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(Eclipse - Progrock from Quebec . . timing wasn't good)

I think, of all the various genres of music in the world, Rock Quebecois of the 1970's is probably the least known. A number of bands came out as part of the Progrock scene and achieved a certain loyal following, while others recorded one of two albums and vanished without a trace.

One of those bands was Eclipse. Almost totally unknown outside of Canada and, specifically Quebec. This French speaking band had all the earmarks of being a success. Great production, good musicians and a major label (CBS). But times being what they were (we're talking 1976 here - the year of The Sex Pistols and the great change in music), could not settle in with an audience and, English being the language of Rock, there was no interest in them from a mainstream point of view.

I've always been amazed at how a lot of European bands were rejected out of hand simply because they didn't sing in English - somehow their work wasn't valid because you couldn't understand what they were saying. I've often felt we missed out on a lot of great music because of that. Our loss.

Anyway - here is Eclipse from their first release in 1976. The track is called "La Derniere Fois". . . and the chords are universal.

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(Senator Kenneth Keating, 1962 - Politics with a civil tongue)

I don't think it's any surprise that Sunday Morning talk shows have changed dramatically over the years. Formats are no longer the same. Programs like Meet The Press and Face The Nation were only two of the almost dozen programs on most weekends. Usually a panel of three interviewers fielding questions to a single guest. The questions ran the gamut but they were always on point and they always dealt with real issues and real concerns to most people.

The days of news as info-tainment were a long ways off.

One of the more popular shows was a radio-only series run on CBS called "Capitol Cloakroom". This show, typical of their format, featuring George Herman, Wells Church and Nancy Dickerson was from May 6, 1962 featuring newly elected Senator Kenneth Keating (R-New York). The questions were regarding legislation introduced by the Kennedy Administration, including the Medicare Bill (which died the first time in 1962).

Keating gives his assessment of the first year of the JFK administration.

Wells Church(CBS News):

“It would appear to the casual viewer that things are in trouble. What’s the situation, really?”

Senator Keating:

“Well, not only a casual observer but I would think anyone intimately associated with the entire program would realize that the Administration program is in trouble. You could go right down through the list. The Medical Care for the Aged is opposed by the Democratic Chairman, both in the house and in the Senate of the committees that deal with that matter. The tax bill passed the House, but as Senator Byrd, the Chairman of the Finance committee in the Senate has said it doesn’t seem to have the support of anyone – I don’t know of anybody that’s for the tax bill, if the House bill were before the Senate today I’d vote against it."

No drama. No screaming. Nothing shrill. Just solid information about the goings on in Capitol Hill.

Kind of refreshing. Makes you wonder when did it all go wrong.

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(The Beach Boys - all wrapped up in a big package of innocent)

When my friend Gary Schneider ran a link to some previously undiscovered Beach Boys performance photos, I got the idea to drag this tape out of the vault and give it a listen. I figured as long as someone was discovering lost photos of the Beach Boys, I might as well compliment the situation by offering a lost concert, right?

It's the classic concert format so prevalent in the 1950's and early 60's. A dozen acts would perform two or three numbers each and an MC kept things rolling. Nobody ever got bored, but nobody ever really got to hear the band play either.

This concert was organized by local radio station KFWB in conjunction with the YMCA on October 19, 1963. Part of it was televised (although I've never seen any videotape of this show or word that it's survived).

What's on here are the last two acts of the show, The Surfaris and The Beach Boys. The Surfaris jam through four numbers, three as a medley and the Beach Boys get to do an extra number because well . . .they're the headliners.

Like all of the Bowl recordings it's raw and not mixed with any thought of history transpiring on the microphone. It's just a record of an event that happened that luckily escaped the dumpster.

With the exception of the impromptu acapela KFWB jingle at the end, no one else has heard this tape, until now.

Think of it as a nod to mid-summer.

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(Manfred Mann - Not your average grab-bag of pretty faces)

During the first couple of years of the British invasion (1964-1966), one of the consistent hit makers were Manfred Mann. They turned out some memorable music and were one of the first British bands to record Dylan material "With God On Our Side", and it served them very well. Their second Dylan track, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" (the one we've got here), did great in the UK - hitting at #2 before some of the lyrics and their implications were discovered and promptly banned from radio airplay. It was released here in the States, but as a B side so there was little, if any controversy because radio never played B-sides.

Despite that, Manfred Mann did very well and weathered some personnel changes before the band split up and resurfaced as Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

But this is 1965 and none of that has happened yet.

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( . . and then there was that "do nothing Congress" to deal with)

Improved Healthcare and the idea a National Healthcare system were on the Truman Administration agenda since 1945. It became a plank in the platform of the 1948 election and would be something he tried to keep active all the way until his leaving office in 1953.

But even in 1948, when it was a hotly contested issue, the massive lobbying and fearful resistance, every attempt was shot down.

This clip comes from an address on the occasion of Democratic Womens Day on September 27, 1949.

Truman:

“We must also act promptly to improve the health of our nation. The women of the country particularly know, in many areas there are not enough doctors or hospitals, and that many families cannot afford the medical care they need. This administration has proposed a program of improved medical care. Some parts of this program, such as an expanded health care for school children and additional aid for hospital construction have already passed the Senate. Our medical program will mean happier homes, healthier children, greater opportunity for useful lives for all the people.”

And sixty years later, almost to the day . . . .

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(The Smoke - Banned at the starting gate)

I doubt The Smoke are a band anyone on this side of the Atlantic has ever heard of, unless you are a die hard collector of psychedelia or knew someone who actually was familiar with this band at the time.

The Smoke was a short-lived outfit famous (or infamous) for their very first hit single "My Friend Jack" - an innocent sounding title, but the rest of the line goes " . . eats sugar lumps". Sugar lumps being something of a code word for the thing LSD was laced with. Right off the bat, it was banned from any airplay in England. So naturally, when anything is banned it races up the charts just on sheer rumor alone. There have been several bands with the name The Smoke, including one that did get released in the States on Tower, but they have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

Sadly though, The Smoke were a one hit wonder. And after several tries, of which this particular single "Have Some More Tea" was one, they gave up and went their separate ways. But not before recording an albums worth of material and making an indelible impression on any record collector who came their way. In later years, "My Friend Jack" has become something of an underground classic, being covered by Boney M (which has a connection to The Smoke) and Wondermints. I actually never heard this band the first time around, but discovered them on the recommendation of a guy named Yves who ran Vinyl Solution in London in 1979.

It's all his fault - thank God.

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(Monochrome Set - another in a long line of unpredictable bands, for which we are forever grateful)

1979. The wave of Post-punk/pre-New Wave bands were starting to make their presences known over here in the States - eroding what was a pretty stodgy business during the mid-1970's. One of those bands were The Monochrome Set. Probably less commercially known than XTC, but no less interesting. They've enjoyed a pretty lengthy career, going from 1978 to 1985 and then picking up in 1990 to 1998. There was a one-off gig last year. So whether or not they will surface and regroup in the future is anyone's guess.

But for now - here's their second single "Eine Symphonie des Grauens".

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(Doing an homage to "The Scream" would have been too on-the-money)

California in 1981 - with a budget surplus from only a few years earlier now gone and an economy getting ready to circle the drain, Governor Jerry Brown offered a bleak assessment for the future in his characteristically short State Of The State Address (a whopping 10 minutes), while trying to maintain an upbeat facade. The big hope was Silicon Valley and the burgeoning Tech sector. Remember, in 1981 personal computers were just starting to gain a toehold in our culture and the promise of the Internet was still a few years away.

Looking back at this State of The State I don't think anyone had a clue just how bad it was going to get.

Gov. Brown:

“As I see it, 1981 is a year of testing. Testing our capacity to live within a stringent budget. More than ever we need the cooperation of both parties. From an historic vantage point, we’ve reached a watershed. For the first time since World War 2 state government spending will clearly not keep pace with inflation.”

Even more difficult to imagine 1981 being considered "pretty okay" by current standards. I wonder if we'll feel that way about 2009.

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(XTC - Taking the piss in stride)

Bouncing up to 1980 tonight. XTC and "Heaven Is Paved With Broken Glass" - B-side from the "Ball and Chain" 12". I always liked XTC and looked forward to anything new they released. It was always good because it was never predictable. But then, the late 70's through to the early 80's were like that -lots of unpredictable music was around. Not much of it on the radio (except early KROQ . . .emphasis on early!). The major labels were starting to lose their grip and small labels, sometimes self-pressed labels, came flying out of the woodwork.

There were a lot of possibilities and a lot of talent to go around.

And XTC fit in quite nicely.

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(H.L. Hunt - Richest Man in America . .and the furthest right - Booga-Booga!)

For people who think the wave of extreme right wing media is a new phenomenon, it's been with us forever. Going back to the 1930's with the likes of Father Coughlin, there have been a steady stream of pundits, alarmists, hate advocates and wingnuts ever since.

During the 1950's and 1960's one of the biggest practitioners of right wing alarmist radio and TV came in the person of H.L. Hunt.

Rings no bells? Probably not. H.L. Hunt maintained a very low profile in his funding of weekly radio and TV broadcasts that fed a steady stream of fear, hate and paranoia for many years. So low in fact, that funding for his programs came out of his advertising Agency.

It also didn't hurt that he was the richest man in America, with a vast fortune starting with oil. By all accounts, he was eccentric at best. Leading a somewhat monastic life (except for the mass of illegitimate children he was reported to have fathered), even to the point of carrying his own brown-bag lunch to work every day.

Something about extreme wealth fostering extreme strange. J. Paul Getty had his phone booth - H.L. Hunt had his brown bag lunch.

Question: "You run a pretty large network of communications that carry forward your own political ideas, starting way back with programs such as “Facts Forum” and “Answers For Americans” I believe was another. Why did you turn to radio and television with your great wealth to put across these ideas? What made you do that?"

Hunt: “Well that was a means of communication. Now . . .public opinion is a powerful factor and public opinion could save our nation if our nation is in danger. But the communication media is owned and controlled by 80 or 85% of the opposition to the constructive philosophy."

Hunt: "I think the line should be drawn between people that love liberty and are for the freedom system. And the society that has made America great. And the newspapers, radio, TV stations and networks are in the hands of, we shall say, the enemy of that system."

Hunt was a huge supporter and board member of the John Birch Society and was convinced Washington was a cesspool of communism. He pops up in all sorts of conspiracy theories. And even though he's been dead since 1974 and there has been ongoing legal battles regarding family members, the Hunt legacy is still shrouded in mystery.

And so it was quite unusual that in 1970, a documentary on Hunt would surface. The recordings I have give no trace as to who did it, who conducted the interviews (there is a lengthy one with Hunt) and how they gained such access.

One suspects, since this was done in 1970 and Nixon was President, a lot of former closeted extreme right wingers came out of the closet and made their presences known.

In any case, it's interesting listening and further evidence the roots of the extreme right wing are many and deep and go back a long way.