Casey Counts Down the 1970's (continued)

Sometimes I'm not able to post comments on this blog, so the rest of the countdown goes here:

Number 7:  Don McLean, "American Pie" (1971).  Casey gives us a nice analysis of some of the references in this song.

Number 6:  Rod Stewart, "Tonight's the Night" (1976).  Casey explains that this was Rod Stewart's first hit after a four-year drought.

Number 5:  Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Alone Again (Naturally)" (1972).  This song sounds like it was written for a 1970's version of one of those Huge Grant Rom-Coms, like Notting Hill.

Oscar Combs:  "I haven't given up on this team.  Not by a long shot.  Still 17 SEC games & post season remain.  However, given what's transpired in first 14 games, UK owes its loyal fans, season ticket holders and corporate partners the transparency to confirm if $22 million was paid to players."  Good luck with that.

Number 4:  Roberta Flack, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (1972).  Casey has a long story about how Clint Eastwood discovered this song and used it in Play Misty For Me.  He loves that story.  Wikipedia has an even longer version, which is great.  Eastwood called Flack at her home in Alexandria, Virginia, and told her that he wanted to use this song in the only part of the movie where there's absolute love.  They agreed on a price of $2,000.  Eastwood said, "Anything else?"  And Flack said, "I want to do it over again.  It's too slow."  And Eastwood said, "No, it's not."

Number 3:  Three Dog Night, "Joy to the World" (1971).  Everyone remembers all the angry protest songs of the late 1960's and early 1970's, but they were forever breaking out with joyous songs like this one.  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."  "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."  Many such examples.

Number 2:  Simon and Garfunkel, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (1970).  Casey says that this song is a sign of what Simon and Garfunkel could both do at their peaks.  Hard to argue with that.

Number 1:  Debbie Boone, "You Light Up My Life" (1977)  I really do like this song, in a non-ironic way.  Donna Tartt used this song to end her masterful essay on being a cheerleader in Mississippi, and she really captured why people loved it so much.  There was a sentimentality about the 1970's that could be absolutely maddening, but it could also be very pretty.

As you all know, I am not a huge fan of the 1970's.  But it was the last time in American history that rich people weren't allowed to do things solely for purposes of making more money, and all that sentimentality played a big role in that restraint.  Once it was gone, cynicism -- and greed -- bred much more quickly.

Casey Counts Down the 1970's

As you know, I listen to Casey Kasem's countdown almost every Saturday at 11 AM Central on Sirius/XM 70's on 7 Channel.  But this week, we have a unique countdown.  On January 5, 1980, Casey counted down the top 50 hits of the 1970's -- and that's the countdown they are playing today.  We are up to Number 20 -- the Emotions, with "Best of My Love" (1977).

American Top 40: June 28, 1980

I'm in the mood for another AT 40, and I wanted one from late June.  So I found the countdown for June 28, 1980 on YouTube, and I'm going to work through it.

By this point, AT 40 was so successful that it ran for four hours (with commercials).  To fill the extra time, Casey Kasem had added various features, such as the Long Distance Dedications.  But he also started the countdown by giving us the top three from last week's countdown.  Here are the top three from last week's countdown:

3.  Ambrosia, "Biggest Part of Me"

2.  Paul McCartney, "Coming Up"

1.  Lipps Inc., "Funkytown"

By the way, this week in 1980 the Gallup poll showed Reagan leading Carter 47 to 41.  When John Anderson was included, Reagan had 37 percent, Carter had 32 percent, and Anderson had 22 percent.  These data marked a shift -- up until June, Carter led Reagan in most of the polls during 1980, as the country had rallied to Carter during the hostage crisis.

At the close of play on June 28, 1980, the Expos led the NL East by 2 1/2 games over the Pirates and 3 games over the Phillies.  The Astros led the NL West by 2 games over the Dodgers.  The Yankees led the AL East by 5 1/2 games over the Brewers.  The Royals led the AL West by 9 games over the White Sox.

Album Review: Air Supply

It is 1980, and here are some nice-looking Australian soft-rock explorers, gazing back into the future from which they came. What is that pyramid? What is that font? And why are these people calling themselves, “Air Supply”? 

Oh, I just dropped the needle, and now I know. The first song is the title track, and for two verses and a bridge, it is simply a breathy and pleasant confection happily destined for all of the forthcoming elevators of our lives. But wait! what is that? It is Russell Hitchcock's brilliant and deadly laser falsetto, and he is severing our heads from our bodies. We are writhing. We are obliterated. Three and a half minutes later, Air Supply is piling all of our carcasses back on the spaceship that they rode in on and battening down for their return trip to Then. We are pelts from a hunting expedition across space and time. We are gloriously and forever Lost In Love; it is a cookbook.

The rest of the record? It’s OK. If you’re here today to read this, you’ve heard a few of the tracks. But those songs are there only for utility and decoy, because 12 mixes or 45 minutes of "Lost In Love" would’ve disintegrated all of the stereos in our land. The officials would’ve grown suspicious. They might have positioned a better defense for the next time, had Air Supply ever decided to come back to take more of our kind. 

Fortunately for you, they did not. Do not attempt to avenge my death.

All of the stars for this one perfect song, highly recommended

Oh, Kentucky

Rest in peace, Coach Noles, who once tripled as a 19-year-old member of the "KITTY" League Union City (Tennessee) Greyhounds, who went to spring training with the 1953 Washington Senators, who served in the U.S. Army in the aftermath of the Korean War, who taught civics and history at West Paducah Heath High School for more than 30 years and who coached the Lady Pirates to the 1980 Region 1 girls' basketball championship.

Come And Knock On Vince Ferragamo's Door

I am more and more satisfied with the NFL Network, particularly its offseason programming. They just ran an ad for its 1985 Caught in the Draft episode, which is set to air tomorrow night, and right now they are showing the Jan. 20, 1980, CBS telecast of Super Bowl XIV. 

Comments flow!

Previous and future NFL79 reports:

-- NFL67 wrap (as posted Jan. 13, 2013)
-- NFL68 wrap (as posted Jan. 11, 2014)
-- NFL69 wrap (as posted Jan. 11, 2016)
-- NFL70 wrap (as posted Jan. 17, 2017)
-- NFL71 wrap (as posted Jan. 16, 2018)

-- NFL72 so far (as posted Jan. 17, 2019)
-- NFL78 so far (as posted Jan. 31, 2019)
-- NFL79 so far (as posted April 15, 2015)
-- NFL14 so far (as posted Jan. 28, 2019)

-- NFL15 so far (as posted Sept 13, 2015)
-- NFL16 so far (as posted Jan. 8, 2017)

What's On TV Right Now?

Breaking ... Coal Miner's Daughter is on Turner Classic Movies right now, and--spoiler alert--it's FANTASTIC!

What's On TV Tonight (1980)?

We take this break from 1969 to check in with Jim McKay and the XIII Olympic Winter Games on ABC tonight (Feb. 22), 1980 ...

Oh, Kentucky

Bon Appétit Appalachia!

Good jobs news from Henderson, London and Louisville.

Hiring in downtown Marion.

Ominous Christmas news from Shelbyville.

Starting bid is $1.99: "'The 'Broadway Mall' is the new look of Paducah. It presents a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere for downtown shoppers:"

The state police says traffic fatalities around the state were at their lowest since 1947 last year--and that they're projecting downward again for 2014.

TIME says Hopkins is the 631st most dangerous U.S. county in terms of safety from natural disaster.

CNN celebrates the entrepreneurship surge in Kentucky.

NPR investigates the pie-crust controversy at the state fair.

Estately assesses the commonwealth's love of Dallas, Dirty Dancing and Ronald Reagan.

Oh, Kentucky

"Our definition of the seasons is no longer determined by when they actually start, but by when our idea of them starts."

The 1979 and 1980 KHSAA Class 3A football champions are getting ready:

Since moving back to Kentucky six years ago, I have come to learn--it wasn't exactly a surprise, just something I hadn't ever thought about--that local farmers markets are often flash points of competitive tension and arguments about issues such as specific regulations or the broader question of government's role in the marketplace. For example, maybe Bloomfield ...

Good jobs news in Auburn and Mount Sterling.

Rebounding from the bad in Glasgow.

The bad jobs news in Paducah and the rise of #StangNation has the McCracken County housing market in flux. Change is coming for the local hotel game, too.

"Another important step toward completion of I69 in western Kentucky."

Maybe the Graves County school board wants back in the Cuba school to save the 1952 state-championship trophy.

The Christian County Chess Initiative Committee has a big year in the works.

"Came home from Bible school tonight (Wednesday, July 23, 2014); missed getting picture of a mink but caught this owl."

Thought for Monday Afternoon

I've been re-reading The Name of the Rose, the wonderful Italian novel about medieval theology by Umberto Eco, in the elegant translation by William Weaver.  I came across the following sentence, which has brightened this Monday for me:

The older I grow and more I abandon myself to God's will, the less I value intelligence that wants to know and will that wants to do; and as the only element of salvation I recognize faith, which can wait patiently, without asking too many questions.

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (1980) at 442 (Everyman's Library edition).

Oh, Kentucky

"Our hearts are heavy in Fredonia tonight."

“Let them pull that stuff in other places if they want, but not in Jackson County, Kentucky.”

“This is not elevating any group above another, this is just making everyone equal.”

Given to hospitality in Hoptown.

"Cash mom" in Muhlenberg County.

Onward and upward for Dippin' Dots.

Louisville Ballard and Marion County top the KHSAA basketball polls.

Cadiz and Franklin are both expanding their fiber-optic infrastructures.

President Clinton is coming back to Owensboro.

The Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway was closed for several hours yesterday between Slaughters and Hanson, and so traffic was detoured to U.S. 41. Northbound lanes were actually reopened before I started around noon to Evansville to see my mom, but, what the heck?

That's downtown Hanson, which, according to one of my college teachers, was a hotbed of basketball in the early 1940s. Today, it's home to a great elementary school, the Western Kentucky Veterans Home, an outlet mall, a good fish restaurant and a guy from whom I once bought--via eBay, when I was living in North Carolina--an awesome Munro All-Star Hockey Game.

I felt sorry for the folks in this car, who decided to spin around and backtrack. I imagine that they didn't realize they were within three-quarters mile of the end of the detour.

Fun to think about how exciting it must've been to purchase this camper originally and all of the neat places that it might've gone.

I love seeing those giant swarms of black birds. I'm uncertain whether these are officially blackbirds, however.

Here's Sebree, which is not the seat of Webster County. This town lost one of its more recognizable citizens this past fall. Rest in peace, Mrs. Darr, owner-operator of the Friendly Market for 52 years and unabashed fan of President and Mrs. Carter (just as is my mom). 

Sebree is home also to many Mexicans. Saint Michael Catholic Church there offers Sunday mass services in both English and Spanish.

I'm fascinated by monuments like this one to Milton Ashby in the Sebree Post Office. I'd like to know more about him; for example, how's he connected to Brandi Ashby, Kentucky's 1992 "Miss Basketball" and a Lady Topper who eventually transferred to the University of Hawai'i? I did find his dad's obituary--but nothing about Postmaster Ashby specifically.

It was a stone-cold joy to discover that Bell's Drugs hadn't yet totally dismantled its prodigious Christmas window display. Bell's Drugs is on the north side of Main Street/Ky. 56 through downtown Sebree.

The Purple Opry, Cadillac Jack's Billiards and the Sebree Banner ("Webster County's Oldest Newspaper") are along the south side. 

Back out on "The Dixie B-line" (sort of, anyway--that nickname really applies to the original U.S. 41, which runs through Dixon, which is the seat of Webster County, and is now U.S. 41-A) stands the American Legion post, which is housed in the old African-American school. 

There's a significant concentration of industrial concerns between Sebree and Henderson, and this one photograph, of course, fails to do it justice. (It's hard to capture big buildings in a cell-phone-camera frame while you're driving at 60 miles an hour.) For example, there's a big aluminum smelter, a chicken processor and a power plant through there. 

I first saw this eatery just inside the Henderson County line 23 years ago, and I've failed to stop there about 50 times since. Some day, I'm excited to try their strombolis. 

I hope Sebree's late Mrs. Darr got to see President Carter when he visited up the road in Henderson in 1975 and Robards in 1980. Said the president on that second trip: "You have a special opportunity in Kentucky, in the future, for another aspect of our Nation's security; that is, energy security. We've become overly vulnerable to a heavy dependence on foreign oil. This year we will import $90 billion worth of oil from overseas. That's a lot of money, hard to understand. It amounts to $400 per man, woman, and child throughout the United States. I want to depend not on foreign oil at the end of a 12,000-mile uncertain pipeline into a doubtful area of the world, but in the future I want to depend on Kentucky coal." 

Henderson is one of Kentucky's great towns, and that's the southern edge of it. 

But exploring Henderson is for another day and another post. I bailed off old 41 and jumped on the four-lane toward Mom here. The end.

MLB Playoffs: Day 5

When I was in the 8th grade, the Heath girls' team made it to the state basketball tournament.  This was a very big deal -- to this day, it is the only time since the 1930's that Heath has made the state basketball tournament for boys or girls.  And then the Lady Pirates won their first game of the tournament against Paris.  So now things were getting very exciting.  The next game was a quarter-final against Franklin County on Friday afternoon.  Heath Middle School basically shut down for the last period that day so that we could follow the game -- I think the radio feed was broadcast over the P.A. system.  We all got ready for the big game -- I can remember standing up at the blackboard, where I was going to keep a scoreboard.  The last few minutes before that game tipped off were one of my favorite times ever.

And then the game started, and we got killed.  The final score was 61-44 for Franklin County, but I remember it being much less competitive than that, at least in the first quarter.  Within two minutes, we basically knew that the Lady Pirates would not be state champs.  It was quite a let down.

That's how a lot of Nats fans felt yesterday.  After years of waiting, we finally had our first post-season home game in Washington since 1933.  It was a beautiful day, Nats Park was rocking, and we were all set for a mighty struggle with the defending World Champs.  But once the game started, the Nats looked for all the world like a college team that had won the chance to play an exhibition against the Cardinals.  I can rarely remember seeing any MLB team looking so overmatched in the playoffs.  St. Louis won 8-0, and it wasn't nearly that close.  In fact, the whole series hasn't been very close.  The Cardinals have only trailed after 2 of 27 innings in the series so far, and they have outscored Natsdown 22-7.  The Nats will be using their worst starter -- Ross Detwiler -- in game four, so it will be quite surprising if they make it to game five.

The other three series, by contrast, are filled with high drama.  The Giants have now won two games in Cincinnati to force a game five in that series, as they clobbered the Reds 8-3.  The Yankees were losing 2-1 to the Orioles in the bottom of the ninth when Joe Girardi decided to send up Raul Ibanez to pinch-hit for Alex Rodriguez (who is suffering his usual October woes).  Ibanez hit a homer to tie the game, and then hit another homer in the bottom of the 12th to win the game 3-2.  The O's, who had won the last 16 extra innings games that they played, picked a bad time to see that streak come to an end.  And finally, the A's were trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the 9th against Detroit -- and the plastic was already up in the Tigers' locker room for the expected celebration -- but Oakland scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to force a game five in that series.

So after five days, all eight teams are still alive:

NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES (Best of 5):
St. Louis leads Washington 2-1
Cincinnati and San Francisco are tied 2-2

AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES (Best of 5):
New York leads Baltimore 2-1
Oakland and Detroit are tied 2-2

And for the last time this year, we get four games in one day (home teams listed first):

1 PM EDT:  Cincinnati v. San Francisco (TBS)
4 PM EDT:  Washington v. St. Louis (TBS)
7:30 PM EDT:  New York v. Baltimore (TBS)
9:30 PM EDT:  Oakland v. Detroit (TNT)

Oh, Kentucky

And the beat goes on.

Yes, Harrodsburg realizes, too.

Madisonville's barefoot "Boscoe" France is No. 1 in the nation.

I should point out that I prefer the disconcerting news about birds to that of snakes.

And then there are the deer.

Urgh.

Good jobs news from Elizabethtown. Eddyville, too? And Capital City?

"Capital City?" I'm pretty sure they must've meant Central City.

"U.S. Fuel Corporation?"

Hazard is hiring someone new to go to sleep to.

Boom time for Family Dollar.

Congrats to the Clement grads!

Kentucky's ACT scores are up.

So are Kentucky's exports.

The new Marshall County High School Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame class includes stars from the 1948 Brewers boys' basketball state champs and 1980 Lady Marshals' non-champs.

Courage in Munich, in Georgetown.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cooley, former Prestonsburg mayor and "a very helpful, top-of-the-line person."

Masters -- Day 4 (11:15 a.m. Eastern)

Taking Louisville Seriously

I have been a Kentuckian since I was three years old, but I have never actually met anyone who roots for the Louisville Cardinals. I once worked with a woman who said that her husband rooted for the Cards, but I never met him. And I once lived in the City of Louisville for a year or so, but I didn't meet too many of the natives. I've spent most of my life in western Kentucky and northern Virginia, and Louisville is a long way from both of those places. So I've never personally experienced the "rage" that supposedly governs relations between UK and U of L fans.

On the other hand, I have spent my life reading the Louisville newspapers, and I am unable to forgive the Louisville Courier-Journal for the decades that it has spent trashing UK's basketball program in the apparent hope that by pulling down UK, it would help U of L. I have always found this incredibly annoying. In the first place, the whole strategy is flawed; U of L usually does better when UK is doing well. Since 1972, U of L has been to the Elite Eight 11 times. UK also reached the Elite Eight in seven of those seasons -- and in all seven, either UK or U of L reached the Final Four. (The years were 1972, 1975, 1983, 1986, 1997, 2005, and 2012 -- and you can see that the Cardinals are 6-1 in Elite Eight games when UK is also in the Elite Eight.) In the second place, Louisville fans are not the only people who live in Kentucky, and I always thought that Kentucky's biggest newspaper should be large enough to accommodate the most popular sports team in the Commonwealth.

So to me, the Louisville fans (as represented by the C-J) always seemed to be the aggressors in this rivalry. They're the ones who were so adamant about playing in the first place; they're the ones who hired Pitino; they're the ones who always turn up on other teams' message boards to trash the Cats. But I understand that Louisville fans don't think they get enough respect from UK fans -- that we are too "arrogant" to give their program its due. And I admit that we have teased the Cardinals from time to time here on the Heath Post -- all those references to the Metro Seven, for example -- so let's talk seriously about Louisville basketball.

For me, the most important thing about Louisville basketball is how great the Cardinals were from 1972 to 1986. Those were Denny Crum's first 15 seasons, and in those years U of L went to the Final Four six times (1972, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1986) and won two National Titles (1980, 1986). With the possible exception of Indiana (which won National Titles in 1976, 1981, and 1987), Louisville had the best program in college basketball during that time frame. On the whole, I really liked those Louisville teams. I like to talk about the Metro Seven because it makes me happy to remember the Cardinal teams that played in it. Crum was John Wooden's greatest disciple, and his teams played with a tenacity and flair that was wonderful to watch. Also, they didn't choke: the old U of L teams were absolutely deadly in the tournament, and were almost never upset.

But it wasn't enough for the U of L fans and their supporters at the C-J. It wasn't enough to go to the Final Four. It wasn't enough to win the National Championship. They wanted to beat UK. That was what mattered to them. And they whined and moaned and complained until the NCAA paired the teams in the same region, which is why they met in the 1983 Elite Eight. I didn't want this game, for the simple reason that I was absolutely certain that Denny Crum was a better coach than Joe Hall, and that the Cats (who were eliminated from the Tournament by UAB in 1981 and by MTSU in 1982) were no match for the Cardinals. I honestly figured that U of L would win by about 20.

And they did win, but not by 20. In fact, UK (who was the lower seed in that game) took the favored Cardinals to overtime before finally fading. And then the next year, UK beat the Cardinals twice -- in the regular season and the NCAA Tournament. From then on, I felt differently about Louisville. I still liked them. I still respected Crum and his players, and I enjoyed watching their games. But the mystique was gone. For Louisville, one of the nice things about not playing Kentucky for so long was that they hadn't actually lost to the Cats since 1951. Once Joe Hall showed that Kentucky could beat Louisville, the dynamics of the relationship started to change.

You couldn't tell for awhile, of course, because Eddie Sutton spent the next few years in an apparent effort to destroy UK basketball once and for all. But after the Cats got a new coach, and started winning again, their victories over Louisville became increasingly common. Louisville did get a lot out of the UK game -- I don't think Pitino would have come there if it hadn't been for the chance to play UK, and they get a huge amount of publicity from the game each year. And on the whole, UK would probably be better off with a home-and-home against a program like Kansas. Looking back now, however, I can see that I was wrong to think that UK got nothing from the game. By beating U of L most of the time, UK has been able to give itself a critical recruiting edge that Joe Hall didn't have back in the 1970's and early 1980's. Back then, Crum could honestly tell recruits that his program was better than UK. Except a brief period after 2005, that really hasn't been true for much of the last 20 years.

Of course, U of L has its chance for revenge on Saturday. And they may get it. I think Rick Pitino is one of the greatest coaches ever, and I know how hard it is to beat him twice in the same season. But it would be a mistake, I think, to pretend that Louisville has nothing to lose on Saturday. No program -- not even a great one like Louisville -- gets so many shots at the Final Four that it can afford to take one for granted. For once, Louisville and Kentucky are not just playing for bragging rights, but for something a whole lot bigger. Usually, if U of L loses to Kentucky, its fans can look forward to the rest of the season. Not this time. Plus, all the U of L fans who are my age -- and who have been boasting about that 1983 win for 29 years -- might finally lose those old bragging rights, and folks like me could finally put the 1983 game behind us.

So both sides have a lot at stake. And I think it will be a great, great game.

Best of the 80's: The River by Bruce Springsteen

After Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River found Springsteen moving off into a new direction.  Lyrically the characters are more mature, musically the album isn't so tightly constructed.  You can go from "Point Blank" to "Cadillac Ranch" a transition that would never have occurred on the previous two albums.  But more importantly the album finds Springsteen playing around with much simpler pop tunes, like "Hungry Heart."  It's a move which would pay dividends for him on Born in the USA four years later.

This 1980 release currently sits at number 63 on the Best of the 80's list.  It's an album I rarely pick up to play, but it really doesn't have a bad song on it.  I still find "Point Blank" to be a very compelling song.  One of my favorite Springsteen lyrical moments comes on this song when he's describing a dream.

Once I dreamed we were together again baby you and me
Back home in those old clubs the way we used to be
We were standin' at the bar it was hard to hear
The band was playin' loud and you were shoutin' somethin' in my ear
You pulled my jacket off and as the drummer counted four
You grabbed my hand and pulled me out on the floor
You just stood there and held me, then you started dancin' slow
And as I pulled you tighter I swore I'd never let you go

A good album to play while doing work around the house.  

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.

Best of the 80's: Hevean and Hell by Black Sabbath

If you were going to label one band as setting the full template for heavy metal it would have to be Black Sabbath.  They hit the scene in 1970 and immediately set the standard for all heavy metal bands that would follow. 

By 1980 Sabbath had become a has been.  Their last few albums had been tired and they seemed done.  Then they replaced Ozzy with Ronnie James Dio and came out with Heaven and Hell, their sort of swansong.  The change in singer seemed to be enough of an energy boost to get out one more great album and sits currently at number 76 on the Best of the 80's list.

If you're in the mood for some solid heavy metal then this album won't disappoint.  The great thing about Sabbath is that they don't have to go over the top to produce their sound.  You take a song like "Heaven and Hell" and you get a great feel for what makes Sabbath the King of heavy metal.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.