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Billboard #1 Hits: #385: “Convoy”- C.W. McCall. January 10, 1976. #1 for 1 week in the Billboard Hot 100. Single:”Convoy”- C.W. McCall Record Company- MCM Genre: Country Written by Bill Fries Time:3:49 B-side:” Long Lonesome Road” Album-Black Bear Road Grade: C Peaked at #1 1 week in Billboard Hot 100. #2 in UK Singles Chart, […]
BILLBOARD #1 HITS: #385: “CONVOY”- C.W. MCCALL – JANUARY 10, 1976 — slicethelife
One of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters ever was premiered this day, December 15 1939, at Loew’s Grand Theatre, Atlanta. It is thought that around 300,000 people in Atlanta came out in celebration.
The film tells the tragic tale of a southern family’s struggle and disintegration during the ensuing melee of the American Civil War, which took place between 1861 and 1865.
Gone With The Wind has an iconic cast of stars, including Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Haviland and remains highly popular today.
Copyright Francis 2020
If side 1 was a tour de force, then side 2 continues slightly differently, with four songs which are in their own way, equally impressive.
‘Peg’ gets going with a much lighter disco feel, compared to side one. It’s fairly typical of the time but done in Steely Dan’s own inimitable way, with attention to detail. It turns out the guitar solo which made it onto the album took some time to finalise, with numerous guitarists auditioning for the ‘role’. Listening to it, I think they made the right choice. This is probably the most ‘commercial’ track on the album.
With Track 2, ‘Home At Last’, we’re suddenly, though not surprisingly, in the realms of Homer (the ancient Greek writer, not the cartoon character) and Ulysses (Odysseus), with references to danger on the rocks and being tied to a mast over a bluesy jive that gets your foot a-tapping nicely. Once again the instrumentation, particularly the use of brass, I feel, is second to none. Very much of its time, almost ‘Starsky and Hutch’ in feel.
‘I Got The News’, the second to last track is an ‘angular’ sounding disco number, with those enigmatic, yet fitting lyrics full of innuendo and direct references which are so much a feature of the Dan’s music. There’s a great guitar break too, which belies the track’s disco setting, a feature first perfected I think on their previous album, ‘The Royal Scam’. It’s like they’re letting you know how sophisticated they are – and why not?
And so to the last, and certainly not least track on this classic album. ‘Josie’ is one of Steely Dan’s most celebrated songs, a fine R&B number, about a girl the guys simply can’t do without, it would seem, a bit of a hell raiser by the sound of it, who evidently could’ve been present when Nero set fire to Rome in AD 64. This has all the feel of LA and sophistication, the place Becker and Fagen made their home for some time.
Once again though, it’s the jazz inspired elements, like the rather haunting, minimalistic guitar riff/section sandwiching the main part of the track, which sets it apart from what anyone else was doing before or since.
‘Aja’ will always be a classic. Was it the peak of their success? Most definitely, which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to ‘Gaucho’, or ‘Two Against Nature’, nor indeed the older back catalogue. It’s just that if I was to recommend one album of this band, it would have to be ‘Aja’. It gets an A+++.
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
In astrological terms the birth chart speaks for itself.
Leo rising with Neptune right on the ascendant. There are several movie stars with prominent Neptunes such as this, the ‘outer planet’ probably adding a certain mystical glamour to the individual’s prominent appearance. Leo loves the limelight and Neptune will attract through the power of film, a very ‘Neptunian’ medium. For some reason, certain faces look good on celluloid and this was no exception.
Added to this we have a fairly tight Sun Mars conjunction in Taurus in the 10th house of career. Here we see the imposing, handsome 6ft 4in physical presence too, strength, bravery, determination. Taurus is solid, stubborn, yet sensuously attractive with Mars so close to the Sun. He rose to the level of Major in WW11 and was injured in Sicily.
This same determination drove him in his movie career, where allied with Mercury in Aries conjunct the Midheaven trine Saturn in Leo, he enjoyed a very varied, yet sustained career, playing most famously in Tarzan of the Apes, movies of Karl May’s novels, Westerns and numerous European films later in his career.
His linguistic abilities (he could speak Italian, Spanish, French and German) are also indicated by Mercury’s prominent conditioning; he was able to utilise this ability in his career.
source: http://www.astro.com
Ciscography 