Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Paul Cook Edition

When you talk about The Sex Pistols, one gets kind of shunted aside. Johnny Rotten was an archetype. I suppose Sid Vicious was too, though more the archetype of an idiot. Steve Jones played with Iggy Pop and reinvented himself as a radio star in L.A. Meanwhile, drummer Paul Cook gets overlooked. But a band can’t sound as powerful as the Pistols did without a steady presence behind the traps, and Cook certainly was that. Additionally, he is the father of Hollie Cook, the splendid reggae-pop singer. Let’s pay tribute to the forgotten Pistol by getting out your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.

1. Smoking Popes — Gotta Know Right Now (Smoking Popes At Metro): While the Caterer brothers got there start in the punk scene of the Chicago suburbs, at heart, they weren’t so much punk-pop as one of the more original power pop bands of their era. Josh Caterer’s crooning vocals and romantic songs had killer melodies and hooks, and the band put them over with verve and energy. Their reunion, after Josh had become born again and left mainstream rock for a while, was more than welcome, and this live tune from a post-reunion show is punchy, concise and excellent.
2. The Noisettes — Bridge To Canada (What’s The Time, Mr. Wolf): Even on their debut album, with its garagey, spiky, punky overtones, The Noisettes were a pop band at heart. This is a percussive, stabbing song with lots of guitar touches, with a swell melodic chorus in the middle of the maelstrom.
3. John Lennon — Give Peace A Chance (Lennon Legend: The Very Best Of John Lennon): A basic stomping polemic from John and Yoko. My favorite part of this single, which was recorded in a hotel room in Toronto, is that one member of the vocal chorus is Tommy Smothers.
4. Superchunk — Rainy Streets (Here’s To Shutting Up): Mac McCaughan doesn’t get enough credit for coming up with some of the best lead guitar lines in rock music. So many Superchunk songs, this one included, immediately hook you in, because he starts a tune off with such a catchy guitar part. I suppose one could say that songs like these blur together, but very few do this post-Buzzcocks punky alt-rock as well, and these songs still sound good after all these years.
5. Hawksley Workman — And The Government Will Protect The Mighty (Meat): A fairly stinging number from the Canadian singer-songwriter who is not bound by genre or style. Playing pretty much everything as usual, this is just a heavy guitar number with a big bottom from the bass and Workman’s overlooked supreme lead guitar skills. This is a really pessimistic look at society, as the title indicates.
6. The Sugarplastic — Holy Moses (Resin): A typically arch, psychedelic inspired pop song from this L.A. band that is often compared to XTC, in part due to lead singer Ben Eschbach’s vocal resemblance to Andy Partridge. That’s in evidence here, but this song sounds more like an Eastern European folk song with some really creative vocal arrangements and some nifty embellishments on piano.
7. King Khan & The Shrines — In The Grave (What Is?!): One thing I love about King Khan is how he takes garage rock back to the R & B roots that inspired the original garage bands in the ’60s. So you get numbers like this that mix James Brown with blues rock riffing. This even goes a step beyond the similar work from The Fleshtones. The drumming on this is really deft.
8. The Embrooks — Eyes Of Love (Our New Day): This tiny British band (I don’t think anyone reached 5’6” when I saw them years ago in Chicago) probably waxed the best Freakbeat revival album I’ve ever heard. Our New Day is just fully of energetic, buzzy ’60s styled pop songs with a mix of bouncing rhythms and hard guitar. The mystery to me is how this album, their second, got wide release and great reviews, and their third album was buried. Such a shame, they were really talented.
9. Rose Elinor Dougall — Goodnight (Without Why): This former member of The Pipettes put out a stunning solo album a couple of years ago. She proved quite adept at melancholy pop and rock songs, well suited for her pretty, expressive voice. This is a rumination set to piano and strings, and between her splendid voice and heartfelt phrasing, this song really packs an emotional wallop.
10. Simon & Garfunkel — Bridge Over Troubled Water (Bridge Over Troubled Water): Musically, a perfect segueway from the prior song. What more can be said about this nearly instant standard, this showcase for the dazzling range and power of Art Garfunkel’s angelic tenor, a song with spiritual overtones so strong that this could be sung at ’70s folk masses at hip Catholic churches throughout the land? Some might find this overblown, but a melody this stately and widescreen needed to be blown up to its fullest extent.