Sunday Showcase Review September 4, 1977

September 5th, 1977 was Labor Day and so this September 4, 1977 edition of the Sunday Showcase has a cover devoted to what was once a huge part of my childhood: the annual Jerry Lewis Telethon to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I would sometimes try to watch as much of it as I could on Sunday night when it would begin, but never made it far past midnight. If someone was going to be on it I liked I would try to make sure I caught them during the course of its 21 and a half hour broadcast. The telethon had hit its peak in 1976 with 213 stations carrying it making it, effectively, America's fourth largest television network. Even if you didn't watch a minute of the telethon there would be local drives to raise money for MDA. The telethon was inescapable yet reassuring showing that people cared for others less fortunate. Stories abound of how horrible Jerry Lewis was, but I think we can all agree that the telethon was a good thing.

Jerry conducts the Count Basie Orchestra

The Exit/In was going strong with an eclectic line-up for the week. Fats Domino rated an ad of his own. 

Jimmy Buffett was coming to town soon with Jesse Winchester to play the Grand Ole Opry House.

Al Green was grappling with his decision to become a minister, but was still making secular music with The Belle Album set to come out later in 1977 so I don't know if this concert was going to just be gospel or not. Al Green is an artist that is worth hearing no matter what he's singing about. 

Al singing "Belle" in 1978

Heart was going to play the Tennessee State Fair on September 24, 1977. Note that 15WLAC was promoting it. It was around this time when I was in 5th grade that I would listen to 15WLAC on my father's big battery powered AM/FM/shortwave radio under the covers late at night when I was supposed to be asleep.

Barracuda 1977

The circus was coming to town. There was a WNGE family night. 

I love old camera ads. I prefer Polaroid, but a Kodak will do in a pinch.

Hi-Fi Corner could sell you a Channel F Fairchild Video Entertainment System. It's a really interesting system. Erin Plays gives us a great breakdown on it below the ad.

Erin Plays gives us the lowdown on Channel F

Seventies television had some weird pairings as Darth Vader meets Marty Allen on The Wacko Saturday Morning Preview and Other Good Stuff Special which will air on Channel 5 later that week. That would have been can't miss television for my 10 year old self. 

Then there's Muhammad Ali appearing with Annie's Andrea McArdle on the NBC Saturday morning preview show called "C'mon Saturday!" which was going to air on Friday. I'm pretty sure I watched that one too. I loved those preview shows. They were an absolute must watch so you would be ready for the new Saturday morning shows. As far as this one goes, who didn't like Muhammad Ali plus I had crush on Andrea after seeing her sing on the Tony Awards or some other show. 

The Paramount is screening the Bruce Lee movie Fury Of The Dragon which was actually just several episodes of The Green Hornet edited together. It's rather shameless.

More like fury of Kato

Audio Systems is selling the amazing black box that "unscratches" records! It appears to be just a noise tampering filter to me. I decided to see if I could find a video on YouTube about it and, sure enough, I did. 

Guy starts the test around 5:12 into the video

The Top 10 Records are Elvis heavy with his recent death casting a shadow on the charts with Ronnie McDowell's "The King Is Gone", Leon Everette's "Goodbye To The King of Rock 'n' Roll", along with Elvis's "Way Down" taking up a just under a third of the top 10. My 3 favorites from this chart round out this week's Sunday Showcase review. Next week will feature a State Fair insert so hope to see you then.

the lights are going dim

Meco is an honorary Jedi

so you're having trouble with your romance

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

Sunday Showcase February 11, 1973

It's the Flintstones On Ice and Duke Ellington gracing the cover of this week's Sunday Showcase. Let's take the A train all the yabba dabba doo way back to February 11, 1973.

That very Sunday on the radio you had a choice of classical performances to enjoy, but most interesting for me is the different formats and call letters of several of the stations from today. FM radio was really catching on, but the big hitters were still on the AM band with WMAK and WLAC being the two big pop music ones.

The number one tune in Nashville for this week was "Dueling Banjos" which I have always loved. It also gives me a guidepost to where I was living then. I believe my family was a few months away from moving back to Murfreesboro. We had moved to Mississippi the previous year and my parents ran a place called Rainey's Cafe in Ripley. There was a jukebox and I remember I would dance when "Dueling Banjos" played. I really enjoyed being the center of attention back then. It's a really solid Top Ten with The Sweet, Elvis Presley, and Jim Croce making appearances. 

There were many coming attractions on their way to Nashville from superstar pop groups like The 5th Dimension to Guy Lombardo. Just check out this ad below which you can always make bigger by clicking on.

You could go see Jim Dandy and the Black Oak Arkansas bunch along with Nils Lofgren's band Grin in a few weeks as they were booked at the War Memorial Auditorium. Not only was there a Sgt. Pepper's record store in Rivergate there was also a Sgt. Pepper's in Hillsboro Village. It was billed as a Whole Earth Store.

The Exit/In would show movies some nights back in the early 70's. Legendary songwriter Townes Van Zandt was playing during this week Wednesday through Saturday with a live broadcast on KDA FM. Yes, that's right it was KDA FM. Just scroll back up to the Sunday on the radio photo for confirmation. WKDA FM was progressive rock and WKDA AM was country. So the progressive station is broadcasting a show by a folk/country performer. That's one thing I love about the past; compartmentalized demographic research had not yet taken over radio. 

I'm too young to remember much of the early 70's Nashville so I have never heard of this place called the Villa. When I saw the ad I figured it was a restaurant that featured soup. Like real soup. But then later on in the Showcase I discover that the Soup is actually a group. Just check out their photo. I don't about you, but I bet they were either awesome or awful. Perhaps both. This is one place I would love to hear more about. Are there any people around who joined the Villa Mafia back in the day? I would love to hear from you. 

I wonder if the hippies who lived on the Farm would like the Soup? I doubt it, but Stephen Gaskin and the Farm Band would be performing a free concert at the War Memorial Auditorium on Wednesday of this week in 1973. I wonder if the "cultist teacher" part of the notice was provided to The Tennessean or if they inserted it? Gaskin did cofound the Farm, but I never thought of its residents as being part of a cult. The few people I've met from there over the years always seem pretty cool.

The biggest concert coming up was the return of David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars to War Memorial Auditorium on February 23, 1973. Note the photo insert telling us the return show will be expanded both in length and content, with the addition of saxophones, piano, and a new drummer. 

      

From the last Ziggy Stardust performance at the Hammersmith Odeon later in 1973. 

Sunday Showcase January 20, 1974

It's Sunday again, so it's time to dive into a random old Tennessean Sunday Showcase. It's 1974 and Jack Benny is one of the cover stars. There was to be a third "farewell" special to also air on NBC, but the comedian would die on December 26, 1974. 

When I was in 1st grade there was a mandatory time after lunch in which we had to put our heads on our desk and just chill out. It was like nap time, but we were too old by this point. My 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Susie Wilson, would play soft music during the time so after the song "Seasons In The Sun" was released on 45 in December 1973, we would be treated to it almost every school day. I liked it a lot even though the lyrics seem a bit heavy for a small child and now it is lodged in my brain forever. It was the number 1 song of the past week in Nashville on January 20, 1974. Once again, the quirkiness of the Nashville charts is shown as David Bowie's "Sorrow" from his Pin Ups album lands at number 8. It would not chart nationally, but Bowie played Nashville regularly in the early Seventies so he was very popular here. 

Local station WNGE 2 has a full page ad for the ABC Sunday Night Movie of the week which was to be For A Few Dollars More. I watched many of the ABC Sunday Night Movies over the years and never wanted to miss a James Bond one or a Clint Eastwood one. My mother would cook popcorn on the stove and it was the best popcorn ever made. 

I don't know what in the heck the King of Tara and Boy Wonder deal is, but it's definitely an interesting ad for an event at the Pub.

The Nashville Flea Market was coming up soon. Flea markets today aren't as much fun these days. I think the internet has greatly reduced the chance of wandering upon a flea market seller with true bargains.

The Exit/In was going strong with Henry Gross coming for a series of show from January 22-January 26. Then Tracey Nelson and Mother Earth would take over. WKDA FM 103.3 in the pre-KDF days would even broadcast live there. This is when the Exit/In was thought of as more of a "listening" room instead of just a club. 

Muther's Music Emporium over on Hermitage which had been opened by former disc jockey Joe Sullivan was another great place to see live music in Nashville in 1974. He also owned Sound Seventy Productions which around this time was clearing about $4,000 profit per average concert he promoted according to an article in the February 18, 1974 Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. Bruce Springsteen would play Muther's a little over a week later on January 29, 1974. This show would be captured on a bootleg recording.

A big Sound Seventy Productions concert was coming up at Municipal Auditorium on February 2nd. Black Oak Arkansas with their frontman Jim Dandy would be rocking out on a Saturday night with some special guest stars to be announced. Those guests would The Marshall Tucker Band and The Charlie Daniels Band for a big night of Southern rock. 

The Royal Lipizzan Stallion Show was coming to Municipal on February 9 and 10. 

Last, but definitely not least is this ad for the upcoming Ike & Tina Tuner Revue which will play Municipal Auditorium on February 1st with the Spinners.