I have been struggling the last few weeks to find time for blogging. I will not give it up.
I had thought about starting a blog for many months (perhaps close to two years) before I actually buckled down and got it started nearly a year ago. During that time, I was unemployed. Two of my wife’s brothers were also unemployed and started an Amazon Storefront website to which they added a blog – The Men Out Of Work Blog – and I was invited to contribute, became and still am the primary contributor. Once I found myself contributing to someone else’s blog, I knew that I owed it to myself to start my own as I had been planning for some time.
The Birth of a Blog
Now nearly a year later, two out of three of the Men Out Of Work are no longer out of work – one of the newly employed being me. The new job takes a lot of my time – long hours – but I am grateful for the opportunity to earn and I do like the job and the people I work with. It’s a great environment. But it does leave less – way less – time for writing. I am dedicated to carving out the time to write. Perhaps there will be more free time after the holidays. Until then there will be new posts added here, though it may be sporadic. If you are a regular reader, please do not give up on the blog – I won’t.
I would be remiss is I did not note that today is the 73rd Anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an event that brought the United States into World War II and changed the course of history. We should never forget:
Too many good songs on the 1969 BillBoard Hot 100 to cover in only two posts. So here’s the PS – which I could have entitled “Music Friday – Unrequited Love Edition”. This is dedicated – ala Casey Kasem – to the unrequited lovers of the world. You know who you are:
In the 1969Billboard Hot 100 post I noted that nearly all the #1 songs that year were (are?) really great songs – some by lesser known artists and others by music icons. Click the link here for the chart and see for yourself. Of the seventeen songs that reached #1 that year, all but a handfull are commonly heard today in heavy rotation on classic rock or oldies stations. And because there are so many, I felt that I should feature a few of them besides the “winners” I posted yesterday. A couple of them (in addition to the two that I mentioned in yesterday’s post) I had featured in earlier posts: Henry Mancini’s Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet, and Every Day People by Sly and The Family Stone. OK. So I have established that I like these songs, therefore they are “great”. Whether you like them or not, you will have to agree with me that one of them is universally known and heard even today in movies, in commercials and of course on the radio or streaming media. It’s been covered by many successful mainstream artists. I doubt that more than a day or two goes by without one hearing it in some form somewhere. If you’ve looked at the chart, you can probably guess which one I’m talking about: I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye:
Oh, yeah. That’s some R&B right there. Alright. Next up is a song that nearly defines the band that recorded it, a band that is one of the most successful of all time and is still recording and touring today with nearly their original lineup. Pretty amazing, considering that this song hit #1 just a little over 35 years ago. The song and band? Honky Tonk Women by The Rolling Stones:
So there you have it. 1969 was a very good year. And perhaps….my peak music year. We shall see.
Hello everyone. Sorry to make you wait two weeks for this installment in my project to discern my Peak Music Year. It won’t happen again. Unless it does. Anyhoo, here goes. We are now up to 1969 – if you wish to catch up on 1965-1968 you can just scroll down, down and further down or click here for 1965, here for 1966, here for 1967 and here for 1968. I’ll wait while you get caught up……all caught up or don’t care? Well, you must care at least a little or you wouldn’t be reading this far. So good.
I have a feeling that this may be my peak music year simply by looking at the roster of #1 songs and seeing how many of these are among my favorites and are songs that are currently in my collection, on my playlists, or have been featured on my blogs as a Music Friday subject or as part of another post. Of the 17 different songs that charted at #1 in 1969, I regularly listen to 15 of them. The two exceptions are Sugar, Sugar by The Archies (who were not even a real band) and In The Year 2525 by Zager and Evans, though the latter is somewhat of a classic in it’s own right and was the subject of a previous Music Friday post. Another surprise – The Beatles don’t win walking away. It’s kind of a tie with The 5th Dimension since both groups had two #1 songs that year. The 5th Dimension edge out The Beatles slightly in total weeks at #1 since their two songs spent a total of nine weeks at #1, and The Beatles’ two songs spent a total of 6 weeks at number one. However…I am going to have to call it for The Beatles, because of the iconic status of their #1’s. While The 5th Dimension’s songs, though representative of the music of the period, are really just footnotes to the history while the Beatles’ tunes are the history. So the winner is…..drumroll…..The Beatles! Big Surprise, I know. I also know that I haven’t told you the titles of the songs. Don’t worry – I’ll tell you the titles and you can listen to them too. I’ll present all four songs – two by The Beatles, and two by The 5th Dimension and you tell me if I made the right choice.
I’ll do this like they do the Miss America Pageant – we’ll start with the “runners up”. Should the winners be unable to fulfill their obligation, the runners up will be named the winner. Not really, but I’ve always wanted to say (write?) that. Here goes:
Second runner up is The 5th Dimension’s Wedding Bell Blues, sometimes A.K.A. Marry Me Bill:
Not bad, but when was the last time you heard either one of those songs? Not recently, I bet unless you are me. And you’re not. Now for the Winners: The Beatles’ (featuring Billy Preston on keyboards) Get Back which spent six weeks at #1:
And The Beatles’ Come Together and Something which spent only one week at the top spot in 1969. Two songs which for some reason BillBoard lists as a single song. Could two songs share the top spot? Guess so…here are both songs:
So there you have it. 1969 winners are The Beatles. They are on a roll…a rock and roll? Sorry, bad pun. But they’re looking hard to beat, but since they broke up in 1970 they can’t win more than one more year. And 1971 – 1975 will be wide open! Hope you enjoyed…stay tuned for the obligatory encore post following right behind this one. Or right above this one. Or something.
It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate,” … “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.” – Stephen Hawking
Pretty much the same sentiment has been expressed by Elon Musk and James Cameron who, though he is a film director, is a very smart guy and has invested a ton of money into science and research projects.
But don’t worry! According the the Beeb,” others are less pessimistic”. One of those others is Rollo Carpenter, creator of something call Cleverbot. Cleverbot is learning software that is capable of carrying on a conversation so well that if can fool people into thinking they are conversing with another person. Carpenter says “I believe that we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently long time and the potential of it to solve many of the worlds problems will be realized”. Oh. Alright then. As long as we remain in charge of the technology for a “decently long time” everything will be fine. But how long is a decently long time? Long enough for Rollo Carpenter to make a lot of money on Cleverbot and be safely tucked in his grave before Skynet decides that the most logical way to solve all of the world’s problems at once is to eliminate mankind? I’d rather listen to Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk and others’ advice. Err on the side of caution. Because the solution to all the world’s problems could turn out to be the world’s biggest problem.
I’m not sure what country this happens in as I don’t recognize the language, but this is apparently some kind of dog competition where the dog must race through a short obstacle course of distractions. The first two participants do very well. Then it’s the Golden Retriever’s turn… and then lets just say that hilarity ….squirrel!
The project to determine my peak music year continues this week with a look at the 1968 BillBoard Hot 100. If you want to recap 1965, 66 and 67 you can click here.
For the first time so far in this endeavor, the winner of the round not only had the most songs at the #1 position, but also the most overall time spent at #1 as well. 1968 was an interesting year, as there were five individual songs that each spent four consecutive weeks or more at #1, not including one of the songs by this year’s winner that spent nine consecutive weeks at #1. Dying of suspense? OK, I’ll have mercy and announce the winner as…The Beatles! Somewhat anti-climactic, isn’t it? The Beatles had two songs that made #1 in 1968; Hello Goodbye which spent 2 weeks at #1 (after having spent time at #1 the previous year also) and Hey Jude which spent an amazing nine consecutive weeks at #1. So here you go.
Hello Goodbye, two weeks at #1
And Hey Jude, nine weeks at #1
Another interesting thing about Hey Jude is that it bucked the AM Radio format of the two and a half minute song, as it clocked in at a little over seven minutes, almost four minutes of which is “Na Na Na Na-na-na-na”. As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, it is possible The Beatles dominated the chart until their breakup in 1970 (I don’t know for sure – I have not cheated and looked ahead). They’ve won every year now 1965 through 68. I guess we’ll find out together.
I mentioned that there were five songs that each spent four consecutive weeks or more at #1. One of them is instantly recognizable as one of the best songs of the sixties…period. I’ll just tell you the name of the artist: Otis Redding. Now listen:
A note of irony in that the song did not reach #1 until after Otis Redding’s death that year in a plane crash, the first posthumous #1 song in BillBoard Hot 100 history. Too bad.
Oh…also…Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay is two minutes and forty two seconds long. So it also bucked the two-and-a-half minute format. Just by a lot less. See you next week when we wrap up the sixties with The 1969 BillBoard Hot 100. See ya!
