1977 at a glance:
- George H W Bush, ends term as 11th director of CIA
- Kiss play their first concert in Madison Square Garden (NYC)
- New Orleans' Pete Maravich sets NBA record for a guard with 68 pts
- "Eight is Enough" premieres on ABC-TV
- Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 31 weeks
- Alex Haley, author of "Roots", awarded Pulitzer Prize
- Patty Hearst let out of jail
- "Beatlemania" opens on Broadway
- Cheryl Ladd replaces Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels
I was twenty-one and twenty-two years old in 1977
1977 brought some great music and great movies. My new musical discoveries were Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Pat Travers, Status Quo and Moxy. Movies were great too, but nothing was as long awaited or sensational as Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." The wierd 6-note extraterrestrial signal tune was being hummed by everybody in the world it seemed, accompanied of course, by the obligatory hand signals.
By summer 1976 I decided to leave my job at Rol-A-Way after a 3-year stint. Art school seemed to be the thing to do, so I gave it a shot. Thinking it would be cool, I even cut myself so I could dip a pen in my own blood to sign a particular work of art. (It was not one of my more brilliant moments). I enrolled in art school in the winter term of 1977.
The summer of 1977 was one of the hottest on record with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.
The Portland Trailblazers took the championship and the whole city was in wild celebration. Power forward Maurice "Luke" Lucas (February 18, 1952 - October 31, 2010) was an incredible player. Bill Walton, another Blazer with a dynamite rep was also a serious Dead head, traveled with the band for their famous Egypt concert, and attended more than 650 Dead shows. He was finally awarded an induction into The Grateful Dead Hall of Honor.
Art School
"What the heck is a non-photo blue pencil?"
I enrolled in art school in the winter of 1977. It was there that I decided to pursue a career as a commercial artist. The terminology has changed over the years, and I went from a "commercial artist", to an "Illustrator" to a "Graphic Designer". I still prefer the term "Commercial Artist." It was in art school that I learned the uses of T-Squares, Airbrushes, non-photo blue pencils, rubylith, and rubber cement.
There were many things I learned in art school, however the most important of all was networking. It really was who you knew, and not what you knew. Networking landed me with many great jobs both in and out of school.
Guitar Heroes
The summer of 1977 found me hooked on the group Status Quo. I'm not sure why they hit me so strong, but they did. Their brand of boogie-rock was so clean and so tight, that I couldn't quit listening to them. To this day these guys hold a high position in my musical archives as the greatest boogie band in the world. Nobody rocked like Status Quo.
I bought album after album, each one seemed better than the first. The blazing guitar duo of Rick Parfitt and Steve Rossi became a formidable rock force to be reckoned with. The two became very close friends and have played together for years, and continue to do so. Amazingly, as adults, they barely look any different. Both guitarists are thin, long-haired, and from a distance look just as they did in 1977! Up close you can see some wrinkles, but life must have been good to them because they're in great shape. These guys have been rocking for over 50 years! How many of us can claim that these days?
Pat Travers
During that summer, I happened to be in Muisc Millennium just in time to hear a "now playing" album by a relatively unknown guitarist named Pat Travers The album was called "Makin' Magic and it was super hot! By 1979, I was a fully blown Pat Travers fan, and managed to get his autograph on a portrait I'd done of him. The only thing that really troubled me about Pat, was that each album was quite different from the one before. His style markedly changed with each LP. I never could figure out just which direction PT was going in.
Big Hair, Big Movies
Tease, twist, tangle and blow-dry blast! The big hair queen herself, Farah Fawcett launched an indelible fashion statement as strong and provocative as any could be. In doing so, she stole the hearts of just about every American male when "Charlie's Angels" debuted. As it turned out, Farrah was actually a decent actress who could deliver some memorable performances. The "Farrah Mane" became on of the most imitated women's hairstyles of the late '70s. Farrah never really floated my boat, but most of the guys I knew thought she was the goods. Oddly enough, I've never seen an episode of "Charlie's Angels," as the show never interested me. Big hair became a style for not only women, but men too. Long-haired guys were now starting to fluff, mousse, and curl, and the mullet was moving in as a go-to style for men with longer hair.
Major and minor Hollywood releases left unforgettable footprints on the '70s decade. Blockbusters like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Wars" forever changed the face of science fiction. Burt Reynolds was up to his usual good ol' boy standards with "Smokey and The Bandit", a film that launched the country into a '70s CB craze. "The Deep" made Jacqueline Bisset's T-shirts a viable commodity, but the film was for me, quite boring. I expected something great considering that another Peter Benchley novel had been filmed.
Disturbing psychological topics and unforgettable imagery either delighted us, or scarred our brains forever. Two such movies were: "Eraserhead" and the equally disturbing "Equus", a film about a disturbed young man who blinded six horses with a metal spike.
Goodbye, Elvis.
Elvis Presley changed the face of pop music to a point where those changes became a permanent condition and inspired many future performs. He presented as an era gone by, when the world was happier, swingin', rockin' and full of life. His death in 1977 came as a crushing blow to the Elvis world. August 16, 1977, on the eve of yet another tour, Presley was found dead on his bathroom floor. The amount of drugs he'd been consuming was so profound that he suffered liver damage and an enlarged colon. He was also afflicted with extreme paranoia. His tours began to suffer miserably, and loyal fans were expressing outrage and disappointment over his lackluster performances, short sets, and fumbling speech.
The pressures upon people like Elvis take their toll. For some, the legends continue, for others, they are found only in our memories. Elvis is no longer a first name, but a signature that will endure time. The collage I created above is how I care to remember him; young, tough, vibrant, and an incredible performer.
Tobacco
In the winter of 1977 I decided to branch out into pipes and cigars. I developed quite a taste for each, and they soon became my favorite thing. I used to buy all of my tobacco goods at a place called The Tinder Box at Mall 205. My favorite pipe tobacco was a nice light flavor called "Polish Pleasure". My second favorite was "Aalborg", a Swedish cherry blend, and "Norse Gold", a very rich buttery-flavor blend. There was also a deep black vanilla blend, which I believe was called "Midnight Black". My favorite cigars were Henry Winterman's. They were thin and small, and had an excellent taste.
My love for pipe tobacco and cigars carried me well into the '90s.
Roots
One of the greatest testaments to '70s television would have to be the 1977 mini-series "Roots." America knew something big was coming, but just how big it would be was unfathomable. The series was nominated for 36 Emmy awards and won 9 making it one of television's biggest accomplishments ever. "Roots", to say the least, became a major sociological event, and laid an indelible mark on the '70s decade. Roots was probably the most-watched program of 1977, and certainly laid to rest any fear that networks should have had about its success.
In 1979, the show generated a sequel Roots: The Next Generations" which I liked as much as the original. It was great to flesh out a storyline that continued with future generations of one family.
