# The Strange Magic of: Sweet



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I never particularly followed Sweet as a band; for me, they were/are known only by Fox on the Run, and by this song, _Love is Like Oxygen_. But my emotional attachment to _Love_ is strong, for it marked a time of unsettling upheaval in my life--I contrived to fall in love, very inappropriately, with a woman half my age, but was not at all free to express my feelings nor to act on them. So I took what lonely solace I could in songs such as this, and it did help me through a bad time. It appears from this clip that Sweet soldiered on, in one form or another, and, for all I know, is still making the rounds singing this resonant gem describing lost (or, in my case, unrequited) love.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

"Extraordinary how potent cheap music is." - Noel Coward


I have been amused by some of your choices but it seems clear to me that due to your moment of amour fou, you have invested properties in this music that really don't exist. 

I have zero desire to ever hear them ever again ,even though I admitt my own circumstances at the time may have clouded my thinking.

(I had no girlfriend but would walk round with Led Zeppelin albums under my arm) )


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Loved this one when I was 16 (when it charted), still like to listen to it:


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Belowpar said:


> "Extraordinary how potent cheap music is." - Noel Coward
> 
> I have been amused by some of your choices but it seems clear to me that due to your moment of amour fou, you have invested properties in this music that really don't exist.
> 
> ...


I would revise Noel Coward's remark slightly by removing the word "cheap"; the power of music to affect the emotions exists irrespective of notions of its value. Though it is possible that Coward was attempting a backhanded compliment..... In the case of _Love is Like Oxygen_, a goodly part of its potency (for me) sprang from the lyrics--not a terribly bad simile at all, I felt at the time, and the simile still works today. As I've noted before, I post these little nuggets for a host of reasons; this particular performance somewhat entertains both because of the special resonance of the song, but also because the sight and sound of the now rapidly-aging Sweets still serenading us with their hard-won knowledge of the pain of love reminds us that while music may be eternal, we are not.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Sweet were a band of two halves - half of them was part of the stable of artists that Chinn/Chapman wrote the hits for, and the other half being a bloody good hard rock band when they were allowed some kind of artistic control. Andy Scott wrote some fine songs but they were tucked away on albums or b-sides until 'Fox On The Run' which was their first non-Chinn/Chapman hit. And between 1971 and 1975 they were absolutely HUGE in the UK - their career tangent being similar to T. Rex and Slade i.e. the hits dried up when the teenybopper element of their following grew up.

Of course Glam Rock was utterly ridiculous but it provided great entertainment, especially for us 9 and 10 year-olds who were still enjoying the novelty of colour television. And in one way it explains why I'd always prefer the 70s to the 80s when it came to the charts - when it came to the escapism aspect of pop music I'd rather have grinning idiots in make-up playing real guitars and drums than miserable looking student types poking at Roland synthesisers and hitting those revolting hexagonal-shaped electronic pads.

'Like a honeysuckle burning in the fires of hell!'


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Ha. I would have said that I never liked Sweet, but on reading about them this morning, prompted by this thread, I realised that half a dozen of their bubblegum hits came to mind and I could hum them through. Wig Wam Bam, indeed!

I was 9 in 1972, in my defence.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Tell me you don't have an emotional attachment to the Bay City Rollers!


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Well oddly enough...


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

starthrower said:


> Tell me you don't have an emotional attachment to the *Bay City Rollers*!


The language nanny-ware appears to have let a _very_ unpleasant phrase through.


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## acitak 7 (Jun 26, 2016)

*sweet*

good call with Sweet, Action was there best song give it a listen.


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## Keef (Jun 30, 2016)

I think their best stuff was the Chinnichap material from _Blockbuster_ forward. _Ballroom Blitz_ is a monster record and I'm quite partial to the _Desolation Boulevard_ album. _Fox On The Run_ and _Action_ are good pieces of hard rock but the game was up after that. _Love Is Like Oxygen_ was bland compared to earlier material.

But I guess it's true you had to be there for Glam to appreciate it. And I was and I do.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Also got one by Mud and a few other glamgems from the seventies
But, as TurnaboutVox already mentioned, we were young at the time, very young...


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## acitak 7 (Jun 26, 2016)

very young or not Virginia Plain was and still is a great song.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Here's something a little different but still very Sweet, _No You Don't_......


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

And here is a long version of _Love is Like Oxygen_ where they channel both Aaron Copland and Boston.....


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Maybe we need to do a Chinn/ Chapman strange music thread, seeing they wrote the songs for The Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Smokie and Racey- amongst many others


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I suppose Chinn/Chapman were the Stock Aitken Waterman of their time - many of their hits had a similar kind of _pro forma_ aspect to them but unlike SAW they didn't annoy the hell out of me.


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