Monday, June 24th, 2019

Time	Event
11:00a	Winston Churchill Gets a Doctor’s Note to Drink “Unlimited” Alcohol in Prohibition America (1932) In December 1931, having just embarked on a 40-stop lecture tour of the United States, Winston Churchill was running late to dine with financier Bernard Baruch on New York City’s Upper East Side. He hadn’t bothered to bring Baruch’s address, operating under the incorrect assumption that his friend was so distinguished a personage, any random cab-driving commoner would automatically recognize his building. Such were the days before cell phones and Google Maps.... Eventually, Churchill bagged the cab, and shot out across 5th Avenue mid-block, thinking he would fare better on foot. Instead, he was very nearly “squashed like a gooseberry” when he was struck by a car traveling about 35 miles an hour. Churchill, who wasted no time peddling his memories of the accident and subsequent hospitalization to The Daily Mail, explained his miscalculation thusly: In England we frequently cross roads along which fast traffic is moving in both directions. I did not think the task I set myself now either difficult or rash. But at this moment habit played me a deadly trick. I no sooner got out of the cab somewhere about the middle of the road and told the driver to wait than I instinctively turned my eyes to the left. About 200 yards away were the yellow headlights of an approaching car. I thought I had just time to cross the road before it arrived; and I started to do so in the prepossession—wholly unwarranted— that my only dangers were from the left. Yeah, well, that’s why we paint the word “LOOK” in the crosswalk, pal, equipping the Os with left-leaning pupils for good measure. Another cab ferried the wounded Churchill to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he identified himself as “Winston Churchill, a British Statesman” and was treated for a deep gash to the head, a fractured nose, fractured ribs, and severe shock. “I do not wish to be hurt any more. Give me chloroform or something,” he directed, while waiting for the anesthetist. After two weeks in the hospital, where he managed to develop pleurisy in addition to his injuries, Churchill and his family repaired to the Bahamas for some R&R. It didn’t take long to feel the financial pinch of all those cancelled lecture dates, however. Six weeks after the accident, he resumed an abbreviated but still grueling 14-stop version of the tour, despite his fears that he would prove unfit. Otto Pickhardt, Lenox Hill’s admitting physician came to the rescue by issuing Churchill the Get Out of Prohibition Free Pass, above. To wit: …the post-accident convalescence of the Hon. Winston S. Churchill necessitates the use of alcoholic spirits especially at meal times. The quantity is naturally indefinite but the minimum requirements would be 250 cubic centimeters. Perhaps this is what the eminent British Statesman meant by chloroform "or something"? No doubt he was relieved about those indefinite quantities. Cheers. Read Churchill’s “My New York Misadventure” in its entirety here. You can also learn more by perusing this section of Martin Gilbert's biography, Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years. Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on our site in May, 2016. Related Content: Winston Churchill’s List of Tips for Surviving a German Invasion: See the Never-Distributed Document (1940) Winston Churchill’s Paintings: Great Statesman, Surprisingly Good Artist Color Footage of Winston Churchill’s Funeral in 1965 Oh My God! Winston Churchill Received the First Ever Letter Containing “O.M.G.” (1917) Animated: Winston Churchill’s Top 10 Sayings About Failure, Courage, Setbacks, Haters & Success Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, and Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine. She lives in New York City, some 30 blocks to the north of the scene of Churchill’s accident. Follow her @AyunHalliday Winston Churchill Gets a Doctor’s Note to Drink “Unlimited” Alcohol in Prohibition America (1932) is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. (Comment on this)
2:00p	An Introduction to the Life & Music of Fela Kuti: Radical Nigerian Bandleader, Political Hero, and Creator of Afrobeat I cannot write about Nigerian bandleader, saxophonist, and founder of the Afrobeat sound, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, with any degree of objectivity, whatever that might mean. Because hearing him counts as one of the greatest musical eye-openers of my life: a feeling of pure elation that still has not gone away. It was not an original discovery by any means. Millions of people could say the same, and far more of those people are African fans with a much better sense of Fela’s mission. In the U.S., the playfully-delivered but fervent urgency of his activist lyricism requires footnotes. Afrobeat fandom in many countries does not have to personally reckon with the history from which Fela and his band emerged—a Nigeria wracked in the 60s by a military coup, civil war, and rule by a succession of military juntas. Fela (for whom the first name never seems too familiar, so enveloping was his presence on stage and record) created the conditions for a new style of African music to emerge, an earth-shattering fusion of jazz, funk, psych rock, high life from Ghana, salsa, and black power, anti-colonial, and anti-corruption politics. [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<div [...] http://cdn8.openculture.com/>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <div class="oc-video-wrapper"> <div class="oc-video-container"> <p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenCulture/~3/GxMWPXPzFn8/http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS_Yd_iMYWo"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/cS_Yd_iMYWo/default.jpg" border="0" width="320" /></a></p> </div> <p> <!-- /oc-video-embed --> </p></div> <p><!-- /oc-video-wrapper --></p> <p>I cannot write about Nigerian bandleader, saxophonist, and founder of the Afrobeat sound, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, with any degree of objectivity, whatever that might mean. Because hearing him counts as one of the greatest musical eye-openers of my life: a feeling of pure elation that still has not gone away. It was not an original discovery by any means. Millions of people could say the same, and far more of those people are African fans with a much better sense of Fela’s mission. In the U.S., the playfully-delivered but fervent urgency of his activist lyricism requires footnotes.</p> <p>Afrobeat fandom in many countries does not have to personally reckon with the history from which Fela and his band emerged—a Nigeria wracked in the 60s by a military coup, civil war, and rule by a succession of military juntas. Fela (for whom the first name never seems too familiar, so enveloping was his presence on stage and record) created the conditions for a new style of African music to emerge, an earth-shattering fusion of jazz, funk, psych rock, high life from Ghana, salsa, and black power, anti-colonial, and anti-corruption politics.</p> <div class="oc-center-da" http://cdn8.openculture.com/="http://cdn8.openculture.com/"> <p>He took up the cause of the common people by singing in a pan-African English that leapt across borders and cultural divides. In 1967, the year he went to Ghana to craft his new sound and direction, his cousin, Nobel-prize winning writer <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/summary/">Wole Soyinka</a>, was jailed for attempting to avert Nigeria’s collapse into civil war. Fela returned home swinging three year later, a burgeoning superstar with a new name (dropping the British “Ransome” and taking on the Yoruba "Anikulapo"), a new sound, and a new vision.</p> <p>Fela built a commune called Kalakuta Republic, a home for his band, wives, children and entourage. The compound was raided by the military government, his nightclub shut down, he was beaten and jailed hundreds of times. He continued to publish columns and speak out in interviews and performances against colonial hegemony and post-colonial abuse. He championed traditional African religious practices and pan-African socialism. He harshly critiqued the West’s role in propping up corrupt African governments and conducting what he called “psychological warfare."</p> <div class="oc-video-wrapper"> <div class="oc-video-container"> <p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenCulture/~3/GxMWPXPzFn8/http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ts87oRqdfQ"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/5Ts87oRqdfQ/default.jpg" border="0" width="320" /></a></p> </div> <p> <!-- /oc-video-embed --> </p></div> <p><!-- /oc-video-wrapper --></p> <p>What would Fela have thought of <em>Fela Kuti: the Father of Afrobeat</em>, the documentary about him here in two parts? I don't know, though he might have had something to say about its source: CGTN Africa, a network funded by the Chinese government and operated by China Central Television. Debate amongst yourselves the possible propaganda aims for disseminating the film; none of them interfere with the vibrant portrait that emerges of Nigeria’s most charismatic musical artist, a man beloved by those closest to him and those farthest away.</p> <p>Find out why he so enthralls, in interviews with his band and family, flamboyant performance footage, and passionate, filmed interviews. Part guru and radical populist hero, a bandleader and musician as tirelessly perfectionistic as Duke Ellington or James Brown—with the crack band to match—Fela was himself a great propagandist, in the way of the greatest self-made star performers and revolutionaries. With force of will, personality, endless rehearsal, and one of the greatest drummers to come out of the 20th century, Tony Allen, Fela made a national struggle universal, drawing on sources from around the global south and the U.S. and, since his death in 1997, inspiring a Broadway musical and wave upon wave of revival and rediscovery of his music and the jazz/rock/Latin/traditional African fusions happening all over the continent of Africa in the 60s and 70s.</p> <p>No list of superlatives can convey the feeling of listening to Fela’s music, the unrelenting funkiness that pulses from his band’s complex, interlocking polyrhythms, the serpentine lines his saxophone traces around righteous vocal chants and wah guitars. Learn the history of his struggle, by all means, and cast a wary eye at those who may use it for other means. But let no extra-musical concerns stop you from journeying through Fela's catalog, whether as a curious tourist or as someone who understands firsthand the musical war he waged on the zombie relics of empire and a militarized anti-democratic government.</p> <p><em>Fela Kuti: the Father of Afrobeat </em>will be added to our collection Free Documentaries, a subset of our collection, <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline">1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc.</a>.</span></p> <p><strong>Related Content:</strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/young-bob-marley-and-the-wailers-perform-live-in-england.html">Watch a Young Bob Marley and The Wailers Perform Live in England (1973): For His 70th Birthday Today</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/every-appearance-james-brown-ever-made-on-soul-train.html">Every Appearance James Brown Ever Made On Soul Train. So Nice, So Nice!</a></p> <p><a href="http://about.me/jonesjoshua"><em>Josh Jones</em></a><em> is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/jdmagness">@jdmagness</a></em></p> &#13;<!-- permalink:http://www.openculture.com/2019/06/an-introduction-to-the-life-music-of-fela-kuti.html--><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.openculture.com/2019/06/an-introduction-to-the-life-music-of-fela-kuti.html">An Introduction to the Life &amp; Music of Fela Kuti: Radical Nigerian Bandleader, Political Hero, and Creator of Afrobeat</a> is a post from: <a href="http://www.openculture.com">Open Culture</a>. Follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/openculture">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/openculture">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://plus.google.com/108579751001953501160/posts">Google Plus</a>, or get our <a href="http://www.openculture.com/dailyemail">Daily Email</a>. And don't miss our big collections of <a href="http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses">Free Online Courses</a>, <a href="http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline">Free Online Movies</a>, <a href="http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks">Free eBooks</a>, <a href="http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks">Free Audio Books</a>, <a href="http://www.openculture.com/freelanguagelessons">Free Foreign Language Lessons</a>, and <a href="http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses">MOOCs</a>.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?a=GxMWPXPzFn8:FjoRPqHj5Sg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?a=GxMWPXPzFn8:FjoRPqHj5Sg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?i=GxMWPXPzFn8:FjoRPqHj5Sg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?a=GxMWPXPzFn8:FjoRPqHj5Sg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?i=GxMWPXPzFn8:FjoRPqHj5Sg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?a=GxMWPXPzFn8:FjoRPqHj5Sg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?a=GxMWPXPzFn8:FjoRPqHj5Sg:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OpenCulture?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenCulture/~4/GxMWPXPzFn8" height="1" width="1" alt="" /> (Comment on this)
5:00p	Elvis Costello’s List of 500 Albums That Will Improve Your Life Photo by Victor Diaz Lamich, via Wikimedia Commons Ask a few friends to draw up sufficiently long lists of their favorite albums, and chances are that more than one of them will include Elvis Costello. But today we have for you a list of 500 essential albums that includes no Elvis Costello records at all — not least because it was put together by Elvis Costello. "Here are 500 albums that can only improve your life," he writes in his introduction to the list, originally published in Vanity Fair. "Many will be quite familiar, others less so." Costello found it impossible "to choose just one title by Miles Davis, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Mingus, etc.," but he also made room for less well-known musical names such as David Ackles, perhaps the greatest unheralded American songwriter of the late 60s." Costello adds that "you may have to go out of your way" to locate some of the albums he has chosen, but he made this list in 2000, long before the internet brought even the most obscure selections within a few keystrokes' reach with streaming services like Spotify--on which a fan has even made the playlist of Costello's 500 albums below. And when Costello writes about having mostly excluded "the hit records of today," he means hit records by the likes of "Marilyn, Puffy, Korn, Eddie Money — sorry, Kid Rock — Limp Bizkit, Ricky, Britney, Backstreet Boys, etc." But when he declares "500 albums you need," described only with a highlighted track or two ("When in doubt, play Track 4—it is usually the one you want"), all remain enriching listens today. The list begins as follows: ABBA: Abba Gold (1992), “Knowing Me, Knowing You.” DAVID ACKLES: The Road to Cairo (1968), “Down River” Subway to the Country (1969), “That’s No Reason to Cry.” CANNONBALL ADDERLEY: The Best of Cannonball Adderley (1968), “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.” AMY ALLISON: The Maudlin Years (1996), “The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter.” MOSE ALLISON: The Best of Mose Allison (1970), “Your Mind Is on Vacation.” ALMAMEGRETTA: Lingo (1998), “Gramigna.” LOUIS ARMSTRONG: The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (2000), “Wild Man Blues,” “Tight Like This.” FRED ASTAIRE: The Astaire Story (1952), “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” How many music collections, let alone lists of essential records, would put all those names together? And a few hundred albums later, the bottom of Costello's alphabetically organized list proves equally diverse and culturally credible: RICHARD WAGNER: Tristan and Isolde (conductor: Wilhelm Furtwangler; 1952); Der Ring des Nibelungen (conductor: George Solti; 1983). PORTER WAGONER AND DOLLY PARTON: The Right Combination: Burning the Midnight Oil (1972), “Her and the Car and the Mobile Home.” TOM WAITS: Swordfishtrombones (1983), “16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six,” “In the Neighborhood” Rain Dogs (1985), “Jockey Full of Bourbon,” “Time” Frank’s Wild Years (1987), “Innocent When You Dream,” “Hang on St. Christopher” Bone Machine (1992), “A Little Rain,” “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” Mule Variations (1999), “Take It with Me,” “Georgia Rae,” “Filipino Box-Spring Hog.” SCOTT WALKER: Tilt (1995), “Farmer in the City.” DIONNE WARWICK: The Windows of the World (1968), “Walk Little Dolly.” MUDDY WATERS: More Real Folk Blues (1967), “Too Young to Know.” DOC WATSON: The Essential Doc Watson (1973), “Tom Dooley.” ANTON WEBERN: Complete Works (conductor: Pierre Boulez; 2000). KURT WEILL: O Moon of Alabama (1994), Lotte Lenya, “Wie lange noch?” KENNY WHEELER with LEE KONITZ, BILL FRISELL and DAVE HOLLAND: Angel Song (1997). THE WHO: My Generation (1965), “The Kids Are Alright” Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (1971), “Substitute.” HANK WILLIAMS: 40 Greatest Hits (1978), “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “I’ll Never Get out of This World Alive.” LUCINDA WILLIAMS: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998), “Drunken Angel.” SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON: The Best of Sonny Boy Williamson (1986), “Your Funeral and My Trial,” “Help Me.” JESSE WINCHESTER: Jesse Winchester (1970), “Quiet About It,” “Black Dog,” “Payday.” WINGS: Band on the Run (1973), “Let Me Roll It.” HUGO WOLF: Lieder (soloist: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; 2000), “Alles Endet, Was Entstehet.” BOBBY WOMACK: The Best of Bobby Womack (1992), “Harry Hippie.” STEVIE WONDER: Talking Book (1972), “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” Innervisions (1973), “Living for the City” Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974), “You Haven’t Done Nothin’.” BETTY WRIGHT: The Best of Betty Wright (1992), “Clean Up Woman,” “The Baby Sitter,” “The Secretary.” ROBERT WYATT: Mid-Eighties (1993), “Te Recuerdo Amanda.” LESTER YOUNG: Ultimate Lester Young (1998), “The Man I Love.” NEIL YOUNG: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), “Down by the River” After the Goldrush (1970), “Birds” Time Fades Away (1973), “Don’t Be Denied” On the Beach (1974), “Ambulance Blues” Freedom (1989), “The Ways of Love” Ragged Glory (1990), “Fuckin’ Up.” ZAMBALLARANA: Zamballarana (1997), “Ventu.” Zamballarana, for the many who won't recognize the name, is a band from the Corsican village of Pigna whose music, according to one description, combines "archaic male polyphony with elements of jazz, oriental and latin music as well as the innovative way of playing traditional Corsican instruments such as the 16-string Cetrea, the drum Colombu and the flute Pivana." That counts as just one of the unexpected listening experiences awaiting those who fire up their favorite music-streaming service and work their way through Costello's list of 500 essential albums. It may also inspire them to determine their own essential albums, an activity Costello endorses as musically salutary: "Making this list made me listen all over again." via Far Out Magazine Related Content: Hear the 10 Best Albums of the 1960s as Selected by Hunter S. Thompson Lou Reed Creates a List of the 10 Best Records of All Time Tom Waits Makes a List of His Top 20 Favorite Albums of All Time Elvis Costello Sings “Penny Lane” for Sir Paul McCartney The Stunt That Got Elvis Costello Banned From Saturday Night Live (1977) Songs by David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads & More Re-Imagined as Pulp Fiction Book Covers Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall, on Facebook, or on Instagram. Elvis Costello’s List of 500 Albums That Will Improve Your Life is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. (Comment on this)

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