An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
THE BREAKAWAYS/PAUL COLLINS: Walking Out On Love
Written by Paul Collins
Produced by Paul Collins
From the various-artists collection Waves Vol. 1, Bomp Records, 1979
The value of hindsight allows us to think of the 1970s rockin' pop trio the Nerves as a power pop supergroup before the fact. Nerves guitarist Jack Lee ultimately had the greatest commercial success, albeit as a songwriter rather than as a performer. Lee's songs were covered by Blondie ("Will Anything Happen?"), Paul Young ("Come Back And Stay"), Suzi Quatro ("You Are My Lover"), and the Rubber City Rebels (the flat-out amazing "Paper Dolls"). "Hanging On The Telephone" was far and away Lee's biggest success, recorded by the Nerves for their eponymous 1976 EP, and an international hit for Blondie in 1978.
For all that, it was really the other two guys in the Nerves--bassist Peter Case and drummer Paul Collins--who've loomed the largest in power pop's janglebuzz history. After the Nerves broke up in '78, Case and Collins hung together for a bit as the Breakaways. Case went on to form the Plimsouls, and later to pursue a solo career as a singin' and guitar-playin' songwriter. Collins ditched his spot at the drum kit to front his own new group, the Beat.
Collins' fast-paced pop burst "Walking Out On Love" dates back to the days of the Nerves, a part of the group's live set that they never got around to recording. The Breakaways cut the song about five minutes before Collins and Case went their separate ways, and it wound up being released as a Paul Collins solo track, included on a 1979 Bomp Records compilation called Waves Vol. 1. The Beat re-recorded the track for their self-titled debut album, also in '79.
That original version by the Breakaways was essentially a demo, and that identical demo track has seen official release under three different performer credits, as the Breakaways, Paul Collins, and even the Nerves. Hey, shades of the Rare Breed! In any version, the Breakaways/Collins/"Nerves" demo or the Beat's finished cut, "Walking Out On Love" is roughly a minute and a half of pure, concentrated pop-punk punch, a sure-footed confection that could not exist in a world that didn't include the Ramones, but equally beholden to the British Invasion and everything that was ever great on AM Top 40 in the '60s. It is fleeting, ephemeral evidence of pop immortality, an incongruous dash of both the disposable and the permanent.
Paul Collins went on to record a whole bunch of killer power pop tunes with the Beat and the re-billed Paul Collins' Beat, who changed their name to avoid confusion with the British group the Beat (who, in turn, changed their name to the English Beat to avoid confusion with...great, now my head hurts). The first Beat album is an acknowledged power pop classic, and songs like "Rock And Roll Girl," "Don't Wait Up For Me," "Working Too Hard," and "You Won't Be Happy" are the embodiments of my preferred style of pop with power. They're all great.
The value of hindsight allows us to think of the 1970s rockin' pop trio the Nerves as a power pop supergroup before the fact. Nerves guitarist Jack Lee ultimately had the greatest commercial success, albeit as a songwriter rather than as a performer. Lee's songs were covered by Blondie ("Will Anything Happen?"), Paul Young ("Come Back And Stay"), Suzi Quatro ("You Are My Lover"), and the Rubber City Rebels (the flat-out amazing "Paper Dolls"). "Hanging On The Telephone" was far and away Lee's biggest success, recorded by the Nerves for their eponymous 1976 EP, and an international hit for Blondie in 1978.
For all that, it was really the other two guys in the Nerves--bassist Peter Case and drummer Paul Collins--who've loomed the largest in power pop's janglebuzz history. After the Nerves broke up in '78, Case and Collins hung together for a bit as the Breakaways. Case went on to form the Plimsouls, and later to pursue a solo career as a singin' and guitar-playin' songwriter. Collins ditched his spot at the drum kit to front his own new group, the Beat.
Collins' fast-paced pop burst "Walking Out On Love" dates back to the days of the Nerves, a part of the group's live set that they never got around to recording. The Breakaways cut the song about five minutes before Collins and Case went their separate ways, and it wound up being released as a Paul Collins solo track, included on a 1979 Bomp Records compilation called Waves Vol. 1. The Beat re-recorded the track for their self-titled debut album, also in '79.
That original version by the Breakaways was essentially a demo, and that identical demo track has seen official release under three different performer credits, as the Breakaways, Paul Collins, and even the Nerves. Hey, shades of the Rare Breed! In any version, the Breakaways/Collins/"Nerves" demo or the Beat's finished cut, "Walking Out On Love" is roughly a minute and a half of pure, concentrated pop-punk punch, a sure-footed confection that could not exist in a world that didn't include the Ramones, but equally beholden to the British Invasion and everything that was ever great on AM Top 40 in the '60s. It is fleeting, ephemeral evidence of pop immortality, an incongruous dash of both the disposable and the permanent.
Paul Collins went on to record a whole bunch of killer power pop tunes with the Beat and the re-billed Paul Collins' Beat, who changed their name to avoid confusion with the British group the Beat (who, in turn, changed their name to the English Beat to avoid confusion with...great, now my head hurts). The first Beat album is an acknowledged power pop classic, and songs like "Rock And Roll Girl," "Don't Wait Up For Me," "Working Too Hard," and "You Won't Be Happy" are the embodiments of my preferred style of pop with power. They're all great.
But none is greater than "Walking Out On Love."
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