TheBOOMbox.SHOW 4d4i6d

1968 Things were heating up in Vietnam in the Spring of 1968.  "Escalation" was the buzzword the media threw around.  The My Lai Massacre took place but along with a nerve gas leak in Utah would be covered up until the following year.  General Lewis Hershey was shouted down in an address at Howard University to cries of "America is the Black man's battleground!"  A troubled election year lay ahead with names like Rusk, Fulbright, McCarthy, Nixon, Kennedy, and Rockefeller being thrown around the ring in anticipation of being thrown in.   was on the brink of Revolution. Ho Chi Minh (He Who Enlightens) and Mai Van Bo, who was the chief North Vietnamese spokesman, had their positions in the nightly news alongside Kosygin and Gromeko of the USSR.  U Thant and Nguyen Duy Trinh were known as "Peace Feelers" along with the U.S. William Bundy.  There was even disclosure of a "Peace Hoax" perpetrated by the Hungarian foreign minister.  Janos Peter pretended for two years to be speaking for Hanoi and the Vietcong, proving that to be a major player in global politics all you had to do was engage the, "Because I said so, that's how I know" argument. Meanwhile, the civil rights movement had made great strides since 1964.  Black people could legally vote in every state in the Union by 1968.  Communities in the South cut off water and electrical services to the Black neighborhoods if the citizens therein dared to , but every American was now entitled.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and the riots in American cities lasted for days afterward. David Frost, a British stand-up comic, was the big deal on TV in the Spring of '68.  He had an interview show where he would hold court with everyone from Eric Hoffer to Richard Nixon.  In theater you could get hung for your hang-ups in "Your Own Thing," nudity and hit songs punctuated "Hair," and on college campuses, you could see Euripedes' tragedy "The Bacchae" performed with electric guitars and scantily clad co-eds singing, "When shall I dance once more with bare feet the all-night dance tossing my head for joy!"  As Dylan was singing, "The times they are a-changin'" they in fact were.

Things were heating up in Vietnam in the Spring of 1968.  "Escalation" was the buzzword the media threw around.  The My Lai Massacre took place but along with a nerve gas leak in Utah would be covered up until the following year.  General Lewis Hershey was shouted down in an address at Howard University to cries of "America is the Black man's battleground!"  A troubled election year lay ahead with names like Rusk, Fulbright, McCarthy, Nixon, Kennedy, and Rockefeller being thrown around the ring in anticipation of being thrown in.   was on the brink of Revolution. Ho Chi Minh (He Who Enlightens) and Mai Van Bo, who was the chief North Vietnamese spokesman, had their positions in the nightly news alongside Kosygin and Gromeko of the USSR.  U Thant and Nguyen Duy Trinh were known as "Peace Feelers" along with the U.S. William Bundy.  There was even disclosure of a "Peace Hoax" perpetrated by the Hungarian foreign minister.  Janos Peter pretended for two years to be speaking for Hanoi and the Vietcong, proving that to be a major player in global politics all you had to do was engage the, "Because I said so, that's how I know" argument. Meanwhile, the civil rights movement had made great strides since 1964.  Black people could legally vote in every state in the Union by 1968.  Communities in the South cut off water and electrical services to the Black neighborhoods if the citizens therein dared to , but every American was now entitled.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and the riots in American cities lasted for days afterward. David Frost, a British stand-up comic, was the big deal on TV in the Spring of '68.  He had an interview show where he would hold court with everyone from Eric Hoffer to Richard Nixon.  In theater you could get hung for your hang-ups in "Your Own Thing," nudity and hit songs punctuated "Hair," and on college campuses, you could see Euripedes' tragedy "The Bacchae" performed with electric guitars and scantily clad co-eds singing, "When shall I dance once more with bare feet the all-night dance tossing my head for joy!"  As Dylan was singing, "The times they are a-changin'" they in fact were.

How we cleaned up a safety hazard on Lake Coeur d'Alene and de-fouled Spokane River all in one night.

I am willing to bet, all the money in my pockets, that you have not traveled down the roads that are familiar to me.  To quote some guys I used to work with from time to time, "What a long, strange trip it's been". Thanks for listening.

People are quick to point out, well, one guy, that one can easily find  the music you hear on TheBOOMbox.SHOW™ elsewhere on the internet. OK. I’m  not threatened by that.  TheBOOMbox.SHOW™ is not entirely about the  music.  Our program is about memories.  This piece of music s  that story, that song goes with this one, the lyrics here embrace the  headlines from this period, etc. This is the way we did FM Radio in the late 60’s and early 70’s.  Everything tied together. I  recall one program on KOL FM in 1970.  It was a rare sunny Sunday afternoon in Seattle.  The host of the program, a colorful fellow named  Big Al Helseth, his partner Dennis, and myself, pulled a 12 hour shift every Sunday.  The program started at 6AM and we held the reigns for the  whole mission by smoking copious amounts of hashish and ordering  likewise volumes of take-out from any place that would deliver during  those hours. In a kind of celebration of sun, we had already  played over 40 minutes of songs with Sun in the title.  Lots of Beach  Boys and Donovan, the Beatles, some Jazz, and so on.  The phone rang  steadily with requests until one lady from Renton called and asked us to  stop playing Sun Songs.  She seemed terribly distraught.  She explained  to us that all the sun songs were really “bumming my dog out”.  Sure  enough, you could hear the dog in the background howling. “Why would the dog be howling over songs about the sun?” we asked. “The dog’s name is Cloud,” was the nice lady’s response. In unison, the three of us said, “Farrrr out.” That’s a memory.  You won’t find that elsewhere on the internet.

TheBOOMbox.SHOW -- The Soundtrack for the 2nd Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers.  Rare and popular recordings of the music and events that helped shape our experience.  Archived audio, with all the scratches and flaws, of newsmakers, music, commercials, TV & Movie soundtracks, cartoons, serials, and readings from my own journal.