Understanding The Knack

Here are the songs from the difficult second album performed live, with bonus live tracks (including some surprising and cool cover song choices!) 

The critical backlash intensified when this LP was released, and the album title and cover photo didn't help. As Robert Christgau observed, "If they felt this way about girls when they were unknowns, I shudder to think how they're reacting to groupies." The single sounded more than a little like "My Sharona". (My favorite song from this LP is their Kinks cover, "The Hard Way".) They were touring hard, but were they running short on inspiration?

After a third album (Round Trip) that sold even less than this one, Doug quit and started a new band called Doug Fieger Taking Chances. Demos can be heard here. 

The other three members continued as "The Game" and "The Front" with a series of singers that included Michael Des Barres (who soon left for Chequered Past). The Knack reunited in 1986, and released a new album five years later, with (surprise!) a "sexy" lead single. Two more albums were released, in 1998 and 2001. 

Berton Averre became a composer of musicals, as well as a studio musician. Bassist Prescott Niles (who first recorded with the Velvert Turner Group in 1972) and drummer Bruce Gary (whose recording career also dates back to 1972) continued recording and performing with other artists. Bruce Gary died in 2006.

Fieger made a solo album and formed another band called Zen Cruisers (with Elliot Easton from The Cars and Clem Burke from Blondie). Here's a video of a 2007 live performance, with Zen Cruisers covering songs by The Beatles and Traffic. Doug Fieger died in 2010. This Homemade Live Album includes concert performances ranging from 1979 to 2007. The original songs date back to 1979, when The Knack was topping the charts and touring the world!