#the who

The second salient feature of power pop, along with its avowed status as a kind of fandom, is that it is happy music—eminently “poppy”—which depends for its power on the cryptic presence, in a lyric or a chord change or a bit of upside-down vocal harmony, of sadness, yearning, even despair. This strand of pop darkness can be found right off the bat, in the founding documents of the genre, like The Who’s “Pictures of Lily,” in whose final stanza the song’s narrator discovers that his pinup dream girl has “been dead since 1929,” or The Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” where the sadness and yearning are smuggled into the melody, the harmonies, the lyrics, and even the title, which marks the broken place, the gap between the wish and the world. True power pop is rueful and celebratory at the same time, glorifying desire and frustration, which is why so many power-pop songs concern themselves with the subject of Tonight, or Tomorrow Night, or Saturday Night, or some other night that will only be perfect for as long as it can be deferred. Depression stalks the genre. … All the clouds of power pop are worn inside out to show the silver lining.

Michael Chabon, “Tragic Magic: Reflections on Power Pop”

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The Boogie Monster- Gnarls Barkley // Psycho Killer - Talking Heads // Shopping for Blood - Franz Ferdinand // Halloween - Siouxsie And The Banshees // In the Room Where You Sleep- Dead Man’s Bones // I Put a Spell on You - Screamin’ Jay Hawkins // That Black Bat Licorice - Jack White // Pet Sematary - The Ramones // Country Death Song - Violent Femmes // Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival // Always Something - Cage The Elephant // Boris the Spider - The Who // Mad Witch - Dave Gardner // People are Strange - The Doors

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