Sucking In The 70s

One of my favorite bands from the 1970s is Thin Lizzy. To be honest, I've not listened to them much in recent years.
But about a month ago, my kid's art teacher made some mixed CDs for the family and on one of the discs was .

I hadn't peaked at the song list and had no idea it was on there. But the first notes of the song took me back 30 years and I cranked it way up. I love that song.

Since then, I read where he expressed his love of Thin Lizzy and have been led into the depths of YouTube in search of old Thin Lizzy videos. It's been fun going back to an old favorite.
For those of you who are not in the know about Thin Lizzy, they were a unique kind of hard rock band.

Led by an Irish lead singer/bass player named Phil Lynott who had an amazing soulful voice. He died young at age 35 but he made his mark.
They played soul, hard funk, and boogie in addition to classic 70s hard rock.

They've got a bunch of good studio records, but my favorite is the live record, . Here's one of my favorite songs from it.
I have heard that there are Wilco bootlegs out there with a cover of Cowboy Song on them.

If anyone knows where to find them, I'd love to hear it.
October 6, 2006 in , Tom Waits is a wonderful singer songwriter who I love to listen to.
The record I most often pull out of our Tom Waits collection is , recorded in 1973.

One reviewer at Amazon called this his late night drinking record . That's a good description, but to me what makes this record great is the range of styles on this record. There is something for everyone, jazz, blues, rock, folk, country.

If you haven't ever listened to Tom Waits, August 11, 2006 in , Watching the other night has gotten me into a Bowie mood. And when I get to my house later today, I am going to put my vinyl copy of on the turntable and turn it up.
I love Hunky Dory, almost as much as Ziggy Stardust, which is on .

Hunky Dory came out right before Ziggy, during the early 70s, when Bowie was at his artistic peak.
Hunk Dory is not nearly as much of a rock record, to me it's a pop/folk record. It starts out with Changes which is probably the most played Bowie song ever.

But it's songs like Oh You Pretty Things, Life on Mars, and Andy Warhol that make this record so special.
I can't wait until I get home and give it a listen.
July 28, 2006 in , Last week, we had on the air in our home and on came the piano and then the words:

Now I'm calling all citizens from all over the world
This is captain america calling
I bailed you out when you were down on your knees
So will you catch me now Im falling
What a great song (Catch Me Now I'm Falling) and what a great record - , another of the crop of 1979, the year I graduated high school.

It was a tremendous year in rock music and Low Budget was certainly one of the highlights. It's not on my top 50, but it's on .
This is a tremendous record from start to finish and includes three of my favorite Kinks songs, Catch Me Now I'm Falling, Superman, and A Little Bit of Emotion.

Ray Davies writes great songs and he was in fine form on this record.
If you've got Rhapsody, do yourself a favor and tune into Low Budget.
You won't regret it.

July 7, 2006 in , I was talking to my dad yesterday morning, father's day, and he brought up a the subject of bullies, specifically me getting bullied during high school. Blogging is the reason the subject came up at all.
You see, my brother got an email via his blog from a person that used to live in the same town as us in high school.

He replied to the email and the original sender dropped a bunch of names.
My brother sent that second email around to my family to see if we knew any of them. One of them was a guy who had the locker next to me in high school and as my brother put it, was unkind to me .

I saw his name and shot some sort of strong worded email back to everyone on who was copied (all four of five of us).
My mom replied and asked what prompted such a response. I sent her the following email:

He had the locker next to me for 4 years in high school

He loved to taunt me, hit me, and generally make me feel bad which he accomplished on a regular basis

So that email has been bothering my folks for the past week.

They never knew about this situation because I never told them. I never told my brothers either. It was my thing, I dealt with it as best I could.

That's the way I always did things back then.
My Dad told me yesterday, father's day, that he was sorry that he didn't know and didn't help me. We talked about it for a bit and I assured him that it wasn't something he should feel bad about.

I've been in the same boat as a parent. Last summer at camp, Josh got pushed around by another kid in his bunk. When we came up for visiting day, we found out and it really made me upset (maybe because of my own experiences).

But we didn't do anything about it other than coach him on how to handle it. To Josh's credit, he got the kids on his bunk on his side and they ostracized the bully. I wish I could have pulled that off in high school but I couldn't.

There's a postcript to this story. My brother got an email from the very guy who caused me problems in high school and he asked to be remembered to me. My brother, always the comic, replied:

.

.. So, if you aren't interested in beating Fred up, I'd be happy to send him your regards.

And the guy replied back that he understands my memory of him. He's with the marines in Alaska now. And I've got nothing against him anymore.

Time passes, we all grow up, and move on.
June 19, 2006 in In the cab n the way to a fundraiser on Tuesday night, I read and I knew that Alice would be featured in this week's Nuggets. As Bob says in a must read post for anyone interested in popular music:

Rock Roll Hall Of Fame.

While Robbie Robertson and other exalted insiders have left the boards, are sitting behind a desk instead of standing in front of a microphone, Alice Cooper is out KILLING night after night and those in power, with their multi-thousand dollar suits and private jets, are IGNORING HIM!

Alice Cooper put out four awesome records in the early 1970s all produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin. I have owned them all at one point in my life.

They are Love It To Death, Killer, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies.
Bob calls Killer Alice's greatest moment and it probably is. It's the Alice record my brother Rod bought Josh when he wanted to turn him on to Alice's greatness.

But my favorite is . The title track may not have been a single, but it is my favorite Alice Cooper song.
The deluxe edition, which I linked to, has a second CD full of live recordings from the Billion Babies tour.

And Alice Cooper is essentially a live experience. One of the best shows in rock.
If you grew up in the 70s, as I did, do yourself a favor and go back to some of these records.

I am pretty sure they'll bring back some good memories.
April 28, 2006 in , My brought back a flood of memories and one of the best is the time that our friend PJ put on Sultans of Swing on the Vega car stereo. I said, wow, who is that?

And thus began my love of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler's guitar playing.
There are two Dire Straits records that are must haves. The debut record, Dire Straits, and the third record Making Movies.

Tunnel of Love on the third record is my favorite Dire Straits song.
But my favorite Dire Straits album is the debut record, Dire Straits. From the opening notes you know its going to be a great record and it is.

Sultans of course is a classic song, but there is not one bad song on the record. I was going to name some of my favorite songs but the list turned into the entire record. It's been too long since I pulled this one out.

It's going into Heavy Rotation for a while.
April 21, 2006 in , I've been meaning to post about our for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it.
I learned to drive in a Chevy Vega and it was my first car.

I shared with my brother Rod who is a year older than me.
Rod says it was a 1974 hatchback. My dad says either 1974 or 1975.

My guess is 1974. Rod knew that car better than anyone else in our house.
It was bright red Orange.

My dad says he got a great deal on it because nobody wanted it in that color.
Ours was manual transmission. Maybe they all were.

Who knows?
That car was a major lemon. Not just our car.

Every Chevy Vega.
It was the worst car ever made according to many people who know a lot more about cars than me.
It had an alluminum engine.

It consumed a ton of oil. And it made noises.
The interior fell apart.

The ride was terrible.
But even with all of that abuse I just laid on the Chevy Vega, I have a soft spot in my heart for that car.
I failed my driver's test in that car.

My dad thought we should pass the drivers test in a stick shift. So that's what I tried to do. But I was so nervous doing the parallel parking test, that I kept stalling out on the clutch.

Eventually I passed the drivers test in my parents automatic station wagon.
Before I had a license, my brother used to drive the car.
I really wanted to drive it too.

One day, when my parents were out, I decided to take the Vega for a spin. So I got the keys, went into the driveway, turned on the car, and pulled out of the driveway.
There was a pretty steep hill on the way out of the neighborhood we lived in.

As I was driving down that hill, I passed my parents heading up the hill.
The look I got from both of them is still planted front and center in my brain.
Lot's of good memories from that 1974 Chevy Vega.

The worst car ever made.
April 16, 2006 in I promise to get back to this category more often. I've been a bit focused on figuring out what's next after .

In any case, for anyone who rocked their way through the 1970s, I suggest you go check out Raj Bala's latest podcast, called .
It's a rock and roll tour through the 1970s, with an emphasis on the songs and artists who have most influenced today's younger bands.
The Stooges track (Loose) is worth the listen all by itself.

Iggy is one of the all time great rockers.
Stevie Wonder - Mistra Know It All (1973) - we all know guys like Mistra Know It All.