Monday, July 30, 2018

Black April

The Book List

Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-75 by George J. Veith, 2011

A tough read but I just finished this provocative book about that doomed war that took a terrible toll on our generation. It reminded me of watching the fall of Saigon on TV that was so surreal at the time. 

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Never a Dull Moment 1971

1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year by David Hepworth, 2016

Read this book in July 2018.

This was a good book not only documenting the music of 1971 but also the times and social influences but also from a British perspective.  I agree that it was an explosive year for rock music but it certainly wasn't the greatest year in rock in my opinion. A lot happened in the music world and there were an extraordinary amount of good albums released in 1971. Here is a list of my favorite 60 albums from 1971 in my personal collection that I put together in 2011. This book isn't a book of lists but rather a collection of stories about the music of the time and it is also very interesting and fascinating with a chapter dedicated to each month of the year. It did have a very cool bibliography and there were some collections of official monthly playlists.

I wrote about the music of 1971 in general in that earlier post and specifically about what I was doing at that time. I was 20 years old for most of 1971 and I also spent most of the year overseas cruising around the world on the USS Portland. We didn't get to hear the latest music very much. Some guys bought some cassettes before we left the States but for the most part we were out of touch with the happening music while cruising. Sometimes someone would get a package with some music in it but not very often.

I had some very significant gaps in my music during the last three years I was living about Navy ships and mostly overseas. I had huge gaps in my knowledge of top 40 radio and didn't get to hear many of the early 70's brainwash songs. I don't think I bought any albums in 1971 and probably not 1972 either. I got out of the Navy in December 1973 and went on an album buying binge that lasted at least a decade.k I had a lot of catching up to do too.

So after reading this book I don't think I subsequently missed anything important except I didn't see any live music (in the USA) that year. I did see a lot of music in the Caribbean islands and saw some of my first reggae bands.



Saturday, July 21, 2018

London Fog

London Fog: The Biography by Christine L. Corton, 2015

Read this book during a quick week in July 2018.

An interesting history of the phenomena of the classic London fog that began at the beginning of the industrial revolution and remained a part of the city's landscape until the clean air legislation of the 1960's. 

The book really is two stories. One is the scientific, economic and social history of the fog in London created by industrial emissions, natural occurring mist and domestic heating fires that creeped into homes, public places, and everywhere in the city. The "pea soup". The other story is the literary and artistic history of the fog in novels and paintings and the impact of the fog on culture. The book contains many amazing illustrations too.

I enjoyed this book very much and I really liked all the literary references.


Sunday, July 15, 2018

Long Strange Trip

This is a copy of an Art of the Mix description that I wrote and posted on that site July 15, 2003. 

That was around the time I joined the group and this was one of the early mixes I posted there 15 years ago.

"So, yes, these are so called "classic rock" tunes but at this time and place they were fresh and new. Even the ability to have albums playing in your car on a road trip was new at the time. Cassette decks soon to be followed by 8 tracks. The oldest song here is the first one from 1969. The rest are all early 70s.

I had just finished a four year hitch in the Navy and wanted to drive down to New Orleans from Philadelphia for Mardi Gras 1974. A buddy of mine, who was living with me in a house I recently bought, went with me. This mix is based on the music we listened to from a box of cassette tapes.

It became a road trip from hell because of the oil/gas crises that developed from the Middle East war at the time. It didn't stop us but really slowed us down. Each time we stopped for gas it took hours in lines. At one point in Tennessee we were running out of gas late at night with no gas stations open anywhere. We pulled into a station that looked like it would open in the morning and parked next to the pump to get some sleep. We woke up the next morning when the gas station opened and there was a line of cars behind us stretching for blocks. We got gas and boogied on down to the Big Easy.

Of course we had a great time at Mardi Gras. It was probably the last year before hotel reservations were required to get into the city. We slept in sleeping bags (when we slept) on the ground in Tulane stadium which was opened up for young people to crash. They don't do that anymore.

The drive back was just as bad with the gas lines. It was a nasty experience that added an extra day each way. We entered PA in the Western end of the state and then realized that we had the wrong license plate number to get gas. You could only get gas on odd or even days depending on your plate number. It was the wrong day for us so we had to back down into Maryland to get gas and cross that state coming back up into PA in the East.

Today's war in Iraq is happening because of those gas lines. Forget the bullshit about Iraqi freedom and weapons of mass destruction. This war is about oil and gas lines and the lessons not learned during that winter of 73-74.

Anyway. we played lots of tapes during this trip and this mix is a sampling of that trip. A Vol. 2 is sure to come."

1. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter  
2. Rod Stewar - Every Picture Tells A Story 
3. Elton John  - Burn Down The Mission  
4. Joe Cocker - High Time We Went 
5. Traffic - Freedom Rider 
6. The Band - Life Is A Carnival 
7. Steely Dan - Show Biz Kids 
8. Dr. John - Right Place Wrong Time 
9. Bruce Springsteen - Blinded By The Light  
10. Tom Waits - Ol' '55  
11. The Grateful Dead - Truckin' 
12.   Santana - Everything's Coming Our Way
13.   T. Rex - Telegram Sam
14.   Roxy Music - Street Life
15.   David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
16.   The Who - The Seeker
17.   Neil Young - After the Gold Rush


FEEDBACK:

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SMOSS
DATE: 7/15/2003
I remember those gas lines! I'd wait in one with this. nice mix. Love the Cocker and the Roxy Music (and the Traffic is an obvious treasure).
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MIXXER
DATE: 7/15/2003
Great music.
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ERIK1966LUTIG
DATE: 7/15/2003
Great mix, George!
I especially LOVE the Roxy Music and David Bowie selections.
Oh... and I remember the gas lines, too, even though I was still too young to drive.
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BEAR
DATE: 7/16/2003
Lots of nice music and a brilliant story- surely you get Comments of the Week!
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ALMOSTFAMOUS
DATE: 7/16/2003
Running the risk of being branded a "young pup", I am too young to remember the gas crisis, but I love this mix! First of all, you have some truly profound music on here. And to make the mix inspired on such memories is a great idea. Perhaps when I get a few more years on, I'll be able to do the same about some amazing road experience that I had. Until then, I'll live vicariously through yours.
Cheers!
-AF.
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FEAT FAN
DATE: 7/17/2003
Telegram Sam
You...Are The Main Man.....

Bobby's all right
He's a natural born poet he's clear out of site!

GREAT F&5king tape!!

Love T-Rex!!!
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P THE SWEDE
DATE: 9/10/2003
great stuff
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MIXXER
DATE: 2/21/2006
This excellent mix has been added to the Exhibit "Where You Got Those Shoes: New Orleans." Check it out at the AOTM Exhibits page.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Brandywine Products

It was 50 years ago this summer that I had my first job working as a machinist helper at Brandywine Products.

Dad worked as a machinist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during World War II. After the war he got a job at Walsh Machine Corp which was a small family owned machine shop located on Brandywine Street in the Tioga neighborhood of North Philadelphia near his family's house and grocery store. A few years later the family sold off the store and the house and moved to the Germantown section of the city where my father met my mother. They lived a block from each other. They ended up raising a family on the block between his family's home and her family's home.

As a small child I remember Dad taking me down to his work place down in Tioga. I can visualize the building and the sign outside that said Walsh Machine Corp. The neighborhood was getting bad and they were expanding the business. They needed more space and several years later they moved the company out of the city to North Wales which was about 45 minutes from our house. They also changed the name of the company to Brandywine Products. Dad commuted every day back and forth to the new plant. He also worked a lot of overtime.

He had become a salaried management employee and plant manager. He was very valuable to the Walsh family and the brothers always tried to take care of him. It was a family business. They had a picnic party every year out on the farm of one of the owners and then later and another employee out in the country. We always looked forward to that day in the country on an actual farm. It might have been a gentleman's farm but we loved it. Actually as I recall one of Mom's cousins had a real working farm about an hour outside the city and once a year we would go there for an afternoon dinner and a day on a real farm.

The company took care of Dad and because of all the time he spent at work John Walsh arranged for Dad to have a monthly night out at a restaurant on the company. Most of the time he and Mom would go out for a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant but two or three times a year they would take the whole family out for dinner at some place nice on the company's bill. It was always very nice and we learned how to behave in a fancy restaurant. Mom said they always got compliments from restaurant staff and other diners on the large family having dinner together. I fondly remember those restaurants. We would also go out to restaurants together when we were vacationing in the Poconos or down the Shore.

I started working at Brandywine Products in 1968 during the summer between my junior and senior years of high school when Dad got me a job there. I spent that summer cleaning up hot chips from around the machines and also did some product inspection work. I previously wrote about that first job experience here. We were still living in Germantown at the time and I would walk down to Wayne Junction every day and take the train up to the North Wales station then walk down the street to Brandywine Products. Sometimes I would catch a ride home with Dad but he often stayed late. I wore a uniform of sorts with green work pants and green shirt which would often get very dirty. I was a real workingman commuting on the train and everyone knew it. I spent most of my work money on records and rock shows.

We moved to Harleysville PA in November 1968. I continued to work on Saturdays at BP. I also got a car to get myself to work and also to drive down to Philly regularly. After I graduated from high school I thought I would work somewhere else and got a job in Lansdale at the Atlas Asbestos Co. for a couple of weeks and then went back to Brandywine where I continued working until I left for the Navy. After high school I became a lathe operator and later a Machinist's Mate in the Navy.

One of the nice things about working there was seeing my Dad everyday and experiencing a whole different side of him. He was really popular with all the guys that worked for him and he was a good boss. It was also interesting to see and hear him in the locker room. I had never heard him tell any off color jokes before. I was glad to have spent that time with him at work especially knowing now that I had so little time left with him.

So Dad worked at Brandywine Products up until the day he died in July 1970. The last time I saw him when I was home on leave after boot camp a few months before his aneurysm rupture.


Thursday, July 5, 2018

Hue 1968

 

Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden, 2017

Read this in July 2018.

I was 16 during the Tet Offensive and the battle at Hue in 1968. I knew people who were there. I had a friend die on that battlefield. There was one scene in the book I remember someone describing to me there experience that was very similar to that incident in the book. Later I stood on a street corner in Philly listening to someone in that battle talk about the feeling of getting shot at and thinking you were going to die.

Viet Nam was always on our minds back then and a few months later there was the first draft lottery where my draft number associated with my birthday was 10. 

Reading this book brought back lots of memories of that time. It was on the TV news every day. This was the time when we all realized for sure that the government had been lying about the war all along and we were not ever going to win it. Viet Nam was the defining issue of my generation and Tet made it clear that the war was going to be going on for a lot longer.

It was interesting reading the details of that campaign by the Vietnamese army to drive out the Americans and the intense building by building fighting by the Americans to retake the city.  The author provides an authoritative account of the battle provided by interviews and documentation from both sides of the conflict. It is also a very well written book and reads like a story being told rather than a historical academic tome.

I've read about twenty books about the Viet Nam War.