Should the 70's band Sweet get more kudos for it's hard rock period?

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the Sweet! It's just the lyrics put me off some off the stuff that people take more seriously by them. I don't know their post 1976 stuff though. I've never thought I'll like it. Even though I hate the lyrics, I still like Sweet FA as a track. It's musically great. 'Someone Else Will' is another ridiculously awful song lyrically.

 

Never checked them out until this thread, and I have to say "Sweet F.A." and "Set Me Free" rock! It's a bit tough to find full albums on Youtube but I like what I'm hearing out of the US Desolation Boulevard.

 

In answer to the question: yes, definitely.

'Hard rock' Sweet is a completely different band to the 'Chinnichap' Sweet most people are familiar with.

 

They actually played and sang. Really short show as I recall, maybe an hour at most. Girls wore tartan and screamed a bit.

 

Yeah, Someone Else Will is a pretty repugnant song lyrically. It's too bad cause the music is pretty cool. You should check out Give Us A Wink ('76) and Off The Record. ('77). Solid albums. I recommend the early 90's WG Repertoire versions for those.

 

Sounds like total 70's cheese. I remember in elementary school the girls went bonkers over these guys. I'm sure you are not likely to forget it. Just out of curiousity, was there any lead guitar played? I always wondered if they were capable of it, I always assumed studio guys did it on the albums.

 

I used to have Give Us A Wink and sold it many years ago. I like glam era stuff on vinyl. I'll pick it up when I see an affordable one in decent condition. There's very little I don't like by them. The three songs I picked on are the ones that I'm uncomfortable with, but the music is great. It sometimes seems that they are overcompensating for being seen as camp or gay in the glam rock era on songs like those, with an over the top, sexist macho blokey attitude.

 

Yeah, but for me the machismo stuff isn't really much of a deterent to enjoying some of the songs you mentioned. The music and vocals are just too good. It's kind of like the other side of the coin with Queen. Some of Freddie's vocals and lyrical content is really light in loafers, but it's sung, arranged and performed so well it doesn't really bother me.

 

Before the so-called hard-rock era. Stuff like this made it imoossible for many of us who lived through the era to take this band seriosly. Perhaps unfair but that s the way it worked. Even though Ballroom bliuz is great

This is their-imo-only contribution to rock-history. Such a great single
Sweet - The Ballroom Blitz - Top Of The Pops 20.09.1973 (OFFICIAL) »

 

That was the conudrum that they never really lived down.

 

Freddie was never offensive or violent sounding though!

I still like Poppa Joe, Alexander Graham Bell & Funny Funny. I find it charming and innocent pop music. I bet many were surprised when they heard Done Me Wrong All Right on the B-side of Co Co at the time.

 

It definitely sounds like ringers on the records. I thought the drummer seemed pretty good as I remember from the show - the rest was weak as I recall.

 

yep sadly they joined the ranks of manufactured songs to order pop than infested the dreadful UK pop period 71-76, sadly in that regard they were no better than the likes of Mud or the glitter band or even the Bay Sh*tty Rollers in that regard, however I hope they made a lot of money out of their success as it cost them their soul.

Although Bowie TREX and Slade were also up there in that regard, they wrote their own stuff and so retained a lot of the kudos that Sweet could not. Of course Bowie was so good it never hurt him at all.

 

And why exactly should anyone else care what you think?

 

I used to play Set Me Free for all of my friends who thought Sweet was just Little Willy. Yes, they rocked.

 

Yeah that song, Someone Else Will tells me they didn't have a decent producer or manager. Someone to tell them that this is terrible and stupid. I'm sure they were doing it to drive home the point that "hey, we are no bubble gum band. We are tough rockers". But, it's just ridiculously lame. And the live version is even worse.

 

Why does everyone need kudos about rocking out? Billy Joel used to be the same way---he performed better ballads and pop tunes than just about anybody in his heyday, but in interviews all he cared about was being seen as a rocker. Sweet did great pop-rock and will be remembered as such.

 

I won't remember them as pop-rock because I didn't live in England. I really never even heard of them until Ballroom Blitz and Fox On The Run. But they wanted to be remembered for writing their own songs. Not being part of the Chinn-Chapman hit factory.

 

If their own songs were better received, then those would be the ones people remember. You can't control how other people remember you. Kudos only goes so far...

 

Their biggest selling hit was one that they wrote.

 

Oh. So why all the angst then?

 

Yeah...why all the angst...

 

Sweet > Led Zeppelin

Sweet > Deep Purple

Sweet > Slade

Sweet > Aerosmith

Sweet > David Bowie & The Spiders From Mars


There. No more angst, just mucho kudos.

 

Wow...that was neat. You should hop on over to the nearest Billy Joel thread and do the same thing.

 

Sweet Fanny Adams was state of the art hard rock in 1974, high influential and timeless. Sweet did not f around.