BATMAN
Batman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and first appeared in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne, an American billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and owner of Wayne Enterprises. Having witnessed the murder of his parents as a child, he swore revenge on criminals, an oath tempered with a sense of justice. Wayne trains himself both physically and intellectually and crafts a bat-inspired persona to fight crime. An American cultural icon, Batman has been licensed and adapted into a variety of media, from radio to television and film, and appears on a variety of merchandise sold all over the world, such as toys and video games. In May 2011, Batman placed second on IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time, after Superman. (More from Wikipedia)
Side 2 of the 1989 retrospective album of Link Protrudi and the Jaymen, Missing Links includes a live performance of “Batman”, played against the backdrop of the original “Batman Theme” by Neal Hefti for the 1960’s Batman TV show. Midway through the performance, two of the bandmembers take a novel approach to the old rumor that Batman and Robin were the original Ambiguously Gay Duo by letting Robin admit to having a dalliance with Spider-Man.
(February 2013)
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Greil Marcus wrote the glowing and lyrical liner notes for The American in Me; they start off: “In 1977, ‘The American in Me’ was the torn flag flown by the Avengers. Singer and writer Penelope Houston, guitarist Greg Ingraham, bassist James Wilsey, and drummer Danny Furious made up the best punk band in San Francisco, at moments the best in the country – and what they were claiming in ‘The American in Me’ was the country itself: the country that the Avengers’ songs said didn’t want them, didn’t recognize them, didn’t hear them, wouldn’t listen. They left themselves no room for irony.
“‘We Are the One’, they announced; ‘What is “the One”?’ the song makes you ask. ‘I am the one who brings you the future,’ [Penelope] Houston chants to end it. ‘I am the one who buries the past’. Everything about the thing sounds ridiculous, especially the glee you can hear in the band’s voices, the Oh-my-God-we-are-actually-pulling-this-off thrill of saying what you want to say right out loud, where everyone can hear you, free speech like the Batman signal in the sky, or a rock through the window that separates the true from the false. Everything sounds ridiculous – except what the song actually sounds like, and the frightening conviction backing up every word. No matter how sarcastic Houston was on stage, taunting the crowd between numbers, the songs said the Avengers meant exactly what they said or they meant nothing. ‘The American in Me’ could not be a joke.”
(March 2017)
