In the mid-1970’s rock scribe Greg Shaw schooled me (via his fine, fine, superfine Who Put The Bomp? magazine) that the power-pop genre of rock & roll (melody & hooks crossed with genuine instrumental POWER) had been invented by The Who in their “I’m A Boy,” “Happy Jack,” “Pictures Of Lily” English heyday of 1966. Unfortunately, from the late 1960’s on (due to the prevalence of psychedelia, country-rock, heavy-metal, singer/songwriters, prog-rock, corporate-rock, punk/new wave, MTV-dreck, grunge, hip-hop, etc.) power-pop has taken a beating from more mainstream music genres.
In these dog days of August, Pencil Storm presents five decades of criminally overlooked power-pop tunes…….
The Move / “I Can Hear The Grass Grow” / 1967
The Move eventually morphed into ELO with the addition of Jeff Lynne in 1970 and departure of original group leader Roy Wood in 1972. Other power-pop gems from the Move included “Fire Brigade,” “California Man,” and “Do Ya.” And let’s face facts; Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen never met a Move song he didn’t love.
The Pop! / “Down On The Boulevard” / 1976
The Pop! were an L.A. band I loved beyond comprehension from 1975 until their break-up in the early 80’s. I first read about them in fanzine/magazine Back Door Man, my Rock & Roll Bible of the time, after Creem faded from relevancy when Lester Bangs moved on to New York Rocker.
20/20 / “Remember The Lightning” / 1980
Another L.A. band of the late 70’s. 20/20 and The Pop! both got signed to major-label deals during The Great Power-Pop Scare of 1979, after The Knack hit Number One with “My Sharona” and every label scrambled to get in on the action. And both got summarily dropped and broke up when the boomlet faded.
Robin Zander / “Reactionary Girl” / 1993
My favorite song from Zander’s eponymous early-90’s solo record. I have NEVER, for the life of me, understood how this song wasn’t a hit single. (Oh yeah, it was 1993 and all anybody wanted to listen to was In Utero and all that Pearl Jam and Sub Pop crap.) Does Cheap Trick ever play this song live?
Watershed / “Small Doses” / 2005
Hometown Columbus, Ohio, boys Watershed with Shoulda-Been-A-Single “Small Doses.” I’m allowed to cheer on this tune because I wasn’t employed as a roadie by the band when it came out, so I can’t be accused of conflict-of-interest. This is the live version from 2007 (by which time I’d been hired).
SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL BONUS VIDEO
Watershed / “Suckerpunch” / Live 2013
I didn’t feel like we could leave without a live representation of one of my five favorite Watershed songs. “Suckerpunch” was originally released on 2002’s The More It Hurts, The More It Works disc and it only seemed right to include a Joe Oestreich lead vocal in our power-pop festivities.
Ricki C. turned 70 years old earlier this summer. His first favorite rock & roll song was Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” when he was five years old, riding in his sainted Italian father’s Oldsmobile. He figures his last favorite rock & roll song will be by either Elliott Murphy or Ian Hunter, sometime in the future.
If you are so inclined, you can read all about the times in between then and now in Ricki’s blog, Growing Old With Rock & Roll.