Song Of The Day 1/3/2016: The Knack – “Let Me Out”

B-Sides Week '16 – As has been tradition with this blog since the Hoover Administration, the first theme week of the year focuses on the B-sides of some of rock history's most indelible singles. It's an easy way to back into the rigors of the community building editorial calendars are so adept at calling forth. Then, at the end, I'm refreshed and invigorated and ready to start actual thinking. You should try it sometime.

Our first song is the B-side to the Knack's mega-iconic "My Sharona," the biggest American single of 1979. Years after the fact it's still one of the more peculiar chart-toppers we've ever had. Certain factions of the American music-buying public were getting really tired of disco at the time and at first blush "My Sharona" was the perfect hard-rock antidote. But in the blink of an eye Knack haters started making themselves known, and their grievances were many and varied. Beatlemaniacs didn't like their marketing campaign, down to the title and cover of their debut album Get the Knack being a little too close to Meet the Beatles for their tastes. Critics and certain activists didn't care for what they perceived as misogyny in the lyrics to "Good Girls Don't" and "That's What Little Girls Do." "My Sharona" itself was considered mildly sexist and disturbingly prurient, although the real-life Sharona, now a realtor, doesn't seem to object at all. And it's a little odd, because sex is a core component of rock and roll. The Knack just made it very specific references to certain sexual strategies. By the end of 1979 the Knack, commiserating the way power-pop bands have done for decades, were almost as vilified as disco. A little unfair, I think.

"Let Me Out" was the B-side, and the first song on Get the Knack. It's pretty much exempt from all the above.