I’d forgotten all about this song; it popped up on my YouTube home page. It must have gotten some decent airplay in the day, or I wouldn’t likely have heard it. It wasn’t as big as Little Willy, Ballroom Blitz, FOTR or LILO, but it might be as good as any of them. Although it gets a little busy in places, it has a great hook in the chorus. Verses are strong as well. I’m wondering if John Lydon got his Anarchy in the U.K. snigger from the opening.
Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
It’s great that this blog is now overrun with Sweet truthers.
I wondered whether an ELO connection might exist.
Wikipedia! Please inform my lazy ass:
“Now confident in their own songwriting and production abilities, Sweet spent the latter half of 1975 in Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, where they recorded the Give Us A Wink album with German sound engineer Reinhold Mack, who later recorded with Electric Light Orchestra and co-produced Queen. “
Yeah, you can definitely hear the ELO/Queen connection in the overthe-top arrangements. Sweet never got their due in the 70’s. They were a guilty pleasure, an AM, Top 40 singles band in an era that worshipped FM, AOR, and guitar solos. They may have owed much of their commercial success to girls. When Little Willy or Ballroom Blitz came on, your date would crank up the radio and rock out. Guys mostly wanted to bliss out to Dark Side of the Moon or Zeppelin.
Oh, and “Sweet truthers” is a damned good pun.
Excellent!
I’ve always wanted one of those Dan Armstrong Lucite basses, even if they are boat anchors.
Those have gotten pricey, you’ll be shocked to learn.