The Knack – Most Underrated Band of All Time???

I happened to stumble across a couple of ‘instant watch’ gems on Netflix a few nights ago – a 2004 documentary feature and a (debatably) live 2001 concert video, both featuring The Knack. After inundating myself for two and a half hours with the music and myth of Doug Fieger & company, I remembered how much I loved their songs and how utterly abused they were in their heyday back in the late 70s & early 80s...

Everyone has a band or two, or a singer, who they consider their ‘secret’...not necessarily an obscure act, but a performer or group who hang around on the fringes of success, never quite becoming blockbuster icons. For Agent 5150, those acts include Living Colour (look beyond “Cult of Personality”, my friends), Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers, Zebra, and The Rainmakers. However, the one ‘guilty pleasure’ group whose half-dozen studio CDs I always seem to turn to escape the same old, same old (yes, I admit it...there’s only so much “Panama” I can take!!!) are The Knack...

Laugh if you will, Frickers (and you know who you are), but the fact is The Knack were much, much more than a Beatles knock-off. “Get The Knack”, their mega-selling debut, may be one of the best albums of the rock era…period. From beginning to end, one infectious song after the next, the disc gets in your head and never leaves. Sure, “My Sharona” may be widely acknowledged as one of the greatest songs of all time by fans and haters alike, but little known gems like “Siamese Twins (The Monkey And Me)”, “Frustrated”, “Your Number Or Your Name”, and “(She’s So) Selfish” are far better than most of the ‘hits’ on your iPod today. Even the follow-ups that ultimately doomed the band in its first go-round, “...but the little girls understand” and “Round Trip”, are solid. When The Knack launched a comeback with three more albums (“Serious Fun”, “Zoom”, “Normal As The Next Guy”) from 1991 to 2001, the public was indifferent (with the exception of the minor hit “Rocket O’Love”) but the music was still excellent...

Hard to believe, but time has been harder on the band than the critics were. Original drummer Bruce Gary died in 2006, and singer & primary songwriter Doug Fieger has been battling cancer for years. The most important thing is Doug’s health, but I have to admit that it saddens me that we’ll probably never hear from The Knack again beyond the occasional nostalgia gig. With that in mind, let’s cherish the music they gave us, pompous critics be damned. Go ahead, crank up “My Sharona” but don’t forget to groove on “That’s What The Little Girls Do”, “The Hard Way”, “Africa”, “Lil’ Cals Big Mistake”, “Won’t Let Go/Aces & Eights”, and “Pop Is Dead” as well...

It’s never too late to “Get The Knack”, kids!!!