By GRAHAM REID
Curious how Popstars this week was once more dominating conversations. Deja-vu all over again, as it were.
Or as the French might say if they only had the English: the more things stay, the more they change into more of the same.
But it's interesting to speculate on the chemistry
and coincidences which bring people together to form bands. There's nothing wrong with the manufactured way that aspirational Australians, TrueBliss or the Spice Girls have done it. In fact there's ample evidence (Monkees, Menudo, "idol singers" in Tokyo) that it's reasonably efficient. But it does lack magic.
However, promising magical starts don't always make great careers either. Take the Dwight Twilley Band (69-78).
Singer-guitarist Dwight Twilley invited singer-drummer-bassist Phil Seymour to a screening of A Hard Day's Night in Tulsa in the late-60s and, inspired by Beatlepop, formed a band. By chance they ran into former Sun Studio's singer Ray Harris, who added echo and rockabilly into their pristine pop equation. The result was pop'n'roll magic.
They released a classic power-pop single, I'm on Fire, in 74 which went top 20 in the United States - then it was all downhill when their debut album was locked in the vaults after the record company went bankrupt.
They kept at it though and their 76 Sincerely and 77 Twilley Don't Mind albums are power-pop blueprints and essential in any serious collection alongside Big Star, Badfinger and the Rasperries.
Twilley's songs had a melodic brightness which belied their often broody lyrics, but with Seymour on harmony vocals and Bill Pitcock IV playing stinging guitar, it was a marriage of Buddy Holly urgency and Beatles 66 intelligence with slivers of country-rock ennui scattered throughout. Tom Petty took notes.
Seymour left for a solo career, Twilley made albums intermittently, but neither fully recaptured the magic.
Twilley has just released his first album in 13 years, and for those who love power-pop, Tulsa (Castle) has that greatest of virtues: he hasn't messed with the formula. Same power-pop chords and harmonies, ringing melodies, Bill Pitcock back, memorable hooks, the same pure magic which bears his fingerprint.
As the French say: The more things changed, the more the same is more.
Tulsa is on a small label (www.castlemusic.com) and also available - and equally essential - is Between the Cracks, Volume One, a collection of songs and polished demos which would elevate most artists' albums but ended up on Twilley's cutting-room floor.
Twilley's back - 30 years after that almost mythical, promising start.
Less promising as rock myth would be the meeting between two cynical, Jewish intellectuals at an upmarket New York college. Not much magic in that.
Still, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen made the best of it as Steely Dan who, like Twilley, have returned after a lengthy absence. And like Twilley, happily not much seems to have changed since their last album Gaucho about two decades ago.
The Dan's streamlined jazz-rock on their clever Two Against Nature (Giant) comes with their trademark icy sheen and whipcrack studio smarts, the same lyrically cerebral appeal. As they would doubtless say: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
ZZ Top haven't been away, but they might as well have been. Care to name their last album? (96's Rythmeon?)
Well, 30 years in the business and they, too, have the distinction of repetition. Their XXX (RCA) doesn't pull any surprises - but their fuzzed-up blues sounds tired and, while they've never been up there with Auden, their lyrics sound like an afterthought. But maybe Top fans, like Twilley's and Dan's following, don't want surprise, just the frisson of the familiar. Fair enough.
But in ZZ Top's case it's more of the same, but less so.
Oh, and apropos of nothing, other than we were talking popstars: one of TrueBliss has just opened a hairdresser's shop. Wasn't that Ringo's ambition when they asked him back in 64 what he'd do with all his money?
Another pop dream fulfilled.
As the French might say: the more things stay, the more they change into the same.
By GRAHAM REID
Curious how Popstars this week was once more dominating conversations. Deja-vu all over again, as it were.
Or as the French might say if they only had the English: the more things stay, the more they change into more of the same.
But it's interesting to speculate on the chemistry
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