Any Sweet Fans out there? (1 Viewer)

[Grant B]

I have been listening to Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols on the Radio and he has hooked me on the Sweet.
What's a good sounding CD with some of their hits from their glam days? Any good Box sets?

 

[FeisalK]

uhm not sure, but whatever you get make sure it's got Lost Angels

http://www.thesweet.com/

 

[Brian L]

I only own Desolation Boulevard on CD (and LP), and it has some killer tracks.

Its been awhile, so I can't tell you if the SQ is any good, but there is some pretty wild guitar playing on there.

Heaven help me, but I always thought that "Fox On the Run" kicked ass!

BGL

 

[Grant B]

Thanks!

I agree and that car commerical has Ballroom Blitz going through my head night and day.
The other tracks Steve Jones has been playing on the radio are pretty great too.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Love is like Oxygen
You get too much you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die (gonna die)
Love makes you high

One of the best songs of the 70s. One of my very first "rock and roll" records was a 45rpm single of "Ballroom Blitz". Awesome.

 

[Brian L]

Although I know little about the band, I seem to recall that back in the day, the wrap against Sweet was that they were pretty much a studio animal, and that there was no way in hell they could pull of their records live.

Maybe back that, but given the technology available now, and the fact that bands don't need to be shy about bringing on additional players, I bet that they would have no problem at all pulling off their stuff in front of an audience.

BGL

 

[Grant B]

Philip
I would have never guessed that was them: I always thought it was Argent or someone. I bought a greatest hits cd which sounds pretty good.... except for fox on the run - no highs for some reason.
I think that'll be stuck in my cd player for quite a while

 

[gene c]

Ah, Love Is Like Oxygen. I stumbled out of high school about the time that one was released. While not a big Sweet fan I always thought that song was exceptional and very underrated. Thanks for the reminder (the song , not high school!).

 

[Jeff_A]

I love them all, but two of my very favorite Sweet titles really rock. Checkout:

Action and Set Me Free

 

[Brian L]

Roger that Jeff_A!

This thread inspired me to dig out the cee-dee of Desolation Boulevard, and rip it to the iPod. I gave it a full listen last night while I was at my daughter's Tae Kwon Do class.

Its been a while, but the best tracks on the disc are not Ballroom Blitz and Fox, but Sweet F.A., Set Me Free, and Into the Night....IMHO, of course!

Those three tracks show a pretty heavy resemblance to Sheer Heart Attack era Queen. There is even some very heavy harmony guitar stuff....the licks are not as sophisticated as Brian May's, but there is no mistaking the influence. Of course, May did it by himself with a bunch of cascaded Echo-Plexes, and could do it live....wonder how Sweet copped the sound?

BGL

 

[EricSchulz]

I've run across several import greatest hits CDs, but because they were so big in the UK for a long period of time (with a pretty noticeable change in style over the years), I have yet to see one collection that encompasses their entire career. They either focus on the bubblegum era (Little Willy, etc.), glam/pop (Action, Ballroom Blitz) or later pop/rock (Love Is Like Oxygen). I love them all and want one collection to pull them all together!

 

[andrew markworthy]

Eric, you're entirely right in describing the singles in this way, but Sweet were always primarily a rock band rather than bubblegum/glam pop. Basically they got locked into producing a series of bubblegum/glam tracks for singles that now are seen as classics but were at the time in the UK derided by the music press as on a par with the output of the Bay City Rollers, The Osmonds, and other teenybopper groups of the period. However, simultaneously they were penning their own stuff which was far heavier and 'serious' but which was nearly always consigned to the B sides. Apparently at concerts they would play their own stuff to the horror of the little girls in the audience who'd only come to hear Wigwam Bang, Blockbuster, etc.

Once their appeal to a teenybopper audience began to fade, Sweet began to release more of their own stuff, but alas, the public didn't take to it.

 

[Grant B]

andrew
sounds like The Monkees II

 

[EricSchulz]

I was in Barnes and Noble last night and found a great magazine with a good amount of coverage of The Sweet called "Glam". It's a one-shot (IIRC) that covers artists like Sweet, Queen, Bowie, T Rex, etc. during the early 70's. It reproduces article and record/concert reviews from NME and one other UK music magazine. Pretty interesting stuff (and Andrew is correct about how they were ravaged in the press over their singles releases).

 

[ChrisDixon]

You can't get a good look at Sweet without the early singles that came before Desolation Blvd. They were mostly written by others, but were a very important part of their history (and quite catchy at times). I would suggest The Best of Sweet (Capitol). It spans their career pretty well, though I find the later-day stuff to be very weak (with the possible exception of Love is Like Oxygen). I like Sweet, but my real glam guilty pleasure has always been Slade.

Chris

 

[Grant B]

Chris
The Best of Sweet (Capitol) is the one I bought, it's great.
As for Slade what would you recommend, a greatest hits??

 

[ChrisDixon]

If you are in the USA, Slade has been pretty hard to find until this year when we finally got a domestic release: Get Yer Boots On: The Best of Slade. It's a very good collection, though it (rightfully) focuses on their earlier work. Wall Of Hits is is also very good if you can find it. I rarely suggest greatest hits CDs, but it is the way to go with some of these glam bands.

Chris

 

[buttmunker]

I recently for the first time heard some of their early bubblegum songs, and I haven't lost interest yet - Wig Wam Bam, Funny Funny, and even The Six Teens from Desolation Boulevard. They're still featured prominently on my iPod, and show no signs of being "bumped off" yet.

I also recently heard the extended version of Love Is Like Oxygen, and it makes the song much better. Cool intrumental middle-eight.

 

[Blair G]

Restless is a great track, from the Sweet Fanny Adams album.
IIRC it was also the B-Side of Fox on the Run in North America.
Set Me Free is also a killer from the Sweet FA album. Also appeared on the US version of Desolation Boulevard.

Are the most recent remasters (2005) better than the 1999 versions?

 

[Philip Hamm]

Restless was the B side to Ballroom Blitz, one of the first rock and roll records I ever got.