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(Joseph Califano - Two Years in the hotseat and a pink slip for the trouble)

During the early days of the Carter Administration Joseph Califano was appointed Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. By all accounts it was a strained relationship which eventually led to his firing in 1979. From 1977 until 1979 he was the center of several controversies, including the banning of Saccharine, Affirmative Action and quotas in the College system, the Medicare/Abortion issue, a National Health Insurance proposal, smoking and even the 1977 outbreak of Swine Flu (yes, there was Swine flu even then). Califano was not handed softballs, to be sure. As these two exchanges from a 1977 appearances on Meet The Press will attest:

Carol Simpson (NBC News): “Mister Secretary, the Swine flu mass immunization program was a disaster from start to finish, and I have a two part question: first of all, to find out whether your agency, given the same information as was given the agency a year ago, would have embarked on such a program? And secondly, what are you going to do now that the American people have really become frightened by mass immunization programs and what are you going to do if we have a similar vaccine in the future that might be necessary to be given to the people?”

Joseph Califano: “Miss Simpson, I am not prepared to say what I would have done had I been in the government a year ago. It is not clear to me in what ways different decisions would have been made. I intend to look at that thoroughly and carefully as I think that kind of public health decision is difficult as the Secretary has to make. The greatest damage the Swine flu program has done, aside from the human tragedy of the individuals paralyzed and killed has been the impact on immunization programs, particularly for children. There are sixteen million children in this country under the age of fourteen who have not been immunized against Polio, and a large part of that is attributable to the peoples fear about immunization programs. We’ve got to restore confidence . The first step we’ve taken is to open up the entire process for selecting the vaccines for next year. We’ve done that and we haven’t made the selections yet, but every fact that’s relevant to that will be available to the public. We also intend to have a substantial stepped up program of education for children and parents in the immunization area , and to try and get the children of this nation immunized.”

Nancy Hicks (New York Times): “President Carter campaigned on a promise to bring National Health Insurance to the American people. Does this still have a high priority, and if so when might we expect a legislative draft?”

Califano: “This has a very high priority. I regard the Social Security issue, the welfare reform issue, the American family issue and National Health Insurance is four central Presidential priorities for me. We would expect to have legislation before Congress next year in this area. I will be working with and recommending a program during this year.”

Hicks: “Beginning of the year or end of the year?”

Califano: “I don’t know whether it will be the beginning or the end of the year. If President Carter continues the way he’s going on other programs it will be the sooner the better, and closer to the beginning of the year than the end of the year.”

Needless to say, 1977 was not the year of Universal Health Care. Nor was 1978 or 1979 for that matter.

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(The Lilac Time - still together, still recording, still gigging, still great)

In the late 1980s/early 90s, Fontana Records issued a lot of albums by interesting, out of the way, alternative bands. Which, as a subsidiary of a major label (Phonogram now Universal) was a pretty bold thing to do (well . .not since the early 70s anyway). Most of the acts didn't last more than one or two albums before being dropped, but the material most of them recorded was top-notch. A lot of the bands went off to other labels and other degrees of success and some are still together today. One of those acts was The Lilac Time, a band fronted by Stephen Duffy and largely considered an influential part of the early 90s wave of alternative bands coming out of the UK.

This track All For Love & Love For All comes from the album of the same name and was produced by XTC bandmates Andy Partridge and John Leckie. It has the XTC stamp on it and the track did pretty well on the charts at the time, further establishing The Lilac Time as no one-hit wonders. Luckily, they are still together and recording. Their last album came out about a year ago.

In case you missed them the first time around . . .

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(Turned upside down read: No Immediate Miracles)

I'm often reminded that, when a crisis erupts and the Republicans are in charge, the solutions often fall into the category of Bonehead Misfires.

True to form, in 1974 when the country was in the midst of inflation, recession, mass unemployment and a crisis of faith (owing to the recent resignation of Richard Nixon and the quickly ending Vietnam War), Gerald Ford announced a new package, complete with slogan and buttons - Whip Inflation Now. Rather than use the dreaded Tax-Word, Ford proposed a "surcharge" on individuals making over $7500 a year and families making over $15,000 a year (remember, this is 1974 when money was a little different and less funny then). The immediate effect was to squeeze the middle class and create more loopholes for those who could most afford it.

Ford envisioned a kind of World War 2 gung-ho attitude on the part of the American people, willing to sacrifice at the drop of a hat. The resulting effect was dramatically less so.

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(The Management - Got a little confusing, so they changed their name)

As the story goes, there were two bands around the same time who decided to call themselves The Management. The upstate New York one and the UK one. The New York one decided to shorten their name to MGMT and are doing rather well for themselves on the pop charts. The UK Management, the one I'm posting tonight, kept the name for a while but then decided they too would undergo a name change and they have since called themselves The Neon Sound. They are the indie one, the sort of techno one, the one who are not on the pop charts. This track, Coffee Shop Girls comes from their first album, released in 2002 "Seventeen Minutes In The Cheap Seats". At present they are still going the indie route and you can find out more about them through their MySpace and Last.FM pages. The album is available on CD as well as download and it's worth checking out - imho.

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(Communists were thought to be everywhere, even comic books)

When we think about paranoia, conspiracy theories and black helicopters today, we think this is a relatively new phenomenon.

Sad to say, no. During the 1950s we were knee-deep in the Red Scare, the all-pervasive paranoia, the trigger-happy finger on the doomsday scenario.

It's no small wonder anti-depressants became popular around this time. It's also no small wonder people drank themselves into comas on an almost daily basis. You would too if you had to endure that much rampant distrust of your fellow human being - convinced every other person was hiding secret marching orders from The Kremlin.

Nasty times.

And so in 1955, one of the hot topics of discussion on mainstream media was just how much freedom Americans were losing, and were we in danger of losing it completely? Was the U.S. Government overrun with Communist subversives, poised to take over at the appointed time?

Then as now, a lot of the hysteria was media manufactured, pumped up by fringe element alarmists bent on scaring the crap out of people. Sending them, terror-stricken for comforting answers.

And as Senator Hubert Humphrey pointed out during the interview:

Sen. Hubert Humphrey: “ I think there are a number of people who would like to have the American people believe that the government is infiltrated by disloyal people and subversives and security risks and that isn’t a fact either. The Government employees are, as a group far above the average employee in the country. They’ve been screened, re-screened and double screened as to their security and as to their loyalty. I do feel however, that there’s been far too much demagoguery about the so-called security risks, the so-called numbers game. Many people have been dismissed from employment that were not disloyal at all. But just were unsuitable employees and then they’ve been tabulated as security risks. I think the sooner we get down to taking a look at our loyalty security program as citizens rather than as partisans, as members of Congress rather than as Republicans or Democrats, the better we’re going to be off and the better the country’s going to be off. We need security and freedom and we can have both.”

Despite the claims and facts to the contrary, the witch hunt kept right on pointing fingers and accusing. And the alarmists kept right on sowing hysteria.

Not much has changed in retrospect. Only the enemy.

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(Martin Dies, 1939 - managed to take the lunatic fringe to the lunatic edge)

A few months ago I ran a piece on Martin Dies, and his infamous Dies Committee for Un-American Activities. An earlier incarnation of Joe McCarthy, Dies also managed to slide off the rails with vicious accusations and wild innuendos about people in and around power. Famously fabricating lists of "known communists", many of whom did not exist.

But just before World War 2, paranoia was rife. We were dangling on the precipice of getting involved. The war had already started by the time this address was given on October 27, 1939 and fear of being overtaken by some evil foreign entity was running rampant in the newspapers on the radio and on Capitol Hill.

So Dies took up the crusade, cloaking himself in Americanism and preaching the gospel of fear, whipping people into a state of frenzy.

Martin Dies: “These enemies within our country are not easily exposed, it is most difficult to expose fearlessly and without partisanship the termites who have ceaselessly gnawed at the pillars of this republic, because there are those who would like for us to be partisan when the question is involved. I said in the beginning of this investigation that I was determined it would be conducted without fear and without favor and that I would not hesitate to expose any man, whether he’s a Democrat or he’s a Republican. Whether he’s a New Dealer or an anti-New Dealer. Whether he works in the government or whether he’s working in industry. Only on that basis can I reconcile my attitude with my conscience. If the time has come when in the interest of political expediency and in behest to demands of party leadership I must qualify my conscience, I’ll surrender my commission and go back to private life. At least with my honor unimpaired.”

Clearly, fear and paranoia haven't gone out of fashion. And the practitioners of that fear will probably never go broke perpetuating it. The times change, the situations change, the enemies change. But the fear hate and mistrust, then as now, are all the same.

Comforting, isn't it?

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(Crooked Cowboy & The Freshwater Indians - finally, a new music genre)

I don't think there is really an adequate way to describe Crooked Cowboy & the Freshwater Indians. So I won't. Other than I think we've hit on something wonderful.

But right now the only thing you can really do is listen to this track, BumpyGBH and get sucked into it. It's an amazing adventure.

And once you do that, go over to their MySpace or Last.FM page and check out the other tracks as well as their upcoming gig listings. They're an L.A. outfit, so I suspect they won't be showing up in London anytime soon (unless of course you have connections and can book them). They've only been together a short while, are not on a label and can certainly use every bit of support they can get.

Do yourself a favor.

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(Hartzell Strathdene "Tiny" Parham - one of the most overlooked and neglected figures in early Chicago Jazz)

Back to Jazz tonight - this time it's Tiny Parham, one of the most innovative and obscure figures in the "South Side Chicago Jazz" scene of the 1920s, who has sadly and strangely been almost totally overlooked by critics and neglected even by early Jazz enthusiasts. Why? I couldn't possibly tell you. Parham recorded several sides for a number of record companies between 1926 and 1940 with his biggest popularity during the 1920s. After the depression hit, and dates became scarce, Parham's popularity began to slide into obscurity. Parham died on April 4, 1943.

This track, The Head Hunter's Dream comes from his 1928-1929 period recording for Victor Records and this session comes from July 2, 1928.

I guess it goes to prove you can still be great and nobody knows you.

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(Abraham Ribicoff - Secretary of Health, Education And Welfare in 1961 - also Hand Holder, Paranoia Assuager, Debunker)

In 1961, JFK introduced a bill that would provide medical assistance to the Aged. It later became known as Medicare and would later pass in 1965 during the Johnson Administration. As is always the case, the mere mention of anything connection with a government aid program where Healthcare is concerned is immediately tossed into the realm of Socialized Medicine. And in 1961 it was no different.

Newly appointed Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Abraham Ribioff was confronted by a dizzying array of skepticism from the Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries who instantly labeled any kind of Healthcare reform as Socialized Medicine. As is evidenced by this exchange between Ribicoff and Meet The Press co-founder Lawrence Spivak:

Lawrence Spivak: “ Mister Secretary, as you know the AMA and others have charged that the Medical Bill for the Aged under Social Security is an opening wedge to Socialized Medicine. Now if you thought there was a chance that the bill might be an opening wedge to Socialized Medicine, would you still be for it?”

Abraham Ribicoff: “ Well, it’s not an opening wedge to Socialized Medicine, I’m for the bill.

Spivak: “No, I’m asking if you thought that it was an opening wedge . . .

Ribicoff: “I would be against it . . .I would be against the bill if it were Socialized Medicine. . . “

Spivak: “If it opened the door to Socialized Medicine?”

Ribicoff: “It doesn’t open the door to Socialized Medicine”

Spivak: “Would you tell us what makes you so sure that it doesn’t?”

Ribicoff: “Because you and I and every other American, Mister Spivak has the right to choose his own doctor. There is nothing in this bill that has anything to do with doctors. This bill takes care of the health needs to the people of America, our aged over sixty-five, and basically takes care of their hospital bills, their nursing home bills and their visits to the home for home care. The bill specifically provides that each and every American has the right to choose his own doctor and his own hospital.”

The bill wound up being defeated, owing to a Congress recess and an overheated paranoia campaign (sound familiar?). But the Medicare Bill did finally pass in 1965.

The eerie sense of Deja-vu is everywhere.

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(Heading into Sunday Night on a mellow note)

I just realized I've been giving Jazz a short shrift this past week at The Roundtable. Being Sunday night, I can't think of a better excuse than to dive into this Blue Note side, My Old Flame cut on January 31, 1945 featuring the Benny Morton All Stars with Ben Webster, Barney Bigard and an amazing pianist who has been criminally neglected, Sammy Benskin.

A little session info:

Benny Morton's All Stars

Benny Morton (tb) Barney Bigard (cl) Ben Webster (ts) Sammy Benskin (p) Israel Crosby (b) Eddie Dougherty (d)

WOR Studios, NYC, January 31, 1945

BN219-0 My Old Flame Blue Note 47

All in all, a good way to end another insane week.

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(Bohuslav Martinu - put Czech music into the 20th century)

I've always been a big fan of the music of Bohuslav Martinu, ever since my teenage years when Manny Aron (of Aron's Records in L.A.) turned me on to an lp of his Sinfonietta Giocosa (coming up in the next few weeks). Although in the 60s Martinu was still largely obscure in the U.S., his reputation has grown steadily to the point where he is now pretty much acknowledged as one of the real beacons of 20th century Czech music.

So I thought today I'd post one of his earlier works, his String Quartet Number 2, composed in 1925. This recording, an Ultraphon set of 78s recorded in 1947 (or 1948, I don't have the exact date) is, I think the first recording made of this work. It features the String Quartet of The National Theatre of Prague. I am pretty certain this hasn't seen the light of reissue anywhere, but there are several more recent recordings if you want something without the age factor attached.

Some people just aren't crazy about 78s.

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(Telephone - huge in Europe. Over here? Well . . . )

I recently ran across a French Radio station online (Oui FM, which you should check out) that plays some fascinating stuff - old and new - French and non-French. During one of their sets they slipped in Dure Limite by the French punk/post-punk/new wave/hard rock group Telephone. They were enormous in France and throughout Europe in the late 1970s up to 1986, when they disbanded and went separate ways. They hardly made a dent in the States (again, that language thing), but I remembered the band pretty well, having been familiar with them since their first album, but I really hadn't played anything by them, or heard anything about them until the other day when Dure Limite came on. Not a massive seller at the time, it was produced by Bob Ezrin, who was responsible for a lot of memorable albums in the 70s - Doctor John and Peter Gabriel are two that come to mind. According to a website, the band did reunite in 2003. But what has happened since then is a mystery.

Still, it's nice to be reminded of the not-so-obvious 80s every once in a while.

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(Massive Attack - giving hip-hop its ear)

Something a little different tonight. From the short-lived Phoenix Festival in England from 1996, a set by the legendary Massive Attack.

Very tasty stuff from a pioneering and adventuresome group. What music should be all about - adventure.

Check it out.

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(Sen. James F. Byrnes - From Supreme Court to Secretary of State)

As the unemployment numbers keep creeping up, it's interesting to take a look at a similar situation 70 years ago, when Unemployment Compensation was a new thing (since 1935) and had it's detractors. There really were people who felt it wasn't the governments responsibility to take care of the unemployed - as there no doubt are now. Future Supreme Court Justice and later Secretary of State James F. Byrnes - on February 27, 1939 as Senator from South Carolina, addressed a radio audience to explain just what this unemployment compensation thing was all about.

Sen. Byrnes: “Unemployment assistance by government is not a new question. As early as 1894, ex-President Benjamin Harrison demanded that the federal government set up a work program to fight unemployment. In 1921 at the instance of Mister Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, a conference on unemployment was held in Washington. Bills were introduced in the Congress but nothing was accomplished. Improved business conditions lessen the demand for Federal legislation. But from time to time during the years that followed, bills on the subject were introduced in the Congress. In 1929, our so-called ‘boom year’, the national income was eighty billion dollars. And yet, we had three million unemployed. With that national income today the number of unemployed would be greater than in 1929 because of the technicalogical changes. And the levying of a payroll tax tends to encourage these changes because the tax levied is upon workers and not upon machines.”

Seventy years later, it's still going. And they're still trying to cut the benefits.

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(Sargent Shriver and Peace Corps Volunteers - an abundance of optimism)

The Peace Corps came about as the result of The New Frontier - the brainchild of the Kennedy administration. In 1961 a program was set up to get Americas youth involved in the world by going overseas to help set up schools, libraries, infrastructure - anything to be of service where it was needed. A nice idea, and one which captured the imaginations of thousands of young adults wanting to be part of the optimistic change that was so prevalent in the 1960s.

R. Sargent Shriver was given the task of setting the agency up. He was its first architect. He was also given the task of having to explain just what it was he planned on doing. And so he went on the talk show circuit to lay out in plain terms, just what the Peace was and what it wasn't.One of those talk shows was CBS News' Capitol Cloakroom from October 1961.

Nancy Hanschman (CBS News): “Are your Peace Corps men expected to proselytize to Democracy in any way at all? What is the briefing you give them on this?

Sargent Shriver: “ Well we give them a lot of instruction in American history and government and theory in government and political life and we expect that when they’re asked questions by the people in their foreign country they’ll be able to give them intelligent, informed answers. We don’t go out there and tell them ‘now here is Course Number 101 in American Government – sell this, if you can to the people in the Philippines.’ They’re not out there as traveling salesman, they’re not out there to get up on a soapbox and give a speech. But they are supposed to be out there as well informed, intelligent Americans, able to respond to questions, and even to tough questions from people in foreign countries.”

The Peace Corps became a great success and did a lot to improve our somewhat sagging reputation throughout the world.

And considering the number of "yanqui go home" placards from demonstrations around the world that graced most newspaper front pages and nightly newscasts through the 1950s, that was a good thing.