https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEKWR7WfsJo

Alright, I know what yer thinkin’…  how “under the radar” can this be?  Doesn’t EVERYONE know “My Sharona”?  Well, maybe not the younger generation (the song DID come out in 1979) although it has appeared in multiple movie soundtracks and has appeared in the Rock Band video game series, but this post isn’t focusing solely on that classic cut from this LP.  Rather, I’m want to talk about the greatness of the ENTIRE ALBUM and how it needs to be in your collection.

Back in 1979, this young lad was knee deep in his love affair with the radio and actively bugging Mom and Dad for the latest records and magazines featuring the hot new tunes of the day.  Disco was pretty much on the way out and rock music was snaking its way onto the airwaves again with some newer faces like The Police, The Pretenders, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Joe Jackson, and the skinny tie guys from Los Angeles:  The Knack.  At the time I was mostly listening to the local Top 40 station and as the family was a member of the Columbia House Record Club, my brother and I would occasionally be given an opportunity to “buy” an album or two outside of the Helen Reddy/Kenny Rogers albums our parents would buy.  And due to the omnipresence of “My Sharona” ALL over the radio that summer and us being totally knocked out by the tune, my bro and I quickly snapped up Get The Knack and not only loved having the opportunity to play “the hit” at our leisure but also loved a good chunk of the album as well.  Both of us spent many a night staring at the album cover (those manic grins from lead singer/rhythm guitarist Doug Fieger and drummer Bruce Gary perfectly countered the stoicism from bassist Prescott Niles and lead guitarist Burton Averre were way cool junior!) and reading the lyrics as we rocked out to the band on our little stereo in the basement family room.

For you unbelievers out there saying “so tell me…  what’s so good about it?” I say…  PUT THE DAMN THING ON AND LISTEN TO THE FIRST SONG.  If “Let Me Out” doesn’t grab you by the throat from the get go then you might as well forget it.  For as much as flak as the band caught as Beatles copyists (same label, similarities in album cover and title, dressing alike, etc), “Let Me Out” takes its cues moreso from other British Invasion giants such as The Who, The Yardbirds, and The Kinks as well as hints of manic punk energy courtesy of a nasty, spitting riff, energetic Fieger yelp, and relentless pounding from sticksman Gary.  But hey, if ya don’t like that one and want to give it another chance, stick around for song number two and the effortlessly cool melodic punch of “Your Number Of Your Name”-  sounding like a lost early Who cut written by Lennon and McCartney or maybe an early Tom Petty cover of a Byrds classic, the song is all ultra cool ringing chords, excellent band vocals, and darn near jazzy surf drums of all things.  A killer one-two punch to start an album.

But the cool songs don’t stop there…  cut #3, “Oh Tara” has the same melodic sensibilities of “Your Number Or Your Name” with some absolutely sublime guitar noodling and darn near chickin’ pickin’ in the verses and during Averre’s lead solo spot, punctuated by some groovy McCartneyesque bass from Niles.  And if you want to get a little new wavey per the times take a listen to “Siamese Twins (The Monkey And Me)”, a raver headlined by a wild mix of percussive strut and secret agent guitar work akin to something found on The Police albums of the day; or bounce ahead a couple more tunes for some shimmering sweetener with “That’s What The Little Girls Do”, a long so gloriously sing a long catchy that you’ll be humming it long after you listen to the album.  Top it all off with the Stonesy swagger of “Frustrated” and you’ve got one helluva an album to dig into outside of the big hit.

And speaking of that hit…  if you’ve never heard the long version of “My Sharona” you’re in for a real treat, especially if you are a guitar fan.  Talk about a shocker- the radio at the time cut Burton Averre’s lead to seconds, so if you’ve never heard the non-single version you’ll be blessed with some some tasty, stinging noodling that should rank high among anyone’s favorite lead guitar spots on wax (and I take my guitar playing seriously, it’s THAT good).  Averre’s playing on this whole album shines, he does a fantastic job sprinkling some chunky chords with dexterously picked rhythmic patterns of various tonalities, at one point mixing in a heavy crunch with a bit of “secret agent” angular bits like in the absolutely killer “Good Girls Don’t”, where he counters Fieger’s frenetic strums with some James Bond style runs.  While released as the second single on the album, “Good Girls” stalled at #11 on the Billboard charts and features lyrics that any hot blooded young male could easily relate to and somehow amazingly bypassed the censors back in the day (I’m not sure that kind of “sitting” is what they thought it was).  But once again…  those drums!  Holy cow is Bruce Gary awesome on this disc, channeling his inner Keith Moon at one moment as he pounds the kit and drives the tempo in one cut but then pulls out his inner Ringo Starr and lays back to support the band in the next song (check him and Averre out in the live version of “Sharona” at the top of the post!).

So go out and pick up Get The Knack or do like the kids do these days and download it.  It’s much more than just “My Sharona” and “Good Girls Don’t”; it’s a great album from a long forgotten band.

Today’s sad news regarding the death of Rush drum legend Neil Peart has got me off my butt to fire up the old keyboard and do a quick “Shameless Plug” post on this iconic chestnut from the band’s greatest (IMO) platter Moving Pictures.  I don’t claim to be the biggest Rush fan-  no, I’ll leave that to a number of drummer buddies (and my drummer brother) as well as some college cronies that I borrowed tapes from to explore the band’s canon.  But man, MAJOR respect where it is due…  Rush has written a number of classic tunes but maybe first and foremost, the band ranks very high where musicianship is concerned.  And as far as drummers in the rock world go, you’d be hard pressed to find any better than Neil Peart.

In the Shameless Plug series I try to steer clear of popular tunes unless the song has made a clear mark on my psyche or was a key turning point in my own personal music evolution.  “Tom Sawyer” comes more from the latter, emerging at a time where music was starting to become an even bigger part of my life and that of my brother and our inner circle of friends.  Moving Pictures was pretty much played nonstop on the local AOR station (what you’d now call “Classic Rock”), everything from “Red Barchetta” to “Limelight” to “Tom Sawyer” to maybe “YYZ” and “Vital Signs” if you were lucky, and as continually budding music fans who had just picked up the guitar or drums the album definitely made an indelible mark on our collective conscious.  Rush was kinda like a step up from what we’d been listening to and learning to play in our garage bands in good ol’ Mom and Dad’s basement and “Tom Sawyer” was suddenly THE song that would separate the serious musicians from the weaker ones.  And all the drummers I knew wanted to play that classic drum break (I’m talking about YOU Gary Wright, Woody Wilson, and yes, Steve Remley) while all the non-drummers highly encouraged them to do so…  all we could do was furiously air drum along while standing back in amazement as our friends pounded away relentlessly, trying to catch some of that Peart magic.

Not only was Neil Peart an outstanding drummer but he was also an often thoughtful and exceptional lyricist too.  I’ll be honest though- I’ve never been one that pays too much attention to lyrics; rather, I’m more keen on how the human voice weaves in and out of the music and maybe how a word fits into the structure of the song (like “pompatus of love” from Steve Miller’s “The Joker).  “Tom Sawyer” is no different-  every time I listen to the song I’ll hear the lyric but I won’t pay attention to how it fits within the song nor do I really care what the song is about.  Geddy Lee could be blabbing on about anything and I wouldn’t care as long as the music is cool (although I still don’t quite understand the “catch the spit” line…  huh?).

Listening to this song again for this post just brings back so many memories of those high school garage band days-  I’ve heard this song so many times over the years that I’ve still got those air drum fills down pat and can even nail some of Geddy’s parts as well…  air bass mind you 🙂  Oh, to take a time machine back to those humid summer nights in Gary or Woody’s basement and listening in awe to “Tom Sawyer” and wondering if we could ever pull it off.  Some of us almost got there, some of us gave up…  but for a good few years there we didn’t care and just enjoyed playing, content with getting somewhere even if that was only in our own minds.  Thank you Neil Peart for playing a big part in the soundtrack of my life-  may you rest in peace!