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Pat Walsh
Pat's Peeps Podcast
Ep. 375 Today's Peep Is Memorable: Episodic Memories, A Broken Home and the Soundtrack of 1973, How One Year of Songs Turned a Teen's Pain into Memories
A rainy Friday, a Rams OT gut punch, and a studio window looking out on Northern California set the scene for a deeply personal ride through memory. We open our inbox, thank the community, and then step into a year that changed everything: 1973. Not as trivia, but as survival—how AM radio turned courtrooms, bus rides, and seventh‑grade dances into moments you can still touch.
I share what episodic memory feels like in real life: the brain welding a hook or harmony to weather, faces, and fear. From Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle” mirroring a kid torn between parents to Elton John’s “Daniel” becoming a brother’s quiet anthem, these songs don’t just play; they retrieve. We trade studio lore—Carly Simon inviting Mick Jagger onto “You’re So Vain” while the Stones track “Angie” nearby—and those unforgettable radio connectors: Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia,” Vicki Lawrence turning TV fame into a chart storm, Doctor Hook winking their way onto the Rolling Stone cover, and John Denver’s clean-air balm, “Rocky Mountain High.”
There’s humor and warmth—fruitcake redeemed, soundboard buttons rediscovered, a birthday serenade for a loyal listener—but the heartbeat is how music carries us. “Me and Mrs. Jones,” “Drift Away,” “Brother Louie,” “Touch Me in the Morning,” Grand Funk’s cowbell groove—each one maps to a hallway, a crush, a brave face, a way to get through. By the time we reach Eddie Kendricks and “keep on truckin’,” it’s clear: 1973 might be the greatest Top 40 year not just for charts, but for how it still helps us remember, feel, and move forward.
If this story stirs your own, press play and travel with us. Then share the song that takes you back. Subscribe, leave a review, and send your track—what single unlocks your past?
Well, hello there, my friends. How are you? Happy Friday to you. To you. To you. Hey. It's the Pat's Peeps podcast. That's right. That's right. I don't know what it seems like a milestone to me for some reason. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Because this is Pat's Peeps 375. I don't know. Feels like there we go. Pat's Peeps. Friday. Yes, thank you. You know what I'm really loving? Is I am getting a lot of messages. I'm getting the messages. I can't believe how many people are listening to the podcast to the podcast right now saying, I love the Pat's peeps. Thank you. If you've sent me a message recently, and I mean it, I I I've gotten a lot of messages. You know, it takes time to grow these. So you have to continue, you have to be consistent. Yes, I missed a couple of days last week because I was coughing a lot. And I did uh the Sam Shane show, the Shane reaction. So I was busy in the middle of my day and then just bogged down. But for the most part, we're doing it every day. And thank you so much. If you have been sending me messages saying, I got one, another one today, saying that you I I need you know what I need to do is write the names down so I can thank you. Um, but I get a lot of them and I don't want to leave anyone on the list. And that's the only reason I would do that is because I just don't want to leave anyone. Well, I said thank you too. I said I liked your podcast, but I love all of you. And thank you from the bottom of my heart, as I always tell you. Please support local businesses. The beginning of 2026 is super exciting. I've got a great dinner meetingslash meeting coming up. Uh I think Monday night of this week, and this could be huge for Pat's Peeps. And if it's big for Pat's Peeps, it's big for local businesses, it's big for you. Okay. Hopefully, this is gonna work. You know, that part of this, and then I'm gonna be able to explain more. But anyhow, on a Friday, as I look out my studio windows into the beautiful rainy foothills of Northern California, it's kicked in. We've got the rain, the atmospheric rivers. We used to call it rain. And by the way, the seagulls rained on my parade last night as a Rams fan. Are you kidding me? What on earth? What on I have so by the way, my name is Pat Walsh. Let me introduce myself. I'm the host of the Pat Walsh radio show on KFPK Radio Sacramento, 93.1 FM, 1530 a.m. So I and I do my show at 7 p.m. So I'm watching the game. Now, I'm an avid Rams fan. You probably know that if you listen to my podcast or my show. And I mean, an avid fan. I am true blue and gold, blue and yellow my whole life. White and blue, whatever. Depending on the era. And I've been through a few of the changes. Do you know how hard it is for me? A guy that gets very intense. I don't get out of hand. I'm I'm actually very proud of myself, the way I'm I can keep it under control these days. Versus when I was younger, I'd get really animated about it. And yeah, whatever. You don't want to risk your health rooting for a team, my goodness. So I've never been that out of control. I'm just saying I'm calm. But to sit here and do a talk show while the game is going on, especially a game that goes into overtime, then I'm watching this like, what? Wait a minute. You're gonna give them a two-point conversion? They stopped it. How is this a two-point conversion? Anyway, I don't want to get into all that. Congratulations to the Seagulls. And you know what? Hey, perhaps we see you down the road when Devonta is back. So I'm gonna get that off my chest. But it's okay. I'm still happy it's Friday. This is my last day of work on the radio prior to the holidays. And so I would like to let you know that on most of the days, of course, excluding Christmas Eve and Christmas, most of the days I'm gonna be doing my podcast. So even though I'm not doing my radio show, I'm gonna do the podcast. And again, I wish all of you the merriest of Christmases. I wish you good health. Man, I don't take that for granted anymore. I we are so blessed to have not only good health, but good friends. Thank you to the president of the Pat Walsh fan club on Facebook. That would be, of course, everyone's favorite Darlene with a Y. Hold on, where's my where's my button here? Hold on. There we go. Darlene with a Y. Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you! Darlene with a Y, though. One more time. There we go. Hold on. She brought some fruitcake over. She's such a good person. A lovely lady, a delightful lovely lady. Throws the best parties everyone loves Darlene with a Y. She brought over fruitcake. Now, I always hated fruitcake. You know, you get that fruitcake. It's got those little things in there that's got like those little hard nuggets of whatever that, whatever that they, it's not even fruit. Whatever that stuff was, like hard. I don't know. It was a mystery to me what they would put in these fruitcakes. As someone said on my Facebook page today when I posted the picture of Darlene's fruitcake, the only kind she's ever had is those old hard ones with that weird so-called fruit, and that you could use it for a door stop, which I agree. Do I have a laugh button? Oh, there you go.
SPEAKER_00:There you go.
SPEAKER_01:What's this one? Let's check out the buttons. Oh, there you go. Thank you. Let's see now. Yes. As someone on Facebook said today, of course the crickets would laugh. As someone on Facebook would said today, hey, the fruit. Stop with the laugh. Oh, here we go. It's got to reset. As someone on Facebook said, oh yeah, those old hard fruit cakes, you could use those as a doorstop. Oh, there you go. Thank you. Thank you so much. Those are some underused buttons. I forgot what the other buttons are. Let me just check this one out after it's been a while.
SPEAKER_00:I like that one. What's this one? Oh no. Let's go back to this.
SPEAKER_01:Happy birthday to Vince. Happy birthday to Vince. Happy birthday, Vince from Stockton. Happy birthday to you. Yes. Thank you. There you go, Vince. Everyone. Good guy, Vince, loyal listener to the podcast and to the radio show. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you very much. On today's episode, I thought I would do this. I've been meaning to do this on my radio show. I still might do it on my radio show. Take phone calls about this. So I was talking recently about episodic memory. I'm fascinated by it. Happy Friday, by the way. It's raining, it's pouring. Anyone does your ma ever sing that to you when you were a kid? My mom would sing that one too. It's raining, it's pouring. The old man is snoring. He bumped his head against the bed. Won't wake up till morning. Remember that one? Remember that? Episodic memory. It's a type of long-term memory which involves the conscious recollection of personal experiences, including the specific time, place, and associated emotions that go along with that. For instance, and this is me in a nutshell, remembering a song on the radio and the events of your life happening concurrently in a classic example of episodic memory. As it links sensory input, the song, with the personal context of what is going on in your life. Wow, that connects with me. You know, because people ask me all the time, they say, Pat, wow, you you really know your music. People will tell me all the time, you know, I like a song, I remember the song, maybe I'd forgotten about the song. I never know who the artist is, but I remember the song, I just don't know the artist. Okay. A lot of people are like that. And so for whatever reason, for most of my life, I didn't realize that I was that knowledgeable about music. I was I've always been humble about it. Over the last several years, I maybe even 20 years, I realized, wow, I guess I I did absorb a lot of knowledge in regards to music. If nothing else, music. And but I didn't, I I just thought everyone did. I mean, when I was a kid, we'd ride the bus, the school bus, you know, and Betsy, the bus driver, she would play music on the radio. Either you wanted to hear, because I grew up in Sacramento, and we had K R O Y. And I loved KROY. They played the top 40. And you'd hear anything on top 40. You would hear, you know, you could hear Charlie Rich when we get behind closed doors. Sorry, I won't sing the whole time. I apologize. But then you might hear average white man cut the cake or pick up the pieces or something like that. It was all, and then Helen Reddy. It was all mixed up, but you would hear the top 40 and you would become familiar, Freddie Fender. You might hear Freddie Fender, or you might hear, you know, uh, geez, uh, what was it? Tony Orlando and Dawn. You know, back to back. And for whatever reason, I thought all kids were paying attention to that. I thought all kids would say, Oh yeah, I like that song by Tanya Tucker or whoever it might be, Jim Croce. But it really wasn't like that. So now I realize this episodic memory refers to the ability to learn and remember the relationship between these unrelated items. The memory of the song is associated with the memory of the personal life events, like I said. So you hear the song again and it acts as a sort of a retrieval cue. It triggers those associated memories of that time in your life. I get the feeling. What about you? I'm gonna bring this up on my show. What about you? Do you get that feeling of a certain time in your life when a song comes on the radio? I could go through a thousand examples. I can remember where I was, I can remember the stretch of the drive, I can remember exactly what the weather was like, I can remember the time of day, who I was with when I hear certain songs. So I wanted to play with that a little bit today. So I I just want you to know, I haven't even taken any notes on this. I just chose a year from my life growing up, a year that was that I would deem in terms of excuse me, episodic memory. I think this I would deem this perhaps the most important year in my life of listening to music because of I the memories, the exact emotions, like everything I described. I'm sure some of you listening to me weren't right now, weren't even born, but I was 13. I can't believe I'm getting up there in age. I can't, I don't even feel it, man. I feel so good. But anyhow, I was 13. And there were things going on with my parents at this time. So I when I when I say I haven't taken any notes, the only thing I did is I thought to myself about 1973. 1973. If you're on that bus, you might listen to K R O Y Betsy the bus driver might. She'd actually ask, okay, who wants to listen to K R O Y? Now there was another station with it piped in a lot that you could hear just as easily, even though it was from San Francisco, and that was KFRC. And then in the mix, we had another station that came along, wasn't quite as popular, but it was a good radio station, KDY, Candy. I remember getting a leather for whatever, like a little keychain or something when I was in seventh grade, went to the seventh grade dance at James Rutter Junior High. Seventh grade will come up. I was in seventh grade listening to this. So my parents are getting a divorce. My dad had left. He met another woman, he left. And hey, that was their business. Whatever. Six kids in the family. But I we're riding the school bus. So when I say I didn't take any notes, what I mean is I I didn't write these thoughts down. So as I'm lit, all I did is pick songs from in my mind. I didn't even look that up. These are just songs that I know came out that year because they are so vivid in my mind and all the memories associated. So I'm gonna start with them and then just give thoughts on each one of these. Let's start with this one. So this song here, yeah. So my parents, so the main thrust of this is my parents are getting divorced. And on May 4th, 1973, it comes to a head. We go to court. Um I hope you don't mind me sharing this with you. Just personal stuff. It was tough. It was tough. When my dad left, my mother did not have work skills. Now we don't have any money. I remember we didn't have very many, not we didn't have a lot of food. And there was, we we went on food stamps for a while. And I remember my mom was embarrassed. It's not like now, used to have stamps, like a booklet of stamps. And my mom would load up the thing with all the stuff, all the groceries, and we get up to the line, and she didn't want to, she was too embarrassed to hand the cashier the food stamps, the book of food stamps. I was the oldest child. So she'd say to me, Patrick, would you please go up there and just go pay for this? So, okay, mom. So I'd go to the checker, check out the food. I'm 13. Actually, probably anywhere from 11 to 13, probably 11 and 12, and then maybe into into 13 as well. It wasn't for very long that we did this, fortunately, because I come from a middle class family. I do. It's not like I was a poor kid. This is just a circumstance in life when they split up. It's six kids. My dad working at Campbell soup. My mom, you know, she was a housewife, she was a mom. She wasn't out working. That had to change soon. And did. But so then on May 4th, 1973, we go to court, and in this courtroom, now the family's kind of splitting up because I've got two sisters, I've got three brothers. There were seven because I had a stepbrother, we had a stepbrother as well. So there's all boys: me, Jim, Steve, Tim, stepbrother Ray, and then my two sisters, Michelle and Stephanie. We go to court. We had to go to court. When you're the oldest, you get put through some weird things. And I'm sure it might be weird things for the youngest, too. That might be a topic for the show some night. But we go to court, and now you have your mom sitting at one table, your dad sitting at another table, and they're then they bring you, me being the first one up on the stand, and the judge asking you, while your mother is crying, and this has been a whole ordeal for months. Oh my God, it even broke up my mother and her sister in this whole ordeal, which is another we thing I'll talk about here. And then your dad is sitting there staring at you, and the judge is asking you, son, who would you like to live with? Your mother or your father? Well, at 13, I got what felt like an apple jammed in my throat. You know, you ever get that? I I'm a very emotional guy, in case you can't tell. So I was too busy choking up and crying because I didn't want to say any. I didn't want to say that between my parents. I love you both. So, anyhow, so they I he said, son, you can't answer? I said, No. So he had me go sit in the back room. Anyway, I don't want to dwell on all of this. The whole point is the boys went to live with my dad and our new stepmother, Bonnie. Boy, there's a whole underlying story here that I'm just gonna I'm just gonna gloss over. And my sisters live with my mother. So prior to that, on the weekends, every other weekend, we'd go live with, we'd stay with my dad and all these kids. And they live in a what we used to call a condominium, which is essentially a foreplex back in the 70s. It was like a four-plex of apartments with an upstairs. It had a bedroom upstairs. That bedroom was small, but yet in that bedroom, it'd be us five boys sleeping. And we'd listen to the radio. And I was busy buying 45s, my records, and I had a record player. And so we'd listen to that radio, and I think it was an incredible year for music. As I look back at 1973, beginning with Steelers Wheel, you know, Jerry Rafferty. What an appropriate way to start. Stuck in the middle, stuck in the middle. It's how I felt in 1973.
SPEAKER_02:I got the feeling of something right. I'm so scared because I fall off my chair. And I wanted how I get down the stairs. Clouds to the left from you. Jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly how I felt.
SPEAKER_02:I'm stuck in the middle.
SPEAKER_01:As I'm looking at my mom and you know and my dad. The judge is asking y'all.
SPEAKER_02:Clowns to the left from you. Jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
SPEAKER_01:Just want to note that I don't own the rights to these. I feel obligated to say that I appreciate, you know, being able to talk about it a little bit, this sort of a way. They start coming to mind. All these songs. Remember this one? Going back 1973, baby! Little Willie, sweet! Pat's peeps. 375. I remember I played this for Governor Willie Brown one time when he was a guest on our radio show. Yeah, we used to sing this out. We used to love singing this one.
SPEAKER_13:Willy willy woman.
SPEAKER_01:Get up in the morning, getting ready for school. I'd have the radio on. And these songs would come on. And as I'm listening to them, whether it's on the bus, getting ready for school, whatever it is, after school, buying my 45s, it would stick in my brain, in my memory. I would absorb it like a sponge. Okay, this is who's singing it. Because I thought that's what you were supposed to do. My mom had the huge album collection. I thought everyone knew music at that point in my life when I was young. I thought everyone knew music. You know, when my mom and dad started going through the separation and getting a divorce, my mom was struggling. This is how I see it as an adult now. And as I recall as a youngster, my mom was struggling. We didn't have food. We, you know, it was uh it was just a struggle. I don't want to go through all the whole depressing. I'm not trying to be depressing, I'm still trying to tell a story. But her sister in Canoga Park, my Aunt Donna, and Donna and Uncle Bill. My my brother Steve, maybe he was having a little tough time, maybe he wasn't focused, whatever the case might be. But she was struggling with him a little bit, and for whatever reason, it's just a fact. It's just a fact. Steve went to live with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Bill for maybe a year. I don't know what was beyond that, I don't know the story beyond that. But I remember this. Steve is two years younger than me. He went to Canoga Park probably in 1972. I believe it was 72. So he tells me the story. When he was in class, in the classroom in Kanoga Park, all he could think about was his older brother Pat. And he would start getting emotional in class. I don't know why he says, I don't know why it would be about you, but I just missed you. And he said, every time this song came on the radio, he would get emotional about it because he was missing his older brother. It's my favorite song by Dan by Elton John. Daniel still has so much meaning to me.
SPEAKER_13:I can see the red tats and baggage. I can see Daniel waving goodbye.
SPEAKER_01:You know, a beautiful song about brothers. That's all I can think about when I hear this on the radio now.
SPEAKER_13:You should know he's been there alone. Lord I miss Daniel. Oh, I miss him so much. Oh Daniel, my brother. You are other than me. Do you still feel the pain? Oh the stars that won't hear your eyes out there. You see more than I knew you star in the veil of the sky.
SPEAKER_01:That one still gets me every single time I hear it. Every time. I remember being at that condominium and listening to this one. 1973. Remember you're so vain, Carly Simon. What a great year for music. What a year for music. And this is only the AM hits. What about rock and roll albums, too, man? Woo! So Carly Simon. It's still, we're still, I guess, clueless about who she's singing about. We all have our we've been told who it could be, but we don't know.
SPEAKER_08:You watched yourself, and the girls dreamed that they're.
SPEAKER_01:Now I ask you to pay close attention to this part right here. Chorus. No backup singers.
SPEAKER_13:I think this song is about you.
SPEAKER_01:Just Carly, no backup, other than right there, backup singers.
SPEAKER_08:This song is about you. Dolju, Dolju.
SPEAKER_01:So she's at the studio and she's recording this song. And in the studio, the next studio is another band recording a song from 1973. A song that I vividly remember listening to on the bus. I remember when it was brand new. Got the brand new one from the Rolling Stones. And this came on the radio on the bus. And I remember thinking, wow, I thought like they were like, you know, real hard rock. You know, whatever I thought at 13. And this was so soft.
SPEAKER_11:Angie. Angie.
SPEAKER_05:When will those clouds all disappear?
SPEAKER_01:Rolling Stones, Angie from Goat's Head Soup. Angie, what a record.
SPEAKER_11:Anja. Where will it lead us from here?
SPEAKER_01:So this is 1973. So you have Carly Simon recording You're So Vain in the studio. And then you have the Rolling Stones in the same studio. They're recording Angie at the time. So Carly Simon gets wind of this. And she goes over, she asks Mick Jagger, hey, how would you like to come in real quick and sing some background vocals on this on this song I'm doing? And he says, You know, I've been hearing you over there doing some really cool, I some cool stuff. I'd love to come in. So at this kind of spur of the moment type of thing, Mick Jagger joins in, so we'll listen in.
SPEAKER_13:You probably think this song is about you. You're so way. I'll bet you think this song is about you. Don't you, don't you, don't you?
SPEAKER_01:Boy, it sounds good with Mick singing back there. What a combo. During this time, we moved to an apartment. We'd always lived in a house. Now suddenly we are relegated to an apartment. I say relegated because it seemed weird. We had a built-in pool in Valley High, but now we're living in Citrus Heights, green back in San Juan, in these green apartments right behind Albertson's and Payless. Not Pay Less shoes, Payless. If anyone remembers. I'm in seventh grade, as I mentioned, and I'm going now to a new junior high, Andrew Carnegie Junior High. And this song comes out. So many songs that I remember from this time. King Harvest, Dancing in the Moonlight, Morning is Broken, Cat Stevens, and Billy Paul, Me and Mrs. Jones. I remember being in a bungalow. Remember, they'd have those bungalow classes? You'd have to sit in the bungalow. I was reading the book that was popular at the time, Jonathan Livingston Siegel. Not much to read.
SPEAKER_04:We gotta think.
SPEAKER_01:Man, I heard hear this song. And I wanted to go to the junior high dance. And I wanted to dance, and I wanted to meet a girl so badly.
SPEAKER_04:We meet every day at the same time I was always styling.
SPEAKER_01:I always tried to style at school. I always wanted to look good, and I wanted to go to the dance. Oh, I wanted to meet a girl. Songs like this in Color My World, you know, by Chicago. I'd think, man, I'll get to the dance. Seventh grade dance. And when one of these songs comes on, I'm asking her to slow dance. Then a seventh grade dance would happen, and guess what? I was so shy, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I just would be so shy. The song would start going, they'd be a quarter of the way through. Go, go, just go do it! And I'd be have a cr I'd have a crush on a gr I couldn't do it. During this time, I loved this song, and I still love this one. Boy, these are all from 73, and they just bring back those memories. Like I said, episodic memories here on Pat's Peeps 375 on a Friday. Merry Christmas time to you. Um a few more. Hope you don't mind. This was like the first song I ever heard. This is on radio. The first song I ever heard that dealt with interracial couples. And it was making a statement about it. And it's still a groovy tune that I love doing in karaoke when I get a chance. Going back to 1973. It's a band called Stories. Listen to the words.
SPEAKER_11:Louis was wider than white. Louis fell in love overnight. Nothing bad, it was good. Louis had the basket cool. When it took her home to meet his mama and papa.
SPEAKER_01:It's got that cool 70s vibe. I love that. I always thought that his voice. I always thought it was reminiscent of Rod Stewart in a way that's kind of a kind of a gravelly Rod Stewart type of a voice. Cool lead guitar. Oh yeah, that's a good tune. You know what other song I liked back in the day was Right Place, Wrong Time. If you remember this one, this is so funky. 73, man, I gotta hand it to you. The AM stuff, the top 40 was cool. And none of it was cooler than Dr. John Right Place Wrong Time. Patch Peeps 375. Thanks for listening. I just thought, man, this one is just it's funky. That is funky.
SPEAKER_07:I've been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time. I done said the right thing, but it must have used the wrong line. I've been on the right trail, but I must use the wrong car. Head is in a bad place. But I don't know.
SPEAKER_06:I've been in the right place.
SPEAKER_07:What a voice in the wrong time.
SPEAKER_06:My head is in a bad place.
SPEAKER_01:You can get everyone in the crowd when you're doing karaoke. You do this. By the way, if you want to know it when he says and just need a little brain salad surgery, look that one up for yourself. Look that one up for yourself. Oh my gosh. Brain salad surgery. You're on your own to check that one out. These were all played on the radio a lot. No song more than uh than this. Gladys night in the Pips, Midnight Train to Georgia. You know, there's songs when I listen to them, it connects me to the next song. Oh yeah, then that one, which connects the dots to another song.
SPEAKER_17:LA.
SPEAKER_01:That's where I'll start with this one.
SPEAKER_08:Too much for the maid. Too much for the maid to make it. So he's leaving the line. He's come to know. He said he's going. He said he's going back to find. Going back to find. What's left of this world? The world he left behind. Not so long.
SPEAKER_01:What a great radio hit, man. That is just. Listen to the pips.
SPEAKER_08:He's leaving. Oh my night train. Georgia. Yeah. Said he's going back.
SPEAKER_01:Going back by to a simple And you know, they had that really cool pip dance too. I love the way these groups used to dance in synchronicity back then.
SPEAKER_08:I know you will. On that midnight change. Georgia. Hey, hey, hey. I'd rather live in his word than live without him in mind.
SPEAKER_01:Some of the pips right there. That's awesome. Yeah, this is during a time with Soul Train and American Bandstand. Remember that? So when I say these songs connect the dots, when I hear that song, it leads me right to this song. This song here, the story as I know it is that the singer of this song, who was very popular on a television show, not known as a singer, sort of a co-star, in a way, a sidestar, if that might make it more accurate, on this very popular television show that we all used to love on Saturday nights. And her husband wrote this song with Cher in mind. Because at the time Cher had a bunch of hits on the radio, but Cher apparently turned it down. And so he says to his wife, Vicki Lawrence, from the Carol Burnett show, Vicki Lawrence with the red hair, why don't you sing the song? So she says, sure. And she has a huge hit with it. From 1973, the night the lights went out in Georgia on Pat's Beefs 375.
SPEAKER_19:He was on his way home from Candleton. Andy Wolo said hello. And he said, Hi, what's doing Wolo said, sit down, I got some bad news that's gonna hurt. Said I'm your best friend, and you know that's right. But your young bride ain't home tonight. Since you've been gone, she's been seeing that Amos boy said.
SPEAKER_16:That's a night that the lights went out in George.
SPEAKER_01:Now, can't you imagine Cher singing this?
SPEAKER_16:That's a night that they haunted the innocent man.
SPEAKER_01:By the way, I watched Sonny and Cher hour last night. It was their Christmas special. What was what's her little girl's name? I'm watching that the little girl, Chastity, or what it wasn't it not Chastity, um, Chastity Bono. Thinking she's singing little Christmas songs as a little girl.
SPEAKER_18:Little did they know that soon she would be want to be a man.
SPEAKER_01:Vicky Lawrence, man. This was a huge one. In 73, always wanted to do exactly what Dobie Gray was referencing.
SPEAKER_03:Day after day, I'm
SPEAKER_01:More confused because that's how I was feeling with my parents split up. It's exactly how I was feeling at 13.
SPEAKER_03:You know that's a game that I hate to lose. And I'm feeling the strain. Ain't it a shame? Rock in the beach, poison free my soul. I wanna get aloft in your rock and roll and drift away.
SPEAKER_01:It would really help me drift away when I'd hear this. I would remember it would bring sunshine to my day when really it was in the midst of a lot of darkness with my parents, if that makes sense. I'd get up in the morning.
SPEAKER_03:Beginning to think that I'm wasting time.
SPEAKER_01:Set out I was so into my fashion. I would set up my clothes in the morning. I'm gonna wear these. I just wash these Levi's and my socks. I got my chain bracelet and my the perfect t-shirt. I would try to face the day with positive outlook. I wanna look good, go out in the sunshine, go to school, and escape everything and drift away. And that's what I would do. I would get lost in the rock and roll. I would get lost in the rock and roll. Thank you, AM Radio. 1973 brought this great tune, and if you missed it, I had this gentleman, the founder of this band, on one of my earlier podcasts, Mark Farner, of the great band Grand Funk. Formerly Grand Funk Railroad, Grand Funk. This came out in 73. This one played on the radio all the time as well. You know what? Another one from this year, I think, was Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Now that I'm thinking about this, from Jim Croce. Here you go, Cowbell. Produced by Todd Rundgren, by the way. Yeah, listen to the uh podcast if you would go back. You could even Google Pat's Peeps Podcast Mark Farner. What a great guest Mark was on my podcast. One song that just reminds me of 73 so much. Always on the radio, driving in the station wagon. Even with my dad and stepmom, while this one was on the air.
SPEAKER_05:Coming home to a place he'd never been before. He left yesterday behind him. Might say he found the keys for every door.
SPEAKER_01:When he first came to the There's something about this song, jeez, it really there's on the load. It affects me in a certain way. It's like I don't know, I just it makes me feel gives me some feelings like I had right then when this was coming up with a car radio. John Denver, of course.
SPEAKER_05:I've seen it raining fire in the sky. Rocky Mountain High.
SPEAKER_01:A song that emerged that year on the AM radio that had a real sense of humor and very interesting personnel. And I would rem I remember seeing them on TV shows like The Midnight Special or Don Kushner's Rock Concert. You'd hear the song on a radio, and it really was a huge thing, and it really was a big thing for a particular magazine back then as well. And it featured a guy with an eye patch and a cowboy hat. You didn't see that a lot. Tell them who they are.
SPEAKER_12:Well, we're big rock singers, we got golden fingers, and we love everywhere we go.
SPEAKER_01:Doctor Hook and the Medicine Show. Cover of the Rolling Stone.
SPEAKER_10:But the thrill we never know. It's the thrill that I get you when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone. Rolling stone. It's from my mother.
SPEAKER_01:What a clever idea. Sing about Rolling Stone and see if they won't put you on the cover, which they did. I love this vocals here.
SPEAKER_14:I got a freaky old lady named Oak King Katie when broad machines. I got a poor gray-headed daddy. Driving my limousine.
SPEAKER_10:Yeah, it's all designed to blow our minds, but our minds will be long.
SPEAKER_01:Like the thrill that'll get you when you get show picture on a cupboard of Rolling Stone. What a song, what a year for music. Looking back at that year, because I can't get to it all. Loves me like a rock. Love me like a rock. Paul Simon. Remember, I said Cher. Cher was always in the mix. You wonder the sunshine of my life. We're gonna go around and so Billy President. Elton John had another hit that you're rocking dial rock. My love, Paul McCartney and Wings. Let's get it on Marvin Gay. Oh, I just have to play this. Oh my god, those are what a year! Tell me, in top 40 radio, is there a better year than this? The 1973 now some younger people might say, oh yeah, this one This one here still haunts me. In my business, in the business I'm in, this one will still haunt you all these years later. Roberta Flack. Remember they featured this in the movie Clinton Eastwood play Misty for me. About a stalker. A woman who stalks a nighttime radio personality. Still, but it's a beautiful song. In seventy-three, I wasn't one, I you know, I wasn't into the mushy kind of songs, really. Not mushy. I like the hits, but nah, nah. And I didn't really know, I mean, I knew. I didn't really, I wasn't, I guess this is when Diana Ross was really kind of beginning. I think right around the beginnings of her solo career after the Supremes. And I knew the Supremes. Um, you know, but here comes Diana Ross, and I will admit that this song to this day, I fell in love with Diana Ross when I heard this song from 1973.
SPEAKER_04:Couch me in the morning.
SPEAKER_01:Wake up and the sun's coming through the window. Then let's walk away. Hear this song be oh my god. My little junior high mind.
SPEAKER_04:We don't have to mark.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know what I was thinking. I just thought it was beautiful and she was yesterday. She was beautiful.
SPEAKER_17:What? Wasn't it me who said that nothing good's gonna last forever? And wasn't it me who said that's that base? It must have been hard to tell me that you've given all you had to get. I can understand your feeling that way. Everybody's got their life to live.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I can say goodbye in the cold morning. But I can watch love die in the wall of the low.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. Woo! And I like when she brings it down right here as she speaks right here.
SPEAKER_17:Okay the last time that you touch me in the morning.
SPEAKER_01:Think about it. So many good songs. I could go on. I'm not going to, I gotta wrap it up. One of the ones I really groove to in 73, baby. Eddie Kendricks. He came from the Temptations. And there he is doing his own solo stuff. This came on the radio. I went out and bought this 45. There was a saying back then, keep on trucking, keep on trucking. There was the poster. Everyone had the poster, keep on trucking. Because that R. Crum, right? Then Eddie Kendricks brings it to music. Thanks for listening to my personal stories and memories. Episodic memories today. I enjoyed sharing them with you. Happy Friday. Remember Pat Speech's podcast. All through the next couple of weeks. Have yourself a blessed Friday. See you on the radio.
