in the service of a worthy cause, the 1955 March of Dimes fight against polio.
Born in Trinidad and Tobago in the year 1920, Hazel Scott was four when her family moved to New York City. Considered a musical prodigy, Scott began studying classical piano at The Juilliard School at the age of eight. While still in high school Ms. Scott had her own WOR radio show and was regularly gigging. Up until the early 1940's most of the top jazz clubs had segregated audiences or were white-only establishments but the developing trend of smaller ensembles playing in smaller clubs would begin to erode jazz segregation. In a 2009 article for Smithsonian, biographer Karen Chilton details Hazel Scott's strong resistance to American apartheid:
There was little separation between Hazel's performance and her outspoken politics. She attributed it to being raised by very, strong-willed, independent-minded women. She was one of the first black entertainers to refuse to play before segregated audiences. Written in all her contracts was a standing clause that required forfeiture if there was a dividing line between the races. "Why would anyone come to hear me, a negro, and refuse to sit beside someone just like me?," she asked.
In the early 1940's, Scott appeared in a number of Hollywood films including the George Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945). Chilton describes how Scott demanded the studios provide pay equal to that of her white counterparts also refusing any role that depicted blacks as subservient. Scott staged a three day strike on the set of The Heat's On (1943) protesting the apron costumes black actresses were expected to wear. In the film, Ms. Scott plays a sergeant in the WAC's, excerpt below:
No aprons here!
In 1950 The Hazel Scott Show premiered on the DumontTelevision Network. Hazel Scott had become the first black performer to host her own nationally syndicated television program. It would be short lived. Just as the show began to air Scott's name appeared in Red Channels, a publication of the right-wing Counterattack that would serve as the template for the Hollywood Blacklist. Consequently Scott was targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee and shortly after she voluntarily appeared before HUAC, The Hazel Scott Show was cancelled. After concert bookings began to dry up Hazel Scott moved to Paris in the late 1950's not returning to the U.S. until 1967.
Counterattack
fascist American newsletter.
Booklet commissioned by Roy Brewer, senior representative of International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees(IATSE) and personal friend of Ronald Reagan. Hazel Scott's inclusion was likely due to her civil rights activism and regular appearances atCafe Societyin New York's Greenwich Village.
Let it be said once and for all that the persons responsible for Red Channels,Counterattack, and the blacklist have more in common with Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin than any of the individuals whose lives and careers they sought to destroy. The Hollywood studios, corporations, Republicans and Democrats who accomodated this American fascist movement betrayed the constitution, their country, and their fellow citizens. The actions of these individuals reveal their traitorous intent. Their failure to stand up for liberty and justice, and their fealty to authoritarian corporatism expose them as disloyal, Constitution hating, fascist scum.
America Remembers introduces the Conway Twitty™ Tribute Pistol. This Colt .45 pistol celebrates the life and career of Conway Twitty.
More horseshit from America Remembers:
In choosing an appropriate canvas for the Conway Twitty™ Tribute, we chose the classic American sidearm: the Colt® Government Model® Pistol in .45 ACP. We believe it is the perfect firearm to honor Conway’s love for America, as well as his proud service to this country as a member of the United States Army.
Conway's four kids have must have approved the absurdity above. America RemembersConway Twitty for his 55 number one hits, especially his many duets with Ms. Loretta Lynn.
James Brown scorches the floor with His Famous Flames.
Everybody bow down to the greatest entertainer that ever lived, the Bumpschool Originator, Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Soul Brother Number 1, Asiatic Afro-Apache from Barnwell, South Cackalacky! James Brown! This clip is from the film T.A.M.I. Show and was recorded in Electronovision at the Santa Monica Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964. T.A.M.I. is an acronym for Teen Age Music International and with that in mind free tickets to the live recording were handed out to local high school students. Released by American International Pictures the film was directed by Steve Binder who would later helm Elvis Presley's `68 Comeback and the ignominious Star Wars Holiday Special.
It has been whispered that a toothless, bearded, hag also raised David Johansen. The lips, androgyny, and wiggle-swagger is a corpuscular entity, a living yet invisible micro strut-force rarer than B negative blood. The hag rubs together an eggsac poultice of crushed psilocybic fungi, dried sea monkey, champagne, Laffy Taffy, Rockette toenail clippings and hot sauce. After nestling the mash in her hag armpit for 6 days the nymph becomes animate and wriggles free of the sac. Once free, the elasti-lipped humanoid is spirited into a maternity ward for the old switcheroo. Middle-class back strapped spike head crowned child becometh Jumpin' Jack Jagger Jetboy Johansen. Now it can be told.
No introduction necessary for the Queen. I was looking for some live gospel and as it happens that's exactly what turned up. Lady Soul giving praise to the Holy Spirit of steady rockin' funk thump. Put this on and try not to move.
Impossible.
A class move replacing the Soul Train sign with "Aretha!" Thank you Don Cornelius for the preservation, celebration, and exaltation of black music and dance. R.I.P.
This Johnny Winter clip is with the Progressive Blues Experiment although he could be playing with two manikins and it would still astound. Somewhere around the 4 minute mark JW gets freaky with the slide. Boogie Chillens!
Stop frontin' you know this rocks. Hated by the critics, Flint, Michigan's Grand Funk Railroad knew how to smoke and chug. At least on the first couple of discs anyway. Their cover of Locomotion may be one of the worst things ever recorded. Note to the ladies: at about 6:39 Mark Farner removes the vest and commences the full-on hump-a-rock. Farner displaying strange leather bicep band next migrates cross stage to to bassist Mel Schacher for the face to face wig wag stompski that quickly evolves into a spug-rock sandwich with Don Brewer meat. Power-trio indeedly.
In September of 1791, strongly influenced by Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, and the French Revolution, Thomas Wolfe Tone and what would become known as the Society of United Irishmen, published "Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland" making the case for Catholic, Protestants, and Dissenter unity. Stating in their first resolution, "That the weight of English influence in the Government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce." The movement spread across Ireland and by 1797 there were 200,000 members. The British/Irish establishment responded with martial law and tactics such as house burnings, torture, pitchcapping, murder and the violent suppression of the United Irishmen newspaper The Northern Star.
Society of United Irishmen
Catechism
What is that in your hand? It is a branch. Of what? Of the Tree of Liberty. Where did it first grow? In America. Where does it bloom? In France. Where did the seeds fall? In Ireland.
In 1967 Bassist Brush Shiels formed Dublin's Skid Row with vocalist Phil Lynott and drummer Noel Bridgman. 16 year old Belfast guitarist Gary Moore joins the band in `68. Lynott would be shown the door later that year but not before learning some rudimentary bass from Shiels. The killer clip shown above is from `71. Moore would later rejoin Lynott for a stint in Thin Lizzy. Brush Shiels once played for Dublin's Bohemian Football Club.
Horslips got their awesome name from a spoonerism of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. "Faster Than the Hound" is off their 1974 album The Tain. The album is based on Táin Bó Cúailngeor The Cattle Raid of Cooley, a pre-Christian Irish legend.
I could be a soldier Go out there and fight to save this land Be a people's soldier Paramilitary gun in hand I won't be no soldier I won't take no orders from no-one Stuff their fucking armies Killing isn't my idea of fun
They wanna waste my life They wanna waste my time They wanna waste my life And they've stolen it away
I could be a hero Live and die for their 'important' cause A united nation Or an independent state with laws And rules and regulations That merely cause disturbances and wars That is what I've got now All thanks to the freedom-seeking hordes I'm not gonna be taken in They said if I don't join I just can't win I've heard that story many times before And every time I threw it out the door
Still they come up to me With a different name but the same old face I can see the connection With another time and a different place They ain't blonde-haired or blue-eyed But they think that they're the master race They're nothing but blind fascists Brought up to hate and given lives to waste
The Undertones were from Derry, Northern Ireland. "Teenage Kicks" was released in 1978 and the legendary John Peel played the song twice in a row on his Radio 1 program. Peel awarded it 28 stars on a five star scale and in a 2001 article for The Guardian said that it reduced him to tears every time he heard it. Is it any wonder? Watch all three of these vid's and see if you don't want to hear it again in ten minutes.
I need excitement and I need it bad.
Top of the Pops!
Peel said more than once that he wanted the words "Teenage dreams, so hard to beat" written on his headstone. Four years after his death his wish was fulfilled.
In honor of Saint Patrick's Day it is high time for a reappraisal of Irish Rock and a two-fingered salute for war criminal Paul Wolfowitz's best bud.
From Dublin,
Thin Lizzy
"Emerald"
The amazing final track on Thin Lizzy's classic 1976 Jailbreak album. The clip is from the Live And Dangerous - Live at the Rainbow Theatre 1977 DVD. The crowd is rocking out! Brian Robertson plays the entire song with a lit cigarette in his right hand. Too cool for school. Don't smoke kids!
George Bellows, Blessed are the Peacemakers,The Masses (July, 1917)
This man subjected himself to imprisonment and probably to being shot or hanged.
The prisoner used language tending to discourage men from enlisting in the United States Army.
It is proven and indeed admitted that among his incendiary statements were -
Thou shalt not kill
and
Blessed are the peacemakers.
George Bellows (1882-1925) was an American artist and editorial board member for the Socialist journal The Masses. Bellows, a left-wing supporter of U.S. entry into the war was critical of the Espionage Act of 1917. The Socialist Party of America (SPA) would remain adamantly opposed to the war and its leader Eugene Debs was arrested and charged under the Sedition Act of 1918 for urging resistance to the draft. Upon conviction Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison. Below the photo is an excerpt from a statement he gave at his sentencing hearing.
Eugene Victor Debs
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Pfc. Bradley Manning is facing 22 charges related to violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. The Supreme Court may soon review whether the government is permitted to use the Espionage Act against whistle blowers. Chris Hedges points out the implications of a court ruling favoring the government's postion. A must read.
Nina Simone Live at the Harlem Cultural Festival (1969)
Revolution
And now we got a revolution
Cause I see the face of things to come
Yeah, your Constitution
Well, my friend, its gonna have to bend
I'm here to tell you about destruction
Of all the evil that will have to end.
Some folks are gonna get the notion
I know they'll say I'm preachin' hate
but if i have to swim the ocean
well i would just to communicate
its not as simple as talkin' jive
the daily struggle just to stay alive
Singin' about a revolution
because were talkin' about a change
its more than just evolution
well you know you got to clean your brain
the only way that we can stand in fact
is when you get your foot off our back
Read about Black Woodstock in a 2007 Smithsonian.com article by Richard Morgan.
"I've watched the dogs of war enjoying their feast,
I've seen the western world go down in the east"
Black Sabbath released Sabotage in October of 1975. In April of 1975 the United States finally leaves Vietnam after twenty years. The dogs of war had been eating well, 2 million dead, 3 million refugees, and a nation destroyed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties
I first encountered Mr. Fish on the Harper's Magazine website. I'm still wondering why his web images aren't included in the print edition. He is absolutely peerless.
