WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Pot, Rock and Revolution - Another Reactionary Filmstrip Soundtrack (MP3's)

First off, I want to thank everyone for reading, liking and commenting on my posts on this blog over the years. When I first joined the original 365 Days project (2003), and then the subsequent WFMU hosted 2007 sequel, I had no idea that I'd be invited to start posting on my own early in 2008, starting with this post, let alone that this experience would inspire me to turn my own blog into a song-poem-palooza, or that I'd still be posting here 7 1/2 years later.

All that is in advance of saying that this is my next to last post, because, as you may have heard, the blog is being put to sleep at the end of the month. All posts will remain, but no new ones will appear. This will be my next to last post - the last will be a very special reel to reel tape feature, along with an announcement of a site where I will continue to share reel treasures. For now, I will say that it is my plan and expectation to continue to share vinyl wonders through an expansion of my own blog, adding to the weekly song-poem postings with regular postings of more of the sorts of things that I've been sharing here for the better part of the decade. Starting in August, those posts will appear at my site, "The Wonderful and the Obscure".

Today, however, we have a sequel to a post I made in May, regarding a filmstrip soundtrack for a screed against the people behind a textbook called "Land of the Free". Almost immediately after making that posting, it received a comment from a person who had found another record, apparently from the same organization (who had apparently changed their name to "Constructive Action, Inc.) in the ensuing years, this time trying to scare middle class parents half to death with scary tales of marijuana use and rock and roll.

In listening to this album, I'm reminded of the saying that you are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts. Plenty of the "facts" quoted here seem completely made up, none more than the statement that 40-50% of the young people who were smoking marijuana at that time, would be on heroin within 18 months. That's the most outlandish, but it's hardly the only time the narrator flies off the deep end - he also all but accuses Mick Jagger (who he repeatedly calls "Jaggard") of being to blame for the Manson family murders. It's also always good to base one's views of marijuana on the laws and cultures of such places as Egypt and Morocco.

Oh, but the opinions here, and the leaps of logic made from them, are even more fun. The entire youth subculture is the fault of a few hundred nihilistic students at Berkeley. The major networks and record labels should be charged with treason for creating and promoting what would otherwise be a non-existent "Generation Gap". Once you've had sex while high, regular sex is so disappointing, you have to keep getting high, then seek ever higher highs, until you simply can't function - and this happens to everyone who smokes marijuana. The cartoon cover of the "Yellow Submarine" album (which, by the way, the Beatles had little to do with) shows that John Lennon is a Satanist. And I'm sure the Smothers Brothers will be surprised to find out that their popular and controversial show was apparently on NBC. After all those years of conflict with CBS - they were fighting the wrong people!!!

This thing is ridiculous, but it sure is entertaining. And a huge thank you to Chester for making me aware of this album, and even more for sharing it with me and letting me post it. 

Constructive Action, Inc. - Pot Rock Revolution, Side One (MP3)

Constructive Action, Inc. - Pot Rock Revolution, Side Two (MP3)

Album Cover Sticker (JPG)  |  Record Label Side One (JPG)

Comments can be left below through the 30th, after which they can be sent to bobpurse@gmail.com

Bob

Land of the Free - A Filmstrip About a Controversial Textbook (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 65) (MP3)

Here's an example of how I really never know what I'm going to stumble across when I go down and pull out a few random tapes from the vast piles of as-yet-unlistened-to reels in my basement. This was labeled "Education or Indoctrination", and contained very little other identifying information. Here's the story I learned: 

In 1966, a textbook arrived which attempted to focus on many of the things which had been overlooked in history textbooks up until that time. Titled "Land of the Free", and written by John W. Caughey, John Hope Franklin and Ernest R. May, it quickly became the target of many parents, educators, commentators and politicians, primarily conservatives, and even more primarily those on the far right.

The complaints were many, but (and this is a huge simplification) among other things, those complaints dealt with the minimizing (to the point of not mentioning, in some cases) the achievements of many famous Americans in the areas of war and politics, the playing up of the things that Americans have done of which we might not want to be so proud, and an emphasis on the roles that certain members of certain minority groups have played in the country's history. You can read online at length about the controversy regarding this textbook - by 1967, there was even a book describing the controversy! 

Into the fray marched something called "Publius and Associates", and they created a filmstrip to show to concerned parents and educators, all about the horrors of this textbook. The soundtrack to that filmstrip is what turned up in my collection, complete with the little "beeps", that those of us over a certain age remember from grade school.

Not having seen the book, I can't offer much of an opinion. But the first half of this filmstrip soundtrack makes a decent case that the book is woefully incomplete and perhaps deliberately provocative - one paragraph in a US 1966 history book discussing Eisenhower? But soon enough, the true nature of the narrators concerns becomes clear, as we are treated to complaints about which African Americans are focused on, including that Communist Martin Luther King and the radical W.E.B. Dubois, rather than that nice, non-threatening Booker T. Washington. And then there's the complaint that the book is critical of the HUAC/McCarthyism period of American history. Horrors. There are enough code words and insinuations here to make clear what was really on the minds of those behind this filmstrip and narration, even if some of their complaints do appear completely legitimate.

My copy of this tape also includes a postscript, apparently attached to the tape (and presumably to the filmstrip) by whoever was showing this filmstrip in California. It gives the names of those who approved (and voted against) the use of this book in California's Eighth Grade classrooms, and encourages people to vote their consciences when these people come up for re-election. This section also contains the most flaccid sounding filmstrip "beeps" that I've ever heard. 

Here, by the way, is a blurb announcing the presentation of the filmstrip in Pittsburgh, in 1968, by the wonderfully named Western Pennsylvania Parents to protect our youth from Propaganda, Brainwashing and Subversive Textbooks in our Schools. And here's a blog posting regarding two other Publius efforts, pamphlets called "The Hippies" and "Sex-Ed: Conditioning for Immorality". Wow.

By the way, in doing research about this book, I found out two interesting things. First, several minorities not represented well in the book also complained about some of the things this book focused on, saying that if you were going to write an alternative history to counteract the prevailing language in textbook, you shouldn't continue to pick and choose what to leave out. And second, the fallout from this book was that history textbooks got a lot bigger, as future publishers strove to include not only what had always been in previous books, but also to include the history of the marginalized, the obscure, the negative, etc. 

Interesting stuff!

Oh, and comments are back!!!

Publius and Associates - Education or Indoctrination? (MP3)

Tape Box (JPG)

The Songs of Christian America - Clifton Webb at the Piano (MP3's)

Here's a downright peculiar album. It came from Fleetwood Records, in Revere, Massachusetts. But while Fleetwood seems to have specialized in Drum and Bugle Corps records, as well as a variety of sports related releases, this one is something different entirely. 

Credited to "Nathan Webb at the Piano", and titled "The Songs of Christian America", it is nothing but a series of unidentified songs played as piano solos, for more than 25 minutes a side. 

The back of the cover is blank, and the album label only repeats what is said on the cover, as well as a bit of label information. That information includes the phrase "PARDON ME, but... CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS SCHOLARSHIP FUND". I'm assuming the album was a fundraiser for that fund, although I can't find out anything about this particular group of Christian patriots or their fund. 

My assumption, though, is that this was a white supremacist group of some type, both because that sort of group pops up in searches for the phrase "Christian Patriots", and because this album came to me in a collection which contains multiple other examples of anti-Semitic, anti-Black and related white supremacy items, such as the album I posted by Wally Butterworth, some time ago. 

What you'd be hard pressed to do would be to develop any idea of the political leanings behind this album by actually listening to the tracks. These are straightforward, unimaginative and (to my ears) deathly dull run-throughs of several songs. As mentioned, the songs aren't named on the label, and in a fit of un-professionalism, the producers allowed the next to last song to be recorded at a very low level, and only faded in to full volume after more than half a minute of the tune.

Many of these songs I either don't recognize or can't recall the names of (in the latter camp are several hymns I can hum, but can't put words to). Those I do know include a number of national songs, as well as a few of those hymns. In at least a few cases, calling these songs "Christian" is a stretch (is the U.S. National Anthem in any way a strictly Christian song?), and in at least one other, identifying the song - "Onward Christian Soldiers" - as an American song, is demonstrably untrue. 

Because I'm familiar with so few of the songs, and because they are unnamed on the label, I have simply made files of the two sides, without breaking them down into tracks, many of which I'd have to leave unnamed anyway. Besides, the best thing about this album, by far, is being able to see the ridiculous cover

Nathan Webb: Songs of Christian America, Side One (MP3)

Nathan Webb: Songs of Christian America, Side Two (MP3)

Album Cover (JPG)  |  Record Label (JPG)

Comments can be left at bobpurse@gmail.com

Can We Have a Do-Over? (MP3's)

I 'm just kicking myself that I didn't come across this record prior to the elections last week, because I think this record could have turned the tide and resulted in something much better than what ended up happening last Tuesday. 

This is a record out of Rockford, Illinois, apparently dating from 1968. This date is based on the introduction on side one of the single, by Samuel Shapiro, who introduces himself as the Governor of Illinois, a position he held for just under eight months, nearly all of that term in 1968.

The performer is Pete Quinto, and he certainly is gung-ho in his get-out-the-vote performance, particularly in the last chorus, when both he and the trombone player behind him get quite stirred up and exuberant.

I've also included the flip side, which is lacking the spoken introduction, and which appears to be an instrumental, until that final chorus, when the vocal comes in again.

Pete Quinto: Mister Democrat (With Spoken Introduction) (MP3)

Pete Quinto: Mister Democrat (Largely Instrumental Version) (MP3)

A-side Record Label (JPG)  | B-side Record Label (JPG)

Comments remain closed for some reason, but can be sent to bobpurse@gmail.com

The Most Repulsive Album I've Ever Heard (MP3's)

Here’s an album with virtually no redeeming qualities. I say “virtually” because there is a argument to be made for making this sort of thing known, in an historical context, the same way we can use the written and filmed records of prior atrocities to be more aware of similar threats in our midst going forward.

Without that – or even with that “value” taken into consideration – this album is simply repugnant and vile. It came to its original owner, who lived in the deep south, in the early 1960’s, when it was produced. The people behind it called themselves the “Christian Votes and Buyers League”, but most people buying the album would likely have known that this was a front for the Ku Klux Klan.

 

Essentially, the first side of the record is a twenty minute screed, telling listeners how Kosher rules cause the price of your grocery items to become more expensive, and how to make sure to avoid these products and grocers. Along the way, you’ll hear that Dr. King’s activities were being directed behind the scenes by a Jewish cabal, among other obnoxious lies, the rest of which I’ll let you hear for yourself – although please be aware of just how creepy this entire endeavor is.

 

The album is narrated by Wally Butterworth, who was at one time a well known radio announcer and quiz show host. According to the brief outline on his Wikipedia page, it would appear that, like so many others, when things didn’t go his way (he lost a lawsuit and his radio platform) he seems to have made a hard turn to the right wing and joined organizations that supported his (and many other people’s) ideas that everything was someone else’s fault, especially the fault of those who didn’t look or think like him.

 

I’d like to think that this sort of thinking – and the more general group mindset behind it that led to these albums (and much more) would be behind us as a country, but sadly, that’s clearly not the case. 

 

Rather than repeat anything else Wally has to say, I'll let him speak for himself: 

 

Wally Butterworth - Kosher Food Blackmail of American Housewives (MP3)

 

Record Label

 

That folksy “Goodbye, all” at the end, following nearly twenty minutes of hate, is, in context, among the creepiest things on the album.

 

I’m admittedly not as familiar with the issues that Butterworth gets into on the flip side of this album, but a quick web search indicates that it was about the move towards “one man, one vote”, in that era. Essentially, small towns and rural areas, at least in the south, were getting far more representation in Congress than the number of residents should have allowed. Some congressional districts had literally just hundreds of votes, while those in big cities might have had in the tens of thousands, meaning that the issues of the rural votes had much more pull than all of those other people in the big cities. Around the time of this album, some court decisions had resulted in that imbalanced system having been thrown out.

 

Now, it seems to me that changing extremely unbalanced representation into something approaching equal representation would be a no-brainer, but Wally Butterworth and his pals seem to see it as an assault on Apple Pie, Mom, Baseball, and the very center of their way of life. At one point, he makes it clear what the concern was: all of those minorities (racial and religious) that live in the cities would suddenly have electoral power that had been denied them, due to the God-given rights of the Rural White Protestants.

 

Nearly the sum and total of his “solution” seems to be for local jurisdictions to refuse to follow the courts’ decrees, and a cry to his fellow white southern men to rise up and resist the Gum’int’s evil plans to make sure everyone has an equal vote. Sheesh. 

 

Again, here's Wally:

 

Wally Butterworth - How to Deliver the Knockout Punch to Federal Judges (MP3)

Record Label

The record sleeve that the album came in is a piece of work, too: 

Record Sleeve

Comments seem to be closed again, for some reason, so I'll accept comments at bobpurse@gmail.com

WFMU's 2014 Record Fair Kicks off tomorrow in NYC!

Join us for a weekend of vinyl worship: WFMU's 2014 Record Fair throws down at the Armory at Lexington and 26th St (68 Lexington Ave) in Manhattan THIS Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

HOURS & ADMISSION

Friday, May 30th
- Early Admission 4-7pm ($25, with unlimited re-entry all weekend)
- Regular Admission 7-10pm ($7)

Saturday, May 31st: 10am - 7pm ($7)

Sunday, June 1st: 10am - 7pm ($7)

Just print or show this coupon at the door to get $2 off admission.

LIVE PERFORMANCES
- Dan Melchior (Sat 3:30pm)
- The Flatmates (Sat 4:30pm)
- Laura Cantrell (Sun 2pm)
- Ubu Sings Ubu Band (Sun 5pm)

LIVE BROADCASTS
- Michael Shelley (Sat 11am-1pm)
- Fool's Paradise with Rex (Sat 1-3pm)
- Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T (Sat 3-6pm)

LIVE VIDEO (watch Record Fair madness on our Ustream feed)
- Clay Pigeon of the Dusty Show interviews revelers at the Fair (Sat 1pm & 6pm, Sun 1pm & 6pm)
- Dan Melchior and The Flatmates perform live (Sat 3:30pm)
- Live set by Laura Cantrell (Sun 2pm)
- Ubu Sings Ubu Band performance (Sun 5pm)

FOOD & DRINK (all beer sales benefit WFMU)
- Two Boots Pizza
- Dub Pies
- Sierra Nevada
- Brooklyn Brewery

 

See you at the Fair!

WFMU's 2014 fundraising Marathon is on and runs through March 9th! Make a pledge now!

 

Check out our new 2014 swag, featuring our new Mighty Goldfinch T-shirt (left), a truckload of new DJ Premiums, and more! All new and current Swag for Life members are eligible to receive our exclusive, limited-edition black Woof-Moo T-shirt, and early pledgers get first dibs on adopting a WFMU DJ or fixture!

Yo La Tengo will be playing cover song requests in exchange for pledges on Wednesday, February 26th (9pm-midnight) on the Evan "Funk" Davies show with co-host Gaylord Fields, and WFMU's Hoof & Mouth Sinfonia close out the Marathon on Sunday March 9th with drunken live band karaoke.

Don't miss out on our biggest on-air bash of the year!

Holiday shopping at the WFMU store

Get your retail on at WFMU's online store! Find the perfect gift for that special record nerd or freeform radio fan in your life.

New items have been added, including WFMU's global domination bag, our lovely LP slipmat, Chris Ware's classic "Learn Radio at Home" t-shirt, and more!

All orders placed by Dec 13th will arrive in time for Chrimbus. Consume!

Normalcy, As Viewed By Cretins (MP3's)

Here's a 45, complete with damaged picture sleeve, that I was surprised to find among a batch that I bought online a few years ago. From 1981, it's a group promoting themselves as "The Normal Majority" with two smug, idiotic songs promoting the elimination of feminism. The b-side of this record appeared on this side many years ago, as part of a compilation, but without any of the images, and without the a-side, which is at least as ridiculous as the b-side. 

I'm sure this is meant as humor, and maybe you'll find some in it, but to me it falls completely flat. I'd love to think that this was meant as satire (although even then, I'd consider it a failed attempt), but at the same time, I'm fairly sure there's not a chance of that. The address on the back, where you can join their club, indicates that they meant every word. 

The one thing that does not surprise me about this record is that it came out of Techny, IL. I grew up two miles east of the tiny hamlet of Techny, which was founded by an extremely conservative religious order, and was still, in 1981, dominated by their facilities. While those facilities certainly contained gorgeous architecture, flora and grounds, they also housed men who, while not married themselves,  probably held  views about marriage which were quite similar to those on this record. (Techny is no longer a separate community, having been annexed by its neighbor, Northbrook, about a decade after this record was released.)

The Normal Majority - From Adam's Rib Came Woman's Lib (MP3)

The Normal Majority - In the Kitchen (MP3)

"From Adam's Rib" Label (JPG)  |  "In the Kitchen" Label (JPG)

Picture Sleeve Front (JPG)  |  Picture Sleeve Back (JPG)

WFMU's 2013 Record Fair - Nov 22-24!

Don't miss out on the best record shopping weekend of the year! Luxuriate in the presence of hundreds of thousands of records and CDs, great films and live music, plus tons of live WFMU broadcasts!

WFMU Record Fair
Nov 22nd - 24th (Fri - Sun)

Metropolitan Pavilion
125 W. 18th St, Manhattan

Early admission ($25): Fri 4-7pm (includes unlimited re-entry all weekend)
Regular admission ($7): Fri 7-10pm, Sat/Sun 10am-7pm

Bring in your Record Fair postcard or this coupon for $2 off admission!

Live Music:
- Shannon & the Clams: Sat 3-6pm
- Liquor Store: Sat 3-6pm
- Blowfly: Sun 1pm
- Jeffrey Lewis & the Rain: Sun 3pm

Films:
- The Mystery in Old Bathbath - a puppet movie by Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Sat 10am
- MeanEnsemble: Raymond Scott's Perfect Musical World, Sat 2pm
- Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals, Sat 4pm
- Andrew Bird: Fever Year, Sun 4:15pm
and more!

Live WFMU Broadcasts from the Record Fair include Miniature Minotaurs with Kurt Gottschalk (Fri 3-6pm), Put the Needle on the Record with Billy Jam (Fri 7-8pm), Downtown Soulville with Mr. Fine Wine (Fri 8-9pm), Michael Shelley (Sat 11am-1pm), Fool's Paradise with Rex (Sat 1-3pm), and The Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T (Sat 3-6pm).

Full schedule of events here.

See you at the Fair!

 

WFMU's Radiovision Festival hits NYC THIS Saturday!

Don't miss out on WFMU's 3rd annual Radiovision Festival this Saturday, October 19th, at the Scholastic Auditorium (557 Broadway) in NYC! Tickets here.

Radiovision celebrates radio's future as it takes on new forms in the digital age for the medium's fans, tinkerers, and future thinkers.

This year's guests include:

FIlmmaker Adam Curtis (keynote speaker)

Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit)

Julie Klausner (comedian)

Bob Garfield (On the Media)

James Del (Gawker Media)

Tom Scharpling (WFMU)

and more!

Check out the full schedule here, and we'll see you on Saturday!

 

Help WFMU Open our Performance Space to the Public!

WFMU's Studio of Tomorrow silent campaign to raise enough money to open our 100-seat radio theater to the public is gaining steam! Help us make our goal by October 31st by making a pledge below!

Earlier this year, WFMU reclaimed the ground floor space of our building* and renovated it on a shoestring. But right now the space is just an empty room with a stage, and we now need to bring it up to code and purchase some basic audio equipment so that we can open our doors to the public and start hosting events.

*(previously, we rented it out to a business that closed shop)

Station Manager Ken explains it all in the video below:

 

And if that didn't convince you to pledge, perhaps we can entice you with our fantastic new Junk Food T-shirt ($50) or Knit Hat ($100). More swag on view here.

 

Real and Replica: Independence Day, 2013

This year, I saw two Independence Day-themed exhibits, of which it would be easy to categorize one as real and one as not, except that, technically, both are “real.” Or maybe one is just as much a figment of meaning-projection as the other. I can’t decide.

The first display was at the New York Public Library, which was showing an original draft of the Declaration of Independence, as written by Thomas Jefferson, along with one of the original 14 copies of the proposed Bill of Rights. Both these documents are extremely rare, and the Library has never exhibited them together before. Because they're so fragile, they were on display for only three days, July 1–3.

I went to see them after work on Tuesday, when the library was open late, and stood in line for 45 minutes, which was totally worth it. It’s hard to write about the experience without sounding like a Frank Capra film. The crowd was large and diverse, and noticeably respectful. Even standing in line, everybody was polite and patient, which is something I don’t recall ever experiencing in an NYC queue before. The crowd fanned out once we were admitted to the room where the documents were in three displays: Jefferson's two-sheet (front and back) Declaration, sandwiched in glass inside two separate vitrines, so you could read all four pages; and the large, printed Bill of Rights (one of only 14 original copies known to exist) laid on a slanted backing inside another, much larger display case. Even though people were allowed to crowd around the displays at will, there was no bad behavior that I saw: Everyone waited patiently for their turn and looked as long as they liked.

Have You Thought About Freedom Lately? (MP3)

As the last hours of the festive Independence Day long weekend pass us by, here's an appropriate record for the holiday. It's a piece of patriotic drivel written by someone named Michael Quirk, and titled "Have You Thought About Freedom Lately?". Quirk himself recorded the piece at some point, and his version can be found a few places on the internet. But for this release (which the record label oddly shows to have a running time which is over a minute more than its true length), the artist is Eddie Paul: 

Eddie Paul - Have You Thought About Freedom Lately? (MP3)

(Whether or not this is the same Eddie Paul who is well known for customizing cars... I have no idea.)

For the flip side, Michael Quirk performed another one of his compositions himself, titled "Lonely Men in Blue":

Michael Quirk - Lonely Men in Blue (MP3)

"Freedom Lately" Label (JPG)  |  "Lonely Men" Label (JPG)

 

Sticking to Music

You know how whenever anyone brings up the topic of US sonic weapons and music torture, someone always says, “What do they do, just turn on WFMU? Hahahahaha.” No? Maybe you hang out with smarter people than I do. On the other hand, WFMU has always been a leader in the irritainment industry; some of my favorite DJs, people I’ve been listening to for decades, do shows I’ve never been able to listen to all the way through. So I got to wondering—what is on the playlist when our government wants to break the will of its enemies? (“Enemies” being defined in the broadest sense, of course, in that the term has included US citizens minding their own business in their own homes.)

Manuel Noriega vs. Van Halen: Noriega was Military Governor of Panama from 1984-89, when elections were held with results he didn’t like. Also, he refused to help Oliver North with the whole Nicaraguan Contra thing. (Noriega had been working with the CIA since the 1950s.) Meanwhile, US troops stationed around the Panama Canal were conducting a series of ludicrously named “operations,” and then a Marine Lieutenant got killed, and then the US invaded, which was condemned as a flagrant violation of international law by the UN. Noriega fled to the Vatican embassy in Panama City, where US troops laid siege in Operation Nifty Package. (I am not kidding about that name.) They stood around outside playing high-volume rock music, specifically the Van Halen song “Panama.” A week later, Noriega surrendered.

Don't Free Pussy Riot

Last night I saw Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, and now I’m convinced that Pussy Riot should be in jail, which I think was not the filmmakers’ intent.

The video shows three strong feminist women and their history of activism, culminating in their action in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The three who were arrested—Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich— are not the only members of their political collective, although you wouldn’t know that from the film. They also are not “girls,” they are young women in their mid-20s and early 30s, they are wives and mothers, they are educated and intelligent enough to have devised an ideological basis for their political protest. Yet since their arrests, they’ve been portrayed as “girls” who “didn’t realize” that defiling a revered place of worship would offend anyone, which is complete bullshit: The whole point of the action was to offend as many people as possible. If people weren’t offended, they wouldn’t pay attention. Well, they’re paying attention now; they’re paying attention all over the world.

The women of Pussy Riot must have realized there were likely consequences for their actions. Just as Edward Snowden was prepared to accept the loss of his well-paid job, the end of his comfy life, and his possible extradition to the US to face treason charges, so Pussy Riot should have been prepared for arrest, trial, and conviction. They say they are feminists: Let them act like feminists. Their prison sentences are the proof of everything they’ve said about Russian repression. Let them take the consequence of their actions like strong feminist women, not disingenuous, apologetic little girls. In the words of Sammy Davis Jr. “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”

Be punk, Pussy Riot: Be strong.

UPDATE 6/18: So what I was trying to say was unclear, and that is the fault of my writing. Mostly I was objecting to the documentary's portrayal of "girls," but also there's the rather alarming footage of the three prisoners apologizing and saying they "didn't mean to offend anyone." This is contrary to their otherwise strong statements--contrary, in fact, to their actions. The obvious injustice of two years in prison for their protest is what has called international attention to the very repression they were protesting. I have friends who participated in ACT UP's protest inside St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989; no one went to prison, but it brought international attention to the AIDS crisis and forced the government to begin dealing with it. I hope Pussy Riot's Punk Prayer will turn out to be as influential. Also, one week on, Edward Snowden looks less like a hero. -B.

 

 

Revilo P. Oliver: The White Supremacist with the Palindromic Name (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 39) (MP3's)

Well, last time around, I shared a 1960's record brought to us by the right wing zealots over at Key Records, and that got me to thinking about this insane reel of tape I came across years and years ago, featuring the exceptionally obnoxious ramblings of Revilo P. Oliver. Mr. Oliver (who said that being named palindromically was a family tradition), was notable for being a white supremacist and a founding member of both the National Review and of The John Birch Society.

That's enough to peg him as a fringe-dweller right there, but Revilo (and I wish it was pronounced like "Revile" -  a feeling which he inspires in me - but I think the accent is on the first syllable) later decided that 1960's American conservatism was just too liberal, and he joined the National Alliance - part of the National Socialist movement - that's right, Neo-Nazis.

The tape features two lengthy lectures, each about an hour long. His main focus seems to be on simply expressing a smug superiority, never really saying too much about what his beliefs are, but rather spewing insults, simplifying and misrepresenting the views of those he considers vermin (i.e. anyone who isn't Western, Caucasian, or who doesn't agree with him), and giving lengthy examples of idiocy on the part of specific individuals, which somehow are meant to indict everyone on the other side of whatever issue he's on about.

There is so much gold here, it's hard to know where to start, but I did find two statements quite telling. The first is when he just sort of states, as fact (and in passing) that the only civilization that matters is the one "that we, the white men of the Western Hemisphere, created". And the second is when he actually says, in reference to what he called the "baneful" effects of slavery, adds that the worst of these baneful effects were on the owners.

Hold on your hats, wigs and keys, ladies and gentlemen, and have a listen to a first class wacko, Dr. Revilo P. Oliver:

Revilo P. Oliver - Liberals (MP3)

Revilo P. Oliver - Degeneracy (MP3)

Tape Box (JPG)  |  Tape (JPG)

Listening to his rants, I find myself wondering - if ol' Revilo were still around today, would he realize that much of the progress that has been made over the last 30 years has been developed, improved and made ubiquitous by the more progressive humans of this era, and that many of the biggest problems on Earth during that period have come from the tyrants, the religiously intolerant and other representatives of the far right?

But then I think of Revilo P. Oliver's political descendants (in the Tea Party and their ilk), and recognize that even they have failed to perceive those developments - so I assume that Oliver wouldn't have noticed, either.

Key Records Presents: The Fearless American (MP3's)

Last fall, Listener Mindwrecker wrote a fabulous post exploring the wonders of the 1960's far-right record label known as Key Records. I read it with great interest, because I've always picked up records on the Key label when they've crossed my past. They never fail to entertain, and can often inspire both a laugh and a touch of horror, within a few moments of each other. 

I bet I have close to a dozen Key releases down in my "spoken word" section, in the basement, of which my favorite, and yet also the most depressing, may well be the one Mindwrecker already shared, by Walter Brennan.

But here another prime example, an album featuring a speech by Dan Smoot, publisher of The Smoot Report, in which he extols the virtues of Mr. D. B. Lewis, who was a manufacturer of pet foods. (Smoot, it would seem, was a true believer. Not only was he associated with the Birchers, I learn from Wikipedia that he later went on to oppose George H.W. Bush's candidacy for the U.S. Senate on the grounds that Bush's positions were essentially those of a Democrat!)

It's amazing to hear, in this speech, which took place at some point during the run-up to the 1964 election, the same rhetoric, the same ideas, and in places, close to the same slogans, as those espoused in recent years by members of the tea party and its offshoots. Time, it's sad to say, doesn't do away with all bad ideas - "those who cannot remember the past..." and all that, I guess.

If anyone is interested, there could certainly be more Key Records mayhem to come!

Dan Smoot: The Fearless American, Part One (MP3)

Dan Smoot: The Fearless American, Part Two (MP3) 

Record Label (JPG)

(album cover to come soon - I'm having issues with my scanner)

A Trip to Hell, With Wayne Pyzer (MP3's)

As the Christian calendar approaches its holiest days, the time is right for some holier-than-thou listening. And here's a perfect example, a two sided trip to hell from our friends at Creative Sound Recordings of Los Angeles, an awkwardly titled EP-length release "Decision for Destiny: The Region Beyond", narrated by Wayne Pyzer. 

This really has to be heard to be believed. Over a variety of B-Movie sound effects, Wayne Pyzer portrays death, I guess, leading a poor soul from her wretched life right into hell, where even when she holds her head in her hands, those hands themselves are in flames. The first voice we hear is actually the dear departed soul herself, then death invites the listener along, and although he asks questions, the woman from the beginning of the record is never heard from again. 

Pyzer's performance is perfect, in terms of appealing to those who already agree with him about where the wicked of the world will go (and surely, they get to decide what makes someone wicked). I can't, however, imagine that this record managed to convince anyone who wasn't already on the same page of anything at all. He performs with a smug, obnoxious, know-it-all tone, sounding very much like a fun-house mirror version of Peter Lind Hayes as "Genie, The Magic Record". But instead of enthusiastically and warmly introducing the listener to the wonders of sound and imagination (as did Hayes), Pyzer sounds like he's looking down his nose at something icky on his shoe, while introducing the listener to the concept of being too late to repent.

In a way, this record reminded me of right wing radio and television - an echo chamber for the converted. I have a hard time believing that anyone who wasn't with him before the record started was converted into any new way of thinking once it was over. It is, however, a quite entertaining little play, especially if one listens to it as if it were meant as satire, and will be the source of many a sound clip for those who like to play with sounds. 

Wayne Pyzer - Decision for Destiny: The Region Beyond (Part One) (MP3)

Wayne Pyzer - Decision for Destiny: The Region Beyond (Part Two) (MP3)

Record Label (JPG)

 

WFMU Marathon Happenings

 

This is the second and final week of WFMU's fundraising Marathon and we are still less than halfway to our goal, which must be met by Sunday, March 17th! Make a pledge now!

 

Special highlights this week:

TONIGHT - Tuesday, March 12 (9pm-mid)

A.C. Newman and John Hodgman join Tom Scharpling on the Best Show on WFMU for 3 hours of mirth, music, and mayhem! Tune in to win killer prizes, and watch it all go down on our live video feed at wfmu.org. Pledge to the Best Show using this link.

 

 

 

 

Thursday, March 14 (9am-noon)

Yo La Tengo play your cover song requests in exchange for pledges of $100 or more on Hello Children with Faye and co-host Gaylord Fields! Pledge to the Yo La Tengo request-a-thon NOW from this page, or tune in to pledge live.