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(PATCO - After this, Union Busting became trendy)

Today's episode puts us in August 2, 1981, literally hours before the members of PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) voted to go on strike. It features a Face The Nation interview with Senate Majority leader Howard Baker, brought out to do spin and denial that the Reagan administration had anything other than killing off this union in mind.

George Herman (CBS News): "Does this kind of government pressure historically play a successful role in ending strikes amicably and getting us back to work?"

Howard Baker: "No, they don’t. There’s a very poor record of judicial . . . maximum judicial effort to end strikes. But there’s also a precedent involved here that we’ve not dealt with before and that is, an avowed purpose of striking by Federal employees, who in this case are forbidden to strike by statute. And the reason for that is not capricious, the reason is the public safety, and to a remarkable extent the social welfare of t his country and its economic health depends on the air traffic controller. It depends on the ability of the air traffic network in this country to function. I would not favor frankly, arresting and jailing people who do not abide by the requirement of the law. But with the same token, short of that, I think the government should do everything that is necessary to make clear that we will not stand by and see the law violated, that we will not stand by and see the economy disrupted; the social fabric of this country rent, because the air traffic controllers will not go back to work, or will not stay at work. Now, they have grievances, they’ve got problems and I’m sympathetic. But they are holding a club of enormous weight and proportion over the head of America and they simply mustn’t do that."

The Air Traffic controllers had a legitimate beef - they wanted a 32 hour work week, rather than 40 because the pressure of maintaining a level of alertness essential to doing the job was crucial. And a full 40 hours took its toll and created a lot of unsafe scenarios.

In hindsight, it would almost seem the Reagan Administration had used this as a test case in their Union Busting campaign. Unions, along with regulations were a hindrance to the Reagan Administration. Over the next 8 years there would be a dismantling of just about every regulation that stood in the way of unbridled greed and corruption. It's important to realize the state our country and economy are now in are not the exclusive property of the Bush Administration - the roots and fundamentals go back to the 1980's, and most likely well before to the Nixon Administration. But it was The Reagan Years that created ultimately the most damage. PATCO was the first of many episodes. And of course, the outcome was not successful. But that's our next installment.

In addition to Face The Nation, I also tacked on The World This Week from CBS News, covering the events of the week of August 2, 1981. It appears to have been a rather busy week!

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(Capability Brown - GREAT singles. But albums . . . . well . . .)

Capability Brown were one of those bands who had all the elements of being great. Amazing vocal harmonies, good instrumental licks, great up-and-coming label (Charisma came about as the brainchild of former manager of the bands Creation, Bonzo Dog and The Nice Tony Stratton-Smith) with lots of positive Press. And Capability Brown had a couple of great singles, like this one "Windfall".

But when it came to putting an album together, that was another story. The material was just bland and not well produced. And that spelled disaster for anyone trying at the high-stakes rock n' roll game and perplexity for reviewers who were anticipating their albums, based on the positive reaction to their singles.

Like I said, the singles were another story - and "Windfall" was everything the albums weren't. Capability Brown is largely forgotten now. their first album never issued on CD and their second album issued briefly on CD in Japan and the singles only issued as part of anniversary compilation in 1973. By that time the band had split and Charisma was reaping the benefits of Genesis.

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(Hummingbird - coming in at the tipping point in 1975 )

Hummingbird probably isn't a household name. This, their first album for A&M in 1975 didn't sell all that well and I believe the only place it's been reissued on CD is in Japan (in 2007). But prior to their incarnation as Hummingbird, they were collectively The Jeff Beck Group (only minus Beck). A few weeks ago I ran a Beck concert from 1972 which featured the members of this band during one of their last concert appearances together, before Beck left to explore other possibilities. Upon Beck's departure they continued on, known as Hummingbird and eventually landing a deal with A&M and two releases. I think one of the main reasons this band, and so many others of the same genre, didn't get deserved recognition was their timing. By 1976 the whole business underwent a big change with the advent of Punk and New Wave. Mellow was quickly becoming a hard sell.

Hummingbird features Max Middleton on keyboards, Bobby Tench on vocals, Bernie Holland on guitar, Clive Chaman on bass and Conrad Isidore on drums.

The track Ocean Blues pretty much sums up what the band's sound was all about. A tight, cohesive unit that's been sadly neglected but really deserves another hearing.

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(Jean Shepherd - Occupation: Cheerful Chaos Merchant)

Living on the West Coast, I didn't have the opportunity of experiencing Jean Shepherd as so many in New York did. I got it by way of rumor, his album on Elektra and his syndicated radio show that periodically ran on KPFK. I heard he was good friends with a lot of the Beat Generation poets, and growing up with a well-thumbed copy of "A Coney Island Of The Mind" in my high school notebook, anyone who was anywhere near that scene had to be a hero of mine.

Years later, I ran across a collection of tapes which featured his live shows and a bunch of his studio shows from the early 60's, which this is one.

Shepherd is pretty much known today as the guy who wrote "A Christmas Story". And even though it's achieved a kind of "classic Americana" status - it doesn't really explain who Shepherd was and why he was so loved by everyone who heard him. His was a skewed vision of the world, often darkly humorous and completely iconoclastic.

To a 16 year old mind, he was just what the doctor ordered.

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(Robbie Grey of Modern English - The birthrate reportedly went up after "Melt With You" was released)

A trip through the 80's today with a concert from March 14, 1984 featuring Modern English.

Not exactly one hit wonders, but one of a flood of bands all arriving around the same time - so they did get slightly lost in the shuffle and for no really good reason. Their big hit, "Melt With You" was sighted by a number of friends as great snogging music - with "Ricochet Days" (the opening track on this concert) running a close second.

I'll leave the snog factor up to you.

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(Sorry - no photo this time. Use your imagination)

L.A. was a hotbed of activity in the 1960's as far as recording studios went. One of the biggest was Gold Star Recording Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. It wasn't huge, like Columbia Records studios up the street on Sunset, or Capitol on Vine, but it hosted some of the most famous sessions from the early days of rock to its eventual demise in 1983.

So when a studio had a reputation as the place to be, everybody had to record there - as if cutting a session at the same place The Who laid basic tracks down assured you of stardom.

Some cases that was true and others go under the heading of might've been's.

One such group was Limey & The Yanks, a local L.A. band who, like a lot of bands, were a fixture on the L.A. club scene and whose brush with fame consisted of a handful of singles for the Loma label between 1966 and 1967. The group featured Steve Cook (aka Limey) Bob Gay, Wally Downing and Darrell Devlin. They're classified under that great sub-heading "garage band" - those bands who had maybe one or two hits, were very raw. Technical proficiency that ranged from excellent to nonexistant and usually a band that played a lot of covers of other more established bands. Many went on to illustrious careers while others gave it up and went home.

This track "When I Come Home" is from a four song session the band did in 1966 at Gold Star. It's not clear if they were signed to Loma at the time or not - there's no indication on the tape box. But if you're familiar with them this will probably come as a pleasant discovery because it's not likely these tracks were issued. Certainly not issued in stereo as they are here.

So here's a little rarity to start your weekend off with.

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(Visions of the Fear Card: Priceless)

Historically, one would imagine every time any kind of reform is contemplated, the right wing quickly jumps in and pulls out the fear card. Socialism being the new paranoia. In 1949 as now, Socialism is lumped in with Fascism, Communism, Nazism, the entire spectrum - a whole stew of extremes geared solely to generate fear, paranoia and hate.

In this particular debate, part of the "Americas Town Meeting" series on December 4, 1949, the question "Are we slipping into Socialism" is asked of Republican Congressman Clarence J. Brown of Ohio and real-life Socialist Norman Thomas.

Typical of their exchange:

Brown: “ You can call any one of a dozen things, it all comes out of the same bottle. Socialism, communism, fascism, nazism, whatever it may be. It’s where the state becomes all powerful and the individual no longer counts”

Thomas: “I think, to be very . . . brutally frank, this sort of talk in itself is very dangerous. We’re not going to manage our very complicated civilization when you talk about fascism, socialism and communism being the same. When you talk about a movement like socialism, which has proved recently in New Zealand where it allowed itself very peacefully to be voted out of office, where you’ve got a movement that cares primarily for the individual and his rights, and you then equate it with a movement of that false renegade Mussolini, or with the communists and their tyranny, you’re mixing things up for the confusion of issues and the glorification of those who have power and property and don’t want to meet the challenges of democracy.”

Repeatedly during the exchange, Brown skirts the issues and solutions, instead throwing distractions around. It's typical of what's going on now - creating fear and hysteria in order to confuse. Thomas isn't exactly a saint either and his solutions aren't exactly concise.

But the fact is, whenever anyone tries to bring about some dialogue towards solution to a real problem, the Republicans have had a long track record for sand bagging and sleight of hand.

In 1949 we were knee-deep in the Cold War. It was very easy to play the fear card to gather support - the looming presence of the Soviet Union and the threat of nuclear war was very real, at least in the minds of most people. But in many ways, playing that card created an opportunity for many in the right wing to exploit the fear to their own advantage. And many have created huge fortunes and massive presences by scaring the shit out of you.

It was the same in 1949 and it's the same 60 years later.

If the fear ain't broke, why fix it?

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(Duster Bennett - the real U.K. deal)

Unfortunately, in his all-too-short career, Duster Bennett never made it to the States and only recorded a few albums before his untimely death in 1976 (falling asleep at the wheel and hitting a truck). But in the short time he was around, he made a deep impression on audiences and musicians alike with his raw and unpretentious style. This track "My Lucky Day" is off his first album "Smiling Like I'm Happy". It was recorded in 1968 and features pretty much all of Fleetwood Mac (John McVie on Bass, Mick Fleetwood on drums, Peter Green on guitar) as backup band. It was also produced by Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac's producer during their early incarnation) and was issued on Blue Horizon (Mike Vernon's label) - certainly not the kind of treatment you'd accord a flash-in-the-pan/one-hit-wonder, which Duster Bennett was not. Very little of his material has been reissued, which is tragic. However, a new compilation has come out that chronicles the recordings he made for Blue Horizon.

It's about time and it's worth checking out.

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(In the era of funny money - $1.5 mil got you this fixer-upper)

As California continues it's circle around the monetary drain, I was reminded of another fiscal crisis on the other side of the country. New York and the big default of 1975 - the one where President Ford all but said drop dead to Mayor Beame and his request for Federal bailout funds. Interesting times - they became something of a pattern for American cities during those years. New York, Cleveland, Detroit. And the offshoots - Prop 13 for California. The Savings and Loan Scandal. All potential crises, swept under the carpet of history and forgotten about.

I ran across this documentary, part of NPR's "Options" series called "Growing Economic Problems for U.S. Cities", which ran in September of 1975.

It features Mayors Abraham Beame of New York and Coleman Young of Detroit, along with Treasury Secretary William Simon and Senators Jacob Javits and Hubert Humphrey, all wrestling with the impending fiscal crisis.

New York City Comptroller Harrison Golden has an interesting take on it - I'm sure much of it echoes today.

“The politicians who developed the tricks and all of the devices that built in the seeds of disaster bear a measure of the blame. So does the media, the press which heralded those sleights of hand as representing mathematical ingenuity or fiscal wizardry. What all those steps were was delaying till tomorrow which should have been the problems on the day in which those tricks were used. The banks are to blame because they made money off of the devices that were developed. The citizens generally and businesses are to blame because they wanted a free lunch, wanted more service without paying for it. There’s plenty of responsibility, plenty of culpability to go around.“

Plenty of culpability. And plenty more now where that came from.

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(The Kinks - Ray Davies: always the right words at the right time)

Sometimes you just hear something and you have to share it. I don't know - I always liked this song. It always seemed bitter-sweet. The Kinks "Better Things" from 1981 just feels apropos to the day, the week, the month.

There are times you just need musical background to an overloaded world.