Goodbye to Doug Fieger and the summer of '79
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Goodbye to Doug Fieger and the summer of '79
In the summer of 1979 I was between my sophomore and junior years in college, and I was so anxious to start a career in journalism that I volunteered to spend it working for a small weekly newspaper in Peoria, Ill. called the Penny Press, which in turn meant living with my surprisingly crotchety (although now much missed) grandparents there. It didn't just mean leaving my friends back East, but it meant leaving the music I'd fallen in love with during those years, New Wave/punk rock, in order to work in the land of REO Speedwagon and Styx.
Sure, I had a few LP's that I tried playing on my grandparents' 1950s-ish "hi-fi," but most of the time I was stuck with some really bad tunes on the radio -- until a song came along that was too big for even the lame stations in Peoria to ignore. It was "My Sharona" by the Knack -- hook-laden, raunchy, with that memorable guitar line and killer solo in the middle. I could listen to that song over and over, and -- as it was No. 1 on the Billboard charts for six weeks -- I did exactly that. And before I knew it, I had survived the great summer of high gas prices and malaise.
The Knack didn't fare so well after that -- critics thought they were either too smutty or too contrived, but I think it was just impossible for them to ever top the perfect summer song of the late 1970s. I read a couple of years ago that lead singer and songwriter Doug Fieger was battling cancer; he finally succumbed this weekend at age 57. It's sad, but whenever I think of what it was like to be 20 years old, I will remember Fieger, and four minutes and three seconds of rock 'n' roll salvation.
Cool, Bohica. I'm sure Will agrees.— Falls Ed- Steve, in a way, it can be said that the corporate rock bands who were from the 60's really didn't have much left in the tank by the time the late 70's hit. Think about it. The BEatles were done for 10 years, the Stones had all types of problems despite Some Girls, and the The Who and Zep were basically fried. The New Wavers didn't break new ground, they just picked the burned out husk of the "old guys".— Domenic
- Oh man. Sad news. I loved this band. Get the Knack was one of the all time best party rock albums. Every song kicked. "Good Girls Don't", "That's What the Little Girls Do", "Oh Tara", "Heartbeat", "Maybe Tonight". RIP, Doug. God bless.— Domenic
- Here's a different view of old rockers and their songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnPINGavPP0&feature=PlayList&p=92312574A1E6459C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=47— legatus
- Still a great song. Agreed, Steve - although a lot of good music did come out of the New Wave - some of it was pure garbage and a product of the music industry trying to make money from the anti-corporate roots of Punk.— Talking point sleuth
"New Wave? Corporate rock? always a Tool I guess..." Tool! Now yer talkin'— Hamlet- We of the 90's had a lot to laugh at in 70's and 80's music, but Elvis was not one of them. I don't think any of my musically inclined friends were missing a single one of his albums.— Hamlet
- Geez, Manny, lighten up. You can't talk about music, everything's gotta be about Will? BTW, The Cars was a great album. Remember when the radio staions used to play Moving in Stereo and let it go through All Mixed Up?— SteveMG
- New Wave? Corporate rock? always a Tool I guess...— Manny Trillo
- Mass, I like that. It's like people who think they know everything make life hard for those of us who actually do. I once made an argument that the "corporate rockers" actually had a harder job than the new wavers. The established rockers had to build on the music they had already made, while the new wavers just needed a new look and play the same basic songs with modern instruments that the established rockers did in the 60's (with instruments that were still in development). Just consider the state of the art in 1965 vs 1975. There was also a factor of anger, because I think a lot of people who hated disco blamed the established rockers for putting up such lousy competition. Sorta like when our Eagles stink it up against the Cowboys. There was no alternative to the Bee Gees. What were you gonna do, crank up some Paul MacCartney? Crank up Desparado? How about Don't Kill the Whales, there's a headbanger!— SteveMG
Comment removed.- I was there too. Junior year at Judge. So Elvis acknowledge later what was obvious back then. Pomposity obviously wasn't invented by new wavers, (how about Roger Waters' endless railing against the record execs) but its fans were too young and stupid to realize that they weren't above it while they insisted their music was better than corporate rock. The worst part of 70's rock had already passed by 77, except for The Eagles, who we still can't shake off. It wasn't necessarily the music that was worn out, it was the fans.— SteveMG
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- Steve, I'm not sure if I get the point. Elvis C. (whose real name is Declan, not Derek) would be the first to tell you he was an immature jerk back then...I think he's grown up a lot. New Wave had good people and bad people, just like anything else in the world. But as a form of music, it was a huge breath of fresh air from the insipid corporate rock of the 1970s (I was there!)— will
- The Cars- "The Cars" -first album I believe 1978- one of the best ever.— Manny Trillo
- "Good Girls Don't" figured in that story I tried to tell last summer. I didn't bother putting "My Sharona" on the Ipod. The "New Wave" wasn't as radical as its fans insisted. In fact, they were often bigger hypocrites than the "Mainstream" musicians they mocked. I remember one story Elvis Costello fans used to tell about him mocking Billy Joel, or the time Derek McManus (his real name) threw a fit on SNL about not being allowed to play "Radio Radio". Turned out the New Wave fans were as snobby and pretentious as the music they were sick of. In fact, if you were to compare them side by side, you would have a hard time finding big difference between new wave music and music from the "establishment" in the early 80'2. Except the new wavers were the ones in suits.— SteveMG
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It's really not "My Sharona". It's 54% My Sharona, 38% the Federal Government's Sharona, and 8% the Sharona of the Commonwealth.— Mr. Smith- Yo batty, what does Johnny Weir's fur fetish have to do with 1979 rock and roll? You need to get over your Will Bunch fetish...— Yersinia Pestis
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- Batty is truly a ADHD-addled idiot without any ability to rationally discuss anything like an adult without lowering himself to his ilk's gutter level. Other than that, he seems like an OK pod.— enabler1
- While My Sharona may have been the most popular tune, that first album was full of solid pop tunes. "Good Girls Don't" tops my list, for catchiness and raunch (the album version, not the cleaned up MTV version with "puts you in your place" instead of "sitting on your....")— enabler1
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