Popdose - Latest Comments in CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

Geoff — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:31:29 -0000

Correction: It turns out that several post-"Old Days" Chicago songs which I like a lot *were* released as singles: "You Are On My Mind", "Little One" and "Take Me Back to Chicago". They just were not major hits. Thus "Old Days" to me remains the period at the end of the classic Chicago era. Moreover, while all the other songs on this chart are definitively 1975, the song stands out as pop gem that transcends the era.

I would not even have posted this correction except I notice a couple of pop chart connoisseurs lurking on this forum ... men/women after my own heart!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

mojo — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:25:04 -0000

ah said pig-pen this here's the rubber duck, and ah ain't a gonna pay no toll. so we crashed the gate, doin' 98 and said "Let them truckers roll, 10-4"

WOW I still remember it just like it was yesterday. One of the few songs that came on the radio that my dad (41 years old when I was born 41 years ago) and I both liked at the time. In fact that might have been the only hit to do that particular "crossover," ever.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

mojo — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:21:04 -0000

THere are a lot of songs I don't like, or maybe worse...maybe if you like them I might think badly of you.

But I'm Not Lisa goes farther, inducing actual nausea. That song just emits a stench.

Freddy Fender, OTOH, can do no wrong.

That is the difference between quality country and...vomiting.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

Geoff — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:10:41 -0000

Never really pondered it before -- and I was/am a big fan of pre-Terry Kath death Chicago -- but, yes, I agree that "Old Days" was Chicago's last truly great pop/rock song. I do like "If You Leave Me Now" of Mellow Gold fame, and in weaker moments will confess to being partial to "Hard To Say I'm Sorry", but those are Cetera ballads rather than classic Chicago songs.

"Chicago XI", the last LP they did before Terry Kath's death and source of the inferior hit "Baby, What A Big Surprise", has a couple of nice cuts that were not released as singles and did not get big FM airplay either. So "Old Days" was it. Great song.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

jasonhare — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:28:35 -0000

So glad you enjoyed, Sharon. I pick the charts pretty much at random so it's always a crapshoot whether we're going to get good songs or not. I was pretty happy with this bunch. And I post this series every other week, so...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

jasonhare — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:19:27 -0000

"A Christmas Together" by John Denver and the Muppets is my favorite Christmas record of all time.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

what the what — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:12:03 -0000

I absolutely loved this week's Chart Attack. I mean, I love all the write ups, but the songs during this time are great. I'm not sure if I loved them at the time or if I enjoy them more now. The country/pop crossover songs are some of my favorites during this time.

My parents were also Denver fans and we learned to like him as well and sat through Oh God! a few times. Appropriate title, I think. I blame my parents for my love of MOR music. Heh! I'm gonna bring that up in therapy.

Thanks for another fantastic Chart Attack Jason! But, uhm, what do you mean, "...we'll see you in a COUPLE of weeks..."?!

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

forwardgirl — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:15:59 -0000

Damn Beau, didn't mean to step on your line. This is great Mellow Chart Gold Attack, I love this era with the country/pop crossover vibe. And Linda Ronstadt is just pop perfection to me.
We must be of an age, Jason, I can't think of John Denver without thinking of the Muppets...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

forwardgirl — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:44:21 -0000

"I'll have what she's having."

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

Old_Davy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:23:11 -0000

This was a great time in pop music with a top 10 Chart where 60% are terrific songs. (Linda Ronstadt, Grand Funk, Elton John, Chicago, Ace, and (gulp) America). I must agree with your assessment of the John Denver song. Man, is that one terrible track or what, but he sure sings the hell out of it. But if I never hear Freddy Fender again in my life, it will be okay with me.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

Eric S. — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:43:06 -0000

I like the analogy. I have similar feelings because I really got into Chicago around the time of "Old Days", and now I think it was the last really great song they ever did. I listened to the 80's-era Foster stuff, but for the most part they sounded like every other pop band of the era. To me "Old Days" signals the end of that great original Chicago sound.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

David_E — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:37:42 -0000

Okay – THAT made me laugh.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

ian — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:00:45 -0000

Ah, GFR, despised by the British Music Press in the early 70s - well remember the NME picture of the band onstage with word bubble saying something like ' It's E to D then back to E and if that doesn;t work, turn up the volume' Don't care - part of my back pages and 'Paranoid' and 'Inside Looking Out' are up there with the best of LZ and Iron Butterfly for this Homer Simpson! Check out the Live in Atlanta album from 1970 - porr musicianship + volume = rock and roll at its very best.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

10over9 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:33:00 -0000

Just change your name to Lisa and everyone's happy. Sooo simple.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

David_E — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:24:57 -0000

Ah, for the days of Ronnie Milsap, Eddie Rabbitt and Teri Gibbs ...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

Elaine — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:47:20 -0000

Every time I'm reminded of a pop/country crossover hit from the 70's I remember how overboard the powers that be went, trying to convince us that Shania Twain was the first in the 90's.

I love all of these songs! Your parents inexplicably dug John Denver? Mine dug Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. And later, the Little River Band, but we don't talk about it anymore. That purple greatest hits album of hers was a staple of my childhood. To this day if I need to be snapped out of a foul mood, her version of "You're No Good" does the trick. Either that or Level 42's first album.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

DwDunphy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:14:38 -0000

Except for Joey Bob McVittles. He didn't need yer damn CB. He had the Third Eye Insight (and a lifetime supply of bathtub gin.)

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

DwDunphy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:12:46 -0000

And what's your opinion of the Denver Nuggets? Or was he fixed?

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

DwDunphy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:03:00 -0000

You think that's bad? Try explaining away "The Great Gig In The Sky"...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

DwDunphy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:02:04 -0000

I keep getting "Somebody Done.." and "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" mixed up in my head. I think it's because of the "Hey!"

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

DwDunphy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:00:02 -0000

Ah, doormat country. Is there anything more acquiescent?

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

DwDunphy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:46:56 -0000

"Old Days" is the reason I just hate Chicago. I remember getting that album for Christmas (the one with the stitched cardinal patch on the front.) I must have been six years old at the time, and I obsessed over it. For a brief moment in history, Chicago was a kick-ass rock band!

Now Chicago is like that baseball player you used to look up to, the one that knocked 'em out of the park at every step up to the plate. Now they're picking fights at conventions because they're asking for $80 just to sign a replica pennant, and it's not even a good, sturdy felt pennant. It's a recycled-underwear-and-doo-rag pennant. Their evil hag of an ex-wife is taking them to the cleaners because the botox is wearing off, the implants have burst and somebody's gotta set that junk straight. And finally, after years of abusing steroids, their nuts are like those clacker toys where you flick your wrist to get the clacker balls to snap back and forth on collision, only, they don't collide, they just swing around back 'n forth, aimless, impotent and pathetic.

But yeah, "Old Days" was hot.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

eddie_w — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:40:22 -0000

A friend just played C.W. McCall's greatest hits album on a road trip we took over Memorial Day weekend. I had never heard anything but 'Convoy' before, but it was the perfect driving music. I got a lot of laughs both intentional ('Round the World with the Rubber Duck') and unintentional ('Roses for Mama'). At the very least, it helped me brush up on my CB lingo.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

David_E — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:28:19 -0000

... Was this meant ironically? The country folks WERE the CB craze.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 6/7/75

Beau — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:04:42 -0000

I knew I was forgetting someone.

Actually, #9 reminds me of all those awkward moments hearing "Hungry Like the Wolf" on the radio with my mom and wondering, "OK, which version are we going to hear? Do I need to change the station before the fade?"