A Top Ten Memoir: 1970 - “There’s nothing sadder than the tears of a clown when there’s no one around.”
I turned 7 in 1970 and had my annual birthday party, a sign that we were trying to get back to normal after my father’s death two months earlier. These were always big events and usually each of my siblings and I had our own celebrations. Mine came first in February, followed by my brothers in March, and my sister in early April. It was always great having our friends over, eating lots of cake, playing games, and getting lots of gifts.
Our dogs always participated too. At this point we had two mutts named Cindy and Skipper. Cindy rather notoriously slept around as she managed to have a litter of puppies every year or so. Many of our neighbors took the little ones. I believe even Skipper was technically Cindy’s son and then lover… Regardless, we loved them all and considered them part of the family.
That summer somehow my mother was able to afford to take us all on a trip to California. I’m not sure if she received some insurance money after our father died or if someone we knew was being very generous. This first plane ride was on a TWA 747 – a giant, modern plane that towered above us as we stood in our airport gate waiting for departure. I was a bit nervous, as I always would be whenever flying was involved.
I’m not sure if I’d seen the disaster film Airport at the time but it was released in 1970 and told me that planes can come with disasters! Nevertheless, it was a pretty amazing adventure. We spent several days at Disneyland and even went down to Mexico for a brief visit. The whole trip was the recovery we needed after the previous year’s tragedy.
Around this time, Mom met a man named John through our neighbor (and mother of Debbie and Robin) Nita. John worked construction and had built a local restaurant/bar called The Heights on Gunnison Street which was several blocks from our home. My mother and John hit if off pretty quickly. By the summer he was traveling with us to our regular beach excursions. My father had bought a boat before he died and John took over the driving duties, along with my brother Mike who was now well into his teens. Here’s John with Mike’s friend Craig:
John was a bit of an adventurous, macho guy who clearly enjoyed Mike and Jeff’s higher interest in all things “boy” related. I’m not sure what he made out of me at this point. While my siblings slid down big slides into lakes while at the beach, I preferred digging in the sand and playing light games with friends. I didn’t have much interest in swimming in the water but I’d at least walk in up to me waist and wade around a bit. At home, I liked watching TV and playing with friends, mostly girls, such as neighbors Annie, Debbie, Lois, and Paula. John was from northern Wisconsin and had a big family there who owned a farm. He and his brothers loved “manly” things like snowmobiling and hunting.
Beginning in 1970 we’d take regular trips up to that area and to nearby touristy towns like Ironwood, Michigan and Duluth, Minnesota. We were far away from what I considered the comforts of home and far from Petula Clark’s vision a few years earlier of Downtown….
John owned a red Cadillac convertible and he loved to drive fast. This also made me nervous, as I had learned by this point that cars also crash.
The best part of those rides was listening to the radio.
My Top Ten of 1970:
1. (They Long To Be) Close to You – Carpenters
2. Moondance – Van Morrison
3. Band of Gold – Freda Payne
4. Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head – B.J. Thomas
5. Hitchin’ A Ride – Vanity Fare
6. Venus – Shocking Blue
7. The Tears of a Clown – Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
8. Candida – Tony Orlando & Dawn
9. Tighter, Tighter – Alive and Kicking
10. Make Me Smile - Chicago
Most of the songs in my Top Ten of 1970 I recall hearing and really enjoying while driving with the top down for our long 6 to 8 hour trips up north. The Carpenters became hugely popular with (They Long to Be) Close to You. I distinctly remember hearing it in the car on our road trips. I can see the top down on the convertible and the stars brightly lighting the sky. This song would come on the radio and I knew the words almost instantly. There was something so completely soothing about Karen's voice that calmed and delighted me all the same.
So many of these songs are also a bit melancholic for a 7-year old. I remember loving Freda Payne’s Band of Gold but I certainly didn’t understand that the song was about a woman getting spurned by her man just after their wedding! The lyrics: “Now that you’ve gone, all that’s left is a band of gold. All that’s left of the dreams I hold is a band of gold.” Why was I so attracted to this song?! I didn't have any sense that this is what the song was about when I was seven years old but I felt the sadness that was inherent in it right from the start. I was a pretty sensitive kid (surprise!) and this song just struck an emotional chord with me. Perhaps it made me think about how my mother must have felt having buried my father several months earlier. Yet, our family listened to the song and enjoyed every minute of it.
B.J. Thomas’s Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head was another monster hit that was played everywhere that year. It won the Oscar for Best Original song from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The song was about a guy who couldn’t seem to get a break with the unwelcome rain. (I’ve mentioned previously that I wasn’t a fan of sunny-less days.) My mother would often sing this song. It is a testament to her that she was always able to bounce back from the tragic circumstances of our father’s death and do something as fun as taking us to Disneyland and Universal Studios. As sad as death was for our family the raindrops couldn't stand in our way from continuing on with life. As the lyrics state: "The blues they tend to meet me won't defeat me. It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me." This song is the ultimate in positivity and hope.
Tony Orlando & Dawn’s Candida is a cry out to the title character who Orlando wants to take to a happier place: “the further from here girl the better, where the air is fresh and clean.” Perhaps these trips we were taking to California and the Upper Midwest were our family’s way of escaping the “rain” in our life. At least they gave me a bit of an escape whether I wanted it or not. A few years later it became pretty uncool to like Tony Orlando & Dawn but there's no denying the hits they produced in the early to mid-70s. This one had many of the great elements of that era's pop sound: catchy lyrics, great production, etc. It's a very optimistic and positive song about hope and love!
The driving trips also made a song like Hitchin’ a Ride a major favorite that year. A hugely catchy song with lyrics that really didn’t make any specific sense to a 7-year old, still I was going for a lot of rides in 1970 and this one was played all over local radio. Whether out loud or in my head, I could easily sing along with it. With the wind blowing and the skies dark, songs like this one offered me a wonderful escape. This song captures some of the melancholia of a guy making his way on the road, "hitchin' a ride" to get back to his love. Whatever happened to Vanity Fare??
I’m not sure when Tighter Tighter first entered my consciousness but when I started making my compilation CDs of music from the era, this one was always included. It a great production that features catchy lyrics, a cool arrangement, some brass, and strong vocals. This Tommy James tune also features a familiar and relatable sentiment: “Hold on, just a little bit tighter now baby. I love you so much I can’t let go!” The sound of it is also VERY 1970.
Venus was another major hit that year. It sounded mostly unlike anything else at the time. Although if you listen to Venus and Hitchin’ a Ride back to back, they actually have a pretty similar sound. When I listen to them now, I’m brought back to the days of hearing them on the beach and on the radio with my family. I always found the vocal from the lead singer of this one-hit wonder band very cool and exotic. The arrangements and production were pure early 1970s pop.
The band Chicago was all over our house in the 70s. My sister had all of their albums. Make Me Smile has their distinctive sound filled with brass. I remember years later being annoyed by all of the young bands that only used guitars and drums. I asked my students, "where's the brass?!" when they'd talk about some new band that sounded like so many others. Chicago blended their music with great productions, arrangements, and vocals. This one, sung by the late Terry Kath, packs so many of these elements with an important message I still relate to.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ The Tears of a Clown is probably the most bittersweet of all the songs in this list: “There’s nothing sadder than the tears of a clown when there’s no one around.” This song always made me feel a little melancholy too. If I saw myself as a bit of clown in front of my mother’s home movie camera prior to 1970, perhaps the sadness within me took over when the camera was turned off. Seeing the sadness of my family and friends after our father died certainly, on some level, had an effect on me. Feeling the anxiety of planes, boats, and fast moving cars didn’t make me want to laugh either. I privately feared most of these adventures. Then there was John. I really didn’t want him around. I enjoyed being with my mother but he was having a control over her that disturbed me that I don’t think I consciously understood. This is where I began to see the clowning around fade a bit.
I discovered Moondance by Van Morrison a bit later than all of the other songs in this list. In the 1980s I had a job in Chicago that required me to work until 9PM. Afterwards, I'd go out with some of my coworkers on a pretty regular basis. One of those was a guy named Howard who I thought was pretty cool, urban, and unaffected by structure. We would have a few drinks and then head to an all-night coffee shop on Broadway. Some nights we'd be up until the birds started singing around 5 AM. I enjoyed spending time with Howard who was also a musician/singer in a very Sting-like way. I was attracted to him but he was, supposedly, straight. Still, I enjoyed those late nights walking home in the moonlight across the city. It was at this point that Moondance really began to affect me.
Links to my Top Ten of 1970:
Next Up: 1971…”Feeling Like I Don’t Belong…”
I found the juxtaposition of your family tragedy with a search for moving forward haunting along with the irony of your musical choices for 70. A new decade.
Your home movies are so captivating, Dan! I think I'm more envious that you even still have them!!! Your fascinating stories (and storytelling) don't need any embellishing, but with these vids, holy cow! And, of course, your soundtrack.....I know I am, so I sense everyone who reads you can relate, at least on one or more levels, to your life and some of the things you experienced!
I had just a few years on you....I was 15 in '70, so these were all in my life's soundtrack, as well...mostly on AM radio! I, too, was taken by "Band of Gold," and at 15, I had no idea what she was singing about (or, more to the point, just didn't care)! But, as is coming more well known, I cared nothing whatsoever about a song's lyrics! I was all about the song's construction, the arrangement, the melody, harmonies, etc....and, here, Freda's voice! Like, "Oh, sounds like she's singing about something!"
I hadn't looked hard at her song before, but I think I found out why we love it so much: It was written by legendary Motown writers, Holland-Dozier-Holland, and produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. It was on their label, Invictus, but if it wasn't yet a Motown subsidiary, I believe it became one shortly thereafter.
I'm also impressed, Dan, that you're not dissuaded (even now) by "uncool" AM pop fair like Carpenters, Tony Orlando and B.J. Thomas! All were talented, and employed talented people around them....so, just some affirmation for boldly appreciating well-made music regardless of original radio bandwidth positioning!