At first sight the name of Ken Sharp may mean nothing to some of you. To others it may sound familiar, but you don't know exactly why.
Well, if we take a look at the first Yellow Pills CD compilation we can find the beautiful Break Down The Walls which, you got it, is composed and sung by our man. However, the first time we heard heard about him was not as a musician.
In the fantastic Rubinoos Basement Tapes compilation Ken was the author of the liner notes. He would particapate later on in another Rubinoos compilation, Garage Sale.
It was just last year that we heard about him again. The British label r.p.m. had just reissued all of The Rasberries albums in two extraordinary CD's. Ken was not only responsible for the excellent booklets and liner notes, but he was also the producer of these compilations.
Not in vain, he is the author of the book Overnight Sensation: The Story Of The Raspberries. Last year he also put out another book, along with Doug Sulpy, Power Pop: Conversations With The Power Pop Elite.
With all these premises we couldn't help but contact him. Now here you have a small interview with Ken Sharp. Hope you dig it!
What did you do first play music or write about music?
- I first started playing guitar in the late 70's and began writing songs soon thereafter. The first song I ever wrote was called “Second Rate Romance”. I began writing about music doing record reviews for our highschool newspaper and from there I worked as an intern at a local rock radio station.
I began doing interviews with many of the artists and groups who came to Philadelphia and got a job working for Denny Somach, a producer of nationally syndicated rock radio shows.
Through my work with Denny, I've fortunate to have met/interviewed most of my heroes including The Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr), The Who (Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Enwtistle), The Kinks (Ray and Dave Davies), Todd Rundgren, Raspberries, The Beach Boys (Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston), Stevie Wonder, The Bee Gees and many many others.
Tell us about your first group...
- My first group was called Debut. It featured me on guitar and vocals and my pal Geoff Hanson on drums. No originals, just covers by acts like Bad Company, The Beatles, Kiss, Peter Frampton, Doobie Brothers. You get the idea.
Your first CD is called 1301 Highland Ave. What was the process of making that record?
- 1301 Highland Ave. is my debut CD. It comprises many tracks recorded for the record plus some other studio material I recorded over the years.
It also includes my two earliest recordings, “So Sincere” and “The Kind Of Girls”, recorded in 1982. Pure power pop with Ken's wavering voice trying to desperately to sing in key!
How did you record two songs with The Rubinoos? I guess it must have been a great experience for you...
- I became good friends with The Rubinoos, particularly Tommy Dunbar and Al Chan. I worked on two CD projects with the band and even came up with the name of their CD Garage Sale.
I asked Tommy if he and the band would back me on two songs that I felt were perfect for them and they very kindly agreed! The two songs that features their backing are “Magic”, a song written for a movie of the same name and “In My Dreams Tonight”. To have The Rubinoos great musicianship and background vocals on one of MY songs was incredible!
You told me about you playing shows opening for The Records and also them playing in your band. Will you please tell us about it? I'm a great fan of The Records, for me Shades In Bed is one of the greatest power pop albums ever made...
- John Wicks of The Records is a great friend of mine. I did my debut solo gig in New York City at a famous club called “The Bitter End”. Not only did John and his new band, called The Records, back me up. But we did a cover of “Starry Eyes” in the set and the band's original guitar player Huw Gower jumped up on-stage with us and played it.
A dream come true for me, being a Records fan since the beginning. I was in awe to say the least. We also played the next night with Huw at two other NYC clubs including CBGB's.
We did “Starry Eyes”, “Girl”, “Girl In A Golden Disc”, “All Messed Up And Ready”, “Teenarama” among others. I was singing background vocals and playing guitar (some lead guitar) as well. Amazing!
I've recently recorded six new songs for a new CD and John Wicks of The Records sang background on three of them -“Unconditionally”, “Room For Two” and “Tea & Sympathy”. The Records also back me up on those songs as well.
Stewkey, lead singer of The Nazz sang on one song called “Beautiful” and Jason Scheff, lead singer of Chicago sang background vocals on my ballad “You Said You'd Love Me”. I'm hoping to record a bunch more new tunes to finish my second CD.
It'll be called Happy Accidents. I've become friendly with the power pop band Wanderlust who released a great CD Prize [RCA Records] a few years ago.
They may back me on a few new tunes. I recently played with 3/4 of the band at a show in Philly where we did some of our favorite cover songs.
I sang lead vocals and played guitar-- we did “I'm Losing You” by John Lennon, “Anyway You Want It” by The Dave Clark Five, “Your Number Or Your Name” by The Knack and The Who's “I Can't Explain”. I got to play Scot Sax, the lead singer of Wanderlust's white Rickenbacker guitar which was very cool. Scot played drums.
Do you play live regularly? Do you have a permanent band with you?
- I don't play live regularly, only when gigs come up. I'm seeking to actually find some great players to back me on a consistent basis so my profile as a live performer may increase.
Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze just completed a U.S. tour where he plays acoustic guitar and performs many great Squeeze and cover songs.
He asks for musical participation from fellow musicians. I jumped up on-stage with him in Philadelphia and played “I Should Have Known Better” by The Beatles. We both played guitar and sang into the same microphone Lennon/McCartney. It was unbelievable!!
I've read that pop and power pop festivals have been held in the U.S.- Poptopia in L.A.... - Have you taken part in any of them?
- I've never been to Poptopia but love the idea! Never could afford flying out.
A great power pop wave is invading the planet, do you think so? What do you think of all the new groups, zines...?
- I think power pop is definitely gaining a wider profile, the public is tired of non-melodic music. Compilations and like minded power pop fanzines are springing up everywhere laying claim to their love of a joyous, timeless melody and killer hook.
The interest in power pop is still on the cult level, I'm afraid, but it has immense potential to break out of that. I thought Jellyfish were going to be able to make it - they were one of the best power pop bands in my eyes- but sadly, they self-destructed.
Tell us about your books on the Raspberries, The Beatles, Power Pop...
- My first book was about The Raspberries. I had full involvement from the band and the book has been sold out for over two years. A definite labor of love as all my other book projects. I will be publishing a follow-up called From The Vaults.
My second book was Meet The Beatles... Again! which features interviews with all the surviving Beatles and other acts like Beach Boys, Kinks, Who, Rolling Stones, Byrds, Cheap Trick, Todd Rundgren, The Knack, Doors...
All speak about their experiences and love of The Fab Four. I'm a co-writer of the book Quite Naturally-Small Faces which was just published in Britain. They are one of my favorite groups of all-time.
In what other activities related with music are you involved?
- Writing and playing music is my number one love- nothing comes close! Then writing about music. I'm also an avid collector of rare music video concerts. TV shows--plus Sixties and Seventies rock magazines like Creem, Bomp and Trouser Press.
Hey, does anyone out there have video footage of Zoot, Rick Springfield's late Sixties Aussie power pop group or The Shakers, a Beatles sounding group from Paraguay circa mid-60's? I'd love video on them!
What are your future plans: new book, new album, playing live...?
- My future plans include publishing the Cheap Trick book, finishing up my second CD and getting a record deal.
My future book projects will focus on Raspberries and perhaps a Power Pop Encyclopedia.
And that's just the start...
You have just tested Ken's exquisite musical taste. If you want to find out even more about it, get a hold of Power Pop: Conversations With The Power Pop Elite [PopTomes, 1997, Ken Sharp & Doug Sulpy].
You might already have heard about it. It is, as they say, the first book with an in-depth approach to this musical “genre”. It is a compilation of interviews with some of the most significant groups and artists in power pop, up to 28 in 336 pages. A brief bio and a recommended listening on each artist is also included.
The book opens with The Small Faces and goes on, in chronological order, with The Move, Nazz, Badfinger..., finishing with The Posies, Jellyfish and Enuff Z'Nuff. The first thing that comes to your mind is just why these 28 artists.
Is it really justified the inclusion of such acts as The Bangles, Enuff Z'Nuff or, for instance, Bay City Rollers? Why such names as Tommy Keene, The Romantics, Nick Lowe or The dB's are missing?
But this would be the never ending story, everyone has his own favorites and we'd never agree with a selection of just 28 artists. Leaving this discussion aside let's concentrate in other things.
For instance, the way the book is written up: conversations-interviews with the starring artists. From my point of view this is the best of it, who better than the artists themselves to tell us about it all? And it's no secondary ones: Steve Marriott, Todd Rundgren, Joey Molland, Eric
Carmen, Alex Chilton, Cyril Jordan (the cover art is his), Dwight Twilley, Glenn Tilbrook ..., uhmmm! Revealing interviews in most cases.
It's also true that most of these recordings are really hard to find (as far as I know only his solo debut Emitt Rhodes is available here on CD via One Way Records). By the way I've heard that he has played in the Poptopia festival in L.A. and it's possible that he will record again, let's cross our fingers.
Also revised is the first Todd Rundgren with Nazz (it's curious to read what Todd thinks of his production in Badfinger's Straight Up and later on read what Joey thinks about it).
For me there's one important figure missing: Michael Brown of The Left Banke. It's also nice to see that the authors take a look at the career of Rick Springfield. An artist not held in much esteem by the critics.
But hey! Kim Williams of The Summer Suns told us that his favorite 60's aussie group was The Zoot (Rick was their guitar player).
IÑAKI ORBEZUA
originally published in Otoño Cheyenne #1
