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I have to honestly say, I was struggling to find the energy to even fire up the ol' Tardis tonight, but then I saw what happened where we were going- June 12th, 1976- and this story energized me. Here are excerpts from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette:
Three Rivers Stadium was like a Wild West showdown on June 12, 1976.
"You only had to say the date," says former concert promoter Rich Engler. "I knew exactly what you were talking about."
It was the day that ZZ Top and Aerosmith, who play together at the Post-Gazette Pavilion Wednesday, pulled into town with the World Wide Texas Tour -- hands-down winner for the city's craziest show ever.
They had cattle, they had rattlesnakes on stage. I liked the package but it was weird because it was the roughneck-beer-drinkers-hell-raisers, and this American hair-type band that was a different form of rock 'n' roll. It kind of collided with the chemistry, not only of the music but the crowd. There were a lot of calamities."
The calamities were Texas-sized. The front page headline the next day in The Pittsburgh Press was "250 Fans Injured at Rock Concert," many of them cut by broken glass "when bottle-throwing erupted." The medic on the scene treated people for eye lacerations, drug overdoses, a broken nose and a broken pelvis. A pregnant woman suffered severe burns on her leg when a cherry bomb landed on her lap.
Fifteen cars were towed on the Fort Duquesne Bridge and just as many on the Parkway West. North Side residents complained of people parking on the sidewalks in front of their homes.
"Vandalism and destruction at the concert reached levels never before seen in Pittsburgh," says (Raymond) Alsing, who now works as a field engineer for a computer company, "and there has never been anything like it since. Drug sales were rampant through the turnstiles entering the stadium along with anything else that wanted to come in. People were carrying kegs of beer in on their shoulders. Bathrooms were unisex, even though nothing like that existed then."
"In the middle of Aerosmith's set," Engler says, "one of the ZZ Top fans risked his life to go over the high-tension, do-not-enter, high-voltage, danger, will-kill-you area, crawled in there, drunk as a skunk, and pulled the power level on Aerosmith -- and the whole stage went completely silent. The only thing you could hear was rat-tat-tat -- the drummer without any amplification. Everyone was stunned. The ZZ Top crowd was cheering and the Aerosmith crowd was booing."
Frankly, I think I'd rather watch Brooke Annibale live streaming from her music room...
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| "But no cows, I'm not doing cows!" |
So welcome to Time Machine, where we'll be passing along greetings to POTMs America (appropriate for 1976!) because
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Coming in at #10 is new stuff from Kidsmoke...
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What might this be (in addition to the lead in for what might be the dumbest live 6D of all time)? Well, Amazon.com says it's a "Disney Alice In Wonderland wig and headband", and also that it is "Sponsored products related to this item", that item in question being the first lp by the band Alice Cooper, which goes to show you AI isn't all that. I was looking into this lp, Live at the Whisky-a-Go-Go 1969, and found that the live lp was pretty much cuts from their first lp Pretties For You. This lp was a cluster on the scale of the Pittsburgh concert above- according to legend, Frank Zappa was supposed to be producing the disc, and had to leave. He left his brother at the recording desk, and he recorded while the band rehearsed. When Frank got back, he declared the lp 'done' and sent them on their way with an album almost unlistenable except for the single (that went nowhere) then called Reflected that eventually evolved into the hit Elected. So how did I get to this story? Because Johnny Rivers recorded several songs at the WaGG, one of which was Secret Agent Man, which was co-written by one Steve Barri, a producer who co-produced this week's 6D victim- Welcome Back by John Sebastian, #5 without a Panel vote.
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Yeah, I haven't got to the Panel yet, but first I want to intro the next M10 debut (since they're gonna be the only salvation for tonight's show). Michael Trotter, Jr, is a wounded war hero of two tours in Iraq, where he became known for his singing to the other wounded heroes. He started a music career, and along the way met his now-wife Tanya (Blount) Trotter, who'd already got some notoriety of her own singing in films like Sister Act II and on the R&B chart. They became an act calling themselves The War And Treaty- and their awesome latest single is at #9...
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Okay, now the Panel. 20 songs, 60 stations, and including the first vote from Radio Mi Amigo at sea off Spain, who picked a lovely ballad called This Melody by Julien Clerc. The chart itself was a bit of a cakewalk- to draw even with the winner, I'd have to stretch the field to include everyone with more than one vote, along with three of the 11 one-vote wonders! But I won't put you through that- I'll contain the finalists to a mere 5 songs...
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| Hey, boss, get back from that mike... |
Because you look like a slice of dead meat, man. Get some rest, an' let the King take over...
I remember the last time I did that...
I know, but I sent everyone else out for burgers, so there won' be no trouble. C'mon...
Alright, I guess you can do the Panel while I finish my malt...
Awright! Now, let's get this final five underway! First, here's Sir Paul McCartney...
P: So formal! So no hard feelings about all the Beatles to-do...
E: Wait, you were one of the Beatles?
P: ...
E: Oh, I'm just funnin' ya! What song do you have on the list?
P: I and my mates- and my loovly wife, Linda- are at #3 on this week's chart with Silly Love Songs!
E: Okay, next, let's bring in... wait, who are you, again?
H: I'm Henry Gross, and my song Shannon is at #11...
E: Is that about your girlfriend?
H: No, it's about Carl Wilson's dog, actually...
E: Uh-HUH. Next up, state yer name and hit...
Bjorn Ulvaeus: Hello, we're ABBA from Sweden, and our song Fernando, is in the middle of a 14-week run at #1 in Australia...
E: (to the girls) Hey, baby, m'name's Elvis, an'... Australia? Sweden? NOODLE!!
N: The name, sir, is Nardole. N-A-R-...
E: Lissen, you sure these guys is in the final?
N: Yes, sir. They are very big.
E: Okay, then, who's next?
Diana Ross: I'm only here under protest, but I came because of you, Elvis...
E: Say, yer that Supremes chick, ain'tcha?
D: Well, I...
E: Whut song you got, honey?
DR: Uh, Love Hangover, at #1 this week...
E: Okay, baby, let's keep this moving, anyone else?
DM: Yes, I'm Dorothy Moore and my song Misty Blue is at #4....
E: Yew ain't singin' about the dog, too, are ya?
DM: Er, no...
WHAT the hell are all these people doing here????
E: Why, meet yer final five!
P: Say, what 'final' would this be, exactly?
E: Like you don' know, ya won it a hunnert times!
Jeez, I can't move in here! Bellbottom will have a freak! Nardole, cue up the last debut while I get this straightened out!
N: At once, sir. Last week, Chris mentioned that the Jayhawks, currently climbing the M10 with This Forgotten Town had done a cover of Grand Funk Railroad's Bad Time earlier. 25 years ago, to be precise. And in keeping with the current theme of covers on the M10, it debuts at #7...
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Okay, so now that Elvis has killed us on time, let's hit the stat pack hard and fast. The big mover, the Beach Boys climb 20 from 61-41 with their cover of Rock And Roll Music; the #1s across the English speaking world include Canada with Silly Love Songs, South Africa with last year's American chart topper December 1963 (Oh What A Night) by the Four Seasons, as we mentioned, Fernando the #1 in Australia (and has been since April 5th), and in the UK, a parody of Brand New Key by the Wurzels, called Combine Harvester. If you don't know it, go grab a listen, it's funny!
And that crazy cover song?
Well, the famous version is actually the big hit- Dr Hook's Sharing The Night Together. But it was first done, 2 years earlier, by a pair of gentlemen whom we reviewed. The first was Lenny LeBlanc, who'd later be better known (just slightly) as one-half of LeBlanc and Carr. He was debuting with his first-recorded version at #97, while a just behind recording by "soul singer and country and western writer" Arthur Alexander was at #94 after 3 weeks. Our takes:
Arthur:
Chris: That arrangement is boss. I might like that better than Dr Hook's!
Laurie: Hated it. To me, the vocals didn't go with the song.
Chris: Wow, that's the farthest apart we can possibly get!
Lenny:
Chris: He sucks! I actually looked through the comments to see if it was recorded at the wrong speed!
Laurie: Yeah, I don't like that one much, either...
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The remaining M10:
Deradoorian drops from 3 to 8 with Monks Robes...
Holding again at 6 in week #9, Maddie and Tae, I Don't Need To Know...
Last week's #1, You Can't Hurt A Fool by the Pretenders, down to #5...
The last non cover on the list, Jayhawks and This Forgotten Town, at #4, up one...
Badfinger and friends with Baby Blue up 7 to 3...
The Explorer's Club up 10 to 2 with Can't Find The Time...
...and the new #1....
...the Shacks with Smile Now Cry Later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the Panel picks?
Shannon and Misty Blue get 5% each...
Fernando got 4 Australian votes to come in with 6.67%...
Diana Ross grabbed 8.33% with Love Hangover...
But the winner, with 43.33%...
....Wings with Silly Love Songs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, Lord, thank You for getting me through this....
E: Hey, whuddabout me? I helped...
Yes, you did, and you're expensing all the additional unrequested cameo's out of YOUR check!
E: That's what I get for helping! 1976 sucks!
Yeah, well, 1977 won't be your best year, either....
Time passes and still idiots survive
ReplyDeleteGreat music again
Thank you, and yes they do.
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