Wednesday, September 2, 2009
In the first few days of Obama’s presidency, Sam Tanenhaus published an essay in The New Republic titled “Conservatism is Dead.” The essay started a debate about the state of the GOP. Drawing on 20 years of research, Tanenhaus has now followed up with a longer study of the conservative movement. In The Death of Conservatism Tanenhaus writes, “Today’s conservatives resemble the exhumed figures of Pompeii, trapped in postures of frozen flight, clenched in the rigor mortis of a defunct ideology.” Tanenhaus is the editor of the Book Review and the Week in Review sections of the New York Times. Then, some credit Frederick “Toots” Hibbert with inventing the word “reggae” and indeed, the Jamaican is the first to record the word in his 1968 release “Do the Reggay.” Toots began performing with The Maytals in the mid-1960s and in 2006, his collaboration with Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton and others earned a Grammy for Best Reggae Album. Toots joins Bob in studio to talk about his life and the genre of music he helped create.