What UP fellow orgers,

A while back VH-1 did a special on the 80's pop culture. They covered the years 1980 -1989. Well on August 18th, they will cover the 70's {from 1970-1979}. Since they are covering the 70's, I thought I'd do a thread on why do we{especially us old schoolers..LOL} love the 70's here are a few of my reasons...


1. Value Of A Dollar- Remember back in the 70s when you got allowances from your parents{like $10} and you could do a lot with that $10. My mom would only require that I go to the store and get a loaf of bread(I could keep the change}. Well after I got that loaf of bread. I had enough money to go to the movies{to see Bruce Lee} with my friends, It's worth noting that I could get a Reese's peanut butter bar and soda and still have enough money to go to the record store and buy a 45 r.p.m.single. A single cost only 99 cents in 1977.


2. The Greatness Of Radio...We all complain about radio now. But back in the 1970's radio was awesome. AM radio was good for music back then...here in Atlanta we could turn to WAOK 1380 (R&B radio station} and hear those great soul/R&B songs like...Earth Wind And Fire..."Singasong", Spinners "Games People Play, L.T.D. Love Ballad, High Inergy "You Can't Turn Me Off {Right In The Middle Of Turning Me On"}. Then you could turn to 790 WQXI {top 40/rock station} and hear songs like Gary Wright "Dreamweaver", Pablo Cruise "What You Gonna Do When She Says Goodbye", Carole King "Jazzman", Player "Baby Come Back,"Andy Gibb "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" and Elton John "Island Girl"among many others. Remember how great those songs made you feel back in the 70's. I still get chills when I think about how good radio was back then.


3. Life In General- To me, it just seems like life was much more simpler back then. I know the overall family unity within my circle, was more tighter back then. Back in the day, my uncles would throw these 70's house parties, where all of my uncles and aunts and parents would be down in his entertainment room dancing the night away to songs like KC And The Sunshine "Get Down Tonght" and War "Low Rider". I was a child then so I had to stay upstairs in the room with my younger cousins and watch TV[shows like the Six Million Dollar Man with Lee Majors..LOL} But every now and then they would let me come down stairs and show them some dance steps{my aunts would always give me a dollar for dancing like Michael Jackson}. MAN...those were the days!!!

Why do you love the 70's??? Share with us.

New schoolers take notes
[This message was edited Wed Aug 6 12:00:55 PDT 2003 by BRO915]

I can't wait to watch this special!

DavidEye said:

David, I remember you saying that you didn't care for the I Love The 80's special and that you were waiting for them to do the 70's. Well,your wish has been granted.

I know you're gonna share some 70s memories with us..right?

yeah the 70's kicked ass, god so much fun i had when i was a kid, radio was doin its thing, real music, real musicians, shit even TV was a good thing then. regardless of what was going on in the world.

just the whole lifestyle and time, was so happy and fun. not like now u know?. cus in these days and times, dig and hold onto what u can, cus u never really know.
[This message was edited Wed Aug 6 6:05:43 PDT 2003 by Finess]

BRO915 said:

You know it

I really,really,really miss the 70s! That was such a magical time.Y'all already know how much I love the music from back then...lol...speaking of the 70s,did you know that the first season of "What's Happening" is now available on DVD? It's a 3-DVD set that you can order from TimeLife.com (my copy is on the way).

I remember in the mid-70s,I had a velvet poster with a purple light on my wall.Do you guys remember those? The poster had a picture of a scandily-clad woman on it

As a young kid back then,I would often hear "sexy" songs on the radio without knowing what they were really singing about.In 1978,I was going around singing the Disco hit "Push,push in the bush"...lol...and when I heard Donna Summer moaning on her early records,I thought she was having a baby or something!

I love the 70's because it was the decade of the greatest music to me. I loved the music, cuz to me, the colorlines were blurred. I could dig Bread, Todd Rundgren, The Eagles as well as EWF, LTD, and The Emotions. I remember the parties my family used to throw in the basement with those strobe lights.

And of course the 70's gave us The Little One from Minneapolis...more 70's stuff later...

I am waiting with anxious excitement for VH-1's I Love the 70's. I watched the first run of I Love the 80's, and basically lost my mind and watched it every time it comes on. More than likely that will happen with the 70's. It's hard to describe why I love that decade so. I was under the age of 10, and pretty much influenced entirely by my parent's music and tv watching patterns. All of that is still with me today, and it's quite endearing. I miss that. I agree with those who feel that the 70's were overall a better decade.

funkyslsistah said:

Yep you got it!!! No other decade musically, can mess with the 70's in terms of depth of influence, originality and versatility: rock, pop, soul/r&b and funk were kicking seriously hard then.

The 80's started out with great promise...particularly 1980-1984{R&B/funk was pretty awesome during these 5 years} but around 85'it started going down, IMO.

While there were some nice things about the 70's, I loved the 80's so much more (mainly 81-85) The late 70's were cool but the early 70's were just so damn grimey lol. Maybe it was the clothes, hair styles or the hippies but I just wasn't feeling that time period. It will be interesting to watch the VH1 special though.

Good Morning Orgers,


Back in the 70's, growing up, it was such a treat going to the record store to buy those 45 r.p.m. records. As I've stated earlier, you could get them for 99 cents {$1.04 with tax}. On my block, I had a lot of great 45's. So after school, me and friends would go over to my house and we would listen to these records and do all of the latest dances they were doing then{often time there were enough of us to form a Soul Train line}...

I think once before we talked about our very first record we bought...but if my memory serve me well these are the first 10 or so 45's I ever bought...

1. Barkays- Let's Have Some Fun (1977)

2. Bee Gees- Stayin Alive (1977)

3. Heatwave- Always And Forever (1977)

4. Stargard- Which Way Is Up? (1977)

5. A Taste Of Honey- Boogie Oogie Oogie (1978)

6. Heatwave- The Groove Line (1978)

7. Funkadelic- One Nation Under A Groove (1978)

8. Sun- Sun Is Here {this song used to be the jam!!!} (1978)

9. Peaches And Herb- Reunited (1979)

10.Ami Stewart-Knock On Wood {disco remake of a soul classic} (1979).


This may not be the exact order I purchased them in, but I'm pretty sure these were the first ten.
[This message was edited Thu Aug 7 4:15:44 PDT 2003 by BRO915]

Hippies.

stymie said:

Exactly.Greatest decade for music,indeed.There was no rap,no sampling,no music videos,no excessive drum machines.It was all about THE MUSIC.In the 70s,you couldn't just put out a well-choreographed video and zoom your way to the top.You had to have TALENT.

Starmist7 said:

LOL laugh all you want but I grew up on the Oakland/Berkeley boarder so hippies were a fact of life. They scared me as a kid lol

DavidEye said:

Funny how we tend to break things down by decade. But when you think about it, nothing magically occurs just because we begin another man made 10 year cycle. If I had to pick my favorite period for music it would cross two decades. 77-84 or 85 would be my pick as the best period musically with the year 1980 as the only real down year during that span.

intha916 said:

Hmmm,I would say that the years 1975-83 yielded the best music of all-time.What's wrong with 1980? I remember alot of great songs came out that year.

That's a loaded question! I love the 70's period! So, where do I begin?

I spent the night at a friend's during the blackout. Since we didn't have any electricity we talked about all kinds of stuff. I mentioned how back in the day it just seemed safer. She mentioned that perhaps it's because our "perception of things back then were different." She mentioned how whenever she and her friends went to hear DJs battle, gunshots always scared everyone away. Funny thing was, people didn't get shot, the equipment did!

On that note, the music always stands out in my mind. Just the other night I caught part of this TimeLife infomercial on the sounds of the 70's; a multi-CD set of great songs of that era. Think there was probably more "rock" than R&B but, as a whole I can totally see myself owning this comp. Those sounds were the soundtrack of my youth. I could go on. Trust!

I'm looking forward to this special, thanks for the heads up, DE!

I hope they do a respectable segment on the funk of the 70's and I wouldn't mad at all if they threw in some Soul Train footage from the 70's.

BRO915 said:

Now that's whatumtalkin'about! Soul Train

btw, there's this new Old Navy commercial with a Soul Train theme. (Shemar Moore's in it instead of Don Cornelius.) I just love it!
[This message was edited Mon Aug 18 10:19:08 PDT 2003 by UptownDeb]

The 70's had some of the worst music ever, as well as the best, but the politics were horrible.

Best thing was For You and Van Halen's first album.

The 70's are overrated. Extremely high Cheese factor in that decade. I remember being a kid thinking, "I'll be glad when all this over"

So did anybody watch the first two episodes last night? They covered the years 1970 and 1971.It was interesting.I had totally forgotten about the TV show "Love American Style"!

DavidEye said:

I can still here the theme song in my head and see the fireworks!

I'm listening to VH1's "I Love the 70s" station at vh1.com right now. They're playing Heart's "Magic Man."

BRO915 said:

no r. kelly...

Well?? Am I the only one who's been watching this??

I watched 1971 and 1972 last night. It was interesting. They featured a segment on Soul Train on the 1971 episode.

Did you see the segment on Stevie's style of dress in the 70's?

BRO915 said:

Yes,I saw it

The Stevie segment was cool,but I wanted them to dig deeper and discuss his amazing music from that period.Maybe when they do the 1976 show (Thursday night),they will discuss 'SITKOL'.

I got a kick out of seeing those old commercials too.Remember that Chiffon commerical..."it's not butter,it's Chiffon...you can't fool Mother Nature"

DavidEye said:

Yeah...I almost forgot about that commercial. They may very well cover Stevie and that whole SITKOL period on either 1976 or 1977. We should see a segment on Donna Summer on the 1979 episode, they may cover MJ and that Off The Wall album as well.
[This message was edited Wed Aug 20 6:22:20 PDT 2003 by BRO915]

I am totally diggin the VH-1 show. It's bringing up a lot of memories that I totally forgot about.

Shrinky Dinks?

Leisure Suits (my Dad had one...)

The Electric Company and Zoom!

Lite Brite & Weeble Wobbles (which became wepons in my house)

H R Huffnstuff or whatever the name of that weird ass show was.

Kick ass show!
[This message was edited Wed Aug 20 6:24:40 PDT 2003 by Pagey]

Pagey said:

Easy Bake ovens

Baby Alive

Schoolhouse Rock

"Deep Throat"