Sunday Showcase Review November 6, 1983

 November is here already. I don't know about you, but this crazy year has somehow managed to fly right by while feeling like it's lasted a million years. Let's forget about 2020 for a few minutes and look through the November 6, 1983 Sunday Showcase.

Ballet Nacional Español was coming to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on November 20.

Sesame Street Live opens on November 9, 1983 and it will be in town through Sunday. I never really had the desire to see these sorts of shows, even when I was a small child, as full sized costumed Ernie & Bert characters creeped me out. I'm sure lots of youngsters enjoyed these events and I assume once the pandemic ends these sorts of shows still go on.

Sesame Street Live video from later in December 1983

They knock 2 years off Prince's age in this article for some reason (he was 25), but it's still amazing to me at how incredible a musical and soon to be movie star the man was at such a young age. 

There's a nice big ad for the return of Sean Connery as James Bond in Never Say Never Again. It was announced that Sean Connery passed away just as I was finishing this blog post so I'll add a few quick thoughts on this great actor. He was James Bond to me as he was to everyone. Roger Moore did a fine job in the role and I've heard nice things about Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig (yes, I've not seen any Bond films since Roger Moore was Bond), but Connery was the original and best. I have fond memories of my dear departed mother letting me stay up late on Sunday nights to watch James Bond movies when they aired and my favorite was Goldfinger. Outland wasn't a huge hit, but I was really into science fiction when I was young so I really enjoyed him in that one. Years later I would finally see Zardoz which is mesmerizingly weird with Connery at his best. Darby O'Gill and the Little People was a fun Connery movie. I saw The Untouchables multiple times primarily because of Sean Connery. I could go on and on listing his films, but IMDB has all of that information. Treat yourself to one of his films today or soon and celebrate his life. 

"Let's Go Crazy" from the 1983 benefit mentioned in the article above 

Never Say Never Again

Goldfinger 

The Untouchables

Outland

Sean Connery singing in Darby O'Gill

Zardoz

Music store ads are one of my favorite things to look at. The Rivergate Mall Camelot Music is the only record store that ever carded me after the PMRC music labelling thing started in the mid-80's. They asked for my ID when I purchase Anthrax's Among The Living and Schoolly D's Saturday Night! - The Album.

Camelot Music was selling video games and so was Kmart. The bottom had dropped out of the home video game industry and game prices were plummeting. 

Joan Jett was one of many rock stars photos I would tape to the walls of the trailer we were living in at the time. She was appearing at Cat's to help plug her latest record titled Album (which I had on tape) before taking the stage later in the evening opening for Loverboy. I bet she blew them off the stage. 

"Fake Friends"

What happens when a couple of arena bands have lost some of their popularity? Sales on your records are declining and the hits aren't as big as before. You join forces on a co-headlining tour and keep playing the arenas. This doesn't mean either band isn't putting out good material, it's just the nature of business. You go up and you go down. I liked both Kansas and Heart and I bet this was a good pairing to see.  

Kansas - "Hold On" from the Nashville show 1983

Heart live on ABC In Concert 1983

Cajun's Wharf was featuring more than jumbo gulf shrimp and tasty barbecue beef ribs. They were serving up some excellent rockabilly with Billy Lee Riley and Ronnie "The Hawk" Hawkins all week. 

Billy Lee Riley - "Flying Saucers Rock & Roll"

Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks with Levon Helm

Rick Springfield was coming to play Municipal Auditorium on December 8, 1983 on his Living In Oz tour. I was always a big fan of Rick and still am. He picked great material to cover and wrote some classic rock songs of his own. It was good to see him get his props in the Sound City documentary.

Rick Springfield live in 1982

Local bands were going strong along with touring artists at Cantrell's. I'm guessing Dark Star was a jam band that perhaps played Grateful Dead tunes. I doubt it was the British metal band. One of my favorite Nashville bands, Shadow 15, was playing on Wednesday. Blues guitar slinger Gatemouth Brown was playing on Friday. I wonder if Roy Clark came out and played with him? The New Wave fusion jazz of The Nerve would be featured on Saturday night. 

Shadow 15 - The Last Forever

I had some friends (Bruno and Chris) that got to see the B-52's at Memorial Gym on November 12, 1983. They came to school in their B-52's concert tees on the next Monday. They loved the show and had good things to say about Translator too. If you were around back then I hope you got to see the concert. 

Translator "Unalone" live in Rhode Island November 3, 1983

B-52's "Dance This Mess Around" live May 1983

B-52's "Song For A Future Generation" live 1983

Once upon a time KX104 was a fun Top Forty radio station. I hope the winners below got lots of use of their prizes.

It's common knowledge that cinema peaked with Kenny Rogers starring in Six Pack. Cinemax was having a Kenny Rogers weekend so Six Pack was definitely included. I love this movie and I'm always happy to post the trailer from it.

go Brewster Baker!

Kenny Rogers was not only a movie star, he had the number 1 song in the Nashville Top Ten this week with his duet with Dolly Parton. Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" had been number 1 and was going into its 9th week in the Top Ten. My favorites would have been Prince, The Fixx, and the Police.

Kenny and Dolly rely on each other

turn around bright eyes

you've got a blank face which irritates

stupid look on my face

it's the same old thing as yesterday

Bonus content from the previous week's Sunday Showcase

Oingo Boing plays Exit/In November 2, 1983. That would have been a fun show.

Oingo Boing live at the US Festival 1983

If you couldn't go see Oingo Boingo you could watch the PBS special on The Chemical People. 

There was an ad for this upcoming event in the October 30, 1983 Sunday Showcase and it looked like Expo '83 was going to be a huge event. I wondered why I had never heard of it before and why there wasn't an ad in the November 6, 1983 Sunday Showcase. I looked ahead to the next week and the ad was back along with more information. It seems this event was a multi-media event with a mixture of live acts and performers beamed in from elsewhere. So Dean Martin and Jason and the Scorchers didn't share a stage like I had hoped. If you happened to attend this event let me know how it was in the comments. Until next week, I'm done. 

Sunday Showcase Review September 23, 1984

It's time for another look back at a Sunday Showcase and this one is from September 23, 1984. The Tennessee State Fair's last day was on and you could ride everything as often as you like for $5 between 12 noon and 6 PM. This turned out to be a music heavy....well almost all upcoming concerts and Top Ten related so I hope you don't mind.

Elton John would be coming to MTSU's Murphy Center on October 7. His popularity had waned since his Seventies heyday, but he was still a major superstar as his concert at Wembley on June 30, 1984 shows.

Elton John live at Wembley 1984

The MTSU Special Events Committee was busy in 1984 as they also have the Oak Ridge Boys and Rod Stewart lined up to appear in concert. 

Oak Ridge Boys on The Tonight Show 1984

Rod Stewart live in San Diego 1984

I was pumped up for Twisted Sister's October 13th appearance at Municipal Auditorium. I rode up to it with some Riverdale friends and had a great time with Dokken and Y & T opening the show.

Dokken on American Bandstand 1984

Y & T live at the Rock Palace 1984

Twisted Sister live 1984

The always fantastic Ray Charles was coming to play Andrew Jackson Hall at TPAC.

Ray Charles live 1984

Jefferson Starship without Paul Kantner or Marty Balin doesn't seem right and the band would mutate into just Starship by 1985. 

Jefferson Starship live 1984

I had really hoped I could find some footage of Riverside Raceway Park on the web, but I came up empty. There is a Facebook page devoted to the track. I had an uncle who used to drag GTO's there in the early Seventies. If my memory hasn't completely failed I remember it was visible from I-40 because I recall being excited to see it when we would drive past on our annual trip to Memphis and Mississippi. 

It was your last chance in 1984 to enjoy the State Fair. It's a shame there wasn't one this year.

Fair Park

The Top Ten is loaded with memorable hits. Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do It" was a massive hit and I think everybody in Tennessee took pride in her success since she was born in Brownsville and grew up in Nutbush. Prince has 2 places in the countdown as the Purple Rain movie and album was one of the biggest rock and roll stories of the year. Finally, it still amazes me that Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" was such a huge hit with it's self love topic that was so funnily captured in the video.

The little stutter step always gets me

Cartoon Cyndi points to Self Service....get it?

Prince reigned

In 1984

Film Flashback August 3, 1984

There's 8 movies to choose from in this journey back to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The advertisement quality is not the best (note to self: write an angry letter to the Daily News Journal on their abysmal offset press process on this date), but I believe you can make out what was playing. The theatre's were chock full of hits! I was still living out in the sticks without a car so I didn't see any of these in the theatre, but would watch them on VHS or television later. The main theme of almost, if not all, of these films is the underdog triumphing. It's a formula that works.

We'll begin at the Martin Four with Ghostbusters. I'm pretty sure you've heard of this one. Bill Murray is great and I love Annie Potts. The movie itself is fun, but I am still a bit mystified by how huge a hit it became. I guess people love to see the underdogs triumph. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the film, but there are several movies playing on this date that I would rank above it. One of them is playing right next to it. 

Gremlins is just bonkers and I love it. I find Ghostbusters to be slow at times, but Gremlins (which is actually a minute longer) just goes by like a runaway train. Zach Galligan is fine, but Phoebe Cates is much finer, but the real star is the gremlins themselves. This movie helped lead to the PG-13 rating due to the violence of its animatronic stars. I just think it's a perfect Christmas movie.

The Karate Kid was just beginning its run at the Martin. Ralph Macchio plays a young man named Daniel moving from one coast to the other and he quickly makes an enemy of villainous Johnny played by the ever awesome William Zabka. After a few karate beatdowns, Daniel gets tutored by Japanese gardener Miyagi san portrayed by Pat Morita. He received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor and he deserved it. He is the best thing about the movie. The television show Community even has an episode that highlights this view that Miyagi san is the true hero. There are also fairly well know YouTube clips that point out that Danny is the villain instead of Johnny. Not to mention that illegal move!

The fourth film playing is the Walt Disney classic The Jungle Book which was on its third theatrical run having debuted in 1967 with a second run in 1978. It would be re-released in the US in 1990. The film earned more than $23.8 million in its first run making it the most successful animated film ever at the time. I copied that from Wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt. The movie is just loads of fun and if you have never seen it you really should do so. 

We couldn't get Huey Lewis to do our theme so how about Ray Parker Jr. instead?

How long do we have to wait after midnight before feeding it?

Wax on wax off.

Baloo is loaded with both brains and brawn.

The Marbro has Breakin' and Hot Dog The Movie up on the big screen that would soon be silenced forever (or at least until somebody gives me enough movie to buy up the businesses there now). I've never seen Breakin', but I do own the soundtrack. Hip hop was making its way into the mainstream in a big way in 1984. The movie about a struggling dancer packed them in on its first run and led to a quickly released sequel Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. 

Hot Dog The Movie is your typical R rated sex comedy of the 80's. A small town kid competes in a freestyle skiing contest against a smug European. There's gratuitous nudity along with some skiing. I saw this on cable years later and it's okay. The underdog theme is here that everybody loves and which flourishes in both of the movies playing across town at the Cinema.

What kinds of names are Ozone and Turbo?

Were you on shrooms or what?

Revenge of the Nerds and Purple Rain would be surprise hits that summer. First up we have the nerds at Adams College overcoming the jocks. Stereotypes abound in this goofy movie and there's gratuitous nudity in this one just like in Hot Dog The Movie, but there's better characters here. Anthony Edwards is endearing and Curtis Armstrong is a scene stealer. Robert Carradine's Lewis is the main focus and he actually gets on my nerves. Thanks to VHS and my cousin Ronnie I saw this movie and Purple Rain on the same night in July of 1985. I was visiting my grandmother in Mississippi and we were all at my Aunt Ermie's home when Ronnie went and rented a VCR and the movies. My grandmother didn't like Revenge of the Nerds and she was asleep by the time we watched Purple Rain. 

Purple Rain would leave the Cinema and then come back a few weeks later, but it was beginning its second week on this Friday night back in 1984. I already loved Prince's music, but I didn't have any interest in going to see the movie. I had my doubts it would be good. I was so wrong. It blew me away when I saw it that night in Mississippi almost a year later. Prince plays a local music star in Minneapolis who is being eclipsed by Morris Day and the Time. The writing is on the wall and he's about to lose his steady gig if he doesn't get it together. He has trouble at home, trouble with his girl, and his band. Will the Kid make it? I think you know the answer to this question. 

Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!

That ain't Lake Minnetonka

Here's how I rank these movies:

1. Purple Rain

2. Gremlins

3. The Jungle Book

4. Revenge of the Nerds

5. Ghostbusters

6. The Karate Kid

7. Breakin'

8. Hot Dog The Movie

Sunday Showcase April 20, 1986

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.

Sunday Showcase December 7, 1980

This trip back in time lands us in December of 1980. This Sunday Showcase came out a day before John Lennon was murdered in New York City. The December 14 issue will feature an interview with Yoko Ono done before his Lennon's tragic death and it will also see "Starting Over" break into the Top Ten records in Nashville. The cover of the December 7, 1980 Showcase features Marie Osmond promoting her new show sans Donny, Robert Urich, and The Marshall Tucker Band.

Those Tucker boys from Caroline would be in Nashville with .38 Special to play Municipal on December 13th. This is a classic case of the opening band being on the rise while the headliners had peaked and were starting to go down in popularity. I like both groups so it would have been a great night of Southern rock and roll if I could have gone, but I was still a few years away from enjoying the confines of Municipal. Plus, there was a competing show in town that I would have preferred to attend if able. 

Christmas is fast approaching now as it was then, but if you want pictures with Santa Claus these days I don't Hickory Hollow Mall is an option. I spent lots of time at that mall in the late 70's and 80's. It was really a wonderful place for a teenager. This ad, however, is a creepy. I don't think people want "A Touch of Claus", but I would love to see if anyone had photos made with Santa there.

Later in the month you could see some more Southern rock with the partially resurrected Lynyrd Skynyrd; Rossington Collins Band. It became crystal clear a few years later that a reconstituted Lynyrd Skynyrd was what the fans really wanted, but back in 1979/80 the Rossington Collins Band was a huge deal to Southern rock fans. They would end their shows with an instrumental version of the obligatory "Free Bird" and I bet there wouldn't be a dry eye in the place. Mother's Finest and LeRoux were also on the bill.

You could go ice skating at Municipal Auditorium too! I don't really know why a spectator would need to pay 50 cents to watch though. Roller skating was my thing back in 1980 and I always wanted to try ice skating too, but I never have. I doubt my weak ankles would like it. 

Check out the stellar lineup you could see at Exit/In during this time. It's amazing. 

  

The Top Ten best selling pop records in Nashville list was always a part of the Sunday Showcase I looked forward to each week. The number one song is Leo Sayer's "More Than I Can Say." The song would never hit the top spot in the US being kept out by "Lady" by Kenny Rogers and Lennon's "Starting Over." The music video for it is interesting. Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" had been on the Nashville charts for 12 weeks! The Dukes of Hazzard became a smash it during this time and so Waylon Jennings's theme song hits the Nashville Top Ten for the first time. I would switch out my roller skating night from Friday to Saturday just to watch them Duke boys and Daisy...especially Daisy. Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" was heating up the charts and it ended up being the song I associated the most with the upcoming New Year's celebration. Most of these tunes would be played at the skating rink and that's where I came to love Air Supply's "Every Woman In The World." I still have the 45 I bought back then. "Freedom" by Grand Master Flash stands out for me on this list. First, the tune is by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five so they got the name wrong. Secondly, this is a tune that didn't even hit the top 100 nationally. It didn't even make the top ten R & B charts. But here it is in it's second week in the Top Ten Nashville charts. It would drop out in the next week, but it shows Nashville had a nascent hip-hop rap scene back then. New Life Records, which just closed permanently this year after having been open since April 1, 1976, had to have been a huge reason for this as they could provide fans of the music the records. Nashville was always way more than just country music and I am glad to have grown up right down the road from it.

Some more live music you could see: How about Juke at the Ramada Inn South. I don't know a thing about these guys. They were probably a cover band. I just love the ad mentioning that Tuesday is "Foxy Lady Night" because it looks like the guys in Juke are checking out the foxy ladies.

The best upcoming music concert is Nashville is by an up and coming young guy from Minnesota. He'd had a hit on his last record with "I Wanna Be Your Lover", but massive mainstream success was still a few years away. He would be booed when he opened for The Rolling Stones in 1981. Prince is headed to town on his Dirty Mind tour to play not one, but two shows on December 13th at the Tennessee Theater. Forget Marshall Tucker and .38 Special, this would have been the place to be on that particular night. If I was forced to only own the records of one artist, Prince would probably be the one I would want. My love for his music only grows as the years go by. His tunes always make me feel good. Teena Marie was another one of my favorites from this time too. If you were there that night, please let me know with a comment. He played Municipal the next time he came to town for the Controversy Tour.

I don't have a setlist for either of these shows in Nashville, but a typical Dirty Mind setlist looks like this: 

1.   Do It All Night

2.   Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?

3.   Gotta Broken Heart Again

4.   Broken

5.   When You Were Mine

6.   Sexy Dancer

7.   Sister

8.   I Wanna Be Your Lover

9.   Head

10. Still Waiting

11. Uptown

12. Gotta Stop (Messin' About)

13. Dirty Mind

That's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed this post. I'll be back next week with another look back at a random Sunday Showcase. Leave a comment, tell your friends, spread the word, or go outside and take a walk. That's what I'm going to do. 

                

What's Spinning: Controversy

I belong to a Facebook group called What's Spinning. You post photos of whatever record you're spinning. People sometimes share their thoughts or brag about how little they paid for the record. I don't post much besides the artist name and the record title. I also don't post everything I spin especially if I've posted the record before. So this isn't going up on Facebook. I reserve the greatest stuff for my blog from now on since I can go on and on about the record here.  This morning I'm spinning Controversy.

Prince's Controversy album came out in the fall of my freshman year of high school. That year of school was the worst ever. I had gone to Thurman Francis Junior High School in Smyrna for 8th grade and would have been a 9th grader there, but my parents moved back to Murfreesboro so it was off to Oakland. Instead of being on top of the food chain I was at the bottom again and most of my Murfreesboro friends were attending Riverdale. One of the few bright spots for me was there was a guy in my science class who loved Saturday Night Live (this was the Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy era) and Prince. I'd only get to talk to him class began, but Mondays were always days to go over what bits we thought were the funniest on SNL. He'd sometimes offer me "Black Beauties", but I while I might have looked like a drug user to my classmates, I was fairly straight only messing around with liquor on occasion back then.

I found out he liked Prince after Controversy came out on October 14, 1981. He came in and asked me if I had heard the new Prince record yet. I hadn't so he said he'd tape it for me. I forgot it about it, but sure enough a few days later he brought the tape. I'd liked Prince from the moment I was him perform "I Wanna Be Your Lover" from his second self titled album on American Bandstand so it was a treat to have a copy of his followup to his third album Dirty Mind. It was rare to have a complete album in those days for me. I would either have to wait for my birthday or until a record hit the cutout bins in order to afford it. Controversy was interesting to me as Prince branched out into songs more varied and some with political ideas behind them. Even though the album went platinum Prince was still sort of an underground artist too. That appealed to my sense of being a misfit at Oakland High School. Here was Prince in but not of the mainstream at the moment. 1999 and Purple Rain would bring the mainstream into his orbit. Prince was truly a one of a kind musical legend. Tomorrow's Sunday Showcase will have more on him.