In Chicago, on December 4, 1969 police murdered Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.

Here’s The Murder of Fred Hampton…

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Comic genius and all-around super strange dude, Peter Sellers was born 90 years ago on September 8, 1925, and he died 35 years ago on July 24, 1980. Now that we’re somewhere right between these auspicious dates, it seemed like a good time to remember the great jester with this bizarre film about his bizarre life. It’s a weird 1969 Peter Sellers documentary, made to promote The Magic Christian. Sellers starred opposite Ringo Starr in that Joseph McGrath-directed film. Sellers portrayed Sir Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire who plays elaborate practical jokes on people. The critic Irv Slifkin remarked that the film was a reflection of the cynicism of Peter Sellers, describing the film as a “proto-Pythonesque adaption of Terry Southern’s semi-free-form short novel”, and “one of the strangest films to be shown at a gala premiere for Britain’s royal family.” The film, a satire on human nature, was in general viewed negatively by critics. Roger Greenspun of The New York Times believed that the film was of variable quality and summarised it as a “brutal satire”.

This documentary features appearances by Ringo, Paul and Linda, and John. The documentary was never repeated by the BBC, possibly due to the fact that Peter Sellers thought he came across as depressed — and he’s really got something there. Spike Milligan narrates and dissects Peter’s persona in the process. An online blurb warns that this documentary includes strong scenes (bullfight, open heart surgery, nudity) and language.

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“Welcome to the world of witchcraft, to the world of magic. Magic — the very world is magic.”

So begins this great collection of stories and lectures on witchcraft and the occult by suave cinema spook Vincent Price. The actor’s LP recording Witchcraft-Magic: An Adventure in Demonology was released in 1969 and its track list is to die for:

1. Prologue – The Tale of Master Seth
2. Hitler and Witchcraft – Witchcraft in History
3. Women as Witches – Witch Burning
4. Witch Tortures
5. Witch Tortures (continued) – The World of Spirits and Demons
6. Preparation for Magic – Instruments of Magic
7. How to Invoke Spirits, Demons, Unseen Forces – The Magic Bloodstone
8. The Witches’ Cauldron – How to Communicate with the Spirits
9. How to Communicate with the Spirits (continued) – Gerald Yorke and Necromancy
10. How to Make a Pact with the Devil – How to Become a Witch
11. Curses, Spells, Charms
12. Curses, Spells, Charms (continued) – Potions
13. The Hand of Glory – The Witches’ Sabbat
14. Witchcraft Today – Epilogue

Here’s the word from the Record Fiend…

Even though it isn’t a Halloween record per se, this two-LP set – billed as “The Secrets of Witchcraft & Magic Revealed by Vincent Price, Distinguished Actor & Demonologist” – is probably creepier than anything else that was marketed as a horror album. If you have nosy, ignorant neighbors, you might want to keep the volume down when playing this lest they think you’re preparing for a Satanic sacrifice or some other supernatural activity. Obviously, the producer of this project, Roger Karshner, could not have selected a more suitable narrator than Vincent Price, whose oratory skills and knowledge of the occult made him a perfect choice. In addition to his articulate Transatlantic-accented commentary, this album employs Douglas Leedy’s primitive synthesizer work to create sounds such as bubbling cauldrons, howling winds, and other atmospheric effects. (There are sections wherein he creates sounds very similar to David Gilmour’s electric guitar “seagull” effects featured in Pink Floyd’s “Echoes.”) In between certain passages there are chanting witches (a la Macbeth) with treated vocals, and throughout this audio adventure, the listener can hear Price’s voice move from speaker to speaker, giving it a slight psychedelic flavor. This was recorded in the late 1960s, after all. According to one source, Price read the entire 122-page text on which this album is based in a single five-hour recording session. The best sections were apparently culled from these tapes to create what you are about to hear.

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Today we celebrate the birthday of one of rock ‘n’roll’s original madmen: Gene Vincent embodied sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll about a decade before the emergence of an American generation that would take hold of those values and recreate world culture in a new era of freedom and expression.

By 1969 Vincent was a wounded demon, exiled from the U.S. and touring Europe to adoring fans who might not have noticed that he his bright burning candle was about to fade. Here’s the story of this documentary film at Video Beat…

U.K. documentary. A rare film chronicling the first four days of Gene Vincent’s 1969 U.K. tour. Teddy boys welcome Gene at the airport as he gets off the plane in London. Gene rehearses with the group The Wild Angels for a TV show appearance and live club gigs. Terrific rockin’ performances including “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” “Say Mama,” “Baby Blue,” and more! Unbelievably, the promoters actually try to rip him off!

Gene was suffering debilitating pain from his 1955 motorcycle accident and the 1960 taxicab collision that killed his fellow passenger and friend Eddie Cochran. As Gene performs for his adoring fans, you can practically feel his exhaustion and see the pain behind his determined smile. Less than two years after filming this documentary, Gene died of a burst ulcer. He was only 36 years old.

It’s better to burn out than to fade away. Gene Vincent was born today…

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This year marks the the 45th anniversary of the debut of one the first supergroups: Blind Faith. The band boasted Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker from Cream, little Stevie Winwood from Traffic and Ric Grech, bass player for the progressive rock outfit Family and an jam session pal to both Clapton and Winwood.

Blind Faith’s blues rock takes a step away from the sillier psychedelia of both Cream and Traffic. Don’t get me wrong, I love silly psychedlia, Mr. Fantasy. This is a Tale of Brave Ulysses. That said, here, the fantastical flights are replaced with stirring soul and an epic like “Presence of the Lord” is a rock gospel classic for the ages. Incidentally, “Presence” was written by Eric Clapton. Don’t forget, this was back when Clapton was a semi-divine entity and his guitar playing with Blind Faith is as good as it ever gets.

In 1969 the band played their very first show at a free concert in Hyde Park. Here’s a great doc that tells the band’s origin story and then presents the entire show…

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“Beyond the age of innocence…into the age of awareness,” read the caption at the top of Medium Cool‘s stylized poster when the film was released 45 years ago in 1969. The line is telling in that it speaks to the real-life events at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago that are captured in the film. However, the phrase also speaks to the film itself which married documentary techniques to dramatic devices to create a new kind of movie experience in which the line between cinematic action and actual real-life drama were blurred in an intense frisson that found the felt experiences of those days bleeding — sometimes literally — betweeen the frames of the film.

Haskell Wexler is an award-winning cinematographer who lensed masterpieces like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Days of Heaven and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. For Medium Cool Wexler took a directing and writing credit along with his work as the film’s photographer.

Wexler set out to make a very different film, but once the chaos at the convention began to unfold he grabbed his camera and had his star — Robert Forster — and his crew wade directly into the riot and into movie immortality. Here’s Wexler waxing on his career and on his crazy-brave creation, Medium Cool…

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