Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Change was notable by its absence at the summit of the UK hit parades, this week in 1973. Gary Glitter was still bossing things on the singles chart, thanks to I'm the Leader of The Gang (I Am!) while Various Artists' That'll Be the Day remained top of the heap on the LP listings.
Clearly, subsequent events mean I can't approve of that Number One single but tracks I do approve of on that chart are:
Life On Mars - David Bowie
Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting - Elton John
Skweeze Me Pleeze Me - Slade
Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney and Wings
Albatross {1973} - Fleetwood Mac
Rubber Bullets - 10CC.
Can the Can - Suzi Quatro
and
See My Baby Jive - Wizzard.
Interesting to see ex-ELO founder Roy Wood on that chart twice, both as himself and as frontman of Wizzard. For that matter, Suzi Quatro too had more than one 45 on it.
Also interesting to see Mungo Jerry at Number Three, with a song that isn't that song.
Not that I know what this song is, as I don't recall ever having heard it in my entire life. Wikipedia tells me the band had two UK Number Ones - and two other singles that made the Top 5; which is a shock, as I think I've only ever heard one Mungo Jerry track, ever, anywhere.
Unless I miss my ever-loving guess, the Hulk's still in Asgard and still at war with its many and myriad warriors.
It's bad news all around, with Aunt May on the brink of death, thanks to radioactivity in her system. While, wouldn't you know it, Dr Octopus has stolen the isotope needed to create the serum that will save her life.
Should you wish to study matters further, that week's singles chart can be found here.
While its parallel album chart resides right here.
We kick off with Bruce Banner plunging into a bottomless pit and climax with the Hulk foiling the Enchantress' plans by helping win a battle with trolls. Odin, meanwhile, acts like the dolt we all know him to be.
And knock me down with a feather if it's not the first appearance of Marvel's latest sensational new villain Adolf Hitler the Hate-Monger.
I do believe this story may also contain the first appearance of Nick Fury in the "modern" world, as the sergeant-turned-CIA-colonel recruits the Fantastic Four to visit some country or other and thwart the schemes of the rabble-rousing rascal before he can spread his mischief to the United States.
I do believe the radioactivity got there due to a blood transfusion from Peter.
I suppose it does pose the obvious question of why she doesn't now have spider-powers too.
Elsewhere, Thor's still battling the Grey Gargoyle and his touch of stone.
But that's not all. If the cover's to be believed, Marvel's gone mad - with yet another great competition inside!
Posts
56 comments:
Wasn't the Hatemonger in that strange, one-off, Tom Palmer-inked Nova story, in which Nova survived a close range, direct hit from Thor's hammer, at full force? (In Rampage Weekly.) I think that was the first time I mentally classified a story as non-canon, it being impossible to be true. Incidentally, the Enchantress & the Executioner were also in Rampage Weekly, only a few issues before Nova's Hatemonger story. Sorry - disregard everything I've written about Nova's villain.I've just checked - he was the Corruptor, not the Hatemonger!But, nevertheless, he transformed Thor into one hate-filled guy!
Phillip
Nick Fury's first modern appearance but missing the eyepatch if I remember correctly
Moving up the charts that week are two more hits that I dig — “Yesterday Once More” by The Carpenters at #5 and “All Right Now” by Free at #15. In the opposite direction, “Pillow Talk” by Sylvia falling to #17.
b.t.
b.t. - I know this is a bit off target, but if you like The Carpenters, Radio 4 did an in depth look at 'We've Only Just Begun', in its series, 'Soul Music':
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000y0jk
Phillip
You didn't approve of this week's new entry in the singles chart, 'Urban Guerilla' by Hawkwind, Steve? Neither did the BBC, who refused to play it because of incidents like the bombing of the Old Bailey some months earlier.
And yet apparently a song going "load up, load up with rubber bullets" was fine, even though at the time baton rounds were regularly being used by the army against part of the population in a certain contested region of the UK...
Iirc, Nick Fury recruited the FF to help out in the South American republic of San Gusto, because of course the CIA couldn't interfere in another nation's affairs (yeah, right).
-sean
That album chart is a bit boring, as we might expect of mid 1973. On the plus side though, German space cadets Can released their timeless 'Future Days' lp this week.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQxMB4Wk_y8
Also, the even hairier Allman Brothers put out 'Brothers and Sisters'. Not my cup of moonshine particularly, but I thought some round these parts might possibly be interested...
-sean
Bowie's Sinatra tribute 'Life on Mars?' seems an odd release given it was from the album before the album before the current one. However, as its one of the greats and ended up at number 2, and what would I know.
This week's MWOM reprints Hulk $102, being the first post Tales to Astonish issue, and so the previous two Hulk weekly stories now become one 'book length' (as Stan used to say) tale in each issue of MWOM. This week's compare and contrast reveals a recap panel showing Hulk v Thor was replaced by Hulk v Thing (Buscema's cover to FF #112 of all things) and another showing Hulk v Silver Surfer has the Surfer redrawn as Namour. Other than those, it was complete. With hindsight, Marvel Uk sure did love a bit of letratone.
DW
#102 not $102. It was only 15c I believe...
Next Tuesday (Aug 15th) marks the 50th anniversary of the classic sitcom 'Man About The House' (for our American friends, it was adapted as 'Three's Company' in the US). It's 50 years since we first met Robin, Chrissy, Jo and George & Mildred Roper.
GEORGE!!
y-y-yes, Mildred?
And Brian Murphy (aka George Roper) is still alive aged nearly 91.
Steve, you omitted 'Ying Tong Song' by The Goons from your list. It's a classic!
Charlie(?) - in answer to your previous comment, I think Conan probably washed his furry loincloth (or got a scantily-clad wench to wash it) before first wearing it.
He wasn't a barbarian, y'know!
Steve, it's interesting that you can't approve of the Gary Glitter song due to "subsequent events" which raises the old question of whether we should condemn the art if we disapprove of the artist. Richard Wagner was a notorious anti-semite and Hitler's favourite composer but nowadays his music gets performed even in Israel - and the annual Bayreuth Festival in Germany is dedicated solely to Wagner's music. I'm not suggesting we should start an annual Gary Glitter festival but I still like 'Another Rock 'N' Roll Christmas' whatever anyone says!
Yes, not the most memorable month musically 'over here' either. But Colin , you nailed it- "Ying Tong Song"! That actually charted? Wow. I remember hearing that played on Dr. Demento's radio show in my demented youth. Haven't heard it in decades, but can still remember that unforgettable chorus...
DW, despite Bowie's 'Life On Mars?' being from the album before the album before the current one, it actually sounds like it could easily have been from any of them. It would have fit right in on 'Ziggy Stardust', which itself wasn't so different from 'Aladdin Sane'. And the track 'Space Oddity' from the earlier second album - which was number one a couple of years later in '75 - sounds of a piece with all of them too.
The funny thing is though, the perception at the time was that those albums were all quite different...
-sean
Hey teacher! Sean's picking on me again!
As an aside, but nome the less deserved of being chatted about on a site that covers those special UK sports such as bog diving, hedge laying, conkers and snookers… you gents watxhing your Lionesses play Columbia tomorrow? 11.30 AM your time! Charlie will do his bit here from Chicago!
P.S. Inguess your King Charles is really into hedge laying competition?
Charlie
I went to the England Nigeria game last Monday. What it lacked in quality it made up with tension. Tomorrow night we have the Sheilaroos v France, England v Colombia and then West Ham v about mouth. What a time to be alive!
DW
Bournemouth
Not sure what happened there…
Apologies for noticing the Allmans had an album out this week 50 years ago and thinking it might be of interest here, dangermash.
I promise I won't do anything like that again in future.
-sean
I've just remembered a connection between 'Man About The House' and The Goons. The 1974 film version of MATH featured a cameo appearance by Spike Milligan playing himself.
Do any UK readers have an opinion about the collapse of the Wilko chain? My local Wilko store closed last year but I bought loads of useful stuff in there over the years.
I went Wilko shopping, this morning, looking for bargains. But no big reductions yet. It's the cheapest for certain stationery items - even compared with Tesco. without Wilko, a longer trip to out-of-town retail parks will be necessary. I will miss it, even though I only use Wilko from time to time.
Phillip
Redartz, I don't know why 'Ying Tong Song' charted in 1973 when The Goons had ended in 1960.
No probs Sean. I'll be putting on some Allmans when I get back from my walk and finally get started on some artwork.
The morning was written off by me catching up on the first three episodes of Milf Manor. Just when you think satellite TV has run out of ideas and has no more surprises throw your way…
Phillip, my local Wilko opened in November 1999 with much fanfare (lots of balloons as I recall) but you could tell trouble was brewing in the last couple of years when the store's first floor was abandoned and everything was crammed into the ground floor. The writing seemed to be on the wall so I wasn't all that surprised when the store closed in the spring of last year.
Wilko was especially good for paint with a wide selection of colours.
Sean! The truth is the Allman Brothers, were a sort of obscure band. I think their biggest, incremental leap in fame came from Cher marrying one of the Allman brothers. Honestly, one would need to be a 70 old now to probably have been of an age to have heard their music in that era when we were having mind-boggling conversations about which format was better: a tracks or cassettes, lol
That said, when I first started indulging in weed in high school, with my friends, who as I said, before, had the faint odor of gasoline, cigarettes, and felonies about them, we would put on side one of that double life Allman Brothers album called, “eat a peach”, which referenced one of them, or was it, Dickie Betts, getting run over by a truck carrying peaches.
But I would Hazard, I guess that, for every 10 people my age, basically 60 years old, you would be lucky to find one of the 10 who would ever heard an Allman Brothers album.
As you can imagine, as big as the United States is, groups, like Bruce Springsteen, or the Allman Brothers will have larger original followings without really being top 10 nationwide. I remember getting the collagen the east and west coast guys raving about Bruce Springsteen or else as midwesterners, we’re only generally aware of him, but weren’t you folks telling me that there was a regional popularity of disco or something like that up in Newcastle? Or perhaps up in Scotland?
Northern Soul, Charlie! Not that far north, though!
Phillip
I thought the Allmans were fairly big in the US, in a vaguely Grateful Dead kinda way - apparently the world record for the largest festival of the 60s and 70s was held by Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, when over 600,000 people turned up to see both of them in July '73.
Its curious how that Deadhead thing was actually quite similar to the Northern Soul scene, in the sense of being outside the mainstream but huge at the same time, and having its own distinct lifestyle.
-sean
I only know Greg Allman from Family Guy, when Peter Griffin was talking to his Allman brothers poster.
Phillip
Well, it is 'Southern Rock', Phillip.
-sean
You know... The world is a funny place.
I look at Steve's link to album charts 50 years ago and it is packed with "Best of...". Bowie, Glitter, Beatles, and Pink Floyd each have two albums on that list.
After a little googling, Allman Brothers did have a top-10 hit with "Ramblin Man." I'd totally forgotten about that.
But you know you got this thing going on now with FM and AM radio at that time. I dont know what they were playing on FM, since I was only 12 and listening "the Big 89 WLS" in Chicago which was pop hits. But Allman Brothers, Bowie, Glitter, and Floyd really were not on the AM rotation.
And then you get to FM. They probably were wearing out Dark Side of the Moon, etc. (not Gary Glitter though) and not touching the AM pop charts stuff. Once I started hitting the hooch and smoking the week, I was listening to FM.
Except for the Beatles who were enjoyed by one and all throughout this great universe on both AM and FM!
I learned something new yesterday.
Every water molecule we drink and every oxygen molecule we breathe, came from outer space.
Boy, Charlie feels dumb. I thought that stuff was created here on earth!
No wonder I feel one with the universe today!
Wow...
I'd a thunk that Nazareth's "Now you're messing with a son of a Bitch" (aka Hair of the Dog) was on that Razamanaz album that shows up in the Album Charts in 1973!
That was actually released in 1975.
Anyone else out there enjoy a bit of Nazareth?
Jesus did.
Charles, you asked if any here were fans of Nazareth. (the band, not the village)
Here I stand. Or rather type.
Saw 'em once live back in Germany in '89 or so.
Hair of the Dog (a pun on heir of the dog, son of a bitch, get it) was from the eponymous '75 album. My older sister had the 8-track tape in the late '70's, and thus began my journey.
That was some hard-ass stuff for back then, it had balls; even the album covers seemed ominous.
It was a good show by the way.
M.P.
MP I am truly impressed with your gusto! I saw Prince in Stuttgart in 86 and Michael Jackson in Wurzburg in 88. They were not nearly as hard as Nazareth that’s for certain. Nice thing about the Army, eh??? Go to far away lands, meet nice people, watch concerts!
Yeah! I know what you mean. Me and some buddies saw the Stones in Stuttgart, but we were in the cheap seats at the far end of the stadium and the band just looked like fleas jumping around. Still, it was worth it. Drunk-ass road trip, basically.
Where did we get the stamina? Thinking about it makes me tired now.
M.P.
Hey, apropos of nothing, but is anybody else keen on seeing this new Dracula movie? The Last Voyage of the Demeter?
There's still enough of a little kid in me to wanna see a good monster movie. At this point, I think I need it. And although we all know how it turns out, because we've all read the novel (c'mon, don't tell me nobody else has read it) I am intrigued.
It looks like some kinda Nosferatu-type Dracula.
That's the most horrible kind.
M.P.
MP, that new Dracula film does look intriguing. I remember the 2020 BBC Dracula mini-series had a whole episode devoted to the ship but, judging by the trailer, this seems to have far more of an Alien/Predator vibe than that did.
Charlie, every single thing in the universe, including every atom of your body, every chemical, every mineral, every element and every iota of energy in it came from outer space. As far as we know, everything in the universe originated with the Big Bang, which means every single component in you originated in space with the Big Bang. Basically, you're as old as the universe.
Colin and Phillip, it's a genuine shame that Wilko is closing down. Especially as it always felt like the spiritual heir to Woolworths. Unfortunately, the area of Sheffield that hosts the local branch of Wilko is increasingly derelict and abandoned and this is only going to accelerate that decline.
As for the Goons, even though the show had ended long before, I'm fairly certain it was still being broadcast regularly on Radio 4. So, it still had public exposure.
Charlie and DW, sadly, I managed to miss the last England game. I gather it was quite the nail-biter.
Sean, I've never even heard of Urban Guerilla. The Hawkwind oeuvre has, for the most part, totally bypassed me.
Gents! Who’s warching England v Colombia??? It’s a nail biter!!! And if one of you says you are but switching to Arsenal v Nottingham… well that’s just crazy talk!
Charlez
By a weird coincidence there's a play called 'The Voyage Of The Demeter' on BBC Radio 4-Extra at 4pm this afternoon. I'll be listening to that.
And at 8pm tonight on Radio 4 there's a documentary about Madonna's career to celebrate her 65th birthday next week. I'll be listening to that too.
As if men's football wasn't bad enough now we have women's football ffs. Is it taken seriously though? Really?
Not sure I could even take an Allman Sisters Band seriously Colin.
Gee whiz - of course women’s soccer is being taken seriously now. At least in the United States and the westernize countries it is.
Evidence of this is the early departure of the United States from the tournament. The other countries are catching up rapidly, and essentially now have surpassed the United States because your countries have a soccer culture and ours doesn’t.
Steve - Charlie gets the “big bang.” Indeed his parents often spoke of the big bang at Niagara Falls during their honeymoon that led to Charlie!
But actually Charlie was not aware that all water molecules arrived to the earth from outer space. He had always assumed they were created here on earth. And indeed, numerous molecules, both organic and inorganic, are created here on earth.
To be fair dangermash, its hard to take the Allman Brothers seriously too.
Sorry, but I couldn't resist (come on, you walked into that one).
-sean
Steve, if the Hawkwind oeuvre passed you by I can only assume you didn't read enough Michael Moorcock books or smoke any bongs as a youngster. At this point I'm not sure what can be done about that really.
-sean
Colin, Women's (International) football is of an excellent standard now and plays to packed stadiums so yeah it's taken seriously . I've enjoyed what games I've seen so far.
I liked Nazareths singles in the ear?y 1970s but never heard a y of their albums. Sad?y, Dan McCafferty the lead singer passed away lastvyear.
Come on, Paul, women playing football is clearly political correctness gone mad. So what if the games are good? Thats actually why the FA banned women from playing back in 1921, because they were attracting bigger crowds than the boys. But think it through - if women are out doing stuff and being taken seriously, who's going to cook my (or your) dinner?
Obviously thats a problem that goes beyond just football. It was a mistake giving them the vote imo.
-sean
The women's world cup is just another festival of bread-and-circuses jingoism.
Cheer on the "Lionesses" and ignore how crap everything is.
If nothing else, Nazareth had the best album covers. Scary, even, at least to a goofy kid like me.
Older kids in town sometimes had the records or the 8-tracks.
Anybody remember Expect no Mercy? That was Franzetta, I believe.
Of course, the cover of Queen's News of the World with the big killer robot scared the crap outta any little kid that saw it. Including my brother (snort)!
That even happened to Stewie in an episode of Family Guy.
"News of the world?! We're all in big $@#&ing trouble, that's what the news is!!"
M.P.
Keep on rockin' in the free world, M.P. \m/
Colin, its quite possible to enjoy a game of football without ignoring how crap everything is (although personally I don't see the harm in a bit of escapism for 90 minutes here and there).
And anyway, some of us like to see England lose (;
-sean
Sean what can I say when your right your right. :)
I’ve enjoyed it so far and the Australian press are taking it very seriously. The England China game drew a live tv audience of 59 million in China alone and so I think we can agree it’s not Mickey Mouse. The Aussie games have also broken local sporting viewing figures because everyone loves a winner. It was a shame the Irish lost 3 from 3. No, really đŸ˜‰
DW
Post a Comment