T.D.A. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION NO.6! :
“Hey Doug! Cool name for the show. How’d you come up with it?”
I get this question quasi-regularly. Not a big surprise. Being a musician, you get used to being asked variations of the same question if you do it for long enough. Be it a song title, CD title, or band name. If it’s catchy or the least bit clever, people are gonna ask. Especially other songwriters. Everybody’s always lookin’ for Tools to Add To The Toolbox.
But, Hey…I digress…
Back to the podcast’s name.
“The Dallas Action” was originally gonna be the title of a 5-part series of articles I agreed to write back in December 2013 for my Pal Popeye (Host of “Down The Rabbit Hole”) and his website, FederalJack.com. (Never DID write those articles, tho…Sorry, Popeye…) But I didn’t come up with Said Snazzy Podcast Moniker all by my lonesome. Nope. Not even a little.
Being a songwriter, I’ve learned over the years to mentally File Things Away; phrases, turnings of phrases, sentences you hear in conversation, sayings, words, word variations that your gut tells you may make a cool lyric or song title. Anything that strikes that Certain Chord, that jumps out at you, and~most importantly~ something that instinctively Evokes A Certain Emotion.
Example: My favorite American Ballistic song to play live was written 6 years ago, about my experience watching a friend spiral down the abyss of addiction. Played it live for weeks before I actually gave it a name, (I won’t just slap a title on one to have a title; again, the Correct Emotion MUST be evoked). Preparing to demo the song later, I glanced at my lyrics to Verse 1:
“I remember slow dances/I remember pensive embraces
I remember stolen moments/in tucked away cold, dark places…”
Boom. Jumped right out. There it was. “Dark Places”. Correct Emotion Evoked..
“The Dallas Action” was one o’ them things like that there. It jumped out at me yeeeeears ago and I filed it away. From where did it jump, you ask? Why, The Legendary and Oft-Debated “McCone/Rowley Document”, of course!:
Something about it made it jump out at me.
“…were directly involved in the Dallas action…”
At first I thought, “OOO! Hey! Cool! Capital ‘A’ on ‘Action’, there, Doug, and you got yourself one whale of a tasty book title, Dude, if you ever decide to put together a lil’ Actual Linear Thought and sit still long enough…”, SO, I filed it away.
Then I started thinking about it. Analyzing it. “…the Dallas action…”. What was it about that phrase that made it stick out? What emotion was it evoking?
Real quick-like, for those less familiar, “McCone/Rowley” is a document the is alleged to have been written by then-CIA Director John McCone to then-Secret Service Head Honcho Mr. Rowley in early ’64. In it, the Alleged McCone essentially admits to the Alleged Rowley that Oswald was The Agency’s Guy. That they trained him for his false defection to the Soviet Union, it didn’t go so hot, he even married a Russian broad, they found him kinda Coo-Coo For Cocoa Puffs, used him occasionally for little things, and Hey, the crazy kid went off the reservation, whaddaya gonna do? I’ll be happy to show you some paper on it, but let’s maybe just keep all o’ this between Us Two, Pal. Whaddaya say…?
If proven genuine, this document would be The Proverbial Smoking Gun, I’d think. But, Alas…the general consensus~even among folks on Our Side Of The Fence~leans toward a forgery, albeit a great one.
So…back to the name.
What struck me about the Alleged McCone’s chosen Words Of Reference To The Assassination was, I think, the lack of any emotion. Cold and clinical. It was~authentic or not~an example of The TradeSpeak Of The Inherently Covert. Not “the Assassination”, not “our President’s Murder”, not “the killing”, no “our recent national tragedy” or anything like that.
“…the Dallas action…”.
Could’ve just as easily been “The Texas Operation”. “The Plan Carried Out In Dallas”.
No Nonsense.
Matter-Of-Fact.
When the podcast thing happened, I immediately knew the title. I never considered anything else.
And~perhaps inevitably~my answer to FAQ #6 almost always leads to FAQ #7:
“So, do YOOOOOOOOOUU think its real?”
Answer: I dunno. You tell me. The Real McCoy? Obviously forgery? Some Well-Meaning & Very Clever Truth Advocate’s attempt to force The Government’s hand?
A stick tossed over a cliff for a group of eager, energetic puppies?
Maybe, possibly even perhaps, eh? Who knows? Certainly not me.
I’m reserving judgement.Yep. After all…I’m a Conspiracy Realist, Baby.
I mean, just because I don’t necessarily think its REAL doesn’t mean I don’t REALLY, REALLY WANT it to be…know what I’m sayin’?
Yeah, I think you do…
Peace,
D.
