Category Archives: Radio

The Time the King Anointed J.C.

60s, Radio, , ,

Rolf Cahn narrates his blues fable telling the story of Texas bluesman Lightning Hopkins’ session with a San Francisco street musician, J. C. Burse. The program was broadcast at Pacifica Radio stations KPFA, KPFK, and WBAI in 1964. It includes three blues by Lightning and four by J.C.

Rolf did many folk, blues, and flamenco shows on KPFA in the early 60s, as well as a live series from his Berkeley club, The Cabal. I was his producer for most of this time.

You can read of Rolf’s journey from his family’s flight from Nazi Germany through his death in Santa Fe in 1994 at: http://folk.uio.no/alfs/rolf.html.

His family maintains a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ROLF-CAHN-HIS-LIFE-AND-MUSIC/318756167982

I wrote this poem for Rolf in 1971 when he urgently needed to get out of Berkeley.  Medicine Bundle

The American Way of Death

60s, Radio, Uncategorized, ,

I produced this sound montage in 1963 to follow an interview of Jessica Mitford on her book by the same title. She commented to Trevor Thomas on her devastating critique of the funeral industry in the US. I assembled the sound montage from ads in the industry press, military contractor ads in Scientific American, and music to highlight the commercialization of death.