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(To some . . .)

With the recent fracas over School Textbooks in Texas, I was reminded how much of an ongoing story this is and how people, many of them either gullible or ignorant, react violently to fear being fed them. And how that fear is exploited and blown out of proportion for so many reasons, most all of them self-serving and usually under the guise of "populist causes".

Case in point: In the early 1970's there was a rash of protests, most from small communities throughout the U.S. that the school systems of the country, part of some vast government conspiracy, were turning school age children into horrible little Communists by subjecting them to "subversive textbooks". The protests, for the most part fueled by groups claiming to be Evangelicals (and some with ties to the John Birch Society), passed around leaflets with examples of the "obscene material"supposedly being taught in the K-12 system. The truth of the matter was, all the leaflets contained material nowhere to be found in any of the books in question and that this was another attempt by the Religious Right to disrupt the educational system in America.

On December 12, 1974, NPR ran, as part of their series "Options In Education" a documentary called "Censoring Textbooks: Is West Virginia the Tip Of The Iceberg?" In a word - yes.

Unidentified parent: “Now if the Board of Education comes over and tries to close us down or tries to put pressure on us, then I’ll fight. I’ll fight . . they can’t have my daughter. I have one daughter and I’ll fight ‘em to my death. And she’s goin’ to school where I want her to go to school. She’s gonna do what I tell her to do, not what some Board of Education or some government tells her to do. That’s my right. That’s our responsibility. You raise corn, but you train children.

Further evidence ignorance isn't bliss. But that was 1974. How much has it changed? According to a recent installment of To The Point, the Texas Board of Education is under almost exactly the same level of Screaming Nameless Fear as West Virginia was 36 years ago. In short, nothing has changed - only the names and faces. The ignorance is still without bliss.

As a bonus, I am running the To The Point broadcast from February of this year as a way of showing the similarities, despite years, of the controversy. Special thanks to KCRW and Public Radio International.

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(Split Enz 1974 - Iggy Pop proclaimed them the future of Rock n' Roll - if only it were so)

Another dose of Split Enz tonight (I ran another post some months back). This time from a series of demo sessions just prior to their signing with Mushroom Records and the recording of the first album Mental Notes. Sadly, this lineup wouldn't last too much past 1977 after the band completed their first U.S. tour (a truly memorable one, as someone who was there can attest). But they continued on, honing and perfecting their sound and evolving into one of the more popular bands from "down under" during the 70s and 80s.

This track, Malmsbury Villa, never made it to an album and stayed only as a demo. Too bad. But even the demo is pretty sensational.

Perfect Monday night music.

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(Roxy Music - 1974 - A vintage year for the band)

Something special tonight - Roxy Music on the last night of their British tour, October 28, 1974. Parts of this recording made their way to Viva! Roxy Music, their live album that came out later that year. This is most all of the concert (minus one track and the encore which there was no room for, even with this famous C&L embed player as the concert was almost 2 hours long and this post is a little over an hour). Roxy Music were one of the best bands to see live in the early-mid 1970s.

If you weren't around then, here's at least a reasonable facsimile of a typical night at a Roxy Music concert. Enjoy and play often (and loud).

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(We still had Nixon to kick around)

January 8, 1974 - a busy news day. But then 1974 was a rather busy news year anyway. Watergate was bubbling away, the Saudis were threatening to blow up oil rigs, gas rationing was already underway in Sweden. New York was issuing get-tough policies on gas station price gouging. The Wounded Knee trial was in the jury selection phase, and the Supreme Court ruled on illegally obtained evidence:

John Chancellor (NBC News): “The Supreme Court ruled six to three today that prosecutors may use illegally gathered evidence in Grand Jury presentations. The court said criminal suspects may not prevent the use of unlawfully gathered evidence, nor can suspects refuse to answer questions based on illegal evidence. This is the second such ruling by the Court this session. The first permits police to use any evidence turned up in a search connected with any lawful arrest, including a traffic violation. The dissenting Supreme Court Justices in both cases said the decisions threaten the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution which forbids unlawful search and seizure.”

And Comet Kohoutek which, only a year earlier had triggered dire predictions of earth shattering changes turned out to be 1974's answer to Y2K - a colossal dud.

Just another January day on planet earth.

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(10cc - Did an admirable job poking holes in just about everything)

It's hard to imagine 10cc came out with "Sheet Music" in 1974. Thirty-five years seems like a few lifetimes ago. Times have changed and tastes in music have changed, but there is something about 10cc that has always been timeless with me. Maybe it's because they never took themselves seriously. To be certain, "I'm Not In Love" was their biggest hit and one which seemed to be played on every radio at most hours of the day when it came out in 1975 - there was no escaping it. They have pretty much faded from memory now (even though they are rumored to have gotten back together), and no doubt there is a huge audience who have never heard of them. Too bad.

It was "Sheet Music" which came out in 1974 on Jonathan King's label UK Records, that I initially heard and became a fan of. This track, Silly Love, started side two of their lp. It poked huge gaping holes in the over-wrought and well-worn genre of the love song.

And poking holes were what they were wonderful at.

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(Turned upside down read: No Immediate Miracles)

I'm often reminded that, when a crisis erupts and the Republicans are in charge, the solutions often fall into the category of Bonehead Misfires.

True to form, in 1974 when the country was in the midst of inflation, recession, mass unemployment and a crisis of faith (owing to the recent resignation of Richard Nixon and the quickly ending Vietnam War), Gerald Ford announced a new package, complete with slogan and buttons - Whip Inflation Now. Rather than use the dreaded Tax-Word, Ford proposed a "surcharge" on individuals making over $7500 a year and families making over $15,000 a year (remember, this is 1974 when money was a little different and less funny then). The immediate effect was to squeeze the middle class and create more loopholes for those who could most afford it.

Ford envisioned a kind of World War 2 gung-ho attitude on the part of the American people, willing to sacrifice at the drop of a hat. The resulting effect was dramatically less so.

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(John Daly - insisted on calling Hunter S. Thompsons writing style "Bongo Journalism")

In lieu of the recent Senate Bill that questions validity of citizen bloggers, I went back to a National Town Meeting broadcast from 1974 to hear what the status of the media was then. It wasn't that much better, particularly if you were judged to be in the "alternative media" which meant the Underground press back then. However, in all fairness, in 1974 Broadcast news departments were ten times the size they are now. The hours spent on documentaries and special news programming was huge and newspapers offered a plethora of in-depth reports and daily investigative journalism. Unrecognizable from what they are today.

The panel on this broadcast consisted of Pat Buchanan, Richard Harwood of The Washington Post, Richard Goodwin of Rolling Stone and Thomas Asher of the Media Access Project. The program was moderated (and somewhat mangled) by , former newscaster for ABC and CBS, game show host and professional personality.

The subject was "Critiquing The Media" and of course Buchanan spends much time railing against the injustices of the "librul media" and complaining about imbalance. This coming from a man who was deeply entrenched in the Nixon White House.

The subject of Hunter S. Thompson comes up and that's when Daly lets his disconnect be known. Unable to say the words "gonzo Journalism" he insists on a variation of either Bongo and Bonzo Journalism and dismisses it, as does Buchanan who dismisses Rolling Stone in general as no representation of actual news reporting - the only news to be had was from The New York Times or The Washington Post and perhaps Time Magazine.

Richard Goodwin: “I’m not in favor of fictional journalism, and the headline I gave an example, is not intended as fiction, but as fact. I think one of the problems that you have is, even use of the word fact and what constitutes a fact. You’re talking about convictions, attitudes, opinions, judgments. These aren’t facts in the sense that a glass of water is a fact. They require that you impose your own judgment. Somebody says something; is he lying, does he mean it, is it true? And simply to say that he said it, in itself is an assertion, at least to the people who read it, that perhaps or probably what he said is true. It’s a fact that he said it, but he may not be speaking facts or the truth. And unfortunately, most things, most interesting or complicated things in the world are not very, it’s not often easy to decide what the facts are without bringing to it a set of values and personal convictions. And if you withdraw from that you allow those who make the presentation to you to determine what the truth is . . .”

Continue reading »

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(Can - perfected the fine art of having your mind blown)

Surprisingly, a lot of people I have run into lately have never heard of Can before. To say they spearheaded the Krautrock movement in the 1970's is a little disingenuous. They were heavily involved in electronic music in the 1960's - two of the band members studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen. Irmin Schmidt, the co-founder once told me, that, in addition to working with Stockhausen, as a student he had worked for the East Berlin Opera as a repetiteur (before bolting to the West). So the band came from a more hardcore place than just plunking around on synthesizers.

Anyway - Can have a long and celebrated career and have been influential in a lot of musical circles.

This track Come Sta, La Luna comes from their last album for United Artists "Soon Over Babaluma", recorded in 1974 and released just before they signed to Virgin.

The band went through a number of personnel changes over the years before finally packing it in around 2001. But they are still very much involved in a lot of solo projects as well as working with other bands.

They definitely put their mark on the 70s though.

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(Ace - 1974's up-and-coming band and purveyors of Pub-Rock)

Back over to the BBC Transcription Service this week. A performance by Ace from 1974. Probably best known for their hit and uber-shag tune "How Long Has This Been Going On", Ace also featured the multi-talented Paul Carrack, who not only wrote that hit, but also went on to score highly with Squeeze in the early 80s and then go on to Mike & The Mechanics in the early 90's, not to mention a pretty good and thriving solo career.

Anyway, this concert was recorded just at the time "Five-A-Side" came out and pretty much captures the essence of the band. Pub-Rock was a legitimate genre in the early 1970's and many bands established solid careers from it.

Ace were at the right place at the right time.

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(Lest we all forget - only thirty-five years ago)

Hard to imagine it was only thirty-five years ago that President Nixon announced his resignation. It certainly answered weeks of speculation and the end to a long and bitter fight that erupted in the White House and almost took the country down with it.

Nixon: "I have never been a quitter - to leave office now is abhorrent to everything in my body. But . . . . "

I'm not sure we actually ever recovered from Watergate and the Nixon years. To many, it seems to be the gift that just keeps on giving.

History is just like that.

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(Split Enz - There was an audible gasp when they first played The Roxy)

There are certain moments in musical history I shall always cherish - Syd Barrett with Pink Floyd, Soft Machine opening for Hendrix in 1968, Peter Gabriel exploding into Santa Claus during a Genesis Tour in 1974 and seeing Split Enz play The Roxy in 1975.

The band you see pictured above is exactly the way they looked during their first tour of the U.S. just as the "Second Thoughts"(released here as Mental Notes) album came out. We went through Glam, went through all the "Hair/sweat bands", went through matching stage suits and haircuts bands - but we never went through anything like this!

When the curtain opened for their first set, there was something of an audible gasp coming from this jaundiced, jaded, somewhat calcified crowd of press types who stopped stuffing Roxy ashtrays in their pockets long enough to be suitably blown away by the sheer outrageousness of this group. They spoke my language and I became a life long fan from that minute on.

This version of Lovey Dovey first appeared on "Mental Notes", their initial release for Mushroom Records in Australia. The version of "Lovey Dovey" we know is the one from the UK/US version of "Mental Notes" which was actually issued in Australia as "Second Thoughts", but it was re-recorded and produced by Phil Manzanera. I know - confusing, and I had a hard time figuring it out what was going on until their A&M period came along later.

But, all that said - this is the first version of that track and one probably not heard all that much this side of the Pacific Rim.

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(Casper Weinberger - Long before Iran-Contra, but the spots are the same)

I almost forgot Casper Weinberger was a holdover from the Nixon administration. During the Ford period he was Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, responsible for slashing budgets long before Reagan made him Secretary of Defense.

So, with the current state of Health Care reform going in full siege mode, I thought I would dig out an Issues And Answers episode from October 10, 1974 where Weinberger gives his two cents regarding a National Health Care package:

Edward P. Morgan (ABC News): “Let me quote to you from a speech you made a month ago when you said ‘since price controls were lifted, the cost of medical care has increased fifty percent faster than the economy as a whole. And this we must and will moderate.’ Are you talking about some kind of controls over medical costs?

Sec. Casper Weinberger: “Well I have said with considerable roughness, because I’m a free market man, I don’t like controls. But I do think there is not a free market in Health Care and I do think the increases have outstripped the cost of living , and the cost of living is obviously racing away at totally unacceptable levels now. And so I personally have felt for some time that cost controls are necessary in the health field. And as a matter of fact they’re contained in our bill of National Health Insurance. But meanwhile, before that bill was enacted there have been very high rises in healthcare costs, particularly in hospital rooms. Some of these can be justified as passing on additional costs that hospitals are incurring. But the fact that they are going faster than the CPI, the Consumer Price Index, is a matter of very grave worry to us because it erodes the ability of anybody to receive health care, and for another thing it’s costing the Government a billion dollars extra in our own health programs . . . .

Morgan: “ Mister Secretary, our time is running out . . . . .

Stop me if you've heard this, but I don't recall any Healthcare Bill that was enacted to bring down the cost of Healthcare - do you?

Oddly, Edward P. Morgan stops and shifts the conversation rather quickly over to Betty Ford's recent Cancer surgery and the subject of National Health Insurance is never brought up again.

Maybe it was the timeclock, but cynicism makes me wonder otherwise.

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(People just get sick - it's what people do.)

It always sounds like a good idea and it's always debated, and it makes great soundbites, and it sometimes gets votes. But the seemingly endless debate on a National Health Plan I'm sad to say, never quite goes anywhere.

In 1974 President Nixon offered a Health Plan. Actually, he offered one in 1972 and in 1973 - with each year being dubbed "The Year Of The Health Plan", but nothing ever came of it.

So in response to this version of a health plan offered by Nixon, Senators Ted Kennedy and Wilbur Mills offered an alternative, one which would be funded via Social Security. Kennedy explained the details of his plan in a radio address on May 22, 1974. Granted, the timing wasn't particularly terrific - with Impeachment hearings looming and most of America reeling from daily revelations.

So, as history has shown, the Kennedy/Mills idea of a Health Plan didn't fly either.

Someday, one will.

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("Same as It Ever Was . . . .Same As It Ever Was")

Believe me, I'm not singling out 1974 as a focal point for things gone wrong. But with all due fairness, most indications point to this being around the time of the Great National Nervous Breakdown and the long painful assessment of "where did we go wrong?". Call it Navel Gazing, call it Overwhelming Guilt, America was truly bothered by a lot of things - and Television News was viewed as a biggest culprit.

The problem then, as is the problem now with Mainstream News, particularly with Network News, is getting any useful information out of the half-hour format that's been the standard since the inception of Television News in the early 1950's. The problems were wide and varied, from advertising influence to the nature of Television being a visual medium and some news stories just weren't visual.

It hasn't changed and, if anything has become less and less relevant over the years as news has become more focused on entertainment, rather than a place of hard (and useful) information.

In this broadcast, again part of the National Town Meeting series, features New York Times Correspondent Harrison Salisbury, Journalist David Halberstam, former FCC Chairman Nicholas Johnson and former head of CBS News Sig Mickelson from November 3, 1974. The audience consists of Yale University students (where the Town Hall was held) who ask a number of pointed questions.

Bruce Burke (Student): “I kind of wonder about the whole notion of the Fairness Doctrine. As I understand it, the Fairness Doctrine tends to apply to hard news broadcasts . And it seems to me that, while the Fairness Doctrine to apply to Editorial type content would in fact be a wise thing, considering the immediacy of the impact and the availability to other speakers outside those of the Network organizations. It seems to me questionable for the various networks to be monitored, by either private organizations or others as to the fairness content of their hard news broadcasts. I was wondering what the speakers would think about the abolition of the Fairness Doctrine as it concerns hard news.

Sig Michelson: “I think the Fairness Doctrine is about as required for the human being as a tail, which we long since got rid of when we quit living in trees. I think as long as our broadcasting is operated on the basis of a trusteeship principle which was written into the Federal Radio Act back of 1927 and under the Federal Communications Act of 1934, that the licensing process in of itself is quite adequate to keep a reasonable degree of fairness as long as the broadcaster is a trustee of the public interest. On the other hand, I think it’s a very dangerous commodity as Mister Whitehead tried to use it in his speech out in Indianapolis in 1973 when he suggested that this was a wedge, a weapon the local stations could use to force the networks to knuckle down with their news broadcasting. I think it’s a very dangerous weapon and I would like to see it eliminated, and I’d like to see us go back to where we were before 1949, and operate on the Trusteeship Principle and maintain our fairness on that basis.

Bear in mind that this is before the wave of deregulation during the Reagan years gutted the FCC, converted entire networks into propaganda outlets, turned the Fairness Doctrine into a worthless piece of paper,obliterated newspapers, dismantled Broadcast News Divisions, converted the Trusteeship Principle into a very bad joke and replaced much useful news with team coverage of celebrity rehabs.

In short, made anything you could use pretty much impossible to find.

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(You have to ask?)

Yes, in 1974 there were grave doubts as to where we were heading as a cultural society. Although in comparison, 1974 may seem like a banner year for the arts, compared to where we are today.

But the writing was on the wall, even in 1974. If it wasn't just a case of funding, the world was changing in ways we couldn't predict, and art for its own sake was fading into the void.

This broadcast, part of NPR's National Town Meeting from August 21, 1974 features an interesting panel, consisting of Nancy Hanks (NEA) Daniel Boorstin (Library of Congress, though not as of this broadcast), Nora Ephron and Michael Sobran Jr.(I'm not sure if this is the same Michael Sobran who is also MJ Sobran from The National Review or not) - as well as questions from the audience and a nice outburst midway through.

Clearly, Hanks is something of an apparatchik. Chosen by Nixon and going back to the Eisenhower Administration as far as Arts programs were concerned. Boorstin has her back and even goes as far as chiming "what she meant to say was . . .". So when Ephron asks a few pointed questions, Hanks softballs and pretends they weren't there. One imagines, out of respect to her boss. Although the condescending tone leaves nothing to the imagination on either Hanks or Boorstin's parts.

Nora Ephron: “I wonder how you managed to raise 75 million dollars with a President whose views on culture came out a couple of weeks ago in the transcript of that tape as ‘a place for Jews and left-wingers’?”

Nancy Hanks: “President Nixon’s . . . actions, not only personally but professionally in his connection with the arts, his enjoyment of them personally, his actions in supporting this very small Federal agency which is totally opposed to a statement which appeared on the tape. I mean, here is a man who, one of his daughters is very much involved with the arts, the other one likes them very much. He enjoys music too. He’s very proud of his piano playing ability. He took an agency that say, if you want to talk in money terms, was 8 million dollars, and through his strong backing, we were able to increase it last year to some 60 plus and to 75 million this year.”

Ephron: “I’m not a historian, but it does seem to me there are a couple of trends that we might want to talk about. . . when you talk about the high cost of tickets you are also talking about the high cost of producing culture. And one of the effects of this, which has become much worse in recent years is that, what is produced has to be commercial to justify the huge amount of money that’s put into it. And this is affecting all fields, not just film where it’s at it’s most obvious at the moment. The book business is going through a very interesting phase where it’s really shifting from hard cover to mass market publication. And there are only, I think five distributors who handle mass market books. This is going to be a very difficult time for someone to . . it will be increasingly difficult for someone to write an un-commercial book and make a living as an artist. The magazine business, which I’m in is now going through a terrible problem, both with the cost of paper and with postal rates. And one of the results of that is you have some first rate magazines dying that were subscription magazines, and you see flourishing this bottomless pit of men’s magazines which seem to sell for a dollar and a dollar fifty a month, regularly five and six million copies. And these are very serious problems I think the government could be playing some role in.”

But clearly, Ephron points out some issues that would only grow in the years ahead, particularly with writing. The bottom line is, the publishing industry and magazines in particular have been given over almost exclusively to pandering in recent years. They bear virtually no resemblance to publishing in 1974.

I don't think even Nora Ephron could have anticipated how the arts would be viewed 35 years later.

Or life in general, for that matter.