Bradley Ruzicka

This second post in my songs of the 1970’s series represents the best and the worst of memories!

The song is from one of the most iconic albums of the 70’s, Frampton Comes Alive!, released January 1976. Those of you who are fans of, or even familiar with, ’70’s music should remember Frampton Comes Alive! as charting three of 1976’s most memorable songs; Baby I Love Your Way, Do You Feel Like We Do, and, the song highlighted in this post, Show Me The Way. Peter Frampton, primarily know as a guitar player, broke through with this live double album, as it became 1976’s best selling record with over 6 million copies purchased in the US and 11 million worldwide. It reached number one on the US Billboard charts April 10, 1976.

About that same time, I was elected to the Iowa-Grant High School Junior Prom Court. I know that doesn’t sound like much today but, back then, it was a big deal! The four male prom court representatives were elected by the entire junior class. They subsequently picked four female representatives from the junior class that together comprised the prom court for that year.

Now, my experience since grade school was that each class had its core of acknowledged “popular” students. These were kids that, over the years, tended to be consistently elected to whatever student posts were available including student council, class officers, and, in this particular case, prom court. I will state for the record that, throughout my combined 12 years of grade school and high school, I was not considered one of the popular students. Up until that time, I had never been elected to anything. The fact I was elected to prom court over many of those same popular students is one of life’s enduring mysteries!

All I knew for sure was that, out of nowhere, girls in and out of my class who hadn’t spoken to me for years were competing for my attention. I was also afforded special perks such as being excused from class for an afternoon to get my tux. I remember driving to the fitting along the back roads of rural southwestern Wisconsin together with my fellow court members on a sunny, spring, weekday afternoon and hearing Show Me The Way on the old single speaker car radio. For the first time, I understood what it was like to be one of the popular kids!

I started seeing a sophomore girl about a month before prom and she agreed to be my prom date. However, I still needed to pick a junior girl for prom court. And there was only one girl I had in mind. I’d been attracted to her for as long as I could remember but was always too shy to talk to her much less ask her out! And as she had had a steady boyfriend since we were freshman, I was sure I’d missed my opportunity. Now, suddenly, I had one more chance and decided to go for it!

Long story short (if it’s not already too late!), she agreed to be my prom court date and go to prom with me as a friend. That one girl in my class I had always wanted to date was going to be on prom court with me AND I had a date for prom with my sophomore girlfriend!

I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. It was indeed the high point of my teenage years!

And then, just like that, it all fell apart.

Less than a week before prom, my sophomore girlfriend told me she wanted to go only as a “friend”. Talk about the kiss of death! But it was too late for a change. All the arrangements had been made. The biggest night of my young life and I was going to prom with two girls who wanted to be friends and neither wanted to be my date! By the time that night ended, I was once again alone as each of my “friends” had gone their separate ways. As quickly as it came, my one shining moment was over!

To this day, I remember the disappointment I felt at the end of that night. What should have been my best high school memory became my worst. And yet, when I think back on it after almost 40 years, I have to acknowledge I was lucky to have had the opportunity in the first place. All in all, it was a time I’ll never forget!

And, for better or worse, this song will always remind me of that time.

Enjoy the video! It’s from one of my favorite TV shows of the ’70s; The Midnight Special. It ran as a regular series between 1973 and 1981 featuring the biggest stars of the ’70s and early ’80s in concert. Whenever possible, I would sit on the old couch in front of our 14″ color TV at 12:00am Friday nights watching this show with the lights off and the sound low so as not to wake mom and dad. Seeing all those acts on TV was as close as I would ever come to seeing them in concert. Not a lot of big names, or small names for that matter, toured rural Wisconsin!

As always, your feedback is appreciated!

https://youtu.be/zLgeTtYwQ7o