Wednesday, November 30, 2022

R.I.P. Christine McVie

 Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie passed away today (11/30), after a short illness.  She was 79.

McVie joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971 for their Future Games album, one of the key additions as they transformed into the massive popularity of the later 70's.  I always liked McVie more than Stevie Nicks, but both were key members of the band.

I have a playlist on my iPod of Christine McVie songs, here's 2 of my favorites:

Heroes Are Hard To Find

Spare Me A Little

Monday, November 28, 2022

November 1972 on the Music Charts

Well, it is still November, so I'm not TOO late!  Close, though.  Here's  the continuing series of Top music hits of the month.  November 1972, almost done with one of the greatest years in popular music!.  Fifty years ago (Yikes!)

There were 4 weeks in November 1972, and there were 54 songs that spent time in the the Top 40.  Over those 4 weeks, there was only one song that topped the charts: Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now.  A true classic.

Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month. 

  • I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash - 1
  • I'd Love You To Want Me - Lobo - 3.75
  • I'll Be Around - The Spinners - 4.5
  • Nights In White Satin - The Moody Blues - 4.5
  • Freddie's Dead (Theme From "Superfly") - Curtis Mayfield - 6.75
  • I Am Woman - Helen Reddy - 7
  • Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - The Temptations - 10.25
  • If I Could Reach You - The 5th Dimension - 11.75
  • Garden Party - Rick Nelson  - 12
  • Witchy Woman - Eagles - 12.5

Meanwhile, Twenty-One (21) songs made their Top 40 debut. Here they are, ranked by debut chart position:

  • I'm Stone In Love With You - The Stylistics - 25
  • Convention '72 - The Delegates - 26
  • You Ought To Be With Me - Al Green - 31
  • Funny Face - Donna Fargo - 31
  • Crazy Horses - The Osmonds - 32
  • Something's Wrong With Me - Austin Roberts - 33
  • Walk On Water - Neil Diamond - 34
  • Operator (That's Not the Way it Feels) - Jim Croce - 35
  • Rock 'N Roll Soul - Grand Funk Railroad - 36
  • Clair - Gilbert O'Sullivan - 36
  • Corner Of The Sky - Jackson 5 - 36
  • Living In The Past - Jethro Tull - 36
  • Ventura Highway - America - 37
  • Rockin' Pneumonia - Boogie Woogie Flu - Johnny Rivers - 38
  • Dialogue (Part I and II) - Chicago - 38
  • Sunny Days - Lighthouse - 38
  • It Never Rains In Southern California - Albert Hammond - 39
  • Me And Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul - 39
  • All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople - 40
  • Sweet Surrender - Bread - 40
  • Superfly - Curtis Mayfield - 40


Thursday, November 24, 2022

Ban-hammered!

 Well, maybe ban-hammered is overstating it, but I received an email today that one of my blog posts has been "put behind a warning for readers".  

My first thought is SPAM!  After all, I don't post sensitive stuff, nothing political, or anything that I'd expect to justify a "Sensitive Content Warning".  And, the post in question is from May 2009, 13+ years ago!  Naturally, I don't click on links, so I went to the offending post straight form the blog.  And yep, that specific post is replaced with a text warning "This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.", which leads to a page that carries an "are you sure you want to continue" type warning.

So now I was curious, accepted the warning and pulled up the offending post, It is a copy-paste of a spam email I received way back when (no links or anything) offering me an opportunity to join a "who's who" type organization.  With some kind of mocking commentary about me feeing special to have received such a prestigious offer. Seems pretty benign to me, and didn't bother anybody for a rather long time.

I suspect my real failing was now "xxx"-ing out the name of the organization and the (apparent) name of the sender.  Perhaps somebody googled the company (or their name) and was offended to find my mocking blog post.  And reported it.

So now I'm conflicted about what to do.  I could modify the post and "appeal" the decision.  I could delete it altogether, which might not resolve the warning.  Or I could just leave it behind a warning.  I mean, we're talking about a 13 year old post with a total of 5 views.  I'll probably removed everything and resubmit just to clear the warning...