1972
Thirty-six years ago, we had a presidential election between incumbent Richard Nixon and George McGovern. McGovern ran one of the most inept campaigns in presidential campaign history. Ironically, Nixon would have easily defeated him without resorting to a silly burglary. Two years later the country would find itself shocked to listen to hours of tapes produced during 1972. In light of the current fiasco, I thought of the following, also produced in 1972:
Recently coming out of the sixties, the nation's creative juices still flowed at this time. Here are just a few of the other songs released in 1972:
Yes - Roundabout
Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill masterpiece album featuring Do it Again.
Chicago - Saturday in the Park
Don McLean - Vincent and American Pie
Derek & the Dominos - Layla
The Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin
Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (naturally) and Clair
America - Horse with No Name
Then came Watergate, Disco, Reagan, Eggplant, and the decline of Western Civilization.
Recently coming out of the sixties, the nation's creative juices still flowed at this time. Here are just a few of the other songs released in 1972:
Yes - Roundabout
Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill masterpiece album featuring Do it Again.
Chicago - Saturday in the Park
Don McLean - Vincent and American Pie
Derek & the Dominos - Layla
The Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin
Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (naturally) and Clair
America - Horse with No Name
Then came Watergate, Disco, Reagan, Eggplant, and the decline of Western Civilization.
posted by x4mr at 10:59 AM
13 Comments:
Wow, what a trip down memory lane.
You forgot the Hollies, "Long, Cool Woman in the Black Dress." Remember how that song starts? It doesn't get much better.
Today's music is trash.
Don't forget 1972 also gave us Popcorn.
I can see why you chose the video you did, great photos that brought back a lot of memories.
I had completely forgotten, Anon, about that horrid song. Thanks.
You are one sadistic f***.
So much for a math degree. It was *36* years ago, x4mr...
(I have a BA from a liberal arts department, boy do I feel smug tonight!)
I missed the '72 election by 2 weeks (turned 18 excatly 14 days later). And thank God, because I would have voted for Nixon. Fortunately, I came to see the Light in the next 4 years. Haven't looked back since.
I'm with Observer regarding Popcorn.
Gads, Buckeye, more age than math skills. I made the correction. There is something frightening in the recognition that 1972 was 36 years ago.
A vote for Nixon that year was no real crime. McGovern was a lousy candidate.
Yeah, and guess what movie won Best Picture for 1972?
The Godfather
The best movie ever made.
X4mr lists "Nights in White Satin" for 1972, yet the link plays a youtube video that has 1967 in the title.
My memory isn't great, but it seems like the song played in the early 70's. I don't remember "Nights in White Satin" playing along side Sgt. Peppers or "Incense and Peppermints" or "Are you going to San Francisco?" or any other 60's music.
Anyone know?
Thank you, Wikipedia. =P
"Nights in White Satin" is a 1967 single by The Moody Blues, first featured on the album Days of Future Passed.
"Nights In White Satin" was not a popular title when first released, mainly due to its length, which at seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds was longer than the norm at that time. <. . .> The song was re-released in 1972 after the success of such longer-running dramatic songs as "Hey Jude" and "Layla", and it charted at #2 on Billboard magazine and #1 on Cash Box in the United States, earning a gold single for sales of a million copies and was also #1 in Canada.
Good job, Texpat.
Long, Cool Woman in a Black Dress
I would bet that x4mr joins me in appreciating another song from that year, a particularly haunting and provoking piece from Harry Chapin, Taxi.
Nav,
You are quite correct. In 1980, during my brief stint at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, I saw Harry Chapin in a very small, intimate concert. It was so small that in between songs those of us in the audience would actually interact with him in short conversation.
That was a really great night. John Lennon was killed a few days later. That time period was emotionally charged for me because the woman I wanted to marry had just left me for an architect.
Harry Chapin was known as a horrible driver, and sure enough, he got himself killed the very next year at only 38.
I consider his best song to be the touching A Better Place to Be.
Harry Chapin had a heart attack while driving, which caused his car-truck accident (he was driving a Volkswagen Rabbit) on the Long Island Expressway.
The heart attack was considered the cause of both the accident and his death.
Hi x4mr,
I flunked the last half of Algebra II in high school (in 1972!, the year I graduated) and never took another math class. My bad.
Our teachers basically sucked. They came to places like my school, got 2 years' experience and then moved to the big city. I went to a dinky high school in rural Ohio where us gals were destined to marry hog farmers. Glad I escaped to Tucson and the UA.
Between marrying a hog farmer and escaping to Tucson I am undecided which is worse.
My conclusion is that it totally depends on the hog farmer. Much of rural Ohio is beautiful, in my opinion. And Tucson, well, not so much.
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