Sweet, Love Is Like Oxygen - Amy’s First Listen And Analysis
Added 2025-01-12 12:15:50 +0000 UTCScience, physics, and music … the perfect way to explaining Love!
Comments
Oh Amy, you really haven't heard this song until you've heard the album version. What you heard is the single edit for rock radio. There's so much more to it, & it'll delight & surprise you. It really becomes what Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys termed a 'Pocket Symphony'. Shame on Vlad for not making sure you listened to the right one. 😒 I hope you do a new video of your first listen to THAT. That's the video I was hoping to see. 💫
LaserLamb
2025-01-15 05:14:11 +0000 UTCThis was a pretty popular song... but it's at the end of their career... and it really doesn't reflect what most of their career was about (proto-glam), which, truth be told... isn't all that easy to explain! Anyway... their best album is DESOLATION BLVD, with their two big hits, BALLROOM BLITZ and FOX ON THE RUN... both HUGE songs when I attended junior high school in southern CA in 1975. The song I would like to point out here, though, is one from that album, and one that I have thought about since I was 12 years old: NO YOU DON'T. The narrator is so very upset about how his super beautiful and popular girlfriend just mistreats him... Amy... I'm listening to this song, and even as a 12 year old, I'm thinking: "HEY! Get a life, dude! Don't let your fantasy life rule your real life!" And... do you think the narrator listened to me? NOT ON YOUR LIFE! Check it out for yourself: last year I put together a medley of SWEET songs from this album on my music appreciation channel: https://youtu.be/TbPKFkCt2_o
DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
2025-01-14 02:57:04 +0000 UTCEchoing others --- I was 11 when this came out and, already familiar with ELO at that point, absolutely thought it was a new tune from Mr Lynne.
Joe Turner
2025-01-14 01:44:41 +0000 UTCSo pleased that Vlad has brought Sweet to your attention. It’s interesting to hear the comment by Axel Rose, naming Sweet as well as Queen as favourite bands growing up. The track you listened to was released in 1978, however, it’s their “sound” from the years 1972/1973 that you should listen to. The years when they broke into the UK charts. I’m not surprised a number of people have mentioned a likeness to Queen. It’s really though the likeness of Queen to the sound of Sweet that should be highlighted. Queen released their first album in July 1973, whereas Sweet had hit singles in the UK and US in 1972 through to 1973. The Queen sound builds upon Sweet’s high vocals and dynamic range, as well as Sweet’s glam rock/theatrical “presentation”, though Queen have a harder rock edge to their sound, which interestingly is the direction Sweet went, once they had moved away from the Nicky Chin and Mike Chapman song writing/production “stable” (a very successful music factory during the 70’s). Delighted you found Love is Like Oxygen to your liking. I do hope you get the opportunity to explore more “glam rock” bands from the early 70’s, including the hit singles by Sweet, and of course David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust period. Oh and not forgetting Suzi Quatro, who left the US to build a successful music career in the UK. She’s known in the US though not for her music but for her appearances on the hit TV show Happy Days!
Alan
2025-01-13 16:45:13 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure it's about a guy killing this girlfriend for breaking up with him
Michael T.B
2025-01-13 08:58:18 +0000 UTCYes, I can hear ELO too. Especially in the arrangement and the background vocals.
Ross Henderson
2025-01-13 05:06:00 +0000 UTCIt’s like ELO crossed with Queen
Siôn Hewitt
2025-01-12 22:17:49 +0000 UTCSweet take me back to my childhood in the early to mid 70s. They were often a bit tongue in cheek but made some great pop songs. "Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox on the Run" in particular.
Graeme Frew
2025-01-12 21:29:18 +0000 UTCGreat reaction. Thanks. Sounds kind of like Queen.
Allen Schroeder
2025-01-12 20:25:12 +0000 UTCGreat analysis Amy, Sweet never got as big in the US as they should have. They had most of the ingredients, they had looks, they had the chops, maybe not necessarily the songwriting . Not that they couldn't write a decent song, they had hits, several, but I always thought they could have been bigger. This song always made me think of ELO.
David Taylor
2025-01-12 19:09:27 +0000 UTC👍
David Taylor
2025-01-12 19:07:06 +0000 UTCWhat a great breakdown of the production choices, Amy, I really enjoyed this. I will appreciate this song more, now.
George Brady
2025-01-12 16:45:38 +0000 UTCThis song has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, so I was REALLY curious about what your reaction would be. Sadly, you listened to the shortened version, so you missed out on even more dimensions to it. But what you did hear was enough for you to do your usual micro analysis, and you did it extremely well...the song is no longer a GUILTY pleasure, just a pleasure. THANKS!
Ron
2025-01-12 15:51:04 +0000 UTCFixed, thank you!
Amy Shafer
2025-01-12 15:41:44 +0000 UTCFixed, thank you!
Amy Shafer
2025-01-12 15:41:41 +0000 UTCFixed, thank you!
Amy Shafer
2025-01-12 15:41:39 +0000 UTCI am unable to play the video. :(
Tracey Baron
2025-01-12 14:39:14 +0000 UTCTried to watch, but it's telling me I'm unauthorized.
David Taylor
2025-01-12 14:23:53 +0000 UTCI see it's working for others, but I can't play this.
George Brady
2025-01-12 13:47:17 +0000 UTCI always got a kick out of this band. They had quite a few crunchy, slightly campy pop hits in the '70s, never achieving critical respectability but always delivering the goods. This leads me to think you might enjoy the cult band Sparks, from the same era. They worked similar territory, in a way, but with a more arch self-awareness.
Ye_Humble_Scrivener
2025-01-12 13:45:41 +0000 UTCEnjoyed that especially that bass singing. What I remember pacifically about Sweet in the 70s. They were in just about every jukebox in every diner and cafe in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. A quarter got three song. Some boxes could do one song for a dime. I bet Sweet and INXS accounted for half of the establishment’s profits It was a jukebox gem
TONY SURRATT
2025-01-12 13:39:18 +0000 UTCGreat song and band! I was hoping that this was the version of the song with the extended instrumental section in the middle, Amy… You would have heard even more depth and texture. Maybe now that you’re a fan you can check it out for yourself!
Chester Beals
2025-01-12 12:33:05 +0000 UTCI am surprised to say that I enjoyed it.
TangoEliott
2025-01-12 12:31:30 +0000 UTC
