F W I W - Thank You For The Music!

n the beginning was the Word. And the word was One word, yet the Word was three words; Rock and Roll. And we saw that it was Good. And the Word was spoken in the beginning by only one man, Alan Freed. And even though Alan Freed spoke the Word first, many there were to come to follow who would also speak the Word. And more and more came to speak the Word until the Word itself became known to all men. And many were that rejoiced in the Word. And there were those who spoke the Word with scorn and with derision, but they were few and they were like ants unto the ocean.

We were blessed to be there at the very beginning. The first born out of a new middle class in America. That new middle class itself born out of the death and destruction of World War II. The so-called G.I. bill, social legislation designed to reward the returning veterans for their sacrifice made it possible for these courageous soldiers to purchase a home or go to college or trade school. This new social class was also the first consumerist class and the economic clout it wielded was awesome. We throw the word 'empowered' around so easily today; it really had it's beginning in the 50's as the economic muscle of industrious Americans who then could fulfill their every material need. And, just as every action brings about an equal re-action, the first of the baby-boomers came into their puberty, the teen (as in between; between childhood and adulthood; the teen-agers) years. This demographic swelled like an oceantide; their numbers were staggering. Given to natural rebellious instincts as they sought to establish their own identity, they were not buying into the social norms of their adults. They sought to make their own way. And by sheer weight of numbers, they succeeded. Movies like "Blackboard Jungle" and "Rebel Without A Cause" sought to depict this boisterous, cocky, defiant, even at times self-conflicted element in our society. It was only natural that these young people wanted their own music, speaking their own language, if you will.

There are those who maintain that "Rock Around The Clock" was the first teen 'anthem', but a song by an obscure group, The Cheers, actually signified the beginning of the Rock era. Titled "A Black Leather Jacket and Motorcycle Boots" it was rushed into production following the movie "The Wild Bunch", starring a young punk named Marlon Brando. The rebellious youth culture had been born.
The convergence of Jazz, Rythm and Blues (also called 'race music), popular ('pop') swing and even country (called 'hillbilly') music were the genesis. Bill Haley and the Comets (who recorded "Rock Around The Clock") were a novelty roadhouse band playing nightly for $25 and tips in the oil-drilling areas of western Pennsylvania when they came to 'instant' stardom.

When Alan Freed moved from Cincinnatti, Ohio to New York to take on the night radio shift at WINS radio, he recognized the instant gut-level power of this new music form. Pounding on a telephone directory in the studio in time with the back-beat, one night he opened his microphone while beating on the directory exulting, "rock and roll", "rock and roll". It wasn't that long a time before the "Alan Freed Rock and Roll Revue" would be happening at the Brooklyn Paramount or Loew's Downtown (Manhattan) theatres. There would be the requisite teen-oriented B-grade movie followed by a dozen or so musical acts like Mother Maybelle, Ruth Brown, The Penquins, The Coasters, The Platters. Those would be followed by headlines such as, "Youth Mobs Dance, Destroy Theatre", or some such. Tearing out entire rows of seats so that they could dance was de jour. And Paramount and the other theatre chains didn't care all that much, their insurance companies paid for repairs while the $20 per seat tickets were equal to three to four day's grosses.

An exhilirating time for a young boy to be alive! Those days are gone now. They've been replaced by yak-yak radio, pre-packaged 'oldies' formats, computer-driven playlists and robot deejays doing totally scripted programming 24/7/365. I guess Elvis (Costello) said it best, "...you either shut up or get cut out; they don't want to hear about it. It's only inches on the reel-to-reel" (from "Radio, Radio" (cr) .

Today is February 1st; just 719 days until the end of the Bush Administration.

Next Up: Here are some links that you should check out.

FWIW – That Was The Year That Was

And the last week kind of summed up the year. A year of stark contrasts. Two people left their mark on our society. One performer who gave us fifty years. Another helped us heal after a painful decade in which our belief in our own values was sorely tested. The third and final was a beast that we helped build through our own stupidity and the people he terrorized worked their own system of justice to dispatch him.

Alan Freed hosted his dj show on WINS – AM 1010 in the 50’s. You’ll recall that he coined the phrase rock ‘n roll playing James Brown, Fats Domino, The Platters, Little Richard, Billie Ward and the Dominoes; you get the idea. Freed would open up the studio microphone while he beat on a phone book in cadence to James Brown and The Famous Flames. This was the halcyon age. In the fifty years since, no performer has ever come close to claiming the title of “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business”. James Brown, an American Original – we are richer for the talent he possessed and poorer without him.

Gerald Rudolph Ford didn’t have presidential aspirations. After a college career where he excelled at football (his jersey #42 has now been retired; a fitting tribute from his favorite Wolverines), he honorably served this country in our Navy, then moved into public service.
When you’re re-elected to the same congressional seat 13 times, each time with a 60% approval rating, it’s a pretty good indicator that you’re serving the folks back home, not your political ambitions. Quiet decency is what his constituents in Grand Rapids rewarded by electing him each of those 13 times.
Of course no good deed goes unpunished. True to form, Chistopher Hitchens, writing in the online journal “Slate” attempts a real hatchet job on the 38th President, but I wonder if Hitchens remembers just what the national mood was like back in 1974. The Watergate scandal exposed the pettiness and meanness of the President and his cohorts; the venal measures they employed to virtually subvert the Constitution. After August 9th, Gerald Ford assumed the office and shortly thereafter proclaimed that “…the national nightmare is now over”. Of course, with his pardon of Richard Nixon a scant month later, many Americans (myself included) wondered if it really was. Looking back thirty-some years, we’ve come to realize that he really did have it right. President Ford knew the importance of moving on even then. History is a fairer judge of the man known as ‘the accidental president’ than we were, or that Chris Hitchens could ever be. Dignity. Honor. Decency. Just the qualities that we should seek in those who aspire to the highest level of public service.

And then we have the flip side of the coin. Saddam Hussein. Right up there with the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Pinochet, Shah Reza Palavi. How ironic the image of Donald Rumsfeld paying tribute to Gerald Ford, juxtaposed to the image on CNN just a few days earlier with Rumsfeld buddying up with Hussein right after we sold billions of dollars of military hardware to Iraq. Is that a cruel irony or what? “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, or so goes the saying in that region of the world. And, since we loathed Iran for taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, we thought it clever to have Saddam Hussein inflict death and destruction on Iran in our stead.
As stated at the outset, we had a great part in building that beast, and the blood of those thousands of Kurds and Shia that stained his hands in part was made possible by our own complicity. Good riddance, Saddam. We ourselves will still see our own face in the mirror while your ghostly countenance will haunt our nightmares for years to come.

Today is January 3rd; 748 days left until the end of the Bush Administration.

Tomorrow: Bits and pieces from everywhere.