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<0 Editor's Note: This piece is a response to last week's anti-Knack commentary by lay Rosen. Let the debate continue .... * by Robbie Cohen Across the street from Public School 69 in Queens, N.Y., there was this small candy store—luncheonette called Rajah's. It was run by this terribly irascible, thickly accented old man (well, at least he looked real old to us back then) who had to constantly chastise us mischievous grad schoolers for riflihg through the devil's temptation array of girly magazines on his newsrack. Frozen Milky Way bars cost seven cents in Rajah's, versus fivfe cents for the unfrozen variety, and we used to joke that the cheap old man charged us two cents extra for the added electric bill he incurred for refrigerating this promote, package and otherwise market it. Which brings us to the group with the number one album and single in America, the so-called Beatles of the 80's, The Knack. Slick Unless you've been in exiled seclusion at a Himalayan ashram, you couldn't help but catch the incessant beat of the Knack's hit single, / \My Sharona.\ \My Sharona\ 's pounding rhythm does indeed grab you and demand your attention. You can't ignore it, it's true, which is reflected in the plethora of music reviewer invectives against this insidious new phenomenon, this prime example of slick marketing and listener manipulation that is The Knack. \The Knuke the Knack\ movement is growing, with a whole new spinoff industry in buttons and T-shirts. Many of its members will deny wearing \Stamp Out the Beatles\ lapel buttons when they were little squirts back in 1964, but they and many others have mailed in their orders for \Knuke the Knack\ T-shirts. The Knack has provoked a remarkable backlash. The critics are rankled and pure Mink New Wavers are indignant. The Knack never made the cluMcene, so the critics and club patrons never had a discover a new surging band. The Knack was created and produced in California, far from the ferment, yet they're the latest example of the one album superstars, following in the steps of Eddie Money and Boston. And New Wave music is not supposed to be born that way. The Knack had it easy, they didn't struggle and sweat it out for years fn dingy, rowdy basement clubs. No, producer Mike Chapman smelled millions with the Knack in his hands, so he marketed them in a cutesy Beatle package image, with smiling faces against a white background on the album coyer, the old Beatles Capitol label on the disc, a hook title. Get the Knack. Get the a ■ ,2> I Knack ... or be a Knuke confectionary. All the kids at 69 were unanimous that Rajah's was a \gVP.\ so we used to gyp him back by stealing candy and ice cream, amidst snickers and chuckles. We were well aware that this petty larceny was dangerous and probably immoral but our consciences were clear because Rajah was \cheap\ and he had It coming to him. It was Autumn '64; blue skies, sunshine and crisp air. The Beatles had just made their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and the four moptops were the rage of America.'Everyone was wearing thesd large Harmless frustration And boy are the reviewers mad. The most vicious and calculated example of manipulation the world has ever seen, they say, a mass produced saccharine clone of a barbarous, 'unscrupled industry. But the industry has always been unscrupled. And record marketing has always been calculated on Madison Avenue. The Monkees and Grand Funk were both blatant commercial items, recruited by industry auditions, and created by savvy producers. Croups have always been at the mercy of unscrupulous managers and labels, it's a dog eat dog business. Why now, the reviewers so pissed off? Well honestly I don't understand it. The reviewers condemn The Knack as puerile misogynists, rabid woman haters. The song itself (case in point: \Good Girls Don't\) has a pleasant enough melody. Certainly there's other stuff on the radio that's trashier and more contemptible. What's all the fuss over, a harmless adolescent frustration song? Why is it taken so seriously? The Knack, it's true, is a neat package, but if you view it that way, then they're merely pawns. The industry itself should be the enemy. Although how one goes about undermining an entrenched industry like the record business, besides creating new independent labels, is beyond me. For the industry itself is just one facet of a strangling, market-oriented capitalist society, right? Th« album com aay» it all.. Are you being manipulated? white Beatle buttons, which Rajah's sold by the hundreds: \I love Ringo,\ \I love Paul\ (which was the most popular among the girls), or if you were a surly nine year old like me, the \Stamp out the Beatles\ button was most appropriate. Disco sucks See at this point it gets all too politicized. Liking and not liking is much simpler, it comes down to personal taste. I liked \My Sharona\ the first time I heard it played on the radio. For someone to tell me I liked it just because I was subconsciously manipulated is absurd. I Anxiety of influence In fifteen years, the music scene and the whole world for that matter, is much different. Yet there are similarities. The back-to- fundamentals music of the New Wave, which has resuscitated the stagnant droll and unexciting rock world of the mid 70's, has made its mark, emerging from the underground and sweeping like wildfire across the commercial airwaves. Blondie, the Cars, Elvis (Costello), who only a few years ago had meager although enthusiastic followings in the clubs of London and New York, are now full fledged superstars. The New Wave, or at least its new pop commercial manifestation, is selling and selling briskly , In this milieu, the appearance of blatantly commercial quasi-New Wave was inevitable. If it's hot, the labels will do their damndest to never saw the packaging and promotion, I didn't even-know who the . group was. All I knew was that it got me bopping. How was I seduced? It's one thing to attack the record industry, but it's another to lash out at particular songs or groups as the incarnation of the entire greedy, huckster business. And despite the business, a lot of quality talent makes it through. I think the political discussion should be reserved for a more appropriate forum and not_exploited in simplistic, mindless bandwagon campaigns, like \Knuke the Knack'' and \disco sucks.\ Besides. The Knack and their label love the attention. They've even taken to wearing the proliferating anti-Knack T-shirts. So if you really want to help promote The Knack buy one of those T-shirts. Get acquainted with IRCB ircb YOUR student run corporation. C S IRCBoperates a delicatessen type store located in each dorm area: THE ELLICOTTESSEN - ELLICOTT THE GRUB - GOVERNORS THE UNDERGROUND - MAIN STREET Come and Visit! 1RCB rents refrigerators to dormitory students information will be posted in your dorm. -| 1RCB also arranges travel for those going home for the holidays. Further info, will be forthcoming. Please use this coupon [~] 25c Pepsi [£] ANY QUESTIONS? WE CERTAINLY HOPE SO! Good at the Ellicottessen, Grub’, Give us a call at: ~ 636-2497 or Underground L - • « ; Expires 12/31/79 I
