Super Seventies RockSite's Seventies Daily Music Chronicle

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June 1974

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  1
Kevin Ayers is joined on stage at London's Rainbow Theater by John Cale, Nico and Brian Eno, resulting in the album A.C.N.E. The four were put together by their label, Island Records, for the one-shot concert, which Eno describes as "only a passing thing. I can't see anything permanent coming out of it."
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3
Consumers' Research Magazine announces "the new Polaroid SX-70 camera," which is selling in the New York area for about $130.
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5
The Eagles' third album, On the Border, goes gold. The album yielded minor hit singles in "Already Gone" (#32 on the pop chart) and "James Dean" (#77), two of this slick Los Angeles country-rock band's hardest-rocking songs. But one of the album's ballads, "Best of My Love," would become one of their biggest hits, reaching Number One in early 1975.

Sly Stone, 30, is married to Kathy Silva, 21, on the stage of Madison Square Garden. A horde of celebrities turns out for the gala affair, which includes a postceremony set by Sly and the Family Stone. Don Cornelius of TV's Soul Train is the master of ceremonies, Eddie Kendricks is the opening act and the ceremony is performed by Bishop B.R. Stewart of San Francisco's Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ, the church Sly attended as a child. One fitting note: Sly is late to his own wedding -- although by only two minutes. The marriage will last only until Oct. 30.
6
The White House reveals that the Watergate grand jury's secret report names Richard Nixon as an unidicted coconspirator in the break-in and cover-up.
7
Newly released Watergate evidence from 1973 links Henry Kissinger to four years of wiretapping newsmen. He demands proof and threatens to resign: the investigating Senate Foreign Relations Committee agrees to pursue the matter. The New York Times will later report that Kissinger testified in closed Senate hearings that either he or H.R. Haldeman authorized illegal wiretaps. By Aug. 6, in the shadow of Nixon's impending impeachment or resignation, the committee will exonerate Kissinger.
8
Rick Wakeman announces his split from Yes. "I gave my week's notice and left them plenty of time to pull it together," he later says. The crux of the decision is his recent solo success, but also his dislike of the group's Tales of Topographic Oceans. "It was embarrassing to me when people would ask me questions about Topographic, and I didn't understand." Wakeman's debut solo album, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, soon soars to No. 1 in the UK and No. 3 in the US. His lush run continues with The Six Wives of Henry VIII, though he does wind up reuniting with Yes from time to time over the years.

Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" hits #1 on the country charts. Eighteen years later, it will top the pop charts as sung by Whitney Houston.

Country/pop singer Bobbie Gentry, of "Ode to Billie Joe" fame, debuts her new CBS musical variety series, The Bobbie Gentry Show (a.k.a. Bobbie Gentry Happiness). It's gone in less than a month, just like whatever Billie Joe McAllister threw off the Tallahatchee Bridge. In two years, Gentry's signature song will inspire a film called Ode to Billie Joe, starring Robby Benson as a young teen tormented by his possible homosexuality.

The Top Five
1. "Band on the Run" - Paul McCartney & Wings
2. "The Streak" - Ray Stevens
3. "You Make Me Feel Brand New" - The Stylistics
4. "Dancing Machine" - Jackson 5
5. "Sundown" - Gordon Lightfoot

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10
The Who begin a four-day stint at Madison Square Garden. Tickets for the shows had sold out in just sixty hours, a full two months before the concert dates.
11
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger threatens to resign following charges that he conducted wire-taps.
12
Philadelphia soul vocal group the O'Jays earn their fourth gold record, "For the Love of Money." Together since the mid-Sixties, the O'Jays are one of the most successful acts in the stable of Philadelphia International Records' renowned production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
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With an estimated 4,000 people dying in the United States every year from choking on food, surgeon Henry M. Heimlich has an idea. Today he gives a public demonstration of his simple, life-saving, arm-wrapping maneuver that dislodges items trapped in the windpipe. Within days Heimlich's method is saving lives, and the busy, soon-to-become-famous doctor gladly promotes his procedure to whoever will listen. Several days later, the ever inquisitive doctor has a letter published in the New York Times on a totally unrelated matter, nuclear power in the Mideast.
15
After several drummer-less months, Paul McCartney and Wings announce the addition of drummer Geoff Britton, who replaces Denny Seiwell.

In a year beset by an unusually large number of novelty hits and pop fluff ("Seasons in the Sun," "Hooked on a Feeling," "The Streak," "The Night Chicago Died"), add
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods to the list, with their Number One single, "Billy, Don't Be a Hero."

The Top Five
1. "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" - Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods
2. "You Make Me Feel Brand New" - The Stylistics
3. "Sundown" - Gordon Lightfoot
4. "The Streak" - Ray Stevens
5. "Band on the Run" - Paul McCartney & Wings

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18
According to Rolling Stone, Peter Hoorelbeke, drummer for Rare Earth, is arrested after tossing his sticks into the crowd. Later, he tells police he had done it to get audience reaction. "If you had been trying to get crowds to see you for ten years, you'd do it too. Here I am, almost thirty years old and still doing this shit."

Ninety-six people are arrested at a concert at Atlanta's Omni. About thirty of the arrests are made inside the concert hall, where 7,500 fans have come to hear
Robin Trower (who canceled) and Edgar Winter. Promoter Howard Stein bitterly claims that Atlanta has "reverted back to the Southern redneck-sheriff image of the early Sixties."
19
20
Chinatown, Roman Polanski's hard-bitten movie about poltical corruption and murder, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, opens. The convoluted 1930's detective yarn is the latest film shot stateside by director Roman Polanski, who later flees to France after his conviction on a charge of statutory rape. A box-office and critical winner, it receives a whopping 11 Oscar nominations but comes home with a lone win: Robert Towne for original screenplay.
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The Hues Corporation have a gold hit with "Rock the Boat," an early example of what will later be called disco. It's a Number One hit in July.
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27
The Flip Wilson Show has its last telecast on NBC-TV. The former star of Laugh-In, Flip Wilson is known for his "Geraldine" and "Here Come the Judge" characters.
28
The Ohio Players -- originators of the Sly Stone-infected Dayton, Ohio, school of hard funk that would also produce Slave -- earn a gold record for Skin Tight, which would yield the hit singles "Skin Tight" (#13) and "Jive Turkey" (#47).
29
Russian dancer extraordinaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, defects to the West, electrifying the American dance scene.

The Top Five
1. "Sundown" - Gordon Lightfoot
2. "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" - Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods
3. "You Make Me Feel Brand New" - The Stylistics
4. "Be Thankful for What You Got" - William DeVaughn
5. "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" - Olivia Newton-John

30
The Modern Jazz Quartet bids farewell to the U.S. with a concert in San Francisco. The group -- Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Percy Heath and Connie Kay -- will end its twenty-two-year career after a tour of Australia.
 

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