This Wheels on Fire The Soundscape of 1968 BBC Radio cheops

This Wheels on Fire - The Soundscape of 1968 - BBC Radio - cheops

An aural collage of archive recordings, newsreels, newspaper clips and music, form the latest addition in BBC Radio 2's Soundscape series.

Lord Sebastian Coe, who was inspired to join his local athletics club by the 1968 Olympic Games, presents this soundscape.

Taking place in Mexico City, the games saw Britain`s David Hemery win the 400m hurdles in world-record time, and USA`s Bob Beamon become the first long-jumper to leap more than 28ft. It was also on the victory rostrum, during the US national anthem, that sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists as a symbol of defiance in the long struggle for civil rights. Both athletes were expelled from the Games.

Away from Mexico, the world reeled in turmoil and tragedy with the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, tanks on the streets of Prague, and war in Vietnam.

From the Radio Times:
"Those were the days, my friend," trilled Mary Hopkin, rounding off a great fat wodge of nostalgia for some, history for others, as Radio 2 contributes to the 1968 season with a brilliantly blended selection of archive and music. It takes a very clever mind indeed to select the right bit of music to segue into the right bit of news footage, and producer Trevor Dann is to be congratulated for pulling it off. Assassinations, student riots, revolutions, the Vietnam war - the world was on fire. But with the Olympics coming up in a few days' time, Sebastian Coe is drafted in to introduce the programme and give it a sporting slant, recalling the Mexico Games where the famous "black power" salute caused such a rumpus. Play a game of name the speaker and spot that tune. ( Frances Lass )

One episode of approximately one hour.

About the Title:
"This Wheel's on Fire" is a song written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko. It was recorded by Dylan and appeared on his 1975 album The Basement Tapes, as well as on The Band's 1968 album Music From Big Pink. In 1968, a version by Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and The Trinity became a hit in the United Kingdom. It peaked at number five on the UK singles chart. With its use of distortion, the imagery of the title and the group's flamboyant dress and performance, this version came to represent the psychedelic era in British music. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early '90s with Adrian Edmondson as the theme to the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, whose main characters are throwbacks to that era.

First broadcast on Tuesday 05 August 2008 on BBC Radio 2.
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