Betsy Siggins interviewed by Ray Padgett
Sources here:
Pledging My Time at Flagging Down The Double Es
Buffy Sainte-Marie, “The Dream Tree”
Illuminations, 1969
Monday, July 31, 2023
Pete Seeger and the House of Un-American Activities Committee 1955
Now I guess I should say from the outset I’m not Pete Seeger’s biggest fan. The folkie schtick is remarkably po faced and has a kind of ego that is laughable. It took me a long time to get it. Woody Guthrie I get, his son Arlo I get, the jumper wearing sandal wearing Van Ronk style folk club scene is a schtick a routine and nothing more. It is faux!
Bob Dylan left them standing in his post electric dust soon enough axe wielding Seeger or no.
I could go on but what I will say is Pete’s politics are stand up and be counted stuff and this story re-enforces the highest regard I have for his attitude to the House of Un-American Activities Committee fascist approach to “communism” so called, the pinko under the bed has taken a WHOLE other turn since Drumpf!
This is however worth reading . . . . . . . .
On 18 August 1955 Pete Seeger testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Seeger refused to take the Fifth Amendment, but also refused to acknowledge the right of the Committee to ask him questions about his political affiliations, or the names of other people.
“I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to hear of it,” Seeger said.
“I feel that in my whole life I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature and I resent very much and very deeply the implication of being called before this Committee that in some way because my opinions may be different from yours, or yours, Mr. Willis [D-LA], or yours, Mr. Scherer [R-OH], that I am any less of an American than anybody else. I love my country very deeply, sir.”
CHAIRMAN FRANCIS E. WALTER [D-PA]: Why don’t you make a little contribution toward preserving its institutions?
MR. SEEGER: I feel that my whole life is a contribution. That is why I would like to tell you about it.
CHAIRMAN WALTER: I don’t want to hear about it.
The committee then tried to question Seeger about where he performed, and if he ever performed, citing Elia Kazan’s testimony regarding the Communist Party’s wish to have American entertainers perform for them. Seeger replied, “I feel these questions are improper, sir, and I feel they are immoral to ask any American this kind of question… . I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or colour of their skin, or situation in life. I have sung in hobo jungles and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody. That is the only answer I can give along that line.”
Pete Seeger was found guilty of contempt of Congress (and faced 10 years in prison) but successfully appealed his case, which was overturned in 1962. Seeger was also blacklisted – his songs not played on the radio and he could not appear on TV – for 17 years.
Sunday, July 30, 2023
NEIL YOUNG & THE DUCKS SUMMER 1977 - SANTA CRUZ, CA - soundaboard
missing from soundaboard’s selection but Big O posted this back in 2017
TRACKS
BOX 1
CD1 - 52:36
101 [2:37] [cuts in] A Deeper Mystery
102 [1:02] talk
103 [2:40] Gypsy Wedding
104 [0:51] talk
105 [3:14] Bye Bye Johnny
106 [0:41] talk
107 [4:11] Long May You Run
108 [1:25] talk (Neil broke a string)
109 [4:43] Sailor Man
110 [3:53] Younger Days
111 [1:25] talk
112 [6:17] Love You Forever
113 [3:42] Gone Dead Train
114 [4:44] [cuts in on first notes] Hold On Boys
115 [5:20] Sail Away
116 [0:25] talk before set break
117 [5:26] Silver Wings
CD2 - 35:26
201 [5:18] [cuts in on first notes] Two Riders
202 [4:03] Poor Man
203 [4:51] Mr. Soul
204 [0:35] talk
205 [3:48] Tore Down
206 [4:16] [cuts in on first notes] Wide Eyed And Willing
207 [3:14] Truckin' Man
208 [4:54] Don't Let Em Get To You
209 [0:47] talk
210 [3:40] [cuts in] Long May You Run [cut]
BOX 2
CD1 - 40:40
101 [1:08] announcer intro, talk, tune ups and applause
102 [3:43] Poor Man
103 [3:51] Tore Down
104 [4:47] Your Love
105 [5:11] Two Riders
106 [4:12] Gone Dead Train
107 [0:15] Neil talk
108 [4:36] Little Wing
109 [3:37] Truckin' Man
110 [0:17] talk
111 [2:31] Hey Now
112 [0:21] talk before end of set
113 [5:54] Silver Wings
114 [0:17] thanks and applause at end of set
CD2 - 53:02
201 [4:27] Wild Eyed And Willing
202 [4:25] Human Highway
203 [2:52]Gypsy Wedding
204 [3:42] Honky Tonk Man
205 [4:44] Hold On Boys
206 [4:05] I'm Ready
207 [4:28] Windward Passage [cut]
208 [5:19] Mr. Soul
209 [3:02] Car Tune
210 [0:32] talk
211 [5:44] Leaving Us Now
212 [6:06] Sail Away
213 [0:24] talk before end of set
214 [3:12] Do Me Right [cut on last notes]
Sound of the day and we haven’t had any Young for a while so this with ex-members of the Grape is a fine fine boxed set.
Sunday Sounds (contd,) KRAFTWERK COVER OF THE DAY (sic!) - Autobahn · Señor Coconut
Yes really ! TURN IT UP! (Stick with it! I DARES YA!)
Sunday Sounds (contd.) TOM PETTY : Learning To Fly
I love this song . . . . . . . amongst Tom’s very best and here I dedicate to the memory of Tim Leary
(courtesy of Alice at O MY SOUL)
. . . . . . . coming down is the hardest thing . . . . . .
Thought For The Day : Timothy Leary : 'Turn On Tune In Drop Out'
(Art: Photograph by Jerry Yulsman)
Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorising fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities—the political, the religious, the educational authorities, who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing—forming in our minds—their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself. ~ Timothy Leary
(Book: Turn on, Tune in, Drop out https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30944444172&searchurl=sortby%3D17%26tn%3DTurn%2BOn%2BTune%2BIn%2BDrop%2BOut&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2)
The Politics of Ecstasy
For The Record:
Long my ‘guru’ as a youngster onward much to my father’s fury, he dropped in to read what he could and I don’t think I ever saw him frightened but Tim’s approach to life made it happen. There was nothing really to be scared of but then maybe the drug world being taken over by criminals did that in the blinking of an eye and we lost a lot of people along the way. Legalised control is much more interesting. LSD use with alcoholics is an area I would have liked to have worked in. It’s legal use and the legalisation of such substances still fascinates me. The illegal production of Class A drugs is one of the worst things we have EVER done as a species. the synthesis of opiates (opioids) is an epidemic.
The current legalisation of the cannabis plant (sativa and indica) produce worries the heck out of me and the lack of control over the isolation and utilisation of the 400+ cannabinoids worries me. They are doing something to the weed and the hashish and the lack of certain levels of THC and the genetic modification thereof is dangerous IMHO. CBD is an essential oil IMHO. As for LSD if you are not controlling the means of production you DO NOT KNOW what it is that your are taking. So don’t!
All smoking comestibles are bad for you! The inhalation of substances whilst on fire at anything up to 1000 degrees into your lungs is bad for you obviously (duh!) and ultimately will kill you!
Eating vegetables is another matter entirely. Vaping nicotine is the last clinging monster of tobacco industry in collapse. STOP SMOKING EVERYTHING! Its easy!
"Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”
Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others.” ~Timothy Leary
(Source: book reference unclear/Consider one of Leary's most famous books: Turn on, Tune in, Drop out
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Saturday night and I just got paid . . . . . . . . . what we need is a dance
Ricky Nelson - 1958 - Whole Lotta Shakin’
Sound of The Day :: JAMES - Sit Down
Cheerful and enquiring song . . . . . . hope that God exists? Hope and pray? Nah, but hey change the sympathy to empathy and we got it . . . . . . . . . nice try James!
More wisdom from Tom . . . .
. . . . . . Waits that is!
Photo: Paul Aubin.
Life advice from Tom Waits:
“Run away and join the circus. Get a tattoo, hop a train. Plant a garden and save the seeds. Get married, have kids, wear a hat. Get good with a bullwhip. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal. Everyone must put beans on the table. Be devoted to the unification of the diverse aspects of yourself. Remember, most of what is essential is invisible to the eye. The quality of time you spend with someone far out-weighs the quantity. And there’s a lot you can do with a wah-wah pedal and a bullet mike.”
- Rolling Stone Magazine's millennium edition, 2000.
Friday, July 28, 2023
THE LAST DAY OF OUR ACQUAINTANCE - SINEAD O’CONNOR [2009] : GUESS I’M DUMB
A beautiful, if heart wrenching, end to the day The Last Day of Our Acquaintance (2009)
Terry Reid - Live Fillmore West 1968 | Voodoo Wagon (re-post)
The Boss at Silent Way, as is so often the case, responded to those of us dropping by and has reposted links to a legendary guitarist singer songwriter and prospective Led Zeppelin member, Terry Reid
We saw Terry Reid play in Oxford way back and I have documented that elsewhere but as this is a re-post for another regular visitor there I thought it worthy of another reminder that this set is out there.
Its top stuff!
I don’t think I will ever knowingly NOT re-post links to Reid's work. Live he blew us all away not only with his guitar playing but his ‘superlungs’ too and the video Silent Way chooses is really worth checking out as well! This is a set from before we saw him I think but then went on to see him in 1970/1971 at Glastonbury and The Isle of Wight . . . . great voice, great guitarist, deserved of more attention
Terry Reid - Live Fillmore West
San Francisco, CA.
December 15, 1968
...from the FBS archives. [you know down past the torture chamber at Voodoo Mansions around the castle keep and just along from the Ha-ha)
Terry Reid - vocals, guitar
Keith Webb - drums
Pete Solley - keyboards, bass pedals
Terry Reid - vocals, guitar
Keith Webb - drums
Pete Solley - keyboards, bass pedals
Set List:
1. Summertime Blues
2. Penny
3. Tinker Taylor
4. I Put A Spell On You
5. Highway 61 Revisited
6. Writing On The Wall
7. Summer Sequence 4:11
8. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
9. Crowd
10. Marking Time
1. Summertime Blues
2. Penny
3. Tinker Taylor
4. I Put A Spell On You
5. Highway 61 Revisited
6. Writing On The Wall
7. Summer Sequence 4:11
8. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
9. Crowd
10. Marking Time
Terry Reid - Acoustic on the OGWT - Without Expression
Still going strong in 2018 - on Jools Sessions ‘Later with . . . . ‘
John Sebastian LIVE in San Francisco CA 1969 | FLOPPY BOOT STOMP
Well wow! Groovy baby! This is taking me straight back into deja vu land and my early adolescent love of The Lovin’ Spoonful we revisit here at Floppy Boot Stomp with thanks to contributor Jeremiah (he was a bullfrog you know!?) Sebastian their leader and main songwriter par excellence. I followed him on his own to Woodstock, Tarzana Kid and albums with his wife too . . . . . .when the band crashed and burned (laregly thanks to Zal’s bust and ahem, subsequent disappearance to Latin America, ‘grass’ your pals will do that to a chap!) I left them all behind and my tastes widened. Despite his early close friendship with Bob Dylan John’s desire to be more mainstream doing theme songs for TV and such began to put me off . . . . . . I still rate ‘Hums’ as a favourite album and it is in my always top 50 (well maybe top 100)
John B I still have a soft spot for
John Sebastian
Fillmore West
San Francisco CA
1969-10-04
Soundboard @320
01. Lovin' You
02. Sitting On Top Of The World
03. Magical Connection
04. You're A Big Boy Now
05. Introduction to 'The Room Nobody Lives In'
06. The Room Nobody Lives In
07. Daydream
08. Fishin' Blues
09. Younger Girl
10. Red-Eye Express
11. She's A Lady
12. Darling Be Home Soon
John Sebastian - Guitar, Vocals
From the Red Hot + Blue AIDS benefit album - SINEAD O’CONNOR ‘You Do Something To Me'
Sinead - You Do Something To Me
Promises to the 'Holy Spirit' :: Sinéad O’Connor (1966-2023) | AQUARIUM DRUNKARD
Promises to the Holy Spirit :: Sinéad O’Connor (1966-2023)
Nice piece from Aquarium Drunkard describing and exploring Sinead’s relationship to her god, Music!
Thursday, July 27, 2023
SINEAD O’CONNOR : Pinkpop, The Netherlands 1988 / Live Salles Des Fētes de Thonex, Geneva Switzerland 2013
Big O has posted a nice double set of Sinead O’Connor from 1988 at Pinkpop in The Netherlands and another from 2013 in Geneva (Switzerland)
Great quality and worth listening to . . . . . . she will be sorely missed
Glen Campbell & Roy Clark Play "Ghost Riders in the Sky"
Never much of a Glen Campbell fan and that country schtick stuck in my craw for the longest time but I never appreciated what a fine country guitar picker he actually was . . . . . the ‘novelty’ status of Roy Clark either didn’t sit too well either but boy do I think those gosh darned heckin’ freckin’ country boys kin play!
Yesirree Bob!
worthy of note that while Roy plays the country guitar of choice the Telecaster, Campbell is playing a 12 string! Not many folks flat pick one of those . . . not sure what make, (could it be a Danelectro?)
JUSTIN HAWKINS RIDES AGAIN : WERE THE BEATLES THAT GOOD?! (Facebook and YouTube)
Justin does make me smile and here not only shows his appreciation of George Harrison’s guitar playing but the Beatles and asks were they even any good! (it’s FUNNY!?)
As much of fan as I
Here at Facebook and
https://fb.watch/m1s-GuUM8x/Were The Beatles That Good?
here on YouTube
Tell Me Why The Beatles Aren't Amazing.
SINEAD O’CONNOR R.I.P. 1966 - 2023
Terrible loss today of the iconoclastic activist singer songwriter and Irish mystic Sinead O’Connor at a mere 56
BBC reports:
Irish singer and activist Sinéad O’Connor has died at the age of 56. On July 26, her family announced the news “with great sadness”, saying “her family and friends are devastated”. The cause of death has not been made public. She was best known for her single Nothing Compares 2 U, released in 1990, which reached number one and brought her worldwide fame.
he released her first critically acclaimed album The Lion And The Cobra in 1987, which entered the top 40 in the UK and US. Her follow-up was I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which included Nothing Compares 2 U. Written by Prince, the song reached number one around the world, including in the US and the UK.
O’Connor, who was outspoken in her social and political views, released 10 studio albums between 1987 and 2014. In 1991, she was was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine and took home the Brit Award for international female solo artist. The following year, one of the most notable events of her career took place when she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on US TV show Saturday Night Live, where she was the invited performer.
Following an acapella performance of Bob Marley’s War, she looked at the camera and said “fight the real enemy”, a protest against child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Her actions resulted in her being banned for life by broadcaster NBC and protests against her in the US, which saw copies of her records destroyed in New York’s Times Square. “I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant,” she said in an interview with the New York Times in 2021.
Converting to Islam in 2018, the Dublin singer changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat, but continued to perform under her birth name. She released a memoir, Rememberings, in 2021. In January 2022, her 17-year-old son Shane was found dead after being reported missing two days previously. The singer later cancelled all live performances for the rest of 2022 due to her “continuing grief” following the death of her son. O’Connor paid tribute to Shane in one of her final tweets, calling him “the love of my life, the lamp of my soul, we were one soul in two halves”.
Belfast filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson, one of the last few people to speak to O’Connor before her death, said she was “devastated” by the news. Ferguson had been working on a documentary film about O’Connor, titled Nothing Compares, which is set to be released on July 29. “Our film really, for me, it was a love letter to Sinéad. It was made over many, many years,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. “And made because of the impact she’d had on me as a young girl growing up in Ireland. “She is one of the most radical, incredible musicians that we’ve had. And we were very, very lucky to have had her.”
Singer Alison Moyet said O’Connor had an “astounding presence” and a voice that “cracked stone with force by increment”. “As beautiful as any girl around & never traded on that card. I loved that about her. Iconoclast.” Musician Tim Burgess of the Charlatans said: “Sinead was the true embodiment of a punk spirit. She did not compromise and that made her life more of a struggle. Hoping that she has found peace.”
Irish film director Mark Cousins added: “Sinéad O’Connor was our Irish wild side. Such a big part of our imagined lives.” Singer Bryan Adams, who had collaborated with O’Connor, wrote: “RIP Sinéad O’Connor, I loved working with you making photos, doing gigs in Ireland together and chats, all my love to your family.”
Music writer Mark Savage wrote: “When she ripped up a picture of the Pope on US television, she was thinking about victims of abuse, not about her image. Nothing Compares 2 U was the outlier: a song that made her famous against her wishes. At heart, she was a protest singer with a voice that demanded to be heard. That is how we should remember her.” - bbc.com
+ + + + +
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
A Dream at the End of the Day :: BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE - The Dream Tree
Lovely NEWSLETTER from EMILY BARKER (out just now!)
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Tom and Rickie-Lee!
Tom Waits with Rickie Lee Jones backstage - Paris 1985
Rickie Lee Jones: “When I was twenty-three years old I drove around L.A. with Tom Waits. We’d cruise along Highway 1 in his new 1963 Thunderbird. With my blonde hair flying out the window and both of us sweating in the summer sun, the alcohol seeped from our pores and the sex smell still soaked our clothes and our hair. We liked our smell. We did not bathe as often as we might have. We were in love and I for one was not interested in washing any of that off. By the end of summer we were exchanging song ideas. We were also exchanging something deeper. Each other.”
Tom Waits (1979): "...The first time I saw Rickie Lee she reminded me of Jayne Mansfield. I thought she was extremely attractive, which is to say that my first reactions were rather primitive - primeval even. Her style onstage was appealing and arousing, sorta like that of a sexy white ‘spade'. She was drinking a lot then [1977] and I was too, so we drank together. You can learn a lot about a woman by getting smashed with her. I remember her getting her first pair of high heels, at least since I knew her, and coming by one night to holler in my window to take her out celebrating. There she was, walking down Santa Monica Boulevard, drunk and falling off her shoes. 'I love her madly in my own way - you'll gather that our relationship wasn't exactly like Mike Todd and Elizabeth Taylor - but she scares me to death. She is much older than I am in terms of street wisdom; sometimes she seems as ancient as dirt, and yet other times she's so like a little girl."
Photo Credit (c) Adrian Boot
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