Starting Sunday morning a bit late with some Power Pop. Shake Some Action by The Flamin' Groovies on the jukebox. One of, if not the very best example of that genre on the record player. But they've already featured on this series. There are countless websites and articles devoted to the theme where you can find everyone from Television, The Undertones, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Husker Du shoehorned into the category. Generally there's broad agreement that The Byrds, Big Star, Badfinger, The Knack, Shoes, Dwight Twilley, Todd Rundgren and The Raspberries among countless others fit.
Perhaps there's scope for a chart countdown on here like the one I did on here for Garage Rock last Christmas. Certainly, the best examples that fall under the banner are also among the best Pop Records ever made. Maybe the one thing that might stop me doing so is that for the most part all of the records that slot in here are so completely white. Not that that's a bad thing, just that there's a lack of funkiness in a classic Power Pop song.
There is plenty of soul though. And perhaps some of what might be described as White Man's Blues. Here are Blue Ash, a band who set off from Ohio in the early Seventies, put out a number of good songs over a number of years but never achieved much mainstream success. Abracadabra, their best as far as I've heard, sounds like a country cousin of In the Street and When my Baby's Beside me, from Big Star's first album #1 Record. It's a wonderful one and It's Power Pop for sure.
Post Script - Having just listened to a few records I hadn't heard before mentioned in the article highlighted in the script above I think I will do that Power Pop chart come Christmas. Gives me something to do and there are so many truly great records that fit within this category so watch this space come December.
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