Great God in Heaven, you know I love you
You know I do!
Today is the Ides of March—confusing, anachronistic language that tells us it is March the 15th.
In the Roman calendar, the “Idus” marked the approximate midpoint of the month. In the case of Martius—roughly our March—and a few other months, the Ides corresponded to our concept of the 15th. For the rest, the 13th was Ides.
Start digging into the Roman calendar and the Roman culture that influenced it and you send yourself down a deep rabbit-hole.
Notably, March 15 is the anniversary (44 BC) of the Assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar. A cabal of Roman senators conspired to assassinate Caesar and proceeded to stab the Roman head of state 23 times.
Histories have been written about this event and Shakespeare’s famous play is the major touchstone of Western culture when it comes to these events.
'Twas a rough political season in Rome that year. Makes the upcoming “showdown” between The Donald and Ice Cream Joe appear downright civil.
Matter of perspective.
Which made me consider this morning perhaps our (dying) culture’s second-most notable reference to the Ides of March and that is the rock band known, naturally, as The Ides of March.
Led by frontman Jim Peterik, the band had a smash hit called “Vehicle,” released in March 1970. The “funk rock” number peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and by virtue of zero other Ides songs hitting the charts, the band was rendered a One-Hit Wonder.
Peterik was but a mere teenager when “Vehicle” was recorded and the group eventually disbanded in 1973, but that was not the end of Peterik.
Yes, The Ides did get back together in 1990 and have been an act ever since that hiatus ended. Yet…
Peterik used that downtime in the 1970s and early 1980s to crank out more tunes. He cofounded a band called Survivor and in 1982, Sly Stallone came a-calling and commissioned a song for the 1982 film Rocky III.
“Eye of the Tiger”
This anthem spent 6 weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, earned a Grammy Award, while Peterik and co-writer Frankie Sullivan earned an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
In 1985, Peterik co-wrote another Rocky theme song, this time for “Burning Heart” from Rocky IV, charting as high as Number 2.
Survivor disbanded in 1988, but Peterik collaborated with a number of artists over the years, notably with Brian Wilson on a solo album, the Beach Boys on a reunion album, the Dooby Brothers, Cheap Trick, and others.
“Vehicle” has a fantastic opening hook-though the lyrics give me a bit of a creepy Sammy Johns “Chevy Van” vibe. (Full disclosure, my hero, Waylon Jennings, also recorded the Johns number and…it is still creepy even coming from Ol’ Hoss).
As far as Stallone is concerned, I read an interview with him just last night in the book Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters by William Baer. Sly had the task of not only writing the 1976 film, Rocky, that started the blockbuster franchise, but he wrote the thing, too.
Of course, we know now that Rocky would win Best Picture at the 49th Academy Awards and that director John Avildsen would claim the Best Director Oscar as well, but Stallone could not have imagined this on January 9, 1976, the first day of shooting “in the frigid early morning darkness of Philadelphia’s Fishtown.”
BAER: You were suddenly so overcome with fear that you had to be left alone for a while. Were you concerned about the script or about whether you could pull off the role?
STALLONE: I was worried about me, as an actor. Sometimes our ambitions exceed our abilities, and I’d never carried a film before, and now I was in almost every scene. So there was this terrible moment of doubt; it was like a voice that was saying inside my head, ‘‘You’re going to go out there and be exposed as a total fraud.”
Well, Sly has been kicking ass and taking names for the near 5 decades since that early morning frost. Matter of fact, there’s a 2023 documentary called Sly where Stallone talks about this time in his life. Not easy.
Juxtapose that with the recent 3-episode series on Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not that Arnie’s life was easy—far from it—but Arnold was already rich when he went into acting.
Sly literally sold his dog and his car (for $40) to keep the dream alive.
These two men were fierce rivals in the 1980s, the most bankable action stars in Hollywood. Things worked out alright for both of them.
The key was—and is—forward momentum. Relentless focus on the solution to the problems that faced them on their respective journeys.
A lot of us these days are stuck, though.
Have you tried a bunch of things out and they just “don’t work?” Can’t figure it out?
Last fall we announced our Inner Sphere, and after re-tooling it, we’re getting ready to launch … soon.
We will talk a lot about reinvention. Starting over perhaps, but really taking all the great things we already have and deploying them in a better way.
In Rocky III, even Apollo had to talk some sense into the champ.
When we fought you had the eye of the tiger, man -- the edge -- Now you got to get that back and to do that we've got to go back to the beginning.
And you're right ... it is almost impossible to change your styles but who knows, maybe it can be done, maybe we could win it back together ... get back, man.
I have the plan.
If you need me, I’m your Apollo. I’m your Vehicle, baby. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.
Join us…
Eye of the Tiger, Rock!
As always,
Brian
Love those 80s references!