Since we're off to check out The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea at the Cinema_One on October 16, 1976 let's go get some seafood first at Long John Silver's. If fish isn't your thing, they've got chicken planks for $1.69. It was always a big treat to get food from Long John Silver's when I was a youngster. I miss the Cape Cod style of the buildings which they abandoned in the 90's.
Kris Kristofferson went from being a floor sweeper at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville (also worked at the restaurant that became rock club Cantrell's) to a renowned songwriter, then singer, and finally a massive movie star in about 12 years. Sarah Miles plays a widowed mother who ends up falling for Kristofferson's character, Jim Cameron, who is the sailor. The son of the mother doesn't like this development so he plots revenge in this mystery/thriller/love story which features beautiful scenery.
Television showing promo
Bo Svenson and Cybill Shepherd star in Special Delivery which is playing at the Martin Twin. I have never seen this movie, but the the trailer looks like it would be fun. It's about a bank robber hiding the money in a mailbox. Unfortunately for the bank robber others saw him stash it there.
Two hot young stars make the sparks fly
Before we check out the other movie playing at the Martin Twin let's go up the road apiece and see what's on the big screen at the Marbro Drive-In. The ad promises us shock after shock. Blood From The Mummy's Tomb is a 1971 Hammer film so you know it will be pretty good. Valerie Leon sparkles as Margaret who gets possessed by the spirit of Tera thanks to a ring with a red stone. Blood and Lace is the other horror film guaranteed to shock you. This American International Pictures film, which was also released originally in 1971, features Gloria Grahame as the sadistic Mrs. Deere who runs an orphanage where she tortures children. The movie also features a hammer wielding killer.
Blood From The Mummy's Tomb Shout Factory trailer
How many faces does terror wear?
We end this week's Film Flashback by going back to the Martin Twin to see the Volunteer Jam movie which starred, who else, the Charlie Daniels Band. It is billed as "The first full length Southern Rock motion picture," Note: it was filmed in Murfreesboro at Murphy Center. I could not find a trailer, but there is a purported playlist of the movie on YouTube. The playlist seems to be a mixture of various Volunteer Jam performances including some from 1978 so I think that's a fail for the playlist. The "Long Haired Country Boy" performance, however, is definitely from the movie so check it out below. RIP to Charlie Daniels. He was a bonafide musical legend who always made me feel good about being from Tennessee.
I get stoned in the morning, I get drunk in the afternoon
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It's time once again to dive into the past and see what was shaking in an old Sunday Showcase. Hart To Hart was coming to TV and Mac Davis was promoting North Dallas Forty on the August 5-11 cover. What sort of goodies can I find inside this week's edition?
KDF and Sound Seventy in association with Service Merchandise were presenting another One For The Sun at Hermitage Landing. It was later in the summer than the one's I remember from the Eighties and the line-up wasn't as large or well known, but from little seeds big plants grow.
You could park for 50 cents in the Cain Sloan parking lot and see the concerts held at the Tennessee Theater. Your upcoming choices were folk and soul acts. The wild & crazy toga party night sounds like fun since you'd get a free beer if you wore your toga.
The Hee Haw honeys were promoting good dental hygiene by helping to celebrate National Smile Week. Hee Haw was a staple of my house growing up and by 1979 at the age of 12 I was beginning to pay much more attention when Misty Rowe was on the screen.
Sonny Bono was the big guest star on The Love Boat on this weekend. It was a rerun since it was the dead of the summer, but Bono's character Deacon Dark was a pretty hilarious take off on Kiss.
SMASH IT!
Speaking of Kiss, they were coming to play a sold out show at Municipal Auditorium on August 14th. They were at their peak Seventies popularity with "I Was Made For Lovin' You" becoming their second gold single. You could purchase your Kiss clothes at Castner Knott and maybe even get to meet the band in person if you won their contest. I wanted to see the show, but I was still too young according to my parents. I did get a blue pair of Kiss shorts though.
Paul hits the wrong chord in 1979
tonight Paul is going to give it all to you
Local new report on the Nashville show (thanks to Wes for reminding me this was out there!)
REO Speedwagon were coming just a few days later. They were like many of the so called "dinosaur corporate rock" acts of the Seventies: they toured and toured and toured building up a live fanbase for the most part without the benefit of Top Forty singles. Their kind of hard rock gets put down by critics and other music fans, but I admire the work ethic of such bands even if the music sometimes doesn't move me. REO would get their Top Forty success a little over a year later with the release of Hi Infidelity.
REO riding the storm out live in Germany later in 1979
The Belle Meade Theatre is presenting a slew of old horror movies along with some live appearances of Frankenstein's monster and Dracula (although...how can Dracula put in a live appearance since he's undead) with the notice that if you're brave enough to sit through the whole show and leave unassisted you'll receive a free 2 for 1 pass and a free gift. It seems like it would have been better at Halloween, but I suppose they were going after the kids on summer vacation.
One of my favorite movies ever was playing this week at Cinema South and at the Hickory Hollow Mall Cinema. I didn't see Breaking Away in the theatre, but I did see many movies at Hickory Hollow over the years.
If you didn't want to go to the movies or a rock concert maybe you could go dance the night away at Pal Joey's at I-24 and Harding Place. You could take lessons in disco at the Dance Center of Nashville and "enjoy the rest of summer with DISCO" according to their advertisement.
This Sunday Showcase review is brought to you today by Computer World. They will help you own, operate, or program small computers. They'll even provide a free session to you.
Now that you've got those disco dance lessons under your belt it's time to spend the next decade enjoying the disco lifestyle...........BUT WAIT, what is that I see in its first week in the Top 10 Records.....YES, IT IS......"My Sharona" by The Knack hits number 2 it its first appearance on the local Nashville top ten sales chart. You're going to need to trade in your leisure suit for some skinny ties and learn some New Wave dances and forget about the Hustle. I can still remember the very moment I first heard "My Sharona" come blasting over the radio that summer. I was riding in a car with my cousin Freddy with the radio tuned to KX104 and then that drumbeat began and I was instantly hooked. It had such a fresh urgent energy and the bridge/solo of the song takes it into outer space.
There was still some fantastic disco hits on the charts this week with "Good Times", "Ring My Bell", "Making It", along with Donna Summer's more rocking "Hot Stuff" with the Barbra Streisand disco-ish "Main Event" tune. I'm not saying discos disappeared or dance music vanished as there is always a demand for it, but this was the last gasp of the disco craze began by Saturday Night Fever that had come to dominate the pop music charts.
Local Tennessean (originally from North Carolina) Charlie Daniels stood atop the charts with "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" which had crossed over from the country charts. I always thought the part where "the band of demons joined in" was the best part of the tune. Charlie passed away on July 6, 2020 and he will be missed.
It was Emmy time with Johnny Carson hosting on May 20, 1973. CBS would win the most awards on the night taking 17, ABC gets 11, PBS with 6, and NBC bringing up the rear with just 5 awards. All In The Family and The Waltons are among the series that won an Emmy that night. You can find a complete list at Wikipedia.
I love this headline about ABC sportscasting legend Howard Cosell. I always enjoyed Howard's ponderous way behind the microphone, plus he was later the host of The Battle Of The Network Stars so I can never forget that.
Sound Seventy was bringing Jethro Tull to Municipal Auditorium on May 21 so if you were in the mood for some flute in your rock and roll that would be the place to be on Monday night. If you wanted your flute with a bit softer and less progressive bent you could skip this one and wait to see Lawrence Welk presented by WSIX-TV 8. There was bound to be some flute music to go with the champagne.
Hermitage Landing took out a full page ad in this Sunday Showcase. I would get to go there in the late Seventies and then catch the One For The Sun concert there in 1984.
KDA-FM & Woodland Sound Studio were presenting the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band live on the air that Sunday night. Years later my folks were looking for a new place to rent and we toured a house that had a small upstairs bedroom which featured a poster of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band left by the former tenants. We didn't move into this house, but that room with the poster still figures in my memories. I like to think all of our lives are filled with such ephemera, but perhaps not.
Once again The Villa features a band posing with a train. If there are any train buffs that recognize the train or know anything about Carnival let me know in the comments.
Boston band Orphan was coming to play a few days at Exit-In. The Showcase mentions they have country overtones and I'd have to agree.
If you were a businessman working downtown you could get your lunch at the world famous Red Lion Lounge. I think 6 hours of continuous Go-Go and exotic entertainment would be a bit much.
The Eagles were still at the small theater stage of their career, but wouldn't be for long. They were playing War Memorial Auditorium on June 3 with the always great Charlie Daniels opening for them. My opinion of The Eagles waxes and wanes, but it is interesting to me that there was a time when The Eagles were considered a cult band.
My opinion of Elvis Presley however never changes. He was and always will be the King of Rock and Roll for me. My mother was from North Mississippi just a few counties over from Tupelo and she moved to Memphis in the Fifties. Elvis was her favorite musical artist much to my father's consternation. Elvis was coming later in the summer to Municipal and the shows were already sold out.
All that's left for this week's Sunday Showcase review is the Top 10 Records list and its a fairly wide range of styles which was very typical in the Seventies. There's some soul, some country, some hard rock, country, and an ex-Beatle all showing up this week. "Frankenstein" would be my favorite of this bunch, but Canadian group Skylark featuring future mega producer David Foster and the amazing vocal talents of Donny Gerrard is pretty awesome too. I learned something watching the "Frankenstein" live video or perhaps I knew it once and forgot it, but the song's title comes from how it was edited down with different pieces of tape comprising the final version.
Skylark
Edgar Winter Group live version of Frankenstein
Next week I'm going through a 1976 Sunday Showcase so be sure to wear some Bicentennial themed clothes.
How many of you are going crazy from shelter in place? The local Wal-Mart here is now requiring all of its employees to wear masks and may soon require customers to as well. Thank goodness I stopped shopping there. I think I have enough peanut butter and crackers to ride this pandemic out, but we'll see. I've survived this week so here's another look back at a Sunday Showcase. The April 20, 1986 edition's cover boasts Dorothy Hamill who is coming to town for a Festival On Ice, some scary clowns from the Shrine Circus, Garrison Keillor, Billy Sherrill, and Van Halen who would be playing at Municipal Auditorium on that very night.
The Shrine Circus made the cover, but there's a big ad in the Showcase for Ringling Bros. Barnun & Bailey Circus which would be coming to town in June. Talk about advance notice. Apparently they had gone back to the P.T. Barnum adage about a sucker being born every minute since this circus would have a real live.....UNICORN.....oh my gosh!
Another circus had been going on in rock and roll with David Lee Roth leaving Van Halen and then the subsequent joining together of Sammy Hagar and Van Halen. Some, like myself, dubbed this union Van Hagar. I was a fan of Sammy's solo work and knew a little of Montrose, but Van Halen with David Lee Roth was one of my favorite bands ever. The first big concert I ever saw was Van Halen on the 1984 tour. I was pretty much crushed with the development, but I thought the 5150 album wasn't too bad. I felt Sammy's lyrics were pretty awful at times and I wasn't too keen on the ballads, but Eddie was still the greatest living guitar player in my eyes. Since I had seen them with Dave I didn't even think about going to this show, but the Gonz called me up and insisted we go so off we went to Municipal Auditorium not really knowing what to expect with Sammy as frontman. There had been lots of vitriol from the Van Halen camp as you can see from this interview with Alex Van Halen and I didn't like that at all.
I ended up having a great time at the concert. I didn't like Sammy running Dave down which he did at times and his stupid lyrics like "US prime grade A stamped guaranteed grease it up and turn on the heat...." and "wanna play some love with them human toys" from "Good Enough" and "Summer Nights" were still stupid even if the music was great. "Summer Nights" was especially cool that evening, but the track that blew my mind live was "5150." I might prefer the Dave years, but "5150" may be my favorite Van Halen track. Eddie's solo that night in Nashville was better than the one on the 1984 tour too. I strongly recommend you watch the entire Live Without A Net concert on YouTube. There was no ads for the concert in this Showcase or any of them up to a month before. There was really little promotion out there for the 5150 tour at this point.
"5150" from Live Without A Net New Haven, Connecticut
The only thing that can top Van Halen live might just be Chuck Norris. So be sure to grab your Invasion U.S.A. videocassette at your local Xanadu store. Invasion U.S.A. should be considered a Christmas movie classic.
The circus wasn't the only thing being sold months in advance. The Charlie Daniels Band's Volunteer Jam wasn't going to happen until July 12 at Starwood Amphitheatre, but you better get your tickets before it sold out. It would be the 12th one and I assume it was for charity. It may be because I was born in Tennessee, but I love Charlie Daniels and I might just fight you if you say mean things about him.
From Volunteer Jam XII Starwood Amphitheatre
I did a whole post about Sal's Rock-n-Roll Club, but I missed this ad where they featured a "Rock Video Night" on a Thursday night. Yes, children, there was once a world where rock and roll music videos were so popular that a night club could get people in the door just to watch them. Rox Sedan were from Indiana and they had a cool tune called "Better Off Dead" which is on YouTube.
Rox Sedan
The Top 10 records are about as Eighties as it gets. Just take a look at the artists listed. Sly Fox is the only one on the list that rates as a one hit wonder to me and what a great hit "Let's Go All The Way" was that spring. Prince gets 2 cuts in the Top Ten since he wrote the Bangles "Manic Monday" along with "Kiss" which blew our minds back then with its minimalistic funk.
Sly Fox original promo video
It is a Sunday....Showcase review
you don't have to be beautiful
And here's Prince doing Manic Monday
That's all for this Sunday Showcase. Next week I'm heading to a year that I've not ever ventured to before.
The Sunday Showcase review this week is of December 12, 1976. Christmas was coming fast and The Nutcracker graces the cover along with the ever delightful Peter Sellers. You would be having a Merry Christmas if you managed to get a video game from Santa Claus or how about a television with the video game built in. I played one of these built in Magnavox Odyssey systems decades later even.
Perhaps you were really cool and underground and your better half had some gift wrapped tickets for the Lou Reed show that was going to happen at the War Memorial Auditorium on December 29. It was going to be his First Nashville Appearance!
BUT NO. It wasn't meant to be. The Lou Reed show would be cancelled. What a bummer. This notice was in the paper a few days before the show. I don't know how many shows Lou ever played in Nashville, but he definitely played the Ryman on May 2, 2008.
Nashville would get no Kicks from Lou in 1976, but other cities did. Enjoy this little taste.
There's some heavyweight musical talent over at a club called Mississippi Whiskers located at 1712 Church Street.
Exit/In had a future hip hop legend and a future chicken restauranteur this week. Tennessean Alexander Harvey's version of "Tulsa Turnaround" has been sampled by several hip-hop artists. He was mostly known as a songwriter. I'm sure you've heard of "Delta Dawn" and "Reuben James." The future chicken king Kenny Rogers had recorded "Reuben James" back when he was with The First Edition along with "Tulsa Turnaround" which he would record yet again as a solo artist in a few years. He was already a music star, but within a year he would become a music superstar before branching out into movies and later into cofounding Kenny Rogers Roasters with the former governor of Kentucky and ex KFC CEO John Y. Brown. Note that comedian Jim Varney opened for both performers. Jim would later gain fame as Ernest P. Worrell.
Anybody in Nashville ever dance the night away at the Runway 22 club located in the Holiday Inn on Murfreesboro Road? I would guess it's by the airport judging by the fantastic ad. Good boogie sounds with a Latin Flavor.....hmmmm I bet the group Casablanca was going for a K.C. and the Sunshine Band vibe.
There's a few dance tunes in the Top 10 Records in Nashville this week. It's a very solid bunch of songs. My faves as a kid would be "More Than A Feeling", "Muskrat Love", "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", "Hot Line", and most of all "Beth" by Kiss. I became a Kiss fanatic after their appearance on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special that fall. I got Destroyer for my birthday in November that year.
The Greatest New Year's Eve Blast Ever was coming to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds Agricultural Building. If you were into disco this was the place to be.
The biggest musical event in the near future was the Volunteer Jam coming up on January 6, 1977. It's billed as the concert event of the year with tickets going on sale on December 18th. It will definitely sell out. It was the 3rd annual charity concert with special unannounced guests joining the Charlie Daniels Band for a marathon night full of music. So we'll close this post out with trio of tracks from Charlie. I have always loved his music.
