Prof Kitzel's Time Machine Profile; Vernon Dalhart

Vernon Dalhart was the first star of country music, recording the first million selling record "The Prisoner's Song" in 1923, the success of which proved the viability of country (and other rural) music as a business. ..

~ Early life ~ ..

Born in Marion Try Slaughter in 1883 in Marin County Texas, Slaughter worked as a cowboy and learned to sing and play cowboy instruments such as the harmonica, quills and jew's harp, he also became a championship whistler, a then popular cowboy art. Later he moved to Dallas where he received formal vocal training as a tenor. Eventually he moved to New York City where he began singing in Gilbert & Sullivan Operettas and recording for the Edison Cylinder Company. He adopted the the stage name Vernon Dalhart after the name of two Texas towns where he had worked as a cowboy. Today the name "Try Slaughter" would be a perfect name for a country singer but those were more wholesome & conservative times. He recorded an estimated 400 records between 1915 and 1923 using a number of aliases mostly in the style of other popular singers of the day like Billy Murray, Cal Stewart, Arthur Collins, Bert Williams and Carroll Clark backed up by a full orchestra, "The Alcoholic Blues" and "Heart Hearted Hannah", prohibition laments are typical examples.

VERNON DALHART ~ "HARD HEARTED HANNAH";


~ Country Star ~

By 1923 music styles had changed to jazz and blues and his with career in decline Dalhart took a chance by recording a 78 of a weepy, sentimental ballad "The Prisoner's Song" backed with an old railway song 'The wreck of the Old 97' for RCA Victor backed by country guitarist Carson Robison and sung in a less "pop" and more rural style. To the surprise of all the record was a massive success, becoming one of the first million sellers and eventually selling and estimated 7 million copies, an astounding number for the era, and this doesn't even include overseas sales, making it one of the biggest selling singles of all time. Some accounts suggest the true sales may have reached more than double the official figures by the time WW2 ended since he rerecorded the song for different labels. The record was particularly popular in the white rural south, an audience hitherto untapped by the New York and Chicago based record industry, encouraging record companies like RCA, Columbia, OKeh and Paramount to record more authentic country (and eventually blues) artists and establishing country music as a viable industry. Dalhart himself would record scores of records in a similar style for the rest of the decade teaming up with Robison, and later adding a female fiddle player Adelyne Hood with whom he also started an affair, they also sometimes used on unknown piano player or players for some tracks. Dalhart preferred to record maudlin ballads about train wrecks ("The freight wreck at Altoona") mine cave-ins ("The death of Floyd Collins") and similar tales ("The sinking of the Titanic" & "The Mississippi flood") all of which sold well, often he recorded the same songs for different labels including Columbia and even Black Patti. However by the end of the decade tastes had changed once again with the success of more authentic country singers like Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, Fiddlin' John Carson and Charlie Poole. ..

VERNON DALHART ~ "THE PRISONER'S SONG";


~ Decline and death ~ ..

By 1928 Dalhart and Robison had a falling out over musical differences (Robison wanted to do more authentic country recordings and write more original songs) and business (signing a cut-rate deal with Columbia) furthermore Dalhart and Hood were strictly recording artists and had no interest in live recording unlike Robison who left to a solo career while Dalhart signed a contract with the failing Edison company which soon ceased operation after the stockmarket crash of 1929. With the record business devastated by the worsening depression and without a record contract Dalhart and Hood turned to radio, hosting the "Barbasol Hour" in 1931 but this only lasted a year and Dalhart & Hood traveled to England where they recorded a few singles with English Jazz guitarist Len Fillis, including one hit "The Runaway Train". They returned to the USA but found little work until they got another radio show in 1938 and a new contract with RCA in 1939 where he recorded the infamous gay cowboy ballad "The Lavender Cowboy" which was widely banned in the USA, the records didn't sell and after RCA let his contract lapse the radio show also failed. By then Dalhart had run through his fortune and Hood left him to pursue a solo radio career as "Betsy White". Dalhart retired from the music business, aside from becoming a voice teacher and doing some voice-over work on radio, eventually taking a job as desk clerk in a hotel in upstate New York until he died broke and alone of a heart attack in 1948. Adelyne Hood later married and retired from music, dying in 1958 while Carson Robison would continue as a respected solo artist until his death in 1957. ..

VERNON DALHART ~ "WRECK OF THE OLD 97";


~ Hall of Fame ~ ..

Dalhart had never been popular with the country establishment in Nashville since he had never worked there and he was viewed with suspicion due to his pop singer roots and distant personality, and was often overlooked in county music histories. However in 1970 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame, which is a little ironic since he was not primarily a songwriter. He was finally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 for "The Prisoner's Song/ The wreck of the Old 97" which is still one of the top five selling singles of all time. Dalhart is considered the most recorded singer of all time with perhaps 1000 records (many of them hits) to his credit, but since he recorded under many aliases for various companies in a time when poor records were kept and there were often no contracts the true number will never be known.

Members;

Vernon Dalhart ~ Vocals, w/ Carson Robison ~ Guitar, Adelyne Hood ~ Fiddle, Len Fillis ~ Guitar

VERNON DALHART ~ "BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN";

So; What Were White People Listening To Before Rock & Roll Anyway?

Recently a number of musical figures from the fifties died who can answer the question; What did white people listened to in the pre-Rock and Roll post WW2 era of the late forties and early fifties (obviously black Americans already had a variety of good Blues, Jazz, R&B, Doo Wop and Gospel)...well if you were cool and lived in a big city then you listened to Jazz. Especially the Cool Jazz of Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. If you were a bit older and weren't worried about drugs then there were still a few BeBop fans, if you were even older then there was still some swing hanging around. If you were young and political you listened to Folk like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Weavers and the Kingston Trio. If you were young but not political there were the collegiate type vocal quartets like the Four Freshmen, Four Lads, Four Preps, Crewcuts and The Lettermen. Whose names all imply their College Frat roots. And if you were working class and living in the south or west you listened to Honkytonk Country, Western Swing, Bluegrass or White Gospel. But not everything that happened in the 1950's was cool you know.

( Note; Very few white people, no matter how cool, listened to the blues or black gospel in the 1940's and 50's other than a few young folk musicians and critics, by the end of the decade that would change as the Folk Revival discovered the likes of John Lee Hoooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Rev Gary Davis and a legion of other survivors from the 1920's & 30's and introduced them to a new generation)

Speaking of bluegrass; Earl Scruggs, one of the classic bluegrass pickers just died at 86.

EARL SCRUGGS & LESTER FLATT ~ "SALTY DOG BLUES";


Bluegrass great Earl Scruggs, who played banjo with the classic Bill Monroe and his Blue Sky Boys band from 1945 till 1948 when after a tiff with the notoriously hard assed Monroe he left with fiddle player Lester Flatt to form the Foggy Mountain Boys. Monroe never forgave them. Flatt and Scruggs would become his only real rivals for classic bluegrass and even today Scruggs pioneering three fingered style is still considered the only legit way to play for bluegrass pickers. The Foggy Mountain Boys would breakup in 1969 with most of the band staying with Flatt and and Scruggs would go on to a long respected solo career. In the film "Oh Brother where are thou" the band formed by Clooney and co. is called The Soggy Bottom Boys by way of tribute. Flatt died in 1979.


FOGGY MOUNTAIN BOYS ~ "WHEN THE ANGELS CARRY ME HOME";


Also dying recently is Everett Lily, one of the Lily Brothers & Don Stover, an important Bluegrass band of the late fifties.

Short Doc about the Lily Brothers & Don Stover;



Another bluegrass picker; Doug Dillard, played with The Dillards and later with Gene Clark and The Byrds;

The Dillards on the Andy Griffith show;




Or if you were Celtic there was The Dubliners, one of the classic Irish folk groups from 1962 on, along with the even older Chieftains. Which is not technically pre Rock and Roll. However for most people on Ireland, Newfoundland, Cape Breton Isle of Man or the Scottish Highlands it might as well have been. The old ways still held firm there for a while yet. Founding member "Banjo Barney" McKenna, who sang and played banjo and mandolin, and who had previously been in the Chieftains, died this week at age 72.

The Dubliners ~ "Whiskey in the jar";






OK that's all well and good but what if you weren't cool enough to be listening to jazz, political enough to be listening to folk or white trash enough to be listening to country or white gospel? Well then the pickings get pretty slim indeed. There is always classical music of course, if you were an educated snob. Then there is the world of whiter-than-white post war pop best exemplified by these four who also just died;

THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "SUGAR TIME";


Dorothy McQuire ~ Singer with 1940's & 50's Pop Vocal group The McQuire Sisters. (aged 84) The McQuire Sisters were the most successful female vocal group of the Fifties. Starting off while still children singing in a church where their mother was a minister by the end of the forties they had moved into secular entertainment taking inspiration from the biggest singing group of the forties, the Andrews Sisters. Although they were already seasoned performers with a record deal they appeared on the top-rated TV show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" in 1952 where he gave them a residency that lasted seven years and gave them the exposure to score a few dozen top forty hits throughout the decade. Besides the usual syrupy fifties pop fare as the Rock & Roll Era took over they became one of the pop acts including the likes of Pat Boone, Guy Mitchell and the Crewcuts, to adapt to the times by recording bland versions of R&B hits like "Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight", "Sincerly", "Tears On My Pillow" and "Rhythm 'n Blues" which show a serious lack of either rhythm or blues but plenty of wholesome perky bounce.

THE MCGUIRE SISTERS ~ "RHYTHM & BLUES";


These records, which are clearly inferior to the originals would be deeply resented by black artists and become much loathed by rock historians as exhibit A in illustrating the concept of Cultural Appropriation and are laughable today but they did play a role in bringing Doo Wop to a larger audience.

THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "SINCERLY";


The era of the super white cover versions only lasted a few years and was over before the fifties was even done but the McGuire Sisters were popular enough to continue on TV and Vegas until the end of the sixties when Phylis McGuire went solo and the others essentially retired aside from occasional reunions. Phyllis would become better known in the sxties for her relationship with gangster Sam Giancana.

THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "BLUE SKIES";


Marion Marlowe ~ (aged 83) Pop singer who scored some hits in the early fifties and was another regular on the Arthur Godfrey Show. After she was dropped by her record label she was fired by Godfrey in 1955, later moving to Broadway

Marion Marlowe "Lover";



Russell Arms ~ (aged 92) Early 1950's pre-R&R pop singer, appeared as a regular on the TV show "Your Hit Parade" which featured weekly covers of top 40 hits, he managed to parlay this gig into a fairly successful recording career of his own as well as appearing in western musicals. Once R&R hit this sort of approach became impossible and "Your Hit Parade" was edged out by shows with actual R&R singers hosted by Alan Feed, Dewey Phillps and Dick Clark (aged 92)

Russell Arms covers "Standing On The Corner" (hit version done by Toronto vocal group The Four Lads);


Russell Arms ~ "Papa Loves Mambo" (originally by Perry Como);



Nick Noble (real name Nick Valkan); Another one of the pre-rock white pop singers who would be put out of work when rock hit. Noble actually manged to have a few more hits though as an easy listening and country singer (aged 85)

NICK NOBLE ~ "A FALLING STAR";

On Joan Baez and Phill Ochs

This past month the PBS series "American Masters" featured specials on folk singers Joan Baez and Phil Ochs (they also had ones on Cab Calloway, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, but that's another subject). While watching them I was reminded of something.

I was never a particular fan of their purist brand of folk; too pristine and stately for my liking, and not a lot of fun, I prefer my folk either rough and rootsy or the elaborate garage-folk rock of The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. However one has to have nothing but admiration for their true commitment to the ideals of the original folk movement, often at great personal cost and risk.

JOAN BAEZ ~ "WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE";





Both of them, especially Baez, not only supported the great battles for civil rights and peace with the usual public relations but also by putting themselves on the line literally. In the early sixties when concerts in the deep south were segregated as a matter of law, she insisted on contracts that specified integrated audiences, or risk cancelling the whole tour. When black students attempting to integrate schools in the south were threatened by stone throwing mobs, Baez came down to personally escort them to school. The sullen mobs backed off. A committed Quaker pacifist, she insisted on repeatedly advising draftees on how to resist the draft. Which got her arrested repeatedly. Every time she got out she went right back to the draft offices and resumed counselling draft resisters. As did her husband who got a longer stretch. She went to Vietnam while Hanoi was under constant bombardment by US B52's. She went to Cambodian refugee camps under the reach of shell fire. She went to Chile to stand with the Mothers of The Disappeared. She went to Sarajevo while it was under bombardment, going to a market that was a known target of Serbian shells, and sang "Amazing Grace".

JOAN BAEZ ~ THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN";




All the while Baez never once lost her temper or raised her voice. She remained the very embodiment of her friend Martin Luther King's ideals. And she never seemed to be in it for the publicity. In fact by her political activities, her insistence on placing activism ahead of touring and her refusal to compromise her musical style she gave up the kind of mainstream success she would surely have had. It's hard to remember now that she actually started her career off by getting on the cover of Time Magazine and her firsts two albums were million sellers. She was a very big star, and an earthy/angelic sex symbol to boot. Most artists would sell their very souls for that kind of attention, she put it to work for public justice while keeping her artistic vision intact. I still have little interest in most of her music, aside from her Nashville album with the classic version of "The night they drove Old Dixie down", but it's hard to see how anyone could have have set higher standards for any "political" artist.

JOAN BAEZ ~ "WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN" (ON THE MUPPETT SHOW);




Phil Ochs did not have the strength or discipline of Baez. Probably bipolar and a hard drinker as well, Ochs flirted with stardom and the attention it promised. But he always came back to the ideals of the original sixties folks scene. He worked himself to exhaustion for all the right causes and ruined his health. He organized rallies, events and demos but didn't hog all the glory. He passed up plenty of chances to promote his career to promote peace. He lost good friends in the Chile coup. By the time the Vietnam war ended and Watergate brought down Nixon Ochs was a broken-down wreck, sick, tired, depressed, often drunk and confused and overweight from overeating and meds that did not seem to work. He killed himself in 1976. The musical output of Ochs was more varied than Baez but he was no less insistent on following his muse wherever it led. "I ain't marching", When I'm gone", "Another age" and "James Dean of Indiana" are his best songs. Today Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen sing both his praises and his songs.

PHIL OCHS ~ "I AIN'T MARCHIN' ANYMORE";




There have been no shortage of singers, actors and writers who will attach themselves to causes. Some, if not most, are no doubt sincere. Some are opportunists and poseurs. Some are both. Even the sincere one have a pretty easy time of it these days. In fact I would say the same about plenty of full time "activist" types. It is easy to get cynical. Sometimes it is good to remember the real thing. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Harry McClintock were it. So were Joan Baez and Phil Ochs.

PHIL OCHS ~ "JAMES DEAN OF INDIANA";




PHIL OCHS ~ "WHEN I'M GONE";

RIPs to Micheal Davis of the MC5 and some other classic rockers

Michael Davis ~ Bassist for the classic late 1960's proto-punk band The MC, later joined with Ex Stooge Ron Asheton in The New Order (not the other one). There is literally not a punk, garage or grunge band alive or dead that has not been influenced by the MC5. Nuff said ~ 68

THE MC5 ~ "KICK OUT THE JAMS";



THE MC5 ~ "MOTOR CITY'S BURNING"; <



Levon Helm; Drummer with The Band and The Hawks from the 1950's on. Starting off as a backing band for Ronnie Hawkins on Roulette Records before Hawkins moved to Toronto. Helm later moved to Canada as well and rejoined Hawkins new all-Canadian group renamed The Band as they went on to play with Bob Dylan on his classic folk-rock records, still later the Band would go on to a solo career in the late 1960's and 70's with several classic albums. After the Band broke up Helm would continue with a solo career as well as acting, including a role as the father in "Coal Miner's Daughter". He had been battling cancer for years and died at age 72.

THE BAND ~ "I SHALL BE RELEASED";



Buggs Henderson, guitarist with the Nuggets era Texas garage band Mouse and Traps, best know for their blatant Dylan rip off "A public execution" as well as the excellent "Maid of Sugar Maid of spice" died of cancer last week at 68. He stared out with an R&B group called the Sensors and in later years recorded as a solo blues guy.

MOUSE ANT THE TRAPS ~ "MAID OF SUGAR MAID OF SPICE;




Freddie Milano ~ Singer with Dion and The Belmonts, one of the greatest white Doo Wop groups with hits lke "Runaround Sue", "Lovers who wander", "A teenager in love" ~ 72

DION & THE BELMONTS ~ "RUNAROUND SUE";




JERRY "BOOGIE" MCCLAIN ~ "TWIST 62";





Donald Duck Dunn; Bassist with Booker T & The MG's, the classic house band for virtually all the classic Soul and R&B hits put out by Stax Records in the 1960's. Hits by the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Albert King, as well as several instrumental hits by the MG's themselves. Later worked with Wilson Pickett, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Neil Young, Joe Walsh and Jerry Lee Lewis. Still later he played on Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks "Stop dragging my heart around". Appeared in the "Blues Brothers" movie as himself backing up the Brothers as well as Cab Calloway.

Booker T & The MG's ~ "Green Onions";


Herb Reed ~ Singer with 1950's Doo Wop group The Platters ~ 83

The Platters ~ "The Great Pretender" & "Only You";



Lloyd Brevett ~ Jamaican double bassist (The Skatalites) ~ 80

Chris Ethridge ~ Bassist with Gram Parson's International Submarine Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Also played with The Byrds and Emmylou Harris ~

The Flying Burrito Brothers ~ "Older Guys";


Robin Gibb ~ Singer with the Bee Gees, best remembered for their disco hits but originally known for a series of lush 1960's pop hits such as "To love somebody", "I started a joke" ~ 62 The Bee Gees ~ "I started a joke";




Vince Lovegrove ~ Co-lead singer (with Bon Scott) in 1960's Australian group The Valentines. The group broke up after a drugs bust and Lovegrove went on to be a producer and manager while Scott would later join AC/DC ~ 65

THE VALENTINES ~ "BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP";




Richie Teeter ~ Drummer with late 1970's New York punk band The Dictators, later with 1980's hair band shockers Twisted Sister ~ 61


THE DICTATORS ~ "SEARCH AND DESTROY";



TWISTED SISTER ~ "WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT";


Ronnie Montrose with 1970's hard rock band Montrose along with singer Sammy Hagar before Sammy went solo became a total twat. Ronnie later went solo ~ 66


MONTROSE ~ "BAD MOTOR SCOOTER";





Mike Hossack, one of many drummers of the 1970's stadium rockers Doobie Brothers most of whom were not brothers and none of whom were named "Doobie" ~ 65


THE DOOBIE BROTHERS ~ "CHINA GROVE";

Prof Kitzel's Time Machine Profile; Beyond Possession

BEYOND POSSESSION ~ "SKATER'S LIFE" (video by moi);


Beyond Possession was an early thrash/hardcore/skater crossover band from Calgary, Canada from 1984-89. They evolved out of an earlier bands named Riot and White Noise. They recorded a 7in ep ("Tell Tale Heart") in 1984 which was a fusion of skater thrash and horror punk, and, after switching guitarists, a full album ("Is Beyond Possession") in 1986 for Metal Blade Records that was more thrashy. They toured extensively especially on the west coast and praries touring with The Accused, Corrosion of Conformity, The Circle Jerks, DRI, Jr. Gone Wild, The Descendents, The Dayglo Abortions, GBH, Cheetah Chrome, The Cockney Rejects, Die Kruezen, Dr Know, Entropy, The Mentors, The Melvins, Six Feet Under, The Stretchmarks, Suicidal Tendencies, Soul Asylum, SNFU, Toxic Reasons, Verbal Abuse and Color Me Psycho (later known as Forbidden Dimension) and counted among their fans Metallica, Megadeth and the young Kurt Cobain. After going through various lineup changes (especially on guitar) they recorded demos for a second lp in 1989 that pointed to a more moody metal direction but broke up without finishing it. All their recordings were released on cd ("Repossessed") on the Melodiya label in 1996. They can also be found on youtube and lastfm.com and there is a Facebook group.



Line up;
Ron Hadley ~ vocals
Jaime Kenney ~ bass
Phil Pobran ~ drums
Ken Wall ~ guitar (1984/85)
James Yauk ~ guitar (1985/89)
Mike Davies ~ guitar (1989)
Will Pontes ~ guitar (1989)
Chris Banting ~ drums (1989)
John Heibert ~ guitar (1983)
Brent Beatty ~ drums (1983)

BEYOND POSSESSION ~ "THE TELL TALE HEART" (video by yours truly);


SHORT DOC ABOUT BAND POSTERS, THERE'S A BEYOND POSSESSION/DAYGLO ABORTIONS POSTER AT 1:24

On Christopher Hitchens & HL Menken

Christopher Hitchens died of cancer this December after a long and public battle. There have been the expected praiseful obituaries some of which I happily endorse, his reaction to cancer was lacking in the sort of maudlin self pity that passes for empathy these days.

And yet I have a caveat. First of all I have read some (but by no means all) of his essays and while I found some interesting and well written I have never been impressed with his biggest claim to fame, at least in the Excited States of America, his radical atheism. Let's be honest, religion is a laughably easy target. From crazed homophobic Christians to radical Zionists to violently hate filled Islamists to celebrity chasing Scientologists, God knows there are no shortage of targets. The smug self congratulatory pose atheists always adopt is too annoying to be really funny. Seriously; you aren't risking anything here being as how we aren't living during the Inquisition.

Besides, while I am by no means religious I can not deny that for some people religion has been a good thing. Martin Luther King was a pretty religious guy. A preacher in fact. And so were J.S. Woodsworth, Tommy Douglas, Norman Thomas, Desmond Tutu and the Berigan Bros. If religion gave them the strength to do great things that improved thousands of life who am I to belittle that. And yes that even goes for one of Hitchens' bete noires, Mother Theresa. Yes I know the Catholic Church hierarchy has been deeply implicated in pedophilia, homophobia, antisemitism, and it's opposition to birth control is inexcusable. But there is no denying that her mission saved thousands of lives. Are their lives less important than her nineteenth century beliefs? A true humanist shouldn't have to even ask that question.

Which brings up something I noticed whenever Hitchens was on some sort of panel show like Bill Maher's. Whenever anyone seriously questioned, or worse made fun of him, Hitchens seemed truly offended, even outraged that anyone could possibly disagree and not be held in contempt. I always found him smug and overly self satisfied with absolutely no sense of humour at all. Many obits mentioned his wit and humour, but I think they are mistaking a talent for invective, which he certainly had (he famously, and repeatedly called Mother Theresa a "Poisonous Dwarf" which was also a name Josef Goebbles was often called, something Hitchens probably knew) with real wit, let alone humour.

Invective might be witty, especially if it turns out to actually be funny, but sometimes it's just an insult. That's a judgment call and it depends on the target. And as an Irish saying goes; "Wit is the ability to laugh at others, humour is the ability to laugh at ones self". This is a quality Hitchens clearly lacked. He simply took himself far too seriously and held himself in too high regard. A humanist should have some humility and humour. While not exactly funny himself, Martin Luther King had this quality, as did Mandella, Desmond Tutu and Tommy Douglas, Hitchens however did not.

In the various obits about Hitchens comparisons were made with past writers like Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw, HG Wells and (his personal hero) George Orwell. But I always thought that his obvious successor was the early twentieth century American writer H.L. Menken. Both did not write non-fiction but instead wrote opinion pieces, reviews and essays. Both despised religion, superstition, cynical politicians, quackery, censorship, prohibition, professional killjoys and the dumbing down of popular culture. No argument there. Both gloried in literature, science and "serious culture". Both reveled in their large vocabulary and had a talent for incendiary invective. Both were best known for their contemptuous attacks on the main religious figures of the age. Both were lionized by liberals for doing so. Both then lost some of that praise when they then attacked liberal figures with only slightly less venom.

Menken savaged conservatives, but then he later turned his scorn on FDR and socialists for appealing to the great unwashed. Hitchens disdained Republicans but he despised Bill Clinton and JFK for their sex scandals (for a famed libertine Hitchens was something of a prig) and would famously support the Iraq war and would be full of praise for Tony Blair.

Both Hitchens and Menken were in fact true elitists. Elitism has become a hopelessly diluted term by now. These days the term "elitist" is used to define anyone who is not a right wing blowhard, especially when it's being used by right wing blowhards. However there used to be a real definition for the term. A true elitist believes that there is a class of people who are inherently better suited to rule over the masses, either due to race and breeding or because of their superior education and culture. True elitists are actually rather rare but Menken and Hitchens belonged to this last group. They were suspicious of the great unwashed masses who were too stupid and credulous to be trusted.

Those liberals who idealize Menken should read one his essays, "The calamity of Appomattox" in which he states his belief that the loss of the slave owning Confederacy in the American Civil War was a tragedy. Not because Menken in any way supported slavery or segregation of course, but because it dethroned the Planter Aristocracy of Jefferson Davis and Robert E Lee, cultured southern gentlemen, and replaced them with southern populist demagogues and Klansmen. He argued that they would never have been able to take power in the CSA, especially since most poor southern whites couldn't vote as the CSA had property qualifications that prevented them from doing so. He did have half a point there but I doubt condemning millions of blacks to lives of slavery and oppression and millions of poor whites to poverty and effective disenfranchisement is a fair price to pay to keep an "enlightened elite" in power.

Likewise Hitchens was perfectly prepared to toss aside a lifetime of belief in civil liberties and hatred of demagoguery, censorship, and hyper patriotism in order to support a war against the hated Islamicists. The end justified the means.

Another writer who comes to mind is Zora Neale Hurston. Again she is rightly noted for her high ideals, great writing and commitment to individualism. However those liberals who idealize her might pause to take a lok at some of her later writing in which she opposed desegregation in favour of protecting an imagined black elite. Menken, Hurston and Hitchens had a number of interesting things to say, but before granting them the sort of hero worship that the media encourages one should take a step back. You would think we would have learned a few things from the deification of Thomas Jefferson in an earlier age.


Someone once said about H.G. Wells that he "Loved mankind but hated people". I never got the feeling that Hitchens (or Menken or Hurston) much cared for mankind as a whole. At least not as much as they cared about their own ideas. In a writer this can be harmless, even admirable, in a political polemicist it is not.

H.L. Menken speaks (part of the only known surviving interview);



A podcast about Menken from "The Ludwig von Mises Institute presents The Libertarian Tradition, a weekly podcast with Jeff Riggenbach"

Fade to black, SUN TV's Last Day in The Bunker

For those who didn't notice, and judging from their truly pathetic ratings most people didn't, SUN TV (AKA FOX North) went off air on midnight October 31 2011, after being ordered to cease all terrestrial (meaning over-the-air) broadcasting by the CRTC. SUN TV will still however be offered by some cable networks in some parts of Canada including Shaw and Bell.

The CRTC announced their order back in August 2011 ruling that SUN NEWS TV would be losing their terrestrial (over-the-air) signal at the end of October . It seems that SUN TV had been living on borrowed time since going on the air in a suspiciously rushed and slapdash manner during the last federal election, during which SUN TV acted as cheerleaders for the Tories. Since backing the winning horse in the election SUN TV had spent an remarkable amount of attacking their enemies in the media with vitriolic campaigns against the CBC and arts funding along with some what less frenzied attacks on the CRTC. Both SUN TV as well as FOX itself have been feuding with the CRTC for years while demanding the preferential treatment that would allow both of them to set up the kind of national wide right wing network FOX has in the USA and ultimately the rest of the (white) English speaking world including Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. FOX's ambitions have dealt a serious if not lethal blow by the phone hacking scandals of course, but this hasn't dampened the frothing ambitions of SUN TV who continued to try and bully the CRTC into granting them a full nation wide broadcast. If SUN TV were assuming that they now had protection from the now all powerful Harper govt, they gambled wrong.

The odd thing about the SUN TV's sign off was it's stealthy nature. For a right wing trash talking tabloid who never pass up a chance to rage against the vast liberal establishment which is always censoring our poor oppressed billionaires and conservatives this silence spoke volumes. Even after the CRTC's public announcement the near silence from SUN TV was deafening. The assumption is that SUN wants another crack at this once the current CRTC chair, who has the honest-to-God name of Conrad Von Finkelstein (Seriously? He sounds like a Bond villain) is gone. Finkelstein's term is ending and while he has made it known that he would like to stay for another term, Harper has made it even more clear that he will be appointing another one of his more pliable cronies. So SUN is going to bide their time and not make things worse by picking a public fight with the CRTC.

An additional factor was the pathetic ratings of SUN TV which at times have been measured as being as low as 25,000 nation wide, which is less than some local TV stations. Some surveys showed them pulling less than half that (7000 at one point) which is even less than CKLN used to get. Pathetic. As SUN TV was circling the drain the CBC couldn't pass up a chance to rub salt in the wound by taking out ads bragging that CBC's ratings were 650 percent better than SUN TV's. And that was even before they went dark. This led to more impotent outrage from from various SUN TV talking heads who sputtered about the scandal that "Tax Payer Money" was being used to "attack" a poor defenseless mom and pop operation like SUN TV. Taking another shot in the increasingly nasty death match, the CBC piled on by running more ads pointing out the millions of "Tax Payer Money" that QMI (SUN TV's parent company) had gotten over the years from corporate welfare (which I also wrote about here,). QMI Boss Pierre Paladeu threatened a libel suit (like his pal Rob Ford when faced with bad press) and then failed to follow through (also like Ford). Notably he did not actually deny the accuracy of the CBC report however. He did however get to testify at parliamentary hearings which gave him yet another chance to sputter his outrage on behalf of the sacred taxpayers that the big bad CBC would be allowed to run adds smacking him down.

So the run up to the Oct.31 sign off was oddly muted. Other than a crawl across the bottom of the screen which listed the cable providers which would still carry SUN (which at that point was merely Shaw, at least in Southern Ontario) but actually did not mention that they would be off the air at all. That was pretty much it.

I watched the last hours from SUN TV's bunker curious to see how they would go into the dark, dark night, on Halloween no less. Still expecting some kind of grand defiant send off, or at least some kind of acknowledgement to their few viewers. What we got was slapstick.

With FOX North looking to come with a version of the ever popular "War on Christmas" that FOX South has been hawking for years, we had the ludicrous spectacle of Ezra Levant and Charles Adler ranting about the liberal "War on Halloween". The evidence for which being a few schools that banned Halloween dances. Running on a roll they then rambled on to rant some more about the outrageous liberal War on Disneyland. If the War on Halloween consisted of a few school board Killjoys, the War on Disneyland existed solely in the paranoid fantasies of Levant and Adler who simply speculated about how imaginary liberal activists MIGHT protest about racism in Snow White or whatever. The fact that nothing like this ever actually happened is apparently beside the point. As was the fact that the one group who actually HAVE protested Halloween has been Christians, outraged at a pagan holiday. Actually some Christians have even protested Disneyland for allowing gay tourist charters. But there I go using "facts" again, no fair.

At any rate with all this idiotic babble going on I plumb forgot that they were about to go off the air at midnight and turn into a pumpkin with no viewers. Apparently they forgot as well since they never bothered to mention this even once as the minutes ticked down to midnight. At about five to midnight as Levant was in still in mid rant the screen suddenly froze on Levant with his arms outstretched and his mouth silently agape. This shot stayed motionless like this for perhaps half a minute, then the screen went dark on SUN TV forever. And that was that.

I have now had the odd distinction of listening in to no less than three stations go off the air. I also listened in as 1050 CHUM went off air back in 2001 to become an all sports station. They had a classy sign off with an Elvis song "Heartbreak Hotel" (the first number one record at CHUM) and a long sound collage of various moments from CHUM's past. The new format didn't last very long and they soon came back as an oldies station, which also didn't last. Then they were bought out to simulcast CP20's TV newscasts, which was odd since there was obviously no video to go along with the commentary. This year that came to an end and they went back to being an all sports station, which is dying in the ratings again. I didn't catch those changeovers but apparently they were done with little or no notice, let alone fanfare.

1050 CHUM promo circa 1986;



And then there's CKLN. They were yanked off the air this April for being completely inept. Given their penchant for strident left wing ranting and bizzarro conspiracy theories their sign-off was oddly muted. As D-Day came there was no notice of their impending demise until mere minutes before when the station manager Jacky Harrison broke into "The OCAP Show" to announce they would be going off air in about five minutes. She then handed the show back to the perpetually outraged OCAP Radio show host to furiously rant about this censorship for a few minutes before Harrison came back to repeat the warning. Then back again to the OCAP host who was by then comparing CKLN to the Arab Spring protesters before being cut off in mid rant, putting an end to their Abbott and Costello routine for good with the sweet, sweet sounds of static.

It's worth pointing out that after being yanked off the air various members of CKLN's disgraced management gave their conspiracy theories about the CRTC's secret plan to destroy community radio, using this as an excuse for their incompetence and portraying themselves as hapless victims. To go along with this they confidently predicted that others would soon follow, particularly CO-OP Radio in B.C. and CIUT in Toronto.

CO-OP Radio did indeed face CRTC hearings last year partly due to some serious issues over their financial and equipment problems as well as some missed paperwork fillings, as well as a plan by CO-OP to trade their signal with a commercial radio station in exchange for enough money to fix their existing issues. I happily wrote a letter of support to the CRTC for them. The hearings were quite different from the CKLN Gong Show hearings of December 2010. In spite of the CRTC's supposed ruthless corporate racist agenda against community radio they granted CO-OP their extension and allowed their signal swap. And CIUT has been granted their extension along with every other community station as well. Except for CKRG who gave theirs up voluntarily.

CKRG was a Low Power campus station at York University's Glendon Campus. How low? About 5 watts, which would cover the area of the campus itself and that's it. They had been around since 1998 first as a Low Power AM signal then moving to Low Power FM in 2004. They had tried to go for a 200 watt license in 1994 but were turned down. Lately they had decided not to bother to renew their license when the current one came up for renewal in Aug. 2011. There was an extension to Nov. 2011 but by then CKRG had actually been off the air since school had let out the previous spring. Like many student stations (and CKRG was always a student station) CKRG had given up on trying for a terrestrial signal and had decided on a purely internet future. This is unfortunate since they had made this call before they know that CKLN was going down and would be creating an opening that they could have made a bid for. Oh well.

So the cheese stands alone.

A few other sign offs;


CINW-AM 940 in Montreal;





CIGM-AM 790 in Sudbury;






CJUL-AM 1220 in Cornwall;





WMJX-FM 96.3 in Miami (shut down by the FCC in 1981);