i always forget its by The Kings....it seems like an ELO song, I'm sure I'm not the only person that makes that mistake.
― M@tt He1geson: Sassy and I Don't Care Who Knows It (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 16 November 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link
free the kings!
― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 25 March 2009 05:08 (fifteen years ago) link
i mean, just look at those guys. hanging out in one of their basement rec rooms. they just want their video on youtube!
poor dudes.
― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 25 March 2009 05:10 (fifteen years ago) link
(video still available on their own website.)
― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 25 March 2009 05:17 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm frustrated at all of the videos being purged from YouTube, but I guess that is to be expected.
Anyway - I NEVER hear this one on classic rock radio where I live. Is it not "hard" enough?
Now that I hear it again, I can see getting tired of it really fast, much like the Cars.
― u s steel, Wednesday, 25 March 2009 20:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Original version. I had no idea...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQS-yTw0x0&feature=related
― dlp9001, Saturday, 24 April 2010 02:15 (fourteen years ago) link
holy fuck, just heard this ("switchin' to glide") for the first time (somehow, spotify radio got me there from, i think, "Long Tall Glasses" by Leo Sayer), what a kickass song! Pretty close to what I would like an imaginary Doctor Casino Band to sound like, this totally rockin' keyboard-based attack, lyrically vague but fully supportive of fist-pumping and stridency.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 11 September 2013 17:15 (eleven years ago) link
Appropriately, i snagged a vinyl copy of The Kings Are Here during my trip to Teronna last month.
― the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 11 September 2013 18:54 (eleven years ago) link
the whole first section is a real t-rex boogie.
this is funny because their song "Unstoppable" is a really flagrant lift of "Bang a Gong" in the verse section!
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 11 September 2013 21:03 (eleven years ago) link
Bob Ezrin production!
― henry s, Thursday, 12 September 2013 02:02 (eleven years ago) link
This song is controlling my life!
The video discussed upthread is now here: http://www.thekingsarehere.com/thisbeatswitchin.php , if I'm not mistaken. It's really very sweet. All those latter-day reunion-type state fair concerts become beautiful and determined and uplifting when they're intercut with the same dudes at like 22, on American Bandstand, unable to believe their luck. God bless 'em.
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 10 February 2014 18:47 (ten years ago) link
Does this song get played at 5 pm on every Friday on at least 1 classic rock station in every town in America? They are at least 15 years running on this tradition here.
It does in Cleveland!
Energy can be directedI'm turning it UP I'm turning it dowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn
― Ian from Etobicoke (Phil D.), Monday, 10 February 2014 18:58 (ten years ago) link
Fucking love this song so much. It was all over the radio in 1980-81; in fact, I vividly remember it as being the first non-Beatles/Lennon song WLS-AM played after John's death (which is to say, a week after John's death -- it was wall-to-wall Beatles for days).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 10 February 2014 19:15 (ten years ago) link
lunatics anonymous -- that's where i belong
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 00:10 (six years ago) link
i'm on a road trip right now and this was such a jam today
― mortal kombats fill your eyes (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 00:44 (six years ago) link
how . . . have i never heard this before
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 00:51 (six years ago) link
I only just heard it/them for the first time a year or so ago. A very 'stop in my tracks and cock my head like a dog' moment, fer shure.
― My Name is Pants and I Fit Snugly (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 01:13 (six years ago) link
Did/does it get airplay outside of Canada?
― Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 02:04 (six years ago) link
I dunno about airplay but this american has loved this song for years. Its on one of those rhino 80s comps i think?
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 02:22 (six years ago) link
Yeah, the second song of the pair is in one of the Just Can't Get Enough comps. You should check out the entire two-part epic if you haven't yet, Shakes.
Q: Has this song been used in an advertisement for Glide brand dental floss yet, and if not, why not?
― My Name is Pants and I Fit Snugly (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 02:58 (six years ago) link
Its been a radio staple in Michigan since it was released, but that's pretty much Canada...
― henry s, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 11:03 (six years ago) link
Nothing matters but the weekend...from a Tuesday point of view.
― BrianB, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 12:39 (six years ago) link
Never knew this was well-liked or even that it got any play outside Canada. Love it obv.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 12:42 (six years ago) link
I'm an American (Georgia) and never once heard this on the radio - know it from some ILX recommendation years back. But I remember some high school punks in the late 90s discussing whether The Kings were punk; I thought they were saying The Kinks and they thought I was a non-punk square. So they must have had some kind of visibility somehow.
― mortal kombats fill your eyes (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 13:36 (six years ago) link
Cleveland's WNCX has, for years and years now, played this song and Springsteen's "Born to Run" every Friday at 5pm. Competing station WMMS plays the Earth Quake cover of "Friday On My Mind" and Rundgren's "Bang On The Drum."
― Eliza D., Tuesday, 7 August 2018 14:05 (six years ago) link
The rest of The Kings' album is pretty great sorta New Wave, sorta power pop 80s rock, btw. My fave of the deep cuts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZU33au_p04
― Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:02 (six years ago) link
A pair of Detroit morning jocks did a parody of "Switchin' To Glide", along with a bunch of others that always seemed to be about beer. This was back in the late-70's, when the song was still a radio hit. The singer in this case had the on-air persona of a professional wrestler named Dick the Bruiser. The transition occurs at 2:35.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=207&v=A1B9ZHytLXM
― henry s, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 17:11 (six years ago) link
Yup, I remember Run Shoes Running was also my fave when I checked out the album! I should give it another listen.
― mortal kombats fill your eyes (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 21:36 (six years ago) link
― Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Monday, August 6, 2018 10:04 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It was played several times a day (or at least, it seemed like it...which was fine, because it rules) on WLS in Chicago in '80-'81. But I can't remember the last time I heard it on the radio either in the midwest or northeast.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 23:27 (six years ago) link
rules
― mookieproof, Saturday, 11 July 2020 00:49 (four years ago) link
you know, i saw them not too long ago in a rare visit of theirs to the states. they ruled!
they also visited wfmu:
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/90773
― Thus Sang Freud, Saturday, 11 July 2020 05:59 (four years ago) link