Sweet
#17 - Funk It Up (David’s Song)
Como otros grupos rock de los 70, The Sweet grabó este tema de Onda Disco. Sin duda alguna, una rareza, puesto que Ballroom Blitz fue la canción por excelenc...
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Producer - Sweet
Writer - Sweet
Chart Positions - #88 in the US
Album - Off the Record
Year - 1977
Lead Vocal - Brian Connolly
Steve Priest Vocal - Backing Only
Notes - This is the
weirdest song in the entire Sweet catalog. But it is a
tribute to David Bowie due to the artists chameleon like nature. Sweet thought the best way to pay tribute to that was to do a
song that no one expected. The first 3 singles from the album stiffed and some brave soul thought they would give it a release in North America. Well at least it charted.
Heres Andy Scott following the death of Bowie in 2016
“
To say Bowie was unique is an understatement,” said Andy, who was on the RCA record label at the same time as Bowie.”
“We first met him in early 1971 at RCA’s London office, having signed in late 1970.
“I remember seeing several new albums – Elvis’s greatest hits, a reworking of Neil Sedaka which was brilliant and Bowie’s Hunky Dory.
“I took it home and couldn’t stop playing it.
“I thought: ‘This is phenomenal. Great songs and not exactly over produced.”
The Sweet and Bowie went head to head at the top of the charts in January 1973 – with rival songs that effectively shared the same guitar riff.
But while Blockbuster got to No 1, The Jean Genie peaked at No 2, having first been kept off the top by Jimmy Osmond’s Long Haired Lover From Liverpool.
“In 1972 with Wig Wam Bam,
we were in the same make-up room as Bowie who was about to his give his legendary Starman performance.
“
Our bass player, Steve Priest, began dressing up like a woman, literally, whereas me and drummer Mick Tucker were like the ugly sisters.
“Singer Brian Connolly was less comfortable but we were going completely over the top.
Andy said Bowie’s early sound influenced some of
Sweet’s legendary, self-penned heavy rock B-sides to the point they even wrote a song in his honour.
“The sound we had on Rock n Roll Disgrace (B-side to Ballroom Blitz) epitomised early David Bowie,” said Andy.
“I think me and (Bowie’s guitarist) Mick Ronson had similar ideas.
“After Fox On The Run got to No 2 in 1975 we were then looking for what to do next –
I now admit that Bowie’s Suffragette City was the inspiration for our 1976 single, Action.
“As I understood it, Bowie had offered the song to
Mott the Hoople and they’d turned it down about a year before All The Young Dudes. We would definitely have recorded it!
In 1977, our album Off The Record featured a song called Funk It up (David’s Song) with lyrics like “
David was dancin’ with Charley standing in line, in the wings... spotlights are blinding like stars shooting down
on the man who fell to earth.”
Next Up - We say goodbye to the post Brian Connolly era with the last MOR sounding song.
Its a beautifully structured song, but boy the lyrics suck. 
)
