like to imagine Kirby working in his studio through the 80s and 90s with MTV blaring in the background, chomping on a cigar, cartooning cosmic conflicts. But was he also thinking about how he wasn't going to get any credit or royalties for all the characters and stories he created for Marvel, and how he might not be able to leave a legacy for his kids?

5. Feel The Pain, Dinosaur Jr.

Fun video, but I really like the lyric, "I feel the pain of everyone/Then I feel nothing/Is it up to me?/You won't wait to see/Screwed us both again/About as close as you dare."


4. Dunkin Bagel, Slim Gaillard.

Like to think that Jack could have seen Slim and Slam back in the day (he could be in the audience of this video!) or maybe owned one of their records. Goofy fun with wonderful jazz instrumentation and since Kirby was Jewish thought he would enjoy this tribute to a New York City Jewish delicacy (hey, it was either this, or Gaillard's "Matzo Ball").


3. New York City, The Demics.

Thought about maybe something by The Diodes here, maybe Time Damaged (kind of futuristic, with a pallor) or their cover of Shape of Things to Come (ditto), or maybe Tired of Waking Up Tired ('cause Kirby pushed himself but never got enough credit or money and he was tired of it), but decided on The Demics' New York City. Thought the lyric could be about trekking downtown for another story conference with Stan the Man: "I'm getting pretty tired/Of going downtown/You know the same trip everyday/It's kinda bringing me down/Will I get out/Well I wonder how/I gotta get it movin' Man/I gotta move it right now..."


2. Just a Little Bit, Van Morrison and Them.

Garage-y R&B with killer organ. Van the Man sings, "I don't want it all/I just want a little bit." Why can't Marvel give just a little bit of their love to Kirby and fam?


1. Brother Can You Spare a Dime? by E. Y. "Yip" Harburg and Jay Gorney (performed by T. Waits)

Is it just me or is this song about Jack Kirby? From the depths of the Depression, through the days of the mob, through war, he built a tower up to the sun: "They used to tell me I was building a dream/And so I followed the mob/When there was earth to plow or guns to bear/I was always there, right on the job/They used to tell me I was building a dream/With peace and glory ahead/Why should I be standing in line Just waiting for bread?"


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Playlist: The Jack Kirby Petition is a Missile Hurled by History

Playlist: Top 10 Songs the Jack Kirby Petition Would Be

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Until next time, please remember to Boycott Marvel!

Previous:

Should We Boycott Marvel?

Cartoonist Seth on the Marvel Boycott

The Jack Kirby Petition at change.org

Marvel Boycott Diary: The Jack Kirby Petition is a Missile Hurtled by History

"Put ya guns up, tell your crew don’t front."

Jack Kirby Petition weekly soundtrack. 1,200 signatures and growing.

5. Black Betty, by Leadbelly (traditional arrangement)



4. Armalite Rifle, Gang of Four



3. 212, Azealia Banks



2. Good Guys (Don't Wear White), Minor Threat (Standells Cover)



1. Underdog, Dirtbombs

Marvel Boycott Diary: Top Ten Songs The Jack Kirby Petition Would Be

So I had a few drinks and listened to some hurtin' songs. Then I wondered about the soundtrack that would play when Jack Kirby finally gets his due.

Please sign the Kirby petition.

#10. Waylon Jennings, Mental Revenge. "I hope that the friend that you find yourself with gets drunk and loses his job/and that the road that you're traveling on gets rough, rocky and hard/you never really loved me, you only made me blue/and all in all if the curtain should fall, I hope it falls on you."

#9 Blondie, One Way Or Another. I like to picture Kirby listening to Blondie records while penciling The Eternals. Thena and Kro teaming up against The Celestials? Totally a Debbie Harry moment.

#8. Destiny's Child, Survivor. Maybe Beyonce could be one of Kirby's zaftig amazons?

#7. Big Maybelle, One Monkey Don't Stop the Show. Blues diva Big Maybelle (1924-1972) had a storied career and many hits, the last in 1967. Born in Jackson, Tenessee, she toured the entire U.S., including the Apollo Theater in New York City. She recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" two years before Jerry Lee Lewis. This rendition of the Rose McCoy-penned classic "fuck you" song is a great hard-boiled jilted lover tune.

#6. Kate Bush, The Wedding List. A song based on the 'La Mariee Etait En Noir' or 'The Bride Wore Black' by Francois Truffaut. Revenge melodrama. Kirby could have seen it in a matinee in 1969 or so.

#5. Rocky Racoon by Lena Horne. I like to think that Jack could have heard this version of the Beatles country-blues themed murder ballad, originally presented on Charles Manson's favourite record, here recorded by that most classy of dames, Miss Lena Horne, sometime in the 1960s or 70s on a late-night FM broadcast or maybe on some 80s variety show with jokes written by Mark Evanier.

#4. Nazi Rock by Serge Gainsbourg. Born Lucien Ginsburg in Paris, France, the son of Russian Jewish emigrants, Serge Gainsburg survived the Nazi occupation to become once of France's biggest pop stars and sex symbols. Cartoonist Joann Sfar has recently directed a film of his career, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

#3. Magnetic Fields, Yeah Oh Yeah. I love this song and decided to throw it in here since it seems to be an oblique criticism of an incompetent "lesser" artist. It kind of has a quirkiness and enunciation that I associate with Kirby.

#2. The Clash, Ghetto Defendant. As seen in his classic "Street Code" comic book short story, Kirby was the original ghetto defendant. Here, Alan Ginsberg updates the Kirby experience to the 1970s.

#1 what else?

Woody Guthrie Tear the Fascists Down. Kirby as Depression-era scrabbler, Captain America creator, World War II veteran.