Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl.” Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. At Blue Sky and Twitter: as @gregmitch. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.
A brief fun musical poke at the new Don Jr. plan for a lavish half-million-per-year “crony club” in D.C. so that heavy hitters and GOP pols can avoid Dems, media and common folks:
Headline of the Day:
Trump administration seeks huge increase in nuclear warhead spending, the largest since 1962
And new from New York Times: explosive video essay on that deadly Israeli attack on unarmed medics, link here.
Not the most significant 50th anniversary event to be marked this year (or even this week) but it was half a century ago this week that the Rolling Stones kicked off their latest U.S. tour with a surprise performance of “Brown Sugar” rolling down Fifth Avenue in New York on the back of a flat bed truck.
I was there, of course. We had been alerted at Crawdaddy that morning, at our office at 13th and Fifth. All we knew is that they would be appearing at the Fifth Avenue Hotel down around 8th Street. Walking there on a drizzly day, I heard music up the block and a crowd was filling the sidewalk. Then the unmistakable guitar chords of “Brown Sugar” could be IDed and the Stones literally rolled into view and played the entire song again in front of the hotel before dismounting (with new Stone, Ronnie Wood.
I don’t remember a thing about the press conference. Local TV media had been along for the ride to catch part of the scene Here’s a short clip. I have never been able to find myself in this or longer clips:
In a completely different vein: We touted the reunion of I’m With Her a few days ago and now they are out with a new video capturing them singing a song from new album titled (wait for it) “Hallelulah,” but thankfully not Leonard’s overdone classic.
In case you wondered if Joan Baez was still up for a May Day rally this year, here you go, from Mountain View, CA.
From Tunes to Toons
Favourite: the renaming of the San Andreas Fault.
Unfortunately, I watched the NYT video before watching the other videos. It angered me so much that I just watched the first bits of each of the others.