This was prepared as a chapter for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but is not in that book's current blueprint. That could change, but for now, here 'tis.
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!
Written by Kenny Pickett and Eddie Phillips
Produced by Shel Talmy
Single, Planet Records [U. K.], 1966
Power pop. I disagree with the widespread notion that while power pop as a genre may be (MAY be...?!) rooted in the '60s, it doesn't really begin until the '70s. No matter how many knowledgeable pundits express that view, I consider it...well, nonsense may be too strong a dismissal, but...wrong. The viewpoint is incorrect. We're talking about a sound, an approach to pop music. You can't limit its discussion to a certain era if there are bona fide examples that predate that era. That would make it a revival. Power pop is not a revival. And we can look to the '60s for many examples that well predate the Raspberries and Big Star.
Examples like the early Who. Examples like the early Kinks. Examples (in my opinion) like the Beatles inventing power pop with "Please Please Me." And examples like "Making Time" by the Creation.
The Creation were a British rock group in the '60s, and "Making Time" was produced by expatriate Yank Shel Talmy, who knew a thing or two about the style from his work with the Who, the Kinks, and the Easybeats. When I was reading about power pop in Bomp! magazine's landmark 1978 issue devoted to that particular clarion call, the Creation's records were among the more elusive sounds cited therein. The Creation had no hits in America, were virtually unknown on these shores, and I had a devil of a time trying to hear any of their music in '78. I finally found and bought an import 45 at Syracuse's Desert Shore Records. Arty Lenin, guitarist for Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes, was working the counter at Desert Shore that day, trying to interest me in "The Staircase (Mystery)" by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Instead, I purchased a reissue 7" combining two of the Creation's signature tunes, "Making Time" and the British hit "Painter Man."
Both of the songs had been cited in Bomp! as essential power pop; hearing the tracks, I had to agree. Power pop. No matter what decade it was made.
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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
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