Is there a better power pop tune than the Plimsouls' "How Long Will It Take?"

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Because seriously, if there is, I haven't heard it ('cept maybe something by the Nerves). I mean, I don't actually like power pop much, so I haven't gone to the effort to really try and find one - but hot damn, this is one of the best catchy rock songs I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. Amped-up, almost aggro Byrdsy jangle, bitter, back against the wall vocal delivery, and maaaaan, that prechorus! I've had it on heavy, heavy repeat for at least the last three weeks.

Any opinions on said song?

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Thursday, 21 April 2005 02:36 (twenty years ago)

That's a great song, no doubt. I dig "I'll Get Lucky" even more, I think. But yeah, "How Long Will It Take?" was always one of my biggest favorites on that album, which I also used to play constantly.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 21 April 2005 05:26 (twenty years ago)

can you gmail me this?? (or play it for me in person when i return to amerikkka)

― ivy (ivy), Thursday, 21 April 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

"A Million Miles Away" is much, much bettah.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 21 April 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

There are several. Not necessarily by Plimsouls though.

I guess there will never ever be a better powerpop tune than "September Gurls" though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 21 April 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

Alex, true, but it's in another class, so it didn't even occur to me when I was thinking about the album earlier. Weird, huh?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 22 April 2005 00:05 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

OK, so everyone needs to drop everything they're doing and get the Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal live album that just came out (recorded at a Whiskey A Go-Go gig on Halloween 1981).

― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 23:40 (sixteen years ago)

But it's not even that catchy a song, by power pop standards. I mean, The Shivvers' "No Substitute" or The Speedies' "Time" are vastly better, and if I thought about it for more than a minute, there'd be fifty others. The Astrobeats' "Tight Jeans." The Beat's "Walking out on Love." Nerves, Cheap Trick. "Don't Take Her Away" by The Go. "Paper Dolls" by Rubber City Rebels. Screen Test's "Anytime." Scruffs, Toms, Toys ("Living Fast"). Vertebrats' "Diamonds in the Rough." Razz. And so on. That Plimsouls song is ok (a "catchy rock song," yes), but an all time power pop classic? That's a high standard.

― Michael Train, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:32 (sixteen years ago)

From the Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock thread, one month ago:

By the way, anybody have any opinion about the Plimsouls? I've always assumed they were utter wimps, early powerpop-sans-power twerps, but I got this CD recorded live on Halloween 1981 in the mail last week, and the sound's way too thin and muddy, but I'm maybe getting the idea that they might have been, say, a West Coast version of the Romantics (which wouldn't be bad) as opposed to, say, ick, a West Coast version of the Fleshtones (which comparison Christgau made once.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 14 February 2010 18:37

ugh, the Plimsouls! talk about boring, nothing there wanna-be power-schlock irritants. caught them opening for Costello at the Greek back in '82 to my eternal regret. let's just say that compared to their interminably monochromatic set even the drabbest of the drab Elvis C Imperial Boredom ballads sounded like good fun. thanx for a lot reminding me, Chuck. i hope to return the favor one day.

― the not-glo-fi one (Ioannis), Sunday, 14 February 2010 19:14

― xhuxk, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:46 (sixteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Peter Case looks like he's 14 here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfhki5ts43A

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 25 July 2023 11:22 (two years ago)

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