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Thread: The Sunshine Pop Thread

  1. #51
    Member progholio's Avatar
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    jeezus, i'm driving down the street earlier and heard this on the radio, haven't heard it in like 40 years and pretty much forgot about this little sunshiney gem, this "live" performance version is extra special.



    lo and behold a version where Gary Lewis and the Playboys baroqued it up a little bit


  2. #52
    Ordinary Idiot Superfly's Avatar
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    The Cyrkle did only two proper albums and one soundtrack, but their talents lived on in the advertising world for decades. Truth story here, Red Rubber Ball (cyrkle version) was playing on the radio when my second son was born. Here's a song by theirs that was never on the original LP releases but was released as a single. Why this wasn't a huge 'hit' boggles the mind. A little Left Banke, a little Bee Gees, all awesome. "Reading Her Paper"
    "The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen

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  3. #53
    Jefferson James
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    "Reading Her Paper" is a beautiful song, thank you for turning me on to this, Superfly! Love it.

  4. #54
    Jefferson James
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    Hey Mr. Renfro -- dude, I owe you hugely. That Cyrkle song is simply incredible. Man, I have been having the best time the past 24 hours; yesterday a The Shaggs song (of all the crazy things) tore my head off ("That Little Sports Car") and now this masterpiece. "Reading Her Paper" is classic, textbook, Songwriting 101. Great verses? Check. Pre-chorus? Check. Hooky chorus? Check. Post-chorus transition? Check. Cool lyrics? Check. Bridge? Check. Modulation at the end? Check. Minor variation of chorus on outro? Check. Move me to tears due to the innocence and beauty? CHECK!

    Holy shit, they truly don't write 'em like that anymore. I can't stop listening to this and for some reason this is making me cry. I'm going to be living inside of this beautiful bubble all day thanks to you.

    I don't care how fast the world seems to be unraveling -- music like this gives me reason to live this life two minutes and fifty eight seconds at a time.

    Thank you for this, 'Fly.

  5. #55
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    What a great post Kerry-I am now very pumped to listen to this song when I get home tonight! Always liked 'Turn Down Day' as a kid, not to mention 'Red Rubber Ball'.

    Incidentally, the album from Seth Swirsky 'instant pleasure' is fantastic. The song 'Edinburgh' is perfection, in less than three minutes.

  6. #56
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    Never a fan of "Red Rubber Ball", but loved "Turn Down Day".

    I agree that "Reading" is a very well-crafted 3:00 piece of music.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  7. #57
    Jefferson James
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    Quote Originally Posted by bill g View Post
    What a great post Kerry-I am now very pumped to listen to this song when I get home tonight! Always liked 'Turn Down Day' as a kid, not to mention 'Red Rubber Ball'.

    Incidentally, the album from Seth Swirsky 'instant pleasure' is fantastic. The song 'Edinburgh' is perfection, in less than three minutes.
    Sweet! And, YES, Seth Swirsky is a monster; did you know he wrote "Tell It to My Heart" for Taylor Dayne?


    Quote Originally Posted by progeezer View Post
    Never a fan of "Red Rubber Ball", but loved "Turn Down Day".

    I agree that "Reading" is a very well-crafted 3:00 piece of music.
    Yeah man, for whatever reason this song just hits me.

  8. #58
    Member progholio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KerryKompost View Post
    did you know he wrote "Tell It to My Heart" for Taylor Dayne?
    kinda weird, Taylor Dayne is one of those performers i'd forgotten about maaaaany years ago and now I see her referenced twice today - first I open up the paper and see she is headlining the local Pridefest this weekend (can't honestly say they're pulling me in with that one), next she shows up on a PE post.

  9. #59
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    Oh my goodness, is 'Reading Her Paper' ever a gorgeous piece of music. Made my eyes moist. Like Seth Swirsky's songs, it ends much too soon. I now have the after feeling of hearing something great for the first time.

    About the Cyrkle, when I was about 10 or something, I loved 'Turn Down Day' and liked 'Red Rubber Ball', but rather outgrew RRB I think. still like 'Turn Down Day'.

    Never knew Seth wrote 'tell it to my heart', actually I don't know that song. Actually I'd never heard of Seth Swirsky before this thread.

  10. #60
    Ordinary Idiot Superfly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bill g View Post
    Oh my goodness, is 'Reading Her Paper' ever a gorgeous piece of music.
    Indeed, I'm glad you guys liked it, when I first heard it on Sundazed 'Red Rubber Ball' re-release I was blown away, and couldn't help but wonder "Why the hell hadn't I heard this before?!". One thing about the song that makes me love it even more is that it seems to share a very similar theme, lyrically, with Kevin Gilberts "Tea For One", like longing, missed connections and the ever present internal monologue. If ever a song should have been a hit on the radio, it's Reading Her Paper. But the upside of that, is that no one is sick to death of it from over exposure

    Here's a dreamy gem from The Bee Gees, if you haven't heard Kilburn Towers before, (I'm sure you have) then you're in for a treat. Love that sweet 'tron' at the beginning.

    "The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen

    My Art- http://www.facebook.com/williamallenrenfro -My Life

  11. #61
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    I love the first 2 BeeGees albums and Odessa as much as I hate pretty much everything in their catalog after Odessa. Is the later music well-crafted and superbly sung? Of course, but the overwhelming rancid scent of Limburger completely negates that for me.

    "Melody Fair" is a very good song, as well as "I Laugh In Your Face" imho.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  12. #62
    facetious maximus Yves's Avatar
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    Would the 80s band The Wonder Stuff qualify? Their debut "The Eight Legged Groove Machine" was nothing but clever, catchy pop goodness imo:

    "Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."

    -Cozy 3:16-

  13. #63
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    Always dug these guys. Anyone recognize the guitarist on the far left?



    They got much hipper when Dennis Provisor joined...


  14. #64
    Ordinary Idiot Superfly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yves View Post
    Would the 80s band The Wonder Stuff qualify?
    Probably not, the up front jangly guitars would place it more in the garage arena, but I like it! Kind of reminds me of late era Buzzcocks. Sunshine Pop tended to focus more on intricate vocal harmonies and smoothing out the rough edges, but it's not all love and sunshine either, there are many baroque moments of deep introspection, such as the work done by the Left Banke.

    Always liked The Grass Roots, I'm pretty sure the band changed with each album release since they were primarily, at least originally, a vehicle for the work of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. There's a whole chapter dedicated to these guys in the book: The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret , by Kent Hartman. Much of pop music in that era was assembled by producers and songwriting partners, they'd have a great song and need a 'band' to perform it, the lucky winner in this case were The Bedouins. Name change, hit song, music history.

    As for the Bee Gees. I certainly don't consider them 'sunshine pop' much more rainy day pop, but they were brilliant in every way, especially on those first half dozen or so albums. And, as much as I hated disco at the time, their style change also proved to be a brilliant move for them. I think most bands would be happy to sell even 1% of the discs these brothers moved. Some people do like to dump on them around here a bit, but they completely under estimate what an amazing musician Maurice was, and Barry and Robins ability to create such killer hooks and make it look easy, well, they deserved every bit of success they achieved. But they didn't deserve the stigma of being a 'disco' band, because they didn't start that shit, and they were SO much more. Even on their very last album, there were a couple of killer tracks.

    "The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen

    My Art- http://www.facebook.com/williamallenrenfro -My Life

  15. #65
    Ordinary Idiot Superfly's Avatar
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    Bill G, love that link you posted by the band Tennis, reminded me a lot of Stereolab...Oh, and someone mentioned it here, or on the old PE thread, that Stereolab did a song called "The Free Design", probably my favorite song by them, here you go.

    "The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen

    My Art- http://www.facebook.com/williamallenrenfro -My Life

  16. #66
    Jefferson James
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    Stoked to finally see this released -- this is a song I wrote (music and co-wrote lyrics) and gave to a friend with a band called The Popdudes; this was produced by Sharknado's Robbie Rist (who also sings and plays guitars) and features John Borack on drums (he also wrote the bulk of the lyrics), me on bass, Chris Jackson on keys and backing vocals, and Steven Graff on backing vocals. It's definitely sunshine pop.

    You can stream it or download it (free) here:

    http://www.reverbnation.com/danacarl...des?1336410755

    The song is called "High", thanks to anyone who takes the time and bandwidth to check it out.

  17. #67
    Member progholio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KerryKompost View Post
    Stoked to finally see this released -- this is a song I wrote (music and co-wrote lyrics) and gave to a friend with a band called The Popdudes; this was produced by Sharknado's Robbie Rist (who also sings and plays guitars) and features John Borack on drums (he also wrote the bulk of the lyrics), me on bass, Chris Jackson on keys and backing vocals, and Steven Graff on backing vocals. It's definitely sunshine pop.

    You can stream it or download it (free) here:

    http://www.reverbnation.com/danacarl...des?1336410755

    The song is called "High", thanks to anyone who takes the time and bandwidth to check it out.
    Very nice!

    seriously, in all of your spare free time you need to put together a power-pop project, you obviously have a good handle on it.

  18. #68
    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KerryKompost View Post
    This was produced by Sharknado's Robbie Rist (who also sings and plays guitars)
    Not to sound tacky, but... formerly "Cousin Oliver"? And I mean that in the most "more power to him" sense possible, honest. It IS a very nice tune.

  19. #69
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KerryKompost View Post
    Stoked to finally see this released -- this is a song I wrote (music and co-wrote lyrics) and gave to a friend with a band called The Popdudes; this was produced by Sharknado's Robbie Rist (who also sings and plays guitars) and features John Borack on drums (he also wrote the bulk of the lyrics), me on bass, Chris Jackson on keys and backing vocals, and Steven Graff on backing vocals. It's definitely sunshine pop.

    You can stream it or download it (free) here:

    http://www.reverbnation.com/danacarl...des?1336410755

    The song is called "High", thanks to anyone who takes the time and bandwidth to check it out.
    Nice.

    Incidentally, I finally listened to 'Kilburn Towers'. Another gem there, I didn't know the BeeGees wrote stuff like that. I was pretty moved by that one.

    That Stereolab song comes from 'Cobra and Phases', which I always felt was probably their best. There are some really great songs on that one, but there is also a clunker, a long drawn out piece of drivel called 'Blue Milk'. Other than that though, that is a very fine album, especially the first half.

  20. #70
    RIP Bill Doss.

    I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.

  21. #71

  22. #72
    Jefferson James
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    Quote Originally Posted by ThomasKDye View Post
    Not to sound tacky, but... formerly "Cousin Oliver"? And I mean that in the most "more power to him" sense possible, honest. It IS a very nice tune.
    Yes sir, the one, the only, the inseparable Robbie Rist. Thank you for the very kind words, Thomas.

  23. #73
    One of my favorite "neo" sunshine pop songs is "Everybody's World" by Elliot Kendall. Shoulda been a huge hit in a perfect world!!

  24. #74
    Ordinary Idiot Superfly's Avatar
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    Just thought you'd like to know, Seth Swirsky is working on a new album called "I Loved Last Night". Should be interesting.

    "The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen

    My Art- http://www.facebook.com/williamallenrenfro -My Life

  25. #75
    Member nosebone's Avatar
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    Anybody shared this gem yet?

    no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone

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