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
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
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.
