No One’s Weller1
Doug Fieger, guitarist and lead singer of The Knack, died yesterday of cancer at age 57.
In this, as well as with the band’s 1979 number-one single, “My Sharona,” George Harrison got in way ahead of him, and no one in America will notice when Paul Weller does it.
Still, The Knack’s success inspired numerous imitations, not only of The Jam by young British groups hungry for American hits, but also in the way that the idea men at Motown reacted to the unexpected success of the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” by rushing out the same old song. “Baby Talks Dirty”, the third Knack single, created an oversupply of songs that were “My Sharona,” but it failed even in series with “Good Girls Don’t,” the second single, to prevent a Sharona Wave of powerpop-informed UK records like “Back of My Hand” by The Jags and “Turning Into Paul Weller Japanese” by The Jam Vapors from slipping briefly onto radio playlists before control (i.e. Supertramp) was reimposed. Domestic launchings included The Romantics, for better or worse — ‘worse’ being Utta Likea buh-CHOO and the make-it-stopness of the goddamn playing of that, already.
Et in Arcadia Fieger! And there are videos right down there. The Jags also had an Elvis Costello thing going on, which ought to have put them in a critical niche with the early Joe Jackson and Graham Parker, except they seem now to be the young kind of early-20s rather than the pre-30s kind necessary for Costello/Attractions epigones, and they might not have a lyricist worthy of the task — I dunno; I haven’t looked into it. The Vapors are a genuinely great band, unfairly dismissed (as Modern English also is) because no one in the US ever hears the rest of their single A-sides, let alone the album tracks. The Chords and The Circles are straight 1979 mod-revivalists, but so awesome I can’t avoid taking out the Romantics track that used to be there and knocking the premise of the post all to Hell — and so close to the end, too.
Above: The Jags — “Evening Standard” (3:57)
Above: The Vapors — “News at Ten” (3:24)
Above: The Chords — “Dreamdolls” (2:26)
Above: The Circles — “Opening Up” (3:13)
Uh oh. Scooter trash.
Eminem has something to say, like it or not, and always has. As for the rest — Jesus, Jann Wenner, is that you? Is this me?
OMG Supertramp!
What the everlovin’ hell was THAT all about?
The the What?
(WP is an editorializing asshoooole!!)
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The Choads!
~
I didn’t know there was anybody else on earth who liked all of After the Snow.
Than again, what if Jimi Hendrix were Japanese and not dead?
I actually own both New Clear Days and Magnets, and have since roughly the time they came out. I would not say they are a genuinely great band. They do a good job at what it is they do, but what they do is pretty limited in scope. Did you know Paul Weller’s dad was their manager?
The Vapors, I mean. Should’ve made that clear.
Devo’s “Girl U Want” is the same song as” My Sharona.”
And “Gathering Dust,” either by Modern English’s or This Mortal Coil, is still one of my favorites.
They do a good job at what it is they do, but what they do is pretty limited in scope.
Well, they have a schtick, imitating the Jam in a certain way that sets them apart from the standard mod revival bands. But one thing to appreciate them for is that their songs can be dense-packed with music, just lavishly twisty, in a way you rarely encounter outside of prog rock. One of the denser Vapors songs can be as challenging to play as a Rush or Yes song.
Thank you for taking out the Romantics video. Good choice, even if it dilutes the concept.
And the Knack’s later discs are worth taking a look at, if you like power pop.
The world is always poorer when a musician dies.
And I am with Ted; I’ve got both of those Vapors discs in the Large Black CD format; they were overlooked and discounted as a novelty act after the first single, but there was some worthwhile stuff there. Magnets was less focused, as they started to explore other avenues; a third disc could possibly have pulled it all together in interesting ways, but alas.
It’s interesting talking to musicians from that era. In much the same way that Brubeck’s “Take Five” announced the end of bop and the beginning of cool, “My Sharona” established that you didn’t have to have chops and Beatles-level production to be a pop act.
Gavin: as I don’t play an instrument, I will defer to your knowledge there, although I think if you are trying to increase the number of their fans you may not want to compare them to Rush or Yes. 🙂
Yes, the Vapors were a great band. Glad to see some appreciation for them.
The Romantic’s What I like about you is one of my guilty pleasures. The line “What I like about you, you keep me warm at night” accurately describes most of my relationships during that period (I was in my early 20’s)
Back in those days, I was definitely a pop music type until I started dating a guy at my college’s alternative radio station – that’s when I really got exposed to out of the mainstream types of music.
standard disclaimer: i live in hollywood, am surrounded by famous people in my work, and thus can name-drop like an asshole. which i am.
so, that said:
a few years ago my next door neighbor decided to sell his house and had an open house. the real estate agent was an attractive 40something (?) woman who was apparently a big deal REA in hollywood and the hills where i live. we started talking and she managed, within about 3 sentences of meeting me, to tell me that she was “Sharona” of my sharona fame. someone else there verified this for me–yes, sharona of my sharona is now a REA in hollywood etc etc.
so later that night i went to see a band play down the hill that had jerry cantrell (alice in chains) and billy duffy (the cult) in it. called cardboard vampyres or something, they were good when they were doing AIC songs or Cult songs, but i digress–the point is i was sitting at billy duffy’s table and he comes over and says: rob, meet doug, doug, rob. and i say–are you doug feiger? he says, yes i am. i say–well that’s fucking weird, i just met sharona today! he said they didn’t really talk anymore etc. and he hadn’t seen her in quite a while.
anyway, that’s my story and i’m sticking to it.
Nice to see love for the Vapors here, they really had a nice “social realist” bent to the majority of their songs. The Knack, I believe were stymied by the sheer… uh… salaciousness of their music. A nice, buttoned-down hausfrau who purchased the album for their kids would have a heart-attack upon hearing the unedited version of Good Girls Don’t.
One of my favorite pop singles from the era was Time Goes by So Slow by the Distractions- it was released on Rhino’s early 90’s DIY Compilation album Starry Eyes: UK Pop 2, which also included the eponymous song by The Records.
What does it mean that I have six of the above cited tracks on my iPod? Should I be concerned?
Wow, I came to Sadly, No and somehow wound up at PowerPop blog. Which is fine, also.
Actually, Mrs. Marsupial woke me up at 4:30 this morning to let me know about Fieger. I was amazed that I had the sense to hold a conversation about it at that time.
I didn’t know there was anybody else on earth who liked all of After the Snow.
Hey, I actually saw them on tour for that album. (They opened for Thomas Dolby.) I think I still have the shirt.
I have fond memories of that first Knack record. Siamese Twins (The Monkey and Me) was a kick ass song.
I also have fond memories of Get The Knack, as it was high school for me, and …somehow… those songs seemed so appropriate, yanno?
There’s a Peel Sessions download of The Chords on eMusic….
The db’s. That’s all.
The db’s. That’s all.
Ask zrm for his dB’s story. It’s a nice one.
Regarding the Jam- was a full CD version of Snap! ever released? That “Compact Snap” crap just didn’t cut it.
Release the
original birth certificatecomplete version of Snap!I guess this makes me a “Snapper”.
Regarding the Jam- was a full CD version of Snap! ever released? That “Compact Snap” crap just didn’t cut it.
Yes according to Amazon
Regarding the Jam- was a full CD version of Snap! ever released? That “Compact Snap” crap just didn’t cut it.
I wore that damn vinyl out. Plus, it had the 1/4 2/3 side pattern, allowing for spindle play. Retro cool.
thanks for that link, acrannymint. filled out the Compact Snap crap, finally.
But really, what kind of process results in leaving “English Rose” off a Jam comp?
Nice to see the Vapors get a little nod of recognition, and you’re so very right about the album tracks being things of beauty. The guitar breaks from Trains are just -blistering-.
Look at us all wallowing in nostalgia… I love us.
I’m nuts about that pop combo The Whom. You never hear words like “ain’t” or “don’t got” in their songs. Very grammatical lyrics, catchy hooks, and good clean fun. They were often mistaken for Hadrian and the Walls, and their minor UK hit “Milk Float Driver” was essentially a knockoff of “Grape Sugar” by the Manchester band The Coffin Nails. But at their best, especially once Marvin Shagge joined the lineup on rhythm guitar and zither, they were unstoppable:
I’m looking at a shop
Inside the window there’s a top
That would look simply lovely, on you
But I haven’t got a quid
And even if I did
I need to purchase a return ticket to Huddersfield
Lyrics like that don’t come along every day.
A post mentioning The Vapors, The Chords, The Jam, and The Knack… It’s almost as if you were daring me to comment.
Wholesome Everyday Liberal said,
I swear to god, I am quite knowledgable about pop music and yet it took me four reads of that comment to catch on. Well played.
I always looked at The Knack as the power pop reinterpretation of Talking Heads: 77
The Knack were The Beatles of the late 70s only much less so.
Much. Much. Less. So.
OK, they *tried* to be The Beatles but they ended up somewhere south of the Mendoza line. But hey, let’s give them one piece of credit: they were good enough to have charted “My Sharona”. That’s more than most bands, good or bad, will ever be able to say.
Also, Plimsouls.
Not to mention The Headboys. Oh, wait, I just did. Also Flash and the Pan, who were really Vanda and Young, who were Easybeats. Full house!
Interesting.
Fieger was 57, so he was born in 1952. My Sharona was released in 1979, making him 27 at the time of release.
Sharona was 17M. Yes. There really was a Sharona and apparently, she was a bit of a band slut.
OK, she just said about his corpse, so I was making the “slut” part up…
RIP Doug Fieger. “My Sharona” was fun but not much more than that. I saw them in the spring of 1980 (I think) at the Greek Theater in Berkeley where they opened for the Police on that band’s first US tour. The Knack had SoCal groupies and a repertoire so limited they had to repeat several songs to fill the set. I had just moved back from the UK to the US and found the Knack and the other New Wavelet way too clean and happy. I like me a little anger and sarcasm along with the tunes. Thank God for Paul Weller and the Jam (and for Ray Davies).