Even the media is starting to call out republicans over their seriously ridiculous protests against President Obama--who dared to give a back to school speech to the children. Usually the teabagger brigade compares Obama to Hitler or a socialist, but Joe Watkins (former Bush 41 guy) came up with a new and even more stupid argument than usual. Parents can't compete with his charisma----ergo he shouldn't speak to the kids. Huh?

Watkins: This president is not an ordinary president. He's one of the most gifted speakers that the world has ever seen. He's gifted, he's charismatic and when he speaks he speaks with tremendous authority and great conviction and with tremendous persuasion. And it's one thing to talk to adult who maybe have the ability to discern between right or wrong or whether they agree or disagree. The challenge becomes the parents when he talks to their kids about the present, he's so persuasive, he's campaigning for the hearts and minds of the kids. Today's speech was fine....but what moms and dads are afraid of is that what happens when kids who can't distinguish what moms or dads can when the Defense of Marriage is repealed or the act comes up to...

Dr. Nancy: Joe, Joe, he didn't slip, there was no gotcha in this speech, you know that, there was nothing like that here.

Watkins: No, but we know they'll be other times when the president will make very strong and compelling arguments for issues that moms and dads don't agree with.

Usually, this would be the perfect trait that American appreciate in a president, so he could be a positive influence on the kids of America. Telling them that cutting class and to study hard is what they need to hear, but not to republicans. And Watkins turns it into a gay bashing segment. Is Joe saying that the president will schedule a speech to school kids in favor and talk about the Defense of Marriage Act? Is he kidding me? Even Chuck Todd looked at Watkins like he had an alien brain.

Todd: Joe, it sounds like you're worried the president's going to be too popular with kids. I guess...is that the concern that if he were less charismatic you'd be OK with him speaking to children?

Watkins: No, not at all....he's so popular and persuasive that parents don't want to compete with that

Say, what? Liar, liar, Watkins' pants are on fire. As long as the president is conservative then that president can speak to the kids every single day. I'm waiting for conservatives to ban their children from ever watching an Obama speech or interview. Republicans have become freaks since they've let the teabaggers take over their party.

(Van der Graaf Generator - in a word, intense)

Probably one of the better known of the Prog-rock era of bands, Van der Graaf Generator were probably the biggest influences of that movement in the 1970's. This was a band you could never listen to casually - it was not party music. This track, "White Hammer" off their first Charisma release in 1970 "The Least We Can Do Is Wave At Each Other" is typical of who they were. Intense, lyrical and dissonant with highly dramatic vocals by Peter Hamill - they were never a band you could take or leave. You either loved them from the get-go or you couldn't stand them.

And their music has had wide ranging influence for a lot of musicians over the years. I remember talking with Lars from Metalica several years ago, and the subject of influential bands came up. Without a beat, Van der Graaf was high on his list.

So if you've never heard them . . . . .

(Ginhouse - The original vinyl lp is going for silly money)

For every band that has achieved fame and riches from their music, there are at least a thousand who recorded one single or one album and vanished without a trace. A lot have good reason for their obscurity, but a lot arrived at that status for no good reason.

Ginhouse were such a band. A power trio that weaved back and forth from Psychedelia to Prog-rock consisted of Geoff Sharkey, guitar - Stewart Burlison, Bass and Dave Whitacker on drums. Together a few short months in 1971 before splitting off in other directions. Sharkey was previously with the band Sammy who later morphed into Audience. Burlison and Whitacker are mysteries. But Ginhouse never had a single enter the charts and this one lp came and went with very little notice and wasn't even issued in the States. How I found out about them was something of an accident. I had done some work for Charisma Records (the label who had Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, Lindesfarne and many others) - they were distributed by B&C Records who dabbled in rock and Prog-rock but were primarily a Reggae label with the exception of bands like Atomic Rooster and Arnold Corn (David Bowie). The Press Officer for Charisma sent the album as an afterthought and I was hooked from Side One.

Luckily, the album has been reissued on CD by a couple of small labels in the U.K. since the original album has been seen going for hundreds of dollars on the collectors market.

This track, or actually two of them since they blend into each other are "The Journey" and "Portrait Picture".

File under Unjustified Neglect.

(Capability Brown - GREAT singles. But albums . . . . well . . .)

Capability Brown were one of those bands who had all the elements of being great. Amazing vocal harmonies, good instrumental licks, great up-and-coming label (Charisma came about as the brainchild of former manager of the bands Creation, Bonzo Dog and The Nice Tony Stratton-Smith) with lots of positive Press. And Capability Brown had a couple of great singles, like this one "Windfall".

But when it came to putting an album together, that was another story. The material was just bland and not well produced. And that spelled disaster for anyone trying at the high-stakes rock n' roll game and perplexity for reviewers who were anticipating their albums, based on the positive reaction to their singles.

Like I said, the singles were another story - and "Windfall" was everything the albums weren't. Capability Brown is largely forgotten now. their first album never issued on CD and their second album issued briefly on CD in Japan and the singles only issued as part of anniversary compilation in 1973. By that time the band had split and Charisma was reaping the benefits of Genesis.