Huge volume incudes over 90 minutes’ worth of music as well.
By Blurt Staff
Power pop aficionados in the know will recognize the name Ken Sharp: he’s one of the longest-running chroniclers of (and flagwavers for) the beloved rock ‘n’ roll subgenre, authoring treatises on everyone from Small Faces and Cheap Trick to the Raspberries and Jellyfish. Now comes Play On! Power Pop Heroes: Volume Two (Jetfighter), the just-released second installment of a three-volume series, in which Sharp honors the musical innovators who built the genre’s foundation.
According to Sharp,” From the ’60s to present day, power pop music has gone on to mean different things to different people. For some, the term conjures the guitar crunch of Badfinger and Cheap Trick; for some, it’s the intricate orchestrated melodicism of the Beach Boys, the Zombies or Jellyfish; while for others it epitomizes the quirky jagged pop tread by acts like Squeeze, XTC and Fountains of Wayne. But the stylistic glue that welds it all together into one thrilling two-to-three-minute musical joyride is a collective reverence for a picture-perfect melody that will take your breath away and a supersonic hook, the size of the Empire State Building, that’s near impossible to forget.”
Below you can view a list of all the artists interviewed and reviewed in the massive, 765-page volume, which features a foreword by Rick Springfield and afterword by Cyril Jordan of the Flamin’ Groovies. Also included: over 90 tracks of rare, unreleased and live music from Jellyfish, Tommy Keene, Hawks, Rick Springfield, Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze), Chris Difford (Squeeze), The Babys, Dwight Twilley, The Flamin’ Groovies, Shoes, Artful Dodger, Blue Ash, Piper, The Rubinoos, The Records, The Hudson Brothers, Duncan Faure (Bay City Rollers), Kasim Sulton (Utopia), The A’s, Ian Lloyd (Stories), The Toms, The Flashcubes and Richie Fontana (Piper).
Acts featured:
Flamin’ Groovies
Rick Springfield
Blue Ash
Stories
The Hudson Brothers
Cheap Trick
Pezband
Sweet
Shoes
Dwight Twilley
Bay City Rollers
The Ramones
The Rubinoos
Utopia
The Babys
Piper
Artful Dodger
XTC
Squeeze
The Records
The A’s
The Toms
The Flashcubes