Patron Saint of the Podcast Bo Diddley is up this week with his 1960 track "Road Runner," with cover versions by The Pretty Things, The Gants, The Liverbirds, and The Phantoms - those last 4 in a race for the coveted Bo Diddley Award. Meep meep!

Get ready to flop on the floor this week - we'll be doing the Alligator, as mentioned in "Land of 1,000 Dances"! The first in our animal menagerie is "Alligator Meat" by Charlie Singleton & His Orchestra from 1951, which sounds like Slim Gaillard if he rocked, rather than jazzed. After dinner, enjoy "Alligator Stomp" by The Rampages - a throwback rocker from 1964. That same year, "The 100 Mile An Hour Alligator" by The P.J. Murphy Quintet captured the ferocity and energy of the titular animal in a spiffy intro number. Frat-tastic! Next, The Dynamic Kapers offer us some "Alligator Wine" to wash down the gator meat. It's an early Leiber/Stoller tune! Before they kissed you all over in the 70s, Jimmy Stokley & The Exiles warned us it was "Alligator Time." It's even more salacious than their later paean to sex! We saved the best for last with "The Alligator" by The Us Four from Louisville, Kentucky. This song has it all, dual vocals, cool percussion, an upfront organ, and koool lyrics that implore you to forget all other dances! Dance this mess around!!

Let's get on our bikes and ride this weekend !!- we're talking about Tomorrow's 1967 psych classic, "My White Bicycle." A story of a rebellious youth flouting society's conventions, full of trippy headphone frolicking! Leviathan were the next act to take up the bike ... er ... song ... I guess the bell was broken by the time they got it? Nazareth actually had a hit with the song, but we wonder what the heck is going on with the vocals!? We could do without the bland 70s prog solo section, but your mileage may vary. A broken Axl, perhaps? We really like the version by Neil (aka Nigel Planer) from Brit tv's The Young Ones. This one really feels like a proper bike ride! It's got a Captain Sensible vibe - and it brings back the bell! The psych feel returns with Valentin Noiret's version, which adds some cool Kraut-rock elements. Ding ding!!

You're about to hear one of the most wounded garage rock tunes ever this week - "Point Five", by another group of Nomads, this one from Pennsylvania. There's something about this one that stands out - from the powerless vocals, to the poetic lyrics, to the awkward, amateurish, but compelling playing. We'd say it's one of a kind, but another Pa. band - the excellently named Adam & The Evils - did a version hot on the heels of the original. Their rendition is really different and brings us back to the origins of the podcast: comparing two versions of a cool garage rock tune and finding out what makes this kind of music special... add it all up for a great episode!

As a follow up to our "Dick Picks" episode, we have an embarassment of Riches this week - including Rick and The Raiders (the first record by Rick Derringer!), The Old Exciting Scot Richard Case, and more! 

After our episode on Minneapolis garage rock (#273, April 17, 2026), we discovered that another Gopher State band had recorded "Action Woman," and the vocal performance is even wilder than The Litter! We hearken to The Electras version line by line to analyze the madness, and I think we even throw in a bonus song!

A buncha songs by a buncha Dicks with some notable organ solos this week:  The Dick Watson Five (there were two bands with this name, only one with the titular Dick W.), Dick Roby (goin' solo from The Castaways, having his Lynn Easton moment), The Spats (featuring the doubly-phallic Dick Johnson), Dicky Treadway & The Salados, and some dirtbags from Michigan who called their band Dick Rabbit ... Workin'!!

Consider this Fat Friday! - we're doing the legendary Mardi Gras tune "Iko Iko" this week but first we have to reverse the parade back to the 50s to hear the source, James 'Sugar Boy' Crawford & His Cane Cutters and "Jockomo." It's got a real carnival feel and Sugar Boy blows out the mic! The spy boys then scout rival krewe The Dixie Cups version, "Iko Iko," from 1965. We dispute the lore that the song was totally spontaneous, but that doesn't stop us from loving the rhythm and the subdued vocals. The song is always a sure-fire hit, and so we discuss high-charting renditions by Natasha England and then Belle Stars, and there's also some album filler from Cyndi Lauper! IKO!

This week we're celebrating the music of Minneapolis - and we're sending it out to Pastronaut "Dr. Fate," who requested the last song on our list. The first group of Minneapolitans are The Accents with a boss cover of Lonnie Mack's "Why." Who doesn't love the Minnesota accent they give this wailer?! The next busload of teens actually come to the city from Edina - outside of Minny - but everyone calls The Novas a Minneapolis combo and it's time for us to do one of the WILDEST tunes of the 60s - "The Crusher"! Listen to us talk about it or we'll get you in the square circle!! To the psychedelic side of the 60s to hear The Litter sing about an "Action Woman" ... this Nugget is pure horny proto-cock-rock but it's still super cool (like Minny in March). Finally, the song Dr. Fate requested: "Triangles" by Danny's Reasons, one of those few genuine headscratchers in terms of lyrical content, but it's bonkers, sort of like Ted Knight!! We're gonna make it after all! (ps. someone remind Weldon that women can be Doctors, too!)

Some minor audio issues this week - Weldon's mic is too hot! - but it's tempered by a gentle song by The Monkees - "I Wanna Be Free" from 1966. Infact, they did two versions - the first is sweet, simple and stringy with a vocal by Davy Jones, the second is Dylan-bait with Mickey Dolenz singing.  Mod and The Rockers from Virginia did a garage version in '67, and then there's a soulful gender-flipped version by Vivian Reed from '68. Finally, another in our growing list of unlikely artists, we include an elegaic version by Richard Marx! Turn the volume down and enjoy!!