The Life, the Sound, the Music: 1971
The Life
The youngest of my parents son was born this year. This was the year my beloved Bears moved from Wrigley Field to Soldier Field. Bobby Seale and six other six defendants were acquitted of the charge of conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention held in Chicago. In 1969, the founder to the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton was murdered by the Chicago police.
My uncle returned from Vietnam with a serious addiction to morphine. From what I've been told, my uncle was bitter about the fall of the Black Panther Party and joined the Nation of Islam. This story gets real interesting in 1975.
The Sound
Ike Turner was still beating the crap out of Tina but in between time, they released “Proud Mary”. The one classic that didn’t make it to number one was “Shaft” by Isaac Hayes. If you are a Curtis Mayfield fan then you should pick up his first live album, “Curtis/Live”.
But if you want the true essence of 1971, you need to check out another Chicago product (though he spent a lot of time in Tennessee) Gil Scott-Herron’s album, “Pieces of A Man”. If you want to know who coined the phrase, “the revolution will not be televised”, then look know further. Gil Scott-Herron was one of the first spoken word artist.
The Music
Number One Songs
(Do The) Push and Pull/Rufus Thomas
Bridge Over Troubled Water/ Aretha Franklin
Don't Knock My Love/ Wilson Pickett
Family Affair/ Sly & the Family Stone
Groove Me/ King Floyd
Have You Seen Her/ The Chi-Lites
Hot Pants /James Brown
If I Were Your Woman/Gladys Knight & the Pips
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)/Marvin Gaye
Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone/Johnnie Taylor
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)/The Temptations
Make It Funky (Part 1)/James Brown
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)/Marvin Gaye
Mr. Big Stuff/Jean Knight
Never Can Say Goodbye/The Jackson 5
Spanish Harlem/Aretha Franklin
Stick-Up/The Honey Cone
Thin Line Between Love and Hate/The Persuaders
Trapped By a Thing Called Love/Denise LaSalle
Want Ads/The Honey Cone
What's Going On/Marvin Gaye
Grammy Winners
Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female
Aretha Franklin for "Don't Play That Song"
Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male
B.B. King for "The Thrill Is Gone"
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group, Vocal or Instrumental
The Delfonics for "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)"
Best Rhythm & Blues Song
General Johnson & Ronald Dunbar (songwriters) for "Patches" performed by Clarence Carter
12:23 PM Jay,
Oh girl I'll be introuble if you left me now CHI lites, yeah that was a year with all of that good stuff going on that you posted. The crips had just be created about two or three years earlier in south central L.A. It was sad to see Huey P. Newton get hooked on drugs and then he was murdered. Also, Ali vs. Frazier Part 1 happended and Frazier won that first encounter. Police brutality was going wild back then. The Bar kays had it going on then. Affrimative actiion had just picked up some serious power and was now mandatory thanks partially to president NIXON. The 70s had some good thing that manifested.
Chance,
3:18 PM Mercy, Mercy Me, in 1971 that was my favorite song. Loved the roll and sway of that tune.
BZ
4:45 PM Yeah, the Po Po was pretty rough back then. You know, I may have to do a series on the best boxing matches. Maybe that could be a Friday's Top Ten
12:30 AM Jay,
Yeah do if you have time it would be nice to get your insight on the top boxing matches of the 1970s. That was a great time period for heavy weights.
11:44 AM This has Nothing to do with this Post. I just wanted to come over here and lay out my picks for this Weekend. I got the Saints serving YOUR boys, and I'm taking New England. Rex Grossman is got help the Saints win the Game, remember I said this.
2:53 PM Damn Boss,
You're not rolling with the Bears at home in the cold? I think the Bears got this one. I'd be more worried if the game was in New Orleans.
9:32 PM Patches still make me cry. This song sounds so nice, but it is so depressing.
Excerpt:
Patches
I'm depending on you, son
To pull the family through
My son, it's all left up to you
Two days later papa passed away
And I became a man that day
Everyday I had to work the fields
'Cause that's the only way
We got our meals
3:30 PM I loved Mercy, Mercy, Me too.
1971 was a year away from the beginning of Watergate, right? We were secretly n bombing Hanoy and the life expectancy of a "grunt" in Viet Nam was roughly 17 minutes.
In 1971 a woman still couldn't have a credit card in her own name. Row v. Wade was still in it's infancy as a court case.
In 1971 the schools in Texas finally integrated. It was done very badly.
I'm with ghostface on Police Brutality. And it wasn't just the cops. The CIA had a file on just about everyone who wasn't a right wing Republican.
The Left was getting increasingly militant with splinter groups like the Weathermen.
And I was 9 years old and oblivious to it all.
3:30 PM Oh! And please don't delete this! I need the money!