OFFICIAL SIMPLER TIME & PLACE PLAYLIST
[Oct 1, 2024: Here is the original playlist from the companion blog to the 3-semester streaming radio show on KSFS which ended when I graduated from SFSU Fall 2018.]
I had redirected the original address to boost my search-engine-optimization [SEO] for criticalthinkingandreasoning.com; however, I felt compelled to repost all of the hard work.
Next, I will post the 13 or so individual posts.
Then, I will have a place for new creative writings and open to other stories of my life from across other decades--oftentimes linked to the relevant music of the era.
Thanks for showing an interest in my work!
Best,
Drake
All Rights Reserved under Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The Reel Drake Davis'
Simpler Time & Place---The Best Era…Ever!
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| LA circa 1970: Photo Courtesy djqlxix2112 from YouTube, "Beach Baby" |
Simpler Time And Place was heard for three semesters on KSFS ksfsmedia.net/radio prior to graduation, Fall Semester of 2018; consequently, the blog became my San Francisco State capstone project [N/C] to both showcase my creative writing abilities and fulfill my mother's request--in the last years' of her life--to endure such an undertaking. This blog serves as a partial manuscript--a memoir--of the first twenty years of my life, touching on the early-to-mid 1980s when relevant.
Thank you for listening to the show, calling-in requests, and providing positive feedback--suggestions for improvements appreciated, too--on the blog. It has been a very rewarding undertaking!
Drake
TITLE ARTIST YEAR/INTRO/TIME
WHAT DOES IT TAKE… Jr. WALKER AND THE ALL-STARS ‘69/:10/2:33
(to win your love for me)
I first heard this song during many a skiing trip up to the long defunct Echo Summit Ski Area with family. Our cabin, located between Kyburz and Strawberry, California—along the old Pony Express Trail turned US 50--was a magical place, situated at 5,000 ft. above sea level. Mystical or perhaps never to be uttered again experiences occurred in the forest witnessed only by the fir, cedar, and pine trees.
At the time and with two older sisters growing up in West Los Angeles, my exposure to Motown and Urban music was limited to what charted on KRLA AM and 93 KHJ, for the most part. My cousins who I began to ski with several times a year, lived in South Sacramento. Attending the multi-racial Hiram Johnson High School, and they were astute in their appreciation of the music many of their classmates exposed them to in the late ‘60s.
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| My Older Sister-girls, Shawn, Dorain & myself at play: Thirty-nine Milestone, Lot 27, US 50 El Dorado County & Strawberry, CA |
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| My first visit to what became a lifetime love of Lake Tahoe: Summer 1962 |
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| RIP: Cousin Mo 1953-2015...fun-in-the-sun at 7,000 ft. (1968) |
Soon after, I fell in love with all-things Motown, the R&B, and emerging Philadelphia Sound that grew in popularity as Motown waned in the Early ‘70s; about the same time, our side of the family returned to Sacramento. Subsequently, disco started to take hold by mid-decade and led to landing my first on-mic job at Disco Jazz Center [DJC] on Fulton Blvd in the fall of 1976.
Sacramento's first under twenty-one disco club for teens was hugely popular; the crowd exploding from about a hundred disco patrons at the close of 1976 to over three hundred—a line of almost a hundred more outside on a Friday night--upon the release of Saturday Night Fever less than a year later. Just weeks before the soundtracks release, a record promoter affixed posters for the soon to premiere movie and told me what to play 'n plug. A case of me being in the right place at the right time.
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| Disco Jazz Center Fulton Ave. Sacto, circa 1977 |
…and the girls!
JACK & JILL RAY PARKER Jr.& RAYDIO ‘78/:17-36/4:04
"He Needed Love...Love He Couldn't Get From Jill"
Now this is a curious song in that I was coming to grips with my emerging and undeniable bisexual proclivities. A big hit at the DJC in the Sac.
SAN FRANCISCO VILLAGE PEOPLE ‘77/:04-12/3:22
Little known to most outside of the disco dance scene in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and likely some of the hipper second-tier metropolises—hugely popular within the gay clubs and bars—was the Village People.
Just prior to the better known singles---"YMCA" and "Macho Man"--many do remember hearing this regional hit that was all the rage within the Northern California club scene. Perhaps their best song and decidedly very gay, if you will, the full side disco cut never grew old. Here is the shorter long version at 5:52m:
"...Dress the Way You Please & Put Your Mind at Ease, It's a City Known for It's Freedom."
"...Dress the Way You Please & Put Your Mind at Ease, It's a City Known for It's Freedom."
The video described below was taken down with a YouTube Frown-y Face, so this vinyl version will have to do for now[amended October 20 2019.]
...also, check-out the video editing and media-aesthetics of what is an awesome portrayal of my birthplace, demonstrating how fortunate we are to get to live in the Bay Area and for some of us, The City. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
June 1983: "Drake, You have just finished a two-year enlistment serving in West Germany, what now?" After hanging in NYC a couple days, bypass Sacramento to reconnect with friends in The City for better part of a week! ...needless to say, the delay home disappointed the folks I hadn't seen in a year! Signed, International Party Boy |
He's the Greatest Dancer Sister Sledge '79/1:05/5:04
Charging Up A Hill Towards Union Street With A Girl On My Shoulders!
"One night in a disco on the outskirts of 'Fisco...'"
Street Life Crusaders ‘79/:04-16/6:09
Oftentimes, A Double Life Lurked Among Those in the Disco Scene
"One night in a disco on the outskirts of 'Fisco...'"
Street Life Crusaders ‘79/:04-16/6:09
Oftentimes, A Double Life Lurked Among Those in the Disco Scene
Foreshadowing the end of the Disco era, this one-hit-wonder typified the lack of sexual discretion or mores of a decade that soon would shed its collective guilt—settling for Reaganomics, a house in the burbs, and 2.3 children…whatever!
Based out of Chicago, the group was often referred to as The First Family of Soul—a moniker soon to be surrendered to the more commercially popular Jackson 5. The song congers-up memories of driving by the Bay Theater towards the terminus of Sunset Boulevard at the Pacific Ocean. Nearby, Pacific Palisades High School or “Pali” where both of my sister attended was only a short walk away on Temescal Canyon Road. At the time, the new road had been controversial in that "We could now make a 'b-line' to the beach to cut class," according to my oldest sister, Shawna. Moving to Sacramento in the Fall of 1971, I missed going there by a couple of years.
Sometime, take a closer listen to the Beach Boys' "Surfing USA" for mention of the legendary beach:
Will Rodgers State Beach: Pacific Palisades, CA
To this day, it still amazes me that as I interact with all of the LA People here on the SFSU campus, so many students--especially if West Angeli-nos'--know exactly where this house is located! Numerically, 1492 Allenford Avenue did have a distinctive ring to it. Located within site of a County of Los Angeles sign bearing, "Now Entering Pacific Palisades" a stone-throw away to the west on Sunset Boulevard; in other words, our house was technically in Brentwood, but across the street this would not have been the case.
Here is a closer look: G MAP: Street View 1492 Allenford Avenue
Sometime, take a closer listen to the Beach Boys' "Surfing USA" for mention of the legendary beach:
Will Rodgers State Beach: Pacific Palisades, CA
To this day, it still amazes me that as I interact with all of the LA People here on the SFSU campus, so many students--especially if West Angeli-nos'--know exactly where this house is located! Numerically, 1492 Allenford Avenue did have a distinctive ring to it. Located within site of a County of Los Angeles sign bearing, "Now Entering Pacific Palisades" a stone-throw away to the west on Sunset Boulevard; in other words, our house was technically in Brentwood, but across the street this would not have been the case.
Here is a closer look: G MAP: Street View 1492 Allenford Avenue
The Stairsteps' gem of a 1970 one-hit-wonder typified everything that was great about growing-up Southern California at the height of the Cold War and why we beat the Soviets’ at every turn including having just landed on the moon. It was the time of heightened awareness, emergence of plastics--a new decade dawning; even Playboy Publisher, Hugh Hefner, moved the mansion from Chicago [along with his new girlfriend from Sacramento, Barbi Benton, who attended UCLA] as Los Angeles once again became the place-to-be, evidenced by an accompanying invasion of youth and creatives following the Summer of Love [1967], Woodstock, NY. [1969] the music scene shifting south and west, respectively; locally, new groups like The Doors, and from overseas, The Who, Led Zeppelin--even Hendrix and Joplin would be taking up residence in the SoCal--at least part of the time.
Neighborhood teens roared down Sunset Boulevard in parent-bought Chevy Orange ’69 Super Sport Camaro convertibles, Pontiac Blue GTOs, FOMOCO Shelby Mustang GT 500s, and MOPAR Road Runners & Barracudas.
Neighborhood teens roared down Sunset Boulevard in parent-bought Chevy Orange ’69 Super Sport Camaro convertibles, Pontiac Blue GTOs, FOMOCO Shelby Mustang GT 500s, and MOPAR Road Runners & Barracudas.
Shout-out to Steve Kopaul for letting me polish his Mags on the’67 “Boo” or "Factory freak" as they called it. No doubt, the car probably pulled a flat 12 second quarter mile--a 427 cubic inch V-8 tucked under the hood--stock--straight out of Detroit, yet it was anything but stock.
As a nine or ten year-old in a neighborhood referred to as “The Polo Fields" previously owned by the one-and-only Will Rodgers, I always wanted to go for a ride, the roll-bar equipped Chevy Malibu pulling-away from the curb on Jonesboro Drive with uncapped headers! Steve, you initiated or unleashed in me a love of American Muscle Cars that unfolded over the next forty years—I owned four of ‘em!
As a nine or ten year-old in a neighborhood referred to as “The Polo Fields" previously owned by the one-and-only Will Rodgers, I always wanted to go for a ride, the roll-bar equipped Chevy Malibu pulling-away from the curb on Jonesboro Drive with uncapped headers! Steve, you initiated or unleashed in me a love of American Muscle Cars that unfolded over the next forty years—I owned four of ‘em!
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| Little Drakester at Allenford Ave & Jonesboro: After dinner the rule was "Be home when the street lights come-on." |
Never forget—many of you want-to-be-communist SFSU students--they didn’t even drive cars, practically, in the Soviet Union. Then again you Millennial Snowflakes [and judging by the Google Map,] I guess I did suffer from White Privilege!
Lastly, on this song by the Five Stairsteps, I have included an additional link from a 1970 Soul Train telecast that may very well demonstrate that trans-folks have been with us all along—check-out those dangling earrings…what is going on here?
Interesting...maybe I am overthinking this
Does this song with its lyrics of: “...You just wait and see…the things to come…” foretell a later Twenty-first Century of driverless cars, a society enlightened via the Internet, and what now seems to be even what some have described as the normalizing of pedophilia? The songs message is about as subtle as a Wile E. Coyote Anvil dropping on a road-runner's head....does make you think.
For Those of You Too Young to Remember, Click on This
Lastly, on this song by the Five Stairsteps, I have included an additional link from a 1970 Soul Train telecast that may very well demonstrate that trans-folks have been with us all along—check-out those dangling earrings…what is going on here?
Interesting...maybe I am overthinking this
Does this song with its lyrics of: “...You just wait and see…the things to come…” foretell a later Twenty-first Century of driverless cars, a society enlightened via the Internet, and what now seems to be even what some have described as the normalizing of pedophilia? The songs message is about as subtle as a Wile E. Coyote Anvil dropping on a road-runner's head....does make you think.
For Those of You Too Young to Remember, Click on This
…speaking of cars and California...Farah Fox-ette as we used to drool-over her!
The mid-seventies Mustang II with the Cobra inspired fake hood-scoop package was whoa-fully slow. Yet in this instance, I would trade places with it!
The mid-seventies Mustang II with the Cobra inspired fake hood-scoop package was whoa-fully slow. Yet in this instance, I would trade places with it!
An inspirational song during those racially charged and protest-filled late sixties.
Originating in SF, Sly and the Family Stone grew out of another case of the cousins’ influence, again. Fond memories of the attic/teenage game room over the garage while the adults had “The Cocktail Hour” (…more like hours, Willard and Adair!) are seared are into my once young mind.
That time spent relaxing on hot Sac-town nights around their modest pool with the slide as the 1960s came to a close, shall never be forgotten as Venison or Duck made it's way to the ala' fresco eating or dining table at Uncle Devin and Aunt Bunny's place.
The record player was always blasting in the attic and having already embraced the Motown sound on previous trips to the Sac, I remember saying something stupid like, “What is this? A black hard-rock group?” To which my cousin Scott promptly pulled the vinyl out of the inner sleeve, just you wait and see look, included, playing:
Originating in SF, Sly and the Family Stone grew out of another case of the cousins’ influence, again. Fond memories of the attic/teenage game room over the garage while the adults had “The Cocktail Hour” (…more like hours, Willard and Adair!) are seared are into my once young mind.
That time spent relaxing on hot Sac-town nights around their modest pool with the slide as the 1960s came to a close, shall never be forgotten as Venison or Duck made it's way to the ala' fresco eating or dining table at Uncle Devin and Aunt Bunny's place.
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| Cousin Scott Davis [WSD III] the previous summer, 1967, poolside in S. Sac. |
EVERYDAY PEOPLE
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE ‘68/:05-08/2:22
Are you With Me Everyone? We Can and Will Get There...Together
A color-blind classic in the MLK tradition. Quintessentially, this Vevo video typified the VH-1 video fare of the early 1980s for Boomers still in their twenties and thirties at the time.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE ‘68/:05-08/2:22
Are you With Me Everyone? We Can and Will Get There...Together
A color-blind classic in the MLK tradition. Quintessentially, this Vevo video typified the VH-1 video fare of the early 1980s for Boomers still in their twenties and thirties at the time.
Hot Fun in the Summertime Sly and the family Stone '69/:10/3:0
Perhaps their most popular song even if "Everyday People" is more memorable or meaty. Not only was the sex soon to be sizzling along the banks of the American River as the mid-seventies came into view, but it gets freaking toasty in the Sac! This LP was purchased just prior to moving to the Capitol City from LA; I remember driving with my Father in his new 1970 Ford XL to a record store in Westwood, CA to purchase the Greatest Hits LP featured here:
Also, Westwood was where the sleek Ford had been purchased, and I will always remember this about being at the dealership.
There was this 1970 Boss 302 Mustang, matte black rear window louvers, stripes up-the-shaker functional hood scoop & all. Unfortunately, Dad would have no part of it; if the old fool [as I liked to call him…we had a sarcastic if not rather contentious relationship] only had bought that car instead of the family-sized XL--fewer than 5000 XLs were produced and sold only in the American South West and SOCAL, so it did have a pretty cool vibe, car-wise--the Boss 302 would now be worth something approaching a quarter-million dollars depending on condition.
Looking like a fast-backed LTD, but with buckets, console, and retractable headlight covers [think of the Rally Sport Camaro of the late '60s] the XL was sporty, but had he purchased the Boss 'Stanger? Once again, it would have been easily worth $70,000-150k by the time of his passing in 2007.
There was this 1970 Boss 302 Mustang, matte black rear window louvers, stripes up-the-shaker functional hood scoop & all. Unfortunately, Dad would have no part of it; if the old fool [as I liked to call him…we had a sarcastic if not rather contentious relationship] only had bought that car instead of the family-sized XL--fewer than 5000 XLs were produced and sold only in the American South West and SOCAL, so it did have a pretty cool vibe, car-wise--the Boss 302 would now be worth something approaching a quarter-million dollars depending on condition.
Looking like a fast-backed LTD, but with buckets, console, and retractable headlight covers [think of the Rally Sport Camaro of the late '60s] the XL was sporty, but had he purchased the Boss 'Stanger? Once again, it would have been easily worth $70,000-150k by the time of his passing in 2007.
RESPECT YOURSELF STAPLE SINGERS ‘72/:09/ 4:58
Released on the legendary STAX Records and a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, peaking at # 2 on Billboard's R&B chart, and # 12 on the magazine's HOT 100.
(B’ Side: “After Sex”)… I will resist saying they will be a paperclip of the radio show! [cue clown horn or rim shot, please] This cut was just after the Bankruptcy of legendary STAX Records & was produced by Curtis Mayfield for his Curtom Records Label
Definitely, R&B regarding the Staple Singers, but as the Philadelphia Sound emerged around the end of 1972 and became a major Pop influence in 1973 an '74, it also was where the origins of disco began--for the most part--with Love Unlimited Orchestra's Barry White, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, the O' Jays and many of the new artists coming from the City of Brotherly Love. Others such as Oakland's Pointer Sisters really defy strict categorization in one genre or the another, but there was a clear blurring of the line between the two [if that makes sense!]
Conspicuously absent, Motown was no longer as much of an influence with the exception of the Jacksons, Diana Ross, and sister company, Tamla, which Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder had moved-to, keeping the once dominant label for urban or black artists afloat.
As disco waned by the end of 1978 and '79, this was the height of the roller disco era, however--cash receipts and attendance were high, as were many of the skaters--at the once legendary King's Skate Country.
Conspicuously absent, Motown was no longer as much of an influence with the exception of the Jacksons, Diana Ross, and sister company, Tamla, which Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder had moved-to, keeping the once dominant label for urban or black artists afloat.
Let us fast forward to the end of the decade, shall we?
As disco waned by the end of 1978 and '79, this was the height of the roller disco era, however--cash receipts and attendance were high, as were many of the skaters--at the once legendary King's Skate Country.
Matter of fact, record-breaking crowds [crushing the attendance on my one night off, Saturday, which usually had only 150-200 patrons] for the rink oftentimes filled with over 500 skaters on a Friday night, jamming the venue just off US 50 and Bradshaw Road; a destination in its own right located next to the Sacramento 6 Drive-in [affectionately referred to as the "Sac Sixer"] the two establishments and surrounding burger joints made that section of Folsom Boulevard a cruise at the time. At $800.00 per month—good money for a nineteen-year-old—I bought a metallic black charcoal 455 Cubic-inch equipped,’68 Olds 442:
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| Putting 'er in storage & 'goin in the Army...note Reagan sticker! |
…Rancho Cordova… drive a Chevy Nova….been there done that!
I CAN MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD SHALAMAR ‘82/:16/4:42
A Great Song from the First Time You Hear It!
A Great Song from the First Time You Hear It!
Occasionally, ST&Place will reach into the first year or two of the eighties if the song fits more decidedly into the genre; for me, the Friends album and this single in particular are my favorites from Shalamar. Take a listen and see if the absorption-factor--having to not hear a song numerous times until a person is hooked on listening it--does not apply.
SECOND TIME AROUND SHALAMAR ‘79/1:02/7:47
Jody Watley & Howard Hewitt led one of the many incarnations of this group. A particularly memorable tune for me, and a giant song at Kings Skate Country in Sacramento. Matter of fact, there was a certain sister of the assistant manager who also worked there and had keys. I will never forget the night after being-out on a date we went in and roller skated in the buff, disco lights, music, and all--Lord, I have had quite a life looking back. ...Funnest-job…ever!
TAKE THE TIME DO IT RIGHT SOS BAND '80/:17/7:31
Check-it-out: remastered to a Soul Train Telecast
Another huge song at the rink, but we rocked too! The once family friendly rink was conflicted:
They liked having someone to curate the music, put on a real show having one radio gig already under my belt, and bringing-in a new rock-and-roll listening crowd of previously non-skaters on Fridays. However, it brought in a decidedly stoner-element along with it, the metal sounds of Black Sabbath, AC/DC's Back in Black, and more risque content. For instance, the owner almost firing me for continuing to play this one:
They liked having someone to curate the music, put on a real show having one radio gig already under my belt, and bringing-in a new rock-and-roll listening crowd of previously non-skaters on Fridays. However, it brought in a decidedly stoner-element along with it, the metal sounds of Black Sabbath, AC/DC's Back in Black, and more risque content. For instance, the owner almost firing me for continuing to play this one:
COCAINE ERIC CLAPTON ‘80/:18/1980
Just In Time for the CIA Inspired Crack Epidemic
"...HELLO! Earth to Danny King-Dude...This is the #1 song in the Nation!
Just In Time for the CIA Inspired Crack Epidemic
"...HELLO! Earth to Danny King-Dude...This is the #1 song in the Nation!
Mr. King had trouble with this one too. Terrible Ted’s follow-up to an earlier hit, “Stranglehold” about cunnilingus; although, it did take Mr. King a few weeks to realize the song, "Wango Tango" was about fellatio. BANNED!
AIN’T NO STOPPIN US NOW McFADDEN & WHITEHEAD ‘79/:17-34/4:00From the Soundtrack of Boogie Nights
On Philadelphia International Records & although it garnered a lot of airplay on R&B stations and was wildly received in the discos and roller rinks of the day—the single did hit # 5 on the R&B Chart—yet, it only climbed to # 23 on BILLBOARDS HOT 200.
McFadden and Whitehead, a duo behind many of the Mid-70s Philadelphia Sound releases as producers and promoters of the music, found renewed interest and airplay following the release of the now Hollywood cult classic, Boogie Nights, in 1997. Speaking of which…
Quite a few songs received another look or renewed attention as the Retro Seventies Era--the mid-to-late-nineties--thrust many a forgotten one-hit-wonders back into the spotlight. Andrew Gold had a hand full of hits, but for some reason this song never appeared on either of the two soundtrack CDs released from the movie and is his most popular single.
“Lonely Boy” punctuated the now famous scene where both Gay Scotty, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Julian Moore--who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress--simultaneously scope-out Mark Wahlberg doing a jack-knife off of the diving board during the famous pool party scene...this, the afternoon before character Dirk Diggler’s first porn shoot the following day.
LOVE GROWS (where my Rosemary goes) EDISON LIGHTHOUSE ‘70/:12/2:45
Double Entendre Free of Charge
…great song from a group that was pretty much never to-be-heard from again.
Double Entendre Free of Charge
…great song from a group that was pretty much never to-be-heard from again.
HOT CHILD IN THE CITY NICK GILDER ‘78/:09/3:18
Look but Please Don't TouchAlrighty then! Let us do continue down the one-hit-wonderland road with this naughty one about a runaway teen from the burbs who turns tricks for fun on the weekends… Check-out this scandalous music video; pretty corny for its production values with our heroine firing a pistol carried in her garter belt wreaking sweet revenge on some of her asshole Johns' in scenes of the big-get-even. Efforts by your host to find-out who played the slightly-illegal-trickster did not produce results, but the song by Nick Gilder went to # 1 in both Canada and the US in October of 1978.
Incidentally, this was about a year after I got my first car, shortly before my 17th Birthday; all butt-hurt at the time--I did not get a new Trans AM or Z 28 like the other kids--I can appreciate that many kid's of my era were not in a position where mom and dad could buy a used car for their offspring. However, Willard and Adair did budget about $1800.00-2000.00 for what was then a five-year-old Chevy [insert assertion of White Privilege..I know, you are right...Here!]
Laying down One-wheeler limited-slip rear-end burnouts of rubber [non posi-traction rear-end,] the also non Super Sport Nova sported three fake SS emblems easily not discernible to the novice [I took off the front bumper, ripped-out the back seat to put-in padding and carpet, and thought that was cool too--what a dumb-ass!]
Stock, it turned an embarrassing high-18 or low '19 second elapsed-time quarter mile on the first time at the track with stock tires; hence, while the previous years' big block 396 cubic inch SS was no longer available, the '72 SS Chevy Nova did come with a formidable & higher horse power 350 ci engine, if one could get their hands on one. However, my particular Rally Nova was an option package of stripes, one sport mirror, rally wheels, offering only a 307 ci engine, equipped with a wide-throw [Saginaw, MI] three speed on the floor.
Mistakenly, this is where Dad thought he had hit or reached an understanding with his soon to be out-of-control testosterone-addled nutcase of an only son: "Well...he gets a V-8 and a sporty manual transmission, but at least this is not the '67 GTO 400 'that Kid' almost had me snowed into getting."
...note red fenders, black hood, and white fiberglass cowl scoop--never to be finished--after getting traction and catapulting into a tree while doing a lawn-job at La Sierra Park, followed by a minor rear-end collision soon after[anyone remember the bumper sticker: Watch my ass--not hers!]
However, the '72 Nova served a purpose:
I learned how to "disco drive," spin crazy-eights, and, fortunately, what happens when one comes off of a lawn and over one of those curvy Sac-Town curbs pointing perpendiculars to the street, immediately grabing traction while tacking 4-grand--in third:
...right into a tree!
I never had a wreck in the three following muscle cars, yet, I destroyed The Nov--as we used to refer to the not so heavy Chevy--in just under two-years!
...and let me tell you this:
If you drive around with a can of Aqua Net hairspray rolling around on the floorboards [do not let that bad-boy lodge itself under the clutch or worse yet, the brake pedal!] and are always spraying it on your disco-boy-parted-down-the-middle hair as you cruise down Arden Way, Watt Avenue, or Fair Oaks Boulevard, it is going to wreak havoc on that vinyl interior; Indeed, many a hot spring or summer afternoon in the Sac would I return to the locked car in a parking lot to find the top or cushion on one of the seats having had split open; then, pack a gaggle of buddies in the back and on The Nov's front bench-seat after spraying Armor All on everything on a hot Sacramento late afternoon, and you have some slippery and out-of-control teens cruising for some action--and oftentimes, trouble.
It would be well into the next decade that Armor All would be reformulated after a class action suit from motorists who suspected that the detailing product actually damaged some vinyl car interiors; yet all of that Aqua Net and other hairsprays many of us teens used back-in-the-day couldn't have been good for it either!
...40,000 mile guaranteed Montgomery Ward Tires replaced twice at about 8,000-12,000 miles? I've Got This!
...talk about chutzpah, I still remember on the occasion of having the tires rotated--now the second time for a free replacement--being told, "Look kid, I know what is going-on with these back tires. This is the last time, okay?"
Despite the smogger-dogger my father bought at purchase, by the time my friends and I ripped-out the single exhaust--replacing it with dual exhaust and of equal importance, coming-off Hooker Headers with bolt-on Hush Thrush mufflers, next putting-on a Holley 4 bbl. carb with an Edelbrock intake manifold, blowing-up the "tranny"--I can say that as it had a Saginaw wide-throw three-speed, okay, people--replacing it by dropping-in a Hurst competition-plus shiftier equipped Muncie 4-speed?
Soon after, I burned out the stock 10" clutch replacing it with an 11.5" Hayes clutch...Throw-in a few other inexpensive or smaller bolt-on goodies and bolt-off the factory mandated smog equipment--and my buddies were amazed to see the smog motor with the small diameter heads regularly turning a 15.2 in the quarter-mile or low 15s!
...even a 14.8 QM one sticky-hot Sacramento night at the track--with some under-inflated '60 series tires for a better launch!
Hence, the Dodge 440 Polara had aged-out--now retired.
Better yet, their replacements were not at all quick or agile on the street either: alas, they had to meet stringent smog requirements--thank you Governor Jerry Brown (version-one,) and the wisdom of the California Legislatures' implementation of CA Assembly Mile-per-gallon mandates.
It was a perfect storm for many a street-rodder!
Alas, many of my friends parent's passed down late 1960's and early '70's muscle cars just as the authorities vehicles had to meet safety mandates; case-in-point, heavier bumpers and thicker passenger and driver-side sheet metal. Next, along came new unleaded fuel with lower octane ratings leading to engine compression ratios plummeting due to camshaft and timing de-tuning.
Simply, the power-to-weight ratio took a pretty substantial hit.
What the hell is going-on here...I need my lead!
Almost every model year from 1972 onward, compression ratios were dropped [previously 10.5:1/ 10.25:1 for example] for the Big 4 automakers to 9:0 or even 8:5.
To the non-car-enthusiasts this seems slight, but it made a huge difference in horsepower, and caused knocking in the performance cars of the previous decade once the unleaded gas was finished being phased-in [1974/'75.]
Moreover, additional HP robbing smog equipment led to a snarl of hoses, belts, and sensors strangling our V-8s. Those Big Block 440 Mopars, 400 or 455 Trans AMs, Goats, and Zs many of my classmates were bestowed, left local municipalities police cruisers increasingly, "in the rear-view mirror!" Oftentimes, even my little ’72 Nova out-maneuvered, revved quicker, and torque-er with the 4-speed to get to the next party on a Friday night without incident.
This was the beginning of the end...and, by the time I came back to Sacramento in 1983--after serving in what was then Western Germany--everything had been changing, rapidly, in the Central Valley Cali Cruising Capital of California.
Out-of-Freaking-control, people!
One last look back takes us to my Senior Year--be-bopping home with my hot soon to be sophomore JV Cheerleader-type GF:
[...and what 58 year-old man still keeps such memorabilia should be the real question!]
Officer Glass, tired of writing-out fix-it tickets for which I had about thirteen or fourteen in the glove box 4 "Open Headers,"
Stock, it turned an embarrassing high-18 or low '19 second elapsed-time quarter mile on the first time at the track with stock tires; hence, while the previous years' big block 396 cubic inch SS was no longer available, the '72 SS Chevy Nova did come with a formidable & higher horse power 350 ci engine, if one could get their hands on one. However, my particular Rally Nova was an option package of stripes, one sport mirror, rally wheels, offering only a 307 ci engine, equipped with a wide-throw [Saginaw, MI] three speed on the floor.
Mistakenly, this is where Dad thought he had hit or reached an understanding with his soon to be out-of-control testosterone-addled nutcase of an only son: "Well...he gets a V-8 and a sporty manual transmission, but at least this is not the '67 GTO 400 'that Kid' almost had me snowed into getting."
...note red fenders, black hood, and white fiberglass cowl scoop--never to be finished--after getting traction and catapulting into a tree while doing a lawn-job at La Sierra Park, followed by a minor rear-end collision soon after[anyone remember the bumper sticker: Watch my ass--not hers!]
However, the '72 Nova served a purpose:
I learned how to "disco drive," spin crazy-eights, and, fortunately, what happens when one comes off of a lawn and over one of those curvy Sac-Town curbs pointing perpendiculars to the street, immediately grabing traction while tacking 4-grand--in third:
...right into a tree!
I never had a wreck in the three following muscle cars, yet, I destroyed The Nov--as we used to refer to the not so heavy Chevy--in just under two-years!
...and let me tell you this:
If you drive around with a can of Aqua Net hairspray rolling around on the floorboards [do not let that bad-boy lodge itself under the clutch or worse yet, the brake pedal!] and are always spraying it on your disco-boy-parted-down-the-middle hair as you cruise down Arden Way, Watt Avenue, or Fair Oaks Boulevard, it is going to wreak havoc on that vinyl interior; Indeed, many a hot spring or summer afternoon in the Sac would I return to the locked car in a parking lot to find the top or cushion on one of the seats having had split open; then, pack a gaggle of buddies in the back and on The Nov's front bench-seat after spraying Armor All on everything on a hot Sacramento late afternoon, and you have some slippery and out-of-control teens cruising for some action--and oftentimes, trouble.
It would be well into the next decade that Armor All would be reformulated after a class action suit from motorists who suspected that the detailing product actually damaged some vinyl car interiors; yet all of that Aqua Net and other hairsprays many of us teens used back-in-the-day couldn't have been good for it either!
AND Did I Ever Go Through Tires Like They Were Paper Towels
...40,000 mile guaranteed Montgomery Ward Tires replaced twice at about 8,000-12,000 miles? I've Got This!
...talk about chutzpah, I still remember on the occasion of having the tires rotated--now the second time for a free replacement--being told, "Look kid, I know what is going-on with these back tires. This is the last time, okay?"
Despite the smogger-dogger my father bought at purchase, by the time my friends and I ripped-out the single exhaust--replacing it with dual exhaust and of equal importance, coming-off Hooker Headers with bolt-on Hush Thrush mufflers, next putting-on a Holley 4 bbl. carb with an Edelbrock intake manifold, blowing-up the "tranny"--I can say that as it had a Saginaw wide-throw three-speed, okay, people--replacing it by dropping-in a Hurst competition-plus shiftier equipped Muncie 4-speed?
We Were Off to the Races
Soon after, I burned out the stock 10" clutch replacing it with an 11.5" Hayes clutch...Throw-in a few other inexpensive or smaller bolt-on goodies and bolt-off the factory mandated smog equipment--and my buddies were amazed to see the smog motor with the small diameter heads regularly turning a 15.2 in the quarter-mile or low 15s!
...even a 14.8 QM one sticky-hot Sacramento night at the track--with some under-inflated '60 series tires for a better launch!
Put it This Way:
By late 1976--certainly '77 and '78--the CHP’s new squad cars were no longer the big-block high-torque, behemoths built for the I-80s and I-5s of the Golden State.Hence, the Dodge 440 Polara had aged-out--now retired.
Better yet, their replacements were not at all quick or agile on the street either: alas, they had to meet stringent smog requirements--thank you Governor Jerry Brown (version-one,) and the wisdom of the California Legislatures' implementation of CA Assembly Mile-per-gallon mandates.
It was a perfect storm for many a street-rodder!
Alas, many of my friends parent's passed down late 1960's and early '70's muscle cars just as the authorities vehicles had to meet safety mandates; case-in-point, heavier bumpers and thicker passenger and driver-side sheet metal. Next, along came new unleaded fuel with lower octane ratings leading to engine compression ratios plummeting due to camshaft and timing de-tuning.
Simply, the power-to-weight ratio took a pretty substantial hit.
What the hell is going-on here...I need my lead!
Almost every model year from 1972 onward, compression ratios were dropped [previously 10.5:1/ 10.25:1 for example] for the Big 4 automakers to 9:0 or even 8:5.
To the non-car-enthusiasts this seems slight, but it made a huge difference in horsepower, and caused knocking in the performance cars of the previous decade once the unleaded gas was finished being phased-in [1974/'75.]
Moreover, additional HP robbing smog equipment led to a snarl of hoses, belts, and sensors strangling our V-8s. Those Big Block 440 Mopars, 400 or 455 Trans AMs, Goats, and Zs many of my classmates were bestowed, left local municipalities police cruisers increasingly, "in the rear-view mirror!" Oftentimes, even my little ’72 Nova out-maneuvered, revved quicker, and torque-er with the 4-speed to get to the next party on a Friday night without incident.
Thank God, I never ran-over anyone or committed vehicular manslaughter!
Continually, these late '70s hi-jinks and accompanying debauchery--a dash of tomfoolery too--played-out in Sacramento County parks prior to the gates going-in & being locked-up at11 PM or midnight around the close of the decade [also, along the once vehicle-accessible American River] nightly on hot summer nights.
This was the beginning of the end...and, by the time I came back to Sacramento in 1983--after serving in what was then Western Germany--everything had been changing, rapidly, in the Central Valley Cali Cruising Capital of California.
Out-of-Freaking-control, people!
One last look back takes us to my Senior Year--be-bopping home with my hot soon to be sophomore JV Cheerleader-type GF:
[...and what 58 year-old man still keeps such memorabilia should be the real question!]
 |
| CHP Officer Glass hand-delivered this ticket: Willard and Adair were not amused. |
even hand delivered this ticket for Exhibition of Speed to my parents at our house in Carmichael one afternoon after "...spinning donuts, peeling rubber, smoke, and nearly hitting Vice Principle Dean Dayton."
I did not!
...but really, who runs-out in front of a 3200 Lb hot-rod pumping 300 HP at 5000 RPM?
"YOU ARE SOOO Grounded...Go to your room!"
In honor of such "Old Days" or good times I remember, please enjoy the following video that was a shout-out to street-rodders and a bygone era:
REV ON THE REDLINE FOREIGNER ‘79/:09-17/3:35
I did not!
...but really, who runs-out in front of a 3200 Lb hot-rod pumping 300 HP at 5000 RPM?
"YOU ARE SOOO Grounded...Go to your room!"
In honor of such "Old Days" or good times I remember, please enjoy the following video that was a shout-out to street-rodders and a bygone era:
REV ON THE REDLINE FOREIGNER ‘79/:09-17/3:35
"...I've Got to Spin Those Needles...Got to Feel the Heat...Hear My Motor Screaming While I'm Tearing-up the Street
Foreigner's Lou Gramm Tells the Story Behind "Rev on the Redline"
Foreigner's Lou Gramm Tells the Story Behind "Rev on the Redline"
The Movie Foxes was another one of those far from innocent coming-of-age stories.
Here is the trailer from Foxes depicting SoCal teen life driving in the fast lane of the late 1970s. Let us see what our juvenile delinquent counterparts 400 miles to the south of the Capital City were up to:
WOW! ...and Donna Summers "On the Radio" in the Soundtrack too
Starring Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, and Randy Quaid, it featured plenty of teen drug use; a time of high school smoking areas which doubled as open-air drug bazaars, okay?
You could find anything at Rio’s smoking area. Rio? What is this Rio, Drake?
I will explain:
Rio Americano High School--most all Sacramento high schools had Spanish names, be it Bella Vista, El Camino, La Sierra, Mira Loma, and so-on; therefore, Spanish for American River, Rio was and still is, planted between American River Drive and the levee that ran parallel along the American River Parkway's Bike Trail.
The school had such a reputation for being a party school that it was refereed to by rival schools as: Rio Marijuana. Matter of fact, the Music Room facing American River Drive had a depiction of Elton John at piano [circa 1973 album Yellow Brick Road.]
Behind him?
A rather large and very green marijuana leaf! Despite gripes from parents and some teachers and administrators, the picture remained throughout at least one school year on the grounds of protected speech under the first amendment.
...my how thing have changed!
Getting back to this issue of Rio's smoking area, I was warned by some of my older radio mentors at the high school station and upperclassman that "As a freshman," this was not a good place to be at or even be seen; mostly, I avoided the smoking area being a light smoker. Really, I never identified as part of the stoner crowd, holding-off even trying weed until the summer going into my junior year [that would be the middle sister initiating me back at the river!] Decidedly, I could vacillate back-and-forth at school or when attending parties between the Jocks and the Stoners, ubiquitous due to my exposure or as we call it as BECA Majors at SFSU [and for lack of a better term,] my Reach.
I was everywhere...well, like a 1986 release from Fleetwood Mac, "Everywhere."
 |
| Caption Reads: Drake Davis Takes Time Out From His Radio Show to Talk to Fans |
The Morning Announcements & You was a continuation of my friend and colleague, Barrett Katz, obsessive love of 610 KFRC AM, San Francisco who had done the Announcements the previous year At Rio Americano High School.
Really, even most the athletic jocks and KRAT Jocks could be seen taking a toke--at least occasionally. After all, it was the late '70s, and nobody really cared what happened on the weekends.
Harder yet to Imagine by today's standards, yet true:
At least at Sacramento’s Rio Americano High School anyway, open campus and springtime weather meant keggers either at neighborhood Ashton Park [referred to as Haasshhhton Park] or behind the levee at lunch as summer approached.
Simply, all that had to be decided was if it would be at Peninsula 1 or Peninsula 2!
Oftentimes, Vice Principal Dean Dayton and Mrs. Kelly would inevitably notice that 5th and 6th period attendance was down or missing 80 or 100 students. They would either hop in their cars and approach us at Ashton Park--at which time we had an escape route or find us socializing, schmoozing, or even some of us swimming fully-clothed and jumping off the Peninsula One rope-swing into The American.
I can still remember Dayton, Kelly & Company spotting us on from the levee armed with binoculars and bull-horning us to get back to class; even the Sacramento County Sheriff Department was getting into the act with what was their new helicopter one late afternoon; apparently, thinking this was a reasonable way to accommodate the administration's concerns, organizers having had moved the festivities into the mid-afternoon on Fridays, but we were sadly mistaken.
This was a not long-lived era as over the summer of graduation, Class of '78, I met my first serious girlfriend. Barry Stachelek, a Frosh Cheerleader. That summer, she was becoming a sophomore rah-rah--making the team of the more prestigious & glamorous Rio Americano Song Leaders
I have an October Birthday, so do not be too concerned, we were less than three years apart, people.
By the time of the end of her junior year when we parted ways, Rio had been infiltrated by several undercover Sacramento Sheriff Department Narcotics Officers; if memory serves, one of whom was well into his mid-twenties, and in trouble for indiscretions while dating underage students. The resulting investigation netted close to twenty students finding themselves caught-up in what could best be described as:
The Class of 1980 Purge, receiving punishments ranging from suspension to a year in Ju-vee.
Welcome to the 1980's, people: Reagan is coming in to restore order, Herpes & AIDS are to be released, and a war on drugs and porn are on the way,saving the day!
...or to quote my oldest Sister, Shawna, addressing my Mother in 1969 Los Angeles, "What...are we having too much fun?"
So, soon to be ending were the quasi-school sanctioned events such as Senior Sunrise--an overnight sleepover on Rio's campus before the last the day of school, hence, graduation. Somehow, this had seemed normal or a good idea to most parents in mid-to-late1970s California.
Really...what could possibly go wrong?
The event was designed for attendance by juniors for the purpose of waking-up the following morning:
At least at Sacramento’s Rio Americano High School anyway, open campus and springtime weather meant keggers either at neighborhood Ashton Park [referred to as Haasshhhton Park] or behind the levee at lunch as summer approached.
Simply, all that had to be decided was if it would be at Peninsula 1 or Peninsula 2!
Oftentimes, Vice Principal Dean Dayton and Mrs. Kelly would inevitably notice that 5th and 6th period attendance was down or missing 80 or 100 students. They would either hop in their cars and approach us at Ashton Park--at which time we had an escape route or find us socializing, schmoozing, or even some of us swimming fully-clothed and jumping off the Peninsula One rope-swing into The American.
I can still remember Dayton, Kelly & Company spotting us on from the levee armed with binoculars and bull-horning us to get back to class; even the Sacramento County Sheriff Department was getting into the act with what was their new helicopter one late afternoon; apparently, thinking this was a reasonable way to accommodate the administration's concerns, organizers having had moved the festivities into the mid-afternoon on Fridays, but we were sadly mistaken.
This was a not long-lived era as over the summer of graduation, Class of '78, I met my first serious girlfriend. Barry Stachelek, a Frosh Cheerleader. That summer, she was becoming a sophomore rah-rah--making the team of the more prestigious & glamorous Rio Americano Song Leaders
I have an October Birthday, so do not be too concerned, we were less than three years apart, people.
By the time of the end of her junior year when we parted ways, Rio had been infiltrated by several undercover Sacramento Sheriff Department Narcotics Officers; if memory serves, one of whom was well into his mid-twenties, and in trouble for indiscretions while dating underage students. The resulting investigation netted close to twenty students finding themselves caught-up in what could best be described as:
The Class of 1980 Purge, receiving punishments ranging from suspension to a year in Ju-vee.
Welcome to the 1980's, people: Reagan is coming in to restore order, Herpes & AIDS are to be released, and a war on drugs and porn are on the way,saving the day!
...or to quote my oldest Sister, Shawna, addressing my Mother in 1969 Los Angeles, "What...are we having too much fun?"
So, soon to be ending were the quasi-school sanctioned events such as Senior Sunrise--an overnight sleepover on Rio's campus before the last the day of school, hence, graduation. Somehow, this had seemed normal or a good idea to most parents in mid-to-late1970s California.
Really...what could possibly go wrong?
The event was designed for attendance by juniors for the purpose of waking-up the following morning:
"...Congratulations, you are now a senior!”
The debauchery-filled overnight slumber party was attended by hundreds of seniors and sophomores, too. Drinking beer in the parking lot, running around half-naked on the rooftops, and piling-out of smoke filled vans as if a predictable scene out of High Times at Ridgemont High still are ingrained--genuinely surreal--memories of the happening and....enough said. I even cruised it, hanging-out for a few hours the year after I graduated with my now soon to be a junior, Songleader Girlfriend, Barry Stachalek...why not Berry, yet quite sure of spelling...perhaps a Polish Great Uncle from "the Old Country."
 |
| A Gift for My Eighteenth Birthday...The Picture, People! Barry Stachalek at Fifteen, Sacramento Oleanders' looking-on |
CHEVY VAN SAMMY JOHNS ‘73/:06/3:45
...the guys with vans were positioned to really have the most fun on this one
...the guys with vans were positioned to really have the most fun on this one
Credit: Steve Buch 391
The look on Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy faces patrolling the glass littered high school parking lot, amid the chaos…Priceless!
…that is not the one I was looking for with the song from Jackson Browne from a movie of the same genre…oh here it is: Little Darlings (1980)
SHAKE IT IAN MATHEWS 1978/:08-16/3:10
A 45 RPM Vinyl Complete with "Clicks & Pops" for authenticity
The Theme song from the Movie: Little Darlings…needless to say, it was a great time to grow-up and we were never as free! As can be imagined, I had a huge crush on the freckled faced and braces bearing, Tatum O’Neil!
...I had the coolest video of the song with them on the set, and publicity shots--poof gone--replaced by that stupid YouTube frownny-face! [DD Nov. '18]
Here is the Opening to the Flick
The Theme song from the Movie: Little Darlings…needless to say, it was a great time to grow-up and we were never as free! As can be imagined, I had a huge crush on the freckled faced and braces bearing, Tatum O’Neil!
...I had the coolest video of the song with them on the set, and publicity shots--poof gone--replaced by that stupid YouTube frownny-face! [DD Nov. '18]
Here is the Opening to the Flick
BLONDE ONE WAY OR ANOTHER 1979/:11-22/3:24
The Follow-up Hit to Her #1 "Heart of Glass"
Another song from Little Darlings, staring Tatum O’ Neil, Christie McNichol, and Matt Dillon---all of which were late ‘70s Heartthrobs. McNichol had achieved fame a few years earlier in the 1976 Hit series Family that dealt with controversial issues.
Another song from Little Darlings, staring Tatum O’ Neil, Christie McNichol, and Matt Dillon---all of which were late ‘70s Heartthrobs. McNichol had achieved fame a few years earlier in the 1976 Hit series Family that dealt with controversial issues.
I contend McNichol was perhaps the first clearly bi-sexual teenage TV character and was given a highly visible supporting role on a prime-time network show. Playing the role of “Buddy” in the series, her progressive parents' of the day, struggled none-the-less with their budding androgynous daughter’s statements and entanglements.
…guess they shouldn’t have named her “Buddy”! [I am so yesterday…sorry for the non-PC editorializing (not really)]
I will leave the above link to the movie and bio on McNichol as we have gotten sidetracked on this movie about three girl’s summer camp $100.00 bet on who can lose their virginity first; God, I miss the Seventies and before you come down on me too hard—please try to remember that I too was once nineteen at the beginning of 1980, okay?
Anyhow, one of the songs I thought was from the Movie is actually from 1982…
Oh, no wonder why: it is from the aforementioned High Times at Ridgemont High!
SOMEBODY’S BABY JACKSON BROWNE ‘82/:09-16/4:24
NEXT!
…Getting back to the One-Hit-Wonders:
SHANNON HENRY GROSS ‘76/:11-13/3:57
Here is a song written by Gross about Beach Boy Carl Wilson who had purportedly lost a dog earlier in the year. Listen to the words or enjoy the video, yet you may puzzled by the wording if I had not clued you into this narrative: The song is of parents' efforts to comfort distraught children--their family dog swept-out to sea--yikes! "Look kids, maybe he is on some island, okay?" ...pretty harsh, people.
Here is the song
...and the story behind it
Another Beach Boy-esque’ gem is this One-Hit-Wonder:
Here is the song
...and the story behind it
Another Beach Boy-esque’ gem is this One-Hit-Wonder:
BEACH BABY FIRST CLASS ‘74/:09-17/5:04
After 20 years as an Oregonian? This is why I prefer Cali
Home Sweet Home…70s Cali-Culture at it’s best with fantastic video aesthetics...
Home Sweet Home…70s Cali-Culture at it’s best with fantastic video aesthetics...
The best song the Beach Boys never did!
UNDERCOVER ANGEL ALAN O’ DAY ‘77/:09-11-15/4:11
Here is one that showed-up on my once a semester "Best Masturbation Songs of the Best Era...Ever!" Purportedly describing what can be best described as a wet dream. I could not make this stiff...I mean stuff-up!
Listen for Yourself
"Under Cover Angel...midnight fantasy...I've never had a dream that made sweet love to me."...eeewwwww!
GO ALL THE WAY RASPBERRIES ‘74/:06-15/3:20
Perhaps, a bit overproduced with the vocals coming across as under-modulated, the song came along as I entered the eighth grade at Arden Intermediate; culturally embracing the ethos of--Doing Your Own Thing--started smoking and beginning to try-on my new found autonomy with discovery of the wide-open expanses of the American River just a stone's-throw behind the house in Carmichael, and attending my first real--yet chaperoned--parties with dancing and even some sneaking or spiking of the proverbial punch Bowl...Julie Bolton in a social situation away from school. Should you ask her to dance?
...Ah, "Dancing in the Moonlight," sung by something called, King Harvest, as Boulton's navel thanks to a mid-drift or halter top, her so far ahead of me, yet she the same age.
Here is one that showed-up on my once a semester "Best Masturbation Songs of the Best Era...Ever!" Purportedly describing what can be best described as a wet dream. I could not make this stiff...I mean stuff-up!
Listen for Yourself
"Under Cover Angel...midnight fantasy...I've never had a dream that made sweet love to me."...eeewwwww!
GO ALL THE WAY RASPBERRIES ‘74/:06-15/3:20
Perhaps, a bit overproduced with the vocals coming across as under-modulated, the song came along as I entered the eighth grade at Arden Intermediate; culturally embracing the ethos of--Doing Your Own Thing--started smoking and beginning to try-on my new found autonomy with discovery of the wide-open expanses of the American River just a stone's-throw behind the house in Carmichael, and attending my first real--yet chaperoned--parties with dancing and even some sneaking or spiking of the proverbial punch Bowl...Julie Bolton in a social situation away from school. Should you ask her to dance?
...Ah, "Dancing in the Moonlight," sung by something called, King Harvest, as Boulton's navel thanks to a mid-drift or halter top, her so far ahead of me, yet she the same age.
Switching gears a bit while still careful to avoid the following overplayed songs on the show, front man of this "two-hit wonder' band, Eric Carmen, went on to have one of the biggest hits of 1975, "All By Myself" and joined on backing vocals on Elton John and Kiki Dees duo, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."
Next, we take a look at Feminism in the Best era ever !!!
Twice on ST&P we did a show on some of the feminist powerhouses of the day
Next, we take a look at Feminism in the Best era ever !!!
Twice on ST&P we did a show on some of the feminist powerhouses of the day
…OH…my bad: this was a time prior to 1990s third-wave feminism and the term itself was shunned for a more contemporary and radical tone back-in-the-day; this was an era of Women’s Lib, baby! We touched on this earlier in regard to Ronstadt's role...
relaunching musically and symbolizing what Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem started a decade earlier--the standard bearer of the genre would have to be, Helen Ready.
I AM WOMAN HELEN READY ‘72/:06-13/3:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu4xpDuf84A
As I learned in my Humanities 390 Class, Erotic Images, an upper division elective here at State, 1972 was a pivotal year regarding not only women's rights, but the gay rights movement taking hold some three years after Stonewall. Equally important, is what could best be described as the second phase of the sexual revolution--the mainstreaming of erotica and in many instances, pornography.
For example, it was the year that Marlon Brando's Last Tango in Paris hit theaters with an X' rating, Burt Reynolds posed as the first male centerfold in Cosmopolitan, and Playboy spun-off Oui--first considered a women's nude pictorial magazine, yet the gay community embraced the publication as well. On the porn front, both Behind the Green Door and Deep Throat opened in not only more secluded drive-in theaters, but also in artsy if not traditional foreign film venues; moreover, Hustler magazine kicked-off in January of that year too!
...anyone seeing a pattern here?
According to my Professor, Dr. Augsburg, the main-streaming of the porn genre was exemplified as explained above and detailed in more dramatic developments:
Behind the Green Door Star, Marilyn Chambers, was revealed to be the face of Ivory Snow [brand] laundry soap, recognizable to the majority of housewives [sic] who watched Soap Operas, shocking the public to some extent.
Actress Linda Lovelace would become a household name--just as the title of the movie Deep Throat became a popular phrase in the our culture's slang, or vernacular. Accordingly, we have the Women's Rights Movement fueling much of what was to continue to evolve [devolve?] by mid-decade; as an illustration, the women's movement squaring of on a decades-long debate--still unsettled--on if the porn genre was liberating or oppressing females.
Furthermore, pubic hair was soon to be allowed to be shown--first in Penthouse magazine, Playboy following suit less than a year later; by mid-decade, Sappho or Lesbianism and Bisexuality graced the pages of Playboy regularly, and the "first" out-of-the-closet characters were beginning to emerge in movies and on TV.
Equally important, key pop culture icons such as Olivia Newton John, Elton John, Bianca Jagger, Andy Warhol, David Bowie, and others in the public eye were speculated-upon as being either gay or bisexual.
As I learned in my Humanities 390 Class, Erotic Images, an upper division elective here at State, 1972 was a pivotal year regarding not only women's rights, but the gay rights movement taking hold some three years after Stonewall. Equally important, is what could best be described as the second phase of the sexual revolution--the mainstreaming of erotica and in many instances, pornography.
For example, it was the year that Marlon Brando's Last Tango in Paris hit theaters with an X' rating, Burt Reynolds posed as the first male centerfold in Cosmopolitan, and Playboy spun-off Oui--first considered a women's nude pictorial magazine, yet the gay community embraced the publication as well. On the porn front, both Behind the Green Door and Deep Throat opened in not only more secluded drive-in theaters, but also in artsy if not traditional foreign film venues; moreover, Hustler magazine kicked-off in January of that year too!
...anyone seeing a pattern here?
According to my Professor, Dr. Augsburg, the main-streaming of the porn genre was exemplified as explained above and detailed in more dramatic developments:
Behind the Green Door Star, Marilyn Chambers, was revealed to be the face of Ivory Snow [brand] laundry soap, recognizable to the majority of housewives [sic] who watched Soap Operas, shocking the public to some extent.
Actress Linda Lovelace would become a household name--just as the title of the movie Deep Throat became a popular phrase in the our culture's slang, or vernacular. Accordingly, we have the Women's Rights Movement fueling much of what was to continue to evolve [devolve?] by mid-decade; as an illustration, the women's movement squaring of on a decades-long debate--still unsettled--on if the porn genre was liberating or oppressing females.
Furthermore, pubic hair was soon to be allowed to be shown--first in Penthouse magazine, Playboy following suit less than a year later; by mid-decade, Sappho or Lesbianism and Bisexuality graced the pages of Playboy regularly, and the "first" out-of-the-closet characters were beginning to emerge in movies and on TV.
Equally important, key pop culture icons such as Olivia Newton John, Elton John, Bianca Jagger, Andy Warhol, David Bowie, and others in the public eye were speculated-upon as being either gay or bisexual.
ONLY LOVE IS REAL CAROL KING ‘74/:18/3:33
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP6W1MaxJLI
A hero of the movement, King would leave behind her songwriting-duo-husband as the mid-sixties gave way the to-the-late, moving across the country to LA. King first solo effort became one of the longest lasting Hot 100 charting albums of the decade, 1971's Tapestry; not only did King leave behind the house and kids, but was at the forefront of Woman's 'Lib and the--although discreet but later confirmed (?)--unfolding gay rights movements' alignment with the feminism of the era.
A hero of the movement, King would leave behind her songwriting-duo-husband as the mid-sixties gave way the to-the-late, moving across the country to LA. King first solo effort became one of the longest lasting Hot 100 charting albums of the decade, 1971's Tapestry; not only did King leave behind the house and kids, but was at the forefront of Woman's 'Lib and the--although discreet but later confirmed (?)--unfolding gay rights movements' alignment with the feminism of the era.
THE WAY I’VE ALWAYS HEARD IT SHOULD BE CARLY SIMON ‘71/:00/5:24
A rather dystopian melody that captures the sentiments of many of older female baby boomers who grappled with their new found freedom afforded as the seventies unfolded; hence, striking-out on their own as opposed to settling down to the traditional lifestyles of previous generations.
Years later as teenager with two--by then--adult sisters and having witnessed the tremendous arguments in the late 1960s between my oldest, stridently independent and very feminist oldest sister [Santa Monica City College Class of ’72 and Sonoma State ‘74…I rest my case!] and our parents, the song could still bring tears to my eyes.
Oh, the slapping and hair-pulling witnessed growing-up in that hallway does lent credence to the oldest sister's claim of my folks being abusive, physically, at times. For me, I could not understand the big deal over hemlines, why young women could not wear jeans to high school, or this sneaking-out of cosmetics to be put on once at school, nylons coming-off, too. Being the baby and a boy, there was a double standard and by the time I was in high school, the world had changed, indeed, and I was allowed much more freedom or latitude.
I did receive my share of having my hair pulled and being pushed around, too, but that abruptly ended right around Summer of 1976 (?) Willard pushed back out of my room and he into a hallway wall at age fifteen, going on sixteen. At just under 6' 3" and benching 240 Lb. free-bar, those days were over. He never put his hands on me again.
Yet, recalling 1968/1969/1970, the Generation Gap as it was called was widening, and Mom and Dad's World War II Generation values were losing ground as sure as support for the Vietnam War was fracturing.
Oh, the slapping and hair-pulling witnessed growing-up in that hallway does lent credence to the oldest sister's claim of my folks being abusive, physically, at times. For me, I could not understand the big deal over hemlines, why young women could not wear jeans to high school, or this sneaking-out of cosmetics to be put on once at school, nylons coming-off, too. Being the baby and a boy, there was a double standard and by the time I was in high school, the world had changed, indeed, and I was allowed much more freedom or latitude.
I did receive my share of having my hair pulled and being pushed around, too, but that abruptly ended right around Summer of 1976 (?) Willard pushed back out of my room and he into a hallway wall at age fifteen, going on sixteen. At just under 6' 3" and benching 240 Lb. free-bar, those days were over. He never put his hands on me again.
Yet, recalling 1968/1969/1970, the Generation Gap as it was called was widening, and Mom and Dad's World War II Generation values were losing ground as sure as support for the Vietnam War was fracturing.
Simon wrestles with her view of the parent’s middle-aged loveless marriage in an ode to a potential male suitor and questions following their path. A real gem that defies the pop music nature of much of her work:
Simon Entering Her Musical Prime
Simon Entering Her Musical Prime
…the video is from Good Vibrations at Central Park that aired on ABC August 19th 1971, Art Garfunkel can be seen whispering in conversation with a seemingly lecherous George Harrison, backstage. Simon, a relative newcomer at this point, would go on to sing “Your so Vain” just a year later and would pump-out successive hits for the rest of the decade; the song describes being taken advantage-of, sexually, by the Hollywood entertainment industry—supposedly at the hands of Warren Beatty [once again, this was 1972 and that song reflected the essence of women asserting themselves.] The shallowness which characterized the fast show-biz scene even today, contemporaneously, Weinstein/Cory Feldman, and a legion of #me too victims, reminds us that nothing is new under the sun: Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Munroe, all of whom had pretty tragic personal lives resulting from or in the hands of those who abused their power.
Back to this prime-time televised special that also demonstrated the boomers coming-of-age as potential consumers or as a growing segment--marketing-wise--as the 1970s began to unfold:
Simon’s performance was flawless [the lighting appreciated now by this BECA major] in a stunning split at-the-leg red dress; obviously, very much feeling at home on the grand piano at the onset of her career—a must view!
Simon’s performance was flawless [the lighting appreciated now by this BECA major] in a stunning split at-the-leg red dress; obviously, very much feeling at home on the grand piano at the onset of her career—a must view!
…and for those younger who are unfamiliar with her work, YouTube loaded this gem from her mid-eighties comeback era just now. I played this song and a couple of her other AC hits over those years on Group W Radio’s KAER 92.5 FM in Sacramento.
Note: Her purported suffering from stage fright discussed in her rarely permitted interviews--she is a very private and shy person--seems unbelievable when viewing this video.
Note: Her purported suffering from stage fright discussed in her rarely permitted interviews--she is a very private and shy person--seems unbelievable when viewing this video.
…and for my next trick and keeping with our feminism theme: Linda Ronstadt
One of my favorite artist of the Best Era Ever, Ronstadt embodies or typifies that mid-to-late 70s era as one of only few female solo artists could. Yes, there were female acts such as Heart that dominated too, yet she seemed to be everywhere if one were living in California at the time. Spotting Ronstadt in and around the the downtown of Sacramento or State Capitol--though occasional--she was dating Governor Brown, yet they spent most of their time in LA [specifically, at Brown's secluded Laurel Canyon home.] At the time, it made us locals feel like we were good for more than just being known for unbearably hot August days at the concrete encased California State Fair, Cal Expo!
HEATWAVE LINDA RONSTADT ‘75/:09/2:53
Without paying a dime, nearly 100 cars, motorcycles--certainly twice that many couples and mostly carloads of HS and college-aged males--lined the road leading-up to the admission gate to watch XXX movies; not exactly a wholesome way to rap-up a night drag racing on nearby Excelsior Drive on the western edge of Sacramento County!
Constantly on TV, Ronstadt had been able to harness the roller disco phenomenon without getting too far from her rock-a-billy roots; once again dawning roller skates adorned in Daisy Duke style gym shorts for the cover of one of her last big albums in 1979
The single, “I Can’t Let Go” epitomized her sassy take-no-prisoners style and continued her on the path of being the reigning Remake Queen. A very short haircut, clothes that covered her up, and sounds of a decidedly 1980's New Wave soon followed, but she closed-out the decade as a decidedly or consciously sensuous feminists foretelling the third wave feminist icons of the 1990's.
At the time of this blog-post, Ronstadt now lives a decidedly more private life after revealing she has Parkinson's Disease, residing in her Sea Cliff home here in San Francisco.
Feb 2019 CBS Interview
Vanity Fair Interview
I CAN'T LET GO LINDA RONSTADT '79/:03/2:41
Did I forget to mention rumors surrounding--along with even Governor Brown at the time--that they too were said to have embraced an alternative lifestyle? I think "Different Drum" was the catalyst for such musings during Ronstadt's initial Stone Temple Pilots years.
As my Father used to say at the time, "Don't knock it til you tried it."
It was decades later through my own travels throughout LBGT circles in both Sac, SF, and later Portland, that I discovered this was an often used term within--the then still mostly underground--gay and swinging community of the sixties. Questions or doubts about my own Father's dalliances in this arena seem pretty likely according to my research--the musings of not one, but several older cousins seem to confirm--along with the benefit of hind-site.
Mom? ...I highly doubt it, but one never really knows, do we?
By the Bi: Olivia Newton John has plenty of songs still receiving some play. Here is one that seem to have fallen-off the radar but still stands the test of time.
As my Father used to say at the time, "Don't knock it til you tried it."
It was decades later through my own travels throughout LBGT circles in both Sac, SF, and later Portland, that I discovered this was an often used term within--the then still mostly underground--gay and swinging community of the sixties. Questions or doubts about my own Father's dalliances in this arena seem pretty likely according to my research--the musings of not one, but several older cousins seem to confirm--along with the benefit of hind-site.
Mom? ...I highly doubt it, but one never really knows, do we?
By the Bi: Olivia Newton John has plenty of songs still receiving some play. Here is one that seem to have fallen-off the radar but still stands the test of time.
A LITTLE MORE LOVE OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN ‘78 /:06-10/3:33
Easy to See Why a Fixation of Our Teenage Lust
Easy to See Why a Fixation of Our Teenage Lust
Even more so forgotten is this remake of the 1967 hit by Motown’s Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Carnes' soulful use of strings and brassy lending to her smoky voiced rendition foretold one of the biggest # 1 hits of 1981 a year later, “She’s Got Betty Davis Eyes”
MORE LOVE KIM CARNES ‘80/:21/3:35
Often Overlooked Song Radio Airplay-wise Resurrected Decades Later
Carnes soulful use of strings and brassy lending to her smoky voiced rendition foretold one of the biggest # 1 hits of 1981 a year later, “She’s Got Betty Davis Eyes”
STONEY END BARBARA STREISAND '71/:09/3:01
Coming back to conclude a strong dose of female vocalists for our theme on feminists, we cannot leave out Streisand. Perhaps her first pop hit single transitioning from a stage career into a multi-faceted talent who was there at the time of divorce coming to the fore, staring alongside Robert Redford in The Way We Were.
Trailer for the Movie (1973)
Carnes soulful use of strings and brassy lending to her smoky voiced rendition foretold one of the biggest # 1 hits of 1981 a year later, “She’s Got Betty Davis Eyes”
STONEY END BARBARA STREISAND '71/:09/3:01
Coming back to conclude a strong dose of female vocalists for our theme on feminists, we cannot leave out Streisand. Perhaps her first pop hit single transitioning from a stage career into a multi-faceted talent who was there at the time of divorce coming to the fore, staring alongside Robert Redford in The Way We Were.
Trailer for the Movie (1973)
IT'S A SHAME THE DETROIT SPINNERS '70/:23/3:22
This song is noteworthy in that it would be several years until the group really got traction with hits such as "I'll Be Around" and "Rubberband Man."
Hear the Spinners before they were the Spinners!
MAKIN’ IT DAVID NAUGHTON ‘78/:09-16/3:15
This song is noteworthy in that it would be several years until the group really got traction with hits such as "I'll Be Around" and "Rubberband Man."
Hear the Spinners before they were the Spinners!
MAKIN’ IT DAVID NAUGHTON ‘78/:09-16/3:15
From the soundtrack of Meatballs, here is another one that lacked what we used to call recurrent airplay in radio. Decidedly disco, it was a club hit more than anything else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F47AfASOnA8
I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR EVERYTHING ANDY GIBB ‘77/:08-12/3:43
I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR EVERYTHING ANDY GIBB ‘77/:08-12/3:43
LOVE YOU INSIDE AND OUT BEE GEES ‘79/:12-26/4:22
Hot Nights With Barry at La Sierra & Cresta Park [Arden Park Neighborhood]
LOVE SO RIGHT BEE GEES
We Were Free
Almost an anathema to the times we live-in: The #MeToo movement, everyone up in each others business: "...how could a love so right...be so wrong?"
Everywhere one looks We the People's ability to make our own choices is second guessed, confused with exploitation, or met by a statute that redefines words; seems the once art of seduction is under assault by those [this too is coming largely from the Globalists who cloak their desire to take control of our reproduction and bring-in another era of Eugenics.] who recruit the increasingly authoritarian-left to impose ever more rules leading to a continued loss of personal liberty; whatever happened to classic liberalism or where is Thomas Jefferson when you need him!
EVERLASTING LOVE ANDY GIBB [BEE GEES BACKING] '78/:10/4:09
One Last One From The Gibbers'
LOVE SO RIGHT BEE GEES
We Were Free
Almost an anathema to the times we live-in: The #MeToo movement, everyone up in each others business: "...how could a love so right...be so wrong?"
Everywhere one looks We the People's ability to make our own choices is second guessed, confused with exploitation, or met by a statute that redefines words; seems the once art of seduction is under assault by those [this too is coming largely from the Globalists who cloak their desire to take control of our reproduction and bring-in another era of Eugenics.] who recruit the increasingly authoritarian-left to impose ever more rules leading to a continued loss of personal liberty; whatever happened to classic liberalism or where is Thomas Jefferson when you need him!
EVERLASTING LOVE ANDY GIBB [BEE GEES BACKING] '78/:10/4:09
One Last One From The Gibbers'
EVEN NOW BARRY MANILOW ‘78/:08-14/3:29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDAsp45RzHs
Can I be honest here? Anyone read the "What I Did for Summer Vacation" blog-post written just after having returned from partially digitizing my photo albums for Simpler Time & Place? For decades, I still remember the pain of a broken heart when hearing this song regarding the woman I almost married and what might have been; alright, Davis, turn-off the water-works you sensitive, sissy-bi, Libra!
Can I be honest here? Anyone read the "What I Did for Summer Vacation" blog-post written just after having returned from partially digitizing my photo albums for Simpler Time & Place? For decades, I still remember the pain of a broken heart when hearing this song regarding the woman I almost married and what might have been; alright, Davis, turn-off the water-works you sensitive, sissy-bi, Libra!
LAUGHTER IN THE RAIN NEIL SEDAKA ‘74/:03-08/2:48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsYIiY2wnyU
Sedaka was a 1950s & Pre-British Invasion [1964] heartthrob who was both a songwriter and performance artist; continuing to write songs including the Captain & Tennille's huge debut #1, "Love Will keep Us Together," the album, Sedaka is Back, produced one of the most popular songs of the year. If you take a listen to the aforementioned Captain & Tennille song [as it begins to fade,] Tennielle changes a refrain to "...Sadaka is Back."
Sedaka was a 1950s & Pre-British Invasion [1964] heartthrob who was both a songwriter and performance artist; continuing to write songs including the Captain & Tennille's huge debut #1, "Love Will keep Us Together," the album, Sedaka is Back, produced one of the most popular songs of the year. If you take a listen to the aforementioned Captain & Tennille song [as it begins to fade,] Tennielle changes a refrain to "...Sadaka is Back."
Funny story…my father worked with a composer/conductor, Carmen Dragon (1914-1984) many times throughout his 1950s-1971 TV career as a writer, producer, and director. Specifically, the SF based Standard School Broadcast which was a sort-of precursor to PBS and was aired in elementary schools nationwide.
…what-the-hell does that have to do with anything ADHD Boy?
Well, I’m getting to that. Carmen Dragon’s son, Daryl Dragon is the Captain of Captain and Tennille fame!
Dragon and his wife had a house in Malibu right-off HWY 1 with a stunning ocean view. I remember my parents being all but-hurt with Dragon by the time we left LA; apparently, Dragon and his wife were in-the-doghouse for not returning our baby crib, lent to Captain & Tennille, for Carmen Dragon's grandchildren. Really…Seems a bit trite on mom and dad’s part.
[amended 1/09/2019] Sadly, Daryl Dragon was the first boomer musician of note to die in the new year:
Daryl Dragon RIP 1947-2019
[amended 1/09/2019] Sadly, Daryl Dragon was the first boomer musician of note to die in the new year:
Daryl Dragon RIP 1947-2019
YOU NEVER DONE IT LIKE THAT CAPTAIN & TENNILLE ‘78/:08/3:21
THE WAY THAT I WANT TO TOUCH YOU CAPTAIN & TENNILLE ‘78/:08/2:48
However, they were nice enough to lend us their cabin at Lake Arrowhead a few times, but I did not digitize those pictures yet. Matter of fact, old hyperactive boy, Drake, ran directly into a barbwire- fence just moments after completing the car trip from Pacific Palisades. This requiring mom and dad to drop everything and run me into Big Bear for stitches!
…can you say, problem child?
CLAIR GILBERT O’SULLIVAN ‘72/:00/3:13
Often misinterpreted suggesting something sinister is afoot, the song depicts a real-life experience of a time when men were not assumed to be monsters and, oftentimes, were referred to as Uncle by close family friend’s children. The link provided not only takes you to the song and the story behind the video—a video made for BBC at a decade before the prevalence of music videos—for it also explains the relationship between O’Sullivan and Claire, his producer’s daughter, who he babysat frequently.
The song, banned from air-play once the “all men, especially uncles, are child molesters” era of the mid-eighties took hold is a reminder of just how far the control freaks that run our country will go to break-up families; laying a collective guilt-trip on what otherwise could be viewed as a tender, touching, healthy love between a close family friend who considered the young girl to be his niece; our controllers will stop at nothing to destroy what little beauty remains in this world.
Words from Claire Mills Accompany the Video
When you go to this particular YouTube of the song, be sure to scroll-down to read a personal friend of the Mother of Claire and Claire Mills herself who explains--as I have--that this song is not perverse and that she was honored to have O' Sullivan pay tribute to her daughter by writing and performing the song; needless to say, the comments left and resulting pain from ruthless trolling has been disturbing for all involved.
Words from Claire Mills Accompany the Video
When you go to this particular YouTube of the song, be sure to scroll-down to read a personal friend of the Mother of Claire and Claire Mills herself who explains--as I have--that this song is not perverse and that she was honored to have O' Sullivan pay tribute to her daughter by writing and performing the song; needless to say, the comments left and resulting pain from ruthless trolling has been disturbing for all involved.
ALL THE YOUNG GIRLS LOVE ALICE ELTON JOHN ‘73/:06-18/5:10
Hence, before anyone labels me as naive, this song is pretty much exactly as the title suggests! The underappreciated track from John’s Yellow Brick Road LP, saw some airplay on album rock FMs of the day, yet could have stood on its merits as a top ten song if not for the racy lyrics ruling-out widespread airplay as a single in many markets.
As Dr. Don of 610 KFRC Would Say: "Don't Just Tell Me About It--Show Us Some Pictures!"
As Dr. Don of 610 KFRC Would Say: "Don't Just Tell Me About It--Show Us Some Pictures!"
PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM ELTON JOHN ‘74/:04-12-20/5:33
Live at Royal Opera House--Horns & Strings Out the...
Live at Royal Opera House--Horns & Strings Out the...
Just in time for the nation’s Bicentennial, Elton john, heard here with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, lifted our Watergate/Vietnam wounded spirits; we went on to win the Cold War proving communism was no match for US manufacturing winning the Arms Race, and Western culture or values prevailed… (right?)
All of this unfolding as our own deep recession and inflation was worsening; contrarily, A time that I think this blog portrays accurately in that Americans' enjoyed perhaps the most personal liberty than at any other time in the second half or even the entire last century, and obviously is hardly recognizable in what has emerged to be an increasingly high-tech surveillance state since 911.
We always thought it would be the government [or at least some combine of Big Oil and the banks] as portrayed in such works as Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World. Instead, we have now woke to tech titans that were not even envisioned in the ST&P era, let alone a literal world-wide-web ensnaring us in our own algorithms.
We always thought it would be the government [or at least some combine of Big Oil and the banks] as portrayed in such works as Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World. Instead, we have now woke to tech titans that were not even envisioned in the ST&P era, let alone a literal world-wide-web ensnaring us in our own algorithms.
The mid-to-late '70s was--as I have lamented previously in this blog--the Pre-drug War Era before Nanny (Nancy) Reagan, AIDS, and the War On Pornography that would be launched just under a decade after "Philadelphia Freedom" climbing to #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
We still are trying to undo the damage of this war on both rights retained by the people and the Fourth Amendment has caused; it can be demonstrated that much of today’s racial division and police-state-militarism has its roots in Reagan’s War on Drugs.
As a Favorite Son who brought $$$ and influence becoming only our second West Coast president besides Nixon and being an Anti-East Coast-Establishment strong hawk against Communism, I supported Ronnie-Baby. However, that ended quickly after returning from my Army service in the Summer of 1983; meanwhile, The war on drugs, pornography, and even cruising—a Central Valley tradition—was unfolding. To my shock and surprise, creeping totalitarianism had been beginning to taking hold since protecting freedom in Western Europe.
If not for the irony, huh?
If not for the irony, huh?
For example, Mother’s Against Drunk Driving [MADD], originating in Sacramento and under Candi Lightner’s leadership was undermining and had focused-its-sights upon street-rodder culture. The tradition of "cruising chicks" [as my Mother liked to call it] was under siege! Obviously, no one should be driving around in 350-400 HP Muscle Cars with a BAC of .14 or .20 but…the feeling is—and I profess it today—there are some real idiots that just cannot drive worth a crap [let alone parallel park in SF I think many of you would agree.]
Please do not punish the rest of us because some Mommy [this used in the context of MADD] who does not drink regularly gets on the road after three or maybe only two drinks at the company Christmas party, blowing, for example, a .07 BAC, but is unable to operate a motor vehicle; this happens all the time and skews the mean average with an oversampling of what can only be described in '70s parlance as "light-weights."
"Holy Collectivism, Batman!"
Now that I have pissed-off half the population, let us tackle another horny [oops] thorny issue of the day:
The early 1980's war on porn.
...really people?
It is the intrusion into our once private lives that reeks-of hypocrisy. All of this taking place--while the people running the world--continue to rip-us-off and remain free after committing some of the most despicable heinous crimes, themselves. They are the problem.
The early 1980's war on porn.
...really people?
It is the intrusion into our once private lives that reeks-of hypocrisy. All of this taking place--while the people running the world--continue to rip-us-off and remain free after committing some of the most despicable heinous crimes, themselves. They are the problem.
Citing first amendment concerns, the courts and the proliferation of XXX movies at the video store for the ubiquitous VCR that would grace our living and bedrooms by mid-decade were largely responsible for bringing about an end to the War on Obscenity. This, much sooner than Tipper Gore who spearheaded a moral outrage regarding music lyrics and album art, and Jerry Falwell would have it.
[note: even Reagan’s Messe Commission, a panel created to investigate the effects of pornography, agreed that there was no link between violence and pornography.]
Now wouldn’t it be nice if we would all just Man-up [sorry, Ladies and Transgenders] and admit that people love to screw and that is what really the crux of the issue? Hell, looking around, there are 8.5 Billion people on the planet and all of the collateral damage to other species and the ecosystems/planet has worsened to the point we largely ignore nor attempt to mitigate a nuclear plant, Fukushima [2011], melting-down.
I may be a Libertarian, yet environmental impacts and long-term damage is confronting us daily. Maybe sex with robots could turn-out being a good thing.
“There he goes again...as soon as he starts making some good points…"
“There he goes again...as soon as he starts making some good points…"
GREASE FRANKIE VALLI ‘78/:05-13/3:17
I feel kinda dirty after all of that…How about some good clean end of the 70s swan songs? In other words, songs that were intended or unintendedly were the last word or song from an artist or group.
ALL OVER THE WORLD E LO ‘80/:09-20/4:08
I was at the helm of the booth at King’s Skate Country presiding over the end of the decade; subsequently, when this came out, everything would soon change with my enlistment in the Army the following year. Hugely popular at the rink and embodying the essence of the bands adopting a Disco-e sound from 1978 on. The song did not get much airplay or attention in the intervening decades.
That said, the song seems to have had a resurrection of sorts, hence these two flash-mob videos. I can’t decide which I like better so here are two of ‘em:
Finally, the song was one of several from the long anticipated, yet extremely disappointing sci-fi movie, Xanadu. Foretelling how much the ‘80s would suck, the show was panned by critics, yet is noteworthy for containing one of the biggest songs of the decade:
OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN MAGIC ‘80/
I have included this first link for it is from her infamous television appearance in 1980 wearing the white short-shorts and sporting Farrah Foxeet Hair!
#1 Pop Chart #1 AC, the song marked the beginning of her perhaps her greatest phase with the domination of the following album, Physical, in late 1981. Here is another link to the original video without the beginning chopped-off as in the last:
Okay, back to Swan Songs…are you keeping-up, class?
LADY (You Bring Me Up When I am Down) COMMODORES 1981/:08-15/4:51
This was their last big hit together, Lionel Ritchie striking-out on his own afterwards.
LAST TRAIN TO LONDON ELO ‘79/:07-16/4:31
DO YA ELO ‘83/:07-13-20/
DO YA THINK I’M SEXY ROD STEWART ‘78/:00-16-35/4:37
Stewart at what was the end of his prime, perhaps, yet I like some of his much criticized work in the ‘80s too. I bought this album for my first love, a girl named Barry Stachalek; no kidding, she had just completed
SWEET LOVE COMMADORES ‘76/
The groups first top 10 hit
GOLDEN LADY STEVIE WONDER ‘73/:00/4:58
Off the LP InterVision, it foretold where he would be taking us as he became one of the biggest artists of both the 1970s and ‘80s. I saw Stevie at Arco Arena in the Sac circa 1987…he played for almost three hours!
#9 DREAM JOHN LENNON
SILVER BLUE AND GOLD BAD COMPANY ‘76/:04-09-13-15/5:21
MOVIN ON BAD COMPANY ‘??/:08-15/3:21
"...heading for that Golden Gate..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I5ZKp9b0FA
"...heading for that Golden Gate..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I5ZKp9b0FA
BURNIN FOR YOU BLUE OYSTER CULT ‘81/:11-25/4:33
CLOSER TO THE HEART RUSH ‘??/:10-21/2:50
SPIRIT OF THE RADIO RUSH ‘80/:12-28-34/4:59
ANOTHER LONELY PARK ANOTHER SUNDAY DOOBIES ‘74/:09-17/4:27
THINK ABOUT ME FLEETWOOD MAC ‘80/:08/2:42
I SAW HERE AGAIN LAST NIGHT MOMMAS AND PAPAS ‘
LIES THE KNICKABOCKERS ‘
EVERYNIGHT McCartney ‘71/:00/2:35
REAL LOVE DOOBIE BROTHERS ‘80/:08-17/4:23
BURN RUBBER ON ME GAP BAND ‘80/:00/5:30
ALRIGHT NOW FREE ‘71/:06/5:35
ROCK N’ ROLL HUCHIE-KOO RICK DERINGER ‘
SWEET LIFE PAUL DAVIS ‘77/:09/3:31
INTO THE NIGHT BENNY MARDONES ‘80/:
GET DOWN ON IT KOOL & THE GANG ‘82/:08/4:51THE GREATEST DANCER (Vinyl) SISTER SLEDGE
SPILL THE WINE (Vinyl) ERIC BURDON
MY MISTAKE MARVIN GAYE & DIANA ROSS ‘73/:04/2:56
YOU ARE EVERYTHING ROSS & GAYE
YOU ARE EVERYTHING ROSS & GAYE
The 1970 single featuring Mary Wells on leads, Ross conspicuously departed by the end of was a smash single that portends to talk of a troubled inter-personal-relationship; yet, we hear “we must bring fighting to an end” early on in the tune [Vietnam] and hear references to “our nation” and “…I pray for peace heard at 1:54 and onward talk of love between our brothers and sisters. Talk of The Supremes without Ross seem a contradiction, but this was one of the biggest hits on Billboards Hot 100 that year and gave Wells the long overdue credit for her contribution to the duo.
REFLECTIONS DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES
Like so many pop acts who had been slow to react to the changing times of mid-sixties psychedelia, the Supremes riff a decidedly rock timbre and incorporate electronic cues…highly under-appreciated song that finally saw a resurgence and its rightful place among their work by the mid-nineties.
…funny digital voice “all together now”
SHE WAS JUST SEVENTEEN BEATLES
REVOLUTION BEATLES
…like they said, “…if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao…You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow!” Guess times have changed, You...You …Communist Millennials!
A gem of a music video with the Beatles ahead of their time as usual symbolizing tumultuous 1968.
I WAS MADE FOR LOVIN’ YOU KISS
FOR YOUR LOVE YARDBIRDS
SHINE A LITTLE LOVE ON MY LIFE ELO ‘79/:00/4:42
ON THE RUN ELO
DEVIL WOMAN CLIFF RICHARDS ‘74[?]/:08-:15/3:31
MIDNIGHT CONFESSION GRASS ROOTS ‘68/:05-09-13/2:45
Alright, I’m going to go out on a limb her since I now have learned that nothing seems to shock Millenials…and especially the San Francisco kind!
Alright, I’m going to go out on a limb her since I now have learned that nothing seems to shock Millenials…and especially the San Francisco kind!
This song is the quintessential masturbation song, you people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zQmPJwCESI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zQmPJwCESI
TEMPTATION EYES GRASS ROOTS ‘71/ :07-14/2:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i98exniVvDY
Leaving LA at the end of the summer that year, this one reminds me of moving the radical oldest sister, Shawn--who would change her name to Shawna in the Eighties because Mom and Pops gave her a “boy’s” name…or maybe it was just another way to piss them off—out of our childhood house located at 1492 Allenford Avenue.
Shawn’s new digs were about 5 blocks east of the beach in Santa Monica.
Shawn’s new digs were about 5 blocks east of the beach in Santa Monica.
Her first place was also a short walk towards the beach from where my sister’s twenty-eight year-old “Beach-Bum-Boyfriend” as my parents called him, lived; upon disclosure, a USPS letter arriving circa 1972, Shawna announced she had moved-in with the man [Mom exclaiming, “Your Twenty-year-old sister has ‘shacked-up’ with a twenty-eight year-old loser!”
Nice…no wonder I’m all Fd’ed-up!
Now aware of the fornication or “Living-in-sin” as they put it, it was time for the folks to change The Will and end any financial stipend for college or “cut-her-off” as they put it, financially.
Yes, “cutting each-other-off” is a fine tradition in the Davis side of the family that went back and forth for decades; I did not talk to my parents between 1988-2000 when I “cut them-off” first sensing my turn to be cut-off too was fast approaching! At the time, I had just outed myself as being the B' in LBGT [like they didn’t know this…they raised me, and I am a little weird, we all can agree, no?] and I wanted to beat them to the punch, so to speak.
Yes, “cutting each-other-off” is a fine tradition in the Davis side of the family that went back and forth for decades; I did not talk to my parents between 1988-2000 when I “cut them-off” first sensing my turn to be cut-off too was fast approaching! At the time, I had just outed myself as being the B' in LBGT [like they didn’t know this…they raised me, and I am a little weird, we all can agree, no?] and I wanted to beat them to the punch, so to speak.
…wait…wait: am I normal?
I re-established relations in 2001 after both Sister’s had made final cut-offs with the folks in the 90’s by their own doings. Admittedly, my conservative parents were always ten or so years behind the times and while sad, they pissed-off the middle sister, Dorian, too by the late 90s complaining about it being “immoral” for her to live unmarried with a boyfriend—this pertained to a twice divorced mother of two teen-aged children who was forty-five years old at the time.
… come on Willard and Adair, it is the '90s!
Anyhow, I love my parents, was left holding the bag at the time of their passing, Dad in 2007, and Mom in 2011, after years of doling-out a few hundred here and there every other month—whatever! They are my parents. My sister’s will have to live with their decisions to avoid contact or helping at the time of their infirmary or their passing—I made sure they knew that both of them knew they had died or were dying and it is of their choice to not be a part of being there in the end.
Ironically, the one who was thought to be able to “Out Black Sheep me,” the oldest, had cut off all contact by then too, after being back in the picture for about some years in the late ‘70s thru the early eighties when she “Kidnapped" [according to Willard and Adair] my Maternal Grandmother taking her out of the Sac, challenging conservator-ship, and getting custody in Sonoma [?] or Napa Counties where contentious litigation unfolded between the three, Grandmother lasting an additional five years. Sister Shawna has a very different take on what transpired, and I do think her version of events leaves plenty of doubts in my mind as to how my parents depicted what transpired.
‘’families amid financial stakes, right? Shameful, people!
However, if you followed me around longest on a Friday night in Pornland or when it comes to things that people take to their grave, I think I may have more skeletons-in-my closet than even Shawna.
That said, I was there for them; indeed, part of the reason for my ending-up in the poor house--yet I would not change a thing--was sacrificing the time away from my business at the time of both parent’s deaths.
All of this was meant to happen. I am sure of it now.
All of this was meant to happen. I am sure of it now.
This post went long but I am still dealing with the financial fall-out of my Mother's passing and it builds my resolve to Finish Well, as Billy Graham put it. I am reminded every waking day that they both are in my corner, watching all of this from above—unfolding in their beloved SF that I am now privileged to experience living-in; I know why they loved SF and all three of their children were conceived here.
Anyhow, the Grass Roots Greatest Hits came out that first Christmas in Sacramento [‘71] or technically Carmichael--The North Area as the folks called it—as the group was breaking-up at that time. Shawna delivered:
My very first per-recorded cassette, Best of the Grass Roots as a gift that XMAS. The tape hiss was unbearable, and the following year Dorian--the middle sister--followed suit in ‘72 with a Best of Bread cassette [or as some of my buddies described the album five or six years later, “Best of Head”.
My very first per-recorded cassette, Best of the Grass Roots as a gift that XMAS. The tape hiss was unbearable, and the following year Dorian--the middle sister--followed suit in ‘72 with a Best of Bread cassette [or as some of my buddies described the album five or six years later, “Best of Head”.
Why “Best of Head”, Drake?
Well...legend has it, if you put The Best of Bread in your car’s cassette player in 1976 or ‘77 towards the end of a date with one of your high school classmates, The Best of Head would usually result; the songs are moving, romantic, and convey a sense of “I am ready to make a commitment.”
…at least until the next weekend!
I’M ALRIGHT KENNY LOGGINS 80/:00 or :50/
WATERLOO ABBA-DABA-DO ‘74/
A bunch of swingers from Sweden get together to make some truly unique music…I’ll just leave it at that! This is from German TV in 1974
Euro-Nordic Sauna and Fjord Fun I Can Only Imagine Back-in-the-Day
Euro-Nordic Sauna and Fjord Fun I Can Only Imagine Back-in-the-Day
No Sugar Tonight Guess Who ‘70/:09-18/4:45
This one is close to the heart; the album art or photography features the group standing underneath the Santa Monica Pier. Inside the fold, the LP has pictures of the having just recently closed Pacific Ocean Park [POP to us Pacific Palisades-Santa Monica denizens]
…think SF’s Playland of the same era—I remember going to Playland too and getting bounced around through some spinning tunnel, the ‘funny-mirrors,’ and using burlap bags to put under our butt’s on some Wavy slide—similar to those at Cal Expo replicated in the 1970’s.
…Child Protective Services did not exist in 1963 or ’65, so my parents must have known what they were doing to toughen-up the Boy. Then again, these are the same people, my parents, pictured with martini glasses and cigarettes blazing in baby-book pictures upon the Golden Gate Bridge--getting-out for some exercise per JFK’s urging-- a short distance from our house at 280 30th Avenue!
Playland, viewed from what must have been a four-year old’s perspective is still vivid in my memory, and we also went several times to POP during my 1965-71 residency in SOCAL.
Laughing Guess Who ?/:06/2:39
These Eyes Guess Who ?/:10-20/3:44
Do You Believe in Magic The Lovin’ Spoonful 1965/:06/2:09
…hard to believe that hit singles were often less than three minutes, let alone closer to two minutes! Here is a remake from 2005 that conjurs-up images of another Loving Spoonful release, "Magic Carpet Ride" ...use Your Imagination.
Obviously, the song writing team of Lennon/McCartney---who had an agreement that all songs published would have an Lennon/McCartney title whether a Lennon or McCartney song [think “Yesterday” for Paul or “Come Together” in regards to Lennon
Peace Train Cat Stevens
SHOW AND TELL AL WILSON
Don't Call Us We'll Call You Sugarloaf 1975/:19/3:24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4njPe2_rho
Links to things for website
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLjyuVdN4Qo KHJ TM Jingles Legal at 3:10
LIVE FOR THE MUSIC/SIMPLE MAN/HONEY CHILD BAD COMPANY
Off the album Running with the Pack this was a trans-formative release that belied the soon to come 1980s musical shift—where often times a third album is a radical departure from the first two LPs.
GOOD LOVIN’ GONE BAD BAD COMPANY
"...heading for the Golden Gate, I'm Felling Pretty Low."
TURN UP THE RADIO
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