1973: Party Time! (Yes, Yes, Y'all. You Don't Stop) - Spcl. Gst. Ed
Sep 1, 2018
Topics: Dj Kool Herc, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Pam Grier, The Mack, & George Jefferson. (Bonus Artist: Luck Pacheco)
1. Snapshots
2. General News
3. Richard Nixon STILL
President.
4. Vietnam War: year 18 of
19
5. The Paris Peace Accords, signed
on January 27, 1973, effectively removed the U.S. from the conflict
in Vietnam.
6. Deaths: 168 killed. Down from
641 in 1972
7. Nixon, on national TV, accepts
responsibility, but not blame, for Watergate; (April 30).
8. Spiro T. Agnew resigns as Vice
President and then pleads no contest to charges of evasion of
income taxes while Governor of Maryland (Oct. 10).
9. Jan: Military draft ends
10. Jan: Roe v. Wade, SCOTUS ruled
that a right to privacy extended to a woman's decision to have an
abortion, but with some limits.
11. Apr: The World Trade
Center
12. Economics:
13. Oct: OPEC embargo sets off an
oil/energy crisis and starts the recession.
14. Unemployment: 4.9% / Black
unemployment: 5.7 / minimum wage: still $1.60 ($64w, $3,200y,
~$19,800 in 2018)
15. Open Comments:
16. Sports:
17. Super Bowl: Miami d.
Washington
18. World Series: Oakland A's d.
NY Mets (4-3)
19. NBA Championship: New York d.
LA Lakers
20. Pop Music:
21. Top radio singles:
22. #1 "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round
the Ole Oak Tree", Tony Orlando and Dawn
23. #2 "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", Jim
Croce
24. #3 "Killing Me Softly with His
Song", Roberta Flack
25. 1973 Grammy Awards:
26. ROY, “Killing Me Softly with
His Song,” Roberta Flack
27. SOY, “Killing Me Softly with
His Song,”
28. AOY, Innervisions, Stevie
Wonder
29. New Artist, Bette Midler
30. Open Comments:
31. Top Movies:
32. #1 The Sting
33. #2 The Exorcist
34. #3 American Graffiti
35. Top Television:
36. #1 All in the Family
37. #2 The Waltons
38. #3 Sanford and Son
39. Black Folks
40. Illinois 1st state to declare
MLK Day
41. Alice Walker publishes 1st
book
42. Red Foxx NAACP Entertainer of
the Year
43. Open Comments:
44. Social/Political Scene: The
Birth of a Hip-Hop Nation
45. Clive Campbell (@18yrs) -
a.k.a. DJ Kool Herc (Hercules), founding father of hip hop.
46. It's summer time of 1973 in
the Bronx NY.
47. In the recreation room at 1520
Sedgwick Avenue, a HISTORIC party jumps off. - And hip hop is
born!
48. Bio: Kool Herc was born and
raised in Kingston, Jamaica, moved to NYC as a teen and started
spinning records at parties with his dad's PA system.
49. He was deep into Reggae and he
styled himself like a Jamaican “selector” (DJ) and did a lot of
“toasting” (talking/chanting) over the instrumentals.
50. But his real genius was paying
attention to the crowds. He said a lot of DJ's back then would put
on a record and go smoke a cigarette.
51. He watched what got the crowd
going and noticed hat it was the instrumental bridge, or drum
breaks, that was hot with the dancers.
52. His SIGNATURE move and
GROUNDBREAKING contribution was to use the two turntables of a
regular DJ setup, NOT to switch between songs, BUT switch back and
forth between the break beats and keep the crowds moving!
53. His homie, Coke La Rock, would
get on the mic and do shout outs ("so and so is in the house!"), do
call-and-response phrases (yes, yes, y'all - you don't stop,
...just throw your hands in the air), and do catchy "poems" (Hotel,
motel, you don't tell, we won't
54. tell)
55. Herc had been working on it
this new style for almost a year, but that summertime party in 73
was his breakout moment.
56. After that, the crowds got too
big for the rec room and he started throwing jams in the park.
Those crowds where bigger than some at the clubs and that's where
all four elements of hip hop would really come together. (Dj'ing,
MC'ing, dancing, and graffiti)
57. He got stabbed at a party just
a few years later, and while he was sidelined, his 2 homies and
"understudies" took over hip hop, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster
Flash!
58. Hip Hop basically started by
presenting a party on wax.
59. Question: How has partying
changed? (i.e., dancing, music, sex, drugs, socializing, violence,
etc...)
60. Final thoughts: Kool Herc
continues be an undervalued personality. He deserves WAY more
credit.
61. Music Scene:
62. Pop Singles
63. #1 - Tony Orlando and Dawn,
Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Ole Oak Tree
64. #3 - Roberta Flack, Killing Me
Softly With His Song
65. #4 - Marvin Gaye, Let’s Get It
On
66. #8 - Billy Preston, Will It Go
Round In Circles
67. #10 - Diana Ross, Touch Me In
The Morning
68. #15 - Billy Paul, Me And Mrs.
Jones
69. #17 - Dobie Gray, Drift
Away
70. #19 - Stevie Wonder, You Are
The Sunshine Of My Life
71. #21 - Isley Bros., That
Lady
72. #22 - Sylvia, Pillow
Talk
73. #26 - Stevie Wonder,
Superstition
74. #32 - O’Jays, Love Train
75. #33 - Barry White, I’m Gonna
Love You Just A Little More
76. Vote:
77. Jan - 360 Degrees of Billy
Paul, Billy Paul
78. Feb -Talking Book, Stevie
Wonder
79. Feb - The World Is a Ghetto,
War
80. Apr - Wattstax: The Living
Word, Soundtrack / Various artists
81. Apr - Neither One of Us,
Gladys Knight & the Pips
82. May - Masterpiece, The
Temptations
83. May - Spinners, The
Spinners
84. Jun - Birth Day, New
Birth
85. Jun - Call Me, Al Green
86. Jun - Live at the Sahara
Tahoe, Isaac Hayes
87. Jul - I've Got So Much to
Give, Barry White
88. Jul - Back to the World,
Curtis Mayfield
89. Aug - Fresh, Sly and the
Family Stone
90. Aug - Touch Me in the Morning,
Diana Ross
91. Sep - Innervisions, Stevie
Wonder
92. Sep - Deliver the Word,
War
93. Sep - Let's Get It On, Marvin
Gaye
94. Dec - Imagination, Gladys
Knight & the Pips
95. Key Artist: Gladys Maria
Knight, aka The Empress of Soul (@29): Singer, song writer,
actress.
96. Born and raised in ATL
97. Started touring with the Pips
at 16yrs old, signed with Motown at 22, and started dropping
hits:
98. "Every Beat of My Heart/I
Heard It Through the Grapevine/If I Were Your Woman
99. In 1973 she left Motown
(Former Motown artists where EVERYWHERE) and blew up!
100. They landed 4 straight #1
Soul Lps between 1973 and 1974
101. Neither One of
Us/Imagination/Claudine/I Feel a Song
102. Gladys will tell you that
Diana Ross, kicked her off a tour once because the crowds were
feeling her more and that The Boss felt overshadowed.
103. Some people called her the
true successor to Aretha.
104. Question: What was Glady's
biggest hurdle: Too nice, Diana, song material, or a CRAZY personal
life? (4 marriages, custody battles, legal issues with the Pips,
child kidnapped, or the Mormons?
105. Key Artist: Stevland Hardaway
Morris (@23yrsold), aka Stevie Wonder: Musical Genius
106. Born in Michigan, raised in
Detroit
107. Started getting down with
Motown in 1961 at 11yrs old and rose to fame FAST!
108. Fingertips/Uptight
(everything's Alright/Sign, Sealed, Delivered/My Cherie Amour
109. In 1971, he let his Motown
contract expire, muscled his way to a bigger royalty, got more
creative independence, and proceeded to change the history of pop
music.
110. His next 3 releases each won
album of the year! - a first for an RnB act.
111. Partly influenced by his
Motown homie Marvin Gaye and his album "what's Going On", (and to
some degree his FRIENDS the Beatles!) he consciously changed up his
style.
112. "We as a people are not
interested in 'baby, baby' songs anymore," he said back then.
"There's more to life than that.
113. Innervisions (16th studio LP)
was where he stopped being merely a "boy" genius.
114. "It is the album that best
celebrates his musical maturity and completes the transition from
Little Stevie Wonder to the grown-up artist with an active
imagination and burning social conscience. Coming just nine months
after Talking Book, Innervisions is Wonder at
115. the absolute peak of his
powers, a 23-year-old man with the world at his fingertips." - BBC
Review
116. Question: Bigger impact,
Stevie or James? (Writing, singing, performing, musician)
117. Conclusion: IMHO, Stevie is
the most important black artist ever.
118. Movies
119. Key Actor: Pamela Suzette
Grier (@24yrs old); Actress, author, superstar girlfriend
120. Born in North KakalaKa and
raised as an Air Force kid
121. The family settled in Denver
and she went to East High School - Genina's alma mater
122. She started competing in
state wide beauty contests and that led to her moving to LA to
pursue acting at 18
123. In 1971, at 22, she made her
movie debut in Big Doll House.
124. She did a few more "women in
cages" movies and broke out in 1973 with Coffy!
125. "The baddest one-chick
hit-squad that ever-hit town!"
126. In 1974, she delivered her
iconic performance as Foxy Brown
127. A gun toting prostitute out
for revenge
128. This solidified her as really
the first female action hero.
129. It also, stigmatized her
acting career, as she basically got limited to Blaxploitation
roles
130. However, she still received
props for her acting skills in those roles.
131. "What makes Coffy interesting
is Miss Grier...she’s' beautiful, but also has a kind of physical
life to her that is sometimes missing in beautiful actresses...she
gets into an action role and does it right." - film critic, Roger
Ebert
132. Question: where have the
female black action heroines gone?
133. Key Movie: The Mack
134. Question: What was
that?!?!?!
135. Television:
136. Key Character: George
Jefferson, Dry cleaning Business owner
137. Played by Sherman Hemsley
(@35): born and raised in Philly
138. High school dropout and
former Air force
139. went to NYC and got regular
work as a Broadway actor
140. In 1971 (@33) he flashed on
Broadway and caught the attention of the producer for "All in The
Family" (sorta like Redd Foxx)
141. In 1973 he debuted on the
show as Archie's "opinionated, rude, bigoted, scheming
neighbor.
142. Always trying to move "to a
deluxe apartment in the sky"!
143. But, he was also a loving and
hard-working family man, who was cleverer than Archie.
144. Sherman himself was shy and
very private.
145. Never married and no
kids.
146. He said playing George
Jefferson "was hard for me. But he was the character. I had to do
it."
147. Question: Was GJ a positive
or negative character?
148. Schoolhouse Rock! Animated
musical educational short films.
149. Aired from 1973 to 1985 (12
Yrs.)
150. 64 -3m episodes
151. Topics covered: Math,
grammar, American history, and science.
152. The creator noticed one of
his sons was having trouble remembering the multiplication tables,
BUT the kid knew all the lyrics to the current rock songs.
153. The goal was to educate
through videos, motivate kids with music, and convince them
learning is fun.
154. Question: What are some of
your favorite SHR episodes?
155. Conclusion: No doubt,
for a generation of kids, every Saturday morning, SHR put it
DOWN!
156. Wrap Up
157. Question: What had the
biggest impact from 1973?