Ten Great Songs From One Great Year

1975

The year started with a bang, as on New Year's Day, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are both found guilty of the Watergate cover-up. Three weeks later, in the waning days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Politburo approves the the final military offensive against the South. On April 29th, the United States orders the final evacuation of the last diplomatic, military, and civilian personnel from Vietnam. The next day, Saigon falls to the Communists, ending the war.

In July, An American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the 2 nations. A couple of months later, NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars. In Detroit, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing. He has never been found. In September, fugitive Patty Hearst is captured and arrested in San Francisco.

President Ford survived two assassination attempts this year. One by Annette "Squeaky" Fromme, who was a member of Charles Manson's "family" and the other by Sarah Jane Moore, who had an obsession with the Patty Hearst saga.

In October, Saturday Night Live makes it's debut. The show is still running after 37 years. The Cincinnati Reds are defeated by the Boston Red Sox in Game Six off Carlton Fisk's 12th-inning home run to cap off what many consider to be the best World Series game ever played. However, the Reds go on the win the series the next day.

Take it to the Limit -- The Eagles



I'm Not in Love -- 10cc



Lady -- Styx



Baby As You Turn Away -- Bee Gees



How Long -- Ace



Swearin' to G0d -- Frankie Valli



Thunder Road -- Bruce Springsteen



Kashmir -- Led Zeppelin



That's the Way of the World -- Earth, Wind and Fire



The Entertainer -- Billy Joel



BONUS TRACK

Mr. Jaws -- Dickie Goodman

A very good history lesson for many of you who have been educated in America's public school system.

Ten Great Songs From One Great Year

1982

In January, the biggest news was the breakup of AT&T, forcing it into a network of smaller companies - known as "Baby Bells." This shake up allowed competition of telephone services to flourish, including MCI and Sprint. In April, Argentina invades the British Falkland Islands. While the war officially ended in June, with the Argentine military surrender, the conflict continues to this day. Also in April, under the agreement signed with the late Anwar Sadat, Israel completes it's withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula. Although peace was forged by the treaty, it was at best a cold peace that is today threatened by the fall of Mubabrak. However, in April, forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.

There were two notable plane crashes in 1982. In January, shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78. Ironically, on the same day, a Washington Metro train derails to the north, killing 3 (the system's first fatal accident). And in July, Pan Am Flight 759 (Boeing 727) crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 146 on board and 8 on the ground. Furthermore, in the same month,on a movie set, the Twilight Zone actor Vic Morrow and 2 child actors die in a helicopter stunt accident.

In October, tragedy strikes Chicago when when 7 people in the area die after ingesting Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. Now, almost 40 years later, the case has not yet been solved. In better news, the year also brought the first permanent artificial transplantation when 61-year Barney Clark receives one at the University of Utah. Clark lived an additional 112 days, but set the stage for major advances in transplantation (of which I benefit from greatly).

Did it in a Minute -- Hall & Oates



Going Down -- Greg Guidry



Making Love -- Roberta Flack



Eye of the Tiger -- Survivor



You Can Do Magic -- America



Somebody's Baby -- Jackson Browne



Talking to the Moon -- Don Henley



Steppin' Out -- Joe Jackson



I Ran -- A Flock of Seagulls



Hold on -- Santana



BONUS TRACK

Welcome to Heartlight -- Kenny Loggins

Ten Great Songs From One Great Year

2006

The year started out sadly for the State of Israel, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffers a severe stroke and cerebral hemorrhage. To this day, he remains in a coma. In February, Turin, Italy hosts the Winter Olympics. In June, Mubai, India is the scene of a major terrorist attack.

In August, Pluto loses it's "planet" designation, The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly. In October, North Korea detonates its' first nuclear bomb as South Korea's Ban Ki-moon is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations.

In November, Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Also this month, Democrats retake congress in a serious rebuke of President Bush.

Crazy -- Gnarls Barkley



Chasing Cars -- Snow Patrol



Sexyback -- Justin Timberlake



Dani California -- Red Hot Chili Peppers



Read my Mind -- The Killers



How to Save a Life -- The Fray



Move Along -- All-American Rejects



Sugar, We're Going Down -- Fall Out Boy



I Write Sins, Not Tragedies -- Panic! At the Disco



Sweet Escape -- Gwen Stefani/ft. Akon

The best comment from the GOP debate last night:



Baggage, or no baggage, Newt knows how to speak wit dignity and emotion. He is the the frontrunner right now because of hos ability to win every debate. Liberals hate him, but they aren't going to vote for a Republican anyway. The key is the independent voter and if Gingrich continues to be a voice of conservative reason and historical truth, then I can see him winning the independents over. They clearly have grown weary of President Obama.

I have not yet decided on with candidate will get my support. I'm on the fence between 3 of them (and Romney isn't one of the three). But I have to say that with comments like this that Newt said tonight, I'm giving him a lot of attention. If only he a more trustworthy conservative...

Life and Sports

This past Sunday, in front of live audience of almost 63,000 people - and a televised audience of many, many more - Dallas Cowboys' Head Coach Jason Garrett had a brain freeze. With about 1 minute remaining on the clock, the Cowboys had the ball and a chance to run down the field and score the game-winning points to beat the Arizona Cardinals in what could have been a season defining victory. With the ball the Cardinal 48-yard line, and facing 3rd and 11, Cowboy Quarterback Tony Romo scrambled and hit wide receiver Dez Bryant with an 18-yard pass that left Dallas at the Arizona 31 and 24 seconds left to play.

Nine times out of ten, Dallas calls time out there and sets up at least 1-2 more plays to move closer. While a field goal from that distance is possible (the kick is set up 7 yards deeper and the goal posts are 10 yards deep in the end zone, setting up a 48-yard field goal), the odds are much weaker from that long a distance. So trying another couple of plays to get closer makes a lot of sense - especially when you have 2 timeouts left at your disposal and 24 seconds of game clock.

But for an inexplicable reason, Garrett does not call a time out and allows the clock to keep running. Dan Bailey, the Cowboys rookie kicker (who has been very, very good), comes out to attempt a game winning field goal. He kicks it trough the uprights and the game is over, right?

Not so fast. Yes, the kick was right down the middle. However, Garrett for some incredibly strange reason, decides to finally take that time out - with 7 seconds left, less than a second before the kick goes in. Since the time out was granted, Bailey has to try the kick again. This time, something goes wrong and he misses it. Overtime. The Cardinals then win the toss in overtime and go down the field to win the game.

That evening and next day, the Dallas sports media crucifies Garrett - himself only a rookie coach (he took over midway through last season) with many fans calling for his immediate resignation (if not outright firing). On the national sports media, Garrett is labeled a buffoon and an incompetent.

What a sad testimony to our culture.

How would you feel if you made a poor judgement call at your job? Let's say you work in a business office and have a project due at 3pm Monday morning. You spend the previous week working 12 hour days to prepare and you make the presentation. It isn't flawless, but it isn't bad, either. Then, at the very end, you show a slide that has incorrect information. No one died, and it was an honest mistake that under the pressure of trying to be perfect, you made an error.

Now imagine the people in the conference room to whom you made the presentation start mocking you. The owner tells the press that while he has the confidence in you, it has really been shaken. The next day, 100,000 people all know all about what happen and call for you to be run out of town on a rail. You aren't just called an incompetent, but an idiot and buffoon by seemingly everyone in the city.

This was just a football game, folks. And yeah, he made a mistake. Rookie coaches do that. Tom Landry did that. Don Shula and Chuck Noll did that. Granted, football is an extremely popular sport and millions of fans watch it. But all in all, it is just 2 teams of players both trying to win a game.

You could use the excuse that players make millions of dollars, and therefore we expect perfection. But these people are still only human and are fallible.

However, in our society, sports is more than just a game between players. It is a culture that offers us an opportunity to hide from the stresses of life and give us a respite from our own struggles of daily living. We place our own hopes and dreams into the players who represent our cities and when the players lose a game, the whole city loses.

Living in Dallas for many years, you learn to understand that how the Cowboys go, the entire city goes. The first thing most Dallasites do on Monday morning is read the sports pages of the Dallas Morning News. The weekend games are either a source of pride, or a sourse of embarrassment. But rarely ever is it ignored.

Reading the sports sections of other newspapers, you get the idea that it is no different anywhere else. In Philadelphia, the columnists are biting at the chomp to fire Andy Reid - one of the best, and most successful coaches in the league - because his team is having a poor season. Before this week's game, Arizona fans were calling for their head coaches job - just a couple of years removed from his taking the Cardinals to their very first Super Bowl.

Now it's true that if you are consistently erring in judgement in your job, you will eventually get fired (unless you happen to work for the government). The same holds true in professional football. But Garrett took over a team that had a 1-7 record at the time last year. Since then, the Cowboys have gone 12-8 and find themselves a full game ahead of the New York Giants in the division race. Very few people thought Dallas would be where they are this year, aline in first place, this far into the season. The team has made many questionable mistakes. But not by the coaching staff. It's a very young team and has improved each week.

But in the game of football, we do not allow our heroes to right to be human. My feeling is because WE are so fallible, it is unacceptable for our teams to be. If we accept that these players are human, then we will accept that sometimes mistakes are made. But we are in such need to an escape, that we cannot accept that. Otherwise, what's the point of resting our emotions on these teams?

As a kid, I was as guilty as anyone about this. I would scream and curse whenever the Cowboys failed to live up to my dreams. It consumed me when when they lost. Now, I see it in my own kids. I see in them what I used to do and I need to put a stop to that. You can watch sports and even cheer and root for your own team without making it personal against the other players or coaches. You can watch the games and enjoy the sport without wanting to throw heavy objects at the TV screen when they screw up. In the past 9 years - since my transplant - I have grown to recognize that not only do these teams not care about me (except my money), they do care about their jobs and every week try their best to perform. Sometimes, they win and sometimes they lose. But mostly, they try (DeShaun Jackson, notwithstanding).

After all, they're only human.

Ten Great Songs From One Great Year

1967

The War in Vietnam dominated the American media this year, as television brought the war to living rooms throughout the country. American college campuses become the domestic battlegrounds of the anti-war movement. As US troops fight Communists in southeast Asia, China and the Soviet Union begin aggression on their borders. War breaks out between Israel and her Arab neighbors, in June. The war lasts 6 days, as Israel demolishes the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

This was the year boxer Muhammed Ali refused military service and Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu. In music, the Beatles release the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the Monterrey Pop Festival, featuring Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Janis Joplin (among others), takes place in California. Race riots take place in Washington, Tampa, Detroit and Plainfield, NJ (near Newark).

President Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, creating the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. In November, NASA launches Apollo 4, the first Saturn V rocket.

The Letter -- The Box Tops



Can't Take My Eyes Off of You -- Frankie Valli



Windy -- The Association



How Can I Be Sure? -- The Young Rascals



I Was Made to Love Her -- Stevie Wonder



The Rain, the Park and Other Things -- The Cowsills



Music To Watch Girls Go By -- The Bob Crewe Generation



There's a Kind of Hush -- Herman's Hermits



Conquistador -- Procol Harem



Up, Up and Away -- The 5th Dimension