Centuries of Sound James M Errington

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the four-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.



Well, we made it! Seven years of Second World War mixes. It has been intense, dramatic, often disturbing, occasionally fun. I don't think anyone reasonably expected these mixes to have the feel of the nostalgic action films which form so much of the popular memory of the era, but speaking for myself, how miserable this era was to live through wasn't something I truly appreciated until I'd fully immersed myself in it. Part of this immersion was the downloading of hundreds of hours of original radio broadcasts, and while music has still formed the bulk of these mixes, the bulk of the work - and therefore the heart of these things - has increasingly been in constructing montages of these broadcasts of news events. I wouldn't say this has exactly derailed things, there was really no alternative, but it limited choices, it imposed a narrative and a structure on each mix. Being free from that - as I was for the second half of this mix - is an absolute joy, and already I can feel my enthusiasm for the project returning.

Musical stars of this mix largely avoided the war. Dizzy Gillespie said to his selective service interviewer "in this stage of my life here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass? So if you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I'm liable to create a case of 'mistaken identity' of who I might shoot." He was classified as 4-F, "not acceptable for military service" - as were Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Louis Jordan had a hernia, Nat "King" Cole had either flat feet or hypertension, and Frank Sinatra was "not acceptable material from a psychiatric viewpoint." Conscription being only for men, Mary Lou Williams, Judy Garland, Betty Hutton and Kay Starr were naturally not asked to serve. The only exception to this general rule was Cecil Gant, labelled "The G.I. Sing-sation" on his earliest releases - somewhat ironically as his health was already in a poor state, and he would die in 1951.

Though most did not serve in Europe or The Pacific, there's no doubt that the end of the war came as a relief to these artists as much as it did the rest of the population, especially as it meant that they would no longer be held back from touring or recording due to lack of fuel or plastics. This new era doesn't arrive with a wave of celebration, exactly, nor quite a sense of relief. Instead there's a sense of a new freedom to spread out and express. The musicians recording be bop were doing so not to entertain a dancing crowd, but to explore and enjoy sounds themselves. Jump blues artists were in a sense going completely the other way, but their audiences being smaller and more raucous than those of the big bands, their music was therefore equally expressive and free. Perhaps most representative of all, 1945 saw Mary Lou Williams's "Zodiac Suite" - a cycle of piano recordings combining jazz (and even be bop) with modern classical music, a record which not only transcends genre, but anticipates the different ways music would be appreciated once long playing records and home stereo systems became standard a decade later.

So this is, in a sense, a fun mix, albeit one that contains, in its first half, events such as the dropping of the atom bomb over Hiroshima. Towards the end, though, you may be hear something awakening. The late 40s aren't years that live on vividly in the popular imagination, but maybe that's something that should change.

Intro

0:00:00 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner - Shosta

James Errington takes you on another trip into the ancient history of recorded sound, this time joined by Cambridge native Liam Higgins to review the music scene on both sides of the Atlantic in 1914, the year the lights famously went out all over Europe. This episode includes for the first (and hopefully the last) time, your hosts actually singing. Sorry.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full nearly four-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

When I set out to put together this history told through sound, I knew well that at times music would become less important. I didn't realise that, at a moment when music was taking bold leaps forward, it would nevertheless seem to be very much besides the point. But here we are. It's 1945 and, while there is some brilliant, revolutionary music in this mix, the history part has risen to the surface. Around half of the runtime here is speech of one sort or another, and for once I cannot imagine it being any other way.

The speech here begins in January 1945, and ends some time in May. In those short four and a half months, the invasion of Germany (from both sides) has taken place, The Americans have landed on Iwo Jima, The Yalta Conference has taken place, Germany has been obliterated and then surrendered, Hitler, Roosevelt and Mussolini have died, and the atrocities carried out by the Nazis have been discovered. To have lived through this time, wherever you were in the world, would have been at the very least disorienting. For the survivors it would determine the next half century. In a sense we are still feeling the reverberations. It would have been ridiculous not to make this the main focus.

The music we have here includes some of the first professional recordings of the music now known as bebop, some jump blues, plenty of other genres from around the time. Some of the music is from early 1945, some is from late 1945. There was no great leap from one half to the other, so please excuse the slightly sloppy compromise here. There will be time to discuss music in part two.

There are horrors to be found in this mix, for sure, but some are so unspeakable that it even seemed disgusting to try to pair them with music of any sort. Even putting them with other, lighter news seemed impossible. As the Allies invaded Germany, attached reporters brought back first hand accounts of the atrocities carried out in concentration camps. Even in audio only form these are harrowing, and editing sections together was a grim, miserable duty, but one that had to be done. These things cannot be left out of our history, so here they are. I have separated them from the rest of the mix – you can find them as a twenty minute epilogue, starting three hours and twelve minutes in. If you don't feel you can listen to that (and I won't blame you) then you can stop the mix there.

Tracklist

January

0:00:00 Dizzy Gillespie - Bebop
(Clip from 1945 01 17 BBC Will Hay Programme)
(Clip from 1945 01 28 CBS World News Today)
0:01:23 Dizzy Gillespie - Salt Peanuts
(Clips from 1945 01 06 FDR Fireside Chat On Battle Of The Bulge)
0:04:14 Mary Lou Williams - Taurus
(Clip from 1945 01 07 CBS World News Today)
0:06:52 Lionel Hampton - Beulah´s Boogie
(Clip from 1945 01 07 CBS World News Today)
(Clips from 1945 01 14 CBS World News Today)
0:10:14 Betty Hutton - Stuff Like That There
(Clip from 1945 01 14 NBCB Yanks In The Orient)
0:13:10 Bidu Sayao - Bachianas Brasileiras No.5, for voice & 8 cellos
(Clips from 1945 01 19 WCCO Noon Newscast - Cedric Adams)
0:16:17 Lata Mangeshkar - Aankhon Ke Taare
(Clip from 1945 01 17 BBC Will Hay Programme)
(Clip from 1945 01 28 WMCA Healys Open House - Nylon Stockings)
0:18:44 Xavier Cugat - Oye Negra
(Clip from 1945 01 30 RRG Adolf Hitler - Last Broadcast)
0:21:02 Johnny Otis & His Orchestra - Harlem Nocturne
(Clip from The Body Snatcher)

February

(Clips from 1945 02 09 WEAF Evening News with Don Hollenbeck)
0:24:38 John H

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full nearly four-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.



Here's what stuck me as I put this mix together: In late 1944 the disconnect between music and everything happening in the world is, from different perspectives, both narrower and wider than it has been before. Narrower because the wartime spirit is no longer enough of a novelty to even be notable - almost nobody is writing music about the war, it has just become a background presence in the way any change in culture does. American troops are in Europe now, and that's already just a fact of life. Wider because, in the earlier days of the war, there was a real, visceral sense of the horrors of the conflict, of an existential threat. This dread hasn't just faded into the background as the allies start to look like victory is inevitable, the dread is missing entirely. They know they can't celebrate just yet, but they are keen to start.



In terms of music, we are jammed in the middle of two eras. The big bands are clearly on their way out, broken by the war, the strike, the inability to tour due to fuel rationing - but also because there are much more interesting sounds out there. The individual musicians in these bands have mostly moved on too, to rhythm & blues, to be bop, or to both. Still at this point they probably have a day job playing big band music, but it's already a heritage industry.



The birth of be bop has been underway for a little while already, we can make a case for it existing as early as 1941, but it's only really now that we can feel it emerging into the record. Next year it will fully emerge, to the extent of being recorded in studios, so best leave it until then.



Rhythm & blues is at full levels of excitement this year - unsurprisingly it sounds like people wanted to have a party. Louis Jordan in particular is producing so many absolute classics that it's a wonder he doesn't get more credit for anything more than being a progenitor of rock & roll - a genre only subtley different to Jordan's "jump blues" but one which he nonetheless had no time for. Just imagine dancing at a live performance by Jodan, Lucky Millinder or Cootie Williams, really who needs rock & roll to happen?



One other aspect I've noticed here is the groove - whether it's Arsenio Rodríguez, J.J. Johnson, Boyd Raeburn, Lester Young or Orquesta Casino De La Playa, there is more music than ever before spreading out and allowing itself to build up slowly. We are still a good few years away from the introduction of the LP, so expect only more of this to come.



Finally, let's not forget that we are still in the early days of the Allied invasion of Europe, and consequently there are many journalists on the continent producing a vast amount of interesting content. I've included plenty of this, while trying not to let it interfere too much with the music. If the news footage isn't much to your taste, please be assured that there will be much less in the post-war year mixes. If that's what you're mainly here for then, well, you're in for a treat today.



Introduction



0:00:00 Victor Young - Excerpt from Ministry of Fear
(Clip from A Canterbury Tale)
(Clip from Tokyo Rose broadcast)
0:00:30 MGM Studio Orchestra - The Most Horrible One
(Clip from WOR Year In Review)
(Clip from Abbott & Costello Show - Special Guest Alan Ladd)
(Clip from CBS World News Today)
0:01:14 Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby
(Clips from NBC at Democratic National Convention)
(Clip from Arsenic & Old Lace)
0:05:11 Boyd Raeburn - Little Boyd B

Another adventure back into the early days of recorded sound with James Errington, this time joined by Cambridge 105 Radio’s Maciek Pawlikowski to listen to some of the sounds of 1913, the year of the short-lived hot dance ragtime craze, led by the first all-black orchestra and the couple who brought the foxtrot to prominence.



Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

The D-Day landings of the 6th of June 1944 are much too big a story to be covered in the middle of a mix. New recording technology, a wider variety of coverage, and the hoarding and preservation instincts of generations of historians, amateur and professional, have resulted in an unprecedented amount of material being available, around sixty hours all together. From this I've edited for you a tight 82 minute sound collage, taking you from pre-D-Day messages, through the landings, the first reports and dispatches from the field, to the reactions and repercussions the following few days.



Here's what you can hear.



0:00:00 1944-06-06 0330 CBS D-Day Broadcast
0:00:15 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast



The Buildup



0:00:33 1944-06-05 BBC European Service With Resistance Messages
0:01:37 1944-06-04 Frank Gillard - Build for D-Day
0:02:20 1944-06-05 FDR Fireside Chat
0:02:33 1944-06-05 Eisenhower's Pre D-Day Announcement to Troops
0:04:13 1944-06-05 BBC Field Marshall Montgomery Address On Eve Of D-Day



The Journey



0:05:08 1944-06-03 BBC Robin Duff On Sealed Ship
0:05:50 1944-06-06 BBC Robin Duff Mid Channel To Normandy
0:06:16 1944-06-08 BBC Allied Troops Prayer Before Invasion
0:06:45 1944-06-08 CAN Travelling With D-Day Convoy
0:07:10 1944-06-06 D-Day Ship Attack



The Assault Begins



0:09:21 1944-06-06 BBC Colin Wills Lands With Infantry
0:09:57 1944-06-08 BBC Robin Duff Five Minutes Before H-Hour
0:10:20 1944-06-08 BBC Robin Duff At Signal For Landing
0:10:45 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review
0:11:22 1944-06-08 BBC British Tank Crew Describes Beach Landing
0:11:48 1944-06-08 BBC UK Soldier Landing Near Coastal Mines
0:12:10 1944-06-08 CAN Recounting The Landing
0:12:41 1944-06-08 CAN The Scene On The Beach (3 Clips)
0:13:32 1944-06-08 CAN US Soldier On The Beach (2 Clips)
0:13:58 1944-06-08 CAN A Handful Of French Sand



The First Reports



0:14:45 1944-06-06 0330 CBS D-Day Broadcast
0:14:49 1944-06-06 0300 CBS News Unconfirmed Reports Of Invasion (3 Clips)
0:16:27 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:16:45 1944-06-06 0330 CBS D-Day Broadcast (2 Clips)



The Paratroopers Land



0:17:26 1944-06-06 BBC Chester Wilmot In Glider
0:18:11 1944-06-06 BBC Chester Wilmot Sees Gliders
0:18:36 1944-06-06 CAN Glider Formations Flying Over The Beaches
0:19:45 1944-06-06 BBC Chester Wilmot Reports From Inside British Glider
0:20:09 1944-06-06 BBC Guy Byam Parachutes Into France
0:20:43 1944-06-06 BBC Alan Melville Sees Paratroops
0:21:03 1944-06-08 BBC The 13th Man To Land In France
0:21:15 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review



The Announcement



0:22:29 1944-06-06 D-Day Announcement - BBC Newsflash
0:23:28 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast (3 Clips)
0:25:31 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review
0:26:59 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast



4am to 5am EST



0:27:23 1944-06-06 0415 CBS D-Day Broadcast (4 Clips)
0:28:51 1944-06-06 0400 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:28:58 1944-06-06 0415 CBS D-Day Broadcast
0:29:45 1944-06-06 0415 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:30:00 1944-06-06 D-Day Message To Free French Troops



5am to 9am EST



0:30:19 1944-06-06 BBC John Snagge D-Day Has Come
0:30:56 1944-06-06 0500 CBS D-Day Broadcast (11 Clips)
0:34:12 1944-06-06 0540 CBS D-Day Broadcast (4 Clips)
0:36:45 1944-06-06 BBC Eisenhower to Western Europe
0:37:14 1944-06-06 0540 CBS D-Day Broadcast



9am to 12pm EST



0:38:00 1944-06-06 0900 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:39:10 1944-06-06 0930 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:39:42 1944-06-06 0900 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:40:20 1944-06-06 0927 CBS D-Day Broadcast
0:40:34 1944-06-06 0930 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:41:00 1944-06-06 0900 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:41:33 1944-06-06 0930 NBC D-Day Broadcast
0:42:16 1944-06-06 0927 CBS D-Day Broadcast
0:43:13 1944-06-08 CAN Reports From The Beachhead
0:43:31 1944-06-06 0927 CBS D-Day Broadcast (2 Clips)
0:44:10 1944-06-06 US D-Day Bulletin On Landing Success
0:44:23 1944-06-06 1015 CBS Light Of The World



12pm to 4:30pm EST



0:45:33 1944-06-06 Eisenhower's D-Day Broadcast to West