Dad was assigned to Germany once again; he left to set up ‘house’. While he was there we picked up a college roommate, don’t remember her name but remember she was nice looking and we had fun water fights while washing the car, mom’s white Impala, which someone had hit and totaled when it was parked out on the street. I am getting pretty good at bowling for an 11 year old. I will turn 12 this year and start Junior High in the fall. Little did I know that I would be doing this in Germany. During the spring of this year, I had an experience I will always remember, though I could not even tell you how it started. It seems for almost two weeks (could’ve been longer or shorter), this black kid who lived down the street and I were constantly after each other. First him and his buds would chase me and the next day me and mine would chase him. One day my mom was home when this happened. She took me to his house, his name is Roland, and knocked on the door. My mother told his mother what had been going on, while they were sitting down talking, we both were standing. Don’t know which one had asked “So you want to fight each other?”, the other piped in “Then both you boys go outside and beat each other to a pulp and don’t come back inside until one of you is dead!” (boy, child protective services would have a field day with that in this day and age). We both looked at each other and both said no ma’am, we don’t want to fight, so they made us apologize to each other and shake hands. From this point on we were great friends until I had to go to Germany with mom, but hey it was a great time in my life. This is also how I got the scar on my right knee. We played tag football out in the middle of the (asphalt) street, sometimes we got a little rough and it would be come tackle football (lol), I got my knee scraped being tackled on the asphalt, it took a chunk out of my skin. At the same token, we had a new guy, guess he never played football, and went to block me and lifted his knee and caught me in the chin that is how my front tooth got chipped. When I get to Germany I am in Junior High, woohoo, and join band. Though I really wanted to play drums, I was assigned Clarinet. Our first chair was a very beautiful girl named Nancy Gifford, and though I was interested, she wasn’t (Dad was an officer, but that was not the reason), but me and her sister Michelle got along pretty well and even she could not understand her sisters actions (hmmmphhh women, lol). The band teacher was real memorable, not because he was a great teacher, but he picked his nose, deeply, during class and flicked it out over the band students. (Yuck!).
MUSIC:
Songs to come out:
I’m Eighteen (Alice Cooper), Where Do I Begin – Theme Form Love Story (Andy Williams), How Can You Mend A Broken Heart -Lonely Days (The BeeGees), Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers), DOA (Bloodrock), Baby Im-A Want You (Bread), One Toke Over The Line (Brewer & Shipley), It’s Too Late (Carole King), Rainy Days And Mondays (The Carpenters), Peace Train (Cat Stevens), Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (CCR), Gypsys Tramps And Thieves (Cher), Coulour My World (Chicago), One Tine Soldier (Coven), Cherish (David Cassidy), Go Away Little Girl (Donnie Osmond), LA Woman - Love Her Madly (The Doors), Levon – Tiny Dancer – Your Song (Elton John), One Less Bell TO Answer (Fifth Dimension), Signs (Five Man Electrical Band), My Sweet Lord (George Harrison), Want Ads (Honey Cone), Theme From Shaft (Isaac Hayes – He’s a bad Mutha – shut yo mouth), Love The One Your With (The Isley Brothers), You’ve Got A Friend (James Taylor), Me And Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin), Mr. Bigstuff (Jean Knight), Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull), The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez), Take Me Home Country Roads (John Denver), Imagine (John Lennon), Me And You And A Dog Named Boo (Lobo), I Beg Your Pardon, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson), What’s Going On? (Marvin Gaye), Brand New Key (Melanie), Got TO Be There (Michael Jackson), I Am…I Said (Neil Diamond), Mr. Bojangles (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Another Day – Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (Paul McCartney), Indian Reservation (Paul Revere and The Raiders), I Just Want To Celebrate (Rare Earth), It Don’t Come Easy (Ringo Starr), Maggie May – Losing You (Rod Stewart), Brown Sugar – Wild Horses (The Rolling Stones), Oye Como Va – Black Magic Woman (Santana), Family Affair (Sly and The Family Stone), You Are Everything (The Stylistics), Just My Imagination (The Temptations), I’d Love To Change The World (Ten Years After – one of my fave songs, great guitar riff), Liar! – Old Fashioned Love Song (Three Dog Night), She’s A Lady (Tom Jones), Knock Three Times (Tony Orlando and Dawn), Get It On (T-Rex), Smiling Faces (Undisputed Truth), Behind Blue Eyes (The Who – and another fave) and lastly I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Yvonne Elliman from JCSS).
The Albums:
April Wine (April Wine – don’t you just love album names like this?), Blue Oyster Cult (Blue Oyster Cult), Anticipation – Carly Simon (Carly Simon), Tapestry (Carole King), Carpenters (The Carpenters), Jesus Christ Super Star (Original cast Ted Neely, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman and others – never got a chance to see it except in the theater. Many years later at a discount /used stuff store, going through albums and found an original with the play leaflet in it, asked how much and he said 50 cents, gave a dollar and ran out the store before he new what he had), Chicago III (Chicago – inventive just number your albums), Fireball (Deep Purple), Coat Of Many Colors (Dolly Parton), American Pie (Don McLean), The Doobie Brothers (The Doobie Brothers), L.A. Woman (The Doors), Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), The Electric Light Orchestra (The Electric Light Orchestra), The Concert For Bangladesh (George Harrison), Shaft (Isaac Hayes), Aqualung (Jethro Tull), Imagine (John Lennon), Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin), Little Feat )Little Feat), Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson), What’s Going On? (Marvin Gaye), Ram (Paul McCartney), Every Picture Tells A Story (Rod Stewart), Sticky Fingers (The Rolling Stones), A Space In Time (Ten Years After), The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys (Traffic), Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison), Who’s Next (The Who), Wild Life (Wings), Fragile (Yes) and ZZ Top’s First Album (ZZ Top of course).
Events:
First time the soon to be megahit “Stairway to Heaven" is played – at the Ulster Hall, Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuts, Jim Morrison of the Doors is found dead in the bathtub in Paris France, Duanne Allman dies in a motorcycle accident in Georgia, The Montreux Casino in Montreux Switzerland burns down, Deep Purple is staying across from it and it is documented in the song “Smoke on The Water”, The very first Rock Opera opens on Broadway – Jesus Christ Superstar , Godspell also opens.
MOVIES:
The Abominable Mr. Phibes (Vincent Price), The Anderson Tapes (Sean Connery), The Andromeda Strain (Arthur Hill – one of my favorite Sci-fi’s), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Angela Lansbury), Big Jake (John Wayne), Brian’s Song (James Caan), A Clockwork Orange (Malcolm McDowell), Diamonds Are Forever (Sean Connery – Bond, James Bond), Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood, who else?), Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter), Fiddler on The Roof (Topol – a great movie, eh Tevi?), The French Connection (Gene Hackman), LeMans (Steve McQueen), The Omega Man (Charlton Heston), Pink Floyd : Live At Pompeii (Pink Floyd, give the boys film and room and no telling what will happen), Play Misty For Me (Clint Eastwood), The Presidents Plane Is Missing (Buddy Ebsen), Shaft (Richard Roundtree), Summer Of ’42 (Gary Grimes), Support Your Local Gunfighter (James Gardner – plays great western roles), Willard (Bruce Davison) and everyone’s favorite Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder, who else can play this? Certainly not Johnny Depp – my opinion).
EVENTS:
Cigarette Ads are banned from TV, Charles Manson and three of his followers are convicted for the Tate-LaBianca murders, Idi Amin becomes dictator and president of Uganda, Bomb Attack on the Capitol Building by The Weather Underground – Bill Ayres and Company (Name sound familiar?), Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali to retain his heavyweight belt, President Nixon ends the China blockade, Watergate Team breaks into the office of Daniel Ellsberg, Attic State Prison Riot, Rahway Prison Rebellion, President Nixon commutes Jimmy Hoffa’s sentence and the infamous ‘DB Cooper’ hijacks a plane, collets $200,000 and jumps at a rear hatch, never to be heard of again.
CARTOONS:
Premiering are Deputy Dawg, Jackson 5ive and Pebbles and Bamm Bamm.
TV SHOWS:
Debuted this year are Alias Smith and Jones, McMillan and Wife and everyone’s favorite All in the Family.
