1985 - The Live Aid benefit
concerts take place simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK
Stadium in Philadelphia. Among the featured artists were David Bowie,
Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, Elton John, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Pretenders, Queen, Run-DMC, Sting, U2,
and The Who. (Thanks to the time zone differential between London and
Philadelphia, Phil Collins was able to perform at both shows.) More
than 170,000 attended the concerts (72,000 in London; 100,000 in
Philadelphia) and approximately 1.9 billion people, across 150 countries
watched the live broadcast. It raised close to $200m.
Today’s Birthdays include...The Byrds’ vocalist/guitarist Roger McGuinn
(78); the legendary Cheech Marin (73); Dictators/Twisted Sister bassist
Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (65); and screenwriter/film director/music
journalist/honorary musician Cameron Crowe (63).
1954 - 19 year old Elvis Presley signs with Sun Records.
1962 - The Rolling Stones play their first ever show, at London’s
Marquee Club, with Dick Taylor on bass (later of The Pretty Things) and
Mick Avory on drums, (later of The Kinks). Billed as The Rollin’ Stones,
they were paid £20 for the gig (a little more than $500 in 2019 money).
1964 - The Beatles' legendary Ed Sullivan Show appearance from February 9th, is re-broadcast for the first time.
1979 - Singer/songwriter Minnie Ripperton dies of cancer at age 31.
Aside from her solo career she'd worked at Chess Records singing backup
for various artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Bo Diddley, Chuck
Berry and Muddy Waters, sang lead for the esteemed rock/soul outfit
Rotary Connection, and was also a member of Wonderlove in 1973, a backup
group for Stevie Wonder. In addition, she was the mother of
actress/musician Maya Rudolph.
1988 - Michael Jackson arrives in
the UK for his first ever-solo appearances. He performs a total of eight
nights to 794,000 people.
Today’s Birthdays include...Fleetwood
Mac vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie (77); guitarist Wilko Johnson
of Dr. Feelgood fame (73); singer/songwriter Walter Egan (72); drummer
Simon Fox—BeBop Beluxe, Pretty Things, Trevor Rabin—(71); former Soul
Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy (58); Tim Gane, guitarist for Stereolab
(56); and guitarist John Petrucci, founding member of Dream Theater
(53).
1955 - Chuck Berry's song "Maybellene" is copyrighted in Berry's name alone, but Alan Freed's name is added as a form of payola.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson invites The Four Seasons to play at the White House.
1969 - The Rolling Stones put on a free concert in London's Hyde Park, a tribute to their founding member Brian Jones, who died two days earlier.
1983 - Suicidal Tendencies release their self-titled debut album. The album spawns Suicidal Tendencies' biggest hit to date, "Institutionalized."
1994 - Hootie & the Blowfish release their debut album, Cracked Rear View, the best-selling album in the history of Atlantic Records.
Today's birthdays include...The Band's Robbie Robertson (77); Hugh Anthony Cregg III aka Huey Lewis (70); MC, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor/filmmaker Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known as Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA (51); and Cardigans drummer Bengt Lagerberg (47).
Don't
feel like celebrating. Not with 130K+ lost souls and a country on the
brink of implosion. So this song captures my mood in that regard
perfectly.
"...'cause I heard in the wind/and I saw it in the sky/and I thought it was the end/I thought it was the 4th of July..."
1956 - Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" at RCA Studios, in NYC. (Take 31 was the released version.) The single sold over 10 million copies globally, became his best-selling song and topped the charts for 11 weeks, a record that stood for 36 years.
1962 - Jimi Hendrix is honorably discharged from the 101st Airborne Paratroopers, after breaking his ankle during his 26th and final parachute jump.
On this same date, in 1969, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell quit The Jimi Hendrix Experience after completing the three-day Denver Pop Festival. Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell would later team up with bassist Billy Cox to form the short-lived Gypsy Sun and Rainbows.
Also on this day: The Beatles (except John Lennon, who was hospitalized in Golspie, Scotland, following a car accident the previous day) work on the tracks "Her Majesty" and "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight" for the Abbey Road album.
1971 - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon play their first gig as Queen at Surrey College, in England.
1979 - Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 30 years they sold over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, and were the market leaders until the arrival of Apple's iPod and other new digital devices.
1988 - Michael Jackson becomes the first artist to have five #1 singles from one album when "Dirty Diana" goes to the top of the charts. The other four chart-toppers from the Bad album were the title track, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror".
1991 - Axl Rose causes a riot to break out during a Guns N' Roses gig after leaping into the crowd to remove a camera from a fan at the Riverpoint Amphitheatre, in Maryland Heights, a suburb of St. Louis. Over 50 people were injured and 15 fans were arrested.
2001 - Liverpool Airport is renamed John Lennon Airport. The airport's slogan "Above Us Only Sky" is from his song "Imagine".
2005 - The G8 concerts, organized ahead of the G8 summit to put pressure on political leaders to tackle poverty in Africa, are held in 10 cities, including London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome and Moscow, with participating artists playing to hundreds of thousands of people. Among the performers: Pink Floyd, The Who, Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Sting, The Scissor Sisters, Keane, Paul McCartney, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Neil Young, Bjork and Green Day.
2008 - The gravestone of former Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is stolen. Police said his memorial stone was taken from where he is buried in Macclesfield Cemetery. The gravestone had the inscription "Ian Curtis 18-5-80" and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
2015 - Buddy Holly's widow, Maria Elena Holly, announces she has entrusted the publishing rights to her late husband's influential catalog to BMG. The company was now authorized to administer royalties worldwide of nearly all of Buddy Holly's recordings.
Today's Birthdays include...longtime Springsteen keyboardist Roy Bittan (71); Johnny Colla, guitarist and saxophonist for Huey Lewis and the News (68); a trio of bass players: Boomtown Rats' Pete Briquette (66), Mike Anker of The Blow Monkeys (63), Transvision Vamp's Dave Parsons (54); and rapper Monie Love (50).
First of all, it’s not meant to be definitive. At all.
Secondly, quite a few of the artists on the list are not of the power pop persuasion, but their entries here most definitely are. By my definition, at least. Which brings us to…
Power pop, as I see it, is a balance of both factors. This gets me in trouble with purists who, for instance, love The Shoes, who I consider too much pop and not enough power. But thems the breaks.
Also, these 25 tracks are all, with 2 exceptions, from the ‘90s and beyond. Make of that what you will.
Finally, I have omitted such power pop touchstones as Badfinger, Big Star, Jellyfish, The Posies, Raspberries, and Matthew Sweet but have included songs by some former members of their ensembles. Often, the mothership gets (all) the love and I wanted to spread it around.
And so, in alphabetical order by artist...
RYAN ADAMS “PS”
He has covered plenty of ground, so a bit of power pop is no surprise.
JON AUER “The Perfect Size”
The Posies’ co-frontman goes completely solo with the exception of the late Darius Minwalla on drums and it’s a more than worthy excursion.
CHRIS BELL “I Am the Cosmos”
The defining solo statement from the late Big Star co-leader.
BRENDAN BENSON “I’m Blessed”
Best known as a Raconteur, his catalog is rich in melodic, rocking gems. This one is from his debut album and was co-written by Jason Falkner.
CAFE TACUBA “53100”
Since it was Pete Townshend who coined the term “power pop”, it’s more than apropos that Mexico City’s premiere art rockers appear here with a Who-influenced tune.
WES CUNNINGHAM “Only You Know”
A gifted songwriter whose lack of commercial success led him to stop making records and turn to jingles instead. A music biz crime if there ever was one.
JASON FALKNER “I Live”
A talented multi-instrumentalist and former Jellyfish guitarist with a respectable solo career of his own.
FASTBALL “Emily”
Tasty slice of punky power pop from these Texas rockers.
GIGOLO AUNTS “Mr. Tomorrow”
Another coulda/shoulda/woulda…their key members are now songwriters for Hollywood films. This is from their final album, released in 2002.
JOE JACKSON “Tonight and Forever”
Like Adams, he’s covered a lot of musical ground, albeit in slightly different directions. This one is par for the course, tho.
JUMBO “Siento Que”
A powerful anthem of longing and love on its last sighs that would subsequently come to define the Monterrey, Mexico rockers' sound.
KARA’S FLOWERS “Myself”
The initial, commercially failed version of Maroon 5 before they changed their name and added another guitarist. I prefer this incarnation.
THE KATIES “Noggin’ Poundin’”
Without a doubt the hardest rocker on this list but its Cheap Trick-influenced vibe won it a spot.
THE LEMONHEADS “Poughkeepsie”
Evan Dando knows his way around a melody and he’s been known to rock out. Here he does both.
MATERIAL ISSUE “Diane”
Power pop lovers know this long gone beloved Chicago outfit quite well but, like all of the artists listed here, they should be even better known.
THE MERRYMAKERS “Troubled Times”
Produced by Jellyfish honcho Andy Sturmer, this one is simply Swedish ear candy bliss.
MYRACLE BRAH “Eleven”
Andy Bopp is a master at crafting hooks and melodies and deserves to be a household name, damn it!
NADA SURF “Happy Kid”
Brooklyn in the house! They went from almost MTV one-hit wonders to one of indie rock's most reliable purveyors of guitar pop and this is why.
OWSLEY “Oh No, The Radio!”
William Reese Owsley [1966-2010] was simply a brilliant popsmith who left us way too soon. It’s a point of personal pride that I have turned into a fan everyone I’ve played his music for over the years. But it’s way more about how awesome he was than my hard sell.
THE SHAZAM “Getting Higher”
Underground power poppers from Nashville with a string of great but unknown albums under their belt.
SUMMERCAMP “Should I Walk Away?”
Think Descendents with Beach Boys harmonies. Um, yeah.
LOS TRES “Feria Verdadera”
Chile’s premiere cult band have been rock royalty in their homeland and in Mexico—Café Tacuba paid tribute by recording an EP of their songs—for decades.
12 RODS “Marionette”
Produced by Todd Rundgren, the band’s third release got itself hammered by Pitchfork, who gave their terribly overrated debut a 10.0 rating. It’s all good, sometimes great and P4K was wrong both times. What else is new?
VELVET CRUSH “Hold Me Up”
Started by longtime Matthew Sweet drummer Ric Menck in 1989, with a similar sound to that of Menck’s on-and-off boss (who produced their debut album), they have been on hiatus since 2004 but reunited briefly in 2019.
THE WRENS “Dance the Midwest”
A different batch of New Jersey misfits with a taste for chaos. In this case, the angular power pop of this tune.
During his speech honoring Julia Louis-Dreyfus for being awarded the Mark Twain Prize For American Humor in 2018, Jerry Seinfeld makes
fun of the fact that network TV executives aren’t to blame for what he
stated were the invariably bad ideas they pitch to showrunners (aka
notes) since, vis-à-vis sitcoms, they are not funny people and aren’t
supposed to be. So, it occurs to me: why don’t the networks hire
comedians and/or comic writers who do have a solid grasp on humor? And
if these aforementioned executives are that clueless about their
purported jobs, why the hell are they employed in those positions in the
first place?
And it’s not just sitcoms: the vast majority of
classic and/or hugely successful books, movies, music and TV dramas have
a common origin story of repeated rejection by the gatekeepers who are
supposed to recognize quality or, at the very least, commercial
potential. Sure, there are variables out there: an executive or company
may pass on something because they’d rather not be associated with a
certain project due to sensitivity or tone, for instance. Which is why I
don’t blame them so much for the bad ideas they greenlight as much as I
do for passing on the ones that are obviously great and/or
blockbusters. I mean, unqualified people running key departments where
careers are made or hindered? Ridiculous.
So why is it so common? Or rather, why is it an
established part of the arts and commerce nexus? Sadly, I think it’s a
crap shoot. In other words, in the most simplistic but probably accurate
of terms, if you manage to claw your way to the top of the ladder and
get lucky with a couple of hit projects, you get to keep your job and
have those successes be the key part of your resumé. For a while, at
least. If not, like Denzel Washington in Philadelphia, can someone explain it to me, like I'm a six year old?
The first year of the '80s decade just might be, musically speaking, my favorite of them all; this was after all the beginning of a rich musical adventure that started with me as barely a teenager engaging with the gems below and concluded with The Cure’s Disintegration 9 years later as a young adult, with so many varied and wonderful stops along the way.
Man, has it really been 40 years?
There are so many records I loved that year but here are, in alphabetical order by artist, my Top 5:
AC/DC Back in Black [Atlantic]
There's not much I can say about this one except that it brings back fond memories of listening to it with my dear friend Yiik-Funk Chong [RIP] and that I love it as much now as I did then. ALL killer no filler, indeed. Also, all these years later, the glorious intersection where Chuck Berry and Black Sabbath meet remains as awesome as ever and just sounds sooooo good. PETER GABRIEL self-titled aka 'Melt' [Mercury]
I don't think my music directly reflects the indelible impact this album had on me, but it was along with King Crimson's Discipline [Warner Bros-1981] the album that made me want to be not just a musician but an artist as well, and evokes a time when I would eat, breathe, sleep and dream music, as if nothing else could sustain me. Man...
THE POLICE Zenyatta Mondatta [A&M]
Derided not only by the band itself (especially Sting, for the band not having enough time and too mush pressure to adequately put an album together) but the press, as well. However, we who love it have had the last laugh: it's a banger and along with the previous year's Regatta de Blanc, the primo example of the classic Police sound. (I'll always be grateful to my then-new friend Mr. S for lending me the
first three Police records in one shot, which I then proceeded to
absorb in chronological order, gazing at each vinyl record as it spun on
the turntable of our parents’ living room sound system, and culminating
with Zenyatta.)
THE PRETENDERS self-titled [Sire]
The opening salvo by Chrissie Hynde
and her killer band of co-horts was not just the best thing they ever
did, it towers over the rest of their catalog. And in the majority of
cases, dramatically so. (It is, after all, recognized as one of the
greatest debut albums in rock history.) I actually remember exactly where I was the first time “Brass in Pocket” came on the radio. Yeah...
VAN HALEN Women and Children First [Warner Bros.] You
won’t find any big hit singles like on the previous two releases but
the first VH album of all self-penned material is arguably their most
cohesive and representative. Just check out the stomp and swagger of
“…And The Cradle Will Rock”, “Everybody Wants Some"—immortalized in the
‘80s teen flick Better Off Dead—“Fools”,
“Take Your Whiskey Home” and one of the band’s very best songs, “In A
Simple Rhyme”. It was my introduction to VH and remains to this day, oh so near and dear to my heart. HONORABLE MENTIONS: GENESIS Duke [Atlantic]; DARYL HALL Sacred Songs [RCA]; HALL & OATES Voices [RCA]; PAUL McCARTNEY II [Columbia]; MOTORHEAD Ace of Spades [Bronze]; OZZY OSBOURNE Blizzard of Ozz [Jet]; RUSH Permanent Waves [Mercury]; XTC Black Sea [Virgin].
