Super Seventies RockSite's Seventies Daily Music Chronicle

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September 1973

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The Rolling Stones open their first European tour since 1971 at Vienna's Stadthalle, the first stop of the twenty-city tour. The Stones had been hoping to play behind the Iron Curtain, but were denied permission.

The last episode of H.R. Pufnstuf airs on ABC-TV. The show had followed Jimmy and his talking flute, Freddie, stuck on an island occupied by Mayor H.R. Pufnstuf, along with the evil Witchiepoo who constantly tries to foil their attempts at escape, while trying to steal Freddie.

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Author J.R.R. Tolkien dies. His books include The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
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At the Watergate hearings, presidential aide Pat Buchanan admits to an unethical 1972 Republican campaign.
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"Here he is, the biggest, largest, most gigantic and fantastic man, the costar of my next movie... Elton John!" That's how E.J. is introduced at the Hollywood Bowl. The show's emcee: none other than porn star Linda Lovelace.

Mike Curb, president of slumping MGM records since 1969, quits. Curb, twenty-eight, made a reputation for himself as a purveyor of middle-of-the-road music, who once purged eighteen acts from his label because they were allegedly "drug oriented." Curb leaves claiming he wants to move on "to bigger things." Lieutenant governor of California proves to be one of them.

The second Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival is held, offering attendees five concerts over three days. Once again, activist
John Sinclair is the festival's creative director, and he assembles more than 160 musicians including Ray Charles, Otis Rush and One-String-Sam, an obscure sixty-seven- year-old bluesman who sings, and plays a board strung with a single piece of wire.
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Sigmund and the Sea Monsters premieres on Saturday morning TV. Disowned by his family for his inability to scare humans, Sigmund, a sea monster, leaves home and begins to wander along Cyprus Beach in California. The series centers around the efforts of two brothers to keep Sigmund's presence a secret and protect him from his family -- who deviously scheme to retrieve him when emergencies arise that require his presence at home.

Top of the LP charts: The Allman Brothers' Brothers and Sisters (pop album).

The Top Five
1. "Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
2. "Brother Louie" - Stories
3. "Delta Dawn" - Helen Reddy
4. "Say, Has Anybody Seen my Sweet Gypsy Rose" - Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
5. "Touch Me in the Morning" - Diana Ross

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Todd Rundgren keeps his promise and records 1,000 voices in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for the left track of his song "Sons of 1984"; he had recorded over 5,000 fans in New York's Central Park on the right track. But the open-air recording session ends in a rumble, as police move in to arrest a twenty-one- year-old man for allegedly peddling cannabis, and a melee erupts. Eleven persons are arrested.
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BBC Radio bans the Rolling Stones' "Star Star" because of its chorus, which contains the word starfucker repeated a dozen times.
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After weeks of mounting pressure, the Chilean army and national police topple Salvador Allende Gossens's popularly elected Marxist government. Allende's death is an alleged suicide, and the resulting military junta immediately begins a terrorist campaign. On Sept. 24, the U.S. recognizes the new government, and CIA involvement in the coup will later be revealed.
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The Top Five
1. "Delta Dawn" - Helen Reddy
2. "Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
3. "Say, Has Anybody Seen my Sweet Gypsy Rose" - Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
4. "Loves Me Like a Rock" - Paul Simon
5. "We're an American Band" - Grand Funk

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Gram Parsons, once of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, dies under mysterious circumstances while rehearsing in the desert in Joshua Tree, California, outside Los Angeles. The twenty-six- year-old singer/songwriter's death is attributed to heart failure due to natural causes, but later will be officially annouced as due to a drug overdose. Parsons' coffin is stolen by two of his associates and is taken to Joshua Tree, where it is set afire. Police later arrest Parsons' road manager, Phil Kaufman, and Michael Martin, a former Byrds roadie.
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Singer/songwriter Jim Croce is killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, La. Croce, 30, was en route to a concert in Sherman, Texas, when the single-engine plane carrying four others plus the pilot hits a tree on takeoff. All are killed. After years of being in and out of music, Croce had first gained fame in 1972, and his folksy, storytelling style marked him a rising star.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse play the opening show at the Roxy, L.A.'s newest rock & roll nightclub.

In a much-publicized battle of the sexes, tennis star Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the Houston Astrodome before more than 30,000 spectators. Master showman, hustler, and former (in the 1940s) world tennis champ Riggs, 55, had challenged women's champ King to a winner-takes-all $100,000 match. Riggs had previously challenged and beat Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1, and made the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time for his brash style. King enters the packed Astrodome Cleopatra-style, carried aloft in a chair held by four muscular, bare-chested guys dressed like Roman slaves. Riggs follows in a rickshaw pulled by a bevy of buxom, scantily clad models. The unflustered King presents Riggs with a live "male chauvinist" pig. But after the showy spectacle, it isn't much of a match as 29-year-old King dusts Riggs off in three straight sets.

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Rosemary's Baby, director Roman Polanski's Devil-ish 1968 movie hit, makes its television premiere on ABC.
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Even though bassist Bill Wyman had candidly admitted, "It's not my favorite album," and Mick Jagger had huffed, "Some people won't like it; too bad," the Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup turns gold. The album also goes to Number One and contains a Number One single, "Angie."
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The Dutch instrumental group Focus receive a gold record for Focus 3, which comes on the heels of their lone hit, "Hocus Pocus." The song is notable for its lead "vocals," which are yodeled rather than sung by Thijs Van Leer.

Basketball star Wilt Chamberlain leaves the NBA for a $1.8 million contract with the ABA's San Diego Conquistadors.

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Rolling Stone reports that Carlos Santana, now a disciple of Sri Chimnoy, has a new name: Devadip, which means "The Lamp of the Light of the Supreme." The band's name, however, will remain as Santana.

President Nixon's VP Spiro Agnew seethes as a federal grand jury convenes in Baltimore to explore allegations of misconduct during his tenure as governor of Maryland. Over the years Agnew has transformed from a liberal Democrat into a conservative law-and-order conservative, and relishes his role as the White House's resident anti-intellectual, hippie-bashing attack dog. But now he's twisting in the wind, which is fast picking up speed. "He will not go quietly, for that woiuld look like a confession of guilt," says one unnamed friend. But in just two short weeks Agnew will be gone, breaking his previously adamant refusal to resign by doing just that, a move that elevates House Speaker Gerald Ford to the job from which he'll assume the presidency next August when Nixon resigns. Agnew, who later pleads no contest to tax evasion and and money-laundering charges, would have become president had he not first suffered this nasty career-ending tumble.

California Angels pitcher Nolan Ryan pitches his second no-hitter of the season and sets a record of 383 strikeouts for the year.

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The Rolling Stones appear on U.S. television for the first time since 1967, on the new Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. The group performs, on film, three songs from its recently released Goat's Head Soup: "Angie," "Silver Train" and "Dancing with Mr. D."
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The Top Five
1. "We're an American Band" - Grand Funk
2. "Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
3. "Half-Breed" - Cher
4. "Loves Me Like a Rock" - Paul Simon
5. "Delta Dawn" - Helen Reddy

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