Idle Speculation or the Stuff That Runs Through My Head at Night

What if's were what was running through my mind last night. 1996 seemed to be calling me because I pondered for quite awhile what would have happened if Kiss had reformed with Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer after the 1996 reunion tour which was what was originally said to be planned. That's how I remember it. Ace and Peter joined the MTV Unplugged session and all us Kiss fans's hearts went aflutter. A wave of Kiss nostalgia was cresting as Gen X hit their twenties and, gasp, some of us would turn 30 in 1996. I would see them twice on this tour and it was the culmination for me of a lifelong love of the band. I was too young to see them with makeup back in the 70's and early 80's so I had to make do with the Japan concert broadcast on HBO and the Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park movie. 

I would see Kiss again on the Psycho Circus Tour and it wasn't all that great. Even then, I think I was wondering why they hadn't taken the makeup off and reunited with Eric and Bruce. I had really liked the Revenge album and was hoping for a followup to it, but it wasn't to be. I think it could have been great. But there was a follow up I hear you say. Now, I understand why that couldn't have happened (I guess Carnival of Souls was the followup to Revenge, but I wanted more) and I also understand why Eric later donned Peter Criss's makeup and Tommy Thayer became fake Ace. The evil Doc McGhee had become the manager of Kiss and making money had become the overriding concern. Sure, Gene and Paul have always been after the dollar too, but they still had the desire to make good music. That ended with McGhee. I guess we do have him to thank for the reunion,  but we also have him responsible for the zombie Kiss of the last 20+ years. 

My other 1996 flashback what if is the Van Halen quasi-reunion. First, the original Kiss gets back together  which was incredible. Next, we hear rumblings that David Lee Roth is back with Van Halen. Oh man was that fantastic. I was glued to the television during the MTV Video Music Awards 1996 show and everything seemed right with the world. Dave was clowning up just being Dave so I didn't think much of his behavior. Then came the post appearance interview with the Van Halen brothers and all hope was lost. A reunited Van Halen wouldn't happen on stage ever again. They got close years later with Eddie, Alex, and Dave finally putting aside their differences, but bass guitar would be handled by Eddie's son Wolfgang. While I am one of the very few that feel like Michael Anthony was the most dispensable of the original band, a Van Halen reunion without him just isn't the same. A tour of the original band in 1996 would have been an earth shattering event.

Rock and roll is full of such what if speculation. What if so many greats like Hendrix hadn't died young? I often ponder an AC/DC still led by Bon Scott for example. What if the Beatles never broke up. What if John Lennon had never moved to New York City. One can go on and on in this kind of thinking. I don't know if it's a productive use of time, but idle speculation is perhaps a nostalgic form of daydreaming. 

January 19, 1985 (Revisiting the Past)

I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.

January 19, 1985. Snow was headed to Middle Tennessee on this day along with record breaking cold, but it would still be so hot at Municipal Auditorium on this night that you'd need to call the "Firehouse" as Kiss came to Nashville for their Animalized Tour. Krokus would be the opening act. I didn't get to this concert, but I heard it was a good one even though there wasn't much of a crowd due to the snow. I had bought Animalized on the day of its release.

Kiss from Entertainment Tonight featuring some Nashville shots

Gene Simmons

Kiss - Heaven's On Fire

Monday Music

 Some of the music I have been listening to over the last few weeks. Enjoy. Any connections you notice from video to video are intentional. Drop a comment to let me know them. Note: the embedded videos only work on the web version of the website. 

Kiss - Turn On The Night

New England - Don't Ever Wanna Lose Ya

Alcatrazz - Island in the Sun

Steve Vai - Little Green Men

Dweezil Zappa - Gotta Get To You

Madonna - Borderline

Reggie Lucas - Slewfoot

Michael Henderson - Wide Receiver

Sunday Showcase August 5, 1979

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. 

we want the best, we won't settle for less

almost rang the phone off the wall

RIP Charlie Daniels you were amazing!

my I I I I I I I I I I I

Sunday Showcase January 8, 1984

The makeup is off for this week's Sunday Showcase! Kiss are coming to town on the Lick It Up Tour and it's notable enough to grab part of the cover.

Kiss would be hitting town on January 11, 1984 with Riot and Vandenberg opening the show. I did not get to see this show, but many of my friends managed to get up to Nashville on a snowy evening. Vinnie Vincent was definitely the highlight as you can tell from the bootleg that has circulated for decades of this performance. The whole band sounds energized with him in the band. I love that he was allowed to play in his style on the older Ace era material. Many people feel like this particular show should have been released as Alive III.

 

Another big concert was coming to Municipal and it was a head scratcher to me at first, but a little research showed why Huey Lewis and the News would still be an opening act in January of 1984. They were opening for .38 Special, but probably wouldn't be opening for much longer. "Heart and Soul" had hit the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten in November for Huey Lewis and the News. It was the first single from their album Sports. The second single "I Want A New Drug" was released on January 3, 1984. It would peak at number 6 on the Hot 100 chart. The album would later hit number 1 on the charts.

.38 Special were having a good year too. Their latest album Tour De Force hit number 22 on the Billboard 200 chart and both singles "If I'd Been The One" and "Back Where You Belong" had made the Hot 100 top twenty. Just like Kiss, this is not the first Sunday Showcase review that features the band. Nashville was always a part of their tours. The "Back Where You Belong" video is a nice homage/parody of Hill Street Blues.

Here are Huey Lewis and the News playing at the Rock Palace in January 1984 so this is what they would have sounded like in Nashville. They are not one of my favorites, but they were definitely a tight band. 

The Nashville Top Ten is full of songs that have been on the chart for 2 months or more. One thing most of these songs have in common is there were memorable music videos made for them. The one that I liked the most was "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" by Yes. 

Adam Ant was coming February 5th with very special guests The Romantics to play the Grand Ole Opry House. I wasn't into him back then. I had one friend who had liked his earlier work, but he said "Strip" was a complete sellout. I think he did go to the concert though. I enjoy Adam's music these days and I like The Romantics first couple of records. 

The Ice Capades were coming to Municipal Auditorium on January 8th. Don't forget to use your KX104 discount. Enjoy some brief footage of this blue nightmare when it played Austin, Texas in 1983. 

I think I would have rather gone to the Hickory Hollow Brass A to see Lust live. Lust was Ron Keel's first band, but he's gone by this time. My mother worked with a guy who was in the band at one time or another too. He would buy concert t-shirts for me since I wasn't allowed to go see concerts when I was in middle school. The tune "Speed Demon" from the Homegrown compilation is great since it has a NWOBHM vibe. The band pictured below is the version of Lust that released the EP posted on YouTube. Either version of the band was rocking, but that last track on the EP never should have seen the light even in 1984. Band info is included in the videos.

If heavy metal wasn't you thing you could head out to the Nashville Palace and hear Randy Ray and "Nashville" Wednesday through Sunday. You probably know Randy Ray better as Randy Travis. By the early 80's he had been rejected by every label in town, but he didn't give up. He became a cook and a live sensation at the Nashville Palace. An independent live album was released and this finally led to his major label deal with Warners. His album Storms of Life would be released in June 1986 and he would never have to work as a cook again.

That's it for this week's look back through an old Tennessean Sunday Showcase. I hope 2020 is being good to you so far. I'll look through another Sunday Showcase next week, but feel free to drop in anytime. 

Sunday Showcase November 24, 1985

Another Sunday is here which means it's time to look through an old Sunday Showcase. We find Kiss on the cover of this one. 

They were on the road on their Asylum tour. This was the first tour since Dynasty that stayed inside North America and lasted from November 29, 1985 through April 12, 1986. The November 30th show in Nashville was the second of the tour which had begun in Little Rock the night before. The opening act for this date was Black 'n Blue. Notice the ad features the Lick It Up album cover shot which was incredibly well out of date at this time. It's hair metal era Kiss and while it's not my favorite part of their music catalog it's still pretty fun. 

The only other concert of note was an anniversary one of John Kay & Steppenwolf at Jackson Theater. I suppose it was 15 years in the business as the band with John Kay began in 1965 as the Sparrows. They have a very convoluted history. They sounded pretty good at Farm Aid in 1986. 

The Top Ten songs in Nashville this week are a pretty weak bunch.  The Miami Vice soundtrack was living large. Glenn Frey (note misspelling in list from the paper) beats out Starship in Nashville, but couldn't do it nationally as Starship's "We Built This City" was demolishing eardrums across the country. "Head Over Heels" is a song I do love (the Nigel Dick directed music video rules) and Heart's "Never" was good...just stop yourself and listen. The rest of the top ten don't interest me very much. 

That's all for this week. Ain't it funny how time flies. I hope to have more next week.

Sunday Showcase October 26, 1975

I had high hopes that a dive into the October 26, 1975 edition of The Tennessean Sunday Showcase would have several haunted house notices, but was only able to find this one for the Fourth Annual WMAK Priest Lake Jaycees Haunted House.

I don't know how many years the Priest Lake Jaycees put on haunted houses, but they were still going strong into the 80's. Here's a skip ahead to the October 31, 1975 issue of the paper to see just a little of what you would have experienced back then. 

If haunted houses weren't your thing and you were not scared of clowns you could go see the circus at Municipal Auditorium. It was the last day to see the 104th edition of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. 

3 future legends of music played a show at the Grand Ole Opry House on October 29th. Tom Waits opened the show for Bonnie Raitt and John Prine. 

Here's Tom Waits from a Soundstage performance in 1975. 

Perhaps antiques were your bag. 100 Oaks would have been your place to visit beginning October 30. I only got to visit 100 Oaks mall a few times in the 70's, but it was always a big treat.

The one event I would have wanted to see the most was KISS in concert on October 30th. Montrose and Bob Seger were also on the bill for that one. KISS - Alive! had been out for a little over a month at this point so the band were still right at the beginning of their rise to the top of the concert scene. 

I went looking for a review of this show and found a rather lackluster non-review in the following week's Sunday Showcase written by Eve Zibart, "Thursday night's KISS concert, touted as a Halloween season special, didn't pull many interested parties. However you feel about good ol' basic rock 'n' roll, you have to admire a group who can survive both the heat of stage lighting and a full face of makeup." There was a photo of the band backstage. 

There's no audio or video that I can find from that show, but there is plenty of 1975 performances of KISS on YouTube so enjoy this performance of "Strutter" to get a taste of what fans would have got that night. 

If I couldn't see KISS or the circus I would have probably wanted to see Meadowlark Lemon and The Harlem Globetrotters as they were due to perform on November 6th as part of their 50th year of being basketball magicians. I didn't get to see them in person, but I never missed them on ABC or with Scooby Doo or Gilligan.

Any disappointed fans of the Washington Generals could pick their sprits up a few days later by going to see James Brown on November 8th and Michael Murphy, Little Feat, and Dave Mason the very next night at Municipal. 

Maybe you just wanted to sit home and watch a little television. Here's what was on the boob tube this Sunday. I would have watched the Three Stooges, possibly some of the football games, Wild Kingdom, either Disney or Swiss Family Robinson, and the Six Million Dollar Man on this particular night. 

Let's wrap this post up with a look at the Top Ten pop songs in Nashville. The Eagles were at the top of the heap this week. My favorite from this list is Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz." I hope you've enjoyed this look back into the past. I'll do it again next week. Who knows what year we'll end up visiting.

Kiss Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

An all new wing of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is being built just for the Polaroid pictures.

Bee Gees vs. Kiss, sorta

When I was a young lad toiling away at Mitchell-Neilson Elmentary School my music teacher was a young lady named Miss Kidd. She rocked the Dorothy Hamill haircut and had the obligatory amount of folk singing fervor and enthusiasm that was the hallmark of elementary education music instructors perhaps the world over. I don't remember much about what we actually did in the class that met a few times a week. I believe there were xylophones involved. And those dread recorders that all children are made to suffer with, I've never met anybody that could actually play those plastic flutes well. The thing I do remember is that she gave us a poll on what bands we liked the most. Once the results came in she would then devote one class a week to the history of the artist and we could bring records to play of their music.

The most popular band was the Bee Gees. So I learned all about the Aussies and how they had this awesome Beatles inspired early success singing about mining disasters or shipwrecks or something or other before they got all falsetto'ed and Stigwood'ed out. Did I care alot for this? Nope. I was bummed because the band I voted for didn't come in first in the elementary world.

Kiss came in second in Miss Kidd's demographic survey. So I had to wait a week before I could bring in my Destroyer album and play the class "God Of Thunder" and "Beth." Miss Kidd gave us the history of the band which I knew by heart, but instead of praising their music or success like she did the Bee Gees, she disparaged them.

So I'm always up for a Kiss versus Bee Gees throwdown. WFMU details a showdown between tribute bands Mini Kiss and Tragedy. It makes me feel like I'm back in elementary school all over again.