Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Bo Diddley 1928- 2008

The death of Bo Diddley is the most second most important thing to write about today.

By Ellas McDaniel 1955

Mojo come to my house, ya black cat bone,
Take my baby away from home,
Ugly ole mojo, where ya bin,
Up your house, and gone again

copyrighted (c) Arc Music Corp (BMI)

Now that is something you can dance to.

Without Bo Diddley, there's no "Not Fade Away" (Buddy Holly), no "She's the One" (Bruce Springsteen), no "Magic Bus " (The Who), and hundreds more, not to mention no "Hey Bo Diddley" or "Mona" or (gasp) no "Who Do You Love."

Bomp-ba-domp-ba-domp...ba-domp-domp.

Enough said.

Student Neighborhoods: Lessons For Milwaukee From Madison's Mifflin Street

As I read Michael Rosen's UWM breaks promises to east side neighborhoods, bemoaning the onslaught of students overrunning his Milwaukee east side neighborhood, thirty years of Madison housing issues rushed into my tiny snow-addled mind.

As a resident of Mifflin street for ten years and then spending the better part of the next twenty-five years dealing with the impact of students on three other Madison neighborhoods, I know of what he speaks: "For several years east side community residents have been meeting with top UWM officials in an effort to address the escalating student behavior problems associated with the University's rapid and uncontrolled growth."

Here is the quick and dirty, some of which Milwaukee may already have addressed:

• Students  have few housing choices once they leave the university dorms freshman year, since the state spends little to maintain them and less to replace them. The only long-term solution is finding sites for the private sector to build.
• Zone areas meant to be kept single family so that they cannot be converted into multi-tenant non-related housing. Madison has R-4A.
• Carefully monitor the acquisition of any homes that the parents purchase and put their child on the deed and continue to rent after the student leaves school.
• Enforce existing minimum code ordinances for everyone's safety.
• Be realistic about alcohol abuse. That means you want to close down the disrputive parties and send a message that if they are kept small and quiet, the kids will be left alone. Frankly, I would rather see the kids drink illegally in bars than at the parties. If there is going to be illegal alcohol consumption it ought to be supervised and not in a quiet residential neighborhood.
• Be realistic about UWM disciplining students for off campus behavior. In most instances, if illegal behavior leads to conviction and it is not campus related, UWM cannot do anything about it.
• Focus on the students, not the university to solve the problem. If it is the neighborhood and UWM against the students, the students will 'win.' Bring the students into the neighborhood association and make sure they do not feel it is a 'them and us' thing.
• The quickest way to bring the students over is to talk to them. I made many a trip to the site of rowdy parties 'the morning after' when we lived in University Heights. After some midnight pranksters ruined my kids pumpkins, the student who threw the party bought them new ones. We did not have problems the rest of the year. The following year we had to start over with the new tenants.
• Don't bicycle in the dark during snow storms.

Bruce: "Radio Nowhere"

Mike Plaisted nails it:

..."Radio Nowhere"... might be the best opening song in rock concert history..."I just want to feel some rhythm," he (and the crowd) shouts over and over, while his drummer, the Mighty Max Weinberg, is giving him everything he has. "Is there anybody alive out there?", indeed. Springsteen is speaking to a dearth of culture, to a world of niche marketing, where the music industry gives us only what it thinks we want and not what we need. "I want a thousand guitars/I want pounding drums." Is that too much to ask?

Throughout the whole show Springsteen -- once the vulnerable street poet still trying to understand his own words -- is finally, truly The Boss; self-actualized, in command and knowing exactly what is going to happen next, because he planned it that way. The sheer power of the best parts of this show is truly something to see, even for grizzled Springsteen concert veterans. He’s supposedly bringing this tour through Milwaukee in March (his shows get better later in the tour), and I’ll be there again, this time with my son, who is almost as old as my brother was when I took him to his first show. It’s like taking the kid to see Favre – get it while you can, because there will never be anything like it again.

- Barry Orton

Three Views of New York and Two of Madison

I traveled to New York for the weekend to attend a gathering at the Brecht Forum of University of Wisconsin graduates who were students of Harvey Goldberg.  There was an excellent but unsettling presentation on our involvement in Iraq.

There is no question about the sinister intentions of the Bush administration. The tragedy is that all of the evidence was available in 2003 for intelligent people to see the nature of our interest in Iraq, oil not humanitarian. Yet the American people and the Congress were bullied and intimidated into supporting this adventure.

Glenn Silber presented a few excerpts from the The War at Home.

It was great to see so many old classmates and catch up.

The next day I settled in to watch the Badgers play Michigan State in my hotel room. Impulsively, I changed my mind and headed to the Upper East Side. I had no problem finding the Mad River Bar and Grill. It was the saloon with the inflatable Bucky Badger on the sidewalk on Third Avenue. Once I was inside, I was back in Madison. No question about it.

There were a few others over the age of 40, but as I learned from the Badgers there, most of them attended the UW in the 1990's. They were a mixture of native New Yorkers, a few transplants, and more than several who grew up in Madison. It was fun, and I did not mind their innocent reminders as they told me their stories, that I was the same age as their parents. Go Bucky.

When commercials aired, rock from campus days was played with the entire patronage joining in. They sing pretty good.

I left with Wisconsin leading 34-24 and headed to Times Square to join a classmate to see Spring Awakening.  Again, I was overpowered by the spirit of youth. If you missed the sweetness, the bitterness, and the exhilaration of growing up, you will be wasting your time. All others get in line to see this great award-winning play.

The play's value lies not only in its content and the quality of the production, but also how it was developed. The Atlantic Theater Company strives to open the world of the theater to creative people, with important stories to tell, who use their gifts, not gimmicks.

Mifflin Street Block Party: Rewriting History

Someone asked me to take a look at the Wikipedia entry for the Mifflin Street Black Party.  Yikes.

It needs some corrections:

• It is held on the first Saturday in May, it is not held in April. It was moved to the last weekend in April only once to accommodate students' requests that it not conflict with finals.
  • Any serious reveler is not going to give a rats' ass about finals. Party on dude.
• The party may now feature "widespread consumption of alcoholic beverages" but there was virtually none the first few years. I seem to recall a good deal of weed.
• "On May 6, 1996 the worst riot in the history of the block party occurred..." How wrong, how very wrong. That was a ride in the park compared to what happened at the first block party in 1969.
  • In fact 1996 was nothing compared to the 1970 disturbance.
• "Alcohol is permitted anywhere outside as long as it is not in breakable containers, and drinking begins as early as 9:00 in the morning or earlier.^[8]"  Wrong. Very wrong. Note that the authors are so authoritative they footnote this claim.  That must make it super-duper-double-secret- probation-true. Hey, dork, drink alcohol off private property and you risk getting your ass busted like anyone else. Especially if you are under 21.

My advice - stay home and read a good book.

Enormous Update, 8:10am 5-7-07. Twice this weekend I read that the Mifflin Street Co-op sponsored the first block party in 1969.

The Mifflin Street Co-op did not sponsor the first block party.

The Mifflin Street Co-op did not sponsor the first block party.

The Mifflin Street Co-op did not sponsor the first block party.

The Mifflin Street Co-op did not sponsor the first block party.

The Mifflin Street Co-op did not sponsor the first block party.

Got it?

Update May 8, 2007 at 9:58 am.

On May 5, 2006 I posted the History of the Mifflin Street Co-op by Michael Bodden.

Some notes of interest:

• The Mifflin Street Block Party hostory starts in the third section, Rage Flies Like a Nightstick, Shatters Like a Rock: The First Mifflin Street Block Party
• McGath's recollection is correct - and it should be noted that the people who put out the posters had little or no involvement in the Co-op.
• The narrative says that the squad car showed up at about 4:30 pm. That is incorrect. My recollection is the cops showed up by 11:30 am or so and that is when the first arrests were made. I was bailed out by 4:30 pm and an area  one square mile was engulfed in a street battle with the police. It centered on Mifflin Street but ranged over to Doty and to State Street as well as the Southeast dorms.
• I believe the reports from Takeover which tended to embellish, are not accurate.

American Pie: The Day the Music Died

Countless articles exist explaining the lyrics to Don McLean's American Pie. Before anyone further examines this elusive poem, I suggest they learn more about the first twenty six years of McLean's life. McLean's life is not that elusive.

From his own website we learn that McLean's father died when he was fifteen, and that he was heavily influenced by the music of many folk singers noted for their radical politics.  In fact some of them were cited as Communists by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. (HUAC)

By this time, Don's musical focus was very much on folk, thanks, in part, to The Weavers landmark 1955 recording "Live at Carnegie Hall". ..After managing to get his home number from the telephone directory, Don phoned Erik Darling...

... performed at venues like the Bitter End and Gaslight Café in New York, the Newport Folk Festival... He appeared with such artists as Herbie Mann, Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Melanie, Steppenwolf, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Josh White, Ten Wheel Drive and others. This was the start of Don McLean’s career as a professional singer, songwriter, musician and performer.

These performers and locations were a hot bed for political radicals.

The Wikipedia post is helpful

He learned the art of performing from his friend and mentor Pete Seeger. McLean accompanied Seeger on his Clearwater boat up the Hudson River in 1969 to protest environmental pollution in the river. The Clearwater campaign was widely credited for improving water quality in the Hudson River.

Finally there is a mention from Fiftiesweb.com: McLean had attended several Catholic schools.

McLean was a radical, but not just any radical. He was a Catholic radical. An understanding of Daniel and Tom Berrigan and their brothers is helpful. Catholic radicals can be more militant, more uncompromising and more demanding on themselves.  I witnessed this over and over again in the 1960's and 1970's as the left debated issues of conscious and morality. It should be understood that radical in the context of 'Catholic radical' is more a statement of principle than a drive to revolution.

While other radicals might support an end to the war in Vietnam, Catholic radicals frequently took peaceful but illegal steps to physically stop the war machine. While other radicals supported the civil rights movements, Catholics  were at the forefront, with Jews, in risking their lives in the Deep South.

The Analysis

I am not going to provide a line-by-line critique of American Pie. Others have adequately demonstrated that American Pie was not the name of the airplane that crashed in that Mason City, Iowa cornfield killing Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper.

The references to Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stone, and the Beatles are accurate.

There is no question that McLean was distressed by the new direction for music that grew out of folk music. McLean was probably disappointed that Bob Dylan abandoned the mantle of Pete Seeger as the new generation's folk singer. The Rolling Stones disappointed millions of us when they flirted with violence and made their pact with the Hell's Angels at Altamont.

As for the Beatles, their music was the worst of the 1960's for dancing. It was never played at parties. Never. But worse, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and even Dylan smothered the music that nurtured McLean (and other's) in the 1950's.  Not just the folk music, but the blues and all the music compiled by the Alan Lomax.

I doubt McLean disdains any of these great artists. I am sure that he would laud John Lennon's contributions to world peace. But they had all tampered with not just Mclean's music, but the people's music. All of this is reinforced in the line: And a voice that came from you and me,

The Day

To understand American Pie is to understand that the Day was more than February 3, 1959. The day was the decade that followed. It was the day at Altamont, the day of the Gulf of Tonkin, the day of each and every assassination and inner city riot. A day is not limited to twenty four hours.

The Music

The music is not just the music of the crash victims. It is the music of Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Leadbelly, or some unknown man in Appalachia or a woman in a city ghetto strumming on a battered guitar. But the music is bigger than all of that. It is American culture and America's soul.

The day the music died. A decade of frustration, betrayal, and lying as McLean rightly feared were thrown into the chaos of the past forty years. We lost our soul.

The father, son and the holy ghost... I don't know if that is the three dead musicians, a true religious statement , or reference to Rev, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, and JFK (and in that order, not the order of their assassinations). Maybe it is all of them.

Drove my chevy to the levee... I cannot believe, given the upbringing and politics of McLean, that no matter how many meanings this has, at least one of the them is a direct reference to James Earl Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were murdered on June 21, 1964 ... disappeared on the night of June 21. Their bodies were found in a an earthen levee.

Good old boys were drinkin... I have trouble with this line; context is everything. If you said 'Good old boys' in the 1960's the only thing that comes to mind is smoked filled rooms, with men of questionable scruples.   I opt for southern lynch mobs, not a bunch of musical scoundrels.

While the sergeants played a marching tune.. and ...The marching band refused to yield Marching bands are closer, culturally, to militarism than the rock and folk music of the day. This is a reference to 'bad music' oppressing we who got up to dance.'

American Pie could be nothing more than a poetic contraction of As American As Apple Pie.

Additional references to the lyrics:

Bob Dearborn's Original Analysis from February 28, 1972

Bill Griggs from July, 1985

Explainthelyrics.com

The Octopuss's Garden

Songfacts

Brendan's American Pie Archive-reference to some of the above and more.

www.imissamericanpie.com

Complaints Choir of Helsinki

Wonderful, hilarious Finnish music video here.   Watch this instead of the talking gasbags on Sunday morning. Bet it makes you want to learn Finnish so you can sing along.

Complaints choirs are becoming a worldwide phenomenon.  We need one in Madison.

(via Eschaton)

- Barry Orton

Denise Jackson: Madison Schools' Success

Denise Jackson may be on the road to fame, but there is another important story about this potential American Idol.  She represents thousands of youngsters who entered the Madison Public Schools in the past twenty years after a less that promising future in another city.

Denise's story is not finished, but we hope the best for her and her contemporaries.  Here are the salient points form the Wisconsin State Journal story on Sunday. Denise's road to 'Idol'

Last month, Madison teen Denise Jackson sweetly confided to one of the largest audiences in reality television history - 37.4 million viewers - that "I was born as a crack baby, as they would call them. A crack baby...."

...But those odds? Nothing. Not compared to her life, which, at times, has been harrowing. A brutal Chicago ghetto. Drug-addicted mother. Poverty. No father.

Hard-knock Chicago life

...With a mother who was largely absent and a father who vanished before her birth, Denise grew up thinking at times that her eldest sister, Nicole, was her mom.

"I think I've seen things that you shouldn't see when you're a little girl," says Denise, who moved to Madison with her grandmother at age 9. "My sisters were in high school when I was younger, so they'd be out. My mom would say, 'I'm going out, I'll be right back.' She would be gone forever, like forever...

..."She's a remarkably smart girl," says Beth Steffen, an English teacher at La Follette High School who's taught Denise for 2 years and calls her "an innate critical thinker, extremely perceptive and wise."...

...And while she is "one of the sweetest young ladies you would ever, ever meet," says Hanah Jon Taylor, a jazz musician and director of the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts (MCCCA), Denise also has a voice that "has a maturity that exceeds her years.

Now, Denise lives with her grandmother, mother, younger sister and various visiting relatives in a modest brick four-plex off Rimrock Road.

"Living in a household of five women - ugh," shudders Denise, who rolls her eyes in typical teen frustration when she describes sharing a room with sister Cierra, 14.

Denise's mother, Charmaine Brown, delivered her first baby girl at age 13. Four more daughters followed.

"When Denise was born, I was heavily into drugs," Brown explains. "I want everyone to know that I love all my daughters with all my heart. And if I could take back the things that hurt them during my drug addiction, I would, in a heartbeat."

White, Denise's grandmother, recalls: "When (Denise) was born, her mother was on cocaine. They weren't going to let her come home (with her mother). I had to go to the hospital and get her. I said (she is) not going to foster care. I will take her home."

"She's doing good now" and helps care for White's own elderly mother and ailing sister in Madison, says White...

..."It's not like I got on TV and lied," she says. "If it's the truth, it's the truth. I have nothing to be ashamed of. When I was interviewed, they asked me to tell something about myself, and I thought, what's so special about my life?" she says. "A lot of kids (born to mothers on drugs) have got defects or something's wrong and they have to suffer. I just thank God I came out with a gift...

Absent father

The man legally listed as Denise's father was killed by gunshots when she was 2. Today her family believes that Denise's actual biological father was another man, a father she has never met.

"My sisters, my (family friends) knew him. But I don't know him," says Denise, looking down. "I would love to. My grandma says he's a sweetheart.

"People want to know their biological father, get to know them. And sometimes, you know, you look at other kids - they have their moms and dads and stuff. It kind of (hurts) that all my older (siblings) know my father, but not me. Because they're old enough to remember. And I probably wasn't even born. He probably doesn't even know he has a daughter that's 16."

Move to Madison

Until she moved to Madison in 1999, Denise had never met a white or Asian person. "The part of (Chicago) I lived in, we never saw these people," she says. "You heard all these stupid things about white people, like white people are mean, they're racist.

"When I came to Madison, I found the sweetest people you would ever meet." Still, she was terrified when she learned her fifth-grade teacher would be a white woman; she'd never had a white teacher. Today she speaks affectionately of how that teacher tried to get her interested in piano lessons. "She would take me out for ice cream," says Denise.

When Denise's grandmother recalls the support that Denise's singing has received from her schools, "I start getting teary-eyed," she says. "The teachers at Sennett (Middle School) and her teachers at La Follette, and the principals, have been so beautiful."

Denise says she has to finish school, or "my grandma would kill me. She wouldn't let me drop out. I wouldn't even drop out on my own," says Denise. "You know how hard it is to get a job with a high school diploma? Some people can't even get a job with a college degree."

This does not happen without tax dollars.  Not every youngster gains the fame but if they gain an education, a foundation for tomorrow; it is a great investment for all of us. And it is more than the public schools.  It is the supportive programs that include the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts, the housing agencies, the family enhancement programs, and the  substance abuse counseling for those who need it. Imagine what could be done with sufficient funds.  All of our kids could be idols.

Cultural Wars: Frankie Avalon and Ricky Nelson

I was never a fan of Bobby Rydell or Frankie Avalon, so when Bill told me he got us tickets for last night's performance at the Orleans Hotel In Las Vegas, I was less then thrilled. On the other hand, an hour and a half in the theater would keep us out of the casino.

Rydell sang his old hits including We Got Love and Volare and showed us snippets from Bye Bye Birdie with Ann Margaret. He look tired and my guess is that he has a bad back.  The contrast between Rydell and his fellow South Phillie neighbor, Frankie Avalon, became more apparent as the night went on.  Avalon was filled with energy and the first twenty minutes of his solo appearance was worth the price of admission.

The thousand seats were filled by an all-white audience, who heard energized performances of Venus and Dede Dinah ,and saw snippets from his Beach Blanket Bingo films with Annette.

Bill and I were on the younger side of the audience.  There may have been forty or more women in the audience under the age of fifty, but I doubt that there were any men. Ninety percent of the audience was over 60.

Overworked was the use of the word 'memories.'  The nostalgic tone crossed the line when Avalon sang a song longing for times past and by inference criticizing everything about modern culture from its music to its violence.  The problem with this part of the show, which fortunately, was enthusiastically received by only a small portion of the audience, is that while individuals may have strong emotional ties to the music and their lives in the 1950's and the early 1960's, life was miserable for a lot of Americans, and it was about to get worse.

There is much to criticize about modern society, including its music, at least that which is violent and misogynistic. Everyone is entitled to their own good memories.  A collective reveling in those times without a critical eye is unacceptable.  At one point Avalon paid homage to departed rockers including Bobby Darin, Elvis, and Ricky Nelson.

Interestingly, an exploration of Nelson's life and maturation is is needed  The younger son of the famed Ozzie and Harriet TV family evolved into a serious musician prior to his death in 1985.

His songs were original and he was one of the few young white artists, cookie-cut as a teen idol, who managed to become a serious musician. It was evident from his earliest work in the 1950's and Garden Party was just another new beginning.

Someone opened up a closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a-ringin' a bell and lookin' like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck

Frankie Avalon was good, but I'd rather hear what Ricky Nelson would say today.

Best 35-Year Old Xmas Song (War Is Over)

John and Yoko's 1971 "Happy Xmas (War is Over) still stands up well, 35 years later.  Crooks and Liars has the YouTube link, and Wikipedia has the history.

War Is Over! (If You Want It)

- Barry Orton