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(The Doors - someone wondered if in a hundred years we'd still be playing "Light My Fire" - so far, so good.)

I know this particular show has been bootlegged quite a bit; it's the PBS program "Critique" from May 23, 1969 which features The Doors performing in the studio, an interview with the band and a roundtable discussion between Richard Goldstein, Pat Kennealy, Rosko and Al Aronowitz.

My source is from NET (pre-PBS) and is probably as close to the original recordings as possible. The tape box says April 29, 1969, so I am assuming this is when the copy was made and not the original air date. Truths to tell, I haven't heard the bootlegs of this recording so I have no frame of reference with which to judge. All I know is, the sound is excellent and, if you haven't heard it before, pretty exciting. This was done shortly after the famous Miami bust and it's discussed during the round table portion. The interview with Morrison is great - the round table discussion afterwards is . . . well . . . interesting. You be the judge.

As for the performances themselves, it's classic Doors.

So here is "Critique" complete, uncut and exactly as it was aired in May 1969.

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(Ian & Sylvia - no record collection worth its salt was without them)

Back to the Hollywood Bowl this week. This time from 1965. The first Hollywood Bowl appearance of Ian & Sylvia. They had been together since 1959 and were performing and recording regularly up to the early 1970's when folk music more or less waned from the pop scene. But in 1965 it was still pretty much holding its own and Ian & Sylvia had a loyal following.

This concert, part of the Hollywood Bowl "Folk Night" series also featured the first Bowl appearance of Josh White, as well as Bud & Travis, Judy Collins and The Brothers Four. I'll add those in the coming weeks.

But here's Ian & Sylvia, as they sounded one night in 1965.

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(And there are those who are insane enough tell you this is all some hoax)

With the recent events at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, and the insanity of those denying the Holocaust ever happened, I ran across this report from the BBC recorded just after the concentration camp at Belsen was liberated by British troops. It's one of many reports broadcast during those last months of the War, as camp after camp was liberated and the true ghastly horrors came to light.

In a strange way, I can see how some would like to deny this ever happened. I think there are times the mind finds it impossible to conceptualize one human being this capable of such cruelty to another - people just don't do that to each other. And the answer is, yes they do. And, for the most part they are still doing it. Look at Darfur (as many choose not to). Look at Rwanda-Burundi. Look at the recent past of the former Yugoslavia. Horrible events, so impossible to conceive. Yet, it's true - all of it. Yet there are some sick enough to deny any of this has been and is still going on - some passing themselves off as scholars and people with supposed proof and a public forum.

So here, from the program London Calling via the BBC in London on May 23, 1945 is a report from Belsen.

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(Jumping from one frying pan straight into another.)

With the elections in Iran less than two days away, I remembered 2009 marked the 30th anniversary of the overthrow of the Shah and the ushering in of the Ayatollah - going from one repressive regime to another in a matter of months.

And in 2009 there is talk of an ouster of the fundamentalist regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a swing towards moderation and an unprecedented youth vote, probably too young to remember those days in 1979.

Word on the streets in Tehran is moderation and reform - women having an equal say in government, doing away with the repressive restrictions. Losing the stranglehold the fundamentalists have had these past 30 years.

But it's interesting to look back during those first 3 months of the overthrow (January to March 1979) to hear what was unfolding. News reports and speculations and finally an interview via Face The Nation with the Ayatollah Khomeni.

A quick look back. Later on in the year it would mean American hostages - and we'll cover that in the coming months.

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(The Eternal Feeding Frenzy)

"I think that certainly there is an effort on the part of those in power to control what the press has to say about them."

- Brit Hume - February 22, 1973.

Oh, how times have changed. During several weeks in early 1973, the Senate staged hearings under the banner "Peoples Right To Be Informed". The question whether or not confidential sources were subject to subpoena was raised, certainly in light of Watergate, whose hearings would begin only a few months later. Senator Sam Ervin was Chairman and testifying during this session was none other than Brit Hume and Joel M. Gora of the ACLU. Hume was an investigative reporter working for print media at the time, and during the course of questioning was asked if the government was applying undo pressure on the media in presenting positive spin. Hume's response, as well as referring to it as propaganda, was rather interesting considering where he has gone in recent years.

And maybe how far the mighty have fallen. Or is there a checkbook involved in all this?

Gora and Hume's testimony as it was broadcast on February 22, 1973 - the morning session.

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(For many, it really was the Longest Day)

Shortly after midnight (Eastern War Time) on June 6, 1944, the first trickle of news reports regarding the invasion of Europe began. The reports were initially from German news sources and so weren't given credibility. But shortly after, word from Supreme Allied Headquarters in London revealed that in fact, the invasion of Europe was underway.

June 6, 2009 marks the 65th anniversary of that turning point in World War 2. The largest invasion force ever assembled landed on the coast of France and began the long siege that eventually brought the demise of the Axis powers in 1945.

I've assembled excerpts of the first 12 or so hours of the invasion story, from the initial bulletins and reported by the people who witnessed it and by the ones who breathlessly relayed the much anticipated news to all the Radio Networks throughout the world.

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(Jack Kerouac - the endless quest for something resembling truth)

The Beat Generation (a label some people cringe hearing) has become something of a quaint artifact of late, mostly caricatured and marginalized, relegated to stereotypes of an approximated past.

In the 1950's and early 60's it didn't fare that much better. Mainstream media wasn't sure what to make of it. Entire talk shows were devoted to asking the question "what is it these people want?". Discussions went on endlessly over the anthropological importance of "the beats" and magazines bent over backwards with articles posing the question "where did we go wrong?"

Truth was, it was all part of the great upheaval in society as we once knew it. One that wouldn't really blossom until the 60's, but whose groundwork was solidly laid down in the 50's, when questioning the status quo brought perplexed stares and hostile reactions. Cold War fear and a general unease were putting cracks in the facade. And maybe that split-level bungalow ranch-style just wasn't that important in the bigger scheme of things.

And so on April 5, 1960 CBS Radio, as part of their "Hidden Revolution" series narrated by Howard K. Smith, sought to bring to light the real issues behind the discontent by way of a documentary on The Cool Rebellion.

Some of the interviews are awkward, self-conscious and self-serving. But the basic gist is, something was going on - people were changing their ideas about the world and their place in it.

Like all great movements in society, it starts with being misunderstood.

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(Mick Abrahams - One of the staples of the FM diet of the early '70's.)

Not exactly live this week, but sessions produced for the John Peel Program over the BBC in 1971 and courtesy of the ever-amazing BBC Transcription Service.

Anyone who has been a long time Jethro Tull fan will recognize Mick Abrahams as one of the founding members, who left shortly after the release of This Was in 1968 and went on to form Blodwyn Pig (whose single Dear Jill was a staple on early rock FM radio here in the States). Blodwyn Pig dissolved in late 1970. There was the short lived Wommit and then The Mick Abrahams Band who, although not achieving the commercial appeal Jethro Tull had, still maintained a strong loyal following and were regarded by many as musician's musicians. Blodwyn Pig recently reformed (adding Clive Bunker, original Tull drummer and, in my estimation the best) and are currently gigging around England and Europe.

This session, recorded on June 6, 1971 features Seasons, Not To Rearrange, Winds of Change and Why Do You Do Me This Way.

So for the next 20 or so minutes, pretend it's not 1971. And it's not if you haven't heard this band before - it's new to you. New is good. Honest. Especially when it's been around for a while.

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(Some people just never got over it.)

Jack Lescoulie presents an ode to The Polo Grounds, almost two years after the last game was played by the Giants before moving to San Francisco in 1957. Here he is, from his Stardust Program over NBC Radio on June 2, 1959.

. . .Like it was yesterday.

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(We weren't too popular then either.)

Seems not a whole lot has changed the last 40 years, with regards to our standing in the eyes of the world. We have been liked as a people, but despised as a government. How we've managed to trash allies and solidify movements against us. How we've been actively engaged in mutual alienation of every country around us. I was thinking about that as I watched the BBC coverage of President Obama in Cairo this morning. How the right wing so desperately wants us to be isolationist in our foreign policy while at the same time embracing cheap sources of overseas labor in the name of Free Enterprise. And how much work needs to be done in the area of diplomacy just to put things on even keel again.

I thought maybe the problem was the result of the last 8 disastrous years. No. It goes back a lot further than that. According to this documentary from the Second Sunday Radio series "A World Reflection: How they see us", it's been going steadily downhill since the mid-1960's. A long time for a lot to go wrong. And a snap of the finger isn't going to make it right.

As with everything that's been done the past 8 years, repairing damage and surveying the wreckage is going to take a long time. Maybe even decades.

But here is how it was viewed on September 12, 1971.