40 Year Itch : 1973 in Comedy

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40 Year Itch: Basketball Jones

Released in September of 1973, the Cheech and Chong single "Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces" peaked at #15 on the Billboard charts.
  Most surprising is the cast of musicians who showed up at the session: George Harrison and Klaus Voorman has been recording next door (with Ringo I wonder?). Carole King showed up to play electric piano while Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston added their own keyboard flair. While Jim Karsten played drums, the legendary Jim Keltner added percussion. Among "the cheerleaders" were Michelle Phillips, Darlene Love and Ronnie Spector.

  People could not get enough of the far out cartoon version which was released in 1974

The song was actually a parody of The Brighter Side of Darkness hit "Love Jones", which peaked at #16, one spot short of the Cheech and Chong tune.

40 Year Itch : The Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival

Is this the rock fest that killed the Woodstock nation?

 The Erie Canal Soda Pop fest on Indiana's Bull Island certainly drew a huge crowd -- an estimated 200,00 hippies who came from all over the country Labor Day Weekend of 1972 to see Santana, Foghat, Canned Heat , Black Sabbath, the Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker and Nazareth.

 That's not who showed up though.

 Black Sabbath was a no show. So were the Allman Brothers. Nobody saw Fleetwood Mac. When Joe Cocker saw the crowd he reportedly asked for more money and left when organizers turned him down.

 The traffic was a nightmare.

So were the drugs. Somebody was selling bleach. Two people died. And it rained.

 One very entertaining blogger who claims to have been there writes:

 If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would swear that the festival was a set-up, a sort of psyops to put an end to the ideal of the Woodstock nation. If it wasn't, then it was the biggest f**k up in the history of rock festival promotions.

40 Year Itch: Cheech And Chong Day

Apparently remembering the Alamo wasn't a big enough draw. Legend has it that  straight-laced but colorful Mayor John Gatti of San Antonio declared August 11, 1972 "Cheech and Chong Day". Neither were born anywhere near the city. And no, Dave wasn't there. But doper comedians "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong showed up at the airport where they were met by two delegations and a beaming mayor. That night Cheech  and Chong performed a legendary set with Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.

The duo had just released their second album Big Bambu in June which would earn a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy recording. George Carlin's FM and AM would win that year.