1976: Back Through The Future

In tonight’s Flashback segment we’ll go back to 1976.

That was the year when practically every young American boy went out and bought a Farrah Fawcett poster. (Do you remember Farrah? She played Jill Munroe on Charlie’s Angels. Personally, I always preferred Kelly Garrett, played by Jaclyn Smith). The poster fad didn’t last long. About a year later, hundreds of thousands (if not millions, since some 12 million copies were sold) of these posters found their way into garbage cans throughout the USA.

Fad. Moda pasajera



Another famous TV show that had a hand in forming popular culture was Starsky and Hutch. We can thank them for bringing the cardigan sweater into fashion…again. The two hottest and most exciting colors were cream and brown!

To have a hand in (something). Estar involucrado en (algo)

Punk rock was just about to explode in 1976. In the UK, its formation stemmed from youths rebelling against anything remotely hippie, including the current state of music affairs and the rise in unemployment. Some people recognized punk’s money-making potential, particularly Malcolm McLaren, who “managed” The New York Dolls and The Sex Pistols. In the end, all that McLaren “managed” to do was exploit these groups and keep the lion’s share of the earnings for himself. The entire scenario is mocked in the 1980 film The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.

Unemployment. Paro, desempleo
To mock. Burlarse, mofarse de

In the Music segment, just as in Flashback, we travel back through time, exploring the Number 1 Hits that reached the charts in the United States. Last week, however, we travelled into the future. Way into the future. The number one song in the U.S. for the week of July 12, 1969 was called In the Year 2525.

Way. Muy, mucho (argot)

The writer, Rick Evans, is from Lincoln, Nebraska. For me, Lincoln, Nebraska conjures up images of fast food restaurants and hotel chains strewn along Interstate 80. That’s because Lincoln was the overnight stopping point on our annual road trip from Chicago, Illinois to Denver, Colorado. Lincoln is located 841 kilometers from Chicago and 780 kilometers from Denver, which made it the ideal place to pull over, get some dinner and hit the hay before getting up and driving the remaining distance to our destination.

To conjure up. Evocar (memories, una imagen)
Strewn. Esparcido, desparramado
To pull over. Detenerse (en la carretera)
To hit the hay. Acostarse (argot)

Anyway, Rick met a guy named Denny Zager and they invested $500 to record the song In the Year 2525 in Odessa, Texas. This futuristic, pessimistic ballad takes us from the year 2525 (“if Man is still alive”) all the way through to 9595 (“he’s taken everything this old Earth can give”). Along the way, Evans warns us that we’ll no longer need our teeth, our eyes, our husbands or our wives, since we’ll “pick” our sons and daughters “from the bottom of a long black tube.” Interestingly, the song doesn’t have a chorus, which is very unusual for a Number 1 Pop / Rock song. Instead, the song is cyclical. Once we reach the year 9595, the song takes us back to 2525: “Everything you think, do or say is in the pill you took today.”

If you’re going to have just one hit song during your entire career, you’d better try to reach the top and stay there for a long time. Well, that’s exactly what this one-hit-wonder duo did: the song remained Number 1 on the charts for 6 weeks!

One-hit-wonder. Un grupo / cantante que sólo es conocido por un gran éxito

Published by: Drew Crosby