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| "Butt, the little girls understand" - Back Door Man Howlin' Wolf |
Lawdy, but these guys were unlovable. The skinny ties, the legs apart stance, Doug Fieger's shit-eating leer, their album covers. It's all just so - what's the word? Cringe. Some bands you like before they even play a note - hey! these are my-type guys! F'rinstance, the original Mothers. The Bangles. But the Knack? They got everything wrong. Even the name is dumb, and not in a good way. Get The Knack! Get it!? What's the word? Facepalm.
The problem is, they were pretty good. The big hit was a big hit because it sounded like a great big hooky pop hit. Brilliant. And they made a two-decade career out of turning out swell comeback albums in spite of nobody really wanting them to come back from slinging hash or being Walmart greeters or whatever their MacJobs were. They kept releasing impeccably-crafted records and nobody cared much because they looked like Pre-Owned Wave, and the covers had all the appeal of Discount Meat windshield flyers.
Are they due for a critical reassessment and that lovingly-curated box set? Probably not. The market isn't ready right now for shiny guitar-based pop, and their lyrics are - what's the word? Problematic. It's your loss. Not a heartbreaking loss. Not like losing your favorite pocket knife or that Springsteen ticket from '75. But if you'd like a bunch of cool music to play while you flaunt your buttcrack tinkering uselessly with the lawnmower, you could do a whole lot worse than blast these tunes out the window. I've done some new sleeves so you won't get a taste of sick in your mouth when looking at them, as some kind of encouragement. But hey, I'm not your mom. You be you.
Get The Knack, now dressed in Leisure Suit Larry polyester
Serious Fun, Stretch Armstrong-style
Round Trip to th' old abandoned amusement park
Normal As The Next Guy if he's Pee Wee Herman
Zoom call
This post made fungible thru th' Divine Intercession of th' Pope Of Rome, TN
Look, somebody's got to be the first to step up and request the pop equivalent of the Cone of Shame - why not you?
ReplyDeleteReminds me of The Elephant Man... "Look away, I'm hideous...."
ReplyDeleteBruce Gary went from drumming for Jack Bruce and Carla Bley to... this lot.
ReplyDeleteWow - had on idea about that lineage. Sadly, my guess is he made more $ with these guys. Friend in Seville is a well known drummer, who has been on recordings with Sting, Pastorious and many others. Has several houses throughout the EU, and while he doesn't flout his wealth, its obvious he has/had tons of $. Turns out he also used to be the drummer for........The Bay City Rollers. That's where his wealth derives.
DeleteMitch Mitchell, called in to re-do his own drum parts by Alan Douglas for "Voodoo Soup", showed up too drunk (sorry- "battling personal demons") to work, so Douglas asked Bruce Gary to sit in, which he did, nailing the songs on the spot and getting a heap of vilification from Hendrix nuts for daring to think he could replace Mitchell - such arrogance! But calling The Knack "this lot" is typical of the reaction they inspire, which has little or nothing to do with the music.
Delete... did see their DVD - one hit wonder - the rest is not bad but kinda boring
ReplyDeletehow about Sir Roderick David Stewart... you know the guy who ruined The Small Faces.
ReplyDeleteLEAVE ROD STEWART ALO-O-O-ONE!
DeleteYou've got my mascara running, you beast!
I've always liked these guys, except for the album covers and the big hit. Mostly it is was decent guitar/power pop, and a lot of others did it worse. Fieger's been dead for a long time, so no chance for a comeback now.
ReplyDeleteJimsbo's entirely fair-minded summation earns him this Wholesale Pallet O' Pop©, which some of youse other slobs will pick up anonymously and actually truthfully find to be pretty damn good, not that you'll say "thank you" or anything on account which you think you'll look uncool.
DeleteHere ya go, Jimsbo:
https://workupload.com/file/GpdXA8tJZUR
I like these guys, thank you.
DeleteThey is pretty good in my book. I am a sucker for pure pop guitar type stuff. The melodies were strong. The lyrics, well yeah, some were not for these times to say the least. Good thing they hit when I was about 15 and didn't care. Heck, it probably made it better to me then. Got all these albums and I even still listen to them once n a while when I need the power pop kick to jumpstart me.
ReplyDeleteHiya Farq!
ReplyDeleteSeeing as you’ve tempted us with some ‘pop’, I’d like to share a lovely Mojo VA compilation - Jet Powered Pop! (15 Sky-Scraping Songs) - that I’ve been enjoying lately, I thought of you because the last track is by Susanna Hoffs with Matthew Sweet, I know you have a soft spot for Ms Hoffs FT3. Half of the musicians on here I don’t know, but its been the soundtrack to much of my summer.
Here’s the tracklist:-
1. The Both – Milwaukee
2. The dB’s – That Time Is Gone
3. Young Guv – Couldn’t Leave U if I Tried
4. The Long Ryders – I Can’t Hide
5. Brendan Benson – Let Me Roll It
6. XTC – I’m the Man Who Murdered Love
7. The Lemon Twigs – In My Head
8. Those Pretty Wrongs – Scream
9. Gigolo Aunts – Serious Drugs
10. Teenage Fanclub – Foreign Land
11. Heatmiser – Revolution
12. Gaz Coombes – Long Live the Strange
13. Shoes – Capital Gain
14. Nada Surf – The Way You Wear Your Head
15. Susanna Hoffs & Matthew Sweet – And Your Bird Can Sing
https://workupload.com/file/dECJaykqZgE
Hoping you or some of the 4or5guys enjoy it.
Thanks, Bambers! Susanna Hoffs?? Who she??
Delete'Get The Knack' is one of the finest rock debut albums of all time. Period. L.A. was cookin' then, as an even better debut power pop album ('The Beat' by...the Beat, later called Paul Collins' Beat to differentiate it from the UK Beat) came out around the same time. And the debuts of X, Los Lobos, Blasters, Van Halen -- all tops in their respective genres.
ReplyDeleteEven haters and pretentious fucks that want to act above the fray have to acknowledge the crazy astounding greatness of the guitar solo in 'My Sharona'. And Fieger delivers fine vocals on two fine numbers on Was (Not Was)' album 'Born To Laugh At Tornados' ('Betrayal' and the poppy 'Smile', if anyone's curious; Mel Torme and Ozzy Osbourne also do guest vocal stints on the album, and somehow the thing works).
C in California
Totally agree with C in C about Fieger on 'Born To Laugh At Tornados' album, after Was (Not Was) first album I forgot about them and didn't even know of its existence, found a copy a couple of years later, the Mel Torme track is sad, and laugh out loud funny at the same time.
Delete