The Great Seventies countdown- the top 40 begins...

"Today, we enter the last three espisodes of the countdown" The Host tells the assembled multitiude.  "We have heard the thunder of the songs of my heart.  Here begins the lightning."

40- SOS, ABBA, 1975, #15.  This song inspired today's lead in.  The chorus always seemed vocal lighntning to me on long nights listening to Ron Gregory on WOWO.

39- Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, BJ Thomas, 1970, #1.  I've mentioned before,some songs just engender a certain respect- almost reverence- for what they are or what they stand for.  This song, the first #1 of the decade, fits that bill.

38- It Don't Come Easy, Ringo Starr, 1971, #4.  One of my all time favorite guitar solos with George Harrison, interwoven with the backing vocals from Badfinger and Stephen Stills on piano.

37- Dream Weaver, Gary Wright, 1975, #2.  My first "space song".  Much like ELO's Eldorado, a plea to let the dreamer go on dreaming.

36- Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks, 1974, #1.  See the comment on #39.  The ultimate when-you-want-to-cry song.  Much better lyrics than the original French.

35- So Far Away, Carole King, 1971, #14.  This song is why her voice is like the Jazzman:  "She can cry like a fallen angel..."

34- The Chain, Fleetwood Mac,  1977, unreleased.  Never has their been so much of the musicians' personal emotions poured into a song.  With every member of the band in the midst or on the edge of a personal break up at the time, all that angst made this so much more powerful.




33- If, Bread, 1971, #4.  My first memories of this song were of its use on a Miss Fort Wayne pageant ad.  The pictures and song wove together something special for me.

32- Could This Be The Magic, Barry Manilow, 1975, #6.  Here is where it really becomes hard for me to not see these songs higher.  Each one from here on is a whisker from being in the top ten.

31- Carry On, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, 1970, non-charting.  Re-introduced to me by a high school teacher, along with Jesus Christ Superstar.  Amazing harmony.




30- Dance With Me, Orleans, 1975, #6.  One of the charter members of the Mythical Top Ten (see previous posts for this concept).

29- Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Elton John, 1975, #4.  All of you patiently waiting for that third EJ song, here you go.  So it wasn't Daniel or Tiny Dancer or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.  Once again a personal-angst song for the artist, and it really comes through.

28- Baby Blue, Badfinger, 1971, #14. The best song of a cursed band.

27- Misty, Ray Stevens, 1975, #14.  Ray  was always so much better on his serious songs.  Grammy winner for best arraingement, if you're into such things.



26- American Pie, Don McLean, 1972, #1.  You can see how much the rest of these songs mean to me if this, the greatest of American compositions, is way back here.  Another "reverence" song.

25- Falling In Love, Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds, 1975, #1.  I could easily just listen to the instrumental track all day.

24- Nights In White Satin/Late Lament- Moody Blues, 1972, #2.  The most beautiful of orchestral pieces of work, from the first strings to the final gong.

23- Yesterday Once More, the Carpenters, 1973, #2; and
22- Only Yesterday, the Carpenters, 1975, #4.  Not trying to be cheap on the descriptions, but I grew up in love with Karen Carpenter, and my focus has always been to what has been, and this applies to both songs.  And since I ranked them next to each other, you only have to hear it once.

21- Fool If You Think Its Over, Chris Rea, 1978, #12.  "I'll buy your first good wine, Ooh we'll have a real good time/ save your crying for the day... that may not come..."

"Next week, you will only get ten songs," The host says, "and in two weeks we'll finish out with the top ten.  And to go home today, here's a movie clip you'll find interesting..."

Hockey update

Well, we have our first European champion of the season, and we have just one league still playing the regular season.  Our foot-draggers are the UK's EIHL, with another 2 weeks to go and Belfast (37-5-8) still a three point leader on Sheffield.

Norway's GET-Ligaen are in the quarter finals, with #1 Stavenger (35-6-4) and runner up Lorenskog having both swept their first round opponants.

Lulea (25-13-17) won the tight Swedish Elitserien race, but trail 2-1 to AIK in their quarterfinal match.

Eisbaren Berlin (26-16-10) beat Kolner 4-3 SO to win the German DEL by 2 points over ERC Ingolstadt, with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg coming in third.

In Finland's S-M Liiga, Kalpo Kuopio (34-16-10) won a tight five team race and they are about to start their first round.

Same story in the Czech Extraliga where Sparta Praha (27-7-18) took the regular season title.

Slovakia is in its second round, where Kosice won a 2-1 OT game against Banska Bystrika to move on 4 to 1.

The KHL has advanced into the quarters after SKA (32-11-11) and Tracktor (amazingly, the same record) won their respective conferences.  (Side note: my Automobist team finished a woeful 9-30-15, only better than Vityaz in the league.)  SKA rolled past Red Army in the openning series, and is up 2-0 on Atlant in the quarters after 7-1 and 4-0 victories.  The other Western quarter has Torpedo, who won a hard-fought set against Riga, versus Moscow Dynamo, who had swept Minsk 4-0 in their first round.  In the East, Traktor easily handled Yugra and now faces Ak Bars Kazan, who finished off Salavat Yulaev's dissapointing season.  In the other quarter, Avangard Omsk, fresh off a 4-0 sweep of Amur, meets Metallurg Magnitogorsk, who took out Barys Astana in round one.

France's Ligue Magnus is in the semis, with regular season champ Rouen, having finished off Amiens in a 3-2 series, faces their 2011 finals opponant Angers, who followed up a 3-game sweep against Caen in the first round with a 3-1 victory over Briancon in the second- after spotting them a game one loss. In the other semi, we have Chamoix, who cruised past Gap 3-1, against Grenoble.  Grenoble, who finished the season 7th, lost the first two games against #2 Dijon before stringing together 3-2, 2-1 OT, and 5-2 wins to upset the favorites.

Asiago will not come up with another improbable playoff run in the Italian Serie A.  After winning last year's final against Val Pusteria after a series-winning victory for V P was voided on a technicality, V P made no mistakes in their quarterfinal series, winning 4-2, 4-1, 7-0, and 2-1.  They will play Alleghe in the semis, while Bolzano and Cortina meet in the other semi.

SonderjyskE and rival Blue Fox Herning face off on the Danish AL Bank Ligaen semis, and BFH has already took game 1 2-1.  The other final has Odensee vs. AaB Ishockey.

Belarus' Extraliga had three phenominally dominant teams this year, and all three- season champ Zhlobin (41-5-4), second-place Neman Grodno, and third place Gomel- are through to the semis.

In the Swiss National League A, Zurich upset #2 Davos in the quarters, and now face season champ Zug in the semis, while defending champ SC Bern plays Fribourg.

Two leagues are already in their finals.  One of those is Austria's EBEL, where Black Wings Linz rolls into the finals against a KAC Klagenfurt team that had to knock off #3 Red Bull Salzburg in the quarters and #2 Medvescak Zagreb in the semis.

The other is the Asia league, where the Nikko Ice Bucks, down 2-0 to perennial tough guys Anyang Halla, with Halla outscoring them 10-3, upset Halla in Korea 3-2.  Then they followed up with 3-0 and 4-3 wins to take the series and face season champ Oji Eagles in the finals.

Finally, our first champ this year comes from the Polish League, where HC Sanok, who won the season with a 29-10-3 mark, went 8-1 in the two-round playoffs to win   Sanok, who entered the league in 2004, had never won a playoff series, had never won more than 19 games, and had had one winning record and two trips to the playoffs (their first season, everybody went to the playoffs) before this season.  In fact, their overall record is 57-143-31, so this is a real feel-good story.

Sanok is a town of about 39,500 in the extreme southeast corner of Poland.  First mentioned in 1150, it was in a mixed ethnic area and was in fact heavilly Ukrainian until right after WWII, when both Soviet and Polish authorities agreed that deportation was a better option than Ukrainian separatism.  Its most striking feature is a Castle in Gothic style dating from 1523.

And here's another pic from the city's website I just had to share...

Time Machine Week 7

March 16th, 1970:  After being in a coma since the eighth surgery on a brain tumor failed in January, Tammi Terrell died.  Though her shortened life cost her a chance at solo success, she partnered with Marvin Gaye on 7 top 40 hits, and four top tens.

On the sad subject of death, Doobie Brother Michael Hossack died Monday from cancer.  Hossack was one of the two drummers (John Hartman was the other) who played on the Doobers’ first 3 lps:  Toulouse Street (Listen To The Music, Jesus Is Just Alright, Rocking Down The Highway), The Captain And Me (Long Train Running, China Grove, South City Midnight Lady), and What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (Black Water, Another Park Another Sunday, Eyes Of Silver).  He rejoined the reformed band in 1987 and, except for his recovery time from a serious motorcycle accident, was with them until his final illness took him off the road in 2010.

And now, on to the happier aspects of TM, including 4 new top ten songs, a hot 100 debut inside the top 40 (and one that just missed), doing the funky chicken with Guy Lombardo (well, not really, but they are both here), and we take a bridge over troubled waters to Duran Duran’s last song.  Hop in, I’ve had the asbestos and mold remediated!

A whopping eighteen songs make their top 100 debut this week, including four of note:  Rare Earth comes in at 99 with Get Ready; The Poppy Family, with Terry Jack's’ soon to be ex Susan, with Which Way You Goin’, Billy?; WAAAAAY up at 43, the Jackson Five with ABC; and, as I said, one more awaits INSIDE the top 40 (as if I don’t have enough problems with our “big movers” up there).  Happy 42nd birthday, guys!

Joining them on our birthday list this week:  turning 30, Willie Nelson’s Always On My Mind; turning 35, Boz Skaggs’ Lido Shuffle, Marshall Tucker’s Heard It In A Love Song, and Kiss’ Calling Doctor Love.  At 40 years old, Jackson Browne’s Doctor My Eyes and Led Zep’s Rock And Roll; at 45, the Four Tops’ Bernadette, Simon and Garfunkel’s At The Zoo; and the Hollies’ On A Carousel.  Which brings up a curiosity- also turning 30 this week is a cover of this same song by a band called Glass Moon.  They were at first a Genesis-styled progressive rock band, breaking up in 1977, only to reform the next year.  If you have the chance, youtube this song; I listened to it twice, and immediately fell in love.  Anyhow, turning the big 5-0 this week are Elvis’ Good Luck Charm, the Shirelles’ Soldier Boy, Mr. Acker Bilk’s Stranger On The Shore, Jay and the F’ing Americans’ She Cried,   and Ernie Maresca’s Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out); and turning 55, The Diamonds’ Little Darlin’, and Little Richard with Lucille.  Blow out the candles…

Since we have those two extremely high debuts, I feel I should mention that our “big movers” section is limited to movement WITHIN the countdown.  That said, we had two songs tying with a drop of 38 notches this week; last week’s WATN featuree, Rag Mama Rag by the Band falling to 88, and Joe South’s Walk A Mile In My Shoes dropping to 58.  I thought we were going to have a top 40 big mover, but that candidate got overtook by Neil Diamond’s Shiloh, which shoots up 31 notches to #49.

We take a look back in time on this date and find that Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians were at #1 three times- in 1931 with By The River Ste. Marie; in 1932 with Too Many Tears; and in 1939 with Penny Serenade.  As amazing on the charts as Guy was (119 top tens, 24 #1s, between 1 and 3 HUNDRED MILLION records sold), I found the leader of the “Sweetest music this side of heaven” more amazing that he was a champion Hydroplane speedboat racer.  He won the Gold Cup in 1946, and was national champion from 1946-9.  In 1959, he crashed the Tempo Alcoa at 250+ MPH, after which he wisely retired.

Our Where Are They Now feature at #50 this week is one Rufus Thomas with his Do The Funky Chicken.  Rufus was involved in music early, and recorded his first song on 78 in 1943.  He was a long time on-air personality on WDIA in Memphis, a black themed station (maybe the first). He had 4 top 40 hits, including 1963’s Walking The Dog, which hit #10.  Ironically, his daughter Carla had hit #10 2 years before with Gee Whiz (Look At HIs Eyes).  He also nearly singlehandedly bankrupted Sun Records when his single Bear Cat- an answer to the original recording of Hound Dog, 3 years before Elvis did it, by Big Mama Thornton- got sued for copyright infringement.  An artist who “only recorded when he had something to record”, he was often backed up by Booker T. and the MGs and the Bar-Kays.  Rufus died of heart failure in 2001 at the age of 84.

Six songs make their top 40 debuts this week.  At 38, up 9, is Tommy Roe with Stir It Up And Serve It (obviously not a Bond fan, here).  At 37, up 5, is Tommy James and the Shondells with Gotta Get Back To You.  Climbing ten to #35 is Badfinger with their debut single Come And Get It.  Our high debut on the hot 100 comes in at #32- the Beatles and Let It Be.  Junior Walker and the All-Stars, WATN Featuree from two weeks ago, makes it into the top 40 at 30, up 11, with Gotta Hold On To This Feeling.  And making a 26-notch jump to #27 is Norman Greenbaum and Spirit In The Sky.  While we’re in the neighborhood of #40, I’ll mention that grandpa chair holder Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head spends its 21st week on the hot 100 there.

Four, count ‘em four, debuts in the top ten, which mean four have to exit.  Psychedelic Shack goes from 4 to 16; Thank You Fallettenme etc. drops from 5 to 17; No Time falls from 9 to 21; and Venus drops from 10 to 23.  All ashore that’s going ashore…

Elvis blasts into the ten, jumping 7 spots to #10 with Kentucky Rain.  The Chairmen Of The Board move into the #9 spot, up 5, with Give Me Just A Little More Time.  The Hollies shoot up 10 big notches to #8 with He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.  Moving up 4 to #7 is Santana with Evil Ways.  Tee Set moves up 2 to #6 with Ma Belle Ami.  CCR edges up one to #5 with Travelling Band.  Eddie Holman slips a pair to #4 with Hey There Lonely Girl.  The Jaggerz climb 4 big spots to #3 with The Rapper.  Brook Benton assumes the runner-up slot, climbing one with Rainy Night In Georgia.  And that brings us to our #1 song in its third week- and our six degrees victim.

Paul Simon wrote Bridge Over Troubled Waters while partner Art Garfunkel was filming Catch-22.The movie featuring the irascible Yossarian was Art’s first film, as it was for Bob Balaban, who also starred in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, as well as Midnight Cowboy.  That movie, known for the theme by Harry Nilsson Everybody’s Talking, was scored by John Barry, who was known for his scores of the James Bond movies.  He joined with Duran Duran to write the theme to A View To A Kill, the only Bond theme to hit #1.  Simon Le Bon says of the collaboration:
"He didn't really come up with any of the basic musical ideas. He heard what we came up with and he put them into an order. And that's why it happened so quickly because he was able to separate the good ideas from the bad ones, and he arranged them. He has a great way of working brilliant chord arrangements. He was working with us as virtually a sixth member of the group, but not really getting on our backs at all."

This was the last track recorded by Duran Duran until they got back together in 2001 after a 16-year separation.

Okay, that’s it for this trip!  See you tomorrow on the seventies countdown!

Alleluia!!! We Won!

"We"  being the young men of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, who faced a final game 5 against HC VMF at home this morning.  Once again it was a capacity crowd of 9046 cheering on the valiant young men, and the game was much more peaceful than had been the penalty filled games three and four at St. Petersburg, with both teams combining for 16 minutes in penalties for the whole game (when Albert Konozov had 14 himself in game three).  Oleg Yashin, Daniil Apal'kov, Yegor Yakolev, Vitaly Zotov, and Maxim Zyuzyakin all had good attempts that were rejected by VMF goalie Dmitry Shikin.  A scoreless first period moved into the second.

At 3:13 of the second, Yakolev sent a dribbler at the net that Shikin whiffed on, and Lokomotiv was up 1-0.  The Railroaders outshot the Sailors 16-7 in the second, but soon the Sailors were back in a tie.  It was, apparently, a nice pass-pass-shoot play topped off by Ilya Grebennikov who got his third of the series (I say apparently because the google translate read it: " But the hosts were in the long run - a combination of Gregory Serkina and Anton Seleznev and Piglet completed Ilya Grebennikov.")  at 6:18 of the second.

A tightly-played third period followed, and at 6:08 Yakolev hit on a "brilliant" wrist shot for his second of the game and third of the series for a 2-1 lead, and Nikita Lohzkin shut the door to make it stand up.

Prior to the game, Coach Petr Vorobiev had this to say: "I have to say that most of the guys on our team was initially a very responsible attitude to the game for the "Locomotive": to understand which club they came from and what is expected of them, and well then, what chance they're given. Now that responsibility has become even higher. Ahead of us is waiting for the main match of the season. For many, it may become a turning point in his career".  Afterwards, he said,  "In today's duel most of the load carried on the shoulders of their more experienced players. The boys stood up to the end of the tension, cope with nerves and excitement. These meetings are important for the growth of our players. On the morning of the game we were told that if we can not overcome the first round, then all work will come to nothing. Play-off - it's a different game. After these games grow up masters."

Yegor Yakovlev

• Club: Lokomotiv
• Number: 44
• Position: Defender
• Height: 180
• Weight: 83
• Birth Date.: 09/17/1991
• Nationality: Russia
• Age: 20 years 5 months
• Clubs with the seasons: Oilman ^(11-12) , Lokomotiv ^(11-12) , oil ^(10-11)

The series against Penza Disel ("Diesel") begins in Penza, which is the halfway point between Moscow and Armenia, on Sunday.

Scrappy Time!

Our first 70 degree day, and we're off to enjoy it.

Finally, SOMETHING'S poking up throught the leaf litter- I have no idea WHAT...

River's way down again.

Somebody was digging over by the Green Hole... Next time go to Lowes!  Brand new and broken already.

Here's our intrepid adventurer just after nearly falling down the bank.

Time for a dip... and there he is, in the water.

I could sit at river's edge and just watch the world go by infinitely... not so Scrappy.  But it was so nice, even he didn't whine much.  Just got back in the water.

That low spot in the new trail really took a beating this winter... Your Purdue U. School of Engineering scholarship dollars at work.

And here's something new... a long-dead log in the road!





And now, some, "Scrappy requests to play" pictures...

Me and my baby...

Well...?

WELL...?

DAMN IT, pay attention!!!

Like a Monday in March....

And a prize at the end of the post if you knew the song I adapted that tile from!

First up, I have a story with two candidates for "Who's dumber".  It seems a Sri Lankan Guiness book applicant named Janaka Basnayake wanted to set a record for being buried alive.  10 feet deep, 6 1/2 hours.  Needless to say, I think he blew the application process by being pronounced dead at the hospital after being dug up.  Wait, you say, you said there were two "who's dumber"s here, where's the second?
Obsevre:

Dr. D.G. Costa of the Kantale hospital said a post-mortem could not determine the cause of death and further medical investigations are being conducted.


Let's see... ten feet underground- dirt on top- six-and-a-half hours... I think perhaps if you LOOKED for signs of asphyxiation....



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Lokomotiv had two games in St. Petersburg against HC VMF this weekend past, and split them.  The first was a penalty-marred affair in which the Sailors took a 3-1 lead, but then got whistled for three penalties in a 43-second span.  Zyuzyakin and Pavel Lukin both scored during the power play (assisted by game two star Vitaly Zotov both times) in  a 1:41 stretch to tie the game in the second stanza.  Daniil Apal'kov scored his second of the match with just over three minutes left, and we had a come-from-behind 4-3 win.

The second game was a similarly penalty-marred event, with HC VMF collecting 28 minutes of penalty time in the first two periods, half of that by Albert Konozov.  After spotting them an early goal by Alexandr Yukseev, we got power play tallies by Emil Galimov and Yegor Yakolev to take a 2-1 lead.  The third period, everything changed.  The Sailors, after spending less than half of the second period at even strength, eliminated the penalties in the final period and outshot the suddenly shaky kids from Yaroslavl 14-5.  This led to the tying goal by Phillip Toluzakov early in the period and we went to OT.  The OT opened much like the third, and Coach Vorobiev had to call a time out halfway through to settle things down.  But late in the extra time, a lazy clearing pass was intercepted by Anton Seleznev, who fed Stanislav Virolainen on the left of goalie Nikita Lozhkin, who fired it in for a 3-2 win and a series tied at 2-2.  The final of the best of five series is Wednesday at Yaroslavl, with Disel Penza, whose 26-15-11 was second in our conference, awaiting the winner.

The Parable of the national park

And Christ gathered His disciples and said, “ The Kingdom of God is like a National Park.  In the morning the park ranger came to lead the people on a tour. ‘Come, see things as I do,’ He said, and took them down smooth trails to the beauty of the world.  He showed them the majestic mountains, the mighty trees, the gentles animals with their babies.  He led them into green valleys and stopped beside clear running waters for them to drink.  And He took them to a special meadow, filled with the most magnificent of cabins, where there was a great fountain, and gardens of all manner of good food.  But He turned to the group, for He was going to give them the cabins in which to live forever, and there were but a handful of all the people who had followed.  And He said to them, Where are your fellows?  And they said, They remained behind at the gift shop.”

So the Ranger returned to the gift shop; evening was well nigh.  And indeed, the people were still in the gift shop.  When He entered the shop, he who was at the cash register set up his “closed” sign and disappeared out the door.  The Ranger turned to the other workers and said, ‘Why did the people not come with me?  Did they not know?"’  And the workers said, ‘We tried to tell them.  We showed them the signs inside and out, which said to meet the tour guide at the appointed place and time.  And we reminded them, saying, the day grows late, you’ll miss the tour.  But they busied themselves buying food and drink, and the baubles money can buy, and the t-shirts that are far too expensive that read, “I have been to the National Park”, when in fact they have seen nothing.  Some have reasoned, “as long as he who is at the cash register remains, we have time.”  Others said, “I will catch the tour later; these baubles merit my attention now.”  Some have even said, “If there is really a tour guide, he will certainly show himself to me and bring me along.”  And when we pointed out the signs, they merely said, “You read it; I am busy.”

“So, the Ranger said to the workers, ‘Go then to your homes in the meadow, while I put these out and lock up the shop.’  And the people protested, saying, but we’ve not had the tour yet?  How shall we return to our cars in the dark?"’ And the Ranger said, ‘If you had followed Me in the day, you would not only have known the park as I do, you’d have a home here.  But now is the darkness; your day is done, and so My job.’ “

Simon Peter turned to Jesus and said, “Master, please explain this parable to us.”  And Jesus said, “The Kingdom is like the park, full of mighty wonders, as well as a home. I am the good Park Ranger.  The gift shop is this world, with its meaningless baubles and souvenirs of a moment.  The signs are the Word of God, and you are the workers.  The one at the cash register is the deceiver; and the moral of the parable is, you have to step outside the concerns of the world to see things in My perspective, and reach the home I prepared for you.  Otherwise, you will find yourself lost to the outer darkness, with naught but a t-shirt that says, “I went to the National Park and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”