Lennon's Imagine tuns 50 today. He had released " Power to the People " in March. Ringo had released " It Don't Come Easy " - produced by George - in April. Paul and Linda put out  Ram  in May. George's only studio output for 1971 was the " Bangla Desh " single in July, as he devoted most of his time first to production and then to preparations for the benefit concerts. Had the Beatles still been a band, they would have had enough material for a quality album, Ramagine . It is a solid one, with three or four tracks still garnering airplay in the classic rock format. For the sake of variety, we'll use the first take of Imagine. It has a different mix, with a more prominent harmonium. We'll also include the All Things Must Pass out take, " I Live For You ". At the risk of alienating fans of Wings Wild Life , we won't include any of its tracks here, as the album didn't come out till December. It would have been a pret...

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 - Raspberrie s songs, but what else was there? Quite a bit, it would seem:   Early Power Pop .