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My Sharona, our sanity.
The Knack's Doug Fieger died of lung cancer earlier this week. Though he may be best known among politicos as the younger brother of Michigan's 1998 Democratic gubernatorial nominee and Jack Kevorkian lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, Doug Fieger saved rock ‘n' roll more than thirty years ago.
In the late 1970s, there was no escaping disco. To put disco's dominance into perspective, members of the Gibb family occupied the top spot on the Billboard Top 100 chart for 28 of the 52 weeks between July 30, 1977 and July 29, 1978. In the year prior to The Knack's takeover of the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100, the only #1 songs that could be categorized as embracing a rock style were Nick Gilder's "Hot Child in the City" and The Doobie Brothers's "What a Fool Believes" -- which Billboard magazine accused, perhaps unfairly, of "jumping on [the] disco bandwagon."
To the frustration of their hardcore fans, established rock acts adopted an if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em approach to prevailing trends. Rod Stewart found number one again with "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?," the most maligned rock crossover, rivaled only by Kiss's shameless 1979 hit "I Was Made for Loving You." Musical chameleons The Rolling Stones, who had earlier aped Gram Parsons on "Honky Tonk Woman" and T. Rex on "It's Only Rock ‘n' Roll," enjoyed their final stay at the top of the singles chart with 1978's disco-infused "Miss You." Incorporating a rollicking high-hat and tight, chicken-scratch chords ensured that Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" enjoyed four weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1980. Blondie, coming out of New York's punk scene, ironically lost little in street credibility when they hit #1 with the 1979 disco song "Heart of Glass."
Partly on the strength of the disco-drenched "(I Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman," The Kinks scored the highest charting studio album of their career with "Low Budget." ELO for all intents and purposes became a full-fledged disco act for several years. The disco-ball mesmerized Queen, David Bowie, and Roxy Music into embracing the latest musical fad.
When not permeating rock radio, disco permeated pop culture. Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" provided the Pittsburgh Pirates a ubiquitous theme song for their 1979 championship run. It invaded the silver screen through 1977's Saturday Night Fever. Disco wasn't just music. It was a lifestyle that guided fashion tastes (leisure suits, roller skates, polyester pants), where to go on weekend nights, and what chemicals to ingest, imbibe, and inhale: in -- cocaine, poppers, Quaaludes; out -- pot, acid, beer.
So, in the summer of 1979, an oversaturated public was rife for a rebellion against the gods of pop culture. Aggressive shirts, boasting such slogans as "Disco Sucks" and "Death to Disco," began appearing on young inebriated mustachioed ruffians. On June 12, 1979, the pandemonium at Disco Demolition Night at standing-room-only Comiskey Park became so uncontrollable that the Chicago White Sox forfeited the second game of a double-header against the Detroit Tigers.
Riding this cultural tsunami, The Knack's "My Sharona" hit number one on August 25, 1979. It stayed there through September, making it Billboard's top song of 1979.
Outside of the context of the late 1970s, there is little remarkable about the song Doug Fieger sang and co-wrote. It offers an infectious bass line, a slightly less catchy guitar riff, and universally accessible lyrics about the pursuit of a pretty girl that together occasionally erupt in a saccharine power-pop crescendo ("My, My, My...Wooo!"). You could dance to it, just not in a leisure suit beneath a mirror ball amidst a cloud of amyl nitrate.
But in the context of the late 1970s, a lust song backed by simple guitar, bass, and drums stood out. The Knack eschewed not only the pretentiousness that led pop musicians to compose "rock operas" about King Arthur, but the amateurism that resulted in a "punk" movement of nasty untalented dilettantes more interested in insulting the mainstream than in producing listenable music. "My Sharona" was as much a rebellion against stale rock as it was against vapid disco. The Knack aimed for the mainstream that disco had captured and rock had abandoned. Capitol Records, which had marketed them as the next Beatles, was only too happy to aid The Knack in their commercial crusade to conquer the music world.
Preceding its six-week reign atop the charts, number ones included Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell," Donna Summer's "Bad Girls," and Chic's "Good Times." By week five of its reign, "My Sharona" had purged the entire top ten of disco. The Knack's "My Sharona" made Billboard's #1 spot safe for Steve Miller, The J. Geils Band, Men at Work, Joan Jett, and other rock acts that would top the charts in its wake.
Disco certainly persisted, boasting chart toppers as late as 1981. But it never regained its late seventies stature atop the music world. It survived by influencing other genres (club, pop, rap), but as a distinct genre it largely disappeared by the early 1980s.
Pre-"My Sharona," rock acts appropriated signature scratchy guitars, rolling hi-hats, dance-groove bass lines, and even the symphonic strings and happy horns that characterized Club 54's playlist. Post-"My Sharona," disco acts denied their genre. Like hair bands Poison and Cinderella post-grunge, KC and the Sunshine Band, the Village People, and Chic struggled for an audience after "My Sharona" had left its mark.
The post-punk attitude that condemned rock musicians who found a popular audience as "sell outs" condemned the overhyped Knack to obscurity. Ironically, the same purists who cringed at The Kinks or The Stones adding a disco song to their oeuvre, and thus laid the groundwork for the success of a back-to-basics rock song such as "My Sharona," looked askance at any band, such as The Knack, that had achieved mainstream success. The Knack released two other top forty hits -- including, notably, "Good Girls Don't" -- and faded into rock lore.
More than thirty years after "My Sharona" hit number one, the Billboard singles chart is more of a cultural wasteland than the one that Doug Fieger and company confronted in the summer of 1979. The absence of a "My Sharona"-style song to break through the pop juggernaut today makes one appreciate what The Knack accomplished over three decades ago.
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America, forthcoming this fall from ISI Books. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
JP| 2.18.10 @ 8:15AM
"... but the amateurism that resulted in a "punk" movement of nasty untalented dilettantes more interested in insulting the mainstream than in producing listenable music."
I would agree that much of punk was nothing more than lower class English anger, but punk did have a lasting influence; namely in the form of U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. U2, once it got its feet on the floor became one of Rock's most enduring bands. And RHCP eventually infused both punk and funk to create one of the most original sounds of the post 80s pop scene.
Alan Brooks| 2.18.10 @ 4:06PM
The Knack were not a great band; though, unlike many of today's computer "musicians", they could play their instruments .
You want details? Since '73 there has been little of interest outside of serious music.
Rock, being simplistic, couldn't sustain the innovations of 1965- '73. Not that there hasn't been as much 'good' (as far as the limitations of a simplistic form can be pushed) poprock in the last 37 years as there was previously. However the ration of product to quality has not been-- and is not today-- anything to be proud of.
We are drowning in medrocrity. In the land of milk & honey we are drinking dirty water.
Ersatz Cowboy| 2.18.10 @ 8:23AM
Rap is the current pop music-culture villain that would have to be subdued.How do you hip hop over that hurdle?Most of the old rockers and country artists could carry a tune when not electronically aided in a recording studio.Emphasis now is on appearance and less on performance.
Alan Brooks| 2.18.10 @ 5:51PM
Appearance, aye.
The eyes not the ears?? a new twist, eh?
how INNOVATIVE.
Alan Brooks| 2.18.10 @ 6:17PM
PS,
Not Yoko, not even John Cage himself, would think of a concept so daring as music based on the eyes rather than the ears. O these modern Corn-veniences!
Shucks. What WILL they think of next.
RustyG| 2.18.10 @ 8:23AM
Enjoyed the article Mr. Flynn. I was a senior in high school when My Sharona hit. The Knack did seem to usher in a new era of bands to flush out disco such as The Cars and The Police and rockers like Boston and Van Halen.
Disco did have a strangle on the charts, but not on my album milk crate at the time that was stuffed with Allman Brothers, CSNY, Faces, Traffic, Little Feat......
My two middle school age girls are in to Lady Gaga and Little Wayne...... if they only knew of the musical diversity back in the day.
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 2.18.10 @ 8:41AM
Ha Ha Rusty, your old!! I was "only" in middle school at the time, when My Sharona came out. I remember my music teacher telling us, that this was the "new" Beatles (but I think he was a little bit off on that one?). But if The Knack did have anything to do with the death of disco, well then, God Bless them. Because Disco still sucks!!
But the late 70's FM radio was offering the great escape from the Bee Gees, and there was still some great music being made. And a lot of that music, is getting a second life today, for the latest generation with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I don't think that Disco would translate very well into a video game, it just sucks to much!!
RustyG| 2.18.10 @ 9:10AM
"Ha Ha Rusty, your old!!"
Thanks Triple L, you made my day :( My wife was in Middle School at the time too, so don't think I'm not reminded of that fact often.
We either get old or we don't.... I'll take getting old over the alternative.
Forgot to mention Steely Dan, still my all time favorite..... and yes, their old too.
Grzmlyk| 2.18.10 @ 1:13PM
Rusty, my calculations tell me I'm almost exactly your age - though perhaps a year older. I recall being a freshman in college at the time.
I must say that while I despised the whole disco culture, it was fun to observe the apotheosis of shallow.
And while I professed utter hatred for all things disco at the time, I did have one or two Huck-a-poo shirts (some chicks dug them).
And I couldn't abandon my beloved Rolling Stones as they waded hip-deep into the world of the mirrored ball.
Mr. Flynn mercifully ignores 1979's Emotional Rescue; virtually the entire album is an homage - some would say an abject surrender - to disco (Some Girls, the Stones' previous album, had something for everyone and was masterful at each genre it emulated. Emotional Rescue? Not so much).
But since I was, for the most part, a hard-core devotee of the British Invasion at the time, I wasn't nuts about My Sharona, infectious as it was. Who was this upstart "Knack" to be a harbinger of the passage of my youth? I mean, compare their lightweight fluff to the grinding gravitas of Zeppelin?
Eventually, I accepted the Knack- along with Cheap Trick, Van Halen and some of the others who dared to trace the footprints of the giants.
Much later, I moved onto Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald and the great standards in the pre-Beatles universe.
I'm trying now to fathom Lady Gaga.
As for disco, I will confess: To this day, on those occasions when I hear the strains of a Bee Gees song or - gulp - even an Abba tune - wafting my way, I cannot help but be transported back to an era, tacky as it was, in which the future was a wide-open landscape, I was at my hormone-marinated physical (and attitudinal) peak and life hadn't yet disabused me of so many pretty notions.
And so whenever I catch an aural glimpse of that boom-boom-boom, I shake my head in rhythm and sing along under my breath, almost against my will.
What can I say? Nostalgia is a seductive mistress.
And as that sage Barry Gibb once in toned: Whether your a mother or whether you're a lover, you're stayin' alive - stayin alive. :-)
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 2.18.10 @ 6:01PM
Ha Ha Grzmlyk!! You're old too!!
JohnC| 2.22.10 @ 5:57PM
Wow Grzmlyk, Loved your post. You are soooo right, nostalgia is a seductive mistress (great line and if you don't mind, when the occasion presents itself, can I use it? :))
I am a few years older than you and RustyG and I had the great pleasure of being introduced to music listening to the music of my Uncle John and his sister, my mother. Sinatra, Darin, Eretha, Big Band tunes-Harry James was my favorites. And, hold on to your seat, some of the dearest musical memories are my mom and I listening to The Singing Nuns ( hey, what self respecting Catholic family wouldn't be caught without a copy of that album, ha ha) and singing along together. She is gone now and what I wouldn't give for just one more sing-a-long and listening to her cackling laugh.
I was in the orchesta and symphonic bands while in high school in the early to mid 70's and caught a lot of teasing from my classmates for not liking a lot of the loud rock n roll of the day. Now, it is kinda funny, I still love and listen to the music I was introduced to by mom and Uncle John, but grew to love the hard driving rock that just killed my ears when I was younger. And, when I have had the opportunity to be around some of my old high school friends, I find that they are listening to Sinatra! Go figure.
Music is our time machine and whenever I want to go back in time I just throw on some old music, grab an adult beverage and let the memories overwhelm my senses.
Oh, and thanks for a wonderful article Mr. Flynn.
Grzmlyk| 2.18.10 @ 1:14PM
Oh - I love Steely Dan too - they are brilliant.
Too bad they're both considerably to the left of Barack Obama politically.
wwwexler| 2.18.10 @ 2:37PM
I had to take a shower after I watched a Lady Gaga video. That's one nasty girl. Ugh!
brutus6| 2.18.10 @ 3:04PM
I remember ("..your 35 sweet goodbyes.."?) back in high school when my buddy introduced me to the Dan of Steele by loaning me his Asia cassette, and I've been hooked ever since. Was listening to Night By Night, My Old School, etc. just the other day. Man, those guys were good. I could stomach only a few seconds of this year's Grammy's.
John Navratil| 2.19.10 @ 11:11AM
"My Old School" was arguably one of the great Rock and Roll tunes. But the smoky, lecherous lyrics of "Hey Nineteen", the Hunter S. Thompson evoking "Kid Charlemagne" or desperate "Haitian Divorce" all are examples of greats lyrics, rhythm, and chord stacks which defined Steely Dan. There wasn't an album in the '70s which wasn't chock full of goodies for the fan.
That was then. After "everything must go", everything did.
Nit-pick - The album was 'Aja'
Alan Brooks| 2.18.10 @ 11:23PM
Here we GO AGAIN (it never ends)
__________________
John Mellencamp, the iconic rocker made famous by his songs about growing up in a small town, may be ready to move to the big city.
Speculation is swirling that the liberal Mellencamp may put down his guitar and run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Evan Bayh.
The Indiana Democrat announced Monday that he will not seek election to a third term in November, sending party leaders scrambling for a viable replacement and boosting Republican hopes of winning the seat. Indiana is generally considered a Republican state, though it went for Barack Obama in 2008.
Support for a Mellencamp bid is gathering momentum; a "Draft John Mellencamp For Senate" Facebook page has emerged with more than 200 members.
Mellencamp is no stranger to politics or to Washington. He asked John McCain to stop using his music during the 2008 presidential campaign. He performed at President Obama's inauguration and has played at the White House, most recently last week at a celebration in honor of the civil rights movement.
He initially backed John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic primaries, then shifted his support to Obama after the former North Carolina senator bowed out.
Mellencamp has generated a lot of goodwill among potential voters with his participation in Farm Aid concerts. Among his hits are "Small Town,""Jack and Diane," "Hurts So Good," and "Our Country."
There's no rush for Mellencamp to announce his intentions. A May primary was scrapped after cafe owner Tamyra d'lppolito, the only Democrat seeking to run for the Senate seat, missed out on qualifying for the primary ballot by Tuesday's deadline.
The Democratic state central committee now has until June 30 to pick someone to replace Bayh on the ballot.
U.S. Reps. Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth are among the other names being floated. But so far, Mellencamp's name is drawing the most attention.
Mellencamp's publicist did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Sonny| 2.19.10 @ 3:42AM
Mellencamp's a dirtbag like Al Frankenstein. Unhinged, too.
Szechuan Dumplings| 2.21.10 @ 7:16PM
The fact that Mellonhead failed to see "Shyster" written all over John Edwards forehead from the very begining speaks volumes about his intelligence. LOL! Want to reform healthcare? Get the price of John Edwards' house out of the bill.
diskojoe| 2.18.10 @ 9:35AM
I was a junior in high school & into music at the time of "My Sharona" & I have to say that there were plenty of other signs that disco was being challenged. The Cars' 1st album came out in 1978 & had several Top 40 singles. The Talking Heads, who also started out in CBGB's had a Top 40 hit in '78 w/their version of "Take Me To The River". Another CBGB's artist, Patti Smith, had a big hit in '78 w/"Because The Night", a song written by Bruce Springsteen. Elvis Costello had a Top 10 album earlier in the year w/Armed Forces & could have had a Top 40 single w/"Oliver's Army" if he didn't use the n-word in it (& damaged his career later on that year by using said word in describing Ray Charles, but that's another story). His producer Nick Lowe did have a #12 hit that year w/"Cruel To Be Kind". I also remember Cheap Trick having a surprise hit album in '79 w/Live In Budekon, which had a couple of Top 40 hits. There were also great songs from Bram Tchaikovsky ("Girl of My Dreams") & The Records ("Starry Eyes") that made the Top 40. I guess what I'm trying to say that the success of "My Sharona" & The Knack wasn't in a vacuum .
the permanent newbie| 2.18.10 @ 2:52PM
By all the weighed words of Calvin Coolidge! Someone besides me remembers "Starry Eyes," a delightful little song with an infectious tune AND clever, memorable lyrics! Not to mention that almost everything else you list is also on my personal Hot 100. Nothing like making it easy to date yourself within a year (high school class of '78, BA '82, 1st MA '84). But I thought The Knack s***ed!
Richard Baker| 2.18.10 @ 10:17AM
I confess. I had a leisure suit during this period. Wore it twice but had one nonetheless. I know, my one moment of weakness. Hated Disco and bought the suit to not have to wear a tie. Death before Polyester!
Missy| 2.18.10 @ 2:43PM
Was it powder blue, Baker? Did you wear a Nehru collar shirt, too? I heard they're making a comeback in a big way
I feel sick when I think of the '70s; I'm reminded of Jimmuh "Malaise" Carter and gas lines from hell.
astorian| 2.18.10 @ 10:45AM
As much as I hated disco, the anti-disco backlash of the late Seventies had one unfortunate side effect: ultimately, it turned rock radio almost all-white.
In the early Seventies, before disco took off, you could turn on a progressive FM rock radio station and hear Pink Floyd followed by Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin followed by Earth Wind and Fire, the Doors followed by the Temptations, the Stones followed by Marvin Gaye.
After the anti-disco backlash, sure, the Bee Gees were purged from those rock radio stations' playlists, but so were all the great soul acts that they'd been playing all along. In the end, radio stations became racially segregated i na way they never had been before.
Thanks to the backlash, FM rock radio was purged of anything that sounded danceable, and of nearly all black artists not named JimiHendrix. We rock fans never had to hear "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" on WPLJ FM anay more... but we never got to hear "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" or "Supersition" any more, either.
brutus6| 2.18.10 @ 3:45PM
Speaking of rockers who happen to be black, whatever happened to the gifted guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Color? Their hit Cult of Personality would have been the perfect (anti)theme song for Obama's '08 campaign, even presaging his undeserved Nobel Peace Prize.
Pingback| 2.18.10 @ 10:49AM
MyStreamcast » Blog Archive » The American Spectator : How the Knack Conquered Disco links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Brian B| 2.18.10 @ 11:38AM
I think the author underestimates the eruption caused by Never Mind the Bollocks by the Sex Pistols in 1977. It was explicitly aimed at what pop music had become; both disco and what passed for rock. With the emergence of the Ramones, who predated the Pistols, the Clash and others I'm afraid disco was already dead but just didn't know it by the time of the Knack's commercial success.
Dave| 2.18.10 @ 12:04PM
Weird that J Geils would be mentioned as one of the bands who flooded in after The Knack flushed disco. Because their later experiment in a Euro-ish disco sound is one of the reasons they broke up.
GenWar| 2.18.10 @ 12:27PM
Mr. Flynn:
It is not only possible, but feasible, to embrace the "cultural wasteland" of today for an enjoyable experience.
I will not tell you that Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown or the ubiquitous Lil' Wayne are fit to carry the mic stands of people like the bands you mention and worship (with additional props to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as mentioned in the comments.) However, I will argue that they do have a strong entertainment value, if you open yourself up to it.
Try. You might just enjoy the radio a little more.
-gen
P.S. I love Disco. I find your article compelling and fair (if a touch biased) and I enjoyed it. But it doesn't lessen my love of Disco (which I still listen to on a weekly basis. See hashtag #discofriday)...
Petronius| 2.18.10 @ 12:34PM
Right. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. By '79 I'd quit buying records except for celtic folk groups. The one that lent a hand to the rockers was Battlefield from Glasgow. Their cover of Bad Moon Rising would have provoked riots had it gotten any air play at the time. But My Sharona was a one off and became the Louie Louie of it's day through transmission of raw energy. Next to squealing Gibbs and the sonic velveeta we were bombarded with in our offices and stores known as 'soft rock', any sane music lover would prefer hearing cat feces harden. Steve Simels, erstwhile rock critic of Stereo Review back then pegged it by blaming the musicians who backslid when they got that first #1 hit. Most over indulged. Others like John McGloughlin "got religion." His best offering as the Maha Vishnu Orchestra, Inner Mounting Flame was solid front to back; not a bad cut on it. Then he left the studio for quality time with a guru. The next l p was fair but the one after that could have seen better use as a kitchen place mat. I know I'm getting old but it galls me no end to see subsequent products of successful artists nowhere near the quality of their top drawer recordings when I've been to their performances when their hearts were in it.
Michele| 2.18.10 @ 12:46PM
Doug was a friend. While his music is what most are talking about, it's his life that was even more impressive. He was viciously intelligent, passionate about life and a truly sweet and inspirational soul who helped many people over lots of years.
I was in high school when "My Sharona" came out, so when I hear the song it's hard not to go back to in time to those days. Then years later my husband and I would become friends with the Knack's drummer, Bruce Gary, and with Doug. Sadly, we lost Bruce a few years ago. And now Doug.
So when I hear Bruce's contagious drum beat and Doug's voice, my toes tap... but my heart breaks.
They both made an impression on me and are missed tremendously.
Andrew B| 2.18.10 @ 1:24PM
Disco and Jimmy Carter, in roughly equal parts, made me a conservative. Both were like a lukewarm bath of lowest-common-denominator treacle, and they made me want to find somewhere--anywhere--to turn. I, too, remember "My Sharona", as it hit the airwaves just as my friends and I were old enough to drive. We cruised aimlessly and heard this remarkable transformation of music, and it gave us hope. Not Blondie's "Heart of Glass", but "Rip Her To Shreds", plus the Ramones, Ian Dury, Devo...
Ah, younger days! Thanks for reminding me, Mr. Flynn.
Hughes Corporation| 2.18.10 @ 1:55PM
Say what you will about disco, it is simply indisputable that, short of substances, it is the only hope of the average anglo Homo sapiens male who has a desire to dance.
Tony in Central PA| 2.18.10 @ 2:30PM
The Knack " saved " rock and roll ? That's a reach. The revulsion with disco had already been building like an unstable magma dome. " My Sharona " was a fun song, but it definitely came along at the right time for The Knack.
Mondo| 2.18.10 @ 2:38PM
Probably the best tribute to The Knack that I'll read this week--and well-deserved.
...and you were right about My Sharona's influence on the song scene.
Bruce| 2.18.10 @ 3:34PM
1979. Let's see - I was into my 30's, but being a musician I knew good stuff when I heard it, and "My Sharonna" was damned good stuff indeed - however you want to classify it. Sad indeed Doug succumbed to lung cancer - an evil thing that took many of my contemporaries and friends.
In Doug's honor, may I present:
My Sharonna
jen| 2.18.10 @ 4:51PM
Sad news...loved the song and have both their CDs. Downloaded them from an indie music site The way to avoid the current sludge on the charts is to go alt-rock, alt-country, indie, Americana, -- all that plus more good power pop like the Knack is still coming out all the time. You just have to search a bit.
You guys who remember the Knack fondly probably know about labels like CD Baby and Not-Lame -- power pop heaven., with sites on the net.
Paul McGrath| 2.18.10 @ 5:21PM
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that along with disco, there WERE popular "rock" bands around. The problem is, they were represented by the likes of Styx and Journey and Foreigner and Kansas and a whole host of other insipid, hackneyed, witless hacks.
To me, spring began with Tom Petty's first album, followed by the Cars, then the B-52's, and yes, My Sharona was a great song.
Unfortunately, popular music now is more dreadful than it ever was.
Byron Keith| 2.18.10 @ 6:12PM
Does anyone here remember the lyrics to "My Sharona?" The chorus neatly encapsulates the song:
Never gonna stop, give it up.
Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch
Of the younger kind.
It's a sign of the moral and spiritual ditch we've driven ourselves into that there are people in an allegedly conservative forum defending and even celebrating this foul-smelling drivel.
Just imagine, if you wll, what TAS posters & bloggers would be saying about any rap or hip-hop band today, singing a song with this same message - or even covering this same song.
So maybe the lyrics get lost in the glitter and glory of rock & roll. Well, try visualizing this - Or how about this - "Hey honey, lets go to the fair this afternoon. There'll be a band singing about getting a collective hard-on for our daughter."
Not clear on the concept yet? Then imagine a couple pudgy, pasty bald guys in a bar belting this out a few blocks away from a junior high school. NOW can you see what the song is about?
It was sewage then, it's sewage now, and if it's become a "classic," that shows shows just how far Americans have gotten a taste for swill.
The Knack "saved" us from something, hm? Fine. And the USSR saved Poland from Hitler. Thanks, Uncle Joe.
wwwexler| 2.18.10 @ 7:21PM
News Flash!!! Rock music is about sex!!!
Gee, you're kidding--I had no idea.
Irish Spectre| 2.18.10 @ 8:52PM
You know what, Mr. Keith? I totally agree with you, and in fact I vividly recall a minor revulsion against the song even as the nineteen-year-old that I was when it was released, due to it's crudity, but I held my fire 'til now just because I just wasn't in the mood to read predictable, smart-assed responses such as wwwexler's.
While we're on the topic, just as I couldn't separate Bill Clinton's after hours Oval Office conduct from his fitness as Chief Executive, I've never been able to separate rock music lyrics from the music itself, and there doesn't need to be a negative correlation between good rock and decency, although there very often is. A classic example of frustration for me in this vein is Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing." The guitars, percussion, etc. is pure magic, but the "...chicks for free" part of the refrain, while doubtless largely true, seems just too much a celebration of human exploitation. In this day and age, I forever seem to be asking for just too much (not that I'll allow that to deter me.)
wwwexler| 2.19.10 @ 4:00AM
I don't like the lyrics of most Rock songs, either, but Rock music has always been pretty coarse. I don't pretend otherwise.
You sound like a glutton for punishment: Why listen to the music if you think it's garbage and you disapprove of it?
You made my point for me by citing "money for Nothing." Great sound but disgusting lyrics.
Pingback| 2.18.10 @ 6:14PM
NBA Betting Odds: Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic Picks :Casino … | Orlando Magic NB links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ET| 2.18.10 @ 7:17PM
The man makes a good case for the song's importance! I'd never have imagined it.
Of course, Homer Simpson basically nailed it when he said: "Why do you need new bands? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact!"
As for the apparently child-molestation-idealizing lyrics, is there an actual age range specified in the song? If not, it's probably not worth getting too wrapped up about. Don't forget, it was Pete Townsend who *actually* got busted for having child porn on his computer.
But the saddest thought of all is that no matter how insipid and lame disco may have seemed at the time, who could imagine that it would appear a near-cornucopia of artistic creativity when compared with today's totally vapid musical offerings?
Byron Keith| 2.18.10 @ 7:43PM
wwwexler: Sex, and songs about sex, are like anything else in life - you can do it well or badly, properly or improperly. "Sharona" is a well-crafted song (I'll grudgingly give that) about doing it very improperly, by taking advantage of someone too young to have a clue what it's about.
ET: If there was an actual age range specified, or even a line like "I like 'em legal," I probably wouldn't get too wrapped up. But the way it stands, the cradle's the limit.
Want a good sexual song? "Nobody Does It Better," Carly Simon. Any other nominations?
Abstainer| 2.20.10 @ 7:46AM
How about "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" by the Georgia Satellites?
ET| 2.18.10 @ 7:58PM
Byron, your point is well-taken - but I confess to having a tin ear for lyrics - I just can't comprehend them well, and they generally don't seem worth bothering with - it's the instruments that produce the truly worthwhile sounds - so I completely missed this aspect of the song all through the years.
Good sexual songs? Good question. How about "Why don't we do it in the road" by the Beatles? Is it about sex? It's hard to imagine otherwise, yet it's never quite clearly stated, is it?
Byron Keith| 2.18.10 @ 8:13PM
ET: Well, I see why "Sharona" pushes my buttons harder that yours. I often (not invariably) take pop songs as poems set to music, and ask myself "What are they saying?" But even so, I like Patty Smyth, even when a lot of her lyrics are somewhere between surrealism and gibberish.
"Do it in the Road" - I was 8 or 9 when the White Album came out. I pictured the Beatles smoking pot in the middle of a road as an act of civil disobedience. I honestly can't remember how old I was when when a more conventional image for the song crossed my mind . . .
wwwexler| 2.19.10 @ 4:09AM
That's all I meant: Why point out 'My Sharona' when most Rock songs were just as coarse? I've never had any illusions about the genre--I didn't want to know the lyrics.
Rock ain't Bach.
Byron Keith| 2.19.10 @ 4:49AM
Why point out 'My Sharona?' Only because someone here at TAS (!) saw fit to suggest that there may be something defensible about it.
When Gene Simmons and/or Paul Stanley dies, if TAS sees fit to run a fawning obit over them and KISS, I'll tear into "Christine Sixteen" just as hard.
wwwexler| 2.19.10 @ 3:13PM
I love most Rock music because it's fun, but I'll never defend it; it's pointless. I just don't take it that seriously, I guess.
Gene Simmons--yuck! He makes my skin crawl.
Imagine having to defend the music of Mozart or Bach--the thought is ridiculous.
Byron Keith| 2.19.10 @ 7:54PM
Music such as "My Sharona" need not - arguably, cannot - be taken seriously as a thing in itself. But what it reveals about us as a people can be very important, and, in this case, frightening. Of all the songs available to us in 1979, we sent this thing to the top of the chart, and held it there for something like a month. Can you imagine this song
being released in 1969? No DJ would've touched it. 1959? Pressings of this song would've been siezed as obscene.
Fast forward now to 2010. People whom I imagine, from their attendance to this website, would call themselves conservatives - defenders and promugators of traditional values - are getting all warm-fuzzy nostalgic for a song about preying on minors. This is The American Spectator, for pity's sake! Defending sexual sickness is The New Republic's job.
wwwexler| 2.19.10 @ 11:38PM
Most of the good folks on this site probably have/had no idea what 'My Sharona' is about--I didn't. Thanks a lot. lol
I really try NOT to listen to the lyrics of most pop songs.
All you have to do is look at some of the freaks who populate the Rock Music scene and you know their music must be tawdry. I guess I try to stay blissfully unaware.
Good luck with that--too many smart people around to disabuse me of my notions. :)
Pingback| 2.18.10 @ 8:20PM
The American Spectator : How the Knack Conquered Disco | Drakz Free Online Service links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 2.18.10 @ 9:19PM
Conquering the Battlefield of Your Mind links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 2.18.10 @ 9:34PM
Missy:
No, it was an off-white color and I wore regular mens shirts with it. Not a Nehru collar on the jacket, as well. My ex-wife convinced me to get it. I can at least say that I had one. Yuk.
Missy| 2.19.10 @ 3:47AM
C'mon, Baker, man up and don't blame it on your ex. You know you liked it. LOL
They were awful, you're right--but no worse than some of the ridiculous looking junk I wore when I was young.
Pingback| 2.19.10 @ 1:30AM
The American Spectator : How the Knack Conquered Disco | Drakz Free Online Service links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Barbarian Heretic| 2.19.10 @ 11:20AM
Boston- self-titled debut 1976
Van Halen-self titled debut 1978
Led Zeppelin- In through the Out Door 1979
The Knack conquered disco? Please...
Danno| 2.22.10 @ 1:16PM
Well, disco persisted and continued to annoy us, regardless of those great albums you mentioned by Boston, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin.
But it wasn't until "Get The Knack" was released in late '79 that people realized they'd finally had enough of disco, and it began to disappear from the airwaves.
art vandelay| 2.19.10 @ 4:23PM
To which I will add: Highway to Hell 1979
BTW, Berton Averre's extended solo on 'My Sharonna' is among the very best in rock. Extremely underrated.
Dance...dance to the radio| 2.20.10 @ 12:14AM
I'll bite.
I was thirteen when My Sharona came out.
It was a great song that radio then killed by overplaying it.
Across the ocean, the most important music of the time was being made in England.
And because of the sterile blandness of North American radio, I didn't hear any of it until I went looking for it in the record stores in the mid eighties.
But even then we were listening to the Damned and the Human League and Gary Numan and XTC.
And the Clash.
At that time, after the Sex Pistols had started the fire and the maelstrom of punk, post punk and new wave started to play out, the innovation and creativity of the British musicians far outshone everything in the contemporary American landscape.
Later, when the poodle hair bands were all the rage in America, we were listening to real music like the Smiths.
After the Smiths broke up England lost its way until the Stone Roses came out.
And then Nirvana came along and pulled a Sex Pistols, burnt the house down and started it all over again.
The real significance of the Knack is that a slightly more risque version of I Wanna Hold Your Hand highlighted what a closed system the music business in North America was/is. Much like the mainstream media.
We had to go outside normal channels and pay crazy prices for imported records to get what we wanted.
But we paid for the truth.
And it was worth every penny.
Frank Burns| 2.20.10 @ 12:23PM
What is this guy talking about?? My Sharona is pure fluff. Granted, disco made me sick after awhile (Saturday Night Fever, disco emetic), but this author is way off base on some crucial songs he probably hasn't heard in years, if ever.
*Another Brick In the Wall* akin to disco?? THE WALL is the Apocalypse Now of rock.
Maybe this guy's trolling for a spot on MSNBC.
JohnCj| 2.22.10 @ 6:16PM
Oh Frank,
Go find Hot Lips Houlihan and troll down that memory lane. I think he made a fairly good point and one that I would never have comtemplated. Remember, opinions are like (nasty word), everybody has one. Oh, and give Hawkeye and Trapper our best.
LJC | 2.21.10 @ 1:41AM
Disco Lives, and will live forever! In the nursing home I plan to take my disco cassette tapes(remember them?) and hope to lay there with the sounds of Charo, and Disco Lucy, Disco Rubber Ducky, et al and let my old white hair grow Big again. Seemingly any piece of music could be turned into disco with the right beat behind it. Disco, you're the one that I want. And I hope to slip away watching Thank God It's Friday.
Missy| 2.21.10 @ 5:32AM
No offense, LJC, but I think I'm going to hurl.
I lived through the seventies once; it would be cruel and unusual punishment to have to do it again.
But, hey--whatever floats your old white-haired, disco lovin' boat!
Petronius| 2.21.10 @ 11:19AM
Meatloaf
Where are you now that we need you?
LJC| 2.21.10 @ 1:03PM
Yes, I know; the 70s had great suckiness: Nixon, Carter (I liked Gerald Ford), Billy Beer, cb radios, Iran hostages, the NVA in Saigon, Leo Sayre. Personally I was in a period of having fun--head shops, What's your sign You must be a Leo Your place or mine?, and The Carol Burnett Show, the cultural high point of the decade IMO.
Locomotive Breath| 2.21.10 @ 7:53PM
Rap is just degenerate disco.
Nick| 2.22.10 @ 12:42AM
I was just shy of my 12th birthday in Aug. of '79. Remember that month well. Spent a week and half at my cousins' house, saw "The Amityville Horror" (not that scary, I wanted to see "Alien"), got to see "Jaws" for the second time on the pre-cable "ON-TV." ( Watched "Jaws" for the first time in July at the drive-in, remember those?)
I can't believe nobody mentioned Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band! Must be my Detroit bias. He kept rock'n'roll alive across the country. Especially in the south, where Zeppellin and Van Halen weren't that popular.
I, too, have fond memories of "My Sharona", despite the lyrics. Nostalgia.
It was on K-Tel's "Rock 80" album (which I still have), along with:
Cars - Gary Numan
Brass In Pocket - The Pretenders
Driver's Seat - Sniff & The Tears
Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
Is She Really Going Out With Him - Joe Jackson
Heartbreaker - Pat Benatar
Call Me - Blondie
Do You Remember Rock 'n Roll Radio - Ramones
I Want You To Want Me - Cheap Trick
Hold On - Ian Gomm
One Way Or Another - Blondie
We Live For Love - Pat Benatar
Pop Muzik - M
My friends and I would spend hours playing TeleGames (Atari) Football, Breakout, Pong, and Space Invaders while listening to that album over and over again on my dad's monster stereo system (150 watts per channel!). "Cars" and "Pop Muzik", New Wave classics!
Also, from the summer of '79, Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock 'N' Roll to Me" and J. Geils' "Love Stinks" (currently the jingle for Swiffer mops! Uggggggh!)
But, 50's-60's Motown is the best pop-music there ever was. Period. And Elvis. And Buddy Holly. And....I can never make a "best of" list.
Bridget| 2.22.10 @ 4:19PM
Wow - I loved those bands - It sounded so different than any previous songs and definitely depicts a specific time....it was called New Wave then. Graduated HS 81, BS 85, MS 91.....loved Pat Benatar, the Police - everything they did then, Joe Jackson, Blondie (the album Parallel Lines - "one way or another, I'm gonna find ya, I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya; the Pretenders, B-52s - Rock Lobster all time fave, Adam Ant...so many bands. And it takes me back when I listen to them. Thanks for the article and comments bringing me back!
Don| 2.22.10 @ 6:00PM
Disco was dressing up and dancing, there wasn't a damn thing wrong with it.
LJC| 2.24.10 @ 12:56AM
Dance Fever, the Midnight Special, the Gong Show, American Spectator, New Times, Mark Spitz, and Tom Snyder. Checkered cuffed bell bottoms. And Cher singing Half Breed. The Munich Massacre, Pol Pot, the Yom Kippur War, and the Patty Hearst stuff must be noted as 70s bad things, but I liked the pop culture of the era.
LJC| 2.24.10 @ 1:08AM
Some confusion in my last post. Everything from Dance Fever to Cher were Good 70s. The second list were Bad 70s.
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A537CL1| 11.22.10 @ 10:28PM
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ian| 12.20.10 @ 3:59PM
Interesting post. I don't think one song alone gets the credit/blame for killing disco. But if you want one, I think you have to think a little bit deeper. The candidate I have in mind is one that topped the US charts a few months before My Sharona, Blondie's "Heart of Glass," a song often mistaken for a disco song itself.
HOG was actually a New Wave song that incorporated dance music elements with rock music. It even added a Kraftwurk inspired electronic beat. The result was precisely the music that replaced disco: danceable rock.
HOG achieved two things: (1) it bridged rock and dance music and helped create the template that would replace disco music; (2) It broke down US radio barriers to New Wave. Until HOG hit it was unclear if a New Wave song would ever break through. If the groundwork was not already laid, it is doubtful that My Sharona would have been so readily received.
Therefore, Blondie, sometimes accused of "going disco," actually helped to save rock and roll.
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