3 Chords & the Truth: Rock, roll and remember

What is the Big Show about this week?

This week, we rock, roll and remember. That should give you a great big clue right there -- at least if you are of a certain age.

That's what 3 Chords & the Truth is about this week.

Thing is, I've already said about everything I have to say about it while this week's program was still a twinkle in your Mighty Favog's eye. So, with your indulgence, I'll just quote myself from a Thursday blog post:

I am old enough to remember when there was only one "day the music died."

This, by God, has been the week the music died.

First, we learned Levon Helm -- of The Band, Levon Helm and the RCO All-Stars and his later years of "Midnight Rambles" -- was near death. Then Dick Clark died suddenly Wednesday at 82.

And now, just a day later, Helm has died, too.

The music dies more and more often these days, at least if you're someone my age. But like the savior of the world from a garden tomb, it always rises again, so long as we have our records and our CDs and a decent radio station here and there.

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Rockin' through the decades with Dick

These are the times of our lives. Lurking around many of them was an ageless man named Dick Clark and a TV touchstone called American Bandstand.

Here's the way we were in 1964.

And in 1967.



1968.



1976.




1977.



1978.



1983.



1987 . . . the last network show.

The day the music died. Again.

Dick Clark is dead, according to the TMZ website.

The cause apparently was a massive heart attack after undergoing an "outpatient procedure" at a Los Angeles hospital. The man who once seemed ageless before a stroke in 2004, was 82.

Thus, an era truly ends as another piece of 'Boomers' lives slips into the mists of time.

Your Daily '80s: A bitter PiL

John Lydon of Public Image, Ltd., possessed many skills in 1980. Lip syncing was not among them.

Come to think of it, remembering the lyrics most of the time wasn't part of his skill set, either.

And Dick Clark thought things would go according to plan when the former Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and his new band, PiL, came for a May 1980 visit . . . why, exactly? Like, dude, this ain't no Fabian or Frankie Avalon you're dealing with here.

WELL, Dick, it doesn't have much of a beat, and you can't do The Hustle to it, so I'll give it a . . . 275 out of 100.

The Man totally had it stuck to him that day.




IN JUNE of 1980, on the other hand, the great Tom Snyder of the Tomorrow show wasn't taking any of that s***.

If Lydon was gonna throw curve balls -- or a googlies, if you want to be cricket about it -- Snyder was gonna grab his bat and take his cuts. And not necessarily at the ball.

I've featured the Tomorrow interview before, but it's well worth another look.

Has anybody here seen my old friend Dion?

Dion and the Belmonts. Dick Clark. American Bandstand. Black-and-white television.

Doesn't get much better than that.