a musical history – by Terence Ruffle

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.
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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 →]

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I read with some amusement recently that Steve Jones, the guitarist with the Sex Pistols, saw David Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon, the night before he retired as Ziggy Stardust,on July 2nd, 1973.

I was there, tho’ I don’t recall seeing Steve.

But I do recall guitarist Mick Ronson (Ronno) playing a white Les Paul at the gig, one that looked remarkably similar to the one Steve Jones played in the Pistols. I wonder if this was one of Jonesy’s infamous heists? Perhaps if anyone knows they could leave a comment?

To give you some background about myself at the time, I was sixteen and had been gig-going since the previous year (see Emerson Lake and Palmer article).
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