One band I don't think I've ever featured on The Roundtable are The Rolling Stones. Not for any good reason. I assumed everyone knew their material by heart and anything I added would just be redundant. But since they actually have been around for fifty years, a lot of their material has probably not been heard lately, certainly from the early albums, when they were very much influenced by Chicago Blues and the Chess Records sound.

I admit this is my favorite period of the band. And even though much of the material they recorded on those first several albums wasn't penned by Jagger-Richards, it was still very exciting to listen to at the time.

One track they did write, which I'm featuring tonight, is off their 1965 album The Rolling Stones, Now! Recorded over a period of months and at several locations, including the famous Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios in Hollywood. What A Shame is off the first side of the lp and it's vintage Stones, featuring Brian Jones on Lead Guitar and Ian Stewart on Piano.

Good times.

En route to the much anticipated Vienna Summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev, President Kennedy paid a State Visit to Charles DeGaulle to engage in talks regarding French views on U.S. Foreign Policy and discuss differences with regards to NATO.

Here is a wrap-up of the days events for June 2nd, 1961 as reported by Leon Pearson and NBC Radio News.

Buried in the news on this June 4th in 1954 were several stories that would come back to haunt.

Starting with the tragic news of the explosion and fire aboard the USS Bennington, due to a hydraulic spark igniting explosive fuel, with the result of 102 crewmen dead.

The Secretary of Commerce admitted "we're in a Recession" with the disclosure of 16 more cities added to the list of 123 major cities with substantial unemployment. The figures come in at well above 5 million unemployed, although the government claimed its figures to be around 4 million. The numbers didn't take into account the unemployed whose benefits had run out in recent weeks.

Another harbinger of things to come - General James van Fleet was reported to have said he didn't think U.S. ground forces were needed in South East Asia. That sending military aid would be enough. This came hot on the heels of Secretary of State Dulles, joining a growing list of officials predicting U.S. involvement in a shooting war in Indo-China (i.e. Vietnam) was imminent.

There was a report on a preview of the upcoming 1955 cars, with a lot more V-8 engines available as standard equipment. The irony was an accompanying report that the major Oil companies were purposely keeping gas prices up by making claims that extra additives for improving performance of these V-8 engines was a way of jacking up gas prices, while marketing claims that these new fuel formulas were better for car performance. A claim not substantiated.

It was also reported that some Army engineers had developed a Solar Panel that, when installed on the roof of a family home, would provide enough heat and electricity to fuel the average house completely from the sun. In 1954, no less.

From Capitol Hill - much anticipated wrangling over President Eisenhower's Farm Bill. An FCC Commissioner, favored by Sen. McCarthy was re-appointed by President Eisenhower and the Army-McCarthy Hearings were droning on, with more noise than progress.

And that's what happened on this June 4, 1954 as reported by Frank Edwards And The News.

Probably one of the most gifted and baffling singer-songwriters of the 1960's. Fred Neil made a huge impact on the Folk scene in the late 1950's and early 1960's. As a songwriter he was responsible for such acknowledged classics as "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a massive hit for Harry Nilsson and figured prominently in the iconic film Midnight Cowboy. So much of his material was covered by other artists that his own versions of his songs were often overlooked by the mainstream audience. But by his peers, his was a unique and indelible voice in the music world. And just as he was hitting the crest of a popularity wave, he turned his back and quietly faded from view, only resurfacing briefly until his untimely death in 2001 robbed the music world of one its most distinctive and unique voices.

Tonight it's a track off the Everybody's Talkin' album he recorded for Capitol Records in 1967. That's The Bag I'm In is very much in the mold of Neil's style - a somewhat cynical and dark view of the world, filled with irony and excess. It was a world Fred Neil knew quite a bit about.

If you aren't familiar with him, but may be familiar with some of his material, here's a good chance to hear it from the Man himself, as only Fred Neil could do it.

Taking a brief foray into the Transcription Service of Armed Forces Radio this week. Here is a recording of a concert at the Hollywood Bowl by The Los Angeles Philharmonic, guest conducted by Walter Hendl and featuring legendary violinist Issac Stern in a performance of the then-newly discovered Violin Concerto Number 1 by Bela Bartok.

The concert was recorded during the 1961 Hollywood Bowl season. Stern recorded this piece for Columbia Records with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy also in 1961. I doubt this particular performance has seen the light of day, so it's something of a rarity for Stern collectors.

And even if you're not, it's still rare and the recording probably hasn't been heard in some fifty years.

Sadly, the name Lurlean Hunter has been overlooked lately, as an entry in the vast catalog of Jazz singers from the 1940's to today.

Hunter, born in Mississippi, raised in Chicago and migrating to New York where she landed a contract with RCA in the early 1950's and turned in four highly regarded albums for the RCA and subsidiary VIK labels.

Publicized primarily as a "torch singer", Hunter had a very good following on the club and lounge circuit throughout the 1950's and early 1960's.

But as tastes and venues changed, and as the vagaries of the music business did what they usually do, Hunter slowly faded from public view. Surfacing only occasionally, such as this guest spot on the Pre-PBS, NET-TV program Jazz Alley, broadcast on June 4, 1970.

A wonderful singer performing to a very appreciative audience, Lurlean Hunter certainly deserves some re-evaluation. At least some serious re-discovery of a memorable back catalog.

In the meantime though, here she is in a live setting.

Technical note: the transmitter for this broadcast got a little crazy about two minutes into the first song and it gets noisy for about 20 seconds. It goes away and the rest of the broadcast sounds fine. Worry not.

Dig, you must.

Getting back to the Coachella Music & Arts Festival this week. A great concert was enjoyed by all on April 14th when Radiohead took the stage for two amazing hours. Thom York and company proved once again they are one of the truly great bands currently making the rounds. And this Summer looks pretty memorable by all accounts.

Here's the rundown:

Radiohead Set list – Coachella - April 14, 2012

1.Bloom

2.15 Step

3.Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

4.Morning Mr. Magpie

5.Staircase

6.The Gloaming

7.Pyramid Song

8.The Daily Mail

9.Myxomatosis

10.Karma Police

11.Identikit

12.Lotus Flower

13.There There

14.Bodysnatchers

15.Idioteque

# Encore:

16.Lucky

17.Reckoner

18.Everything In Its Right Place Play Video
(With "After The Gold Rush" intro)

Encore 2:

19.Give Up the Ghost

20.Paranoid Android

Since it's the full concert, it's spread out over two players.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Since we're still in Primary season, I thought I would run this reminder of how the Presidential Horse race was run in previous years. This one, from 1960, features most all the prominent candidates ahead of the New York Primary, in March of 1960.

As part of their World In Perspective series, WIP Radio and anchor Mitchell Krauss offer a look at the candidate of 1960 - their differences and their positions.

In a half hour he covers a lot of territory.

And that's what went on in the polling place during the 1960 Presidential elections.

During the second phase of the British Invasion in the mid-1960's, it was the Blues Band's turn to take center stage. Fueled by the success of The Rolling Stones and their early-on idolization of the Chess Records sound, a flood of new bands cropped up and made their way over to our shores.

One of those bands was The Savoy Brown Blues Band, cut down to simply Savoy Brown. Although not as commercially successful as The Stones, they nonetheless gained a considerable following, particularly with that audience flocking to the newly flourishing Underground FM.

One of those FM hits, and a song that would probably fit the bill just as easily for its anti-drug message was Train To Nowhere, off the Blue Matter lp, issued in 1969.

If you were around and listening to your FM radio at the time, you no doubt heard this track hundreds of times over the years. If you weren't, you get to discover it and find out why Savoy Brown were/are such a great band and why Train To Nowhere hasn't aged all that much in the 43 years since it first came out.

Another example of politics without threats, name calling and innuendo among Republicans. The 1948 Presidential Election, although hotly contested and fought was, by today's standards, remarkably civil.

This debate, held on the eve of the Oregon Primary, on May 1, 1948 put Republican Presidential hopefuls Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Governor Harold Stassen discussing the subject: "Should The Communist Party In The U.S. Be outlawed?".

Taking the side of the affirmative was Harold Stassen and taking the side of the negative was Thomas Dewey. The debate lasted an hour and arguments were put forth, contested, rebutted and summed up.

Not a terse word, snide comment or character snipe was to be found in the entire hour.

How could that be?

Hear it for yourself.

Here is that debate, in its entirety, as broadcast over NBC Radio on May 17, 1948.