Few songs had a greater impact on British rock in the 1980s than "She Sells Sanctuary." Blending Billy Duffy's shimmering guitar work with Ian Astbury's commanding vocal, it became The Cult's breakthrough hit and remains the band's defining anthem. Their performance at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1999 showed the song had lost none of its power, uniting a huge festival crowd behind one of alternative rock's most enduring classics.
250 years ago today, on June 29, 1776, New Yorkers looked out at the water and saw a nightmare on the horizon. The British fleet had arrived, and so many ships filled the bay that witnesses said the masts looked like "a forest of pine trees" growing out of the sea. The timing could not have been more brutal.
This was the empire's answer to the rebellion, and it was overwhelming. The first wave of around 45 warships and transports dropped anchor off Sandy Hook and Staten Island carrying General William Howe and roughly 10,000 troops. Within days it kept growing. Then his brother Admiral Richard Howe arrived with more. It would eventually swell into one of the largest seaborne invasion forces of the entire 18th century, hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of professional soldiers and German mercenaries, aimed at one city.
Now sit with the timing. While that forest of masts was filling the harbor, delegates down in Philadelphia were in the final days of debating whether to declare independence. They voted for it on July 2 and signed off on the wording on July 4. So at the exact moment America was being born on paper, the most powerful military on earth was already anchored off its coast, getting ready to strangle it in the cradle.
The people of New York understood exactly what they were seeing. Alarm bells rang, panic spread through the streets, and soldiers sprinted to their posts to stare at a force they had almost no hope of matching. Washington's army was outnumbered, outgunned, and about to get badly beaten in the battles for New York that followed.
That's the part that gets lost in the fireworks every Fourth of July. Independence wasn't declared from a position of strength. It was declared with an enemy armada already sitting on the doorstep, knowing full well what was coming. They signed their names anyway.
@RobertKennedyJr@ComfortablySmug When the waves get good, Palm Beach is one of the best surf spots on the planet. Hands-down. Small and bumpy on this day. the water still looks great!
'Pistol Pete' Maravich sharing his testimony of faith in Jesus Christ in 1987 less than one year before his death at the age of 40:
"I want all of you to know this tonight about Peter Maravich. You may never have heard of me. It makes no difference. I'm just one person on this earth saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. I want you to know this, that the change that came into my life was Jesus Christ.
It was not winning. I won all my life. I won every trophy, award, everything you can think of, but every time I won something, I wanted something more. I had to win again. It wasn't money, because money'll buy you everything but happiness. It'll pay your fare at every place but Heaven. Material thingsโI've driven everything some of you strive for from Rolls Royces to BMWs to Mercedes to Porsches. It wasn't religion because in the name of religion, Jesus Christ was placed upon that cross.
And the purest thing about Christianity is the fact that it's your choice. You can't work. You can't earn. I knew that, and I understood it now.
I want you to know this. The last thing I'd like to say is this, next week I'll be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I'll get that big ring. In fact, it's a bigger ring than I would have got for the championship, but I'll tell you something about all the awards. They all pale to the glory of Christ and what He's done in my life. It's amazing what He has done in my life.
I wouldn't trade my position in Christ for a thousand NBA championships or a thousand Hall of Fame rings or for a hundred billion dollars. There's nothing like the joy of Jesus Christ in your life."
You are now listening to a 432 hertz frequency. Take a moment to regulate your nervous system.
This sound aids in releasing happy hormones such as serotonin and endorphins naturally, regulating blood pressure and heart rate.
[๐น Lawrence Chatton]
Violent Femmes - S/T (Recorded 1982; Released 1983)
Blister in the Sun 0:00
Kiss Off 2:19
Please Do Not Go 5:07
Add it Up 9:13
Confessions 13:46
Prove My Love 19:00
Promise 21:33
To The Kill 24:16
Gone Daddy Gone 28:07
Good Feeling 31:06
Ugly 34:48
Gimme the Car 37:09