Poem by Dorothea Mackellar
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I Will Build You Again, My Country
Today, Karen González and I talk about practicing generosity without a savior complex. Karen González (she/her) is a speaker, writer, storyteller, and immigrant advocate, who herself immigrated from Guatemala as a child. Karen is a former public school teacher and attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where she studied theology and missiology. For the last 17 years, she has been a non-profit professional. She wrote a book about her own immigration story and some of the immigrants found in the Bible: The God Who Sees: Immigrants, The Bible, and the Journey to Belong (Herald Press, May 2019). Karen's second book is Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in our Christian Response to Immigration (Brazos Press, October 2022). She also has bylines in Sojourners, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and others. Karen lives in Washington DC with her cats, Oscar and Trudi.You can follow Karen on Instagram @_karenjgonzalez. Her books, Beyond Welcome and The God Who Sees, are available wherever you get books. Here's the link to the Substack piece Karen and I discussed at the top of the episode, "At Home in My Country." Join the Found Family crew over on Substack and get your Found Family Cheat Sheet! Support the show
My Country’s Showing – Will Jones Living Till My Dying Day – Adam Chaffins Can’t You Hear My Heart a-Breakin’ – Jake Penrod Straight up Country Music – Wylie & The Wild West The Ballad of White Trash Charlie – John D. Hale Band Ghost Town in the Sky – John Haywood Hookups & Heartaches (feat. Danielle Beu) – Matt Burke Life Sounds Easy on the Radio – Aaron McDonnell Even Cowgirls Get The Blues – Sam Stoane Rancho Cucamonga – Pug Johnson
(00:00) ¡Bienvenidos al NortCast! El Podcast que le da la bienvenida de vuelta a Gil Beltrán
Nationalism, patriotism, cultural identity, a sense of home; these are concepts and ideas whose popularity have ebbed and flowed throughout history. Nationalism has been seen as a natural expression of cultural identity and pride, and it also has been at the core of virulent racism and xenophobia. Patriotism has been used as a cudgel by all sides of the political spectrum for good and evil, and a sense of home has led to cultural explosions and also to some of the bloodiest wars of all time. For Bedrich Smetana, these concepts were extremely multi-layered. He was a proud Bohemian nationalist for much of his life, but he also barely spoke Czech(German was the lingua franca among educated classes in Prague), and he was also disenchanted with the Prague musical establishment due to their cool reception of his Wagnerian/Lisztian style. He even left Prague for a time to work in Gothenburg Sweden, writing curtly to his parents: “Prague did not wish to acknowledge me, so I left it.” But only 6 years later, he wrote again to a friend: "My home has rooted itself into my heart so much that only there do I find real contentment. It is to this that I will sacrifice myself." Stirred to patriotic and nationalistic sentiments, Smetana began studying the Czech language in earnest, and his second opera, The Bartered Bride, became the first Czech opera to enter the mainstream repertoire around Europe. It was a piece fully in Czech style, and even though Smetana battled to the end of his life with different members of the Prague musical establishment, he is still thought of today as the founder of the Czech national sound. This is even before we begin talking about the topic for today, Ma Vlast, which is commonly translated to My Fatherland, My Country, or My Homeland. Ma Vlast is a massive, nearly hour and a half long work that amalgamates Wagnerian and Listzian ideas of a tone poem along with nationalistic music that has stirred not only the Czech soul but the souls of people all around the world. As Semyon Bychkov, the great Russian conductor and current Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic says: “The core subject of this piece is home and the meaning of home; everything else is the gravy.” Today on the show we'll begin by talking about Smetana's tragic experience of deafness, and then we'll go through each movement of his huge piece, talking about the msuic from the perspecitve of nationalism and also Wagnerian ideas of leitmotifs as well as orchestration and style. Join us! Recording: Czech Philharmonic conducted by Rafael Kubelik
Summer is here, and if you're looking for your next read, Jess has you covered! In this episode of the Big Summer Book Club, Jess shares the memoirs that have captivated her. We all have a story inside of us and there's so much we can learn from each others stories. Plus, Jess dives deep with incredible authors to explore their work, their lives, and so much more! One of these authors is Jelena Dokic, whose powerful memoir Fearless offers inspirational advice and a message of strength, all in Jelena’s own words. Our hope is this series will inspire you to rediscover the joy of summer reading—and perhaps find your own life-changing reads along the way. Know someone who'd enjoy this episode? Why not share it with them by tapping the 3 dots above ⬆︎ and passing it on LINKS: Fatal Charms & The Mansions of Limbo by Dominik DunneOn Writing by Stephen KingTalking to My Country by Stan GrantOpen by Andre Agassi Fill out our survey for the chance to win a $100 voucher here If you love what we do, why not follow the show, and rate and review on Apple or Spotify CREDITS:Host: Jessica RoweGuest: Jelena Dokic Executive Producer: Nic McClureAudio Producer: Nat Marshall Digital Content Producer: Zoe Panaretos The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show acknowledges the Gadigal people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which we recorded this podcast, and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples here today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 10th and final study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'État - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, Blouin described herself as a "militant," but made time to say: "It would be unfair to say that all the whites in the Congo were detestable (Racist)" Gus noted how cliché this remark is - especially for a "militant." She then turned to say the real enemies of Africa are Africans (non-white people). She also described the extraordinary faith Patrice Lumumba placed in her - including battling on her behalf publicly. This would seem to contradict the notion of legions of sexist black males who seek to dominate females. Race Soldiers routinely branded Blouin a whore and a "communist." #AppleEvent #SoundtrackToACoupdÉtat #TheCOWS16Year INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
Sintonía: "Gravelrash" - Midnight Oil"Beds Are Burning" - "Dreamworld" - "Blue Sky Mine" - "Forgotten Years" - "King Of The Mountain" - "Truganini" - "My Country" - "In The Valley" - "Underwater" - "Surf´s Up Tonight"Todas las músicas compuestas e interpretadas por Midnight OilEscuchar audio
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 9th study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'État - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, Blouin described herself as a "militant," but made time to say: "It would be unfair to say that all the whites in the Congo were detestable (Racist)" Gus noted how cliché this remark is - especially for a "militant." She then turned to say the real enemies of Africa are Africans (non-white people). She also described the extraordinary faith Patrice Lumumba placed in her - including battling on her behalf publicly. This would seem to contradict the notion of legions of sexist black males who seek to dominate females. Race Soldiers routinely branded Blouin a whore and a "communist." #SoundtrackToACoupdÉtat #AppleEvent #SoundtrackToACoupdEtat #TheCOWS15Year INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 8th study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'État - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Gus paused the book club while gallivanting in the Golden State, but used his time in sunshine and information-rich California to gather data on the life and work of Ms. Blouin as well. Whites at Stanford have whole files and many, many boxes of material on she and the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. During our last study session Blouin detailed how Sékou Touré dramatically impacted her thought, speech and action. He motivated her to Produce Justice and counter the rampant "tribalism" - tendency for people classified as black to squabble with other black people over trivial concerns. She also emphasized her effort to aid black females who were poorly educated and sexually abused. #AppleEvent #SoundtrackToACoupdEtat #TheCOWS15Year INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
My Country --- . 'Tis Of --- . Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! .
241125PC: Bonhoeffer als Wahlkampfhelfer für Donald TrumpMensch Mahler am 25.11.2024Mein ganzes Leben war und ist Dietrich Bonhoeffer an meiner Seite. „Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen“ – „Wer bin ich“ – seine theologische Literatur. Am vergangenen Freitag ein szenisches Stück mit Klavier, Maria von Wedemeyer und Dietrich Bonhoeffer – die Brautbriefe. Tief beeindruckend. Und dann der Kinofilm. "Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin". Ein frömmelnder Kämpfer für das Gute in einem Film voller historischer Fehler, vorgetragen von renommierten deutschen Schauspielern auf Englisch. Der Film wendet sich vor allem an ein amerikanisches Publikum. Und dieser Bonhoeffer spricht wie Donald Trump vom Feind im Inneren. "My Country was invaded from within", sagt der Bonhoeffer im Film aufgebracht. Die evangelikalen Christen in en USA jubeln. Vereinnahmen Bonhoeffer als Wahlkampfhelfer für Donald Trump. Tobias Korenke ist ein Großneffe Bonhoeffers. Gegen die Vereinnahmung durch rechte Christen, auch gegen den Film haben sich die Nachfahren jüngst gewehrt. In einem offenen Brief kritisieren sie besonders die Vermarktung, die Bonhoeffer als gewaltbereiten Rächer zeigt. Für Korenke ist diese Entwicklung nicht neu: "Schon seit einigen Jahren versuchen rechte Evangelikale, Bonhoeffer für sich und ihre Ziele zu vereinnahmen, die tatsächlich versuchen Bonhoeffer umzudeuten, als einen Widerstandskämpfer gegen Wokeness, Abtreibung und Zeitgeist."Das hat Dietrich Bonhoeffer wahrlich nicht verdient. Natürlich war er auch Kind seiner Zeit. Aber es ist einfach ungehörig, so zu tun, als wäre er, so er heute Zeitgenosse Trumps wäre, also 80 Jahre nach seiner Ermordung, in seinen Ansichten so wenig flexibel geblieben. Ein schäbiger Versuch, einen der führenden Köpfe der bekennenden Kirche im 3. Reich zum Unterstützer eines Faschisten, Frauenverächters und Rassisten zu machen. Gut, dass sich Bonhoeffers Nachfahren dagegen wehren. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
President Joe Biden became emotional as he honored acclaimed filmmakers, singers, writers, and others who have made their mark on American culture, awarding the prestigious National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals to 39 recipients. Filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, and Ken Burns and singers Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah were among 20 recipients of National Medals of Arts, while the 19 recipients of National Humanities Medals included playwright-screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and historian Jon Meacham. Three of the medals were awarded posthumously: The late singer Selena Quintanilla and artist Ruth Asawa are arts medal winners and the late chef-author Anthony Bourdain was among the humanities medal winners. “Above all, you are the masters of your craft that have made us a better America with all of you have done,” Biden said at the White House ceremony. Biden grew emotional as he recounted that Dr. Martin Luther King, as a ten-year-old boy, listened on the radio to Marian Anderson sing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after she had been denied from performing at Constitution Hall. Decades later, when King delivered his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Biden recounted that Anderson was there to sing again. “She sang, “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands,” Biden said. “My fellow Americans, today we honor that legacy.” Biden also told the winners that the moment was a “very consequential time in the arts and humanities in America” because “extreme forces are banning books, trying to erase history, spreading misinformation.” The arts medals are given “to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States.” Other humanities winners included former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo, actor-literacy advocate LeVar Burton, cartoonist Roz Chast, and philanthropists Wallis Annenberg and Darren Walker. The humanities medals honor “an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens' engagement with history or literature, or helped preserve and expand Americans' access to cultural resources.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 7th study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'État - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, Blouin detailed her intimate connection with her attempted mother. Despite the fact that her mom detested her counter-racist efforts - even her work to get better medical treatment for non-white children. Blouin detailed the sad history of black males abusing black females to release their frustrations about the System of White Supremacy. #FirstTimeLastTime Portions of her work also seemed to suggest that Blouin's activist work was the result of her having a White father and producing children with several White Men. She contrasted the White Male ambition with the alleged cowardice and abuse of black males. This didn't sound like her mother's former partner Joseph Mialou, a decent black male whom her mother rejected. Didn't sound like Patrice Lumumba either. #AppleEvent #FirstTimeLastTime #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 6th study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, Blouin detailed her traumatic concerns for the health of her second child. Her latest White male partner seemed ambivalent or unconcerned about securing medical attention. He only relented when Blouin caused a public spectacle arguing with White people who insisted medical assistance is for Whites only. The White man refused to allow her mother into his residence and made it a habit to brutalize and maim the black people who served him. Ironically, Blouin's mother castigated her for being tragically involved with a White Man. Earlier in the book, mom was pissed that Blouin rejected White suitors. #CantWin #AppleEvent #SoundtrackToACoupdEtat #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
Send us a textCould your spiritual devotion be the key to a more fulfilling life? Join me, Jesse Cope, as we explore this profound question through the lens of faith and patriotism in the American Soul Podcast. You'll gain insights into how aligning patriotic values with spiritual beliefs can lead to a deeper sense of purpose and community. This episode begins with a sincere expression of gratitude and a heartfelt reminder about the importance of returning to God and Jesus Christ as our guiding forces. We reflect on the teachings of Samuel Francis Smith's "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," emphasizing the need to honor God as the ultimate authority above worldly entities like political parties.Continuing our journey, we navigate the intersection of Christian values and education, using influential religious texts to enrich learning across subjects. By examining America's founding principles and the lives of historical figures such as Nathan Hale, FDR, and Truman, we underscore the enduring importance of individual responsibility and divine guidance. As we strive for perfection in various life aspects, from personal to professional, there's an acknowledgment of human imperfections and a call to embrace growth and Christ-like dedication. Whether it's through education, faith, or daily life, this episode encourages listeners to pursue a life of responsibility, love, and continuous improvement.Support the showThe American Soul Podcasthttps://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 5th study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, Blouin had a volatile dispute with a White Woman about the price of dress. Blouin accused the White Woman of stealing her time and energy used to create the dress. In response, the White Woman ordered her black "boys" and her hound to attack the uppity girl. Blouin ultimately repeats the same behaviors of her mother, having sexual intercourse and producing a child with an older White Man. He absconds before the pale child with gold hair is born. Importantly, Blouin begins to ask lots of questions to learn more about the world and the System of White Supremacy. #AppleEvent #SoundtrackToACoupdEtat #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
Singer/songwriter Django Haskins (The Old Ceremony) is the one to FINALLY bring a Randy Newman record to TRGMH, 1999's 'Bad Love'. With equal doses of snide wit and honest emotion, Newman's slyly cynical 10th studio album is sure to get under your skin and fester for a while... Songs discussed in this episode: I Miss You (Unplugged), Short People, It's Money That I Love - Randy Newman; God's Comic - Elvis Costello; Shadows, Lonely Mayor, Too Big To Fail - The Old Ceremony; My Country, Shame, I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It), Every Time It Rains, The Great Nations Of Europe, Rednecks, The One You Love - Randy Newman; Here I Go Again, Efige - The Old Ceremony; Chelsea Hotel #2 - Leonard Cohen; The World Isn't Fair, I Love LA, Big Hat, No Cattle, Better Off Dead - Randy Newman; Smile - David Byrne; I Miss You, Going Home, I Want Everyone To Like Me - Randy Newman; North American Grain - The Old Ceremony
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 4th study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, Blouin detailed going to live with her White father. She ate opulent foods, gained weight, and "convinced" herself that her child raping dad loved her. Her White stepmom despises her and eventually accuses her of poisoning the family dog #SWANGO Blouin volunteers to runaway, and her White father tells her to leave and never return - she'd only been staying with him a few months. She and her black mom live together, and many White Men want to have sex with this light skinned teen. Blouin's mother expresses tremendous disappointment that she refuses to be a teen "concubine" for White men. We also heard a healthy dose of name-calling black people. #AppleEvent #SoundtrackToACoupdEtat #DikembeMutombo #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the third study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, we learned about Belgian colonization of the Congo, which included White Men raping black children. Blouin's White father was 40, and her black mother was 13. This sort of sexual debauchery was widespread #WholeContinentAsTheWhiteMansBrothel Blouin was placed in an orphanage for White Men's throwaway children produced with black females. We heard about a brand new batch of starving black children who resorted to eating clay bricks. All of this was authorized by the Religion of White Supremacy. #AppleEvent #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the second study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. Last week, we learned about Belgian colonization of the Congo, which included White Men raping black children. Blouin's White father was 40, and her black mother was 13. This sort of sexual debauchery was widespread #WholeContinentAsTheWhiteMansBrothel Blouin was placed in an "orphanage" for White Men's throwaway children produced with black females. We heard about a brand new batch of starving black children who resorted to eating clay bricks. All of this was authorized by the Religion of White Supremacy. #AppleEvent #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the debut study session on Andrée Blouin's My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria. A pivotal figure in the history of counter-racism/anti-colonialism throughout the continent of Africa, Blouin is not as well known as South Africa's Madiba and Winnie Mandela, Kenya's Maus Maus and other freedom fighters who participated in combating White Terrorism in Africa. However, Blouin was of monumental importance and, consequently, a target of CIA/White Supremacy campaigns. Gus T. was ignorant about Ms. Blouin, but she was prominently featured in the new documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - which examines the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The film makes time to quote from Blouin's autobiography about the efforts to assassinate she, her family and Lumumba. #SoundtrackToACoupdEtat #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
“You big ugly…” Show notes Episode playlist The episodes on Forbes and Porter Australia by Ania Walwicz Venus Bay Surf diatom blooms (that brown stuff) Świdnica My Country by Dorothea Mackellar Countdown Peter Brock Molly Meldrum Slim Dusty How to End a Story by Helen Garner Murray Bail Peter Allen That Qantas ad The White … Continue reading "Ep 276. Ania Walwicz's Australia pt. 1"
A wartime nightclub singer in South America is involved in a plot to supply information to the Nazis. As part of the story, Lena sings, "America" ("My Country 'Tis Of Thee"). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/iloveoldtimeradio/support
They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, burnt offerings morning and evening. - Ezra 3:3 This Episode's Links and Timestamps: 00:24 – Scripture Reading 05:20 – Thoughts on the Reading 26:08 - Why In-the-Know Men Are Dressing Like Cary Grant in 2024 – Jessica Salter, WSJ 37:53 - The cost of a July 4th cookout just hit another record high – Wolfgang Ramsay, NTB 42:16 - Secret polling after the debate shows it's much, much worse than you think for Biden and Democrats – Harambe, NTB 52:38 - 5 Things You May Not Know About Independence Day – Joseph Lord, The Epoch Times 1:05:07 - The Star-Spangled Banner – Wikipedia 1:14:09 - Hail, Columbia – Wikipedia 1:20:14 - My Country, 'Tis of Thee - Wikipedia
PreludeWelcome & News of the ChurchCall to WorshipOpening Hymn - (#695) "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"Praise SongsRecognition of Graduates - "Pomp and Circumstance" March #1 by Edward ElgarConfession, Assurance, and Gloria PatriRecognition of Guest PerformersChoral Anthem - "God Bless America" by Berlin/RingwaldSermon - "Avelut - Mourning" (Jeremiah 8:21–9:1; 9:17–20; John 11:35) - by Rev. Jason GrifficeHymn of Response - (#690) "America, the Beautiful"Receiving of Our Tithes and OfferingsOffertoryDoxologyPastoral PrayerChoral Anthem - "Battle Hymn of the Republic" arr. Peter WilhouskyBenedictionPostlude "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Copland/RadulescuMy Country, 'Tis of TheeMy country, 'tis of the, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing: Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrims' pride. From every mountainsideLet freedom ring!My native country, thee, Land of the noble, free, Thy name I love. I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills: My heart with rapture thrillsLike that aboveLet music swell the breeze, And ring from all the treesSweet freedom's song. Let mortal tongues awake; Let all that breathe partake; Let rocks their silence break, The sound prolong. Our father's God, to Thee, Author of liberty, To Thee we sing: Long may our land be brightWithe freedom's holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King!America, the BeautifulO beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majestiesAbove the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea. O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stressA thoroughfare for freedom beatAcross the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law. O beautiful for heroes provedIn liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, 'Til all success be nobleness, And every gain divine. O beautiful for patriot dreamThat sees beyond the yearsThine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser is joined by old friend Ed Lanfranco, who lived in Beijing from 1988 to 2009. An inveterate packrat, Ed managed to accumulate an incredible trove of documents, maps, photos, and ephemera from his years there and from the decades and even centuries before his arrival. Ed talks about his collection, and invites scholars interested in his material to get in touch!2:46 – Ed's time in China and saving ephemera 11:47 – Ed's favorite old Chinese brands 14:41 – Ed's map collection 19:34 – The Tiananmen incident of 1976, Ed's collection of unpublished photographs from the Panjiayuan Antique Market, and a leaflet from April 7th, 1976 30:40 – Ed's patriotic music record collection 33:28 – Ed's U.S.-China collection 38:00 – The story behind Ed's U.S.-China panda button from 2002 43:18 – Ed's Tiananmen '89 story and collection of leaflets and files 50:56 – The Underground City of Beijing tour 53:50 – Ed's SARS 2003 epidemic experience and artifactsRecommendations:Ed: Roger Garside's Coming Alive: China After Mao; Lin Yutang's works, especially My Country and My People and The Importance of LivingKaiser: The Rochester-based progressive metal trio Haishen's new album, Awaken the Endless Deep See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This Day in Legal History: Corporations Are “Persons” Under 14th AmendmentOn May 10, 1886, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, fundamentally altering the legal landscape for corporations in the United States. This ruling established that corporations were to be considered "persons" under the Fourteenth Amendment and were thus entitled to equal protection rights under state law. The decision arose from a dispute involving Santa Clara County and the Southern Pacific Railroad, which contested certain tax assessments on the grounds that they were discriminatory against the corporation.The Supreme Court, without directly addressing the issue in the oral argument or written opinion, allowed the notion that corporations were persons for the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment to stand, based on a headnote by the court reporter, which was not part of the official opinion. This headnote indicated that the Chief Justice had acknowledged corporate personhood in relation to the amendment during the proceedings. Although it did not form part of the decision, this assertion guided future interpretations of corporate rights in the U.S.As a result, the ruling provided corporations with expanded protections that had originally been intended to protect the rights of former slaves. Over time, this interpretation has been used to defend corporations in various legal battles, granting them rights comparable to those of individual citizens in many respects. This includes the right to a trial by jury, the right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to free speech.The implications of the Santa Clara decision have been far-reaching and controversial. Critics argue that it has led to an excessive amount of power being held by corporations, influencing political processes and public policy disproportionately. Supporters, however, see the ruling as essential for ensuring that businesses can operate on a level playing field, free from unfair government interference.The Santa Clara case remains a pivotal point in legal history, frequently cited in discussions about the balance between corporate power and public control. It opened the door to subsequent legal challenges and rulings that continue to shape the interaction between corporations, individuals, and the government in the United States. The ongoing debates surrounding corporate influence in politics and society trace back to this seminal Supreme Court decision, underscoring its significance in American legal history.The Biden administration is considering a proposal by Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and other groups to use U.S. Code § 1498 to seize patents for the cancer drug Xtandi, manufactured by Astellas Pharma, without paying royalties. This move, aimed at reducing the drug's cost, represents a more aggressive stance toward pharmaceutical pricing, leveraging the government's legal abilities to override private patents under specific conditions. Xtandi, costing over $14,000 monthly for uninsured patients, has been a focal point in debates over drug prices. The proposal suggests that because Xtandi was developed with government grants, existing laws provide a mechanism for the government to authorize generic production without compensating the patent holder. Critics, including former US Patent and Trademark Office head Andrei Iancu, argue that this interpretation distorts patent laws and undermines the Hatch-Waxman Act, which regulates drug patent exclusivities and generic entry. Despite skepticism about the administration adopting this aggressive approach, proponents see it as a viable strategy to control drug prices and alter pharmaceutical company behaviors without the need for compensation, sparking a significant legal and ethical debate on the extent of government intervention in private industry.Cancer Drug Price-Cutting Pitch Mulled by HHS as Industry WaitsThe Biden administration and several civil rights groups, including the ACLU, have filed lawsuits against the state of Iowa to challenge a new law, S.F. 2340, which authorizes the arrest and prosecution of individuals who re-enter the U.S. after deportation. The law, signed by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, makes "illegal reentry" into Iowa a criminal offense punishable by up to two years in prison and permits state judges to order deported individuals to return to their home countries. Both the federal government and civil rights organizations argue that this state law unlawfully conflicts with federal immigration law and its established procedures for handling illegal entries and deportations. This Iowa law also fails to exempt individuals with legal status in the U.S., such as asylum seekers and visa holders. This move by Iowa reflects a broader trend among Republican-led states, influenced by similar laws in Texas and recently Oklahoma, aiming to enforce immigration laws due to perceived inaction by the federal government on illegal border crossings. A U.S. appeals court recently blocked a similar law in Texas, citing its inconsistency with federal jurisdiction over immigration matters.Biden administration, civil groups sue Iowa over immigrant arrest law | ReutersElon Musk may be required to provide additional testimony in the SEC's investigation into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. During a court hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley considered the SEC's request to compel Musk to testify, following another judge's earlier ruling in favor of the agency. The SEC is investigating whether Musk violated federal securities laws during his 2022 purchase of Twitter, now renamed X, particularly concerning his stock purchases and related public statements and filings. Musk had previously participated in the investigation via two videoconference sessions and had provided documents. His legal representation argued that further testimony would impose an undue burden on him, given his responsibilities to multiple companies. The judge questioned the argument that Musk's busy schedule should exempt him from compliance with securities laws. This legal battle is part of an ongoing feud between Musk and the SEC that dates back to a 2018 incident where Musk tweeted about having funding secured to take Tesla private.Elon Musk may be compelled to testify again in SEC's Twitter takeover probe | ReutersThe American Bar Association (ABA) is considering endorsing alternative pathways to lawyer licensing that do not involve passing the traditional bar exam, signaling a significant shift from its longstanding pro-exam stance. This reconsideration is spurred by a task force formed to evaluate the ABA's existing policies, which since 1921 have primarily supported the bar exam as a requisite for legal practice. The draft policy, set for discussion on May 17, encourages states to develop diverse licensing methods. This change comes in response to actions by states like Oregon and Washington, which have already implemented alternatives such as apprenticeships and skills coursework to bypass the bar exam. The ABA's move aligns with efforts to address racial and socioeconomic disparities in bar exam pass rates, which show significantly lower success rates among minority test takers. The National Conference of Bar Examiners acknowledges the ABA's new direction as it prepares to launch a revised bar exam in 2026, highlighting the ongoing evolution in standards for entering the legal profession.Bar exam alternatives, long out of favor with ABA, make inroads | ReutersThe U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is set to finalize two significant rules aimed at enhancing the planning and funding mechanisms for long-distance electric transmission lines. These rules are designed to facilitate the development of a more robust national power grid and address the increasing demand driven by renewable energy sources and electric vehicles. The first rule mandates regional grid planners to develop at least 20-year plans that consider a broad range of benefits, updating the less effective 2011 guidelines. The second rule potentially allows FERC to issue permits for transmission lines even if they are denied by states, focusing on national interest corridors identified by the Department of Energy.The proposed rules have sparked concerns regarding the traditional role of state regulators in siting and permitting transmission lines and the potential sidelining of competitive bidding processes, which some argue could increase costs and project delays. However, proponents argue that the new rules will facilitate much-needed investment in the transmission infrastructure necessary to meet future energy demands and reduce longstanding disparities in regional transmission capabilities. The discussion is also heavily centered around equitable cost allocation, aiming to distribute costs in alignment with the derived benefits, a topic that has historically been contentious and frequently litigated. These regulatory changes are occurring amidst broader administrative efforts to modernize and expand the U.S. electric grid to support a clean energy future.Transmission Rules to Back Planning of Long-Range Power LinesThis week's closing theme is by Bedřich Smetana.Bedřich Smetana, a towering figure in Czech music, stands as one of the pioneering composers of the 19th century, especially noted for his development of a distinctly Czech musical style. Born on March 2, 1824, in Litomyšl, now part of the Czech Republic, Smetana was a child prodigy in both violin and piano. He grew up immersed in a rich cultural atmosphere that fueled his passion for music, leading him to compose from an early age.His early career was marked by the struggle for recognition, balancing a desire to compose with the need to earn a living as a teacher and conductor. Despite these challenges, Smetana's nationalist spirit found expression in his music, which often incorporated Czech folk themes and stories. By the 1860s, he had established himself as a central figure in Prague's musical life, becoming the principal conductor of the Provisional Theatre, where he championed the cause of Czech music.Smetana's personal life, however, was fraught with tragedy. He suffered the loss of his beloved wife and some of his daughters, and later, he was struck with deafness. Yet, these personal hardships only deepened the emotional depth of his compositions. One of his most famous works, "Má vlast" ("My Country"), is a cycle of six symphonic poems that celebrates the Czech landscape, history, and legends.Among these poems, "Vltava" (known in German as "Die Moldau") is perhaps the most internationally celebrated. It beautifully captures the course of the Vltava River as it flows through the Bohemian countryside, underlining Smetana's mastery of orchestral color and melodic contour. This piece serves as a vivid sonic portrait of the Czech landscape, intertwining folk music with the river's thematic journey through the countryside.Today, as we conclude our week, we turn to this poignant piece from Bedřich Smetana's "Má vlast." Without further ado, "Vltava," or "The Moldau," from Bedřich Smetana's symphonic poems "Má vlast" or "My Country." Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe
Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues Trina Robbins (1938-2024) who died following a stroke on April 10, 2024, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded at her home in San Francisco on February 6, 2018. Trina Robbins was a legend in comic book circles, an artist at a time when hardly any women drew comics. In this interview, she discusses her 2017 memoir, “Last Girl Standing,” which deals with her life as an artist, author, and clothing designer. She was the first woman to edit a comic book created by women, “It Ain't Me Babe,” the first woman to draw “Wonder Woman,” and the single most influential historian chronicling the women who created comics and cartoons. In this interview, she also talks about her other recent books including a history of women drawing comics during World War II, a graphic novel version of a short story collection originally written by her father in Yiddish, and a graphic novel based on a work by British author Sax Rohmer. Trina Robbins was clothing designer for Los Angeles rock and roll bands in the 1960s and for the Warhol factory in New York. She also was a regular contributor to “Wimmens Comix,” a series of comic books created by women from the 1970s through 1990s. Photo: Richard Wolinsky. Complete Interview. Robert MacNeil (1931-2024), who died at the age of 93 on April 12, 2003, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios while on tour for the memoir, Looking for My Country. Robert MacNeil spent several years as a correspondent and news anchor for NBC, the BBC, and PBS before becoming the co-host of the PBS evening news show, originally the Robert MacNeil Report, and later the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour from 1975 to 1995. Since that time, he wrote novels and plays as well as continuing to work in television. In this interview he talks about his feelings about the United States from the vantage point of being born in Canada as well as his views on meeting various American presidents. Robert MacNeil Wikipedia page. Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival Family Day, May 4th, events around Berkeley. 2025 Festival: June 1-2, guests include Joan Baez, Naomi Klein, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jonathan Lethem. Book Passage. Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc. Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actor's Reading Collective (ARC). The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Steven Adly Guirgis, May 4, 7 pm, Marin Shakespeare Company, San Rafael. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Alter Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. American Conservatory Theatre Kristina Wong Sweatshop Overlord, March 30 – May 5, 2024, Strand Theater. A Strange Loop, April 18 – May 12, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre Blue Door by Tanya Barfield, April 19 – May 19. Streaming: March 14-19. Awesome Theatre Company. Awesome High: A Sketch Comedy Play, directed by Nikki Menez, April 12-27, Eclectic Box, 446 Valencia, SF. Berkeley Rep Galileo, World Premiere Musical, book by Danny Strong, with Raul Esparza, May 5 – June 10, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming schedule. Boxcar Theatre. See website for upcoming shows. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Funny Girl, April 30 – May 26, Orpheum. See website for special events at the Orpheum, Curran and Golden Gate. Broadway San Jose: Peter Pan, June 25-30. California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes). Terrapin Roadshow, June 1-2; As You Like it, September 12 – 29. Center Rep: Cabaret, May 26 – June 23, Lesher Center for the Arts. Central Works Accused by Patricia Milton, July 13 – August 11. Cinnabar Theatre. Shipwrecked! April 12 – 28. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Contra Costa Civic Theatre In Repertory: Hamlet and Rosencranz and Gildenstern Are Dead, September 7 – 22. Curran Theater: See website for upcoming one-night only live events, including the Unscripted series with various celebrities. Custom Made Theatre. In hibernation. Cutting Ball Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. 42nd Street Moon. Forever Plaid, April 18 – May 5, 2024. Golden Thread Returning to Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani, April 12 – May 4, Potrero Stage. Hillbarn Theatre: Something Rotten, April 25 – May 12. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. (NO MORE) adjustments: A Black Queer Woman Evolves in Real Time, written and performed by Champagne Hughes, May 1-5, 2024. Fort Mason. Magic Theatre. Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind by Martha Gonzalez and Virginia Grise, April 18-21. Garuda's Wing by Naomi Iizuka, June 5-23. Marin Theatre Company Torch Song by Harvey Fierstein, May 9 – June 2, 2024. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) The Tutor by Torange Yeghiazarian, April 5 – May 12. The Giver, adapted by Eric Coble from the Newbery Award-winning book by Lois Lowry, April 26 – May 5. Oakland Theater Project. Red, Red, Red by Amilio Garcia, conceived by Lisa Ramirez, World Premiere, April 26 – May 19. Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Pear Theater. In Repertory: The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh; Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. April 19 – May 20. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Everybody's Talking About Jamie, June 1 – 23, 2024. See website for Spotlight Cabaret Series at Feinstein's at the Nikko. San Francisco Playhouse. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, May 2 – June 15. SFBATCO See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: Hangmen by Martin McDonagh. Regional premiere. April 3 – 28. Shotgun Players. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. March 15 – April 27. Website also lists one night only events at the Ashby Stage. South Bay Musical Theatre: Mary Poppins, the Broadway Musical, May 18 – June 8. Saratoga Civic Theater. Stagebridge: Shady Manor, a musical play by Prescott Cole. June 14-16. 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Rhino Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Tiger Style by Mike Lew, April 6-28, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.. Word for Word. See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2023 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – April 25, 2024: Trina Robbins – Robert MacNeil appeared first on KPFA.
In this episode, Dr. Laura branches away from the specific subject of career fulfillment and speaks with her guest, country music star George Canyon, about spirituality and servanthood. George Canyon has recently released his memoir, My Country, and the book reveals the challenges and adventures he's faced, his determination to help others dealing with Type One diabetes, and the faith that keeps him going.George tells Dr. Laura that though his book is full of vulnerability and authenticity, he shied away from relating negative stories. He chooses positivity wherever he can because, as he says, “nobody needs to read more negativity”. The conversation delves into the challenges his teenage diagnosis of Type One diabetes brought him, how hard he worked to succeed in the music industry, and his spirituality and faith in The Creator that drives him day to day. It's a more spiritual conversation than is usually had with Dr. Laura's guests but it's not tied to any specific religion and it's a conversation full of hope that everyone can benefit from. “... we're humans, we put titles to everything - everybody has to title something, I don't know why. It's just, I guess, to make us feel more safe and conformed. Church, the title church, is a community. It's a community of people. The original churches were held in people's homes. It wasn't a big building you went to with four walls. It was a home where you got together to talk about your faith, to talk about what the Creator's done for you, to encourage each other, to pick each other up, not to be judgmental and condemn each other.” George CanyonAbout George Canyon:George Canyon rose to become one of Canada's hottest Country Music stars in the early 2000s and has won countless accolades and awards, including Juno Awards, CCMA Awards, and ECMA Awards to name a few. He has been inducted into the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame, recorded 12 albums, and was recently presented a certified Platinum Award for his debut album ‘One Good Friend'. With country hits like Just Like You, I Believe in Angels, Drinkin' Thinkin', Daughters of the Sun, I Got This, I Want You To Live, Slow Dance and many, many more. He is also a highly regarded humanitarian, a strong supporter of the military, and, most importantly, a proud father and devoted husband.Over the years George has also had the privilege of collaborating with fellow talents, a prime example being when he joined forces with multi-platinum pop and rock icon Richard Marx to produce two albums, 2008's ‘What I Do' and 2011's ‘Better Be Home Soon', the latter of which featured When Love Is All You Got, written for George by Marx and the legendary Kenny Rogers. ‘What I Do' was an enormous success, going Certified Gold during the first three weeks of release.George is so much more than an award-winning musical talent. Helping others has always been a huge priority for him, particularly for children with Diabetes and his work as a spokesperson for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). It's a cause close to Canyon's heart, starting from when he himself was diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes at the age of 14. In addition to his work with JDRF, George is an ardent supporter of our military, having performed many times for troops overseas and even releasing a moving tribute with the single I Want You to Live, which touches on the very heartbreaking fact that in fighting for our country, some of our troops won't make it back home. The music video for the single features several real soldiers talking about their lives and careers, putting faces to the group of people working to make our country safe.Among his many identities, Canyon is also a proud Canadian and huge hockey fan, and roots for his team, the Calgary Flames, for which he just completed his 8th season singing the national anthem during the home games.Resources:Website: GeorgeCanyon.com“My Country” by George CanyonJuvenile Diabetes Research FoundationGerald Auger on InstagramEpisode 54 | Special Episode on the LiLoHia Project: with guests Gerald Auger and Sass JordanLearn more about Dr. Laura on her website: https://drlaura.liveFor more resources, look into Dr. Laura's organizations: Canada Career CounsellingSynthesis Psychology
Patricia Evangelista is a trauma journalist whose coverage of the drug war in the Philippines has appeared in Rappler, Esquire, and elsewhere. Her recent book is Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country. “It is hard to describe the beat I do without saying very often it involves people who have died. And it seemed like an unfair way to frame it. It didn't quite seem right. … Sometimes there's no dead body, or sometimes there's 6,000, but the function is the same: that the people you speak to have gone through enormous painful trauma, and then there's a way to cover it that minimizes that trauma. So … I don't cover the dead. I cover trauma.” Show notes: Evangelista's Rappler archive Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country (Random House • 2023) 01:00 The Mastermind: A True Story of Murder, Empire, and a New Kind of Crime Lord (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2020) 11:00 Evangelista's Philippine Daily Inquirer archive 21:00 "The Rapture of Rodrigo Duterte" (Patricia Evangelista and Nicole Curato • Rappler • May 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In most of the world, “salvage” is a hopeful word, writes journalist Patricia Evangelista. But in Philippine English, to salvage is also to execute a suspected criminal without trial. The salvages of suspected drug users and dealers encouraged by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are the subject of Evangelista's new book “Some People Need Killing,” which draws its title from the words of a vigilante she interviewed. According to human rights organizations, more than 30,000 people were extrajudicially executed in the Philippines for alleged narcotics offenses by the time Duterte left office in 2022. Evangelista interviewed the families of victims, and we talk to her about the impact Duterte's terrifying war on drugs had on them and on the country. Guest: Patricia Evangelista, journalist; author, “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country”
As president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte ordered extrajudicial killings as part of his war on drugs. Patricia Evangelista is a trauma journalist and former investigative reporter for the Philippine news company Rappler. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the killings, carried out by police and vigilantes, and the people whose lives were shaped by fear in a lawless time. Her book is “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country.”
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-eighth episode, we tell the tale of ambition, revenge, murder, Irn-Bru, bad accents, respeck, balls, breastmilk, and other people's awesome tweets in William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' (1606).Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Themes: 'I Vow to Thee, My Country' (Wikimedia Commons); 'Moorland' (Wikimedia Commons). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hindi sikreto ang mga nangyaring patayan at pagpatay noong nakaraang administrasyon. Noong mga panahong iyon, laman ito ng mga balita. Sa harap nito, at sa kabila ng panganib na dala ng pagtatala at paghahayag ng mga nangyari, may matatapang na journalists na on-the-ground kinakalap ang masasaklap pero totoong mga kwentong ito– mula mismo sa mga biktima, pati na ang mga naging bahagi ng mga pagpaslang. Sa ikalimang taon ng #TheLinyaLinyaShow, mapalad tayong makasama at makausap ang Filipina writer, trauma journalist, former investigative reporter for Rappler, at ang author ng recently launched and widely acclaimed book na “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country” na si Patricia Evangelista. Tungkol sa karanasan at proseso ni Pat bilang isang manunulat at mamamahayag. Tungkol sa pagkalap at pagbabahagi ng kwento– sa parehong written and visual storytelling. Tungkol sa papel ng journalism sa mundo. Tungkol sa tapang. Tungkol sa paglalahad ng katotohanan.
For people like me or just your ordinary Joes who speak of democracy, I thought it meant freedom. I thought it meant a free press. I thought it meant that people would not die on the streets.Patricia EvangelistaAccess Bonus Episodes on PatreonMake a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.Patricia Evangelista is a trauma journalist and former investigative reporter for the Philippine news company Rappler. She has received the Kate Webb Prize for exceptional journalism in dangerous conditions. Recently, she authored the book Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country.Key HighlightsIntroduction - 0:46The Philippines and Duterte - 2:37The Drug War - 11:04Vigilantes and Police - 25:26Democracy in the Philippines - 34:11Key LinksSome People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia EvangelistaRead the original "Some People Need Killing" published in Rappler.comFollow Patricia Evangelista on X at @patevangelistaDemocracy Paradox PodcastMoisés Naím on the New Dynamics of Political PowerGuillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley on the Political Logic of Criminal Wars in MexicoMore Episodes from the PodcastMore InformationApes of the State created all MusicEmail the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.comFollow on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast100 Books on DemocracySupport the show
My Country or Sunburnt Country has echoed through school classrooms for more than a century. Written by a remarkable Australian, Dorothea Mackellar, who led an extraordinary life.
This week, Marshall and Nick discuss what's in a first line while at Western Colorado University for their final week of their Masters in Fine Arts program. Follow along as Marshall and Nick discuss the voice, tone, worldbuilding and character building across some of their favorite books. Links mentioned during the show: My Country is a Ghost - Eugenia Triantafyllou “When Niovi tried to smuggle her mother's ghost into the new country, she found herself being passed from one security officer to another, detailing her mother's place and date of death over and over again.” Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo “Joost had two problems: the moon and his mustache.” It - Stephen King “The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years—if it ever did end— began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.” 1984 - George Orwell “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Rangers of the Witchwoods: Blood Witch – Nick Bright “The trunk of a Witchwood creaked as a rock cougar jumped from tree to tree, silently chasing its prey, but the only thing that Theo could hear were the scratches of his own quill against parchment. The Black Sun – Marshall Carr Jr. “At first, the objects hitting the atmosphere and streaking through the Earth's chemical layer looked like meteors.” Support the Show: Patreon Kofi Indie Bound Contact us! JustKeepWriting.org Discord Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Marshall: Website: www.marshallcarr.com Email: marshall@marshallcarr.com Twitter: @darthpops Nick: Website: www.brightinks.org Email: nicholasbright@brightinks.org Twitter: @BrightInks Wil: Email: wil@justkeepwriting.org Twitter: @wil_ralston Instagram: @wilsartrules Brent: Twitter: @BrentCLambert @fiyahlitmag Fiyah Lit Magazine LP: Email: lpkindred@wandering.shop Twitter: @LPKindred Linktr.ee/lpkindred Now, just keep writing!
Life can be hectic. I often wonder if what I am doing is important, and important to God? When folks asked Jesus this very question, he gave specific commandments. Just two in fact. Let's discuss these together today! Old Testament: Psalm 19:1-9New Testament: Mark 12:28-33 Piano: 'My Country, 'Trust and Obey' arranged by Lenny SeidelRev. Raymond G. CoffmanPodcast HostZachary SmithPianist Audio Engineer Clark CoffmanLog Cabin Community ChurchVinings Georgia
Happy Independence Day! Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:6-14 Article: July 4 isn't actually Independence Day or is it?July 4, 2017 Writer: Narayan SenguptaHistorian Piano: 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' arranged by Lloyd LarsonRev. Raymond G. CoffmanPodcast HostZachary SmithPianist Audio Engineer Clark CoffmanLog Cabin Community ChurchVinings Georgia
Michael Wiley's new novel is The Long Way Out, featuring Franky Dast, an exonerated ex-con who investigates a series of murders in Northeast Florida. Michael is also the author of three mystery and detective series, including the Shamus Award-winning Joe Kozmarski books, the Daniel Turner thrillers, and, most recently, the Sam Kelson PI novels, which are currently in development for television. His short stories appear often in magazines and anthologies, including Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022. Michael grew up in Chicago and lived and worked in the neighborhoods and on the streets where he sets his Kelson and Kozmarski mysteries. He teaches literature at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville—the setting of The Long Way Out, an earlier Franky Dast novel (Monument Road), and the Daniel Turner novels. Interviewer Mark Ari authored the novel, The Shoemaker's Tale (Zephyr Press) and publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry. His paintings have been exhibited in group and solo shows in Spain, France, and the United States, especially New York City. Most recently, “Not in My Country,” an installation (text, film, sculpture, and scent) created with Ginger Andro and Chuck Glicksman was selected for Walls and Borders, an exhibition at Westbeth Gallery (NYC, 2021) sponsored by the Sculptors Guild (NYC). Recent writings appear in Adroit Journal, Heavy Feather Review, the International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy, and the anthology, Music Gigs Gone Wrong (Paycock Press). Ari is a three-time MacDowell fellow. Other awarded fellowships include the Ragdale Foundation (twice), Ucross Foundation, and Spain's Fundacion Valparaiso. He is a multi-award-winning educator at the University of North Florida, where he directs the creative writing program. READ Check out all of Michael's books from the library, as well as Ari's The Shoemaker's Tale! Michael Wiley recommends three “first books” by other mystery and thriller writers: Megan Abbott, Die a Little: “A terrific hardboiled story by a writer known best now for her psychological suspense thrillers.” S.A. Cosby, My Darkest Prayer: “The newly re-released, amazing first book by the author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razor Blade Tears.” Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress: “The Easy Rawlins mystery by the writer of dozens of excellent books, though none better than this.” --- Never miss an event! Sign up for email newsletters at https://bit.ly/JaxLibraryUpdates Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: jplpromotions@coj.net
A program of American, or American-ish, music, in honor of Independence Day. Trad., “My Country, 'Tis of Thee” Dvorak, String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, “American,” final movement Puccini, “ Dovunque al mondo ,” from “Madama Butterfly” Joplin, “Gladiolus Rag” Gershwin, “Summertime,” from “Porgy and Bess” Gershwin-Wild, Virtuoso Étude on “Liza” Copland, […]
A program of American, or American-ish, music, in honor of Independence Day. Trad., “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” Dvorak, String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, “American,” final movement Puccini, “ Dovunque al mondo ,” from “Madama Butterfly” Joplin, “Gladiolus Rag” Gershwin, “Summertime,” from “Porgy and Bess” Gershwin-Wild, Virtuoso Étude on “Liza” Copland, “Going to Heaven!” Wheeler... Source
A program of American, or American-ish, music, in honor of Independence Day. Trad., “My Country, 'Tis of Thee” Dvorak, String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, “American,” final movement Puccini, “ Dovunque al mondo ,” from “Madama Butterfly” Joplin, “Gladiolus Rag” Gershwin, “Summertime,” from “Porgy and Bess” Gershwin-Wild, Virtuoso Étude on “Liza” Copland, “Going to Heaven!” Wheeler, “Isolation Rag” Bernstein, “Mambo,” from “West Side Story” Harbison, “Standards” Lowry-Copland, “At the River”
VoicemailSpecial thanks to my daughter, Eva Lord, for providing the voice of America's voicemail message. TisalleeActually, this is my wife, Laura's, story. She went for years believing that Tisallee was America's other name before someone straightened her out in the third grade. Mountains of CaliforniaWhen I was 15, I got to fly across the country to work in the backcountry of the Sierra National Forest with a Student Conservation Association trail crew. I would recommend it to any young person who loves wild places. And while the over-the-top eroticization of the landscape here is hyperbolic, I really did swoon over mountains and waterfalls all summer. I like to think that I was exuberant. My fellow trail crew members, however, usually described me as giddy. AfricaThis is a true story as best as I (and my wife who accompanied me) can remember it. This particular excursion was a kind of "bonus" to a safari that we'd gone on through Kruger National Park. Neither of us had any idea that it was part of the package. But it was as influential in my life as seeing one of the greatest wildlife parks in the world. FarmstandThis farmstand is also a real place, a place that is still just down the road from the town where I now live. Walker Farm is a 250 year old organic farm. Their heirloom tomatoes are amazing. American Poetry"The Gold of Her Promise" is from Maya Angelou's poem "America." "Let America be the dream" is from Langston Hugh's poem "Let America be America Again." Both of these poems manage to celebrate America and indict her at the same time. And they are both beautiful. "I Hear America Singing" is from the eponymous poem by Walt Whitman. The re-imagining of "My Country, Tis of Thee" was written by Libby Roderick, the Alaskan folk singer. Her 1990 album, "If You See a Dream" is passionate and wise and was the soundtrack to my first summer in Vermont. The final track on that album, "America, America" ends with this lyric.
این اپیزود، داستان دومین کشور پهناور قاره آفریقاست. از زمانی که مردمش به شکار فیل میرفتن تا زمانی که برای پلنگ بزرگ عمر جاودانه آرزو میکردن. کشوری که پرتلفات ترین جنگ تاریخ رو بعد از جنگ جهانی دوم تجربه کرده متن و روایت : مسعود فهیمی | گرافیک : دارا شجاعی | آهنگساز : داریوش صالح پور لینک رفرنس های اصلی با تشکر از صرافی ارز دیجیتال واکس، اسپانسر این اپیزود کد معرف برای ثبت نام در سایت واکس : xw5qr9v8 اگه صاحب کسب و کاری هستی که دوست داری اسپانسر بعدی پادکست معجون باشی، بهمون ایمیل بزن رفرنس های اصلی : 1.The Age of Dictators, Oliver Guez 2.Revolution in The Congo by Dick Raberts 3.Congo, My Country by Patrice Lumumba 4.کتاب پاتریس لومومبا، ترجمه جمشیدی چاپ خوشه پادکست معجون رو در اینستاگرام و توییتر دنبال کنید لینک موزیک های این اپیزود رو می تونید از سایت معجون پیدا کنید از این اپیزود حمایت کنید
The hard truth is that whenever tensions escalate between the US and Asian nations overseas, Asian Americans bear the brunt of that anger at home. In this episode, we revisit the story of Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese-American scientist who was falsely accused of spying for the Chinese government, with Helen Zia and George Koo. Guests: Helen Zia, journalist, activist and author of Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me George Koo, retired business consultant and writer Host: Ray Suarez If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
Join Luke Stewart, Cathy Wilkerson, and Alice Lynd for a conversation on Staughton Lynd's struggle against the war in Vietnam. Staughton Lynd was one of the principal intellectuals and activists making the radical argument that the U.S. intervention in Vietnam was illegal under domestic and international law. Lynd was uncompromising in his courageous stance that the U.S. should immediately withdraw from Vietnam, and that soldiers and draftees should refuse to participate in the war based on their individual conscience and the Nuremberg Principles of 1950. Lynd's writings, speeches, and interviews against the war are collected in the recently released My Country is the World. For this launch event that volume's editor, Luke Stewart, will be joined by Cathy Wilkerson and Alice Lynd for a discussion of Staughton and Alice's activism against the war and its lessons for today's anti-imperialist struggles. Get My Country is the World from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1956-my-country-is-the-world Speakers: Luke Stewart is a historian focusing on the antiwar movements during the Vietnam War and the global war on terror. He has co-edited Let Them Stay: U.S. War Resisters in Canada, 2004-2016. He currently lives in Nantes, France. Cathy Wilkerson joined Students for a Democratic Society in 1963, supporting an active civil rights movement in Chester, PA. She continued with SDS after college, becoming editor of New Left Notes and then an organizer with the SDS Washington DC Region. After the assassination of Fred Hampton in 1969 she joined Weatherman, remaining a fugitive until 1980. After getting out of prison, she worked with the Attica civil suit, and then as an educator in NYC public schools for 20 years. See also Flying Close to the Sun, My Life as a Weatherman (2007). Staughton and Alice Lynd (respondant) were married for more than 71 years, having met during Harvard Summer School in the summer of 1950. While Staughton spoke, wrote, and in other ways opposed the Vietnam War, Alice expressed her concerns through collecting and publishing We Won't Go: Personal Accounts of War Objectors (Beacon Press, 1968), and becoming a draft counselor. We Won't Go was the Lynds' first venture into doing oral history or, as Staughton put it, Doing History from the Bottom Up! (Haymarket, 2014). The Lynds partnered in editing Rank and File: Personal Histories by Working-Class Organizers (Haymarket, expanded edition, 2011). See also, Stepping Stones: Memoir of a Life Together (Lexington Books, 2009); Moral Injury and Nonviolent Resistence: Breaking the Cycle of Violence in the Military and Behind Bars (PM Press, 2017); and Nonviolence in America: A Documentary History (Orbis Books, 3d ed. 2018).
Episode 160 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Flowers in the Rain" by the Move, their transition into ELO, and the career of Roy Wood. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "The Chipmunk Song" by Canned Heat. 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/ Note I say "And on its first broadcast, as George Martin's theme tune for the new station faded, Tony Blackburn reached for a record." -- I should point out that after Martin's theme fades, Blackburn talks over a brief snatch of a piece by Johnny Dankworth. Resources As so many of the episodes recently have had no Mixcloud due to the number of songs by one artist, I've decided to start splitting the mixes of the recordings excerpted in the podcasts into two parts. Here's part one . I had problems uploading part two, but will attempt to get that up shortly. There are not many books about Roy Wood, and I referred to both of the two that seem to exist -- this biography by John van der Kiste, and this album guide by James R Turner. I also referred to this biography of Jeff Lynne by van der Kiste, The Electric Light Orchestra Story by Bev Bevan, and Mr Big by Don Arden with Mick Wall. Most of the more comprehensive compilations of the Move's material are out of print, but this single-CD-plus-DVD anthology is the best compilation that's in print. This is the one collection of Wood's solo and Wizzard hits that seems currently in print, and for those who want to investigate further, this cheap box set has the last Move album, the first ELO album, the first Wizzard album, Wood's solo Boulders, and a later Wood solo album, for the price of a single CD. Transcript Before I start, a brief note. This episode deals with organised crime, and so contains some mild descriptions of violence, and also has some mention of mental illness and drug use, though not much of any of those things. And it's probably also important to warn people that towards the end there's some Christmas music, including excerpts of a song that is inescapable at this time of year in the UK, so those who work in retail environments and the like may want to listen to this later, at a point when they're not totally sick of hearing Christmas records. Most of the time, the identity of the party in government doesn't make that much of a difference to people's everyday lives. At least in Britain, there tends to be a consensus ideology within the limits of which governments of both main parties tend to work. They will make a difference at the margins, and be more or less competent, and more or less conservative or left-wing, more or less liberal or authoritarian, but life will, broadly speaking, continue along much as before for most people. Some will be a little better or worse off, but in general steering the ship of state is a matter of a lot of tiny incremental changes, not of sudden u-turns. But there have been a handful of governments that have made big, noticeable, changes to the structure of society, reforms that for better or worse affect the lives of every person in the country. Since the end of the Second World War there have been two UK governments that made economic changes of this nature. The Labour government under Clement Atlee which came into power in 1945, and which dramatically expanded the welfare state, introduced the National Health Service, and nationalised huge swathes of major industries, created the post-war social democratic consensus which would be kept to with only minor changes by successive governments of both major parties for decades. The next government to make changes to the economy of such a radical nature was the Conservative government which came to power under Margaret Thatcher in 1979, which started the process of unravelling that social democratic consensus and replacing it with a far more hypercapitalist economic paradigm, which would last for the next several decades. It's entirely possible that the current Conservative government, in leaving the EU, has made a similarly huge change, but we won't know that until we have enough distance from the event to know what long-term changes it's caused. Those are economic changes. Arguably at least as impactful was the Labour government led by Harold Wilson that came to power in 1964, which did not do much to alter the economic consensus, but revolutionised the social order at least as much. Largely because of the influence of Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary for much of that time, between 1964 and the end of the sixties, Britain abolished the death penalty for murder, decriminalised some sex acts between men in private, abolished corporal punishment in prisons, legalised abortion in certain circumstances, and got rid of censorship in the theatre. They also vastly increased spending on education, and made many other changes. By the end of their term, Britain had gone from being a country with laws reflecting a largely conservative, authoritarian, worldview to one whose laws were some of the most liberal in Europe, and society had started changing to match. There were exceptions, though, and that government did make some changes that were illiberal. They brought in increased restrictions on immigration, starting a worrying trend that continues to this day of governments getting ever crueler to immigrants, and they added LSD to the list of illegal drugs. And they brought in the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, banning the pirate stations. We've mentioned pirate radio stations very briefly, but never properly explained them. In Britain, at this point, there was a legal monopoly on broadcasting. Only the BBC could run a radio station in the UK, and thanks to agreements with the Musicians' Union, the BBC could only play a very small amount of recorded music, with everything else having to be live performances or spoken word. And because it had a legal obligation to provide something for everyone, that meant the tiny amount of recorded music that was played on the radio had to cover all genres, meaning that even while Britain was going through the most important changes in its musical history, pop records were limited to an hour or two a week on British radio. Obviously, that wasn't going to last while there was money to be made, and the record companies in particular wanted to have somewhere to showcase their latest releases. At the start of the sixties, Radio Luxembourg had become popular, broadcasting from continental Europe but largely playing shows that had been pre-recorded in London. But of course, that was far enough away that it made listening to the transmissions difficult. But a solution presented itself: [Excerpt: The Fortunes, "Caroline"] Radio Caroline still continues to this day, largely as an Internet-based radio station, but in the mid-sixties it was something rather different. It was one of a handful of radio stations -- the pirate stations -- that broadcast from ships in international waters. The ships would stay three miles off the coast of Britain, close enough for their broadcasts to be clearly heard in much of the country, but outside Britain's territorial waters. They soon became hugely popular, with Radio Caroline and Radio London the two most popular, and introduced DJs like Tony Blackburn, Dave Lee Travis, Kenny Everett, and John Peel to the airwaves of Britain. The stations ran on bribery and advertising, and if you wanted a record to get into the charts one of the things you had to do was bribe one of the big pirate stations to playlist it, and with this corruption came violence, which came to a head when as we heard in the episode on “Here Comes the Night”, in 1966 Major Oliver Smedley, a failed right-wing politician and one of the directors of Radio Caroline, got a gang of people to board an abandoned sea fort from which a rival station was broadcasting and retrieve some equipment he claimed belonged to him. The next day, Reginald Calvert, the owner of the rival station, went to Smedley's home to confront him, and Smedley shot him dead, claiming self-defence. The jury in Smedley's subsequent trial took only a minute to find him not guilty and award him two hundred and fifty guineas to cover his costs. This was the last straw for the government, which was already concerned that the pirates' transmitters were interfering with emergency services transmissions, and that proper royalties weren't being paid for the music broadcast (though since much of the music was only on there because of payola, this seems a little bit of a moot point). They introduced legislation which banned anyone in the UK from supplying the pirate ships with records or other supplies, or advertising on the stations. They couldn't do anything about the ships themselves, because they were outside British jurisdiction, but they could make sure that nobody could associate with them while remaining in the UK. The BBC was to regain its monopoly (though in later years some commercial radio stations were allowed to operate). But as well as the stick, they needed the carrot. The pirate stations *had* been filling a real need, and the biggest of them were getting millions of listeners every day. So the arrangements with the Musicians' Union and the record labels were changed, and certain BBC stations were now allowed to play a lot more recorded music per day. I haven't been able to find accurate figures anywhere -- a lot of these things were confidential agreements -- but it seems to have been that the so-called "needle time" rules were substantially relaxed, allowing the BBC to separate what had previously been the Light Programme -- a single radio station that played all kinds of popular music, much of it live performances -- into two radio stations that were each allowed to play as much as twelve hours of recorded music per day, which along with live performances and between-track commentary from DJs was enough to allow a full broadcast schedule. One of these stations, Radio 2, was aimed at older listeners, and to start with mostly had programmes of what we would now refer to as Muzak, mixed in with the pop music of an older generation -- crooners and performers like Englebert Humperdinck. But another, Radio 1, was aimed at a younger audience and explicitly modelled on the pirate stations, and featured many of the DJs who had made their names on those stations. And on its first broadcast, as George Martin's theme tune for the new station faded, Tony Blackburn reached for a record. At different times Blackburn has said either that he was just desperately reaching for whatever record came to hand or that he made a deliberate choice because the record he chose had such a striking opening that it would be the perfect way to start a new station: [Excerpt: Tony Blackburn first radio show into "Flowers in the Rain" by the Move] You may remember me talking in the episode on "Here Comes the Night" about how in 1964 Dick Rowe of Decca, the manager Larry Page, and the publicist and co-owner of Radio Caroline Phil Solomon were all trying to promote something called Brumbeat as the answer to Merseybeat – Brummies, for those who don't know, are people from Birmingham. Brumbeat never took off the way Merseybeat did, but several bands did get a chance to make records, among them Gerry Levene and the Avengers: [Excerpt: Gerry Levene and the Avengers, "Dr. Feelgood"] That was the only single the Avengers made, and the B-side wasn't even them playing, but a bunch of session musicians under the direction of Bert Berns, and the group split up soon afterwards, but several of the members would go on to have rather important careers. According to some sources, one of their early drummers was John Bohnam, who you can be pretty sure will be turning up later in the story, while the drummer on that track was Graeme Edge, who would later go on to co-found the Moody Blues. But today it's the guitarist we'll be looking at. Roy Wood had started playing music when he was very young -- he'd had drum lessons when he was five years old, the only formal musical tuition he ever had, and he'd played harmonica around working men's clubs as a kid. And as a small child he'd loved classical music, particularly Tchaikovsky and Elgar. But it wasn't until he was twelve that he decided that he wanted to be a guitarist. He went to see the Shadows play live, and was inspired by the sound of Hank Marvin's guitar, which he later described as sounding "like it had been dipped in Dettol or something": [Excerpt: The Shadows, "Apache"] He started begging his parents for a guitar, and got one for his thirteenth birthday -- and by the time he was fourteen he was already in a band, the Falcons, whose members were otherwise eighteen to twenty years old, but who needed a lead guitarist who could play like Marvin. Wood had picked up the guitar almost preternaturally quickly, as he would later pick up every instrument he turned his hand to, and he'd also got the equipment. His friend Jeff Lynne later said "I first saw Roy playing in a church hall in Birmingham and I think his group was called the Falcons. And I could tell he was dead posh because he had a Fender Stratocaster and a Vox AC30 amplifier. The business at the time. I mean, if you've got those, that's it, you're made." It was in the Falcons that Wood had first started trying to write songs, at first instrumentals in the style of the Shadows, but then after the Beatles hit the charts he realised it was possible for band members to write their own material, and started hesitantly trying to write a few actual songs. Wood had moved on from the Falcons to Gerry Levene's band, one of the biggest local bands in Birmingham, when he was sixteen, which is also when he left formal education, dropping out from art school -- he's later said that he wasn't expelled as such, but that he and the school came to a mutual agreement that he wouldn't go back there. And when Gerry Levene and the Avengers fell apart after their one chance at success hadn't worked out, he moved on again to an even bigger band. Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders had had two singles out already, both produced by Cliff Richard's producer Norrie Paramor, and while they hadn't charted they were clearly going places. They needed a new guitarist, and Wood was by far the best of the dozen or so people who auditioned, even though Sheridan was very hesitant at first -- the Night Riders were playing cabaret, and all dressed smartly at all times, and this sixteen-year-old guitarist had turned up wearing clothes made by his sister and ludicrous pointy shoes. He was the odd man out, but he was so good that none of the other players could hold a candle to him, and he was in the Night Riders by the time of their third single, "What a Sweet Thing That Was": [Excerpt: Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders, "What a Sweet Thing That Was"] Sheridan later said "Roy was and still is, in my opinion, an unbelievable talent. As stubborn as a mule and a complete extrovert. Roy changed the group by getting us into harmonies and made us realize there was better material around with more than three chords to play. This was our turning point and we became a group's group and a bigger name." -- though there are few other people who would describe Wood as extroverted, most people describing him as painfully shy off-stage. "What a Sweet Thing That Was" didn't have any success, and nor did its follow-up, "Here I Stand", which came out in January 1965. But by that point, Wood had got enough of a reputation that he was already starting to guest on records by other bands on the Birmingham scene, like "Pretty Things" by Danny King and the Mayfair Set: [Excerpt: Danny King and the Mayfair Set, "Pretty Things"] After their fourth single was a flop, Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders changed their name to Mike Sheridan's Lot, and the B-side of their first single under the new name was a Roy Wood song, the first time one of his songs was recorded. Unfortunately the song, modelled on "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones, didn't come off very well, and Sheridan blamed himself for what everyone was agreed was a lousy sounding record: [Excerpt: Mike Sheridan's Lot, "Make Them Understand"] Mike Sheridan's Lot put out one final single, but the writing was on the wall for the group. Wood left, and soon after so did Sheridan himself. The remaining members regrouped under the name The Idle Race, with Wood's friend Jeff Lynne as their new singer and guitarist. But Wood wouldn't remain without a band for long. He'd recently started hanging out with another band, Carl Wayne and the Vikings, who had also released a couple of singles, on Pye: [Excerpt: Carl Wayne and the Vikings, "What's the Matter Baby"] But like almost every band from Birmingham up to this point, the Vikings' records had done very little, and their drummer had quit, and been replaced by Bev Bevan, who had been in yet another band that had gone nowhere, Denny Laine and the Diplomats, who had released one single under the name of their lead singer Nicky James, featuring the Breakaways, the girl group who would later sing on "Hey Joe", on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Nicky James, "My Colour is Blue"] Bevan had joined Carl Wayne's group, and they'd recorded one track together, a cover version of "My Girl", which was only released in the US, and which sank without a trace: [Excerpt: Carl Wayne and the Vikings, "My Girl"] It was around this time that Wood started hanging around with the Vikings, and they would all complain about how if you were playing the Birmingham circuit you were stuck just playing cover versions, and couldn't do anything more interesting. They were also becoming more acutely aware of how successful they *could* have been, because one of the Brumbeat bands had become really big. The Moody Blues, a supergroup of players from the best bands in Birmingham who featured Bev Bevan's old bandmate Denny Laine and Wood's old colleague Graeme Edge, had just hit number one with their version of "Go Now": [Excerpt: The Moody Blues, "Go Now"] So they knew the potential for success was there, but they were all feeling trapped. But then Ace Kefford, the bass player for the Vikings, went to see Davy Jones and the Lower Third playing a gig: [Excerpt: Davy Jones and the Lower Third, "You've Got a Habit of Leaving"] Also at the gig was Trevor Burton, the guitarist for Danny King and the Mayfair Set. The two of them got chatting to Davy Jones after the gig, and eventually the future David Bowie told them that the two of them should form their own band if they were feeling constricted in their current groups. They decided to do just that, and they persuaded Carl Wayne from Kefford's band to join them, and got in Wood. Now they just needed a drummer. Their first choice was John Bonham, the former drummer for Gerry Levene and the Avengers who was now drumming in a band with Kefford's uncle and Nicky James from the Diplomats. But Bonham and Wayne didn't get on, and so Bonham decided to remain in the group he was in, and instead they turned to Bev Bevan, the Vikings' new drummer. (Of the other two members of the Vikings, one went on to join Mike Sheridan's Lot in place of Wood, before leaving at the same time as Sheridan and being replaced by Lynne, while the other went on to join Mike Sheridan's New Lot, the group Sheridan formed after leaving his old group. The Birmingham beat group scene seems to have only had about as many people as there were bands, with everyone ending up a member of twenty different groups). The new group called themselves the Move, because they were all moving on from other groups, and it was a big move for all of them. Many people advised them not to get together, saying they were better off where they were, or taking on offers they'd got from more successful groups -- Carl Wayne had had an offer from a group called the Spectres, who would later become famous as Status Quo, while Wood had been tempted by Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a group who at the time were signed to Immediate Records, and who did Beach Boys soundalikes and covers: [Excerpt: Tony Rivers and the Castaways, "Girl Don't Tell Me"] Wood was a huge fan of the Beach Boys and would have fit in with Rivers, but decided he'd rather try something truly new. After their first gig, most of the people who had warned against the group changed their minds. Bevan's best friend, Bobby Davis, told Bevan that while he'd disliked all the other groups Bevan had played in, he liked this one. (Davis would later become a famous comedian, and have a top five single himself in the seventies, produced by Jeff Lynne and with Bevan on the drums, under his stage name Jasper Carrott): [Excerpt: Jasper Carrott, "Funky Moped"] Most of their early sets were cover versions, usually of soul and Motown songs, but reworked in the group's unique style. All five of the band could sing, four of them well enough to be lead vocalists in their own right (Bevan would add occasional harmonies or sing novelty numbers) and so they became known for their harmonies -- Wood talked at the time about how he wanted the band to have Beach Boys harmonies but over instruments that sounded like the Who. And while they were mostly doing cover versions live, Wood was busily writing songs. Their first recording session was for local radio, and at that session they did cover versions of songs by Brenda Lee, the Isley Brothers, the Orlons, the Marvelettes, and Betty Everett, but they also performed four songs written by Wood, with each member of the front line taking a lead vocal, like this one with Kefford singing: [Excerpt: The Move, "You're the One I Need"] The group were soon signed by Tony Secunda, the manager of the Moody Blues, who set about trying to get the group as much publicity as possible. While Carl Wayne, as the only member who didn't play an instrument, ended up the lead singer on most of the group's early records, Secunda started promoting Kefford, who was younger and more conventionally attractive than Wayne, and who had originally put the group together, as the face of the group, while Wood was doing most of the heavy lifting with the music. Wood quickly came to dislike performing live, and to wish he could take the same option as Brian Wilson and stay home and write songs and make records while the other four went out and performed, so Kefford and Wayne taking the spotlight from him didn't bother him at the time, but it set the group up for constant conflicts about who was actually the leader of the group. Wood was also uncomfortable with the image that Secunda set up for the group. Secunda decided that the group needed to be promoted as "bad boys", and so he got them to dress up as 1930s gangsters, and got them to do things like smash busts of Hitler, or the Rhodesian dictator Ian Smith, on stage. He got them to smash TVs on stage too, and in one publicity stunt he got them to smash up a car, while strippers took their clothes off nearby -- claiming that this was to show that people were more interested in violence than in sex. Wood, who was a very quiet, unassuming, introvert, didn't like this sort of thing, but went along with it. Secunda got the group a regular slot at the Marquee club, which lasted several months until, in one of Secunda's ideas for publicity, Carl Wayne let off smoke bombs on stage which set fire to the stage. The manager came up to try to stop the fire, and Wayne tossed the manager's wig into the flames, and the group were banned from the club (though the ban was later lifted). In another publicity stunt, at the time of the 1966 General Election, the group were photographed with "Vote Tory" posters, and issued an invitation to Edward Heath, the leader of the Conservative Party and a keen amateur musician, to join them on stage on keyboards. Sir Edward didn't respond to the invitation. All this publicity led to record company interest. Joe Boyd tried to sign the group to Elektra Records, but much as with The Pink Floyd around the same time, Jac Holzman wasn't interested. Instead they signed with a new production company set up by Denny Cordell, the producer of the Moody Blues' hits. The contract they signed was written on the back of a nude model, as yet another of Secunda's publicity schemes. The group's first single, "Night of Fear" was written by Wood and an early sign of his interest in incorporating classical music into rock: [Excerpt: The Move, "Night of Fear"] Secunda claimed in the publicity that that song was inspired by taking bad acid and having a bad trip, but in truth Wood was more inspired by brown ale than by brown acid -- he and Bev Bevan would never do any drugs other than alcohol. Wayne did take acid once, but didn't like it, though Burton and Kefford would become regular users of most drugs that were going. In truth, the song was not about anything more than being woken up in the middle of the night by an unexpected sound and then being unable to get back to sleep because you're scared of what might be out there. The track reached number two on the charts in the UK, being kept off the top by "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees, and was soon followed up by another song which again led to assumptions of drug use. "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" wasn't about grass the substance, but was inspired by a letter to Health and Efficiency, a magazine which claimed to be about the nudist lifestyle as an excuse for printing photos of naked people at a time before pornography laws were liberalised. The letter was from a reader saying that he listened to pop music on the radio because "where I live it's so quiet I can hear the grass grow!" Wood took that line and turned it into the group's next single, which reached number five: [Excerpt: The Move, "I Can Hear the Grass Grow"] Shortly after that, the group played two big gigs at Alexandra Palace. The first was the Fourteen-Hour Technicolor Dream, which we talked about in the Pink Floyd episode. There Wood had one of the biggest thrills of his life when he walked past John Lennon, who saluted him and then turned to a friend and said "He's brilliant!" -- in the seventies Lennon would talk about how Wood was one of his two favourite British songwriters, and would call the Move "the Hollies with balls". The other gig they played at Alexandra Palace was a "Free the Pirates" benefit show, sponsored by Radio Caroline, to protest the imposition of the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act. Despite that, it was, of course, the group's next single that was the first one to be played on Radio One. And that single was also the one which kickstarted Roy Wood's musical ambitions. The catalyst for this was Tony Visconti. Visconti was a twenty-three-year-old American who had been in the music business since he was sixteen, working the typical kind of jobs that working musicians do, like being for a time a member of a latter-day incarnation of the Crew-Cuts, the white vocal group who had had hits in the fifties with covers of "Sh'Boom" and “Earth Angel”. He'd also recorded two singles as a duo with his wife Siegrid, which had gone nowhere: [Excerpt: Tony and Siegrid, "Up Here"] Visconti had been working for the Richmond Organisation as a staff songwriter when he'd met the Move's producer Denny Cordell. Cordell was in the US to promote a new single he had released with a group called Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and Visconti became the first American to hear the record, which of course soon became a massive hit: [Excerpt: Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale"] While he was in New York, Cordell also wanted to record a backing track for one of his other hit acts, Georgie Fame. He told Visconti that he'd booked several of the best session players around, like the jazz trumpet legend Clark Terry, and thought it would be a fun session. Visconti asked to look at the charts for the song, out of professional interest, and Cordell was confused -- what charts? The musicians would just make up an arrangement, wouldn't they? Visconti asked what he was talking about, and Cordell talked about how you made records -- you just got the musicians to come into the studio, hung around while they smoked a few joints and worked out what they were going to play, and then got on with it. It wouldn't take more than about twelve hours to get a single recorded that way. Visconti was horrified, and explained that that might be how they did things in London, but if Cordell tried to make a record that way in New York, with an eight-piece group of session musicians who charged union scale, and would charge double scale for arranging work on top, then he'd bankrupt himself. Cordell went pale and said that the session was in an hour, what was he going to do? Luckily, Cordell had a copy of the demo with him, and Visconti, who unlike Cordell was a trained musician, quickly sat down and wrote an arrangement for him, sketching out parts for guitar, bass, drums, piano, sax, and trumpets. The resulting arrangement wasn't perfect -- Visconti had to write the whole thing in less than an hour with no piano to hand -- but it was good enough that Cordell's production assistant on the track, Harvey Brooks of the group Electric Flag, who also played bass on the track, could tweak it in the studio, and the track was recorded quickly, saving Cordell a fortune: [Excerpt: Georgie Fame, "Because I Love You"] One of the other reasons Cordell had been in the US was that he was looking for a production assistant to work with him in the UK to help translate his ideas into language the musicians could understand. According to Visconti he said that he was going to try asking Phil Spector to be his assistant, and Artie Butler if Spector said no. Astonishingly, assuming he did ask them, neither Phil Spector nor Artie Butler (who was the arranger for records like "Leader of the Pack" and "I'm a Believer" among many, many, others, and who around this time was the one who suggested to Louis Armstrong that he should record "What a Wonderful World") wanted to fly over to the UK to work as Denny Cordell's assistant, and so Cordell turned back to Visconti and invited him to come over to the UK. The main reason Cordell needed an assistant was that he had too much work on his hands -- he was currently in the middle of recording albums for three major hit groups -- Procol Harum, The Move, and Manfred Mann -- and he physically couldn't be in multiple studios at once. Visconti's first work for him was on a Manfred Mann session, where they were recording the Randy Newman song "So Long Dad" for their next single. Cordell produced the rhythm track then left for a Procol Harum session, leaving Visconti to guide the group through the overdubs, including all the vocal parts and the lead instruments: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "So Long Dad"] The next Move single, "Flowers in the Rain", was the first one to benefit from Visconti's arrangement ideas. The band had recorded the track, and Cordell had been unhappy with both the song and performance, thinking it was very weak compared to their earlier singles -- not the first time that Cordell would have a difference of opinion with the band, who he thought of as a mediocre pop group, while they thought of themselves as a heavy rock band who were being neutered in the studio by their producer. In particular, Cordell didn't like that the band fell slightly out of time in the middle eight of the track. He decided to scrap it, and get the band to record something else. Visconti, though, thought the track could be saved. He told Cordell that what they needed to do was to beat the Beatles, by using a combination of instruments they hadn't thought of. He scored for a quartet of wind instruments -- oboe, flute, clarinet, and French horn, in imitation of Mendelssohn: [Excerpt: The Move, "Flowers in the Rain"] And then, to cover up the slight sloppiness on the middle eight, Visconti had the wind instruments on that section recorded at half speed, so when played back at normal speed they'd sound like pixies and distract from the rhythm section: [Excerpt: The Move, "Flowers in the Rain"] Visconti's instincts were right. The single went to number two, kept off the top spot by Englebert Humperdinck, who spent 1967 keeping pretty much every major British band off number one, and thanks in part to it being the first track played on Radio 1, but also because it was one of the biggest hits of 1967, it's been the single of the Move's that's had the most airplay over the years. Unfortunately, none of the band ever saw a penny in royalties from it. It was because of another of Tony Secunda's bright ideas. Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister at the time, was very close to his advisor Marcia Williams, who started out as his secretary, rose to be his main political advisor, and ended up being elevated to the peerage as Baroness Falkender. There were many, many rumours that Williams was corrupt -- rumours that were squashed by both Wilson and Williams frequently issuing libel writs against newspapers that mentioned them -- though it later turned out that at least some of these were the work of Britain's security services, who believed Wilson to be working for the KGB (and indeed Williams had first met Wilson at a dinner with Khrushchev, though Wilson was very much not a Communist) and were trying to destabilise his government as a result. Their personal closeness also led to persistent rumours that Wilson and Williams were having an affair. And Tony Secunda decided that the best way to promote "Flowers in the Rain" was to print a postcard with a cartoon of Wilson and Williams on it, and send it out. Including sticking a copy through the door of ten Downing St, the Prime Minister's official residence. This backfired *spectacularly*. Wilson sued the Move for libel, even though none of them had known of their manager's plans, and as a result of the settlement it became illegal for any publication to print the offending image (though it can easily be found on the Internet now of course), everyone involved with the record was placed under a permanent legal injunction to never discuss the details of the case, and every penny in performance or songwriting royalties the track earned would go to charities of Harold Wilson's choice. In the 1990s newspaper reports said that the group had up to that point lost out on two hundred thousand pounds in royalties as a result of Secunda's stunt, and given the track's status as a perennial favourite, it's likely they've missed out on a similar amount in the decades since. Incidentally, while every member of the band was banned from ever describing the postcard, I'm not, and since Wilson and Williams are now both dead it's unlikely they'll ever sue me. The postcard is a cartoon in the style of Aubrey Beardsley, and shows Wilson as a grotesque naked homunculus sat on a bed, with Williams naked save for a diaphonous nightgown through which can clearly be seen her breasts and genitals, wearing a Marie Antoinette style wig and eyemask and holding a fan coquettishly, while Wilson's wife peers at them through a gap in the curtains. The text reads "Disgusting Depraved Despicable, though Harold maybe is the only way to describe "Flowers in the Rain" The Move, released Aug 23" The stunt caused huge animosity between the group and Secunda, not only because of the money they lost but also because despite Secunda's attempts to associate them with the Conservative party the previous year, Ace Kefford was upset at an attack on the Labour leader -- his grandfather was a lifelong member of the Labour party and Kefford didn't like the idea of upsetting him. The record also had a knock-on effect on another band. Wood had given the song "Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree" to his friends in The Idle Race, the band that had previously been Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders, and they'd planned to use their version as their first single: [Excerpt: The Idle Race, "Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree"] But the Move had also used the song as the B-side for their own single, and "Flowers in the Rain" was so popular that the B-side also got a lot of airplay. The Idle Race didn't want to be thought of as a covers act, and so "Lemon Tree" was pulled at the last minute and replaced by "Impostors of Life's Magazine", by the group's guitarist Jeff Lynne: [Excerpt: The Idle Race, "Impostors of Life's Magazine"] Before the problems arose, the Move had been working on another single. The A-side, "Cherry Blossom Clinic", was a song about being in a psychiatric hospital, and again had an arrangement by Visconti, who this time conducted a twelve-piece string section: [Excerpt: The Move, "Cherry Blossom Clinic"] The B-side, meanwhile, was a rocker about politics: [Excerpt: The Move, "Vote For Me"] Given the amount of controversy they'd caused, the idea of a song about mental illness backed with one about politics seemed a bad idea, and so "Cherry Blossom Clinic" was kept back as an album track while "Vote For Me" was left unreleased until future compilations. The first Wood knew about "Cherry Blossom Clinic" not being released was when after a gig in London someone -- different sources have it as Carl Wayne or Tony Secunda -- told him that they had a recording session the next morning for their next single and asked what song he planned on recording. When he said he didn't have one, he was sent up to his hotel room with a bottle of Scotch and told not to come down until he had a new song. He had one by 8:30 the next morning, and was so drunk and tired that he had to be held upright by his bandmates in the studio while singing his lead vocal on the track. The song was inspired by "Somethin' Else", a track by Eddie Cochran, one of Wood's idols: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, "Somethin' Else"] Wood took the bass riff from that and used it as the basis for what was the Move's most straight-ahead rock track to date. As 1967 was turning into 1968, almost universally every band was going back to basics, recording stripped down rock and roll tracks, and the Move were no exception. Early takes of "Fire Brigade" featured Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum on piano, but the final version featured just guitar, bass, drums and vocals, plus a few sound effects: [Excerpt: The Move, "Fire Brigade"] While Carl Wayne had sung lead or co-lead on all the Move's previous singles, he was slowly being relegated into the background, and for this one Wood takes the lead vocal on everything except the brief bridge, which Wayne sings: [Excerpt: The Move, "Fire Brigade"] The track went to number three, and while it's not as well-remembered as a couple of other Move singles, it was one of the most influential. Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols has often said that the riff for "God Save the Queen" is inspired by "Fire Brigade": [Excerpt: The Sex Pistols, "God Save the Queen"] The reversion to a heavier style of rock on "Fire Brigade" was largely inspired by the group's new friend Jimi Hendrix. The group had gone on a package tour with The Pink Floyd (who were at the bottom of the bill), Amen Corner, The Nice, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and had become good friends with Hendrix, often jamming with him backstage. Burton and Kefford had become so enamoured of Hendrix that they'd both permed their hair in imitation of his Afro, though Burton regretted it -- his hair started falling out in huge chunks as a result of the perm, and it took him a full two years to grow it out and back into a more natural style. Burton had started sharing a flat with Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Burton and Wood had also sung backing vocals with Graham Nash of the Hollies on Hendrix's "You Got Me Floatin'", from his Axis: Bold as Love album: [Excerpt: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "You Got Me Floatin'"] In early 1968, the group's first album came out. In retrospect it's arguably their best, but at the time it felt a little dated -- it was a compilation of tracks recorded between late 1966 and late 1967, and by early 1968 that might as well have been the nineteenth century. The album included their two most recent singles, a few more songs arranged by Visconti, and three cover versions -- versions of Eddie Cochran's "Weekend", Moby Grape's "Hey Grandma", and the old standard "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", done copying the Coasters' arrangement with Bev Bevan taking a rare lead vocal. By this time there was a lot of dissatisfaction among the group. Most vocal -- or least vocal, because by this point he was no longer speaking to any of the other members, had been Ace Kefford. Kefford felt he was being sidelined in a band he'd formed and where he was the designated face of the group. He'd tried writing songs, but the only one he'd brought to the group, "William Chalker's Time Machine", had been rejected, and was eventually recorded by a group called The Lemon Tree, whose recording of it was co-produced by Burton and Andy Fairweather-Low of Amen Corner: [Excerpt: The Lemon Tree, "William Chalker's Time Machine"] He was also, though the rest of the group didn't realise it at the time, in the middle of a mental breakdown, which he later attributed to his overuse of acid. By the time the album, titled Move, came out, he'd quit the group. He formed a new group, The Ace Kefford Stand, with Cozy Powell on drums, and they released one single, a cover version of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love", which didn't chart: [Excerpt: The Ace Kefford Stand, "For Your Love"] Kefford recorded a solo album in 1968, but it wasn't released until an archival release in 2003, and he spent most of the next few decades dealing with mental health problems. The group continued on as a four-piece, with Burton moving over to bass. While they thought about what to do -- they were unhappy with Secunda's management, and with the sound that Cordell was getting from their recordings, which they considered far wimpier than their live sound -- they released a live EP of cover versions, recorded at the Marquee. The choice of songs for the EP showed their range of musical influences at the time, going from fifties rockabilly to the burgeoning progressive rock scene, with versions of Cochran's "Somethin' Else", Jerry Lee Lewis' "It'll Be Me", "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star" by the Byrds, "Sunshine Help Me" by Spooky Tooth, and "Stephanie Knows Who" by Love: [Excerpt: The Move, "Stephanie Knows Who"] Incidentally, later that year they headlined a gig at the Royal Albert Hall with the Byrds as the support act, and Gram Parsons, who by that time was playing guitar for the Byrds, said that the Move did "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star" better than the Byrds did. The EP, titled "Something Else From the Move", didn't do well commercially, but it did do something that the band thought important -- Trevor Burton in particular had been complaining that Denny Cordell's productions "took the toughness out" of the band's sound, and was worried that the group were being perceived as a pop band, not as a rock group like his friends in the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream. There was an increasing tension between Burton, who wanted to be a heavy rocker, and the older Wayne, who thought there was nothing at all wrong with being a pop band. The next single, "Wild Tiger Woman", was much more in the direction that Burton wanted their music to go. It was ostensibly produced by Cordell, but for the most part he left it to the band, and as a result it ended up as a much heavier track than normal. Roy Wood had only intended the song as an album track, and Bevan and Wayne were hesitant about it being a single, but Burton was insistent -- "Wild Tiger Woman" was going to be the group's first number one record: [Excerpt: The Move, "Wild Tiger Woman"] In fact, it turned out to be the group's first single not to chart at all, after four top ten singles in a row. The group were now in crisis. They'd lost Ace Kefford, Burton and Wayne were at odds, and they were no longer guaranteed hitmakers. They decided to stop working with Cordell and Secunda, and made a commitment that if the next single was a flop, they would split up. In any case, Roy Wood was already thinking about another project. Even though the group's recent records had gone in a guitar-rock direction, he thought maybe you could do something more interesting. Ever since seeing Tony Visconti conduct orchestral instruments playing his music, he'd been thinking about it. As he later put it "I thought 'Well, wouldn't it be great to get a band together, and rather than advertising for a guitarist how about advertising for a cellist or a French horn player or something? There must be lots of young musicians around who play the... instruments that would like to play in a rock kind of band.' That was the start of it, it really was, and I think after those tracks had been recorded with Tony doing the orchestral arrangement, that's when I started to get bored with the Move, with the band, because I thought 'there's something more to it'". He'd started sketching out plans for an expanded lineup of the group, drawing pictures of what it would look like on stage if Carl Wayne was playing timpani while there were cello and French horn players on stage with them. He'd even come up with a name for the new group -- a multi-layered pun. The group would be a light orchestra, like the BBC Light Orchestra, but they would be playing electrical instruments, and also they would have a light show when they performed live, and so he thought "the Electric Light Orchestra" would be a good name for such a group. The other band members thought this was a daft idea, but Wood kept on plotting. But in the meantime, the group needed some new management. The person they chose was Don Arden. We talked about Arden quite a bit in the last episode, but he's someone who is going to turn up a lot in future episodes, and so it's best if I give a little bit more background about him. Arden was a manager of the old school, and like several of the older people in the music business at the time, like Dick James or Larry Page, he had started out as a performer, doing an Al Jolson tribute act, and he was absolutely steeped in showbusiness -- his wife had been a circus contortionist before they got married, and when he moved from Manchester to London their first home had been owned by Winifred Atwell, a boogie piano player who became the first Black person to have a UK number one -- and who is *still* the only female solo instrumentalist to have a UK number one -- with her 1954 hit "Let's Have Another Party": [Excerpt: WInifred Atwell, "Let's Have Another Party"] That was only Atwell's biggest in a long line of hits, and she'd put all her royalties into buying properties in London, one of which became the Ardens' home. Arden had been considered quite a promising singer, and had made a few records in the early 1950s. His first recordings, of material in Yiddish aimed at the Jewish market, are sadly not findable online, but he also apparently recorded as a session singer for Embassy Records. I can't find a reliable source for what records he sang on for that label, which put out budget rerecordings of hits for sale exclusively through Woolworths, but according to Wikipedia one of them was Embassy's version of "Blue Suede Shoes", put out under the group name "The Canadians", and the lead vocal on that track certainly sounds like it could be him: [Excerpt: The Canadians, "Blue Suede Shoes"] As you can tell, rock and roll didn't really suit Arden's style, and he wisely decided to get out of performance and into behind-the-scenes work, though he would still try on occasion to make records of his own -- an acetate exists from 1967 of him singing "Sunrise, Sunset": [Excerpt: Don Arden, "Sunrise, Sunset"] But he'd moved first into promotion -- he'd been the promoter who had put together tours of the UK for Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Brenda Lee and others which we mentioned in the second year of the podcast -- and then into management. He'd first come into management with the Animals -- apparently acting at that point as the money man for Mike Jeffries, who was the manager the group themselves dealt with. According to Arden -- though his story differs from the version of the story told by others involved -- the group at some point ditched Arden for Allen Klein, and when they did, Arden's assistant Peter Grant, another person we'll be hearing a lot more of, went with them. Arden, by his own account, flew over to see Klein and threatened to throw him out of the window of his office, which was several stories up. This was a threat he regularly made to people he believed had crossed him -- he made a similar threat to one of the Nashville Teens, the first group he managed after the Animals, after the musician asked what was happening to the group's money. And as we heard last episode, he threatened Robert Stigwood that way when Stigwood tried to get the Small Faces off him. One of the reasons he'd signed the Small Faces was that Steve Marriott had gone to the Italia Conti school, where Arden had sent his own children, Sharon and David, and David had said that Marriott was talented. And David was also a big reason the Move came over to Arden. After the Small Faces had left him, Arden had bought Galaxy Entertaimnent, the booking agency that handled bookings for Amen Corner and the Move, among many other acts. Arden had taken over management of Amen Corner himself, and had put his son David in charge of liaising with Tony Secunda about the Move. But David Arden was sure that the Move could be an albums act, not just a singles act, and was convinced the group had more potential than they were showing, and when they left Secunda, Don Arden took them on as his clients, at least for the moment. Secunda, according to Arden (who is not the most reliable of witnesses, but is unfortunately the only one we have for a lot of this stuff) tried to hire someone to assassinate Arden, but Arden quickly let Secunda know that if anything happened to Arden, Secunda himself would be dead within the hour. As "Wild Tiger Woman" hadn't been a hit, the group decided to go back to their earlier "Flowers in the Rain" style, with "Blackberry Way": [Excerpt: The Move, "Blackberry Way"] That track was produced by Jimmy Miller, who was producing the Rolling Stones and Traffic around this time, and featured the group's friend Richard Tandy on harpsichord. It's also an example of the maxim "Good artists copy, great artists steal". There are very few more blatant examples of plagiarism in pop music than the middle eight of "Blackberry Way". Compare Harry Nilsson's "Good Old Desk": [Excerpt: Nilsson, "Good Old Desk"] to the middle eight of "Blackberry Way": [Excerpt: The Move, "Blackberry Way"] "Blackberry Way" went to number one, but that was the last straw for Trevor Burton -- it was precisely the kind of thing he *didn't* want to be doing,. He was so sick of playing what he thought of as cheesy pop music that at one show he attacked Bev Bevan on stage with his bass, while Bevan retaliated with his cymbals. He stormed off stage, saying he was "tired of playing this crap". After leaving the group, he almost joined Blind Faith, a new supergroup that members of Cream and Traffic were forming, but instead formed his own supergroup, Balls. Balls had a revolving lineup which at various times included Denny Laine, formerly of the Moody Blues, Jackie Lomax, a singer-songwriter who was an associate of the Beatles, Richard Tandy who had played on "Blackberry Way", and Alan White, who would go on to drum with the band Yes. Balls only released one single, "Fight for My Country", which was later reissued as a Trevor Burton solo single: [Excerpt: Balls, "Fight For My Country"] Balls went through many lineup changes, and eventually seemed to merge with a later lineup of the Idle Race to become the Steve Gibbons Band, who were moderately successful in the seventies and eighties. Richard Tandy covered on bass for a short while, until Rick Price came in as a permanent replacement. Before Price, though, the group tried to get Hank Marvin to join, as the Shadows had then split up, and Wood was willing to move over to bass and let Marvin play lead guitar. Marvin turned down the offer though. But even though "Blackberry Way" had been the group's biggest hit to date, it marked a sharp decline in the group's fortunes. Its success led Peter Walsh, the manager of Marmalade and the Tremeloes, to poach the group from Arden, and even though Arden took his usual heavy-handed approach -- he describes going and torturing Walsh's associate, Clifford Davis, the manager of Fleetwood Mac, in his autobiography -- he couldn't stop Walsh from taking over. Unfortunately, Walsh put the group on the chicken-in-a-basket cabaret circuit, and in the next year they only released one record, the single "Curly", which nobody was happy with. It was ostensibly produced by Mike Hurst, but Hurst didn't turn up to the final sessions and Wood did most of the production work himself, while in the next studio over Jimmy Miller, who'd produced "Blackberry Way", was producing "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones. The group were getting pigeonholed as a singles group, at a time when album artists were the in thing. In a three-year career they'd only released one album, though they were working on their second. Wood was by this point convinced that the Move was unsalvageable as a band, and told the others that the group was now just going to be a launchpad for his Electric Light Orchestra project. The band would continue working the chicken-in-a-basket circuit and releasing hit singles, but that would be just to fund the new project -- which they could all be involved in if they wanted, of course. Carl Wayne, on the other hand, was very, very, happy playing cabaret, and didn't see the need to be doing anything else. He made a counter-suggestion to Wood -- keep The Move together indefinitely, but let Wood do the Brian Wilson thing and stay home and write songs. Wayne would even try to get Burton and Kefford back into the band. But Wood wasn't interested. Increasingly his songs weren't even going to the Move at all. He was writing songs for people like Cliff Bennett and the Casuals. He wrote "Dance Round the Maypole" for Acid Gallery: [Excerpt: Acid Gallery, "Dance Round the Maypole"] On that, Wood and Jeff Lynne sang backing vocals. Wood and Lynne had been getting closer since Lynne had bought a home tape recorder which could do multi-tracking -- Wood had wanted to buy one of his own after "Flowers in the Rain", but even though he'd written three hit singles at that point his publishing company wouldn't give him an advance to buy one, and so he'd started using Lynne's. The two have often talked about how they'd recorded the demo for "Blackberry Way" at Lynne's parents' house, recording Wood's vocal on the demo with pillows and cushions around his head so that his singing wouldn't wake Lynne's parents. Lynne had been another person that Wood had asked to join the group when Burton left, but Lynne was happy with The Idle Race, where he was the main singer and songwriter, though their records weren't having any success: [Excerpt: The Idle Race, "I Like My Toys"] While Wood was writing material for other people, the only one of those songs to become a hit was "Hello Suzie", written for Amen Corner, which became a top five single on Immediate Records: [Excerpt: Amen Corner, "Hello Suzie"] While the Move were playing venues like Batley Variety Club in Britain, when they went on their first US tour they were able to play for a very different audience. They were unknown in the US, and so were able to do shows for hippie audiences that had no preconceptions about them, and did things like stretch "Cherry Blossom Clinic" into an eight-minute-long extended progressive rock jam that incorporated bits of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", the Nutcracker Suite, and the Sorcerer's Apprentice: [Excerpt: The Move, "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited (live at the Fillmore West)"] All the group were agreed that those shows were the highlight of the group's career. Even Carl Wayne, the band member most comfortable with them playing the cabaret circuit, was so proud of the show at the Fillmore West which that performance is taken from that when the tapes proved unusable he kept hold of them, hoping all his life that technology would progress to the point where they could be released and show what a good live band they'd been, though as things turned out they didn't get released until after his death. But when they got back to the UK it was back to the chicken-in-a-basket circuit, and back to work on their much-delayed second album. That album, Shazam!, was the group's attempt at compromise between their different visions. With the exception of one song, it's all heavy rock music, but Wayne, Wood, and Price all co-produced, and Wayne had the most creative involvement he'd ever had. Side two of the album was all cover versions, chosen by Wayne, and Wayne also went out onto the street and did several vox pops, asking members of the public what they thought of pop music: [Excerpt: Vox Pops from "Don't Make My Baby Blue"] There were only six songs on the album, because they were mostly extended jams. Other than the three cover versions chosen by Wayne, there was a sludge-metal remake of "Hello Suzie", the new arrangement of "Cherry Blossom Clinic" they'd been performing live, retitled "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited", and only one new original, "Beautiful Daughter", which featured a string arrangement by Visconti, who also played bass: [Excerpt: The Move, "Beautiful Daughter"] And Carl Wayne sang lead on five of the six tracks, which given that one of the reasons Wayne was getting unhappy with the band was that Wood was increasingly becoming the lead singer, must have been some comfort. But it wasn't enough. By the time Shazam! came out, with a cover drawn by Mike Sheridan showing the four band members as superheroes, the band was down to three -- Carl Wayne had quit the group, for a solo career. He continued playing the cabaret circuit, and made records, but never had another hit, but he managed to have a very successful career as an all-round entertainer, acting on TV and in the theatre, including a six-year run as the narrator in the musical Blood Brothers, and replacing Alan Clarke as the lead singer of the Hollies. He died in 2004. As soon as Wayne left the group, the three remaining band members quit their management and went back to Arden. And to replace Wayne, Wood once again asked Jeff Lynne to join the group. But this time the proposition was different -- Lynne wouldn't just be joining the Move, but he would be joining the Electric Light Orchestra. They would continue putting out Move records and touring for the moment, and Lynne would be welcome to write songs for the Move so that Wood wouldn't have to be the only writer, but they'd be doing it while they were planning their new group. Lynne was in, and the first single from the new lineup was a return to the heavy riff rock style of "Wild Tiger Woman", "Brontosaurus": [Excerpt: The Move, "Brontosaurus"] But Wayne leaving the group had put Wood in a difficult position. He was now the frontman, and he hated that responsibility -- he said later "if you look at me in photos of the early days, I'm always the one hanging back with my head down, more the musician than the frontman." So he started wearing makeup, painting his face with triangles and stars, so he would be able to hide his shyness. And it worked -- and "Brontosaurus" returned the group to the top ten. But the next single, "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm", didn't chart at all. The first album for the new Move lineup, Looking On, was to finish their contract with their current record label. Many regard it as the group's "Heavy metal album", and it's often considered the worst of their four albums, with Bev Bevan calling it "plodding", but that's as much to do with Bevan's feeling about the sessions as anything else -- increasingly, after the basic rhythm tracks had been recorded, Wood and Lynne would get to work without the other two members of the band, doing immense amounts of overdubbing. And that continued after Looking On was finished. The group signed a new contract with EMI's new progressive rock label, Harvest, and the contract stated that they were signing as "the Move performing as The Electric Light Orchestra". They started work on two albums' worth of material, with the idea that anything with orchestral instruments would be put aside for the first Electric Light Orchestra album, while anything with just guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and horns would be for the Move. The first Electric Light Orchestra track, indeed, was intended as a Move B-side. Lynne came in with a song based around a guitar riff, and with lyrics vaguely inspired by the TV show The Prisoner, about someone with a number instead of a name running, trying to escape, and then eventually dying. But then Wood decided that what the track really needed was cello. But not cello played in the standard orchestral manner, but something closer to what the Beatles had done on "I am the Walrus". He'd bought a cheap cello himself, and started playing Jimi Hendrix riffs on it, and Lynne loved the sound of it, so onto the Move's basic rhythm track they overdubbed fifteen cello tracks by Wood, and also two French horns, also by Wood: [Excerpt: The Electric Light Orchestra, "10538 Overture"] The track was named "10538 Overture", after they saw the serial number 1053 on the console they were using to mix the track, and added the number 8 at the end, making 10538 the number of the character in the song. Wood and Lynne were so enamoured with the sound of their new track that they eventually got told by the other two members of the group that they had to sit in the back when the Move were driving to gigs, so they couldn't reach the tape player, because they'd just keep playing the track over and over again. So they got a portable tape player and took that into the back seat with them to play it there. After finishing some pre-existing touring commitments, the Move and Electric Light Orchestra became a purely studio group, and Rick Price quit the bands -- he needed steady touring work to feed his family, and went off to form another band, Mongrel. Around this time, Wood also took part in another strange project. After Immediate Records collapsed, Andrew Oldham needed some fast money, so he and Don Arden put together a fake group they could sign to EMI for ten thousand pounds. The photo of the band Grunt Futtock was of some random students, and that was who Arden and Oldham told EMI was on the track, but the actual performers on the single included Roy Wood, Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton, and Andy Bown, the former keyboard player of the Herd: [Excerpt: Grunt Futtock, "Rock 'n' Roll Christian"] Nobody knows who wrote the song, although it's credited to Bernard Webb, which is a pseudonym Paul McCartney had previously used -- but everyone knew he'd used the pseudonym, so it could very easily be a nod to that. The last Move album, Message From The Country, didn't chart -- just like the previous two hadn't. But Wood's song "Tonight" made number eleven, the follow-up, "Chinatown", made number twenty-three, and then the final Move single, "California Man", a fifties rock and roll pastiche, made the top ten: [Excerpt: The Move, "California Man"] In the US, that single was flipped, and the B-side, Lynne's song "Do Ya", became the only Move song ever to make the Hot One Hundred, reaching number ninety-nine: [Excerpt: The Move, "Do Ya"] By the time "California Man" was released, the Electric Light Orchestra were well underway. They'd recorded their first album, whose biggest highlights were Lynne's "10538 Overture" and Wood's "Whisper in the Night": [Excerpt: The Electric Light Orchestra, "Whisper in the Night"] And they'd formed a touring lineup, including Richard Tandy on keyboards and several orchestral instrumentalists. Unfortunately, there were problems developing between Wood and Lynne. When the Electric Light Orchestra toured, interviewers only wanted to speak to Wood, thinking of him as the band leader, even though Wood insisted that he and Lynne were the joint leaders. And both men had started arguing a lot, to the extent that at some shows they would refuse to go on stage because of arguments as to which of them should go on first. Wood has since said that he thinks most of the problems between Lynne and himself were actually caused by Don Arden, who realised that if he split the two of them into separate acts he could have two hit groups, not one. If that was the plan, it worked, because by the time "10538 Overture" was released as the Electric Light Orchestra's first single, and made the top ten -- while "California Man" was also still in the charts -- it was announced that Roy Wood was now leaving the Electric Light Orchestra, as were keyboard playe
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