“Dr. Rox Remember When: 1974”
Article #165 November 2024
By: RLSchwinden aka MrZerr0
So awhile ago I was talking to my good friend Franko T. (who has been a guest host on the WDGY “PsychoGello Show”) about when we were kids growing up in Iowa, me on the Westside of Sioux City and he on the Southside of Des Moines, and how much the Radio was a huge part of our growing up. We are a few years apart so our time lines and our memories are a little different, but nevertheless the impact was roughly the same. For me a huge impact on me was the late 60s growing up around my Aunts and Uncles that were anywhere from 1 to 13 years older than me playing all those albums and singles from the bands that I learned to love back then and even now to this day.
However I vividly remember when I first started discovering music all on my own. You see, when I was growing up, we moved all the time. I moved 19 times by the time I was 17. I went to 10 different schools in the time period; Irving, Lincoln, Smith, Ardvark (Old East) back to Smith in Sioux City then in Mississippi, Brandon Middle, Jr. High and High School, then back to Iowa North Jr. (with Actress Lori Petty and Ted Waite of Gateway Computers) and finally from West High. In 1974 I moved from Sioux City, Iowa to Billings, Montana, back to Sioux City and then to Brandon (Jackson) Mississippi.
So it must have been the spring of 1974 just before we moved to Billings, that I started listening to my KMNS on my Panasonic AM radio in my bedroom on 1714 W. 17th St. just before getting out of school for the summertime. I can still remember those cool nights with the windows open, as no one I know of had central AC, we only had a window unit in our dinning room to try to cool the whole downstairs area of our house. My mom worked at Bekins so at first my Uncle John watched me and my 2 sisters on the weekends, but after one really bad sink sprayer incident it was up to my Aunt Cat and her best friend Stacy P. used to watch us. During the day Cat and Stacy would bring over their albums and singles, Beatles, Monkees, Carpenters and Cher.
But at night I would have to turn on my radio, and back then there was this format called “Top 40” where the station would only play the BillBoard Top 40 songs of the week in repeat every 3 hours. sure it sounds boring now but back then, if you did not come from money, you could not buy all the 45 Singles on the Top 40, so you listened to them on the radio, if you were really well to do, you could record them of of the radio onto a blank Cassette (usually sold in 45, 60 and 90min). And where I usually lived there was no such thing as a “Used Record Store” you had to either buy or borrow them for your friends or neighbors, occasionally you might be able to find some at the Goodwill or Salvation Army.
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I remember late fall of ’74 my Aunt Laura and I playing outside until the sun went down, usually talking about Planet Of The Apes (as it 1st aired on CBS network TV in Sept. 1973) or Star Trek (1966-69) and we would try desperately to stay up late on Saturday nights and watch the Outer Limits (from 1963 -65). But when everyone went home it was just me and my Am Radio. I looked up the songs that I remember most from back then and here is a list of them, I was supposed to do a 3 part PsychoGello Show on “1974” but time got away from me, oh well, there’s always next year, right?
Now, I would like to point out that people’s memories can be a tricky thing. I was on Radio WFNU for about 2 years and was on 3 different Shows in my tenure there. And one thing my co-hosts challenged me on was the fact we did not need to mention the month and year a song hit the charts, that we only needed the year. I had to point out that there is a very big difference between the beginning of the year, that could be mistakenly remembered as the end of the previous year, and the end of a particular year that could be misremembered as the beginning of the following year. Below, on my list you will find a prime example of this of this situation of misremembering:
*Songs from 1973, that got lumped into 1974:
“Hello It’s Me” Todd Rundgren: August 1973 #5
“Rock On” David Essex: August 1973 #5
“Smokin In The Boys Room” Brownsville Station: October 1973 #3
“Time In A Bottle” Jim Croce: November 1973 #1
“Band Of The Run” McCartney & Wings: November 1973 (April 1974) #1
“Seasons In the Sun” Terry Jacks: December 1973 #1
*BillBoard Hits Of 1974:
“Come And Get Your Love” Redbone: January 1974 #5
“Jet” McCartney & Wings: January 1974 #7
“Takin Care Of Business” BTO: January 1974 #12
“Oh My My” Ringo Starr: February 1974 #5
“Sundown” Gordon Lightfoot: March 1974 #1
“Show Must Go On” 3 Dog Night: March 1974 #4
“The Air That I Breathe” Hollies :March 1974 #6
“Help Me” Joni Mitchell: March 1974 #7
“Billy Don’t Be A Hero” Bo Donaldson & Heywoods: April 1974 #1
“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” Steely Dan: April 1974 #4
“For The Love Of Money” O’Jays: April 1974 #9
“Rock The Boat” Hues Corporation: May 1973 #1
“Please Come To Boston” Dave Loggins: May 1974 #5
“Rock Me Gently” Andy Kim: June 1974 #1
“Having My Baby” Paul Anka: June 1974 #1
“Night Chicago Died” Paper Lace : June 1974 #1
“Tell Me Something Good” Rufus: June 1974 #3
“Lord’s Prayer” Sister Janet Mead: June 1974 #4
“Then Came You” Dionne Warwick & Spinners: July 1974 #1
“Nothing From Nothing” Billy Preston: August 1974 #1
“Carefree Highway” Gordon Lightfoot: August 1974 #10
Check out Mr. Zer0’s PsychoGello Show on Radi0 WDGY 8am Sundays AM740, Streaming, FM: 92.1, 103.7, 107.1.
You can Hear the Last 90 Episodes at www.MrZeroS.Com -Podcast. Also you can Hear Mr. Zer0’s “Evolation Show” 32 Programs and Rick Burnette’s “Hits And History” with Co-Host MrZerr0 for 17 Programs at www.MixCloud.Com.
Tune in next month for Mr.Zer0’s 39th Show Article.
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