Sunday Showcase May 9, 1982

1982 we're looking at you! What do beauty pageants, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nazis, Aretha Franklin, and Rodney Dangerfield have in common? They're all featured on the front of the May 9, 1982 Sunday Showcase.

We didn't have any issues with pandemics in May of 1982 since we had David Banner (40 some odd years since the show premiered and it still sounds so wrong) and his alter ego the Incredible Hulk to take care of such things for us.

One thing I enjoy about researching the past is pinning down exactly what I was doing and where I was at in a place of time. As the cover notes the Miss USA pageant was going to be broadcast on Thursday at 8 p.m. on Channel 5. I may not recall watching it, but my mother watched all of the big network televised pageants so it was definitely on in our house. Something I know for certain that I watched was the network television premiere of Caddyshack which was airing May 9th. I missed out on seeing it in the theatre and somehow had not sneaked a look at it on cable television when we had lived in town. We were living out in the country on Jimmy C. Newman's farm by this point in time so even an edited Caddyshack was a big television treat for me. 

Sound Seventy Productions was still going strong in 1982 with a couple of big concerts coming to Nashville soon. Chicago was on the cusp of a huge comeback with the release of their Chicago 16 due to be released in June. "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" would be released on May 16th and would hit number 1 later on that year. The next time they played the middle Tennessee area it would be at Murphy Center instead of the much smaller capacity Grand Ole Opry House. 

One of the oddest bills would be the 38 Special concert. Point Blank makes sense, but having New Wave Of Heavy Metal artists Iron Maiden open at Municipal Auditorium seems insane to me. My musical tastes are very broad, but I doubt many of the 38 Special fans would have known what to think about Iron Maiden who were touring with new lead singer Bruce Dickinson to promote their The Number Of The Beast record which had been released in March. If you happened to be there on this night let me know in the comments. I bet it was wild.

Iron Maiden live in 1982

Capitol Records were pushing Iron Maiden along with perpetual money makers The Beatles and up and coming The Motels with specials on their music at local Sound Shops and The Turntable Record Shops. I bought Reel Music and The Number Of The Beast. I've always thought Reel Music ws trying to cash in on the Stars On 45 phenomenon. 

We know decades all get nice little categories assigned to them like the Seventies was the Me Decade or the 1920's was the Jazz Age or the Roaring 20's, but we also know that these times don't necessarily begin with clean cut precision. Many boomers (OK boomer) think the Sixties didn't die until Saigon fell. Well, for this Gen X kid, I'm saying the Eighties didn't begin until the Brooke Shields doll was released. You could have gotten one at Cain Sloan along with lots of cool Eighties style clothes to go with it. 

There's even a ring for you!

"Now wait a second! The Eighties didn't begin with a Brooke Shields doll. It began with me!" Well....who the heck are you? "Why I'm Pac-Man released by NAMCO in 1980. I am where the Eighties begins. Space Invaders was cool, but I'm the Alpha video game. I gobbled up multitudes of quarters and  inspired clothes, cereal, pop music tunes, advertising copy, and Saturday morning cartoons too. I even survived Atari putting out a terrible version of me." 

Ok, Pac-Man. You win. I think I'll go pick my Pac-man shirt up at Cain Sloan and then run over to Wendy's and see if I can win myself an Atari console through their Pac-Mania contest. 

10 minutes of Pac-Man related commercial from 1981-1986

Let's head back to the Nashville music scene which was going strong at Cantrell's. The punk/New Wave band hailing from the hippie commune The Farm was coming to play on Friday night. I used to see The Nuclear Regulatory Commission album pretty regularly back when record stores were allowed to be open. I might pick it up one of these days. 

NRC white sugar

The White Animals, who could usually be found playing Cantrell's, were at the Ringside Seat this week. I've been a massive fan of them since at least my junior year of high school.

White Animals I Need You So

If you were in the mood for some country and bluegrass you could venture out to Opryland and see Ricky Skaggs or Reba McEntire. Perhaps if you timed it right you could catch both of them. 

Ricky Skaggs Heartbroke in 1982

Reba McEntire from 1982

The Rodeway Inn Central featured Johnny Porrazo and lots and lots of drinks. You would not go thirsty there my friend. 

I have never heard of Fantasy House, but I would have loved to see what they had back in 1982. 

The Top Ten is full of classic tunes with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts dominating the chart. "I Love Rock N' Roll" was just huge and a complete change of pace for the pop music world really. It was so loud compared to anything else. I had that tune, the J. Geils Band Freeze Frame album, and the Go-Go's too. The Go-Go's pretty much rule!

Joan Jett don't forget the Blackhearts

Freeze-Frame

Go-Go's pretty sure I posted this just weeks ago, but hey it's the Go-Go's who rule!

That's all for this week. Come back next Sunday for another one of these forays into the past.

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.