Classic Rock Bottom

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it) unless otherwise noted.

We are still looking at number one albums and this week's offering is Get The Knack by the American band The Knack.  It was the band's debut album, released in June of 1979.  The album was an instant hit, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and spending a total of 5 weeks there.  You'd be hard pressed to find anyone in our age range that has not heard the mega-hit My Sharona.  That was a number one song in the US while it's follow-up single, Good Girls Don't, managed a Top 20 showing by reaching number eleven.  

I can't say that I owned this album back then.  But I can say I loved the song My Sharona.  It has one of the great guitar solos of all time on it.  I even liked the second single.  But I had never heard the whole album until recently.  The one thing that stands out the most to me is Bruce Gary's drumming.  It's quite electrifying.  I love the snare work.  

You can find this quite easily.  Amazon has a brand new copy, remastered, for about twelve bucks.  There is a version that has a couple of bonus tracks as well, but I can't seem to find that one on Amazon.  It might be there, but I don't feel like looking that hard.  So what do you think of the album?  Does it have any special meaning to you?

Side One: 

1. Let Me Out

2. Your Number Or Your Name

3. Oh Tara

4. (She's So) Selfish

5. Maybe Tonight

6. Good Girls Don't

Side Two:

7. My Sharona

8. Heartbeat

9. Siamese Twins

10. Lucinda

11. That's What The Little Girls Do

12. Frustrated

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A bit late this week.  I've been off of work and out of the routine, totally forgot about this until about 10pm last night...

I have the version with extra tracks, it's here and is pretty cheap.

Oh yeah, very cheap.  Dang it, that's the version I should've bought...

This album is one of my all-time favorites and still receives a ton of play at my house. I usually run this one and their second one (But The Little Girls Understand) together for one long "overdose on The Knack" listening session. They were originally intended to be released together as a double album, but Capital didn't pull the string ont it, due to them being a newly signed band and not knowing exactly how well they would sell right out of the gate. In hindsight, I think they should have waited longer to release that second album....we got hit so hard over the head with these guys, it's no wonder their star faded so quickly. That paired with the fact that Doug was getting out of control at the time really doomed them.....too much of a Knack overload at the time, a bit of a change in music styles and Doug's drug-&-alcohol-fueled ego all kind of sunk them rather quickly. Once thier third album (Round Trip) bit the dust hard, that was pretty much the end of them. They did have a nice comeback later on with the song "Rocket 'O Love" off of their Serious Fun album, but that was really their last hoorah for the majority of the record-buying public.

Doug had brain surgery to remove 2 tumors in 2006 and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007. After years of battling cancer, he passed away in his Los Angeles home on February 14, 2010. RIP Doug, you were amazing and you are missed!!

This is ok, nothing really to special to me. I do like track #10 it's probably the best track here after "My Sharona". The rest is mostly just typical power pop, not bad but it really doesn't offer anything new or exciting. I actually like "Serious Fun" more than this. 

No real special meaning to me, I just remember hearing "My Sharona" on the radio A LOT and thought it was one of the greatest songs in the world. Now I just think it's a cool song, one that needs to be played loud.

Doug's brother is a lawyer in Michigan. He eats babies, from what I've been told.

Released in the summer before my 9th grade year in Junior High (this was way before Middle School was even thought of), so 9th grade meant we were the big shots of the school, but me being the humble one never fell into that trap... Anyway...

Sharona was way overplayed!!!  way way overplayed...  In fact, for me, its still a hard listen.  Not sure why, oh well.  Good Girls Don't didn't really help either.  As a result this was never on my radar. What I assumed to be a very punk/new wave band really isn't punk at all and only slightly new wave.  It sounds like a weird mix of some of REM and 90's Counting Crows knock off.  Maybe they were ahead of their time?  And where's the rippin geetar work we hear on Sharona?  Did they forget about that everywhere else?  Siamese Twins isn't good.  Who thought that was worth including?

Jon is right about track 10, best track here, but that's it.  Looks like my 9th grade musical chops were pretty darn right on!!

In the mid- to late 70's, my best friend and I had kind of the same taste in music, so when I became a KISS-fan, so did he. Then he bought Van Halen's debut-album, and so did I. He became a fan of AC/DC, and later I became a fan. Then I "discovered" Cheap Trick, and a little later he bacame a fan too. My point is, that we didn't always buy the same records, because you couldn't really afford buying all that stuf, being 12 or 14 years old, so we could borrow albums from each other.....and this album is one of those albums, I borrowed back in 1979. At that time, I was buying similar albums by City Boy, The Boomtown Rats and Cheap Trick, so when I heard this album, I liked it, but it wasn't an album, that I would go out and spend my money on. So I had it on tape, but I don't think, I heard it that many times. There were a lot of more interesting albums around in 1979. My Sharona is definitely the best song on this album, but the first 3 songs on side 1 are pretty good. Let Me Out sounds very much like Cheap Trick, but The Knack really is  a blend between CT, The Boomtown Rats, Elvis Costello, Blondie, The Motors and Police. I really liked music like that in 1979.

But with artists like Blondie, Elvis Costello, The Police and The Knack, there was something clearly missing, that I found in early 1980, by "discovering" New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.

But I do enjoy this album, and I would listen to this music anyday over american 80's AOR. Now THIS is fine american music, not the best, but just fine.

I felt some Cheap Trick while listening to this as well.

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