Events that crossed my radar and memories, these many years later. This effort is aided and abetted by reviewing Wikipedia’s listings of each year’s events, in this case, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974.
1971
We arrived in Hong Kong on August 15, 1971 with Typhoon Rose. It took us a while to come to terms with Hong Kong and the reality that we were half-way around the world from everything we knew. The news on TV and in the two English-language papers was sporadic, condensed and from a more London-centric perspective. I quickly lost track of baseball and football scores, along with current US TV shows and music.
The first few months in Hong Kong, we stayed in a leave-flat in the Midlevels on Hong Kong Island. It was a convenient location for exploring the island and we did a fair amount of that, early on. There wasn’t much time, or ability, to watch TV or listen to music, and I have little recollection of the major world events of the rest of the year.
To some extent, we felt closer to the Vietnam War in Hong Kong, manifested especially by the periodic arrival of US warships in the harbor and a flood of white-clad American sailors on shore leave. We quickly learned to stay away from Wanchai when the fleet was in town. It was kind of cool to see the ships anchored in the harbor, though.
I began to pay a little more attention to Hong Kong’s mysterious neighbor, the People’s Republic of China. China was still in the throes of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution and though things seemed to be calming down, it was still a very closed and threatening nation. There were fresh memories of 1967 riots in Hong Kong related to the Cultural Revolution and water rationing because China could close off the water supply at a moment’s notice. We saw daily reports in 1971 of Chinese refugees escaping to Hong Kong, mainly by swimming across dangerous open water and there was an ongoing concern of where to house them all. Hong Kong had built a number of very impressive high rise resettlement estates, but there were still whole communities of squatter huts on some of the hillsides.
No one could really perceive what was happening behind the “Bamboo Curtain“, but there were hints of change in 1971. Oddly, one of the first cracks in the curtain came in April when a US ping pong team was invited into China, the first official American visitors since 1949. It caused something of a sensation, not least to see the wholly different and exciting way the Chinese played ping pong — it was a real sport they took very seriously. In September, Mao’s designated successor, Lin Biao, died in a plane crash heading toward Russia under mysterious circumstances. Lin had generally been seen as a more radical proponent of the Cultural Revolution. At the same time, there was movement in the United Nations to recognize the People’s Republic of China and expel the Republic of China (Taiwan), which occurred in October and November. Also in October, Henry Kissinger visited Beijing to begin discussions on normalizing relations with the US, having secretly first visited in July. These talks culminated in Nixon’s groundbreaking trip to China in February 1972.
1972
I’m not exactly sure when we moved into our house on Repulse Bay Road but I think we were still in the leave flat on January 9 when we saw a thick column of smoke from the western part of Hong Kong harbor. The famous cruise ship RMS Queen Elizabeth was being refitted into a floating university when it caught fire and sank in the harbor. It was a great tragedy and ignominious end for such an historic ship. The owner of the ship, C.Y. Tung, was on the China Light board of directors with Dad and had hosted us for outings on his yacht. At the time, he was one of the world’s richest shipping magnates and he was turning the ship into Seawise University, a hubristic play on his initials (but then, I think all his ships were named Seawise something or other). The wreck stayed in Hong Kong’s harbor for years and was cleverly featured in the 1974 Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun. In a later twist, C.Y.’s Taiwan-based company fell into financial trouble after his death in 1982 and was rescued by the government of the People’s Republic. C.Y.’s son, Tung Chee Hwa became Hong Kong’s first Chief Executive after China regained the territory in 1997.
In early February we watched coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. No great stars or stories came out of these games but they made Sapporo look very nice and very cold. I think the Olympics and Nixon’s visit to China must have occurred more or less while I was home recovering from typhoid.
News coverage of Nixon’s trip to China in late February was spotty but it was clearly a big deal for Hong Kong. There was a glimmer of hope that relations with China in general would thaw, but there was no real knowing what was to come. I remember seeing fuzzy coverage on TV but mostly gleaning information from Time Magazine which arrived weekly and felt like a lifeline back to the States.
Once I got over my bout of typhoid, things for me settled into a routine of school, activities at the tennis club, and an afternoon snack of Ah Chen’s popcorn while I watched the “5 O’Clock Club” on TV which featured “George of the Jungle” cartoons on good days.
Beyond the “5 O’Clock Club”, TV in Hong Kong was pretty terrible; there were two English channels that didn’t come on until the late afternoon and wrapped up service by midnight. They showed a smattering of older UK and US shows; the US detective shows (Mannix, Hawaii Five-0) we had generally seen, the UK soap operas (The Eastenders) and comedies (Dad’s Army, Benny Hill) were largely incomprehensible. Eventually I discovered Monty Python but that took a couple of years — it was still a few years before they caught on in the States, but also a few years after the shows originally aired in the UK. We also came to like an Irish comedian, Dave Allen, who was a wonderful storyteller. Other than that, the pickings were pretty slim.
With Mom and Sue in the TV room, later in 1976
We had just one TV at the house in Hong Kong — our US TVs didn’t work there and we had to rent one from the cable company, Rediffusion. The TV was in an odd narrow little room between the living room and Mom and Dad’s bedroom. We had window air conditioners only in the bedrooms, so when it was warm we kept the door to the living room closed and ran the bedroom AC on high. In the winter, the TV room was the coldest in the house so we huddled under blankets. It never got below freezing in Hong Kong but the winters often brought a damp chill that went through you.
If TV was bad, the music scene was worse. There were only a couple of English radio stations which seemed to play an endless rotation of awful songs by either Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard or the Bee Gees. There were devoted fan clubs for each which repeatedly requested songs and made dedications on the air. There were no local artists to speak of in Hong Kong, at least none in English, and most of the Cantonese songs were syrupy ballads. The one breath of current US music came from Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 show which aired on the weekend. I listened religiously, wishing there was a way to skip over the songs I didn’t like. I started buying albums more frequently and was astonished to learn that pirated albums were available from Taiwan for about 10 cents each (though the albums would only be good for a handful of plays). I made shopping lists for anyone headed to Taiwan.
When I got my hands on an album, like the Concert for Bangladesh which came out in late 1971, I played it to death. At some point in mid-1972, I got my bass guitar, started lessons and started thumping along with anything that seemed easy. Some of my other favorite albums that I played along with in 1972 (some from earlier) included: Woodstock soundtrack, Eric Clapton, Mad Dogs and Englishmen (Joe Cocker), After the Gold Rush (Neil Young), All Things Must Pass (George Harrison), Layla (Derek and the Dominoes, David gave me his old copy once he wore it out and got a new one…then I wore it out more), Greatest Hits (Sly and the Family Stone), Pearl (Janis Joplin), Every Picture Tells a Story (Rod Stewart), Who’s Next (The Who), New Riders of the Purple Sage, Deliverin’ (Poco) (these last two given to me by David for Christmas), Teaser and the Firecat (Cat Stevens), Focus II (Focus), Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Traffic), Nilsson Schmilsson (Harry Nilsson), Pictures at an Exhibition (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), Paul Simon, Eat a Peach (Allman Brothers), Harvest (Neil Young), Smokin’ (Humble Pie), Machine Head (Deep Purple), Honky Chateau (Elton John), Sail Away (Randy Newman), Still Bill (Bill Withers), Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits, School’s Out (Alice Cooper), Never a Dull Moment (Rod Stewart), Talking Book (Stevie Wonder), Who Came First (Pete Townsend), Can’t Buy a Thrill (Steely Dan), Rocky Mountain High (John Denver), They Only Come Out at Night (Edgar Winter), The World is a Ghetto (War). I probably didn’t have all of these in 1972, but pretty soon thereafter. There were a lot of other great albums that came out in these years, including ones by Ry Cooder, Little Feat, and The Rolling Stones that I didn’t get to until later.
Movies were an interesting experience in Hong Kong. There were about a half dozen nice theaters that showed English language releases, typically a few months after they came out in the US or UK. There were many more theaters that showed Chinese-language films, most of them churned out in Hong Kong by Shaw Studios or Golden Harvest. There were lots of kung fu and historical epics, as well as contemporary dramas and comedies. I rarely went to the Chinese movies, even though many were subtitled, but went pretty regularly to almost anything showing in English. The seating was often segregated into Upper Circle (balcony seating) that cost a bit more and was generally for foreigners and the cheaper seats (I can’t remember what they were called, “general admission”, maybe) that in my opinion were the better seats closer to the screen…but I usually sat upstairs. Social pressure. The snack counters sold popcorn and candy and also an array of Chinese snacks, many of which had really peculiar smells. Going to the movies was a multisensory experience, especially in the cheap seats.
Films I remember seeing more or less in that year included: Diamonds are Forever (Bond in Las Vegas with a fake Howard Hughes), Straw Dogs (Peckinpah and Dustin Hoffman in Ireland), The French Connection (car chases, drugs and Gene Hackman), The Last Picture Show (excellent!), Cabaret (too weird and didn’t love the music), The Godfather (I didn’t understand the fuss, just another gangster film to me), Play It Again, Sam (one of my favorites), The Candidate (another favorite, but I think I saw it much later on TV), Deliverance (I think I saw it in the States over summer, but it made a big impact on me), And Now For Something Completely Different (compilation of Monty Python bits I’d already seen, but still fun), Bluebeard (big hype, awful film), Lady Sings the Blues (Diana Ross was impressive as Billie Holiday), Sleuth (terrific whodunit), The Poseidon Adventure (stay off cruise ships!), Man of LaMancha (a disappointment, even for me, but especially for Mom and Dad who loved the musical on Broadway), Return of the Dragon (a huge deal…Bruce Lee’s biggest film to date).
In the US, the 1972 presidential race was gearing up by May when Democratic candidate George Wallace was shot in Laurel, MD. I was no fan of Wallace’s but it seemed like an ugly echo of the assassinations of King and Kennedy in 1968. The world seem to spin further out of control a few days later when Laszlo Toth attacked Michelangelo’s Pieta in St. Paul’s Cathedral in Rome, a senseless act of violence against a priceless piece of art. I didn’t have a personal feeling toward the Pieta, per se, but it seemed like a physical assault on Michelangelo himself, another kind of assassination.
In June of 1972, Hong Kong experienced torrential rainstorms (25 inches in three days) and several large apartment buildings collapsed down a steep hillside, killing more than 150 people. These were quite near the leave flat where we stayed the previous year. Pictures from the scene were horrific and people described the collapse like watching ships sinking in harbor, with lights (and lives) sputtering out. It was a reminder that these improbably tall apartment buildings were not really meant to be built on such steep slopes, but that hasn’t stopped things in Hong Kong. They just build them a little more carefully now.
Also in June, though hardly anyone particularly noticed at the time, a group of burglars were caught in the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC.
We headed back to the States for our first summer vacation from Hong Kong, using the opportunity to go all the way around the world for the first time. I think we stopped in Europe for maybe two weeks on the way, and then Hawaii for a bit in August heading back. I’m having a hard time deciding which time we visited which place; I remember more places than I have concrete evidence. We flew on Pan Am (still a 747 but not first class anymore, and not as nice as JAL) and stopped at the airports in Bangkok and New Delhi to refuel (my only time in India, so far). I think on this trip we hit Rome, Naples/Capri (I remember the Blue Grotto), then drove up through Florence, Genoa, the Val D’Osta (in honor of Valdosta), Geneva, Dijon (I remember a really nice lunch at an everyday cafe in town that we picked at random) and Paris.
I know we spent about a week in July in the Florida Keys at the Buccaneer Lodge in Marathon. Sue, Laurie, Len and Richard were there along with the Fitzgeralds. We did a lot of fishing and on those early mornings we would go get breakfast and box lunch sandwiches from Ted ‘n Mary’s cafe in Marathon, the place where Ted always answered every phone call with “It’s another beautiful day in the fabulous Florida keys!” no matter what the weather was like. The cafe was only open for breakfast and lunch so Ted and Mary could go fishing in the afternoon. They evidently sold the place later in the 1970s and it became the Wooden Spoon which is still in business, still only for breakfast and lunch.
Sue, me, Richard Molinari, Len, Laurie, Colleen Fitzgerald at the Buccaneer Lodge in Marathon, FL 
Ted ‘n Mary’s menu. The box lunches were really good.
This reminds me of Tom Fitzgerald’s favorite expression, “You couldn’t hardly ask for a better [fill in the blank]”. Most often it would be “weed line” or “piece of trash”, both of which we were constantly on the lookout for in the water since they would have bait fish and often dolphin under them. It became a common phrase in our family but I’m not sure how many remember the source.
In August, I believe we stopped in Kaanapali, Maui on the way back. I think we stayed at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel, not far from the Sheraton that sat on the Black Rock Beach. We played golf at the Kaanapali Royal Golf Course. I remember it being very windy and most of the fairways sloped sideways on the volcanic hillside. We drove to the summit of Haleakela volcano, which we had flown through the year before on the way to Mauna Kea on the Big Island. We also wandered around the whaling town of Lahaina. Maui seemed smaller and more touristy than the Big Island, even then.
In July, the World Chess Championship got underway in Reykjavik featuring American Bobby Fischer against Russian Boris Spassky and lasted for several months. Hardly anyone in America paid attention to chess until Bobby Fischer, one of the strangest characters ever, came along. Russians had dominated chess for years but Fischer blew through the rankings and seemed to have a real chance, plus there was the whole Cold War angle. Coverage of the tournament was as intense as possible for a chess tournament that went on and on. Eventually, Fischer won and then proceeded to get even weirder.
At more or less the same time in the summer of 1972, as the Vietnam Peace Talks were sputtering along in Paris and US troops were slowly being withdrawn, the infamous “Napalm Girl” photo was taken and Jane Fonda visited Hanoi. It was hard to tell what was really going on in Vietnam, but it clearly wasn’t good.
In August and September we were back in Hong Kong and riveted by coverage of the Munich Olympics. This was a big deal not only for the spectacle of the first Olympics in Germany since Berlin in 1936, but even more for the tragedy of the hostage crisis and deaths of the Israeli team and their Palestinian captors. This got extra coverage in Hong Kong because some HK Olympic team members (there weren’t many) were housed in the same complex with the Israelis and were some of the last ones to get out.
In November, Nixon won reelection in a landslide. McGovern never stood a chance which made the whole Watergate bugging operation all the more ironic (and moronic). Now that I think about it, politics was another topic (among many) that Mom and Dad never spoke about. I’m sure they voted for Nixon and generally didn’t think much of the Democrats, but I have no real idea how enthusiastic they were about any of it.
In December, the final Apollo mission (17) successfully landed on the moon and returned. Coverage was muted; I can’t remember where we were but there was no saturation coverage anymore. People had moved on, including me, I suppose. I never would have guessed, however, that no humans would return for more than 50 years.
The year ended with a sad exclamation point as Roberto Clemente, one of baseball’s most talented and classiest players, died in a plane crash delivering aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims on December 31.
1973
On January 1, the United Kingdom entered the EEC or Common Market, which would become the European Union. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I can’t recall if it had a direct economic impact in Hong Kong, but it was extensively covered as an event for the English expats.
Elvis did a live concert from Hawaii that was telecast worldwide in January. I remember seeing bits and pieces of it, but I don’t think the time zones were in our favor. In any case, Elvis was an old, sweaty joke at that point and it was not must-see-TV for me.
On the same day, the Miami Dolphins completed their perfect undefeated season with a Super Bowl win. The Dolphins had been my favorite football team and I tried to follow them as best as I could through their undefeated season from Hong Kong. There was no TV or newspaper coverage of the games, but we could go to the American Club and see a weekly highlights reel from NFL Films. That was a lifesaver and a good excuse to go to the club and get dinner later. I think the Super Bowl itself may have been on TV at like 5am on Monday for us, so I may have seen a little of it before heading to school, or maybe it was replayed later. I remember being happy for the Dolphins but that was about as far as my affections for them went. Once I got to Georgetown and friendly with the Fishers, my allegiance went to the Redskins.
Late in January, Nixon announced the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War. It certainly seemed better than continuing the war, but it also didn’t really seem like the end of the whole mess, even to me. It was more a matter of finding a way to declare victory and get our troops home.
The Rolling Stones were scheduled to play a Hong Kong concert in February, but when Japan decided not to let play there due to drug offenses, the Hong Kong date was scratched, much to my dismay. That would have been my first real rock and roll concert.
As a very distant consolation, on March 8, I went by myself (not counting that Ah Lam drove me) to a concert by The Sweet at the Hong Kong City Hall. They were a bubblegum/glitter band from the UK and were mostly very loud and awful, but it was one of the only rock shows to come through Hong Kong and I was 14, so give me a break. They were touring on a well-forgotten hit called “Little Willy” that I found mostly embarrassing but also pretty catchy. But it wasn’t the Rolling Stones.
In April, I paid attention to the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time, probably because Cliff Richard represented the U.K. with “Power to All Our Friends” and Hong Kong went crazy for it. Until then, I had never heard of the Eurovision contest. Most of the contestants and songs were embarrassingly cheesy and awful, but it made for a fun spectacle on TV. I don’t know why it never become popular in the States.
Through the winter and into the spring, the Watergate investigation bubbled along as an obscure background activity from our Hong Kong perspective. News items kept popping up but we had no good way to assimilate them. By May, televised hearings started in the Senate which we did not see and could hardly keep track of or understand. In June, John Dean started testifying and things started to get serious, then in July the fact that Nixon recorded all White House conversations came out, starting a different battle over getting access to the tapes. Over the summer we were in the States and I watched some of the hearings because they were one of the only things on television (the networks rotated coverage each day), but that hardly made them any easier to understand. It seemed obvious that Nixon and his cronies were crooks and guilty of something, but not at all obvious whether that meant they would actually be held to account.
For the summer of 1973, I know we spent some time in Milwaukee visiting the Barnetts. On July 20, I dragged Bill Barnett and one of his sisters (I’m not sure if it was Susan or Leecy) to a concert at the Milwaukee Arena. Steve Goodman opened…one guy on a 12-string and I enjoyed him the most. T-Rex was next but none of us could handle their volume and I remember walking the concourse during their set. The headliners, Three Dog Night, were a big deal at that point and did a professional, Las Vegas-y show, like they were on TV. This was my first official rock show in the U.S. and felt way more authentic than The Sweet did. I think the show was part of Milwaukee’s Summerfest and we wandered the waterfront area and had brats before the show.
I think maybe this was the year that we went to Glacier National Park with Laurie (hopefully she can help confirm). We stayed for a number of days in the park at the Lake McDonald Lodge (I believe), and we drove the Going-To-The-Sun Road. One day, Laurie and I took a half-day guided horse ride from the Lodge into the mountains. I’m pretty sure it was my first time on a horse, though Laurie was an old pro. By the time we got back, snow and sleet had set in, even though it was August. The guides put ponchos on us but Mom always remembered us staggering back into the stables with icicles hanging from our noses.
In August, Bruce Lee’s biggest and best film, Enter the Dragon, premiered. I don’t think we were actually in Hong Kong for the premiere it was a very big deal. I quickly went to see it, several times. A big part of the movie was shot on a grass tennis court at the home of M.W. Lo near Stanley. We played on that court a number of times at Mr. Lo’s invitation. He was a wiry and friendly old man, from a very prestigious family, still playing tennis pretty well into his 80’s.
Other films I remember from 1973 include Paper Moon (Tatum O’Neal’s debut and a one of my first encounters with the term grifter), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (with Bob Dylan music, and Bob), Live and Let Die (Bond in the Caribbean, voodoo!), American Graffitti (which I didn’t see until later on TV, but was very good), Jesus Christ Superstar (pretty impressive, even if I only sort of knew the story), Westworld (Yul Brynner as a robot!), The Paper Chase (John Houseman was excellent as a law professor) and Sleeper (Woody Allen’s genius sci-fi comedy and funniest film). At the very end of the year, two big films were released so we probably didn’t see them until 1974: The Sting (a big favorite in our family, something Dad and I could agree on including the Scott Joplin music) and The Exorcist (I can’t remember if I read the book or saw the movie first, but I thought the book was better even though the movie caused quite a stir).
In the world of music, 1973 albums that made it into my listening and playing-along-with rotation included: Derek and the Dominoes in Concert, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (Rick Wakeman), Alone Together (Ron Carter and Jim Hall), Billion Dollar Babies (Alice Cooper), The Best of Mountain, Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory (Traffic), The Captain and Me (Doobie Brothers), A Wizard, A True Star (Todd Rundgren), Daltry (Roger Daltry), The Blue Ridge Rangers (John Fogerty), Eat It (Humble Pie), There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (Paul Simon), Yessongs (Yes), Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield), Living in the Material World (George Harrison), The Pointer Sisters, The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (Joe Walsh), Innervisions (Stevie Wonder), Brothers and Sisters (Allman Brothers), Maria Muldaur, Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John), Quadrophenia (The Who), Headhunters (Herbie Hancock), At the Rainbow (Focus), Laid Back (Greg Allman), On the Road (Traffic), Ringo (Ringo Starr), John Denver’s Greatest Hits, Light as a Feather (Return to Forever), Solo Concerts (Keith Jarrett), Rock On (David Essex).
I made more than a few questionable musical choices, including many I haven’t listed, but I was buying a lot more and experimenting in different directions. I spent a great deal of time holed up in my room listening to albums and playing along. I’m sure I had all three of my guitars by this time: an Ibanez bass, Fender Telecaster and Epiphone 12-string. While I hoovered up quite a lot, I missed out until years later on 1973 classics like Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle (Bruce Springsteen), Dixie Chicken (Little Feat), and Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd),
In September, Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in “The Battle of the Sexes“, a goofy made-for-TV tennis match at the Houston Astrodome. I don’t think we saw the match directly but we definitely got caught up in the hype which was everywhere.
In October, Israel fought the Yom Kippur War mainly with Egypt and Syria. This war was longer and seemed more serious than the Six-Day War in 1967. As in 1967, Israel nominally “won” the war but Arab-Israeli tensions remained intractable and unresolved. The war led to the 1973 oil crisis which was the first major use of oil as a weapon by OPEC. The oil crisis saw a major spike in worldwide gas prices which led to rationing and fear of over-dependence on Middle Eastern crude. The oil price shocks compounded a stock market crash already underway around the world which in turn became a multi-year global recession. The accumulated events deeply rattled Western confidence in their (our) own superiority.
Also in October, Spiro Agnew resigned as Nixon’s vice president because of tax evasion problems…not Watergate. Ten days later, Nixon tried to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, which led to several Justice Department resignations in the Saturday Night Massacre. Ten days after that, the House began a formal impeachment inquiry. All of this was still mighty confusing to me (and many) and would still drag on for many more months.
By the end of the year, Gerald Ford was nominated and confirmed as Vice President. Despite all the Watergate activity, it didn’t seem like a real possibility that he would be anything but a placeholder.
1974
Despite all the economic and political turmoil, the world kept spinning and my own little part of the world was doing just fine, thank you. I’m guessing events must have weighed on Dad, particularly since his business of generating electricity depended heavily on shipments of Exxon’s oil, and his compensation depended on Exxon’s stock price. But it’s just a guess; I don’t recall any overt signs of trouble.
From a distance, I was aware that in April, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs. The Babe’s record was one that seemed unreachable in my youth, but Hank Aaron was a formidable hitter for a long time and seemed very deserving of breaking the record.
Also in April, we settled in one evening to watch the Eurovision Song Contest and were shocked to hear a song that we actually liked: Waterloo, by a new Swedish band, ABBA. It was the winning song and the only one I can think of that went on to become a global hit, as well as launching a stellar career for the band. It was one of the few occasions I can remember hearing a song once and thinking it was going to be a big hit…and it actually was.
I think this was the summer we headed home through Europe, stopping in Athens, then London before spending a few days in Scotland. We did tourist basics in Athens and London though I don’t recall many specifics and they blend in with later trips. One way or another we made our way to Edinburgh where we rented a car and Dad drove us around Scotland. We played golf one day at St. Andrews, and stayed at least one night at a castle in Pitlochry where we saw some Highland games. I recall first encountering steak Diane at a hotel restaurant in Aberdeen and loving it. We drove down the shores of Loch Ness (no monster). I don’t remember seeing Glasgow, so maybe we circled back to Edinburgh. We had a fine time in Scotland and I wanted to go back.
Later in the summer, we headed back to Miami for a while to see the girls, though I’m not exactly sure who was living where at that point. There was a big rock concert in Miami at the Orange Bowl on July 7 and one way or another I persuaded David Schmitt to take me. The show included Leon Russell, The Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Eagles, Sons of Champlin, and Isis. It was a 10-hour event in the middle of summer. We missed the first two acts, which upset David because he was interested in the Sons of Champlin. I remember the Eagles being good and Lynyrd Skynyrd being better (Free Bird!). The Band were impressive though I didn’t know their stuff very well at that point. I remember Rick Danko playing a fretless bass, the first I’d ever seen. Leon Russell, however, was not good; we left early in his set but by then it had been a long, good day.
I’m in that crowd, somewhere…in the back.
Dad had business meetings in Houston so we spent about a week there in late July. Our stay happened to coincide with another big concert, this time at the University of Houston’s Jeppesen Stadium on July 28. The Band, Beach Boys, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were headliners. I begged to go to this all-day concert and somehow Mom and Dad agreed. They dropped me off at the stadium and I wandered the grounds for the day. I don’t remember a whole lot about it other than the Beach Boys were terrible and CSNY were pretty good except for when Neil Young played guitar solos. And it was hot as hell all day. Found a site with photos — you never know what’s on the Internet! I think I might have gotten a contact high from the weed in the air. By the time the show was over, I had no idea how to get to our hotel or how exactly to call Mom and Dad to come get me. I ended up being rescued by some people at a 7-11 who either drove me back to the hotel or helped me figure out how to make a phone call (I’m not sure which). Either way, I’m lucky to be alive. Ah, the days of naive, dumb youth.
I’m pretty sure we returned to Hong Kong through Hawaii, stopping at Princeville on Kauai. We did a helicopter tour of Kauai and enjoyed the views of Hanalei Bay from our resort. The Prince golf course was one of the toughest and most beautiful I ever played. Kauai was lovely but the Big Island was still my favorite.
In August, Richard Nixon abruptly resigned after fighting Watergate allegations for more than a year. It seemed an appropriately ignominious end to the saga, made complete a month later when new president, Gerald Ford, pardoned Nixon from prosecution.
Films that got on my radar in 1974 included: Blazing Saddles (great subversive fun), The Great Gatsby (overblown), Chinatown (chillingly good), Young Frankenstein (even more subversive fun from Mel Brooks), The Godfather, Part II (still didn’t see what the fuss was about), and The Man with the Golden Gun (Bond in Hong Kong!).
Albums from 1974 that made a difference with me: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (Doobie Brothers), Pretzel Logic (Steely Dan), Apostrophe (Frank Zappa), On the Border (Eagles), Mysterious Traveller (Weather Report), Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’, Body Heat (Quincy Jones), Fulfillingness’ First Finale (Stevie Wonder), 461 Ocean Boulevard (Eric Clapton), Welcome Back, My Friends, To the Show that Never Ends (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), Good Old Boys (Randy Newman), Crime of the Century (Supertramp), Walls and Bridges (John Lennon), Autobahn (Kraftwerk), Heart Like a Wheel (Linda Ronstadt), Miles of Aisles (Joni Mitchell).
It seems now that 1974 was kind of a thin year for music and film, compared to the previous few. Disco was starting to emerge from the underground world of clubs onto Top 40 radio which even made it to Hong Kong. Songs like “Love’s Theme” (Barry White), “TSOP” (MFSB), “Rock the Boat” (Hues Corporation) and “Kung Fu Fighting” (Carl Douglas) played increasingly on the radio, to my chagrin. Dance music held very little appeal to me.
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