Bill: Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback! I'm Bill Price…
John: and I'm Jumpin' John! Bill and I will be looking back at some of Rock and Roll's greatest artists, songs, and stories. Music has the mysterious power to trigger deep emotions and re-awaken memories. In the My Musical Memories series here on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast I will explore the various ways that music was an integral part of my life with my best friend and soul mate, Sally. I'm calling today's podcast, "1973 - My Love and Faithfulness". It is also known as "My Musical Memories, Part 2" [abbreviated M-M-M-2]), and in it I will review some musical highlights of the year 1973, the year that Sally Lehman and I got married.
Bill: Thank you for sharing a few details about your life, your love of Sally, and your love of music.
John: Well, I have to honestly admit that talking about Sally and our close relationship is a real challenge for me. It is difficult to keep my emotions in check. Our mutual love for each other was so strong. I miss everything about Sally, but in particular I miss her kindness, her even disposition, and the laughter we shared. In the MMM1 podcast I misspoke about what year of college I was in when we met in 1971. I said it was my Junior year, when actually it was my Senior year. I guess that was a classic case of me having a "Senior moment"!
Bill: Yes, I see what you mean. That must have been your first mistake this year! John, why don't you give the listeners a brief update of what you and Sally were doing in 1973.
John: Well, both of us were still students at Penn State University in 1973. I had graduated from Penn State in June 1972 with a B. A. degree in Economics. After working that summer 1972 as an Intern at the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D. C., I had returned to Penn State as a candidate for a Masters degree in Economics. Sally had worked on the night shift assembly line at Greene's Dairy in York, Pennsylvania the summer of '72. In the Fall of 1972 she began her Junior Year at Penn State.
Bill: For the Fall Term were you both living in dorms on the Penn State campus?
John: No, we were both living off campus in the borough of State College in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Sally was one block south of campus at Beaver Hills apartments, living with a couple roommates. I was several blocks south of campus in a duplex house on Pugh Street, living with the house owner and two other roommates.
Bill: How was that arrangement working out for you?
John: Not so good. When I returned from Christmas break in 1972, I moved to a different apartment without roommates. Then in January 1973, Sally and I met in the lounge in the first floor of Penn State's Kern Graduate Building. She told me that it was silly for us to be living separately and paying two rents. So we decided to save money and live together, and Sally moved in with me at my 1013 South Allen Street one bedroom apartment in State College on February 28th, 1973. Sally's family knew that we were living together, but I never told my family. So my parents and paternal grandparents were clueless. Then in June 1973 Sally and I relocated to a different one bedroom apartment at 600 West College Avenue in State College.
Bill: Can you give a brief overview of what was making national and international headlines in 1973?
John: In the United States, the Nixon administration's Watergate Scandal and the Senate Watergate hearings on TV were big news. Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned and was replaced by Gerald Ford. Top TV shows that year included 3 family shows: All in the Family, Sanford and Son, and The Waltons, and the war spoof M*A*S*H. Among the top movies of 1973 were Deliverance, American Graffiti, The Exorcist, The Sting, and Live and Let Die. Books that were popular in 1973 included Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Odessa File, Breakfast of Champions, Once is Not Enough, and Burr. Internationally, a cease-fire was signed, ending the direct involvement of U. S. troops in Vietnam. Other interesting U. S. events included the launching of the Skylab space station, the CB radio craze spreading nationwide - as did the sale of Walkie Talkies, and Billie Jean King defeating Bobby Riggs in tennis' battle of the sexes.
Bill: Any musical highlights of 1973?
John: Well, the longest running #1 single of 1973 was "Killing Me Softly With His Song" by Roberta Flack. That song stayed at the top spot for five non-consecutive weeks.
In 1973 fourteen acts earned their first #1, such as Billy Preston with "Will It Go Round in Circles" [brief sound bite] and The O'Jays with "Love Train" [brief sound bite]. Others who had their first #1's included Eddie Kendricks, Ringo Starr, Carly Simon, Elton John, Vicki Lawrence, The Edgar Winter Group, Wings, Jim Croce, Maureen McGovern, Stories, Grand Funk, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Charlie Rich. Jim Croce became the third person to hit #1 posthumously after his death in September 1973. Stevie Wonder and Jim Croce were the only acts to hit #1 with more than one song, each having two. Also 1973 is the year that is often credited as the start of the Disco trend, with songs like "Love's Theme" and "Rock the Boat". And don't forget Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc. Kool Herc unified the art of a DJ breaking between two turntables and rapping over the beat - this may have been the start of Hip-Hop.
Bill: Were any major rock bands first formed in 1973?
John: Yeah. Some major rock stars of the future emerged in 1973. Think of these major bands, all of whom formed that year: AC/DC, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bad Company, Cheap Trick, Devo, Heart, Journey, Kansas, Kiss, Los Lobos, and Montrose - just to name a few!
Bill: Wow - those bands would eventually become major players in the music scene! It's interesting that you mentioned Montrose. This band featured a vocalist that went by the name of Sammy Hagar. In 1964 Sammy and I lived about 10 miles apart in Southern California. Both of us attended the Rolling Stones' first U. S. concert held at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino. However, unlike myself who had a ticket, Sammy snuck in! 14 years later Sammy was the headliner, performing at the Swing Auditorium. So you and Sally were living together for a few months. How did you happen to end up as a married couple?
John: Sally and I were not very religious. However, Sally had become a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church off of Route 616 in York, Pennsylvania during her teenage years. Due to the subterfuge of not telling my parents that we were living together, we figured that - since we were deeply in love - we should probably make it official and get married in a church. I don't remember exactly when we decided to get married, but we both agreed that the end of the summer 1973 would be a good time. Our intention was to low key the ceremony and keep the expenses down for Sally's parents. I didn't ask Sally's father for permission to marry her, and I never gave Sally an engagement ring.
Bill: I was not a member of Lehman Clan in 1973, so this is all news to me!
John: I guess Linda was keeping you hidden down in the D. C. Metro area. If my memory serves me correctly, I actually didn't meet you until late 1974.
Bill: So you and Sally got married on Saturday, August 25th, 1973?
John: Yes. The York, Pennsylvania church that Sally had attended, St. Paul Lutheran, was available for a wedding ceremony on Saturday, August 25th. However, the regular pastor was on vacation. So we booked the church with a different pastor (Pastor Benner) from another Lutheran church. For the after-wedding reception, we selected the Flamingo Restaurant on South Belmont Street in York, Pennsylvania. As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to keep expenses down for the Lehmans. I typed up crude invitations on my typewriter. We decided that only immediate family, and no friends or acquaintances, would be invited. An exception was made for my cousin, John Vogt, who graciously took wedding photos for us. Unfortunately, Sally's beloved grandmother, Phoebe, had a stroke that summer before the wedding day, and she was unable to attend. Besides the bride and groom, total attendance at the wedding was only 17. During the ceremony, we exchanged wedding bands and recited wedding vows. One line from the vows that Sally and I would fondly recall - even years later - were these words: "this ring is a token of my love and faithfulness". Hence, the title of this podcast!
Bill: Nice! Thank you for establishing the Lehman Marriage Template that Linda and I followed in 1976! So what did the Billboard Top 10 look like on the day that you got married, Saturday, August 25th, 1973?
John: The Top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 for August 25, 1973 were:
#1 - "Brother Louie" by Stories
[brief sound bite]
#2 - "Live and Let Die" by Wings
#3 - "Touch Me in the Morning" by Diana Ross
#4 - "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
#5 - "The Morning After" by Maureen McGovern
#6 - "Delta Dawn" by Helen Reddy
#7 - "Get Down" by Gilbert O'Sullivan
#8 - "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Girl" by Dawn with Tony Orlando
#9 - "Uneasy Rider" by Charlie Daniels
#10 - "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce
Back then, none of those songs were really that exciting to Sally or me.
Bill: What were the top selling rock albums that were released in 1973?
John: Here are the weekly #1 albums in chronological order for the year 1973:
•Seventh Sojourn by the Moody Blues (1 week at #1)
•No Secrets by Carly Simon (5 weeks)
•The World is a Ghetto by War (2 weeks)
•Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player by Elton John (2 weeks)
•Dueling Banjos (from the movie Deliverance) by Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandel (3 weeks)
•Lady Sings The Blues (another movie soundtrack) by Diana Ross (2 weeks)
•Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper (1 week)
•The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd (1 week)
•Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite by Elvis Presley (1 week)
•Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin (2 weeks)
•1967-1970 by the Beatles (1 week)
•Red Rose Speedway by Paul McCartney & Wings (3 weeks)
•Living in the Material World by George Harrison (5 weeks)
•Chicago VI by Chicago (5 weeks)
•A Passion Play by Jethro Tull (1 week)
•Brothers and Sisters by the Allman Brothers Band (5 weeks)
•Goats Head Soup by the Rolling Stones (4 weeks)
•Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John (8 weeks)
Bill: Do you have any favorites from the 1973 released albums?
John: Lots of great material in those #1 albums! If I must choose, I would have to say that Sally and my favorites were five of them:
•Seventh Sojourn by the Moody Blues
[that was a brief sound bite from the song "New Horizons"]
•No Secrets by Carly Simon
[that was a brief sound bite from the song "We Have No Secrets"]
•1967-1970 by the Beatles
[that was a brief sound bite from the song "Back in the U.S.S.R."]
•Chicago VI by Chicago
[that was a brief sound bite from the song "Feelin' Stronger Every Day"]
•Brothers and Sisters by the Allman Brothers Band
[that was a brief sound bite from the song "Jessica"]
Bill: Can you share any more details about those albums released in 1973?
John: Sure can!
•Seventh Sojourn by the Moody Blues was probably Sally and my favorite album by the great Moody Blues. It was released in October 1972. I can still remember purchasing it in November, laying on the floor with Sally in the apartment of the duplex I rented, and listening to its lush stereo through headphones. The album was actually the #1 album in the U. S. during the last four weeks of 1972 in addition to the first week of 1973. Two hit singles came from the album: "Isn't Life Strange" (#13 in the U. K., #29 in the U. S.) and "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)" (#36 in the U. K., #12 in the U. S.). However, in my opinion every song on the album was a winner. We ended up using Justin Hayward's tune, "New Horizons", for the Father-Daughter Dance at our daughter Emily's 2005 wedding.
•Carly Simon's No Secrets was released on November 28th, 1972. It was Carly's third album in less than two years, and closed the final sales chart of 1972 at #39. One week later, on January 6th, 1973, it had jumped all the way to the #1 spot, where it stayed for five weeks. Its lead single, “You’re So Vain,” joined the album at the top of Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart on January 13th. The second single, "The Right Thing to Do", reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album was officially certified Platinum by the RIAA on December 12th, 1997.
•Including a Beatles album among my top five in 1973 was a no-brainer for me. 1967-1970 (also known as the "Blue Album") was a Beatles compilation album, and it includes a multitude of classic Beatles tunes. On April 2nd, 1973 the so-called “Blue Album” was released simultaneously with a collection that spanned the Beatles earlier era from 1962-1966. "Blue" reached #1 in the U.S. Album Chart on May 26. That pair of Beatles compilation releases have a combined sales of over 32 million U.S. units.
•The June 25th release of Chicago VI topped the album charts for a total of four weeks, beginning August 4th, 1973. The album's success was fueled by a pair of Top 10 hits, “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day” and “Just You ‘n’ Me.” Chicago VI was the band's second in a string of five consecutive albums to make it to #1 in the US, was certified gold less than a month after its release, and has been certified two-times platinum since.
•The Allman Brothers Band's Brothers and Sisters album was released in August 1973 and swiftly rose to the top, spending five weeks at #1, becoming the Allman Brothers Band’s only album to reach #1. The album represented the Allmans' commercial peak, and it has sold over seven million copies worldwide. The single "Ramblin' Man" became the band's first and only Top-10 hit single, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.
Bill: John, thank you for sharing a few intimate details about your life with Sally, your 1973 wedding, and the music that was --- back in the year 1973!
John: This has been Rock and Roll Flashback….where in today's podcast, 1973 - My Love and Faithfulness (My Musical Memories, Part 2), I reviewed some musical highlights of the year 1973, the year that Sally Lehman and I got married. This podcast, as are each of the podcasts in the My Musical Memories series, is dedicated to my love and soul mate, Sally Lehman McDermott. Be sure to watch for future episodes of My Musical Memories, only on Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts. Signing off for now, I'm Jumpin' John McDermott…
Bill: and I'm Bill Price, and until next time….Rock On!