Posted by Pam Spaulding December 8, 2007 in Uncategorized, Music
The ‘fros were large and the clothes were stylin’ back in 1974. This was required Saturday viewing back in the day.
Watch the moves on this Soul Train line; but also take a head count of the number of “family” members working those moves. There are quite a few rocking queens on that line, honey. 
Hat tip, Anthony Wilson.
19 Responses to “Saturday night groove”
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From one year later. The Thin White Duke puts in an appearance.
Okay Pam tell us; did you ever wear your hair in pom-poms?
Yes I did! Awful picture ahead.
That guy at about 2 minutes in sure looks like a member of royalty of the queenly variety, but the rest make me think that gays copied black culture more than I think black culture was quite gay back then. Then again, I’m not gay so my gaydar is about as effective as abstinence-only education. Plus, my non-blackness makes me even more of an ideal judge toward my assertion. But that’s still how I see it.
Nevertheless, queens or not, they were rockin’.
Oh, memories! I watched this quite often on Saturday afternoons. Look at how they rock in those platform shoes. Yup, makes me remember my fave two-tone suede-like brushed denim bell bottoms — grey on the front and red in the back. Or my square patches bell bottom jeans with matching jacket. yeah baby!
This is my new favorite video ever. I want those smooth moves!
I am kind of disappointed by how the image of (American) black people in music has changed over the intervening 20-30 years. I’m not American, so I don’t know what this means or if there is a greater diversity of imagery available in America, but from outside looking in all I see is big, macho men, usually hinting at (or openly proclaiming) their criminality, and ogling horribly at (always whiter!) black women. Modern music videos of this sort are really angry as well, whereas in the 70s there seemed to be more diversity of images presented, and less anger, and the women in the videos were more likely to be as black as the men. They seemed to be more fun, even when (as in e.g. Grandmaster Flash) they were trying to sing about serious things.
Of course I was too young in the 70s to know, so maybe back then the way Grandmaster Flash dressed was gangster and not just a bit camp. But I can’t imagine anything like that being acceptable now - not enough dummy-spitting anger, not enough tattoos, not enough jiggling tits. Also, music now seems to be much more segregated - the videos are either all black or all white. It’s funny to watch the US top 20 on, for example MTV. You get 3 songs in a row in a black world, angry or “sexy” depending on whether the singer is male or female; then you switch to some whiny white-boy “indie” punk, with not a black person in sight. Then back again.
Is this just a change in fashion, I wonder? Is it a consequence of America generally taking a rightward turn? Is it just meaningless? ‘Cause I used to like some black music that came out of America - like Michael Jackson, Grandmaster Flash, Gil Scott Heron, Living Colour - but after early Public Enemy I can’t even think of music that is bearable (not that I listen to much music from mainstream music industry at all). It’s like all the funk is gone…
I don’t know if it is rude to ask… but do the Americans watching this video have the same feeling?
Flashheart,
Music has always been separated. Those funk and soul tunes you remember so well became nationwide hits quite by accident, not design. Stevie Wonder was a novelty act who just happened to have actual talent. Ditto Michael Jackson. Is there a white Ray Charles? (Closest I can get is Jerry Lewis, who only seemed [mentally, not physically] handicapped when he sang.) The first Grandmaster Flash song I knew paired him with the whiter-than-white guy Johnny Rotten/Lydon. Scratch that: that was Afrika Bambatta, Flash did “White Lines”, not exactly a song of days of innocence/yore, even if you could dance to it. The anti-disco nonsense had some serious racist undertones (though disco was getting pretty absurd too: ELO, a song about Pac Man, Grover on the cover of Sesame Street Fever.) Once a young, bell-bottomed Tom “The Tiger” Tancredo found out the BeeGees weren’t American citizens, the love affair was over.
First rap song I ever heard? Performed by the Clash or Blondie (though I doubt the Blondie song would count aside from it being the first “rap” mention.) First reggae? Clash. First ska? Probably either Madness (all white) or The Specials (mixed race.) Did it take Eric Clapton to make Bob Marley famous? I could argue that it did.
Today, rock is pretty much dead on MTV. It’s doing okay on radio stations devoted to rock, which isn’t exactly saying much. I’m sure the internet sales/freeloading factor affects “white” music sales more than black music sales among young consumers, but have nothing to back that up other than info on digital divides and some anecdotes. And the timing of that probably doesn’t coincide with the rise of rap/hiphop to its current prominence. And I haven’t even mentioned country music, though I shouldn’t since I know less about that than I do about Krygystani currency rates.
OMG, I had those same glasses in 1974 and wore a pair of itchy wool red/white/blue plaid bell bottoms that would have been rockin’ with your blouse!! I was 9 and had protested wearing pigtails (they looked awful with super straight thin hair), so Mom chopped it into an icky long crew cut…UGH. Like your pom-poms far better!
I remember my bell bottom brushed denim jeans; two-tone with grey on the front panels and red on the back panels, which created a striking contrast to eachother. I loved them.
Then there’s the square-patch jean ensemble — bell bottoms of square denim patches sewn together with a matching jean jacket.
Of course there was also my disco dress - a jade colored polyestor wrap-around that consistently garnered compliments. I wore it with solid cork soled strappy high heels.
Oh those were the days, when I was young, beautiful and naive, to have the looks I had then and the smarts I have now!
Pam- Aw…
Jon- while music has always been segregated as far as genres and marketing go, i don’t think they are so much when it comes to the audience. We all know that it’s suburban white kids who make up the largest part of the gangsta rap audience, but you would be surprised how many black deadheads and country music fans there are out there.
Every one of those couples was freakin’ magnificent. I wish the dancing on videos today was anywhere near as creative.
ya the 70s. The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons were burning up some funk then!!!
ya the 70s! The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons were burning up some funk then!!!
ya the 70s! The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons were burning up some funk then!!!
ya the 70s! The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons were burning up some funk then!!!
ya the 70s! The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons were burning up some funk then!!!
It certainly isn’t going to be labelled as progressive (and feminist it is not,) but has anyone seen Snoop Dogg’s latest video? “Sensual Seduction” is one hell of a throwback to this era, even if the tongue in his cheek is not his own.
And Pablo, you and I both know that the audience is usually more progressive than the promoters. Industry bigwigs and radio station programmers aren’t known for their long-term commitments to experimentation so much as their myopic view of the bottom line. When Michael Jackson hit it big on MTV after all the questions about whether the cable audience would accept a black man, the sigh of relief on their part wasn’t over a risk ventured so much as a new market opening to a new audience. (And it was MTV that took the risk, with considerable prodding from MJ’s label.)
I didn’t do an actual “head count”, but I get the impression that at least half the young guys in that video are gay. This video was posted on Crooks and Liars a little while back, and I had the same mixed feelings watching it as I do now. Why am I so surprised that so many of the dancers were gay, when that I didn’t find that fact to be remarkable in 1974? I was 18 at the time, so it’s not as if I wasn’t old enough to notice, and in fact, I did notice. But it just didn’t seem out of the ordinary,