On this day:

Not that show, but with the same lineup.

Do Canadians have a constitutional right to magic mushrooms?

https://qz.com/1693840/is-canada-constitutionally-required-to-legalize-magic-mushrooms/?utm_source=YPL&yptr=yahoo

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge
6 hrs ·
On Aug. 24, 1967, The Who played a concert in Flint, MI. They were staying at a local Holiday Inn. Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, had just turned 21 the day before, so they decided to have a birthday party for him. There are many different stories as to what happened at that party, with some stories saying that Keith (or somebody) drove a Lincoln Continental ( and some stories say it was a Rolls Royce) into the swimming pool at the hotel.

What ever actually happened earned the entire band a lifetime ban from Holiday Inns

Wish we had a time machine set for 52 years ago tonight in Flint. Were any of you at the concert that night?

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge
6 hrs ·
"…you can get anything you want…"

On Aug. 24, 1969, Arlo Guthrie's film "Alice's Restaurant" premiered in New York City and Los Angeles.

A true classic film for an entire generation.

How much of the film do you remember and did you see it when it first came out?

And...how many of you watch this around Thanksgiving?

Happy 50th Birthday to the release of "Alice's Restaurant"!!!

too larry said:

If you happened to be on Catalina 53 years ago tonight, you would have been in for a treat. The Yardbirds were playing at the Casino Ballroom. It was one of only about 30 U.S. shows the band played with both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

The band arrived on the Island via sea plane. For some reason, the bands amplifiers never made it to the Island. The promoter supplied the band with Jordan Amplifiers. It has been said that the band wasn't very happy about it (although there are some who say they used the Jordan amps for a couple of shows)

The pictures below show an advertisement for the concert, the band doing a promo shoot outside of the Casino, Jimmy Page and Jim McCarty on stage with the Jordan Amps and the Casino Ballroom on Catalina as it looks today. The current picture was taken while Spencer Davis was playing a concert there a couple of years ago. Pretty much the same it looked in 1966. The concert was in the Ballroom which is located at the top of the building. They still do shows there.

Oh for a time machine to Paradise and The Yardbirds.....

Click to expand...

I was on Catalina 47 years ago, 8th grade graduation. Went over on the seaplane, which were grounded by the FAA a few years later for being un-flight worthy.

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge
7 hrs ·
"...I'm for law and order, the way that it should be.
This song's about the night they spent protecting you from me.
Someone called us outlaws in some ol' magazine
New York sent a posse down like I ain't never seen...."

On Aug. 24,1977, Waylon Jennings was arrested for cocaine possession in New York City by federal agents. The event inspired him to write his song "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got out of Hand?"

"Outlaw Bit" is one of the greatest outlaw music songs ever written in our opinion (CRRK). Even Metallica has covered it. In our opinion, it's up there with "Renegade" by Styx / Tommy Shaw.

Oh, the drug charges…... they were dropped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C433YGfCbp4
Edit

too larry said:

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge
7 hrs ·
"...I'm for law and order, the way that it should be.
This song's about the night they spent protecting you from me.
Someone called us outlaws in some ol' magazine
New York sent a posse down like I ain't never seen...."

On Aug. 24,1977, Waylon Jennings was arrested for cocaine possession in New York City by federal agents. The event inspired him to write his song "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got out of Hand?"

"Outlaw Bit" is one of the greatest outlaw music songs ever written in our opinion (CRRK). Even Metallica has covered it. In our opinion, it's up there with "Renegade" by Styx / Tommy Shaw.

Oh, the drug charges…... they were dropped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C433YGfCbp4
Edit

Click to expand...

They got me for possession of something that was already gone.

The actual radio show, College of Rock and Roll Knowledge, comes on Friday nights 7-9 central on my local NPR station. http://gc907.org/

My wife was nice enough to put a reminder for me on her laptop since Friday nights can get crazy at work. But she went out with her friends last night. I thought about the show when I got in the car at 9 o'clock and the next show was coming on. Maybe one of these days Boomer Bill will get his head out of the 60's and do a podcast.

“We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
begotten from the Father, only-begotten,
that is, from the substance of the Father,
God from God,
light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten not made,
of one substance with the Father,
through Whom all things came into being,
things in heaven and things on earth,
Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down,
and became incarnate
and became man,
and suffered,
and rose again on the third day,
and ascended to the heavens,
and will come to judge the living and dead,
And in the Holy Spirit.
But as for those who say, There was when He was not,
and, Before being born He was not,
and that He came into existence out of nothing,
or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance,
or created,
or is subject to alteration or change
—these the Catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes.”

"The Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical debate held by the early Christian church, concludes today in history August 25th, 325AD with the establishment of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I in May, the council also deemed the Arian belief of Christ as inferior to God as heretical, thus resolving an early church crisis.

The controversy began when Arius, an Alexandrian priest, questioned the full divinity of Christ because, unlike God, Christ was born and had a beginning. What began as an academic theological debate spread to Christian congregations throughout the empire, threatening a schism in the early Christian church. Roman Emperor Constantine I, who converted to Christianity in 312, called bishops from all over his empire to resolve the crisis and urged the adoption of a new creed that would resolve the ambiguities between Christ and God.

Meeting at Nicaea in present-day Turkey, the council established the equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity and asserted that only the Son became incarnate as Jesus Christ. The Arian leaders were subsequently banished from their churches for heresy. The Emperor Constantine presided over the opening of the council and contributed to the discussion."

https://overviewbible.com/council-of-nicaea/
https://netzarifaith.org/2018/11/08/the-council-of-nicaea-the-bad-deal/

"A key battle in the opening phase of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453). England’s Edward III (1312-1377) led an army on an extended chevauchée into northern France with the intention of provoking Philip VI to give battle. The tactic nearly backfired when the French burned several bridges in an effort to trap the English against the Somme: Edward was fortunate to ford under cover of his skilled archers. Two days later the armies met near the village of Crécy, in Normandy, where they formed opposing battle lines 2,000 yards long. The English were well-rested and fed. Though outnumbered 2:1 they took position atop a low ridge with their left flank abutting a stream, the Maie, and their right flank touching Crécy Wood. At the center were three blocks of men-at-arms with protecting pikemen. Two sets of archers with longbows were on the flanks, each in a “V” formation. Each archer had ready about 100 broad arrows, their lethal metal tips pushed into the ground to permit rapid reloading. Hundreds of caltrops were scattered atop the sod and mud to their front, to hobble oncoming warhorses or infantry. Tens of thousands more arrows were packed in wood and leather quivers stacked in carts to the rear. This large supply was key to the English victory. The initial rate of fire of a good longbowman was from six to ten arrows per minute, falling thereafter as muscle fatigue set in. Several hundred thousand arrows thus were likely fired toward the French that day, most from beyond the range of effective retaliation by the gay, pennant-decked lances of the French knights, looking splendid in burnished armor, colorful livery, and plumed helms, but utterly exposed to plunging arrow storms. Nor could Edward’s archers be reached by Genoese mercenaries on the French side firing stubby quarrels from crossbows, a deadly and feared weapon of their chosen profession that was wholly outmatched in range by the longbow on this bloody day.

Neither French cavalry nor Genoese infantry nor the Czech mercenaries of “Blind King John,” an allied prince, had ever faced the longbow. In ignorance and battle lust, they arrived piecemeal on the field of battle in the late afternoon, hungry and tired but straining to attack the English line. Heavy rain had soaked the field, turning it into sticky mud. The sun also favored the English, as it shone into the faces of the French. When the French heavy cavalry arrayed for the attack it formed in the old manner: a mass of armored horse supported by crossbow fire on the flanks and to the front. It is thought that Edward fired several small cannon at the Genoese to break up their formations. If true, these guns would have been so primitive they likely produced more a psychological than a physical effect. What mattered was that the Genoese were slowed by the Normandy mud and then slaughtered by flights of English arrows, not cannon, well before they got into crossbow range. Worse, in the rush to battle most had left their pervase with the baggage wagons. Nor could their slow-loading crossbows do comparable damage to the rapid-firing Welsh and English archers, thus rendering the Genoese attack ineffective and leaving the English lines unbroken and unharried before the French horse arrived. As casualties mounted among the Genoese they broke, turned, and ran, mud sucking at their boots and adding to the agony of panic as they exposed their backs to deadly enemy archers, firing aimed shots at the level.

The French knights, filled with Gallic disdain for everything on foot, spurred callously through the retreating Genoese, slashing at hired infantry in utter contempt, some with cries of “kill this rabble!” A large earthen bank channeled the French cavalry into a narrow front. Edward’s archers, positioned nearly perfectly, now turned their bows against the plodding, funneled cavalry and cut it down, too. Ill-formed, repeated French charges, with horsemen at the rear pushing hard against the forward ranks, were repulsed time and again by the longbowmen. Most were broken apart before they began, with staggering losses among the brave but reckless fathers and sons of the nobility of France. Edward’s archers kept up an extraordinary rate of fire, impaling knights and horse alike and hundreds of men-at-arms. No cowards the French, despite the carnage they charged, again and again. It is thought they made as many as 16 charges that day, utterly bewildered at their inability to beat or even reach an inferior enemy. For two centuries heavy cavalry had dominated battlefields from Europe to the Holy Land. But at Crécy there were no tattered squares of scrambling peasants to skewer on great lances, no clumps of overmatched men-at-arms to chase down with mace or run through on one’s sword. Instead, the chivalry of France met flocks of missiles that felled knight and mount alike at unheard of killing distances. Eye-witnesses reported French awe at the flapping, vital sounds of thousands of feathers on long-shafted arrows arcing in high swarms from an unreachable ridge, to plunge into men, horses, or both. Baleful accounts survive telling how arrows ripped through shields and helmets, pierced faceplates and cuirasses, and arms, legs, and groins, or pinned some best friend to his mount.

Much of this occurred at incredible distances, as unaimed plunging fire reached the French from as far away as 250-300 yards. Longbow accuracy only improved at closer ranges, as bows were leveled and each shot singly aimed at the lumbering steel and flesh targets the French cavalry presented. In prior battles cavalry had been safe at 200 yards or more, the usual distance where riders massed before trotting forward to about 60-100 yards, the distance at which they began the charge. Now death and piercing wounds fell from the sky at double the normal range, slicing through shields and armor to stab deep into chest or thigh, or horse. The French could make no reply to this long-distance death with their lances and swords: knights died in droves that day without ever making contact with their enemies. Armor was pierced and limbs, backs, and necks broken as falling knights entangled in bloody clots of swords and snapped lances, and kicking and screaming dying men and horses. So they charged: anything was better than standing beneath such lethal rain. The nearly 8,000 longbowmen at Crécy probably fired 75,000-90,000 arrows in the 40-60 seconds it took the French to close the range, each arrow speeding near 140 miles per hour, each archer keeping two and some three in the air at once. Those knights who reached the English lines piled up before them, pierced with multiple arrows and forming an armor-and-flesh barrier in front of the English men-at-arms that impeded fresh assaults. With French chivalry broken and its survivors staggering in the mud, the English infantry and Edward’s dismounted knights closed in to kill off the lower orders and take nobles prisoner, to be held for later ransom. Then the English stood in place through the night, holding in case of a renewed attack in the morning which never came.

Most casualties at Crécy were inflicted by the longbow and thus losses were hugely lopsided: between 5,000 and 8,000 French and Genoese were killed, including as many as 1,500 knights, compared to about 100 of Edward’s men. This was a huge number for a 14th-century battle, and left nearly every castle and chateau in France in mourning. The defeat of its warrior elite shattered France’s military capabilities and shook its confidence for a generation. This one-sided battle further eroded the old illusion that heavy cavalry was invincible against common infantry, and elevated recognition of the importance of archers across Europe. A parallel effect was that for the next 50 years French knights, too, preferred to dismount to fight, a practice they followed until better horse armor was made that enticed them back into the saddle at Agincourt"

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge
14 hrs ·
On Aug. 23, 1970, the members of Derek and the Dominos' flew to Miami, Florida to begin recording with Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd. The first few days of the sessions were unproductive.

On Aug. 26th, Dowd, who was also producing the Allman Brothers Band's album "Idlewild South", took the Dominos to an Allman Brothers concert. After the concert, Eric Clapton invited the whole band back to Criteria that night for an impromptu jam session. After the all-night session, Duane Allman asked Eric Clapton if he could attend the recording sessions. Clapton agreed on the condition that Allman also play on the sessions.

Eric and Duane Allman formed an instant bond. Over ten recording dates, Allman contributed to the majority of the album Derek and the Dominos were recording, in between his commitments to the Allman Brothers Band.

Clapton has described Allman as "the musical brother that I never had, but wished I did".

The LP that was released from these session was called "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs"

All from going to a concert, 49 years ago tonight.

"At 10:02 a.m. on August 27, 1883, the tiny volcanic island Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra blew itself into the history books, altering weather patterns around the world for years, killing an estimated 37,000 people, and inspiring the creation of an enduring work of art.

The eruption sent a plume of ash 27km into the air, affecting weather patterns across the globe for years, and plunging the surrounding area into darkness for days. As the ash circled the globe, blue and green sunsets were observed around the world for the next three years. Months later, gigantic chunks of pumice and ash encasing trees and other debris washed ashore as far as Mauritius and Australia. Global temperatures were lowered by more than 1 degree Celsius for the following year.

The world learned of the eruption within 24 hours with the help of a telegraph from Jakarta. It was the first natural disaster to be reported internationally at such speed.

The Krakatoa explosion estimated at 310 decibels at the source and registered 172 decibels at 100 miles from the source. This is so astonishingly loud, that it’s inching up against the limits of what we mean by sound,” science writer Aatish Bhatia wrote in a blog post. “Amazingly, for as many as five days after the explosion, weather stations in 50 cities around the globe observed this unprecedented spike in pressure re-occurring like clockwork, approximately every 34 hours. That is roughly how long it takes sound to travel around the entire planet.” . For reference, the sound from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 248 decibels. Experts believe anyone standing within 10 miles of the explosion would have been rendered instantly deaf. The British ship Norham Castle was 40 miles from Krakatoa at the time of the explosion. The ship’s captain wrote in his log, “So violent are the explosions that the ear-drums of over half my crew have been shattered. My last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the Day of Judgement has come.”

Krakatoa’s eruption even inspired one of the 19th century’s most famous works of art, Edvard Munch’s painting "The Scream". Researchers from Texas State University in 2004 located the spot where Edvard Munch had been standing when he watched the spectacular sunset in far-off Oslo in November 1883. Munch reportedly “felt a great, unending scream piercing through nature,” while watching the sunset, inspiring the painting 10 years after Krakatoa’s eruption half a world away.

The energy released from the Krakatoa eruption has been estimated to be equal to about 200 megatons of TNT. The Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear device ever detonated, only released the equivalent of about 57. The eruption has been assigned a rating of 6 on the Volcanic Explosion Index. The eruption was about ten times more explosive than the Mount St. Helens explosion of 1980.

This explosion created a deadly tsunami with waves over a hundred feet (30 meters) in height. One hundred sixty-five coastal villages and settlements were swept away and entirely destroyed. In all, the Dutch (the colonial rulers of Indonesia at the time) estimated the death toll at 36,417, while other estimates exceed 120,000.

The initial explosion ruptured the magma chamber and allowed seawater to contact the hot lava. The result is known as a phreatomagmatic event. The water flash-boiled, creating a cushion of superheated steam that carried the pyroclastic flows up to 25 miles (40 km) at speeds in excess of 62 mph (100 kph with a VEI of 5.) Giant coral blocks weighing as much as 600 tons were hurled ashore.

Rafts of floating pumice-locally thick enough to support men, trees, and no doubt other biological passengers-crossed the Indian Ocean in 10 months. Others reached Melanesia, and were still afloat two years after the eruption."

BarnBuster said:

"At 10:02 a.m. on August 27, 1883, the tiny volcanic island Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra blew itself into the history books, altering weather patterns around the world for years, killing an estimated 37,000 people, and inspiring the creation of an enduring work of art.

The eruption sent a plume of ash 27km into the air, affecting weather patterns across the globe for years, and plunging the surrounding area into darkness for days. As the ash circled the globe, blue and green sunsets were observed around the world for the next three years. Months later, gigantic chunks of pumice and ash encasing trees and other debris washed ashore as far as Mauritius and Australia. Global temperatures were lowered by more than 1 degree Celsius for the following year.

The world learned of the eruption within 24 hours with the help of a telegraph from Jakarta. It was the first natural disaster to be reported internationally at such speed.

The Krakatoa explosion estimated at 310 decibels at the source and registered 172 decibels at 100 miles from the source. This is so astonishingly loud, that it’s inching up against the limits of what we mean by sound,” science writer Aatish Bhatia wrote in a blog post. “Amazingly, for as many as five days after the explosion, weather stations in 50 cities around the globe observed this unprecedented spike in pressure re-occurring like clockwork, approximately every 34 hours. That is roughly how long it takes sound to travel around the entire planet.” . For reference, the sound from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 248 decibels. Experts believe anyone standing within 10 miles of the explosion would have been rendered instantly deaf. The British ship Norham Castle was 40 miles from Krakatoa at the time of the explosion. The ship’s captain wrote in his log, “So violent are the explosions that the ear-drums of over half my crew have been shattered. My last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the Day of Judgement has come.”

Krakatoa’s eruption even inspired one of the 19th century’s most famous works of art, Edvard Munch’s painting "The Scream". Researchers from Texas State University in 2004 located the spot where Edvard Munch had been standing when he watched the spectacular sunset in far-off Oslo in November 1883. Munch reportedly “felt a great, unending scream piercing through nature,” while watching the sunset, inspiring the painting 10 years after Krakatoa’s eruption half a world away.

The energy released from the Krakatoa eruption has been estimated to be equal to about 200 megatons of TNT. The Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear device ever detonated, only released the equivalent of about 57. The eruption has been assigned a rating of 6 on the Volcanic Explosion Index. The eruption was about ten times more explosive than the Mount St. Helens explosion of 1980.

This explosion created a deadly tsunami with waves over a hundred feet (30 meters) in height. One hundred sixty-five coastal villages and settlements were swept away and entirely destroyed. In all, the Dutch (the colonial rulers of Indonesia at the time) estimated the death toll at 36,417, while other estimates exceed 120,000.

The initial explosion ruptured the magma chamber and allowed seawater to contact the hot lava. The result is known as a phreatomagmatic event. The water flash-boiled, creating a cushion of superheated steam that carried the pyroclastic flows up to 25 miles (40 km) at speeds in excess of 62 mph (100 kph with a VEI of 5.) Giant coral blocks weighing as much as 600 tons were hurled ashore.

Rafts of floating pumice-locally thick enough to support men, trees, and no doubt other biological passengers-crossed the Indian Ocean in 10 months. Others reached Melanesia, and were still afloat two years after the eruption."

Click to expand...

there is a documentry of it on youtube i saw.....

BarnBuster said:

Krakatoa

Click to expand...

Saw the movie is "sensurround" in LA with my parents. Krakatoa East of Java. (It's actually west, but what did they know)

i kinda like the docu of it, cause the actually used actually account of people who were there and such.....they also use a ship captains log books as well.....

here:

full episodes if you wanna watch...they did pretty good by all accounts...

BarnBuster said:

"At 10:02 a.m. on August 27, 1883, the tiny volcanic island Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra blew itself into the history books, altering weather patterns around the world for years, killing an estimated 37,000 people, and inspiring the creation of an enduring work of art.

The eruption sent a plume of ash 27km into the air, affecting weather patterns across the globe for years, and plunging the surrounding area into darkness for days. As the ash circled the globe, blue and green sunsets were observed around the world for the next three years. Months later, gigantic chunks of pumice and ash encasing trees and other debris washed ashore as far as Mauritius and Australia. Global temperatures were lowered by more than 1 degree Celsius for the following year.

The world learned of the eruption within 24 hours with the help of a telegraph from Jakarta. It was the first natural disaster to be reported internationally at such speed.

The Krakatoa explosion estimated at 310 decibels at the source and registered 172 decibels at 100 miles from the source. This is so astonishingly loud, that it’s inching up against the limits of what we mean by sound,” science writer Aatish Bhatia wrote in a blog post. “Amazingly, for as many as five days after the explosion, weather stations in 50 cities around the globe observed this unprecedented spike in pressure re-occurring like clockwork, approximately every 34 hours. That is roughly how long it takes sound to travel around the entire planet.” . For reference, the sound from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 248 decibels. Experts believe anyone standing within 10 miles of the explosion would have been rendered instantly deaf. The British ship Norham Castle was 40 miles from Krakatoa at the time of the explosion. The ship’s captain wrote in his log, “So violent are the explosions that the ear-drums of over half my crew have been shattered. My last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the Day of Judgement has come.”

Krakatoa’s eruption even inspired one of the 19th century’s most famous works of art, Edvard Munch’s painting "The Scream". Researchers from Texas State University in 2004 located the spot where Edvard Munch had been standing when he watched the spectacular sunset in far-off Oslo in November 1883. Munch reportedly “felt a great, unending scream piercing through nature,” while watching the sunset, inspiring the painting 10 years after Krakatoa’s eruption half a world away.

The energy released from the Krakatoa eruption has been estimated to be equal to about 200 megatons of TNT. The Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear device ever detonated, only released the equivalent of about 57. The eruption has been assigned a rating of 6 on the Volcanic Explosion Index. The eruption was about ten times more explosive than the Mount St. Helens explosion of 1980.

This explosion created a deadly tsunami with waves over a hundred feet (30 meters) in height. One hundred sixty-five coastal villages and settlements were swept away and entirely destroyed. In all, the Dutch (the colonial rulers of Indonesia at the time) estimated the death toll at 36,417, while other estimates exceed 120,000.

The initial explosion ruptured the magma chamber and allowed seawater to contact the hot lava. The result is known as a phreatomagmatic event. The water flash-boiled, creating a cushion of superheated steam that carried the pyroclastic flows up to 25 miles (40 km) at speeds in excess of 62 mph (100 kph with a VEI of 5.) Giant coral blocks weighing as much as 600 tons were hurled ashore.

Rafts of floating pumice-locally thick enough to support men, trees, and no doubt other biological passengers-crossed the Indian Ocean in 10 months. Others reached Melanesia, and were still afloat two years after the eruption."

Click to expand...

Some of the best cigar tobacco and coffee in the world grown on this island.

29 years ago yesterday.

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge
15 hrs ·
We are posting this at the same time the helicopter took off.

On August 26, 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan performed with Eric Clapton at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin.

After the show, just after midnight on Aug. 27th, all of the musicians boarded four helicopters bound for Chicago, which were waiting on a nearby golf course. There was haze and fog with patches of low clouds. Despite the conditions, the pilots were instructed to fly over a 1000-foot ski hill. Vaughan, along with three members of Eric Clapton's entourage (agent Bobby Brooks, bodyguard Nigel Browne, and assistant tour manager Colin Smythe), boarded the third of the four helicopters—a Bell 206B Jet Ranger—flying to Meigs Field. At about 12:50 am (CDT), the helicopter departed from an elevation of about 850 feet, veered to the left and crashed into the hill, approximately fifty feet from the summit.

All on board, including the pilot, Jeff Brown, were killed instantly.

RIP Stevie, Bobby, Nigel, Colin and Jeff. It just doesn't seem like this happened 29 years ago. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?

The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge
10 hrs ·
52 years ago:

"The Man Who Made The Beatles"…. Brian Epstein.

On Aug. 27, 1967, The Beatles manager Brian Epstein was found dead in his Belgravia, London home. The death was attributed to an accidental overdose of the sleeping pill Carbitrol, taken with brandy.

At the time, the band was studying with the Maharishi in Bangor, North Wales. The Maharishi upset the lads somewhat by counseling them that Brian's death is cosmically unimportant. They heard what he had to say and immediately return to London.

We have often wondered if "Beatlemania" would have happened if it wasn't for Brian. History has shown that he didn't always make the best decisions business wise, but we would say his promotion and marketing was perfect.

Brian was only 32 years old when he died.

We agree that Brian was "The Man Who Made The Beatles".

RIP Brian. Thank for for so much. (The picture shows Brian in the fore ground as The Beatles are on stage during their first Shea Stadium concert).

“When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”


"On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., August 28 1963, the African American civil rights movement reaches its high-water mark when Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks to about 250,000 people attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The demonstrators–black and white, poor and rich–came together in the nation’s capital to demand voting rights and equal opportunity for African Americans and to appeal for an end to racial segregation and discrimination.

The peaceful rally was the largest assembly for a redress of grievances that the capital had ever seen, and King was the last speaker. With the statue of Abraham Lincoln–the Great Emancipator–towering behind him, King used the rhetorical talents he had developed as a Baptist preacher to show how, as he put it, the “Negro is still not free.” He told of the struggle ahead, stressing the importance of continued action and nonviolent protest. Coming to the end of his prepared text (which, like other speakers that day, he had limited to seven minutes), he was overwhelmed by the moment and launched into an improvised sermon.

He told the hushed crowd, “Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettoes of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.” Continuing, he began the refrain that made the speech one of the best known in U.S. history, second only to Lincoln’s 1863 “Gettysburg Address”:

“I have a dream,” he boomed over the crowd stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

King had used the “I have a dream” theme before, in a handful of stump speeches, but never with the force and effectiveness of that hot August day in Washington. He equated the civil rights movement with the highest and noblest ideals of the American tradition, allowing many to see for the first time the importance and urgency of racial equality. He ended his stirring, 16-minute speech with his vision of the fruit of racial harmony:

“When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”

In the year after the March on Washington, the civil rights movement achieved two of its greatest successes: the ratification of the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished the poll tax and thus a barrier to poor African American voters in the South; and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public facilities. In October 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 4, 1968, he was shot to death while standing on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee–he was 39 years old. The gunman was escaped convict James Earl Ray."

https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf