Friday, March 03, 2006

I'm Frankly Shocked!

My buddy Eli--blogmaster of Multi Medium, excellent photographer, storehouse of pop culture knowledge, X-treem punster--has weighed in on an early practioner of Power Pop, the Dave Clark Five.


The offending record. Posted by Picasa

I just realized that the entire plot of the song, "Over And Over Again" by The Dave Clark Five can be summed up as, "I went to a really crowded dance. I saw this really cute girl and asked her out, but she said she was waiting for her boyfriend."

Granted, this aspect of the plot had always registered on me, but for some reason I had always assumed that the song kept going after that. It doesn't.


My defense of pop music lies in a pretty modest assertion of its essential silliness, and although I like it when it wanders out of those corners, I have no illusions about what it's supposed to do. But Eli's critique has left me in pieces, bits and pieces.

2 comments:

Eli said...

Wow. It was either that or just post, "I got nothin'. Really. Nothin' at all. Really, I'm spent." Glad you got a kick out of it, tho!

I didn't even know the Five were Powerpop, but I know what I like. Usually.

Anonymous said...

Dave Clark Five were completely vapid lyrically; musically, though, some of their stuff rivaled the Who for the sheer power of it. I mean, "Any Way You Want It" is just like this sharp blast of hot exhaust building to a sugar rush crescendo; "Bits and Pieces" and "Glad All Over" rock far as hard or harder than anything the Beatles were doing in '64.