POPULARITY
In this episode Steve sits down with his best buddies Nubbin Moore to talk about, among several life-changing subjects, Nubbin's recent election to honored lifetime membership status with the American Black and Tan Coonhound Association. The ABTCHA memberships votes one member into the exclusive group each year with the award presented the following year at Black and Tan Days. Nubbin questions his worthiness while Steve sets the record straight. Nubbin enjoys fishing as well as coon hunting and the two discuss Moore's recent trips and successes. The conversation moves to the question, when does a coon hunter recognize it's time to retire? Neither, by their own admission, has reached that point in the game but do discuss the possibility. Black and Tan fanciers will enjoy Nubbin's reflections on two of his most famous Black and Tans, Hank and Zack. Each were successful on the biggest stages in coon hunting during their primes including Hank's win overall at the 25th anniversary Autumn Oaks. When does a hunter realize he's too old to start another pup is a question the pair wrestle with in this laid back, easy-listening podcast. The talk is as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. Have a virtual “sip” and enjoy.Episode NotesWe would like to thank those who support this podcast. Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode. Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links belowhttps://www.dusupply.com/alphadogwww.dusupply.comhttps://alphadognutrition.com/https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts
In this episode Steve sits down with his best buddies Nubbin Moore to talk about, among several life-changing subjects, Nubbin's recent election to honored lifetime membership status with the American Black and Tan Coonhound Association. The ABTCHA memberships votes one member into the exclusive group each year with the award presented the following year at Black and Tan Days. Nubbin questions his worthiness while Steve sets the record straight. Nubbin enjoys fishing as well as coon hunting and the two discuss Moore's recent trips and successes. The conversation moves to the question, when does a coon hunter recognize it's time to retire? Neither, by their own admission, has reached that point in the game but do discuss the possibility. Black and Tan fanciers will enjoy Nubbin's reflections on two of his most famous Black and Tans, Hank and Zack. Each were successful on the biggest stages in coon hunting during their primes including Hank's win overall at the 25th anniversary Autumn Oaks. When does a hunter realize he's too old to start another pup is a question the pair wrestle with in this laid back, easy-listening podcast. The talk is as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. Have a virtual “sip” and enjoy. We would like to thank those who support this podcast. Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode. Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog www.dusupply.com https://alphadognutrition.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts Episode Notes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode Steve sits down with his best buddies Nubbin Moore to talk about, among several life-changing subjects, Nubbin's recent election to honored lifetime membership status with the American Black and Tan Coonhound Association. The ABTCHA memberships votes one member into the exclusive group each year with the award presented the following year at Black and Tan Days. Nubbin questions his worthiness while Steve sets the record straight. Nubbin enjoys fishing as well as coon hunting and the two discuss Moore's recent trips and successes. The conversation moves to the question, when does a coon hunter recognize it's time to retire? Neither, by their own admission, has reached that point in the game but do discuss the possibility. Black and Tan fanciers will enjoy Nubbin's reflections on two of his most famous Black and Tans, Hank and Zack. Each were successful on the biggest stages in coon hunting during their primes including Hank's win overall at the 25th anniversary Autumn Oaks. When does a hunter realize he's too old to start another pup is a question the pair wrestle with in this laid back, easy-listening podcast. The talk is as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. Have a virtual “sip” and enjoy. We would like to thank those who support this podcast. Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode. Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog www.dusupply.com https://alphadognutrition.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts
In this episode Steve sits down with his best buddies Nubbin Moore to talk about, among several life-changing subjects, Nubbin's recent election to honored lifetime membership status with the American Black and Tan Coonhound Association. The ABTCHA memberships votes one member into the exclusive group each year with the award presented the following year at Black and Tan Days. Nubbin questions his worthiness while Steve sets the record straight. Nubbin enjoys fishing as well as coon hunting and the two discuss Moore's recent trips and successes. The conversation moves to the question, when does a coon hunter recognize it's time to retire? Neither, by their own admission, has reached that point in the game but do discuss the possibility. Black and Tan fanciers will enjoy Nubbin's reflections on two of his most famous Black and Tans, Hank and Zack. Each were successful on the biggest stages in coon hunting during their primes including Hank's win overall at the 25th anniversary Autumn Oaks. When does a hunter realize he's too old to start another pup is a question the pair wrestle with in this laid back, easy-listening podcast. The talk is as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. Have a virtual “sip” and enjoy.Episode NotesWe would like to thank those who support this podcast. Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode. Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links belowhttps://www.dusupply.com/alphadogwww.dusupply.comhttps://alphadognutrition.com/https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts
In this episode Steve sits down with his best buddies Nubbin Moore to talk about, among several life-changing subjects, Nubbin's recent election to honored lifetime membership status with the American Black and Tan Coonhound Association. The ABTCHA memberships votes one member into the exclusive group each year with the award presented the following year at Black and Tan Days. Nubbin questions his worthiness while Steve sets the record straight. Nubbin enjoys fishing as well as coon hunting and the two discuss Moore's recent trips and successes. The conversation moves to the question, when does a coon hunter recognize it's time to retire? Neither, by their own admission, has reached that point in the game but do discuss the possibility. Black and Tan fanciers will enjoy Nubbin's reflections on two of his most famous Black and Tans, Hank and Zack. Each were successful on the biggest stages in coon hunting during their primes including Hank's win overall at the 25th anniversary Autumn Oaks. When does a hunter realize he's too old to start another pup is a question the pair wrestle with in this laid back, easy-listening podcast. The talk is as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. Have a virtual “sip” and enjoy.
Juan Carlos Acosta, Artistic Director for SACRA/PROFANA, San Diego's Premiere Professional Choral Ensemble, and William "BJ" Robinson, Director of Music & Art for Christ United Presbyterian Church, the nation's third-oldest Black Presbyterian Church, to talk about the May 25 "Sliding Glass Doors" concert that will take audiences into the heart of American Black music through the lens of acclaimed composer, arranger and gospel scholar, Dr. Brandon Waddles.About Spotlight and Cloudcast Media "Spotlight On The Community" is the longest running community podcast in the country, continuously hosted by Drew Schlosberg for 19 years. "Spotlight" is part of Cloudcast Media's line-up of powerful local podcasts, telling the stories, highlighting the people, and celebrating the gravitational power of local. For more information on Cloudcast and its shows and cities served, please visit www.cloudcastmedia.us. Cloudcast Media | the national leader in local podcasting. About Mission Fed Credit Union A community champion for over 60 years, Mission Fed Credit Union with over $6 billion in member assets, is the Sponsor of Spotlight On The Community, helping to curate connectivity, collaboration, and catalytic conversations. For more information on the many services for San Diego residents, be sure to visit them at https://www.missionfed.com/
This week, we host guest Oseme and discuss: • Phone networks • Travel luggage • Trump Tariffs • Israeli IDF soldiers killing aid workers • Arsenal v Real Madrid • Does Eric Roberson have an album with no skips • Diaspora wars • Social media silos and cultivating • Best female rapper • Falling out of love with music • New uses for Chat GPT • Relationship advice • Talkers and non-talkers in relationships • Being selfish in relationships • How to talk down your partner • How to discipline / talk to kids • How fear dictates parenting • Women having a sense of who they can be around alone • Meeting people through the ESN Facebook group • Debate v discussion • Telling someone a problem without wanting a solution • Can you talk to women and men exactly the same way • Tyla calling herself 'Colored' and the negative response that's garnished • How power dynamics can change how offended or threatened you are • The similarities between American Blacks and South African Blacks protectionism • • N • • #AITA for not wanting my children to give me mental health issues • Stavros Says: Websites to strip paywall from journalised Connect with us at & send your questions & comments to: #ESNpod so we can find your comments www.esnpodcast.com www.facebook.com/ESNpodcasts www.twitter.com/ESNpodcast www.instagram.com/ESNpodcast @esnpodcast on all other social media esnpodcast@gmail.com It's important to subscribe, rate and review us on your apple products. You can do that here... www.bit.ly/esnitunes
Top shot © Ron Tarver Cowboy lore has deep roots in American culture. Yet, black cowboys have lived pretty much under the radar until recently, when songs by pop culture icons Lil Nas X and Beyoncé went viral and catapulted the black western aesthetic into the limelight. In today's show, we're getting the inside scoop from two photographers who've been fully immersed in these vibrant communities since long before they became a top fashion trend. Separated by a generation in age and with pictures spanning from film to digital, we follow Ron Tarver and Ivan McClellan from their early years in Oklahoma and Kansas, to the urban stables of Northern Philadelphia, the legendary Roy LeBlanc Rodeo in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and beyond. Listen in and discover how the popularity of a single newspaper assignment led Ron to the pages of National Geographic and a career defining body of work. In a similar manner, Ivan's hunch to act on a chance invitation morphed into a passion project that reconnected him to his midwestern roots and ultimately expanded his role from photographer to that of an entrepreneur and rodeo boss. Ever wonder about the funding and stamina required to compete as a rodeo athlete? We take that bull by the horns at the end of the show. Guests: Ron Tarver & Ivan McClellan Episode Timeline: 4:09: Ron Tarver and Ivan McClellan's early memories of cowboy culture during their respective youths in Kansas City and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. 9:19: Ron's early story for the Philadelphia Inquirer and his subsequent documentation of black cowboy culture. 15:06: The camera gear and film stock Ron used for his pictures, plus digitizing analog slides using a digital camera, macro lens and bellows system. 20:15: Technical limitations Ron faced when shooting film, and his editing process when working with National Geographic. 23:19: Ivan's start as a designer, his introduction to photography and the world of black cowboys, and his shooting process at the rodeo. 33:40: The dominance of women within black rodeos, a female horse whisperer, and tips for photographing horses in a rodeo context. 44:34: Episode Break 45:35: The journey behind our guest's respective books, and Ron's collaboration with a noted editor to create The Long Ride Home. 51:19: The back story to Ivan's book—from a self-published Kickstarter release to the editor he worked with to get Eight Seconds published by Damiani. 57:10: Ivan and Ron discuss each other's finished book projects, questions about model releases, plus the current hunger for black cowboy culture. 1:05:23: Ivan's work to promote black rodeo athletes and the economics of competing in this arena. 1:10:39: How Ivan's life has changed since founding the Eight Seconds rodeo in Portland, Oregon. 1:16:04: The impact of Ivan's work on the lives of rodeo athletes, and the maximum number of bulls a rodeo athlete can ride in a single day. Guest Bios: Ron Tarver was born and raised in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, and is now based outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During 32 years as a staffer at The Philadelphia Inquirer, he was nominated for three Pulitzer's and shared the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for public service, in addition to many other accolades. Tarver's photographs have been exhibited internationally. His pictures can be found in private, corporate, and museum collections, and have appeared in major publications both in print and online. In 2004, he co-authored the book We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, published by Harper Collins, accompanied by a traveling exhibition. A recipient of a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2001 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Tarver has also received funding from the NEA, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and an Independence Foundation Fellowship. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Art at Swarthmore College. His book, The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America was released by George F Thompson Publishers in September. Ivan McClellan is a photojournalist and designer originally from Kansas City, Missouri. These days he calls Portland, Oregon home. His work reveals marginalized aspects of black culture, challenging broad assumptions and myths about racial identity in America. His project Eight Seconds, focuses on elevating narratives about American Black cowboys, and transforming the culture of the American West by ‘re-centering' black women and men back as an integral part of our historical narrative. After initially self-publishing his photos in book form, Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture was released by Damiani books in April 2024. The winner of the 2022 Getty Inclusion grant, McClellan's photos have been presented in and collected by Museums and cultural spaces across the United States. His work has also been featured in ESPN: The Undefeated and Fast Company. As an experience designer for Adobe Lightroom, he has led projects for Nike, Adidas, Disney, and the U.S. National Soccer Team. And most recently, he founded the Eight Seconds Rodeo in 2023. Stay Connected: Ron Tarver Website: https://www.rontarverphotographs.net/ Ron Tarver Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rontarver/ Ron Tarver Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Tarver Ron Tarver The Long Ride Home book: http://www.gftbooks.com/books_Tarver.html Ivan McClellan Website: https://eightsecs.com/ Ivan McClellan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eightsecs/ Ivan McClellan / 8 Seconds Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/eightsecs Ivan McClellan at Damiani Books: https://www.damianibooks.com/en/collections/mcclellan-ivan End Credits: Host: Allan Weitz Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein Executive Producer: Richard Stevens
Send us a textIn Episode #50 of Season #4, I will discuss the American Black Bear, Ursus americanus.Your host is Tommy Fowler. I have a biology degree from the University of Kentucky and a high passion for the outdoors. I am "The Amateur Naturalist".We will talk about:In tonight's episode we will talk about the American Black Bear.I will discuss that there are 16 species of American Black Bear.What do they eat?What eats the black bears?Where do they live?Do they attack and eat and kill humans?Where do they live?A few stories about the black bears._________________________________________________________________________******** https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TommyFowler *********One way that you can support this podcast is to "Buy Me a Cup of Coffee". Not a real cup of coffee. Just click on the Buy Me a Cup of Coffee and you can give a small donation to help me get some new equipment or to just stay on the air. Many thanks in advance if you do._________________________________________________________________________My website:https://theamateurnaturalist.buzzsprout.com/2032491Be sure to visit Facebook and look for my site ... The Amateur NaturalistI would love to hear your ideas, see pictures or hear your feedback.____________________________________________________________________You can help me out by:Please hit “download” on every episodePlease hit Followplease leave me a reviewdownload each of my episodesplease leave a 5-star rating This helps me grow as a podcaster please tell 1-2 friends or family about this podcast_______________________________________________________________________You can support the people who support the black bears by going to:Friends of the Smokies. https://friendsofthesmokies.orgAppalachian Bear Rescue. https://appalachianbearrescue.org________________________________________________________________________** Click here to get $20 off a paid Buzzsprout account to start your own podcast. It's fun, start today!!https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2014700_________________________________________________________________________The short music intro and outro is:"Hickory Hollow" by Dan Lebowitz. I love this music. Thank you, Dan.This music is royalty free.
Sorry folks, been super busy but we got the National Grand Nite Champion Black and Tan 2024 Ed Hillenbrand and Black River Tex. Listen and Enjoy. If you enjoy the podcast, considering becoming a member of the American Black and Tan Association. God Bless and Go Black
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Robinson's Fashion Empire: http://bit.ly/3XBKqO2 Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine. In this episode, Norman and Robinson sit down for a discussion centered around the anniversary of October 7th, and they speak about the immensity of what has happened in the Israel-Palestine region in the time before and since. Norman also appeared on episode 192, where he and Robinson discussed allegations of genocide and apartheid, Hamas and Hezbollah, and connections between the war and the Holocaust. Norman was also featured on episode 218, where he addressed the facts and fictions generated by the Israel-Hamas War. Norman's most recent book is I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023). Norman's Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:44 Why Norman Couldn't Have Predicted October 7th 00:04:45 Gaza's Last Victim 00:07:55 Is the Palestine Question Dead? 00:11:13 What Hamas in Gaza and American Slave Rebellions Have in Common 00:17:22 How the Nakba Created Gaza in 1948 00:21:21 Is Gaza a Concentration Camp? 00:25:20 High-Tech Israeli Killing Sprees in Gaza 00:29:23 The Butcher of Beirut & The Sabra and Shatila Massacre 00:31:20 On the First Intifada and the Silencing of Gaza 00:37:11 On Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Hezbollah 00:41:59 How Israel Will Destroy Hezbollah 00:42:35 Israel Vs The Party of God 00:45:32 On the Courage of Dying for a Cause 00:48:24 On His Time with Hezbollah and Nasrallah 00:52:41 Noam Chomsky on Hezbollah's Threat to Israel 00:56:30 On Nasrallah's Prophetic Speech Before His Assassination 01:02:10 On Martin Luther King Jr's Final Words 01:04:35 On Nasrallah and the Assassination of Pro-Palestine Leaders 01:07:08 The Parallel Between American Slaves and Gazan Palestinians 01:12:37 Will the Gazans Be Emancipated like American Blacks from Slavery? 01:19:16 Norman's Big Question for Noam Chomsky 01:21:26 The Question of Gaza as a Concentration Camp 01:23:03 The Crushing Toll of the Holocaust on Norman 01:32:08 On His Mother, Piers Morgan, and Gaza as a Holocaust 01:34:14 On the Rise of Hamas 01:38:49 On Hamas, Nasrallah, and the Sealed Fate of Gaza 01:41:36 Does Israel Have the Right to Commit Genocide? 01:45:48 Does Israel Intentionally Murder Innocent Civilians? 01:50:10 Just How Brutal Are Israel's High Tech Military Operations? 01:54:09 On Gandhi's Meditations in Jail 01:56:07 Does Israel Go on Killing Sprees in Palestine? 01:58:43 Are the Leaders of Hamas Rich Billionaires? 02:04:43 Comparing Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto 02:09:33 The Absurdity of Gaza's Economy 02:15:11 What Was Hamas's Intentions on October 7th? 02:18:14 Did Hamas Commit Sexual Violence Against Israelis on October 7th? 02:24:07 On Israel's Violent Revenge Against Hamas 02:26:50 Has Israel Restored Its Fearsome Reputation in the Middle East? 02:30:34 Has Israel Exterminated Gaza? 02:36:31 The Bottom Line on Israel and the Desolation of Gaza 02:39:39 Will There Be a Ceasefire in Gaza? 02:43:58 Why Does Israel Always Win? 02:52:40 On Philosophy, Chattel Slavery, and Justice in Palestine 02:58:02 On Justice and Norman Finkelstein's Purpose in Life Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
LIVE SHOW Survey - Help us craft this event: https://5t31wfz1la0.typeform.com/to/olLem0cJ Ep 240 | the boys discuss James and Fuhad of the @ShtsNGigsPodcast recent troubles with @OfficialFlagrant 0:00 Preview 2:34 Lightskinned men not "Black" in the UK? 6:50 the danger of success 13:00 baddie math (London v Atlanta) 19:31 the problem with the schulz schtick 34:38 what they SHOULD have said about Black women 38:27 why they "froze up" 40:45 Live show plug 41:58 Tyla is an ‘Entitled Uppity African'? 52:06 non-American Black people being "allowed" into the culture Grab a thang of our card game at https://shop.wavingtheredflag.com/products/its-a-red-flag-card-game (now shipping to the US & UK) https://www.youtube.com/c/WavingtheRedFlag/join https://www.patreon.com/wavingtheredflag https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wavingtheredflag/subscribe
A story about an American Black Bear © 2024 Samuel Suk. All rights reserved. ℗ 2024 Samuel Suk. All rights reserved. For license and usage contact: animalstoriesforkids@gmail.com Updated show related content: patreon.com/AnimalStoriesforKids Creator's page: samuelsuk.com Buy my Everyday Cats Journals/Notebooks. 7x10" size - 4 different themes: Apartment - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HQBXWKL Bookstore Cafe - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HVGPK8H Medieval Fair - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KN9YTYF Japanese Garden - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MBP63F3 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/animalstoriesforkids/support
These animals are one of the few megafaunas that are not only surviving but thriving on the North American continent. With their adaptable diet and fast reproductive rates, these animals are surely here to stay.
Listen in as Flop takes us under the hood of the origins of the Kentucky River line and how Nitro won the 2024 King of Hunt at Black and Tan Days. Jimmy also gives us some background on how he and Flop got partnered up on Black Dogs. Thanks for listening and if you are not, please consider becoming a member of the American Black and Tan Coonhound Association. God Bless and Go Black.
The boys are back in town! We have returned from the 2024 American Black Film Festival (1:17) and have a ton to report on, from the films and panels to the music performances and red carpet. Also, the latest film from Pixar has arrived with "Inside Out 2" (25:58), can this movie bring Pixar back to life? On the TV side, 2 of our major shows are back on the airwaves, "The Boys" (45:18) season 4 with the first 3 episodes, and the season 2 premiere of "House of the Dragon"(1:55:56). (Song: Never Too Much x Luther Vandross)
This week, we host guest Oseme and discuss: • What being passive aggressive is • Fat Jose - Safe 2 Say v Beanie Sigel - Get Down • Nigerian talking volume • How can you ask someone to talk at a lower volume politely • The origins of the word passive aggressive • Jamaican skanking • Do animals worship a higher power • Is the moon a star • Meeting people through the ESN Facebook group • Debate v discussion • Telling someone a problem without wanting a solution • Can you talk to women and men exactly the same way • Tyla calling herself 'Colored' and the negative response that's garnished • How power dynamics can change how offended or threatened you are • The similarities between American Blacks and South African Blacks protectionism • Afrobeats rise v Dancehall's decline • Neil deGrasse Tyson responding to Terrence Howard • Star Wars' The Acolyte's negative response • #AITA for not going to my sister's online wedding • StavrosSays: Neil deGrasse Tyson's response to Terrence Howard [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uLi1I3G2N4] Connect with our guest Oseme Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oh_seh_meh Connect with us at & send your questions & comments to: #ESNpod so we can find your comments www.esnpodcast.com www.facebook.com/ESNpodcasts www.twitter.com/ESNpodcast www.instagram.com/ESNpodcast @esnpodcast on all other social media esnpodcast@gmail.com It's important to subscribe, rate and review us on your apple products. You can do that here... www.bit.ly/esnitunes
In 1974, CBS premiered Good Times, a TV sitcom that would showcase the first Black mother and Black father on screen – two parents, trying to make ends meet, while raising three children. Set in a public housing project in the south side of Chicago, Good Times elevated stories of struggle – the joy, the pain and the dreams of a determined Evans family during the economically turbulent 1970s. With legendary producer Norman Lear at the helm, the program would be one of three of the top ten rated shows with Black casts on American TV at that time – the other two gems were Sanford & Son and The Jeffersons.But there were many, including actors on these shows, who believed that producers equated the black experience with poverty and that too often writers pushed negative stereotypes and tropes, especially after the progress in civil rights of the previous decade. Times also weren't all that good for the Black creators of Good Times, Eric Monte and Mike Evans – both men struggled with Lear to receive recognition for their work.In the last 50 years, we've seen a (mostly) upward trajectory of positive Black representation in film and television – from the likes of The Cosby Show to Abbott Elementary or HBO's Insecure. Despite this advancement, negative stereotypes persist – and a new animated reboot of Good Times on Netflix is igniting fresh criticism, with many viewers saying the show promotes an image of Blacks as criminal, prone to violence, uneducated and hypersexualized. Would a reboot of a classic sitcom with an all-white cast like The Brady Bunch or Leave It to Beaver receive the same kind of treatment today?Join us as I SEE U host Eddie Robinson chats with the actor who portrayed the first Black teen on network television – Bern Nadette Stanis, who starred as Thelma, the daughter of the Evans family in Good Times. Stanis shares her thoughts on the adult reboot and how she felt misled after portraying one of the characters in the modern series. Plus, Variety TV critic, Aramide Tinubu, provides her perspective on why Hollywood still refuses to let go of outdated and harmful depictions of American Black life.
In this episode Steve and Corey put on their legislative caps and address a piece of current legislation in the State of Pennsylvania that portents big problems for the dog hunter. The bill comes under the umbrella of anti-trespass legislation and provides exorbitant penalties for hunting dogs and their owners that find themselves afoul of the provisions of the bill, whether advertently or not. The boys hash out the bill and provide information for hunters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that want to let their voices be heard before the bill reaches the dangerous environs of the Senate floor. The conversation takes on a more pleasant vibe as the boys cover the oldest and one of the most-popular breeds of trail and tree hounds, the American Black and Tan Coonhound. The boys' love for history is evident as they discuss early history, early founders and a long line of movers and shakers, human and canine, that have played such an important role in the breed's seemingly timeless reign of popularity. If you like black dogs, or if you just like to look back over the many years of our tree hound sport, this is a good one for you. Them ole black dawgs!
In this episode Steve and Corey put on their legislative caps and address a piece of current legislation in the State of Pennsylvania that portents big problems for the dog hunter. The bill comes under the umbrella of anti-trespass legislation and provides exorbitant penalties for hunting dogs and their owners that find themselves afoul of the provisions of the bill, whether advertently or not. The boys hash out the bill and provide information for hunters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that want to let their voices be heard before the bill reaches the dangerous environs of the Senate floor. The conversation takes on a more pleasant vibe as the boys cover the oldest and one of the most-popular breeds of trail and tree hounds, the American Black and Tan Coonhound. The boys' love for history is evident as they discuss early history, early founders and a long line of movers and shakers, human and canine, that have played such an important role in the breed's seemingly timeless reign of popularity. If you like black dogs, or if you just like to look back over the many years of our tree hound sport, this is a good one for you. Them ole black dawgs! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The bill comes under the umbrella of anti-trespass legislation and provides exorbitant penalties for hunting dogs and their owners that find themselves afoul of the provisions of the bill, whether advertently or not. The boys hash out the bill and provide information for hunters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that want to let their voices be heard before the bill reaches the dangerous environs of the Senate floor. The conversation takes on a more pleasant vibe as the boys cover the oldest and one of the most-popular breeds of trail and tree hounds, the American Black and Tan Coonhound. The boys' love for history is evident as they discuss early history, early founders and a long line of movers and shakers, human and canine, that have played such an important role in the breed's seemingly timeless reign of popularity. If you like black dogs, or if you just like to look back over the many years of our tree hound sport, this is a good one for you. Them ole black dawgs!
In this episode Steve and Corey put on their legislative caps and address a piece of current legislation in the State of Pennsylvania that portents big problems for the dog hunter. The bill comes under the umbrella of anti-trespass legislation and provides exorbitant penalties for hunting dogs and their owners that find themselves afoul of the provisions of the bill, whether advertently or not. The boys hash out the bill and provide information for hunters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that want to let their voices be heard before the bill reaches the dangerous environs of the Senate floor. The conversation takes on a more pleasant vibe as the boys cover the oldest and one of the most-popular breeds of trail and tree hounds, the American Black and Tan Coonhound. The boys' love for history is evident as they discuss early history, early founders and a long line of movers and shakers, human and canine, that have played such an important role in the breed's seemingly timeless reign of popularity. If you like black dogs, or if you just like to look back over the many years of our tree hound sport, this is a good one for you. Them ole black dawgs!
The bill comes under the umbrella of anti-trespass legislation and provides exorbitant penalties for hunting dogs and their owners that find themselves afoul of the provisions of the bill, whether advertently or not. The boys hash out the bill and provide information for hunters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that want to let their voices be heard before the bill reaches the dangerous environs of the Senate floor. The conversation takes on a more pleasant vibe as the boys cover the oldest and one of the most-popular breeds of trail and tree hounds, the American Black and Tan Coonhound. The boys' love for history is evident as they discuss early history, early founders and a long line of movers and shakers, human and canine, that have played such an important role in the breed's seemingly timeless reign of popularity. If you like black dogs, or if you just like to look back over the many years of our tree hound sport, this is a good one for you. Them ole black dawgs!
From September 9th, through September 13th, 1971, the inmates of the Attica Correctional Facility, who were mostly men of color, stood up against the guards and racist prison system who treated them like subhuman. After days of hope and negotiation, the uprising would end in a massacre. In this episode, Madigan discusses what happened in those five days at Attica, and the ripple effect it has caused in the American prison system, and in the American Black community, since it happened. Join me on PATREON!!! https://www.patreon.com/angryneighborhoodfeminist Do you have a topic that you want the show to take on? Email neighborhoodfeminist@gmail.com Social media: Instagram: @angryneighborhoodfeminist **Don't forget to REVIEW and SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This episode we cautiously dive into the 2003 American Black comedy “House of 1000 Corpses”, written and directed by Rob Zombie. The plot follows a group of teenagers who are kidnapped by a psychotic family during Halloween after travelling the country researching for a book about unusual roadside attractions. Tune in and brace yourself for Captain Spaulding! !
Historically Thinking: Conversations about historical knowledge and how we achieve it
Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, the abolitionist movement underwent an “astonishing transformation”, which would in time alter the direction of the war, the shape of the postwar settlement, and destroy the abolitionist movement itself. As the movement's moral outsiders found themselves becoming interest group insiders, not only their approach but also their message and ultimately their goals changed. Ideological differences became ideological conflicts, and personal animosities were soon blended into the mix. This is the argument of Frank J. Cirillo in his new book The Abolitionist Civil War: The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union. Frank J. Cirillo is a historian of slavery and antislavery in the nineteenth-century United States. He has held positions at the University of Bonn, The New School, and the University of Virginia. This is his first book. For Further Investigation The photograph is of, from left to right: Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, and George Thompson (an English advocate against slavery). The standard biography of Wendell Phillips is James Brewer Stewart, Wendell Phillips: Liberty's Hero (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986); Henry Mayer wrote a popular biography of William Lloyd Garrison titled All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery; for a wider focus, see the second edition of the classic study by Ronald G. Walters, American Reformers, 1815-1860 Numerous conversations on Historically Thinking have dealt with related issues. For an overview of abolitionism, see Episode 82: Abolitionism, A Long Conversation. The overlooked importance of Unionism was at issued in Episode 132: Armies of Deliverance and again in Episode 291: True Blue. The drive for black voting rights by American Blacks was the focus of Episode 294: Black Suffrage. And Abraham Lincoln's racial attitudes were the subject of a conversation with Michael Burlingame in Episode 242: Was Abraham Lincoln a Racist?
Facts matter. Data eclipses narratives steeped in bias, providing the foundation for policy solutions to economic inequities. At the Brookings Institution, a preeminent global think tank, scholars conduct research, generate data, and share knowledge for the purpose of improving policy and governance in America and around the world. That includes Senior Fellow Dr. Andre M. Perry whose research focuses on the value of assets, from homes to businesses and infrastructure, in American Black majority cities. His work exposes a devastating devaluation of assets, an underpricing of homes by 23%, robbing Black communities of some $156 billion in lost equity. As he shares in our conversation and in his tremendously important book: Know Your Price, Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities, these dollars could have financed millions of businesses, college educations, replaced water pipers in Flint, Michigan and more. His book bring policy to life by following his own trajectory as an infant raised by Elsie Boyd, a woman who chose to be his mother in a house considerably more valuable than its market price. His work on the devaluation of Black-owned homes by appraisers is a masterclass in the collaborative art of policy change. Hear him.
“Side note: Black women are still one of the demographics least likely to date outside their race, despite Black men being a demographic that has become known for interracial dating. This is even though Black women have collectively had many valid complaints (i.e. low marriage rates, high single-mother rates, astronomical femicide rates, and studies that confirm negative biases in online dating), most Black women are still highly supportive and uplifting of the Black male collective. So, when the Passport Bros drum up falsely equivalent scenarios in which Black women have done the same to them, it is all but infuriating, to say the very least.] Either way, the point is that rather than simply getting their little passports stamped while enjoying foreign women, it seems one of the top goals of the Passport Bros is to degrade and insult American Black women. While it usually annoys me when people feel the need to point out the apparent exceptions to specific issues, this time, I am willing to say: It's actually not all men. I have been in plenty of conversations in which several American Black men have stood up for Black women and told the Passport Bros that they need to own their decisions and stop blaming Black women. This was honestly a tad shocking. Of course, there are usually far fewer men defending Black women, but this just goes to show how egregious these talking points truly are; even Black men are tired of hearing about it!” -https://www.levelman.com/why-are-passport-bros-so-bothered-by-black-women --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/support
Having one husband die under suspicious circumstances may not cause alarm bells to ring, but what if a second husband also meets an unfortunate fate? The so-called "American Black Widow" Sharon Harrelson may have considered herself cursed when it came to love, but in today's episode we dive into her story of deception, betrayal, and ultimately murder. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod Episode Sponsors: 3 Day Blinds - Get your free, obligation consultation for custom blinds, shades, shutters, and drapery with a buy one get 50% off deal at www.3DayBlinds.com/COTC. Beis - Sleek and affordable bags, luggage, and accessories to help you travel effortlessly. Go to www.beistravel.com/COTC for 15% off your first purchase. For Wellness - Snacks and supplements to help you get the most out of your body and mind. Head to www.ForWellness.com/COTC and use code COTC for 25% off your order. Stitch Fix - Your style partner to shop new styles and brands. Try today at www.StitchFix.com/COTC.
In this week's episode of the Black Girl Nerds podcast, we welcome TV host, weather man and executive producer Al Roker. Al Roker is a journalist, television personality, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC's Today and occasionally co-hosts 3rd Hour Today. His latest project is the film Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land. The documentary explores the complex history of the American Black farmer. As an underrepresented topic that continues to impact Black farmers today, it's important to showcase the legacy of Black farming in America and the devastating impact of heirs' property on Black land ownership. It also addresses how landowners are reclaiming their agricultural rights and their paths to generational wealth with the support of other landowners and organizations. Host: Jamie Music by: Sammus Edited by: Jamie Broadnax
Listen at www.inthedollworld.com Karen Oyekanmi, the founder of the American Black Beauty Doll Association, opens up the conversation as she shares the inspiration behind her quest to fill the market gap for beautiful black dolls and to provide positive representation for children of color - a mission that still holds significant relevance almost 40 years later, as they celebrate their upcoming annual Festival of Black Doll Show and Sale, Nov 4th 2023.As we chat with this panel of remarkable women - Karen Oyekanmi, Kynisha Daisy Decre, Cheryl Buckley, Lillian Black, Adwoa Cooper, and Stacelina Monique - we uncover the crucial role of dolls in reflecting and celebrating the diverse world we live in. Our panel of esteemed guests, wear many hats - they are doll makers, authors, interior designers, balloon artists, crocheters, and Barbie repainters.We navigate the rich and multifaceted world of doll making, a journey that transcends the creation of children's playthings to become a profound medium of art and cultural expression and as the conversation evolves, we also get the perspective of each guest on the importance about their decision to join the American Black Beauty Doll Association, as well as create and attend the Festival of Black Dolls Show and Sale, an event that has always been about educating and representation, with many of the years of the Festival showcasing themes from Egypt to Black Marriage. So, join us for this enlightening conversation and discover the art, the expression, and the cultural significance behind the world of doll making and the importance of being a member of the American Black Beauty Doll Association. To see more about the women who are featured today, as well as vendors at the upcoming Festival of Black Dolls Show and Sale: ABBDA 2023 Vendors@KarenOyekanmiKissing Kousins DollsWww.weloveblackdolls.comStacy@Stacelinamoniquehttps://www.etsy.com/shop/StacelinaMoniqueLillian BlackLillian's Dolls & Things Www.weloveblackdolls.comAdwoa Cooper@adwoadesignwww.AdwoaDesign.comhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/AdwoaDesignKynisha Ducre@Daisytheclown www.clowninaround.netSupport the showHey!!! Get a shout out on an upcoming episode as a thank you for your monthly support of In The Doll World. Click here to support. Thank you for listening to In The Doll World, to see all the artists we have featured on the show or to leave a review visit www.inthedollworld.com or to see our video interviews please visit our Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/inthedollworld.com. Did you know you can now listen to In The Doll World on Alexa, just ask Alexa to open "Doll World"
Have you ever tried working 16 hours in a day – for several consecutive days – just to have enough vacation time to go on a trip?
New York Times Bestselling Author, essayist, journalist, and podcast host DENENE MILLNER joins BOOKSTORM Podcast to discuss her novel ONE BLOOD! This poignant, poetic, and heartbreaking story follows the lives of four generations of American Black women as they struggle for survival during pivotal years in our Nation's history. We talked about the desperate human need and longing for freedom--physical, mental, and emotional. We celebrated the differences in Black perspectives. We explored the difficulties that women navigate as mothers, significant others, and as unique individuals. What happens when you reach the end of your ability to juggle those responsibilities? Wow - what an episode! Join us!You can find more of your favorite bestselling authors at BOOKSTORM Podcast! We're also on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube!
Black and Tan Coonhounds with Kathy Corbett [caption id="attachment_12418" align="alignleft" width="282"] Kathy and Boomer, Ch. WyEast Why Not.[/caption] Pure Dog Talk's Love the Breed series, focused on hound breeds, continues today with 50 years of knowledge about Black and Tan Coonhounds as breeder Kathy Corbett joins host Laura Reeves for this insightful conversation. Kathy and Jim Corbett acquired their first Black and Tan Coonhound sight unseen in 1971. They wanted a short coated dog of a size that was easy to reach for a pat on the head and was good with the family. The WyEast Black and Tan Coonhounds are legend, including Boomer, Am/Can/UKC Ch. WyEast Why Not. Am/Can Ch. WyEast Why Not was the all time top winning Black and Tan Coonhound in the history of the breed with a show record which includes 12 All-Breed Best in Shows, 64 Hound Group wins, and 201 Hound Group Placements. A grandson of National Specialty and Hound Group winning Ch. WyEast Wanderlust, Boomer was number one Black and Tan Coonhound in total dogs defeated for five successive years - 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991. He was also awarded Best of Breed at the National Specialty of the American Black and Tan Coonhound Club for the years 1990 and 1991. [caption id="attachment_12417" align="alignright" width="406"] Kathy and a typical Black and Tan Coonhound puppy.[/caption] “(Black and Tan Coonhounds) have a kind of a muddled history,” Corbett said. “We certainly go back to foxhounds. George Washington had fox hounds and he had dogs that happened to be black and tan in color. It was quite a while before the utilitarian dogs that would hunt for anything with fur that could run were divided essentially by coat color and a little bit by their style of hunting. “Five of the coonhound breeds generally were used to track and trail coons and other animals that would either go to ground or tree. The Plot hound is much more aggressive and was used primarily for bear because it takes a tough dog to take on a bear. “But in general, these were dogs that would chase anything with fur that would run and they were the dogs that put meat on the table. Some of the breeds, like Treeing Walkers, were a little faster. Black and Tans were the ones that weren't necessarily as fast, but would stay on a trail forever and had great endurance. And they're also wonderful dogs to have around. They were very reliable with other dogs and children. “We loved their temperament. We wanted a dog that would run all night if we wanted it to, or go hiking or camping or anything that the family wanted to do and then would come in the house and lie down and go to sleep. And that's exactly what we found. “When we place a puppy, we do try to impress upon the people that this is an on-leash breed. They are bred to hunt independently. They are bred to take off on their own. And they will. And it's your job to find them, to follow them. Their end of the bargain is that when they get something up a tree that they will yell their heads off so you can find them. But if that doesn't happen, for instance if they're after a deer, they usually just go and go and go. “So in general for hiking or anything else, they are on lead dogs and at home they need a fence. They'll range for 10 miles. If they remember where they came from, they'll come back. But they go, and it's not a matter of training. You're working against hundreds of years of instinct.”
WATCH THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEOStep into the enchanting world of American Black folklore with Papa Seer as he narrates a captivating retelling of "The People Could Fly." This timeless tale, translated by the renowned Virginia Hamilton, weaves a tapestry of magic, resilience, and the indomitable spirit of a people.Join us on this journey as Papa Seer brings to life the story of enslaved Africans who possessed a power beyond imagination – the power to fly. Through vivid storytelling and masterful narration, you'll be transported to a world where hope takes wing, and the human spirit soars.Don't miss this opportunity to experience the magic of "The People Could Fly" in a whole new light. Subscribe, like, and share this video to spread the wonder of this American Black folktale with your friends and family.Explore the rich heritage of African American storytelling and discover the enduring power of the human spirit. Join us on this remarkable journey – where the people could truly fly.
How does a gay man raised in a Southern Black church end up the Executive Director of Washington DC's LGBTQA synagogue, Bet Mishpachah? Growing up attending the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Josh Maxey always had a relationship with God and religion, but after hearing his pastor talking about how gay people are destined for hell, he started pulling away from Christianity. As a religious studies minor, many routes for exploring his spirituality were available. He found his connection to Judaism during a chance encounter with the legendary Temple Emanu-El in New York City, established in 1845, when a loving stranger invited him to sit and pray, and he found himself in tears, and at peace. Josh says that in Judaism, he found a home, where he could be 100% authentic, live his values, and follow his purpose, surrounded by diverse people and their diverse beliefs and ways of being Jewish in the world. We talk about the importance of diversifying leadership and the continual efforts needed to create a fair and equitable space, and the relationship between American Black and Jewish communities. Josh's story is more than an enlightening conversation; it is a testament to the beauty of diversity within the Jewish community and the power of authenticity in faith. Join us for a refreshing viewpoint on faith, race, and identity.GLOSSARY: Mishpachah: the Hebrew word for “family”.Siddur: the Hebrew word for prayerbook, derived from the root meaning “order”, as in, the order of the words and prayers in the service.Tikkun Olam: meaning “world repair,” is a concept that all human beings are responsible for one another and the world, and for repairing harm and damage through their actions, big or small.Hadassah: meaning “myrtle tree” in Hebrew, it is a relatively common Jewish girl's name and the Hebrew name of Queen Esther from the Purim story.Kvetch: Yiddish for “complain,” meaning both to complain, and what a person who complains is called. Halachically/halakha: Jewish law code based on the Talmud, which is the central text of Rabbic Judaism Hebrew Israelites: Commonly called “Black Jews” until the mid-1960s, the Hebrew Israelite movement gained a following in the late 1800s and comprises people of color, primarily African Americans, “who view the biblical Israelites as their historic ancestors.” Some may not necessarily identify as Jews, and the larger group should not be confused with the “Radical Black Israelites” which the SPLC identifies as an antisemitic hate group. More:Temple Emanu-El is the first Reform Jewish synagogue in the United States and an architectural landmark in the Lower East Side. Bet Misphachah, founded in 1975, is DC's only LGBTQA synagogue. Join them for services on Fridays and the 2nd and 4th Saturdays.The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is a community organization that provides support for the Jewish community through social action, impact grants and other connecting and educational activities. Support the showLike the show? Support it! Or don't, that's cool too. Just glad you're here! https://www.buzzsprout.com/2196108/supporters/new
Why do American Black people generally have worse health than American White people? To answer this question, Keisha Ray's book Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of Black People's Health (Oxford UP, 2023) dispels any notion that Black people have inferior bodies that are inherently susceptible to disease. This is simply false racial science used to justify White supremacy and Black inferiority. A genuine investigation into the status of Black people's health requires us to acknowledge that race has always been a powerful social category that gives access to the resources we need for health and wellbeing to some people, while withholding them from other people. Systemic racism, oppression, and White supremacy in American institutions have largely been the perpetrators of differing social power and access to resources for Black people. It is these systemic inequities that create the social conditions needed for poor health outcomes for Black people to persist. An examination of social inequities reveals that is no accident that Black people have poorer health than White people. Black Health provides a succinct discussion of Black people's health, including the social, political, and at times cultural determinants of their health. Using real stories from Black people, Ray examines the ways in which Black people's multiple identities--social, cultural, and political--intersect with American institutions--such as housing, education, environmentalism, and health care--to facilitate their poor outcomes in pregnancy and birth, pain management, sleep, and cardiovascular disease. Claire Clark is a medical educator, historian of medicine, and associate professor in the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies
Why do American Black people generally have worse health than American White people? To answer this question, Keisha Ray's book Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of Black People's Health (Oxford UP, 2023) dispels any notion that Black people have inferior bodies that are inherently susceptible to disease. This is simply false racial science used to justify White supremacy and Black inferiority. A genuine investigation into the status of Black people's health requires us to acknowledge that race has always been a powerful social category that gives access to the resources we need for health and wellbeing to some people, while withholding them from other people. Systemic racism, oppression, and White supremacy in American institutions have largely been the perpetrators of differing social power and access to resources for Black people. It is these systemic inequities that create the social conditions needed for poor health outcomes for Black people to persist. An examination of social inequities reveals that is no accident that Black people have poorer health than White people. Black Health provides a succinct discussion of Black people's health, including the social, political, and at times cultural determinants of their health. Using real stories from Black people, Ray examines the ways in which Black people's multiple identities--social, cultural, and political--intersect with American institutions--such as housing, education, environmentalism, and health care--to facilitate their poor outcomes in pregnancy and birth, pain management, sleep, and cardiovascular disease. Claire Clark is a medical educator, historian of medicine, and associate professor in the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Why do American Black people generally have worse health than American White people? To answer this question, Keisha Ray's book Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of Black People's Health (Oxford UP, 2023) dispels any notion that Black people have inferior bodies that are inherently susceptible to disease. This is simply false racial science used to justify White supremacy and Black inferiority. A genuine investigation into the status of Black people's health requires us to acknowledge that race has always been a powerful social category that gives access to the resources we need for health and wellbeing to some people, while withholding them from other people. Systemic racism, oppression, and White supremacy in American institutions have largely been the perpetrators of differing social power and access to resources for Black people. It is these systemic inequities that create the social conditions needed for poor health outcomes for Black people to persist. An examination of social inequities reveals that is no accident that Black people have poorer health than White people. Black Health provides a succinct discussion of Black people's health, including the social, political, and at times cultural determinants of their health. Using real stories from Black people, Ray examines the ways in which Black people's multiple identities--social, cultural, and political--intersect with American institutions--such as housing, education, environmentalism, and health care--to facilitate their poor outcomes in pregnancy and birth, pain management, sleep, and cardiovascular disease. Claire Clark is a medical educator, historian of medicine, and associate professor in the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory
Why do American Black people generally have worse health than American White people? To answer this question, Keisha Ray's book Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of Black People's Health (Oxford UP, 2023) dispels any notion that Black people have inferior bodies that are inherently susceptible to disease. This is simply false racial science used to justify White supremacy and Black inferiority. A genuine investigation into the status of Black people's health requires us to acknowledge that race has always been a powerful social category that gives access to the resources we need for health and wellbeing to some people, while withholding them from other people. Systemic racism, oppression, and White supremacy in American institutions have largely been the perpetrators of differing social power and access to resources for Black people. It is these systemic inequities that create the social conditions needed for poor health outcomes for Black people to persist. An examination of social inequities reveals that is no accident that Black people have poorer health than White people. Black Health provides a succinct discussion of Black people's health, including the social, political, and at times cultural determinants of their health. Using real stories from Black people, Ray examines the ways in which Black people's multiple identities--social, cultural, and political--intersect with American institutions--such as housing, education, environmentalism, and health care--to facilitate their poor outcomes in pregnancy and birth, pain management, sleep, and cardiovascular disease. Claire Clark is a medical educator, historian of medicine, and associate professor in the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine
Episode 166 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Crossroads", Cream, the myth of Robert Johnson, and whether white men can sing the blues. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-eight-minute bonus episode available, on “Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips" by Tiny Tim. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I talk about an interview with Clapton from 1967, I meant 1968. I mention a Graham Bond live recording from 1953, and of course meant 1963. I say Paul Jones was on vocals in the Powerhouse sessions. Steve Winwood was on vocals, and Jones was on harmonica. Resources As I say at the end, the main resource you need to get if you enjoyed this episode is Brother Robert by Annye Anderson, Robert Johnson's stepsister. There are three Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Cream, Robert Johnson, John Mayall, and Graham Bond excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here -- one, two, three. This article on Mack McCormick gives a fuller explanation of the problems with his research and behaviour. The other books I used for the Robert Johnson sections were McCormick's Biography of a Phantom; Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson, by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow; Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick; and Escaping the Delta by Elijah Wald. I can recommend all of these subject to the caveats at the end of the episode. The information on the history and prehistory of the Delta blues mostly comes from Before Elvis by Larry Birnbaum, with some coming from Charley Patton by John Fahey. The information on Cream comes mostly from Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm by Dave Thompson. I also used Ginger Baker: Hellraiser by Ginger Baker and Ginette Baker, Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins, Motherless Child by Paul Scott, and Alexis Korner: The Biography by Harry Shapiro. The best collection of Cream's work is the four-CD set Those Were the Days, which contains every track the group ever released while they were together (though only the stereo mixes of the albums, and a couple of tracks are in slightly different edits from the originals). You can get Johnson's music on many budget compilation records, as it's in the public domain in the EU, but the double CD collection produced by Steve LaVere for Sony in 2011 is, despite the problems that come from it being associated with LaVere, far and away the best option -- the remasters have a clarity that's worlds ahead of even the 1990s CD version it replaced. And for a good single-CD introduction to the Delta blues musicians and songsters who were Johnson's peers and inspirations, Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson, compiled by Elijah Wald as a companion to his book on Johnson, can't be beaten, and contains many of the tracks excerpted in this episode. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start, a quick note that this episode contains discussion of racism, drug addiction, and early death. There's also a brief mention of death in childbirth and infant mortality. It's been a while since we looked at the British blues movement, and at the blues in general, so some of you may find some of what follows familiar, as we're going to look at some things we've talked about previously, but from a different angle. In 1968, the Bonzo Dog Band, a comedy musical band that have been described as the missing link between the Beatles and the Monty Python team, released a track called "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?": [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Band, "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?"] That track was mocking a discussion that was very prominent in Britain's music magazines around that time. 1968 saw the rise of a *lot* of British bands who started out as blues bands, though many of them went on to different styles of music -- Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Chicken Shack and others were all becoming popular among the kind of people who read the music magazines, and so the question was being asked -- can white men sing the blues? Of course, the answer to that question was obvious. After all, white men *invented* the blues. Before we get any further at all, I have to make clear that I do *not* mean that white people created blues music. But "the blues" as a category, and particularly the idea of it as a music made largely by solo male performers playing guitar... that was created and shaped by the actions of white male record executives. There is no consensus as to when or how the blues as a genre started -- as we often say in this podcast "there is no first anything", but like every genre it seems to have come from multiple sources. In the case of the blues, there's probably some influence from African music by way of field chants sung by enslaved people, possibly some influence from Arabic music as well, definitely some influence from the Irish and British folk songs that by the late nineteenth century were developing into what we now call country music, a lot from ragtime, and a lot of influence from vaudeville and minstrel songs -- which in turn themselves were all very influenced by all those other things. Probably the first published composition to show any real influence of the blues is from 1904, a ragtime piano piece by James Chapman and Leroy Smith, "One O' Them Things": [Excerpt: "One O' Them Things"] That's not very recognisable as a blues piece yet, but it is more-or-less a twelve-bar blues. But the blues developed, and it developed as a result of a series of commercial waves. The first of these came in 1914, with the success of W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues", which when it was recorded by the Victor Military Band for a phonograph cylinder became what is generally considered the first blues record proper: [Excerpt: The Victor Military Band, "Memphis Blues"] The famous dancers Vernon and Irene Castle came up with a dance, the foxtrot -- which Vernon Castle later admitted was largely inspired by Black dancers -- to be danced to the "Memphis Blues", and the foxtrot soon overtook the tango, which the Castles had introduced to the US the previous year, to become the most popular dance in America for the best part of three decades. And with that came an explosion in blues in the Handy style, cranked out by every music publisher. While the blues was a style largely created by Black performers and writers, the segregated nature of the American music industry at the time meant that most vocal performances of these early blues that were captured on record were by white performers, Black vocalists at this time only rarely getting the chance to record. The first blues record with a Black vocalist is also technically the first British blues record. A group of Black musicians, apparently mostly American but led by a Jamaican pianist, played at Ciro's Club in London, and recorded many tracks in Britain, under a name which I'm not going to say in full -- it started with Ciro's Club, and continued alliteratively with another word starting with C, a slur for Black people. In 1917 they recorded a vocal version of "St. Louis Blues", another W.C. Handy composition: [Excerpt: Ciro's Club C**n Orchestra, "St. Louis Blues"] The first American Black blues vocal didn't come until two years later, when Bert Williams, a Black minstrel-show performer who like many Black performers of his era performed in blackface even though he was Black, recorded “I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,” [Excerpt: Bert Williams, "I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,”] But it wasn't until 1920 that the second, bigger, wave of popularity started for the blues, and this time it started with the first record of a Black *woman* singing the blues -- Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] You can hear the difference between that and anything we've heard up to that point -- that's the first record that anyone from our perspective, a hundred and three years later, would listen to and say that it bore any resemblance to what we think of as the blues -- so much so that many places still credit it as the first ever blues record. And there's a reason for that. "Crazy Blues" was one of those records that separates the music industry into before and after, like "Rock Around the Clock", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", Sgt Pepper, or "Rapper's Delight". It sold seventy-five thousand copies in its first month -- a massive number by the standards of 1920 -- and purportedly went on to sell over a million copies. Sales figures and market analysis weren't really a thing in the same way in 1920, but even so it became very obvious that "Crazy Blues" was a big hit, and that unlike pretty much any other previous records, it was a big hit among Black listeners, which meant that there was a market for music aimed at Black people that was going untapped. Soon all the major record labels were setting up subsidiaries devoted to what they called "race music", music made by and for Black people. And this sees the birth of what is now known as "classic blues", but at the time (and for decades after) was just what people thought of when they thought of "the blues" as a genre. This was music primarily sung by female vaudeville artists backed by jazz bands, people like Ma Rainey (whose earliest recordings featured Louis Armstrong in her backing band): [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider Blues"] And Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues", who had a massive career in the 1920s before the Great Depression caused many of these "race record" labels to fold, but who carried on performing well into the 1930s -- her last recording was in 1933, produced by John Hammond, with a backing band including Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Give Me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer"] It wouldn't be until several years after the boom started by Mamie Smith that any record companies turned to recording Black men singing the blues accompanied by guitar or banjo. The first record of this type is probably "Norfolk Blues" by Reese DuPree from 1924: [Excerpt: Reese DuPree, "Norfolk Blues"] And there were occasional other records of this type, like "Airy Man Blues" by Papa Charlie Jackson, who was advertised as the “only man living who sings, self-accompanied, for Blues records.” [Excerpt: Papa Charlie Jackson, "Airy Man Blues"] But contrary to the way these are seen today, at the time they weren't seen as being in some way "authentic", or "folk music". Indeed, there are many quotes from folk-music collectors of the time (sadly all of them using so many slurs that it's impossible for me to accurately quote them) saying that when people sang the blues, that wasn't authentic Black folk music at all but an adulteration from commercial music -- they'd clearly, according to these folk-music scholars, learned the blues style from records and sheet music rather than as part of an oral tradition. Most of these performers were people who recorded blues as part of a wider range of material, like Blind Blake, who recorded some blues music but whose best work was his ragtime guitar instrumentals: [Excerpt: Blind Blake, "Southern Rag"] But it was when Blind Lemon Jefferson started recording for Paramount records in 1926 that the image of the blues as we now think of it took shape. His first record, "Got the Blues", was a massive success: [Excerpt: Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Got the Blues"] And this resulted in many labels, especially Paramount, signing up pretty much every Black man with a guitar they could find in the hopes of finding another Blind Lemon Jefferson. But the thing is, this generation of people making blues records, and the generation that followed them, didn't think of themselves as "blues singers" or "bluesmen". They were songsters. Songsters were entertainers, and their job was to sing and play whatever the audiences would want to hear. That included the blues, of course, but it also included... well, every song anyone would want to hear. They'd perform old folk songs, vaudeville songs, songs that they'd heard on the radio or the jukebox -- whatever the audience wanted. Robert Johnson, for example, was known to particularly love playing polka music, and also adored the records of Jimmie Rodgers, the first country music superstar. In 1941, when Alan Lomax first recorded Muddy Waters, he asked Waters what kind of songs he normally played in performances, and he was given a list that included "Home on the Range", Gene Autry's "I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle", and Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". We have few recordings of these people performing this kind of song though. One of the few we have is Big Bill Broonzy, who was just about the only artist of this type not to get pigeonholed as just a blues singer, even though blues is what made him famous, and who later in his career managed to record songs like the Tin Pan Alley standard "The Glory of Love": [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, "The Glory of Love"] But for the most part, the image we have of the blues comes down to one man, Arthur Laibley, a sales manager for the Wisconsin Chair Company. The Wisconsin Chair Company was, as the name would suggest, a company that started out making wooden chairs, but it had branched out into other forms of wooden furniture -- including, for a brief time, large wooden phonographs. And, like several other manufacturers, like the Radio Corporation of America -- RCA -- and the Gramophone Company, which became EMI, they realised that if they were going to sell the hardware it made sense to sell the software as well, and had started up Paramount Records, which bought up a small label, Black Swan, and soon became the biggest manufacturer of records for the Black market, putting out roughly a quarter of all "race records" released between 1922 and 1932. At first, most of these were produced by a Black talent scout, J. Mayo Williams, who had been the first person to record Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, but in 1927 Williams left Paramount, and the job of supervising sessions went to Arthur Laibley, though according to some sources a lot of the actual production work was done by Aletha Dickerson, Williams' former assistant, who was almost certainly the first Black woman to be what we would now think of as a record producer. Williams had been interested in recording all kinds of music by Black performers, but when Laibley got a solo Black man into the studio, what he wanted more than anything was for him to record the blues, ideally in a style as close as possible to that of Blind Lemon Jefferson. Laibley didn't have a very hands-on approach to recording -- indeed Paramount had very little concern about the quality of their product anyway, and Paramount's records are notorious for having been put out on poor-quality shellac and recorded badly -- and he only occasionally made actual suggestions as to what kind of songs his performers should write -- for example he asked Son House to write something that sounded like Blind Lemon Jefferson, which led to House writing and recording "Mississippi County Farm Blues", which steals the tune of Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean": [Excerpt: Son House, "Mississippi County Farm Blues"] When Skip James wanted to record a cover of James Wiggins' "Forty-Four Blues", Laibley suggested that instead he should do a song about a different gun, and so James recorded "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues"] And Laibley also suggested that James write a song about the Depression, which led to one of the greatest blues records ever, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues"] These musicians knew that they were getting paid only for issued sides, and that Laibley wanted only blues from them, and so that's what they gave him. Even when it was a performer like Charlie Patton. (Incidentally, for those reading this as a transcript rather than listening to it, Patton's name is more usually spelled ending in ey, but as far as I can tell ie was his preferred spelling and that's what I'm using). Charlie Patton was best known as an entertainer, first and foremost -- someone who would do song-and-dance routines, joke around, play guitar behind his head. He was a clown on stage, so much so that when Son House finally heard some of Patton's records, in the mid-sixties, decades after the fact, he was astonished that Patton could actually play well. Even though House had been in the room when some of the records were made, his memory of Patton was of someone who acted the fool on stage. That's definitely not the impression you get from the Charlie Patton on record: [Excerpt: Charlie Patton, "Poor Me"] Patton is, as far as can be discerned, the person who was most influential in creating the music that became called the "Delta blues". Not a lot is known about Patton's life, but he was almost certainly the half-brother of the Chatmon brothers, who made hundreds of records, most notably as members of the Mississippi Sheiks: [Excerpt: The Mississippi Sheiks, "Sitting on Top of the World"] In the 1890s, Patton's family moved to Sunflower County, Mississippi, and he lived in and around that county until his death in 1934. Patton learned to play guitar from a musician called Henry Sloan, and then Patton became a mentor figure to a *lot* of other musicians in and around the plantation on which his family lived. Some of the musicians who grew up in the immediate area around Patton included Tommy Johnson: [Excerpt: Tommy Johnson, "Big Road Blues"] Pops Staples: [Excerpt: The Staple Singers, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken"] Robert Johnson: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Crossroads"] Willie Brown, a musician who didn't record much, but who played a lot with Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson and who we just heard Johnson sing about: [Excerpt: Willie Brown, "M&O Blues"] And Chester Burnett, who went on to become known as Howlin' Wolf, and whose vocal style was equally inspired by Patton and by the country star Jimmie Rodgers: [Excerpt: Howlin' Wolf, "Smokestack Lightnin'"] Once Patton started his own recording career for Paramount, he also started working as a talent scout for them, and it was him who brought Son House to Paramount. Soon after the Depression hit, Paramount stopped recording, and so from 1930 through 1934 Patton didn't make any records. He was tracked down by an A&R man in January 1934 and recorded one final session: [Excerpt, Charlie Patton, "34 Blues"] But he died of heart failure two months later. But his influence spread through his proteges, and they themselves influenced other musicians from the area who came along a little after, like Robert Lockwood and Muddy Waters. This music -- or that portion of it that was considered worth recording by white record producers, only a tiny, unrepresentative, portion of their vast performing repertoires -- became known as the Delta Blues, and when some of these musicians moved to Chicago and started performing with electric instruments, it became Chicago Blues. And as far as people like John Mayall in Britain were concerned, Delta and Chicago Blues *were* the blues: [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "It Ain't Right"] John Mayall was one of the first of the British blues obsessives, and for a long time thought of himself as the only one. While we've looked before at the growth of the London blues scene, Mayall wasn't from London -- he was born in Macclesfield and grew up in Cheadle Hulme, both relatively well-off suburbs of Manchester, and after being conscripted and doing two years in the Army, he had become an art student at Manchester College of Art, what is now Manchester Metropolitan University. Mayall had been a blues fan from the late 1940s, writing off to the US to order records that hadn't been released in the UK, and by most accounts by the late fifties he'd put together the biggest blues collection in Britain by quite some way. Not only that, but he had one of the earliest home tape recorders, and every night he would record radio stations from Continental Europe which were broadcasting for American service personnel, so he'd amassed mountains of recordings, often unlabelled, of obscure blues records that nobody else in the UK knew about. He was also an accomplished pianist and guitar player, and in 1956 he and his drummer friend Peter Ward had put together a band called the Powerhouse Four (the other two members rotated on a regular basis) mostly to play lunchtime jazz sessions at the art college. Mayall also started putting on jam sessions at a youth club in Wythenshawe, where he met another drummer named Hughie Flint. Over the late fifties and into the early sixties, Mayall more or less by himself built up a small blues scene in Manchester. The Manchester blues scene was so enthusiastic, in fact, that when the American Folk Blues Festival, an annual European tour which initially featured Willie Dixon, Memhis Slim, T-Bone Walker, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and John Lee Hooker, first toured Europe, the only UK date it played was at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, and people like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Jimmy Page had to travel up from London to see it. But still, the number of blues fans in Manchester, while proportionally large, was objectively small enough that Mayall was captivated by an article in Melody Maker which talked about Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies' new band Blues Incorporated and how it was playing electric blues, the same music he was making in Manchester. He later talked about how the article had made him think that maybe now people would know what he was talking about. He started travelling down to London to play gigs for the London blues scene, and inviting Korner up to Manchester to play shows there. Soon Mayall had moved down to London. Korner introduced Mayall to Davey Graham, the great folk guitarist, with whom Korner had recently recorded as a duo: [Excerpt: Alexis Korner and Davey Graham, "3/4 AD"] Mayall and Graham performed together as a duo for a while, but Graham was a natural solo artist if ever there was one. Slowly Mayall put a band together in London. On drums was his old friend Peter Ward, who'd moved down from Manchester with him. On bass was John McVie, who at the time knew nothing about blues -- he'd been playing in a Shadows-style instrumental group -- but Mayall gave him a stack of blues records to listen to to get the feeling. And on guitar was Bernie Watson, who had previously played with Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages. In late 1963, Mike Vernon, a blues fan who had previously published a Yardbirds fanzine, got a job working for Decca records, and immediately started signing his favourite acts from the London blues circuit. The first act he signed was John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and they recorded a single, "Crawling up a Hill": [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "Crawling up a Hill (45 version)"] Mayall later called that a "clumsy, half-witted attempt at autobiographical comment", and it sold only five hundred copies. It would be the only record the Bluesbreakers would make with Watson, who soon left the band to be replaced by Roger Dean (not the same Roger Dean who later went on to design prog rock album covers). The second group to be signed by Mike Vernon to Decca was the Graham Bond Organisation. We've talked about the Graham Bond Organisation in passing several times, but not for a while and not in any great detail, so it's worth pulling everything we've said about them so far together and going through it in a little more detail. The Graham Bond Organisation, like the Rolling Stones, grew out of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. As we heard in the episode on "I Wanna Be Your Man" a couple of years ago, Blues Incorporated had been started by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, and at the time we're joining them in 1962 featured a drummer called Charlie Watts, a pianist called Dave Stevens, and saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, as well as frequent guest performers like a singer who called himself Mike Jagger, and another one, Roderick Stewart. That group finally found themselves the perfect bass player when Dick Heckstall-Smith put together a one-off group of jazz players to play an event at Cambridge University. At the gig, a little Scottish man came up to the group and told them he played bass and asked if he could sit in. They told him to bring along his instrument to their second set, that night, and he did actually bring along a double bass. Their bluff having been called, they decided to play the most complicated, difficult, piece they knew in order to throw the kid off -- the drummer, a trad jazz player named Ginger Baker, didn't like performing with random sit-in guests -- but astonishingly he turned out to be really good. Heckstall-Smith took down the bass player's name and phone number and invited him to a jam session with Blues Incorporated. After that jam session, Jack Bruce quickly became the group's full-time bass player. Bruce had started out as a classical cellist, but had switched to the double bass inspired by Bach, who he referred to as "the guv'nor of all bass players". His playing up to this point had mostly been in trad jazz bands, and he knew nothing of the blues, but he quickly got the hang of the genre. Bruce's first show with Blues Incorporated was a BBC recording: [Excerpt: Blues Incorporated, "Hoochie Coochie Man (BBC session)"] According to at least one source it was not being asked to take part in that session that made young Mike Jagger decide there was no future for him with Blues Incorporated and to spend more time with his other group, the Rollin' Stones. Soon after, Charlie Watts would join him, for almost the opposite reason -- Watts didn't want to be in a band that was getting as big as Blues Incorporated were. They were starting to do more BBC sessions and get more gigs, and having to join the Musicians' Union. That seemed like a lot of work. Far better to join a band like the Rollin' Stones that wasn't going anywhere. Because of Watts' decision to give up on potential stardom to become a Rollin' Stone, they needed a new drummer, and luckily the best drummer on the scene was available. But then the best drummer on the scene was *always* available. Ginger Baker had first played with Dick Heckstall-Smith several years earlier, in a trad group called the Storyville Jazzmen. There Baker had become obsessed with the New Orleans jazz drummer Baby Dodds, who had played with Louis Armstrong in the 1920s. Sadly because of 1920s recording technology, he hadn't been able to play a full kit on the recordings with Armstrong, being limited to percussion on just a woodblock, but you can hear his drumming style much better in this version of "At the Jazz Band Ball" from 1947, with Mugsy Spanier, Jack Teagarden, Cyrus St. Clair and Hank Duncan: [Excerpt: "At the Jazz Band Ball"] Baker had taken Dobbs' style and run with it, and had quickly become known as the single best player, bar none, on the London jazz scene -- he'd become an accomplished player in multiple styles, and was also fluent in reading music and arranging. He'd also, though, become known as the single person on the entire scene who was most difficult to get along with. He resigned from his first band onstage, shouting "You can stick your band up your arse", after the band's leader had had enough of him incorporating bebop influences into their trad style. Another time, when touring with Diz Disley's band, he was dumped in Germany with no money and no way to get home, because the band were so sick of him. Sometimes this was because of his temper and his unwillingness to suffer fools -- and he saw everyone else he ever met as a fool -- and sometimes it was because of his own rigorous musical ideas. He wanted to play music *his* way, and wouldn't listen to anyone who told him different. Both of these things got worse after he fell under the influence of a man named Phil Seaman, one of the only drummers that Baker respected at all. Seaman introduced Baker to African drumming, and Baker started incorporating complex polyrhythms into his playing as a result. Seaman also though introduced Baker to heroin, and while being a heroin addict in the UK in the 1960s was not as difficult as it later became -- both heroin and cocaine were available on prescription to registered addicts, and Baker got both, which meant that many of the problems that come from criminalisation of these drugs didn't affect addicts in the same way -- but it still did not, by all accounts, make him an easier person to get along with. But he *was* a fantastic drummer. As Dick Heckstall-Smith said "With the advent of Ginger, the classic Blues Incorporated line-up, one which I think could not be bettered, was set" But Alexis Korner decided that the group could be bettered, and he had some backers within the band. One of the other bands on the scene was the Don Rendell Quintet, a group that played soul jazz -- that style of jazz that bridged modern jazz and R&B, the kind of music that Ray Charles and Herbie Hancock played: [Excerpt: The Don Rendell Quintet, "Manumission"] The Don Rendell Quintet included a fantastic multi-instrumentalist, Graham Bond, who doubled on keyboards and saxophone, and Bond had been playing occasional experimental gigs with the Johnny Burch Octet -- a group led by another member of the Rendell Quartet featuring Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, Baker, and a few other musicians, doing wholly-improvised music. Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, and Baker all enjoyed playing with Bond, and when Korner decided to bring him into the band, they were all very keen. But Cyril Davies, the co-leader of the band with Korner, was furious at the idea. Davies wanted to play strict Chicago and Delta blues, and had no truck with other forms of music like R&B and jazz. To his mind it was bad enough that they had a sax player. But the idea that they would bring in Bond, who played sax and... *Hammond* organ? Well, that was practically blasphemy. Davies quit the group at the mere suggestion. Bond was soon in the band, and he, Bruce, and Baker were playing together a *lot*. As well as performing with Blues Incorporated, they continued playing in the Johnny Burch Octet, and they also started performing as the Graham Bond Trio. Sometimes the Graham Bond Trio would be Blues Incorporated's opening act, and on more than one occasion the Graham Bond Trio, Blues Incorporated, and the Johnny Burch Octet all had gigs in different parts of London on the same night and they'd have to frantically get from one to the other. The Graham Bond Trio also had fans in Manchester, thanks to the local blues scene there and their connection with Blues Incorporated, and one night in February 1963 the trio played a gig there. They realised afterwards that by playing as a trio they'd made £70, when they were lucky to make £20 from a gig with Blues Incorporated or the Octet, because there were so many members in those bands. Bond wanted to make real money, and at the next rehearsal of Blues Incorporated he announced to Korner that he, Bruce, and Baker were quitting the band -- which was news to Bruce and Baker, who he hadn't bothered consulting. Baker, indeed, was in the toilet when the announcement was made and came out to find it a done deal. He was going to kick up a fuss and say he hadn't been consulted, but Korner's reaction sealed the deal. As Baker later said "‘he said “it's really good you're doing this thing with Graham, and I wish you the best of luck” and all that. And it was a bit difficult to turn round and say, “Well, I don't really want to leave the band, you know.”'" The Graham Bond Trio struggled at first to get the gigs they were expecting, but that started to change when in April 1963 they became the Graham Bond Quartet, with the addition of virtuoso guitarist John McLaughlin. The Quartet soon became one of the hottest bands on the London R&B scene, and when Duffy Power, a Larry Parnes teen idol who wanted to move into R&B, asked his record label to get him a good R&B band to back him on a Beatles cover, it was the Graham Bond Quartet who obliged: [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "I Saw Her Standing There"] The Quartet also backed Power on a package tour with other Parnes acts, but they were also still performing their own blend of hard jazz and blues, as can be heard in this recording of the group live in June 1953: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Quartet, "Ho Ho Country Kicking Blues (Live at Klooks Kleek)"] But that lineup of the group didn't last very long. According to the way Baker told the story, he fired McLaughlin from the group, after being irritated by McLaughlin complaining about something on a day when Baker was out of cocaine and in no mood to hear anyone else's complaints. As Baker said "We lost a great guitar player and I lost a good friend." But the Trio soon became a Quartet again, as Dick Heckstall-Smith, who Baker had wanted in the band from the start, joined on saxophone to replace McLaughlin's guitar. But they were no longer called the Graham Bond Quartet. Partly because Heckstall-Smith joining allowed Bond to concentrate just on his keyboard playing, but one suspects partly to protect against any future lineup changes, the group were now The Graham Bond ORGANisation -- emphasis on the organ. The new lineup of the group got signed to Decca by Vernon, and were soon recording their first single, "Long Tall Shorty": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Long Tall Shorty"] They recorded a few other songs which made their way onto an EP and an R&B compilation, and toured intensively in early 1964, as well as backing up Power on his follow-up to "I Saw Her Standing There", his version of "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "Parchman Farm"] They also appeared in a film, just like the Beatles, though it was possibly not quite as artistically successful as "A Hard Day's Night": [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat trailer] Gonks Go Beat is one of the most bizarre films of the sixties. It's a far-future remake of Romeo and Juliet. where the two star-crossed lovers are from opposing countries -- Beatland and Ballad Isle -- who only communicate once a year in an annual song contest which acts as their version of a war, and is overseen by "Mr. A&R", played by Frank Thornton, who would later star in Are You Being Served? Carry On star Kenneth Connor is sent by aliens to try to bring peace to the two warring countries, on pain of exile to Planet Gonk, a planet inhabited solely by Gonks (a kind of novelty toy for which there was a short-lived craze then). Along the way Connor encounters such luminaries of British light entertainment as Terry Scott and Arthur Mullard, as well as musical performances by Lulu, the Nashville Teens, and of course the Graham Bond Organisation, whose performance gets them a telling-off from a teacher: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat!] The group as a group only performed one song in this cinematic masterpiece, but Baker also made an appearance in a "drum battle" sequence where eight drummers played together: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat drum battle] The other drummers in that scene included, as well as some lesser-known players, Andy White who had played on the single version of "Love Me Do", Bobby Graham, who played on hits by the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five, and Ronnie Verrell, who did the drumming for Animal in the Muppet Show. Also in summer 1964, the group performed at the Fourth National Jazz & Blues Festival in Richmond -- the festival co-founded by Chris Barber that would evolve into the Reading Festival. The Yardbirds were on the bill, and at the end of their set they invited Bond, Baker, Bruce, Georgie Fame, and Mike Vernon onto the stage with them, making that the first time that Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce were all on stage together. Soon after that, the Graham Bond Organisation got a new manager, Robert Stigwood. Things hadn't been working out for them at Decca, and Stigwood soon got the group signed to EMI, and became their producer as well. Their first single under Stigwood's management was a cover version of the theme tune to the Debbie Reynolds film "Tammy". While that film had given Tamla records its name, the song was hardly an R&B classic: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Tammy"] That record didn't chart, but Stigwood put the group out on the road as part of the disastrous Chuck Berry tour we heard about in the episode on "All You Need is Love", which led to the bankruptcy of Robert Stigwood Associates. The Organisation moved over to Stigwood's new company, the Robert Stigwood Organisation, and Stigwood continued to be the credited producer of their records, though after the "Tammy" disaster they decided they were going to take charge themselves of the actual music. Their first album, The Sound of 65, was recorded in a single three-hour session, and they mostly ran through their standard set -- a mixture of the same songs everyone else on the circuit was playing, like "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Got My Mojo Working", and "Wade in the Water", and originals like Bruce's "Train Time": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Train Time"] Through 1965 they kept working. They released a non-album single, "Lease on Love", which is generally considered to be the first pop record to feature a Mellotron: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Lease on Love"] and Bond and Baker also backed another Stigwood act, Winston G, on his debut single: [Excerpt: Winston G, "Please Don't Say"] But the group were developing severe tensions. Bruce and Baker had started out friendly, but by this time they hated each other. Bruce said he couldn't hear his own playing over Baker's loud drumming, Baker thought that Bruce was far too fussy a player and should try to play simpler lines. They'd both try to throw each other during performances, altering arrangements on the fly and playing things that would trip the other player up. And *neither* of them were particularly keen on Bond's new love of the Mellotron, which was all over their second album, giving it a distinctly proto-prog feel at times: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Baby Can it Be True?"] Eventually at a gig in Golders Green, Baker started throwing drumsticks at Bruce's head while Bruce was trying to play a bass solo. Bruce retaliated by throwing his bass at Baker, and then jumping on him and starting a fistfight which had to be broken up by the venue security. Baker fired Bruce from the band, but Bruce kept turning up to gigs anyway, arguing that Baker had no right to sack him as it was a democracy. Baker always claimed that in fact Bond had wanted to sack Bruce but hadn't wanted to get his hands dirty, and insisted that Baker do it, but neither Bond nor Heckstall-Smith objected when Bruce turned up for the next couple of gigs. So Baker took matters into his own hands, He pulled out a knife and told Bruce "If you show up at one more gig, this is going in you." Within days, Bruce was playing with John Mayall, whose Bluesbreakers had gone through some lineup changes by this point. Roger Dean had only played with the Bluesbreakers for a short time before Mayall had replaced him. Mayall had not been impressed with Eric Clapton's playing with the Yardbirds at first -- even though graffiti saying "Clapton is God" was already starting to appear around London -- but he had been *very* impressed with Clapton's playing on "Got to Hurry", the B-side to "For Your Love": [Excerpt: The Yardbirds, "Got to Hurry"] When he discovered that Clapton had quit the band, he sprang into action and quickly recruited him to replace Dean. Clapton knew he had made the right choice when a month after he'd joined, the group got the word that Bob Dylan had been so impressed with Mayall's single "Crawling up a Hill" -- the one that nobody liked, not even Mayall himself -- that he wanted to jam with Mayall and his band in the studio. Clapton of course went along: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan and the Bluesbreakers, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] That was, of course, the session we've talked about in the Velvet Underground episode and elsewhere of which little other than that survives, and which Nico attended. At this point, Mayall didn't have a record contract, his experience recording with Mike Vernon having been no more successful than the Bond group's had been. But soon he got a one-off deal -- as a solo artist, not with the Bluesbreakers -- with Immediate Records. Clapton was the only member of the group to play on the single, which was produced by Immediate's house producer Jimmy Page: [Excerpt: John Mayall, "I'm Your Witchdoctor"] Page was impressed enough with Clapton's playing that he invited him round to Page's house to jam together. But what Clapton didn't know was that Page was taping their jam sessions, and that he handed those tapes over to Immediate Records -- whether he was forced to by his contract with the label or whether that had been his plan all along depends on whose story you believe, but Clapton never truly forgave him. Page and Clapton's guitar-only jams had overdubs by Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart, and drummer Chris Winter, and have been endlessly repackaged on blues compilations ever since: [Excerpt: Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, "Draggin' My Tail"] But Mayall was having problems with John McVie, who had started to drink too much, and as soon as he found out that Jack Bruce was sacked by the Graham Bond Organisation, Mayall got in touch with Bruce and got him to join the band in McVie's place. Everyone was agreed that this lineup of the band -- Mayall, Clapton, Bruce, and Hughie Flint -- was going places: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Jack Bruce, "Hoochie Coochie Man"] Unfortunately, it wasn't going to last long. Clapton, while he thought that Bruce was the greatest bass player he'd ever worked with, had other plans. He was going to leave the country and travel the world as a peripatetic busker. He was off on his travels, never to return. Luckily, Mayall had someone even better waiting in the wings. A young man had, according to Mayall, "kept coming down to all the gigs and saying, “Hey, what are you doing with him?” – referring to whichever guitarist was onstage that night – “I'm much better than he is. Why don't you let me play guitar for you?” He got really quite nasty about it, so finally, I let him sit in. And he was brilliant." Peter Green was probably the best blues guitarist in London at that time, but this lineup of the Bluesbreakers only lasted a handful of gigs -- Clapton discovered that busking in Greece wasn't as much fun as being called God in London, and came back very soon after he'd left. Mayall had told him that he could have his old job back when he got back, and so Green was out and Clapton was back in. And soon the Bluesbreakers' revolving door revolved again. Manfred Mann had just had a big hit with "If You Gotta Go, Go Now", the same song we heard Dylan playing earlier: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] But their guitarist, Mike Vickers, had quit. Tom McGuinness, their bass player, had taken the opportunity to switch back to guitar -- the instrument he'd played in his first band with his friend Eric Clapton -- but that left them short a bass player. Manfred Mann were essentially the same kind of band as the Graham Bond Organisation -- a Hammond-led group of virtuoso multi-instrumentalists who played everything from hardcore Delta blues to complex modern jazz -- but unlike the Bond group they also had a string of massive pop hits, and so made a lot more money. The combination was irresistible to Bruce, and he joined the band just before they recorded an EP of jazz instrumental versions of recent hits: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"] Bruce had also been encouraged by Robert Stigwood to do a solo project, and so at the same time as he joined Manfred Mann, he also put out a solo single, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'" [Excerpt: Jack Bruce, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'"] But of course, the reason Bruce had joined Manfred Mann was that they were having pop hits as well as playing jazz, and soon they did just that, with Bruce playing on their number one hit "Pretty Flamingo": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "Pretty Flamingo"] So John McVie was back in the Bluesbreakers, promising to keep his drinking under control. Mike Vernon still thought that Mayall had potential, but the people at Decca didn't agree, so Vernon got Mayall and Clapton -- but not the other band members -- to record a single for a small indie label he ran as a side project: [Excerpt: John Mayall and Eric Clapton, "Bernard Jenkins"] That label normally only released records in print runs of ninety-nine copies, because once you hit a hundred copies you had to pay tax on them, but there was so much demand for that single that they ended up pressing up five hundred copies, making it the label's biggest seller ever. Vernon eventually convinced the heads at Decca that the Bluesbreakers could be truly big, and so he got the OK to record the album that would generally be considered the greatest British blues album of all time -- Blues Breakers, also known as the Beano album because of Clapton reading a copy of the British kids' comic The Beano in the group photo on the front. [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Ramblin' On My Mind"] The album was a mixture of originals by Mayall and the standard repertoire of every blues or R&B band on the circuit -- songs like "Parchman Farm" and "What'd I Say" -- but what made the album unique was Clapton's guitar tone. Much to the chagrin of Vernon, and of engineer Gus Dudgeon, Clapton insisted on playing at the same volume that he would on stage. Vernon later said of Dudgeon "I can remember seeing his face the very first time Clapton plugged into the Marshall stack and turned it up and started playing at the sort of volume he was going to play. You could almost see Gus's eyes meet over the middle of his nose, and it was almost like he was just going to fall over from the sheer power of it all. But after an enormous amount of fiddling around and moving amps around, we got a sound that worked." [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Hideaway"] But by the time the album cane out. Clapton was no longer with the Bluesbreakers. The Graham Bond Organisation had struggled on for a while after Bruce's departure. They brought in a trumpet player, Mike Falana, and even had a hit record -- or at least, the B-side of a hit record. The Who had just put out a hit single, "Substitute", on Robert Stigwood's record label, Reaction: [Excerpt: The Who, "Substitute"] But, as you'll hear in episode 183, they had moved to Reaction Records after a falling out with their previous label, and with Shel Talmy their previous producer. The problem was, when "Substitute" was released, it had as its B-side a song called "Circles" (also known as "Instant Party -- it's been released under both names). They'd recorded an earlier version of the song for Talmy, and just as "Substitute" was starting to chart, Talmy got an injunction against the record and it had to be pulled. Reaction couldn't afford to lose the big hit record they'd spent money promoting, so they needed to put it out with a new B-side. But the Who hadn't got any unreleased recordings. But the Graham Bond Organisation had, and indeed they had an unreleased *instrumental*. So "Waltz For a Pig" became the B-side to a top-five single, credited to The Who Orchestra: [Excerpt: The Who Orchestra, "Waltz For a Pig"] That record provided the catalyst for the formation of Cream, because Ginger Baker had written the song, and got £1,350 for it, which he used to buy a new car. Baker had, for some time, been wanting to get out of the Graham Bond Organisation. He was trying to get off heroin -- though he would make many efforts to get clean over the decades, with little success -- while Bond was starting to use it far more heavily, and was also using acid and getting heavily into mysticism, which Baker despised. Baker may have had the idea for what he did next from an article in one of the music papers. John Entwistle of the Who would often tell a story about an article in Melody Maker -- though I've not been able to track down the article itself to get the full details -- in which musicians were asked to name which of their peers they'd put into a "super-group". He didn't remember the full details, but he did remember that the consensus choice had had Eric Clapton on lead guitar, himself on bass, and Ginger Baker on drums. As he said later "I don't remember who else was voted in, but a few months later, the Cream came along, and I did wonder if somebody was maybe believing too much of their own press". Incidentally, like The Buffalo Springfield and The Pink Floyd, Cream, the band we are about to meet, had releases both with and without the definite article, and Eric Clapton at least seems always to talk about them as "the Cream" even decades later, but they're primarily known as just Cream these days. Baker, having had enough of the Bond group, decided to drive up to Oxford to see Clapton playing with the Bluesbreakers. Clapton invited him to sit in for a couple of songs, and by all accounts the band sounded far better than they had previously. Clapton and Baker could obviously play well together, and Baker offered Clapton a lift back to London in his new car, and on the drive back asked Clapton if he wanted to form a new band. Clapton was as impressed by Baker's financial skills as he was by his musicianship. He said later "Musicians didn't have cars. You all got in a van." Clearly a musician who was *actually driving a new car he owned* was going places. He agreed to Baker's plan. But of course they needed a bass player, and Clapton thought he had the perfect solution -- "What about Jack?" Clapton knew that Bruce had been a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, but didn't know why he'd left the band -- he wasn't particularly clued in to what the wider music scene was doing, and all he knew was that Bruce had played with both him and Baker, and that he was the best bass player he'd ever played with. And Bruce *was* arguably the best bass player in London at that point, and he was starting to pick up session work as well as his work with Manfred Mann. For example it's him playing on the theme tune to "After The Fox" with Peter Sellers, the Hollies, and the song's composer Burt Bacharach: [Excerpt: The Hollies with Peter Sellers, "After the Fox"] Clapton was insistent. Baker's idea was that the band should be the best musicians around. That meant they needed the *best* musicians around, not the second best. If Jack Bruce wasn't joining, Eric Clapton wasn't joining either. Baker very reluctantly agreed, and went round to see Bruce the next day -- according to Baker it was in a spirit of generosity and giving Bruce one more chance, while according to Bruce he came round to eat humble pie and beg for forgiveness. Either way, Bruce agreed to join the band. The three met up for a rehearsal at Baker's home, and immediately Bruce and Baker started fighting, but also immediately they realised that they were great at playing together -- so great that they named themselves the Cream, as they were the cream of musicians on the scene. They knew they had something, but they didn't know what. At first they considered making their performances into Dada projects, inspired by the early-twentieth-century art movement. They liked a band that had just started to make waves, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band -- who had originally been called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band -- and they bought some props with the vague idea of using them on stage in the same way the Bonzos did. But as they played together they realised that they needed to do something different from that. At first, they thought they needed a fourth member -- a keyboard player. Graham Bond's name was brought up, but Clapton vetoed him. Clapton wanted Steve Winwood, the keyboard player and vocalist with the Spencer Davis Group. Indeed, Winwood was present at what was originally intended to be the first recording session the trio would play. Joe Boyd had asked Eric Clapton to round up a bunch of players to record some filler tracks for an Elektra blues compilation, and Clapton had asked Bruce and Baker to join him, Paul Jones on vocals, Winwood on Hammond and Clapton's friend Ben Palmer on piano for the session. Indeed, given that none of the original trio were keen on singing, that Paul Jones was just about to leave Manfred Mann, and that we know Clapton wanted Winwood in the band, one has to wonder if Clapton at least half-intended for this to be the eventual lineup of the band. If he did, that plan was foiled by Baker's refusal to take part in the session. Instead, this one-off band, named The Powerhouse, featured Pete York, the drummer from the Spencer Davis Group, on the session, which produced the first recording of Clapton playing on the Robert Johnson song originally titled "Cross Road Blues" but now generally better known just as "Crossroads": [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] We talked about Robert Johnson a little back in episode ninety-seven, but other than Bob Dylan, who was inspired by his lyrics, we had seen very little influence from Johnson up to this point, but he's going to be a major influence on rock guitar for the next few years, so we should talk about him a little here. It's often said that nobody knew anything about Robert Johnson, that he was almost a phantom other than his records which existed outside of any context as artefacts of their own. That's... not really the case. Johnson had died a little less than thirty years earlier, at only twenty-seven years old. Most of his half-siblings and step-siblings were alive, as were his son, his stepson, and dozens of musicians he'd played with over the years, women he'd had affairs with, and other assorted friends and relatives. What people mean is that information about Johnson's life was not yet known by people they consider important -- which is to say white blues scholars and musicians. Indeed, almost everything people like that -- people like *me* -- know of the facts of Johnson's life has only become known to us in the last four years. If, as some people had expected, I'd started this series with an episode on Johnson, I'd have had to redo the whole thing because of the information that's made its way to the public since then. But here's what was known -- or thought -- by white blues scholars in 1966. Johnson was, according to them, a field hand from somewhere in Mississippi, who played the guitar in between working on the cotton fields. He had done two recording sessions, in 1936 and 1937. One song from his first session, "Terraplane Blues", had been a very minor hit by blues standards: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Terraplane Blues"] That had sold well -- nobody knows how well, but maybe as many as ten thousand copies, and it was certainly a record people knew in 1937 if they liked the Delta blues, but ten thousand copies total is nowhere near the sales of really successful records, and none of the follow-ups had sold anything like that much -- many of them had sold in the hundreds rather than the thousands. As Elijah Wald, one of Johnson's biographers put it "knowing about Johnson and Muddy Waters but not about Leroy Carr or Dinah Washington was like knowing about, say, the Sir Douglas Quintet but not knowing about the Beatles" -- though *I* would add that the Sir Douglas Quintet were much bigger during the sixties than Johnson was during his lifetime. One of the few white people who had noticed Johnson's existence at all was John Hammond, and he'd written a brief review of Johnson's first two singles under a pseudonym in a Communist newspaper. I'm going to quote it here, but the word he used to talk about Black people was considered correct then but isn't now, so I'll substitute Black for that word: "Before closing we cannot help but call your attention to the greatest [Black] blues singer who has cropped up in recent years, Robert Johnson. Recording them in deepest Mississippi, Vocalion has certainly done right by us and by the tunes "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" and "Terraplane Blues", to name only two of the four sides already released, sung to his own guitar accompaniment. Johnson makes Leadbelly sound like an accomplished poseur" Hammond had tried to get Johnson to perform at the Spirituals to Swing concerts we talked about in the very first episodes of the podcast, but he'd discovered that he'd died shortly before. He got Big Bill Broonzy instead, and played a couple of Johnson's records from a record player on the stage. Hammond introduced those recordings with a speech: "It is tragic that an American audience could not have been found seven or eight years ago for a concert of this kind. Bessie Smith was still at the height of her career and Joe Smith, probably the greatest trumpet player America ever knew, would still have been around to play obbligatos for her...dozens of other artists could have been there in the flesh. But that audience as well as this one would not have been able to hear Robert Johnson sing and play the blues on his guitar, for at that time Johnson was just an unknown hand on a Robinsonville, Mississippi plantation. Robert Johnson was going to be the big surprise of the evening for this audience at Carnegie Hall. I know him only from his Vocalion blues records and from the tall, exciting tales the recording engineers and supervisors used to bring about him from the improvised studios in Dallas and San Antonio. I don't believe Johnson had ever worked as a professional musician anywhere, and it still knocks me over when I think of how lucky it is that a talent like his ever found its way onto phonograph records. We will have to be content with playing two of his records, the old "Walkin' Blues" and the new, unreleased, "Preachin' Blues", because Robert Johnson died last week at the precise moment when Vocalion scouts finally reached him and told him that he was booked to appear at Carnegie Hall on December 23. He was in his middle twenties and nobody seems to know what caused his death." And that was, for the most part, the end of Robert Johnson's impact on the culture for a generation. The Lomaxes went down to Clarksdale, Mississippi a couple of years later -- reports vary as to whether this was to see if they could find Johnson, who they were unaware was dead, or to find information out about him, and they did end up recording a young singer named Muddy Waters for the Library of Congress, including Waters' rendition of "32-20 Blues", Johnson's reworking of Skip James' "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Muddy Waters, "32-20 Blues"] But Johnson's records remained unavailable after their initial release until 1959, when the blues scholar Samuel Charters published the book The Country Blues, which was the first book-length treatment ever of Delta blues. Sixteen years later Charters said "I shouldn't have written The Country Blues when I did; since I really didn't know enough, but I felt I couldn't afford to wait. So The Country Blues was two things. It was a romanticization of certain aspects of black life in an effort to force the white society to reconsider some of its racial attitudes, and on the other hand it was a cry for help. I wanted hundreds of people to go out and interview the surviving blues artists. I wanted people to record them and document their lives, their environment, and their music, not only so that their story would be preserved but also so they'd get a little money and a little recognition in their last years." Charters talked about Johnson in the book, as one of the performers who played "minor roles in the story of the blues", and said that almost nothing was known about his life. He talked about how he had been poisoned by his common-law wife, about how his records were recorded in a pool hall, and said "The finest of Robert Johnson's blues have a brooding sense of torment and despair. The blues has become a personified figure of despondency." Along with Charters' book came a compilation album of the same name, and that included the first ever reissue of one of Johnson's tracks, "Preaching Blues": [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Preaching Blues"] Two years later, John Hammond, who had remained an ardent fan of Johnson, had Columbia put out the King of the Delta Blues Singers album. At the time no white blues scholars knew what Johnson looked like and they had no photos of him, so a generic painting of a poor-looking Black man with a guitar was used for the cover. The liner note to King of the Delta Blues Singers talked about how Johnson was seventeen or eighteen when he made his recordings, how he was "dead before he reached his twenty-first birthday, poisoned by a jealous girlfriend", how he had "seldom, if ever, been away from the plantation in Robinsville, Mississippi, where he was born and raised", and how he had had such stage fright that when he was asked to play in front of other musicians, he'd turned to face a wall so he couldn't see them. And that would be all that any of the members of the Powerhouse would know about Johnson. Maybe they'd also heard the rumours that were starting to spread that Johnson had got his guitar-playing skills by selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads at midnight, but that would have been all they knew when they recorded their filler track for Elektra: [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] Either way, the Powerhouse lineup only lasted for that one session -- the group eventually decided that a simple trio would be best for the music they wanted to play. Clapton had seen Buddy Guy touring with just a bass player and drummer a year earlier, and had liked the idea of the freedom that gave him as a guitarist. The group soon took on Robert Stigwood as a manager, which caused more arguments between Bruce and Baker. Bruce was convinced that if they were doing an all-for-one one-for-all thing they should also manage themselves, but Baker pointed out that that was a daft idea when they could get one of the biggest managers in the country to look after them. A bigger argument, which almost killed the group before it started, happened when Baker told journalist Chris Welch of the Melody Maker about their plans. In an echo of the way that he and Bruce had been resigned from Blues Incorporated without being consulted, now with no discussion Manfred Mann and John Mayall were reading in the papers that their band members were quitting before those members had bothered to mention it. Mayall was furious, especially since the album Clapton had played on hadn't yet come out. Clapton was supposed to work a month's notice while Mayall found another guitarist, but Mayall spent two weeks begging Peter Green to rejoin the band. Green was less than eager -- after all, he'd been fired pretty much straight away earlier -- but Mayall eventually persuaded him. The second he did, Mayall turned round to Clapton and told him he didn't have to work the rest of his notice -- he'd found another guitar player and Clapton was fired: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, "Dust My Blues"] Manfred Mann meanwhile took on the Beatles' friend Klaus Voorman to replace Bruce. Voorman would remain with the band until the end, and like Green was for Mayall, Voorman was in some ways a better fit for Manfred Mann than Bruce was. In particular he could double on flute, as he did for example on their hit version of Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann "The Mighty Quinn"] The new group, The Cream, were of course signed in the UK to Stigwood's Reaction label. Other than the Who, who only stuck around for one album, Reaction was not a very successful label. Its biggest signing was a former keyboard player for Screaming Lord Sutch, who recorded for them under the names Paul Dean and Oscar, but who later became known as Paul Nicholas and had a successful career in musical theatre and sitcom. Nicholas never had any hits for Reaction, but he did release one interesting record, in 1967: [Excerpt: Oscar, "Over the Wall We Go"] That was one of the earliest songwriting attempts by a young man who had recently named himself David Bowie. Now the group were public, they started inviting journalists to their rehearsals, which were mostly spent trying to combine their disparate musical influences --
As I'm sure you're all feeling it by now, today is the beginning not just of a new day, it's the beginning of a new era where the sweltering sewers of systemic racism have finally been overcome. Thanks to the Trumpian Supreme Court, it all came crashing down! The age of systemic racism is finally over, and the Democrats are utterly melting down! You're going to absolutely love this! Highlights: ● “We are winding back the segregationist clock, but it's leftists, it's woke liberals, who are the ones advocating for this!" ● "Asians are the ones more than any other demographic that wanted to bring an end to this liberal woke sacred cow of affirmative action! And they did it!" ● “You've got two racially identical groups, West Indies Blacks and American Blacks, both living under the exact same supposedly racist system and yet, they show radically discrepant outcomes! While they are both equally subjected to whatever level of racism exists, Thomas Sowell's studies found that second-generation West Indian Blacks living in the same cities as black Americans were making 58% more in income on average.” ● “The Brookings Institute which is liberal and the Heritage Foundation which is conservative both agree on this: that the collapse of the family is the single worst systemic problem facing our nation today in terms of its deleterious effects on children.” ● “We don't need condescending racist sentiments from white Democrats like Erica to tell anyone what's needed to overcome social and educational hardships! We know what needs to be done. But here's the problem: how do you restore the family when Democrats have destroyed it?” Timestamps: [00:49] The Supreme Court striking down Affirmative Actions [07:16] Some of the more unhinged reactions after the Supreme Court's decision [10:06] How the woke cultural Marxist leftists are actually the ones who want a return to segregation [13:12] The woke left unraveling and getting more divided - Asians more than any other demographic wanted to bring an end to affirmative action [19:30] The best meltdown coming from Democrat activist Erica Marsh and how she's getting utterly savaged for her tweet [23:10] On Thomas Sowell's documentation of how the two different black populations within the same supposed systemic racist system consistently exemplify different outcomes [29:30] The single worst systemic problem facing our nation today - the collapse of family [32:43] Q&A Resources: ● Start the 24/7 Protection of Your Home and Equity Today! Go to https://www.hometitlelock.com/turleytalks ● Reclaim control over your health TODAY with PhD Weight Loss! Call the team who helped Dr. Steve right now at 864 644 1900 ● Find out how you can pay off your mortgage in 5-7 years with Replace Your Mortgage at https://replaceyouruniversity.com/steveturley ● The Courageous Patriot Community is inviting YOU! Join the movement now and build the parallel economy at https://join.turleytalks.com/insiders-club-evergreen/?utm_medium=podcast ● Learn how to protect your life savings from inflation and an irresponsible government, with Gold and Silver. Go to http://www.turleytalkslikesgold.com/ Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and/or leave a review. Sick and tired of Big Tech, censorship, and endless propaganda? Join my Insiders Club with a FREE TRIAL today at: https://insidersclub.turleytalks.com Make sure to FOLLOW me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrTurleyTalks BOLDLY stand up for TRUTH in Turley Merch! Browse our new designs right now at: https://store.turleytalks.com/ Do you want to be a part of the podcast and be our sponsor? Click here to partner with us and defy liberal culture! If you would like to get lots of articles on conservative trends make sure to sign-up for the 'New Conservative Age Rising' Email Alerts.
The sudden death of Olympic sprinter Tori Bowie at age 32 sent shockwaves around the world. The idea that a young, elite athlete could go into labor and die stunned many. But this problem is more common than many realize, and it's particularly bad for Black women. William Brangham discussed more with Amanda Williams of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
The sudden death of Olympic sprinter Tori Bowie at age 32 sent shockwaves around the world. The idea that a young, elite athlete could go into labor and die stunned many. But this problem is more common than many realize, and it's particularly bad for Black women. William Brangham discussed more with Amanda Williams of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
Nicole Friday is not only one half of the power team responsible for the American Black Film Festival Brands, alongside her husband Jeff. She is also a Culinary Queen, a Mom and a true testimony teacher. The 27th annual ABFF will take place in Miami Beach June 14-18, tickets are available: https://www.abff.com/miami/ The festival will be available to a global audience June 19-25 on ABFF PLAY: https://abffplay.com/ Join me Friday, June 16th in Denver for the LIVE Podcast Event in Denver, CO with special guest Claudia Jordan and opening act, Comedian Al Jackson on Friday, June 16th HERE! Comeback is hosted by Erica Cobb. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter See more at Comeback.TV Comeback with Erica Cobb is an inspirational and empowering podcast hosted by the dynamic TV and radio personality, Erica Cobb. With a focus on helping people overcome adversity and make a comeback in all aspects of their lives, Erica and her guests share their personal stories, insights, and practical advice. From career setbacks to personal struggles, the show offers candid conversations and engaging interviews to help listeners navigate life's challenges and achieve their goals. With a positive, uplifting approach, Comeback with Erica Cobb is a must-listen for anyone looking to turn setbacks into comebacks.
Welcome back to the Fake Ass Book Club!! The ladies are joined by Moni's brother Romel by way of Japan! Get ready to talk about all things Black for the last episode of Black History Month! The Crew discusses their experience as Black people in the states vs Japan. They describe the uniquely American Black subculture created in America, and the influence it's had around the globe. They discuss cancel culture and try to discern where to draw the line when supporting artists and brands, or is there a line?? Is the line Black? The racist history of Henry Ford, Fanta and Votzwagen (or even the people on US currency) haven't stopped people from supporting them...
Teddy had few “official” meetings in the USSR. A factory here. A collective farm there. Maybe a school or two. And there was one question Teddy's hosts always asked: “Why are you still lynching Blacks?” American racism was a global issue during the Cold War. And pointing to it was a strike at America's Achilles heel. Soviet media devoted a lot of time to the Civil Rights Movement. And Teddy arrived in the USSR just when Martin Luther King was assassinated. So, just what was this Soviet concern for American Blacks? Was it merely a whataboutism, a way to deflect American criticism of Soviet life? Or was there something more to it? The post Ep 4: Teddy Talks about Race appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.
In this week's episode we had the honour of sitting down with Blackbraid to talk about their Native American Black Metal music and some of the correlations between Native American History and Nordic/ Scandinavian History. Check out Blackbraid's Music:https://open.spotify.com/artist/47nBZhrImXWXTWVSWt09MY?si=ex77MgKJTvKwp1nVdP6y0A------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Check us out on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/nordicmythologypodcastIf you like what we do, and would like to be in the audience for live streams of new episodes to ask questions please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NordicMythologypodcastCheck out Dan's company, Horns of Odin, and the wide range of handmade items inspired by Nordic Mythology and the Viking Age. Visit: https://www.hornsofodin.comSupport the show
If there were a Mount Rushmore of American Black intellectuals, the three guests on this show would certainly be on it: Glenn Loury is a professor of the social sciences in the Department of economics at Brown, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and the host of his wildly successful podcast, The Glenn Show. Ian Rowe is the cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies and the author of the new book Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power. Robert Woodson is the founder of the Woodson Center, an organization devoted to “empowering community-based leaders to promote solutions that reduce crime and violence, restore families, revitalize underserved communities, and assist in the creation of economic enterprise.” In this wide-ranging conversation, the three men debunk The 1619 Project, advocate for the restoration of the Black family and the Black church, describe their own very different upbringings and formative experiences, and discuss the many reasons why they are optimistic about the future of Black Americans, despite the narrative commonly expressed in the media. Recorded on May 13, 2022, at the Old Parkland Conference in Dallas, Texas.