Remembering Sweet and Mick Tucker

I don't know if every major music junkie can identify what turned them from appreciating music to out-and-out loving it. But I can. Most of the music in my household came from my dad's 8-track player (Johnny Cash, Jim Croce, Merle Haggard, Tom Jones and, of course, Mac Davis) and the clock radio I received as a gift for my First Communion. Music was definitely a part of my early years - who could resist Top 40 radio, stringing together Paul McCartney's "My Love" with "Hocus Pocus" by Focus followed by Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights went Out in Georgia"?

But one song flipped a switch in my brain, and I haven't been the same ever since. I was listening to WLS, AM 890, in 1975, when I first heard it (no, I don't remember the exact day - do I come off like THAT much of a geek?) - the tune was pure mania, a frenzy that encapsulated rock and roll in four minutes. The song was "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet.

Though I had a few records in a tiny collection - a Ronco compilation, a Jackson Five LP, a few 45s - they were all gifts. But the pounding bedlam of "Ballroom Blitz" made me save my allowance for a few weeks, and ask my mom to drive me to K-Mart (hey, I was only 10 years old) and buy the 45. The song then got constant play for the next two weeks or so, until my four year old sister managed to crack it. So "Ballroom Blitz" became the second single I ever bought.

And it's still my favorite song. After hearing "Fox on the Run", the Desolation Boulevard album became my make-or-break Christmas gift. I got it and I was hooked - a Sweet fan for life. This had a significant impact on my development as a rock fan. While Sweet managed a couple more hits, they never became Stateside stars. So while my friends were digging their Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Aerosmith albums (which were fine), I was always checking the S bin to see if Sweet had a new album out. In fact, "Action" was the first record I ever bought without having heard it - boy, did that establish a pattern.

Since the band didn't make it big, I began looking for books and articles on them, and that took effort. Once in a while I'd find a British book, and I began learning about other glam bands that didn't make it over here. While it would be years before I picked up on Slade and others, seeds were planted. By affiliating myself with a group that never became U.S. stars, I had to dig and search, even (gasp!) buying import albums. Sweet - the band that made a collector out of me.

Unfortunately, I was a bit too young to see them during their heyday, other than a couple of television appearances. It wasn't until 1990 that I got to see them live - well half the band, as guitarist Andy Scott cobbled together a line up (and he still has some version of Sweet on the road now) to tour the States. The show was booked at the Cubby Bear in Chicago by major Sweet fan Jim Ellison - yep, Jim Ellison of Material Issue. The same Material Issue who covered three Sweet songs, including "Ballroom Blitz" (and the band's "Going Through Your Purse" was a tribute to the song). "Blitz" was the standard Issue encore - Mike Zelenko would start the song out and Ellison would prowl the stage - "Are you ready?

Areyoureadyareyoureadyareyoureadyareyourready.." Ellison would point at someone in the crowd and keep saying 'are you ready' until that person said yes, at which point the band would kick in. Ellison was right off the stage, singing along to every song.

I got a spot right up front. While the substitute lead singer was a bit faux Iron Maiden for my tastes, he controlled his shrieking tendencies, and was quite good. And the hits just kept on coming. But they saved the best for last. After the first encore, they came out again, and the crowd was chanting for "Ballroom Blitz". Finally, the band relented and drummer Mick Tucker began to pound out one of the most distinctive beats in rock history - copied by others, sampled by rappers and rockers alike (like the Beastie Boys and The Fall, for example) - for all the awesome elements in the song, Tucker's drum beat endures as a percussive mega hook and it never lets me down - when I hear those drums, my heart beats faster and I can't help but be happy. That certainly happened that night, as the band rocked through the classic and the crowd went nuts.

As the applause died down, Mick got up from his chair behind the kit and went to the microphone. "Did you like that?", he shouted. We all roared back a yes. "Well, let's do it again!" And he got behind the kit and off they went again - it was one of the best rock moments of my life.

Mick Tucker died last month of leukemia. He was 54. Now, I know that Mick wasn't George Harrison, and Sweet wasn't The Beatles, but there was time they meant that much for me. And in a small way, they'll always mean that much. Rest in peace, Mick.

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