Sunday Showcase Review August 25, 1974

I was 7 years old going on 8 in 1974 and Evel Knievel was definitely a boyhood hero for the majority of my Generation X peers. I would have loved to have gotten a ticket to the Snake River Canyon jump which was going to be broadcast on big screen closed circuit TV at Municipal Auditorium on September 8, but I would have to wait like millions more and see it later when ABC's Wide World of Sports showed it. 42 years later Hollywood stuntman, Eddie Braun, would make the jump successfully.

Evel

42 years later

Esther Phillips was coming to the Exit/In

Kudu recording artist Esther Phillip would be playing Exit/In, but notice the blurb at the bottom of the ad: Aug. 25 Special Evening of Music & Entertainment by the cast of Robert Altman's Movie "Nashville." The Altman classic with its massive cast along with hundreds of local extras was being filmed. You could have seen Keith Carradine at the Exit/In back when it was truly a listening room. Then on August 30th you could have gone to the Parthenon as the final concert scene was being shot. "You can be in the movie." 

Keith Carradine "I'm Easy"

Nashville closing scenes SPOILER WARNING Y'ALL

Nashville trailer

The Tennessee State Fair was coming in a few weeks and three music heavyweights had been booked with Mac Davis, Black Oak Arkansas, and Lynyrd Skynyrd coming to play at the Speedway Grandstand. Who would you have seen if you could only see one? 

I can't take no clinging vine

I went to Cal Jam and got hit in the head with a Black Oak Arkansas visor

along comes a Yankee slicker

Wednesday night would be a funktastic trip with Rufus, The Ohio Players, and the mighty Sly & The Family Stone. Sly wasn't the most reliable performer by this point so I wonder if he was on or not on this weeknight show. I hope he was awesome on that particular evening. Sly is an absolute creative giant. 

tell me something good was a top 10 Nashville tune this week

the way you walk and talk really sets me off

Sly live in 1974

Don Sumner, Sean Nielsen, and Tim Beatty were the main guys in Voice which was the legit show band for Elvis. They played at the Villa often. The Tennessean had a nice write up on them a few years ago.

We end this review with a look at the Top 10 Records. Olivia Newton-John honestly loves you and Rufus wants us tell Chaka Khan something good. Donny and Marie left it all up to Eric Clapton to shoot the sheriff. My favorites as a 7 year old going on 8 was "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy, Don't Be A Hero."  

don't be a fool with your life

a man named Al Capone