Have You Heard? The Kings "This Beat Goes On / Switchin' To Glide" [1980]

Saturday, January 17, 1981

HERC wakes up from a peaceful slumber, grabs a bowl of cereal and plops down in front of the TV to watch cartoons.  After the previous night's less than stellar Midnight Special episode, he's hoping this afternoon's American Bandstand has at least one decent artist. Surfing through the channels he finds The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show and watches. When the show ends, he puts his empty bowl in the sink, makes a pit stop in the bathroom and brushes his teeth to get that gritty, sugary feeling out of his mouth. His mother yells down the hallway for him to bring his dirty clothes to the laundry room. HERC SR. asks if he's got all his homework done and he says he's got most of it done and has plans to finish tomorrow night.

Settling back down in front of the TV, HERC finds Super Friends on a different channel and settles in to see what menace they'll face today. His Mom pokes her head in his room and asks if he brought all his laundry like she had asked. He points to his empty hamper and she continues on to his little sister's room with the same question. Further down the hall, HERC can hear his dad playing video games. He thinks about joining him but stays put. After Super Friends ends, HERC turns his 13" black and white TV off knowing he has one hour until American Bandstand comes on. He closes his door, changes out of his pajamas into Levi's and a blue tee. He puts clean white socks on his cold feet and they are so soft he wonders if they are a new pair. As he opens his door, his Mom darts in to pick up his pajamas from the hamper and heads back towards the laundry room. HERC sits down at his desk, opens his journal and reads what he had written the night before:

Not too much homework this weekend. Had burrito for lunch and didn't burn my tongue this time.  No one played any good songs on the jukebox at lunch.  Looking forward to Fridays and The Midnight Special tonight. Wonder if I will watch this much TV when I can drive next year or will I always be out?

Fridays wasn't very good.  Hope I never hear The Plasmatics again. Sure she's got big boobs (and she ain't afraid to show 'em) but man they just sound like noise - the band not her boobs. And she isn't very sexy; probably smells like cigarettes and B.O. Her initials are W.O.W. but she's not. Natty Dread was on though. one star - maybe I should give out half stars or zero stars.

Lame MS tonight, too. Showing more videos rather than live performances - is this a trend? J.R. from Dallas and God (George Burns) were on like it was a show for my Texas Grandma but there was a Heart video and a couple from Rod Stewart - really like that "Passion" song, how come they don't play it on the radio? Hope Bandstand and Soul Train have some good stuff tomorrow. three stars just for Rod Stewart song otherwise one star for the show.

Added no records to the collection today but tomorrow is Allowance Day and I have more than enough to buy a couple albums. Wonder if we're going to the BX?  Or maybe the mall?

HERC SR. walks by the doorway and seems to read his son's mind: "Ask your Mom" he says. HERC draws a line underneath that last entry and puts the date: 01/17/81. HERC hears his Dad turn on the TV in the living room and the familiar strains of Barry Manilow's theme song begin to play so he flips his little television back on, missing Dick Clark announce who's going to be on today's episode. A little while later, Clark announces Rockpile and they do "Teacher, Teacher". Sounds like an old song but it is really catchy. He's pretty sure he saw them perform it on Fridays last month but has no way to be sure. HERC notes their performance in his journal and gives it three and a half stars out of five.  He also writes "Fridays?  December?" but doesn't look back through his journal to find out.

Nothing special, nothing new for a while.  After the next commercial break, the show returns with Dick Clark sitting amongst the audience.  He talks about the next group, says something about Canada and then holds up an album cover and says "Please greet THE KINGS!" 

May 19, 2013
So they played "Switchin' To Glide" but not "This Beat Goes On". The album opener "This Beat Goes On" segued into "Switchin' To Glide" although it has always been listed separately on the vinyl and CD copies of the album The Kings Are Here HERC owns. He did find a single merged version in the early Nineties on a CD called Richard Blade's Flashback Favorites Volume 2.

It has been unavailable to stream digitally that way until just last week. Thanks to Steve Peake and his Forgotten Gems Of The '80s column for the head's up.

post script:

Dynasty and Tierra were musical guests on Soul Train that day.  HERC gave it two stars.

The Kings got four stars for their performance and the whole episode of Bandstand also got four stars.

HERC got his allowance but his family did not go anywhere that weekend.  He did buy The Kings Are Here about a month later but did not pick up Rockpile's album until later that Spring.