Blue Collar Job
Bud is facing the blues of not finding a job and yet Jeff now has two jobs that essentially requires him to work from home… way before it was popular. The tension is starting to build as Bud is about to call Jeff something rude in the 5th panel. 🙂
The last frame is foreshadowing the arrival of the ladies of Plan 9! Soon we’ll have Robyn and Lorraine joining the cast here.
“Pieces of Eight” by Styx is actually a very good album and is driven by Tommy Shaw who scored two hit singles off the album and today’s song fits the comic nicely! A really good friend of mine worked at A&M Records back in the day and she had a nicely preserved picture disc of this album that she gave to me. Picture discs are notorious for terrible sound quality, but this one is not too bad. But a fun piece of Styx memorabilia to have all the same.
NOTE:
I’m going to take next week off as my 9 year old dog Bailey went into the vet today as she was really ill. Turned out to be pancreatitis which could be serious for a dog of her age. She is still at the vet’s as of this note and I won’t know anymore until Friday afternoon. So, I’m going to be distracted with nursing Bailey back to health for the next few days I’m sure. I’ll post an update in this spot when I know more.
UPDATE:
Bailey is home, safe and sound. She’s not completely out of the woods yet, but the prognosis is good for a full recovery. I will still be taking next week off just in case she has a remission.
Bailey guarding the backyard after her arrival home today.
He’ll have to arrange for the house to be painted before the ladies move in…mostly because I needed a tie-in for this one 🙂
A Can-Con Classic of the time, it was released in late ’73 hit #34 on Billboard in the US in Jan ’74 so they may have heard it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMV3YHtgEbY
Well… nope, I have never heard that song before this. If my fading memory is accurate, I was a junior in high school in January of 1974 and on track to graduate in 3 years instead of 4. (Long story, but my Dad was a guidance counselor at my high school and for some odd reason wanted me in college a year early). Anyway, my point is I was listening to the Top 40 countdown most weeks back then, so I may have heard this song but it obviously did not stick with me.
But, you have given me an idea for a comic about Bud and Jeff painting the McKenna house. Perhaps some sweet revenge for Bud is coming. 🙂
He had a string of hits up here but ‘painted ladies’ was his biggest US one.
My favourite was ‘Pilot’ in ’79 , I find myself singing little bits of it even today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djSRj0t7NYs
In ’74 I was starting 3rd year University but lost interest (and ran out of money) and packed it in to join the military. Why I didn’t enlist under their University Training Plan is a question I can’t answer to this day, I think I was just tired of going to school and didn’t think I’d spend almost half of a 20 year career sitting in a classroom either taking or teaching courses anyway.
Poor pupper, it’s harder when a pet gets sick because they’re both friend and family…that don’t qualify for a dependent on taxers or health insurance 🙁
I did see Styx in concert once, I think it was the Grand Illusion tour in Kingston, Ont. way back when.
They have lots of good tracks and like a lot of bands, the best ones didn’t get the most airplay.
Styx opened for Bachman-Turner Overdrive at the old Chicago Stadium in February of 1976. It was a weekend concert so I made the trek home from college to go see BTO. Styx put on one helluva a concert and I think it made BTO raise their bar that night as they came out guns blaring. After the concert, I got drunk on wine and flaming cheese at the Diana’s restaurant not far from the Stadium. Great night.
Styx opened for BTO a few time and BTO opened for them when they’d just changed their name from Bravebelt in ’73 formed after Randy Bachman left Guess Who, Bravebelt had a couple of good albums and BTO’s first album was often referred to as BraveBelt III 🙂 They had some hits up here, not so much in the US, but BTO certainly did a little border jumping chart topping.
This one of my favourite Bravebelt tunes, not their biggest hit, I just like it.
You made me think of it and the chorus is going to be stuck in my head for days if not weeks, so I’ll return the favour 😛
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFmk4SegWE0
A lot of Canadian bands toured with Styx, opening for each other in various places, Rush, BTO, Chilliwack, Max Webster and a lot more, I’ll probabky be putting a few from each of those up for my contribution to Classic Rock CanCon 😉
I have one or two 8 tracks of Styx…and yes I still have a player for the 8 tracks. Also great when Shaw joined Ted Nugent too for Damn Yankees. Hope Bailey gets better, grab yourself a cup of coffee and be with Bailey, that’s the right thing to do, I sometimes have a little bailey with my coffee.
My ’69 Chevy Caprice had an 8-track in it, but I never used it. I rewired the stereo so I could switch to an under-dash cassette player I installed. Ah, the good old days when I was young and could lay on the floorboard of a car and install stereo gear. Good times! 🙂
Don’t forget to keep a strip of cardboard torn from a cigarette pack handy to wedge under the cartridge and keep it from dragging.
That same trick worked on ‘carts’ at the station and wowed the younger staff, they were similar in size and shape to an 8-track 😉
I remember lying on my back up to my armpits under the dashboard wiring a CB into my ’71 Vega.
A town cop was cruising the apartment complex parking lots and stopped to tell me that with the beer sitting on the ground beside the car he could charge me for having ‘control of a vehicle while intoxicated’ and it didn’t even have to be running. I responded “go ahead and start it up, the transmission is on the lawn over there under that tarp, the only thing that works right now is the battery so right now the only thing I’m in control of is a wheelbarrow and that’s my first beer”. He left in a huff without even writing me the warning he’d said he was going to 🙂
Yeah Bailey health is improving cute dog give the dog lots of love.
I have to say I am very curious about how you will do the ladies this time around in this retelling of the series. Also couldn’t Bud work in a restaurant or something ?
Bud could always take advice from the Village People join the navy with luck dance on the USS Guam with Bob Hope and the Village People.Barring that he go to the YMCA and be an extra in the bomb of a movie You Can’t Stop The Music with Bruce Jenner before the sex change. But then Jeff would have to find a new band mate.