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The Sweet — Love Is Like Oxygen
Album: The Best of Sweet
Avg rating:
7

Your rating:
Total ratings: 3111









Released: 1978
Length: 4:15
Plays (last 30 days): 1
Love is like oxygen
You get too much, you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die
Love gets you high

Love is like oxygen
You get too much, you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die
Love gets you high

Time on my side
I got it all
I heard that pride
Always comes before a fall

There's a rumour goin' 'round the town
That you don't want me around
I can't shake off my city blues
Everywhere I turn, I lose

Love is like oxygen
You get too much, you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die
Love gets you high

Love is like oxygen
You get too much, you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die
Love gets you high

Time is no healer
If you're not there
Holy fever
Set words in the air

Some things are better left unsaid
I'm gonna spend my days in bed
I walk the streets at night
To be hidden by the city light, city light

Love is like oxygen
You get too much, you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die
Love gets you high

Love is like oxygen
You get too much, you get too high
Not enough and you're gonna die
Comments (424)add comment
 slickhun wrote:


To be sure, this is a guilty pleasure for me and always has been.


I stopped using the term "guilty pleasure" when I started watching Live From Daryl's House and I don't regret it.
 iTuner wrote:
This isn't ELO? I've been wrong for 34 years?


Me too! đź¤Ł
 Hodgie wrote:

I've had many of my super-eclectic taste music friends tell me how much this band (and song) sucks.

Let them eat cake....this song is the balls.



To be sure, this is a guilty pleasure for me and always has been.
This band had some hits back in the day and this one is the bomb! 
the background talking lyrics is weird (i like weird)
 jvalatka wrote:

Not too shabby for a re-recording, but I prefer the original "Level Headed" album version with its stylistic change-ups, keyboard break, and over-six-minute running time.


never heard the og, so i looked it up: level headed version
The version posted here is not the original version - it is a re-recording.  Just saying.
 Moonflower31 wrote:

Yep, I just took it up from 6-7! 🤣


10
 SquiddlyDiddly wrote:

Ha ha! I just rated a Sweet song an 8. 

My younger self thinks I have lost it.  


Yep, I just took it up from 6-7! 🤣
 tripp1 wrote:

I graduated from HS in 1976.  This album and especially this song was played regularly at that time with Zappa, Yes, Be Bop Deluxe, Neil Young and others every afternoon while we sat around doing bong hits. Nothing but fun memories. This song does not suck. Live a little folks!  Remember Little Willie, The Ballroom Blitz and Fox on the Run?  GLAM baby! The times!



YES! Little Willy was all over the radio, and one of the first 45 rpm records I bought at MusicLand as a kid. It was great bubble-gum pop, but the flip-side was even better, the absolutely jamming Man From Mecca. Ballroom Blitz still rocks pool halls and dive bars all over Japan, and Fox On The Run still makes people grin and sing along to the soundtrack at supermarkets here in Boulder.  The Sweet made some great music, and it's woven among the finest threads in the tapestry of my wild life!
I find it sad to hear this weak, tame, stripped-down version again on RP... Okay, Connolly wound up a hot mess with the excesses of success, but it's hardly fair to him or this great band to play this version, without the stellar vocals and none of the killer Queen-like operatic perfection and bright, shimmering layers of harmonies that made them such faves in our repertoire. Please -- they deserve better, and so do we who remember.  Thanks.
Oh my, I am at my school disco.
The memories..
Why this version? Vastly inferior to the original.
 Pakeha wrote:
Sweet used to be my favourite band during my youth. Unfortunately,this is only a mediocre cover version 
It is not Brian Connolly's voice which I can hear from a mile away.


thank you for sharing this - i couldn't put my finger on why it sounded so different/substandard. it all makes sense.
Sweet used to be my favourite band during my youth. Unfortunately,this is only a mediocre cover version 
It is not Brian Connolly's voice which I can hear from a mile away.
 forge wrote:


I'm with ZephyrListener, no like this new recording. But always glad to hear The Sweet. 




this is a horrible version. it hardly even sounds like them.
the original version/mix was far superior. what is going on??
 ZephyrListener wrote:

Why are we hearing this inferior re-recording, instead of the real version of the song?



I'm with ZephyrListener, no like this new recording. But always glad to hear The Sweet. 


I graduated from HS in 1976.  This album and especially this song was played regularly at that time with Zappa, Yes, Be Bop Deluxe, Neil Young and others every afternoon while we sat around doing bong hits. Nothing but fun memories. This song does not suck. Live a little folks!  Remember Little Willie, The Ballroom Blitz and Fox on the Run?  GLAM baby! The times!
I refuse to rate this remake. The production is all wrong. Please replace this with the original.
Gets a lot of flak and it's not blazing any new trails whatsoever but it's a great pop song. 
Chorus is deep...
 SquiddlyDiddly wrote:

Ha ha! I just rated a Sweet song an 8. 

My younger self thinks I have lost it.  



He thinks he's_ the passionate one...
 ZephyrListener wrote:

What I'm hearing is definitely not "Love is Like Oxygen" by Sweet from 1978.  It sounds like an awful cover version.  I guess it's a re-recording from 2006. Please go back to the original.  This version is really bad.
 Edited to add: I see that I made basically this same comment a few months ago and you're still playing this crappy remake.



yeah, it's definitely not as good! definitely takes the "feel" of it away for this listener. 

can this be remedied, william? 
for a period of time before my teens, this was my favorite song! still love it.
What I'm hearing is definitely not "Love is Like Oxygen" by Sweet from 1978.  It sounds like an awful cover version.  I guess it's a re-recording from 2006. Please go back to the original.  This version is really bad.
 Edited to add: I see that I made basically this same comment a few months ago and you're still playing this crappy remake.
 pinto wrote:

I absolutely DETEST this song but LOVE the fact that it's on RP.  Great mix!  Good work, Bill and Rebecca.



Haha, yep! I gave it a 6  for nostalgia, great hook and the look.  What a call back! Thanks RP. 



Sometimes you just have to drown yourself in the Cheez Wiz. 
The opening of this reminds me of early Alan Parsons Project - not sure which track or album...so I am not sure this is worth posting.  Oh well, I've written it now...
Wow! - I have not heard this in over 40 years :)
I have the album The Best of Sweet.  I was intrigued that the CD is blank.  A meta CD perhaps.  Maybe  inspired by Philip Glass music.
 iTuner wrote:
This isn't ELO? I've been wrong for 34 years?

It's 44 years now...but no one's counting. 



 LinThizzy wrote:

does 100% ox get ya hi?




dead.
I don’t know if it’s just poor timing, but it seems I keep hearing this song far too much on RP. Ugh. It was catchy and quirky at first… 
It’s grown tiresome to me now.

Still lovin’ RP…. THAT’S not gonna change!! ;-)
does 100% ox get ya hi?
 ZephyrListener wrote:

This is not the original version of "Love is Like Oxygen."  It sounds like some inferior remake.  I've heard the original before.  Why the substitution?



Maybe off an album - different version.  And if that's the case, why did they bother to change it :(
Brian connelly version much better, sorry Andy!
no sir I DIDNT like it
This is not the original version of "Love is Like Oxygen."  It sounds like some inferior remake.  I've heard the original before.  Why the substitution?
The opening of this is like The Alan Parson's Project - nice.
Well like or hate the song love is kinda like oxygen
 TonyTurbot wrote:



LOL, An English band would sing about lolipops :)


Lollipops are not popsicles. An English band would sing of ice lollies.
Love is like oxygen, in an acidic medium it degrades cumene to a phenol and acetone...
Believe it or not, that helped me get through organic chemistry.
Teenage me listening to this back in the 70s, had a question, and I've never found out the answer - wait, can you really get high from oxygen?
Interesting. I've heard this song a thousand times over the decades on a car radio but never on my home system. The background vocals really come out as does the instrumentation. Almost like hearing it for the first time!
Rockin' song from high school. Wicked guitars, lovely vocals, the whole package. 8 -> 9.
 FlatCat wrote:

Oh, "Oxygen". For years, I have been thinking that the line was "Love is like popsicles". I only heard the song on bad quality radio until RP. Now it makes sense. 




LOL, An English band would sing about lolipops :)
I think its a masterpiece.
 nate917 wrote:


The intro to Ballroom Blitz is an indelible childhood memory.

Ready Steve?      [Uh huh.]
Andy?            [Yeah.]
Mick?             [Okay.]
Alright, fellas.........
Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOO.......!!!!!!


In college (latter 70s) I was in a band where, spontaneously, in the midst of one of our shows the guitarist started asking us if we were ready Steve? etc...LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO! and it was hard to not fall on the floor laughing.
 iTuner wrote:
This isn't ELO? I've been wrong for 34 years?


New to RP...and I've been wrong for about 44 years.  Could've sworn this was ELO...so it goes.  Still takes me back, toes still tapping, singing the chorus, etc.  
 coloradojohn wrote:

Hell yeah! I heard Little Willy, first, I think; their huge smash hit on the radio in '74 or so. Man From Mecca was the rocking flip-side of it -- one of the first discs I went out and bought as a kid. Later, when the record Desolation Boulevard came out, big, in '78, as weed and girls got into our heads, every day after School got out, we'd slap it on the turntable, turn up the sound, toke weed till the room reeked, pray we'd have time to air out and lay down a fog of Lysol by the time whomever's mom or dad got home, and then go do the things that made life as tasty and memorable as we could. Life sure seemed SWEET and it sure seemed like there was nothing better at the time! 


I'm pretty sure Desolation Boulevard was early-mid 1970s.  There were a few years in there where it seemed as if everyone had a copy of that album in their collection.
Wish you would play the original track. Do not know who's vocals these are.
Sadly not the original version, but a later rerecording. Here we do not hear the original singer Brian Connolly.
Maybe RP could fix this?
The original is way better! 
 serinde wrote:


Came here to post this - I *have* Best of Sweet and this is not the same version.  Check your metadata?



Same here.
 mtrenor wrote:

What happened to the slow break and bridge with acoustic guitar, building to the crescendo that leads back to the main melody?  Editing that out just destroys the song.  RP did the same to UFO’s “Love to Love” and edited Michael Schenker’s outstanding solo at the end of the piece.  Real AM radio move.  



Are you trying to publicly shame Bill and Rebecca while advertising your own brilliance and virtue?
Those backup vocals...pretty indulgent and fearless.
What happened to the slow break and bridge with acoustic guitar, building to the crescendo that leads back to the main melody?  Editing that out just destroys the song.  RP did the same to UFO’s “Love to Love” and edited Michael Schenker’s outstanding solo at the end of the piece.  Real AM radio move.  
 tomperth1 wrote:

Come on, lads.  How about 'Ballroom Blitz' or 'Fox on the Run'?



The intro to Ballroom Blitz is an indelible childhood memory.

Ready Steve?      [Uh huh.]
Andy?            [Yeah.]
Mick?             [Okay.]
Alright, fellas.........
Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOO.......!!!!!!
https://thesweet.com/
They are on tour in the UK and Germany this year (2022). Check out their schedule in the link. Would love to see them but no California dates. Maybe next year. This band is the music of my high school days, and will also be singing along. 
 bluematrix wrote:

Oh my, that wikipedia pic on the right side of this page... wonder what they look like now?



All but one member of the band have passed on.  =  ( Andy Scott is still touring.  
 MM_Prague wrote:

By the time this song came out I had moved on to other music, but along with Alive and Destroyer from Kiss, Sweet's Desolation Boulevard was the bedrock of the musical foundation of my early adolescence, that magical cusp between Grade Six and Seven when everything changed. And you know what? Desolation Boulevard is still a great album.







Agreed! Desolation Boulevard is one hell of a rock 'n' roll record! My buddy Mike and I made his whole street shake almost daily with "I Wanna Be Committed" for a stretch the spring and summer of '79, and I still love to put that album on and TURN IT UP!
A guilty pleasure for sure. Bill seems to intuit several of mine. Just another thing I luv about Radio Paradise.
deep.  A 7 it is.
Seinfeld

Elaine dance
Oh my, that wikipedia pic on the right side of this page... wonder what they look like now?
From the intro I thought it was gonna be Bloodhound Gang's Chasey Lain song 
 torino390 wrote:

Went to see these guys in my little town of Shrewsbury, UK a few months ago. Tell you what, they were fantastic!!! Was shocked by how many of their songs had unconsciously been permanently written to the hard drive in my head. Hadn't listened to them for literally decades and found myself singing along to almost every track!!! 



Damn, if only I had known - I'm only up the road in the scheme of things - in Ironbridge. They were part of my formative years and I would have been right along with you singing most of the words :-)
Went to see these guys in my little town of Shrewsbury, UK a few months ago. Tell you what, they were fantastic!!! Was shocked by how many of their songs had unconsciously been permanently written to the hard drive in my head. Hadn't listened to them for literally decades and found myself singing along to almost every track!!! 
Definitely not the original - but my teenage self is laughing like a drain that I just rated this an 8 for nostalgia's sake 
Wrong version.  This is sad
Went to see them recently. To my surprise, they were damn good!!! I was surprised how many of their songs I knew, even singing along to tunes I hadn't heard in decades! 
Righteous Glam Jam! However, as noted by others, this is NOT the version I knew. The one from their album Level-Headed had Connolly hitting his vocals much more clearly and cleanly, and their distinctive, shimmering wall of harmonies was more layered and nuanced. There was a shortened version of it, without the trippy, almost classical guitar-style interlude, that was played sometimes on the radio, but even that one had a punch and verve that this tame and rather lame one sorely lacks... I'd love to hear the searing, soaring original here! This tight, clever, rowdy and inspiring band paved the way for many acts that followed, and rightly held and deserves a HIGH Place in the grand Rock and Roll scheme of things, in my opinion. They're always such a kick to listen to.
 haljordan wrote:

This version sounds weird. 



Came here to post this - I *have* Best of Sweet and this is not the same version.  Check your metadata?
 FlatCat wrote:

Oh, "Oxygen". For years, I have been thinking that the line was "Love is like popsicles". I only heard the song on bad quality radio until RP. Now it makes sense. 


Never heard the high falsetto in the chorus until RP's quality streaming.
 SquiddlyDiddly wrote:

Ha ha! I just rated a Sweet song an 8. 

My younger self thinks I have lost it.  



Well, it is "Most Excellent"
This version sounds weird. 
Wow!
Why are we hearing this inferior re-recording, instead of the real version of the song?
 ai63 wrote:

Walkman, 10 speed and summer nights.....



I went looking fir this comment. Perfect!  
By the time this song came out I had moved on to other music, but along with Alive and Destroyer from Kiss, Sweet's Desolation Boulevard was the bedrock of the musical foundation of my early adolescence, that magical cusp between Grade Six and Seven when everything changed. And you know what? Desolation Boulevard is still a great album.
Lead vocals are wrong. 
 ybsen wrote:
 
 



Ha,ha,ha,ha,..that is awesome! Like Manford Mann's "Blinded by the Light" sung..."Wrapped up like a douche " for som many years; classic!
Nice tgo hear some Sweet, though not their best song. How about Little Willy? Now there's  a song to generate some discussion. 
I keep hearing: "Love is like opposite drugs..."
Crap then, crappier now.
It's newer version, not 1978 one?
Not the original version. This one sucks. 
 iTuner wrote:
This isn't ELO? I've been wrong for 34 years?


Funny--me too. But ya. We're wrong for decades.
 jmsmy wrote:

Can you really get High on Too much oxygen ?




You'll grow hair on your palms.
 jmsmy wrote:

Can you really get High on Too much oxygen ?


You can go blind
This corn ball but catchy. I is liking it!
Can you really get High on Too much oxygen ?
Very 1978
I didn't know this was Sweet's song. I don't like the old hit songs but this is quite OK.
 iTuner wrote:
This isn't ELO? I've been wrong for 34 years?


I feel your pain. But this isn't anywhere near ELO's standard. Jeff Lynne might have written this if he were suffering a bad concussion. 

Personally, I don't mind listening to this once every five years. And I like Sweet. 
Ohh, that guitar...had to raise my 7 to an 8
79s poppy genderbenders, as we said back then in the Jurassic. Sweet and others were pioneers of gender fluidity, and played danceable stuff too. They were pretty fit in tight lycra :o)
This should be immediately followed by a Slade tune, Bill. Cum On, Feel The Noyze... yeah..! I'd be twelve again, then. But, uh no, not possible. 

Great song indeed, but this is not the original version Bill. Play Brian Connelly on lead voice.
 triplo wrote:
Amazing song. The extended version is even better with a nice intrumental part. Thank you.
 Another tune that gets you excited to dance and then the bridge kills you
Amazing song. The extended version is even better with a nice intrumental part. Thank you.
HUGE Sweet fan...and this song! I was hoping this would be the extended version, but still awesome, thank you!
Cheeseball!  Look what they're wearing.  And that guy's holding a wine glass...in the photo shoot.
Just read that Steve Priest passed away in June 2020, no cause revealed,  so my earlier  comments were badly timed.  Apologies to his family and friends, with best wishes.


What's not to like!
Love is like Oxygen! 
 jelgator wrote:
Sublime. 10.
 
Completely concur. Love this song.
When I was a kid it would have been social death to admit to liking Sweet...

"Uncool",  "A Girls band" (whatever the heck that means), "A Pop group rather than a proper Rock band"

...but I did anyway, and I still do. Great band, play more of them!
 obankenobi wrote:
British ELO?
 

Sublime.  10.
I absolutely DETEST this song but LOVE the fact that it's on RP.  Great mix!  Good work, Bill and Rebecca.
 Zep wrote:
Immediate PSD.
 
Well, at least it's not Traumatic.
chock full o' hooks
bloody hell, their photo in wikipedia, strange times for male accoutre  and hair getup
How many versions of this song are there? Seems to me the version from the album cover shown is not this one and the one I prefer, though I also like the one with the extended intermezzo. This is a good song nevertheless from a band that had some pretty good prog attempts later in their career.
A classic. I've always liked this song. Great guitar riffs to start it off.
Great song, but why this re-recording?
Forget the song, those sweeeeet jumpsuits are worth the price of admission! :0
I have not heard this song in what seems like 40 years!  Brings me back to the carefree years.