Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Stability was the order of the day, this week in 1973, when it came to the music charts.
After all, still atop the singles mountain were Tony Orlando and Dawn with Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree, while, top of the album woodpile was David Bowie's Aladdin Sane which was successfully holding off the twin challenge of the Beatles' Red and Blue albums.
I have mixed feelings about Mr Orlando's single but these are the 45s I did approve of on that week's chart:
See My Baby Jive - Wizzard
Giving It All Away - Roger Daltrey
Brother Louie - Hot Chocolate
Walk on The Wild Side - Lou Reed
Cum On Feel the Noize - Slade
and
Whatever Happened to You? by Highly Likely which turns out to have been the theme tune from Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads? Making it, surely, the best theme tune ever possessed by a British sitcom.
Should you wish to peruse the issue further, that week's UK singles chart may be found here.
While the corresponding LP chart resides right here.
And it happens because Hercules has his sights set on Hollywood. When his train to the capitol of cinema's stopped by the Hulk, there's only going to be one outcome. And that outcome involves knuckle sandwiches.
But, next, we get an oddity. As mentioned in last week's post, Daredevil's been banished from the pages of Marvel's flagship title. But what none of us was likely to have foreseen is that, for one week only, his strip's replaced by a tale called The Sub-Mariner Must Be Stopped! in which the Thing and Human Torch discover Namor is heading towards New York and decide to stop him.
And they do stop him. But that's when they're told he was heading for New York to take part in peace talks - and, by attacking him, the dynamic dunderheads have sunk the chances of those ever happening.
We finish this issue with The Micro-World of Doctor Doom! in which our heroes have been reduced to microscopic size and must now suffer the indignity of having to be rescued by Ant-Man.
And it's yet more trouble for the Human Torch, as he's kidnapped by Sandman and the Enforcers. And, now, only Spider-Man can save him.
Elsewhere, an evil scientist forces Don Blake to help him with a duplicating machine which then replicates Thor. Fortunately, it can't copy his enchanted hammer and thus is that villain undone.
And there's more.
But what is the more in question?
I don't have a clue but I do know that, according to the cover, we'll get, inside, a special message from Stan Lee!
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44 comments:
Stan's message in SMCW is only about how we're going to have two pages of letters rather than one in future. Feels like an anticlimax to me.
That was me just then. In the zeroth person.
Given the debate around the meaning of “Tie a yellow ribbon” being about a released convict or a soldier returning from war Charlie figured he would ask Ms. Charlie her opinion. After all she heard it a million times growing up too.
Her reply was impeccable. “Isn’t it about a soldier who got arrested and is being released and returning home? “
Charlie gives “Loving you is the right thing to do” the nod this month. Beautiful bridge.
Anyone else feel Hecules was uninteresting? I think he got a bump up with the Champions but even then he never really caught my imagination.
Charlie
Yeah, Hercules was boring. It figures he'd be in a super-team with the two dullest original X-Men (why the Black Widow and Ghost Rider hung around with that lot is beyond me).
Gawd, how long was 'Tie A Yellow Ribbon...' number one?
Forget about Wizzard, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and all that crap in those two charts, Steve. The big music news this week 50 years ago was the release of Hawkwind's awesome double live album 'Space Ritual'. It's got Michael Moorcock lyrics, Lemmy on bass, and a Barney Bubbles fold out sleeve!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ZVRzj7bkU
-sean
I have to agree with Sean about Space Ritual. How can you not love an album that lists the musicians thereon as "Musicnauts"? ( I've never used the word "thereon" before... I'll have to do that more often. )
Musicnauts, Simon... free festivals, 'I got an orgone accumulator', Stonehenge, the Pink Fairies, bongs for breakfast isn't it, hmmm?
-sean
I think Hawkwind were Neal from the Young Ones favourite band. I know time flowed slower back then, but Tie A Yellow Ribbon did seem to hang around for months. Probably because it was a safe play at the primary school disco. A bit like its predecessor Knock Three Times. Walk on the Wild Side is an obvious stand out, this week, but I was years away from being cool enough to enjoy it at the time. I read that Hercules Hulk clash in Treasury edition (#5) which remains fondly remembered. Given Hercules featured heavily in Thor's first Treasury edition (#3), he was a bit of a breakout star in the '100 pages for only 50p' milieu.
DW (who got up at 5am to watch West Ham)
Back in January and February I watched all the episodes of 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads' on YouTube so the theme-tune became an earworm!
Tomorrow's almost over
The day went by so fast
It's the only thing to look forward to...
The past
And on February 20th it was the 50th anniversary of the famous episode when Bob and Terry try to avoid hearing the result of a football match before they can watch it on TV. Apparently Ant & Dec re-created this episode in 2002 but thankfully I've never seen it (Ant & Dec were even guests at the coronation - they seem to get everywhere).
Steve, as usual your list of favourite chart hits omits some classics such as 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' originally by Richard Strauss and famously used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I agree that Hercules was boring and so were The Champions.
John Cleese says the coronation was "like a Monty Python sketch".
(Nothing to do with the subject but I thought I'd mention it).
Colin, I like the Deodato proto-disco version of “Thus Spake Zarathustra” too. I can also get behind “Hell Raiser” by The Sweet, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” by Alice Cooper and especially “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love” by the Detroit Spinners (or, as we call em here in the States, The Spinners).
Re: Hercules — never was a fan. Not even Stan and Jack’s version.
b.t.
Ah, the Spinners. I'm with ya there, b.t.
Check 'em out live on YouTube, if you haven't yet.
I love the suits, the moves, and I'm a sucker for any act with a horn section. They were slick!
M.P.
bt, the Spinners were called the Detroit Spinners in the UK to avoid confusion with a British folk group called the Spinners.
DW - congrats on West Ham’s victory. Lately Charlie has taken to watching youtube highlights for Champions League, Europa League and Formula 1 highlights since he is usually working or sleeping when these events are shown. I suspect you know the feeling LOL. Nice to see tour team seems to have avoided relegation as well! Have you got tix to the Women’s World Cup btw?
Ahhh yes… the famous Red and Blue Beatles albums. Wore them out! I also notice Paul has a top single. (Nice song. Not exactly a rocker. I think this is where his first incarnation of the band “Wings” quits on Paul because they tire of playing rock’s equivalent of “nursery rhymes” lol)
Rolling Stones, their so-called arch rivals, are no where to be seen on the charts???
John Lennon somehow ends up back on the Charts with Imagine two years later.
I must say the UK pop charts are always fascinating !
Charlie, never mind the Women's World Cup - tomorrow is the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. I seem to remember you were very interested in Eurovision last year but you haven't even mentioned the 2023 finals so far. Last year I predicted that the UK would come last or nearly last but we ended up coming 2nd so I'd better keep my crystal ball in the cupboard this time.
Anonymous (Charlie?) :
Don’t worry about Mick and the boys, they’ll have two pretty big hits later in the year — “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” and “Angie”.
b.t.
Who cares about the Rolling Stones, b.t., or the Beatles for that matter? It's not like Michael Moorcock ever wrote for them...
-sean
COLIN - oddly enough we had an invite to watch Euro-vision with a bunch of Belgiums this year. But I've sworn off French fries effective January 1 so we bagged the invite. Don't get me wrong, I love me a nice moule-frites but they only have the frites, no moules.
But me and the missus did watch a bunch of the contestants a few weeks ago on the youtube I think. IIRC, you guys have a pretty fair chance this year!
BT...
(Hope I don't sound pedantic, here.)
"Plus ca change, plus la meme chose..."
DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO is a true story of NY plain-clothes cops stopping a black father and son, thinking they are suspects in a crime. As the two run away, thinking they are about to be robbed, they shoot the 10 year old son in the back and kill him.
Of course the cop is acquitted and NY riots.
Glad we're beyond that now, in the usa.
Charles
OK... Charlie is thinking of getting HULK Omnibus #2.
Two cover choices:
The first is the famous STERANKO cover from Hulk King Size #1 with him bent over carrying the logo on his back. (And the shock of the interior art in comparison really hurt young Charlie.)
The second is from Hulk 134 "In the Shadow of The Golem." It's a lovely, classic Herb TRIMPE cover.
Which of the two would you guys prefer?
Charlie leans to the Trimpe as it is soooo emblematic of Hulk for those years.
STEVE!
I notice in the upper right hand corner you give us a link to a flashback review of IRON JAW 1.
Two questions:
1) DO you pick the flashback links or is that randomly done somehow?
2) That review is one of the finest I've ever read! I didn't realize Iron Jaw was such a... barbarian???!!! Good lord!!! What in the heck were the writers thinking? I almost think that deserves a full-blown repost as, looking at the names of those who commented, many are no longer here?
Charlie, Charles, Chuck, Chuckie
Charlie, the Featured Posts are carefully hand-chosen by me.
On the rare occasions when I remember to change them.
The Shadow of the Golem is a far superior tale to the Hulk vs Inhumans story. However, in terms of covers, I'd go for the Steranko one.
Dangermash, thanks for filling us in about the contents of that big Stan Lee announcement.
Sean and Cerebus, I must confess to being totally ignorant about Space Ritual.
Colin, I seem to remember Ant and Dec also recreating Tony Hancock's Blood Donor sketch. As the great man himself would have said, "Streuth."
The appeal of Ant & Dec baffles me. Surely I can't be the only who finds those two little shits really annoying?
-sean
Charlie, Steranko's famous image of the Hulk carrying the logo on his back was also used as a cover for Marvel UK's MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL comic in 1975 and that MWOM cover was available as a patch (via mail-order from Marvel UK) which could be sewn onto a T-shirt or whatever.
After rewatching with Ms. Charlie, Charlie predicts the UK’s “Instead I Wrote a Song” wins Eurovision tomorrow!
That said Finland’s “Cha Cha Cha” could pull an upset… maybe to “welcome” them to NATO? Admittedly it is a perfect song for a spin class or such with that beat!
I am happy that Finland has joined NATO, Charlie, as I'm sure you are (from one former member of NATO's serried ranks to another).
I read in an article that the Finns rank high on the happiness index, to wit, they are considered a happy country. Some of them beg to differ. It's dark and cold as shit a lotta the time.
Still, they maintain a stiff upper lip, and I respect that.
They have a word, "kalsarikanni", which, roughly translated, means "sitting at home alone in your underwear drinking beer."
I told that to my brother, and he said, "we call it Sunday."
M.P.
Why on earth would you be happy another country has joined NATO, M.P.?
Personally I find the current enthusiasm for international conflict depressing.
-sean
Charlie, Sweden is the favourite to win Eurovision (according to BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight).
NATO should have been disbanded at the end of the Cold War and if such an organisation was still considered necessary a new alliance could have been formed with Russia as a founding member. That would have stopped Russian nationalists like Putin claiming that NATO/The West intended to destroy Russia.
Sean, the UK's Eurovision entry is sung by Mae Muller who is apparently anti-Tory and pro-Corbyn so now you can wave your Union Jack and support the UK tonight ;)
Colin, this may come as a surprise, but I do not possess a Union Jack.
-sean
It’s light entertainment for people who worship the crappier bits of 70s and early 80s TV. They reckon they’re like Morecambe and Wise but they’re more like Les Dennis and Dustin Gee.
Huh??? Sweden??? Well the Swede does have the longest finger nails of all, from
What I’ve seen, so….
Charlie
So Radio 4 was correct and Sweden won Eurovision which means next year's contest will be held in Sweden on the 50th anniversary of ABBA's Eurovision victory. Sweden now ties with Ireland for most Eurovision wins (7) and Sweden's Loreen equals Ireland's Johnny Logan in winning Eurovision twice. The UK came second from bottom so last year's 2nd place was obviously an abberation and normal service has been resumed!
Thats Eurovision for you, Charlie - won by a Swedish woman who was basically a Scandinavian Kate Bush crossed with Wolverine. I don't get the appeal at all.
-sean
Colin, never mind. At least le Royaume-Uni didn't get nul points.
-sean
Sean - funny you mentioned Kate Bush. I felt the vibe too. Whatevs… id rather listen to the UK song out of all of them… you guys were robbed imho.
Charlie.
Sean, nobody gets nul points anymore because French has been dropped from Eurovision!
Colin, I disagree. Putin sees Ukraine as being historically part of Russia, and he means to reclaim it, treaties be damned.
There's some truth to his view, the nation of Russia had its beginnings in Kiev, and the center of political power only shifted to Moscow after the Mongol Horde flattened the place.
But this was 800 years ago for chrissakes, and Ukraine is an independent country now. Where the hell were my ancestors in the 1200's? I dunno. I doubt I have any claim on property in Silesia.
I may be biased because I was a soldier in Germany, but I believe that NATO won the Cold War.
That was a good thing.
At the time, I figured all our problems were over.
Not so much.
But I believe, naively perhaps, that NATO is necessary.
There are no depths to which the current regime in Russia will not sink. And these autocratic ideas have spread, even here.
M.P.
'NATO won the cold war' - thats the problem M.P. You think the cold war was something to win rather than bring to an end.
-sean
I think many Americans thought they had "won" the Cold War and became increasingly angry and bitter that the imagined benefits of winning never materialised (and the same thing is happening in the UK with Brexit).
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