Before I read all about it in the
\nNational Enquirer<\/i> or some other rag like that, I should
\nprobably state this in public: I’ve always kind of considered
\nmyself to be a dirty old man trapped in a twenty-something body.
\n(Or, as Jack Nicholson said in one of his films, “I’m a dirty young
\nman.”) I ignore the stories that claim I passed my sexual peak at
\nthe age of 18, and I continue to think of ways to display my
\nprowess. (My wife, however, draws the line when it involved vinyl,
\nMarshmallow Fluff and a water slide. But I digress.)<\/p>\n
So why should it surprise people when I tell them that I happen
\nto like The Knack, a band generally reviled amongst rock fans. Some
\npeople may consider buying one of their albums equivalent of
\nheading to the local peep show in broad daylight.<\/p>\n
But ignore the hype (or, in this case, anti-hype) and listen to
\nthe music. Their 1979 debut,
\nGet The Knack<\/i>, is a damn fine pop album with catchy hooks
\n(and poor production) that has held up well and become a cult
\nfavorite.<\/p>\n
Doug Fieger leads this quartet, sounding kind of like what The
\nWonders (from the movie
\nThat Thing You Do!<\/i>) would sound like with raging hormones.
\nAt the start, they sound like a harder-edged Cheap Trick with their
\nsong “Let Me Out.” The next cut, “Your Number Or Your Name,” is
\nwhat makes me think of The Wonders – it’s a light, poppy number
\nthat would have easily fit on AOR radio at the time.<\/p>\n
The first hints of The Knack being “pop perverts” comes on “Good
\nGirls Don’t,” a dirty little ditty about teenage lust. Fieger et
\nal. are able to pull this off very well, making this a guilty
\npleasure on
\nGet The Knack<\/i>.<\/p>\n
And then, there is the song that made the band infamous – “My
\nSharona.” Recently brought back to the forefront in the movie
\nReality Bites<\/i>, this song is not as annoying as we were led
\nto believe back in 1979. Instead, this song has retained its
\nfreshness through its simplicity, and a hot lead guitar solo.
\nDespite what the song is supposed to be about, it isn’t devious or
\nevil – rather humorous, in a sense. This song will not make you go
\nout and chase after teenage girls – Moral Majority, relax.<\/p>\n
The power of the material on
\nGet The Knack<\/i> is what supports this effort – “That’s What
\nLittle Girls Do,” “She’s So Selfish,” “Heartbeat,” “Frustrated”…
\nFieger and band are excellent artisans of their craft. Only
\n“Siamese Twins (The Monkey And Me)” disappoints – and even that
\ngrows on you after a while.<\/p>\n
The story of The Knack is a sad one – a band shot down before
\ntheir own time by their own publicity – but after the hype has died
\ndown (and the reunion attempt, albeit a good one, failed), we’re
\nleft with the music.
\nGet The Knack<\/i> is about as sinister as an episode of a
\ntelevision sitcom, and as good an album as any I’ve heard in a
\nwhile. Indulge yourself on this one – it’s less embarassing than
\ngetting caught reading
\nPenthouse<\/i> by your wife or kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5687],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35563","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-knack","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35563"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35563"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}