40 Year Itch: Reckless Games

The Sweet just don't give fuck. 

-Brian Connolly, singer

 [Purchase]

With the exception of the catchy "ACDC", about a lovely lass who's just as happy with a girlfriend as she is with a boy,  Sweet dispenses with the cute but loud glam pop sounds that gave them so many UK hits  ("Blockbuster", "Little Willy", "Ballroom Blitz") and re-invents itself as a hard rocking, ready with the righteous riff, don't-give-a-fuck metal machine. This definitive Sweet album offered up a formula adopted by heavy metal bands of the 80's like Motley Crue.

   The US would hear 5 of the cuts on Desolation Boulevard ( as well as the classic "Fox On The Run") later in the year. But by then Connolly would be in trouble. Beaten by a bunch of "yobs" outside a pub in Staines, Connolly lost both his confidence and eventually his voice.

40 Year Itch: Come Join the Revolution

[Purchase]


On January 10, 1974 Sweet performed their new Chapman/ Chinn/ Barry written single "Teenage Rampage" on Top of the Pops. Like the previous single, "Ballroom Blitz", it would peak at #2 in the UK




The official video:

40 Year Itch : The Lost Jean Genie Performance

On January 3rd, 1973, David Bowie recorded this performance of "The Jean Genie" live to air the following night on the BBC's "Top of the Pops". Check out Mick Ronson's extended guitar solo and Bowie's extended harmonica solo! Tapes of the show had been wiped and the video was lost for decades before the only man with a copy, cameraman John Henshall (whose fish-eye lens shots are used several times here),  made it available for the BBC to re-air in 2011, much to the delight of rock fans worldwide.

 

"The Jean Genie", featuring its dirty Bo Diddley riff and lyrics that may be about Iggy Pop, was released November 24, 1972 and peaked at #2 in the UK but only #71 in the US. The Sweet's "Blockbuster", released in January of 1973, shares the same beat and heavy guitar sound. But both Bowie and Sweet have all agreed it was coincidence.
     Songwriter Nicky Chinn described a meeting with Bowie at which the latter "looked at me completely deadpan and said 'Cunt!' And then he got up and gave me a hug and said, 'Congratulations...' After all "Blockbuster" went #1.

 

40 Years Ago This Month: The Sweet Release "Poppa Joe"

[Buy Something Sweet]

Before Sweet  ( nee The Sweetshop, then The Sweet) wrote their own hits, UK songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman ( who already made  this 1001Songs post ) helped them recruit teeny bopper bubblegum fans with songs like "Co Co", "Little Willy" and this mindless nugget "Poppa Joe".

"Poppa Joe" is basically a re-write of The Sweet's 1971 UK #2 hit "Co Co". It even includes the same cheesy Caribbean steel drums... and inane lyrics like :

   Poppa Rumbo Rumbo
   Hey Poppa Joe Coconut
   Hey Poppa Joe Hey Poppa Joe

Nevertheless "Poppa Joe" soared to number 11 in the UK and topped the chart in eight different countries.