He
Ain’t Heavy … He’s my Metalhead
50 Years
Ago this Month ~
FEBRUARY 1970
Let’s start by
putting 1970 in perspective … a new house cost $10,000 less (about $24,000)
than today’s new car … and gas for your car averaged less per gallon than
today’s candy bar, on sale. Sigh … now these are stats that truly make us pine
for the “good ol’ days”!
Fashion-wise,
we were striped, flared, leathered and booted up, swinging our suede fringe and
contrarily by night, glowing with evening brocade.
Music-wise, Rock & Roll continued
to evolve, adding more of that new weighty sound to the mix … gloom and doom
with an eerily heavy hand.
You could
still find plenty of Psychedelic Pop Rock and sinuous soul on the radio charts,
like “Psychedelic Shack” (Temptations) and “The Thrill is Gone” (B.B. King)--#4 & #6,
respectively at KFRC 610/San Francisco. But we crashed into our metal
years on …
Friday the
13th: Not
your ordinary spooky day, it was no accident that an album in the UK, arguably deemed
Rock’s initial foray to the dark side, would debut. Great marketing ploy … Want
to wallow in doom and despair? Play the opener, “Black Sabbath,”
on the self-titled band’s song/album and submerge yourself. Quickly
gaining English popularity, it landed in the US in June.
Already considered the devil’s work by super-conservative parents, Rock’s
rebel side with Black Sabbath gave February 1970 an edgy,
leather-and-metal sound.
By 1971, Geezer Butler (one of Sabbath’s four founding
members, including the iconic Ozzy Osbourne) explained their name choice and song
title to Rolling Stone magazine, “It’s a satanic world. The devil’s more
in control now. People can’t come together, there’s no equality.” Makes great
music fodder, and yet … what have we learned in 50 years?
February 27th: On a lighter and incongruous note, our parents still worked
at curbing our youthful radical ways, to obvious failure … Jefferson
Airplane found
themselves fined $1,000 for buoyantly spouting profanity on stage at an Oklahoma
City concert. Oh, the horrors of it …
While they are credited with the distinction of the only group to grace
the stages of the 1960s’ three most iconic Rock festivals—Monterey Pop, Woodstock,
and Altamont—1970 would signal the beginning of the
end for San Francisco’s beloved band.
Why is it that many music groups write and/or record
some of their best work as they’re breaking up? Is it “swan song”
syndrome? Just released in January, Simon and Garfunkel’s
final studio album and title song, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,”
topped the charts in February. ♪ Like a bridge over troubled water | I will ease your mind ...♪
Though
Paul Simon wrote the song, he suggested Art Garfunkel’s pure solo vocals
best showcased Bridge’s myriad of musical genres for the ultimate
soulful sound. His hunch worked. Were you listening to DJ
Chuck Browning as he spun Bridge to the top of KFRC/San
Francisco’s February 11th radio chart?
Of course, it’s Valentines month, and there were
plenty of love songs topping the charts in 1970. Another DJ
Chuck (Leonard)
played them for WABC/New
York’s lovesick fans who favored ballads and lost loves early in the month.
Shocking Blue gave us “Venus” at #2—She’s got it—while Tom Jones crooned
his broken hearted blues “Without Love” (#6) I had nothing, nothing at all.
Featured
Radio Survey: Ending
the month of love, we danced our way down the musical rabbit hole with Three Dog
Night’s “Celebrate” moving quickly up the final February chart. Check out WLS/Chicago’s
“Hit Parade” survey for February 23, 1970, with DJs Chuck Buell and
Kris Stevens to greet you … 50
Years Ago this Month in Rock &
Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when
…
Celebrate FEBRUARY 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
LinDee Rochelle
is a writer and editor by trade, and author by way of Rock & Roll. She has
published two books (of three) in her Blast from Your Past series, available on Amazon (eBook and print): Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five
Years 1954-1959; and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging
Sixties. Coming soon … The Psychedelic Seventies!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
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discretion.
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