onceuponatime70s

roller skating and music. (A guest post by max gower of the ‘powerpop’ blog.)

PowerPop blog – an Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture.

Max Gower is from Nashville, Tennessee and is the man behind the successful PowerPop blog – an Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture -including roller skating as we’ll see from post that follows.

The blog is extensive with hundreds of articles covering music; tv shows; cartoons; books; movies, and being USA based, baseball.

Max explains a little of his background and what led him into creating the blog:

My name is Max, and I was raised in middle Tennessee just outside of Nashville and I still live there. When I was 8 years old in 1975, I bought my first Beatles album and became a huge fan. I read everything I could get my hands on about them and British culture.

The Seventies in general were special…besides being a kid I loved the styles and attitude. That period was about individualism for me. I loved the earth colors and even the avocado green refrigerators and appliances. Nowadays houses, cars, and clothes all look alike…but not then.

I also have a huge love for baseball (love the LA Dodgers), silent movies, and playing music. I’ve played in rock bands since I was 16 and I still get together with the guys to play in the garage. I spent the 80s and 90s playing in bars, clubs, and parties.

I went to college to become a graphic artist and I got a job as one. I then found out that troubleshooting computer network problems was more what I liked to do. I’m now Director of IT in a corporate office of a restaurant chain.

I started a blog in 2017 to find more people that liked 70’s culture, movies, and tv shows, along with The Beatles, Badfinger, and unknown power pop bands like Big Star. I’m not a real writer, my posts are personal memories/views mixed with facts.

The PowerPop blog provides an excellent read for anyone interested in pop culture in general, especially so The Seventies. and is well worth checking out.

Once Upon a Time in The ’70s are delighted to reproduce below an article from the PowerPop blog of June 11th 2018, which we’re sure will resonate with many.

ROLLER SKATING AND MUSIC.

In the mid-seventies, my big sister would take me to the skating rink. I would go in as a little kid and trade my shoes for skates. I never understood why my sister went there and hardly ever skated. She would be in the corner with her girlfriends talking to guys while I was out there falling down. There was not a lot to do in a small town so this was a lot of fun.

I remember being exposed to a lot of music while skating. Someone would say over the intercom “All Skate” and they would blast a song at ear-splitting volume. Songs like “Juniors Farm”, “Sally G”, “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love”, “Rocky Mountain Way” and Free’s “All Right Now” would play while I learned how to skate decent soaking up the atmosphere.

They would play the 4 corners. You would skate until the music stopped. You would then go to a corner and they would call a corner number and those people in that corner were eliminated. This would go on till there was only one person left.  I won one time. The song that was playing and then stopped as I went to my corner on that night was Frankenstein. What I won was a single by Wings called ‘Silly Love Songs.’ It was the first thing I ever won…I earned that single and still have it today and also bugged my Mom till she bought me the Wings at the Speed of Sound album…not Paul’s best to say the least but it brings back too many good memories to be that bad.

In the Seventies skating and going to rinks was huge. It was a place to gather and have fun with your friends. No texting or emails or blogs…Some were great at skating backward, doing tricks, and sabotaging other skaters…I was just a simple skater…As time went by I would find my own way down to the rink…as I got older I was the one that hung with friends and wanted to talk to girls instead of skating. I kept going to the rink until I was around 15 and then all of my friends and me just stopped at once. We had moved on to other things by then.

I did go again after my son was born in 2000…we had fun but the music sucked…no loud guitar music at all…just programmed electronic dance music… I guess you really can’t go back home.

I’ll never forget my friends and the music in that period of my life…That is why music is so important…it can transport you back through time and you are at that place again.

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Thanks for allowing us to reproduce this, Max. This is just for you!

The Edgar Winter Group – ‘Frankenstein‘ live in session for the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973. (The best music video to feature on Once Upon a Time in The ’70s in my humble, if slightly biased opinion.)

32 comments

    • John, did you know the guitarist in Edgar’s band, Rick Derringer, also played lead on Steely Dan’s Show Biz Kids and the the bass player was disco Dan (instant replay/relight my fire) Hartman…

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  2. Great memories Max. Roller Disco wasn’t really a thing in the UK unfortunately, it looked like a cool Cali activity as opposed to something you could do on a damp Glasgow housing estate.
    My ‘roller’ memories are twofold firstly when it was referenced by Steely Dan in Hey 19 “Skate a little lower now” and then the George Benson promo for Give Me The Night when he’s roller skating in the video. https://youtu.be/FIF7wKJb2iU

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    • Hey Nineteen I remember well along with the Benson song. It was such a small town I grew up in that it was the only thing to really do for kids and teenagers…other than finding trouble! I could do that rather well also. Thank you so much for reading.

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      • We had a skating rink, too. It was originally named Interskate 4 and then changed to Roll About. I sucked at roller skating. I would always travel to Greensboro to go ice skating. I did much better with blades than wheels. I wish inline skates existed back then. The wide wheels made it hard for me.

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      • I never went ice skating…I could see me rolling an ankle… I was ok on skates…couldn’t skate backwards or anything…but it was cool hanging out with the teenagers.

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  5. Love this! I remember going skating every Saturday with my family when I was eight years old. It was 1979, and the songs I remember skating to most is “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart and “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer! The 70s were an awesome decade to be a kid! Thank you for posting!

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  6. Max it is good to have doubts about your writing ability, as that will motivate you to keep learning, so you can continue growing. You may say that you are not a writer, but yet you write every day and I enjoy all of your posts.

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  7. Great stuff, as always Max! Thanks for telling me about “Once Upon a Time…” looks like lots of good reading! I have followed and plan to catch up.

    I think I went to a skating rink two or three times. The first time was when a buddy’s church has a skating retreat. I fell down more times than I could count and that was that. I regret not learning how to skate (roller and ice). Back in the day, the rink was a place lots of “kids” heard new music before it played on radio…

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  8. Fun reading. I have many happy memories of rollerskating. We had one nearer my part of town caller Rollerena that we went to as kids, but at some point they built another one north of town so the two rinks competed.

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  9. Great post, Max. You’re a man of many talents!

    Of course, I knew you’re a musician and a great music blogger, but I had no idea you’re a roller skater as well!

    My roller skating attempts as a child didn’t get very far. Luckily, they didn’t land me in the hospital! 🙂

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  10. That brought back memories! When I was in jr high (mid 70s Kansas), we went to the skating rink on a regular basis. I remember the music, the limbo game, and some really excellent skaters; although i wasn’t one of them. For the last song of the night, they always played ‘Without You’ by Nilsson. About 10-15 years ago, I went skating few times with Big Brothers Big Sisters. I’d do it still, if I had friends willing to go with me. It’s supposed to be great for fitness.

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