she knows what boys like

(click image to enlarge)

From 1969’s Debbi’s Dates #3, a poetic fashion revue focusing on culottes.

Let me restate that last bit. A sequence. Told in verse. About skorts. Illustrated by the bastard child of Peter Max and Alphonse Mucha.

That’s like nine slices of heaven for a retrologist such as me. Forget All Star Superman, it’s things like the above page that remind me why I love comic books so darn much.

For no other reason than the original version of the song popped into my head when I first came across this four-color fashion revue, here are two rather misguided new wave takes on The Doors’ classic “Hello, I Love You.”

Missing Persons – Hello, I Love You (from Spring Session M, 1982) – There are several excellent tracks on this album, but this isn’t one of them. I like the underlying concept – recasting the raw emotive sexuality of the original version as cold, robotic new wave pop – but the execution left a lot to be desired, and it ends up simply feeling perfunctory and rushed. I respect Dale Bozzio for not losing her Medford accent when she sings, although it’s much more pronounced in “Words.” (“Can you he-yah me? Do you cay-yah?” Go Mustangs!)

Adam Ant – Hello, I Love You (from Friend or Foe, 1982) – Why, Adam, why? (This question also applies to any part of Adam's post-Ants career.)

The Cure also recorded a couple versions of the song, which appear on the Join the Dots collection of rarities and whatnot, but I’m not sadistic (or masochistic) enough to inflict them on you at this time.