Lost Treasures
Sky
Don’t Hold Back and Sailor’s Delight
by Peter Marston
Undoubtedly, one of the most successful power pop bands of all time is the Knack. Their debut single, “My Sharona,” sat atop the Billboard singles chart for six weeks and was the best-selling single of 1979. The accompanying album, Get the Knack, went platinum a mere seven weeks after its release. Yet the Knack is also one of the most controversial power pop bands, with critics accusing frontman Doug Fieger of channeling the sexual maturity of a fourteen year-old and grave-robbing the music of 1960s icons like the Beatles—and listening to songs like “My Sharona” and “Good Girls Don’t,” it was hard to disagree. What many people don’t know, however, is that this was no cynical pandering or knowing kitsch—indeed, Fieger had already been writing and performing music with the same themes and musical approach for over a decade; since he was, say, just about fourteen.
The earliest recorded evidence of Fieger’s modus operandi appears on the two albums released by his first band, Sky: Don’t Hold Back and Sailor’s Delight, released on RCA in 1970 and 1971 respectively. The band was formed in suburban Detroit by Fieger and John Coury. Though both were guitar players, Fieger switched to bass to form a trio with drummer Bob Greenfield. Still in high school, Fieger and Sky were opening for major acts such as the Who, Jethro Tull and Joe Cocker at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom. With a combination of hubris and naïveté, Coury and Fieger wrote to Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller, suggesting he come to Detroit to hear the band. He did. After an audition in the basement of Fieger’s parents’ house, Sky went to London to be recorded and produced by Miller at Olympic Studios. The results of those sessions appear on Sky’s debut, Don’t Hold Back.
If anything, Don’t Look Back was a more powerhouse undertaking than Get the Knack. Miller, fresh from his work with the Stones, Traffic and Blind Faith, brought in an impressive array of support musicians: Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Alan White, P.P. Arnold, and Doris Troy. And, of course, at that time, Olympic Studios was perhaps even more highly regarded than Abbey Road. In terms of sales and airplay, however, it was all for naught and the recorded went largely unnoticed.
The songs on Don’t Hold Back are not quite as economical or as hooky as those on Get the Knack, but they are certainly cut from the same cloth. More Liverpool than Detroit, more AM than FM, and nearly straining to be received as a hit record. Fieger’s prurient interests are also well-represented, most notably on “How’s That Treating Your Mouth Babe?,” an unabashed ode to oral sex that predates Lil’ Kim and 50 Cent by almost thirty years. What is very much different, however, is the scope and texture of the arrangements and the production. Get the Knack is nearly a live album—the sound of the band changing very little from one track to another and barely augmented by overdubs or other studio sweetening. Don’t Look Back is much richer and more diverse in its production. “Goodie Two Shoes” is a horn-laden slow grinder with a chorus of female background singers. “Take Off and Fly” is a country-rocker that would have fit right in on the first Brinsley Schwartz album. “Rocking Me Yet” boasts rollicking sax solos over traditional 1950s rock riffs. “I Still Do” is the most Beatle-esque track complete with double-tracked vocals and a major 6th chord ending. Despite this cafeteria approach to arrangement and production, virtually all of the songs on Don’t Look Back can be easily imagined as performed by the Knack and most benefit from such a listening.
Shortly after Don’t Look Back was recorded, Sky replaced Greenfield with new drummer Robby Stawinski and headed back into the studio with Miller to record the follow-up, Sailor’s Delight. The second record is more of the same time, this time adding guitarist John Uribe and Stones sideman Ian Stewart on piano. The songs are a little more sophisticated and a little less Knack-like—or rather more like the Knack of Round Trip than the Knack of Get the Knack. The standout track, “Taking the Long Way Home,” bears a strong Traffic influence and features a prominent flute part.
Sky called it quits shortly after the release of Sailor’s Delight, due to the usual creative differences and poor sales. Fieger, of course, went on to fame with the Knack. Coury worked with Don Henley and Randy Meisner on both Eagles and solo projects. Stawinski briefly subbed for Mike Gibbins in Badfinger during a 1972 tour of America.
Both Don’t Look Back and Sailor’s Delight have been recently reissued by Doug Fieger’s estate and are readily available on amazon and other internet sites. Each disc includes a few interesting but nonessential bonus tracks. If you’re a Knack fan, track ’em down and check ’em out—and maybe someday later we’ll take a look at Fieger’s other pre-Knack work with the Sunset Bombers.
—Peter Marston
“Rockin’ Me Yet”
“Make It In Time”
Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.” You check it out at this link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang
