KRLX mix #17 (10/1/2018)

Where The Action Was returns to the airwaves for sophomore year with “’68 Comeback Special,” the first of a once-a-term series of explorations into the news, politics, and — of course — music of a particular year. This playlist is missing the Cronkite clips, but it otherwise provides a global look at the restive, tragic twelvemonth that was 1968. Hanging over all is the Vietnam War (“Draft Morning”), while the civil rights movement in the U.S. (“Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud”) finds its counterparts in the student demonstrations in France (“L’opportuniste”) and Brazil (“É Proibido Proibir”). In our own dark days of political strife and racial injustice, the Rolling Stones’ nod to the assassinations that wracked 1968 (“Sympathy for the Devil”) reminds us that evil has been around forever, while The Rascals plead for unity over division:

It seems there is nothing to bring us together
To believe in with all of your heart
We’ve all got that something that’s deep down inside of us
Love’s not a dirty word
That’s just the way it’s heard
Let me prove it to you

The Rascals

Please do, brother. Please do.