Give the Drummer Some's
10 Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
(see Comments, below, for helpful info about downloading)
Every year, the Library of Congress taps culturally significant recordings for preservation in its National Recording Registry. Today the Library announced the selection of 25 more snippets of sound, including Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech, Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales," and Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner performing their 2,000-year-old-man shtick. One piece of audio that hasn't yet made the cut turned 55 yesterday:
The power and beauty of these words—a simple utterance that changed the course of American history—remain undiminished since they were first intoned by elegant, soft-spoken lawyer Joseph Welch on June 9, 1954. Welch calmly delivered this courageous rebuke to Joe McCarthy during televised Senate hearings investigating Communist activities in the U.S. Army. Like a pin prick to the hot-air-engorged witch-hunts of the '40s and '50s, Welch's words initiated the great unraveling of the Red Scare and shook a cowed Cold War nation out of its torpor.
In the spirit of exploring every corner of the audio motherlode, the Miner offers this historic 12-minute confrontation between Welch, special counsel to the Army, and Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), who was attempting to assassinate the character of Welch's associate Fred Fisher: Listen (mp3)
About eight minutes into the exchange, Welch punches the bully McCarthy with another ringing blow, the sound of which, like the 10 musical selections offered below, fills the ear with a deeply satisfying sensation. Though not a succinct sound bite destined for posterity, Welch's words here were no less withering: "If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I'm a gentle man. But your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me."
Valentine to the Genius Songwriter Andy Razaf
Maxine Sullivan ~ "Memories of You"
(Blog: Soulful Divas)
Dude Was Short-Listed for the Poet's Chairs at Oxford and Cambridge
Benjamim Zephaniah ~ "Rasta"
(Blog: Satta Massagana)
From the album: Dis Policeman Keep on Kicking Me to Death (mp3)
St. Louis Free Jazz Meets Ghanian Percussion
Mor Thiam ~ "Dini Saffarrar"
(Blog: You Got a Problem?)
[7 more moments of decency, after the jump]
Link Produces His Brother Ray
Vernon Wray ~ "Wasted"
(Blog: Uncle Gil's Rockin' Archives)
From the album: God Is Color Blind (mp3)
Full Name: Juan Candido Washington y Landrón
Jackie Washington ~ "Morning Song"
(Blog: Play It Again, Max)
Sambas Short and Sweet
Sargentelli e o Sambão ~ "Sargentelli e o Sambão"
(Blog: Toque Musical)
Vermicelli Westerns
Ennio Morricone ~ "Una Pistola Per Ringo" / "Il Ritorno Di Ringo"
(Blog: Sleazy Listening)
From Una Pistola Per Ringo: Grotesque Suspense (mp3)
Electric, Eccentric and Cheeky
Lol Coxhill ~ "Fleas in Custard"
(Blog: 9 Grey Chairs)
Forty Years of Field Recordings
Various ~ "Africa and the Blues"
(Blog: Times Ain't Like They Used to Be)
Buh-Bye Polka Grammy!
Li'l Wally ~ "The Polka Beat for Your Dancing Feet"
(Blog: Radio Sinbad)
From the album: Aye Aye Aye (mp3)
Listen for music from these and other incredible finds on
Give the Drummer Some, Fridays on WFMU, 9 to Noon (ET).
Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode
A brief note about Mining the Audio Motherlode: The main focus here will be on
posts of rare and out-of-print recordings, but the blogs themselves are responsible
for the content they are providing.
A few helpful words about the downloads:
Follow the links provided to blog pages offering the downloads. Look for the download link on the page. (Occasionally, the link is listed in the Comments section. Also, if the original download link is no longer active, check further down in the string of comments; a new download link may be posted there.)
Some downloads deposit a folder on your desktop; others leave an rar. file, which needs to be opened using special software. This software is FREE and available online. (If you use a Mac, I highly recommend UnRarx.)
Some blogs provide passwords, which then must be entered when opening the rar. file. The password is typically listed right next to the original download link.
Be sure to search the archived pages at each individual blogs to find more musical gems. Also, check the blog rolls at each blog for leads to other great blogs.
Searching for a specific artist or album? Use Google's BlogSearch or the terrific music blog search engine Captain Crawl.
Posted by: Doug Schulkind | June 10, 2009 at 12:05 PM
My Two cents for the week.
More cool African posted this week than any in past memory (my picks):
http://globalgroovers.blogspot.com/2009/06/lanrewaju-adepoju-his-national-akewi.html
http://ylow.blogspot.com/2009/06/dr-kgyasi-presents-bbossei-with-nobel.html
Shameless self-promotion:
http://penmallet.blogspot.com/2009/06/aboombong-ambientrance-dub-dozen.html
Posted by: icastico | June 10, 2009 at 02:10 PM
Listening to Joe Welch stiff-arm Tailgunner Joe while subtly carving him a new hole on live TV makes me wonder yet again why there don't seem to be any men or women like him around anymore--in government or outside of it.
Posted by: SillyWilly | June 10, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Thanks for the polka!
Posted by: Pluto of Pluto | June 11, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Doug, what led you to find that Joe Welch clip? When Dick Cheney started with his defense of the Bush administration's enhanced interrogation policies a month or two ago, all I could think was "have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last," which led me to dredge up the Welch/McCarthy exchange on the internet. Just wondering if something similar might've brought Joe Welch to your mind.
Posted by: Jim | June 11, 2009 at 02:24 PM
Jim,
I arrived at the Welch clip via a bit of stream of consciousness. I was talking to my sister who lives in Berkeley. Berkeley always makes me think of the amazing "put your bodies on the gears" speech by Mario Savio there during the FSM movement 1964. I was looking for a clip of it on the Rhino box set Great Speeches (it's not on it) which always makes me think of Welch's verbal gallantry from a decade earlier. (It's not on the box set either, though I supposed you wouldn't call Welch's words a "speech" exactly.)
And hey, be careful. Using the words "Cheney" and "decency" in the same sentence may cause the earth to wobble off its axis.
Posted by: Doug Schulkind | June 11, 2009 at 04:50 PM
Historians may consider the McCarthy-Welch exchange a pivotal point in turning public opinion against the Senator but it doesn't change the fact that Fisher WAS a member of the lawyers guild while at Harvard ''and for a period of months after.
The guild was not on the Attorney General's list of subversive groups,( no surprise here) but it had been cited as a ''Communist front'' by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Like detective Joe Friday (from Dragnet), "just the facts, ma'm, just the facts", McCarthy was simply pointing this important fact (which Mr. Welch already knew) for the American public.
Regardless, it didn't "scare" the career of Fred Fisher who went on to become a partner at the firm in 1958 and later organized its commercial law department. He also served as president of the Massachusetts Bar Association and as chairman of many committees of the American and Boston bar associations. He was a former trustee of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and chairman of the Franklin N. Flaschner Foundation in Waban, Mass.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/27/obituaries/frederick-g-fisher-68-was-a-mccarthy-target.html
Posted by: Rich Fontana | June 11, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Joe McCarthy and Bill O'Reilly - separated at birth?
Posted by: mIKES | June 15, 2009 at 12:03 PM