Disc:Desolation Boulevard.
Year:1974.
Do you remember when our beloved Pirate used to broadcast every night of his Pirate Broadcast with this great song in the background? It was the Swedish Mad Max, who had released as a single their particular version, quite faithful to the original, which closed their album “Nights Of Passion” (1987). Perhaps wanting to emulate the success of Quiet Riot with their well-known cover of Slade, Mad Max recorded this one and little more was heard of them, although they returned in a more than discreet way in 2000 with “Never Say Never”; its members were already involved in other bands, having passed through formations that will sound to all of you like Sinner, Bonfire, Pretty Maids, Casanova? even two of them, guitarists Ralf “Doc” Heyne and Michael Boss ended up in the band Biss, first led by Spanish vocalist Fernando Garcia (ex Victory).
Surely Mad Max would have liked to be the signers of this “Fox On The Run”, but the merit belonged to the British Sweet, one of the great glam-rock bands of the seventies, who had reached number two in the charts in their homeland and number one in the German charts with this second single from their most complete Lp, “Desolation Boulevard”, in which they came closer to hard rock.
Sweet are often cited as “the godfathers of glam”, but far from being crucified for their glitzy image, glitter and high heels, they should be remembered as a great rock n' roll band, dynamic as few others, funnier than any other. Among their collection of hummable and sweet songs, “Fox On The Run” perfectly combined their poppier tendency but at the same time their rock solidity.
The colorful opening synth effects that went up like a rocket were joined by Andy Scott's sharp riff, Steve Priest's steady bass line, Mick Tucker's unflappable drums and, of course, Brian Conolly's unmistakable melodies, which his bandmates pillowed with their delicious Beach Boys-style backing vocals that would have been covered in blush and makeup. I bet my neck that Justin Hawkins (The Darkness) has warmed up his voice more than once with the high-pitched backing vocals of sweet SWEET, capable of turning the coldest winter morning into the sunniest day of the summer.
My people I hope you are all super well, and thanks for the support to the blog, I hope you enjoy this editorial work which I have brought you little by little, sharing all these legendary songs of rock music. I hope you like this editorial, I can not leave the link because youtube will not let me share it, so I invite you to look for it, a jewel of music and hippy culture.
I discovered Sweet in 2005 when I bought a second hand cd, the soundtrack of the great Dazed and Confused, and Fox on the Run is one of the best there. Sure, they’re not precisely legend material, but, as you said above, they should be remembered as a great rock n' roll band, and it’s true they’re “funnier than any other.” I wrote something too about Sweet last year, let me know if you’d like to read it. In the meantime, I leave you with another great one from the Dazed and Confused soundtrack:
Thank you for your comment, what a fine thing to say. Incredible.