Are You Ready/Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970

Syperpop/Big Stir Records

This double A Side single is the first from this upcoming comp and it’s great. Up first is “Are You Ready” by Pacific Gas & Electric. Petsche/Raines. (Alan Petsche and Delbert Raines from Texas power pop group the Pengwins ) along with the The Baker Brothers Gospel Choir do a very soulful, power pop take on this one hit wonder R&B band that matches the original, and the original was pretty good. What makes the song contemporary is the realization that today’s politics are like those of the 1970s, with the call for love and peace just as loud today as it was then.

Edison Lighthouse’s AM gold single “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” also gets the power pop treatment from the Test Pressings (Robbie Rist on guitar and vocals, Karen Basset of The Pandoras on bass and backing vocals, and drums from compilation producer John M. Borack of Popdudes and The Armoires). The song is so blissed out that it’s irresistible. And wonderful. It could almost be an anthem declaring this about Rosemary, as well as just being fun.

It’s also punk, but so punk it’s hippie, and so hippie it’s punk. The irony here is that they aren’t being ironic, they mean every word they say, every note they play, which is why this single works so well. It’s a pick-me-up for bad days, and reminds everyone that the need for love and peace, as well as the politics of 1970s are not so different from today.

Andrea Weiss