Radio Free Europe

Agreed. Unlike a number of creative posts here, yours is spot on. Although full of ambiguous lines (some extremely hard to decipher, if not simply gibberish), the song is clearly about RFE propaganda radio during the cold war.

@WingedWolf <br /> <br /> "Radio Free Europe does indeed broadcast news to countries that lack a free press, or have an undeveloped press... One of its original purposes was to provide news and an outlet for refugees"<br /> <br /> If this isn't flat-out wrong, it's misleading. Radio Free Europe was a company funded by the US Government to spread anti-communist propaganda to Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

leige, it's not misleading at all. I pointed out quite clearly that the station encouraged people to rise up and take over their government to secure their freedom. The 'communism' of the Soviet Union wasn't communism at all, but Totalitarian Socialism with the explicit goal of becoming communist 'eventually.' <br /> <br /> There would have been no war, cold or otherwise, if they were REAL communists. Not that anyone in politics has ever made the distinction, of course.<br /> <br /> But Radio Free Europe did all of the things I stated. It was not ONLY anti-Communist propaganda.<br /> <br /> I suppose we shouldn't refer to it in past-tense.<br /> <br /> Yes, it is funded by the US Government.<br /> <br /> And it still exists. :) rferl.org/

@WingedWolf <br /> <br /> I’m not the USSR’s #1 superfan or anything, but these are some absurd liberal takes. The gist of your original comment was correct, but leigel3 absolutely has a valid point about the political spin being misleading. <br /> <br /> >The 'communism' of the Soviet Union wasn't communism at all, but Totalitarian Socialism <br /> <br /> This is a typical “No True Scotsman” type, low-effort analysis of what the USSR had going on and/or what Marxism-Leninism represents. There is not now, nor has there ever been, one single strain of socialism/communism. Even before the USSR came about, there were many competing schools of thought. One could easily argue that there is a reason why just about every ostensibly ‘communist’ nation that has existed embraced some derivative of ML ideology… the competing ideologies don’t seem to have led to viable revolutions. Take Trotskyists for example, who have never prevailed anywhere on Earth. Does that mean ML is intrinsically the correct school of thought? No, but it’s certainly worth taking into consideration.<br /> <br /> Also, whether the USSR was truly a totalitarian state at various periods in its existence (its history was far from static) is a hotly debated and controversial issue among scholars who study it. This idea gets thrown around as a matter of fact when it’s far from a settled issue. The ubiquity of propaganda on both sides of the Iron Curtain makes it difficult for the average person to access information that can safely be considered ‘objective’. <br /> <br /> > with the explicit goal of becoming communist 'eventually.'<br /> <br /> I mean… what is the alternative? Do you really think it’s possible to flip a switch and magically have a stateless and classless society, especially starting from what they had to work with? It’s further complicated by the fact that most of the rest of the world was increasingly capitalist and had a vested interest in their project not working. Was it a utopia? No, but the USSR was a more equitable society than what came before in Russia’s history. <br /> <br /> > There would have been no war, cold or otherwise, if they were REAL communists.<br /> <br /> This is by far the most asinine thing you wrote. You make it sound as if the Cold War was a unilateral effort instigated by the Soviets. You are very naïve if you think that if only communists were ‘nice’ enough the western imperialists would have turned a blind eye and allowed them to exist peacefully. Maybe do some reading on all the different instances where countries tried to convert to socialism only for the US to sabotage them… the history of Latin America is a good place to start. The fact is, without a strong military deterrent there is no way for a socialist/communist society to get off the ground, sorry.<br />

@BitterLake<br /> <br /> Sorry, I do not care if you disagree with my characterization of the USSR's political position. Your fallback on ad hominem speaks to the fact that you don't have a rational argument to make on it anyhow. It does not further your argument - only makes you look over-emotional and 'mean.

@WingedWolf What, when did I do an ad hominem? I never called you any names or attacked your character in any way. And how was it not 'rational'? I asked how would a society emerge where communism would immediately happen when they're coming from an impoverished, largely agrarian society that had been living under unbelievably tyrannical conditions before their revolution? That's an incredibly reasonable question. And I cited the long history of American imperialism quashing any attempt at self-determination for sovereign nations who wanted to pursue a socialist system for their people. I mean this in the most polite way possible, but read about the history of American intervention in 20th Century Latin American and ask yourself if it's reasonable for a socialist/communist state to not be militarized. Your movement will be destroyed by external imperialists and internal reactionaries before it even gets off the ground, that's just common sense.

Actually, that 1971 Radio Free Europe Public Service Announcement (PSA) to which you refer incorporated The Drifters' recording of "On Broadway," as being played by a youngish Hungarian disc jockey on RFE to appeal to younger listeners behind "The Iron Curtain." <br /> <br /> That song, which featured legendary producer Phil Spector on the lead guitar solo, was co-written by the husband & wife songwriting team of Barry Marry Mann & Cynthia Weil (whose most famous composition is undoubtedly The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," as produced by Spector), with rewriting assistance from Atlantic rhythm & blues songwriters Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller (writers of Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" and Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," among many others), the latter two who also produced the record, which was a #9 hit on the Billboard charts in 1963. <br /> <br /> Leiber & Stoller guided The Drifters through its most commercially successful incarnation on Atlantic, which featured, variously, Ben E. King, Rudy Lewis, and Johnny Moore on lead vocals, although the group's original line-up was headed by Clyde McPhatter, who sang in Billy Ward & The Dominoes. The original Drifters' best known record was "Money Honey." It is Lewis who sang the lead vocals on "On Broadway."<br /> <br /> "On Broadway," with its urban soul styling and conflictive lyrics about troubles surviving on the streets but ultimately "making it" from the ability to play music (with "this here guitar"), was certainly aimed at a younger, rock & roll demographic, and thus was perfect for idealistic Eastern European satellite denizens dreaming of life in front of "The Iron Curtain," of which New York's legendary "Great White Way" was a symbolic part. <br /> <br /> But the song's composers were not writing so much about the theater world of that internationally-renowned by-way as about their own experiences as song hucksters in rock & roll's Tin Pan Alley known as "Brill Building Pop," the actual home of which was Aldon Music, which was located at 1650 Broadway in New York City.<br /> <br /> The original recording of "On Broadway" was by The Cookies, the original line-up of which evolved into Ray Charles' back-up group The Raelettes, and whose later incarnation inspired cover hits by British beat groups The Beatles ("Chains") and Herman's Hermits ("I'm Into Something Good"). But Spector's girl group, The Crystals, beat The Cookies version of "On Broadway" to release. The Crystals (on their early records, and not the hits recorded by Darlene Love using only The Crystals' name) were, in a way, Spector's distaff response to The Drifters, as both groups shared heavily Latin-influenced production stylings, on such tunes as "Up On The Roof" and "Uptown." Indeed, The Crystals' "Uptown" may be viewed as a complement to The Drifters' version of "On Broadway," both songs about dreams in a better part of town. But Leiber & Stoller, along with arranger Garry Sherman, produced a more bluesy, modulated version of the tune for The Drifters than the more urgent styling of The Crystals' recording of the song.<br /> <br /> The most well-known cover of "On Broadway" was George Benson's 1978 smooth jazz version, which actually charted higher than The Drifters' cover, reaching #7 on Billboard.

Agree saw them '80 @Tyrone's OC (off campus) near the tracks, burned to the ground in 80 or 81. Only 3 words I could understand during the entire show was Radio Free Europe. During their break Stipe made a pass at me at the urinals. No thanx...