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Later on, I would form a band called Pond Scum with my little sister and we would have revolutionized the music industry if we only knew how to play an instrument. Even though Lisa could bang out the Theme from M*A*S*H* on the recorder, we didn't think that was quite enough.
I would lay in bed that summer listening to the radio and Nazareth's Love Hurts would come on and I would cry. At 14, I knew nothing of love or hurt, but I knew that the voice coming out of my speakers did and his hoarse cry of sadness always made me feel as if love were nothing to look forward to.
1976 was the bicentennial of our nation, and while I remember the fireworks and the ships in the harbor what I remember most is the local theater only charging 76 cents to see a movie for the rest of the summer. Maybe we saw the Bad News Bears or maybe it was Blood Sucking Freaks, all I know is that at some point in 1976 I saw Burnt Offerings in a movie theater and complained that there wasn't enough gore or scares and that Oliver Reed gave me the creeps. And that year there was Carrie, which made me vow to never go to a prom or date John Travolta, and Taxi Driver, which made me leery of cab drivers and Robert DeNiro and Logan's Run, which made me think of plot holes and bad acting.
1976 was the year that there was all that hoopla about Red Dye #2 and I had to stop eating maraschino cherries by the dozen.
1976 was the last summer I remember feeling so innoncent, so oblivious to the world around me. 1977 brought the Son of Sam and loot-filled blackouts and the feeling that the world wasn't about some pop song and summer would never mean quite the same to me. At least not until 1978. But that's another story.
(And just for the record, Summer of Sam was one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life)
Article comments
1 - Charlie
I graduated high school in '76, still such a straight-laced nerdy boy that no one as cool as you would have willingly spoken to me. Luckily, much of that was self-correcting after a year of college.
My God, the music! The Frampton album was even mentioned in the "Wayne's World" movie: "If you were a teenager in the 70's, it was practically mailed to you!"
There's a lovely young lady who cashiers at the supermarket up the road. Her name is "Rhiannon."
I asked her about it...she said I was hardly the first. "My parents were big, big Stevie Nicks fans..."
Jed, fetch me my corn-squeezins. My rheumatiz is actin' up agin....
BTW, your blog is truly enjoyable.
2 - Eric Olsen
I'm Class of '75, we are neighbors. For good or ill, not surewhich I was closer to Michele in my experiences shunning "what everyone else" listened to, for what most of my friends listened to, exchanging one set of socially defined aesthetics for another. Eventually you find your own way.
3 - annie
I'm Rhiannon!!
4 - Dawn
I wish I'd known that 1976 was going to the best year of my life. I'd have enjoyed it more.
5 - Christopher Rose
So, is your daughter smoking pot now?
6 - Paul Battis
In a way they did mail everyone a copy of "Frampton Comes Alive"; it was called the Columbia Record Club and for one penny you got 13 choices. A double LP like FCA was two choices. And you are right-on about there only being 3 good cuts off the album and we all know which ones they were. 1976 was also the year that American Cars started to get really crappy and stay crappy til about three years ago. It was Leif Garret and Randy Mantooth and lots of bad popular music. I had no idea about all the great stuff: punk rock and funk that was going on until it was already well underway. I saw Patti Smith last year do a 30th anniversery of "Horses" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and was and still am blown away that she recored that in 1975. But I did enjoy KC and the Sunshine band and the Spinners. OH and Peter Framton.
7 - Bill Collier
It's the 100000th year anniversary (2^5) of the Bicenntenial summer and I found your blog while trying to track down other peoples memories of that summer. "Afternoon Delight", I feared it back then just like I feared the BeeGees and KC and the Sunshine Band, but now that all that sillyness has played out I look back on it with a little bit of nostalgia. For me, it's "Frampton Comes Alive" and an older album, "Ten Years After, Live" that stand out as the sound track for Summer 1976. The memory that stands out more than any other is a super hot, super crowded 4th of July on the Mall in DC.