Update: We're solidly at 2/3 of our goal tonight. We're getting really close. I am so knocked out and humbled by all the support that's come in the last 24 hours, I can't tell you how great it is to know the Archive stands a good chance of being saved and Newstalgia stands a good chance of being here for you. But please don't stop just yet - we're still a ways off. Even with 1/3 left to go it can still not happen. If we can keep this going a little long, and if you can donate whatever you can, whatever amount you feel comfortable with. I'm not asking for millions, I'm just asking to take the lien off and keep the site on. We can do this - we're doing this - you're doing this. I am beyond grateful.

Diving into the 70's tonight for a concert featuring 70's icons Mott The Hoople, recorded at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on April 12, 1973.

I remember this concert really well. I was sitting somewhere near the front. Ian Hunter had a cold and his voice was a little shot. But Mott The Hoople were one amazing band and this was at a time they were just hitting mass popularity. With such classics as All The Way To Memphis and All The Young Dudes (which are included here) just recently released, they were riding the crest of a very big wave.

This is the whole set - all 90 minutes worth. Crank it up and enjoy.

Pretend it's 1974.

(Dewey Phillips - the turbo-charged prototype - radio was never the same)

(as long as you're downloading, chip in a bit?)

As much as history books like to credit Allan Freed as the man who put Rock n' Roll on the map, the real unsung hero has to be Dewey Phillips, whose insane non-stop delivery and ground breaking exposure to white audiences of Rhythm & Blues probably did more to punch through the color barrier than anyone at the time.

Phillips started broadcasting in 1949, right at the crest of the Jump-Blues wave where Rhythm & Blues was fusing with small combo Jazz and the result eventually morphed into rock n' roll. Phillips, and his nightly show on WHBQ in Memphis ran a wall to wall stream of music by the likes of Joe Turner, Mel Walker and Little Esther Phillips, Roy Milton, Amos Milburn, Charles Brown and countless others. Because his show had no format to speak of he ran pretty much what ever he felt like. And it was this free form type of program that appealed to so many kids at the time, and so many white kids who were being exposed to music formerly relegated to rural Southern stations.

Phillips had the distinction of being the first to play Elvis Presley and one of the first to interview him.

Dewey Phillips would eventually be burned by the thing he helped create and by the mid-1950's his brand of free form radio would be co-opted by tight formats and playlists which would eventually give way to Top-40 and tighter playlists.

But for that brief period of time, Dewey Phillips had no peers and this 30 minute slice from November of 1950 gives you some idea of the madness he was all about and why the early days of Rock n' Roll came about because of him.

Forty-four years ago today, on April 4, 1968, the news traveled quickly regarding the shooting death of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee.

As a reminder of how the day went, here is a special News broadcast as presented by NBC Radio shortly after Dr. King had been pronounced dead.

Roscoe Gordon tonight. Kind of an unsung hero in the annals of rock n' roll/R&B history. People who know, know about him. People who don't, listen to him and like him. He didn't have a huge career but he had a substantial one. Like many artists during the period (1950's) he recorded for a ton of labels including Vee-Jay, the legendary Chicago label from which tonight's track, Just A Little Bit comes from a 1959 session and probably some of the best material of his recording career.

But . . . don't take my word for it.