Early Power Pop

Power Pop. A throwback to simpler music. Short, upbeat songs with bright harmonies. Descriptions usually invoke the Who (pre-Tommy), the Kinks (pre-Face to Face), or the Beatles (pre-Rubber Soul). They often feature punchy or arpeggiated chords, which may be clean and compressed or treated with crunchy distortion. In its heyday, the prime movers were Cheap Trick or the Knack, but who influenced them? We all know those four Badfinger Songs. We know about Big Star and at least know one song, even if it's a cover by This Mortal Coil, the Bangles, or a cover version as the theme song to a sitcom. Most of us can name at least one - and maybe as many as three - Raspberries songs, but what else was there? Quite a bit, it would seem: Early Power Pop.

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This One, I'm Sure, You All Know....

Today, April 28 in l978, Cheap Trick recorded the first of two shows from which Cheap Trick at Budokan was culled. Initially a Japanese only release, it proved a popular import and was released domestically in early l979. It was my first real album purchase aside from some Beatles and Beach Boy ‘Best Ofs” and...um... Paperlace (when I was 8). I remember the booklet that came with the album –– the lyrics were in English, there were some tour photos and everything else was written in Japanese. Five (and a half) of the album's lO songs were from In Color . I read somewhere that the band wasn't happy with that LP's slick production, and wanted a do-over. It certainly worked with " I Want You to Want Me " and " Clock Strikes Ten "...the other three songs on this expanded version do not disappoint. Later, during the summer of '79, my dad took me and three friends to see Cheap Trick. The Pez Band (later Off Broadway ) opened up. Dad was over 4...

NRBQ

Here's wishing Joey Spampinato a happy birthday. His old band, NRBQ, should've been a presence on the airwaves. Instead they showed up mostly on the college radio and NPR affiliates left of the dial. While the band had friends and admirers in high places - Keith Richards, Bonnie Rait, REM, the Simpson's, Dr. Demento, Captain Lou - they never managed a mainstream breakthrough. In part, perhaps, it was of their own making. They could play, play anything: and they did. Their first album, in 1969, includes covers of Sun Ra , " Hey Baby ", Eddie Cochran - that last, one of the best ever. With three songwriters contributing equally, they may've been too eclectic and radio didn't know what to do with them. The debut also included a song of Joey's - " You Can't Hide " - which points the way to the the band's power pop of their late '70's - early '80's heyday. In fact the band would return to the song on 1980's " Tidd...

Yes, There's Gas in the Car

In 1970 the police raided the house of Owsley Stanley - famed financial backer of Blue Cheer, architect of the dread "Wall of Sound" and LSD producer of renown. It was the third bust of note. The first, in December of 1967 found him with millions of dollars of acid. He was released on bail. Three years later, in Jnnuary, 1970, he was arrested along with the Grateful Dead in New Orleans - as related in " Truckin ". This last arrest resulted in the revocation of his bail and he spent the next two years in prison. On his release, Stanley returns to the Dead - a band that he initially bankrolled - to run sound for them again, but all is not the same. He's no longer the player he was. The road crew has emerged as a power center. He builds the Wall of Sound but the band goes on hiatus in 1974. The Wall is dismantled and Owsley never works with them again. The whole arc of his time with the Dead inspired Steely Dan's " Kid Charlemagne " - working in his...

Rust Never Sleeps

What's the best concert film? That's a tough one. It depends. Many would say Stop Making Sense , it's a good performance, but it is edited together from three separate shows. Others would say The Last Waltz , but the running order of the show has been altered, probably timed to give viewers a bathroom break during Neil Diamond's segment. Consider, however, Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Rust Never Sleeps, filmed this week (10-22) in 1978 at the Cow Palace. It is a single show. Neil has some sort of concept in mind. the Jawas from Star Wars manage the stage. There are some gigantic trunks that Neil climbs around on. I guess he is a child, or maybe an action figure to fit in with the Jawas. The title was suggested by one of the guys from Devo. We get a flashback to Woodstock. It seems to be uncut. Note that there are some slow parts as Neil washes the spit out of his harmonica by sloshing it around in a bucket of water. It sounds like the bucket is miked. It's Nei...

George Jones Jones

The Possum would have turned 90 today. To mark the day, I'll suggest a live album, Back in the Saddle (Live: 1979) . It is an interesting LP. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on it. George seems to be playing at Gilley's in Houston....as Mickey gets several mentions. It says "1979", but that may not be right. Lorrie Morgan is in the band, singing backup and the Tammy parts, but he wasn't with George until 1981-83. In 1979, however, she was married to Jones Boy Ron Gaddis, so the date could be accurate. George introduces " He Stopped Loving Her Today " as a song he always likes to play when he's in Houston, The audience responds with enthusiasm and recognition, but George cut that one in 1979 and didn't release it until 1980. It is not a concert, per se, because the audience fades in at the beginning of most songs and then fades out at the end. The recordings seem to be genuinely live, though. There is some feedback that creeps...

Богатирські ворота (The Great Gate of Kyiv)

On May 9th, we caught a show by Shakey Horse at the Witch's House in Haunchyville, WI. Posted below is a soundboard recording of an excerpt from their arrangement of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". Unfortunately, the mellotron part is inaudible (maybe unlistenable). The band's tron player, Tommy, had his amp turned up so high that they cut his volume in the mix.

Cookin', Steamin', Workin', and Relaxin' With the Miles Davis Quintet

Sixty five years ago, on October 26, the Miles Davis Quintet assembled for a recording session that yielded most of the Cookin' and Relaxin' albums and a tune apiece that appeared on the Workin' and Steamin' discs. The other tracks on those albums were recorded in a one day session earlier that year. Four quality albums, not bad for two days of work.

801

In January of 1974, Phil Manzanera finished recording his first solo album, Diamond Head . He also got his old group, Quiet Sun, together to record Mainstream , an album of songs they'd written before he joined Roxy Music. That's a good friend for you. After the release of those two albums, Roxy put out Siren . A breakthrough single led to a successful tour of the US and, in 1976, the band went on hiatus. Bryan Ferry issued some solo albums, and -by some accounts - peddled ascots and fashion advice to New Romantics in Camden market. Phil put together a band. There was Eno - who handled some of the vocals on Diamond Head and had done some production work on Mainstream - on keyboards, guitar, and vocals; Quiet Sun bassist, Bill MacCormick; the soon to be ubiquitous Simon Phillips on drums; Francis Monkman on piano and clavinet; and Lloyd Watson on slide guitar and vocals. They played three shows. The last, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London took place 45 years ago this evening. I...

Who's Next At 50

It should have been a double album. That's what they recorded for Lifehouse , Pete's sci-fi rock opera follow up to Tommy . For some reason, he couldn't get the plot or libretto right and ended up paring it down to a single album. They didn't waste a track. Like Sticky Fingers , IV, and others, it is one of those 1971 albums that dominated AOR FM into the '80s and classic rock channels to this day. While I'll usually change stations when a couple of the tunes come on....again....I still listen to some of the tacks that don't get much play anymore. Most of the other material came out as singles, Townshend solo tracks, cuts on the Odds & Sods compilation, or bonus tracks on one of the several expanded definitive deluxe reissues of Who's Next . The version of "Greyhound Girl" is a live track included on Endless Wire. Here is Pete's demo: The songs here are not all part of the Lifehouse plot, but they either are from those sessions or ...

Funkadelic

George Clinton, P-Funk frontman turned 80 this week. For a while it was two bands - Parliament and Funkadelic, or maybe two facets of the same group. Funkadelic - and Parliament on their first album, Osmium (1970) - played a looser, rock-based, ragged, funky soul. Parliament, from 1974 on played a tighter, straight, polished funk. What follows here, is a selection from the early Funkadelic albums on Westbound. I put it together some years ago while looking for songs that reminded me of peak period Sly and the Family Stone. There really isn't much out there that sounds like this. Missing are some of the songs with the nastier lyrics. That way I can maybe get away with playing it while Wife is in the car without having to answer the question: Honey...what are we listening to? There are a few albums that are missing from the streaming service. The first, Osmium, was released in July of 1970. It sounds a lot like Funkadelic and Free Your Mind ...And Your Ass Wi...

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