THE KNACK, AND HOW TO GET IT
Feb. 21st, 2010 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogSome more catch-up bloggery, as I felt I probably ought to say something about the death of Doug Fieger.
I was 14 when “My Sharona” came out. I bought the 45 single. Here’s the sleeve art.
Between that and the lyrics, The Knack pretty much summed up my unfulfilled teenage urges in four minutes and 52 seconds – and with one of the best guitar solos ever recorded. The rest of their debut album was just as horny.
So I identified with it, yes.
(Which, oddly, means that I have at least one thing in common with George W Bush. Allegedly.)
In retrospect, of course, for all their popularity, the Knack didn’t command that much respect with the hipster crowd, either because of the lyrics or their alleged attempt to mimic the Beatles look (though personally I thought they were closer to the Kinks than the Beatles, but whatever), or because they played it too safe compared to punk just to get a record deal, etc. So in that sense they were never all that “cool”, and have since been written off as one-hit wonders.
But I’ve been saying for awhile now that Get The Knack is one of the greatest power-pop albums ever made. And for suburban Nashville teens like me who didn’t really have any exposure to Ramones, The Clash or Iggy Pop, The Knack were a welcome blast of guitars and bluster. And incidentally, none of those bands ever managed to get a song with lyrics like “til she’s sitting on yr face” in heavy rotation on the radio (and sure, a lot of stations played the “clean” version, but that’s not really the point).
Anyway, since you all know “My Sharona”, and seeing as how I’ve got the sleeve art here, I thought I’d share the B-side with you.
FUN FACT: That girl on the 45 sleeve there? That's Sharona. The real one.
It's getting tighter and I'm feeling the bite,
This is dF
I was 14 when “My Sharona” came out. I bought the 45 single. Here’s the sleeve art.
Between that and the lyrics, The Knack pretty much summed up my unfulfilled teenage urges in four minutes and 52 seconds – and with one of the best guitar solos ever recorded. The rest of their debut album was just as horny.
So I identified with it, yes.
(Which, oddly, means that I have at least one thing in common with George W Bush. Allegedly.)
In retrospect, of course, for all their popularity, the Knack didn’t command that much respect with the hipster crowd, either because of the lyrics or their alleged attempt to mimic the Beatles look (though personally I thought they were closer to the Kinks than the Beatles, but whatever), or because they played it too safe compared to punk just to get a record deal, etc. So in that sense they were never all that “cool”, and have since been written off as one-hit wonders.
But I’ve been saying for awhile now that Get The Knack is one of the greatest power-pop albums ever made. And for suburban Nashville teens like me who didn’t really have any exposure to Ramones, The Clash or Iggy Pop, The Knack were a welcome blast of guitars and bluster. And incidentally, none of those bands ever managed to get a song with lyrics like “til she’s sitting on yr face” in heavy rotation on the radio (and sure, a lot of stations played the “clean” version, but that’s not really the point).
Anyway, since you all know “My Sharona”, and seeing as how I’ve got the sleeve art here, I thought I’d share the B-side with you.
FUN FACT: That girl on the 45 sleeve there? That's Sharona. The real one.
It's getting tighter and I'm feeling the bite,
This is dF
