Pure Punk Picks
Everybody’s Happy Nowadays – The Buzzcocks
Oh, yeah. I guess I’m writing about this song because of Pete Shelley’s recent untimely demise. But what a glorious song this is!
It starts with a guitar intro that is so simple and sublime. In the early days of rock music, most guitar licks had a blistering, barrage of notes that smacked us straight in the face! Here your ears are caressed with just a chiming, descending, four note lead!
Of course, eventually it’s met with a rhythm guitar set to jar your very existence, knock your equilibrium off, to rip your entrails out with its’ propulsive blasts of energy. But what a great dichotomy between the two guitar styles.
And you can’t forget the hooky, catchy title phrase sung in falsetto like, as if The Temptations had ever decided to record a punk song.
“Life’s an illusion, love’s but a dream. But it’s okay. Okay?”
It’s more than okay, in fact, it’s great by me.
Driven with a classic, back beat drum beat (same beat that Blondie’s “X-Offender” starts with) this song also has a combination of a terrific melody, rhythmic abrasiveness and philosophic pondering. All wrapped up like a perfect burrito in a song that is as much art as it is commercial, jarring as it is soothing, a mix of the bitter with the friggin’ sweet and blends it all to become some pure punk pop bliss then, nowadays and beyond.
Don’t know about anybody else but I’m happy!
