BFYP BULLETIN 08/09/20: Sadly, just days after I posted August's BFYP blog, Pat O'Day, the DJ spotlighted with our Featured Radio Survey, passed to DJ Heaven (at 85 years old, Tuesday, 08/4/20). Pat's, popularity as a pioneering West Coast DJ was legendary. This feature has now turned into a tribute ... RIP, Pat. And now, flip on the mic, let's Rock On back to Pat's era,1970 ...
Summer
Sweat, Snow, and War
Except
during a World War, more than ever in our lifetime we’re dealing with extreme
highs and lows, and too many personal tragedies. With slightly less calamity,
we look back on the 1970s.
No
matter our capacity for empathy, we cannot take on the mourning of every loss; so
often, we express our profound grief for celebrities, as an alternative. The 1970s would prove to be a tough
decade of deaths for young artists. But August 1970, the summer heat
covered us in sweat, no tears …
50 Years
Ago this Month ~ AUGUST 1970
August 8th: The Capitol
Theatre (Port Chester, New York) hosted Janis Joplin where she introduced
She and music buddy Bob Neuwirth found their mutual muses in a local
area bar where they penned the anti-establishment song and introduced it in the
second show.
Sadly, barely two months later, we Rock & Roll fans still suffered
from the death of Jimi Hendrix (September 18), when we met with another painful
loss in Janis’ death on October 7th.
Janis recorded the a cappella “Mercedes Benz” in one take, October 1,
1970, but never saw it released on the B-side of her May 1971 posthumous hit, “Cry Baby.”
She died three days after the recording session. (I never thought “Mercedes
Benz” received the respect it’s due. Definitely better than a B-side release.)
On Your Tinny Transistor
Radio ~ AUGUST 1970
Pop music station, KFRC/San
Francisco, blasted the summer with fan-favored hits in its 08/17/70 chart
listing. Two weather extremes, with hits like Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime,”
and Anne Murray’s “Snowbird”
grabbed our attention in the top ten. ♪ The
snowbird sings the song he always sings ♪ but … ♪ It’ll soon be
summertime | And we’ll sing again …
Then, as now, the summer airwaves
reverberated with riots and protests. In a 5-week top-of-the-heap run reflecting
the global mood, “War”
by Edwin
Starr clung to #1. Grasping its heels at #2, Dawn’s love song, “Candida,”
headed up by lead vocalist, Tony Orlando, challenged the musical ravages of
“War” … did it kick the protest song off the chart the following week?
Nope. “Candida” slipped to #4 in the
third week of August, taking the place of “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”
(Creedence
Clearwater [Revival]) that skipped up to #1 and finally knocked “War” one
rung down, to #2.
A
notoriously misunderstood song jumped 7
rungs up that chart’s ladder in one week, to land at #18. Apparently, the meaning
of “25 or 6 to 4” made
popular by Chicago, took
on a life of its own, beyond composer Robert Lamm’s original thought. Just time,
people, just time … not referring to illegal happy drugs or code for a renowned
person. Simply, the time he began writing the song … it was,
oh, 25 or 26 minutes to 4:00 a.m.! Gotta love it.
And what dynamic DJ graced the broadcast
air at KFRC summer of 1970? Avid listeners may remember the
affable Frank Terry (1939-2007),
on your 610 radio dial from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Frank had the scoop on the sweltering
hot tunes!
We’re not all about the left-coast here.
What was the other side of the country doing for musical fun? Check it out …
BFYP
Featured Radio Survey ~ AUGUST 1970
At the tail end of the summer, WLOF/Orlando, Florida,
featured popular DJ Pat O’Day in a handsome caricature on the cover of
its “Fun 40 Hits” survey (08/28-09/04/70). Did “War” headline its
chart, too? Take a peek … 50 Years Ago
this Month in Rock & Roll Radio!
Where were you that groovy day when
your radio played …
Celebrate AUGUST 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
LinDee
Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and author by way of Rock &
Roll. Two books (of three) are published 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!
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