r.i.p. Doug Fieger of the Knack

[cooterbrown]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100214/METRO/2140317/Knack-lead-singer-Doug-Fieger-dies-of-cancer

[blue2blue]

RIP, Mr Feiger.

[rasputin1963]

What a shame. I owned that album back in 1980. I couldn't understand the knocking that they sometimes got ("Nuke The Knack!") when they were compared to The Beatles.

[kurdy]

bum-BUM-bum-BUM-bum-BUM-bada-bada-bum-BUM-bada-BUM--BYYYYE DOUG FIEGER!!!

 

Couldn't resist. Seriously, though--I heard it on the radio just the other day; that was a great rock 'n roll song. He will be missed. R.I.P., Doug.

[Jeff da Weasel]

RIP. I like the Knack.

[UstadKhanAli]

Well, that sucks. RIP.

[timmit65]

Sad news. RIP.

[Phil O'Keefe]

They were subjected to a HUGE backlash, but I really liked Get The Knack a lot, and am sad to hear of Doug's passing.

[cooterbrown]

I didn't get the backlash, either.

Well...maybe the lyrics were straight out of 10th grade, but as far as the music goes, it was A+ power pop.

[elsongs]

 

That was probably the very first rock song I liked as a kid. The song is so simple but so cool. And it even had an instrumental bridge. Thank you, Doug!

[tim_7string]

Very sad.

 

My cousin was a huge Knack fan and got me into the band as well. I regret not seeing them with him when they were promoting ZOOM back in '98. I think they were playing in Minneapolis or possibly even Grand Forks at the time. Great music and a somewhat under-rated band.

[elsongs]

To Mr Fieger's family and friends, I offer M-m-m-my condolences.

[Mudcat007]

I was/am a HUGE fan of the Knack.

 

Sad to hear about Mr. Fieger's passing.

[Geoff Grace]

I didn't get the backlash, either.

It was the kiss of death back then to be compared to The Beatles -- earlier victims of this phenomenon included The Raspberries and Bay City Rollers -- and The Knack invited comparisons by consciously copying The Beatles' image in their marketing. (More here)

 

It's a shame because they might have had long careers if they had just created their own image like other bands.

 

But yes, "My Sharona" was an irresistible single back in 1979, and it's a classic today.

 

I'm sad to hear about Doug Fieger's passing.

 

R.I.P. Doug.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[kurfu]

RIP.

 

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-the-beat-goes-on/posts/doug-fieger-lead-singer-of-the-knack-dies-of-cancer

 

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

 

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

[cooterbrown]

 

It was the kiss of death back then to be compared to The Beatles -- earlier victims of this phenomenon included The Raspberries and Bay City Rollers

 

 

The Bay City Rollers? - they would more comparable to the Monkees.

 

The Beatle comparison didn't seem to hurt Cheap Trick, at the same time the Knack were on the charts.

Then there was Big Star...who should have been big if they had been promoted better.

Utopia's Deface the Music came out in that same time frame of 79 -80.

So I don't think it was the obvious Beatles image lift that did the Knack in.

Rather, it was more likely the rather shallow and misogynistic lyrical content, plus the fact that thier second album was a carbon-copy of the first.

A lot of the "Knuke the Knack" hubris came from the rockers of the time, who all of a sudden found their New York and Los Angeles playgrounds inundated with "skinny tie" bands.

I remember reading an interview with Kevin DuBrow, where he said that The Knack and it's wannabe clones left the LA hard rockers practically jobless, from late 1979 into 1981.

[rasputin1963]

I had forgotten that the lyric to "Good Girls Don't (But I Do)" is very much NC-17 rated, and includes lines like:

 

"Wishing you could get inside her pants"

 

and

 

"...when she's sitting on your face..."

 

 

I seem to recall that some radio stations in my area bleeped or garbled the first line, and that The Knack released an "alternate" version of that second line... Something to the effect of

 

"...when she's put you in your place...."

 

 

Still, it's a great record. Very much like a Beatles record, but with naughty lyrics...

[kurfu]

"...when she's sitting on your face..."

 

 

...which is followed by someone saying "It hurts!"

[Geoff Grace]

 

The Beatle comparison didn't seem to hurt Cheap Trick, at the same time the Knack were on the charts.

 

I don't know what you're talking about, but I do recall Cheap Trick slowly growing a following rather than being introduced with a lot of hoopla. Not so with Bay City Rollers or The Knack. The Knack not only copied the Meet The Beatles album cover on the front of their similarly titled Get The Knack release, their label -- Capitol Records -- reintroduced the same "rainbow label" that Capitol had previously used on The Beatles releases. Furthermore, the back cover of Get The Knack imitated a scene from The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night.

 

The message -- accompanied by an intense promotional barrage -- was obvious: The Knack was being pushed by none other than The Beatles' former label as the next Beatles.

 

I'm not talking about merely having been obviously influenced by the Beatles, which has happened with countless bands. It's when you get "the next Beatles" hype that you get soundly rejected by the public. It's a well known curse.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[cooterbrown]

 

I had forgotten that the lyric to "Good Girls Don't (But I Do)" is very much NC-17 rated, and includes lines like: "Wishing you could get inside her pants" and "...when she's sitting on your face..." I seem to recall that some radio stations in my area bleeped or garbled the first line, and that The Knack released an "alternate" version of that second line... Something to the effect of "...when she's put you in your place...." Still, it's a great record. Very much like a Beatles record, but with naughty lyrics...

 

 

The first line was changed to; "and you're wishing she was giving you a chance."

[Geoff Grace]

It occurs to me that we could both be right. After all, things don't always happen for one reason alone. In fact, it's my belief that they rarely do.

 

 

I don't think it was the obvious Beatles image lift that did the Knack in. Rather, it was more likely the rather shallow and misogynistic lyrical content, plus the fact that thier second album was a carbon-copy of the first. A lot of the "Knuke the Knack" hubris came from the rockers of the time, who all of a sudden found their New York and Los Angeles playgrounds inundated with "skinny tie" bands. I remember reading an interview with Kevin DuBrow, where he said that The Knack and it's wannabe clones left the LA hard rockers practically jobless, from late 1979 into 1981.

 

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[spokenward]

With a few exceptions, "the next Beatles" mantle starts at the label.

 

The old saw, "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" was true about Capitol Records. The Beatles catalog was pretty much what they knew. Career trajectories are tricky enough without setting goofy expectations. The Knack was hipper than their label. Capitol was headed toward an AC/country mix at the time.

 

In contrast, Cheap Trick had half a chance to develop. They were on Epic instead of Columbia. They were a bar band with a following before they broke out. And nobody would confuse Cheap Trick with the Beatles because Cheap Trick had two ugly ones to balance the two pretty ones.

[Phil O'Keefe]

It wasn't just the Beatles comparisons and their "lifting" of their image, but the lyrics. They got into some definite backlash over the lyrics in Good Girls Don't and even My Sharona, and their huge and quick popularity probably didn't help either... but whatever the ultimate causes of their quick passing from public favor, IMO, that first album still stands as a true powerpop gem.

[Mudcat007]

I always thought the reason they weren't able to sustain their success was that their second album sounded too much like their first album and their third album didn't sound enough like their first album.

[rasputin1963]

Isn't England a strange place? What they like and what they don't? On the WIKI entry for GET THE KNACK, it reminds us that:

 

ALBUM POSITION ATTAINED:

 

USA BILLBOARD.........No. 1

 

Australia Kent Chart..........No. 1

 

UK Charts.............No. 65

 

 

I'm reminded how 1960's crooner P.J. Proby couldn't get a job sweeping floors in his native Texas.... yet today he's worshipped as a demi-god in England.