Tag: 1977

Today’s Theme Music

In nineteen seventy-seven, I was a long, long way from home. It feels like I’ve been a long way from home every since. It’s funny how often we refer to the place where our parents live, or where we were raised, as “home.”

As an aside, my wife and I were talking about a friend’s plans. She was flying to SoCal for her elementary school reunion. This astonished us. My wife was certain that if she went to a elementary school reunion, she wouldn’t recognize anyone except family. I agreed, I wouldn’t, either. My other problem was that I attended several elementary schools, because my family moved around America. Mom finally settled in Pittsburgh, and now calls that home. I lived there for about a while in my youth, so I call it home.

Anyway, this Foreigner song came out in nineteen seventy-seven. Twenty-one years old, I was in the Philippines, ending a military assignment, and heading for Texas, for my next assignment. I was going by way of Pennsylvania and West Virginia to pick up my wife. The song, “A Long, Long Way from Home,” starts out with its second line, “I left a small town for the apple in decay,” a reference to moving to New York. The song is subsequently about feeling lonely and being far from home. And although it was my choice, I often felt the same as I traveled the world, even while enjoying myself and seeing historic sights.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

Reflective mood today from dredges of disturbing dreams. Today’s selection is a double offering from Jackson Browne’s 1977 album, ‘Running on Empty’.   Here’s ‘Load Out/Stay’.

The first song begins as a quiet and pensive reflection on touring before shifting into something more triumphant and uplifting in ‘Stay’.  They’re pleasant accompaniment to walking through the day while thinking about what is and isn’t.

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Today’s Theme Music

I married in 1975. My wife is a year younger than me.

Enlisted in the Air Force, I was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB in Fairborn, Ohio. I drove home to West Virginia when she graduated. I rented a small place off-base for one hundred dollars a month and she moved in with me. Marriage was agreed after a few months because then I would receive BAQ, which was an extra one hundred eighteen dollars a month. We kept a strict budget, saving pennies to buy a treat. We didn’t have a television. Our primary entertainment was playing cards and reading. We went to the library a lot. Mom eventually bought us a small black and white Philco portable television with attached rabbit ears.

We didn’t have a telephone. We’d walk downtown to a phone booth once a month and call our families collect. We wouldn’t talk long because we did’t want to run up their phone bills. Quarters and dimes were saved so we could go to the laundromat to wash our clothes. For a treat, twice a month, we would go out to Dairy Queen and have a Brazier Burger. We didn’t have a credit card because we didn’t qualify.

I had a cheap little all-in-one stereo that I received for a Christmas present a few years before, with two small speakers. The all-in-one meant it had a phonograph that played 45 and 33s, AM/FM radio and eight-track player all in one small unit. We had my old albums and eight-tracks, but didn’t have the money to buy new records or tapes, so we mostly listened to the radio.

Today’s song is from that time. Lionel Ritchie was still with the Commodores, and they were one of the hottest groups around. I used to sing this song to my wife. She loved that.

Here’s ‘Brick House’, from 1977.

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Today’s Theme Music

The new year’s physics sent a power surge into the Mr. Peabody (trademarked) Wayback Machine. The WM stopped in 1977. Ah, ’77. Youth and promise! Perfect for a new year.

You might recognize this one. Here is the late, gone-too-early Freddie Mercury and Queen: ‘We Are the Champions’. As Brian May once said, it’s a unifying, positive song.

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