Welk took tunes that had enormous potential (and some tunes that were initially garbage) and whitewashed them and sanitized them to the point where they lost all meaning. It's as if Welk knew how to take the soul out of ordinary music and talented musicians, and sell the remainder to wonder bread audiences who didn't know any better - or were too afraid to risk going to the 'dangerous parts of town' to listen to real music.

It never ceases to amaze me. Some of the performers on Welk were incredibly talented, but you wouldn't know it after Welk got through with them.

Add to it that the people on Lawrence Welk all defeated the most objectively evil regime in Western history, had a genuine chance to set the world aright, said "fuck it, let's have some champagne music".

The Lawrence Welk show is amazing. David Lynch only wishes he could have directed something like it.

And don't give their generation too much credit for WWII, beneath all the mythologizing, the USA was just as shitty during it as any other wr, and we wouldn't have done anything about the Nazis (except continue to do business with them) if we could have gotten a way with it any longer than we did. There are no "good" or "righteous" wars, just business as usual. The fact that the Nazi war crimes went so far above and beyond the normal degree of atrocity is undeniable unless you're an idiot but that's not why the USA entered the war.

Start here:

http://www.amazon.com/While-Six-Million-Died-Chronicle/dp/0879 518367

We had a local casino install half a floor of Hee-Haw slot machines. They even advertised it on TV.

I always felt physically ill when Hee Haw came on.