The incredible vision of Sweet
 

I'm reaching out for something
Touching nothing's all I ever do
Oh, I softly call you over
When you appear there's nothing left of you

Now the man in the back
Is ready to crack as he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is ev'ryone's mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye

Oh yeah, it was electric, so frightfully hectic
And the band started leaving, 'cause they all stopped breathing

Oh yeah, it was like lightning, everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing, and they all started grooving

It's it's a ballroom blitz, it's it's a ballroom blitz
It's it's a ballroom blitz, yeah, it's a ballroom blitz

Sweet, 1975

How many have you drank tonight, Sheppsie?

Damn, as relevant today as it was when I was in Junior High.

Gee, I wonder if I still have that 45 ...

I'm just saying, if they were in the 80s rather than the 70s they might have opened for Great White.

(*looks at watch*)

They should be about due for a reunion tour. Past due, actually...

Unfortunately there will not be a Sweet reunion because the lead singer died a few years ago.

(Now with more details) ... Sweet lead singer Brian Connolly died of liver failure about 7 years ago, drummer Andy Scott died of complications of leukemia in 2000.

That doen't necessarily stand in the way of a reunion tour ... there are lots of acts with dead band members still on the tour circuit. Esp. those 50s doowop groups that tour under the original name when there's only one original member left in the lineup ...

Like the Temptations

Interesting story (by which I mean 'boring,' but your're gonna read it anyway.)

I heard "Love is Like Oxygen" on the radio, thought it was ELO. Station advertised the Rock Line, where you could call in and ask questions about rock. Guy knew immediately that the song was Sweet, not ELO. Got their Best Of CD the next week.

Even more "fascinating", the station was based in Dubuque, Iowa (town motto: thou shalt not rock). Station was gone in a couple months. Too bad, that was my most favorite station ever.

Oh, and the CD was excellent too. :p

So I gotta ask something that's been bugging me -- Was Sweet a manufactured band? The just sound too polished .. and the style is completely unlike anything I've heard from a band that does everything themselves. Maybe I should just check AllMusic..

If by manufactured you mean crappy, then yes.

Power pop...gotta love it. Big synths, funky rhythms. Sweet always reminded me of 10cc. Overproduced? Sure, but I've got mp3's of Ballroom Blitz, Fox on the Run, Love is Like Oxygen and LIttle Willy (okay, Little Willy was pretty lame).

Since you mopes couldn't come up with anything interesting, I'll reply to myself.

I looked up Sweet at All Music guide, and discovered that they were indeed overproduced (NOT the same as crappy.) Apparantly they sucked in their earlier incarnations, but when they signed with RCA, they received a team to write music for them. Most of their hits are from that team.

That team wouldn't have been Godley and Creme of 10cc, would it? It would explain much about why "Love is Like Oxygen" sounds so much like 10cc. Godley and Creme have a *very* distinct production style, instantly recognizable, much the same as anything produced by Jeff Lynne of ELO.

No it was Chinn & Chapman, and it turns out that things like "Little Willy" and "Ballroom Blitz" were the produced bits and "Fox on the Run" was the first non-Chinn/Chapman single.

Godley & Creme were geniuses but I think most of 10cc with them was actually group-produced. They did come up with the "sound" for "I'm Not In Love" however.

Godley and Creme? Didn't they do that stupid song "Cry" in the 80s?

They did, but it was well after they had much interest in making interesting music, and had moved on to making interesting videos. The fact that the single reached any prominence at all was due to the video. If I recall, it was a pre-morphing view of many different faces, does anyone remember?

Yes...that's the only reason I know of it.

A videography of Godley and Creme -
http://www.mvdbase.com/director/G/godcrm.htm

I really only followed their music side. I have their triple album. And for a while I owned a Gizmotron, the guitar effect they invented.

For both items, probably less than 1000 were produced. So I guess I'm sayin' I'm really cool. But since nobody cares, it only means I'm a dork.

No, that makes you decidedly cool, not a dork. Of course, I'm a guitar player myself, so that probably gives you extra points.

But you're a synth geek too, right? Minus 50 points. ;)

UT, the net effect is zero. Owning that album makes you a dork, but the gizmotron makes you cool. See, zero effect.

But I sold the Gizmotron.

But, I sold it to Marty Willson-Piper of the Church.

(Anyone care? Anyone? This is the only name-dropping I do, what a dork)

Man, I loved the Church! Add 100 points.

Oh, and it doesn't matter that you sold it...you owned it. That's good enough.

Thankee! Most satisfying.

Friends in the music business tell me it's 5% music, 5% artist and 90% producer that makes an album. Disc to the youth. that's why so much of the music you hear at concerts is prerecorded now.