Blast from Your Past

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Rock Radio FEBRUARY 1970 Rockin’ Heavy

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 13^th: 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 27^th: 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.

On Your Tinny Transistor Radio ~ FEBRUARY 1970

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 11^th 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!

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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 visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of reputable note. However, as with everything cyber-security, use at your own discretion.

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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Rock Radio JANUARY 1970 New Decade of Golden Oldies

The Swingin’ Sixties Swing into The Psychedelic Seventies!

50 Years Ago this Month

We Rocked through the Sixties… now it’s time to Roll into another Golden Decade of Rock & Roll Radio and the DJs who brought us into … the Psychedelic Seventies^TM!

And yes, for those who care, as we dip our toes into the ocean of Golden Oldies, I shall be working side-by-side with the first few months of ‘70s memories, on my 3^rd book (finally, again)—The Psychedelic Seventies—in the Blast from Your Past series. I know I’ve been promising it since Book 2 (1960s) published, but ya know … life often gets in the way of our best laid plans. So, I’m back at it! With that update, let’s party on …

On Your Tinny Transistor Radio ~ JANUARY 1970

The first few weeks of January, *WCFL/Chicago’s top 40 toppers wrestled for the top 5 spots, with no one song staying too long. Until … Sly and the Family Stone got the station’s audience attention and started moving up the chart.

The January 12^th survey on ARSA seems normal at first, but looking closely to see where songs were at the beginning of the year, I spotted survey info contributor, Craig Pucci, having some fun with his August 6, 2014 posting … where Sly & The Family Stone appeared at #20, he just had to list their song with the mondegreen title “…Thank You Fa Lettinme Be Mice Elf Agin.” Heehee. Cool. Most other stations went with just “Thank You” and KHJ fans on the “left coast,” liked their “B” side better, “Everybody is a Star.”

Of course, the “straight” song title is “Thank You for Lettin’ Me be Myself Again.” It stayed in the top 10 nearly all the way through February.

January 14^th: With their farewell swan song, “Someday We’ll be Together,” barely hanging on the chart’s top 20, Diana Ross & The Supremes headline the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas for a final live concert. Ross headed off to a solo career, snubbing her replacement, Jean Terrell, with a dry, onstage introduction capping the end of the last show.

January 15^th: As streaking led us into the promiscuous Seventies, John Lennon continued his self-expressive style, opening an exhibit of lithographs titled Bag One, in The London Arts Gallery. It was short-lived, however, as Scotland Yard confiscated eight of the fourteen lithos, for displaying eroticism. Guess they hadn’t quite caught up with the times, as a case against Lennon for distribution of indecent material was ultimately dismissed.

January 21^st: Let’s hear it for the wolfman! Every year on January 21^st, BFYP celebrates the birthday of our self-proclaimed “Original Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal,” Wolfman Jack! He’d have been 82 years old this month. BFYP keeps his spirit Rockin’, with the book series dedicated to the innovative, one-of-a-kind DJ.

One of my favorite quotes from Book 2: This is Wolfman Jack, skinny-dippin’ in the oil of joy down here on XERB, the tower of flower power. Fifty thousand watts of soul power. Awwoooooo!

*Featured Radio Survey: WCFL/Chicago must have thought DJ Jim Stagg needed a younger, more female-appealing sobriquet, so in this January 26, 1970 survey, he is "Jimmy P. Stagg." Alrighty. Either way, he's a cool BFYP DJ, with great behind-the-mic true tales in both Book 1, Book 2 and coming soon (or eventually), Book 3. … 50 Years Ago this Month in Rock & Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when …

Celebrate JANUARY 1970 and … Rock On!