We haven't run anything on LBJ in a while, so I thought I would include this Press Conference from June 1,1965, President Johnson's 43rd since taking office.

A number of areas are covered, most notably the situation in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which was the scene of recent military action. Also covered was the situation in Vietnam and the 20th Anniversary of the United Nations.

A complete half hour of Q&A as broadcast by ABC Radio on June 1, 1965.

Since this month marks the 47th anniversary of the celebrated Selma to Montgomery Alabama Civil Rights March, I thought I would add a word or two from then-Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and a press conference he delivered regarding the violence that was facing the marchers on their historic trek.

Katzenbach was also in the midst of drafting legislation that would be the Civil Rights Voting Amendment of 1965.

Here is the entire press conference as broadcast live by ABC Radio on March 18, 1965.

As much as we're heard about the Protest Movement to the Vietnam War in the 1960's there was that just-as-vocal contingent who not only believed the war was justified, but that we were also in the process of winning it. And many of those people were on Capitol Hill.

For example, Sen. Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn) who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee was a staunch believer in the Vietnam War and was convinced we were winning it. One of the true Hawks in the Senate. But in all honesty, early in 1965 there was a much larger segment of the population who believed the war could be won and believed we were absolutely justified in being in Southeast Asia than who weren't. The Anti-War Movement was just getting started at this point and the sales pitch for the War was much more organized.

Dodd was convinced we were winning, that we had "turned the corner" so to speak. And in this installment of NBC's Meet The Press, he is asked why he is so adamant in that assessment.

Sen. Thomas Dodd: “We’re winning more battles every day. The latest figure I heard was, on an engagement just recently, it was in the ratio of about four to one. They suffered something in excess of 400 losses. Our side had something in excess of 100.The morale of the South Vietnamese is very high. There are more defectors coming over to our side every day. About a year ago, my information is, we were getting about ten a month. We’re now getting over a hundred a month. We’ve got a thousand pilots, about a thousand pilots now in the South Vietnamese Air Force. They’re good pilots, I’m told by our Air Force people, they’re good fighters. As a matter of fact, I was told they do a better job at maintenance than our people do. So there are all these reasons I say we’ve begun to win.”

Hearing the casualty reports, I am reminded of what was later revealed to be grossly inflated enemy body counts, and how early on the war was being manipulated to be portrayed as another cakewalk. What was being conveyed and what was actually happening were two wildly different stories. And unfortunately we had to find out the hard way.

So here is Meet The Press featuring Sen. Thomas J. Dodd as originally broadcast on May 2, 1965.

Nicholas Katzenbach became something of an "Eyewitness to History" in the 1960's. First as Assistant Attorney General to Robert Kennedy, participated in the pivotal "confrontation at the Schoolhouse door" moment with George Wallace in 1963 and later, as Attorney General, enforcing the newly signed Civil Rights Legislation of 1964. No walk in the park, to be sure.

During this episode of Meet the Press, from April 11, 1965, Katzenbach is grilled on his stance with regards to Civil Disobedience and protest of unjust laws.

Nicholas Katzenbach: “In history and history of Philosophy the argument about not obeying the unjust law was almost always an argument against absolute power on the part of the governing body.”

Katzenbach had helped draft the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. Although he frequently clashed with J.Edgar Hoover on matters of domestic surveillance and objections to Hoover's unauthorized use of wiretaps including those of Martin Luther King.

Eventually, the war with Hoover proved to be too exasperating and Katzenbach resigned in 1966 and went into the private sector in 1969. Still, he was around when a lot of defining moments were happening and this interview gives some idea of who was Attorney General in 1965.

Maybe as something of an antidote to the sensationalism of the Beat Generation (in my post yesterday) is the social consciousness and backlash to the McCarthy Red Scare era that also enveloped America in the 1950's. Championed by the likes of Playwright Arthur Miller, (who himself was lambasted in the mainstream media as a Pinko and, for a while, Mr. Marilyn Monroe) Clifford Odets and many others of the neo-realist school, who helped take the Theater from a place of breezy entertainment to a forum on the human condition.

A View From The Bridge began life as a one-act verse drama in 1955 and was later reworked into a two-act play in 1956. It's a compelling mixture of fear, false pride and revenge taking it's nod from the Italian neo-realist Opera that gave the landmark Cavalleria Rusticana while mixing with the Immigration issues (and Red Scare) prevalent during the McCarthy era, and ironically prevalent today.

For a complete breakdown of the Play check out some of the sites associated with it. It's seen numerous revivals over the years, primarily because the message hasn't aged and with most social consciousness issues, hasn't changed all that much over the years.

This recording, sadly deleted from Mercury Records' catalog way too long ago, features the original revival cast as it was presented off-Broadway at the Sheridan Square Playhouse in 1964-1965. That revival garnered Obie Awards for it's star Robert Duvall and its director Ulu Grossbard.

The cast goes as follows (in order of appearance):

Louis - Richard Castellano
Mike - Carmine Cardi
Alfieri - Mitchell Jason
Eddie - Robert Duvall
Catherine - Linda Eskenas
Beatrice - Jeanne Kaplan
Marco - Ramon Bieri
Tony - Gino Morra
Rodolpho - Jon Voight
First Immigration Officer - Dan Priest
Second Immigration Officer - Curt Dempster

Directed by: Ulu Grossbard
Assistant Director : Dustin Hoffman

Act I - top player
Act II - bottom player

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

One of the sad things I have noticed just recently, and anyone else who has gone over to the BBC site and gotten introduced to the BBC iPlayer is that, if you have the gross misfortune of living outside the UK, you are somewhat shit-out-of-luck for being able to listen to or watch any of those BBC programs we have come to love and cherish. Why? Oh, the usual - something about "contractually not permitted outside the UK" and all that.

Why do I bring that up? Because there was a time, very long ago, when your only access to the BBC if you were outside the UK, was via their Transcription Service. The BBC would offer discs (and tapes) of programs they thought would be of interest to an audience aside from the UK. And one of the shows they offered was a weekly dose of Top Of The Pops (among others). Pressed on vinyl in somewhat limited quantities and shipped over to U.S. and other overseas radio stations who subscribed to the service.

Now, the deal with those shows was, as it was with everything in their Transcription Service, they could only be run for a certain period of time and then had to be returned to The BBC to be destroyed (oh, that contractual thing again). A lot of stations complied and the discs were sent back to meet their doom and be replaced by brand new ones to repeat the process. But most of those stations never got around to sending them back and whole series of programs sat in Radio Station libraries, or in boxes or in storage. And that's where it gets interesting.

The BBC back home, not only had a habit of destroying Transcriptions sent back to them, they also had a habit of destroying the original shows they were pressed from. Hence, full years were gone, vanished. Tapes wiped clean - history evaporated.

With the recent popularity in rock n' roll history, ever since the advent of the CD and now downloading, a lot of finger pointing has taken place over why the BBC chose to destroy so much of what is a cultural heritage that needed to be preserved.

So after much hand-wringing and embarrassment, a call went out to collectors and anyone who may have saved any airchecks (which were illegal to record off the radio in the privacy of your home in the 1950's and '60's, by the way) or Transcriptions of long-lost BBC Programs, like Top Of The Pops.

And the floodgates from American (and Australian and South American) collectors, who had the presence of mind to rummage through radio station trash cans or beg and plead with station librarians to part with those discs, opened and a tsunami of long-thought-lost BBC programs, like Top Of The Pops, Concerts, interviews, a whole host of previously thought gone programs, showed up at the BBC's doorstep.

People who had the presence of mind and the sense of historic preservation did what the networks in charge wouldn't do or didn't have the interest to do in the first place.

And now of course, the BBC is sort of doing the same thing again - only now making it possible for you not to be able to have the option of downloading and preserving any one of a number of programs (the BBC 6 Music Concert Hour is one of those you can't listen to outside the U.K.) currently available.

But in all fairness, most every network (certainly in the U.S.) has been guilty of wholesale destruction of history in the past. I suspect it is still going on to a certain degress, because contemporary history isn't all that interesting (for now since hindsight is always more interesting than the present).

At any rate - this is all a prelude to this weeks Pop Chronicles and what was probably one of the most interesting radio (and TV) programs presented in broadcasting. Top Of The Pops (much like the sister programs Saturday Club, Old Grey Whistle Test and Top Gear) presented music live or specially recorded for the series that was not commercially available, or in some cases, never recorded in any other context but for the BBC. It seems there was a long-standing ban on playing commercially pressed discs forcing an artist to either record their hit single in a version specifically for the BBC or to perform the song live.

This weeks Pop Chronicles offers a glimpse of what the treasure trove was all about. Recorded in late 1964, this program featured British Invasion acts The Animals and Unit 4+2 as well as lesser knowns (at least in the States) Dave Berry and Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers and singer Susan Maughan. The show, is hosted by the inimitable Brian Matthew and it was a weekly event. Needless to say, during this time it was required listening for anybody in the States who had any passing interest in British Invasion groups (i.e. The Beatles and Rolling Stones, who were frequent performers) but also gave a heads-up for up-and-comers to keep an eye open for in the Import bins at the local record shop.

If you've never heard the show before, here is an episode (which, like all good nutcase collectors, I conned a Station Librarian out of), and a slice of history you may have never been able to hear otherwise.

Thank a dumpster diver if you like this.

In the wake of recent violence towards the Civil Rights Movement and the continued marches and protests that were sweeping the country, President Johnson delivered an address to Congress on March 13, 1965 in an effort to confirm his commitment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and pledge continued efforts to uphold the provisions of the Act and to introduce legislation which would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Pres. Johnson: “There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.”

The Civil Rights Movement had no easy go of it. As 1965 wore on, the violence would continue and increase and for a time it seemed as if nothing was going to change as frustration eventually turned on entire cities. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a significant piece of legislation and probably the most controversial, as was evidenced by the arguments during its renewal in 2006.

In 1965 it was just too late to turn back. A sentiment that is reiterated, even today.

(Steve Marriott in 1965. Itchykoo Park hadn't happened yet and Humble Pie wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eye)

One of the unsung heroes of the post-British Invasion era. Steve Marriot was part of Small Faces when this interview was conducted. 1965 saw the band just getting getting a name for themselves, breaking out of the Mod mold and striking out for new territory. They had several minor hits, but nothing that would compare to their successes just two years later. Marriott would eventually part company with his Small Faces bandmates, who would go off and morph into Faces and recruit Rod Stewart. Marriott would form the iconic Hard Rock outfit Humble Pie, a band that also featured ex-Herd member Peter Frampton. Humble Pie became huge all over the world, selling out stadiums and racking up an impressive number of hit albums in the process.

Sadly, Marriott left us rather early. He died tragically in 1991, but he left behind a long and celebrated body of work that became very influential in the growth and development of so many bands who came after him.

Here is an interview done with Brian Matthews of the BBC as part of their Pop Profiles Series. An interview that hasn't been heard in a long time with an artist whose work was pivotal during so many evolutions of Rock.

Another session tonight. This time it's The Yardbirds and two cuts from a session they did in March of 1965 for the BBC. I Ain't Got You and their massive single For Your Love.

A good way to kick off Thanksgiving weekend . . no?

I don't think you can do a survey of Deep Soul classics without adding the contribution of Sandra Phillips and this 1965 classic When Midnight Comes.

I originally posted this track when Newstalgia just got started some two years ago (seems like yesterday), but we've had a lot more visitors since then so maybe it's okay for an encore.

Actually, this was the B-side of single Phillips did during her time with the Juggy Murray Sue Records conglomerate. This one came out on his subsidiary label Broadway and, according to the session notes, features Ike Turner's band on backup.

Phillips went on to record for a number of other labels, including the legendary Okeh Records in the later 60's and early 70's. But this song stops me dead in my tracks and, if she did nothing else, would land her in Desert Island disc territory forever.

Deep Soul Week keeps rollin' on.