The Notables

Not That Seventies Show

Program Notes

Listen to the Music was released in 1972 and was one of the first hits by the Doobie Brothers. The song was written by the band's chief organizer, guitarist, and songwriter Tom Johnston. The band was organized in 1969, and was popular in the San José area, particularly among the Hell's Angels.
Love Will Keep Us Together was written in the 1960s by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, but became popular in a 1976 recording by The Captain & Tennille.
Afternoon Delight was written in 1976 by Bill Danoff for the Starland Vocal Band. The song is suggestive of the—mostly sexual—excesses of the 1970s.
We’ve Only Just Begun (1970) was written by Paul Williams (lyric) and Roger Nichols (music) as a commercial for Crocker Bank, with Williams doing the vocals, and showing a young married couple moving into their first house. It was then recorded by the Carpenters, with both brother and sister overdubbing the harmonies.
Midnight Train to Georgia (1973) by Jim Weatherly was originally titled "Midnight Plane to Houston". It was recorded by Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mother), when they asked if they could change it to "Midnight Train to Georgia". Weatherly agreed, if they didn’t change the rest of the song. It became a hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips.
September is considered the funkiest disco song recorded (1978) by Earth, Wind and Fire. The song was written by Maurice White, Al McKay, & Allee Willis.
The Thrill Is Gone is a blues song written by Rick Darnell and Roy Hawkins in 1951 and recorded by Hawkins. It was released in a new version by B. B. King and became a big hit in 1970.
Play That Funky Music (White Boy) by Robert Parissi was a number one hit in 1976 by the funk bank Wild Cherry. When the band was playing at the 2001 club, a black audience member shouted at the band, "Play some funky music, white boy". Parissi, the lead singer in the band, wrote it down on a bar order pad, and decided that they should. Other members of the band were concerned about the lyric, but Parissi insisted on keeping it.
Time in a Bottle is Jim Croce's 1973 #1 posthumous hit. About the same time Croce also wrote "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".
Crocodile Rock was written in 1972 by Elton John with Bernie Taupin. It has a feeling of early rock and roll, with a honky-tonk and cha-cha ambiance.
You're So Vain is Carly Simon’ 1973 sarcastic profile of a self-absorbed lover. Many guesses have been made of the identity of the lover, including Mick Jagger (who sang backing vocals on the song), Cat Stevens, Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson (with whom she had had brief relationships), unfaithful fiancé William Donaldson, and Simon's ex-husband, James Taylor.
Imagine is John Lennon's 1971 utopian anthem. The song was originally credited only to Lennon, but in recent years it has been acknowledged that Yoko Ono contibuted to the lyric. The album Imagine, on which the song first appeared, was produced by Phil Spector. The song has been criticized for its anti-capitalist, anti-religion, and anti-nationalist theme. In fact, Lennon himself described it as "virtually the Communist Manifesto."
Say You Love Me was from Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album (a.k.a. "The White Album"). It was written by Christine McVie of the band, and was released as a single in 1976.
Take It Easy was the 1972 debut single for the Eagles. It was written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey.
Beginnings was written by Robert Lamm and released in 1969 by Chicago Transit Authority. It was re-released in 1971 after the band had achieved success with other songs, by which time the band had shortened its name to Chicago.
Y.M.C.A., written by Henri Belolo, Jacques Morali, and Victor Willi and recorded and performed by The Village People seems to extol the virtues of the Young Men’s Christian Association, but was understood by gay men to refer to the use of the YMCA as a hookup place for young gay men. It became a #1 hit among a public who had no knowledge of its reference to gay culture. It is usually sung with the arms spelling out the letters Y M C A.
Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) was written by Freddie Mercury and performed by the group Queen. It reached #1 in Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK; its highest position in the USA was #9. The work is divided into six distinct sections: introduction, ballad, a guitar solo, an operatic section, a heavy metal section, and the "outro" (a coined word, meaning the opposite of "intro". Its meaning is not perfectly clear; Mercury was not specific about its meaning when asked. The operatic section is the heart of the piece, and describes the narrator's descent into hell. In recordings the section was created with 180 overdubs, so that during live performances the band would leave the stage and play the recording, the choral effect being impossible in live performance with only three singers. Some of the words used in the operatic section are given below.
- Scaramouche is the French form of Scaramuccia, a stock character in Commedia dell' arte. The name means "skirmish", and he is attired in black velvet mask, and black trousers, shirt, and hat, as a burlesque of a Spanish nobleman, but a buffoon and coward.
- The fandango is a dance of Spanish origin in 3/4 time using castanets and a distinct descending harmonic progression.
- Bismillah (or Basmala) is an Arabic word which is from the opening phrase in the Qu'ran and means "In the name of God", and is part of the daily prayer recited by muslims. It is also used by Arabic-speaking Christians as the beginning of the phrase "In the name God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit". In the context of the Rhapsody, it seems to represent the narrator's calling out to God for mercy.
- Beelzebub is a Biblical name for a Philistine deity worshipped at the city of Ekron. The name can be translated "Lord of the Flies", and came to be the name of a demon or devil, even Satan himself. In the New Testament, some Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. The word appears as Beelzebub in the Syriac and Latin versions, and was carried over thus in the English versions, but the Greek has Beelzeboul.

Copacabana ("At the Copa") Copacabana is the chief town on the highest lake in the world, Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. The name comes from kota kahuana in the Aymara language, meaning "view of the lake". The town contains the shrine of Our Lady of Copacabana, the patroness of Bolivia. Sometime in the 18th century the beach then known as Sacopenapã was renamed Copacabana when a replica of the shrine in Bolivia was built there. The beach was incorporated into the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1892. The beach has many luxury hotels, and New Year's Eve is a big celebration there. In New York City there was a night club called Copacabana named for the beach in Rio. The club opened in 1941 at 10 E 60th St. In 1992 the club moved to 617 West 57th Street at 11th Avenue. In 2001 the club was forced to move to a third location on W 34th St at 11th Ave. The last performance at the Copa was on June 30, 2007, when it was forced to close because of expansion of a subway line. The owners plan to relocate when they find a suitable location (Wikipedia). The song, written by Jack Feldman, Barry Manilow, and Bruce Sussman and recorded by Barry Manilow, is about the club at its original location.

Disco is a dance-oriented form of pop music popularized in discothèques that dominated popular music from around 1975 to 1979. One of the most prominent groups that recorded disco songs was the Bee Gees, made up of three Brothers Gibb, from whence their name. We present a Disco Medley arranged by Teena Chinn, which includes the following songs.
- Boogie Fever (1976: wm. Frederick Perrin & Kenneth St Louis; p. The Sylvers)
- Dancing Queen (1976), by Benny Andersson, Stig Andersson, & Björn Ulvaeus was the biggest single hit by ABBA, and their signature song. It has no enduring message, but is about a teenage girl that just wants to dance.
- How Deep Is Your Love (1977: wm. Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb; p. Bee Gees; used as part of the sound track of Saturday Night Fever)
- Stayin' Alive (1977: wm. Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb; p. Bee Gees; also used in Saturday Night Fever; the song is about survival in any big city, in particular, New York)
- More Than a Woman (1977: wm. Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb; p. Bee Gees)
- I Will Survive was written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris and released in 1978 as recorded by Gloria Gaynor, and became her greatest hit. It describes finding personal strength after a bread-up, and has been used as a feminist anthem, a gay anthem, and as an anthem of HIV and AIDS awareness.
- We Are Family is 1979 dance song written by Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers and performed by Sister Sledge. It also has become a gay anthem; it was the 1979 theme song of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Turn the Beat Around, a1976 hit written Gerald Jackson and Peter Jackson, was recorded by Vicki Sue Robinson.
I Feel the Earth Move is the opening track on singer-songwriter Carole King's 1971 album Tapestry. It was released as a single with her song "It's Too Late" (with lyric by Toni Stern, music by Carole King) on the flip side. Eventually DJs began to prefer playing "It's Too Late", so the single was deemed a "Double A-side".
The Way We Were (1973: w. Alan & Marilyn Bergman; m. Marvin Hamlisch) is the theme song for the 1973 film The Way We Were; sung by Barbra Streisand; the film starred B.S. and Robert Redford. The film story is about two people who had fallen in love and took different sides in the Hollywood blacklist controversy. The song won an oscar for 1973 and a grammy in 1974.
I Am Woman (1972: w. Helen Reddy; m. Ray Burton; p. Helen Reddy; arr. Jeff Funk) In 1971 Helen Reddy recorded "I don't Know How To Love Him". It was a hit, and she was asked to put together an album. She felt she should include a song that expressed what being a woman was about. Not finding an appropriate song, she wrote her own lyric, and turned it over to Ray Burton to write the tune. It was later released as a single, with an additional stanza that made it slightly more confrontational. It has since become an anthem of the "women's liberation movement" (the terminolgy used at the time).
All Good People: Your Move is a 1971 anti-Vietnam-war song in the form of a description of how to play chess. It was written by Jon Anderson and performed by the group Yes.
Carry On Wayward Son was a hit progressive rock single for the group Kansas in 1976, but written for their 1976 album Leftoverture by band member Kerry Livgren.
Money was written by Roger Waters and recorded by the British "progressive" rock band Pink Floyd. The original demo version sounded to Waters as "prissy and very English". The version on their album The Dark Side of the Moon had the bluesy and transatlantic feel that Waters wanted.
Crazy on You was written by Ann and Nancy Wilson, the two front singers of the group Heart and released in 1976. The single was released on the label Mushroom Records.
Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970: wm. Paul Simon; p. Simon & Garfunkel) was the title song and also the album title of Simon and Garfunkel's last album they made together.
Joy to the World ("Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog") (1970: wm. Hoyt Axton; p.Three Dog Night; arr. Kirby Shaw) Hoyt Axton composed the song, and then record it without words, but his record producers wanted words, any words, so he made up nonsensical words. Three Dog Night never wanted to record the song, but they needed a final track for their album Naturally, and then were surprised when it became a hit.

Not used in the show:

Fire and Rain was written by James Taylor and went through several revisions before being released on his 1969 album Sweet Baby James. The song was released as a single in February 1970.
Go Your Own Way was written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, describing his feelings of breaking up with fellow band member Stevie Nicks. The song was released by Fleetwood Mac in 1977, and remains one of the band's most enduring hits.
Peace of Mind is the second song on the 1976 debut album by the band Boston.
Tie a Yellow Ribbon ('Round the Ole Oak Tree) (1973: wm. Irwin Levine & L. Russell Brown; p. Dawn) refers to the practice of women wearing a yellow ribbon to remember absent sweethearts, either serving in the military or traveling. The practice seems to have originated in the XIX century from women whose husbands or sweethearts were serving in the U.S. Cavalry; yellow is the cavalry's color. The song was played frequently in 1980-1 when the residents of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran were held hostage; yellow ribbons appeared everywhere.

Last updated: September 28, 2007 by Webmaster.
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