Dr Feelgood and The Pirates
Listening to Eric Carmen singing ” All by Myself” I think yes, I could call this Powerpop. So what exactly is Powerpop? It’s said that Pete Townsend coined the phrase to explain the Who’s sound, but I wonder what he really meant?
I suppose some might say “All by Myself” is a power ballad, and they’d probably be right, but by virtue of the fact that Eric Carmen was in the Raspberries, I think it could still be cast as Powerpop. And the bombastic instrumentation and arrangement, coupled with the sweetest of vocals and melody, not to mention the Beatlesque orchestration.
[Read more →]
I first met Wade at a Rock bar in Pompano beach, South Florida, in the summer of ‘89. He had a kind of cowpunk look about him, very modern post punk, post Hanoi Rocks – cowboy style but definitely punk rock.
For the most part his guitar sound sucked, but his playing was real good. He had a strange old Fender combo. It was cream coloured, just like Jed’s Band Master amp that I used with the Accidents.
Wade had two guitars, a Gibson Les Paul and a cranky old Fender Jaguar – which he’d drag out to play this whacked-out surf instrumental. [Read more →]
(This is part two of a three-part story. Part one is here.)
There was a very important thread running through my life in those days, and that was Veronica Peyton. Veronica was my second girlfriend, and pretty much the hippest person on the planet at that time. At least I thought so.
We met at school. It was 1972, the autumn term. Her parents were great, they’d drive us back to their fabulous abode,and let us listen to our music quite loud, on an original early 60’s Dansette record player!
I’d heard of Roxy Music through “Virginia Plain”, but never heard their album, which Veronica had. [Read more →]