The End of the Game

February 15, 2010 7:46 AM

Doug Fieger lead singer of The Knack has died. The band's # 1 hit, My Sharona from 1979, created a critical backlash (a.k.a the Knacklash) which has softened in recent years.
posted by jeffen (103 comments total)

It would be awesome if I never have to hear "My Sharona" again.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:54 AM on February 15, 2010 [4 favorites]

Good gravy, what an awesome time for movies - look at some of those ads. Fiddler, The Onion Field, Life of Brian, Apocalypse Now, Rocky 2 and Meatballs.

OK, also "Thunder Buns", but hey.
posted by jquinby at 7:59 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Now I have that hook set in my head again. Thanks!
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:03 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

.

Sorry haters, My Sharona rules.
posted by orville sash at 8:05 AM on February 15, 2010 [19 favorites]

DO NOT IMPUGN THE AWESOMENESS THAT WAS THUNDER BUNS.

It's basically the My Sharona of erotic cinema.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:06 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

.
posted by kuppajava at 8:06 AM on February 15, 2010

I have to say, if it wasn't for their cover of "My Sharona", I would've never initially fallen in love with The Polysics.

So thank you, Mr. Fieger, for creating a song that is damnedly catchy.

Especially when done with a vocoder.
posted by Katemonkey at 8:07 AM on February 15, 2010

From the critical backlash link:
...there was nothing honest about The Knack ripping them off for eight dollars apiece...

Ah, the good old days!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:09 AM on February 15, 2010

I had no idea the backlash against The Knack had its own name.
posted by dortmunder at 8:09 AM on February 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

That did a pretty great job of getting We Are The World 25 right out of my brain. Thanks, Sharona!
posted by paisley henosis at 8:11 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

.

1. My Sharona has the most perfectly crafted guitar solo in the history of pop music. Not necessarily the best, but the most well-put together.

2. We must not forget their amazingly juvenile hit Good Girls Don't.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:11 AM on February 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

Methinks the "Knacklash" was actually much more of a feeble fist-shaking whimper.
posted by blucevalo at 8:12 AM on February 15, 2010

so wait, what was the backlash about? the article is vague.
posted by shmegegge at 8:13 AM on February 15, 2010

dortmunder: "I had no idea the backlash against The Knack had its own name."

Dave Marsh's pan of their second album was definitive.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:16 AM on February 15, 2010 [7 favorites]

The Knacklash was based around a few things. Firstly, the band's lyrics were pretty infantile, sexist, and sometimes more than a little creepy. Secondly, they sort of courted comparisons to The Beatles, which is a bad idea. Thirdly, they refused to do interviews, for the most part, which made them come off as pompous. It was like a perfect storm of how to piss of critics, and, back in them days, critics actually could make or break a band.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:17 AM on February 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

The original song gained some attention in 2005 when it appeared on the playlist of U.S. President George W. Bush's iPod.
posted by R. Mutt at 8:20 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

But this:

"It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat; I fell in love with her instantly. And when that happened, it sparked something and I started writing a lot of songs feverishly in a short amount of time."

is rock and roll.
posted by R. Mutt at 8:22 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Remember, without The Knack the career of "Weird Al" Yankovic may never have taken off.

Thank you, The Knack.
posted by bondcliff at 8:23 AM on February 15, 2010 [9 favorites]

Good Girls Don't is still a kick-ass mixtape song.

And hell, we've still got Geoffrey Feiger.
posted by klangklangston at 8:25 AM on February 15, 2010

I had no idea the backlash against The Knack had its own name.

I had no idea there was a backlash.
posted by squeak at 8:27 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

.
posted by fixedgear at 8:29 AM on February 15, 2010

Apparently, Sharona is a real estate agent in L.A.
posted by R. Mutt at 8:31 AM on February 15, 2010

Does this mean he'll no longer get it up for the touch of the younger kind?
posted by lukemeister at 8:33 AM on February 15, 2010

Parodied as "My Mohegan" in a Mohegan Sun commercial.

I don't think the word parody means what you think it means, wikipedia
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:33 AM on February 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

The Knack was a very good power-pop band. And they were arguably important in that they brought power-pop a la The Jam, Buzzcocks and even The Clash to the US mainstream. I remember, because it was through The Knack that I discovered said bands when I was a wee lad in Kansas. (And no, Big Star and The Raspberries don't count as pre-Knack US power-pop bands--that's silly.) About every third up-tempo white-boy guitar band on the airwaves today in the US owes a lot to Fieger, though the probably don't know it or won't admit it.

And then there's this indisputable fact: the guitar solo on Sharona is a fine, fine piece of work. It has no equal in the annals of power pop (though I'm fond of the interlude on "Another Girl, Another Planet" by The Only Ones).

So I say, with both great appreciation and heartfelt sadness,
.
posted by MarshallPoe at 8:34 AM on February 15, 2010 [8 favorites]

Hate all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that "Your Number or Your Name" is a great song. So long, Doug.
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:35 AM on February 15, 2010

And one more thing: Screw Dave Marsh.
posted by MarshallPoe at 8:37 AM on February 15, 2010

I played in a minor indie band in the mid 90s and we actually played with the Knack at CBGB in New York - they had had a minor resurgence due to the Reality Bites soundtrack. It was weird because they played early and had a bunch of fans show up, whereas we went on after them and played basically to a few of their fans who were too drunk to bother leaving. All I remember about the show was the sort of sad aura of a band that had once been a lot bigger. They didn't seem too happy to be there, especially the drummer, who yelled at one of our guys for picking up one of the drums and moving it offstage for the changeover. "Don't touch that!! Do you know how much that kit cost?" and all that.

Still, I liked My Sharona growing up. For Good Girls Don't, I remember the Chipmunks version best.

.
posted by freecellwizard at 8:40 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Anybody else miss the hell out of this Janeane Garofolo?
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:46 AM on February 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

How many awesome songs did Dave Marsh write? And why are we supposed to care what Rick Bonino thinks? The Knack kicked ass, and Doug Fieger will be missed.

.
posted by spilon at 8:50 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I still love Sharona.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 8:55 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I confess to actually watching this summer-replacement reality show in 2005 called "Hit Me One More Time", a sort of American-Idol-esque show where they asked a number of old one-hit wonders to come back and first do their one hit and then do a contemporary song. The studio audience voted on a winner, and that winner's favorite charity would get a donation.

After "My Sharona," The Knack took on "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, and actually did a pretty decent job of it. (Alas, they lost to Haddaway's "What Is Love" and cover of "Toxic").

I also remember them being on Jay Leno around the time "Reality Bites" was on, and Doug was joking about what exactly may have contributed to their downfall ("The same week we hit Number One, we were touring New Zealand. And at some point these two kiwis come up to me and say, 'Dude, you've just had the number one song in the US, and you're in New Zealand. There are more sheep here than there are people. What are you doing here?' And we all just looked at each other and said, 'They're right -- what ARE we doing here?'") He seemed happy with what he'd had rather than bitter about not having gone further, and that's always attractive.

Godspeed.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:55 AM on February 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

This is sad.

I love this song. But then I like The Osmonds Crazy Horses too. I still have some friends who know this, although they make me wear headphones if I want to play music.

Who the hell christens their kid Sharona anyways?

A little part of me dies when I realise that the real Sharona isn't a hard living rock chick but a real estate agent.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:04 AM on February 15, 2010

this sucks - the third grade me became a huge fan because my best friend Gary's much older sister (she was in junior high!!) turned us on to them - Gary and I considered ourselves to be quite the music connoisseurs because of this, probably because most of our friends were into disco. RIP Doug, and...

.


also...
Disco Sucks Man!
posted by h0p3y at 9:06 AM on February 15, 2010

So your evidence of a "critical backlash" was a curmudgeon-y review of ONE CONCERT in fucking SPOKANE? Why smear this guy when he's dead with such bullshit evidence?

Shame on you.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:11 AM on February 15, 2010

How many awesome songs did Dave Marsh write?

Just out of curiosity, if he did write awesome songs, would that make his criticism somehow magically valid?

Not that you're not free to disagree with the criticism, but the "Could you do better?" response is a notoriously faulty one. For one thing, it can backlash, as when Rob Schneider attacked LA Times critic Patrick Goldstein, criticizing him for his own lack of accomplishment and saying, "Maybe you didn't win a Pulitzer Prize because they haven't invented a category for Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter Who's Never Been Acknowledged by His Peers." To which Roger Ebert quickly responded "As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks."

Also, as much as I hate to quote Tim Allen, he's absolutely right in Galaxy Quest when he says "It doesn't take a good actor to recognize a bad one."
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:12 AM on February 15, 2010 [14 favorites]

What I remember most of "My Sharona" is as part inspiration for one of my favorite Dead Kennedys songs, "Pull My Strings" ("mah-mah-mah-my payola!").
posted by moz at 9:13 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am going to yell out for the 'My Scrotum' cover by name come their next tour stop.
posted by coachfortner at 9:19 AM on February 15, 2010

I've met Dave Marsh a few times. really nice guy, I don't agree with him on everything, but he knows his stuff and has led me to some great music. The Knack aren't as awful as a lot of people think, but they're are dozens of bands who did the power pop thing better. But, my condolences to his freinds and family.
posted by jonmc at 9:26 AM on February 15, 2010

In 1979 I recall having my first "real" kiss while listening to the "Top 5 at Ten" on the radio, and I can still remember at least 3 of the songs that were on that special night: "Babe" by Styx, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniel's band and "My Sharona" by The Knack. If it wasn't for this fact I probably would turn off "My Sharona" when I hear it on the radio, but I don't. Although I sometimes revert to the made up lyrics of a friend who called it "My Corona."

RIP Doug Fieger.
posted by Hey, Zeus! at 9:35 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

[T]he "Could you do better?" response is a notoriously faulty one.


Not to derail, but the "Could you do better?" response is often a very good one. By saying that X is good or bad, you are implying that you know, at the very least, what makes X good or bad. (Unless you are just saying "I don't like X," which is a different story). That isn't to say that you could make X good (or bad) yourself, but some experience with trying to make X will certainly give you a better understanding of what a "good" or a "bad" X is.

To put this another way, I'm going to trust the surgeon to tell me what good or bad surgery is, not some guy who has watched a lot of surgery on the surgery channel (though, admittedly, he might know something worthwhile).

Oh, and Screw Dave Marsh.
posted by MarshallPoe at 9:48 AM on February 15, 2010

.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 9:50 AM on February 15, 2010

Not to derail, but the "Could you do better?" response is often a very good one.

in music criticism? no, it's not. bring up surgery comparisons all you want, but since there's no such thing as professional surgery criticism, it's not really a fair comparison. being a critic doesn't necessarily mean that you know music well or that you make fair criticisms, but "could you do better" is a toss-off worthless dismissal of the entire industry of art criticism. if you want to make that argument, do it in a thread where that's the topic of discussion, not just because you don't like one article.
posted by shmegegge at 9:52 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure Dave Marsh isn't getting a thread on metafilter when he kicks it.
posted by mecran01 at 9:53 AM on February 15, 2010

This old hipster gambit of declaring that any formulaic pop band that critics hated was actually Best Band Evar strikes me as an utter waste of time — that, and you're condemned to swallowing a lot of mediocre music. That, and they really did hate the teenage girls they degraded in their lyrics. So: condolences to family, but no thanks.
posted by argybarg at 9:54 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Some info on the recording session here: CLASSIC TRACKS: The Knack 'My Sharona',
and this is Sharona's website.
posted by SNACKeR at 10:01 AM on February 15, 2010

Dave Marsh's curse was finally realized thirty years later:

Doug Fieger claims in his rare interviews that he's little more than a "craftsman," then turns around and utters philosophical pronouncements that reveal his profound ignorance of rock & roll history and make him sound like a poor man's Pete Townshend. Where does this terminally (I hope) cute joker get off?
posted by mecran01 at 10:03 AM on February 15, 2010

And MarshallPoe: I would trust the judgment of someone who had reviewed outcomes and protocols on thousands of surgeries, and who applied some valid kind of analysis to different surgical techniques and best practices. Especially if that person had interviewed doctors and technicians, kept up on the journals, reviewed the data. I might even trust that person to judge surgeons more than I might trust a surgeon!

And remember: You're close to declaring that you have no right to a considered opinion on music. Apparently your utopia consists of A) musical philosopher-kings qualified to make assertions about music and B) consumers limited to grunts of approval or disapproval.
posted by argybarg at 10:05 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Stroke, which followed a couple of years later, was way worse.

How many awesome songs did Dave Marsh write? And why are we supposed to care what Rick Bonino thinks? The Knack kicked ass, and Doug Fieger will be missed.

How many awesome songs did spilon write? If none, then why are we supposed to care if spilon thinks the Knack kicked ass. Great way to dismiss both Marsh's, Bonino's, and your own opinion. I love the logic.
posted by juiceCake at 10:07 AM on February 15, 2010

Doug was a classmate and friend of my parents at Oak Park High School. They were hoping that he'd be attending their 40th reunion this summer. Strangely, we were all back in Detroit for the first time in five years this weekend.

This is too bad. I should probably tell them, if they don't already know.
posted by ilana at 10:08 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I liked My Sharona. One of the first songs I ever downloaded from the Internet.

I can't remember who this was anymore, but I remember listening to someone talking about meeting two members of The Knack while camping somewhere. They were reportedly a bit tired of My Sharona.
posted by weston at 10:08 AM on February 15, 2010

I spent the night on line outside Carnegie Hall to get tickets to their concert. In the morning the crowd was huge. I was near the front of the line, up against the wall having the breath squeezed out of me.

When they announced that the boxoffice was about to open, the crowd surged forward and pushed a girl right through a plate glass door.

This of course postponed sales until the police and EMS could fight through the crowd and administer First Aid.

I got a pair of third row center tickets.

The night of the concert my girlfriend and I decided not to brave the crowds. We just weren't that in to The Knack. I was able to scalp the pair of tickets for $100. We went out to dinner instead.

No regrets.

But

.

anyway.
posted by Splunge at 10:09 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

[T]he "Could you do better?" response is a notoriously faulty one.

It can be done properly, but It's Tricky.
posted by Kirk Grim at 10:10 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

The lyrics to "Mr. Handleman" that Marsh objected to:

come mr. handleman take my wife home
you can't leave a woman like a chippy alone
she's plenty pretty like a woman in prime
no you won't need a waterbed to have a good time

mr. handleman mr. handleman
take my wife home
mr. handleman mr. handleman mr. handleman
take my wife home take my wife home

la señora is a sight for sore eyes
half an hour in a paradise
you're not the first and you will never come last
but the natives are restless so you better grab fast

Axl Rose could make me enjoy lyrics even nastier than that. But he was a compelling rock vocalist and Fieger wasn't - so there you are.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:11 AM on February 15, 2010

.
I loved Get the Knack. I was 15 and a big Beatles fan, and that plus The Knack's dirty-minded power pop was just the ticket. I just listened to Get the Knack and ...But the Little Girls Understand. Get the Knack is a great power pop album; the second album's a bit spotty but has some great songs.

I'm unhappy with the bowdlerized CD version, though. They changed "(She's So) Selfsih" from "she don't give a shit about anybody else but herself" to the ridiculous "she don't give a hoot." It'd be nice to have MP3s of the original LP.

Dave Marsh's pan of their second album was definitive

It's a shit review. He doesn't even start reviewing the actual album until about halfway through. He hates Doug Fieger and The Knack and the article's about his hatred and not the album.

Plus--and I am not saying that The Knack was anywhere near as good as The Beatles--you could apply his criticisms to The Beatles' first albums. Reflecting a variety of influences, covers (both bands covered Buddy Holly), a mix of styles including some that are a stretch. "Stockpile of banalities"? How about "A Taste of Honey" and "Do You Want to Know a Secret"? And a textual analysis of "Mr. Handleman" is taking them way too seriously.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:16 AM on February 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

How many awesome songs did Dave Marsh write?

puleeze, a band that bombs out after 3 albums and has a minor comeback isn't that big a deal

my sharona has an insanely catchy riff - and i suppose someone had to do a song like good girls don't

and that is the main sum of their accomplishments - that dave marsh would pan them after those accomplishments were done and they didn't have anything to follow up with - well, the fate of the band pretty much says it all, doesn't it?
posted by pyramid termite at 10:18 AM on February 15, 2010

In the history of rock music course i took last semester they said that My Shorona was the first new wave hit. I never thought it was new wave, but the prof made a lot of interesting (read: odd) assertions.
posted by djduckie at 10:23 AM on February 15, 2010

Sorry, Knack fans, but I'm sticking with my hatetitude. One bridge guitar solo doesn't mitigate a Chinese water torture of a song, since by the time the bridge came around I was either out of the room or had my fingers in my ears, humming "Pretty Vacant" to myself (even the Sex Pistols' punk worked better as power pop than the Knack), and their lyrics were pretty creeptastic.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:29 AM on February 15, 2010

As a slight derail, I remember not liking the song at all, but I happened to see the Knack's drummer Bruce Gary at KCRW in the late 1970's playing a jazz/fusion duo with Emmett Chapman, inventor of the Chapman Stick. He was a pretty amazing drummer. And upon reading the Wikipedia bio, I had no idea Mr. Gary had such an interesting musical history. Or that he was related to Z'EV. Or that he died a few years ago. So,

..
posted by foonly at 10:35 AM on February 15, 2010

I have no horse in this race. RIP Knack guy.
But that Dave Marsh review was just pathetic. And the fact that it ends with an implied threat to kick the band's ass is what renders his criticism invalid - not the fact that Dave Marsh is a talentless hack writer who has, in fact, succeeded in any creative realm.
posted by ghastlyfop at 10:45 AM on February 15, 2010

Sorry about the bad joke upthread in an obit post, sometimes I forget that you can know both songs for 20 years before you make the connection that My Sharona spawned this awesomeness. Or maybe you knew that already and I'm late to the party as usual.
posted by Kirk Grim at 10:54 AM on February 15, 2010

The Knack was a very good power-pop band. And they were arguably important in that they brought power-pop a la The Jam, Buzzcocks and even The Clash to the US mainstream.

Thanks for the "arguably" in there, for I must argue otherwise. I was maybe 20 when My Sharona broke and I FUCKING HATED IT from pretty much first listen. Not that I was cool enough to fully committed to punk etc at the time. I was still more in the smoking-doobs-and-listening-to-Rush camp (hence, the real reason for the HATE, I guess; I resented pretty much song that wasn't ten minutes long and about nymphs and dragons or inspired by Ayn Rand).

But eventually punk etc did win me over big time IN SPITE OF THE FUCKING KNACK, and yes it was The Clash (The Only Band That Matters) that did the job, London Calling to be specific.
posted by philip-random at 11:08 AM on February 15, 2010

Oh and I forgot to mention. The "phony Beatlemania has bitten the dutst" line from London Calling was a direct reference to the Knack.
posted by philip-random at 11:10 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

dust





.
posted by philip-random at 11:10 AM on February 15, 2010

MuffinMan: "A little part of me dies when I realise that the real Sharona isn't a hard living rock chick but a real estate agent"

Well, according to her web page, she's not a normal real estate agent, but a real estate agent to rock stars, so that's something, at least.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:12 AM on February 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

Sharona believes that "'My Sharona' has had an impact on my ability to understand the entertainer's mind, there's something simpatico. You've got to care to the n'th degree. You can't drop the ball for one minute." I sell "the most emotional product on the market, because a star's home is their only safe haven."

Her use of apostrophes also makes her uniquely simpatico to greengrocers.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:19 AM on February 15, 2010

My little brother played the crap out of the first Knack LP when it first came out. It seemed like a fun little record to me. Made a nice change of pace from the usual KISS and Motley Crue junk he usually listened to.


.
posted by metagnathous at 11:21 AM on February 15, 2010

Everybody's a critic critic!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 11:31 AM on February 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

I liked this guy. I have a vinyl copy of the 1984 Was (Not Was) album Born to Laugh at Tornadoes which has him singing lead vocals on the songs "Smile" and "Betrayal". Must dig that out. RIP
posted by MattMangels at 11:53 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

How many awesome songs did spilon write?

Actually, quite a few, thanks!
posted by spilon at 11:54 AM on February 15, 2010

phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust

Beatlemania itself was phony. In Hamburg the Beatles brawled,wore leather, took drugs, banged hookers, and (if memory serves; I think I remember this from a bio) peed on nuns. The whole clean-cut "cuddly moptop" image, matching suits, Beatle boots, clever press conferences, was all artifice. It seems unfair to slag The Knack for cynically exploiting the image of the early Beatles when the image of the early Beatles was a sham.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:57 AM on February 15, 2010

Actually, quite a few, thanks!

I'll let Dave Marsh be the judge of that!
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:05 PM on February 15, 2010

How many awesome songs did spilon write?

Actually, quite a few, thanks!

Fabulous. So the last word is actually from the artists themselves. The logic funnel is a joy as it continues to narrow into a tube.
posted by juiceCake at 12:06 PM on February 15, 2010

I had no idea the backlash against The Knack had its own name.

I remember "Knuke the Knack" t-shirts.

I really liked them. Get the Knack was the first LP I bought with my own money.

I sent 22 dollars in cash to the fan club...and never got my t-shirt or anything else. Probably the best lesson a young girl could learn from the Knack, really.
posted by bink at 12:09 PM on February 15, 2010

"My Sharona" provided the chorus hook for that one Dead Kennedys song about the music industry. All is forgiven.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:12 PM on February 15, 2010

The Dead Kennedys "Pull My Strings'
posted by jeffen at 12:14 PM on February 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

The Knack was a very good power-pop band. And they were arguably important in that they brought power-pop a la The Jam, Buzzcocks and even The Clash to the US mainstream.

Yikes! Not to derail, but I'd argue the opposite entirely - that they were one of the ways that the bands you listed above (among others) were denied the mainstream for years. Here's what those three bands had released already when "My Sharona" came out:

THE BUZZCOCKS: Nine singles and two albums, with songs including "Boredom," "What Do I Get?," "Orgasm Addict," "Ever Fallen In Love?," "Love You More," "I Don't Mind," "Just Lust," "Sixteen Again," "Promises" and "Everybody's Happy Nowadays."

THE CLASH: Seven singles and two albums, including "White Riot," "I'm So Bored With The USA," "Garageland," "Complete Control," "I Fought The Law," "Last Gang In Town," "White Man In Hammersmith Palais," "All The Young Punks," "Groovy Times" and "Stay Free."

I'm too bored to continue, but THE JAM had already released THREE albums and SEVEN singles prior to "My Sharona."

The Knack were a prime example of the very conservative way for radio stations and record companies to deal with the onslaught of more adventurous and interesting music that was coming out at the time - provide a stripped-down (but still essentially polished and hook-oriented) sound that rehashes old ideas (for there was little that the Knack and similar bands did that hadn't been done by, say, the Shadows Of Knight more than a decade earlier) but maintains the fashionable skinny-tie look and minimalist cover images. I'd regard the Knack as a particularly egregious example of the above, as their lyrics were puerile and the albums fairly weak. (I'll grant you that "My Sharona" was just big and dumb and riffy enough to become a hit.) If you listen to other albums from that era, by comparison the Knack were a fairly one-dimensional pub rock band just spiffed up a little. (I'm not even talking about obviously successful acts like The Jam, The Buzzcocks, The Clash, Blondie or XTC . . . but rather bands like the Vapors - doomed, like the Knack, by a novelty hit . . . but an immeasurably more interesting and varied group, even if they are now forgotten.

You can criticize Marsh if you like, but the record he reviewed is pretty awful. Frankly, I don't think the record was even worth deconstructing, as it was so plainly weak and the big hit on it a barely changed alteration of "My Sharona" - so he had a little fun with it. And again, the lyrics are awful. By my reckoning, by the time a bunch of guys in their late twenties are on their twentieth song about fucking 14 year-old girls . . . well, it's about time to start looking at them funny.

This passage, anyway, is a pretty reasonable analysis, as it seems both accurate and well-considered:

The music can't redeem the lyrics–not only because such dehumanization is irredeemable, but also because the music is lame. Indeed, the Knack are the most nefarious sort of hacks. They're terribly competent and they have a seemingly inexhaustible storehouse of clichés, drawn from everybody from Buddy Holly and the Beatles–check out "Tell Me You're Mine" and "(Havin' a) Rave Up" here – to early Fleetwood Mac ("End of the Game") and the Lettermen ("How Can Love Hurt So Much"). In a way, Fieger & Company manipulate their stockpile of banalities with as much finesse as any band since Foreigner – though that's a little unfair to Foreigner, who at least grind out their radio fodder with some verve. But the Knack's greatest achievement is to make hard-rock clichés sound completely gutless. Which comes as no surprise, since Fieger's original Detroit group. Sky, was mewling Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young harmonies at the same time the MC5 were inventing the punk-rock genre the Knack now dilutes and exploits.

also:

Plus--and I am not saying that The Knack was anywhere near as good as The Beatles--you could apply his criticisms to The Beatles' first albums. Reflecting a variety of influences, covers (both bands covered Buddy Holly), a mix of styles including some that are a stretch. "Stockpile of banalities"? How about "A Taste of Honey" and "Do You Want to Know a Secret"?

I'd certainly apply those criticisms to the often-awful early Beatles stuff. In their defense, though, the Beatles developed remarkably in a short time. The Knack? Not so much. Plus the Beatles' singles - it was primarily a singles market back then - were generally fine. And those banalities in the Beatles stockpile were about three or four musical generations closer to the source than they were for the Knack. And of course, the Beatles even early on were pretty powerful and different compared to their peers . . . while the Knack would make very few people's list of the top 100 bands of 1979 today.

But I'll give credit to Fieger to making people happy and providing them with nice memories, and his long struggle with cancer is very sad, so . . .

.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:18 PM on February 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

Aw, c'mon. My Sharona was - is - a great song. Dumb, forthright and adolescent as acne, it captures exactly what it's like to be caught up in that furnace of youthful desire. Especially if you were there, man, when it was on the radio. (I don't know what octogenarians of the time made of it.)

As for Mr Handleman: things like the subject of that go on. Whether you want to think about that or not, it's a rare subject for a rock song by a famous band - and again, it's remarkably forthright. Arnold Layne didn't suffer by being about a socially-inadmissible perversion, and it's overtly judgemental - something that's arguably less interesting than just saying "This is what it's like". Then there was John Wayne Is Big Leggy... um, I seem to know more about pervy pop songs than perhaps I should.


And thanks for that Ebert review. An exquisite, clinical use of unstoppable firepower.
posted by Devonian at 12:36 PM on February 15, 2010

In Hamburg the Beatles brawled,wore leather, took drugs, banged hookers, and (if memory serves; I think I remember this from a bio) peed on nuns.

In fairness, who among us has not peed on a few nuns in our time? Why just the other day ...
posted by philip-random at 12:44 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

bink: I remember "Knuke the Knack" t-shirts.

For years I have desperately wanted a Knuke the Knack t-shirt. Well, not desperately... but I really want one.
posted by Kattullus at 12:48 PM on February 15, 2010

In fairness, who among us has not peed on a few nuns in our time?

The trick is to get them to pay you before you start.
posted by maxwelton at 12:54 PM on February 15, 2010

In Hamburg the Beatles brawled,wore leather, took drugs, banged hookers, and (if memory serves; I think I remember this from a bio) peed on nuns. The whole clean-cut "cuddly moptop" image, matching suits, Beatle boots, clever press conferences, was all artifice.

That, or they just calmed down a bit once they got kicked out of Germany and no longer had easy access to whores and Preludin. They also apparently got the idea for their moptop image from their time in Hamburg. Besides, a lot of people mellow out after they've had a chance to get their ya-yas out in their late teens and early twenties, or, as it's currently known, "college".
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:27 PM on February 15, 2010

In Hamburg the Beatles brawled,wore leather, took drugs, banged hookers, and (if memory serves; I think I remember this from a bio) peed on nuns. The whole clean-cut "cuddly moptop" image, matching suits, Beatle boots, clever press conferences, was all artifice.

After they put on the suits they still took drugs, banged groupies and I wouldn't have put it past John to pee on a nun given a chance (although in all the Beatles books I've read I've never come across the nun story). So yeah, Epstein cleaned them up a bit but I think it's a stretch to say the scrubbed up Beatles was all artiface.

But back to the thread, I still love My Sharona.
posted by gfrobe at 2:13 PM on February 15, 2010

Oh and I forgot to mention. The "phony Beatlemania has bitten the dutst" line from London Calling was a direct reference to the Knack.

Cite? I mean, it's the sort of thing that has the ring of truth to it, but given that "London Calling" was recorded in August 1979, only a couple of months after "My Sharona" was released (June 1979), in the absence of a direct quote from Mick or Joe about this it seems more likely that the line was more a comment on the popification (my new word: let me show you it) of punk that had happened in the preceding two years, possibly with a snide reference to the Broadway show Beatlemania thrown in for good measure. (Or, if they were really trying to insult a pop group who'd drawn ridiculous comparisons to the Beatles, the Bay City Rollers seem to be a more likely target over the Knack, given the infinitely higher fever pitch of Rollermania in the UK for a good chunk of the '70s.)

The Knack was a very good power-pop band. And they were arguably important in that they brought power-pop a la The Jam, Buzzcocks and even The Clash to the US mainstream.

Yikes! Not to derail, but I'd argue the opposite entirely - that they were one of the ways that the bands you listed above (among others) were denied the mainstream for years. Here's what those three bands had released already when "My Sharona" came out:

I don't think the point is that the Knack were objectively better or more accomplished than the Jam, the Clash, or the Buzzcocks; I enjoy the first couple of Knack records, but of course I would never actually put them in the same category as any of those bands. But I can also say definitively that as a kid in the U.S. in 1979, hearing the Knack on the radio in the pop cultural wasteland of my home town had an instant and direct impact -- first, it became easier to find stuff like the Jam, the Clash, the Buzzcocks, or even other American acts like the Ramones, Blondie, or Talking Heads; second, it became possible to find other kids (even just a few of them) who also liked these new and weird bands. 1979 was a watershed year for a lot of American kids like me who had an inclination to listen to stuff other than fucking Journey, and those awesome, angular, stuttering chords of "My Sharona" helped usher us into the musical promised land. Of course as a band the Knack wasn't as good or important as the Jam; I figured that out in approximately two minutes after getting my first Jam album. But the Knack were part of what made it possible for me to hear and be open to the Jam in the first place. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
posted by scody at 2:18 PM on February 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

Oh, and also: The Knack were the first band I was out-and-out forbidden to listen to by my parents, as they had evidently perceived the full extent of "My Sharona"'s lyrical dirtiness even as it went straight over my head. (In fairness to myself, I was all of 10; I didn't even get any of the dirty references in the Grease soundtrack at that point.) This alone made the Knack extra AWESOME, for obvious reasons.
posted by scody at 2:35 PM on February 15, 2010

I can’t get a handle on 1979. Between the Knacklash (oh wow, I’m going to say that all the time now) and Disco Demolition Night it’s like 1979 rejected perfect pop and super-fun dance music in favor of something, but it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t think the folks in “Knuke The Knack” t-shirts were the same people who saw Mission Of Burma coming or were jonesing for import copies of Metal Box, but you folks can’t have been so in love with In Through The Out Door or The Long Run that Knacklemania (that one’s mine, I invented it, internet) pissed you off enough to join some DJ’s anti-Knack fan club. Was there really any less casual sex/sexism on the most recent Aerosmith* record? Again, I don’t think the lyrics to "Good Girls Don’t" were the driving force behind the anti-Knack weirdness.

Seriously, can someone enlighten me? I was six in 1979 and didn’t want to listen to anything that wasn’t my dad’s Beatles LPs**.


* I chose Aerosmith basically at random.
** and Chipmunk Punk, which was already mentioned upthread. Awesome.
posted by mintcake! at 2:46 PM on February 15, 2010

scody, that's awesome. As a tot I got in huuuuuge trouble at a family party for blurting out a dirty line from Grease. Thanks, HBO!
posted by mintcake! at 2:50 PM on February 15, 2010

2. We must not forget their amazingly juvenile hit Good Girls Don't .

That is the "clean" version you linked to, too. Non-bowdlerized version here, with the getting-in-pants and sitting-on-face intact.
posted by Robin Kestrel at 2:58 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I was 18 in '79, MY SHARONA was annoyingly EVERYWHERE, but the sexual under/overtones were really refreshing to hear on shit AM radio, which used to *bleep* the word bullshit in Pink Floyd's MONEY. And I was experiencing EXACTLY what The Knack was singing about here.

R.I.P.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 3:36 PM on February 15, 2010

I always thought he became the lead singer for Men at Work. Now theres a band I'll tell ya.
posted by pianomover at 3:37 PM on February 15, 2010

The actual lead singer of Men at Work went on to make some lovely music.
posted by Kattullus at 3:43 PM on February 15, 2010

But I can also say definitively that as a kid in the U.S. in 1979, hearing the Knack on the radio in the pop cultural wasteland of my home town had an instant and direct impact -- first, it became easier to find stuff like the Jam, the Clash, the Buzzcocks, or even other American acts like the Ramones, Blondie, or Talking Heads; second, it became possible to find other kids (even just a few of them) who also liked these new and weird bands.

If hearing the Knack led to better things for you personally, hurray. But to credit the Knack with having anything to do with this directly is just inaccurate - they were (at best) bandwagon jumpers who, as Dave Marsh correctly stated, diluted and exploited more interesting sounds. This sounds like I'm knocking the Knack directly, but truth be told, they just took advantage of a situation as best they could and for a short time succeeded. But they were behind the curve in nearly every way. Record labels and radio stations did their absolute best to ignore these "better" bands (the Buzzcocks et al) as much as they could, even to the point of sabotaging them. The success of inferior bands like the Knack probably prolonged this. (Think of a band like the Ramones, who'd released almost *all* of their best work by the time of "My Sharona." No radio play. Toured in mostly small clubs. Few record sales. Yet today, their songs are actually chanted in sports stadiums and arranged for university marching bands and used on umpteen commercials. Many kids I talk to believe they were a huge-selling successful band . . . kids who've probably never heard of the Knack, whose big single probably sold more copies than every Ramones record combined!)

The Clash's debut album, until recently, was famously the biggest selling import in American history, selling well above 100,000 copies . . . but still their American label wouldn't release it here, claiming it wasn't commercial enough. This was long before my time here, but eventually the album did come out, in drastically altered form (and with a free 7"), after their deliberately American-sounding second album. And the Buzzcocks were denied any American release at all until "Singles Going Steady" collected all their United Artists singles released up to that point; it still did fairly well despite many people having bought their two previous albums and their many singles on import. The Jam would have a similar story.

The actual reality is that many things happened despite the success of bands like the Knack around 1979. For one, it became pretty undeniable that many of these bands were too good and developing to rapidly to ignore - that they were more likely to be the big future catalog sellers than bands like the Knack. This, of course, proved to be true . . . in spite of the Buzzcocks and the Jam never having really had a US radio hit, and the Clash only having a few belatedly. So by the end of 1979 - the year of "My Sharona," you saw the Clash's "London Calling" being released as an inexpensive double album. You saw the Jam's first really great album, "Setting Sons," released in the US with a free 7" included. You saw the first US/UK simultaneous release of a Buzzcocks album, "A Different Kind Of Tension." The Ramones started working with Phil Spector. Less overtly commercial records by Public Image and the Gang Of Four and Cowboys International started being released. A better independent distribution system developed here, so even stranger artists were suddenly accessible too. I wasn't around for any of this, but it's all really well documented.

Was there really any less casual sex/sexism on the most recent Aerosmith* record? Again, I don’t think the lyrics to "Good Girls Don’t" were the driving force behind the anti-Knack weirdness.

Aerosmith's awful too, and awfully sexist, but I don't think even they were as fully obsessed with underage sex as the Knack - lyrically, anyway. But I'd rather not sit down and listen to Aerosmith simply to assess this more substantially. And your second quote is probably quite right as well. I'd suspect that the band came across as both inauthentic and insubstantial - they certainly do to me now, but I didn't live here then.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 3:52 PM on February 15, 2010

I only have one thing to say about My Sharona:

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
And the man at the back said
Everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said
Boy, I wanna warn ya, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
posted by bwg at 4:39 PM on February 15, 2010

Either y'all consider this too obvious to be worth mentioning, or this thread needs a nod to the sampling possibilties that Run-D.M.C. found in "My Sharona", with "It's Tricky" a few years later. Trrrrrrrrrrricky!
posted by Creosote at 5:00 PM on February 15, 2010

** and Chipmunk Punk, which was already mentioned upthread. Awesome.

Nine songs on that album, three of them were by the Knack. Somebody didn't predict the Knacklash.
posted by bink at 7:07 PM on February 15, 2010

I was doing the sound for one or two bar-bands in my small northern town in the late 70s/early 80s. "My Sharona" and most anything by The Cars was A-list material, the dance floor would fill up. I have "Get the Knack" on vinyl somewhere in the basement. So, fond memories, and

.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:28 PM on February 15, 2010

For me, being in college during this era, power pop was primarily an American thing - The Jam, Clash, and Buzzcocks were punk bands. Power pop was mainly Americans with skinny ties imitating the Beatles. Power pop didn't start with the Knack either - it's not silly at all to count Big Star and the Raspberries, but nobody has mentioned the best power pop song of the 70s, Dwight Twilley's I'm On Fire. I liked the Knack's first album a lot, too.

.
posted by rfs at 7:39 PM on February 15, 2010

The Clash's debut album, until recently, was famously the biggest selling import in American history, selling well above 100,000 copies

And yes, hurray for the Clash. My point is that if you were a teen or tween in 1979 living outside a major market such as New York or L.A., in some place like Ft. Collins, Colorado or Des Moines, Iowa, or Tacoma, Washington, it is not at all unlikely or unusual that the Knack served as an entrance into bands that you literally would have had no other way to hear. This was two years before MTV. There was no alternative or college radio programming like we think of now. So there are a thousand small towns in which hearing a song like "My Sharona" on the car radio or at the swimming pool or at the roller rink in the spring of 1979 was earth-shaking. The record store I started going to in in my home town famously had a Knack poster next to a bunch of punk/new wave/British invasion posters with a sign saying "IF YOU LIKE THIS SHIT" (arrow pointing to the Knack), "THEN TRY THESE GUYS" (arrow pointing to posters of the Jam, Blondie, the Kinks, etc.). It is literally the case that kids like me all over the country, in places a thousand miles away from L.A. or New York, went into record stores looking for Knack records and walked out with some of those exact same Clash and Jam imports you're talking about. And yeah, this in spite of the idiocy of record companies -- the same record companies, for example, that forced the Jam to open for Blue Oyster Cult on one of their first U.S. tours, solely because they were label mates, thus further ensuring that they'd never build a substantial American fan base -- and the insularity and conservatism of radio programming at the time.

It is certainly true that there were other factors going on; there were pre-MTV cable music shows like Video Concert Hall and Night Flight (and even local shows like Denver's Teletunes); there was the beginning of college radio; there were shows like Fridays and even Saturday Night Live that showcased important, groundbreaking musical acts to a national audience (I remember my sister and I watching the Talking Heads perform "Take Me to the River" on SNL in 1979 and literally looking at each other with our mouths hanging open, speechless), there were bands like Cheap Trick and the Cars that were grafting new wave sensibilities onto Top 40 pop. All of this was part of an emerging musical landscape that was beginning to emerge -- thank god -- as an alternative to the Journey/REO Speedwagon/Styx wasteland. No, the Knack weren't the best band within that musical landscape by a long shot, and yes, it is unjust that they reaped the rewards of commercial success in a way that the vast majority of the better bands of their era never did. None of that cancels out the fact that for better and for worse they were a part of a new emerging musical landscape of 1979 in the U.S. They may not stand up to music snob scrutiny, but nearly every music snob I've ever known started off with Get the Knack as one of the first records in their collection.

I wasn't around for any of this, but it's all really well documented.

Maybe I'm misreading your tone, here, Dee, but I was around for it, and to be blunt, given that I've actually written liner notes for some recent re-releases and "best of"s for some of the bands you're talking about, I'm pretty aware of how well-documented all that is, thanks.
posted by scody at 7:55 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don’t think the folks in “Knuke The Knack” t-shirts were the same people who saw Mission Of Burma coming or were jonesing for import copies of Metal Box,

As I recall, in terms of commercial radio airplay, everything just went from Disco-Demolition and Knuke-The-Knack to the likes of Van Halen, Eddie Money and maybe the Kinks at the worst point in their career.

The genuinely cool music of the time (Talking Heads, The Clash, Magazine, Joy Division, Wire, The Specials, B52s etc) had to be resolutely searched for by any means necessary. But it was definitely out there and thus very much worth the effort.
posted by philip-random at 8:31 PM on February 15, 2010

in some place like Ft. Collins, Colorado or Des Moines, Iowa, or Tacoma, Washington, it is not at all unlikely or unusual that the Knack served as an entrance into bands that you literally would have had no other way to hear.

in some place like kalamazoo or battle creek i was listening to public image's metal box and the contortions at the time

even back then, there were ways of getting ahold of something different that didn't involve being introduced to new wave by the knack - the people in your local punk scene or record store were more than willing to turn people on - you just had to hang with them
posted by pyramid termite at 8:50 PM on February 15, 2010

I always remember this song when I'm eating shawarma and my wife asks to take a bite.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:11 AM on February 16, 2010

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
And the man at the back said
Everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said
Boy, I wanna warn ya, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz

Sweeet.

Also,

.

Doug Feiger was alright, so was The Knack. Woke me up in 1979 to the possibilities... along with Sweeet.

And Goeffrey Feiger is a moron
posted by disclaimer at 5:29 AM on February 16, 2010

Nice posts Scody - I agree entirely, and this line:

but nearly every music snob I've ever known started off with Get the Knack as one of the first records in their collection.

startled me - because in my own experience it's true.

I frankly think "Get the Knack" is an unbelievable album - the playing is tight, Bruce Gary was a fantastic drummer, the hooks big enough to hang a side of meat from. Derivative? Sure. So what? Who cares? To mine a power pop cliche, it sounded as if they were having so much fun in the studio that the headphones were flying off. I was 12 at the time - that sense of joy was hugely enticing. Still is.
posted by kgasmart at 11:33 AM on February 16, 2010