It’s Music Monday here at the RollerBlog and today’s featured artist is Led Zeppelin.  I discovered Led Zeppelin in high school and I’ve been a fan ever since.  These days I like to exercise to Led Zeppelin, or as I like to call it, Zeppercise.

The following is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, Black Dog, performed live in 1973:

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I was recently introduced to the music of Betty Davis, and I have to say that I was blown away.  Although she was perhaps most well known for her one-year marriage to Miles Davis in the late 1960s, she holds her own as a ground-breaking seventies funk musician.

Raw and powerful, her music was imbued with an unprecedented passion.  As a vocalist she had a very unique style, whispering and purring one moment and screeching and growling the next.  She has been widely compared to Madonna; Santana stated that “she was the first Madonna, but Madonna is more like Marie Osmond compared to Betty Davis.  Betty Davis was a real ferocious Black Panther woman.  I could see why Miles was very attracted to her. You couldn’t tame Betty Davis.”

One of my favorite Betty Davis songs is the “Anti Love Song,” which was included in her 1973 debut album Betty Davis.  The song begins with the following lyrics:

Anti Love Song

No I don’t want to love you
Cause I know how you are
That’s why I have been staying away from you
That’s why I haven’t called ya
Cause I know you could possess my body
I know you can make me scrawl
I know you can have me shaking
I know you could have me climbing the walls
That’s why I don’t want to love you
Cause I know how you are
Sure you say you’re right on and you’re righteous
But with me I know you’d be right off
Cause you know I could possess your body too, don’t cha?
You know I could make you crawl
And just as hard as I’d fall for you, boy
Well you know you’d fall for me harder
That’s why I don’t want to love you…

Right on, sister.

For today’s Wordless Wednesday post, Kathy from The Junk Drawer has graciously agreed to share some Christmas photos from her childhood. She has two pictures; in the first one she and her siblings are glasses-free, and in the second one all three of them are sporting a pair of glasses.

As she put it, 1972 was “A Good Year for Ophthalmology”

Christmas, 1971: Michael with good eyes, Ann with good eyes, Kathy with good eyes.

New Year’s Day, 1973: Ann, Michael, and Kathy with glasses.

If you want to share your seventies (or eighties) pictures with the world feel free to send them my way and I’ll add ‘em to the collection

Thanks to Kathy for submitting these great pictures.

Today is not only Father’s Day, but it the day that we are celebrating RollerReggie’s birthday. The Double Whammy. That means that the day has to be TWICE as special.

So this year, RollerReggie not only got a brand new record player (so that we can listen to our seventies records), but he also received a copy of the newly released book Wacky Packages. Wacky Packages (or Wacky Packs) were a series of collectible trading cards (a la Garbage Pail Kids) from the 1970s. The cards parodied consumer products and brands such as Tide detergent, Downy fabric softener, Skippy peanut butter, Land O Lakes butter, Wheaties cereal, numerous cigarette brands, and more. Each Wacky Pack card doubled as a sticker, so that you could either collect the cards or peel off the stickers.

RollerReggie recalls that Wacky Packs were all the rage when he was between the ages of seven and nine. He collected all of the cards, as did his friends. Sadly, RollerReg does not own them any longer. As a kid he peeled off all the stickers and stuck them to his bedpost.

Here are a few of his favorites:

Crust Tooth Paste

Hawaiian Punks Juice

Head & Boulders Shampoo

Peter Pain Peanut Butter

What is the secret of Soylent Green?

The year? 2022.
A catastrophic environmental disaster threatens the existence of humankind. Fresh foods are virtually non-existent. The world’s hungry masses must compete for processed “Soylent” wafers in order to survive.

The place? New York City.
Overpopulation, hunger, and unemployment are rampant. Hordes of starving people riot in the streets, desperate to get their hands on “Soylent Green” wafers.

Our hero?
Police Detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston). He lives in a squalid apartment with his partner Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson), a librarian of sorts who assists Thorn through researching old books.

His mission?
He must discover who murdered William R. Simonson, a member Soylent Corporation’s Board of Directors. And as the case unravels, he must first find out the secret behind Soylent Green.

Why should you watch this movie?
You will find out why Soylent Green means life. You will find out why Soylent Green means death. Plus the movie stars Charlton Heston at his manly, sweaty best.

Spoiler Alert: the trailer pretty much gives the secret away. If you want to watch this movie without having the ending spoiled, then you’ll want to skip the trailer and avoid any Internet research on the movie… as the most famous quote from the movie reveals Ihe Secret of Soylent Green!

Soylent Green Trailer:

This post is one in a series to celebrate Heston Week here on The RollerBlog.

I can’t imagine the holidays without a Charlie Brown special to mark the occasion. The Great Pumpkin, the sad little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, the Easter Beagle… there’s even a Thanksgiving special. Tonight we settled in to watch the television classic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which originally aired in 1973.

I’m sure I have seen this special before but I honestly have no recollection of it. Peppermint Patty, who has a crush on Charlie Brown, invites herself over to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner along with some other friends. With the help of Linus, Snoopy, and Woodstock, Charlie prepares a dinner of toast, popcorn, pretzels and jelly beans and serves it to his guests who are seated around a ping pong table. Yum!

Although I gotta tell you, I just can’t help but wondering… where are Charlie Brown’s parents? At the end of the episode Charlie and the gang travel to his grandmother’s house in the back of a station wagon… but who is driving the car? It’s incredibly mysterious. If you are wondering what Charlie Brown’s parents are up to you may want to check out ye110wbeard’s Land of Silly blog.

Tags Charlie Brown . Thanksgiving . 1973

Other than the Karate Kid and Black Belt Jones, I have led a life devoid of Kung Fu and the martial arts, I am sad to say… until now. Last night we watched Enter the Dragon (1973), and my eyes have been opened.

The plot: three martial arts luminaries are summoned to a mysterious island outside of Hong Kong to compete in a martial arts competition. The island is owned by Han, evil villain and crime boss extraordinaire. Lee (played by Bruce Lee), Roper (played by John Saxon), and Williams (played by Jim Kelly) find themselves surrounded by ladies, opulence and feasting… but also danger.

But enough about the plot. Bruce Lee the special brand of ass-kicking that he dishes out in every scene is the real highlight of Enter the Dragon. That and the sounds effects. Squeals, grunts, smacks, yells, crunching noises, and other remarkable sounds accompany every kick, punch, and smackdown. Completely unrealistic and hilarious, yet strangely compelling.

Word on the street is that Enter the Dragon will be remade in an upcoming movie. I’m not sure what I think about that. I don’t see how a remake could come even close to doing justice to the origina.

Favorite quotes:

• Man, you come right out of a comic book. - Williams
• I’ll be too busy looking gooood. - Williams, explaining why he won’t notice defeat when it comes
• You have offended my family and you have offended the Shaolin Temple. - Lee