A Belated Rest in Peace for Doug Fieger

No-other person ever labeled with the style "Power Pop" ever had to
pay the price that Doug Fieger did as the leader of the band "The Knack".The fact that
there it's debateable that such a style of music actually exists-never seemed to occur
to anyone.People have been argueing for years both in it's a favor and it's non-existence.
Personal i'm on the non-existance side.If any thing like power-pop did ever exist it was
in the songs of the early "Who" and the "Kinks" both english bands who were also called
Mod's.Mod is a style that definately exists.In many way's it was the template used by
punk and new wave bands of the original punk and new wave movement circa 1976- 1982.The chord proggresion for the kink's "All Day and All of the Night" can be found
in the "Sex Pistols" song "Submission " and also in "Paul Revere and the Raiders"
Song "Just Like Me" from the 1960's.It has to be one of the most lifted chord progressions in the entire pantheon of pop/rock music.
Getting back to "The Knack"-they didn't lift any well known rock riffs-they came up with thier own and that's the reason thier first album and single were so successful.The
Knack actually came up with a new style of Rock music that wasn't Mod,Power Pop,
Bubble Gum or any other specific style other than the general heading of pop/rock.
A accomplishment very few rock music artists or bands can make.
I don't know how the backlash against "The Knack" started but i do know that
The rock press,both writers and critics,and hundreds if not thousands of Dj's and
former fans joined in the Mob Mentality feeding freezy that before "The Knack",
had never reached such a level of pure insanity.
Fieger,allthough i'm sure he didn't enjoy it-didn't complain.What he'd accomplished with "Get The Knack" and "My Sharona" is so rare that i'm sure he figured it was
just one more sophmore jinx amongst thousands that have occured in Pop music past.But even
when he realized that the backlash wasn't on the same level of your average sophmore jinx-but
was something much larger and more dangerous and insane-he still didn't make a fuss.He just
keep making and performing music.That takes something else thats very rare in today's modern world-Integrity.Doug Fieger is free now.All the hate that was insidously pilled on top of him and
his band is of no conseqence either in this world or any other.But i believe there is a lesson of
caution to be learned from Doug's story.When mob-mentaltity builds up enough steam there is
no level to low for it to go.Even otherwise respectable and decent people are subject to it's giant
vortex of hate-and that's exactly what happened in the story of "The Knack".We would do
well to learn from this lesson in history.Good people are capable of doing very bad things-
if that's what's in fashion.Perhaps we'd better the human condition if we paid more attention to
the fact's and less to the whims of the arbiters of Pop Culture.Doug Fieger may you rest in
Peace.You have earned it the hard way.May the lord have mercy on your soul.

Best Regards,

Pete Holly,
President/CEO,
Look's Music International