Louies Blog

For tomorrow’s Nine at Nine we head to a farm in Scotland where Paul McCartney now calls home. Oh no Paul! Scottish authorities just found your "special" garden. Only a $240 fine. I hope he could come up with the cash. His year got much better with the release of “Band on the Run” and  “Live and Let Die”.

A month before that a couple of brothers, Angus & Malcom, decided to start a rock band called AC/DC. Journey and Kiss were also newborns. 1973 was loaded with great comedy gaving us our first visit from Sue Ann Nivens on Mary Tyler Moore and George Jefferson on All in the Family.

We were all more gullable in 1973. Johnny Carson made a joke about an acute toilet paper shortage. For the next three weeks people were in a panic grabbing as much toilet paper they could get their hands on. Hopefully, your bathroom cabinet runneth over and you’re ready for tomorrow’s Wozz Nine at Nine …1973.

Ahhh … 1986 when you could torch up a smoke any damn place you wanted. No. Wait. That was 1985.  On January 24^th, 1986 there were a lot of “Voyager 2” jokes because that’s the year it probed Uranus (insert joke here). The jokes ended January 28^th when the Challenger disintegrated shortly after take off. On a lighter note, Geraldo Rivera wasted 2 hours of thirty million lives when there was only bottle in “Al Capone’s Vault”.

Some of the music from our core Classic Rock heroes had a weird 80’s sheen in 86’. One look at some album covers told you who was shopping at the Miami Vice outlet. 1986 did have high points like Graceland and Slippery When Wet. Lather up & have a listen right after Bob & Tom.

1974 is where we land Wednesday after Bob & Tom.

1974 features the humble beginnings of Van Halen, The Talking Heads, The Ramones, Cheap Trick and Blondie. We’ll start our Wozz Nine at Nine with one of the bands on the “newbie” list except this band had a history before they played a note together. Bad Company leads the way on a year where we had a President resign (Pardon me), Steven King scaring the crap out of readers for the first time with “Carrie” and Steve Miller going world wide with “The Joker”. For every “Joker” there was a “Jack”… as in Terry Jacks and “Seasons in the Sun”. We won’t go there but I can’t guarantee there’ll be no “Kung Fu Fighting”. Those cats were fast as lightning!

George Orwell’s Big Brother didn’t materialize but 1984 had plenty of moments to keep us entertained. On August 11^th, during a microphone check for a radio broadcast President Reagan remarked, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes"….In November he was easily re-elected.

In September, The U.S. had enough of relying on the Japanese for our new compact discs and built a plant in Terre Haute, Indiana. What could be more American than Terre Haute? Maybe the first disc off the assembly line, “Born in the U.S.A.” We’ll manufacture nine great songs from one great year, 1984, right after Bob & Tom.

How did we ever make it before 1976?

In 1976 we didn’t have Frampton Comes Alive or Hotel California … or Legionnaires Disease. We didn’t have Boston (the band) or a Fleetwood Mac without Lindsey and Stevie. There was no U2 or Foreigner or the possibility of seeing Joe Cocker doing a duet with himself on Saturday Night Live. 1976 was our big Bicentennial party although, in 1976, we didn’t need much of an excuse to party. Tomorrow after Bob & Tom, we’ll party like it’s 1976.

In 1985, Mike Tyson laced his boxing gloves professionally for the first time. It’s also a good bet it’s the first time, since you were in school that someone brought up “the Ozone layer”. We kicked off the year with “We are the World” and talked about Tipper Gore and the P.M.R.C. that summer. The unlikely trio of Frank Zappa, Dee Snider and John Denver were on the front lines for that battle. It was the end of the line for the J. Geils band, Dr. Hook and the Police. It was a great year for John Fogerty and Foreigner and they might pop up with tomorrow’s Wozz Nine at Nine right after Bob & Tom.

1983 was a really bad year for album covers. This beauty from Black Sabbath isn't even close to the worse but we'll save that for a later date. 1983, in general, had some high points once you got past Kiss without make up and Cabbage Patch dolls. Boom Boxes were great if you didn't mind being forced to listen to somebody elses crappy music selections. If you were lucky you'ld catch something from Eliminator, Let's Dance, Texas Flood or Pyromania. It was a pretty good year for Paul Simon. He married Princess Leia. We'll hit hyperspace to 1983 right afetr Bob 7 Tom.

1975 is our Wednesday stop for Wozz's Nine @ Nine. As we're huddled over our PCs & laptops it's worth mentioning that 1975 was the year of the first personal computer, The IBM 5100 Portable Computer. It wasn't practical and even if you were smart enough to write programming it would cost around $19,000. Thats a pretty hefty price tag in 1975 dollars! While IBM and Apple were getting off the ground the rest of us were rocking to Fandago, Born to Run, Captain Fantastic, Kiss Alive, Fleetwood Mac, Fool For the City, Face the Music, Katy Lied, A Night at the Opera, Physical Graffiti, Straight Shooter, Toys in the Attic and Wish You Were Here....too name a few. Well, they just invented a disposable razor in 75' so grab a shave and join me for the Nine at Nine 1975 right after Bob & Tom.

Grand Funk Railroad "Inside Lookin Out"