Here’s my third retrospective. Based on positive feedback to the two previous “Best Albums” lists from 1976 and 1977, here’s the next edition. Today focuses on 1975. I was 13 years old back then, and just coming of age so far as my interest in music.
Summation — 1975 was a tough year to pick any “best” album. Unlike ’76 and ’77 which (in my opinion) were slam dunk decisions, the best albums of ’75 look interchangeable. Take any of the top-5 on my list and a persuasive case can be made for all of them. Which one is the best just depends on musical taste and bias, and I certainly have mine.
Your comments, additions, subtractions, criticisms, tips, and insults are all welcome. By no means is my list perfect, but it’s better than most.
See if you agree. Here’s my countdown of the “Best Twenty” albums of 1975
20. Why Can’t We Be Friends? …. War
19. The Koln Concert …. Keith Jarrett
18. Promised Land …. Elvis Presley
17. Young Americans …. David Bowie
16. Born to Run …. Bruce Springsteen
15. Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy …. Elton John
14. Fandango …. ZZ Top
13. Welcome to My Nightmare …. Alice Cooper
12. Horses …. Patti Smith
12. One of These Nights …. Eagles
10. That’s The Way Of The World …. Earth, Wind & Fire
9. Alive! …. Kiss
8. Love to Love You Baby …. Donna Summer
7. Red-Headed Stranger …. Willie Nelson
6. Toys in the Attic …. Aerosmith
T 1-5 Still Crazy After All These Years …. Paul Simon
T 1-5 Physical Graffiti …. Led Zeppelin
T 1-5 Night at the Opera …. Queen
T 1-5 Blood On The Tracks …. Bob Dylan
T 1-5 Wish You Were Here .… Pink Floyd
Note: Positions 1-5 are a tie.
NOTABLE OMISSIONS:
It tortured me to leave off The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album….KC and the Sunshine Band released one of the most joyous dance and sing-a-long collections of songs that year and their album with several hits arguably belongs in the top-20 (it just missed my cut)…..Bob Dylan / The Band – The Basement Tapes could be here just because of intrigue but that mostly for devotees….Paul McCartney & Wings’ Venus and Mars would have been on the list except that it’s cluttered with a few clunkers amongst some excellent guitar-heavy songs….Foghat’s Fool for the City was a smash in my teen circles and it was tough to leave this off…Jethro Tull’s Minstrel in the Gallery seems way too pretentious and view them as overrated, so that’s a pass….Rufus featuring Chaka Khan might be as tight an album as came out that year and every track is listenable (probably a mistake to leave this one out–but then which do I remove from my list?)….Rhinestone Cowboy was solid for what it is and a smash best-seller, but wasn’t anywhere Glen Campbell’s best work….Abba’s debut album came out in ’75 but their catchier songs came in the next five years thereafter.
MY LINER NOTES:
….I have a nostalgic soft spot for the band War–still remember a very early interview I heard as a kid as to why they called themselves “WAR” in the time of peace and love and they flat-out admitted it was the way to get noticed. Their quirky funk-rock rhythms confirmed our curiosity. “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” and the iconic “Low Rider” top this album’s hit tracks, but it’s equally solid on both sides of the vinyl.
….Here’s a quirky pick: A live performance by a solo pianist in Germany enshrined on a double album wouldn’t typically fit amongst these other pop choices, but Keith Jarrett’s performance given all the backstage drama (click the Wiki entry for more) makes this a mandatory inclusion. It’s the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album of all-time, ranks on most lists along greatest live recordings and garners universal praise. There no “hits” on here, but it sold 4 million copies.
…. Elvis Presley might seem an odd choice among best albums of the year given he’d become a touring carnival act by this later stage of his life. However, this is one final joyous hurrah before his death two years later and his last truly-inspired inspired studio recording (later albums were mostly panned by critics as being “uninspired). Fittingly, these sessions were done at Stax Records studios in Memphis and then released on Presley’s 40th birthday.
…. Even David Bowie’s lesser acclaimed albums will often crack the top-20 and this is one of them. Young Americans” is severe departure from glam rock into a more R&B sound that would remain the rest of his career (and it includes “Fame,” which I love).
….Springsteen fans won’t agree with my low ranking of Born to Run which by almost every metric is one of the giant musical preambles of the 1970s–I just don’t think it’s as great as the critics say and only became iconic because of his later great albums. Yes this is a rock “wall of sound” but just eight tracks (I expect fierce debate on this).
….Incredible story I read recently about Captain Fantastic album–yes this is true as told by Ringo Starr–he escorted Elton John’s mother to the show on the tour of this album (imagine that conversation) and when Elton started playing “tracks from my new album” a third of the audience got up and went to the restroom—including Ringo and mom who agreed new stuff was a bore! That taught him a lesson about touring which is audiences paying the bucks just want to hear the hits–I mean, when your own mom and Ringo walk out…..
….I question myself about ZZ Top being on this list, but they did something unheard of at the time (and since), which is combining live and studio recordings onto once concept album and it helped that all the tracks are solid ass-kicking blues-infused rockers.
….Alice Cooper’s concept horror album is a mixed bag of glorious excess combined with some really cheesy WTF! moments, but it’s so ambitious that it couldn’t possibly deliver on everything—from “Only Women Bleed” (a scandalous title that was radio banned) to a sequence of boyish nightmares, to Vincent fucking Price providing a monologue on one song, to Cooper looking for a new sound and using Lou Reed’s entire backup band. This is glorious success and failure but everything rock art should be–it’s the noble attempt that mattered most.
….If there’s a female counterpart to Van Morrison’s epic ’68 work Astral Weeks, it’s Patti Smith breaking all the rules of femininity and conventionalism and commercialism on her punky-funky-rocky-poetic debut album Horses (cover by scandalous artist Robert Mapplethorpe) with what she later described as “three-chord rock merged with the power of the word.” This is sheer power of spirit and personality on record (and she even covers one of Van’s earliest teen pop hits, “Gloria” G-L-O-R-I-A! and somehow manages to out-do him).
….The Eagles’ first #1 album (enough said). Interesting that early reviews were somewhat mixed, but the massive sales and broad crossover appeal of the group and multiple catchy hit songs created a re-evaluation. This isn’t quite in the top-5 of best Eagles albums, but it’s a fine record and worthy of inclusion here.
….I love lots of soul music, but I’ve never been a fan of Earth, Wind & Fire. That bias shouldn’t preclude them from being listed here forever, with an album most will agree was one of the best of they year and no one can argue with the power of the sound and commercial success they enjoyed.
….Look up “rock gods” in the dictionary in 1975 and you will see KISS as the top entry. The elaborate mysterious made-up rockers released their fourth album this year, but this was their first LIVE effort. The energy from devoted audiences and some occasional spontaneity creates a surprisingly fun and lingering experience. It’s also a double album, so this is 2-for-1 head banger. A surprising number of rock and even new wave artists who became famous in the 80 and 90s cited this album as the first album they ever purchased, which says a lot.
….Donna Summer’s Love to Love You Baby produced and recorded almost by accident with no record contract in Europe contains the controversial 17-minute title track that was unheard of at the time. No one knew if it could get radio airplay. The song makes up the entirety of Side One. Summer (who later said she was mimicking Marilyn Monroe) simulates sexual energy through her vocals to an accompaniment of cymbals, wah-wah guitars, funky clarinet riffs, and chimes. The song became a mini-symphony reaching #2 in the American charts (behind Paul Simon) and was largely responsible for the development of the twelve-inch single. This is a historical milestone and great groundbreaking album. Arguably could be #1 of the year in my estimation. (note to self–do a full retrospective on this album sometime)
— Red Headed Stranger was Willie Nelson‘s iconic (15-song) concept album that catapulted him to superstardom. Its story has become legend. When Nelson first brought his sparsely instrumented acoustic arrangements to Columbia for release the chief executive listed to the tracks and barked out, ‘Why are you turning in a demo?’ “This ain’t no demo’,” Nelson explained standing his ground. “This is the finished product.!” Nelson asked the record executive what a “finished” record was supposed to sound like. The executive reportedly replied “Anything but this!” Somehow, Nelson won the argument. His album sold 2 million copies (high for a country album at the time), stayed on the mainstream charts for 43 weeks, and is ranked as the #83 greatest album of all-time by Rolling Stone. That Columbia exec should have ended up manning the frosty machine at a Dairy Queen.
….Aerosmith released what became their second best-selling album of their careers in 1975, which included legacy mega-hits “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way.”
….Paul Simon’s 1975 album is among his very best solo work (I prefer this to Graceland), netting four major hits, and winning two Grammys, including “Album of the Year.” Hard to argue with that overwhelming weight of evidence.
….Physical Graffiti stands a bacchanal of rock so packed with raw energy and chaotic perfection that it’s almost impossible to take in. By mid-1974, Led Zeppelin had such an expansive backlog of material that they decided to expand this project into a double album by including seven previously unreleased tracks from the sessions for the band’s earlier albums. We get “Kashmir”, “Houses of the Holy”, and several other iconic rock-blues icons of sound.
….”Queen’s Night at the Opera contains “Bohemian Rhapsody” as the obvious standout, but don’t dismiss the softer catchy lullaby “You’re My Best Friend.” Most Queen aficionados rank this as their favorite album, and it’s hard to argue (personal note–my mother brought this album home in 1975 and I had never heard of the group before–even though it wasn’t a major hit single at the time, many subsequent nights included “Bohemian Rhapsody” on Side Two spinning on the bulky and boxy living room stereo console–true story).
….Some say Blood on the Tracks was Dylan’s last true cultural tour d’ force album (he made lots of great music later on, but this release may have marked his apex of creativity and influence). “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Shelter from the Storm”, “Idiot Wind” (and others) were not smash singles but continued to elevate the most meaningful music by the best artists. Profound lyrics sung by a social hermit with such a casual and dismissive attitude launch this to the highest alter of a generational reflections, becoming a poetry of emotions blossomed in sound.
….If there was any question Pink Floyd could “do it all over again” with an album that matched the emblematic Dark Side of the Moon from two years earlier, Wish You Were Here gets very close. Up against almost impossible expectations, Pink Floyd delivers a second album masterpiece.
Here’s a fun clip of the 1975 Grammys including a bizarre pairing of presenters — Paul Simon, John Lennon, Andy Williams, and a surprise fill-in for Olivia Newton-John:
This is a really fun topic. So, let’s continue now with another year in pop music.
Based on all the positive feedback to yesterday’s inaugural “Best Albums” list, I’ll expand this fun writing project and retrospective — alternating daily between each year backwards and forwards from 50 years ago.
Your comments, additions, subtractions, criticisms, tips, and insults are all welcome. By no means is my list perfect, but it’s better than most. See LINK at end of this article
See if you agree. Here’s my countdown of the “Best Twenty” albums of 1977:
20. Foreigner ….. Foreigner
19. Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes ….. Jimmy Buffet
18. Feels So Good ….. Chuck Mangione
17. In Your Mind ….. Bryan Ferry
16. Heavy Weather ….. Weather Report
15. Slowhand .…. Eric Clapton
14. Street Survivors ….. Lynyrd Skynyrd
13. News of the World ….. Queen
12. The Clash ….. The Clash
11. Out of the Blue ….. Electric Light Orchestra
10. Barry Manilow Live ….. Barry Manilow
9. Aja .…. Steely Dan
8. Exodus ….. Bob Marley and the Wailers
7. Commodores ….. Commodores
6. Simple Dreams ….. Linda Ronstadt
5. Animals ….. Pink Floyd
4. Talking Heads: 77 ….. Talking Heads
3. The Stranger ….. Billy Joel
2. Rumours ….. Fleetwood Mac
1. Saturday Night Fever (Soundtrack) ….. Bee Gees
Notable Omissions: “Bat Out of Hell” was a massive commercial success, but I never understood Meatloaf’s pop appeal as a very one-dimensional act……David Bowie was coming off serious drug issues that year and his career was sliding just as “Low” was released which divided fans and critics as a sort of sobriety project…..Neil Young released two fine country/folk-themed albums that same year, but he split the best material in half…..Kiss’ “Love Gun” probably belongs in the top-20 and it will piss some people off that I axed it….Streisand would have been on this list, but “A Star is Born” and “Superman” album projects crowd each other and watered down one otherwise superior album…..Any of disco diva Donna’s Summer’s albums from this era are lock contenders, but she just missed with this one (I listened for the first time all the way through while writing most of this)…..it pained me to leave master of sound Brian Eno’s last real rock album off this list…..it’s criminal to omit Peter Gabriel’s debut solo effort, but somehow I did…..Barry White’s double-album came close but his best stuff was just a few years prior…..Jackson Browne belongs here commercially speaking, but I could never stand Jackson Browne so pffft–he’s toast (I’m running on empty here)…..and yes I should be run out of town for omitting Elvis Costello’s debut collection (we’ll get more of Elvis later on in the series)….”Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols” was omitted and I expect to get physical threats next time I go out in public. Sorry, musical anarchy is *not* art.
My Liner Notes: Foreigner’s debut album consisting of solid/steady rock throughout easily belongs in this top-20…..Jimmy Buffet’s best work here is pure unapologetic escapism but sometimes we need that and besides this album included “Margaritaville” (enough said!)…..”Feels So Good” was playing everywhere you went anywhere in America that year–what a great mainstream jazz album!….former Roxy frontman Bryan Ferry’s vocals with all original material stands as one of the year’s most underrated albums and it’s a tough call to say this better than other albums I left off, but I say this is stronger overall material and I’ve always had a spot for Roxy Music…..Weather Report has to be someplace on one of these yearly best-lists as such a massive jazz best-seller, so I’ll go with this since it’s their most successful album…..Clapton put out several blues-inspired guitar classics in the riff-heavy ’70s and this is arguably his best collection….I wasn’t a fan of the Southern rock sound, but Lynyrd Skynyrd’s album released three-days before the plane crash (killing three band members) was already destined for greatness and the tragedy made this album into a musical memorial….Queen’s album produced two monster hits that have since become sports anthems sung and chanted worldwide — “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions.” so it’s hard to argue with the lasting legacy this album left behind…..The Clash isn’t my favorite, but it must be in here given its massive influence and consensus praise from critics…..ELO seemed to put out a masterful record successfully both commercially and with critics every year and 1977 was no different–this double album sold ten million copies…..Barry Manilow may be a Las Vegas crooner now but he was an extraordinarily-talented songwriter/pianist/performer and this collection of live music from the first half of his career (his first #1 album) stands a a testament to his talent and showmanship***when making these lists it’s easy to diss Manilow, but given what he does, when it comes to putting it on an album it’s hard to top this in that genre…..Steely Dan is another group I’m not a fan of, but this album just has to be here (maybe higher)–sometimes I can admit to not liking a sound but it can still be a great album….Bob Marley’s most commercially-successful album wasn’t just a fine musical contribution, it was a breakthrough of a new sound that influenced countless other musicians……Commodores were a monster success and any album that includes such diverse classics as soft-listening “Easy” and funky “Brick House” is an automatic inclusion…..”Simple Dreams” was Linda Ronstadt’s best-selling album of her career and contains multiple classic hits–an easy choice here…..Any Pink Floyd album from the 70s is an automatic top-20, though this is not as strong as the albums (two prior and on afterward) that bookended it…..Talking Heads debut album–enough said (and their stuff would only get better over the next decade though the high-energy of this album is unmatched)…Billy Joel’s “The Stranger” contains five smash hit songs and came after a commercially disappointing album where Columbia almost dropped him–this is a personal and professional triumph (arguably could be #1 if it weren’t for the Bee Gees)…..this is heresy, but I’m not a Fleetwood Mac fan at all–still, this album was a force throughout the late 70s and its impossible to deny its influence….finally, nothing topped the Bee Gees that year, and so far as worldwide popularity and influence musically, culturally, on fashion and coolness, “Saturday Night Fever” was it—and yes, the music matched the hype and sounds even cooler now than 49 years ago {check out the opening 3 minutes of music of the movie; my favorite short scene is Travolta putting $5 bucks down on the blue shirt on the “layaway plan.” So Brooklyn working-class perfect, as if Martin Scorsese would have directed MTV videos)
Special Prize for Worst Album: “Come In from the Rain” by Captain & Tennille spent 15 weeks on the charts as the follow up the the baffling hit single, “Muskrat Love.”
Note: I hope you are having as much fun reading and commenting as I am listening and writing these!
To be more specific, the scumbag-in-chief, along with his two leeching safari-hunting sons, and the toxic sludge of shady companies that make up his financial holdings, filed a massive lawsuit.
Translation: The President of the United States is suing YOU and ME, because we as American taxpayers will end up paying any settlement–or final court decision. That’s right, we who pay taxes (Trump often hasn’t paid a dime) are getting hijacked.
$10 billion — if he wins this case that would roughly double his wealth, by some estimates. That’s more money than the value of the New York Yankees.
This is STEALING on a level we’ve never witnessed before. He’s so empowered by sycophantic loyalists and his cult of red-capped lunatics, he actually believes he can get away with this massive grift. Truth is, as sad as this country has become, he *might* very well get away with it These are the gutter depths to which we’ve sunk as a society, that 40 percent of the country doesn’t even fucking care about the con.
Oh sure, MAGA. He cares about you. Yeah, right. Working-class Americans are at the top of his priorities.
PEOPLE! WAKE THE FUCK UP!
What do you think is going to happen inside TRUMP’S IRS when this personal tax case and frivolous lawsuit hits the desk of his flunkies and all of the TRUMP-APPOINTED department heads and attorneys — all prior screened and cleared Trump-connected loyalists with their jobs on the line — and have to make decisions about settling the lawsuit, or fighting and heading to court
THIEVERY is what we are witnessing on a scale unseen in American history. A President suing his own federal government…..I can’t even muster up strong enough words of protest to explain what should be so goddamned obvious how insanely problematic this is. Legally. Ethically. Morally. Does common sense matter anymore? Does anyone read news that’s not stained and distorted?
Fact: Trump paid ZERO income taxes for 10 out of 15 years before his first election. ZERO TAXES. I’m curious: What did you pay in those years?
Trump is pissed because there was a government leak, he claims. Who knows, but why does this matter? And how was he hurt by any of this (assuming it’s true)? Washington *runs* on leaks. 24./7. Washington has always been a place where leaks happen. It’s part of the D.C. culture and always will be. Nothing will stop people from talking. Nothing will stop leaks. If previous Presidents sued the federal government each time there was a leak, every ex-President would have left office as a multi-billionaire. But now, we have a con man in office.
It’s unfathomable that anyone who is aware of these facts doesn’t see this for the con-job that it is — installing lap dogs in the vault — and then showing up with a gun and a mask to rob the bank.
Let’s not forget Trump’s PROMISE a number of times that he would release his own tax returns — which NEVER happened, of course. He LIED. Again. And again. And again. Everything is a LIE. A whack job of dishonesty. How the fuck can anyone swallow any of this? It’s like being kicked in the face and begging for more.
Also yesterday, Trump spent hours tweeting about the 2020 election, which he lost. That’s right, he’s STILL obsessed with an election from five years ago and he sent a swarm of DOJ officials to dig through old voting ballots from 2020. Constructive use of federal government resources, huh?
IRS….lawsuits….old election results…..sure MAGATS, he really cares about you. You’re his main focus, you still think?
I feel like doing something very different today. Since the 2026 Grammy Awards are coming up this weekend, my curiosity plunged me deep down the rabbit hole of a musical retro-rediscovery. The result is this list and ranking of outstanding albums from 50 years ago.
I know — it’s hard to believe all of these albums are now half a century old. Geez.
For me, 1976 was a year of awakening. A coming of age. At 14 while a freshman in high school, like most kids back then, I became a serious music fan. The roots of an amateur pop music critic were planted. I could barely afford to buy an album at the time. Listening to music took scrimping and saving. We sometimes borrowed albums from our friends. Great music was the reward from yard work and the occasional side job.
Remember, there was no Internet nor streaming services nor Youtube, back then. The only options to hear your favorite music were buying the albums (or singles) at the record store or listening to the radio and hoping they’d play your song.
I don’t remember 1976 as being a particularly great year in popular music. But come to find out — it was! Should you doubt this, then check out the list of albums released that year. And, you should also see the albums that didn’t make my Top-20! (it was tough to leave out Kiss and Bob Dylan, who both released memorable albums that year).
Of course, this list is entirely subjective. Admittedly, I’m very biased. The rankings reflect my musical tastes. But, I also try to acknowledge albums that were monumentally influential and have proven their staying power
(The Ramones’ self-titled debut album immediately comes to mind, a group I didn’t like but everyone else agrees was a force). See where you agree, or disagree.
Here’s my countdown of the “Best Twenty” albums of 1976:
20. Troubadour…..J.J. Cale
19. 2112.….Rush
18. Hejira.….Joni Mitchell
17. Wings Over America…..Paul McCartney and Wings
16. Wanted! The Outlaws…..Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser
15. Dirty Deeds Done Cheap…..AC/DC (U.K. release)
14. Night Moves…..Bob Seger
13. Sad Wings of Destiny…..Judas Priest
12. Rastman Vibration…..Bob Marley
11. A New World Record…..Electric Light Orchestra
10. Dreamboat Annie.….Heart
9. Fly Like an Eagle.….Steve Miller Band
8. The Ramones.….The Ramones
7. Arrival…..Abba
6. Breezin’.….George Benson
5. Blondie…..Blondie
4. Frampton Comes Alive…..Peter Frampton
3. Songs in the Key of Life…..Steve Wonder
2. A Day at the Races…..Queen
1. Hotel California…..The Eagles
Special prize for worst album: Disco Duck by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots
_________
Note: I was going to write something about each album but this became too much a chore. Here are my lazy comments on a few picks, for those interested as to why they were selected.
Wings over America (Paul McCartney and Wings)
– Paul McCartney’s live triple-album packed a heavy trunk of both new material and old chestnuts. This album plucked the best live recordings of Wings’ 1976 summer tour, which was the first time McCartney played in the United States since The Beatles’ final live performance 10 years earlier in 1966. It instantly rocketed to #1 when released in December 1976.
Wanted! The Outlaws (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser)
– An unlikely quartet entered the studio and churned out and album for the ages, topping country charts, going mainstream, and spinning off several hit singles the artists performed for the rest of their careers. This album also proved that “supergroups” could be massively successful since they jettisoned fans (and album buyers) of artists behind a singular musical collaborative product.
Hotel California (The Eagles)
– When we talk about albums with staying power, here’s one of the very best examples. Released at the height of their popularity, “Hotel California” still sounds fresh and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums in history (#49 on Rolling Stones’ all-time list).
This is a locals’ bar and grill — with emphasis on the bar. Rustic. Nothing fancy. Straightforward service. Attentiveness is about what you’d expect at a truck stop cafe.
Jackson’s is known for their hamburgers and steaks. Cowboy food.
Best thing about the steak special is it’s available 24/7. They have a garlic marinated filet (you get two 6 ounce’ers). But we opted for the ribeye. Nothing is frozen here, and the steak’s pre-cook weight is 1 full pound. If you like Midwestern-type meals straight out of Kansas, it’s hard to find a better deal than this one……$22.
For 22 bucks, you get the full steak, plus a side option, and the daily vegetable. I was pleasantly surprised to know baked potatoes are available 24/7 as well, which is unusual because this is typically a dinner-only item. As for the steak, excellent quality, juicy, tender, and just enough marbling for flavor but minimal cut-away waste.
It’s hard to go wrong for this amount of money and receiving this much food. Strongly recommended — especially if you don’t want anything fancy, except a good hearty meal.
Located in the northeast corner of the intersection at Jones and Flamingo.
TODAY IS HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY: HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We are reminded to “never forget.”
But have we already forgotten? I wonder.
This date, January 27, marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, the dreaded Nazi concentration camp in Poland where an estimated 1,155,000 people perished — most of them Eastern European Jews. The extermination facility and labor camp was a massive complex of fortified walls, guard towers, barbed wire, gallows, barracks barely fit for animals, gas chambers, and cremation ovens. It was a cruel totalitarian state-run mechanism intended not just to inflict terror both inside and outside, but also to commit mass genocide.
One need not be Jewish to remember and honor them. We only need be human.
Today, the remnants of Auschwitz-Birkenau stand as a memorial to the memory of victims. This worldwide day of remembrance attempts to avert any possibility that such horrors can –or will– ever happen again.
But it has happened again. All over the world, on multiple occasions. It doesn’t help that some people, even those among us now including our own national leadership, are diabolically intent to erase history, or at least re-write it. While many do attempt to keep the candle flame of light and the comforting glow of warmth burning on, others are determined to blow it out.
To borrow terminology typically associated with Christianity —- have Holocaust remembrances become the symbolically-meaningful but otherwise useless rituals of “preaching to the choir?” Do all the special dates, emotional speeches, granite memorials, tear-jerking movies, and hundred-million-dollar museums about the Holocaust and the horrors of hate really accomplish anything?
Of course, remembrances should exist. Because the opposite — which is doing nothing — is far worse. We desperately need them, especially right now. But It also seems to me that those who should be the most impressionable to this critically-important messaging and the abundance of historical warnings sadly, pay this date little or no attention. In other words, the intended targets aren’t sitting in the audience.
It’s hard to teach historical lessons when so many people are so appallingly ignorant of it. According to a recent survey, nearly one-third of all Americans and 40 percent of millennials believe that substantially fewer than 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Almost half of all Americans (45 percent) cannot name a single concentration camp – and this percentage is even higher amongst millennials. I find this staggering. I find this frightening.
How is this possible? How can someone go through life so unaware and so uneducated? This defies my comprehension.
Nazi comparisons hurled about the political situation today are common. I’m not sure these comparisons resonate with people under a certain age, who have no actual idea what a Nazi is. They’re not versed in world history. They don’t comprehend the dangers. The historical reference (or insult) is mostly a void portending a lack of knowledge. Calling someone a “Nazi” who doesn’t understand what Nazism is and the horrors of what they did becomes staring back at the dear caught in the headlights.
Is there such a thing as “Holocaust fatigue?” Maybe. Unless it impacts them directly and absolutely, many people tend to tune things out over time. This is especially true when the victims of oppression are not members of our own tribe. They were of a different religion, from a different place, and lived in a different and distant time — so long ago. Why would anyone now so far removed from the victims care, let alone empathize?
Popular culture (especially in America, but other countries, too) used to crank out an assembly line of “entertainment” with laudable anti-authoritarian messaging. Most notably, movies helped entire generations to understand what happened. They were often told from the victims’ point of view. So, we share glimpses of their experience and suffered along with them. It helped that so many “Holocaust movies” also happened to be outstanding cinematic achievements. Many even won Academy Awards. One would expect the messaging of those powerful movies, which impacted everyone who saw them, to stick and stay with us forever. But it hasn’t stuck with us, at least no on any meaningful scale. Given that movies with WW2 themes aren’t made much anymore, the latest generations as well as future generations are quite likely to disregard those important lessons.
Of course, there are plenty of crackpots and lunatics, too. Anti-Semites. Conspiracy cranks. Haters. And Jews are often the convenient targets of blame for society’s many shortcomings. This extremist contingent isn’t small. It numbers in the millions. They aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they are becoming even more empowered. Many don’t even brother to hide their hate and prejudices anymore.
Yes, today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This should not only be a look backwards. Rather, it should be a deeper gaze into the mirror which shows a reflection of where we could be headed.
RETURN OF THE DOS EQUIS GUY: THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD IS BACK!
During yesterday’s NFL Conference Championship games, the Dos Equis guy made his comeback!
I looked it up. He’s been on a TEN-YEAR hiatus. His last commercial was back in January 2016.
Television commercials typically wouldn’t be something to write about. But the “Most Interesting Man in the World” marketing campaign is one of the cleverest and most successful over the past two decades. Everybody knows those commercials and can identify that guy just from his face. That’s genius salesmanship.
I have no idea why the one and only original “Dos Equis guy” was dropped in the first place. Maybe they thought he was getting too old. I did see a short-lived reboot of this character, played a much younger bearded guy in a suit holding a beer, but that imposter had none of the suave charisma of the original. I also suspected that perhaps the image of a 70+ year old man wrestling alligators, climbing mountain peaks, and being the hit of every social gathering (often surrounded by fawning supermodels in the ads) might have rubbed some in the target audience the wrong way as being just a bit creepy.
Well, Dos Equis guy is back! And he’s wrestling gators, scaling mountain peaks, and surrounded by hot babes.
Now, here’s the amazing part. The Dos Equis isn’t Mexican, or even Hispanic. His name is Jonathan Goldsmith. And, he’s 87 !
Just wow!
Goldsmith did lots of New York stage theatre. He also played numerous TV roles, mostly on one-off appearances, including lots of crime shows and westerns — 25 TV westerns by one count. Imagine, Goldsmith as a cowboy. He’s the best *New-York-Jew-playing-a- Mexican* since Eli Wallach. One famous claim to fame is — Goldsmith was cast as the bad guy in the John Wayne movie “The Shootist.” The movie ends when Goldsmith’s character gets shot right between the eyes. The crew had to film the scene seven times before the right take was finalized. Goldsmith later described his face — which was bludgeoned with blood capsules fired from a pellet gun repeatedly, as feeling like raw hamburger afterward.
Look at him now.
The kicker to the story is — Goldsmith almost never even auditioned for the part that made him famous worldwide. When the initial campaign was first launched and the company was casting, he was approaching 70 and had a call from his agent. The audition was for a new beer advertising campaign for a Mexican beer with minimal market share. This didn’t exactly seem like an ideal fit. Goldsmith later said he was going to skip the audition, but his wife talked him into going, and well — now he’s the most interesting man in the world.
Yes, Trump said every single word of this statement below, copied verbatim.
And, it wasn’t an isolated malapropism, nor an innocent slip up.
This is willful ignorance and a complete disregard for history. It borders on mental illness. It’s also grotesquely unacceptable that someone so dumb as President of the United States would actually believe this, let alone say it out loud in front of the world:
“I’ve always said, ‘Will they be there, if we ever needed them?’ And that’s really the ultimate test. And I’m not sure of that. I know that we would have been there, or we would be there, but will they be there?…We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that. And they did – they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
