Time Machine week 30

This week, the time travelling musical Tardis lands at a very magical place and time- June 26th, 1977 in Indianapolis, where we take in Elvis' last concert.

In front of 17,000 Hoosiers at the late lamented Market Square Arena, the show began with, of all things, Also Sprach Zarathustra, verging into See See Rider.  The setlist included old favorites like Jailhouse Rock, Little Sister, a Don't Be Cruel/Teddy Bear medley, Hound Dog,  Sherill Nielsen singing O Sole Mio leading into its melody-mate, It's Now Or Never, and closing with Can't Help Falling In Love With You.  A local review, negative as vultures usually are, said:

Reviews of the show criticized the performance as a tacky circus sideshow at which the star was sloppy and lethargic. 
Zach Dunkin of The News wrote "Elvis Presley led another crowd of screamers into bananaland last night at Market Square Arena, and the question is why?" he wrote. "... why does Presley still continue to tour? " (via the Indy Star)

However, a more sympathetic reviewer said:

The Star's Rita Rose wrote: "The big question was, of course, had he lost weight? His last concert here, nearly 2 years ago, found Elvis overweight, sick and prone to give a lethargic performance. As the lights in the Arena was turned down after intermission, you could feel a silent plea rippling through the audience: Please, Elvis, don't be fat.

And then he appeared, in a gold and white jumpsuit and white boots, bounding onstage with energy that was a relief to everyone. At 42, Elvis is still carrying around some excess baggage on his mid-section, but it didn't stop him from giving a performance in true Presley style."


So tell me, wouldn't it be worth it to see him one more time?

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Welcome to this weeks' Time Machine, where we land in 1977, a year that lands but 2 songs into the summer 100- one of which is our panel's number one (but we can't tell you where it falls on the 100), and the other we've already noted- Andy Gibb's I Just Want To Be Your Everything at 24.  Also this week, the ladies and the duos of the summer 100; Laurie and KC each pick a bonus song off the list;  we have our 200th act on the shuffle ten- or do we?;  and we connect an R&B classic lady to southern country rock in our six degrees!  That's the wonder... the wonder of Time Machine!

You went there... really?

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First, let's meet our panel for the week.  You should already know CKLW Detroit, KENO Las Vegas, WHB Kansas City, WRKO Boston, KTKT Tuscon, WDRC Hartford, and CHUM, Toronto; and if you haven't let me introduce KFXM San Bernardino, KYNO Fresno, KTNQ Los Angeles, KQDI Great Falls MT, and WGBF Evansville!  They combined for a mere 20 different songs, and a new record ZERO number ones that weren't in the top four!  This after two weeks of a record 4 #1s that didn't make the four, go figure!  And speaking of that panel four, here's Scrappy:

Oops, never mind, Scrappy is... indisposed.  Anyway, the panel says:

At #4 with 14 points and the #1s from Boston and Detroit, the #9 nationally...ughh... Sean Cassidy with Da Doo Ron Ron.

At #3 with 15 points and the #1s from Los Angeles and Kansas City, the number 0ne on the national chart, Bill Conti's theme from Rocky, Gonna Fly Now.

At #2, with 32 points, and one of two songs that halfway through turned a five horse race into a two horse race, losing by just 2- with the #1s of Las Vegas, Hartford, Great Falls, and Toronto, the national number 8, Fleetwood Mac and Dreams.

And at #1, a song that is SOMEWHERE in the summer top ten... stay tuned.


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Even among this limited group, as familiar as they all were- 15 of them made at least a week in the old top ten I kept back then, and 3 of them #1s, there is just two that I rarely heard back then, and only one that I really don't know now.  Which is quite surprising, as in the last year, they had put up a #1 and a #5 nationally that played all over the area- Boogie Fever and Hot Line.  But after Hot Line, they had a tune hit #17 nationally, that I never caught a whiff of here.







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Since there was such a paucity of 1977 entrants to the summer 100, to get our dozen tunes for the week I had to be creative, and ask for help.  So, I'll do one list and one bonus pick now, and another of each later.  This time, let's look (figuratively) at the lovely ladies that hit the list.  Those who already got mentions were Anita Ward's Ring My Bell and Aretha Franklin's Respect ( oddly enough, both of them on the "songs I don't particularly like" list from a couple weeks ago).  The ones that I haven't mentioned yet:

Carole King, who landed It's Too Late at #13;
Jean Knight, who landed Mr. Big Stuff right behind her at #14;
Donna Summer, who landed 2 songs just to this side of the "don't really like" list, Hot Stuff at 52 and Bad Girls at -believe it or not- 15;
and Leslie Gore, who placed It's My Party at #59.

Now the first bonus pick belongs to KC, whose random choice of #84 brings us the 1967 hit by Music Explosion, Little Bit Of Soul.  They qualify as one hit wonders, as their other charting singles only made 63, 103, 119, and 120 in 1967-8.

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And this week's six degrees starts us off with an R&B HOFer, the tragic Miss Etta James.

Etta had 13 R&B top tens from 1955-67, including the #1 The Wallflower; her best on the main chart was 1967's Tell Mama at #23.  Late in her career, she was part of an all-star band picked by Keith Richards of the Stones for a docu-special celebration of Chuck Berry's 60th year in music back in 1987.  One of the songs on the soundtrack was Chuck and Etta sharing vocals on Rock And Roll Music, with Keith sharing guitar chores with Robert Cray and Eric Clapton.  Also in the band was one Chuck Leavell.  At the time, he was a keyboardist the Stones used, later becoming their main keyboardist from the lp Undercover on, and now also their musical director.  But back in the day, he was among the first members of the Allman Brothers Band.  He and band mate Jaimoe, along with Charlie Daniels, were guest artists on an lp called Carolina Dreams by the Marshall Tucker Band, which included their biggest hit- a song that sat at #10 this week but got no love from the panel, Heard It In A Love Song.

Guess which one's Marshall Tucker, win a prize.  Shady, you keep off this one, I know YOU know!

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Next round of tunes from the summer 100 are the duos who made the list.  We have already featured three of them- Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs Robinson, Paul Anka and Odia Coates with Having My Baby, and Elton John and Kiki Dee with Don't Go Breaking My Heart.  The rest include:

Peter and Gordon's 1964 hit A World Without Love at 54;
Jan and Dean, with 1963's Surf City at #60;
Sonny and Cher, with 1965's I Got You Babe at #79;
and the Captain and Tenille, with Love Will Keep Us Together from 1975 at #98!

There is ONE more duo... but they are in the top ten, so not yet for them.  Big clue:  One-hit wonders.

And to round things out, Laurie gave us a pick, #42- 1971's You've Got A Friend by James Taylor.  IDK about you, but Sweet Baby James always makes me think Autumn, not summer.


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And here we are at the shuffle ten!


The Eurythmics make their debut on the shuffle ten at ten this week, with their 1983 top dog, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This).

Another #1 taking it's place on the S10 is the 1969 hit for the Archies, Sugar Sugar, at #9.

A b-side takes the number 8 spot.  It belongs to REM, who post their 3rd S10 with their cover of The Lion Sleeps Tonight from 1993.  This was the b-side to my favorite from them, the #24 Alternative The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite.

At number seven we have a country top dog from 1988.  The Desert Rose Band, with Chris Hillman from the Byrds, from their second lp, Running:








Sly and the Family Stone take the #6 slot with their classic b-side from 1969, (I Want To Take You) Higher for their third S10.

The Eagles land their second song on the ten with their 1977 #11, Life In The Fast Lane, coming in here at #5.

Lighthouse had a track on their 1971 One Fine Morning lp that told the story of Peter trying to walk on the Sea of Galilee.  That tune, Step Out On The Sea, comes in this week at #4 for their third S10.

Another lp cut gives ELO their fifth S10.  From the 1974 lp Eldorado (which I still think is their best), the song is Laredo Tornado at #3.

Summer days, where did you go?
You've let me down so bad
Clouds fill the sky
Gone is the dream
My happy hunting ground
Wild buffalo played and I never saw a rainy day
But it looks like summer days ain't coming back....

And at number two, the 200th act on the shuffle ten- or is it?  While the Four seasons were stuck in a contract with Motown in 1975, they recorded a beautiful ballad that they all knew would be a big hit- but the A&R department at Motown didn't and refused to release it.  Frankie Valli bought the record himself, and shopped it to another record company- who would only release it if only HIS name was on it.  And thus, My Eyes Adored You- in actuality a Four Seasons record (which wouldn't make the 200th act) but on the label a Frankie Valli solo (which WOULD make it act #200)- hit #1.

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And now, the number ones!!!!!!!!!!!!

Survey says...

.... Alan O'Day with Undercover Angel- lurking somewhere in the summer top ten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, shuffle says....

Bobby Vee (NOT Bobby G.) with Take Good Care Of My Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bobby takes his first S10 with his top dog from 1961.

And that is a wrap!  Next week- 1979!

Odd and ends

I won't tell you what a day it was at work- though I can sum it up without involving witness protection by mentioning that I caught the plant manger at noon, and told him, " I have several things to say to you about this day.  But about four "awesome"s, a couple of head nods, and two or three eye rolls ought to cover it."


Been walking the last couple of days with my friend from way down south (well, south of Fort wayne, north of Indy), her lovely daughter, and their two canine companions.  Been too busy chatting to take any pics (maybe she'll grace us with some of hers later), but here are some other recent shots:

A better look at our latest tree casualty.  Pretty much exploded.

Mr and Mrs Woody pose

I just take the pics, I don't explain 'em.

Moving on, a friend's post on FB made me assess this whole Confederate flag ordeal (beyond the statement that people seriously need to get a life.  Now I see WB won't even licence the Dukes of Hazard's General Lee anymore.  Anyway, here was my FB take ( reconstructed as apparently FB removed the post):

This flag is a battle flag, symbolizing the brave men who fought and died in the name of what they believed (however misguided).  You can attach racism or whatever to their cause, but this isn't about that.  It is about sacrifice and honor.


I for one am sick and tired of people on all sides of the equation overreacting and forbidding us to observe what we have observed, pray as we have prayed, do as we have done for generations in the name of "someone might be offended".    And here's my final statement on the subject:

However, in my fruitless search for my original posting, I see that my friend indeed did post pics of yesterday's walk:

Yours truly and lovely daughter

Fosco, Scrappy, and Hu

Here's something I just saw on my way here I thought you might like:


Imagine only being able to live in a narrow band of very hot water surrounding hydrothermal vents in the Southern Ocean—and surviving on bacteria that grow on your hairy chest.

Such is the life of a newfound species of crab, known as Kiwa tyleri. Back in 2010 scientists found this small creature clinging to the sides of vents, in a frigid region of ocean northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula, but have now officially named and described it in a study published Wednesday in PLOS ONE.

Previously the scientists affectionately referred to it as the “Hoff” crab, after the hirsute actor David Hasselhoff. But the scientific name of these small crabs, whose shells can grow up to 2 inches in length, honors deep-sea biologist Paul Tyler, says his colleague and study lead author Sven Thatje, of the University of Southampton.

Separated at creation?  Maybe to a scientist...

Anyway, I gotta get ready for bed, and Laurie just had me do her a throwback Thursday video which she will soon hate me for that I must upload, so that's it for tonight.

You know why this isn't a MWN post?

Because some days, I look at stupidity as not-so funny as others.  I mean, some times people are stupid-cruel, or stupid-sad, or.... well, I just ain't of the mood for a full-on, classical sennse, MWN post.  But I will kinda skirt the fringes, if you will indulge me.

One day last week, I came home and told Laurie, "the best way to describe this day is- I had the cutting head on the machine FALL OFF; Debbie (my floor boss) asked if we could leave just before noon and go walk Scrappy;

Because THIS.

and I devised the new slogan for our company:  'Redefining clustrerf--- for a new generation."

Thankfully, after about three similar days we emerged on the other side of sanity.  And now I'm even back to an 8-hour day!

Another interesting domestic highlight came a few days back when the computer was acting a bit sluggish.  After a reboot, it went from sluggish to confused: (click the image to get the whole thing)

Here is my Google Home page.  Here you will see, starting top row left:  The Facebook page with the little Farmville symbol on top; WANE TV with the CBS Sports logo; Fox News with the Blogger symbol; Blogger homepage with the News360 symbol; (bottom row) News 360 with the FoxNews symbol; BBC with the proper small logo but the description for Weather Underground; my hockey scores page with the NASCAR symbol (but the right description); and WANE TV with the right symbol but Laurie's Wal-Mart sign-in description.  After an hour or so, it unscrambled itself- slowly.  Very slowly.


Next, let's look in my spam box, where I got this interestingly narcissistic comment on a recent blog post:

What's up friends, how is everything, and 
what you want to say concerning this post, in my 
view its genuinely amazing in support of me.

Feel free to visit my web page :: CharleenYManwaring 

I was quite surprised at how supportive I was of Charleen Y Manwaring, especially on a Time Machine post.  I was also surprised that when I searched Charleen, I came across a possible techie site called AndroidTrainee dot com, which at the end of some gobbledeegook about multiple geographic location settings, contained a comment section 100 posts long- each of the comments being a spam comment that looked a lot like the millions of spam comments I have received over the years.  So I'm not quite sure if AT is a legit site that got BADLY dumped on, or just a benign looking repository for spammers to pick up their witty reposts.

Then, I got this lovely missive from Kredi Teklif:

Hello,

We saw you ad…Please contact us via email:

richmondloanagency91@gmail.com for your solution.

Present to us the following information

NAME…………………………………………………

COUNTRY…………………………………………

STATE………………………………………………

CITY…………………………………………………

AMOUNT NEEDED…………………………

DURATION………………………………………

TEL NO……………………………………………

FAX NO……………………………………………

PURPOSE…………………………………………

OCCUPATION…………………………………

NEXT OF KIN………………………………

Await this your personal information in your next mail to us.

Yours faithfully,

Mr.Richmond.

Okay, so no Kredi Teklif in the text, because Kredi Teklif is Turkish for "loan offer" (hint to would be spammers- get your identifiers together); A business letter signed, "Mr. Richmond" (might want to put in a FIRST name); and guess what?  In America, you don't place an ad for a loan, normally.

And what beats that?  The next day, I got the same exact e-mail- all in Turkish.  Do I look Turkish?

(By the way, I learned- and confirmed- the word "meme" is Turkish for boobs.  There is a certain cosmic balance there, no?)

I do have a little MWN type stuff, for example, did you know the 2015 World's fair is going on in Milan?  I found this out because they built the world record longest pizza there:

It took 60 pizza makers, 18 hours, 1.5 tons of mozzarella, and 2 tons of tomato sauce to make a pizza just 45 and 1/2 feet short of one mile long.

Normally I like to do animalpocalypse posts, but this week there was needless stupidity and plain disaster.  Some idiot with a purpose freed a circus elephant with a history which went out and stomped a 65-year-old man to death in Germany.  Flooding in the nation of Georgia broke several dangerous beasts out of a zoo built on a Soviet-leveled church.  Two morons were charged after a) surfing behind a whale shark, and b) Leaping from a speeding boat onto a moose's back.  But, I do have one amusing anecdote of the animalpocalypse- and I wish I'd seen it a quarter-century ago, before I married a Lithuanian:

RAMYGALA, Lithuania, June 22 (UPI) -- A Lithuanian village celebrated the 645th anniversary of its founding by holding a beauty pageant for the most attractive local goats.

The village of Ramygala, about 93 miles north of capital city Vilnius, held a goat beauty pageant Saturday to celebrate the animal that has graced the town's seal.

A dark-colored goat named Marce stood out from the pack of seven bleating beauties to be crowned the most glamorous goat of the bunch.

"It wasn't hard to prepare for the contest. The goat Marce does everything at home, you know, come and see, how she scales the barriers, walks the beam. I set her free, and tell her to dance and she dances," said Saverija Dobrovolskiene, Marce's owner.

On an unrelated note, I played one of those games on Facebook, this one purporting to tell me "what your name means in Japanese".  Now I know what my name means- Christ-bearer- so I really didn't need to know what this game thought.  But then I thought, hey, maybe it might be good for a laugh.  So I did it, and it claimed it meant "blessed".  Which seems to go along, but then it made the mistake of trying to describe ME from it:

Likes being around people (meh...)

Makes easy conversation with people he has just met (Ha HAA!)

An optimist (small H ha ha), and full of positivity.

Yeah, that's me...

I do have a couple of local stories- one of which was already outed by Bobby G, in which a young no-brainer tried to rob a local Walgreens- with a fully marked and occupied squad car sitting in the parking lot.  The other, which I found locally but occurred in Virginia involved a lady who had a court appearance for leaving her kids in a hot, locked car- and left her kids in a hot, locked car outside the courthouse.  If I were the judge, I know what I would sentence her to.

Sometimes you just need a little nudity to brighten a gloomy post:

SEATTLE (Reuters) - More than 4,000 people in a Seattle suburb lost power on Friday after a woman driving naked crashed her car into a utility pole, police said.

There were live power wires down on the car when a police sergeant came across the crash scene in Shoreline, just north of Seattle, around 1:30 a.m., said Detective Jason Houck, a spokesman for the King County Sheriff's Department.

Firefighters and utility crews disabled the wires and found a 24-year-old woman inside the car who was in and out of consciousness, he said.

She was not wearing any clothes, he said. The woman, who was not badly injured, was taken to a hospital where blood was drawn to determine if she was driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Houck said.

She could face criminal charges depending on the outcome of the test.

The crash knocked out power to about 4,400 people for about four hours, Houck said.

Sunday message- what father among you

Ponder as I did early Saturday morning these verses:

Mat 7:9  Or what man is there of you, if his son asks a loaf, will he give him a stone? 
Mat 7:10  Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a snake? 
Mat 7:11  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him? 

Mat 4:1  Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil. 
Mat 4:2  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterwards hungry. 
Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If You are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 
Mat 4:4  But He answered and said, It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." 

If you are like me, the thing that sticks out is, God gave Jesus BOTH things that Jesus asked, "What man among you..."

Huh?

Okay, Jesus had been forty days fasting.  He had to be wondering if it was worth it.  He had to be thinking somewhere in His human flesh, "Oh for a loaf of bread, or a few fishes."  Now, there is nothing wrong with bread and fish, nor with providing them.  He proved that in two very famous catering sessions.  But think about this.  Though it is not specifically stated, Jesus was probably asking for both after these forty days.  In place of fish , He got "that old serpent which is Satan, the devil"; and as that serpent pointed out, He had the opportunity to take the stones provided and turn them into bread.  So, maybe no REAL father would provide a stone in place of bread, or a serpent in place of fish.  But GOD did.  Why?

How often have you heard, "Every son the Father loves, He chastens"?  And you might just think of that as scolding, or enforcing the peace around the house, when applied to human fathers.  But I think, by subtly pointing out what His Father did, Jesus was giving us two bedrock lessons- not only of how His Father acts, but how human fathers SHOULD act.  

First of all the bread.  Jesus certainly had opportunity and motive to do just as Satan suggested.  Would it have been a sin?  Gray area there.  BUT... here God was saying to us, "Yes, a father CAN provide some things... but are you better off without?"  There is a lesson of denying oneself here, not because it is intrinsically bad, but because it "goes to character".  If Jesus had allowed himself a "sandstone to Ho-Ho" conversion in the desert, what might He have done on the Cross at the point He shouted, "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?"  Would he have even made it out of the Garden of Gethsemane that night?  By saying no when necessary, fathers teach us how and when to say no to ourselves.

Second, the serpent.  At Jesus' weakest point, God allowed the Devil to tempt Him.  Why?  Why would He allow it for Job?  Or for you and me?  For Jesus, it became His first great victory of faith.  He found all he needed to resist temptation was right there in what God had given Him.  He was able to use that to overcome both Satan AND His own human flesh.  He was taught reliance on God, reliance on the Word.  So Jesus taught fathers two great lessons, and all of us two great lessons about Our Father:  Some things He COULD provide but doesn't; and somethings He COULD prevent, but doesn't.  And how we respond determines the kind of person we will be.

I recently had the opportunity to meet two wonderful little kids.  The only problem was, they were very defiant of their mother, questioning or disputing almost every request/order she gave them.  Without giving too much back story, each child had a different father, neither are that involved in them.  I do not believe this is directly the mother's fault.  But there are two men out there, who contributed seed to the making of a child, and little else.  There is a third man involved, and a gentle word from him quiets everything.  They listen to him in a way they won't to their mother.  Does he ask something that she doesn't?  Not really.  But God hard-wired us to respond to a FATHER, and I think that perhaps the most important things a father can do are based on these two things.

A counterstory can be gleaned from recent headlines.  The recent shooting up of a police station in Dallas by a man blaming the police for "his losing it all" included in its aftermath interviews with his father.  In these interviews, I got the impression that while he might not have agreed with the way his son handled things, he really wasn't arguing the WHY of his actions.  I didn't hear anything about, "My son wouldn't take responsibility for his actions causing him to lose his kids and his job," only, "they took it all away from him, and everyone has their breaking point."  Days later, a 21-year-old man comes into a Bible study to kill his fellow human beings.  He was armed with a gun that his father gave him FOR his 21st birthday.  We can't know if his father gave him the racial hatred that drove him;  we do know he gave him the gun.

At least one father had the opportunity to NOT provide something he could have been better off without, but gave it anyway.  Both fathers had the opportunity to "bring his child up in the way that they should follow, that when they are older they will not depart from it," and apparently didn't.  It doesn't just take a father to be there, it takes a father doing the right thing.

Our Father does the right thing, even when we ask for a loaf and get a stone, or ask for a fish and get a serpent.  However, Our Father is thinking ahead to when we will inevitably face our Cross, not just feeding our bellies for a moment.  And if we had an earthly father that does the same, we are doubly blessed.  In 30 years of retrospect, I think my father did a damn good job of doing just that.  It couldn't have done him much good to see me going after the serpent when I had a choice.  It would have probably made him happy that I learned the lesson of his life years later.  And if I learned the lesson at all, it's because two Fathers taught it throughout my life.  And I thank them both.

Time Machine week 29

News seems to be taking the day off on June 19th, 1974.  Steve Busby of Kansas City throws his second no-hitter (a much less eventful one than that which we saw Dock Ellis throw); the Summer Music festival in Central Park featured UK folk outfit Steeleye Span, Bonnie Raitt with John Hall of yet-to-be-famous Orleans, and a band called Howdy Moon, whose best claim to fame was that one day member Jon Lind would co-write Boogie Wonderland;  and Yekaterina Furtseva, the "most influential woman in Soviet politics" (mostly, it would seem, in controlling the arts and promoting her favorites) was bounced from the Supreme Soviet.  Two months before, a rousing affair led to charges of extravagance and a hefty fine; four months later, she was dead, allegedly of heart failure, but rumored to be a suicide-in-lieu-of-exposure of more corrupt dealings.

Doing some digging, I found out that she was the one that approved Lee Harvey Oswald's stay in Russia.

Hopefully things will be a little bit more exciting on our Time Machine trip through music, which features:the crooners on the summer 100; oh, and speaking of the summer 100, all four panel picks are on the list, and so is a pick from my son KC; finding our way to Joni Mitchell via Keith Richards; Johnny Cash does Dylan; the President does the Bottom's Up; and Kiss rocks the unknown song!  Hop in, tovarich!


The panel this week contains a lot of familiar names:  CKLW Detroit, WPOP Hartford, KBEQ Kansas City, WIXY Cleveland, WAKY Louisville, KTKT Tuscon, WNHC New Haven, WCOL Columbus, and yes, KPOI Honolulu, along with WMPT Williamsport PA, KTSA San Antonio, and WHYN Springfield MA.  They came together for 24 tunes, including 7 number ones.  That list included Gladys Knight and the Pips with On And On on CKLW, the Carpenters' I Won't Last A Day Without You in beautiful Hawaii, and Louisville, which is rapidly getting a rep for being "WAKY", and the upcoming unknown song.  The panel's top four:

Fourth, with 16 votes and the #1 from Columbus, Wings with the current national #1, Band On The Run.  This song claims the #77 spot on the summer 100.

Third, with 20 points and the #1 from Connecticut, a song at #2 nationally, the Stylistics with You Make Me Feel Brand New.  These guys sit at #58 on the summer 100.

Second by a 35-28 margin, with the #1 votes of Kansas City, Cleveland, and Springfield, the nation's #5 song, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods with Billy Don't Be A Hero.  They are at #51 on the summer 100.

And at number one this week... the #44 song on the summer 100.... stay tuned.


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As I mentioned, WAKY is getting a rep here for being the oddballs of the bunch.  They had last week's unknown song too, as well as the only votes for Mountain's Mississippi Queen and Bobby Sherman's take on Hey Mr. Sun.  This week, as well as having the only vote for ZZ Top's La Grange, they have at #1 a song that was actually Kiss's first 45- last February.  But Kiss put it as the b-side of their second single- which would stall at 83 on Billboard, and was 82-on-it's-way-to-79 this week on Cashbox.  That song was called Kissin' Time- but, to be different, Lousville was playing the b-side:






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So as you noticed by now, I'm floating the summer 100 out there a dozen at a time, and I have about another four weeks of doing that before I have a top ten extravaganza.  In the meantime, I give out the ones that appear in the story, any other ones from that year (which in 1974's case, means Paul Anka and Odia Coats Having My Baby at #83), any little lists I can make up, and a desperation guest pick if necessary.  This week, I do have that guest pick- not from Laurie, but my son KC.  He was excited to find his random pick land on a song he had downloaded on his phone- from 1966, the #71 Summer In The City by the Loving Spoonful!  He was a tad less excited to discover it was the Spoonful, as the source he downloaded from claimed it was Three Dog Night.  People uploading songs to the net ought to do some fact checking.  I myself have found that Boston did Carry On Wayward Son....


And the other half of the equation, the "any little lists" part, has the list of what I would term Crooners.  Now, I put in this category the "Las Vegas-y" acts, and one of them already got featured- Wayne Newton's Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast at #86.  Also making my crooner list:

Tom Jones, who put What's New Pussycat (1965) at #94;
Frank Sinatra, who put Strangers In The Night (1966) at #78;
and the top crooner-

  Dean Martin, who landed Everybody Loves Somebody (1964) at #69!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And with that, let's hit the Bottom's Up!

10- Helen Reddy kicks us off, with some help from her daughter Traci, with You And Me Against The World, which was at #57 after three weeks.

9- Roberta Flack Feels Like Making Love, and she says it at #58 after 2 weeks.

8- The kings of the Bottoms up have to be the Guess Who.  Having already made this list in weeks 23, 24, and 27, they're back again in week 29, with Star Baby- which peaked two weeks before at #30- sitting at 62 in a whopping 17 weeks!

7- David Bowie is at #63 this week with Rebel Rebel, after 4 weeks.

6- Elton John is here with the #67 on the summer 100, and at #66 here- Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me.  This is the first of 3 debuts.

5- Another repeater here is Andy Kim, who has Rock Me Gently  at #70 after 2 weeks.

4- Here we have the #43 song of summer, Paper Lace's The Night Chicago Died, at #78 after two weeks.

3- Our second debut belongs to Chicago, who really hadn't died at all, with Call On Me at #80.

2- The runner up this week is the third debut- Rufus featuring Chaka Khan with Tell Me Something Good at #84.


And the top bottom?

Dickie Goodman's novelty mash-up, Mr President, at 88 in week #3!!!!!!!!!!!!

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So as promised, our six degrees begins with Keith Richards.

And actually the only thing he had to do with the whole thing was having the good taste to marry Patti Hansen.  This actress was in the movie Hard To Hold, which was a Rick Springfield vehicle.  Rick, of course, did the soundtrack to the movie, which included the #20 hit Bop Till You Drop from 1984.  The b-side of that record was a hit on the adult contemporary chart- a duet with a lady named Randy Crawford called Taxi Dancing, which climbed to #16 there.  Randy had made a big name of herself singing lead on the Crusaders' top 40 hit from 1979, Street Life.  Amongst the Crusaders at one point were a couple of gents named Larry Carlton and Joe Sample.  These two were also members of a jazz-fusion outfit called Tom Scott's LA Express, and that group were the backup musicians on the Joni Mitchell lp that contained her hit Help Me- which sat at #12 nationally this week but got no help from the panel.


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And the endgame approacheth- time for the shuffle ten!

At number ten, Gerry Rafferty claims his third shuffle ten with a tune that hit #12 in 1978- but was at my number one spot- Right Down The Line.

Another of those songs attached to a certain young lady in my mind is at #9- Donnie Iris and his #29 from 1981, Ah! Leah!

Seals and Crofts land their fourth shuffle ten here at #8 with a song they took to number six in 1976, Get Closer.

A band we'll be seeing a lot in the summer 100 (just not with this song) is the Rolling Stones, who land at our #7 with their number six from '64, Time Is On My Side.

Johnny Cash and June Carter land the first of two country classics on the shuffle ten this week.  Hitting #4 country/#58 pop in 1965, they cover Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe here at our #6.

That other country classic is Merle Haggard's top dog from 1969, Okie From Muskogee, at #5.

Christian singer Keith Green lands his third shuffle ten with a song from the lp I used to have, a song called by CBN one of his ten best- 1977's You Put This Love In My Heart.  It hits #4 here.




Dion takes the #3 slot with his top dog from 1961, Runaround Sue.

Runner up this week, my baby Yvonne Elliman with the Gibb brothers' song Love Me, a #14 hit from 1976.


And our number ones?

Panel says...

Gordon Lightfoot with Sundown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In addition to almost being the first 45 I bought at the store, it also is our #44 summer 100 song and the national #3 this week.

And, shuffle says.....

Huey Lewis and the News with I Want A New Drug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a #6 off the great lp Sports in 1984.  And if the Martin Era went out that far, likely a summer 100 of its own.


The next two weeks we hit late seventies, with '77 next week and '79 after that.  Then it will be back to the sixties!  See ya then.

An 80% Scrappy-led walk

So every once in a while, I get him onto Groundhog Row and just let him lead, and that is our subject today.

Over the hill we go... but will we cross the bridge?

Yes... yes, we will...

...and proceed south along the canal trail.

Mourning dove was silent on upcoming rain.

And across the footbridge and California Road...

And down the very full south canal.

All the way to Coliseum!  Here I put my foot down, and after some hesitation he agreed to turn...

...and head towards the river.

Saw this along the way.

Turning north near the river.

And making a big loop-de-loop around a clump of trees.  This might have went on forever, but...

"Look, Scrappy, there he goes!"  And I wasn't lying; I saw two groundhogs that he didn't...

But the rabbit?  THAT he saw, and away we went to check out where he disappeared.

After a BabyBel break, HE wanted to double our walk by crossing over to the IPFW side.  Again, I put my foot down.  He was getting beat as it was, and I wasn't a lot better.

Oddly enough, the river's way down.  Holding things up at the reservoir again?

Scrappy, no!  There's twenty feet of muck before you can,,.

...get to the river.  Sigh.

Listen, bitch, I'm hot and thirsty, and I'm going swimming!

I feel so much better when my pee-pee's cool...

So after a five minute break to smell the flowers, and what-have-you...

... we abandon a perfectly good road to go traipse in the tall grass.

And find the wettest, muckiest place to get back on the road...

"...because I just loves to hear Daddy's toes squishing in his shoes!"

That was one of the biggest frogs I ever saw!

So back across the footbridge...

And, God help us, behind the IPFW soccer pitch.  Will he ever head home?

As you might guess I put my foot down again when he tried to breach this mess.  For his own good and my own, I said, "There he goes!"  And pointed at an imaginary woodchuck headed towards home.

Surprisingly, he crossed the old wooden bridge...

...and mercifully headed north.

As you can see, the dove let us down... but by this time, it felt good.

And with Mr and Mrs Goldfinch to welcome us back, we concluded our trip.