My friends, if you did not live through the 1970s, I assure you this sort of thing was not uncommon. https://t.co/r1X50Nstsb
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2023
Kidney Stone of a Decade
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
As far as pop music was concerned, it was the best of times and the worst of times.
When white people try to look funky, it just looks fakey.
I was in my 30’s and only into pseudo-folk music–the Limelighters, Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie–the concerts to which I took my good-lady-to-be.
The decade had two notable features, entropy and bad taste in the visual arts and related fields. The entropy is back and on steroids.
As the Chinese would say, Interesting Times..
As I tell my kids on a regular basis, “If you remember the ’70s fondly, you weren’t there.”
I was in high school and college then. It was the 1920s without the strong economy. A whole decade with the intellectual depth and fashion sense of “The Love Boat”. Oversized shoes, lapels big enough for flight, unbuttoned shirts, fabric minimalism for women, hair going where no hair had gone before. I was of it reminded every time I looked at my science lab cabinets (installed about 1971), with wood in the ugliest brown, yellow and orange pastels this side of a bad trip.
My “pea-soup” green Stingray bike with the banana seat and ape handle bar made the summer of 1972 far out. Being 11 years old and praying for my eldest brother, Navy veteran, to return home safe was an evening ritual in our home. I recall watching the body count on the Huntley Brinkley report going into 1970.
Bell bottoms and long hair. Polyester was king.
Archie Bunker and Pat Paulson for President tee shirts. Billy beer and Cheech and Chong’s album.
Jaws.
Gee. I don’t recall parents ever having to change the sex of their children for any reasons.
No boy would ever consider entering into a sports competition against a girl…. except Bobby Riggs.
Greg – The best music we ever had, and people got high to listen to it. The worst music we ever had, and people didn’t get high to listen to it.
I must admit I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the critique.
Is there a problem with light choreography with the music? Something with the costuming? The music itself? Having a quintet performing with a lady? They’re all smiling like they’re having a great time? (That’s a performance standard, something most performers are required doing. …ESPECIALLY if they hate the content….) Something else?
I recall watching The Lawrence Welk Show many times; I saw many occasions with quartets or quints performing. Certainly the costuming reflected the era. If it looked a bit odd in the 90s, how many people think well of 90s fashions now? Fashions in pop culture do change. Sometimes a LOT.
For that matter, I participated in a show choir in college back in the 90s. Some of our choreography wasn’t so different from that.
Waal, the singing is lousy and the outfits are migraine inducing. Beyond that, I cannot thing of why anyone would object.
Lot’s of satisfactory popular music in that decade – rap had not yet hit the town.
It was the visual arts and adjacent which were ghastly back then. Every aspect of them. The clothes, the grooming, the graphics, the decor.
This was the 70s too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mnw9uiYggU
Something with the costuming? The music itself?
Add the dancing. Vomit inducing.
Admittedly, my own preferences run toward Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Statler Brothers from that era. Various other country acts too. Mel McDaniel.
grins Maybe we needed these guys in the 70s to have us ready for the hair bands in the 80s….
[…] Leftism is a Death Cult – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American Catholic Blog Kidney Stone of a Decade – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American Catholic Blog Cardinal Cupich to Appear at […]
Well, the 70s didn’t seem so bad to me but that may be since I was in grade school and early high school at the time, and didn’t have to worry about paying bills or whipping inflation because that was Mom and Dad’s concern. The worst things about the 70s IMO are the colors avocado green and burnt orange.
Plus, Super 70s Sports is one of the few, perhaps only, redeeming things about Twitter/X for anyone who grew up in the 70s or 80s, provided you can stomach frequent use of profanity it’s quite funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwbmufPphP0
It’s before my time. Surely the 70’s wasn’t worse than the 80’s.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSTyu6VnrZOkalPtAXTAzFqlK49HSbJqzeIA&usqp=CAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXCTjAMR3eA
https://www.google.com/search?channel=fen&client=firefox-b-1-d&q=traffic+glad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DnB0JZmVqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTtopI620ZU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=low6Coqrw9Y
Hey now! Not all 70’s funky white folk were bad!
James Gang
My father a farmer in his youth was really taken by Jethro Tull’s Heavy Horses.
https://youtu.be/vRHATZzMh-g?si=iJl1_FHXYh3MKAvT
Early Rush. Xanadu (not the Olivia Newton John one) came out then. As did La Villa Strangiato. Some 70s music was great.
The group The Band did a show in 1971 that became the album Rock of Ages. Here is a video from it of the song W.S. Walcott Medicine Show:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsyFtqJRU8s
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Pink Floyd released their album The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ynZnEBtvw
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They also did a number called Echos in 1971 that David Gilmore did live on his Remember That Night DVD.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW9Kts3fo98