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Thread: Knack lead singer Doug Fieger dies of cancer

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    Unhappy Knack lead singer Doug Fieger dies of cancer

    February 14, 2010

    Knack lead singer Doug Fieger dies of cancer

    PAUL EGAN
    The Detroit News

    Doug Fieger, the lead singer of the rock band The Knack, has died after a battle with cancer, his brother, the prominent Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger, confirmed today.

    He was 57.

    Fieger sang lead vocals on the 1979 hit "My Sharona," which held the No. 1 spot for six weeks.

    He attended Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School in Oak Park and Oak Park High School.

    Geoffrey Fieger said the family will issue a statement later today.

    Detroit native Jaan Uhelszki, a former editor at Creem Magazine in Detroit who is now a music writer based on the West Coast, knew Doug Fieger when he had the band Sky, which predated The Knack.

    "He had a radiant talent," she said. "He was determined and pugnacious with big dreams, most of which he achieved."

    Aaron Goff, who taught both Fiegers at Oak Park High School, remembers Doug as talented but less outgoing and bombastic than his brother Geoffrey.

    "He was a nice young man," Goff said. "He wasn't extroverted like Geoffrey. He kept to himself a little more."

    But Detroit News columnist Laura Berman, who grew up next door to the Fiegers in Oak Park, said she never doubted Doug Fieger was headed for stardom.

    "He was one of the most extraordinary people that I ever met," Berman said. "He was the pied piper. He was so charismatic and admired that people would just follow him everywhere."

    Fieger was always putting on dramatic productions -- staging his own funeral with his brother Geoffrey's help when he was about 10 and Samuel Beckett's theater of the absurd classic "Waiting for Godot" in high school, she said.

    "I'm more surprised that he wasn't a big star all his life than I am that he became a star," Berman said. "He always felt destined for stardom and intent on making himself a star."

    Knack lead singer Doug Fieger dies of cancer | detnews.com | The Detroit News
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    Damn. "My Sharona" popped on the iTunes this morning...
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    Censorship, 1979 style (listen to the "revised" lyrics)

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    Dang,Cool Band.

    I wouldn't say one hit wonder, but if you include, My Sharona in that club it could be the one most played and forever.



    RIP
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    The Knack was almost my first concert. They played at a local auditorium and my older brother & sis went. Mom had second thoughts and didn't let me tag along. Considering I was about 9 or 10, my siblings probably didn't really want me to go anyhow.
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    Cancer is a ugly monster that consumes more and more each day. Maybe someday Cancer will become a conquered whisper in the past.
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    Great band....very tight and great hooks.

    I forgot that that douche Geoffrey Fieger was his brother.......

    RIP, my fellow Michigander!
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    Damn.
    That band had a lot of punch and great energy, and it was a shame they didn't have much staying power as far as their releases were concerned, but certainly My Sharona probably got used a lot in TV and movies, as it was a timepiece kind of thing that took you back to the time it was released.
    Last I heard it used was on the Monk show when his "Watson" character came back to the show for a last appearance.

    RIP DF
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    Anybody ever heard Doug Fieger's first band "Sky"??



    Apparently the album was produced by Jimmy Miller, the guy who was making all those great albums with the Stones at the time, so that says a lot for a rookie band. I've never heard the album and it's long out of print, so I doubt I ever will.

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    Get The Knack is a very underrated Rock n Roll album.

    R.I.P. Doug
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    Get The Knack was classic. Chock full of tunes on it just as good, imo, as My Sharona.

    Thinking about that band reminds me of other groups that sprung up at or around the same time: Blondie, The Pretenders, The Cars. Groups that may have dabbled in promotional films, but were still releasing their first records a few years before MTV came out. Blondie obviously had the visual component of Debbie Harry, but you couldn't turn on the tv and see them 24/7...other than some lip-synched performances on Solid Gold once a week or something.

    Back when the music was the focus. Like, The Knack had a tremendous amount of media hype when their first album was released, but at least it was hype over the music, as opposed to what they were wearing or who they were fucking.
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    Posted: 5:37 p.m. Feb. 14, 2010
    2003 interview with Knack's lead singer
    Doug Fieger dies at 57

    BY BRIAN McCOLLUM
    FREE PRESS POP MUSIC CRITIC

    Michigan-born Doug Fieger, who scaled the pop charts with the Knack, died this morning in California after a long battle with cancer. He was 57.

    Fieger talked extensively in April 2003 with Free Press music writer Brian McCollum. At his home tucked in the Hollywood hills, Fieger sat among vintage rock instruments and studio gear as he reflected on a career that took him from Detroit's teen clubs to the heights of the music world.


    On his musical upbringing in Oak Park, and his band Sky:


    "I started playing in bands when I was 11. But didn't really start playing in a professional sense 'til I was 12 or 13. I got hooked up with a guy named John Coury, who was a multi-instrumentalist. He was a year older than me; played amazing guitar and Hammond organ. He'd play any instrument, really. He took me in his band with a guy who lived across the street from me -- if I let him use a guitar I had. My father had bought me a very nice Gretsch country Gentleman. He said, 'You go rent a bass and you can be in our band. Because you've got to loan me your guitar.' So I did, and that's how I started playing bass. I was younger than them."


    "We entered the Vox Band of the Land contest, which was a thing that Vox did around the country, and had all these semifinal things, and then there was gonna be a final show at the Michigan State Fairgrounds where the Lovin' Spoonful were the headlining band. We came in second in the semifinals and fifth in the finals. The Woolies were the band that came in first. We played right before the Woolies. We were very young, didn't do any original songs -- we did Byrds songs, Animals songs, Yardbirds songs.


    "That was my first professional thing. We didn't really get paid, but the promise of a record deal and free equipment was there.


    "We worked (the local teen clubs). If we made $10 a weekend it would be good. Our parents still had to drive us to gigs. But very shortly thereafter, not too long, that band morphed into Sky. John and I kind of bonded ... and we got a third guy who was kind of the hot drummer in Oak Park, a guy named Bob Greenfield. And that became Sky. I started writing songs, just said, 'I'm gonna do this.'"


    On moving up in the Detroit scene during the '60s, including a deal with RCA Records and Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller:


    "We played this English-oriented, three-part harmony power pop, and we were totally accepted on a gig with the MC5 and the Stooges and the Bob Seger System. The Red White & Blues Band, Savage Grace -- they all played kind of different things. All the Lonely People were a kind of horn band. Wilson Mower Pursuit were another one. Everybody was doing something different, and everything was accepted. You were not put down for doing anything.


    "We had opened for the Who a couple of times. I'd gotten to talk to Townshend, and Keith Moon taught me how to twirl drumsticks backstage, and I had a couple of conversations with Townshend backstage. ...


    "The kind of music that we played, I just didn't think was gonna catch on in Detroit, for a Detroit band. It was fine if you came from somewhere else. I had this idea of writing producers, so me and John Coury made a list of producers who we'd contact and the top four were George Martin, Shel Talmey, Pete Townshend and Jimmy Miller. ...


    "We went to London (with Miller) and recorded the album and came back to Detroit. Jimmy said to us, 'Look, if I was you, I'd move to one of three places -- London, New York or Los Angeles.' And for me, it was a no-brainer -- Los Angeles was warm.


    "Obviously we were a Detroit band, and I'm from Detroit, but we weren't representative of that era, of that time. Because the sound of what we did was something different. But to the credit of the scene, everything was allowed. We were totally accepted."


    On forming the Knack in L.A. several years after Sky's 1971 breakup:


    "It took me another seven years to put together a band. I'd been living in the basement in the house of a guy whose brother was the Who's business manager. I go upstairs one day and he says, 'Somebody wants to talk to you.' The Knack had been starting to get a name for itself around Los Angeles, we actually were getting very big, but this was before record companies got interested in us. I got on the phone and recognized this voice immediately. 'Hello, Doug, it's Pete Townshend.'


    "When Pete Townshend came to America to promote 'Who Are You,' right before Moon died, a friend of mine up in San Francisco calls me and says, 'Pete Townshend's talking about you on TV!' They'd asked him if there were any young bands that were any good, and he says, 'Well, I know this guy named Doug Fieger, I met him when he was a little kid in Detroit, and he's got this band called the Knack, and you're gonna hear from 'em.' It was just one of those things -- I'd played with him a few times, met him backstage a couple of times, sent him a demo tape, and he remembered. That was the kind of camaraderie, that kind of support, that was in Detroit -- even with bands that came from other places. THEY recognized that. They joined the family. It was like that."


    On the inspiration for "My Sharona":


    "I had this girlfriend that I was living with. We'd started living together in Detroit when we were 15. She lived with me and my parents at my parents' house. I stayed out here (in L.A.) when Sky broke up, and she came out here and we started living together here, for another eight years. She started working as a hairdresser, and she met this young girl named Sharona, who had worked at a children's clothing store across the street from her hairdressing salon.


    "She introduced me to her, and I instantly fell in love. I'd been living with Judy for a long time, and loved her, but I fell in love with this girl. We broke up and I moved out. We're very good friends to this day.


    "That's how it happened. I chased her. Most of the songs on the first and second Knack albums were written about her. There was a song on the first album called 'Good Girls Don't' about a girl I'd met in Oak Park, at Clinton Junior High School, named Bobbie Ernstein. She was there for two years, and then she moved to St. Louis. She actually said those words to me: 'Good girls don't, but I do.'"

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    I still have this 45", as well as the original LP on vinyl.

    And yes, that is the actual Sharona with the nice rack

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    I remember the Carvin "endorsment" and Private Duty Nurses during the college days.

    Thanks for the memories Doug.
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    Being all things the same I wonder if it ever pissed him or any of the other members of the group off that every guy across the world in every language would have a point in thier lives when they would stand in front of thier buddies and go.....(lyrically)...Da.. Da.. dada... My Sca'rotum... and then wait for everyone to giggle..?

    My Sharona... and a arrested developement.

    Ok, maybe it was just me..lol.

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    Quote Originally Posted by FORD View Post
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    I'm hearin "Slowride" and "Gimme good Lovin" in there...

    <object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/agTTLOGIXMg&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0 xcd311b"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/agTTLOGIXMg&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0 xcd311b" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>


    Good songwriter regardless. Lots of catchy tunes. After all the initial success of the band it's no surprise (in that interview) that he's got a house in the Hollywood hills surrounded by vintage instruments in his own studio.
    Cancer sucks ass...

    R.I.P. Doug!
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    Quote Originally Posted by FORD View Post
    <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pir69Od-y0s&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pir69Od-y0s&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
    Right on FORD....been listening to this recently....


    RIP DOUG

    Did catch the KNACK at St. Andrew's Hall back in Detroit a few years back....rock on
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    The Knack singer Doug Fieger dead at 57

    By Hannah Stott of Sky News From: NewsCore February 16, 2010 1:54AM 1

    The Knack lead singer loses cancer battle

    My Sharona ended reign of disco in US

    Song about Fieger's former girlfriend

    DOUG Fieger, the lead singer of The Knack who sang on the 1979 hit My Sharona, died late Sunday at the age of 57.

    Fieger died at his a home in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles after a six-year battle with cancer, according to The Knack's manager, Jake Hooker.

    He formed The Knack in 1978 and the group quickly became popular in LA rock clubs.

    It was when Fieger co-wrote and sang lead vocals on My Sharona that the band started to become known beyond the Sunset Strip.

    Fieger said the song was inspired by a girlfriend of four years.

    "I had never met a girl like her, ever," he said in a 1994 interview.

    "She induced madness. She was a very powerful presence.

    "She had an insouciance that wouldn't quit. She was very self-assured.

    "She also had an overpowering scent, and it drove me crazy."

    My Sharona held the number one spot on the Billboard pop chart for six weeks.

    It was credited for ending the reign of the '70s disco queens, as it was the first rock song to bump a disco track from number one in several years.

    Fieger never recreated that single's blockbuster success but he continued touring under The Knack banner.
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    Too young....

    He must have been good !

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    The lead solo in that song fookin ripped !
    Lots of memories, lost now to memories.

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    <TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" ALIGN="left">
    <TR>
    <TD WIDTH="500"><P ALIGN=Center>
    <IMG SRC="images/N_FiegerTop.jpg" BORDER="0">
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL">In the late 1970's, four young men were taking the Sunset
    Strip by storm. Together, Doug Fieger, (vocals/guitar); Berton Averre, (guitar);
    Prescott Niles, (bass) and Bruce Gary, (drums) called themselves The Knack
    and their music described by some as pure pop was making a major impact on
    Rock & Roll history. They released their debut record; "Get the Knack",
    in 1979 and with the leadoff single "My Sharona" The Knack climbed both the
    album and singles charts, eventually selling millions of copies around the
    world. Now back in the spotlight thanks in part to "My Sharona" being included
    on the movie soundtrack for "Reality Bites", The Knack with new drummer Pat
    Torpey (of Mr. Big fame) is once again putting out great music. Epiphone's
    Don Mitchell talked with Doug Fieger from his home in California. </FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">Hey Doug, thanks very much for taking
    the time to chat. Your music has impacted so many people, both players and
    non players. Tell me about your early musical background and how you got
    started in music. Was anyone else in your family musical, other than yourself?
    </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B><IMG SRC="images/N_Fieger1.jpg" BORDER="0" ALIGN="Left">DOUG:</B>
    Not really, although my mother loved to listen to music. She loved opera
    and folk music and I actually learned how to speak listening to her records.
    She had all the 45's of the day like Peggy Lee and Dean Martin and she told
    me I was singing along with those records before I could even talk. She'd
    just kind of sit me in a high chair and put on a stack of records and that's
    really I guess where I fell in love with music. I've been playing music since
    I was about five years old. I started out on piano, and then moved to trumpet
    but when I was eleven years old the British invasion started and that's when
    I really knew that I wanted to do this. That's when I started playing guitar
    as well. A friend of my brothers had this old Jazz Master and it wasn't cool
    at all but I thought you know, maybe I'd like to try playing guitar.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">Did you take guitar lessons at that
    point or just kind of plunk around?</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> I did take some lessons but they wanted to
    teach me stuff like "Lady of Spain" and I really wasn't interested in learning
    that single-note kind of square music. Not long after that I met a guy who
    lived across the street from me that was in a band. By this time I had gotten
    a
    <A HREF="http://www.gibson.com/products/gibson/chetatkins/CountryGentleman.html">Country
    Gentleman</A> which was a really beautiful and expensive guitar. Well, he
    offered me a gig in his band if I would switch over to bass and let this
    other guy named John Corey play my Country Gentleman! (Laughs) I had to go
    out and rent a bass while this other guy was playing my guitar! Anyway, after
    that I became a bass player for the next fifteen years. I really never played
    guitar in a band until The Knack. John Corey and I went on to form a band
    called Sky that got signed right out of high school. We made a couple of
    records with Jimmy Miller who produced the Rolling Stones and Traffic.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">That's pretty impressive that you were
    signed right out of high school! How did you manage to accomplish that so
    young?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>

    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Actually I was still in high school when
    we started having some success with Sky. I was only fourteen when we were
    opening for some major acts. We opened for Traffic, The Who, Joe Cocker,
    Jethro Tull, The Jeff Beck Group plus we played with all the local Detroit
    stars like Bob Seger and Iggy. Around that same time I wrote a letter to
    Jimmy Miller saying "If you're ever in Detroit, come and hear my band". Well,
    he not only answered the letter, he came to my house and later signed us.
    Five days after I graduated from high school he flew us to London where we
    recorded our first album at Olympic Studios, right next door to where The
    Stones were recording "Sticky Fingers". We recorded our second album at Mick
    Jagger's house using the Rolling Stones mobile studio. In the midst of all
    this we moved from Detroit to California.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">And what label did those Sky projects
    come out on?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> RCA, which explains why you probably never
    heard the records. (Laughs)</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">I guess really the band Sky was where
    you gained your initial stage experience?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Yes, opening for all those major acts at
    fourteen was quite an experience.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">Were your parents OK with you doing
    all this at such a young age?</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> They were cool with it as long as I didn't
    bother them. (Laughs) No, they were fine with it. We used to rehearse in
    my basement during the day while my parents were at work so it worked out
    pretty good. </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">So what happened after Sky?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Well unfortunately that band broke up but
    I wasn't going to go back to Detroit. I didn't want to spend another winter
    in Michigan so I stayed in California. The reality of it was that suddenly
    I was just another musician among the thousands of musicians already out
    here. Even though I'd made a couple albums and hung out with a bunch of heavy
    people it didn't really mean much. I just had to start looking for musicians
    and the first guy I met was Bruce Gary who was to become the original drummer
    in The Knack. We started jamming together and then a couple years later I
    met Berton Averre who would become the guitar player in The Knack. We started
    writing songs together but it actually took seven years to put The Knack
    together. We'd record demo tapes of the songs we wrote, many of which were
    later recorded by The Knack, and shop them around but we got turned down
    by everybody�.more than once. An interesting story is that "Good Girls
    Don't" was written in 1972 and Capital Records which finally put it out on
    1979, selling millions of records with it, turned it down four times before
    they took it! Anyway, finally by 1978 The Knack was officially formed and
    by then I was playing guitar in the band. On the demo's I would play bass
    and guitar but when we started playing live I had to pick one so I chose
    the six-string and that's when Prescott Niles joined the band on bass.</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">And Burton and Prescott are still with
    you today�Right?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Yes they are.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">It sounds like you shopped those original
    demos to everybody on earth! What do you think it was that finally got the
    attention of somebody after all those rejections?</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Yes, we shopped them to everybody in Los
    Angeles, New York and London! Despite the rejections we decided to start
    playing gigs in Los Angeles and by our fifth gig we were packing the clubs,
    literally. There would be lines around the block and it had become like a
    local phenomenon. Still the record companies were not real
    interested�..they wouldn't know a good song if it came up and bit them.
    Anyway, at one point all these stars started coming to our shows. We didn't
    even know these people but they heard about us and came to see us. Raymond
    Manzarek of The Doors was the first one and he asked us if he could sit in
    with us. We did a couple of shows with him and then Eddie Money and Tom Petty
    came down and we did some shows with them. Then Steven Stills came down and
    then Bruce Springsteen came down. Bruce got up with us on a Friday night
    at the Troubadour and on Monday we suddenly had fourteen offers! I'm not
    sure but I think it was the fact that Bruce Springsteen got up with us that
    suddenly made all these record companies think we were cool. </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">So Los Angeles was a great place for
    you to be at the time. What about up and coming bands today? Do you think
    a move to L.A. would be a wise thing for a band to do? </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> I don't think so anymore. I think Los Angeles
    is the last place that record companies want to go because they can't use
    their expense accounts if they just have to drive down the street! (Laughs)
    You can probably tell I'm not a big fan of record companies! </FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">It seems like a lot of artists I talk
    to these days share your sentiments.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Well, you know nowadays the record business
    is pretty well over�.but that doesn't mean the music is over. As a matter
    of fact I think it's actually much better for music.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">Which of the fourteen offers did you
    take?</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> We signed with Capitol.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">And then was it right into the
    studio?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> No actually we played some more gigs. We
    did bout 150 that first year and had all the songs for the first and second
    albums by the time we started to record. We actually wanted to release a
    double album but the record company didn't think we would sell that well
    and were
    <B><IMG SRC="images/N_Fieger2.jpg" BORDER="0" ALIGN="Right"></B>concerned
    that a double album would be too expensive for people to buy. So we got a
    producer, Mike Chapman, and went in and recorded our first album "Get the
    Knack" live in the studio in eleven days. We still had this whole other album
    that went with the first album but we didn't record it until later. It turned
    out to be our second album "But the Little Girls Understand". They came out
    very quickly, one on the heels of the other because they were meant to be
    a double album.</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">So all the material was ready to record,
    you just didn't get the green light from the label to do the initial double
    album?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Right. And we had a lot of other songs too,
    in fact some of the songs on the third album and even some of the songs we
    recorded later than that were written during the time when Berton and I were
    just trying to get something happening. </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">At what point did you become aware of
    Epiphone guitars?</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> When we were recording "But the Little Girls
    Understand" I got a 1963 Casino with a Bigsby tremolo. It was just like Paul
    McCartney's and I fell in love with it. He's been quoted as saying that if
    he had to pick one
    </FONT><IMG SRC="images/N_Fieger3.jpg" BORDER="0" ALIGN="Left"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">guitar
    it would be that one and I can see why. I totally fell in love with it and
    it's still one of my favorite guitars today. A couple years back I got one
    of the
    <A HREF="http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=18&CollectionID=2">John
    Lennon 1965 Casino</A>s that I use live. </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">And you like it? </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>

    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Oh God Yes! The thing that's wonderful is
    that it feels exactly like an old guitar. Not that I don't like new guitars,
    I do because I think that Gibson and Epiphone are now making guitars as good
    as they were back in the day. There was a time that they weren't, a period
    in the late 70s and early 80s when the quality of the instruments wasn't
    so good but fortunately for us guitar players the Gibson companies are now
    making guitars as well as they ever did.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">We've worked very hard in the past several
    years to put out the best quality instruments possible. The John Lennon Casinos
    are a real treat for guitar perfectionists out there. We actually went to
    "The Dakota" in Manhattan and met with Yoko to examine John's Casino. During
    the examination, measurements were carefully performed, body tracings were
    done, drawings were created, and photographs were taken. As a result, the
    guitar is a "true" reproduction of the guitar as John originally purchased
    it.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> It shows! It just feels like an original
    mid 60's Epiphone. It plays and feels very similar to my '63. The neck feels
    very, very similar and the sound is very similar as well. I recently got
    one of the
    <A HREF="http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=19&CollectionID=2">Revolutio n
    Casino</A>s too and I love it. You know, for a while I actually had a mid
    60's Casino that somebody had stripped like the Revolution. I recorded with
    it on a
    </FONT><IMG SRC="images/N_Fieger4.jpg" ALIGN="Right"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">couple
    songs on the album Zoom we did in 1998. You can also hear the '63 on that
    project. I used my '63 on our last album also which we did in 2001 called
    "Normal as the Next Guy". You can see me playing the '63 on the song "That's
    What the Little Girls Do" on our DVD, "Live from the Rock and Roll Fun
    House".</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">How can our readers can get these
    projects?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Online is the best place to get them. You
    can go to <A HREF="http://www.Knack.com">www.Knack.com</A> or
    <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/75895/ref=m_art_dp/103-9688253-6351006">www.amazon.com</A>

    and pick them up. </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">The live DVD sounds like a fun project.
    </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Originally the company that we signed with
    wanted us to go to a club and record a live show but we had already done
    that back in 1979 when we played at Carnegie Hall. We didn't want to do that,
    I mean how can you beat Carnegie Hall, so I came up with this idea of doing
    like an old-time 60's TV show complete with host and audience. It was a lot
    of fun even though "The Rock & Roll Fun House" never really existed.</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">I heard you have some other projects
    you're working on besides The Knack?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> The newest thing I'm doing is a project with
    Elliott Easton and Clem Burke called Zen Cruisers.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">That sounds very interesting. Any idea
    when we might see a project released?</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> It's hard to say. We've been working on it
    for a couple years now but because we're busy with our day jobs so to speak,
    Clem with Blondie, Elliott with Creedence and me with The Knack we kind of
    have to grab the time when we can. Coincidentally, Elliott is actually coming
    over today to put a lead on one of the songs.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">So you have your own studio?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Yes, it's in my house and is "full on" analog.
    I have a 16 track Studer 800 tape machine.</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">So you mean�."full on" analog�.
    on purpose! </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Yes, on purpose and then we dump to Pro Tools
    but basically I just use Pro Tools for storage.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">I'm sure you know that every interview
    with you must eventually come to "My Sharona"! Do you ever get tired of talking
    about it? </FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Well, I'm more sick of talking about it than
    I am of playing it!</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">It's a great song! How could you ever
    get tired of playing it?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> You can't and honestly we still love playing
    it.</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">This is one of those early songs that
    you wrote with Berton?</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Yes, we wrote it in 1978. Berton had the
    lick for a while, he seems to think it was only about eight months but I
    think it was more like a couple of years. He'd pull it out every once in
    a while and say, "You want to write this song yet?" and I'd say, "Naaagh".
    But then I met Sharona. She was this girl who my then girlfriend actually
    introduced me to and I instantly fell in love with her. I wanted to impress
    her and what better way to impress her than to write a song about her? So
    we wrote it and I'm pretty sure it impressed her! Really, a lot of our early
    songs were about her. She was my muse!</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">Obviously she will always be a big part
    of your life in a musical sense but is she still a part of your personal
    life?</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> Oh yeah, she's a friend of mine. She is a
    great person and also happens to be a very successful real estate agent in
    the Los Angeles area. </FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <B><FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><FONT FACE="ARIAL">EPI:
    </FONT></FONT></B><FONT FACE="ARIAL">Thanks Doug for talking with me. We
    are proud to be associated with you and The Knack.</FONT>
    <P ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><B>DOUG:</B> No problem,�it was my pleasure.</FONT>

    <P ALIGN=Justify>

    <P ALIGN=Center>
    <A HREF="http://www.knack.com"><IMG SRC="images/N_Fieger5.jpg" BORDER="0"></A>
    <BR ALIGN=Justify>
    <FONT FACE="ARIAL"><A HREF="http://www.knack.com">www.Knack.com</A></FONT></TD>
    </TR>
    </TABLE>

  30. #30
    Crazy Ass Mofo
    Mr Walker's Avatar
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    Pretty cool tribute posted by Butch Walker on his blog...
    Maybe It's Just Me...

    i GOT The Knack....

    on this sad day, a man by the name of Doug Feiger lost his battle to Cancer. he was only 57, which to you young grasshoppers may seem old, but hell.. i ain’t THAT far behind him. you probably are thinking to yourself, “Okay, i will just go to Perez’ website and find out about him..” you aren’t gonna find anyone in THAT world will probably give two shits about the powerpop genius of Doug. you see, when i was in about..um… 5th or 6th grade, i remember bringing my 45 vinyl single to school with a really hot, dirty slutty looking girl in a wifebeater on the sleeve jacket. she was holding a full length vinyl album under her arm and had no bra on.. this was pretty racy for the time, considering my church..er.. i mean school was VERY conservative and religious. the song was called “My Sharona”. i am only to assume that said girl on the cover of the single was Sharona. i was really jealous that the album she was holding had 4 guys faces on it (none of which were mine) and they were called The Knack. the name of the album was… get this… “Get The Knack”. they looked so cool. i remember i would stare at the album at home all the time, as the shot of them on the back was taken when they shot the “promo” video (this was pre-MTV and videos were shot merely as press kit fanfare) for the single “My Sharona”. they were very Beatles looking. a 50s meets 60’s vibe with an all white wall behind them, as they were all dressed in monochrome glory with matching black pants, white shirts, and black skinny ties.

    this look and sound would transpire throughout rock n roll history as a very staple “glam meets garage” look that would inherently shape a lot of modern artists that you see and listen to today. there’s not a day that goes by that i don’t hear a nod on the radio to the famous guitar riff from “My Sharona” or the kik and snare beat. it was primitive. it was simple. it was dirty. and it was good… i don’t know a single person who knows the song that doesn’t love it and everyone goes ape shit when it comes on in a bar or club. This album was recorded in like 3 days or something like that, and it sounds better than most records that take a month. the Guitar solo alone in “My Sharona” by guitarist Berton Averre is the most hook-laden, singable guitar solo i have EVER heard. and it’s long as fuck. that would never fly today on radio. Hell, ask Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols who Doug Feiger is and you will get a spillage of compliments to him and his genius. Little Steven would say the same.

    there was a lot more to Doug. he also wrote a slew of other great songs that would help shape my adolescence and make me question my purity as a wee lad. i remember my teacher at school asking me if i knew what they meant when in the song “Good Girls Don’t” they sang “until she sits on your face”. i said, “it’s a wrestling move, right?” and my teacher wiped the sweat from her forehead and grinned and said “yes, Bradley..”

    it’s not that i am trying to compare Doug to Tom Waits here. but everyone knew this guy could and would help glorify a neglected genre of misunderstood music known as Power-Pop or (Indie-Pop or Garage Rock as you little hipster shits like to call it now). either way, he will be missed. i remember meeting him for the first time a year ago, and he was secretly dealing with his 6 year battle with Cancer. we met at a music expo thing, and i just walked up and said, “Doug, i want to thank you for inspiring the look and sound of a genre.. and not being afraid to get it heard by the masses. hell, The Marvelous 3 was, if anything, a tribute to you. thank you for your music and spirit”. i saw him hold his heart and a tear welled up in his eye. he just nodded a “thank you” to me and never lost eye contact with me until i was out of the room. i have to think that Doug, like so many others, never got his due or respect, and he knew it. i could tell by the body language from a guy who knew he was going to die within a year and leave his family behind to mourn his loss. i could see it in his eyes. i bet he would lie awake at night and be sad sometimes that they never broke the stereotype of “one hit wonder” status, and i could just see his friends or family telling him “No Doug… You are different”. one day, all the bands are gonna be dressed and sounding like you guys. i hope i am wrong, and that he just had a grin all the time for knowing what a bad-ass album “Get The Knack” was.

    Rest in Peace, Doug. not only did YOU “Get The Knack”…. I Got them too….

    Butch
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    It really was a badass album, wasn't it? I've said so before and will say it again. Definitely in the top 5 releases of 1979 (Along with Van Halen II, Highway to Hell, London Calling, and The Wall)

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    Nearly 31 years since this concert, and they still haven't put the DVD out

    <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AQ-GHxulq_E&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AQ-GHxulq_E&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

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    Panamark (02-22-2010)


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    I went back and really 'listened' to that 2nd guitar solo in 'My Sharona' last night and Butch is right... it really is amazing.

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    ALICE COOPER's Interview With THE KNACK's DOUG FIEGER To Re-Air Monday - Feb. 21, 2010
    Following the untimely death last week of THE KNACK's Doug Fieger, producers of the syndicated radio show "Nights With Alice Cooper" have scheduled a re-broadcast of an interview that first aired on August 2, 2006. Alice and Doug, both Detroit natives, had long shared mutual admiration so the encounter was especially warm. It will air worldwide on Monday, February 22.

    A preview of the friends' encounter can be streamed using the audio player below.



    Alice Cooper is the is the host of "Nights with Alice Cooper", produced and distributed by the United Stations Radio Networks. Alice anchors 30 hours per week of original classic rock programming. Alice's time slot reaches 1.1 million listeners (12+) each week, and his affiliates have a weekly reach of over 6 millions listeners.

    For more information, go to Nights with Alice Cooper - Homepage.

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    Bummer... no radio station around me carries the Alice Cooper show.

    BTW, since when is Alice from Detroit? I always thought he was a Phoenix native?

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    Quote Originally Posted by FORD View Post
    Bummer... no radio station around me carries the Alice Cooper show.

    BTW, since when is Alice from Detroit? I always thought he was a Phoenix native?
    For years always read that he was from Detroit...
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    Alice was born in Detroit (Allen Park) but the family moved to Phoenix when he was in High School.

    The band decided to move to LA and after getting signed to Zappa's label and....I think, 2 albums later, they decided to move to Detroit. Alice saying something like LA was full of hippies doing Acid and we were drinking beer and didn't fit in.
    Last edited by kwame k; 02-21-2010 at 07:55 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Walker View Post
    I went back and really 'listened' to that 2nd guitar solo in 'My Sharona' last night and Butch is right... it really is amazing.
    Fuck Yeah !!!!!!!!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by FORD View Post
    Bummer... no radio station around me carries the Alice Cooper show.

    BTW, since when is Alice from Detroit? I always thought he was a Phoenix native?

    If the show's syndicated there's a good chance you can find a station that streams it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by FORD View Post
    Bummer... no radio station around me carries the Alice Cooper show.
    Quote Originally Posted by ThrillsNSpills View Post
    If the show's syndicated there's a good chance you can find a station that streams it.
    Here is a link to the list of stations that stream the show. Unfortunately, unlike the amazingly cool Little Steven's Underground Garage, there is no archive of past shows.
    Last edited by chefcraig; 02-22-2010 at 11:36 AM.
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