Tabby adds live vocals to the dub of the Who’s Gonna Bodyguard Mr. “Bodyguard” 12″ as midnight strikes with The Mighty Diamonds in the radio studio when the fateful day of December 8th, 1980 began. Earlier in the program I spun Bob Marley’s ‘many more will have to die’ “Natural Mystic” since Stevie Wonder was playin’ the Cow Palace without him as planned that week & true rumors were spreadin’ like wildfire Bob was near death. If you haven’t seen the brilliant doc “The US vs. John Lennon” this week might be a good time. John was part of the highly sabotaged generation. Read the book “Season of the Witch” on rampant bay area subversion, also by the FBI, dating back to the 50s for further details. John Lennon, one of the four men most responsible for actually undermining the Soviet Union to the point of collapse, is harassed for years while being made afraid to release any more ‘political’ music by the very type of police state mechanism that failed so miserably in its fight with, or even predicting the fall of, communism. (Several recent documentaries show exactly how The Beatles did it.) It was going to be a week full of easy tears, especially when listening to the radio hearing lots of Lennon’s great music no one could freely play except in a small window of time just after he was dead. When someone finally aired Lennon’s “Woman Is The Nigger Of The World” I completely lost it… yes for John, Yoko, & Sean; but mostly, quite frankly, for the huge loss radio suffered when mergers & half wit decisions ruined free form. I knew I would never hear that song aired again commercially. Get up, stand up.
Judge, Bunny, & Tabby know how to fight the power. Listen up for the scarce early Mighty Diamonds single produced by Derrick Harriott “Mash Up” as well as their first hit “Shame & Pride” plus “Have A Little Mercy” and recent smokin’ 45s including “Don’t Want War”, “Identity” and the footlong version of “Heads Of Government”.
It was a time when reality bit hard. The Gladiators sing brilliantly about “Naturality” where style trumps design. The me-cology of the 70s was going on steroids for the 80s. Linton Kwesi Johnson penetrates the folly with his tough & tight “Reality Poem”. If only we could turn back time…
Last time’s 33 years ahead program. Dreadcasting over the air since 1979 & online since 1996 dreader 21st Century Midnight Dread programs air daily at 12am including replays often heard in his Best of All Worlds high noon slot and where one can also become conscious at 6am with the indigenous sounds of Native Son Rising, all curated by Doug everyday, all times Pacific. Many more Midnight Dread sights & sounds here and on this blog’s Midnight Dread page. Go deh. All of dem.
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