Made In The 70s

In the days of iPods and the Internet, we collect tracks into playlists, post them on Facebook, and hope people will listen. In the 70s, we used so-called high fidelity or hi-fi systems connected by tons of wires to record our favorite album tracks onto cassettes. Cassettes are those things you see on the left there. When you wanted to give someone that special something personal, you took all the best songs you had, recorded them on a cassette, and gave it to the girl of your dreams. This, my friends, is the all important Mix Tape that will let your true love how you feel through the words of Billy Joel, Barry Manilow and Teddy Prendergrass.

Sometimes, however, Mix Tapes weren’t just about telling someone you love them. Sometimes they were angry mix tapes to help you get over a break-up, or funky tapes that get you ready for Saturday night at the local discotheque, or smooth tapes to get you in the mood for lovin’. So, for those looking for some more sounds of the seventies, I’ve added a new playlist to the “Mix Tape” page above. IThis one, simply called August, contains 20 songs that speak to me of lazing in a park in the sunshine, listening to the transistor radio, and watching the world go by – more of a vibe thing than a specific message. Some of the tracks you’ll have seen in earlier posts but now you can listen to them in the order I want you to listen to them, which is almost as important as the content itself, as more often than not, Mix Tapes tell a story and shouldn’t be (and for obvious reasons really couldn’t be) listened to in some computer-generated random order. Hope you like the tunes I’ve chosen, because now I have the hang of this playlist thing, I’ll be busy making more Mix Tapes for you in the future.

Edited to add: Thanks to reader and fantastic graphic artist Dusty Abell who commented on this and pointed out that it might not be obvious where the mix tape is. Well, the Mix Tape page is at the top of this page, next to the About button, or you can find it here! Also, because these were created through Playlist.com, they may not be available outside the United States, which really bums me out. Please note that I am working on finding a solution for that so that everyone can hear the glory70s radio. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Okay, so I know that these pre-date the 70s by a couple of decades, and to some extent are a left-over vestige of the good old post WW2 days of rationing, camel-colored mid-calf length coats and shop stewards in tweed flat-caps, but it was a rare thing indeed in 1970s Britain to pass by a cafe, small bistro, fish & chip or pie shop without seeing a round green and white sticker in the window proclaiming that the establishment in question accepts Luncheon Vouchers.

Luncheon Vouchers came a in small book, similar to a checkbook, and were given to employees by companies that did not have their own subsidized canteens. You could buy a book of 10 five pound vouchers for, let’s say, 35 pounds, and your company would pick up the rest of the tab. The cafe gets 5 pounds, you get a nice plate of fish and chips, and the company doesn’t have to foot the bill for a whole canteen’s worth of extra employees.

Although the concept of Luncheon Vouchers still exists, and is usually given out now as a pre-paid debit card, the old LV pretty much died out with the increasing use of the credit card and a widely-publicized scandal where it was discovered that SW London madam Cynthia Payne was accepting them in payment for sexual services from her stock of ladies dressed as naughty nurses and catholic schoolgirls. Personally I would have thought that would send sales skyrocketing, but such is the nature of the British psyche that they became the punchline of a somewhat bygone-era joke, going the way of the platform boot and the kipper tie.

Cynthia Payne, however, has had two movies made about her life: Wish You Were Here, starring Emily Lloyd, and Personal Services, starring Julie Walters. She is still available for After Dinner Speaking Engagements, though these days I imagine she works for cash only.

The 1970s was a time for upheaval and social dichotomy. Unions went on strike for better wages, causing power cuts and leaving garbage rotting in the streets for days, and fires had to be put out by the army; while on college campuses students fought for peace, women stripped naked to show their empowered sexuality, and towards the later years of the decade with unemployment on the rise, record-breaking inflation, terrorists hijacking planes and bombing pubs and shopping centers the youth of Britain split into two groups – those who were angry and embraced the nihilism of punk, and those who escaped into the arms of disco. Metalheads, yes, I’m purposefully ignoring you for this article. I’ll get to you later.

If you thought the world is at it craziest now, back then it really was a “Ball Of Confusion”. It’s no surprise then, that when it came to science-fiction, the future was rarely a happy place. From the late 60s on, the world of the future was to be plagued by murderous super-computers, human-repressing apes, robot wives and paranoid sentient planet-bombs.

The future was bleak and dark, and usually set after some kind of horrific nuclear war, which is no real surprise as that was the reality of the geo-political situation at the time.  In showing how horrific the future could be, what those 70s sci-fi movies brought us was a way of shining a flashlight into the darkness so we know not to head down certain paths. A series of warning shots aimed at keeping us on the correct road.

And so I bring you the first of these classic Dystopias, a movie about the horrors of Free Love, Unlimited Hedonism, Plastic Surgery and the Cult Of Youth…

Logan’s Run

Logan’s Run (1976) is set in a post-apocalyptic future where mankind lives in a massive domed city and the human lifespan is limited to 30 years old. When they reach 30, people are ordered to report to the mysterious “Carousel” for the Renewal ceremony, but what really seems to happen is that they simply float up in the air then get zapped by a giant crystal thing.

Obviously, not everyone believes in this concept of Renewal and try to escape from the city, and for that reason there a group of law enforcers known as Sandmen whose job it is to hunt down and kill these Runners. Michael York is Logan (Michael York), a Sandman about to reach 30, who is ordered to pose as a Runner himself by the computer that controls the city in order to help it find and destroy Sanctuary, a legendary place where people are allowed to grow old.

Joined by fellow Runner Jessica (Jenny Agutter) and now hunted down by his former partner and best friend Francis (Richard Jordan), Logan escapes the city and runs into various frozen-people collecting robots and a wizened old man with a thousand cats on the way to the fabled City of Senior Citizens. Will they ever get to Sanctuary, or is Sanctuary within yourself? appears to the question being posed here.

The first thing you’re going to realize watching this is that, despite the special effects crew receiving an Oscar that year, and Star Wars coming out only one year later, Logan’s Run looks laughably dated. The city itself, obviously a series of miniatures, looks positively crap by today’s standards – Thunderbirds had more realistic models than this film. Design-wise, the interior of the city is like a cross between a Disney theme park and a typical modernist US shopping mall. In fact, some of was filmed at a shopping mall, mostly in the Dallas/Fort Worth or Houston areas of Texas (here’s a nice webpage that compares the locations with photos of the actual buildings) However, you need to remember that these were cutting edge effects for 1976 and if you can get past that, the space-age disco fashions and make-up, and the fact that post-apocalyptic Virginia looks like the same canyons of Southern California used to film CHiPs (a recurring theme in 1970′s post-apocalypse movies), then you’re in for a thoughtful science-fiction journey that touches on many the fears plaguing 1970′s Americans: the bomb, old age, the sexual revolution, and social conformity.

In the end, Logan’s Run still works because it’s more than a sum of its parts. There are some beautiful moments, such as Agutter’s Jessica timidly reaching out to touch an old man’s beard for the first time, and the performances, while sometimes a little exaggerated, are quite nuanced for adventure movies of that era. The biggest let-down is probably David Goodman’s script which especially at the beginning, when it has all the exposition to get out of the way, is stilted with bad jargon and doesn’t really give the actors much to work with. Story-wise, however, it’s easy to follow and fun to watch, well worth renting if you haven’t seen it before.

Finally, I’d like to mention that the story was also extended into a TV series in 1978, starring Gregory Harrison as Logan and Heather Menzies (yes, Louisa from The Sound Of Music) as Jessica, which lasted only 14 episodes. I’m often surprised at how many TV shows which were cancelled half way through their first season were still bought up and shown by British television, but I do remember loving that show as a kid and really wanted one of their funky black laser guns. And yes, that Logan’s Run Annual featured at the top of this post? Of course I had that!

Logan’s Run TV Show

Logan’s Run on Rotten Tomatoes

I found this blog post trawling Twitter today, so thanks to @anjwrites for posting it there. Three classic recipes from 70s Australia from the Cooking With Too Much Salt blog.

If you have any classic 70s recipes that may have fallen out of fashion, let us know and we’ll see if we can make them and post a review up here.

It’s August, it’s super hot here in New York City which I now call home, and I feel like listening to some groovy easy tunes to cool me down. Time to grab a cold one, lay back on the grass and soak up some sun. Don’t forget to put the suntan oil on to ensure a deeper color.

Fun facts: The first two songs were cover versions, the second was covered by Faith No More.

Now, where were we? Oh yes…

And finally…

Ah… I feel better already!

This is just too cool for words. A journalist plays the 1973 Al Pacino film Serpico, based on the true life story of NYPD corruption whistleblower Frank Serpico, to the true life Frank Serpico, who has never watched the whole film all the way through. It’s short, but it’s brilliant.

Not sure what they’re watching? Here’s the trailer for this classic film, which contains one of Pacino’s greatest ever performances.

Usually, when a Brit writes a song praising the glories of lorry driving, they’re doing a parody, such as in the funny-at-the-time Convoy GB. Here, however, we have thoroughly British rockers Tom Robinson Band giving us a stomping anthem about the sheer awesomeness of something as mundane as driving a lorry up the M1 on an overnight run.

Or is it? Looking at the lyrics, it’s actually a pretty dull song, where nothing really happens, just a few observations about a car, a guy on a bike and a final verse that’s just rather vague. Armed with the knowledge that Tom Robinson is a very clever songwriter, and just looking at his expressions as he “sings” the song on Top Of The Pops below, it’s obvious that the song is a metaphor for either sex, drugs, or sex and drugs. Either way, when people sing in metaphors, it means you, your older sister, and your mum can sing along, each pretending that the song is a totally innocent ditty about driving to Manchester. Thank you, Mr. Robinson. Thank you.

Films that are considered “cult classics” are often silly, quirky, badly made and deeply flawed, yet at the same time manage to drag you through to the end on a string of nothing but raw enthusiasm and fun. On the surface, 1979′s low-budget chiller Phantasm is a confused mess. Characters who were just killed appear in the next scene, others disappear from the movie entirely. We are told that (SPOILERS!) dead zombies are being shrunk down into dwarves in order to become slaves on another planet with a higher gravity, yet there’s no explanation as to how this is achieved, or, even, why they don’t just find actual little people and use them instead… But movies like this aren’t about making sense, they’re about making the audience jump, and while these days it all just seems a little cheesy and schlocky, in 1979, a year after the release of John Carpenter’s Halloween, it delivered on its promise.

While it did suffer in the dialogue department, and the acting of the main protagonists was dull and uninspired, there are three things that elevate Phantasm above the other schlocky fare that was around at the time. First, there are some incredibly weird things going on here that defy explanation – zombie dwarves, a severed finger that turns into a hairy bug, and the now infamous steel ball that drills into peoples heads and pumps all the blood out of them, the product of writer/director Don Conscarelli’s brilliantly warped imagination. Secondly, there is the genuinely disturbing performance by Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man, who manages to be both creepy and inviting at the same time.

Finally, there’s Fred Myrow’s synth-heavy score, which has the sinister simplicity of the theme from Halloween, and an even darker atmosphere. I had the album in my teens, and would use it as background music when I first started writing science fiction in the mid-80s, and there’s nothing worse than working late in the night, in a room lit by nothing but a red-tinted light bulb, writing SF-horror and suddenly hearing Angus Scrimm’s “BOYYYYYYYYY” line from the film’s final scene. Scared the pants off me many a time, so it did.

So, I thought I’d let you hear some of this fantastic score in two forms: first is the score as presented in the film, and second, as it is Saturday, and I love introducing you to obscure disco tracks on Saturdays, yes, there’s Captain Zorro’s disco version of the Theme from Phantasm. Enjoy!

A different kind of Disco Ball…

Sorry the video is a little dull, but it may give you a little more chance to appreciate the glory that is Nantucket Sleighride by Long Island’s own Mountain. Despite being formed in the late 60′s, being mostly known for a song called Mississippi Queen and playing to rapturous applause at Woodstock (for which they were honored by being left out of both the movie and the first Woodstock album), this almost operatic tale from 1971 of a 19th century whaler heading off to sea and the love he leaves behind has to be one of my favorite rock songs of all time. Not only does it almost invent the “Quiet-Loud-Quiet-Loud” style later brought back to life by bands such as The Pixies and Nirvana, it rocks out the Hammond organ and drums that only The Muppet Show’s Animal could replicate.

Brits who remember the 70s will remember that song was also used as the basis for the theme tune for the popular LWT Television political documentary show Weekend World. Although this particular episode is from the early 80s (I guess videotaping Weekend World wasn’t quite so popular back in the 70s), just for comparison, I’ve included the opening titles for that below.