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(Ernest Lundeen - talked an interesting talk . . but)

I don't think there is any historic shortage of populist movements being undermined and subverted by people of skeptical motives. I say that due, in large part to the Teabagger Movement where, what appear to be sincere motives on some peoples parts, being hijacked by people of less than honorable motives to satisfy an agenda, a warped ideology or a grudge.

I was listening to a broadcast of a program, popular in the 1930's called "Peoples Lobby" which feature Congressman Ernest Lundeen as featured speaker from January 18, 1936. The subject was Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and Health Care (yes, talked about even then). Lundeen was author of the Lundeen-Fraser Bill, which was widely supported in Congress as an anti-poverty measure.

Lundeen makes an interesting set of points:

Ernest Lundeen: “ Two hundred giant corporations control over half the corporate wealth of the country. And at the present rate of concentration, by 1950 over eighty percent of the corporate wealth of the country will be controlled by two hundred giant corporations. Each year we read of the huge salaries and dividends drawn by bankers and captains of industry Recently, the top salaries of 1935 have been published. In 1929 Eugene Grace of Bethlehem Steel Corporation received one million, six hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars in salary and bonus. In 1935 the Chairman of Bethlehem Steels’ board received two hundred and fifty thousand in salary alone. Coca-Colas President received One hundred thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. Woolworth’s Company President received three-hundred thirty-seven and a half thousand. The country’s largest publisher William Randolph Hearst drew five hundred thousand dollars, and so on down a long list of executive salaries. And that is not mentioning the House of Morgan and other money lords of the American financial aristocracy . . . as long as these great American natural resources continue to fill the greedy coffers of the super-rich, the corporations continue to function, corporate surpluses are piled high for the rainy day. But let business become slack and profits be reduced, a great cry goes up from the corporations that they cannot afford to do business and employ labor. And that is why the American people do not derive full benefit from our enormous natural resources because they have no control over their operation and the distribution of the wealth they produce. We, the people have lost the ownership of the country in which we live.”

It all sounds very good - a sympathy heard a lot today.

But in Lundeen's case it had something of a hollow ring to it. Lundeen, it turns out, had a lot of connections to the Nazi Party in Germany. So much so, that he was actively tailed by the FBI all the way until his mysterious death in a plane crash in 1940. The controversy surrounding his death has never been explained, as were the extent of his connections to Berlin.

His motives on the surface looked good. Beneath the surface, another story.

It reminds me a lot of the current argument about Health Care and who is really running the argument against reform.

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(Father Charles Coughlin - one of the originators of "you're either for us or against us")

When I first began Newstalgia, I ran an entry called "Father Coughlin - the Grandfather of Hate Radio". At the time, I was only able to run a 10 minute clip from one of his talks. It gave a glimpse, but not a complete idea of just what all the controversy surrounding Father Coughlin was all about.

Charles Coughlin was no doubt the first, at least on a national scale, to use radio as an instrument of extremist ideology. Much of what is going on now in reference to the current state of Hate Radio can be attributed almost directly to the weekly tirades and rants of Father Coughlin over 70 years ago.

But in readying this entry, and playing back this broadcast of August 27, 1939, I noticed Coughlin wasn't alone in his shrillness - he had a warm up act.

Dr. Edward Lodge Curran - or Father Curran often used the first half hour of the one hour broadcast to showcase his particular rants, as is evidenced by this harangue of the Cincinnati School Board.

Father Curran: “Every effort was made by the leftist forces, who claimed the right to Freedom of Speech for themselves, but who deny it to others. Seventy-two hours before the meeting, all the efforts of the splendid Cincinnati committee and sponsors had almost dwindled to idle gestures. A Mr. Von Schlichten, a teacher in one of the Cincinnati schools had accepted the invitation to act as Chairman. Mr. Henry Siegal, editor of The American Israelite, promptly complained to the school board. The school board held a secret meeting. And at that meeting, the pedagogical wisdom of withdrawing as Chairman was impressed quite contritely upon Mr. Von Schlichten. And Mr. Von Schlichten, in free, democratic 20th Century America, was forced to withdraw. This is the same Cincinnati School Board, which has permitted the Communists to make use of Woodward High School. This is the same Cincinnati School Board which has never presumed to reprimand any of its other employees who have participated in the activities of the Communistically mind and Communistically controlled American League For Peace and Democracy.”

Curran, it should be noted, ran somewhat afoul of the America First Committee and appears to have dropped out of the history books of extremism. He does, however pop up as the author of "Great Moments Of Catholic History". The wonders never cease.

As for Coughlin - well, his rants are legendary.

Father Coughlin: “I believe that I am on safe ground in affirming that the World War was fought for commercial domination and not for the preservation of Democracy. I believe that I am on the side of truth when I say that the Peace Treaty of Versailles was nothing more than a document of hatred. Defies in a mad attempt to resolve the evils of International Capitalism. And I believe that, although Communism of Russia was in part a rebellion against the system of International Capitalism. Nevertheless it was an insane rebellion, because it fought not only the persecutors of the poor, but the principles of right-reason and the outraged Christ who loves the poor.”

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(September 2nd - The Poles weren't going to take it lying down)

The invasion of Poland was already a day old. Despite continued efforts to bring the conflict to a close, it was already too late. Great Britain handed Germany the infamous "white paper" and time was about to run out for an answer.

The radio was going into overtime reporting the conflict. BBC ran regular news, while Radio Berlin continued to deny they were acting in anything other than defense.

The series of recordings in this entry begin with the BBC and then followed by French Radio and Radio Warsaw. The French and Polish broadcasts are dim and hard to hear, but have been included because of their historic interest. The last segment is Radio Berlin.

Radio Warsaw Newsreader: “The general atmosphere is that of calm resolve to go through this experience (-----) no matter how long it will take. The general opinion of those everywhere is that odds are against Germany in this war.”

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(Supersister - Owed much to Caravan and Frank Zappa, though not in any particular order)

Had they decided to break up when their original lead singer left in 1969, we probably never would have had much of the Progressive Rock movement as we knew it in the 1970's. Supersister were a Dutch band (a country probably known more for Golden Earring and The Tee Set here in the States) who put Europe on the map as far as the Prog-rock movement was concerned.

Influenced a lot by the Canterbury scene in the UK in the mid-late 1960's with the likes of Caravan and Soft Machine, they were also very much influenced by early Mothers of Invention and the free Jazz and electronic music scene that was happening all over Europe from the 1950's onwards.

By today's standards, the band wasn't together all that long. Three albums worth before going separate ways in 1974, until a brief reunion in 2001 which sadly didn't become permanent owing to the loss of Sacha van Geest, one of the founding members to Cancer that year.

Still, Supersister have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity over the years because, like many of their counterparts from the period, it was never picked up by the mainstream and was deemed comfortably weird enough to remain timeless to those who never heard them in the first place.

Thank God for that.

Here is a cut off their second album "To The Highest Bidder", which was issued in the UK on Dandelion Records and came out in the U.S. for about a minute and a half. "A Girl Named You" starts off the original Side two.

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(Spring - 1971 had a lot of promise)

It's like beating a dead horse to say there were an awful lot of bands in the 1970's who barely got past their first albums before going separate ways. Sometimes it was just a case of getting lost in the shuffle. From around 1969 on, a lot of major labels were starting up subsidiaries whose sole purpose was to cater to the eclectic market, growing in size as the result of free form FM radio. Philips started Vertigo, Polydor had Dandelion, EMI had Harvest (with Pink Floyd being an anomaly). And RCA had Neon.

I could never figure out what Neon's story was, since they had a rather large roster of acts, none of whom made much dent, but most of whom were really quite good. RCA in the U.S. were almost totally clueless as to what to do with them, and in large part tossed the albums out on the market with little or no publicity, with the hopes some strange phenomenon would occur - which invariably never did.

Spring was one of those acts that deserved so much more recognition than the none they got. Heavy on Mellotrons and with some excellent production, they recorded one album and were in the process of doing a second when the plug was pulled.

Their first album quickly went out of print (less than six months, as was the norm) and languished pretty much unnoticed until an Italian label Akarma reissued them on CD a few years ago. I'm not sure the Akarma reissue is still print, but I would highly recommend seeking it out, if this track, Inside Out appeals.

Which I have the sneaking suspicion it might.

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(And so it all starts)

In the dawn hours of September 1, 1939, the German army and air force launched a full-scale invasion of Poland. Radio Warsaw was quick to tell the world what was happening. And Radio Berlin was quick to deny it and claim it was all Poland's fault.

Radio Warsaw newsreader: “On the first of September 1939 at dawn the Germans crossed into our territory. German air force and regular army unexpectedly invaded Polish territory without a declaration of hostilities. In the early morning the German air crews attacked a number of towns all over Poland . . . .casualties have been reported among the civilian population.”

Berlin Radio newsreader: “These reports assert that German air planes have dropped gas and incendiary bombs in the vicinity of Poznan. For the sake of history however, the fact must be nailed down that the numerous border incidents in Silesia and East Prussia, and especially the Polish bombardment of Voyten created a situation which made it incompatible with the . . . power to let that series of military transgressions go by unpunished. Germany’s action is an act of defense.”

Soon after the BBC went on the air, reporting at length what was going on.

The war, nonetheless, had started.

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(Fields - Just one album. One very rare album)

Heading into Prog territory this week. Fields is probably not a recognizable name, unless you're a big fan of early Rare Bird (oh, haven't heard of them either?)

Both bands have one person in common; Graham Field who has been probably one of the more neglected keyboard players in the 1970's Prog-rock scene. Field was a founding member of Rare Bird and left when the band decided a change in direction was called for. He regrouped and formed Fields and was quickly snapped up by CBS Records in the UK. The result was one album and a couple of singles before CBS lost interest and Fields broke up.

Field went into semi-retirement, but is rumored to be getting active again.

But in the meantime he did leave a very auspicious first (and only) album in 1971, which has seen a brief reissue on CD in Europe and Japan, but nowhere else.

A Friend Of Mine is the track you will hear when you hit the play button.

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(Berlin - chafing at the bit for the catastrophe to start)

The last diplomatic gestures exhausted, and Germany issuing a sixteen point list of demands for Poland, the evacuation from major cities of children and invalids began, with an estimated 3 million slated to evacuate London alone.

BBC Newsreader: “The German wireless tonight issued a sixteen point program, which it described as Germany’s reply to the latest British note. At what stage this sixteen point plan was advanced is not at present clear, because as of a short time ago it was known that the German government had sent to London no official reply to the note which was received in Berlin last night. Nor had Poland sent any reply to a British note informing her of the previous communication from Herr Hitler. Germany demanded One: that the free city of Danzig, on account of its purely German character and the unanimous will of its population, should return to the Reich unconditionally and forthwith. Two: that the corridor shall decide itself whether it shall belong to Germany or to Poland, and for this purpose a plebiscite shall be held. Three: That all Germans and Poles who have been resident in the corridor since the first of January 1918, or have been born there shall be entitled to vote in the plebiscite, and that all Germans who have been expelled from the corridor, or were forced to leave, shall return there in order to cast their votes.”

A list of impossible demands, making it clear that Germany was determined to go to war and invade Poland as quickly as possible. August 31st would be the last good day in Europe for a while.

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(Periodically getting up close and personal, even in the 1950's)

Most people lately have assumed our involvement in the Middle East (other than Israel), has been a thing of recent vintage. It goes back a long, long ways, certainly our military involvement extends back at least to the Lebanon situation of July 31, 1958 where religious and political factions lead to an overthrow of the government in Lebanon. Similarly, a wave of assassinations and overthrows also took place between Jordan and Iraq (the assassination of King Faisal of Iraq, leading to a series of military regimes, ending with Saddam Hussein in the 1960's). Cold War tensions, brought on by military maneuvers on the USSR/Iranian border and the rise of Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt and just a general shift in the political landscape of the Middle East, brought about considerable nervousness in some quarters, particularly in Britain, France and the U.S.

UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge was quick to point out these tensions in a news conference during a quickly called UN Security Council session.

Henry Cabot Lodge: “What is really happening is plain for all to see if you but lift up our eyes. The overthrow of the lawful government of Iraq, beginning with the assassination of the Crown Prince, and which was followed by a wave of assassinations throughout that unhappy country, is one dreadful fact. Then the attempt to subvert and overthrow Jordan, of which we have just heard, is another. And of course the effort directed from without to subvert Lebanon is familiar to everyone. That there is in the Middle East a common purpose to take over, everywhere. All at once. Clearly, there is a purpose, masterminded from one source. You can read all about it in the Cairo newspapers, or listen to the incessant radio broadcasts from Cairo to other Arab countries.”

The culprit in this case appeared to be Egypt, as Nassar was emerging as a potent leader in the Arab world. Of course, underneath all of it was the question of oil. Wouldn't you know?

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(Luigi Boccherini - Less well known than is necessary)

Today (what's left of it), I am putting up a 1940 recording, featuring the Roth String Quartet playing the Boccherini String Quartet in G Minor.

The interesting thing about a lot of these older recordings, especially from the 78 era is the lack of authentic performance practice, as has been so much the opposite case in recent years. Even a well established and regarded Quartet as the Roth's tended to reject a lot of the nuance that has made period recordings a different kettle of fish entirely.

But with that in mind, it's interesting to get a 1940's point of view, and this recording, made for Columbia Records, is a prime example.