40 Year Itch : Bicentennial Blues

Loudon Wainwright : Bicentennial

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On July 4, 1976 the United States celebrated its bicentennial with celebrations and concerts all across the nation. Elton John packed 62,000 fans at Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro Massachusetts. The double headliner show Eagles/ Fleetwood Mac drew 36,000 in Tampa. ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd also had a respectable crowd of 35,000.Elvis Presley performed for 11,974 at the Mabee Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

However a three day Gram Parsons Memorial Festival lost money when just 500 people showed up to see Chuck Berry and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and 2500 for The Band with Roger McGuinn. Shows by Emmylou Harris, Harry Chapin and Billy Swan were all cancelled.

Ohio Players : Bi-centennial

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Promoters expected 76,000 to attend the Ohio Players/Rufus/War/LaBelle concert at Pontiac Stadium. They got 25,000 and only the Ohio Players got paid in full ( $30,00).

It rained on Willie Nelson's Fourth Annual Picnic which turned violent with 15 stabbings, one drowning and several rapes reported. Waylon Jennings never showed up and Willie only took the stage briefly. Promoters lost $100,000.

Gil Scott Heron : Bicentennial Blues

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It turns out the most historic concerts on July 4th, 1976 weren't even in the United States.

At the Roundhouse in Camden The Ramones --still ignored in their home country--supported their Sire labelmates The Flamin' Groovies before a sell-out crowd of 2000 people while at The Black Swan in Sheffield, The Clash played their debut gig opening for the Sex Pistols. 

The Ramones : I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You 

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Of the Ramones show, it is said everybody in attendance formed a band--or at least saw how easy to would be to form a band . And everyone that already had a band played their songs twice as fast and half as long. The NME, reviewing the show, said Ramones played "first step moronorock strung across a selection of imbecilic adolescent ditties". 

  Still the impact of that Ramones debut on the UK punk scene can not be over stated. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon loved the album, the latter would spend hours playing bass along with it. And Captain Sensible used the album to teach Sid Vicious how to play bass.

That night is chronicled in an oral history on this Louder Than War post.

40 Year Itch : Cut Rate Trust

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    By 1973, despite or possibly due to, having made it big, I was miserable. Married and the father of two small children, I was never home, drunk a good deal of the time, and apparently felt it necessary to sleep with every waitress in North America and the British Isles. But guess what? All these beans have also been split into song. 

-Rufus Wainwright

From Loudon Wainwright III's fourth album, the half live/ half studio Unrequited, released in February of 1975, "Kick in the Head" is an example of what the singer-songwriter has always done best: breaking your heart while making you laugh. As in the hit 1975 move Shampoo, Wainwright explores the politics of sex.

Well I hear that she told you she'd been shacking up with your best friend
And the kick in the head is she said that she wants to again
Well they was kissin and huggin and doin it right in your bed
Oh this happened to you another foot has the shoe now instead

40 Year Itch : Pretty Sweet Mustache

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Here's a collection of some celebrated songwriters who put out some fine, somewhat twangy releases in late 1973. Leading the pack is Monkees alumnus Michael Nesmith and his 6th and final album for RCA, Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash. Recorded with a full band, including Red Rhodes on pedal steel, the album's first side is the highlight with " Continuing" and the Monkees era Nesmith tune "Some of Shelley's Blues". Restrained, well arranged, a country rock delight.

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Recorded in Nashville, Sweet Revenge is the John Prine album to buy after you've already purchased his debut. Funny, corny and surprisingly moving at times ( Christmas in Prison). Earned a rare A rating from the Dean, Robert Christgau.

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Christgau gave Wainwright's fourth album an A-, recorded as "Dead Skunk" was climbing the charts. An odd, mostly funny album featuring the a capella "Liza" ( dedicated to his classmate and sudden Oscar winner Liza Minelli) and "The Swimming Song" which would be recorded on his wife and sister-in-law's 1975 debut album Kate and Anna McGarrigle.

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The founder of The Youngbloods released this gorgeous record  in early October 1973. With touches of jazz and just good pop, this album, dedicated to his daughter, charted higher than any albums from The Youngbloods.