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Certain Songs #2597: The Sweet – “Action”

April 22, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Give Us a Wink
Year: 1975

. . .

While it came out in 1975 in the U.K., “Action” wasn’t released as a single here in the U.S. until early 1976, because we were months behind on the Sweet singles at that point. Actually, most of them didn’t even come out here — and “Action” probably wouldn’t have done had it not been for the back-to-back successes of “The Ballroom Blitz” and “Fox on the Run.”

Which meant that “Action” had a lot riding on it, especially as it was their second self-penned single — good! — and a signal that they were trading their bubblegum roots for artier stuff. Not so good. And while “Action” isn’t as much of a schizophrenic freak show as “Love is Like Oxygen,” it’s definitely heading in that direction, isn’t it?

And so it opens with strings and keyboards fading into a big build up until Brian Connolly finally sings the opening verse over a strummed guitar:

So you think you’ll take another piece of me
To satisfy your intellectual need
(Do you want?)
Do you want action?
(Action, action, action)

There are a bunch of vocal pyrotechnics happening here, like they’ve been studying their Queen albums pretty closely, which only ramp up as they approach the chorus.

Gonna bring you down
‘Cause you’re pushin’ me
You gotta recognize my superiority

(Liar, liar, liar, liar)
You know you believed it!
(Liar, liar, liar, liar)
‘Cause I’m the main man!
And that’s why

Up to this point, “Action” is just fine. Maybe a bit overwrought, what with all of those echoed “liars” everywhere, but they then got into full gear with an utterly killer chorus, stopping for a second so it can explode just that much harder.

Everybody wants a piece of the action
Everybody needs a main attraction
I got what everybody needs, satisfaction guaranteed
Everybody wants a piece of the action

And while that chorus doesn’t quite measure up to “Fox on the Run” or even “Little Willy” in terms of head-stickiness, it also utterly roars with the confidence — especially Andy Scott’s guitar fills — of a band that knows a killer hook will make up for just about everything.

Which includes the utterly superfluous bridge, featuring weird stop time bits, vocal flair, deedly-deeedly guitar from Andy Scott, all of which is just killing time until they can dig back into that chorus a couple of times more, finally stretching out on “ev-ry-bo-dy wannnnnnnts a piece of the aaaaction” at the very end.

“Action” wasn’t nearly as big as a hit as its predecessors, stalling out at #20 here and #15 in the U.K., and The Sweet would only have one more hit single after that: 1978’s “Love is Like Oxygen,” — #9 U.K., #8 U.S. — which I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with, currently teetering back towards hate, so we won’t be covering that other than to say that somehow, The Sweet had four unlikely U.S. top ten hits from 1972-1978, a career arc I don’t think another glam pop / hard rock band had.

“Action” Official Promo Clip

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Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Action, Give Us a Wink, Sweet

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2743: Todd Snider – “The Ballad of The Kingsmen”
  • Certain Songs #2742: Todd Snider – “Guaranteed”
  • Certain Songs #2741: Todd Snider – “My Generation (Part 2)”
  • Certain Songs #2740: Tobin Sprout – “All Used Up”
  • Certain Songs #2739: Tobin Sprout – “The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin”

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