Funny “what are the odds?” happened today

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Mark2205

Mark2205

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My factory am/fm thumbwheel radio, in my street car r6 ‘Cuda 340, had quit working earlier this year. I finally had some time off this week and pulled it out to take a look. It was a fairly easy fix and I cleaned the tuners and fixed the slipping gear on the tuning knob. I put it back in the car, hooked the battery back up, climbed in and turned it on. What song was playing you ask? Heart Barracuda! What are the odds?
 
Strange lyrics;

Back over time when we were all trying for free
Met up with porpoise and me
No right no wrong you're selling a song, a name
Whisper game
 
That is very odd considering I have not heart that song in 12+ years. Cool car btw one of my favorites.
 
The local Dragstrip use to play "Barracuda" during eliminations when I started my burnout.
67-1.jpg
 
What was wrong with the radio and how did you fix it?
 
Alaskan_TA said:
Strange lyrics;

Back over time when we were all trying for free
Met up with porpoise and me
No right no wrong you're selling a song, a name
Whisper game
Click to expand...

The song has a strange origin

Ann Wilson revealed in interviews that the song was about Heart's anger towards Mushroom Records, who as a publicity stunt released a made-up story of an incestuous affair involving Ann and her sister Nancy Wilson. The song particularly focuses on Ann's rage towards a man who came up to her after a concert asking how her "lover" was. She initially thought he was talking about her boyfriend, band manager Michael Fisher. After he revealed he was talking about her sister Nancy, Ann became outraged, went back to her hotel room, and wrote the original lyrics of the song.[1]

Producer Mike Flicker added that Mushroom Records was so obtuse in the contract negotiations that Heart decided to discard the album they were working on, Magazine—which the label still released in an unfinished form—and instead sign with the newly formed Portrait Records to make another record, Little Queen. As Flicker put it, " 'Barracuda' was created conceptually out of a lot of this record business bullshit. Barracuda could be anyone from the local promotion man to the president of a record company. That is the barracuda. It was born out of that whole experience."[2]
 
...and one of the more instantly recognizable intro guitar rifs in rock history including an early use of the "galloping" palm muted "shuck".

On another note-

I have an interesting relationship with "Murphy" as in "Murphy's Law".

I don't get mad when "what are the odds" things slow my progress, I simply say...wait for it..."what are the odds of that" and work on plan B.

I think there a mutual respect because one of my other sayings is- "Sometimes Murphy works for you" as in the OP's case.
 
Dana67Dart said:
What was wrong with the radio and how did you fix it?
Click to expand...

I found 3 things wrong. 50 years of dust had made the volume control and tone control very scratchy. A liberal amount of tuner cleaner spray took care of that. The tuner knob or thumbwheel in this case has a small plastic set of miter gears. The gear attached to the thumbwheel had split causing it to slip on the shaft, therefore unable to tune in a station. I used some Goriila super glue gel, it worked great. A simple broken solder joint going to the antenna socket was resoldered. Too many hard dash rattling shifts caused that I guess. Those radios were built like tanks back then and usually easy to fix. I hope that answers your questions. Mark
 
Thanks, my am knob radio works but after an hour or so starts to fade out. My guess is capacitors, but dont want to mess with it at this point.
 
Do you still have the two wooden speaker boxes with the 6 by 9s in them you used to pull out when we listened to that same song when it came out?

And, I just realized we took these photos on I-470 in Summer 1979 or so, 40 years ago. WOW!

Cudas 470_ BlueRidge 1979.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mark2205 said:
My factory am/fm thumbwheel radio, in my street car r6 ‘Cuda 340, had quit working earlier this year. I finally had some time off this week and pulled it out to take a look. It was a fairly easy fix and I cleaned the tuners and fixed the slipping gear on the tuning knob. I put it back in the car, hooked the battery back up, climbed in and turned it on. What song was playing you ask? Heart Barracuda! What are the odds?
Click to expand...
Ahhhhh, the rock & roll gods were hanging out with the Mopar gods looking down at your efforts. They gave you praise for your efforts.:thumbsup:
 
Alaskan_TA said:
Strange lyrics;

Back over time when we were all trying for free
Met up with porpoise and me
No right no wrong you're selling a song, a name
Whisper game
Click to expand...
The song is sbowing how poor people can be.
 
VOETOM said:
Do you still have the two wooden speaker boxes with the 6 by 9s in them you used to pull out when we listened to that same song when it came out?

View attachment 1715269172
Click to expand...

No, I think I took the am/fm cassette and speakers, I had mounted under the front seat, and put it in my '69 Valiant back in the mid eighties.
 
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