I was still in diapers when rock oldies radio hit Detroit in ’74, so my memories are understandably sketchy. So, in the interest of presenting as broad and accurate an account of the 1970s southeastern Michigan rock oldies/rock oldies adjacent radio scene as possible, I did a lot of research – reaching out to older family members, friends, and, of course, the vast resources the good ol’ inter web to fill the gaps. I hope I did it justice. Enjoy!
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Bill Haley & His Comets "Rock Around The Clock" on The Ed Sullivan Show
Johnny B. Goode
Great Balls of Fire
Fats Domino "Blueberry Hill" on The Ed Sullivan Show
Elvis Presley – Heartbreak Hotel (Official Audio)
Little Richard – Good Golly, Miss Molly
Buddy Holly & The Crickets "Peggy Sue" on The Ed Sullivan Show
Wake up Little Susie
I Want To Hold Your Hand (Remastered 2015)
The Byrds – Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) (Audio)
Simon & Garfunkel – Mrs. Robinson (Audio)
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – The Tears Of A Clown (Lyric Video)
A collection of highlights from the great rock and roll revival (c. 1968-1984). In the late 1960s, psyche rock fatigue and a cascade of challenging world events fueled rampant ’50s nostalgia; spurring, among other things, renewed public interest in rock’s earliest styles and innovators.
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Back In The U.S.S.R. (2018 Mix)
Lady Madonna
Elvis Presley – Opening Production Number ('68 Comeback Special)
Cheap Thrills
Abraham, Martin And John
Jerry Lee Lewis – Another Place, Another Time
Summertime Blues (40th Anniversary Version – Live At Leeds)
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Travelin' Band (Official Music Video)
Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds (Official Audio)
Chuck Berry Live 1972 ~ My Ding-a-Ling
I Hear You Knocking
Freedom Blues
Slade – Get Down and Get With It (Slade Alive!) [Official Audio]
History remembers 1991 as the year alternative rock “broke” pop music. Fair enough. But if my memory serves – and in trivial matters it usually does – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was more of a final straw than battering ram. Thanks to MTV, a multitude of off-center acts broke through in the 1980s. Yes, once the first wave of music video superstars crested in the mid-’80s, pop radio devolved again into a wasteland of edgeless trifle. But cool stuff did still bubble through. In fact, by decade’s end, even some of the weirdest and wildest underground acts around had managed to forge their way into the mainstream consciousness; bringing me to the next impactful album in my queue – Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ breakthrough 1989 LP, Mother’s Milk.
Released roughly 1/4 the way through their journey (so far), Mother’s Milk may just be the most important record in Red Hot Chili Peppers’ catalog. Granted, their next LP – 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik – rightfully made them superstars. It was a funk-metal masterpiece; one of my favorite records of all time; undeniably brilliant. But hear me out. Mother’s Milk is a gloriously invigorated heavymightynaughtyspazzy collection of funkaedelicjazzyrapmetalsoulpunk certainly unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It stands on its own merits as a key precursor of the ’90s alt rock explosion. Most vital, however…born from the most trying of circumstances, the album rescued a teetering RHCP from almost certain oblivion…
IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES; IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES
Like flawed protagonists from epic literary tradition, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ long ascent from cult fixtures of the ’80s SoCal skate punk club circuit to darlings of the ’90s alt rock scene to, finally, rock institution is not for the feint of heart; a tale full of hopeful beginnings, soul-breaking tragedies, and redemptive victories. Stick with me while I illustrate the hellish crucible the band survived to make Mother’s Milk.
In 1987, the Uplift Mofo Party Plan LP triumphantly united all four founding members for the first time on record. Their name was rising; more infamous than famous at this point, perhaps, due to their stage antics, but rising. Nine months later, in the summer of ’88, RHCP was gutted by the sudden death-by-heroin-overdose of guitarist Hillel Slovak and subsequent exit of bereaved drummer Jack Irons. The future looked bleak. But the grief stricken remnant Chili’s – rapper/vocalist/post-modern poet Anthony Kiedis (himself, caught in the throes of heroin addiction) and hyperkinetic master of the poppin’slappin’funkyass bass, Flea (Michael Balzary) – braved on.
With little time and many obligations to meet, numerous would-be replacements received trials by fire on the tour. Many names passed through – D.H. Peligro (Dead Kennedys) and DeWayne McKnight (Parliament), most notably. Ultimately, the spots went to 18-year old L.A. native guitar demigod John Frusciante and prodigious punisher of the skins Chad Smith – thus establishing the most highly esteemed, if inconstant, of all Red Hot Chili Peppers lineups to date.
SET IT STRAIGHT
Truthfully, before Mother’s Milk, I didn’t even know Red Hot Chili Peppers were a real band! Too untamed and difficult to categorize, their record label didn’t know how to sell them. Mainstream radio wouldn’t touch them. No one I knew listened to them. So, my only prior reference point was their brief, anarchic cameo in the 1986 Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster caper comedy Tough Guys. But, boy, did those ninety-plus seconds leave an impression. Half-naked, slathered in paint, adorned in DIY faux-glam costuming, and bouncing like pogos, the Chilis just seemed too cartoonishly unhinged and fun to be true! I was intrigued, of course. But, assuming RHCP to be a joke band/plot convenience, I didn’t investigate further. My bad.
NEVERMIND DURAN DURAN
Flash forward: high school senior year; 1989. Change was in the air. Wacked-out on a late-puberty deluge of testosterone, I edged closer to “normal” social functioning than ever before. Oh, I was still an angsty mess. But, thanks to budding friendships, improved grades, and a newfound competitive drive, things were…better. Further, detoxing cold from a serious comic book habit and seeking new hobbies (crutches) to indulge, I turned more intentionally to collecting music.
Of course, I’d already filled a few vinyl-clad cassette cases by this point. U2, INXS, and Rush were probably my favorites. I’d stockpiled some new wave (Cars; Duran Duran; Huey Lewis) and tapes by ’70s AOR survivors (Asia; Yes; ELP). But this is where things really started to get interesting. Thanks to the discovery of harder-edged rock bands (GNR; Living Colour), classic rock radio, and the conspicuous presence of underground lifers (Cult; R.E.M.; New Order) on mainstream radio, my collection expanded rapidly. And then…
In the fall of ’89, a provocative album sleeve caught my eye at a local cd shop; a high-contrast black and white image composite depicting four young, ragged shirtless fellows nestled into the arms of a beautifully bare Mother Nature. I’d always thought this shop was uncommonly sterile and unhip for an indie – like a Bose store, but they heralded the arrival of this curiosity with a modest display. Scanning the sleeve further, my eyes registered colorful text and graphics in the upper corners. The left-side read “Mother’s Milk“; the right – recognizable as a logo – bore chunky, all-caps, sans-serif text in a circle around a like-styled asterisk shape. “Wait… What…,” I paused… “RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS…? Really???” Requiring no further convincing, I paid for the tape, thanked the clerk, and enthusiastically went on my way.
Mainstream Alternative hits of MTV’s GOLDEN age 1981-91 PLAYLIST
Thanks to MTV, a multitude of off-center acts broke through in the 1980s. Yes, once the first wave of music video superstars crested in the mid-’80s, pop radio devolved again into a wasteland of edgeless trifle. But cool stuff did still bubble through.
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The Police – Don't Stand So Close To Me (Official Music Video)
Blondie – Rapture (Official Music Video)
Devo – Whip It (Official Music Video) | Warner Vault
The Human League – Don't You Want Me (Official Music Video)
The Go-Go's – We Got The Beat
Toni Basil "Hey Mickey" Music Video
Soft Cell Tainted Love (1981)
Peter Gabriel – Shock The Monkey
A Flock Of Seagulls – I Ran (So Far Away) (Video)
Joe Jackson – Steppin' Out
The Motels – Only The Lonely
Tom Tom Club – Genius Of Love (Official Music Video) [4K]
Stray Cats – Rock This Town (Official Music Video)
I took some old records off Mom & Dad’s shelf Talked ’bout ’70s disco, sci-fi and my nerdy little self Superheroes, cartoons, and my older bro Now let’s get into rock ‘n’ roll oldies radio*
In TFY Pt. II I spoke of how 1950s nostalgia influenced 1970s culture and how rising creatives at the time channelled romanticized memories of youth into their adult endeavors. Today, I’ll set aside the broader social implications of the revival phenomenon in order to focus on how early experiences with rock oldies radio affected my musical sensibilities going forward.
*Sincerest apologies to Bob Seger (please don’t sue).
Time, RELATIVity, and ROCK OLDIES
I’d understand if anyone coming of age today mistakenly concluded that Bob Seger was being self-referential when he sang about “Old Time Rock and Roll.” The song is almost 43 years old! That’s just craziness! What’s more, Seger’s classic arrived a mere 24 years after the commonly recognized year-zero for rock and roll (1954). That’s hardly “old,” right? Too young to have witnessed rock’s birth, but old enough to remember the rock and roll revival, I can’t deny that these numbers are weighing on me…
In 2021, several of the albums responsible for exploding alternative rock into the pop mainstream turned 30!! How is that even possible? When those records came out I was 19, working two jobs, and fumbling through my first year of college. More surreal still, my favorite “contemporary” artists -the Shins – released their debut 21 years ago!!! What…? Is that right? Sure, I didn’t discover them right away, but it still feels like the album just came out. Does this mean that the song “New Slang” is…classic rock? Am I that old now??? Yes. Yes I am (sigh).
As the decades pile up and lead us ever further away from rock’s beginnings, notions of what qualifies as “classics” and/or “oldies” becomes ever more relative.
Will You Remember Jerry Lee?
Do you “remember when rock was young?” Do you like to swallow bitter pills Well! Try on this mad truth for size… The classic tunes that were initially leveraged to draw the “silent generation” and baby boomers to ’70s rock oldies radio are now in the range of 70 years-old!
It’s crazy, I know, but that’s not all! In time, as those generations thinned, slumping ratings forced programmers to find a new “mature” demographic to exploit: mine. Consequently, as oldies playlists lean ever more on ’70s and ’80s music to hook Gen-Xers, the true rock classics are getting squeezed out. ’60s acts still get some play, but songs that pre-date the British Invasion are rarely heard. At this rate, by the time Gen-Z ages up, all early rockers not named Elvis or the Beatles will have been phased out of public consciousness altogether.
Things change. It happens. But how can it be that “Detroit Rock City” has zero standard radio outlets reserved for rock’s foundational artists? Where are Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard? Why do we have to rely on streaming and (gasp!) the purchase of physical media to hear Roy Orbison, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Everly Brothers? It’s absolutely absurd! It’s a travesty! This will not do! Curse the callously calculating winds of commerce! The kids need to know their musical heritage (whether they want to or not).
“Will you remember Jerry Lee, John Lennon, T. Rex and OI Moulty? It’s the end, the end of the 70’s. It’s the end, the end of the century”
Overpowered BY funk (and rockabilly and britpop and…)
Sooooo… Rock and roll and me. Ugggghhhhh, where do I even start? Outlining my indoctrination would be so much easier if I could posit rock as a single, distinct genre rather than a wild convergence of early 20th century (mostly) American music traditions. Here goes nothing.
In the beginning there was only total nothingness… Then, in the late 1940s and ’50s,* pop, blues, jazz, boogie woogie, folk, country, black gospel, etc. all variously merged into one another and split again into the earliest rock forms – r&b, doo wop, rockabilly, girl groups, skiffle, etc., etc. In turn, as ’50s acts infiltrated the pop landscape, mutually influenced each other, and evolved, rock’s next waves brought astounding flurries of development – enter ’60s soul, the British Invasion, surf, folk rock, funk, psychedelic, prog, etc., etc., etc., etc
Was I preternaturally possessed or did I come by my affinity for pop media due to constant reenforcement? A little of both would be my guess. Either way, because 1970s media streams kept all twentieth century entertainment streams alive, I was exposed to all of these forms as a young boy. With innocent ears both awed and overpowered, I sat passively in place and soaked it all in.
* Ok, so I skipped ahead a little…
Reconstructing ’70s ROck OLDIES Radio
Prior to the rise of album-oriented rock radio in the late-1960s, stereo sound was something of a novelty. In fact, with the exception of classical works, most albums were only pressed for mono (single-speaker output). Many common consumer radios weren’t even equipped to receive an FM signal. Therefore, before 1960, the AM dial was the go-to place to hear the biggest hits of “today and yesterday.”
I was still in diapers when rock oldies radio hit Detroit in 1974, so my memories are understandably sketchy. To that point, I offer many thanks to older family members, friends, and my favorite rabbit hole of information – the internet. My attempts to reconstruct the ’70s southeastern Michigan radio scene would have been impossible without them.
Honey (Radio) That’s What I Want
“All Oldies” Honey Radio WHND AM 560 was established in 1974, was simulcast on FM 94.7 until ’76, and went off the air in ’94. Beyond these facts and a general consensus that playlists initially culled from the early rock and roll era, c. 1955-’63, that’s about as concrete as my info gets. I’ll have to fill the gaps with my spotty memory and creative use of the all-powerful interweb…
First, regarding Honey Radio’s scope of programming, my memories aren’t matching-up with the online consensus. Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” (1954*) is probably the earliest song I remember hearing on WHND, so the front end of the estimate fits well enough. The back end of that figure, however, is another story…
Ok, maybe Honey Radio didn’t originally play anything cut after 1963, but song selections unquestionably pushed into the mid-late ’60s by the time my brother and I started listening in the mid-late ’70s; “Turn Turn Turn” (’65), “Incense and Peppermints” (’67), “Mrs. Robinson” (’68), “Sugar Sugar” (’69), and “Tears of a Clown” (’70) are all tracks we clearly recall hearing. Corroborating our recollections, I found multiple AM 560 audio captures on YouTube from 1979 that feature tracks that post-date the British Invasion, including at least one song from as late as ’71.
*One of innumerable tunes considered to be the first ‘true’ rock song.
Let’s make a rock oldies mixtape
My brother used to hang out in our room for hours on-end listening to Honey Radio. In those times of solitude, when not meticulously piecing together plastic model kits, he was making mix tapes; captured from an AM-only, hand-held transistor radio to an old-school portable cassette recorder.* 9-years his junior, I was usually off wreaking havoc elsewhere in the house during these periods, but often popped-in for fun garage-flavored novelties (“Surfin’ Bird“; “Wild Thing“), bubblegum confections (“Sugar Shack“), early rockers (“I’m Walkin‘”; “Summertime Blues“), and anything that featured electric organ (“Runaway“; “House of the Rising Sun“; “Light My Fire“; “She’s Not There“). I loved the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Monkees, but hold this thought… I’ll be delving deeply into ’60s rock in a later post.
* A hobby I also adopted as a teen with the acquisition of my first radio/tape deck. (Melodramatic tones) See brother…Youuu made me this wayyyyy (smile).
Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Oldies Radio? 1954-1962 playlist
Of course, no matter how diverse WHND’s selections were, they couldn’t play everything. A line had to be drawn somewhere. So, venturing a guess, it makes sense that they excluded songs that were too “uncommercial” for the normals. Following through, this is likely why late-’60s artists who would have been deemed too heavy (Led Zeppelin), arty (Velvet Underground), atonal (The Stooges) and/or weird (The Mothers of Invention) were all left to the purview of early AOR FM radio and word-of-mouth. Is this true? All I can confirm is that I personally didn’t hear any of this stuff until high school or later.
Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Oldies Radio? 1963-1969 playlist
The Big 8
By all accounts, CKLW AM 800 out of Windsor, Canada was one of the premier popular music stations in North American during the late 20th century.
In the late ’60s, AM 800 – already a well-established top-40 station – tried a different approach. Taking the nickname “The Big 8,” CKLW adapted a “Boss Radio“-styled programming scheme whereby an army of tastemaking DJs relentlessly ranted over-top of songs in order to squeeze a maximum number of heavily rotated records and commercial jingles into each hour. I’ve always found the guileless, endless prattling of disc jockeys to be a terrible distraction, but what do I know? The audience loved it (shiver).
Anyway, “The Big 8” nicely compensated for the intrusions by playing a wide variety of hits from the present and not so distant past. Most notably, with consideration for the sizable African-American audiences* within their massive broadcast range, efforts were made to showcase popular r&b/soul/funk/disco. A lot of Detroit stations played Motown, of course, but CKLW helped to bring “black” musics into my sphere. Mom was a fan dating back to her youth in Pennsylvania, you see. So, thanks, in no small part, to her car-radio preferences, I was exposed to “Little” Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Mary Wells, the Temptations, the Four Tops, and many, many more.
* Windsor is located directly across the Detroit river from Hitsville U.S.A.
Canadian Radio roll Teleology
In the early 1970’s, the Big 8 was reputedly impacted by new Canadian broadcast regulations that mandated 30-50% representation of homegrown talent on national outlets.
Theoretically, this action should have meant serious exposure for important northern talents like Joni Mitchell, the Band, and Leonard Cohen. However, if the lengthy caps available on YouTube are a fair representation of CKLW’s programming, I can’t validate the theory. Volumes of contemporary fare and healthy doses of ’60s rock, r&b, and pop (“Nobody But Me“; “Cool Jerk; “Everyday People“; “Happy Together“) presented as advertised, but Canuck artists were few and far between. Sure, I knew of Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot* because they were successful crossover artists in the U.S. But, I wouldn’t grow in familiarity with most others until my late teens and beyond.
* Sounds like a buddy comedy cop movie, eh?
the great voice of the Great Lakes
Recycling a childhood reminiscence shared previously in TFY Pt. I, mornings in my parent’s house were once “defined by the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen, industrial size boxes of Cheerios,” and the amiable, comforting tones of “The Voice of Detroit,” J.P. McCarthy on “The Great Voice of the Great Lakes” AM 760 WJR. As such, no conversation about how I came to love music – any music – can be complete without mentioning WJR.
Relating to the subject matter at hand, AM 760 wasn’t a music station per se… Rather, anchored by a deep stable of mild-mannered yet colorful on-air personalities,* it was more a rich stew of news, weather, traffic, sports, public interest segments, regional commentary, conversational interviews with local and national public figures, reflection, listener call-ins, humor, and, yes, music.
Ok, ok. WJR absolutely wasn’t a “hip” station. But their lengthy slate of variety shows did, indeed, occasionally edge into ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s light rock and rock-adjacent MOR territory.
Tell me MOR, Tell me MOR
WJR’s ventures into modern music tended toward the MOR–Brill Building–adult contemporary end of the pop-rock-soul spectrum. However ambivalent my little self was regarding songs heard while bouncing around within earshot of the kitchen radio, warm, if fuzzy, impressions emerge while stripping back forty-plus years of repression…
Maybe I’m being too casually all-inclusive with my definition of “rock oldies” here. Rock forms were so integral to the language of pop music during my childhood it’s all the same to me. Ultimately, the point is, however I fault on precise details, tons of ’50s and ’60s tunes reached my young, impressionable ears via AM radio in the 1970s.
Black and White
In retrospect, what I appreciate best about rock oldies radio in the ’70s is how well all the music fit together despite the radical evolution of rock forms between ’54-’70. Sure, because 1950s nostalgia primarily targeted white audiences (another guess), racial imbalance was inevitable. It was a far cry, however, from the cascade of pasty-complected hard (Boston; Journey; Styx) and soft (Fleetwood Mac; Carpenters; Barry Manilow) corporate acts that dominated AOR and adult contemporary rock radio by the late ’70s. Black acts were represented and their influence was impossible to miss.
Virtually all British Invasion bands reflected the ascendency of rock’s African-American founding fathers and mothers. Some acts (Beatles; Herman’s Hermits; Dave Clark Five) interpreted r&b styles while also exhibiting trace influences of native skiffle music and mainstream pop songwriting tradition. Others (Yardbirds; the Who; Rolling Stones) demonstrated an affinity for heavy blues via hard-hitting, deep grooving “maximum r&b.”
Integrating the oldies
The best example of how “white” and “black” musics intermingled in the ’50s and ’60s may be the preponderance of racially integrated acts that emerged during this period. Anyone not hiding under a rock for the last fifty years surely knows the The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Feel-good soul-meisters Sly and the Family Stone and The Foundations have been permanent residents on oldies radio for years. Blue-eyed soul group Three Dog Night had many hits in the late ’60s and early ’70s. But what about Stax’s grooving de-facto house band Booker T. & the MG’s and Pittsburgh doo wop ensemble The Del Vikings? Do you remember psychedelic garage-folk quintet Love and the innovative jazz-rock fusion group Blood, Sweat & Tears? …The Chambers Brothers? …Paul Butterfield Blues Band?
Still crazy integrated after all these years
Distinguished from all other acts by large, polyethnic lineups, San Francisco rock collective Santana (“Evil Ways”) still embodies the integration concept as thoroughly as I imagine is possible. Founded in the mid-’60s by guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana, the group drew harsh early reviews for their “pretentious” fusions of psychedelic rock, latin forms, blues, and freeform jazz, but nevertheless won over the album rock crowd; quickly eclipsing all shades thrown by the paid cynics with their appearance at Woodstock. Today, all these years later, their widely revered 1969 debut stands as a testament to the great things we can accomplish when the boundaries that compartmentalize music and society are ignored.
THE FORMATIVE YEARS PART III: Horror, fantasy, and science fiction in the ’70s
The 1970s were a renaissance period of sorts for horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Magic, the macabre, and a pervasive fear of the future seeped out of virtually every pore of public consciousness. What a great time to be a kid! I may not have fully understood the awe-inspiring sounds and images emanating from the television at the time, or that they were often conveyances for more meaningful meditations on society, but they had an indelible impact.
THE CYCLICAL NATURE OF INFLUENCES
In the era before home video and cable became common conveniences, media consumption was a different game. As such, my knowledge of the greater world was largely confined to printed works, records, radio, and whatever programming our standard “rabbit ears” could draw into the family television set. But this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The dearth of outlets for contemporary productions meant that I basically absorbed 50 years of Hollywood output by age eight. Because of those experiences and the fact that I’ve existed long enough now to have, at least, twice observed revivals of the pop culture phenomena of my youth, I understand the cyclical nature of influence.
For example, in rock music, a line of influence can be traced from ’70s post punk rock through to the new wave revivals of the last few decades. It works the same way in visual arts, regardless of medium. To that point, creatives in the 1970s were clearly inspired by the horror/fantasy/sci-fi works of the generations that preceded them.
VAMPIRES & WEREWOLVES & BIG LIZARDS IN MY BACKYARD, OH MY!
The ’70s were an amazing time for any kid who had an (unhealthy) interest in movie monsters. Small, medium, and large; bitey, hairy, and fighty; stompy, flighty, and swimmy… There really was something for all tastes.
In the Detroit area, the black and white Universal movies aired on Sir Graves Ghastly‘s Saturday afternoon “creature feature.” Looking back, each series began well enough – faithfully honoring the spirit, if not the plotting, of their source material. Further, making use of light and shadow, rather than blood and guts, the filmmakers effectively provoked scares from castle settings and inventive creature designs. Unfortunately, in time, each series diluted to the point of self-parody after long successions of forced sequels. Really, though…who cares? Quality control? What’s that? I was a little boy. As far as I was concerned, the more monsters they could shoehorn into a single movie the better (House of Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein). If they’d just presented 90 glorious, lightning-filled minutes of monsters cage-fighting in medieval laboratories, that’d been perfect.
THE STUDIO THAT DRIPPED BLOOD
Eventually* I discovered Hammer Studios’ comparatively gruesome, cleavage-filled, color updates of Universal’s monster paradigms (Horror of Dracula; Curse of Frankenstein). Produced over a span of three decades (’50s – ’70s), the film series from “The Studio That Dripped Blood” roughly paralleled the creative paths of Universal’s properties – each starting respectably only to collapse under the weight of overnumerous, ill-conceived and exploitative low-budget sequels. In contrast to their predecessors, however, Hammer made frequent use of classically trained actors and period-appropriate gothic settings. More often than not, the movies starred Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing – known to other nerddoms, respectively, as Sarumon the White and Grand Mof Tarkin.
* Unbeknownst to Mom, who would not have approved.
MONSTERS ARE SUPERHEROES TOO?
In the world of comics, a relaxing of the Comics Code Authority* spurred an explosion of horror comic books. I was only vaguely aware of this development at the time, but all the publishers went all-in. Marvel dropped “superheroes from the crypt” (Morbius; Werewolf By Night; Dracula; Ghost Rider; Frankenstein’s Monster) directly into their established continuity. When Marvel introduced Man-Thing (Savage Tales #1), DC predictably answered with Swamp Thing (House of Secrets #92) a mere 2 months later (“WHAT?!!! They developed a SWAMP monster?!? PREPOSTEROUS! RIDICULOUS! OUTRAGEOUS! We MUST have one!!!”).
* An arch-conservative concern that had been neutering content and imaginations since 1954.
THEY MIGHT BE GIANT MONSTERS
Giant monsters were also very much in-style in the ’70s. Locally, the original black & white King Kong (1933) and Godzilla(1954) films were televised on Saturday afternoon horror blocks. Fun, kid friendly Japanese import giant super-monster slugfests from the ’60s & ’70s (colorGodzilla movies; Ultraman; Johnny Socko and His Flying Robot) ran on weekday afternoons.
In 1976, King Kong returned in a meh update starring Jeff Bridges that traded the original’s once state-of-the-art stop-motion photography for a green-screened dude in a laughably unconvincing gorilla costume. If only the creature effects were the worst of it’s problems… Long-story-short, the De Laurentis‘ paid top dollar for a b-movie that creeped-out audiences everywhere with its pervy, bestial fetishizing of leading lady Jessica Lange.
Anyway, taken altogether, these shows were a big influence. In my hands, all 4-color pens were an excuse to transform into Ultraman. At pools, rivers, and beaches, when not role-playing the classic Marvel superhero Sub-Mariner (“IMPERIOUS REX!”), I imagined myself as Godzilla; rising from the sea to smash buildings, stomp cars, and do mighty battle with other freaky gigantors.
Exploiting the insecurities of a disillusioned populace, American movie studios brought forth disaster films by the gross. Unlike conventional horror/suspense films – where the terrors are derived from the evil that man do and/or supernatural sources, the disaster genre plays on people’s deeply-rooted fears of the reasonably plausible. In place of the bitey undead, the antagonists were burning buildings (The Towering Inferno) and sinking ships (The Poseidon Adventure). Instead of Mummys and invisible men, audiences were plagued by aeronautical mishaps (Airport) and, well, plagues (The Andromeda Strain).
Supernatural threats still abound, though. Vampires and mad scientists never go out of vogue. It’s just that the standard monster tropes (vampires; werewolves; mad scientists) had given a lot of ground to gory demonic possessions (The Exorcist), damaged telekinetic prom queens (Carrie), mutant-huge sharks (Jaws), slasher flicks (Halloween), zombies (Dawn of the Dead), pod people (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)and acid-bleeding bugs from outer space (Alien).
SOMETIMES A FANTASY
Although my personal exposure to swords, sorcery, and the occult was limited, interesting developments were afoot all around.
My earliest impressions of the fantasy genre came by way ’60s reruns; from TV shows like the Munsters, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Addams Family,and H.R.Pufnstuf. Disney’s kid-friendly fantasy films (Pete’s Dragon; Escape to Witch Mountain) played occasionally on Sunday evenings. And, of course, I watched monster movies as often as I could. At some point, works based on author J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth grounded series entered the house… I remember the “fotonovel” for Ralph Bakshi‘s 1978 Lord of the Ringsmovie. Right around that same time, my oldest sister received a book of Brothers Hildebrandt paintings. Principally collected from Tolkien calendars (’76-’78), the book also featured Greg Hildebrandt’s disturbing cover artwork from Black Sabbath’s Mob Rules, as well as his poster design for Star Wars. I was intrigued, to say the least.
As I alluded to earlier, J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings found wider audiences via animated mainstream adaptations of The Hobbit (Rankin/Bass) and The Lord of the Rings. Additionally, Tolkien lore wielded great influence in the realm of hard rock music; evident via explicit lyrical references in songs by Led Zeppelin (“Ramble On“; “Misty Mountain Hop“) and Rush (“Rivendell“; “The Necromancer“), among others.
And then we have the absurdist glam-funk heroes Parliament (“Dr. Funkenstein“) and Richard Elfman’s surrealist Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo*. Composed of massive orchestra-like lineups, each group approached fantasy themes though elaborate presentations that bore more resemblance to gothic musical theater than rock and roll. Sadly, I didn’t discover George Clinton/ Parliament-Funkadelic until Red Hot Chili Peppers provided the gateway in the late-’80s. There is a chance, however, that I might have seen the Mystic Knights when they appeared on The Gong Show.
*The pre-fame incarnation of brother Danny Elfman’s Oingo Boingo.
CONCEPTUAL (YOU’RE SO)*
Any cursory examination of 20th century science fiction reveals that all was not well with the world. “Life imitates art” just as art imitates life. Onscreen, while it’s certainly true that most sci-fi adaptations aberrated from their literary sources (Frankenstein; The Time Machine; TheIsland of Doctor Moreau;I Am Legend: The Sentinel), themes relating to the conflicted nature of humanity – it’s impressive native adaptability vs. it’s inherent self-destructive arrogance – remained central.
* Sorry (I’m not sorry) for the obscure references, folks. This is a play on the name of the Adam & The Ants song “Physical (You’re So).” A few years later they released a track called “Picasso Visita el Planeta de los Simios.” I couldn’t resist.
** Good to see some things never change, eh?
INTO THE ATOM AGE
After observing the conceptually light, fun early space explorer-adventurer serials of the ’30s and ’40s (Buck Rogers; Flash Gordon), it’s hard to miss the pattern of xenophobia that enveloped virtually all sci-fi productions post World War II. The ruination of Hiroshima and Nagasaki laid bare the potentially calamitous power of nuclear energy. The atomic age had dawned, wiping away virtually all sanguine curiosity regarding science, technology, and the unknown among the general populace. Everyone feared nuclear energy, but few outside of the scientific community truly understood the systems behind it. So, when ignorant creatives innocently used implausible science as plot devices, the gaping holes in logic usually went unnoticed by the general public.
ENTER THE MARVEL AGE
One benign example of this is the manner by which different forms of radiation were misrepresented in order to provide the foundation for Stan “The Man” Lee‘s Marvel Age of comics (est. 1962). Marvel superheroes were (are) my favorite, but the “science” that bred them is, of course, complete b.s. Lee needed plot conveniences to quickly explain away hero origins and allow stories to cut straight to the action. Therefore, “cosmic rays,” gamma bombs, and radioactive spiders were respectively applied as the source of the Fantastic Four‘s, Hulk‘s, and Spider-Man‘s powers. His readers didn’t know any better, so why not, right?
BAR BARB-ARELLA
In film, however, radiation and the “unknown” were almost universally panned as something to be feared, period. By the 1950s, sci-fi had mostly degenerated into a funereal dirge of joyless space-horror flicks (War of the Worlds; Forbidden Planet; The Thing; The Blob;This Island Earth), botched experiments (The Fly; Tarantula), and irradiated giant monsters (Godzilla; Them!). And then, on the other hand, was 1968’s Barbarella, starring “Hanoi Jane” Fonda. Campy, dumb, and exploitative to it’s core, at least this infamous B-grade space epic provided a much needed reprieve from the wasteland of unpleasant futures that dominated ’70s cinema (THX1130, Silent Running; Logan’s Run; Zardoz).
MOSES VS. THE PLANET OF THE APES
Known mainly to modern audiences through several 21st century attempts by 20th Century Fox* to again cash-in on once lucrative properties, no sci-fi downers that crossed my path in the ’70s had a greater cultural impact than the original Planet of the Apes series.
Depicting a future where lower-primates have evolved to supplant humanity as the alpha inhabitants of Earth, the first movies effectively play as contemplative morality tales. Put aside the base fears at the heart of Planet of the Apes‘ commercial appeal. Pay no mind to the convoluted continuity issues that resulted from stringing the series along a little too far. Sci-fi was merely a vehicle for posing challenging questions about race, inequality, human rights, animal rights, fear, hubris, fascism, war, etc.
I wasn’t even five when first exposed to the Apes series by way of ABC Detroit 7’s weekday afternoon movie, so the deeper subtexts were probably beyond me. No, at that age, the space capsules and talking apes were cool enough. It’s very much like the way ’70s kids voluntarily suffered any amount of lame human drama from Six Million Dollar ManBionic Bigfoot in order to catch even the briefest glimpses of Bionic Bigfoot.
* Since swallowed up by the Disney entertainment cabal.
THE LIGHTER SIDE OF SCI FI
Luckily, the state of sci-fi during that span of time wasn’t a complete bummer. To kids of a certain age, all the doom and gloom paled in comparison to the allure of cool-looking ships, groovy spacesuits, talking robots, nasty beasties, mighty battle, and high adventure.
Because of the newness of the TV medium, execs from the first few decades of American broadcast television were much more prone to roll the dice on truly imaginative content than those operating today. Risks tended toward light fantasy… Sitcoms (Mr. Ed; My Favorite Martian; I Dream of Jeannie), aquatic adventures (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea); and westerns (Wild Wild West). But execs also, on occasion, gave harder-hitting, conceptual science fiction anthologies a chance (The Twilight Zone; The Outer Limits). 1966’s Dark Shadows gave vampires a run at the afternoon soap.
When the original Star Trek ended in 1969, few seriously expected that it’d be a major cultural force after ten years, let alone 60? Cancelled after just three seasons, the show amassed a formidable following in the ’70s via syndication. Taking a loose survey of Star Trek’s legacy in the present day, I found that it has sired, to date, no fewer than nine further television series, thirteen feature films, a Saturday morning cartoon, and endlessparodies.
BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY!
Everyone in my family loved Star Trek except for Dad, of course (“I have imagination…when it makes sense!). The program appealed to youthful imaginations through its use of vibrant color palettes, cool ship designs, nifty and gadgets. Beautiful matte paintings depicting “strange new worlds” were a highlight of every episode. Compelling stories challenged viewers to grow beyond binary notions of right/wrong and good/evil. Stagey (over)acting entertained and exciting music and sound effects accompanied all actions. Above all other considerations, Star Trek taught me about the perks of being a space captain and the norms for responding to potential conflict (HA!).
Whatever I was doing, inside or out, I found a way to land in front of the TV console every weekend evening to watch the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Trekbattle music played in my head when playing outside. Whenever in sufficiently rugged-looking terrain,* I was looking to engage in mortal combat with a Gorn warrior (“Time…to hit…the sides of his…head…with dual…CUPPED HANDS!”). I coveted my brother’s AMT model Enterprise and younger cousin’s Mego dolls. Along with Batman and Bugs Bunny cartoons, it was surely my favorite show. And then…
* Literally, any setting.
MY FIRST STEP INTO A LARGER WORLD
The late ’70s were a dark time for cinemagoers. The evil leaders of corporate media had audiences caged in a relentless, dispiriting cycle of oppressive dystopian futures. Fear had proven profitable. …But all was not lost. Raised in the “Indie” wilds, young rebel director George Lucas emerged to blindside the American film industry with his world-changing, escapist homage to the pure space adventurer serials of yesterday – Star Wars. Not “Episode IV.” Not “A New Hope.” Just…Star Wars.
SURPRISE SUCCESSES
Star Wars debuted on Wednesday, May 25, 1977 to much acclaim. Simply hoping for modest returns on their $10 million investment, and completely oblivious to the fact that they’d produced, arguably, the most influential pop culture phenomena of the late twentieth century, a pessimistic 20th Century Fox opened Star Wars in limited release (32 screens) across the U.S. Much to their surprise, the movie caught fire immediately and, by August, has spread to over a thousand theaters domestically. By the end of ’78, global ticket sales exceeded an unprecedented $400 million (over 1.3 Billion in 2021 U.S. dollars).
Tangentially, later that year, Steven Spielberg’s warm, refreshingly non-fatalistic tale of first contact with alien species – Close Encounters of the Third Kind – was also welcomed by rave reviews and keen public reception.
WHY ALL THE SURPRISED FACES?
Did the studios have sound reason for grossly miscalculating the connection Star Wars and Close Encounters would make with audiences? In hindsight, as a casual observer/enthusiast, I believe their myopic view was more attributable to a general industry-wide distaste for the genre than anything else. Yes, Sci-fi projects were expensive to make but they were profitable. Stanley Kubrick’s much lauded 2001: A Space Odyssey(1968) may have initially failed to recoup production costs for MGM, but redeemed itself famously through re-releases starting in ’71. Syndicated episodes of Paramount’sStar Trek TV show were extremely popular throughout the ’70s. FOX’s own Planet of the Apes property did well enough to justify continued exploitation well into the mid-’70s. Obviously, they should have known that there was an audience for epic space stories.
STARFIELD MEMORIES
Despite the profound influence Star Wars had on my kid brain, I’d only just turned 5 during the first few months of its original run and, as such, can’t recall the experience of seeing it in the theaters at that time. Did we see it as a family? Which theater? Nearly forty-five years down the road, none of us can remember. Details regarding my indoctrination to the ways of the force notwithstanding, the movie stuck with me.
Are my earliest memories real or illusory? Are they genuine or simply the result of constant reinforcement courtesy of the Lucasfilmmerchandising machine and innumerable repeat viewings? All that matters is that I was very excited and moved by the experience, which, at best guess, occurred some time before the summer of ’78 – around the time Star Wars stuff began infiltrating the home.
GIVE YOURSELF TO THE POWER OF THE STAR WARS
My full surrender to the ways of the Force wasn’t immediate. Superheroes had held a singular place in my young psyche practically since birth, so turning me was no small feat. Doing so required unrelenting waves of media saturation, family/peer influence, and Star Warsproduct.
On TV, movie and toy promos aired constantly and cast frequently appeared on talk shows. Networks aired tribute variety shows. In 1978, CBS broadcast the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. Highlighted by a cartoon segment that introduced the popular bounty hunter Boba Fett, the otherwise abominable program was immediately disowned by all at Lucasfilm and repressed in collective memory until YouTube came along.
ALONG COMES KENNER
Many major toy companies, failing to recognize Star Wars‘ commercial potential, passed on the toy license until Kenner lucked into it. Initial rollout was rough, though. Due to the lateness of the agreement, failure to anticipate demand, and Lucas’ reluctance to offer reference images ahead of the film’s release, no toys were available for Christmas ’77. Oops! Regardless, sales soared once products began to hit the market in ’78 – exceeding $100 million annually in ’78 and ’79.
Inarguably, Kenner’s greatest innovation was the popularization of 3.75″ action figures. Prior to Star Wars, the only small-scale figures I recall accompanied Fisher Price/Richard Scary playsets and my brother’s Space: 1999Spaceship. More portable and affordable than 8″ (Mego) and 12″ (G.I. Joe) dolls, the smaller figures also more easily accommodated sets and vehicles that matched their scale; making them more optimal for active play and ease of storage.
SEDUCED BY THE POWER OF THE FORCE
My personal mania for collecting Star Wars items started slowly; escalating precipitously as more items found their way into my possession. The very first Star Wars toy to come home may have been the large-size Darth Vader figure. Stray items followed here and there (Escape From Death Star board game; a Play-Doh action set), but Christmas ’78 was the clincher.
My parents didn’t habitually spoil their kids with “stuff” year-round, but always made up for it for birthdays and Christmas. That said, I awoke Christmas morning in 1978 to find a treasure trove of Kenner Star Wars merchandise under the tree… Santa left a Millennium Falcon filled with about 3/4 of all figures available at the time. A large Obi-Wan Kenobi was presented to provide a sparring partner for my large Darth Vader. Supplementary reading material was offered in the form the Star Wars Storybook. That was it. I was hooked.
From then on, all I (mostly) wanted for Christmas, birthdays, and everything in-between, was moreStar Wars swag. I joined the official fan club and read the Bantha Tracks newsletter. Luke Skywalker supplanted Batman, Spider-Man and Captain Kirk as my go-to live-action role-play option. I practiced drawing by sketching freehand studies from figures and trading cards. Between toys, cards, patches, posters, books, and comics, by the time Kenner phased out the original trilogy line in ’85, I’d amassed an impressive collection. I knew kids who had even more, but it was pretty ridiculous.
RUINS
Sadly (hanging head), today, only a few meager artifacts remain of my once proud collection. Some items were sold (many annoyed grunts); some handed-down to younger cousins (many more annoyed grunts). But hey! On the plus side, thanks to comic shows and the internet, I get to gaze longingly at the tragic ruins of other people’s broken Star Wars collections along with Hasbro’s overpriced reproductions.* Awesome.
* That I can’t afford to buy and wouldn’t have space to display even if I could.
THE LONG SHADOW OF THE FORCE
Star Wars‘ cultural presence was constant leading into the 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back. Between the original film’s first, lengthy theatrical run, yearly re-releases, advertising, and the regular release of fresh merch, the property never had a chance to fade.
Initially planned as a TV revival, Paramount’s beautiful-looking Star Trek: The Motion Pictureearned points for excellent production values and getting the gang back together. Unfortunately, however, it failed to recapture the excitement of the original show. Plodding along at sub-impulse on a recycled story from the original series, once the introductions were over, the actors had little more to do than pose for reaction shots. Thankfully, Paramount did better at ripping themselves off on the ’82 sequel Wrath of Khan.
ONE LAST STRAY THOUGHT
Sadly, the years after Star Wars appeared were not kind to the Mego brand (World’s Greatest Superheroes). I’ll go into more detail later about my childhood love for Mego, but, for now, suffice to say that they passed on Star Wars. So, scrambling vainly to capture back market share in the wake of Kenner’s newfound dominance, Mego desperately committed to numerous expensive licensing agreements to sell space movie toys kids didn’t want. By 1983, they were bankrupt and out of business. (Pointing derisively) I think the words you’re looking for are “Haa Haa!”
Ok, that wasn’t very nice, but please forgive me. It was a shame to see Mego fold due to the unbelievable string of bad business decisions at the top. I loved those toys and lot of workers lost their livelihoods, but that’s how it usually goes, right? It makes me sad.
ABOUT THIS SITE
Greetings! My name is Forrest. Welcome to the WALL OF TUNES blog.
In college, friends jokingly likened me to John Cusak’s character from High Fidelity because, well, I’m angsty and I like to talk about music – a LOT.
THE WALL OF TUNES blog dives deep into my personal experiences with media – expanding upon the mix of informational content and highly subjective analyses I post on Facebook, but with more detail, better quality control, and less bad language (smile).
…Have different angles to consider or comparable stories to tell? Please… Start a conversation in the comments section!
FYI: “Easter Eggs” are nested everywhere in highlighted text.
