Dead Turkey Broadcast: The List
I didn't play as much Early American Music as I thought I would need to, although I was trying to keep that aspect of the show kind of flexible. Nonetheless, here is what was played, in the right order; a lot easier than trying to extract the playlist from WCBN's new and unintelligent Platlist Database:
0. Fletcher Henderson The House of David Blues (theme) 1931 Classics
1. Keith Brion/Royal Artillery Band Power and Glory (aka March of the Mitten Men; John Philip Sousa) Music for Wind Band Vol. 1 Naxos
2. Franz Bruggen/Concerto Amsterdam Tafelmusik: Overture in E-flat (Georg Philip Telemann) Tafelmusk Volume 1 Telfunken (LP)
3. Annegret Siedel Corale (William Brade) Johann Schop und seine zeit Cantate Musicaphon
4. Joshua Rifkin Nonpareil Rag (Scott Joplin) Piano Rags by Scott Joplin Volume III Nonesuch (LP)
5. Miklos Rosza/Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra Live, Laugh & Love Waltz, Op. 263 (Johann Strauss II) An Evening with the Hollywood Bowl EMI Classics
6. Barry Tuckwell Wind Quintet La Cheminee de Roi Rene (Darius Milhaud) The Barry Tuckwell Wind Quintet Nonesuch (LP)
7. Marjorie Mitchell/Vienna State Opera Orchestra/William Strickland Indian Fantasy, Op. 44 (Ferruccio Busoni) Ferruccio Busoni: Indian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra MCA Classics
8. Boston Camerata/Joel Cohen Liberty Tree (Thomas Paine) Liberty Tree Erato
9. His Majesties Clerkes/Paul Hillier I Am the Rose of Sharon (William Billings) Early American Choral Music I Classical Express
10. Boston Camerata/Joel Cohen Solemn Song (Shaker Traditional) Simple Gifts Erato
11. His Majesties Clerkes/Paul Hillier Amanda (Justin Morgan) Early American Choral Music Volume II Classical Express
12. Boston Camerata/Joel Cohen Hero and Leander (Moses Kimball Manuscript ca. 1790) Liberty Tree Erato
13. Jelly Roll Morton Big Fat Ham History of Classic Jazz Riverside (LP)
14. Dixieland Jug Blowers House Rent Rag The Jug Bands RBF (LP)
15. Jasper Taylor's Original Washboard Band Jasper Taylor Blues Rare Hot Chicago Jazz Herwin (LP)
16. Frankie Half-Pint Jaxon Down at Jasper's Bar-Be-Que Frankie Keppard Herwin (LP)
17. Henry Red Allen's New York Orchestra Feelin' Drowsy (take 2) Henry Red Allen RCA Victor Vintage (LP)
18. Harlem Hamfats Sales Tax On It 78 rpm single Decca
19. Lionel Hampton Ribs and Hot Sauce Swingsation Decca
20. Charlie Parker The Rubber Legs Williams Story Unknown Album Courtesy of Dudley Radcliffe
21. "The" Quintet Salt Peanuts The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever Prestige
22. Eileen Barton If I Knew You Were Comin I'd Have Baked a Cake 78rpm single National
23. Martin Denny Similau Exotica Liberty (LP)
24. Noro Morales Tea for Two 78rpm single Majestic
25. Noro Morales Cutuguru 78rpm single Majestic
26. Noro Morales Ten Jabon 78rpm single Majestic
27. Noro Morales Bangin' the Bongos 78rpm single Coda
28. Noro Morales Silencio 78rpm single Coda
29. Noro Morales Rumba Rhapsody 78rpm single Coda
30. Noro Morales Perfume De Gardenias 78rpm single Coda
31. Sonny Gianotta The Last Blast of the Blasted Bugler 45rpm single ABC/Paramount
What follows is a new series of philisophical/spiritual/political writings which you may, or may not, enjoy. Please indulge me, as these thoughts were collected over several days and I’m not sure how they fit together. Nor is this my normal milieu. But all of it has been on my mind…
Grand Canyon: We’re All Wrong
The other day I saw an interview with a minister who has published a deluxe coffee table book entitled "Grand Canyon: Another View." It states that the Grand Canyon was formed as a result of the great flood, as described in the book of Genesis. It is now for sale in the Grand Canyon gift shop.
I have no objection to the book, it being published, his opinion (which he is entitled to) nor even its appearance in the Grand Canyon gift shop, though it does not really belong there, as it is a lie. In opposition to all of the scientific evidence and geological surveys and studies that have been done in the canyon, this guy has decided all of it is wrong. He has deduced, via a "faith based initiative," that the canyon is the result of an event that happened on the other side of the world no more than 20 to 24,000 years ago.
Look dude: the Grand Canyon has been around a long, long time, much longer than there have been people to enjoy its splendor. The flood story has its origin in a Sumerian tale which has some basis in truth, but Sumer was located the area of present day Iraq, and is nowhere near Arizona.
The minister will counter that my viewpoint is invalid because every word in The Bible is the word of God, and it is the ultimate authority on everything. I can’t stand people who are so blinded by faith that they become stupid to everything that’s in the world – God does not bestow blessings on people for being willfully ignorant. The Bible may, in part, contain the words of God, but was written down by MEN. It was also compiled in its present day order by MEN; two separate juries for each Testament. This too was a long, long process completed relatively recently: the New Testament no earlier than the Eighth-century C.E. and the Old in the Tenth or Eleventh-century C.E.
The book of Genesis was written around 560 B.C. at a time when the Jews were captives in the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. Jewish scholars were employed in the library of Babylon and were free to document their own culture as well as those of the Babylonians. They had access to the records of past Sumerian kingdoms, learned to read them, and incorporated some of the Sumerian stories into their own books. We cannot know their motivation for doing so, but we do have the Sumerian texts to compare the Book of Genesis to. The literary evidence is irrefutable.
But the minister rejects this argument, for to admit the truth would serve as a denial of his faith. That would only be so if your faith were based in idiocy and blindness to begin with. Somehow these folks, to whom I will hereafter refer to as "Bushians," understand that slavish adherence to the word of the Holy Bible is, in a sense, impossible to reconcile with the vast world around them. So it easier to lie, and to lie to yourself, and to cloak yourself in cover of lies in order to protect yourself from the world.
But what of that passage that "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor?" Don’t bear false witness against history. Don’t buy into "truisms" such as "history is written by the winners;" more often than not it is written by the losers, or by persons who are uninvolved. History, like the Bible, is also written by men, and as such is fallible, often misconstrued or skewed towards a certain viewpoint. But it only rarely bears false witness against itself.
Recently I also saw a piece on the excavation of the Cave of Letters, where a scholar from the University of Hartford was trying to demonstrate that some bronze objects found at the bottom of a latrine there in 1960 originated from the Temple of Jerusalem. These objects; incense burners and other items used in worship, bear the figures of Greco-Roman Gods. This is a severe problem for ultra-orthodox Jews, who believe that it is simply not possible that such objects could have been used in the Temple.
But I see it as entirely possible, even probable. Throughout history the Jews have mostly been under the dominion of other cultures. Their adaptability in assimilating to almost any cultural situation is astonishing, and has helped them to survive as a people longer than most Western civilizations. In today’s world, Jewish believers have the freedom to pursue their faith in as orthodox a fashion as they would like, but in Herod’s time I doubt that this was so. Herod was very much in the pocket of the Romans, and the Jews "did as the Romans do." Ultra-orthodox Jews who cannot accept the Pagan symbols on their own Temple artifacts are viewing history in terms of their own current experience, something that always leads down the path of cultural self-denial, impeding the progress of science and research.
One can hardly swing a dead cat in the so-called "Dead Sea Scrolls" without encountering the words of a renegade priest or other author decrying that the priests in the Temple of Jerusalem are far too complicit from the forces of evil, probably meaning the Romans. If anything, the Roman Gods found on the alleged Temple artifacts seem to bear this out.
Any comments? Direct to:
Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis@hotmail.com