Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
If I said the words, "Power to all our friends," you'd, no doubt, know exactly what I was alluding to.
Too right you would because February 10th, 1973, saw Cliff Richard unveil that very song on BBC One's Cilla Black show, in his bid to be selected the UK's entry for that year's Eurovision Song Contest.
I don't think I'm giving anything away by pointing out the bid succeeded. Though, sadly, he'd go on to only finish third in the actual contest itself. Still, he was only six points off winning it.
Eurovision is one home of all that's great in music but what about that other home of banging tunes, the UK singles chart?
As it turns out, there was no change at Number One, with top spot still being held by the Sweet's Blockbuster.
However, on the album chart, Elton John had now seized the pinnacle, thanks to his LP Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player.
I, of course, thoroughly approved of Blockbuster - the best song ever to be named after a home video rental store - and these are the other tracks I approved of on that singles chart.
You're So Vain - Carly Simon
Daniel - Elton John
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone - the Temptations
Whiskey in the Jar - Thin Lizzy
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
C. Moon -Wings
Crazy Horses - the Osmonds
Gudbuy T'Jane - Slade
and
Nights in White Satin - the Moody Blues.
Should you wish to explore that singles chart further, it can be found right here.
While the accompanying album chart resides here.
I do believe the Hulk escapes his Russian captors, thanks to a fellow fugitive sacrificing himself to spare him a blast from a deadly proton gun.
Back in America, Spider-Man gatecrashes Dorrie Evans' party. An act that brings him into conflict with her boyfriend the Human Torch.
Apart from guesting in other characters' stories, it's Spidey's last appearance in The Mighty World of Marvel - and possibly not the most classy way to leave.
Speaking of the Torch, he and the rest of his team are still broke and being forced, by circumstance, to star in a movie produced by their new employer the Sub-Mariner.
We won't see it till next week but today (February 10th) is exactly 50 years since the launch of 'Spider-Man Comics Weekly' No.1 - who'd have thought we'd live to see the day when SMCW was 50 years in the past.
ReplyDeleteI really don’t want to be That Guy — the one who constantly moans about how everything was SO much better when he was a kid. But holy cow, ‘You’re So Vain’, ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’, ‘Blockbuster’, and ‘Nights in White Satin’ burning up the singles chart all at the same time? 1973 was pretty darn good, musically at least.
ReplyDeleteI like this week’s Starlin cover, but I don’t quite know what that big black shape the Storm siblings are napping on us supposed to be.
That’s all I got.
b.t.
The Human Torch doesn't learn from his mistakes, does he? He was fooled, with that fake movie bit Subby used, again, when Mysterio's film got him & Spidey fighting, in Amazing Spider-man Annual # 4 (UK 1979 Spidey Annual). What other Marvel comics have centred around movies? Well, there's that Hulk story, in which a Japanese film director participates in a schlock monster movie, and feels he's dishonoured his Samurai heritage (Spidey & Hulk Team-up # 426), just for starters. What others can you think of?
ReplyDeletePhillip
Did we ever learn who was stronger Thing or Subby?
ReplyDeleteCharles
B.T. I'm with you amigo! I very much enjoyed the "Motown" sound of the 60s to mid 70s.
ReplyDeleteHell, I enjoyed Burt Bacharach's music too in 60s and 70s.
It was on the airwaves in the 60s so that's what we heard and learned to like.
Still remember singing "Raindrops keep falling on my Head" in music class in like 5th grade, "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan, "Day by Day" by "Godspell" too. I don't know if kids still even sing pop songs in grade school? I mean, how would a song have nationwide recognition anymore with the segmentation of music, tv, etc.?
(Also I was bewildered for a while with Steve's postings by the month on the cover, b/c certain comics I certainly remembered buying at certain times e.g., Spidey 100 in the dead of summer on a Sunday morning. Yet the cover month is September. For a while I thought I had early on set of oldtimers!)
Phillip, I bought that 1979 Spidey annual and the 1979 Incredible Hulk annual which was unusual for me as I rarely bothered with Marvel UK's annuals preferring annuals such as Dr Who, Star Trek and Space 1999.
ReplyDeleteColin - Yes, at the time, I quite enjoyed the Spidey one, despite it not being traditional Spidey. Maybe it was because it was one long story. The 1979 Hulk one, I bought much later. I seem to remember Namor beat the Hulk, being in water having enhanced his strength. Growing up with the Len Wein Hulk - who could beat anybody - I thought this was rubbish, and dismissed it in my mind as "non-canon" ! Therein lies the answer to Charlie's question, too. In water, Namor would beat the Thing. Out of water...it's a close run!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Phil, I don't remember the actual story in the 1979 Hulk annual but I do remember Hulk and Namor on the cover.
ReplyDeleteColin - I'm a bit vague on the contents, myself. Here's the cover:
ReplyDeletehttps://comicvine.gamespot.com/incredible-hulk-annual-1979/4000-917243/
Gary Brodsky did the art on MWOM Annual 1978, too. Maybe he was related to Sol Brodsky.
Phillip
I believe he was Sol Brodsky's son, Phillip.
ReplyDeleteSteve, did you not approve of 'Hocus Pocus' by Focus then?
Europrog beats Eurovision any day of the week,
Theres not much else in either chart that appeals to me this time round (not that hasn't already been discussed under recent posts anyway, like the Temptations). But on the plus side though, February '73 did see the release of one of the best albums of the decade, 'Solid Air' by the brilliant John Martyn.
-sean
Thanks, Sean. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI've read Steve's piece on said annual (Steve Does Comics: Annuals).
It has a Hulk vs Black Bolt story, too - the one in which the Hulk loses, methinks!
Surely, the Hulk can't get a beating from 2 different superheroes in his own annual - and, for Christmas, too! Young Hulk fans, disappointed!
Maybe my mind's conflating the Hulk's beating from Black Bolt, with Namor.
Phillip
Yes, I'm a day late checking in to the ever fine conversation here at SDC! But better late than never...
ReplyDeleteInteresting music chart you linked to, Steve. Judge Dread had a pop music career? As an uninformed Yank, I'd like to know which came first- "Dread" or Dredd"?
Also never realized that Olivia Newton John covered John Denver's gem "Take Me Home, Country Roads". JD's version was a big favorite, and I always recall hearing it on the car radio as my family drove through the hills of West Virginia on a vacation.
Thing vs. Namor? Bashful Benjy gets my vote on land, but Subby is unbeatable in the drink.
Charlie- yes, you weren't alone singing pop tunes in elementary school. We also sang "Raindrops", also sang "What the World Needs Now" and "Penny Lane". Kids today- hard to guess what they might sing in music class. Adele, maybe?
Wow (?) Taylor Dayne and Sheena Easton are playing a smaller gig a few miles from Charlie-town tomorrow night. Tickets are still on sale. Hmmm....
ReplyDeleteAnd the bigger news is Duran Duran is coming this summer. Seeing a bunch of 60+ year olds sing "Hungry Like the Wolf"???
Charlie loved Hocus Pocus by the Focus. His cousin had it on a 45. So every time we went to visit I'd go all obsessive compulsive on it, lol.
Hocus Pocus reminds me of Jethro Tull, which I like (in sensible doses, let's not go crazy, here).
ReplyDeleteI have always had a fondness for the "medieval" branch of the weird-ass tree we call prog rock, it seems to have aged better than other prog rock styles.
...'Cause it's already medieval, maybe, with flutes and fiddles and such? Not as much synthesizer? I dunno.
My brother hates all prog rock with a burning gem-like flame, except for the Moody Blues which he loves. Ah, go figure.
M.P.
...On a related note, what the hell is going on with Roger Waters? Anybody know?
ReplyDeleteWhy does that guy gotta be such a dick?
M.P.
Charlie, did you mention Burt Bacharach because of his being in the news this week? If not, I have some sad news for you…
ReplyDeleteb.t.
Has anyone seen Madonna's face post-plastic surgery? Oh dear...
ReplyDeleteI liked Hocus Pocus as well, like Popcorn it was a bit of an instrumental pop classic at the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big Prog rock fan either I'm afraid some good tunes like "Fanfare for the common man" etc but in general , it leaves me cold. I like the Moody Blues but I never thought of them as Prog just rock.
Wasn't Subby v the original Torch the first whose stronger comic battle in the 40s, Subby won
MP, do you know 'Ring Out Solstice Bells' by Jethro Tull from 1976? It's one of my favourite Christmas songs.
ReplyDeleteI'll check that out, Colin! Thanks.
ReplyDelete..yeah, I saw that picture of Madonna. Good God.
I was getting my hair cut last week, looking in the mirror, and thinking, "yeah, that's a middle-aged guy, there."
But it was a HUMAN middle-aged guy.
Not a ventriloquist dummy that walks around talking. Yikes.
It's goddam spooky, is what it is.
M.P.
Jethro Tull were featured on a Sky Arts documentary, last night:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/2796885/81511572/classic-artists-jethro-tull
It might be available over the internet.
If Ian Anderson stands on one leg, for long periods of time, do you think that leg's become larger & stronger than the other one (unless he alternates between the two) ?
Phillip
Jethro Tull was featured... (singular) !
ReplyDeletePhillip
You know, me and my buddies would sit around ruminating as to why the Brits cranked out so much rock music which, assuming Chuck Berry was one end of the spectrum, your stuff was on the other.
ReplyDeleteI mean, we got basic rock n roll, but you had Sgt Peppers, Quadraphenia / Tommy, Stairway to Heaven, Moody Blues, J Tull, et al.
I mean, we noticed even the simpler songs like Maggie May with harpsichords (?) or whatever was not 1-4-5- blues/bass stuff or bubble gum top-45 stuff.
We concluded, (speculated, guessed) that you had a much more detailed education in music going through school, and much greater exposure, given you and your neighbors had renaissance, baroque, classical, etc. as part of your history and we didn't.
So... we assumed you grew up exposed to some baroque piece and we were singing "Home on the Range" or "God Bless America."
How is that for a thesis? Thanks in advance for some replies!
Charlie!
B.P -
ReplyDeleteYes, I was a bit melancholy that Burt Bacharach had passed. I actually listen to his greatest hits a couple times a year (the Dionne Warwick stuff to be more precise.)
And "Say a Little Prayer" by Aretha Franklin is way, way, way high up on songs that are my favs. Never get tired of it.
"What's it all about Alfie?"
Heck if I know...
Cheers, Charlie
Charlie - Are you possibly thinking of "You Wear it Well", with perhaps a mandolin?
ReplyDeleteMy mother played a Perry Como tape, a lot ( entitled "The Days of Wine & Roses", perhaps?) That had a lot of Burt Bacharach on it, I think.
Phillip
Paul, re: 'Europrog' - just to be clear, I was thinking of Goblin, Can, Popol Vuh, and stuff like that, rather than (yikes!) ELP or Jethro Tull.
ReplyDelete-sean
Charlie, speaking for myself I didn't grow up getting a "renaissance, baroque, classical etc" musical education either at school or at home!
ReplyDeleteMid-teens, I was in a choir, for a couple of years. "Green Groweth the Holly" At school = Late medieval/very early renaissance - at a stretch (?) Bit of Purcell - Maybe Baroque (?) But that's just singing - not being educated in it. Unfortunately, this weak foundation wasn't any kind of basis for the yellow brick road of a prog rock career.
ReplyDeletePhillip
Charlie:
ReplyDeleteI have a ‘Best Of Bacharach’ 3 CD set from Rhino that has all the hits by Dionne Warwick, Carpenters, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, Herb Alpert, Aretha Franklin, etc that I listen to fairly often. At some point in my late teens I decided Bacharach’s stuff was super-square, ‘Music My Parents Like’ — bah humbug. Then one day I was listening to K-EARTH (our local oldies radio station) in my car one day, ‘One Less Bell To Answer’ by The Fifth Dimension came on, and I was gobsmacked by it, realized what an idiot I’d been.
b.t.
Colin, I definitely assumed I'd live to see the day when SMCW was 50 years in the past. In fact, I was kind of taking it for granted that I would.
ReplyDeleteBt, I think the big black shape is supposed to be rocks in shadow.
Phillip, there was also an earlier Hulk story in which he blunders upon a film shoot in Egypt, gets hired to appear in the movie and then has to fight the sphinx which has been brought to life by aliens.
Charlie, as Phillip and Red have stated, Subby's stronger than the Thing when in water but loses strength, the longer he stays on land.
Sean, McScotty and MP, I find Hocus Pocus a little too silly for my tastes. Plus, I tend to have a natural aversion to prog.
Red, as far as I'm aware, Judge Dread preceded Judge Dredd by a fair margin.
We had to sing Yellow Submarine, Lily the Pink and Green Grow the Rushes O in music classes.
MP, Roger Waters does seem to be trying to win an award for being the most alienating man in rock.
Colin, I too have seen Madonna's current face.
Charlie, as far as I'm aware, musical education is notoriously poor in British schools. I doubt that any of Britain's best bands ever got their musical chops from music lessons.
Hi Colin, I assume that you guys had to go to music class every week just like we did in the states from first grade through the eighth grade perhaps? And in the class one would do many things to include reviewing the history of music in your country? So we got to visit songs like home on the Range and jimmy crack corn in America. But we figured you guys got to revisit 1000 years of music? Maybe not.
ReplyDeleteRock music isn't jazz, Charlie - it doesn't take a lot of musical knowledge to start a half way competent band.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that rock & roll began in America as a fairly proletarian blend of country - rooted in Irish/Scottish forms - and blues. So it makes sense that in an uptight Britain of the late 50s/early 60s a stratum of working/lower middle class youth would respond to it, but with a different perspective to American kids.
Given the transatlantic position of the UK, it perhaps isn't a coincidence that the first British band to make it in the US were from Liverpool. I'm no expert on the Beatles but I think its generally agreed that they developed their 'musical chops' in Hamburg...
Steve, pretty sure you mentioned here once that 'The Wall' was your desert island disc, which seems like an odd choice for someone with an aversion to prog.
Not that thats an unreasonable position to take of course (and its not exactly 'Atom Heart Mother' either).
-sean
Charlie, your assumptions about music education in Britain are completely wrong. I attended a weekly music lesson for the first two years of secondary school (aged 11 and 12) but we never learned about the history of music in this country or any other country. I do remember singing songs from the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical 'Joseph & His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' and I also remember our teacher Mr Jones (no relation) demonstrating how to correctly remove an LP from its' sleeve.
ReplyDeleteColin- your teacher at least provided a lesson of some practical use! He might have helped a few parents escape the frustration of kids scratching up their lps...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of musical education, one high point for me was in 8th. grade. Our music teacher decided to let his class do a survey and create a Top 40 chart of the most popular songs. And big bonus: he gave the job of compiling the chart to my best friend and me! We were most enthusiastic. Oh, and the number 1 song: Terry Jacks, "Seasons ago in the Sun".
That should, of course, be "Seasons in the Sun". Although, in truth, it was quite a few seasons ago...
ReplyDeleteGoddam it, Red, now I got that dumb song stuck in my head.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot!
...It was a pretty popular song back then, I gotta admit. It was the '70's.
M.P.
Redartz and M.P. :
ReplyDeleteYou call that an earworm? Ha! Try Clint Holmes’ saccharine single ‘Playground In My Mind’, which reached #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1973. The singsong chorus is pure EVIL:
My name is Michael
I got a nickel
I got a nickel shiny and new
I’m gonna buy me
All kinds of candy
That’s what I’m gonna do
It was also a hit in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but doesn’t seem to have gotten any traction in the UK…
b.t.
Of course I'm just going to have to find out what this 'Playground In My Mind' sounds like now, b.t....
ReplyDelete-sean
Bt, I can't say I've ever heard of that Clint Holmes song. I shall give it a listen on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteSean, did I really nominate The Wall for my Desert Island Disc? I wonder why I did that? Probably just because it's long and, so, would fill up more time.
I am now playing that Clint Holmes single.
ReplyDeleteIt's sounding jaunty.
ReplyDeleteA child has started singing along.
It's making Cliff's Eurovision entries sound like Motorhead.
Perhaps you were just playing with us, Steve.
ReplyDeleteGotta say I was expecting something worse from that Clint Holmes record. I mean its strangely terrible, but its not quite the sort of irritating earworm that you can't get out of your mind.
Or maybe I've just got to an age where I'm becoming immune to that kind of thing...?
-sean
B.t.- oh man, I'd forgotten about "Playground ". There was a girl in my class who went around singing that song constantly. As if it didn't loads of airplay already.
ReplyDelete