When Sam Dunn made his epic 11 part (get it?) documentary on Heavy Metal, he took some time to describe how things had changed by the mid 70s and metal fell by the wayside a bit. Punk was competition, of course, but also glam metal. He showed this clip:
Indeed, not metal. Heck, in 1988 I would have thought this was the faggiest thing in the history of all fagdom.
Not a bad song though, I'd heard it before, though I cannot think when or where. That band is Sweet, spoken of in this space before as a pre-cursor and influence on Def Leppard. I didn't realize I'd heard at least one other Sweet song:
Man, I thought that was sung by the Bay City Rollers or something.
Now, out of curiosity I downloaded Sweet's greatest hits, and I have to say, I've enjoyed them immensely. Here's a good one:
What I find interesting is Sweet's groove hooks, the (then) modern sounding synth backing, and their harmonizing. I love the background vocals, never quite heard anything like it.
One more:
That's British glam rock in all its glittery glory. This stuff never really took off here in America, just not out aesthetic. Two other things. In the 1970s Britain was falling apart and the pubs were filling up. People wanted to have a good time. Now here in America, people go to bars to watch sports and or drown their sorrows, but the local pub in England is part of the community fabric. They have a real tradition of sing alongs, and Sweet is certainly great sing along music after a pint or three.
Last one:
I am reliably informed that the above is a feature of parties throughout the UK.
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