Redartz: Hello fellow riders, welcome aboard for another trip back. Back, in this case, to that U.S.Bicentennial year 1976! The Viking lander is on the surface of Mars, the Olympics are in Montreal, and Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter are in competition for the White House (speaking of the Presidential campaign- I ordered my "Howard the Duck for President" button, even though I'm too young to vote).
Winning the (somewhat less momentous than those above) competition for Number 1 on the US Billboard Pop Chart this week: Elton John and Kiki Dee, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"
Rounding out the top five:
2. Bee Gees, "You Should Be Dancing"
3. Wings, "Let em In"
4. Lou Rawls, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine"
5. Beach Boys, "Rock and Roll Music"
I can take or leave Elton and Kiki (although many would differ- they top the British chart this week too). I'm more impressed by a cool new song from Cliff Richard, "Devil Woman" debuting on the top 40.
I also like War- "Summer"; a perfect hit for summer (obviously). Oh, and it seems almost like the 60's are back; the Beatles just dropped out of the top 10 with "Got to Get You Into My Life" (reissued by Capitol Records), and the Beach Boys are in the top 5!
Tops in the UK: Elton John and Kiki Dee, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart".
Turning our attention to tonight's tv offerings, I must admit to having seen few. This summer I'm working for the first time: yes, flipping burgers at McDonald's. So tv viewing is less an option.
US Television Schedule:
 |
| Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman |
ABC: Wonder Woman, Baretta. Starsky and Hutch
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| The Jacksons |
CBS: The Blue Knight, The Jacksons, The Kelly Monteith Show, Kate McShane
NBC: Little House on the Prairie, Best of Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, Hawk
BBC1: Nationwide, Man and Boy, It's A Knockout, Are You Being Served?, Explorers, Band Beat, The War Lords
BBC2: Gardener's World, The Sandpipers, Look Stranger, Festival 40: The Wednesday Play- Cathy Come Home, Beauty is in the Eye
I would watch Wonder Woman, but our tv is usually tuned to "Little House". No Lynda Carter for me,alas. Baretta is good, and has a great theme song. And a bird! Oh, and the variety show continues to attract audiences- Kelly Monteith and the Jacksons are hosting shows on Wednesday nights...
Although my tv viewing is down this summer, my comic reading is up! Just look at some of the great stuff on the stands right now:
I've a lot to pick up this month. That Amazing Spider-Man with Nightcrawler and Punisher- what a free-for-all, and a Romita cover too! And Conan guest starring in Red Sonja; it just doesn't get better than this. Wait, yes it does! Marvel is showering us with their King Size Annuals this summer, and there's some excellent reading to be had! I'm grabbing all of them I can find, including all three of these pictured here. So who needs tv?
Oh, and check out the cover to the Warren Spirit magazine. That book is fantastic, Eisner's art and stories are incredible. I even like the black/white reproduction (of course they feature one story in color each issue).
Looking at all those terrific comics has me ready to go grab a stack. And so, we pile back on the bus and return to wherever it is we are, Annuals clutched in our sweaty little hands. Who knows what finds await us on the next Retro Metro? Time will tell...
15 comments:
This was a good summer, as I recall. It was definitely the last summer that had a modicum of childhood freedom-- and at 15 years old (albeit an immature, behind-the-physical-curve 15) it was definitely time to accept the transition that was in the works. This was the last summer without a regular "job" job, although I did have plenty of disposable income via yard-mowing, a stretch doing corn de-tasseling (OMG- what a BRUTAL couple of weeks THAT was!), a security-gig while an entire neighboring town was auctioned off-- etc. And there was a good chunk of time devoted to Driver's Ed classes (which were run through our school system in those days). But still-- it was a summer that contained no end of bicycle-riding excursions; tons of comics; a particularly active stretch of neighborhood-kid activity (croquet; basketball; swimming; RISK; badminton. . . ); a particularly hilarious un-supervised camping trip out at pal's uncle's (Uncle Bink!) farm. It was a summer that was somehow incredibly packed AND incredibly idle all at the same time.
It was the summer before we went into our brand new high school building! (Ending my ability to make lunchtime runs to the neighborhood drugstore for comics during the school year--)
"Don't Go Breakin' My Heart"-- was a staple tune in our burgeoning High School Jazz Band that next year.
And looking back, this was early-ish in that first really big wave of Beatles nostalgia that hung on until, maybe, 1980? Since a good chunk of us are around the same age ("vintage"), I wonder if anyone else uses this as an indicator of how de-compressed the passage of time can seem when you're younger? In '76, the Beatles had really stopped being seen as a group for only about six years-- "officially" dissolved in 1970, although they'd really stopped recording together in '69. Just six years-- but didn't it seem like a million back then? Folks yearning for the Good Old Days when the Boys were still together, 'way back when? Just six years, and already they'd become a Nostalgia Cottage Industry.
Now? Six years can go by before I remember to pick up a coffee mug I've left in an errant spot in the laundry room. Six years (or more) can pass between wearings of some t-shirts in the bottom of my work-shirt drawer. Six years can go by before I remember that, oh yeah, I need to return so-and-so's phone call. To put it in a contemporary context-- I can't imagine having similar waves of Nostalgia for 2011 'cause, geeze, wasn't it just 2011 about 20 minutes ago-?
HB (oh boy-- another editorial. . . what the heck--?)
I love that Lou Rawls track. I tried it a karaoke not that long ago, but I am too much a tenor to sing it Lou's low key.
Chico and the Man was historic in my house and we watched it religiously. It was the first time I knew of a Puerto Rican actor with a leading role (even though he was playing a Chicano, not a Puerto Rican). When Freddie Prinze died it was a sad day in our house.
I loved Baretta as a kid and Starksky and Hutch, and of course Wonder Woman. I never watched Little House on the Prairie until I watched reruns in syndication in the early 80s.
I loved that summer.....one of my favorites. I bought so many of those Marvel annuals. I was really starting to get into Marvel and those annuals were all great, especially the Thor annual.
It was also around the time I really started listening to the radio. We had a community swimming pool with a jukebox.....one song for a dime, three for a quarter.
I made money mowing lawns all summer. Since I couldn't drive, I pushed my mower all around town. I spent a lot of money that summer on music and comics. Good times.
Finally the bicentennial had passed and the build up, lol. No more op ed pieces in the local paper arguing that the fire department should let us paint the fire hydrants red, white, and blue!!
I really enjoy the UK info, btw! Makes me feel worldly! And I really dig the Spriit and Sad Sack covers!
I like the top 2 songs, with Elton/Kiki and Bee Gees. Love that you included the Spirit magazine! I just finished reading this one, and issues 1-16 of this Warren run. Fantastic art and storytelling! Plus you get fun extras like: Will Eisner interviewing the Spirit!
The art is black and white, but with added grey tones under Eisner's direction. Looks much better than the color "Best of the Spirit" put out by DC a few years ago, and better than the Kitchen Sink regular size comics in the '80s.
Garett, I've said it several times before, here and at the BAB, that those Warren magazines are possibly the best reprints of the Spirit stories ever. The format/size was perfect and the reproduction quality was outstanding.
Otherwise, looking over at Mike's Newstand for books on sale in August of '76, I can only recall having a few of the books out that month, the Spider-man issue with Nightcrawler and Punisher being the most memorable. However, earlier that summer I did get a bunch of other stuff, like Spider-man Annual #10, Cap's Bicentennial Battles, etc.
Back then, "Don't Go Breaking My Heat," "Devil Woman" and "Let 'Em In" got tons of radio airplay and I loved those songs (and still like the first two). Now more than back then, I also love, love, love Rawls' "You'll Never Find..." and, if I'm being completely honest, the Bee Gees' "You Should Be Dancing."
Looking over that TV schedule, I realize that I was watching quite a few of those shows: Wonder Woman obviously, but also Starsky and Hutch, sometimes Little House on the Prairie, the Jacksons, Kelly Monteith and definitely Chico and the Man (even my parents liked watching that, if I recall correctly). Except for WW, which was my thing, I watched the rest of those shows because my older sister and brother liked them. Also, since they were on different networks at the same time, I'm guessing we watched some of that stuff during the regular season, and others during the summer rerun season.
HB- another commonality we share- I was taking Driver Ed that summer too. Had to ride my bike across town to the class each day. Until the one day my bike was stolen...
And you're quite right about the malleability of time. You have a couple good essays going. One of these days we will tie you up and get you to write a guest post!
Graham- didn't you love the way music just seemed to bounce across the water at a swimming pool? The sun, the water, the tunes, the melting ice cream...
Garett and Edo- Absolutely. Those Warren Spirit magazines were a perfect format to highlight Eisner's storytelling.
Some good comics on display; Spidey, Warlord, and Batman vs Black Spider.
I was only four at the time, so don't remember much of the TV stuff, though I did watch Wonder Woman and Starsky & Hutch later. I don't remember any of the CBS lineup ... in fact, I've never even HEARD of Kelly Monteith.
For me, the TV highlight of the day was, "The Changes," on BBC One, a legendary children's drama serial about a mysterious force that causes everyone to destroy all technology, and a young girl, separated from her parents, who tries to get to the root of it all.
Elsewhere, "Cathy Come Home," on BBC Two is probably the most celebrated British TV drama of all time, the story of a homeless mother struggling, and failing, to get help from the authorities. It made such an impact when first broadcast in the late 1960s that it led to changes in the law, and the creation of the homelessness charity Crisis.
TV lowlight was definitely, "It's a Knockout," a trans-European novelty, "fun and games," contest launched to fill the gap by us not having world wars anymore. It was supposed to bring the continent together in a sense of shared brotherhood.
I can confirm that it totally failed in that aim.
The UK singles chart that week was less than stellar. There's nothing in the Top Ten that grabs me.
Further down the chart, I approve of:
23. "Back in the USSR" - The Beatles.
24. "You're My Best Friend" - Queen.
30. "Boston Tea Party" - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
The chart lowlight for me is definitely, "Afternoon Delight," at 33, by the Starland Vocal Band. A song that makes me want to tear my ears off to avoid listening to it.
Ahoy Steve and UKers, But for a few months (1976 summer?) when Beatles Papeback Writer and Got to Get You into My Life resurfaced on the charts b:c of Paul's huge hit Listen What the Man Said, I have no recollection of songs making a comeback in the USA yet you UK gents make it a regular occurrence! How? Why?
Redartz, whenever I hear a song from that year, the first thing I think of is hanging out at the swimming pool and hearing it. Somebody would come everyday, drop a quarter in, and play the same three songs......."Young Blood" by Bad Company, "Love Is Alive," by Gary Wright, and "Black Dog," by Led Zeppelin. Most of the others that were listed here were also on that jukebox. Not a bad soundtrack for a summer.
Charlie, old songs usually re-enter the UK charts thanks to being featured in adverts, TV shows or movies. All I can say is it proves the British public are highly musically suggestible.
Highly musically suggestible? Hope it's contagious!
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