70s Music

70s Music
Current mood:  adventurous
Category: Music

Flashback to 1973.
I was a 10 year old boy with a transistor radio up close to my head, as it was after bedtime and I needed a fix of the pop music that was lightly coming to me from KIOA AM.

I remember some of the songs that I liked among the sea of other not so outstanding selections.
Harry Truman by Chicago, Don't Pull Your Love by Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds, Black Water-Doobie Brothers and others.

My father was a music head who also appreciated the music instead of JUST the lyrics.
I grew up listening to his 8 tracks that spanned from Mozart to Helen Reddy, 50-60s oldies, Clockwork Orange soundtrack, Ferrante and Teicher, Sandy Nelson and many other wide varieties.






Elton John came through the era like a fast bowling ball and produced many hits.
 My first record player was one that had the speakers that unclipped from the box and could be set on a shelf.

My first album was "Super Bad":





Becoming more addicted to the radio, it wouldn't be unusual for me to listen to 3 hours of music after I was in bed before I would finally give up and go to sleep.

My next older brother had a "tin ear" (somebody who has an unusual low interest in music and also usually cant hold a tune).
He redeemed himself however later by introducing me to his album The Sweet-Desolation Boulevard that contained "Fox On The Run" and "Ballroom Blitz", and he also had Deep Purple-Made In Japan.

Two VERY good selections considering his aversion to music in general.






My sister was into a lot of music and had a whole stack of 45's (45 rpm records).
She introduced me to KISS-Alive and had me bopping to "Rock and Roll All Night".






She loved "Chick a Boom" by Daddy Dewdrop which was an unusually naughty song for its time and of course since we were all young, she subjected us to "1,2,3 Red Light" and "Simple Simon Says".

Time passed and Novelty songs came in like a Tidal wave:
Ray Stevens-"The Streak", "Convoy"-CW McCall, "Hey Shirley This is Squirrely", "Mr. Jaws"-Dickie Goodman, "Dead Skunk in The Middle Of The Road", "Hot Rod Lincoln" etc...






Tv shows highlighted some of the pop singers of its day:

Mac Davis, Sonny and Cher, Captain and Tennille, The Carpenters.






"Smoking in The Boys Room"-Brownsville Station and "Spiders and Snakes" by Jim Stafford cut my teeth into some of the slightly harder music then the bubble gum my sister was into.






Styx made their way in with "Lady" and "Lorelei" while the girls were dancing to "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel at school during Valentines parties.






Child teen stars were booming like The Defranco Family-Heartbeat It's A Lovebeat, Partridge Family, Jackson 5, The Osmonds, Leif Garrett, Shaun Cassidy etc...






Then around 1975, 2 things happened on a major scale.

One hit wonders alongside Disco music.

A separation happened between the disco fans and the hard rock fans.
Generally, if you liked Disco, you were considered a sissy or Gay by the guys but would be in with the females because they LOVED to dance.

I liked BOTH.

Notably on the disco side that I liked would be groups like WAR, Donna Summer, Earth Wind and Fire, Midnight Star, Jimmy Castor Band, KC and The Sunshine Band, and others.






On the rock side, Boston, Styx, Ted Nugent, ZZ Top, Head East, Foghat, Foreigner, Yes, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Elton John, Billy Joel, KISS, and many others not excluding the one hit wonders that were everywhere.






Music had dominated my life and I would stay in my bedroom up to 4 hrs a day listening to music as I played homemade drumsticks on my bed to the beat.

In 6th grade, my best friend introduced me to his new friend at school who played drums.
He taught me and my friend the basic beats and it just added to my addiction.
(this drummer later went on to play for 5 different bands and is still active with 3 in the Midwest but mostly plays and also sings for "Roadshow" and he was also an inspiration to Corey from Slipknot who would watch him regularly at the local bars)

In 10th grade, I bought my first drum set. To those who are familiar with older brands, it was an Apollo 5 piece set that I added Camber Cymbals and black dot heads and hi-hat to.

My addiction turned me towards the hardest rock I could stand and I went into Van Halen and RUSH and finally Iron Maiden.






I still own over 150 albums (yes the 33rpm vinyl type) and over 100 45's.

This was my story of the 70s music.
I have been busy with my new ning site  "The Groovy 70s Music" and can now release the URL to those of you who like 70s pop/rock videos.

I kept away from Disco to keep a central theme.

Go check it out and relive your childhood years.


http://eas70smusicchannel.ning.com