1973 in music

Two and a half years ago – March 2006, I think – Cousin Mike sent me a list of songs he described as “arresting”. When you hear these songs, you stop what you’re doing to listen, and maybe turn up the volume. An interesting email conversation developed, and I said that I’d probably call my list “songs I like”, or “Bob’s favorites”. My list would be mostly classic rock, but with some blues, folk instrumental, Irish, Cajun Zydeco, and soul mixed in. So, I started to compile such a list…and took a break when I noticed it had grown to 448 entries. Editing had to happen, and the task seemed daunting. Still does, in fact.

A month or so ago I returned to a different idea. What if I could make a "best of" playlist for just one year? Such compilations exist, and most of them I’ve found to be disappointing. Simply put, I’m not interested in what sold the most. I just want to hear what I want to hear.

Time to experiment, but what year should I choose? I got to thinking of “one-hit-wonders”, bands that had only one hit, or a few hits…and I only like one of them. A look at my Big List, and I noticed Mott the Hoople. Now, I sure wouldn’t want a whole disk of their music, but I do like All The Way From Memphis. I searched for that online, found that it was released in 1973. Hmmm…what else came out that year?

Actually, quite a bit more than I remembered at first. I found a site that listed virtually every song released by year, and though 1973 might not have been the busiest year in rock, I did turn up a few of my favorites. I’ve worked on this on and off when I could make a few moments. It could be the best method might be for me to work on each year separately, then eventually combine all the lists into one. Talk about a long term project.

Remember, I’m not at all claiming these were the “best” songs that year…just a ranking of what I like. And so, just for fun, here's my favorite music from...

1973

1. Eric Clapton / Derek and the Dominoes – Little Wing (live – Rainbow Concert)
(I’ve yet to hear a bad version of this powerful, musically emotional rock song. Sometimes I prefer the Stevie Ray Vaughan cover, or the Jimi Hendrix original; these three versions will likely tie somewhere in the top five on my final list.)
2. Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way
(Of course.)
3. Fleetwood Mac – Hypnotized
(This one’s so smooth, and it’s *Way* underplayed. I don’t get to hear it nearly enough, so I always crank it up when it comes on - and I can get away with controlling the volume. Despite the band’s huge commercial success in the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s, I have a personal preference for the British blues years of the early Mac.)
4. (Tie) Paul McCartney and Wings – Mrs. Vanderbilt
Paul McCartney and Wings – Let Me Roll It
(I easily could have just said the “Band On the Run” album here, but I wanted this to be a list of individual songs instead. My two favorite tracks from the album.)
5. REO Speedwagon – Ridin’ the Storm Out (studio version *Only*)
(My favorite of theirs, and possibly the only REO song to make my final list.)
6. Led Zeppelin – Dancing Days*
7. Steely Dan – My Old School*
(* These two were a close call. When I’m on a Steely Dan kick, I’d rank My Old School slightly ahead of Dancing Days.)
8. Rick Deringer – Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo
(This song really says 1973 to me. Written by Rick Deringer and also previously recorded by Johnny Winter on his Johnny Winter And album in 1972.)
9. Mott the Hoople – All the Way From Memphis
(They had another song that was a bigger hit, but this is their song that I like.)
10. Pink Floyd – Time
(Yes, the alarm clock intro is annoying, but the rest of the song more than makes up for it.)
11. Yes – Long Distance Runaround / The Fish (live – Yessongs)
(If this was the earlier studio version it would be ranked higher. But after all, this is a 1973 list.)
12. Wishbone Ash – Everybody Needs a Friend
(My first obscure entry here, what little airplay it received was mostly on college radio stations. I might have ranked this higher, but the vocals are well, a little too sweet…strictly a slow dance number. It’s definitely worth a listen though, for the long guitar bridge around two thirds of the way through. Not quite as emotional musically as Little Wing, but it still can give me chills.)
13. Steely Dan – Reeling In the Years
(single release – album released in 1974)
14. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Tuesday’s Gone
(Before you hit the ceiling that I haven’t yet mentioned Free Bird…well, that’s a song I used to like more, and it might make my final list. But its Been. Played. Into. The. Ground. I prefer Tuesday’s Gone.)
15. (Tie) Paul McCartney and Wings – Band On the Run
Paul McCartney and Wings – Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Paul McCartney and Wings – Jet
(See my note for the two way tie at number 4.)
16. Hot Tuna – Letter To the North Star
(So obscure I never would have heard it if we didn’t have the The Phosphorescent Rat album at the college radio station. Happy and upbeat…I still like this one.)
17. Bob Dylan – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
(I’m not a huge Dylan fan, but there are a few of his songs I like. I like to turn this one up.)
18. Little Feat – Dixie Chicken
(I don’t recall if I heard this in 1973, but I have heard it since and it has grown on me.)
19. Eagles – Desperado
20. Bachman Turner Overdrive – Takin’ Care Of Business
(This one has surprised me a bit how well its held up over the years.)
21. Led Zeppelin – Over the Hills and Far Away
(Two or three years after this came out I walked by a student at MU who was sitting under a shade tree near the Francis Quadrangle, picking this out on an acoustic guitar…and doing a good job of it too. A nice memory.)
22. Led Zeppelin – The Ocean
(Sometimes I like this one better than Over the Hills and Far Away. It depends.)
23. Yes – Roundabout (live – Yessongs)
(See my note for number 11.)
24. Pink Floyd – Brain Damage
(I can’t resist these lyrics: "…The lunatics are in my hall, the paper holds their folded faces to the floor, and every day the paper boy brings more." Clever.)
25. Fleetwood Mac – For Your Love
(Their cover of a great song by The Yardbirds)
26. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Simple Man
27. Moody Blues – I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)
28. Emerson Lake and Palmer – Still You Turn Me On
(Two art rock / progressive rock songs in a row. That ought to do it for this list…I have to be in the right mood these days.)
29. Steely Dan – Do It Again
30. War – The Cisco Kid
(This one has grown on me a bit over the years.)

Honorable Mention, Part 1
(Many of these might make it to my final list):

31. Steve Miller Band – The Joker
32. Jim Croce – Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)
33. ZZ Top – Waiting For the Bus / Jesus Just Left Chicago
(I came close to leaving this off. Jesus is so much more than mere man, He is God and man, and with us always in Spirit. He’s always in Chicago, and everywhere else…he’s not limited to going from place to place like we do. But, I listened closely to the lyrics and I didn’t hear the mockery usual in the few rock songs that mention Jesus…it’s just more of a blues song. Musically good.)
34. Rolling Stones – Angie
(I’m not much of a Stones fan, but I do like some of their songs. This one’s pretty good.)
35. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird
(I liked this more when it first came out. See comment for number 14.)
36. Chicago – Feelin’ Stronger Every Day
37. Steely Dan – The Boston Rag
38. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Mississippi Kid
(Just for fun.)
39. Loggins and Messina – My Music
40. Dobie Gray – Drift Away
(A pop / soul song that’s grown on me over the years.)
41. Aerosmith – Dream On
(I’m not much for songs that scream at me, but this might be the best from what I think of as an early “hair band”.)
42. The Who – Love Reign O’er Me
(The Who have done better songs; I do think this one’s the best track from Quadrophenia.)

Honorable Mention, Part 2
(A few of these might make my final list):

43. Jim Croce – Bad Bad Leroy Brown
44. King Harvest – Dancing In the Moonlight
45. B. W. Stevenson – My Maria
46. Todd Rundgren – Hello It’s Me
47. George Harrison – Living In the Material World
48. Bryan Ferry – These Foolish Things
49. Focus – Hocus Pocus (part 1)

Also Ran
(Part of the 1973 music scene, and there will be songs from five of these artists on my final list. Probably not these, though.)

50. Billy Joel – Piano Man
51. Paul McCartney – My Love
52. Paul Simon – Loves Me Like a Rock
53. (Tie) Jim Croce – I Have to Say I Love You In a Song
Jim Croce – I’ve Got a Name
(Hard for me to list these two by rank.)
54. Deep Purple – Smoke On the Water (studio version)
55. Billy Preston – Will It Go Round In Circles
56. Sweet – Ballroom Blitz

The return of The Evening Rambler

Every so often I think of something I want to write here. Short stuff usually, a little of this and a bit of that. Of course I don't always have time right then to blog...and so I don't forget (ahem), I'll word process a list of titles or short descriptions.

An outline without the Roman numerals, capital letters, or indentations.
A grocery list without the food.
Yeah, I can hear you all now, "But Bob, a list is no good if you Can't Find It!"
So I guess I'll have to wing it...

Where are they now?

Last November I had a job assignment through a local temp agency, at a big insurance company with their North American headquarters in the metro. My task was to enter data into a secure database for the Salvage department; mostly account numbers and vehicle identification numbers. The paper file folders included photographs...some of the cars / trucks / etc. looked barely wrinkled, but were a total loss anyway. Others were barely recognizable as cars. Most were somewhere in between.

As I went along I noticed something interesting. Most of the vehicles were made in the 1990's or 2000's. Part of the reason was there were claims for entire car dealers with huge losses due to floods, hurricanes, etc...that, and attrition. There's just more of the "recently" made cars still on the roads...more that could be involved in accidents at any given time. There were quite a few cars from the mid and late 1980's.

Some days into the project and hundreds of listings later, I noticed I hadn't seen anything older than 1978, so I started keeping a mental list. Eventually I noticed some older cars, a handful from 1974 - 1976, and a very few from the early to mid 1960's, say, 1963 - 1965. Just two or three days before the end of the month long assignment I finally found one 1957 Chevy. Got me to thinking back...it doesn't seem all that many years ago that you'd still see lots of cars from the sixties and seventies on the road, and cars from the late fifties weren't all that rare. Not like they are now.

I did see one beauty of a classic, maybe six or eight weeks ago. It was either a 1955 or 1956 Chevy Bel Aire...in motion and just far enough away that I'm not sure which year. (And not that I'm a car expert - but I can recognize a few.) This car looked to have been restored, with a really nice dark blue and white paint job. I'd like to see it again.

So, my question for the evening...what old cars have you seen lately?

Logos! Get your logos!

Cousin Mike has been adding some eye catching logos to his blog (scroll down a bit an start looking in the column on the right). Mostly these are professional sports teams, and it's a neat assortment. I'd like to do something similar here, but right now I seem to be drawn more to scans of nostalgic stuff that has gone away...old pop bottle caps, old gas station signs, a stack of 45 rpm records...stuff like that.

So I need to figure out how I want to go about that. One thing I've thought of, a scan of the week "feature" might be fun. Something that would be in the same location on this page, just the image would change from time to time. I wonder if besides the Blog Archive I could set up a second "Scan Archive" for the older images. I'll have to read up on that.

In the meantime, I've started collecting images. A few days ago I got to thinking of old electron tubes. I have some from my dad's collection still in boxes, but I wanted to go online to see what else I could find. One thing I clicked on was a wall chart of tubes. This was in a photo stream called Diagram Diaries, on a site of charts and graphs...lots of creative ways to show data. I started clicking on the photos to see what else was there. I stopped when I saw something really different...which leads to the following...

Fun stuff...you've got to see this.

Check this out...click here.

I've got to admire artists who can work at that scale and keep that perspective all in their head.

September 18th

Happy birthday, Sis! I'll see you soon.

September 19th

Shiver me timbers, it's that time again!

Ahoy, mateys! Everybody be practicin' yer "Arrghs" and "Landlubbers" fer tomorrow!

Friday evening - one for the books (or rather, for the blog)

It had been raining on and off all day, and by mid afternoon I became aware that our area was under a tornado watch. So I turned on a T.V. and found not only that, but there were tornado warnings one county to our southeast and two counties to our west. As the weatherman explained, the radar loop was replayed over and over. I could see that the most scary looking cell at the time (near De Soto, Kansas) would slide up northeast and pass us by safely to our north and west. There was another cell near Spring Hill, Kansas which was heading towards us, but it didn’t seem to be showing as much organized rotation. Better safe than sorry I always say, so I took our bird – cage and all – down to the basement, and busied myself gathering up some of the family photo albums for safekeeping. I took a break and sat back down to watch the weather updates.

Then our doorbell rang, and I assumed it was the next door neighbor girl wanting to play with our youngest daughter. My wife went to the front door and I called to her, “I don’t want her playing outside now”. Time passed, a couple of minutes it seemed – more than it would take to say that our daughter couldn’t come out to play. I must have been curious; it takes a lot to pull me away from tornado coverage.

I went to the door and there was an older gentleman – probably in his eighties – with a cane. He was dressed all in gray, and had been walking in the light rain, really just a drizzle at the time. I looked to my wife (what’s going on?) and she said “He’s going around the neighborhood introducing himself”. I stuck out my hand and said, “Hi, I’m Bob”. He didn’t quite hear that right, but that’s okay…I don’t hear everything right either. Anyway he repeated my name as Tom; then he shook my hand. He told us his address, and I thought I had it narrowed down to one of three houses. I asked him, “Is yours the house with the flagpole, or is that your neighbor?” He said, “No”, then a pause and “Yes, I have a flag”. Another pause, then he got out his wallet, opened it up and showed it to us. We noticed an AARP card and a card that said disabled veteran. My wife and I exchanged glances (by now we were confused enough we didn’t know what to say).

Then he said something about Mexico.
I said, “what about Mexico”?
Another pause, then, “Do you watch Wheel of Fortune”?
“Well, not lately, but we have watched it before.”
“They showed pictures of Mexico, it looks pretty”.
I replied, “Oh, it was a prize, someone could win a trip there”.

“Yes”, he said. A long pause this time. He pointed south, “Is that the way to Mexico?”
“Uh, yes, but it’s a long way.”
“A long way?”
“Yes, thousands of miles. People fly on planes to get there”.

Another long pause.
Thinking of the severe weather, I said, “You might want to get home, there’s a storm moving in”. The man turned away to walk down our steps and my wife and I said, “It was nice meeting you”. He continued down our sidewalk out to the sidewalk along the street. We were watching and waiting for him to turn north, back towards his home.

But sure enough, he turned south.

My wife and I looked at each other. Sure, he might have been planning a stop to introduce himself to our neighbor to our south…but what if he had it in his mind to walk to Mexico?

He walked maybe fifteen feet, then apparently thought better of it and turned around facing north, then stood there in the rain for about half a minute. My wife said, “What should we do? Should we walk him home?” I replied, “Either that, or call the police. Or just let him alone”.

But…we just couldn’t do that last. So, my wife got an umbrella, and I turned and told my daughter, “We’re going to help this man get home. If they blow the tornado sirens, you and your brother get to the basement”. Then to my wife, “Dear, I’m going to get my cell phone just in case. You catch up to him with the umbrella, and I’ll catch up to you”.

Which I did. By this time I was worried that the man might be disoriented enough that he might just wander out into the traffic…probably not, but who could say?

I think he was startled a bit when we came up to him; he told us he couldn’t hear anything with his left ear. My wife held the umbrella over him and said that we wanted to walk him home. He protested that we didn’t have to do that, but I said, “No, we like to walk”.

Every twenty or thirty feet or so, he would pause for a bit, then continue on. We were one block north of our house when he stopped, and we were right in the middle of a side street – fortunately a dead end to a cul-de-sac, so no traffic. After a bit we started on again. When we got to the bridge, he stopped, turned to my wife and said something that sounded like “Who are you voting for”?

My wife: “Who are we voting for? Probably John McCain”.

(I thought definitely McCain, but said nothing…waiting to see his reaction). I don’t recall if he said “yes” or gave a thumbs-up, but he seemed pleased.

The rain increased some, but just a bit. We were glad to help this man get home safely, but right in the middle of the bridge – all exposed – I thought, what would we do if they blew the tornado sirens right now, and we looked, and there it was?

At the north end of the bridge the man stopped, turned to my wife and said, “Do you remember Roosevelt”? She said something to the effect that that was before her time.

The man said, “He smoked, you know”, then gestured out with his hand several inches. (Immediately I had the mental image of a photo of FDR with his long cigarette holder). Then he mumbled something we couldn’t make out, stopped, and appeared frustrated. “I don’t remember his words”.

Half a block to go and we were at his house – not the one I thought, but it did have a US flag attached to a porch railing. We walked him to his porch, told him “See you later”, and looked back to see that he had gone inside. We walked home a little faster, but we were pretty soaked anyway.

When we got inside I thought about changing out of my wet shirt right away, but looked at the weather report. The cell from Spring Hill had gotten bigger with definite rotation, and spotters had reported a funnel cloud. From what I could tell on the radar image, that stupid thing was headed right for us. We located a couple of flashlights, I grabbed a few pictures and one of my mom’s paintings, and took them downstairs; came back up again and then we heard the sirens. I glanced at the T.V. and estimated I had maybe two minutes. Made a trip upstairs, grabbed some backup computer disks, and a couple of boxes of photos, and took them to the basement. One more trip up to grab another painting, then back down. My wife came down to the basement and joined me and the kids. She had been frying turkey bacon as part of supper, so she brought a plate down (she also had her purse with her keys and cell phone). We munched while we watched the basement T.V.

Long story somewhat shorter…after a few minutes It looked like the storm was safely past us, and the funnel cloud was spotted a mile and a quarter northeast of our place. We never saw it. We went back upstairs for the rest of supper. The severe weather turned into more of a flash flood event, and it did pour hard for a while. We had to check the sump pump from time to time; but no floods and no storm damage at our place or near us.

What an evening.

9-11 Anniversary during an election season

First things first. I watched part of the last two days of the Republican National Convention on television. Since I wanted to pull some quotes from three of the speeches, I checked and found that the text was available on several sites. CBS had some interesting pull quotes from some speeches I missed, this one from Mike Huckabee:

“I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me."

I did hear the last part of Rudy Guiliani’s speech on Wednesday, and was impressed by this:

“...when we are at our best - we are the party that expands Freedom. We began as a party dedicated to freeing people from slavery... And we are still the party that is willing to fight for freedom at home and around the world. We are the party that wants to expand individual freedom and economic freedom... because we believe that the secret of America's success is not central government, it is self-government. We are the party that believes in giving workers the right to work. The party that believes parents should choose where their children go to school. And we are the party that believes unapologetically in America's essential greatness - that we are a shining city on the hill, a beacon of freedom that inspires people everywhere to reach for a better world.”

I saw all of Governor Sarah Palin’s speech; these three points stood out for me:

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.”

“No one expects us to agree on everything. But we are expected to govern with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and ... a servant's heart.”

“And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they are always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely. There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death ... and that man is John McCain.”

And of course, Senator John McCain’s speech on Thursday:

“We believe in low taxes; spending discipline, and open markets. We believe in rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor. We believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench. We believe in the values of families, neighborhoods and communities. We believe in a government that unleashes the creativity and initiative of Americans. Government that doesn't make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself.”

“I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it. My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them. My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.”

“When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity. Senator Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucracies. I want schools to answer to parents and students. And when I'm President, they will.”

“Senator Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But Americans know better than that. We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and to restore the health of our planet. It's an ambitious plan, but Americans are ambitious by nature, and we have faced greater challenges. It's time for us to show the world again how Americans lead. This great national cause will create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of our future prosperity; jobs that will be there when your children enter the workforce.”

“I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”

That’s a lot of quotes. I’m impressed with the choice of Sarah Palin for Vice-President; what I’ve heard so far sounds good. And now I’m excited about the McCain – Palin ticket and the election. As always, I like to say not to be over confident, and to do whatever you can think of to get out the vote. I guess you could say I’m cautiously optimistic.

Of course, some of Obama’s thunder has been stolen, and the dems have noticed the excitement coming out of the Republican National Convention. The polls have moved in our favor.

Expect the other side to attack viciously. This has already begun of course, but it will only get more shrill. Obama has already made some comment to the effect of “If you heard the Republican Convention you’d get the idea that no one was struggling economically”.

Well Mr. Obama, I can’t help it if you weren’t paying attention.

From John McCain’s speech:

“These are tough times for many of you. You're worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and are struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home. All you ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way. And that's just what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future. I've fought big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, while you struggle to buy groceries, fill your gas tank and make your mortgage payment.”

“I know some of you have been left behind in the changing economy and it often seems your government hasn't even noticed. Government assistance for unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That's going to change on my watch. My opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy. We're going to help workers who've lost a job that won't come back, find a new one that won't go away. We will prepare them for the jobs of today.”

9-11-08

Last year I posted an entry on this blog about my memories of 9-11-01. I won’t re-type it here. In fact, most of my thoughts on the subject today have been threefold:

1. Our efforts in the war on terror have successfully prevented a recurrence of such a tragedy in the USA;
2. That said, believe it or not, we still live in a dangerous world;
3. So, how should we proceed?

So, I’d like to tie this in with a few more quotes from McCain and Palin…then call it a day.

Sarah Palin:

“To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies ... or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia ... or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries ... we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas. And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we've got lots of both. Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems - as if we all didn't know that already. But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.”

John McCain:

“I'm grateful to the President for leading us in those dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history, and keeping us safe from another attack many thought was inevitable”

“I fought for the right strategy and more troops in Iraq, when it wasn't a popular thing to do. And when the pundits said my campaign was finished, I said I'd rather lose an election than see my country lose a war. Thanks to the leadership of a brilliant general, David Petraeus, and the brave men and women he has the honor to command, that strategy succeeded and rescued us from a defeat that would have demoralized our military, risked a wider war and threatened the security of all Americans.”

“Today, the prospect of a better world remains within our reach. But we must see the threats to peace and liberty in our time clearly and face them, as Americans before us did, with confidence, wisdom and resolve.” ”We have dealt a serious blow to al Qaeda in recent years. But they are not defeated, and they'll strike us again if they can. Iran remains the chief state sponsor of terrorism and on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons.”