August 25, 1973 Part Two

Okay, the wait is over. Here's my take on the second half of this week's chart.

20 -"Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," Elton John

19 - "We're An American Band," Grand Funk Railroad

18 - "Gypsy Man," War

17 -"Are You Man Enough?" The Four Tops

16 - "Loves Me Like A Rock," Paul Simon



The Top 20 kicks off with two staples of many a classic rock station's playlist. First, there's the future Sir Elton, who at this point in time may have been the dominant artist in all of pop music, with his buzzsaw ode to drinking and brawling. It's followed by Grand Funk Railroad's timeless document of rock n' roll road debauchery. I don't know about you, but I can't think of Grand Funk Railroad without hearing Homer Simpson in my head describing, "the wild, shirless lyrics of Mark Farner, the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher," and last but not least, "the competent drum work of Don Brewer."



Up next is War's "Gypsy Man," which is all right, but one listen makes clear why it isn't remembered as well as "Low Rider" or "Why Can't We Be Friends."



Next is a post-Motown Four Tops hit. "Are You Man Enough?" can't quite compete with the best of their 60s output, but it's still a fun, swaggering number. Before introducing the song, Casey tells us that if he were a singer, he'd want a voice that was a cross between lead Top Levi Stubbs' and Frank Sinatra's, with a little Neil Diamond thrown in. Thanks for sharing, Casey!



Rounding out this group is the gospel inflected "Loves Me Like A Rock." I believe my first memory of this song was hearing Paul Simon perform it with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem on The Muppet Show. Which was cool, but nowhere near as mind-blowingly awesome as, say, the Alice Cooper episode.



15 - "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," Al Green

14 - "If You Want Me To Stay," Sly and the Family Stone

13 - "Monster Mash," Bobby "Boris" Pickett

12 - "I Believe In You (You Believe In Me)," Johnnie Taylor

11 - "Feelin' Stronger Every Day," Chicago




We kick off with the one and only Reverend Green. I'm ashamed to admit that before Sunday night, I'd only heard UB40's version of this. Needless to say, this blows that out of the water.


Then there's Sly and The Family Stone's last big hit before things went south for the band and Sly himself. They were a groundbreaking group in so many ways, and it's good that their last impression with many casual music fans stands up with some of their best work.


I know what you're thinking, "Didn't 'Monster Mash' come out in the early 60s?" I did too, and we're all right, it did. 1962 to be precise. But apparently, it was re-released in 1973, and here it is. Why they didn't put it out closer to, you know, Halloween, I can't say.


To be honest, the Johnnie Taylor song didn't make much of an impression on me, as I was out of the room for much of it. I do know he was a big artist on the influential Stax label, and he later had his biggest hit with a song called "Disco Lady." So there's some pertinent info.


And at the end of this portion of the chart, there's Chicago, back when they were known for upbeat, horn-drenched tunes instead of the sappy ballads of their later years. This song is just okay for the most part, but at the end, it kicks in and sounds to these ears like a pretty fun party.


And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Top Ten:


10 - "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," Jim Croce
Everyone knows this tale of the "baddest man in the whole damn town." I definitely remember Jim Croce's raspy voice on this coming out of various radios in my first few years of existence. What I didn't know was that although the story is fictional, Croce was inspired to write it by an actual Leroy Brown, who was briefly his Army roommate. According to Casey, this made it the second song with a real person's name in the title to hit #1 on the Billboard chart, after "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."


9 - "Uneasy Rider," Charlie Daniels
This one I'd never heard before, but I'm glad I have now. First of all, yes, this is "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," Charlie Daniels. In this song, which is similar in tempo and delivery to Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue," the narrator, a pot-smoking hippie, gets a flat tire on his peace sign-bedecked car in Mississippi, and while he waits for it to get fixed, he goes into a bar populated by people who don't approve of his appearance and opinions. Facing a beating, he points at one of his would-be attackers and accuses him of being an undercover spy who sympathizes with lefties and communists. While the accused defends himself to his peers, the narrator escapes, jumps into his now-repaired car, and chases the enraged locals around the parking lot before fleeing. It's a very funny song, but very much of its time. And of Charlie's, for years later, when his political views swung to the right, he recorded a different version of this song set in a gay bar.


8 - "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose?" - Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
Ah, Tony Orlando and Dawn. Remember their variety show? I do. This is probably the most musically interesting of their hits, a ragtime-style tale of a man looking for his lost love whom he fears has fallen into the disreputable profession of dancing while wearing nothing but "rings on her fingers and bells on her toes." Awesome.


7 -"Get Down," Gilbert O' Sullivan
Easily the most successful musician named after two operetta composers. Apparently, he's no longer suicidal like he was in "Alone Again (Naturally)." Now, he's angry at an ex-lover. Or a dog. Or something.


6 - "Delta Dawn," Helen Reddy
Helen is right up there with The Carpenters on my list of 70s MOR acts I'm not ashamed to admit to liking. She was an easy-listening subversive. Obviously, there was "I Am Woman," but the reason I love her so is the trio of psychosexual melodramas that I affectionately refer to as "The Crazy Lady Trilogy." It started with this, the story of a 41-year-old woman who wanders around her Tennessee town every day wearing the same clothes and carrying a suitcase, waiting for a "handsome brown-haired man" who never comes to take her to his "mansion in the sky." This was followed by the similarly-themed "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)", and then, best of all, "Angie Baby," the unparallelled magnificence of which I will detail when and if it appears on a future chart.


5 - "The Morning After," Maureen McGovern
Aka "The song from The Poseidon Adventure." It won the Best Song Oscar, but that was before it became a radio hit. A record executive decided to put out a single version to cash in on the movie's success, but instead of using the singer from the movie, he hired McGovern, an aspiring singer who was then working as a secretary, to record it. And the rest is history.


4 - "Let's Get It On," Marvin Gaye.
This song has unfortunately devolved into cliche shorthand for "someone's about to/wants to have sex," to the point where those opening guitar squeals make me cringe. No question it's great, but pop culture has just wrung the enjoyment out of it for me.


3 - "Touch Me In The Morning," Diana Ross
A big, dramatic production, typical of Miss Ross' immediate post-Supremes output. You can almost hear the ego. Not that this is a bad thing per se. She was never meant to be part of a group, and it's a miracle she shared the spotlight as long as she did. The history of the modern pop diva, it could be argued, starts with her.


2 - "Live And Let Die," Wings
Like many children of the seventies (I assume/hope), it was several years before I grasped the fact that Paul McCartney was in a band before this one. Wings were a radio constant throughout my single-digit childhood, and while some of their output from this time is hard to defend (though I will not be moved from my love of "Silly Love Songs" or "Let 'em In"), this song isn't. It's arguably the best Bond theme ever, though I have "A View To A Kill" by Duran Duran right there with it. My taste sucks. I admit it.


And the most popular song in the United States of America for the week ending August 25, 1973 was...



1 - "Brother Louie," Stories
I must admit, although I was familiar with this song, I never imagined it was actually a Number 1 single. I guess the combination of the controversial topic of interracial romance and a Rod Stewart soundalike singer hit the Summer of '73 sweet spot. I also didn't know that it was a cover of a British Number 1 from earlier in the year by the band Hot Chocolate (best known on this side of the Atlantic for "You Sexy Thing"). My, this has been a learning experience.

Well, that's the countdown. I should also mention that three times during the show, a non-Casey voice introduced "AT40 Extras." These were songs that weren't in the Top 40 yet but were about to be. This week featured Cher's "Half-Breed," (which like "Brother Louie" would eventually top the chart. '73 was a good year for songs about victims of racism.) the Allman Brothers' Band's now-extremely-familiar "Ramblin' Man," and "Keep on Truckin'" by former Temptation Eddie Kendricks.

Well, there it is, my first run-through of a decades-old music ranking. I think it went well enough that I'll try it again. Hopefully I'll be able to post earlier in the week. If you enjoyed this, I'll see you then.