by Kevin Burton In the late 60s and 70s when DJs would spin “Get Back” by The Beatles, they didn’t say anything about Billy Preston, not that I ever heard anyway. But Preston was working closely with the Beatles on the album “Let It Be.” He was a big part of what they …
Category Archives: 1970s
“My Sharona” Exploded, The Knack Fizzled
by Kevin Burton This song was headed for the top. No two ways about it. It was d-d-destiny, to borrow a stuttered word from the lyrics. The first time The Knack played “My Sharona” at MCA Whitney Recording Studios, producer Mike Chapman told the band it was going to be a number …
More Musing On Life, Baseball And Pete Rose
by Kevin Burton One day I answered the phone and instead of a typical getting I heard, “Your boy’s in jail.” Baseball was one of the few things that my father and I could talk about peacefully. But we had a disagreement about Pete Rose. I loved Rose, who died Sept. 30 …
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Cincinnati Baseball Icon Pete Rose Dead At 83
by Kevin Burton This is a story about baseball cards and the souls of men. Or maybe it’s about crime and punishment and fleeting youth. Or maybe this is a Joni Mitchell song in the making; I’ve looked at Pete Rose from both sides now, from glory and shame and still somehow …
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Happy Birthday Little Sister, I Love You
by Kevin Burton There was a day in the 70s when my younger sister Patricia asked me a question. I knew the correct answer to the question, but I lied to her. We were in the basement of our father’s house in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Nobody else was around. “When am I …
American Slang Phrases Through The Decades
by Dictionary Scoop Have you listened to teenagers talk lately? Their vocabulary is full of words we don’t quite understand. But come on, we did it too: every decade has had its own set of slang words and expressions. Today, we look back at ten slang words and expressions that have defined each decade from …
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Imperfect Tens: Hits Dionne Warwick Hated
by Kevin Burton The artist hated them, I loved them and so did millions of others. From the 60s genius of legendary songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and the 80s (post-70s really) brilliance of the Bee Gees, came two smash hits for Dionne Warwick. Both songs went to number 10 …
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Lennon’s 1972 Peace Overture To McCartney
by Kevin Burton How would music history be different, had an invitation sent in 1972 been received favorably? The acrimony surrounding the Beatles’ breakup was not as fevered as Beatlemania itself – nothing else in music has ever been – but it was white hot. But some two years after the split, John …
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“Rock Your Baby” And The Dawn Of Disco
by Kevin Burton There would come a time, in a year or so, when you could not escape disco. But at its inception 50 years ago, you couldn’t have seen it coming. “Disco snuck up on America like a covert operation,” wrote Alice Echols in her book “Hot Stuff, Disco and the Remaking …
Joni Mitchell’s Masterpiece, “Both Sides Now”
by Kevin Burton Turning on the radio is like opening a musical fire hydrant. The product comes at you fast and furious. When I was young I lacked the discernment to understand that some of the musical water being spewed out by that hydrant was more nourishing than some of the other. …
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