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(James Brown - Fulfilling a fantasy)

Everyone knows the voice of James Brown; you can't forget it and you can't mistake it for anyone else - that's a given.

But James Brown the instrumentalist - that's another story. In 1964 he was finally able to fulfill a lifelong dream and was signed by Smash Records to do an instrumental album featuring Brown on keyboards, backed by some of the best Jazz/Blues musicians in the country. No vocals.

The results baffled the fans at first. The first track issued in 1965 from those sessions "Evil" didn't chart. But Smash persisted and this track, Try Me, an instrumental version of his hit on King Records some years earlier, was a follow up single and it was a pretty good sized hit.

Needless to say - it is another unforgettable side of James Brown.

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(Logo - Unsigned for absolutely no good reason - well, there is that language problem)

Back over to MySpace discoveries tonight. Logo is a band from Italy who've been kicking around for a while and are still without a label. In this day and age that's not entirely a bad thing, since iTunes and some entrepreneurial spirit are spotted working wonders with bands lately.

They've been gigging around Italy quite a bit and did a brief appearance in Memphis in connection with a Jack Daniels promotion a couple years ago. They were seen just recently playing the famous San Remo Festival - so things are looking up.

This track, which is no longer on their MySpace page is one of the first songs they posted when they signed on to MySpace in 2006. Mio Paroles is a great track with good production. Okay, it's in Italian - but that shouldn't stop you. Check them out and visit their site if you can - they can use the support and you'll be discovering a great band in the process.

Good music knows no language boundaries. Honest.

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(T.E. Lawrence aka: Lawrence of Arabia. Even the dressup was part of the sham)

Myths, it seems don't last for very long these days - sometimes they're debunked within hours. And with some myths, that's a good thing. But not so long ago myths, urban legends and wild flights of fancy stuck around long enough to become part of our national psyche, wound up become acknowledged facts which everybody seemed to know and swear by.

One of the earlier myths of the 20th century came in the guise of T.E. Lawrence, a British Army officer stationed in the Middle East during World War One. By all accounts he was your average officer - nothing too special or unusual. But somewhere along the line a legend grew up around him and, by all accounts, he was happy to oblige. Soon he became the stuff of books and rumors of his heroic exploits crammed the pages of magazines all over the world after the war.

But in 1956, a book was published exploding the myth and it started a controversy that raged for years - the basis of which still holds today. In February of 1956, NBC Radio as part of their New World series ran a panel discussion on the art of debunking and posed the question to a number of scholars both here and in England, where the Lawrence myth was alive and well.

Napier Wilt (English Professor-Dean of Humanities, Univ. of Chicago): “It seems to me that an attack on a popular hero should be taken for granted, ever since the 20s we rather assume that anybody who attains the heights to being a hero is going to be debunked within a week or two.”

A.J.P. Taylor (British historian): “The Lawrence myth, the buildup of Lawrence as a hero has been rather a sham affair, rather a made up affair all the time. As far back as I can remember there’ve been people writing, hysterically exaggerated books about Lawrence immediately after the (first World) war, if fact even during the first war popular magazines did it – he was deliberately plugged , and mind you he was very skillful at plugging himself. Nobody has been a smarter advertiser and I think that this heightening of the tempo – look at any of the pro-Lawrence biographies, look at the things in which say, Winston Churchill said about him, well they’re so grotesquely exaggerated that it’s not surprising that we get grotesque exaggeration on the other side.”

Grotesque exaggerations - sounds familiar.

What is a myth? What starts a myth and who gains from the myth.

With all the myths and urban legends currently floating around, and being shot down almost as fast as they are sent up, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the fine art of Debunking was all about in the 1950s.

Maybe there are similarities.

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(Class of '78 - Voted Most Likely To Succeed)

Another case of history repeating itself. We all like to think the troubles in Afghanistan began in December 1979, when Soviet troops massed on the Afghan border and invaded.

Nope, 'fraid not. It actually got started in 1973 with the initial overthrow of the monarchy, during a staged coup when the King was in Italy having eye surgery. But that's another report (as soon as I dig up the tapes). That particular coup was given support by the Russians (and the U.S. it should be noted) in the area of arms and ideology, the regime under Muhammad Daud having distinct Marxist leanings. It was in April of 1978 when another coup was staged, overthrowing the Daud regime which got the Russians attention that led to the 1979 invasion.

The breakdown goes a little like this:

With Muhammad Daud's death, the government of Afghanistan was run by a divided, dilettante Marxist clique that launched a train of events eventually leading to the disintegration of the state. They named their regime the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA).

Continue reading »

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(The Ganjas - Mind Melting, new Millennium style)

Santiago Chile - doesn't ring any bells as a hotbed of psychedelia, does it? Just goes to show - what you think you know and what you know you know are two different things.

The Ganjas have been around since 2001, blazing their own particular trail of ear-piercing psych, becoming one of the most popular bands in Chile, at least from an underground standpoint.

This track, Sonic Redemption, is from an EP they put out in 2007.

Nice to know the Freak Flags are still waving.

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(Healthcare Debate 2007 - Australian for slugfest)

How the rest of the world views Health Care is pretty enlightening. If you get past the notion that the rest of the world thinks we're pretty strange, and that they are actually several years, if not decades ahead of us in the minutiae of Health issues.

During the 2007 elections in Australia, where Labor (center-Left) swept to power after an 11-year run with the Liberal Party (center-Right) falling out of favor with the electorate. I managed to run across a debate regarding the state of Health Care Down Under from October 31, 2007.

Special thanks to my colleague NonnyMouse, who steered me in several right directions in trying to sort out the issues.

This debate, which almost didn't happen, features Shadow Health Minister Nicola Roxon and incumbent Liberal Health Minister Tony Abbott. Abbott, it appeared, had finished delivering a series of Mea Culpas earlier in the day over a remark he made regarding an Asbestos related Cancer sufferer whom he chided for "publicity seeking".

After a 30 minute delay, Abbott appeared in the studio and the debate picked up.

Nicola Roxon (Labor Party): “The future challenges that are facing our health system are significant. We have a growing burden of chronic disease, we have an ageing population, we know that there are increasing costs of new technologies, and there is waste and inefficiency generated by the buck-passing and blame shifting that characterizes Commonwealth/State relations. Honestly, if the Commonwealth/State relationship were a marriage, the partners would be in counseling, the states would be seeking maintenance payment in the courts, and the parties would both have a strong case for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty.”

Tony Abbott (Liberal Party): “The idea that the Prime Minister could personally run the public hospital system is bizarre. And only in a slightly surreal political contest could Kevin Rudd (Labor PM candidate) have got away with making this bizarre claim. But someone does have to be in charge, that’s absolutely essential. And that person should be responsible to and accountable to local people. Now I think every public hospital should have boards. I don’t say the public hospitals would work perfectly if they had boards, but I tell you what, they’d work a lot better if they had boards, particularly if they had boards with doctors and nurses and former patients on them. The Government will be announcing a major public hospital policy in the next week or so. The details will be revealed then. But I certainly think that every hospital should have a board, and you’ll see what the Governments precise policy is in just a week or so.”

Roxon: “Well, I think the Minister has shown that he really hasn’t got a clear plan at all for what these local boards will deliver for Public Hospitals. In fact, we spent quite a bit of the time on the phone yesterday dealing with the problems that the Minister has created in the takeover with the Mersey Hospital. I’m sure the Minister didn’t particularly want to talk with me, but the Caretaker Conventions require that he does, although he doesn’t need my agreement.”

After the debate it got nasty.

You may wonder why I am including this. It's another country with an established Public Healthcare system (in addition to a private one), and these issues may seemingly not apply to us. The deal is - Every country in the world has some form of Universal Healthcare and we are the only ones on the planet resisting it, mostly out of ignorance or fear brought on by interests not working on behalf of the people they are entrusted to care. To witness other debates from other places, and hear how problems are being solved from other perspectives casts a more informative light on the argument at hand.

And it doesn't hurt to know what other people are doing about it.

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(Nguyen Cao Ky and LBJ in 1966 - Tea leaves in the eye of the beholder)

Since the talk this week centers on the endless war in Afghanistan, I thought it might be a good idea to visit another endless war from another time; Vietnam.

Like Afghanistan, Vietnam wasn't instantly met with derision and questions over our involvement. Like Iraq though, we were also sold a somewhat leaky bill of goods and goaded into pledging lives and untold millions over an involvement that had no timetable and no real plan.

The difference between Iraq and Afghanistan is Iraq bears some resemblance to an organized country. Where Afghanistan is one big grab-bag of tribes, sects and factions that have been over-run, quasi-colonized and fought over for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Just like Vietnam.

In 1966 we were still getting our feet wet in Vietnam, having gone from "advisers" to "troops on the ground" in a little over a year. Support and the "domino theory" were still very much alive and our presence increased on an almost daily basis.

But also in 1966 there were the seeds of questions being sown - what was the plan? How long was it going to take? When it is supposed to end? How many troops are needed? What really was the government of South Vietnam all about?

Just like Afghanistan.

And so on June 21, 1966 Eric Severeid delivered a fifteen minute commentary on our state of siege in Vietnam.

Eric Severeid: “A crucial question: Whether our resistance in Vietnam is preventing the spread of Chinese dominance in other Asian countries, through their propaganda infiltration and subversion. The Administration points to Indonesia, where the powerful Chinese-inspired Communist apparatus was smashed not long ago. That would never have happened, we like to think were we not there in Vietnam. If this is true, all of us would feel very much better about this war in Vietnam. My personal opinion is that it’s not true.”

Needless to say, those questions only grew in number and intensity over the next several years as our justifications grew less and less feasible. It would seem we are heading in that direction again.

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(Strangelove - Could never be mistaken for Sunshine Pop)

Strangelove were a band who achieved cult status well before their demise in 1998. They were known for a particular brand of intensity when they played, fueled by Patrick Duff, Stranglove's lead singer. They were critically acclaimed by the Music Press in the UK and were considered a sort of "musicians band" with mutual admiration from such circles as Radiohead and Suede.

The intensity though, had its price and Duff was committed to rehab shortly before their second album was released. Through a series of bad turns and bad timing, the group never really caught on outside the hardcore fan base and they eventually split up in 1998.

Still, their music hasn't lost any of its intensity, as is evidenced by this track off Love and Other Demons, their second album released in 1996, She's Everywhere.

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(Welcome to California!)

With the current state of eternal/ongoing financial crisis in California, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the day where things went south. On June 8, 1978; the day after the election and the "voters revolt", California was poised to go from budget surplus to bankruptcy in a very short time.

Gov. Brown: “The message is, that the Property Tax must be sharply curtailed and that government spending, wherever it is, must be held in check. We must look forward to lean and frugal budgets.”

Lots of people forget just how this thing got started, since it was 31 years ago - time has a tendency to cloud things over, particularly events that seemed like a good idea at the time, but over the long haul just spelled disaster.

So in case you were wondering . . .

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(VP Spiro Agnew - ran around threatening revoked FCC licenses)

At the height of the war between the White House and the Media, The National Press Club ran a panel discussion featuring Bill Monroe of NBC News, Ben Bagdikian and Fred Friendly of CBS. Members of the White House Communications staff were invited; Herb Klein, Pat Buchanan and Dean Burch, but declined. The subject was The Media and The Administration and a few interesting myths were put to rest.

Ben Bagdikian: “The fact is, that the press of this country is overwhelmingly conservative and Republican. We are in danger of not enough criticism of government, not too much. Most of the new that leaves this town (D.C.) is pretty much what public officials say, with not enough time and energy put into testing the validity of what they say. It’s only human that a public official wants it that way, but it happens to be lousy journalism and bad for democracy. Now Democrats weren’t in love with the press either in their time. And we shouldn’t expect to be loved. We dish it out and we ought to be able to take it when it’s given back to us. But when it comes to the press, I think there’s a difference between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans have had a sympathetic press for so long and in so many places, that they now regard any departure from this as a theft of a natural right. Now it’s not really the Republicans fault either. It’s the fault of the majority of papers in this country who’ve conditioned their local conservative readers to believe that it is the natural born duty of every publication to support Republicans. Let me be specific: a paper’s endorsing a Presidential candidate in 1968, 80% endorsed Nixon, which is about what it’s been with one exception, for Republican candidates in every Presidential race in this generation. And its not just the small town papers. Endorsement by circulation size is about the same percentage. And if we’re talking about a press out of step, how about 80% for Nixon, while the readers vote 43 ½% for Nixon?”

Bagdikian says pretty much what most everyone felt, even as far back as 1972. The idea that mainstream media is a bastion of liberal thought is really a myth cooked up by the GOP. And it's plain to see this myth still holds true today, even more so.

It's interesting to note that the systematic dismantling of network news departments and FCC regulations being abandoned really started with the Nixon administration. It's only been the past 20 odd years we've actually witnessed the long-term effects of those massacres.