Showing posts with label War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label War. Show all posts
February 5, 2013
October 25, 2012
From 1943: Ching Chow Wants You To Buy War Bonds
along with a number of his cartoon panels.
The boy in this panel is Tiny Tim,
with whom Ching Chow's cartoons often appeared.
May 7, 2011
From 1968: The Most Haunting Song Ever Recorded
Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge...
On The Smothers Brothers Summer Show in July 1968, Bobbie Gentry performs her hit "Ode To Billy Joe" live.
It captured the mood that had engulfed the nation at that point: Bobby Kennedy had been murdered a mere month before, Martin Luther King, Jr., had been gunned down in April, racial unrest continued to tear the very fabric of the United States apart, and disenchantment among young and old alike about the Vietnam War continued to spread. And roughly a month after this broadcast, Chicago would erupt in violence at the Democratic National Convention.
"Ode To Billy Joe" was a smash hit in 1967, this odd little song with just Bobbie Gentry's sweet voice and her guitar accompaniment. There is speculation even today as to what the narrator and Billy Joe were "throwin...off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
Some say it was a veiled antiwar anthem; that the girl and Billy Joe were throwing his draft notice into the murky waters, and that Billy Joe committed suicide rather than be deployed to Vietnam.
A more common interpretation is that it is a tale of love gone wrong; that the narrator had had an illegal abortion, ostensibly Billy Joe's child, and that after throwing the aborted fetus off the bridge into the murky waters that would keep their secret, Billy Joe committed suicide in remorse.
Whatever the scenario, whatever the song's meaning, the ending is just perfect:
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Wow.
It captured the mood that had engulfed the nation at that point: Bobby Kennedy had been murdered a mere month before, Martin Luther King, Jr., had been gunned down in April, racial unrest continued to tear the very fabric of the United States apart, and disenchantment among young and old alike about the Vietnam War continued to spread. And roughly a month after this broadcast, Chicago would erupt in violence at the Democratic National Convention.
"Ode To Billy Joe" was a smash hit in 1967, this odd little song with just Bobbie Gentry's sweet voice and her guitar accompaniment. There is speculation even today as to what the narrator and Billy Joe were "throwin...off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
Some say it was a veiled antiwar anthem; that the girl and Billy Joe were throwing his draft notice into the murky waters, and that Billy Joe committed suicide rather than be deployed to Vietnam.
A more common interpretation is that it is a tale of love gone wrong; that the narrator had had an illegal abortion, ostensibly Billy Joe's child, and that after throwing the aborted fetus off the bridge into the murky waters that would keep their secret, Billy Joe committed suicide in remorse.
Whatever the scenario, whatever the song's meaning, the ending is just perfect:
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Wow.
December 26, 2010
From 1983: An Unsettling Portrait Of When Moms Wearing Reindeer Sweatshirts With Noses That Really Light Up Descend Upon Area Shopping Malls Today
"This is not a drill! She's got competitor's coupons, people!"
July 23, 2010
May 23, 2009
From June, 1942: Keeping Your Complexion Lovely, "Just For Him"
I won't make wisecracks about this touching ad.
As always, double-click to enlarge.
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