When certain people become instrumental in shaping the formative years of your life by way of their message, their point of view or their example, their passing seems doubly poignant as it signifies an integral part of your development as a person is no longer able to be there. That sure-fire sign you can never go back.

I'll admit it's been a long time since I heard The Firesign Theater. By the 1970's I was on to other things, other messages and other examples. But hearing of the passing last week of Peter Bergman, the man who was the backbone of perhaps one of the most innovative and outrageous comedy groups in the U.S., brought me back to those nights when I was stuck to my radio like glue, joining this outrageous team of metaphysical clowns on their trip through hyper-reality.

The Firesign Theater were only part of the bigger picture. Radio Free Oz was "the big show" and was one of the more eclectic examples of broadcasting to come along in a very long time. Initially they were on KPFK, the Public radio station in Los Angeles. And then, for a short while, were on a top-40 AM station on Sunday nights. KRLA, which was one of the most popular Top-40 station at the time, played host to Bergman and Company.

Tonight I'm running a little under 2 hours of their final broadcast at KRLA. In typical Radio Free Oz fashion, the mix is heady, with an interview and poetry reading by Deep Image Poet Robert Kelly, and later featuring an interview with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In between all that is a Firesign skit "A Life In The Day" and lots of music.

I left just about everything as-is. Sadly, the show isn't complete and is missing the last hour (it's around, but it got separated from it's companion reel) and I did cut down on the music, but even that's an interesting point of departure since 1968 saw the beginning of Free-form radio on FM, and AM was dabbling in being free-form.

At any rate - as a tribute to Peter Bergman and the genius of The Firesign Theater, here is the last Radio Free Oz broadcast from KRLA on January 14, 1967.

I broke it up between two players - the top player features Poet Robert Kelly and the bottom player features A Life In The Day.

All in all, an interesting footprint in time and an appreciation to Peter Bergman for all he did and all those minds that were delightfully blown by his amazing presence.

Enjoy.

In the 1960's endless discussions were spent laboring over the subject of The Communications Gap. An adjunct to the Generation Gap, The Communications Gap had more to do with selective hearing than it actually had to do with language skills. Case in point was the subject of music. Even in the 60's members of the mainstream were hard pressed to figure out what Rock music was. Rather than accept it as a form of popular music it was viewed as some secret society to which only a select few were privy to the myriad of ever-changing codes. The dark, mysterious and all encompassing Counterculture.

I ran across this panel discussion (more of an inquiry), originally broadcast around 1969 and rebroadcast in 1971. It featured a rather eclectic cast of characters, including Frank Zappa, L.A. Philharmonic Music Director and Conductor Zubin Mehta. Philharmonic Manager Ernest Fleischmann. Film composer David Raksin and the KPFK moderators Lew Merckelson and William Strother.

Zappa is viewed by Mehta and Fleischmann much the same way Esmeralda viewed Quasimodo - with a degree of repulsion and curiosity. Mehta is adamant in explaining that "young people don't understand counterpoint" as the reason they don't go to Classical music concerts. Zappa explains that Classical music has gone through a season of doldrums and the conservative programming in the concert hall needed more new and adventuresome pieces performed. The younger audiences were there - Zubin and Ernest were just going about finding them the wrong way. The borderline patronizing and condescending dismissal were symptomatic of what the universal problem was in all aspects of the 60's. Music was no exception.

What's interesting about this interview is that it pre-dates the L.A. Philharmonic/Mothers Of Invention concerts that eventually took place at UCLA in May of 1970 - the results being partially disastrous and part wildly successful in the first performance of 200 Motels which featured both the L.A. Philharmonic and The Mothers of Invention in what Frank referred to as "Zubin And The Jets". So obviously some groundwork was laid, no matter how tenuous.

But from a historic point of view this is an interesting panel discussion and one I don't think has been heard in 40 years. It's interesting to realize how much the whole field has changed in that time. Zappa went on to be regarded as a composer capable of not only his signature material, but also his serious material and was championed in that regard by none other than Pierre Boulez, who is also a respected composer and much loved musician (there was an attempt once, by members of the Philharmonic to draft Boulez as Music Director, but flattered, he declined).

So attitudes eventually change, but hearing how they arrive there is usually more interesting than the end results. This half hour broadcast gives you some idea of just what the atmosphere was like.