Last fall, Listener Mindwrecker wrote a fabulous post exploring the wonders of the 1960's far-right record label known as Key Records. I read it with great interest, because I've always picked up records on the Key label when they've crossed my past. They never fail to entertain, and can often inspire both a laugh and a touch of horror, within a few moments of each other.
I bet I have close to a dozen Key releases down in my "spoken word" section, in the basement, of which my favorite, and yet also the most depressing, may well be the one Mindwrecker already shared, by Walter Brennan.
But here another prime example, an album featuring a speech by Dan Smoot, publisher of The Smoot Report, in which he extols the virtues of Mr. D. B. Lewis, who was a manufacturer of pet foods. (Smoot, it would seem, was a true believer. Not only was he associated with the Birchers, I learn from Wikipedia that he later went on to oppose George H.W. Bush's candidacy for the U.S. Senate on the grounds that Bush's positions were essentially those of a Democrat!)
It's amazing to hear, in this speech, which took place at some point during the run-up to the 1964 election, the same rhetoric, the same ideas, and in places, close to the same slogans, as those espoused in recent years by members of the tea party and its offshoots. Time, it's sad to say, doesn't do away with all bad ideas - "those who cannot remember the past..." and all that, I guess.
If anyone is interested, there could certainly be more Key Records mayhem to come!
Dan Smoot: The Fearless American, Part One (MP3)
Dan Smoot: The Fearless American, Part Two (MP3)
(album cover to come soon - I'm having issues with my scanner)
Wow, Smoot comes up again. See Adam Curtis for a bit of Smoot's history working with HL Hunt on early conservative propaganda:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/YOU-THINK-YOU-ARE-A-CONSUMER-BUT-MAYBE-YOU-HAVE-BEEN-CONSUMED
Posted by: Lex | May 12, 2013 at 06:37 PM
Well, naturally I'D like to have more of these see the light of day - now that we've started this frightening trend. Good times.
Posted by: Mindwrecker | May 16, 2013 at 10:35 AM