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K-TEL Song Of The Day: "The Americans"
May. 29th, 2007 05:38 pmIt's 1973. You're a cranky Canadian radio commentator. It is five minutes to air. And you, sir, are obviously completely fucking hammered. Probably because Hippies are in your office, smoking their government-sponsored weed and listening to their Jethro Tull records and spouting their communist propaganda, running down Canada's mighty neighbour to the south.
And You. Have. Had. Enough.
Result? Gordon Sinclair's "The Americans" (right-click save)
Unlike Victor Lundberg's brilliant, methodically sinister "An Open Letter To My Teenage Son", "The Americans" seems like Sinclair just staggered into a room in mid-sentence, rattled off a few completely inaccurate historical "facts", many apparently gathered on ill-fated family vacations to France, and then got so angry and flustered he sort of forgot what he was saying. But some other drunk was taping the whole thing, laid down the "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" underneath, and put it on a record.
Bonus points for accidental drunken neologistic prophecy: The word "technocracy".
I'm old enough to remember when this thing was played on the radio. In fact, I have the 45. This audio novelty may seem baffling to modern audiences, but one has to remember the context: The USA was under near-unanimous global criticism for perpetuating a costly, bloody, pointless and ultimately futile war with no clear goals or exit strategy. I know that's difficult to picture. Thankfully, it's the kind of blunder that could never happen again. Unless somehow whole generations of schoolkids were educated with outdated and heavily censored history textbooks.
And You. Have. Had. Enough.
Result? Gordon Sinclair's "The Americans" (right-click save)
Unlike Victor Lundberg's brilliant, methodically sinister "An Open Letter To My Teenage Son", "The Americans" seems like Sinclair just staggered into a room in mid-sentence, rattled off a few completely inaccurate historical "facts", many apparently gathered on ill-fated family vacations to France, and then got so angry and flustered he sort of forgot what he was saying. But some other drunk was taping the whole thing, laid down the "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" underneath, and put it on a record.
Bonus points for accidental drunken neologistic prophecy: The word "technocracy".
I'm old enough to remember when this thing was played on the radio. In fact, I have the 45. This audio novelty may seem baffling to modern audiences, but one has to remember the context: The USA was under near-unanimous global criticism for perpetuating a costly, bloody, pointless and ultimately futile war with no clear goals or exit strategy. I know that's difficult to picture. Thankfully, it's the kind of blunder that could never happen again. Unless somehow whole generations of schoolkids were educated with outdated and heavily censored history textbooks.
