Re: RIP

Doug Fieger.

He'd been ailing for a while.

30 years after the fact it's hard to remember why people despised the Knack as much as they did. They were obnoxious to be sure, but when the airwaves were clogged up with Journey and Styx it seems silly to have hated on a competent power-pop band who broke through all that and got a fairly decent song like "My Sharona" to the top of the charts.



Post Edited (02-14-10 16:58)

I always thought what happened was the usual "crowd turns against what was just popular" bent combined with an unusual dose of critical disparaging. I'm not a fan, and haven't listened to a full album in years, but they did seem somewhat more ...lecherous (?) than other power pop bands. Or, one could argue, that they got rid of the politeness in power pop and simply got to brass tacks. Dave Marsh's blurb in the 2nd Rolling Stone Guide is pretty harsh, but it's been so long since I've listened to anything but their hits, I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment. Still, "My Sharona" made a lot of people happy for a small while, and still does, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say about some artists. Or me.

Doug was one of my heroes and I am very sad to hear of his passing.

After their initial buzz the knack continued to create fantastic power pop. Serious Fun comes to mind. A great rocking power pop album.

RIP Doug

Doug



[buddylove.us]

dale hawkins too

all the pallbearers wore yamakas and skinny ties.

dated a girl once who thought the fieger fella was rick neilson minus the ball cap and the knack was his new group after he ditched cheap trick.
love them or hate them you can't deny the buzz you got when you first heard"sharona", or the repulsion you felt watching the nobs in "reality bites" dance in the gas station to said song.

did meet his famous lawyer brother geoffrey at a corporate kickoff after his keynote speech.

and you gotta give the guy credit for getting a line about a girl sitting on his face into a Top 40 song....

"I come not to praise Caesar, but to ... yada, yada, yada."

You've got me thinking down a path towards all manner of TOP 40 songs that had especially naughty or ribald lyrics that escaped the moral watchdogs. Not in the "Louie-Louie-Can't-Understand-It-So-It-MUST-Be-Dirty" way ... but really shameful.

Sitting on his face?

I did not know that.

Quote

You've got me thinking down a path towards all manner of TOP 40 songs that had especially naughty or ribald lyrics that escaped the moral watchdogs.

There was much debate over exactly what Toni Basil meant when she said she would please Mickey "any way I can" then offered to "take it like a man."

And of course there's the most famous example which involved radio programmers in 1972 apparently not knowing what "giving head" meant and letting Lou Reed have a top-20 single as a result.

A lot of people seemed to think that Frankie Goes to Hollywood really were just singing about relaxing.

And it's endlessly amusing going to sporting events and watching the crowd of fat midwestern protestants getting all worked up doing the hand gestures to "YMCA", an old disco song by a group of gay guys singing about hanging around a gathering place for boys and young men.

Apparently there a "clean" version of "Good Girls Don't" that was the hit: [en.wikipedia.org]. It didn't contain the offending language, so I guess I'm obligated to take back anything nice I said about Fieger.

Of course, you neglected to mention that The Village People are/were an instrument of The Evil One.



Hell awaits all ye who snicker.

Someone once told me Captain Sensilbe slipped the c-word into Happy Talk.

Rest in peace. I always have to listen through "My Sharona" so I can get to the extended guitar solo (though I suspect it's comprised of a string of taped-together edits that are played by a studio pro). That's my favorite solo to pretend I'm onstage to. The kids totally love me.

I give the guy total credit. The Knack wasn't his first success. Also credit to Berton Averre - there's great guitar work on that debut and at the time the title was brash.

I've always heard that solo was a continuous take played by Averre. I play it continuously (and I think I already posted about that experience).

madisdis' story is awesome. Reminds me of my story about arguing that Nena and Nina Hagen were not the same person.

Ok, I looked it up.
The solo (one of the greatest and lengthiest in power pop is edited out on the single version) was performed by Aberre. The demo version was one take; the final version one take layered into two parts to mix wet. VOX & Bass were one dry take except for some buried background VOX containing "Fuck-a-me, fuck-a-me too much, my Sharona". Drums have slight reverb but one take.

1st album, so quick in-n-out.

Producer David Tickle:
"Everything had been worked out...it was polished, so what you hear is the real thing, a complete take. The band was very, very tight. That was a part of their trademark."

Now I'll have to plug in and see if I remember it.

The song was ruined for me when George 2 said it was his fave. But I'm over that now and agree with respecting Fieger's accomplishments.

I had an argument about that solo with the guitarist in the band I played with in college as we got "My Sharona" ready to play at a house party. Not having the album at the time and only being familiar with the single version (as with "Good Girls Don't" above), I remember complaining "Enough with that fucking solo," and he yelled back "That's what's on the album, asshole!"

i knew what giving head meant in 1972

and i was in middle school

Oh, yeah?

Well, I coined the term, and I was in kindergarten.

LOL