1972: New Directions, from Politics to Pimpin! - Spcl. Gst. Edward
Aug 2, 2018
Topics: Shirley Anita Chisholm, H. Rap Brown, Diana Ross, Al Green, Superfly, Sanford & Son, & Fat Albert. (Bonus Artist: hidingtobefound)
1. 1972 - A Transitional Year, New
Directions, Politics and Pimpin
2. News snapshots
3. Nixon wins reelection
4. Watergate: 5 dudes arrested for
breaking into the DNC headquarters
5. Vietnam War: year 17 of 19
6. Deaths: 641 down from 2357 in
1971
7. June29 - SCOTUS rules death penalty
unconstitutional
8. Economic snapshots
9. Black unemployment is 9.9%. highest
since great depression.
10. 31% black families headed by
women
11. Minimum wage:
12. Sports snapshots
13. Super Bowl: Dallas def. Miami
14. World Series: Oakland A's def.
Cincinnati (4-3)
15. NBA Championship: LA Lakers def.
New York
16. Science snapshots
17. CAT scanning, compact disks,
electronic mail, and Prozac are developed.
18. Apollo XVII, the last manned moon
landing to date
19. Entertainment snapshots
20. Time Inc. drops HBO, the first pay
cable network.
21. Atari breaks out Pong, the first
arcade video game. (home version in 1974)
22. Women dominate the Grammy Awards,
grabbing the big 4. Carole King won Record, Album and Song of the
Year, while Carly Simon won Best New Artist.
23. Music (top selling albums): #3.
Fragile by Yes, #2. American Pie by Don McLean, #1. Harvest by Neil
Young / just an fyi, #13. Led Zeppelin IV
24. Movies (top grossing): #3. What's
up Doc, #2. The Poseidon Adventure, #1. The Godfather
25. Television: #3. Hawaii Five-O, #2.
Sanford and Son*, #1. All in the Family
26. Black snapshots
27. Mahalia Jackson and Jackie Robinson
pass away
28. NYC graffiti breaks out. it's one
of the 4 pillars of hip-hop
29. MJ (@14) goes solo: hits w/
Ben
30. Cicely Tyson (@48) stars in
Sounder: Box office hit. Proving that the black audience will take,
a non 'super black' exploitation movie seriously.
31. QUESTION: What pops out for
you?
32. Socio-political (1st major shift to
a new direction, political power)
33. Shirley Anita Chisholm, (@ 47):
politician, educator, and author of "Unbought and Unbossed! -1970
autobiographies.
34. in 1972, she became the first black
person EVER to run for POTUS AND the first woman to run for the
Democrats.
35. Already, in 1968, she was the first
black woman elected to Congress.
36. Her campaign was underfunded,
dismissed as a symbolic, & basically ignored by the power
structure.
37. And she was not instantly a heroine
for black people.
38. Of course, black male colleagues
showed little love: "When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for
president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being
black. Men are men.... They think I am trying to take power from
them. The black man must step
39. forward, but that doesn't mean the
black woman must step back."
40. QUESTION: Is this the real reason
more black women haven't run? (only other black woman was Carol
Moseley Braun from Il in 2004)
41. About her legacy, she said, “I want
to be remembered as a woman … who dared to be a catalyst of
change.” (Obama?)
42. Famous Quotes:
43. "Tremendous amounts of talent are
lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt."
44. "The emotional, sexual, and
psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says,
'It's a girl'."
45. "In the end, anti-black,
anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the
same thing - anti-humanism."
46. Conclusion: In our lifetime we saw
THE MOST successful path for black advancement. Politics. Only 36
years from Shirley to Obama.
47. Shirley Chisholm was an
underappreciated legend and icon.
48. Other Comments?
49. Meanwhile...the Black Power
Movement is falling apart! (2nd major shift)
50. 1971-1972 the Panthers split into
different camps. Huey vs Eldrigdge
51. They went "Hatfield vs McCoy" and
started retaliatory assassinations.
52. H. Rap Brown (@ 29), is the latest
high-profile BPM figure to fall.
53. Others include: Angela Davis,
Assata Shakur, Elaine Brown, Eldridge Cleaver, Fred Hampton, Huey
P. Newton, Stokely Carmichael, and Bobby Seale
54. H Rap Brown sentenced for an attack
on a New York City bar?!?!
55. Currently serving a life sentence
for murder after shooting of two Sheriff's deputies in 2000.
56. He was known for taking over SNCC
after Stokely and his autobiography, Die Nigger Die!
57. Probably most famous for saying,
"violence is as American as cherry pie” -and- "If America don't
come around, we're gonna burn it down."
58. QUESTION: Was the decline of the
BPM more internal (reliance on the gun and violence), external
(black people lost interest) -OR- did black people choose to go the
"integration" route?
59. Conclusion: The BPM had a great
message: Pride, Self-reliance, and education. But, I think they
were too extreme.
60. Other Comments:
61. Music: 1972 Top Singles
#1 Roberta Flack The First Time Ever I
Saw Your Face
#2 Gilbert O’Sullivan Alone Again
(Naturally)
#3 Don McLean American Pie
#4 Nilsson Without You
#5 Sammy Davis Jr. Candy Man
#6 Joe Tex I Gotcha
#7 Bill Withers Lean On Me
#8 Mac Davis Baby Don’t Get Hooked On
Me
#9 Melanie Brand New Key
#10 Wayne Newton Daddy Dont You Walk So
Fast
#11 Al Green Let’s Stay Together
#12 Looking Glass Brandy (You’re A Fine
Girl)
#13 Chi-Lites Oh Girl
#14 Gallery Nice To Be With You
#15 Chuck Berry My Ding-A-Ling
#16 Luther Ingram If Loving You Is
Wrong I Don’t Want To Be Right
#17 Neil Young Heart Of Gold
#18 Stylistics Betcha By Golly,
Wow
#19 Staple Singers I’ll Take You
There
#20 Michael Jackson Ben
#21 Robert John The Lion Sleeps
Tonight
#22 Billy Preston Outa-space
#23 War Slippin’ Into Darkness
#24 Hollies Long Cool Woman (In A Black
Dress)
#25 Mouth and MacNeal How Do You
Do
#26 Neil Diamond Song Sung Blue
#27 America A Horse With No Name
#28 Hot Butter Popcorn
#29 Main Ingredient Everybody Plays The
Fool
#30 Climax Precious And Few
62. Vote: Best Single,
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63. 1972 Albums
64. Jan - There's a Riot Going' On -
Sly & the Family Stone
65. Jan - Black Moses - Isaac
Hayes
66. Mar - Solid Rock - The
Temptations
67. Mar - Let's Stay Together - Al
Green
68. May - First Take - Roberta
Flack
69. Jun - A Lonely Man - The
Chi-Lites
70. Jul - Still Bill - Bill
Withers
71. Oct - Super Fly Soundtrack - Curtis
Mayfield
72. Nov - All Directions - The
Temptations
73. Dec - I'm Still In Love With You -
Al Green
74. Vote: Best Album,
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75. Key Artist - Diana Ross (@28):
Singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised
in Detroit.
76. Became famous as the lead singer
the Supremes, the best charting girl group in history. With twelve
number-one hit singles. ("Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love",
"Come See About Me", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry
Love", "You Keep Me
77. Hangin' On", "Love Child", and
"Someday We'll Be Together", etc...)
78. The movie dream girls was inspired
by the group
79. She also did a few big films: Lady
Sings the Blues, Mahogany, The Wiz, etc...
80. Question: Here's my problem with
The Boss. Mary Wilson was the heart and soul of the Supremes.
Florence Ballard was the best singer. Diana was what?
81. Conclusion: The Supremes were
deliberately glamorous, because Gordy wanted all of Motown to be
crossover artists. Beyonce has real game, I'm not convinced Diana
wasn't just hyped up.
82. Other Comments:
83. Key Artist - Al Green (@26):
singer, songwriter and record produce. Born in AR, grew up in
Michigan, discovered in Memphis.
84. Kicked out of the house when his
very religious daddy caught him listening to Jackie Wilson.
85. Quote: "I also listened to Mahalia
Jackson, all the great gospel singers. But the most important music
to me was those hip-shaking’ boys: Wilson Pickett and Elvis
Presley. I just loved Elvis Presley. Whatever he got, I went out
and bought."
86. Started out in 1967, flashed in
1971 with the album, "Al Green Gets Next to You", PEAKED in 1972
with 2 albums - "Let's Stay Together" & "I'm Still in Love with
You", and capped 1973 with the lp "Call Me", a critically acclaimed
"Masterpiece!"
87. Basically, everything we love about
Al was dropped in that 3-year window.
88. 1974 he was born again
89. Soon after that his "girlfriend"
dumped boiling grits on him in the bathtub before shooting and
killing herself. (with his gun!?)
90. By 1976, he was ready to go
gospel.
91. His longtime producer, Willie
Mitchell (the guy who discovered him and crafted his music), passed
on doing gospel music. (Bounced check story)
92. 1977, he dropped "The Belle Album",
his 12th. Rolling Stone magazine said, "We may someday look back on
The Belle Album as Al Green’s best"
93. Question: Just an observation
really. This is the 3rd major shift in 1972. Al didn't make
political or activist music. Some said he was the last great "Soul
Man". In 1971 Marvin asked, what's going on. During 1972, in the
middle of war protests, Watergate, an
94. election, civil rights protests,
the Panthers shooting up the streets, Al Green made LOVE ok
again.
95. Other Comments:
96. Vote: Key Artists,
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97. Movies
98. Lady Sings the Blues: Based on Lady
Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday
99. Starring: Diana Ross (@28), Billy
Dee Williams (@35), Richard Pryor (@32)
100. Blacula: important because it was
a successful black horror film
101. Buck and the Preacher: important
for casting blacks as leads in a western and was the first film
Sidney Poitier directed
102. Super Fly: 4th Major shift (The
streets are talking)
103. Priest is done with the clothes,
the cars, the drugs, the money, and the white women.
104. But, his partner, Eddie
isn’t.
105. Quote (Eddie talking to Priest):
"You're gonna give all this up? 8-Track Stereo, color T.V. in every
room, and can snort a half a piece of dope everyday? That's the
American Dream, nigga! Well, ain't it? Ain't it?"
106. Curtis Mayfield (@30) wrote and
produced the AMAZING soundtrack.
107. Starring: Ron O’Neal (@35), Carl
Lee (@46), Sheila Frazier (@24)
108. At the time of its release, lots
of black folks didn't like what Super Fly was representing.
109. Quote from the Hollywood NAACP
branch: “we must insist that our children are not exposed to a
steady diet of so-called black movies that glorify black males as
pimps, dope pushers, gangsters, and super males.”
110. The filmmakers (White producer /
black director) say they wanted to show the negative and empty
aspects of the drug subculture.
111. Regardless, Super Fly landed BIG
TIME with the "post-Civil Rights" generation.
112. They thought Eddie spoke the
gospel.
113. Quote (Eddie talking to Priest): "
I know it's a rotten game, but it's the only one The Man left us to
play. That's the stone, cold truth."
114. Question: Ultimately, what is the
legacy of Superfly?
115. Conclusion: I really enjoyed the
movie. However, it blatantly dismissed the BPM, and spoke directly
to the criminal elements in the black community. This movie, along
with the "Urban" writers, Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim, helped
spawn a generation
116. of criminals. That can't be a good
thing.
117. Other comments:
118. Vote: Key movie,
____________________________________
119. Television
120. Jan - Sanford and Son debuts on
NBC (6 seasons)
121. Groundbreaking: 1st "Black" cast
sit-com on the air...at least 2yrs before: That's My Mama ('74),
Good Times ('74), The Jeffersons ('75), and What's
Happening!!('76)
122. Theme music by Quincy Jones
(@39)
123. Starring: Redd Foxx (@50), and
Demond Wilson (@26)
124. Foxx was born in St. Louis, raised
in Chicago, and ran the streets with pre-Muslim Malcolm X back in
the day.
125. He came up performing raunchy
comedy and developed a cult following in the 50's and 60's.
126. In 1970 he flashed in the comedy
movie "Cotton Comes to Harlem" and the producer of All in the
Family hit him up.
127. Question: Is Lamont crazy? Quote:
"MLK left black people hooked on economic dependence and Sanford
and Son taught entrepreneurship"
128. Conclusion: Undeniably funny. Redd
had the respect and help from some of the best young comics in the
business, black and white. Classic!
129. Other Comments:
130. Sep - Fat Albert and the Cosby
Kids (8 seasons)
131. Fat Albert first popped up in 1967
during Cosby's stand-up comedy routine "Buck Buck,"
132. Starring: Bill Cosby (@35)
133. Born and raised in Philly. High
school drop-out. Got his G.E.D. and went to Temple Univ. on a
scholarship. While bartending, he discovered his comedy
talent.
134. He dropped out of college and
mastered crossover comedy in the early sixties.
135. In 1965 he broke out in the hit tv
series I-Spy and by 1970 he was America's top Black comic.
136. He went back to college in 1970
and got involved with PBS and the Electric Company.
137. During this time, he cooked up
"Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids"
138. It was based on his childhood
friends and every show had an educational lesson in it.
139. A lot of times the crew would end
the show playing a song in the neighborhood junkyard.
140. Question: Frankly, did the sex
scandal undermine his whole career?
141. Conclusion: I used to really like
Bill.
142. Other comments:
143. Vote: Television,
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144. Vote: 1972 Biggest Shadow,
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