How I Know Brian Wilson is God (Part the Infinity)

Well, for starters, he wrote a fricking great song with my girlfriend's name as the title.



Also -- the new version, from the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary tour live album....





...is pretty damn great too.

Compare and Contrast: Special You Can't Copyright a Title Edition

From 1965, please enjoy (once again) Southern California garage punks The Lyrics and "So What!," their most blues-wailing ode to who gives a fuck.





And from 1981, who cares if you enjoy The Anti-Nowhere League and "So What!,: their completely different and defiantly foul-mouthed ode to who REALLY gives a fuck.





I really love both of these, if truth be told, and it is perhaps worth noting that the ANL "So What" was originally the B-side to the loudest, fastest cover of folkie Ralph McTell's "Streets of London" ever heard by sentient mammalian ears.

A Friend Writes...

..."Can J. Richman and Elvis Costello be spliced? I think this guy has done it."

I think so too, so please enjoy -- from 2012 -- irrepressible New York City-based power pop guy Eytan Mirsky and the poignantly optimistic "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year."



Not as good as the Zombies tune with a similar title and sentiment, but still -- absolutely adorable, I think.

[h/t Andy "Folk Rock" Pasternack]

The Present Day Sixties Relic Refuses to Die (An Occasional Series)

From (approximately) 2006, please enjoy Waddy Wachtel and Friends -- with special guest frontman Keith Allison -- stomping their way, authoritatively, through Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up."



Yes, Keith Allison. The Texas-born Paul McCartney look-alike who was briefly a teen idol on TV's Where the Action Is, and who later did a stint in Paul Revere and the Raiders.

And who made this absolutely killer single in early 1967.





"Louise" has an interesting provenance, by the way. It was written by Jesse Kincaid, who -- along with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder -- was a member of The Rising Sons, perhaps the great lost American rock band of the mid-60s. And the backing track to Allison's version is identical to the one that appears (with vocal by Mark Lindsay) on the Raider's classic The Spirit of '67 album.

In any case, I had long assumed that Allison ended his career toiling in country music, like so many of his contemporaries, so what a delightful surprise to see that he remained a rocker at heart.

Seriously -- we should all kick such major ass thirty or forty years down the line.

Zallymania!!!

And proving yet again that YouTube is the greatest thing since the Library at Alexandria, from 1966 please enjoy a television interview -- whose existence was heretofore not even suspected by yours truly -- with the late great Zal Yanovsky, then of the Lovin Spoonful.



This dates from the heyday of the band's pop stardom, some months before the drug bust unpleasantness that essentially ended their career (at least as far as the hippies were concerned). In any case, I had never heard Zally speak before, so it's nice to know that apart from looking every inch the rock star as he does here, he was also as endearing and funny as he's been advertized.

And because I love all of you more than food, from 1968, here's Zally's wonderful cover of Floyd Cramer's piano instrumental "Last Date," which is as nice an example of Zally's country-inflected guitar style as you're ever gonna hear.

From his sole (alas) solo album, of course, which remains one of the great one-off masterpieces of 60s rock.





You're welcome.

Oh, and speaking of memorable 60s supporting players, you're not gonna believe who I'm gonna post -- in a live clip, stomping his way through an Elvis Costello song -- on the morrow.

Picture, 1000 Words, Etc.

Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, backstage at a Dylan concert (at Rutgers University, if memory serves) in 1965.



I hadn't seen that one till the other day, and it's still inducing a serious "oh wow" in me.

In any case, if both those guys aren't speeding their fricking brains out, than I'm Marie of Rumania.

Okay, This is Getting Ridiculous Already

Terry Reid and friends from 2006, with the Four Seasons' "Rag Doll.



Okay, we won't bring up the whole "Are the Four Seasons power pop?" question again -- long time readers are aware where I come down on that one, and in any case this performance should settle it for as long as the corridors of time continue to echo.

But sweet Jeebus, is there any song that Reid can't make sound even better than it already is?

Also: Waddy Wachtel is God. Just thought I'd say it again.

If It's Thursday, It Must Be One of Steve's Crackpot Theories!!!

Food for thought: The greatest short -- under five minutes -- piece of orchestral music written in the second half of the 20th Century is either Albert Glasser's theme for The Cisco Kid...





...or Fred Steiner's theme for Perry Mason (originally titled "Park Avenue Beat").



Discuss.

And yes, I've probably done this before, but it behooves repeating at regular intervals.

Wednesday Moment of Words Fail Me

Okay, I've done whole weeks here about the astounding Terry Reid, but here he is wailing my favorite of his songs -- "Without Expression" -- in 1973.



Don't know how I missed this clip, but better late than never, obviously.

Have I mentioned that Reid turned down Robert Plant's gig in Led Zeppelin, thus altering history in unfathomable ways?

Tuesday Consolation Track

Okay, nobody guessed that it was Warren Zevon and Bones Howe performing yesterday's mystery song, so no coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded.

However, since I'm a nice guy and because I love all of you, here's a very nice outtake version -- from the sessions for his eponymous debut album on Elektra -- of "Poor Poor Pitiful Me."





Perhaps my favorite Zevon song of them all, if truth be told.

You know, I really wish Waddy Wachtel would wear a buttoned shirt on-stage, but in the studio I guess it doesn't matter. In any case -- is he great on this or what?