1979

11 Things: 1979

Thursday, March 22, 2007

1. Smashing Pumpkins' "1979": "Double cross the vacant and the bored/ They're not sure just what we have in the store ..." www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRuG1_FNSb8

2. mewithoutYou's "January 1979": "My life is a cup of sugar/ I borrowed before time began/ and forgot to return" www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcQ4TnyCyE0

3. Born in 1979: Zhang Ziyi, Irina Slutskaya, Coco Crisp, Flick Shagwell, Tracy McGrady, LaDainian Tomlinson and Norah Jones.

4. "Apocalypse Now" (1979): Steve McQueen turned down the role of Captain Willard. Al Pacino was considered. Harvey Keitel was cast. Two weeks into shooting, Francis Ford Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen. The rest is history.

5. "The Warriors" (1979): Cyrus: "Can you dig it?" Yes Cyrus, we can. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bZB3Hano5E

6. Punk: The Clash release "London Calling," Joy Division releases "Unknown Pleasures," Buzzcocks release "A Different Kind of Tension" and "Singles Going Steady," the Talking Heads release "Fear of Music" and the Damned release "Machine Gun Etiquette."

7. Sid Vicious: Releases clenched fist and dies from drug overdose ... tragically paving way for Courtney Love to play Gretchen in "Sid and Nancy."

8. ESPN debuts: With an exciting slow-pitch softball game on Sept. 7, 1979.

9. Rock: AC/DC releases "Highway to Hell," Van Halen releases "Van Halen II," the Cars release "Candy-O," Pink Floyd releases "The Wall" and Supertramp releases "Breakfast in America."

10. Patty Hearst: Then-President Carter commutes her sentence on Feb. 1, 1979. She later moves to Connecticut and begins appearing in a variety of John Waters films. President Clinton grants a full pardon on his final day in office.

11. DFA1979: Originally "Death From Above," DFA had to change its name after receiving complaints from Death From Above Records. Sebastian Grainger chooses his birth year because it was the final year of the last cool decade we've seen. We don't disagree.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/22/NSGOSOLARK1.DTL