50 Years Gone

I remember it like yesterday... even though I was a toddler watching soaps while my mom napped, sitting on the training pot.  Walter Cronkite's baritone made the announcement.  And I didn't TRULY comprehend what it meant, except that someone important was dead.  But I learned.

I grew up in a catholic Democrat family.  My sister had a portrait of Jack and Bobby on her bedroom wall.  I leafed through The Torch Is Passed many times.  We had a set of Colliers' yearbooks to go with our encyclopedia, and I read and re-read Jack's career as president in its day-by-day format.

Years passed, and I learned about his past, his family, his service.  Though in many households such as ours he attained almost a saint status (before you think that's silly, I remind you of the National Enquirers' campaign of sorts to get Grace Kelly named a saint after her death), I got to know him as he was- an imperfect man.  Like the rest of us, only richer.  And braver.

He reminds me of Ronald Reagan in many ways.  Beyond their similar policies, they brought a similar love for the people they served.  They brought a similar hope for their nation.  They had a shared, deep, and abiding hatred for the grey walls of communism- and not so surprising that one stood before the grey monolith of the Berlin Wall and said, "I am a Berliner", and the other stood side by side with young people sick of the grey and shouted, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Their world was a world with all the colors of freedom and opportunity- a rainbow over the promise of a new world- a Camelot.  And those who love the grey walls hated them both, and one of them died because of it.  And with Jack's death, and Bobby's soon later, the grey walls won for a time.

Years later, Reagan tore down the grey walls again... but it seems that there were even more of those who love the grey walls in his day than in Jack's.  It took two deaths to end Jack's dream... only one retirement to end Reagan's.

A lot of people take the opportunity the anniversary gives to go over all the conspiracies tied to JFK's assassination, and that's okay.  It needs to be discussed even now, so that the lovers of the grey walls know that there yet live men who won't submit to the grey.  But for me, the whole thing is moot.  When I think of who shot Jack Kennedy, who shot Bobby, MLK, or Lincoln, I have only one thought about them.


YOU MAKE ME SICK.  I hope that your eternal fate includes the grey walls you loved so much.

And on the hill, four men who will yet say, "I forgive you.  You didn't know what you were doing."

Time Machine week 95

It's November, 22, 1971.  Yesterday, the Indian Air Force inflicted a defeat on their Pakistani counterparts as the two nations edged closer towards confrontation in Pakistan's civil war, in the tiny river neck of Boyra.  One of the Pakistani pilots shot down and captured would eventually (in 1996) become Pakistan's Chief of Air Staff; the pilot who shot him down sent him a nice congratulatory letter, thinking that he'd never hear back- but the CoAS sent back a letter, thanking him for the wishes and commending him on his skill in the air.

Today, Idaho's Supreme Court threw out an old law that said that in the presence of multiple applicants to the estate of a dead child, the male applicants take precedence.  In the case at hand, the father was a little more than indirectly involved in the death, and the lower judge was trying to award power over the estate to him.

In two days, a man known to legend as DB Cooper would leap from a plane into mystery as the first man to hijack a plane.  Who he was, whether he survived, and where all the money went is still a matter for conjecture.

artists depiction of "Cooper"- who may have gotten his name from a Dutch comic book...

And now, you're reading Time Machine for this week, where we'll look at the many faces of Will You Love Me Tomorrow; the band that ALMOST had Janis Joplin for a singer, and why; and four new members of the top ten, including two that make leaps of at least 12 notches!  Ready, aim, fire!


So let's open the fun as always  with the #1s around the world.  Three changes this week internationally:  France  has at the top of its chart one Michel Sardou with his tune La Rire du Sergent
(The Laughing Sergeant).  Sardou is another artist to owed his fame initially to being banned; his first hit was Les Ricains (The Yankees) in which he, in light of anti-American sentiment over Vietnam and France's pull out from NATO, reminded Frenchmen of the debt owed to America.  The subject did not find favour with DeGaulle, and he "suggested" that the song not be played.  Sardot, the scion of theater star parents, has gone on to make a career of edgy political views.

Also new at the tops Over There, Ireland has adopted the UK #1 Cuz I Love You by Slade (a very good song, a la Come On Eileen);  and New Zealand will spend the rest of the year with Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey on top.


In the US of A, a consensus has formed behind the Shaft theme; LA, both Chicagos, and one Minneapolis station has Isaac Hayes at the top.  Detroit is united behind Family Affair; the other Minneapolis station has Baby I'm-A Want You, and Pittsburgh favours Have You Seen Her.  (Why am I using the English spelling of favour today?  Because it pisses my spell-check off.

"I say, Mr. Davis, I had no idea we were so popular in the Motor City..."

This week, we had 12 hot 100 debuts, of which I'll mention three.  At #61, Rod Stewart and the Faces hit with their version of (I Know I'm) Losing You;  at 86, it's rare Earth with one of their best, Hey Big Brother; and Betty Wright at 89 with her big hit Clean Up Woman.  Here's a didja know-  Wright was a member of a family gospel outfit called the Echoes Of Joy; as such, she was singing professionally at the age of 2, and discovered George and Gwen McRae when she was 14!

Oh, and something else I should mention at this point, kind of an Almost But Not Quite- Mamy Blue, the Pop Tops version, has peaked at #68 on the Cashbox countdown.  But is still on top in at least 8 other countries...

This week's birthday song list is going to have a story attached at the end.  Turning thirty this week:  Barry Manilow's Read Em And Weep ( which I mention not because it was a big hit or because I'm a Manilow fan- the first is false, the other true- but because it was the fourth top forty hit in a matter of months written and produced by Jim Steinman.  The others?  Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Making Love Out Of Nothing At All, and his own soon to debut Rock And Roll Dreams Come True.), Rainbow's Street Of Dreams, and the Moody Blues with Blue World.  Turning 35, we have Olivia Newton-John's A Little More Love, Nicolette Larson's hit of Neil Young's Lotta Love, Gerry Rafferty's Home And Dry, Don Williams' country crossover ( later covered by Eric Clapton) Tulsa Time, Gong Show contestant Cheryl Lynn's Got To Be Real, and Ian Matthews (without the Southern Comfort) and Shake It.  That song attached itself for me to a girl in high school on the flimsiest of reasonings- she and some other friends of the female persuasion were students in advanced Spanish, and somehow the line "she has a purse that was made in Mexico" stuck to her picture in my brain.

Turning 40, we have David Essex's Rock On... and the star of our coming story.  At 45 years old this week, Dusty Springfield's Son Of A Preacher Man and CCR's I Put A Spell On You.  Turning 50, Martha and the Vandellas Quicksand and the Murmaids with Popsicles, Icicles.  Hitting 55 this week we have the classic Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by the Platters, and Jackie Wilson's Lonely Teardrops.  And finally, turning 60, Eartha Kitt's take on Santa Baby.


And now, the story.  One of the songs turning 40 this week was a cover by Melanie (Brand New Key) of the Carole King comp Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow.  First thought was-  I don't know if this is going to be real good, with Melanie's somewhat screechy pipes; second thought was, gee, a LOT of people have recorded this song.  Let's look and see how many we find.

The Shirelles, of course, had the biggest with the first, hitting #1 in 1960.  But a wide cross-section of people have also recorded it, from Mike Berry...

You know me, mate!  I was Spooner on the UK comedy Are You Being Served!

... to Ronnie James Dio with his band the Prophets...

His version was "then"... in 1962.

Now as far as those what actually hit the charts, we have the Four Seasons making it to #24 in 1968; Roberta Flack got to #76 in 1972; Jody Miller, a country star who had made a living doing covers of 60's hits in country style (top 40 country with songs like He's So Fine, Baby I'm Yours, Be My Baby, To Know Him Is To Love Him, and... House Of The Rising Sun?) made it to #69 on the country charts in 1975...

Whatever it is, I'm there...

...a band called Morningside Drive had a disco version that hit #33 in 1975 as well; Dana Valery, a singer of all trades who is now a hypnotherapist, hit #95 with another dance version in 1976; and Dave Mason made it to #39 with his last top 40 hit in 1978.  Carole, of course did an excellent job on her massive hit lp Tapestry in 1971; but she says (allegedly) that "the definitive version" was done by the Bee Gees on the tribute album Tapestry Revisited in 1995- it was pretty darn good.  That lp also contained Rod Stewart on So Far Away, Amy Grant on It's Too Late, Faith Hill doing Where You Lead,  the Manhattan Transfer on Smackwater Jack (I'll have to check at least THAT one out!), and Celine Dion on You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman.


Oh, and Melanie's version which started this all?  It was DAMN GOOD.

The biggest mover in the countdown is up in the top 40... the big dropper, Al Green and Tired Of Being Alone, falling from 18 to 51.

Our 45 at 45- one more time for newbies; the 45 at #45 45 years ago this week- is on its way down.  It's Piece Of My Heart by Big Brother And The Holding Company, who had been an unconventional instrumental band until they auditioned Janis Joplin to be their first lead singer.  Now she was also being courted by another band from down home in Texas- the 13th Floor Elevators, reputed to be the first truly psychedelic band.  They had had a national hit in 1967 with You're Gonna Miss Me (#55), and had a big rep in their home state.  Janis' connection to them was through her friend  Clementine Hall, wife of 13FE electric jug player Tommy Hall.  Clementine was like a den mother to the band, especially to the increasingly-disturbed leader Roky Erickson.  She chose the Holding Co., though; and when she went solo, much of the band joined Country Joe and the Fish for a time, before briefly reforming with new female singer Kathy McDonald, who may (if you read her wiki story) or may not have been one of the female vocalists on the Stones' Tumbling Dice (credits list two other ladies "and friend").

Eight songs hit the top 40 this week.  Tom Jones' Till, which we mentioned a couple weeks ago and is an AWESOME vocal performance, moves up 3 to #40;  Yes moves up nine to #37 with Your Move (better known, perhaps, as Seen All Good People); Van Morrison's Wild Night moves up 7 to #35; Neil Diamond comes in with a song called Stones at 34, up ten; Dennis Coffey and the Detroit Guitar Band climb a quick 18 to #33 with the instrumental Scorpio; Melanie (ain't it funny how THIS works out?) climbs nine to #32 with the aforementioned Brand New Key; the big mover, up 28 to 31, Three Dog Night with An Old Fashioned Love Song; and the highest spot in the top 40 goes to the Staple Singers with Respect Yourself, moving up 18 spots to #29.

Yeah, if I get two mentions, I oughta get a picture...

With four new songs coming in, four old ones drop out.  The four droppers were Superstar (10 to 24), I Found Someone Of My Own (8 to 17), Maggie May (4 to 16), and Yo-Yo (5-15).

Marvin Gaye slips from 6 to 10 with Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler).

The Jackson Five jump from 21 to 9 with Got To Be There.

A more modest move of four notches take the Grass Roots to #8 with Two Divided By Love.

Bread rises (you knew that was coming again, didn't you?) two spots to #7 with Baby I'm-A Want You.

The big move- 17 spots from 23 to 6- belongs to Sly and the Family Stone with Family Affair.

Another more modest jump of 6 puts the Chi-lites and Have You Seen Her at #5.

The former Cat Stevens (well, he wasn't former then but.. oh, you know) goes from 7 to 4 with Peace Train.

Cher drops a notch to #3 with the former top dog Gypsies Tramps And Thieves.

John Lennon moves into the runner up spot with Imagine.

And that means the winnah and still champeen for this week is...

 

 

 

 

...Isaac Hayes and Theme From Shaft!!!


Next week, more music and pictures of pretty girls!

Life is like a blog post...

Well, it tries to be when we go for a walk.  A good walk is a good blog post; but a bad walk is still a good walk, it just doesn't make a good blog post.  Today's walk had elements of both.

There was a cute story;  as we approached the woods, a lady and her dog, a big black one that kinda was built like Vinnie the Airedale, were moving up the side of the woods.  About 20 yards away, this dog (whose name, we learned soon later, was Baxter*) saw Scrappy.  Scrappy saw him just a bit later.  I was trying to go slow enough to give her a chance to clear us (as it looked like Baxter was giving her a bit of difficulty), but Baxter slowed to match us.  Finally, she shouted, "Come on, Baxter!"

And he sat down.  He refused to move, until she said he could come meet Scrappy.

The meeting was cordial, and after a thorough sniffing, an invitation from Baxter to roughhouse, and the near-avoidance of the inevitable tangling of leashes, we went our merry way.  Well, Scrappy and I did.  Baxter sat back down when we left and wouldn't move until he was sure Scrappy wasn't coming back.

(*- I find Baxter's name ironic because Laurie's sister has a mini poodle, white, named Baxter.  So now we know one at each end of the scale.)

A good post-walk includes lots of pictures, too.  But this one had one at the start-

- tree starting its descent to the forest floor, right at the corner of Main Trail and Loop Trail North.

And it has one picture from the end-

- the river so low that Scrappy didn't get to go down as we had about 10 yards of gooey mud flat to get to it.


However, there was one spot in the middle that made it all worthwhile.  For those of you that play along on "The Map", this is on the south side of the Swamp.  We were walking the far south end when I saw something move up against the woods...

Two foxes!

Mr. Fox had gotten up to shake himself else I'd have never seen them.

I wish they had been getting along better. Hard to get them in one shot when they sit so far apart!

The Mrs.  was content to watch us pass from a distance as she sunned herself.

While he got up and left when we got the closest (which wasn't very close), this little stinker was content to continue sunbathing until we were long gone.



________________________________________


More pictures in a sec (one really cool one, IMHO), but I notice by my junk folder that it's time to play a brief round of spam e-mail instruction, a public service to make your spam more intelligent ( and intelligible.)

First, a while back a friend of mine warned us that a new blogroll engine called Feedspot was trying to take the place of the lamented Google Reader, and using some questionable tactics to draw an audience.  I have a hard time taking FS seriously when they send me stuff like this:

Your Blogspot blog "Chris' cap collection" has 23 new followers onFeedspot

Hi CWMartin,

My name is Anuj. I'm Founder of Feedspot - A Google Reader replacement with built-in Search and Sharing features.http://www.feedspot. com

We recently launched Feedspot and got reviewed by TechCrunch.

I'm writing this to let you know that your blog 'Chris' cap collection' has started getting new followers on Feedspot. You can view your blog and its followers on Feedspot from here. If you need detailed monthly/yearly analytics on how your blog is performing on Feedspot, please let me know.

As your blog is adding value to Feedspot, I'd like to give you one year Feedspot Premium subscription for free. Please use (my e-mail)_FEEDSPOT as promocode to enable your annual subscription.

Best, Anuj Well, Anuj, let me give you some tips.  My Caps blog has about 5 followers, is mainly read when I beg my regular readers to go see some new cap I found, and I doubt that 23 people in the whole world have stumbled onto it, let alone friended it on FS.  Certainly if you are a REPUTABLE BUSINESS, you can go about this a bit more honestly.  BTW, Anuj Agarwal IS the name of FS's founder.  Either he is a no-moral idiot or a spammer he's allowing to work for his company is. Either way, I believe I shall pass. Next up, Yet another 2 and a half million bucks I foolishly left in a bank in Benin. There really IS a Benin.  Just take a right at Togo... Anyway, the hook to this one, as we learn from one Barrister Miracle Joseph, (or Joseph Miracle, it's hard to tell), goes like this: Remember,the reason why your total fund was arranged on ATM CARD is because many People complain about Freud stars every day from Benin and we are trying to stop this fraudulent from Benin and am assuring you that it will stop because we are now working with the internet operation such as YAHOO MAIL, HOTMAIL,MAILLOL and also the united state FBI and Economic financial crime commission (EFCC). And many people have been scammed by bank wire transfer going around the whole African and the reason to STOP paying money to the fraud stars So the scam can be eradicated in this country and I want you to follow your fund code which follow bellow, and wish is given to you by the Federal high court of Benin and the code is (746*78F*GN) Now obviously the pertinent question is, are they "Freud Stars" or "Fraud Stars", and whichever one they are, what the heck are they?  Google it and you get a band called the Radio Stars headlined by a dude called Freud.  And by the way, MJ, the terms "ATM card" and "Yahoo Mail" don't exactly scream legitimacy to most Americans. This next one is just too full of fun not to share the whole thing.  With my comments within: -- Hello my good friend, Compliment of the season! (Which season would that be?) You may not understand why this mail come to you, (no foolin'?) But if you do not remember me, you might have receive an email from me in the past regarding a multi-million-dollar business proposal which we never concluded. I am using this opportunity to inform you that the multi-million-dollar business has been concluded with the assistance of another partner from U.K who financed the transaction to a logical conclusion. ("Logical"?  How about "successful"?) I thank you for your great efforts to our unfinished transfer of fund into your account due to one reason or the other best known to you. I want to inform you that I have successfully transferred the fund to my new partner's account in China that was capable of assisting me in this great venture. Due to your effort, sincerity, courage and trust worthiness you showed during the course of the transaction. I want to compensate you and show my gratitude to you with the sum of USD 500,000.00. (Now at this point, I have to point out yet again-I don't have amnesia, and if I don't have amnesia, this scam will never fly.  I think I'd remember a half-million buck business deal.) I have left a certified bank draft for you worth of Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Only. My dear friend I will like you to contact my Account Officer with heritage bank in Benin on his direct email address (tontonforkids@yahoo .fr) for the collection of your bank draft with him, his name is Mr. Tony COLEMAN,i authorized him to release the Bank Draft to you whenever you contacts him for the collection.  At the moment, I'm very busy with my partner because of the investment project which I and my new partner are having at hand. Please I will like you to accept this token with good faith as this is from the bottom of my heart, Also comply with Mr. Tony's (Mr. Tony, how cute!) directive so that your draft can reach you without delay. Note her contact again below: Name:  Mr. Tony COLEMAN   Yours sincerely, Mrs. Elise Edward. Tonton, I found out, is some international internet TV site, and it kinda looks like it features Bollywood dramas.  What it would have to do with my $500,000 business deal in China which I never made, I don't know. Finally, we have a letter from the First National Bank of Reno, Nevada.  They are taking a VERY proactive stance on scam victims: Attention:Beneficiary  I am Mr.Frank Anthony, Chief Cashier,of The First National Bank U.S.A. This is  to bring to your notice that The U.S Government received a letter from the  British Colony Government and also African Development Organization concerning  Scam Victim's, after the meeting the African Development Organization/British  Colony Government and United Nation Organization, agreed to pay each and  everyone his or her name appeared in the list as a victim with the sum of $6,  Million United State Dollar. Hey, I've been scammed!  Give me six mill!  BTW, the address sent with the e-mail was the location of a bank- a Mutual Of Omaha Bank branch.  I didn't know Marlin Perkins branched into banking, I thought he was strictly an insurance guy. Because ANYWHERE in Nevada can seem like a Wild Kingdom... ____________________________________________ And now, the other pictures I promised, from a previous walk... This guy and his mate were circling overhead, screaming their joy to the world.  I thought I missed the shot- till I enlarged it.  Ain't it cool?

When the mind has too much time...

I have one of those brains that never shuts up... no matter how I try.  When most peoples' brains shut down and shut up, mine looks for something to occupy itself.  My brain demands down time games when I'm doing something that does not require its presence.  One of those games is trying to name off the periodic table. 

Are you serious?  Yup.  Just now, I got 84 out of 118 while in the shower.  I know I probably lost a chunk of my audience at the words "periodic chart", because ejukashun isn't what it used to be.  But I think it's fun to try to go down the alphabet and see how many of the chemical elements I can name off.  (Oh, THAT periodic chart.)  It's fun for me to remember that some of the elements don't get their abbreviation from their English name (for example, oxygen is O, carbon is C, praseodymium is Pr), but from their ancient Roman (i.e. Latin) name.  Thus you have to find silver and gold in the As (silver= argentium=Ag, gold = aurium= Au), sodium under Na, lead under Pb (plumbum, which we get plumbing from because those daffy Romans used lead for their water pipes), tin under Sn, antimony under Sb.  (Antimony?  Isn't that what I pay my ex-wife?)

It gets easier if you remember some of the scientists who worked on the elements;  like Cm= curium for Madame Curie, Es= Einsteinium for Albert Einstein, Rf= rutherfordium for Rutherford B. Hayes.  Or to know where they work on such things; thus Cf=Californium, Bk = Berkeleium (for Berkeley), Ds = Darmstadtium for Darmstadt (in Germany, which also has Ge for Germanium).

I said Germanium, not geranium!

Then you have your radioactive elements (37 if I counted right), the ones not found in nature (20 of those), the ones that don't have a name yet (4 of those- I say we call them Martinium, Laurieum, Scrappyum, and KCesium).  See how neat this is?

Another one I like to do is naming the independent nations of the world.  If you count Kosovo and Taiwan, that's 197 states, 44 of them new since I was in grade school. 13 of these have a combined area about 69.8% of Indiana.  There are 14 nations just in the South Pacific (which I miss about half on a regular basis) six more island flyspecks in the Caribbean (where I usually lose count), and don't get me started on the fragments of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (which account for 22 of those 44).  One of my favorite cartoons from the era of the Soviet breakup came from that brief period where they called themselves the "Commonwealth of Independent States."  The plaque for the Soviet UN ambassador had been changed to "Smithereens", and the ambassador was complaining that it needed to be changed to "the Commonwealth of Independent Smithereens".  As I recall, he was seated beside the ambassador from Bunnyland.


Or I might try naming cities, rivers, animals, etc., with one from each letter of the alphabet and see how long it takes to thin out the letters I can actually fill in.  I'm always surprised how soon I run into trouble with the letter "R".

Sunday message: Friends and robots

Would you like to be a robot?  I don't mean the flying, crushing, striving robots of comic books and absurd fiction, but the reality.  They do what they are programmed to do.  They know what is fed into them.  Without ever questing or questioning, with no joy or pride of creation.  That is a robot.  It knows what to do and does it, with no choice in the matter.


Recently, a fellow blogger posted about "why did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden, knowing that Adam would fall?"  That is a good question of itself and is exactly the same question as "why are we here?"

The answer being:  The Choice.

God could have made us robots, with perfect knowledge of Him, bound to only believe, only worship, only do right and not wrong.  But God wanted more than robots, He wanted a people to LOVE Him.  And you can't have that without The Choice.  The Choice to love Him, or reject Him.

He gave Lucifer and all the other angels that choice, and to show how powerful The Choice is, allowed that one-third of them chose against Him.  And He gave Adam and Eve that choice too.  Thing is, Adam and Eve were unique in human history- directly made by God, in constant fellowship with God, in bodies that needed for nothing, and in a Garden where they had everything they could ever want.  We today do not begin to have a frame of reference for what it was like to be them.

And yet, we try to shoehorn it into OUR framework.  One poster called the whole story "ridiculous" and "hilarious".  Another questioned how Adam and Eve could have been expected to make the right choice.  Another chose to look at it from the angle that, "without knowledge of good and evil, they had no way to know that god is good and serpent is bad."

How about this:  God created them, gave them everything, spent time with them teaching them.  He set up one thing that they had to do.

The Choice.

One tree that they could not eat from.  Black and white, with consequences therefrom.  When we tell a child, "don't touch the stove," Are we expecting them to mull over the esoteric ramifications of why they shouldn't touch it, to way the effect on their eternal souls of perhaps taking the chance of touching that which is forbidden?  NO.  It is a black and white question of obedience.  That is what The Tree was. Period.  I tried to explain this to the commenter.  The response?

" They knew right and wrong IN THEIR FRAMEWORK"

That's just a post hoc apologetic that isn't in the text, it attempts to massage away the contradiction, and it's only convincing to people who have already bought into the story for other reasons.




  Which is basically atheist for, "If it isn't within MY framework, it is ludicrous and has no validity."

He continued to try to argue the notion, How would A&E know who was good and who was the evil?  How about, "Because the One you know created you, gave you all you have, showed you nothing but kindness- and the other tried to turn you against all that?"


We have 84 Facebook friends.  By my count, I've actually physically met 51 of them (some of whom have two accounts), 5 more I have become what I consider to be friends with through the internet, and 28 whom I'd have to say I barely know, if at all.  And yet, to FB, they are all my friends.  The knowledge of Jesus Christ works a lot like that.  There are people, like myself, who know Him because He has become a personal part of my life, has moved in me through His Spirit, lets me know He is there and He died for me.  For others, He is a "Facebook friend", someone they read about, search scripture for, but never REALLY let Him in on a personal level.  And when they hit the places where they perceive contradictions in scripture, they become confused, they doubt- they call the stories "ridiculous."  Or, to put it another way:

Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (From Mark 4).

What I'm trying to say is, you can feed all the data you want into your brain, but like the robot, it's only going to be a list of "if this, then"s.  You'll do the things programmed in, but without the least understanding of why.


The poster has gone on about trying to find the truth about God, the Bible.  She's swung from one of man's theories to another.  And now, she doubts, because she cannot make them intellectually coincide with the other.  But faith is not about knowledge, or data, or anything that man comes up with.  It's about, do you Know Him or are you just Facebook friends?

It's about The Choice.  One side submits to God, and the motivations of God are revealed- slowly, incompletely, filtered through your own perceptions and limitations, "through the mirror darkly,": as Paul says.  (Why not just explain the Truth to us completely, you ask?  "Because YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!"  God is BEYOND you, deal with it!)  The other side divorces all that God is and does out of the equation, assigns Him (for reference) the place of "the genie in the bottle", and ridicules the concept of "god" when "god" doesn't do as man would.  And they never see the other side, because they too have made The Choice.  They just made the wrong one.


It was sad to me that the poster brought up the verse where Jesus says, "Ask anything in My Name and it shall be granted", and based doubt upon certain prayers not then being granted.  We have a BIIIIG misconception as mortals about the difference between in HIS name and in OUR name.  When Jesus asked in His name, He finished with, "Not my will, but Thine be done."  God's will was done, the prayer answered; and yet the cup did not pass from Jesus' lips without Him drinking.

But of course, that's just me "massaging away the contradiction."

Time Machine week 94

It's November 15th, 1971.  Get ready for a nerdgasm, because today Intel introduced the 4004- the first one chip CPU.  The size of a little fingernail, it was as powerful as the room-sized first UNIVAC computer.

Yep, that was it.  Whoopie!

Welcome to Time Machine, where this week we have a six degrees that leads... well, I'm not really sure where it goes; where Quiet Riot got their material; and the subject of high debuts.  It's okay, it'll be better than it sounds.  Isn't it always?  Well, ISN'T IT???

We open with our look at the top of the charts elsewhere, and we do have a couple of international changes.  In Australia, Olivia Newton-John's Banks Of The Ohio takes over the top slot;  in Ireland, tenor Red Hurley tops the charts for a second time since we've been keeping track with a song called Kiss Me Goodbye.  And in the UK, the rockers known as Slade take the top for the first time with Cuz I Love You.  They would repeat this 5 times, twice with songs later covered by Quiet Riot:  Cum On Feel The Noize (#5) and Mama Weer All Crazee Now (# 51).  As you can see, Slade were not expert spellers.  Their one success in the US of A, Run Run Away, peaked at 20 here in 1984 ( it was top ten in the UK).

Well, they LOOK tamer than Quiet Riot...

Around the country, we find Detroit united behind Family Affair at the top; LA and WLS in Chicago pick the Shaft Theme;  WCFL in the Windy City has Peace Train; Minneapolis has Imagine at the top; and Pittsburgh holds out with Gypsies Tramps And Thieves.

The AC chart is still topped by Peace Train; R&B by Inner City Blues; and Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn top the Country charts for the second time ( both this year), with a tune called Lead Me On.

We had 12 debuts on the hot 100, but only two for the mention.  At 76, Jefferson Airplane hits with Pretty As You Feel; and at 84, Jonathon Edwards' Sunshine enters the chart.

That brings us- briefly- to the Birthday songs.  I say briefly because we have a song turning 35 this week that debuted all the way up in #27.  That song was the Bee Gees' Too Much Heaven.  And it got me thinking, and having thought, researched.  And from that, I give you the 25 highest debuting songs on Cashbox from 1962 to 1979!

T-23- Tusk, Fleetwood Mac, Oct. 6, '79, #36.
T-23-  Good Luck Charm, Elvis Presley, Mar. 17, '62, #36
T-23- Valleri, Monkees, Mar. 9, '68, #36
T-21- (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone, Aretha Franklin, Mar. 2, '68, #35
T-21- She'd Rather Be With Me, The Turtles, May 20, '67, #35.
20- Without Love (There Is Nothing), Tom Jones, Dec. 27, '68, #34.
T-18- Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Elton John, July 5, '75, #33.
T-18- Winchester Cathedral, New Vaudeville Band, Oct. 29, '66, #33.
T-15- Tragedy, Bee Gees, Feb. 10, '79, #32.
T-15- Let It Be, Beatles, Mar. 14, '70, #32.
T-15- A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, Monkees, Mar. 25, '67, #32.
14- Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter, Herman's Hermits, Apr. 17, '65, #31.
13. Never Can Say Goodbye, Jackson Five, Apr. 3, '71, #29.
12- I'll Be There, Jackson Five, Sept. 19, '70, #28
T-10- Too Much Heaven, Bee Gees, Nov. 18, '78, #27.
T-10- All You Need Is Love, Beatles, July 29, '67, #27.
9- As Tears Go By, Rolling Stones, Christmas Day '65, #26.
8- 19th Nervous Breakdown, Rolling Stones, Feb. 26, '66, #24.
T-6- Heartache Tonight, Eagles, Oct. 6, '79, #23.
T-6- Nowhere Man, Beatles, Mar. 5, '66, #23.
T-4- Lady Madonna, Beatles, Mar. 23, '68, #21.
T-4- Can't Buy Me Love, Beatles, Mar. 28, '64, #21.
3- They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Ha, Napoleon XIV, July 23, '66, #20.
T-1- We Can Work It Out, Beatles, Dec. 18, '65, #18.
T-1- I'm Henry The VIII, I Am, Herman's Hermits, June 3, '65, #18.

A couple of notes:  Tusk and Heartache Tonight were the only members of the list to hit in the same week; six Beatles entries, while the Bee Gees, Stones, the Hermits,  and J5 had two each;  and talk about an anomaly- 8 of them from the month of March!   If you count back 9 months from March... uh, never mind.

You idiot! That's not where new songs come from!

Anyway, onto the rest of the birthday songs!  Turning thirty, The Stones' Undercover Of The Night; .38 Special's If I'd Been The One; and Kool and the Gang's Joanna.  Turning 35, besides Too Much Heaven:  Kenny Rogers' The Gambler; Earth Wind And Fire's September; Rose Royce's Love Don't Live Here Anymore; J. Geils Band's One Last Kiss; and Meat Loaf's You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth.  At 40, Jim Croce's Time In A Bottle; Wings' Helen Wheels; Cheech and Chong with Sister Mary Elephant (Shudd-up!); and The Who's Love Reign O'er Me.

Turning 45, the Temptations with Cloud Nine; The Vogues' version of Till; Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through The Grapevine; and the Bob Seger System with Ramblin' Gamblin' Man.  Blow out the candles...


So let's take a look at the 45 at 45 tune this week- and this time the song is on the way down.  Jeannie C. Riley's Harper Valley PTA, as you remember from last week, was the song Hey Jude knocked out of #1- and it was also #1 Country, making her the only woman to pull that feat until Dolly Parton did it with 9 To 5 in 1981.  The song was written by Tom T. Hall, and his first choice to do it was Skeeter Davis.  She turned it down- probably not a good idea since she only made the country top 40 three more times afterwards.  But Jeannie wasn't alone; she had to rush it to print because two other ladies had already recorded it.  One was Billie Jo Spears, whose biggest hit was a #4 country song, Mr. Walker It's All Over.  The other was Margie Singleton, who had her biggest success in duets with Faron Young.  Spears released hers the same week as Riley; Riley's became the hit, and Spears' failed to chart.

Jeannie looked better in the skirt, IMHO.

The big dropper was Stagger Lee, dropping 28 spots to #56; the big mover awaits in the top 40.  But before we get there, a handful of Almost But Not Quite shout-outs:  to Birds Of A Feather by the Raiders- their last big hit peaking at 13 last week; Trapped By A Thing Called Love, which has managed to sneak a mention about every other week, also peaked at 13 a couple weeks back and now sits at 25; and Lighthouse's One Fine Morning has halted at 16.

Seven new songs grace the top 40 this week.  Moving up three spots to the leadoff position are the Bee Gees with Don't Want To Live Inside Myself (As I recall, it didn't work out well for Gino Vanelli, either).  Moving two to #39, Lou Rawls with A Natural Man.  A sixteen notch climb for the variety-show fueled tandem of Sonny and Cher with All I Ever Need Is You.  Our big mover for the week belongs to the Temptations with their parting shot at David Ruffin, Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are), climbing 36 slots to #33.  David Cassidy, on a break from the Family, comes in at 31, up 27 spots, with a cover of the Association's Cherish.  The new toast of Detroit, Sly and the Family Stone's Family Affair, makes a 33 notch climb to land at #23.   And the Jackson Five cut the distance to the top in half, going from 42 to 21 with Got To Be There.


One song enters the top ten, thus one falls.  The dropper this week is Al Green's Tired Of Being Alone (9 to 18).

The Carpenters slide three spots to 10 with Superstar.

Bread cracks the top ten again with Baby I'm-A Want You, up 3 to #9.

And at #8, the six degrees victim.

The Free Movement, who drop 2 spots to 8 with their big hit I've Found Someone Of My Own, were led by a gentleman by the name of Godoy Colbert.  On the wiki article for the Free Movement, it mentions that he was a member of the Pharoahs (an LA soul group, not Sam the Sham's backup boys); though his obituary  (he died in 2002) also says he was a founding member, the wiki article on the Pharoahs does not mention him.  At some point, another member of the Pharoahs was future Earth Wind and Fire founder Maurice White.  At least, so says the article on the Pharoahs, though neither the wiki articles on White or EWF mention this.  What they do say is that he became a member of the Ramsey Lewis Trio (who did the hit instrumental of The In Crowd) when Eldee Young and Red Holt left to do their own thing.  Their own thing was to form what was eventually called Young-Holt Unlimited (with pianist Don Walker), who had a #3 hit in 1968 with the instrumental Soulful Strut.  But here, things get a bit fuzzy.

Remember last week, when our 45 at 45 involved a young lady named Barbara Acklin?  Well, in 1968, she released a song called Am I The Same Girl... it charted at #79.  But Producer Carl Davis stripped the recording of Barbara's vocals, dubbed in a piano lead by one Floyd Morris, and released it as Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited.  But there's a problem here, and it's more than just Floyd Morris is not Don Walker.  You see, the backing track thus used was credited on Barbara's recording as the Brunswick Studio Band- and neither Eldee Young or Red Holt were members or even played ON the record.  So there was no Young, no Holt, and the Unlimited was very limited, on their one big hit.

Boy, if ever a title was appropriate...

Cat Stevens moves up one to #7 with Peace Train.

Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler) climbs 4 to #6.

When is a Yo-Yo not a yo-yo?  When it stays in one spot, as the Osmonds do at #5.

Maggie May, and Rod Stewart move down a pair to #4.

John Lennon edges up a notch to 3 with Imagine.

Cher slides down from her perch at the top, dropping to #2 with Gypsies Tramps And Thieves.

And that means the new top dog is...

 

 

...Isaac Hayes and the Theme From Shaft!!!!!

That's a wrap for this week!  Don't take any wooden 4004's, hear?

Crap falling everywhere

I'm in a sad mood tonight.  I've had yet another fight with an atheist.  In someone else's blog's comment section.

I know she reads mine, so I'd like to apologize for making a mess all over her blog.  I feel it was provoked, by a silly foolish man with no greater wisdom than to scoff at the heavenly things.  And when I see God scoffed at, I react like Jesus did in the Temple with the money-changers.  However, I don't have the discipline Jesus had, and I tend to spill the holy water with the pigeon cages.

But I have a hard time with those who troll for blogs in which they can plant their tares and mess people up.  I have a problem with those who cannot set their agenda of tearing apart all that is of God long enough to have a logical discussion about the subject- even though they are supposed to be the "free thinkers."  And I have a problem with an antagonist who is such a lackwit that he thinks that a wonderful critique of the Sermon On The Mount involves bullet-pointing each of the Beatitudes, followed by a "yeah, right..."

Nonetheless, I replied humbly and rationally, after which I called his responses "4th-grade" and "infantile".  So in addition to apologizing to the dear lady whose blog hosted Chris and his amazing knotted cord, I suppose I better apologize to the majority of 4th-graders out there.  And possibly any babies out there who object to the term "infantile" being used on  such a person.

To him, I have no apologies, other than instead of confusing him with intelligent responses, I should have just said, "You're a dork", and left it at that.  That he would have had a shot at understanding as it keeps God out of the discussion.

In the background as I type, I am listening to Monday Night Football, where it is becoming rapidly apparent that the Miami Dolphins would much rather be in a titty bar with Richie Incognito spending some poor rookie's money than actually earning theirs.  So far, the winless Tampa Bay squad has scored on a touchdown by an offensive lineman, a field goal, and a safety when that wonderfully focused offensive line let the RB get tackled in there own end zone.  If Joe Philbin really wanted to survive bullygate, he's doing a bang-up job of showing it.

And if that isn't enough crap coming down, look what's happening outside...

That's right, it's snowing.  And it might even seem pretty, especially when you think of the crap that came down on the Philippines.  (PS Thank God for our boys of the USMC over there as we speak, trying to get food, water, and communications to these ravaged areas.  You are the GREATEST!!!)  But tonight, it's ...er, beauty... is dampened for me.

I understand what is up, my friend.  I fear for you, having to sort through the poison that people like you-know-who try to inject into the situation.  I hope someday you'll cut through all the voices- including mine, especially tonight- and just hear Him.  That was and is my prayer for you.