1973 – The Centre Cannot Hold

January 2, 1973 — Amin’s regime denounced by US Ambassador

By Loki 222 Content, Politics, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

Thomas Patrick Melady was not, in the general run of things, a man given to hyperbole. He was one of the longest serving diplomats working for the United States, and a respected authority on African and European affairs after his retirement from active service. Among his greatest accomplishments was influencing the Vatican (during his term as Ambassador to the Holy See, from 1989 – 1993) to recognise the nation of Israel. He was a serious man, is what I’m saying.

His first ambassadorial role was as US Ambassador to Burundi from 1969 – 1972. He then had the misfortune to become the new Ambassador to Uganda in 1972, a post he left the followiung year. In this role, he watched the early days of Idi Amin’s rule with mounting horror, describing the man in a telegram he sent to Washington on January 2, 1973, as “racist, erratic and unpredictable, brutal, inept, bellicose, irrational, ridiculous, and militaristic”. The United States closed its embassy in Uganda 38 days later, and did not reopen it until 1979.

By unknown, US Department of State – https://books.google.com/books?id=2msH5xv1mzgC&pg=RA6-PA23
“President Names 6 New Ambassadors”, Department of State News Letter, June 1972, No. 134, p. 23, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Idi Amin — Down I Go

January 14, 1973 — Elvis Presley’s “Aloha From Hawaii” special is broadcast

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

Also known as “Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite”, this Elvis Presley concert was broadcast live from the Honolulu International Centre to South East Asia and Oceania. 28 European countries saw it the following day, while citizens of the USA had to wait until April to see it on tv (its original broadcast date conflicted with Super Bowl VII).

Of course, there was another way to see it: you could buy a ticket. Tickets went on sale in Hawaii a week before the concert, and all the funds raised by the concert (US $75,000) were donated to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund. That figure includes $1000 donated by Elvis himself, who took no payment for his performance. The concert cost an estimated $2.5 million dollars to stage, and Elvis Presley Productions claimed that 1.5 billion people watched it, a figure which has largely gone unchallenged (despite that fact that the total population of all the countries it was broadcast to was at that time less than 1.3 billion people).

By Source, Fair use, Link

As mentioned in:

No More Fun — Roger Taylor

January 18, 1973 — Timothy Leary is arrested in Afghanistan

By Loki 222 Content, Crime, Culture, Politics, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

Tim Leary had been free for a couple of years when the feds caught up with him in Afghanistan. He’d broken out of the California state prison where he’d been sent, and knocked around the world for a couple of years looking for a place to stay. He’d even been placed under “revolutionary arrest” by Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria, although not for long.

The United States did not, at that time, have an extradition treaty with Afghanistan, and Leary’s arrest there was as controversial as anything else about the man. He was busted while disembarking from a plane, which according to treaty was supposedly US territory.

They brought him back home and dropped him into solitary at Folsom, in the cell next Charlie Manson. The two did not get along at all, as murderers and pacifists so frequently don’t.

By Philip H. Bailey (E-mail) – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, Link

As mentioned in:

Broadway Melody Of 1974 — Genesis

January 22, 1973 — The Roe v. Wade case is decided

By Loki 222 Content, Crime, Politics, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

One of, if not the, most controversial cases in the history of jurisprudence in the United States, Roe v. Wade (in full: Jane Roe, et al. v. Henry Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County) was the decision that drew the line stating where in a pregnancy an abortion could occur – and not coincidentally, drew a big line in the cultural divide of America.

Ultimately, the decision provided that abortions could occur at any point prior to the third trimester of the pregnancy – and being the decision of the highest Federal court, it overrode the laws and court decisions of every state in the union. The court’s decision was based on the Constitutional right to due process (as specified in the 14th Amendment), and the more implicit right to privacy.

The decision satisfied no one, and the debate regarding abortion (for a value of debate that includes the occasional murder committed by people who hold “thou shalt not kill” as one of their most sacred moral precepts) continues even today.

By Robert S. Oakes – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division
under the digital ID cph.3b07876.
This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Soldiers of Christ — Jill Sobule

January 28, 1973 – The second Sunbury Pop Festival is held

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

The Sunbury Pop Festivals were intended to be Australia’s Woodstock. Four of them were held, in late January of each year from 1972 to 1975. The 1973 festival is one of the best remembered, largely due to the first release from Mushroom Records, “Sunbury 1973 – The Great Australian Rock Festival”, a three album set of the festival’s highlights.

About 25,000 people attended the 1973 festival, and performers who played there included The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, Spectrum, Max Merritt & the Meteors and Johnny O’Keefe (who was initially booed off the stage, but won over the crowd to such an extent that he ended up doing several encores). The MC for the festival was the comedian Paul Hogan.

As mentioned in:

Sunbury 97 — The Fauves
Sunbury ’73 — Chris Wilson

February 13, 1973 — Herbert Mullin is arrested for murder

By Loki 222 Content, Crime, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

Between October 13, 1972 and Funerary 13, 1973, Herbet Mullin killed a total of 13 people. The last of these, Fred Perez, was an elderly Hispanic gentleman who was unfortunate enough to be working on his garden when Mullin drove by. For no readily apparent reason, Mullins did a u-turn, came back, shot the man, then drove off.

All of this took place in broad daylight, and there were several witnesses, one of whom called the police and gave them the license plate number of Mullin’s car. He was arrested within minutes of this phone call, and readily confessed to all his murders. Herbert Mullin is currently serving life imprisonment for the crimes, after trying and failing to use the insanity defence.

By California Department of Corrections – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Megalomania (Herbert Mullin) – Church of Misery

February 15, 1973 — “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” premieres

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

“Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” was an iconic British sitcom in the 1970s. Its lead character, everyman Frank Spencer (played by Michael Crawford), went from disaster to disaster, and was terrifically annoying – yet somehow, Crawford’s performance (and the writing) never made him unsympathetic.

“Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” ran for a total of 22 episodes, split into three seasons (7 episodes in the first season and 6 in each of the other two) and three Christmas specials, the last of which screened in 1978. It has frequently been repeated in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth, being particularly popular in Australia (which, in turn, lead to a plotline about Frank moving to Australia in the final season).

As mentioned in:

Kylie Said To Jason — The KLF

February 18, 1973 – Picasso draws his last known work, “Couple”

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

In his last years, Picasso’s productivity dropped off from the manic peaks of his youth. To be fair, he was in his nineties by then, and in all his decades, had created more than 50,000 works of art ranging from sculptures to sketches, in addition the paintings he was most famous for. He had certainly earned a quiet retirement, and he seemed for the most part content with his lot, if disappointed by his exile from his native Spain.

His last sketch, entitled “Couple” shows that although he may have slowed down with age, he has lost none of his skill or talent. His last painting had been created some years earlier, but showed a similar spirit. Picasso would die only a little later in that same year, during a dinner party with some friends. His last words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.”

By Argentina. Revista Vea y Lea – http://www.magicasruinas.com.ar/revistero/internacional/pintura-pablo-picasso.htm, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

The Last Picasso — Neil Diamond

March 1, 1973 – Pink Floyd releases “The Dark Side of the Moon”

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

One of the truly great albums of all time, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon was something of a change of pace for them – it featured more (and tighter) vocals and fewer instrumental breaks. In many ways, it was the most commercial album of their career thus far, and spawned two hit singles: “Money” and “Us and Them”.

The album charted highly, although it was quickly pushed off its peak in each market. More notable was its longevity – in both Britain and America, the album remained in the top 100 charts for over a decade, and it is one of the top ten selling albums of all time. In addition, it achieved widespread critical success, being highly rated in numerous surveys of both fans and critics ever since its release more than 40 years ago.

If you don’t actually own a copy yourself, you probably know at least five people who do.

$A prism refracting white light into a rainbow on a black background$
By Source, Fair use, Link

As mentioned in:

Have a Cigar — Pink Floyd

March 20, 1973 – Jim Croce releases “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” was to be Jim Croce’s last number one single – it was released only six months prior to Croce’s death in 1973. In the song, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown is a big tough guy from the South Side of Chicago, who doesn’t take crap from anyone – until one night he meets a man who is bigger and tougher than him.

“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” was the second single from Croce’s fourth album, “Life and Times”. It earned Croce two Grammy nominations (for Pop Male Vocalist and Record of the Year) and was still on the charts at the time of Croce’s death, having spent three months climbing to number one and three months descending.

By Source, Fair use, Link

As mentioned in:

Bring Back That Leroy Brown — Queen
Rock and Roll Heaven — The Righteous Brothers

April 8, 1973 — Pablo Picasso dies

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Picasso was the co-founder the Cubist movement, the inventor of constructed sculpture, the co-inventor of collage, and a relentlessly innovative artist for most of his life. He is best known for his cubist works, such as the legendary 1937 painting “Guernica” and the 1967 sculpture known as the Chicago Picasso (for which he refused the $100,000 he had been promised, instead donating it to the people of Chicago).

In the last few years of his life, Picasso created a myriad of new paintings and sketches, and it was only after his death that the art critics of the world realised that Picasso had moved into neo-Expressionism before anyone else had even conceived of it: an innovator to his dying day.

By Argentina. Revista Vea y Lea – http://www.magicasruinas.com.ar/revistero/internacional/pintura-pablo-picasso.htm, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) — Paul McCartney and Wings

August 8, 1973 – Dean Corll is murdered by his accomplices

By Loki 222 Content, Crime, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

Dean Corll was an American serial killer. Born in 1939 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he served in the military briefly, but was discharged after only ten months when his mother needed medical care.

By 1970, Corll had started murdering young men around his home, mostly hitchhikers whom he hoped would not be missed. Along with two younger accomplices, David Brooks and Elmer Henley, he is known to have killed at least 27 teenaged boys and young men.

Corll’s own death occurred when he lost an argument over possession of a handgun with Henley, who shot the older man six times. Henley then called the police, and confessed to his part in killing Corll, and participating in the murders of others.

By US Military – US Military, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Candyman (Dean Corll) — Church of Misery
Castrated and Sodomized — Divine Pustulence

November 2, 1973 — Billy Joel releases “Piano Man”

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

“Piano Man” was Joel’s first bona fide hit – in the years since its release, it has become so synonymous with him that he is now frequently called ‘the piano man.’ The song was written by Joel in 1973, as he played barroom piano under an assumed name and licked his wounds after the commercial failure of his first album, and draws on that experience heavily, although most of the characters in the song are composites or entirely fictional.

The single version of the song was cut down for time by the record company, who spliced two verses together in an effort to get it down to what was considered a commercial length. Ironically, today it is far more likely that the full album version will be played on the radio, and the song is a staple of golden oldies stations everywhere.

As mentioned in:

The Entertainer — Billy Joel

December 15, 1973 — Charlie Rich’s “The Most Beautiful Girl” reachs #1 in the US

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

It’s a rare country and western song that breaks out of its genre to become a mainstream hit, but Charlie Rich’s 1973 song “The Most Beautiful Girl” is such a song. It reached #1 on the US, Belgian and Canadian charts, #2 in the UK and Ireland, and various top ten positions in Australia, France, Holland, Denmark and Norway. It took three months to climb to the top of the US charts, and held that exalted position for two weeks (it was knocked off by Jim Croce’s masterpiece, “Time In A Bottle”, which is certainly no shame).

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link

As mentioned in:

Putnam County — Tom Waits

December 20, 1973 — Bobby Darin dies

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

In 1968, Bobby Darin was doing well for himself. He’d had a string of hits over the last decade, starting in 1958 with “Splish Splash”, and continuing with “Dream Lover”, “Beyond the Sea” and “Mack the Knife” that had brought pleasure to millions. And then things went bad for him in a hurry. A close friend of and campaigner for Bobby Kennedy, he was present when Kennedy was shot and killed. Later that same year, he learned that the people he had always believed were his parents were actually his grandparents, and the woman he had thought was his sister was actually his mother.

Darin’s health, never great, took a turn for the worse under the stress of it all. He underwent heart surgery in 1971, and in 1973, developed an infection which led to sepsis that eventually killed him. He was only 37 years old. And not being done making the world a better place, he donated his body to science.

By General Artists Corporation (management)/photographer: “Bruno of Hollywood” aka Bruno Bernard – eBay item
photo front
photo back, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Rock and Roll Heaven — The Righteous Brothers

December 23, 1973 — Charles Atlas dies

By Loki 222 Content, Culture, Rock n Roll History of the World, The Rock'n'Roll History of the World

There was a time when, in just seven days, Charles Atlas could make you a man. Born Angelo Siciliano in 1892, Atlas (he legally changed his name in 1922) was the creator of a bodybuilding program that is probably best remembered for its advertising campaign. Atlas himself was famous for his body building, selling himself as one his program’s success story.

He died of a heart attack while out jogging at the age of 80, although given the Siciliano family’s history of heart attacks, it’s impressive that he lived to be that old. He was survived by a son, Hercules, and a daughter, Diana.

By Unknown – http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/american-bodybuilder-and-businessman-charles-atlas-circa-news-photo/102171960, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Charles Atlas — A.F.I.