Yep, it’s Music Friday. Like a true ’60s Refugee I will delve in to the 1969 BillBoard Hot 100 and deliver a one hit wonder from an American band that flirted briefly with fame and fortune: The New Colony Six. Six guys from Chicago with a dream – and at least one decent song. When I was in the 7th grade I probably heard this song on KROY or KXOA but I honestly don’t remember it from then. I heard it recently on Sirius XM sattelite radio where you can come full circle and listen to AM radio all over again, just with better speakers. I’m still hoping for cassettes to make a comeback BTW.
Like most groups in the 1960s, these guys had a schtick which was their colonial costumes similar to what Paul Revere and the Raiders wore. I don’t know if they imitated PR&R or if it was the other way around, but Paul Revere and the Raiders were certainly more…popular. Well known. Successful? I guess, but that might have boiled down simply to better management rather than an advantage in talent. Whatever. It’s all in the past now and probably most of these folks aren’t around anymore. But they did leave us this. I hope you enjoyed it.
Being stuck in the 1970’s like I am has it’s advantages. One of them is that you can look around at all the “new” things and ideas floating around today and say “that’s just a different version of x, y or z that we did back in the day”. Case in point: current topics of discussion today about modern advances in technology that have given rise to research and creation of new machines – specifically robots, or Robots with a capital “R”. And the creation of said machines begets further conversation, debates, etc over the limits of artificial intelligence or AI. When does a machine become human? What will happen when AI surpasses human intelligence? What are the repercussions for human society? I mean the “Rise of The Machines” and the coming robot revolution are what the Kool Kidz are talking about these days. Except…
BEEN THERE DONE THAT, bitchez!
So how does this become a Music Friday post? As usual, by accident. Because another of the advantages of being stuck in the 1970’s is being in the habit of listening to 1970’s Progressive Rock music – like the progressive rock concept album “I Robot” by The Alan Parsons Project. An album that was released in 1977. Often in those halcyon days when people gathered to socialize, they listened to music and had discussions, or “talked”. This is something people did before they had their phones to distract them since cell phones, smart or dumb did not yet exist. So friends would gather together and listen to albums which were physical objects – vinyl discs which had grooves molded into them. An album was placed on a turntable where a needle tracked through the groove, reproducing the music. Rockin’ it old school in the 70’s meant using physical media since there was no internet, streaming, or a “cloud”. OK, back on track, this concept album was based loosely on stories in a book by Isaac Asimov…wait. Let me back up again. A “book” was a physical object…Oh hell, just google it. The book by Isaac Asimov contained stories about robots and AI. Getting back to the album, the cover inlay read:
“I Robot… The story of the rise of the machine and the decline of man, which paradoxically coincided with his discovery of the wheel… and a warning that his brief dominance of this planet will probably end, because man tried to create robot in his own image.”
And so the discussions revolved around the music, the music revolved around the topic. And the current debates are merely history repeating itself. So, been there, done that and I probably even have the T-shirt around here somewhere not that it would still fit. Wish I still had the hair, but I digress. All discussions aside, there was the music. This is some of what we heard:
One song off the album that was released as a single:
And another single from the album:
And, saving the best for last as I am often wont to do:
Could it be? Are you looking into my mind? I warned early readers that they might find themselves walking around inside my head. Hopefully you’ve wiped your feet. Don’t bother setting the clock or changing the calendar, I like it here in the 70’s. And please lock the door on your way out.
Today we’re going to drill down to the bedrock that the foundation of my musical tastes are built upon. You may remember that over the last few months I have been trying to determine my “peak music year” by examining the BillBoard Hot 100 music charts and that based on those charts I had eliminated 1972, ’73 and ’74 as possibilities for consideration. However, there was much music I liked that occured during those years that did not appear on the charts, much of it by artists like The Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald and of course Steely Dan. There is something – or rather someone – that The Doobies and Steely Dan have in common: Michael McDonald. Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:
Steely Dan with Michael McDonald: Pretzel Logic live
The Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald: Minute by Minute live (note – long intro skip ahead to 2:20)
OK, there’s the appetizer. Main course right below – scroll down!
Here is Donald Fagen, one of the founders of Steely Dan talking about the composition of one of their songs, Chain Lightning. He goes way, way way into detail. One of the reasons why Steely Dan is so popular among musicians is that there is really some craft that goes into their “meaningless” songs. There is some “there” there if you know where to look for it – kind of like an inside joke. Take a listen:
Now just the song without the lecture.
Oh yeah. Don’t bother to understand…don’t question the little man…be part of the brotherhood.
Chain Lightnin’…Feels So Good. How did you like your meat ‘n potatoes? Dessert’s next.
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When I do a Music Friday post I usually like to give it some sort of theme. I had a little trouble this week because as I write this it is 5:10 AM and I am not at my – shall we say – sharpest. But I have nothing to lose, so here goes.
OK, coffee’s kicking in now.
The whole Music Friday theme itself came about kind of by accident. I’ve always had a Music category on the blog from day one, but it just so happened that a few weeks in a row when I posted about music it happened on Fridays. Theme junkie that I am, Music Friday was born and the rest is history. So where was I? Oh yeah. Searching for a theme. Searching. Searching. If only…wait…I have an idea.
Whew! that was close, but I knew I’d find a theme if I searched long enough. Thanks for watching, listening and reading. I have to go now in search of a paycheck. Have a great weekend!
Some of these you’d know if you gave it a minute’s thought. Others you have never heard of.
Let the fun begin!
I’ll start off with the obvious choice – the song and the name of the group both have “cat” in the title:
Here’s another you’ve heard many times:
Here’s a fun one from a movie with the same title:
Now let’s get a little obscure (unless you are a Lovin’ Spoonful fan):
Finally, a song that is seared into my memory due to the fact that it played in heavy rotation on KRAK radio in 1965:
Tiger by the tail indeed. Dedicated to cat lovers everywhere. Some more than others. Welp, time to go to work. Hope you enjoyed these. Have a great weekend!
Regular readers of this blog know that some months ago I undertook a project to determine my “peak music year”. I arbitrarily and capriciously devised a method that I would use to make this determination. I decided to examine the BillBoard Hot 100 chart for the years 1965 through 1975, determine a “winner” for each year and then pick a favorite from the winners and declare the year that my favorite won to be my “Peak Music Year”. Now I have finished that process and it’s time to reveal my conclusion and declare my Peak Music Year.
Here are the “winners” of the BillBoard Hot 100 for the relevant years (you can click on the year to read my post summarizing the chart for that year and how I declared the winner):
So…my favorite among the winners? Duh. The Beatles. That makes my peak music year…what….the 1960’s? Crap. OK, while the Beatles are my favorite group among these “winners”, they are not my favorite group of all time. So there was obviously a flaw in my format. In reviewing my summaries I would have to say that the year I was most enthusiastic about was 1969, even though the two Beatles tunes that earned them their “win” that year are not even my favorite Beatles songs. On the other hand, of the seventeen songs that reached #1 that year, I liked (and still like) fifteen of them. So is 1969 my peak music year? It is true that there was a lot of great music that year, and I liked and still like a lot of it.
But I also listened to a lot of music in 1972, ’73 and ’74, years that I disqualified as my peak music year because the BillBoard Hot 100 chart yielded no winner for me. A lot of the progressive music I listened to during those years was anti commercial and the artists probably would have been insulted if their songs charted on the Hot 100. Groups like Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and The Alan Parsons Project. And even though the band that is most likely my favorite of all time, Steely Dan, was (is?) not an alternative group, and they did have significant commercial success, their successes came later than 1975. I can only conclude that the BillBoard Hot 100 was not the appropriate database to use for purposes of determining my peak music year. Also the only conclusion I can draw from my little exercise is that 1969 was my Peak BillBoard Hot 100 music year, and a good music year overall for me.
After having reached this wishy washy conclusion to the project, I present two songs related to the year 1969:
First, The Beatles (featuring honorary 5th Beatle, Billy Preston) with one of their #1’s from that year, Get Back:
Next, Steely Dan with a song that was written in 1969, The Caves Of Altamira:
Thanks for reading and sticking with it. This, however, will not be my final word on my Peak Music Year.
