We'll see. The thing that has interested me lately has been interviews with the members of Cheap Trick. They had been told that they had been selling some albums in Japan. So, go over there, play a few shows, have fun. They had no idea what was they were walking into when they landed in Tokyo.
Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Looked them up.
No idea who that band is.
no idea who the members are.
If we get to the late 80s though and all of a sudden we are singing "going to the End of the Line" then I will scream for joy.
Unless the US Team has suffered a major change, historically they have only cared about two colors, green and gold.
I understand your sentiment but the main driver for the bloating of the Games is American television money and that is going to still happen ITTL.
If the Munich Games play out like I think it would and no major incidents happen then it is going to spark an arms race between cities and countries to host the games until there are the financial disaster that Montreal was IOTL which led to Los Angeles being the only bidder for the 1984 Olympics.
ITTL the Olympics won't be the war by other means like it was IOTL Cold War era but still the United States, Germany, and first under Czar Gregory who saw athletics as a way to restore prestige for Russia are going to be the main contenders for top medal position ITTL.
IOTL the 2024 Olympics in Paris is going to have the surfing competition in Tahiti and if surfing is a demonstration sport in ITTL Munich Olympics then it is going to be held at one of the German Pacific Islands.
Part 127, Chapter 2155
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Fifty-Five
18th July 1972
Tempelhof
The last week before the Summer Holiday had finally arrived, though it felt like the remaining three days of the term would drag on forever. Sophie and Ziska were excited that they once again would be going to have adventures in the Spreewald like they had for the last few years. Sophie had something else she was excited about too. Zella, a dear friend of Kat’s, did music reviews for the Berliner Tageblatt and she had given Sophie an album that was coming out next month. She said that she thought that it was something that Sophie would like. Ziska had recognized the name of the band because she had a few forty-fives from a band that one of the members of this new band had been in. She insisted that Sophie could not play it until Ziska was there to listen to it with her.
That was why they were in the library after school as Sophie dropped the needle on the record. Like always, she thought it odd that of all the things that people knew about Kat, the one thing that never got mentioned was the stereo system in the library and the thousands of albums that she had. There were a lot of Jazz, Blues, and Rock & Roll records. Some of them were extremely rare, one-of-a-kind recordings that couldn’t be found anywhere else. She had always encouraged Marie Alexandra and Sophie to listen to them but frequently, Sophie found much of the music foreign to her ears. Some of the records from the Django Reinhardt Orchestra were fun takes on what would otherwise be stuffy, dry material and the early Rock & Roll stuff was easier to dance to than the newer stuff on the radio. However, things like the Blues recordings sounded to Sophie like something from a different planet.
Today, the music that blasted forth from the speakers was typical of the sort of guitar driven music that was popular around the world these days. It was clearly heavily influenced by the music of the Moondogs or the Kinks with the jangly Pop delivery, but the horn section revealed it to be an American recording. The song’s lyrics though, those were something else entirely. The song was about how being in love with someone left the singer feeling as if he was being used and slowly crushed to death. It was an astonishing thing for the artist to say, totally the opposite of what Sophie expected to hear. The next song was about disillusionment. The third song was about being bored on a weekend night and just knocking the neighborhood they lived in. Ziska said that it could have been written about anywhere. The fourth song though… That one was an acoustic interlude that cut close to home for Sophie. It was a song about having a crush and the painful realization that the object of your affection will never love you in return. It was a reminder of some of the foolish things that Sophie had done in the all too recent past. Mercifully, the next song was a rave up.
The rest of the album continued with the themes of alienation and disillusionment. How the very things that were supposed to bring you happiness in life brought pain. This was as the singer longed for those very things. For Sophie, this was totally unlike anything she had ever heard before. By the time side B concluded, Sophie wanted to flip it over and restart it. Ziska looked like she was getting bored though, so Sophie told her to go pick something else to listen to while they talked about what they going to be doing over the upcoming Summer Holiday.
Münsingen Proving Grounds, Württemberg
The arrival of the Pioneers to Münsingen changed everything. Before they had been doing the assigned work while avoiding too much contact with the personnel based at the Proving Grounds and keeping within the proscribed areas. The Pioneers had asked for volunteers to do things that were for lack of a better word, fun. Blasting tree trunks and learning how to drive a bulldozer on the sly had been things that they had done over just the last week. Yes, they had spent a great deal of time digging with shovels, buckets, and wheelbarrows, but the rewards made all of that worth it. Niko was actually disappointed that it was coming to an end when they boarded the train that would take them home in a few days to his complete astonishment.
That almost made up for Bas suddenly becoming a loose cannon over the last couple days. On Sunday, there had been an announcement that the Prussian Institute was changing one of its practices to keep up with the times. The Wahlstatt School was going to coeducational going forward. The code of conduct that spelled out how fraternization was forbidden was still in effect but next year they could expect that those rules would be ruthlessly enforced. Niko didn’t think that was as huge a deal as it was being made out to be. Still, he had heard a few ribald jokes thrown around right up until word reached Bas that one of the incoming students next year would be his youngest sister, Gretchen. That radically changed the complexion on things.
Few were crazy enough to pick a fight with Bas and for the last couple days he had clearly been looking for an excuse to pummel someone. Niko could tell that Bas was so angry about this that he had even stopped complaining about the food. Worse of all, Bas’ parents had informed him that he was going to Silesia with Niko this year because they were going to see his grandmother in Spokane, Washington. After that they had been elsewhere when he had tried to call them. It was clear to Niko that they were ducking Bas’ calls.
18th July 1972
Tempelhof
The last week before the Summer Holiday had finally arrived, though it felt like the remaining three days of the term would drag on forever. Sophie and Ziska were excited that they once again would be going to have adventures in the Spreewald like they had for the last few years. Sophie had something else she was excited about too. Zella, a dear friend of Kat’s, did music reviews for the Berliner Tageblatt and she had given Sophie an album that was coming out next month. She said that she thought that it was something that Sophie would like. Ziska had recognized the name of the band because she had a few forty-fives from a band that one of the members of this new band had been in. She insisted that Sophie could not play it until Ziska was there to listen to it with her.
That was why they were in the library after school as Sophie dropped the needle on the record. Like always, she thought it odd that of all the things that people knew about Kat, the one thing that never got mentioned was the stereo system in the library and the thousands of albums that she had. There were a lot of Jazz, Blues, and Rock & Roll records. Some of them were extremely rare, one-of-a-kind recordings that couldn’t be found anywhere else. She had always encouraged Marie Alexandra and Sophie to listen to them but frequently, Sophie found much of the music foreign to her ears. Some of the records from the Django Reinhardt Orchestra were fun takes on what would otherwise be stuffy, dry material and the early Rock & Roll stuff was easier to dance to than the newer stuff on the radio. However, things like the Blues recordings sounded to Sophie like something from a different planet.
Today, the music that blasted forth from the speakers was typical of the sort of guitar driven music that was popular around the world these days. It was clearly heavily influenced by the music of the Moondogs or the Kinks with the jangly Pop delivery, but the horn section revealed it to be an American recording. The song’s lyrics though, those were something else entirely. The song was about how being in love with someone left the singer feeling as if he was being used and slowly crushed to death. It was an astonishing thing for the artist to say, totally the opposite of what Sophie expected to hear. The next song was about disillusionment. The third song was about being bored on a weekend night and just knocking the neighborhood they lived in. Ziska said that it could have been written about anywhere. The fourth song though… That one was an acoustic interlude that cut close to home for Sophie. It was a song about having a crush and the painful realization that the object of your affection will never love you in return. It was a reminder of some of the foolish things that Sophie had done in the all too recent past. Mercifully, the next song was a rave up.
The rest of the album continued with the themes of alienation and disillusionment. How the very things that were supposed to bring you happiness in life brought pain. This was as the singer longed for those very things. For Sophie, this was totally unlike anything she had ever heard before. By the time side B concluded, Sophie wanted to flip it over and restart it. Ziska looked like she was getting bored though, so Sophie told her to go pick something else to listen to while they talked about what they going to be doing over the upcoming Summer Holiday.
Münsingen Proving Grounds, Württemberg
The arrival of the Pioneers to Münsingen changed everything. Before they had been doing the assigned work while avoiding too much contact with the personnel based at the Proving Grounds and keeping within the proscribed areas. The Pioneers had asked for volunteers to do things that were for lack of a better word, fun. Blasting tree trunks and learning how to drive a bulldozer on the sly had been things that they had done over just the last week. Yes, they had spent a great deal of time digging with shovels, buckets, and wheelbarrows, but the rewards made all of that worth it. Niko was actually disappointed that it was coming to an end when they boarded the train that would take them home in a few days to his complete astonishment.
That almost made up for Bas suddenly becoming a loose cannon over the last couple days. On Sunday, there had been an announcement that the Prussian Institute was changing one of its practices to keep up with the times. The Wahlstatt School was going to coeducational going forward. The code of conduct that spelled out how fraternization was forbidden was still in effect but next year they could expect that those rules would be ruthlessly enforced. Niko didn’t think that was as huge a deal as it was being made out to be. Still, he had heard a few ribald jokes thrown around right up until word reached Bas that one of the incoming students next year would be his youngest sister, Gretchen. That radically changed the complexion on things.
Few were crazy enough to pick a fight with Bas and for the last couple days he had clearly been looking for an excuse to pummel someone. Niko could tell that Bas was so angry about this that he had even stopped complaining about the food. Worse of all, Bas’ parents had informed him that he was going to Silesia with Niko this year because they were going to see his grandmother in Spokane, Washington. After that they had been elsewhere when he had tried to call them. It was clear to Niko that they were ducking Bas’ calls.
I going out on a limb and say the band in question is Led Zeppelin (or the "New Yardbirds" because of Jimmy Page having been in the Yardbirds beforehand).
This is one of those questions where you respond "would you like the list in alphabetical order or the length of sentence upon conviction"?
Non- fraternization rules are a test of initiative.
Sounds like Bas was one of those making the ribald jokes and looking forward to breaking the non-fraternisation rules. Now, with Gretchen there, Bas has realised that he will be too busy 'protecting' his little sister from other would-be fraternisers to do any himself. Hence the foul attitude.
My thoughts exactly. Getting dropped on your friend’s family by your parents and then having them dodge your calls…that’s the recipe for a kid not talking to his parents again once he’s an adult.
Yeah, pretty much.
Also apparently actual enforcement can end up being fairly slapdash anyway (in the adult world at least). A friend of mine’s dad was in the US Army and was stationed out in Afghanistan some years back, and he said in his unit it was an open secret that the non-fraternisation rules were getting broken all the time but the senior officers just ignored it because they didn’t want to be disciplining or losing good personnel for dumb reasons in an active warzone.
Indeed…
To be fair this trip to Spokane seems to me is not a happy trip that Nancy and Tilo are making.
Agnes Jensen may be on her last legs or she may have dementia and needs to be place in a facility that deals with that problem or if that is the case Nancy and Tilo may bring Agnes back with them because Germany has much better facilities to deal with it and Nancy is someone who would feel guilt that she has abandoned her mother and wants to do everything she can to help.
Oh, that’s understandable. It’s the avoiding taking his calls that pushes it over the line IMO.
I wouldn't be shocked if part of why Tilo is even going is to make sure that no-one in the US Government does something stupid. I'm not talking senior officials, I'm talking an over-zealous field agent.
One thing to harass some female flunky of the German King (As they'd see it) another to do so to a Four-Star General of the Marines.
One thing to harass some female flunky of the German King (As they'd see it) another to do so to a Four-Star General of the Marines.
ferdi254
Banned
Well the father of Nancy might still be a but afraid….
Just for some loose ends.
That song is certainly one of the better ones to have in your head for the whole day.
And non fraternization rules certainly did nothing to prevent the US Army from doing it‘s level best to repopulate Germany after 45.
Just for some loose ends.
That song is certainly one of the better ones to have in your head for the whole day.
And non fraternization rules certainly did nothing to prevent the US Army from doing it‘s level best to repopulate Germany after 45.
Nancy and Tilo to Bas: We are only going to be there for a very short time and it is not a pleasure trip we are making and your Grandma Agnes needs help.
Bas to his parents after the umpteenth call: But why can't I gooo... (In a very whining voice).
Nancy and Tilo knowing that it is Bas on the phone: (phone continues to ring until it stops), instructs household help to tell Bas that Nancy and Tilo are unavailable at this moment and will contact him at their earliest convenience.
Part 127, Chapter 2156
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Fifty-Six
21st July 1972
Mitte, Berlin
Nancy didn’t have the first clue as to where Sabastian had gotten the money to make calls on a pay phone several times a day. Every time it was the same thing. Him complaining about spending the Summer at the Richthofen Estate, which she had thought he liked doing, and demanding to know what they were thinking by allowing Gretchen to attend the same school he was.
She had explained to him that the trip to Spokane wasn’t for pleasure. This was because his grandmother had recently suffered a stroke and was disabled, so Nancy and Alan both had to go to Washington to help get their mother situated. Tilo had agreed to come to offer moral support to Nancy if he couldn’t help her directly. She wasn’t taking Sabastian because if he went, then it was inevitable that he would get bored. Then the trouble would start. With Sabastian that could include Police involvement as well as a whole lot of angry neighbors. Spokane, Washington was one of the last places of Earth he should be. Anna and Gretchen were staying put as well with Nancy having arranged for the two of them to go with Kat’s ward Sophie to a Summer Camp for girls located in the Spreewald.
As for Gretchen attending his school, that had been Gretchen’s choice after she had made it clear she would deliberately flunk out of school to avoid attending the same school as Anna for reasons that Nancy was having trouble understanding. Nancy understood that once her youngest daughter put her mind to something then it was almost impossible to stop her. The Wahlstatt School had happened along at the right time to prevent that. Offering her a place in their pilot program. It seemed that the school was using the same tactics that the military had for years to prevent anything untoward from happening. With most of the girls they had selected being largely from New Junkers families, the school certainly had a strong incentive to see to it that the rules were obeyed. Of course, they would be dealing with hormonal teenagers, so they had their work cut out for them. Besides that, Gretchen would have her big brother nearby putting the fear of God into anyone who dared to give her so much as a sideways look.
Sabastian wasn’t interested in listening though. So, the conversations devolved into arguments and because no matter how grownup Sabastian tried to act, there were times when he reminded everyone what his actual age was. This was one of those times and with him being a teenager, everything was the end of the world. That was why Nancy was having her Personal Secretary take a message every time he called. Tilo had explained that they needed to be the adults in this situation and that rewarding their son’s obnoxious behavior wouldn’t help matters. Tomorrow, Sabastian would be traveling with Nikolaus to the Richthofen Estate and Nancy had been assured by Manfred the Elder that he would keep the boys too busy to cause much trouble over the summer. They knew that he was taking them to the Munich Games in August, so they Nikolaus and Sabastian would be extra motivated to stay in their Opa’s good graces.
Reichenwalde, Brandenburg
Clearing the cobwebs was how her father had put it. Just getting on your bike and riding fast, thinking about nothing else but the road around you until all your troubles were distant. Zella had tried that, and it had not worked, not really. She had eventually stopped after she had put an incredible amount of distance on the highways that ran around Berlin.
Now, Zella was on the shore of a lake, surrounded by forest and she didn’t have the slightest clue as to where she was. The instant she had stopped, all her troubles came instantly back to mind. Her career, her mother, Yuri, and the huge mess she had made of all of it. The idiot had told her that he loved her, and Zella had fled. It was something that she had been aware of, but to hear those words come out of his mouth had caused Zella to panic. She had felt as if her head had filled with static and by the time it had cleared, she was on her motorcycle trying to put as much distance between herself and Yuri’s apartment as she possibly could. Things had been going astonishing well lately, which made this latest episode so much more painful.
Zella had been reviewing albums for the BT and she had run across one by an American Rock band out of Memphis, Tennessee. Their label’s Berlin counterpart had asked Zella to give their album a listen and spread the word about the band if she liked it. She got the impression that the label, which normally dealt in Soul Music was not quite sure how to market a band that didn’t seem to fit into any ready category. It was clearly a Rock album, but the Pop influenced sound made it difficult to define. The thing was that Zella had reviewed albums by a band that had featured Alex Chilton before. That stuff had been bubblegum, and she had savaged it accordingly. This new album was a very different take that Zella had not expected. Looking at the name of the band and also the title of the album, the whole thing had just reeked of pretension. The music though, that had been something else entirely, surprisingly good.
Zella had worried that she was being biased in her reaction to the album, so she had figured that she needed to find exactly the sort of person who it was geared towards. So, she had given her advanced copy of the album to Sophie Sommers, the thirteen-year-old ward of Kat von Mischner. The reaction that Sophie had had reminded Zella of the first time she had heard the Moondogs years earlier. That band could be huge, Zella thought to herself as she stared across the lake as wind drove ripples across its surface.
21st July 1972
Mitte, Berlin
Nancy didn’t have the first clue as to where Sabastian had gotten the money to make calls on a pay phone several times a day. Every time it was the same thing. Him complaining about spending the Summer at the Richthofen Estate, which she had thought he liked doing, and demanding to know what they were thinking by allowing Gretchen to attend the same school he was.
She had explained to him that the trip to Spokane wasn’t for pleasure. This was because his grandmother had recently suffered a stroke and was disabled, so Nancy and Alan both had to go to Washington to help get their mother situated. Tilo had agreed to come to offer moral support to Nancy if he couldn’t help her directly. She wasn’t taking Sabastian because if he went, then it was inevitable that he would get bored. Then the trouble would start. With Sabastian that could include Police involvement as well as a whole lot of angry neighbors. Spokane, Washington was one of the last places of Earth he should be. Anna and Gretchen were staying put as well with Nancy having arranged for the two of them to go with Kat’s ward Sophie to a Summer Camp for girls located in the Spreewald.
As for Gretchen attending his school, that had been Gretchen’s choice after she had made it clear she would deliberately flunk out of school to avoid attending the same school as Anna for reasons that Nancy was having trouble understanding. Nancy understood that once her youngest daughter put her mind to something then it was almost impossible to stop her. The Wahlstatt School had happened along at the right time to prevent that. Offering her a place in their pilot program. It seemed that the school was using the same tactics that the military had for years to prevent anything untoward from happening. With most of the girls they had selected being largely from New Junkers families, the school certainly had a strong incentive to see to it that the rules were obeyed. Of course, they would be dealing with hormonal teenagers, so they had their work cut out for them. Besides that, Gretchen would have her big brother nearby putting the fear of God into anyone who dared to give her so much as a sideways look.
Sabastian wasn’t interested in listening though. So, the conversations devolved into arguments and because no matter how grownup Sabastian tried to act, there were times when he reminded everyone what his actual age was. This was one of those times and with him being a teenager, everything was the end of the world. That was why Nancy was having her Personal Secretary take a message every time he called. Tilo had explained that they needed to be the adults in this situation and that rewarding their son’s obnoxious behavior wouldn’t help matters. Tomorrow, Sabastian would be traveling with Nikolaus to the Richthofen Estate and Nancy had been assured by Manfred the Elder that he would keep the boys too busy to cause much trouble over the summer. They knew that he was taking them to the Munich Games in August, so they Nikolaus and Sabastian would be extra motivated to stay in their Opa’s good graces.
Reichenwalde, Brandenburg
Clearing the cobwebs was how her father had put it. Just getting on your bike and riding fast, thinking about nothing else but the road around you until all your troubles were distant. Zella had tried that, and it had not worked, not really. She had eventually stopped after she had put an incredible amount of distance on the highways that ran around Berlin.
Now, Zella was on the shore of a lake, surrounded by forest and she didn’t have the slightest clue as to where she was. The instant she had stopped, all her troubles came instantly back to mind. Her career, her mother, Yuri, and the huge mess she had made of all of it. The idiot had told her that he loved her, and Zella had fled. It was something that she had been aware of, but to hear those words come out of his mouth had caused Zella to panic. She had felt as if her head had filled with static and by the time it had cleared, she was on her motorcycle trying to put as much distance between herself and Yuri’s apartment as she possibly could. Things had been going astonishing well lately, which made this latest episode so much more painful.
Zella had been reviewing albums for the BT and she had run across one by an American Rock band out of Memphis, Tennessee. Their label’s Berlin counterpart had asked Zella to give their album a listen and spread the word about the band if she liked it. She got the impression that the label, which normally dealt in Soul Music was not quite sure how to market a band that didn’t seem to fit into any ready category. It was clearly a Rock album, but the Pop influenced sound made it difficult to define. The thing was that Zella had reviewed albums by a band that had featured Alex Chilton before. That stuff had been bubblegum, and she had savaged it accordingly. This new album was a very different take that Zella had not expected. Looking at the name of the band and also the title of the album, the whole thing had just reeked of pretension. The music though, that had been something else entirely, surprisingly good.
Zella had worried that she was being biased in her reaction to the album, so she had figured that she needed to find exactly the sort of person who it was geared towards. So, she had given her advanced copy of the album to Sophie Sommers, the thirteen-year-old ward of Kat von Mischner. The reaction that Sophie had had reminded Zella of the first time she had heard the Moondogs years earlier. That band could be huge, Zella thought to herself as she stared across the lake as wind drove ripples across its surface.
As strange as this sounds. A band that has come to be regarded as hugely influential was signed to a label that didn't know how to market a Rock album and sold only around ten thousand copies in OTL.
Looking at this, you can sort of understand Zella's reaction, the title; #1 Record.
Looking at this, you can sort of understand Zella's reaction, the title; #1 Record.
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