With Tragic Magic – Reflections On Power Pop Michael Chabon has once more proven himself to be my genius doppelganger, saying everything (and more) on a subject dear to me in a voice that is everything (and more) I’d hope mine to be. Being in the world with him at the same time removes any urgency I ever felt to communicate anything — which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess. (For Chabon’s complete essay, click here.)
– BernardStreetCred
“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, from Brian Wilson and Emitt Rhodes to the dual suicides of Badfinger, Pete Ham and Tom Evans; from Big Star’s Chris Bell, who struggled with profound depression right up to the night in 1978 that he crashed his Triumph TR-6 into a telephone pole, to Material Issue’s Jim Ellison and to Doug Hopkins, the lead singer of the Gin Blossoms, suicides alike. All the clouds of power pop are worn inside out to show the silver lining.”
– Michael Chabon, Tragic Magic – Reflections On Power Pop
