There was plenty more to choose from in a Columbia House ad from the March 29, 1981 Parade section of the Tennessean, but these will do nicely for a Monday Music post. It's a very mellow batch when Billy Joel is the hardest rocking of the bunch. Still, I have fond memories of hearing tunes from these artists when I was in junior high school. Make sure you're viewing the web version of this blog and enjoy some embedded videos.
Busy, busy, busy. It seems like the more I stay at home for work the busier I am. Then there is my YouTube channel where I am posting an original song each week this year. The sloppiness of the performances may not show it, but I do actually rehearse the songs. My son's sophomore year season on his high school soccer team began this last week so I'll be going to many of the games, unlike last year when the season was cancelled after just a couple of pre-season ones. That's why you're not seeing many posts so far this year. But never fret, I've got some ideas percolating through my noggin. Perhaps I will finally make good on the story of my senior year of high school which happened so many years ago now.
Today's topic is just some random memories. Spring is here and I thought I'd walk to my mailbox barefooted. Ouch!! I used to run around barefooted all the time when I was pre-school age and on into my pre-teen years. It was nothing. The only thing that ever bothered me was when the parking lot asphalt got really hot and if you could survive that you got a wonderful cool payoff once you entered the department store, which for me was most likely either Big K or Clarks. It was a rare occasion if I got to go to Roses and if we were going all the way out there my mother would have made me wear shoes. The "no shirt, no shoes, no service" era had begun, but store's didn't seem to care if children were barefooted. Once I reached my teens it was flip-flops in the spring and summer.
The department stores mentioned are long gone from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, but loom large in my mind. When I was just 4 or so my parents would just turn me loose in the toy departments when they shopped. It was probably only for a quarter of an hour or less, but it seemed like forever. There was the one time in Clarks when I had played with the toys long enough that at first I got bored, but then grew terrified that my father had forgotten me so I started crying and a person stocking the shelves took me to the manager's office which was up this big flight of stairs while they paged my father. I would sometimes go back and glance up those long stairs when I was older (say 10 instead of 4) and wonder how I could have been so scared.
My father, nor my mother, would ever have forgotten me. I'm an only child and while we too poor for me to be spoiled with material things, I suppose I was spoiled by their love. Now that both of my parents have left this world I think about them often. I'll be driving down the road and suddenly I'll think about my father. It won't be some Hallmark card event either. I'll think about riding down the highway in a blue Ford Ranger he owned. I'd have my head out the window and he'd tell me to get my head back in the vehicle. Then I think about how interesting he was in his inimitable grouchy way. He'd served twice in the U.S. Army. He'd got out after being drafted and then re-enlisted to serve in Vietnam circa 1965-67. He went to the vocational school in Shelbyville where he learned to weld and lay bricks. He worked at the Nashville Bridge Company for several years before trying to make a go as an independent bricklayer doing contract work. He worked at Clark & Iron Metal when I was around 4 and then went back to them when I was a senior in high school. He managed the country singer Jimmy C. Newman's ranch during most of high school days.
My mother, on the other hand, bounced around at a few places when I was small, but ended up working 30 something years at Greer Stop-Nut Smyrna which made stop nuts primarily for the airplane industry. I still remember the smell of the place from the times I waited for her to get off work as I sat in the small cafeteria area and also the smell of the industrial grease on her clothes. I know she ran tapping machines, but there was probably more to it than that. Factory work is not for everyone, but the company was good to her.
It's time, once again, to run a somewhat frequent feature at this blog called Monday Music. I share a bunch of music videos and if you make sure you're looking at the web version you can enjoy the videos too. I might one day make all of these posts into a playlist, but for now I like it this way.
First up is Canadian AOR band Haywire with a superbly 80's video for "Standing In Line." I would have thumbed my nose in disdain for this back in the 80's, but I love this stuff now.
Haywire
Lest you think I've gone down the AOR path completely, here is some relatively recent music that I love. Lindsey Jordan of Snail Mail is great.
Snail Mail
This Shins video encapsulated quite a bit of the musical artists I loved from the independent scene so I took notice. It helped that the song was great.
The Shins
"Forever Young" is an awesome tune made even more awesome with this cover by Australia's Youth Group. The video is perfect.
Youth Group
The Breeders with a hypnotic tune and the video is an homage to Black Sabbath. Can't beat that.
The Breeders
There are often times when Pulp is my favorite of the Brit-pop bands of the 90's. This is one of those times. I think my friend D.D. Blank loves this tune because of all of the "yeah, yeah, yeahs."
Pulp - Babies
I do believe this is a copacetic Monday Music.
Local H
Bonus, in case you want to compare Black Sabbath to the Breeders.
I was actually a game show junkie for all of my childhood, but "I Was a Teenage Game Show Junkie" sounds much better. I believe if you ask almost any person from Generation X about what they did when they stayed home from school because of being sick the subject of watching game shows will come up. It is a cherished memory for us. If you really felt bad or were just faking it there was much comfort in laying on a couch under a blanket with something to drink and snack on close at hand (probably just crackers or toast if your stomach was upset) while Bob Barker, Richard Dawson, Gene Rayburn, and other greats beamed out from your television. I'm not going to get into much detail on game play, but you can click on the links to IMDB if you want to learn more. There are lots of full length episodes of these game shows on YouTube too. As always, if you want to see the embedded videos you need to be viewing the web version of this page. So here's my list of my favorite game shows growing up circa 1970-1986 along with honorable mentions which is where we begin.
Honorable Mentions
These are all game shows that I enjoyed or found interesting that didn't make my Top Ten. If one of them is your favorite let me know in the comments.
Tattetales hosted by Bert Convy. The first version that ran from 1974 - 1978 is the one I remember fondly. I just loved that the celebrity couples would have one person in an isolation booth and then would appear in a box.
Tattletales closing credits 1975
Concentration hosted by Jack Narz. I believe this version ran from 1973 - 1978. It definitely ran at 6PM on my local ABC station in 1976. I would stay at a babysitter's house every weeknight until my mother picked me up around midnight and the old widow lady, Mrs. Green, who kept me usually only tuned her station to channel 4 WSM which was the NBC affiliate. She made an exception for The Waltons on CBS and for Concentration on ABC. She would also let me watch the Donny and Marie Show.
Concentration intro 1974
Tic Tac Dough hosted by Wink Martindale. I guess this was technically called The New Tic Tac Dough, but it ran after the local news for many years. Wink was a great host and it was cool that he was originally from Tennessee. My father and I enjoyed this very simple game. Watch out for that dragon! Thom McKee sure did winning $312,700 in money and prizes.
The Magnificent Marble Machine hosted by Art James. This short lived game show had a giant pinball machine. I love pinball. If the show had lasted more than a season it would have been in the top ten.
The Magnificent Marble Machine opening
Now on to my Top Ten game shows I loved from 1970-1986.
10. High Rollers hosted by Alex Trebek. The late, great Alex Trebek was already super cool in my book when he hosted this awesome show which used giant dice. The tagline was tantalizing, "every decision is a gamble and every move can be your last." You give me any show which used supersized props and I was probably going to watch it back then.
High Rollers opening July 4, 1975
9. To Tell The Truth hosted by Garry Moore. This show ran for the longest time in the 6:30PM Central slot on our local CBS affiliate channel 5 WLAC later to be WTVF. When I was really young I didn't enjoy that my father would always watch the show. I didn't realize it was a game. I figured it out around the age of 6 or 7 though and I would try to guess who was telling the truth too. It was always a blast if I figured it out and my father couldn't. If I was judging by what I like today this very well would probably make the top 3, but I've devised this list to reflect my tastes during my younger days.
8. The Joker's Wild hosted by Jack Barry. Giant slot machine with devils. Need I say more? I loved this show that always seemed to bounce around our local television schedules. I so wanted to pull the lever and answer the very easy questions offered. I was cognizant at an early age that game shows had once been pulled from television due to a fixing scandal which made me wonder about this show. Was the giant slot machine on the up and up? I'm sure it was, but my young mind wasn't convinced.
Knowledge is king and Lady Luck is queen.
7. Family Feud hosted by Richard Dawson. Dawson was one of the most popular panelists on CBS's Match Game so ABC selected him to be host of the Feud. The show got off to a slow start, but soon became the most popular game show on daytime television. I know my mother and I loved it during the first few years. The game play became very formulaic and I know I became a little bummed that it didn't really matter how well each team did for the first few questions. What mattered was when the money values were tripled later on. Dawson's constant kissing of each lady contestant was a little strange too. The best part of the game was the last part where 2 family members competed for the big money. "Survey says!"
Richard Dawson laughing
6. Sale of the Century hosted by Jim Perry. This version of the show was a huge favorite of mine during high school. I liked the fast pace, the fact that the questions weren't super easy, and that the contestant had to make a decision to take their money, perhaps spend some of it on prizes, or go for everything.
Clip from Sale of the Century 1984
5. The Price is Right hosted by Bob Barker. Really, you can jumble this amazing show in with the next 2 shows as I like them all just about the same. I remember when the show was only a half hour and then when it went to an hour. The best thing about this show is that you could play along from your home and it felt so great when you'd do a better job than the contestants. There was also the variety of the games and the famous exhortation from announcer Johnny Olson to "Come on down!" Bob Barker and his beauties will be in reruns forever.
A new car!
4. The Newlywed Game hosted by Bob Eubanks. I remember my mother watching this one in the early 70's and I thought it was funny when the couples would bicker. I didn't really get the sly humor or what "making whoopee" meant, but it was a cool show. I liked the layout and set design....are those the same thing? Then when it came back later on in the decade I understood the humor and enjoyed it even more. Eubanks, for me, was unflappable and the key component of the show.
Some funny moments from The Newlywed Game
3. The $10,000 Pyramid hosted by Dick Clark. This word guessing game was a blast and it was one my mother and I always watched when she was working nights and I was out of school. It was very interesting to see which celebrity was good at the game. Dick Clark was brilliant too. All of these top 5's on my list owed much of their success to their hosts. It was also neat to see the prize money go up ever so often and the name of the show reflected that change.
1975 $10,000 Pyramid opening
2. Jeopardy! hosted by Alex Trebek. This reboot in 1984 could not have come at a better time for me. I was starting my senior year of high school and a couple of teachers decided to sponsor a quiz bowl team. I decided to try my luck and I made the team. I think everyone made the team. Our yearbook photo has about 30 people in it, but only 10 or so of us stuck with it and went to all of the meets. I loved it since I was a trivia mad person. The revived Jeopardy! came on right after school let out too so it was perfect to help hone my trivia skills. I would get a piece of notebook paper and keep up a running tab of the answers I got right before the contestants and I always wrote out my final jeopardy answer too. I did the online test for Jeopardy! many times over the years, but I never got the call so either I wasn't that smart or it could be that, even I if had aced the test, my name didn't get randomly pulled. I would have loved to have met Alex Trebek just so I could ask him about his High Rollers days.
Incorrect answers
1. Match Game hosted by Gene Rayburn. It's true that I didn't get the double entendre of many of the answers when I was younger nor did I realize that the celebrity panel was often well into many alcoholic drinks by the time the Thursday and Friday shows aired (a week's worth of shows was shot in a day with 3 of them filmed after a lunch break so they got looser and looser as they drank), but I still loved the antics of the cast members, especially Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers, and I also really dug Gene Rayburn who seemed like he would make a cool older uncle. I later got to understand the humor and that made the show even more hilarious for me as I watched it while eating an after school snack of Coke and a honeybun. I thought it was super cool that the year was used in the title and it was neat when it changed. I still love watching old reruns of this show. It was irreverent and probably quite offensive to the sensibilities of today, but to me it's still the best.
