1973 In Music - March's Almost Made the Charts

Continuing my look at songs that dropped off the charts during the month, but never made the Top 40.  And for the March, I counted 25.  Accounting for the 5 week month, that's pretty consistent with January and February.

Here they are, with peak position noted:

• Rosalie - Sam Neely - 43
• Today I Started Loving You Again - Bettye Swann - 46
• The Message - Cymande - 48
• Keep On Singing - Austin Roberts - 50
• Control Of Me - Les Emmerson - 51
• Follow Your Daughter Home - The Guess Who - 61
• Lost Horizon - Shawn Phillips - 63
• Palace Guard - Rick Nelson And The Stone Canyon Band - 65
• One Man Parade - James Taylor - 67
• Happy - Bobby Darin - 67
• How Can I Tell You - Travis Wammack - 68
• Boo, Boo, Don't 'Cha Be Blue - Tommy James - 70
• Bell Bottom Blues * - Eric Clapton - 78
• Don't Burn Me - Paul Kelly - 79
• Good Morning - Michael Redway - 85
• Girl You Need A Change Of Mind (Part 1) - Eddie Kendricks - 87
• Names, Tags, Numbers and Labels - The Association - 91
• Stop, Wait and Listen - Circus - 91
• Breaking Up Somebody's Home - Albert King - 91
• Rosanna - Dennis Yost And The Classics IV - 95
• We Did It - Syl Johnson - 95
• Love Music - The Raiders - 97
• Tossin' And Turnin' - Bunny Sigler - 97
• If It's All Right With You - Dottie West - 97
• She's Got To Be A Saint - Ray Price - 98

Interestingly, I only know (and have) tow songs of this list.  Note that this was Bell Bottom Blues's second release as a single, neither of which cracked the Top 40.

Concert Review - Jim Messina at The Wildey

 

Last Thursday & Friday, Jim Messina played at the Wildey Theater in Edwardsville, IL.  Our first show in 2023, but a good one!    

Jim Messina is one of the big names of 1970's music.  As explained by wikipedia:  he "is an American musician, songwriter, singer, guitarist, recording engineer, and record producer. He was a member of the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield, a founding member of the pioneering country rock band Poco, and half of the soft rock duo Loggins and Messina."  When I saw (in January) that he was coming to the Wildey, we jumped and got tickets:  5th row, on the aisle.  Of course, there are no bad seats at the Wildey, but 5th rows is especially good.

We started the evening with a great dinner at the Foundry just a short walk down Main Street.  And we even had a break in the rain (down to a misty drizzle) for the walk to the tjeater.  This my only my 2nd time to the Foundry, but we'll be doing it again!

There was no support act, just Jim Messina and his band. And the band was outstanding:  Steve Nieves on Saxophone, Woodwinds and Percussion,  Jim Frazier on Keyboards, Ben King on Bass and  Jack Bruno on Drums.  A really tight band, and they provided a full sound without overwhelming the music.  Top marks!

They played 2 full sets, with a short break between, and then 2 encores.  Messina played mostly acoustic guitar in the first set, and mostly electric in the second.  Butthe full band played the whole All of it was wonderful, but my favorites were "You Better Think Twice" and "Angry Eyes".  After the show I managed to snag a photo of the setlist, you can see it at Setlist.fm.  

  While there was a mech table (I picked up a signed copy of 2017's In The Groove), he didn't do a meet and greet.  Rather he came out after the set and did a Q&A with whoever chose to stay around.  Since the Wilsey is only 330 or so seats, it was a manageable group that stuck around, and the session was a real highpoint.  Jim Messina answered questions for about 40 minutes.  

Here's some phone photos I took during the show:

The Best Camera?

I've long been a proponent of the adage "The best camera is the one you have with you".  And I still am.  HOWEVER, that doesn't quite mean that the camera you have with you is necessarily the best camera...  

Case in point: I recently made a late afternoon walk at Watershed Nature Center.  Given the time, and the weather, and my mood, I decided to NOT plan on photography, and didn't take one of my "real" cameras.  Naturally, I came across this Hawk hanging out in one of the small trees just offthe trai:

If I had my Fujifilm with my 55-200mm lens (78-300mm equivalent) I might've managed a decent photo.  If I owned a longer lens, it would've been even better.  But I don't own a longer lens, and my telephoto was safe at home.  So I pulled out my phone  as quietly as I could and took a photo with that.  You can see it above, the Hawk is the spot in the middle.

Using lots of cropping, you can at least tell it is a hawk:

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I tried to inch quietly closer, but the hawk almost immediately took off, flying parallel to my position.  I took 2 more phone shots, only one of which fired before the hawk was obscured by tree branches. Below is a crop and an extreme crop of that photo:

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 Oh well, huh?  So the camera a had with me (phone) was certainly better than no camera, but dramatically worse than my idea camera.  Which still wasn't as good as options outside my budget.

Chickadee

 

Carolina or Black-Capped?  Or Hybrid?  According to the internet, the easiest way to differentiate is where you live, but we're right on the line.  One of my aps says Carolina, the other says one or the other.  In digging around the internet, I couldn't find any photos of either with the distinctive stripes this one has across the shoulders.  I also like the white :eyelashes" ..

Any bird experts out there?

On the Charts, March 1973

Continuing the review of songs that were on the Top 40 (US) charts 50 years ago (1973).  We're on to March, and 25% through the year!  

All of the 1972 music posts can be seen HERE, btw.

Following the format from last year, here's the Top 10 songs for March 1973, based on the average chart position (US charts) over the 5 weeks in the month:

• Killing Me Softly With His Song - Roberta Flack - 1.2
• Love Train - The O'Jays - 4
• Last Song - Edward Bear - 4.6
• Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) - Deodato - 4.6
• Dueling Banjos - Deliverance/Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell - 5
• The Cover Of "Rolling Stone" - Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show - 9
• Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) - Gladys Knight And The Pips - 10.2
• Could It Be I'm Falling In Love - The Spinners - 10.6
• Danny's Song - Anne Murray - 12
• Break Up To Make Up - The Stylistics - 13.2

Aretha Franklin's Killing Me Softly started the month at #1, continuing from February.  The O'Jays' Love Train took the top spot in the 4th week, but Killing Ne Softly rebounded to #1 for the last week of the month.

There were 65 individual songs on the Top 40 over the course of the 5 weeks, wich tracks pretty closely with the 4 weeks of January and February..

Not the greatest month for me, as far as top 10, I only own 7 of the 10 songs, but only one I didn't remember (Last Song).   On the other hand, there were song great songs making their Top 40 debuts:

• Break Up To Make Up - The Stylistics - 22
• The Cisco Kid - War - 26
• Call Me (Come Back Home) - Al Green - 28
• Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree - Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando - 29
• The Twelfth Of Never - Donny Osmond - 29
• You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Stevie Wonder - 29
• The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence - 30
• Sing - Carpenters - 31
• Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed - 31
• Masterpiece - The Temptations - 34
• Stuck In The Middle With You - Stealers Wheel - 34
• Stir It Up - Johnny Nash - 36
• Little Willy - The Sweet - 36
• Drift Away - Dobie Gray - 36
• Kissing My Love - Bill Withers - 38
• Hello Hurray - Alice Cooper - 38
• Master Of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes) - Aretha Franklin - 39
• Good Morning Heartache - Diana Ross - 39
• One Less Set Of Footsteps - Jim Croce - 39
• A Letter To Myself - The Chi-lites - 39
• Wildflower - Skylark - 39
• Peaceful - Helen Reddy - 40
• Cook With Honey - Judy Collins - 40
• Soul Song - Joe Stampley - 40
• Daisy A Day - Jud Strunk - 40

Take off for Blue Vervain

 I recently took a photo of some prairie grass while visiting Ballard Nature Center in Altamont, IL.  After posting it to Instagram, I noticed that (from a thumbnail perspective) it looks a lot like another recent photo, of starlings leaving a tree.  What do you think?

Blue Vervain

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Taking Off

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I dunno, maybe I'm crazy?

  

Both photos taken w/ Fujifilm X-T3, taken 2/15 and 3/4.

Top 10 - Gary Rossington (Pre-Crash Lynyrd Skynyrd)

 After the recent (3/5) passing of Gary Rossington, I made a playlist of songs that he co-wrote through his career.  I've been listening to that list for the past few days.  Meanwhile I'm seeing a lot of "Top 10 Gary Rossington Songs" posts on social media.  So here's my version:  These are my 0 most played Gary Rossington songs.  For this list, I'm just looking at the pre-crash Lynyrd Skynyrd; the first 5 studio albums.  These are rated based on the number of plays as recorded in my iTunes.  And it's a pretty impressive selection of songs:

1.  Roll Gypsie Roll - Gimme Back My Bullets
2. Sweet Home Alabama - Second Helping
3. Cry For The Bad Man - Gimme Back My Bullets
4. Am I Losin' - Nuthin' Fancy
5. Simple Man - Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd
6. I Ain't The One - Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd
7. What's Your Name? - Street Survivors
8. Gimme Back My Bullets - Gimme Back My Bullets
9. Trust - Gimme Back My Bullets
10. Things Going On - Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd

There you have it, my most popular Gary Rossington songs (pre-crash Lynyrd Skynyrd)...  I'll probably follow up with a similar Top 10 from Gary R's post crash career.

What're your favorite Gary Rossington songs?

Broken Revolving Door

 So, about a week ago, my brother text:

"In your cast array of photos do you have a revolving door picture I could license?"

Not surprisingly, the answer was No.  But an assignment!  In discussing w/ my wife we were pretty sure where I could find a door. So last weekend, I ran up into town, confirmed the door, and it was even broken!  I took a few photos.  

I sent my brother 5 shots from my phone, while taking more with my Fujifim.  I sent a selection of photos from my phone from the field, to see if he had feedback on specific wants/needs as far as composition. 

Here's the 5 phone photos, straight from the (phone) camera:

I did drive around to look for other doors, but didn't see anything.  Well, anything door-wise.  I did manage a few other photos I liked (but that is a different story).

Anyway, before I had a chance to look though the photos from my Fujifilm, he indicated that those would be fine.

Why did he want a photo of a broken rotating door?  Well, he's just posted an album over on Soundcloud, under his Savory Flakes brand.  Check it out for something more than the "machine" stuff on the radio!  Here's what he used:

It was a fun undertaking, and I get a kick out of having my image used, and was glad I could come up with something for him.

And, if you care, here's one from the Fujifilm:

R.I.P. Gary Rossington

 If you are any sort of fan of "Classic Rock", you've already heard the Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington passed away last Sunday (385/2023), at the age of 71.  I'm especially sad about this one, as Lynyrd Skynyrd was my favorite band during the second half of the 70's and they were the definitive act in the soundtrack of my high school years.

Most of the reports have mentioned that Rossington was the "last original member" of Skynyrd, which is accurate, if you consider "original" to mean the band as it was for their first two albums:  Worth noting that Rickey Medlocke could be considered an original member, and appears on their "First and Last" album of early and unreleased music.  He (Medlocke) left to form Blackfoot before Skynyrd broke big, but eventually rejoined the Post-crash version of the band (and is still a member).  Medlocke is still alive.  And Artimus Pyle was the drummer for the last 4 of the 6 albums by the "pre-Crash" Lynyrd Skynyrd, and he is still alive.  None of which diminishes the loss of Gary Rossington.

Some personal memories of Lynyrd Skynyrd:

I discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd through the song "Sweet Home Alabama", when it was on the charts (late 1974).  That was back in the days when we would record songs off the radio onto our (mono) cassette players, by propping the microphone in front of the speakers and pressing record when our favorite songs came on.  I had a tape that included "Sweet Home..." and would listen to it (through those mono ear plugs) on road trips from Pittsburgh to North Carolina.

My first Lynyrd Skynyrd Album was "Pronounced...", which I picked up not too much later (1974 or early 1975).  I had evolved to FM radio, and discovered "Free Bird", which impressed me enough to buy the album.  Suffice to say, I was sold, and they were well on the way to be my favorite band.

When their 4th album was released (February 1976), the local radio station did a midnight playthrough.  I stayed up late, and set the speakers from my all-in-one stereo on the floor and laid down between them so I could listen to the new album without waking my parents.  Gimme Back My Bullets wasn't all that well received, but it was my favorite Skynyrd album at the time.

Just a few months later, April of 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd was my first rock concert, playing Pittsburgh's Civic Arena with The Outlaws and Steve Marriot's All Star Band.  A remarkable experience for a 15 year old kid, and still one of the best shows I've seen.  This was after Ed King left, and before Steve Gains joined, and just a couple of months before they recorded their live album.  I saw them again that December, but that first time was special.

When the Street Survivors album was released, I bought it at the first opportunity I had.  Just a day or so later, I was hanging out at a friend's place when the news came on the radio that their plane had crashed.  We stayed up late into the night waiting for news, wondering who was OK, and who wasn't....  

When Rossington Collins Band came out in mid 1980, I had the opportunity to see them at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh.  An emotional show, especially when they played "Free Bird" as an instrumental at the end...

Anyway, sorry for the length, but I felt like reminiscing....  

Hiker's 365 Challenge - February update

 February is finished, and I'm feeling good about my 365 Challenge!  I was well above pace for the month, at 47.9 miles, and 80.1 miles year-to-date.  Over the 2 months, I've done hikes in 5 different states (IL, MO, OH, PA, VA); it will be interesting to see how that goes as the year progresses.  

I'm still managing more, shorter walks, with 24 hikes over 28 days, and an average distance of 1.8 miles per hike.  Both improvements from January.  There's a long way to go, but so far so good! 

Just a few of my "badge" shots... Plus a water bottle!

Patriot’s Park, Greenville, IL.

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Ron Foster Heritage Trail, Glen Carbon, IL

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KNob Hill trail, Cranberry, PA

Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park, Garrettsville, OH

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