my power pop addiction, no. 5 (77)

Tonight's song is an all-time power pop classic. It's as close to a perfectly constructed pop song as you'll ever hear and should have been a top-ten hit when it came out. It's weird that it wasn't even selected as a single. Consider all the things the song has going for it: 1) It's punchy and perky and has plenty of teenybopper appeal. I picture 14-year-old girls having a slumber party and squealing as the song chimes in the background. 2) The melody is so irresistible and addictive, so utterly and completely catchy, that you can listen to the song ten times in a row and still want to hear it one more time, and then one more time after that, and then... 3) The song captures the very essence of teenage romantic fixation. All I know is I can't live without you / I'd try to give you the world if you wanted me to. I'm 43, with multiple deep psychic wounds, skeptical about the possibility of loving and being loved, but when I listen to this song I'm transported back to my 13-year-old self, when the thing that mattered to me most was the huge crush I had Carolyn, a piercingly cute, pale-skinned girl in my 7th grade home room. When she flashed a smile my way, everything in my world was right... 4) The drumming is deceptively awesome. Listen to this one with some cans on if you can. Going back to his days in the Dwight Twilley Band, Phil Seymour was a really good drummer, injecting driving power into the music without ever being overbearing. The closed high hat in the verses of tonight's song sounds phenomenal. Also check out the deep reverberation of the tom-toms in the break from the verses. Maybe we could meet tonight, underneath the pale-lit moon light. I'm powerless against this stuff, and it feels fucking great. 5) Seymour had a great voice. He was among a number of power popsters who had semi-androgynous voices, or at least voices in unusually high registers, which I like because it makes the music more poppy and gives things that teenybopper vibe I was talking about just now. 6) Speaking of Seymour's singing, add him to the list of those who harmonize with themselves. Common and give this romance a chance, 'cause baby it's you. 7) The line, that's when I tell you I love you becomes that's when I whisper I want you the second time around. The innocence of the romantic crush spills over briefly into slightly naughty anticipation, with a nice little keyboard sound giving the line just enough in-passing emphasis. 8) The song is New Wave without being arty. It's not that I dislike artiness, but I tend to like my power pop sans experimentation or pretension. Give it to me pure and sweet. 9) The music evokes the sublime incandescence of LA's neon nights. When I hear it, the sensation is akin to the electricity that crackles through my body when I take an after-hours drive up over Laurel Canyon from the Valley, catching the first glimpse of the city's shimmering expansiveness as the car traverses Mulholland. There are very few things in life that give me that particular feeling, but Baby It's You is one of them. 10) Like all great power pop tunes, this one seems to pick up energy as it moves along. I'm so pumped up by the end of the song. I'm ready to fall in love. I'm ready to forget my troubles. And most of all, I'm ready to hear the song again...