songs for broken hearts, no. 57

I really appreciate bands and artists that continued to make pop records after the dominant paradigm had shifted from pop to rock. I hate putting things in such grad studenty language, but I don’t know how else to get at the technological and social changes that made music heavier after the Summer of Love. The boundary where pop ends and rock begins is admittedly subjective. So much of the distinction is about feel and vibe, things you can’t categorize and identify so easily. I’m just gonna have to trust that you know what I’m talking about even though the concepts can’t be defined with much precision. There’s also quite a bit of grey area, records that are pop and rock at the same time. The Who, Pink Floyd, the Move, and the Small Faces all made records that straddle the divide. And so did the Beatles. Sgt Pepper’s is a blend of the two, but by the time you get to the white album most of what the Beatles are doing is rock, though to the very end even the hardest rocking Beatles songs feature strong elements of pop. In fact, Ticket to Ride, which appeared in mid 1965, is probably the earliest pop song to give a hint of the coming transition, and Rubber Soul and Revolver both feature nascent rock songs. In so many ways - some good, others not so good - the Beatles were ahead of the curve. But right now I’m more interested in artists that didn’t and/or couldn’t make the transition. There are many examples but none is more satisfying than the Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle. The album didn’t chart well when it came out in 1968 perhaps because the material is light and nimble and no longer seemed appropriate given the increasing heaviness of the social and cultural landscape. But while Odessey and Oracle is undeniably a work of pop, the record’s use of jazzy chords and complicated time signatures, as well as weighty themes touched on in songs like Butcher’s Tale, indicate a level of self-importance and self-consciousness that I associate with rock, not pop. For me the album represents a kind of tipping point, but it never quite gives in, much to its credit. I think this sense of the album as the apotheosis of pop is what lends it its special brand of English sophistication. When I’m in the mood for music that’s decidedly cool without losing its joyfulness, complex but still accessible, and urbane but never pretentious, Odessey and Oracle is the one I reach for. It’s a masterpiece of pop art and one of the five or six greatest records to come out of Britain in the 60s…