In 1970, on this very day in history, somehow Atlanta got a centerfold in Billboard for having a happening music scene.
Most of the stories in this section of the weekly magazine are of the boosterish quality that exemplifiy anything that the city’s movers and shakers could twist enough arms to get written about them in the national press, when they weren’t already writing it themselves in the local media.
Feel free to page through the full issue here, because we aren’t going to do anything in this post but point out adorable/hilarious 70s graphic design and music, and we definitely aren’t going to say the O-word or point out other obvious things that have happened to music here since 1970.
First of all, according to the assortment of articles and ads, the two biggest and perhaps ONLY things to be going on in Atlanta music at the time of this spotlight were Joe South and Bill Lowery. (Seriously, though, we know nothing about this era of local music; do not actually believe any of the assumptions we drew.)
This was a simpler time, when you could be a white guy with bad hair named Maurice, Gy, Bunky, or Cotton and be featured in a national magazine as “the Atlanta ‘brain trust’” of music industry pioneers.
Fire up your inkjet printers and get out your Scotch tape, because ads were so clever then that they’d give you a little craft to make and put on your desk at work and remind you to listen to Joe South’s Greatest Hits Volume I. Go ahead, cut it out!
People think Hotlanta started as some sort of wretched ’90s phenomenon, but it clearly traces back to 1970 or earlier! One day it will be included in the Oxford English Dictionary and we’ll know its full etymology. Until then…
…I dare you to call Mike Clark collect, immediately!
Before Lenox Mall was an indoor mall, people actually had to hire record executives to hold their umbrellas and shopping bags – until things really took off and LaFace and So So Def jointly lobbied the commercial development community to put a roof over Lenox. THIS HAPPENED.
Sooooooo smooth, Tommy Roe!
And check out Tommy Roe’s wife, Mrs. Tommy Roe – or shall we say Friar Tommy Roe?
If all this isn’t enough, just dig into Bill Lowery’s portfolio of HITS.
Previously: Old news
Tags: bill lowery, billboard, summer jams
They weren’t the “only” things. http://bit.ly/rtyhd1